EP108- Choosing to Live: Overcoming Depression with Jensen Cummings

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What does it take to reinvent yourself when the world, and your identity, shift beneath your feet? 

In this week's episode, Aimee sits down with her cousin Jensen Cummings, a fifth-generation chef turned entrepreneur and podcaster, for a raw conversation about his journey from severe depression and burnout to healing through plant medicine and somatic practices. 

Jensen shares how he's redefining success, learning to find worth beyond performance, and discovering meaning in "one honest moment" at a time.

They take us through:

- How to navigate major life transitions with adaptability and vision

- How performance-based self-worth leads to burnout and depression

- Why failure can be a powerful teacher (if you let it)

- The role of plant medicine in breakthrough healing experiences

- How to stay grounded when your identity is shifting

- How to tune your nervous system for higher levels of success

- Finding meaning in authentic moments vs. chasing achievements

- Channeling intensity purposefully rather than destructively

And so much more!

Jensen Cummings is a fifth-generation chef turned storyteller, strategist, podcaster, sportscaster, and youth coach. 

Jensen brings more than 120 years of restaurant family legacy into his professional journey. He’s hosted 500+ podcast episodes about food, agriculture, sports, sustainability, and more, all with one mission: to amplify the worth and work of those who ‘feed’ their communities.

Connect With Jensen:

Website: Best Served Podcast

Socials:

Facebook - @Jensen Cummings, @Best Served Podcast

Instagram:

@JensenCummings

@BestServedPodcast

@GenerationsofGame

@MoringaForLife

TikTok: 

@JensenCummings 

@ChefJensenCummings

@BestServedPodcast

@GenerationsofGame

@MoringaForLife

LinkedIn: 

@Jensen Cummings

@Moringa For Life

YouTube:

@Best Served Podcast

@Farm-Food-Sports-Broadcaster

@GenerationsofGame

@MoringaForLife

Connect with Aimee:

Instagram: @aimeetakaya 

Facebook: Aimee Takaya 

Learn more about Aimee Takaya, Hanna Somatic Education, and The Radiance Program at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.freeyoursoma.com⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠

LISTEN WHILE READING!

A: Hey there, listener. Do you live a life that's outside the norm? Maybe outside the box, maybe you're a serial entrepreneur, maybe you have multiple passions, and then you also have a family. You also have a life that you're trying to find meaning and purpose in from day to day. 

There is no roadmap for how to live your life, especially when you're taking road less traveled. So today, our conversation on the podcast will be about how to navigate all of that, and the pitfalls and the challenges and the triumphs. I have my cousin, Jensen Cummings, a fellow podcaster, here to share about his life experiences along this fun and wild ride that we call a multi-dimensional life. So stay tuned. 

A: Every day there is a forgetting, and every moment there is the possibility of remembering. Remembering who you truly are, awakening to your body, to the inner world, to the experience of being alive. Here is where you find the beauty, the joy, and here is where you free your Soma. I'm your host, Aimee Takaya. I'm here to help you move from pain to power, from tension to expansion, and ultimately from fear to love. Hi, Jensen. I'm so glad to have you on the podcast. This is really exciting. 

J: What's up, Cuz? This is great. I'm honored to speak with you in this forum. 

A: Absolutely. Yeah. I was so tickled when you reached out a month or so ago and was like, "Hey, let's reconnect." Let's talk podcasting. Let's talk healing. Let's talk life. It's been really wonderful to reconnect with you and hear about where you've been internally, also the last few years. I know you've had a fairly public life in some regards, but then we also have what's going on inside of us, which not everybody gets a window into. 

J: 100%. We're adults now. It's funny to think about so many of the memories that I have of us as our childhood memories. Now it's like we're redefining our lives in both self-starters, both carving our own path as you've laid out, and the fact that now we can reconnect as adults, as parents, as podcasters, as entrepreneurs, business owners. I'm excited about it because we have such shared history that now we get to reconnect that and think about what that means for us into our new lives. 

A: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, both our dads are named William and they were both like Est guys or like self-development guys. We come from a shared family mythology, you know what I mean? 

There's this ground-level stuff that we've both been impacted by in different ways, you know what I mean? The fact that we're both, as you mentioned, entrepreneurs, we've been doing our thing pretty much our whole lives. I mean, I think maybe you can give people a little background if they're not familiar with Best Served podcast and your background as a restaurateur. I don't know if that's what you call yourself or an entrepreneur, right? 

J: Like a recovering restaurateur and chef. 

A: Yes, in recovery from that. 

J: Post life. Yeah, I went into the restaurant industry, which is on the other side of the family from your nice familial connection. We have five consecutive generations of chef restaurant tours, right? We opened our first restaurant in 1900 in Little Falls, Minnesota called La Fond House. 

It's like the French side of the family on my dad, William's side. And then that was great, great grandparents, great grandparents and grandparents had bars and restaurants in San Francisco. My dad's three younger brothers all own restaurants in multiple different states. 

Even my younger brother Mitchell, right? He's also in the culinary field. And so graduating high school in California, they shipped me off to Ames, Iowa, where my uncles have restaurants. And I thought I was just going to go wash dishes and have a summer job, kind of get out of California for a little bit, stop getting into so much trouble. And I just kind of found my people and really clicked for me. 

And so I ended up working for them for five, six years, going to culinary school, meeting my now wife, Betsy, then started to take it really seriously, kind of went into like the chef driven high end progressive dining scene became a pretty notable chef in Denver, then became chef owner, then became a burnout in the restaurant industry, started doing consulting and strategy work. And then the media and the podcast, which now I have five podcasts, two more developments, I'm like a serial podcast now, it's a problem. 

It's a problem for sure. That started in 2019 as I wanted to like reconnect with the roots of what I loved about restaurants and cooking and the people and to acknowledge and highlight what I call unsung hospitality heroes, the really the bedrock of both like the culture and commerce that restaurants create in any given community that weren't acknowledged and highlighted. I recognized my own kind of trajectory and privilege of being somebody who was talked about written about on television on radio in magazines, things like that. 

And I started to read my own news clippings too much and think that I was the the chef who was driving everything in the reality was like I was just the tip of the iceberg. And it was really the team that was important. And every time I've succeeded, it's because I took care of and nurtured and was responsible for great people. 

And every time that I've been a failure and failed, it's because I took people for granted and thought that it was all me. And so that was kind of that's where the media side came about and we started best served. And when the pandemic hit, I did seven to 10 episodes a week. 

Wow. Every week I was on every single day for almost six months. That's like really laid that foundation. Now we've done over 450 episodes. 

