Did you know that our thoughts, beliefs, and physical practices can literally shift our reality and health outcomes?
In this enlightening episode, I engage in a profound conversation with Christina Kantzavelos, a psychotherapist dedicated to helping clients navigate the complexities of chronic illness.
Christina's unique approach intertwines elements of timeline hopping, interdimensional reality, body morphine, and epigenetics to address chronic illness and pain.
In this episode, Christina takes us through:
- The concept of "timeline hopping" and “interdimensional reality.”
- How changing our mindset can alter our life trajectory.
- Role of body morphine and epigenetics in managing chronic illness and pain.
- Connecting with like-minded people to facilitate a transition from pain to power.
- Her personal experience of challenging timeline shifts.
- Transforming life trajectories.
And so much more!
Christina Kantzavelos is a California-based psychotherapist, writer, advocate and artist. She received her Bachelor’s and Master's of Social Welfare (MSW) from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and her Masters of Library and Information Sciences from San Jose California State University (SJSU). She has visited over 30 different countries and documented most of it on social media.
However, it was in completing the Camino de Santiago (500-mile pilgrimage across Spain) at the end of 2015, where she realized her strong affinity with writing. She decided to start BuenQamino, an award-winning, gluten-free and health-conscious lifestyle travel publication. In clinical practice (Begin Within Today), she treats those with chronic illness, including Lyme disease, and physical, developmental and age-related disabilities. She also published the Begin Within Daily Health Wellness Journals for chronic illness and mental wellness that she is now turning into an app, called WithinMe.
Connect with Christina on socials!
Website:
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Connect with Aimee Takaya on:
Instagram: @aimeetakaya
Facebook: Aimee Takaya
And watch the podcast on Youtube @aimeetakaya
To learn to release your muscle tension and pain to experience greater success and vitality, go to www.youcanfreeyoursoma.com
LISTEN WHILE READING!
A: Hey there, have you ever struggled with chronic illness or chronic tension and pain? Have you ever wondered how the trajectory of your life might change if you committed to addressing your dis-ease?
Hey everybody, I'm Aimee Takaya, founder and friend at Free Your Soma, where you can learn to release muscle tension and pain that keeps you from your full, happy, authentic self. Today I'm speaking with Christina Kantzavelos, who is a psychotherapist specializing in working with clients facing chronic illness.
Today we are going to explore some fun, edgy topics such as timeline hopping, interdimensional reality, body morphine, and epigenetics as it relates to chronic illness and pain. So stay tuned!
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.
C: Hi.
A: Hey, Christina. How's it going today?
C: I am so excited to be here for a second time and to talk about all the things we're going to talk about because I think they're completely pertinent to the times right now.
A: Oh, absolutely. And you know, we had not met in person and then we got to meet in person just like in May. Like we've been, we had, we had had you on the podcast before last year. We'd been messaging and communicating over the Instagram.
And then we got to meet each other in person, which was so special at Joshua Tree Music Festival. And you got to experience Hannah's somatics with me, which was really special too.
C: It was magical. I can't recommend 10 out of 10. That was fantastic. And it was also funny because like even when I hugged you, it felt like I'd already known you. I'd met you before. It's just like, oh yeah, this is, this is comfortable. This is right. I know this feeling. Totally.
A: And it's, you know, some of that's maybe even related to what we're talking about today, where when you meet people who are on the same wavelength as you, like we say stuff like that, oh, they're vibe, like in my vibe just matched. But like, what are we actually talking about? Like what does that actually mean on like a embodied level, right?
In our body. And, and what does it mean to be like out of sync with people? So we're going to like kind of explore that today too, because it has to do with what we're talking about, right? And more than that, I'd love to just start with a question. And I'm going to answer this question too.
And maybe if you're listening right now and I ask this question, you know, maybe you get an intuitive hit for yourself too of like what your answer to this question might be. So the question is, when did you first feel like you'd changed timelines in your life?
C: Yeah, that is, that is such a challenging one to think about. It's a good, it's an incredible question. And I want to say at various points in my life, however, the one that was most noticeable, more than any other would be while I was sick and deciding that I was not going to identify as being sick anymore.
And noticing, noticing like almost overnight, not quite, but almost overnight, how much I shifted, how much I changed, and ultimately dimension hopped into this dimension where I don't identify as that at all. I am thriving. I feel good in my body. I feel good in my mind. I feel good in my soul. And I feel more like my authentic self. Like every time I dimension hop, I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to who I am at the core and living my authentic truth. Amazing.
A: Yes. And I mean, in our previous episode, which I think was called like, how do we get sick and how do we heal, addressing chronic illness? And if you haven't heard that episode, go back and listen to it. We get really deep into Christina's process and her story and all of the things that she learned through this really intense era of your life and all the ways that you still, in that progress of healing and thriving and being well from where you came from.
And like kind of what you just said about how there were multiple points in your life where you feel this happened. But then this one stands out to you the most because it was like this awareness that came through really strong and this decision that you made to disidentify or to not be so immersed in that identity of like, I'm sick and it means this, this, and this about me. Right. And how just changing that identification started you on a whole new trajectory.
C: It's this concept of B do have, right? I am, this is, I'm choosing what I'm identifying with and my body, my mind, my soul are naturally going to follow suit. And then I am ultimately going to have it. So that's, anyway, we're going to talk more about that. But that was the process and just being mindful of how I was speaking to my body and what, you know, our bodies hear everything we say.
And so if I'm just constantly feeding it negative words and affirmations and information, I mean, like to that point, that definitely had not helped me. You know, I always say when people say like, well, okay, I'm going to start saying, I'm healthy. I'm this, I'm that, but it's not true. And I'm like, well, how has the, you know, the opposite been serving you up until this point?
Probably not great. So just switching it because ultimately, you know, this is, this is also, this is scientific in the sense of when we are doing visualizations or practicing gratitude, we're releasing dopamine and serotonin, which is wiping that, that cortisol out.
And the lower our cortisol is, the more we are likely to feel better in our body, the lesser immune system is going to be impacted and our autonomic nervous system. So there is science to this. It's not just woo woo. It's, it's real. So anyway, I'm curious about you though. Yeah. Yeah.
A: I mean, I love that. I think that, you know, the woo, it's just, it only seems woo woo because we haven't done the right study yet to talk about what's happening.
C: Amen.
A: Completely. Yeah. Completely. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's interesting because my experience, you know, when I answered this question for myself, like it was something, and this is, this has been true for me throughout my life, where like it's sort of a bottom up experience where like my body sort of started shifting because of changing certain things.
And I felt this really big shift out of, you know, and this wasn't conscious at the time, because I was young, but when I look back on it, it's like, that's the first time I really experienced a shifting timelines into one where I am, you know, my more closer, like you said, to my authentic true self. So like my backstory around this is that around eight years old, I went through early onset puberty, which was very traumatic.
And that, you know, had was due in part to stress that was going on in my young life and in my body, you know, where my cortisol was like through the roof, all my stress hormones were through the roof. And it's kind of like someone, I recently talked to someone as like a plant that shoots, you know, too early because of stress, it starts like, you know, producing all the little babies, it goes through it's like reproductive process, because it's stressed and it's like, thinking, oh, I'm going to die.
So I might as well like quickly reproduce, you know, so that I live on. So like my body did that when I was about eight years old that I went through puberty. And then the resulting like next three years, I just got more and more sick and more and more like heavy and depressed in my body. I was struggling with hypothyroidism.
And then at 11 years old, my mother finally got a doctor who would run and we talk about this in your episode too about finding the right doctor who's going to take you seriously, you know, because at that point it was like, people were just like, oh, she's a little fat kid. She just needs to exercise more. And it's like, no, there's something hormonally going on here. There's something going on in my nervous system.
Right. So my mom, mother found a doctor and I got told that I had food sensitivities to dairy and soy. And so I stopped eating dairy and soy and that basically meant in 1999, I stopped eating processed foods and that sent my young little body into a completely different timeline.
Because what had been going on with the early onset puberty was in part two, and now I understand this. It didn't know this at the time, just like the chemical load, you know, that was stressing my body, you know, from the foods that I was eating in addition to the, you know, mental, emotional, you know, traumatic experiences, all that. It was just like kind of compounded by the fact that I wasn't really getting the healing foods in my body that I needed.
And instead I was taking on a chemical load and like, right. So I switched timelines when my body and my face literally started morphing. Like there's pictures of me when I'm like 11 and I look so different than I did when I was like four. It's like my face when I'm four is like kind of similar to how it is now. You like look at a picture of me like, oh, little Amy, right. And then you look at a picture of me when I'm 11 and like, I look so different because my body was literally morphing into hypothyroidism. I'm sick.
I'm overweight as an 11, you know, as a nine year old, I'm like technically obese, right. And I'm having, I think I may have had like a mild form of something called cushings, which is basic based on cortisol levels, right. Cortisol, yeah.