So it's a big piece. So I know the hustle and the struggle that you go through as a podcaster to try and create a voice and an identity and share and build an audience and community and highlight and acknowledge the stories of others. So again, I appreciate being here and being able to share with you. 

A: Yeah, well, and I completely understand what you just said about thinking that we, you know, when we get some kind of acknowledgement, someone goes like, Oh, wow, like, look what you accomplished. We forget that it's always a team effort. It's always, you know, a collaboration, whether you know, if we're a solopreneur and we really are like, you know, in this case with me, it's like, Oh, yeah, kind of is a one woman show. 

Like I don't have any employees. But at the end of the day, if I'm really like Frank, it's like, Oh, no, like there's so many people who have contributed to what I show up as every time that I show up with a client, every time that I show up in my podcast or, you know, speaking of and or anything, there's always people who have massively contributed to my well being and my integrity, right. And so I really appreciate it. 

J: It always takes a village and it's a two way street, no matter what you're doing. Yeah, no matter what you're doing. And we're all in certain businesses talk about being a people business, all businesses are people business. 

I don't care if you make sprockets, right? It's all about a humanistic approach. And certain businesses are relationship businesses, which restaurants the work that you do, there is, there's a relationship in a bond that's built that's very unique. And sometimes we take that for granted. And that's definitely what I've recognized and had to grapple with a little bit, both professionally and personally, which I know we'll talk about. And I see that every time I again, took for granted or squeezed too hard, sometimes it's the opposite. Like you kind of want to force the positivity into existence, especially as kind of an entrepreneur. 

And that can be equally a problem. So various like finding this middle road, this Buddhist Zen space where you're like, you can be on fire, but you have to, you have to have some balance and you have to be able to reset. And that's some of the stuff that I'm already grateful for the work that the somatic work that you and I have done together. It's part of my daily routine now. And it just allows me to re center a little bit. And I still spin off my axis all the time. Like I'm still, yeah, I'm still intense. 

A: Exactly. I mean, people misunderstand what it means to have been regulated in their nervous system. They think it's going to be like boring. They think it's going to be like, they're just going to be chill and relaxed all the time. And it's like, no, actually being regulated means that you can climb even bigger fucking mountains, like if that's what you want to do, because you know how to come back to homeostasis and your homeostasis is actually at rest, not just another, you know, layer of stress, right? 

So that's the idea behind like, you know, Thomas Hannah, like the guy who developed my modality, he wasn't like, you know, wanting people to just be relaxed all the time. If you talk to my dad about it, that's what my dad wants to do though. That's but his that's his prerogative. 

J: He just wants to be relaxed. Now, yeah. But like, you know, but Thomas Hannah was like, no, so you can go do whatever you want with your body so that you can do whatever you want with your precious life. And you're not going to be limited by the buildup and the buildup of stress that leads to burnout, you know, that leads to I can't I literally can't do this anymore. 

My body is saying no, like, you know, in whatever way that's showing up, whether it's physically, you know, physical pain, whether it's mental and emotional anguish, whether it's depression and lethargy, like that's your body saying I'm at my limit, you know. Yeah, the first episode of yours that I listened to was a solo episode that you did like 330 in the morning. And you kind of speak to that in the episode, talking about rest. 

So just even the polarizing episode that led into kind of me starting to understand your storytelling style and approach was like, okay, let me talk about rest at 330 in the morning as my brain is on fire thinking about how I need to rest. Right. And so that's totally this this tug and pull type scenario that we find ourselves in that that's life I'm finding more and more. And I forget that at times. And I'm trying to stay tethered to that while still being very lofty in my goals and ambitions and hopes and dreams and all that. Yeah. 

A: Well, like you said before, we as entrepreneurs, we do have to be on fire sometimes. And there's a certain level of, you know, delusion that we need, like delusions of grandeur that we need to carry. We have to otherwise nothing would happen. 

And we wouldn't do the remarkable amazing shit that we do as entrepreneurs. We have to have like that really big, you know, like vision. And sometimes it has to be of ourselves to get through to the next thing. Right. 

And then there's the balance between that and actually staying grounded and not letting it all go to your head or go to your wallet, you know, and get too ridiculous, you know, which we have plenty of people we could point to in our modern culture who got ridiculous with it, you know what I mean? 

J: Yeah. And especially it's all on display now. Yeah. Right. And so seeing the journey as you go, it's interesting because I like building in public. It's something as I've gotten to media and content and podcasting, like building in public and showing the process is a thing. And it's very vulnerable. And it's really hard to not compare yourselves to other people in the space that you're in. 

So that's a difficult approach when, yeah, everything is public facing all the time. And we are trying to engage in public forums and the way that we do with media and with podcasting. And sometimes, and I have at times, I just wanted to just hide for a little while and try and work on things with no attention. 

And that again, is this polarizing thing, the amount of push and pull that you experience in this is totally fascinating. I just saw a clip that Scott Galloway talked about this where he went to UCLA and he had a good friend of his roommate, perhaps, that went on the more corporate trajectory and he went on the entrepreneur trajectory. And he was rich or depressed on cloud nine, like all of these emotional things. And then they connected years and years and years later. 

And he had made way more money and way less money. It was like this rabbit in the hair story, where basically they had fallen to this place of equilibrium where net nets, they had made the same amount of money over that time period. But one had done it in this very slow and steady corporate ladder, being able to clock in and clock out, you know, mentally, physically, emotionally. But then on the other side, you're having this emotional, financial reality roller coaster. And you really have to want that for some reason. I don't know why we want that. I think it's an adventure that makes us feel more alive. 

A: It is. I think it's a constitutional thing. Like I think it's the person's individual constitution, because some people would just never choose that. There are some people out there that would just be like, no, like I'm just going to clock in and clock out. 

And I'm going to, you know, have somebody else pay my taxes. And that's what I want. And then there are those people who actually have that for a period of time. And they realize it's not what they want, that they want a more exciting life. They want to play by their own rules. 

They want to make a bigger impact in some way, right? Follow their dreams. And so following your dreams is always going to be a crazy adventure. It's not going to be, you know, and you don't get adventure without challenge. You don't get adventure without adversity. We would never watch an action movie that had no challenge or conflict in it. 

J: Like, you know, the hero's journey has a clear arc. Yeah. Yeah. And you need to fall flat on your face. Have you found this? This is an unfortunate part that I've started to realize and recognize as I've now been forced through a lot of personal and professional turmoil over the last few years. Zoom out and take a step back. I found at certain times when things were going well, I literally self-sabotage because it seems too simple, too easy. 

It's not challenging enough. And I've recognized these peaks and these valleys, many of them were self-inflicted. Right. 