Yeah. And so my, my face started morphing within three months of changing the way that I was eating. And throughout my teen years, I pretty much was like dipping in and out of these timelines because I didn't have, you know, the enough self-awareness to realize like fully what was happening, but like I would, you know, be eating, you know, foods I'm not allergic to was kind of how I put it at the time. I'd be eating well and like taking care of myself.
And then I'd be like, I just want to be normally eat pizza. And then I'd do that for a while. And my whole like timeline would morph. I would morph into the heaviness around my face, you know, depressive thoughts and feelings would start coming back. And I look back on it now and it was like, I just like was bopping back and forth between those timelines for a long time and not even realizing it. Yeah.
C: Yeah. But looking back, you see, you can see that so clearly on your timeline. I mean, whatever time it's not linear, but there's this, there's this, it's this bounce depending on what you're doing, how you're, how you're operating in your body and you're in the world in your realm.
So a hundred, a hundred percent. And now that you say that too, when I found out I was celiac, that was in 2012, you see a complete shift in my, in my face everywhere. It looked like I had lost a good 50 pounds. That's not an exaggeration because simply I was not eating processed foods anymore.
It was a lot, especially back then it was pretty difficult to find like gluten free products on the market. You were, it was very limited, meaning you were cooking and baking everything at home, which is what we're supposed to be doing most of the time. Anyway, ideally, right?
You know, the ingredients that are, you know, that are going into each, each meal, what the oil you're using and the salt and the seasoning and is it organic? I mean, these were things that had to shift and change for me to realize this. And I do say sometimes it takes us getting sick to get healthy and to dimension hop.
And I saw this post where it's like, it was talking about chronic illness and how that in and of itself is its own psychedelic trip because of how much it brings you to the present. You have no choice but to be so present in your mind and your body when you're not feeling well, when you feel pain in your body, I mean, does anything else bring you to the present more than pain to be like, Hey, listen, I'm yelling and you posted about this, I think yesterday or the day before about how like your body starts to scream at you.
I mean, before that it will start to, it'll whisper, it'll start with a whisper until it ends up with the scream. And I think, this journey of getting sick, of being in pain, that is how we learn to really start communicating with the Soma, with the body and listening to it. And honoring it and not pressing the override button, which I know I pressed for so long in my life.
Like, what do you know? No, I'm going to keep working. I'm not going to rest. I'm going to go do this thing and that thing. And I'm going to keep saying yes to all these things. I don't actually want to say yes to, but feel the need to because if I don't, maybe I won't be loved.
I won't be a part of the group, of the tribe, of the pack. So, you know, all of these things come from our, you know, our childhood and our upbringing and how we survived. And the question is, are they allowing you to thrive at this point?
A: Did you know that your muscles are holding on to thoughts, memories and feelings? If you have a tight neck or back, you're not just getting old. You're experiencing a buildup of tension from the life you've lived.
Most people don't know this, but there is a part of your brain that can reverse and prevent chronic tension. When you relax your muscles, you not only move better and regulate your nervous system, but you also free yourself from the grip the past has over your body. So you can live with freedom, confidence and enjoy your life now. How does that sound?
Join me, Aimee Takaya and discover what my clients are raving about at youcanfreeyoursoma.com. Right. Well, and the adaptive patterns, which is another way I love, I love using other words other than trauma to talk about stuff like this. It's such a loaded word and there's so many things, there's so many blessings that come from our traumatic experiences once we fully metabolize them and process them.
Right. Which I think you're, you know, kind of spoke to now, like that can be what sets us on the path to actually healing things that otherwise, you know, without that like strong catalyst without that scream, like we might have not even have known that they were going on. Right.
C: 100%. 100%. And yeah, I'm so grateful. You know, it's that post traumatic growth. I'm so grateful for even the worst things that have happened to me in my life because they happened for me. You know, I wouldn't be having this conversation with you. I wouldn't be in the work I'm doing.
Likely you wouldn't be doing this work had I not moved through the fire and all of those instances. Do I wish it upon anyone? Of course not.
Never. I'm just saying though, like, I don't regret them happening to me because they happened for me. Right. And those adaptive patterns that we, you know, that are created often from a young age or in the earlier periods of our lives. I mean, you know, there's a way to transmute them in a way that honors us now and who we are and our highest selves in this world.