Yeah. And that's been really hard to be like, you were the problem. Even though you were the one working so hard to create the solution, it's like, oh, man. And that self-sabotage thing has become very palpable and real for me. And I've had to take account and responsibility for that. 

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A; Yeah, well, I have a little tweak on that because I personally don't love the term self-sabotage because I feel like it's limiting to the bigger picture of what's going on. So if you're interested in diving into just how self-sabotage is often something your nervous system is doing to feel more safe because if this new shit that's feeling really good is happening, that's not what you're used to in life. You're used to things being challenging. 

You're used to riding off the seat of your pants. In a way, that's more predictable and that's safer than things just getting better and better and better. And so often our nervous systems are not tuned to success. Now, or basically they have to get more and more tuned to success, meaning that we can tolerate feeling better and better and better. Now, what gets in the way of feeling better and better and better are beliefs and programming that we have. 

And lots of NLP people talk about this. I take a slightly different approach in somatics, but basically how can we teach your nervous system that it's safe to feel good, that it's safe to enjoy your life, that it doesn't mean that shit's about to hit the fan, that you don't have to brace yourself for something bad happening because that's what a lot of our bodies have been conditioned into believing, not just through our own life experiences, but through our generational experiences and our families. Don't feel too good about this because it's all going to fall apart. 

J: The other shoe is always about to drop. Exactly. 

A: So it's about tuning your nervous system to be able to feel higher and higher levels of good and success because that's what our nervous systems aren't tuned to that when they're in fight or flight. 

J: Yeah, I think a couple of things that jumped out at me when you talked about a generational part of it where I'm a firstborn son of four. Already I have innate, cultural, slash generational, institutional expectations that are put on me or that I put onto myself in the abstract that I just decided that that was going to be the way that it was. Then I'm type A, color code red, arsonist, rebel, whatever character archetype test you want. I am that intense personality. 

So I'm doubly just queued up to always be ready for a fight. And then on top of that, I was trained to be a problem solver as well in me. And then most of being a chef was problem solving in real time on the fly with the intensity that I think a lot of people now culturally have seen on television and dramatize and these things. So they see the intensity of that type of work. So when there's not a problem, I get anxious or sometimes I flip and it's like depressing to me. Right. 

A: Or you create a problem. And that's the problem. Then I create the problem. Yeah. And that's exactly what I'm talking about. It's like I need to find a way to find simple joy and equilibrium homeostasis to not need to have that level of drama to feel like I can thrive and be the best version of myself. Right. 

A: Right. Or finding, I guess, ways that the drama can be adequately contained or funneled into, you know, because I was having a podcast interview. It's not come out yet. So I won't say too much about it, but there's a inner child expert that was on my show who was talking about these different types. And you sort of describe one of the types, the aggression. 

And I have that too. I definitely have a very strong personality. And so I was talking with her about that, like, oh, okay, well, if I'm this aggressive type, whatever that means and the way that I show up that way, what are the gifts in that? 

Because she's saying there are gifts to every type. And she was like, wow, the aggressive type, that's charisma. That's drawing an audience. 

That's like being able to stand up in front of everybody and let the attention come on you and shine and speak and be a leader. Right. So there's so much in that like kind of Mars, you know, aggressive kind of energy that, yeah, it can go ballistic. 

Yeah, we could just be lighting fires to put them out, or we can find ways to channel that energy into something purposeful, right, and into our charisma, into our performance, so that it has a destination and it's not just burning our lives to the ground. 

J: Right. Yes, that 100% makes sense to me. And that's where I'm at. That's why you and I are talking and reconnected is like I recognized a couple things for reaching out to you specifically. You're the first person coming out of the, well, we've talked about a lot, but this ayahuasca experience that I had. Oh, really? 

Yeah. Coming out of the back of a pretty long, deep battle with depression that I wanted to use the superpower I have of seeing people and being able to understand where they're coming from and being able to articulate a story that highlights who they are and being able to create a space that people can share their voices, share their stories, their experiences, their joys, their pains, their skills, any of those things. That's what really lights my fire. And so coming out of that experience is like I need to really reconnect to my community. And I was like, I need to start with family. And I wanted to really reach out to family. 

The other was I want to acknowledge the work of other people doing podcasting and media who are out there willing to put themselves on the line to share these types of stories. And I was like, holy shit. I was like, Amy's both. 

So I was like, I need to reach out to Amy first and connect and talk. And now we're here. So this is how it evolves for us. You and I right away were like, well, we got to do a podcast about this. 

A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and when you told me about, and I guess we'll, we can kind of explore this now, like when you told me that you went through this ayahuasca experience, I was surprised because that is kind of like, it's not one of those things that you just like do for the hell of it. Like people do that because they need to have a big breakthrough. And so hearing that you, that you chose that and that you said yes to that and that you went into that, I was, yeah, I was, I was, I wouldn't necessarily say like surprised, but I was kind of like, oh, okay, that's how it is. Like that's what's going on right now. 

J: Like this is you instantly recognize there was like, there were stakes. It was, okay, we're here now. I got you. 

A: Yes. Yes. And then, you know, you were very just, you know, open. And I think that that openness is part of this, the process. I mean, I've never personally done ayahuasca. I'll just say that, but I have had my own experiences with, you know, my major shifts in consciousness. 

It's something I shared about on a previous podcast way once upon a time back when I first started my business, right? But long story short, I experienced what, you know, the medical field would call mania and psychosis, right? I experienced that when I was 19. And then I came out of it. And I started my healing journey. I basically was initiated now to doing yoga and nutritional healing and taking care of my body as this kind of health insurance that that would never happen again, hopefully, right? 

That my brain would stay stable. And thankfully, for the most part, it has with tools and with persistence and now with somatics, right? But I do recognize that people sometimes need a really big breakthrough wake up call initiation. 

And that's, that's what ayahuasca and things like these plant medicines in the, you know, right environment can offer a person. So I don't know if you want to share a little bit about what proceeded making that choice, right? And saying yes to that level of a journey and then, you know, what the outcome has been for you. 

J: Yeah, I'll even layer something that you just said to kind of queue up how big of a leap that was for me, because I could, I could tell just the way that you said surprise that I said yes to it. I am the least crunchy in our family. One of the least crunchy. We have a very independent free thinking family. My mom and my sisters, especially with then extending out in circles, even my father are very much in the space of thinking about the spiritual and the metaphysical in very unique ways, right? 

Very off the beaten pathways and very woo-woo at times. Yeah, for sure. And I was very, very different than that. I was more still blazing a different trail at much more mainstream, much more like grounded in certain ways. 

And so for me to say yes to plant medicine in this way was a pretty big leap. Yeah. So there's kind of that again, that family, that generational type thing. My mother was one of the ones that recommended it when I was in the depths of my depression. And you know, whose mom is recommending you should go do psychedelics, right? 

So that kind of like frames it up. But I went through two years of deep depression, a year of which was completely undiagnosed and unrecognized and realized because I've never dealt with any type of mental health issues in my life. I've always been on the fast track and never slowed down long enough to think about my own physical or mental health at all. So to all of a sudden realize that I was in that place and then trigger warning for your audience, but it led to a place where I try to take my own life. I'm the person that everyone goes, you're the last person I would ever expect to have said that because I am such a go getter, such a glasses half full type person, very positive outlook. 

There are no problems, only opportunities for solutions like that kind of bullshit, you know. So that really took me and everybody by surprise. So then I went on the more traditional path that's like, okay, I can't regulate myself. I have, I'm spun completely off my axis. 

Whatever I'm doing is not working. So I went into a facility for four days. They put me on medications. I went on that more traditional pharmaceutical slash therapy slash psychiatrist path. And I did that for almost a year and it just wasn't working for me. 

I wasn't seeing any results. I tried to stay patient and I did stay patient through that and say, look, it's going to be a long journey. It's going to be difficult. It's going to be uncomfortable. You're going to be completely out of your element. You're not going to understand what to do. Just stay at it because you can't self diagnose and your path wasn't working. So I said, okay, I stayed on that. I was specifically came up a few times again, my mother recommended it. We have a family connection of somebody who is a practitioner. So I've been aware of it. 

You know, I'd seen a lot of documentaries. Aaron Rogers is doing it. So all of a sudden like a famous NFL football players doing it and it's becoming a little bit more mainstream. 

It's having a zeitgeist type moment. And then I had been hosting these men's meeting for a group called a Chow, Culinary Hospital, Outreach and Wellness, a nonprofit working in mental health space for hospitality workers. And on Christmas day, we had the meeting and we stay for the whole hour. 

There's the host and there's two hosts basically, just in case somebody needs to check in. It was Christmas day, nobody came. The host and I spoke the whole time and he was in Costa Rica doing ayahuasca retreats. 

He was there for four months or so. So he kind of broke it down for me and told me kind of what happens. I told him what's going on with me. He's like, look, I'm not going to tell you what to do. You have to come to this on your own. I would just say hearing your story and the experience that I have, you were an absolute prime candidate for this type of experience, this type of journey, a ceremony is what I learned. 

It was called an ayahuasca ceremony and that type of medicine, they call it actual ingestion of the ayahuasca tea as it were. And that day I said yes. And then my team, that community, the village that we've referenced multiple times went into action and the sisters, the mom, my wife, everybody, all the women in my family are powerful, powerful, yourself included, right? 

We are very matriarchal led family. They went into action mode and planned everything and I got plane tickets, I got this, I got that, it's like everything's scheduled, calendar. I was just able to show up because making that decision is really difficult. 

Then getting yourself there, there's just so many excuses you could come up with when you're in the depth of like recovery and depression and all these things. And I found myself coming up with those excuses in my head and once I said yes, my team would not let me have any of those excuses and that experience happened and it changed my life completely. And we can talk about any details about that if you want. 

We don't have to. One thing I will say kind of for your audience to understand how much of a difference is every single day I thought about hurting myself for a year and a half. I had a two day experience of ayahuasca and for months now I have not thought about that once. 

I have not gone back onto my medications and I'm still grinding and struggling and all of those things but I'm on a completely different path now. It blew my fucking mind. I believe you. 

It was like a cheat code. I still think the other shoe's gonna drop. I keep waiting to be like, was that just this thing that happened over here and when I come back to reality, it's not going to sink in. I have ups and downs but it is fully imprinted into my DNA in a way that I'm eternally grateful for and still completely flabbergasted by. Yeah. 

A: No, I mean it's a powerful thing to do and I think that one of the things I'd love to just say here is that it sounds like you having this experience of depression while it sounds like it was pretty severe and extreme for a couple of years, right? That you didn't have a long prior history of that seems to me like it would make you even there be less risk factors, right? 

If someone has a long history of mental illness or a long history of certain kinds of struggles, that's more deeply delved into their nervous system or into their genetic material. Sometimes psychedelics aren't the best idea for someone like that but for you, you were really primed with all the crunchy ladies in your family and all the higher consciousness conversation anyway, even if it was not the channel that you were regularly tuning into, you know what I mean? 

I think that those kind of things, even if you're not, I don't know, actively engaging in it, it's like part of an underlying foundation of that positivity, of that kind of momentum that you've carried, right? And so your experience through this sounds like it was kind of meant to be, like it sounds like it was sort of like waiting for you, right? 

J: Like you'd say like... I was able to reset to your point a little quicker maybe because it was dark and heavy and completely unraveled my life personally, professionally, financially, all of it for two years. But also the reality to your point is it wasn't 40 years, right? It wasn't this, it was a blip. The reality is in the whole scheme of things, it was a blip for me. 

So I was able to reset fairly quickly. So I wouldn't diminish anybody's experiences if they didn't have these epiphanies and revelations that completely turned them around. I'm not saying that that's the experience that everybody would have. 

Luckily for me, that is the experience that I had. And I was able to... the word openness was like my mantra through all of it because I didn't want to close off because it was so crunchy and we're celebrating the ancestral plane and the spirits of the West and the cosmic forces. I'm like, oh, God, what are we doing here? Like, no, stay open, don't close off. This is happening. You're here for a reason. 

You need this, you want this, stay, stay open. And there were three big revelations that I had. And one was kind of coming to terms with that suicide attempt and understanding that I didn't want to die, I just was afraid to live. And I was gripped by that and paralyzed by that and recognized that that was a cry for help deep, deep, deep inside to make foundational change within my life. The second was I had this really while this is where the psychedelics come in. 

It's very different than other psychedelics I've done in the past. It's not like I'm staring at a painting for three hours watching it melt and do weird stuff. It's very internalized. But I did have this this internal personified conversation with my depression. It was like this ethereal faceless shapeless thing. 

But I spoke directly to it. And I thought I was going to be so mad, so resentful. And I was grateful. I like thanked it and said, I realized that you had an important job to do. You have brutal teacher, you had to push me all the way to the edge. I'm getting chills. 

I need to find my way back. Yeah. Yeah. And it was so powerful. And I said, I appreciate you. I understand you. I don't need you anymore. 

You can go. And I felt the depression leave my body, turn around and walk away. Right. And it has not returned. It was so real watching this, you know, proof of smoke leave my body basically. 

Yeah. It was really, it was gripping and in real. And it opened me up to have the third kind of profound moment for me was being completely overcome with unconditional love and recognizing and realizing I never really understood love to this degree. It was something I understood and even felt on paper or intellectually. 

I didn't let it soak into my bone marrow in this way. I'd never been willing to ask for and accept love without it being accolade driven without it being accomplishment driven. I've always been like, look at all these things that I've done. Look at these capabilities that I have. Look at these successes that I had. 

Look at these articles written about me. These are the things that are of merit and value and that are worthy of being loved and admired and adored and all those things. And I had to really say none of that stuff actually matters. It's nice, and I still have ego and all those things I don't need that to be willing to ask for and accept love, and that That was the third and the biggest the biggest kind of earth-moving revelation that I had throughout this process and I've been really trying to hold on to that. 

It's easy to lose track of that a little bit and kind of get back into your rhythms of just Doing shit for the sake of doing it Which is like having to be intentional meaningful and purposeful in the way that I'm Interacting and just kind of showing up every day. And, you know even yesterday Betsy had to call me I was like hey, you're kind of slipping a little bit on that. I was like okay All right, and I'm very accepting and open to the feedback on a personal level now Which I've never been able to kind of accept either because I've always kept people at an arm's distance So that I could be in control of the relationship Wow. 

A: Yeah, this is a big like reprogramming Yeah, so I'm like very core You know, I guess I could say like fundamental pieces of your identity and I can totally imagine how again eldest child boy You know problem solver all of those things that you described earlier would kind of Condition you to be the way that you were like it's understandable that you turned out that way that you lived That way that you had this approach of love and you know worthiness being completely dependent on your performance Or how you showed up or whether what you did was good enough, right? 

I think as eldest children we get a lot of that pressure because we're comparing ourselves to adults all the time when we're like little kids. You know we're just surrounded by adults. We don't have siblings yet and then when we do have siblings. We're still getting looked up to you all the time You know expecting more of us because we're the older ones. And so there's a very deep reprogramming where you are Now going to start living it's it seems in a world where you are worthy of love as you are Without any conditions that you succeed or that you show up a certain way. 

Like what what kind of life might it be that you deserve love even when you're crabby and you know grouchy and like You know, I'm speaking for myself here like when I'm in a bad mood Love, you know what I mean like when I'm laying on the couch like being ugly in my pajamas like I still deserve love 

J: Maybe more at those moments than the moments of That pinnacle that we think is the moment that we finally get to accept that love. I think it's the other way around Right those moments now those pinnacle moments. I'm realizing aren't actually for me for us Yeah, it's for everybody else to be able to celebrate in their participation in it. 

Whatever level of participation showing up at the award ceremony or being the ones that propped you up that you could get that award They're still participating in that journey That's about celebrating them and I used to think it was about Finally I get to be celebrated in this way that I totally deserve and have been working for and and have performed in this way And it's pretty sure it's the other way around that's for them those moments those ugly moments on the couch Those are the moments that you deserve love, right? 

A: I mean like I think that at least that's what I'm telling myself Well, no, and it totally aligns with like some of the things that I've been exploring, you know with with clients, which is like, you know, you You get to be Not perfect And when you're not perfect when you fail when you fail dismally when things are really going wrong, That is when you actually need more support. 

That is when you need, you know, you need more poor babies You need someone holding you and and telling you it's gonna be okay And if you can't do that for yourself, it's self-abandonment if you can't, you know Hold yourself in your frustration and failure then, you know, you're probably not gonna let anybody else hold you that way either If you're not able to to give that love or that acknowledgement to yourself, you know It's okay. I get like we we get so programmed by our culture to you know, kick ourselves when we're down And what we really need is a hand up what we really need is someone to you know. 

And that someone like I said, it has to it has to start growing inside of us That we can show up for ourselves in that way because we maybe didn't have parents that did that all the time Or didn't do that in the way we needed it, you know It's it's just how it goes. We have to build that mechanism within ourselves to to create validation and love In those really hard moments not just when it's easy, right? 

J: We glorify this idea of picking yourself up by your bootstraps Being so self-reliant that you get knocked down you get back up again You get knocked down nine times you get back up ten, right? 

There's truth to that It's only half the equation though. Yeah, you have to be able to have people around you That actually are the ones that pick you up, right? You're just not doing that by yourself 

A: Right and reflect back to you who you really are when you've forgotten. Yeah. 

J: Oh that that gave me chills That's tough. It's tough to allow other people to reflect that back on you because that feels like you're giving up your power Or it felt like that to me and allowing others to see me when I wasn't the best of the best Was probably the most petrifying thing I could imagine. 

It's vulnerable, right? Right and now I'm willing to talk about it You know on a podcast is light years away from like who I was Yeah but if I want to see myself as somebody who's capable and brave And willing to put themselves out there and share, then I have to share That like the rest of it doesn't matter until I'm willing to share that and acknowledge that. 

Then I can come from a place where I can actually share And build in public and share the process and share other people's journeys and acknowledge them And be willing and able to see and see beauty in broken things Yeah, and I've heard this before and now I'm starting to understand it that broken people make the best leaders. 

And that's that's a little bit reductive, but I get it now. I understand kind of the theme at play when you say something like that is all of a sudden you have a level of understanding and empathy and a broader range of experience that allow you to interact in completely new and hopefully more meaningful ways Because you don't have to be Everything for everybody, right? 

You don't have to hold all of the space You can allow others to occupy space because you now recognize Oh, there's way more spaces than I realized because you were on this singular focus This is what it looks like when you succeed Turns out it looks like everything. 

A: Yeah Oh, I know and it's a journey to Broaden your perspective on that especially as an entrepreneur because We do get very focused on the bottom line because nobody else is paying us, you 

J: know So like we got to make this go, you know, so I've had that experience over the last few years where you know I created something I put on an event or I I ran and you know a retreat or something And I didn't get the turnout that I wanted for all kinds of different reasons I didn't get you know paid as much as I wanted to get paid You know, which again, it's like I've got to pay the bills I got to pay the rent, you know, like all the things are still gonna come in And how can I in that moment when? Feeling like I failed because this number is different than I thought it would be right The number of people showing up or the number of people paying me or whatever But then breaking sometimes 

A: But then there's the moment where I actually get present to like what is happening And the human beings that did show up and did say yes And the transformations that they're getting to experience because I did this and that is that is a level of success that is immeasurable That because I said yes, and I forged forward as the leader in this field specifically somatics and I created a thing That someone came and it changed their life. 

That is success You know what I'm saying? So like at the end of the day like that broadening of what we consider success to be And it's that it doesn't just look one way and that there's all these little opportunities To grow and learn and develop and enhance and provide value to other human beings You know what you're saying about I you know right before you said it I was thinking you're stepping into like a new level of leadership Because you've always been a leader, but this is a new level of leadership you're stepping into because you are now Connected more to your humanity. 

J: Yeah, and to and to others too One thing that came to me During that iskia journey was this phrase that kept coming up for me In trying to figure out how I navigate the world And how I navigate personally and professionally this idea of being a storyteller And it was one honest moment I was like, you know, I'm always trying to do too much I'm trying to do too much. 

And if I can just create the opportunity And recognize maybe harder even recognize—when there's truly one honest moment and feeling accomplished That in all of the interactions the discussions the podcasts anything that I'm doing If I'm just creating one honest moment, then that is a triumph And I should be willing and able to celebrate that Not because there was this This accomplishment that is worthy of those awards of those accolades of those things. It doesn't have to be that and maybe accumulation and culmination of enough one honest moments. 

As a body of work Then that can be the thing that I hold up on a pedestal that thing that could be worthy Of the accolades and the awards and all of the recognition Because there was enough One honest moments but building it one honest moment at a time versus trying to hit a grand slam every single time That's a struggle for me That's where I'm trying to put my focus and I'm kind of trying to recenter and reevaluate and allow that to be Kind of where I'm coming from My standing position starting at that point and being willing to move forward from there Right. 

A: Yeah. Well, you're speaking to substance. You're speaking to Yeah Depth and nutrition, you know, like we get talked about it's like this is actually nutritious Like we could pile on all the word salad that we want and you know, all the things Right, and maybe we'll relate this actually to cooking here But like if you don't have a deep enough flavor profile or actually use the quality ingredients And it doesn't mean that it has to taste Good, it could just taste very interesting. It could taste, you know, like really unusual. That's what I like about the you know, the way you're saying an honest moment, you know. That's not the same thing as like a good moment. It could be an honest moment that is hard It could be an honest 

J: moment that is comfortable That is uncomfortable and weird, but it's honest and it's real and there's nutrition there. There's value there You know, there's depth there, right Yeah, I'm potentially healing growth all of those things I think come from that in the acknowledgement The word acknowledgement is something that I've always used and treasured And tried to understand and tried to apply And that came to me a lot of times. 

It's like just acknowledge anything Everything, right? Not just the pretty stuff. Yeah Not just the chefy stuff the stuff that deserves to have You know, it's place on the plate. It's all the things that lead to getting that dish whatever Yeah, that is for you and your reality and your world and your work and your life It's everything that led to what gets on the plate that is actually the work And acknowledging those pieces to your point, sometimes I was so focused on getting somebody to tell me the thing that was the most Profound the most interesting the most unique whatever it is and the reality is the most interesting unique and profound things are those little nasty bits, right? It's interesting things and they can be happy and joyful. It doesn't mean like I'm always just searching for the pain.

Like I need you to you know cry in front of me and that means I created one on this moment Like it's not necessarily that it's just Reading between the lines and being willing to ask the question That somebody needs wants Maybe doesn't even realize they need or wants that then allows them to go Oh, wait, okay. Let me let me tell you something True and if I can create that opportunity and build their trust and rapport In sometimes a very short period of time You know and not force it then I can feel like I I did my job Right, right. 

A: Yeah, and I mean people need that people need to be able to be frank and talk about real shit They do, you know, like we have lived in a world where people a lot of mainstream, you know, whatever conventional non-crenchy sorts of people Right, they go. Oh, no, I don't talk about any of that. This isn't therapy like I or they're like, oh, I do that But I do that with my therapist, right? We have this compartmentalized view of like what's supposed to be talked about when and where a lot of it is unspoken And social conditioning and I feel like more and more like, you know, whatever Maybe the internet would say like this post cringe era, you know Like tv shows like the office where people just like were this like awkward human like oversharing type of human, right? We now have like a wider conversation of like what's Appropriate or what's okay to talk about but I think that's a good thing I think that people need to be able to be real and say what's real and you know, yeah It's not like you never want to have a filter for sure. You know time and place does matter But when 

J: we picture a situation awareness is a good thing to have 

A: Absolutely and can we create a container? Can we create situations and spaces where people are allowed to say what's real where people are allowed to Actually open up about their innermost thoughts and feelings, right? 

Because I think you already said it but other people want to hear that People want to know what's going on inside other people and they see themselves in other people's sharing They see themselves in other people's stories. You know, it's powerful. 

J: Yeah, there's a resonance there for sure for you Amy like you You do body work somatics on paper when you look at like, what is it? It's this like you have to do so much more communicating and Pulling at the whole the whole person How do you balance that it's something I'm interested in because I recognize often I have this, you know, I'm I'm doing a podcast. 

I'm doing media. It seemingly has one Lane but the reality is if you're good at it You're sometimes a coach therapist cheerleader like you have to be all of those things and embody all those things I don't know. How do you how do you navigate that? For yourself because I really really really challenging. I like I'm struggling with it constantly 

A: I I think that the body work piece for me is such a It's such a feature, you know, rather than a bug because there's so much that is communicated through movement and through, you know, a person's Sensational experience That I don't have to be as responsible to say all the right things or to have them Go down the right mental pathways or whatever to get the breakthrough because their body intelligence does it You know, there's a communication with my nervous system to their nervous system that is wordless. 

You know that their system just starts to open and relax And it's not like I don't have to be careful what I say. I absolutely am I try to be very Present and stay present to you know, you said pulling on the other person. It's different than that. It's almost like I'm letting them lead me Where they need to go there we go So I might have an idea or an agenda I might look at the way your body's positioned or what you're talking about and have some kind of association And maybe I'm not far from the mark But your nervous system and your body knows better than me what it needs.

And so for me like it's been a natural I would say the body work and the movement and this that receptive quality has naturally led me into my own You know, I don't really consider myself a coach. I I use this phrase recently. I was like, I'm an educator with mystical tendencies Yeah, that's kind of what I am. 

I'm like a I'm an educator. I'm your friend. We're talking. We're sharing I don't have the structure of like a therapist where I can't tell you about my life Like I'm at liberty to say like whatever I want to say because I don't have like, you know, some Legislature or lose my license or whatever. I don't have to worry about that. Right. 

J: Yeah, you don't have those restrictions as 

A: contracts So I can be very natural with people and I can allow them to be natural And I just follow where they lead, you know, and I bring I bring along my whole self and that's been a process That's not something that I think most people just do it. It's it's a process And it involves a lot of just doing Practicing what I preach doing the somatic work myself, you know, having other people hold space for me I do that a lot when I'm thinking about, you know, my accomplishments, right? It's like there's a lot of people who've held space for me My dad is one huge one, you know what I mean? But but many people have held space for me other coaches and healers and teachers and You know, so that I can be the client Right. 

J: I like what you said that they client being they kind of guide and lead you a little bit and I mentioned the hero's journey like that arc And the guide is an important part of that. 

It's the Yoda character, right? It's the guide, and I had to realize that my hero's journey was that I'm not the hero. I'm the guide, and just the recognition of that is interesting And as the guide you have to be as willing and able to lead and follow and sometimes Simultaneously, yes, which is such a Such a bizarre kind of balancing act to be able to do It's complicated because to your point like those moments like come and go quickly sometimes. They happen in rapid succession and your ability To change tone and temperature in the room so to speak at any given moment Is really really fucking difficult. 

A: You got to be mommy and daddy. You got to like you got to do both, right? You got to like Oh right now we need a little bit more energy. We need a little more. It's like that fire, you know that we're these fiery people It's like, okay. 

I gotta add just a little more fire Right. Okay. That's enough. 

Okay. To pull it back. You don't want to burn this, right? And then now now it's getting too hot. We need to add a little water, right? It's a dance, right? 

J: The whole mental gymnastics that that takes is is so much and I've been really working on active listening a lot And it's so hard to be like, okay. I need to listen and when I'm listening. I'm not in my own head But then I have microseconds To take in everything somebody said and then be able to dial up or down that temperature and the ability to do those with nanoseconds is Really really challenging And one of the things that I've been trying to do and this is why the somatic work and connecting with you That's some of the other kind of healing Process stuff that I'm doing is trying to balance mind and body. 

I'm such an intellectual person I'm so mind over matter and always have been And that's been a strength and weakness when All of a sudden I had this blip where my mind was right not your friend anymore Knowing me is the wrong word, but it was it was fighting back. It was pushing back. It was saying hey something's wrong That I've had to go into my body a little bit more Yeah, and try and trust that and so focusing on the active listening while trusting my body in that moment to then react When I then have to go from body to mind to mouth to communication. Yeah, that's That's where I'm trying to find my next level 

A: And I'll tell you it is extra hard to do that with the people closest to you It's a lot easier to practice active listening with someone who is not your wife or your kid or your mother You know because there's so much more noise that just as soon as my dad opens his mouth There's already reactions I have baggage Just just you know, I haven't even fully registered what he's saying. 

I'm just like, oh, he's talking to me This must mean and my nervous system goes a place And even after all these years it still happens that I'm listening to him and I find myself I'm like, oh, I am turning into a grumpy teenager right now You know and like I have to catch myself take a deep breath and just go. Oh, I see that happening I don't have to go with that. I don't have to like just go down that path I see that my body's doing that and I am going to actively make a choice to be You know two percent different than that right now and just deviate from that path ever so slightly 

J: two percent's good 

A: 2% it doesn't have to be a 180, right? Yeah, it's all is possible sometimes 

J: Yeah, it's easy to go into those knee jerk reactions when there is already Hundreds thousands of interactions that leads you to think that there's one way right that this is going to go When my mom told me something that I think about a lot and I've really struggled to apply and continue to try to apply Right our parents are of the generation of seeing the moon landing You know live as as kids and she Heard something that she articulated to me in this way. 

She said you get to the moon By making 10 000 adjustments a point 000 000 1 degree And I've really tried to apply that because too often we try to make that 180 I try to make that 180 when really it was 0.0000001 degree You were that close that came to me a lot in the ayahuasca too where I was having these breakthroughs And these realizations and so many of them was like Duh, of course, that's the answer. You already knew that you already did that you already believed that you've already applied that You just didn't trust yourself enough. You didn't believe it And now that you're in this space of openness Now you're finally accepting it. It's so many of these things were just matter of fact That's already who I am. That's already what I do. I've already done that I've already said that accomplished that created that opportunity that space I just didn't trust and valued enough because it didn't get the accolade or it didn't get noticed in the way that I thought it should Because of how deep and profound and impactful and important it was at least what I told myself, right? That's That's a big thing from what I hear you saying there is like it's 10 000 adjustments of 0.0000001 

A: and it completely relates to the sabatic movements that you're starting to do now There's a tiny little micro movements tiny little movements Tiny little movements and then you're letting the muscle relax and it does so very gradually It's a deceleration process and that is that is profound to be able to control Yourself at that level to be able to make those micro adjustments Right because like the way I put it like I don't know if you experienced this in our session But some of my clients listening have definitely experienced this you go into a contraction And then instead of when you slowly release it it doesn't release smooth it goes And it releases all yeah, right 

J: So it's clunky for 

A: sure right that means go back over it again and see if you can do it slower because sometimes we try to Change too fast and when we change too fast we skip over stuff And we have to go back because it's not actually we didn't actually do the thing We did it too quickly and there's now there's cleaning up to do it didn't actually get done. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I believe that I know that Uh-huh. 

That's already part of who I am. But is it did it go in did it actually? Saturate or did it just kind of like spill over the top of the surface? You know and cover what we could see but did it actually sink in? Right. 

J: Yeah, it's like going through those motions sometimes We're just like I did the thing It didn't work. Well Well, wait a minute wait Wait a minute you went through the motion and I find that I find that sometimes I'm like I'm doing You know this six or seven minute kind of arch and flatten Routine right work in the back lower back upper back shoulders head Kind of on the front as well. And I definitely some days I'm like, okay cool seven minutes like let's go and I'm too focused on the time And then all of a sudden I'm like pacing And I'm like, oh, she's not even done telling me what to do and I'm already doing it like slow down Take a minute. There's a reason that she's talking so unbelievably slow To the point small arch. Yes. Now just lift lift your chin to the sky. I'm like, okay Hurry up. Amy. Let's go. 

A: I know we got seven minutes here I feel you I feel you so hard because like I was not into this when I first started it. I liked fast I'm that fire type. 

I like it now. I like intensity I like that's why this was the perfect medicine for me That's what you needed the balancing out that I needed because I can go hard all day every day And what I need is the freedom and the control the actual control comes in being able to not go 150 miles an hour Can I not could I go slower? How about slower? How about slower? Could I just coast that's real control not that you know, we can do the max It's can we go in that range? Can we use the dimmer? Right? 

J: you know Doing a lot of my meditation routine when I do my beamer session Right before the somatic It's just counting my breaths Just 10 breaths just count to 10 without your mind racing all over the place Breathe in breathe out count to 10 and then what do you do? Just start over and and do that again for eight minutes Yeah, and then do a small little pelvic curl and that's good enough. 

A: Yeah That is good enough. You did it. You you've done it You have done it you accomplished your goal Yeah, it didn't have to be earth shaking and groundbreaking. It could just be a little arch and curl Love it. And that's that's where I'm at with uh with you and I I Even uh, even my daughter has a couple times like looked at me from the bed as I'm like laying on the ground Dad, what are you doing? 

J: Like who is that? I was like, that's cousin Amy who looks at me all weird and I'm just Slowly moving around like you're not doing anything dad. I was like, I'm doing big things right 

A: now big things Yeah, I know it's funny. Uh, my husband used to say. Oh, yeah, you should tell people like somatics It's like it's like just almost doing a little bit more than nothing And I was like, but no there's a lot happening. He doesn't say that now. 

J: This is important stuff here He's had more somatic. So he doesn't say that now, but I'm really enjoying the I get it Yeah, and also the this laying on the beamer and doing your somatics and like this is like a part of the language That a lot of members of our family Speak, you know what I mean? Like this kind of stuff So it's like I feel like even though this Is a new direction for you like it's always been there Yeah, it's always been there. It's always been there to to utilize these tools I think that it's you know, like moringa or something. 

It's part of our Family culture and lineage, you know that these are things that we're meant to align with to bring out into the world and share Not through just talking about them, but through actually engaging with these really innovative But also ancient healing tools Yeah, that's why there's a lot of looking in for me personally.

But also then that reconnection with family And these types of you know, we a lot of healers in our family and a lot of communicators in our family These are two things a lot of entrepreneurs in our family on all sides of my family entrepreneurs healers communicators and so embracing that And not having to look outside for all these external forces or entities. 

So much of what I need exists Right around me I just had to go too fast too far to think that I was going to find something and now it's like oh wait So much of that stuff has already been there is there I can really lean on and utilize and even be like strategic and tactic Tactical about it and say look the relationships that I have are meaningful and personal But I can also put them in action. Yeah, like now I'm I'm using Amy to like level up Hell yeah. 

A: Yeah. Yeah use me use my dad. He's there too. You you know, you're crunchy delightful mom and like all the people right it's like The blessing of like our family is that they've continued to work Shit out like over and over again, you know and like right now you're continuing to work Shit out Jensen like you're doing it, you know and There's so many people in our family who've been doing it who've been working the things out whether it's interpersonal stuff between them Like some of those crazy horror stories that the ants have about each other and you know How they used to fight when they were teenagers There's people in their 50s that are still fighting that way with their siblings.

But our family has continued to choose like growth and healing Over and over and over, you know and that I think Creates a lot of confidence in you know us cousins and our children that oh no problems can be worked through Healing can occur like we can come back from that actually Yeah, I'm grateful for it. 

Yeah 100% Well, this has been such an amazing conversation and I'm really excited for your new journey and supporting you on that And and I love how much you've just embraced these new tools because I feel like you're allowing them that openness that you You know that you called in it's like it's it's allowing your system to literally like be more absorbent And to actually take in these things on a deeper level. So I just I just see that there's going to be a huge process for you of an acceleration ultimately, right? But it's going to happen at a pace that I think your body is Needing, you know at a different pace than than it has in the past. 

J: I'm a sponge right now. I am feeling very Childlike in my need and ability to absorb right now And then be able to apply so that's a good that's a good place I could even just feel my energy talking to you today Was kind of like giggly and joyful Even though we talked about some difficult things. Yeah, because I'm trying to be that sponge And stop thinking I have all the answers and be willing to ask any question And be willing to be asked Any question and allowing that to be meaning and purpose versus having all the answers and so that sponge like feeling is good And it also has me going. 

Oh shit. I need to do more of that with my kids And get rid of some of that rigidity that is that can be helpful But also limiting Right, that's the place I am right now 

A: For sure and and as I said before like the people who are closest to us our kids our direct family They are, you know, the hardest ones to change those patterns around so like patients with ourselves Graciousness with ourselves and with them You know as we're navigating a new approach, right? Or even that 2% of a little shift in the direction that you know our soul or our Sense is calling us, right? 

J: You got to do even less Amy. It's 0.0000001 degree to say 

A: To say yes, yes, unless the 2% love it. Yes Oh wonderful. Well, you know, if people are listening and they want to know about your other podcasts They want to know where they can hear more of your voice and you know, keep up to date with the projects that you're Embarking upon like where can people find you? 

J: Yeah, kind of one place where you can jump to a lot of different places is on instagram So go to jensen Cummings Or best serve podcast on instagram on on my personal page You'll see links to some of the other podcasts that I do now I'm in the clean energy and sustainability and climate change based doing a podcast with a nonprofit I'm completely out of my element and loving it because i'm learning so much and just very curious there working on mental health in the restaurant on a podcast regenerative agriculture mental health for djs Community I had no idea I would want to engage with it turns out there very much like restaurant people always having to put on a show, Right? 

Being on stage burning out Burning out long hours tough grind all that kind of stuff So that's been interesting and then my son and I have a sports podcast where we just father son talks sports It's it's so much fun right now And just being able to get out there and communicate and and tell stories and and learn and Immerse myself in that way. So definitely check out some of the podcasts and Hit me up on Instagram anytime for sure. I'm very uh open to communicating and Love the dms if somebody needs or wants or wants to talk podcast and Like I said supporting the podcast community. 

So if you're a podcaster out there, especially In your feeling the grind the struggle How do I monetize this all those things? I've been wanting to be really open to to helping people out on that front as well because if you're willing to put yourself out there and tell stories and Acknowledge other people and journeys and I got your back Love it. 

A: Yeah, I can't wait to actually pick your brain a bit more about that when I get some space in my schedule to Reorient towards the podcast. I have so many projects as you have heard but uh, but yeah And for those of you who are listening and have taken something away from this episode, let us know I love also receiving your comments And and let us know on instagram jensen or I if there's anything that you know Particularly found helpful or impactful if you have a story or feedback or questions always open to Including you in the conversation that we had here today Well, thank you so much once again for coming on the show and I can't wait to see you in person one of these days and get our kids together Honor. Yeah. 

J: Yes. 

A: Yes, please, fantastic.

A: Hey there, friends. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I would love to hear your thoughts. Follow me on Instagram @AimeeTakaya and send me a dm about this episode. I'd like to thank you for being part of this somatic revolution. And if you'd like to support the podcast and help more people learn about somatics, consider leaving a review or a rating. 

And finally, if you'd like to have the experience of relief in your tight hips or back and learn to understand what your body is really saying to you, visit youcanfreeyoursoma.com. I can't wait to share with you. What is truly possible? Bye for now.