A: Absolutely. You know, for me, it was showing up a lot of times my adaptive patterns showed up in my body and not, you know, and this has been a common theme for me that like, you know, I mean, post somatics and somatic work that I've done, the body work and everything I've received, which I now practice, right, has really changed my ability to like have a lower lag time between like what my body's saying and what I'm consciously understanding. Like that lag time is so much shorter. But when I was younger, it would take a while.
Like I, my body would have to get to that screaming point. You know, for me, my adaptive patterns were showing up in my musculature and my body as hypermobile joints, you know, and there's like interesting literature out there that actually shows that people who have issues with understanding like, you know, boundaries as like a concept, you know, like in this relational boundaries also have struggles with boundaries in their own body have a tendency towards hypermobile joints and things like this. Flexibility. Yes.
C: Yes. Yes. Totally. And it's so funny you say that as I've been doing this work, because I had, you know, what EDS and hypermobility and mixed connective tissue disorder, all in which play, you know, play a part in that. And I even had shoulder surgery because I was, my shoulder kept popping out of its joint.
That's not normal. And I would have sublexed ribs all the time, where I'd have to go to professional to get them put place back in. And as I began really doing strong boundary work through codependence anonymous and working with various therapists and various coaches who specialize in this, I stopped having sublexed ribs. I have not had pain. Like it's, it's incredible how much inner work plays a part on the physical, the physical level, like, like, yeah.
A: And, you know, I have to say, because I worked with your body, right, at Joshua Tree Music Festival, like when I was moving you around, I didn't sense those kinds of patterns going on. That same kind of, you know, you told me that you had a history of like EDS, but I have clients who are like in the throes of it. And I could tell that like, you know, even if there was that, like, old patterning in your body, it was not like right at the forefront. It was not, you know, going on actively as I'm moving you around.
And I have to say that you had so much body awareness. You know, I work with all different types of people, some people who are very dissociated, you know, they're at a different point on their healing journey. And they haven't done the kind of work that you're describing that you have already gone through, right? And so they might lack, you know, I ask like, how does your leg feel?
And they can't answer that question, because the reality that they're like tuned into at that moment doesn't include like feeling into their legs fully, you know, those pathways aren't turned on for them. You know, but you had so much awareness and some of that comes from the things you're describing from having lived in these other timelines, where you actually had to face these kinds of challenges on a daily basis.
C: And what I want to share is, first of all, I'm extremely so happy. Thank you for sharing that about my body. It just makes me really, really joyous. But I, you know, it is when you're moving through challenges on any kind of level, it can be really scary to be inside your body, like really, really scary, especially when we've been sick and we feel like our body is trying to kill us or harm us or do something awful to us.
And we hear this word autoimmune, like my body is attacking me, which I don't, I'm just going to say my, my strong statement, which is I don't believe that our body would ever want to harm us. Our body is, our body wants to thrive as much as we do.
It'll do everything and its power to get to a level of homeostasis. It's something else. It's something, it's always something else. And that's why you need to work with the right practitioner to figure out what that is. And so often in my practice, that could be anything from, that could be from trauma, that could be from something like Lyme disease or another co-infection or parasites or metals.
A: Like a lack of boundaries in your digestive tract. The leaky gut is literally a lack of boundaries that, that, you know, that mucus lining has been damaged. And so things are getting out that shouldn't be there. And so your body's not, like you said, it's not attacking you. It's attacking something that has, you know, violated the space that it's not supposed to be in.
You know, it's interesting. I worked with a client recently who has autoimmune issues and chronic pain and hypermobility and all the things that we were just talking about. And I had this like very, you know, when I'm working with people, I have these really strong intuitive hits come in that like maybe seem woo woo because I haven't you know, gotten them from like pulling research. But if I went and pulled research, I could probably explain like what's coming through. Do you know what I'm saying? Like Of course, yeah. Intuitive hits.
And I have this idea, maybe you can tell me what you think of it. With autoimmune, your body's reflecting that there has been like a continued invasion of your space. And it's been going on for a while. And so now your body is like reflecting that to you, that it's because of some violating kind of, you know, these are kind of heavy words to use for it, but something intrusive that's been, you know, that lack of boundaries in your gut, you know, something that's been kind of like coming in that maybe you've been allowing to come in to your field that doesn't belong there.
Maybe you've had like a really negative relationship, which this woman had, she had a very like, you know, some of the things she was recovering from was like a violent encounter with like a partner who had been very narcissistic and abusive and all that stuff, right? And that, you know, that kind of like continued violation, like that would be such an interesting question to kind of examine like when it comes to autoimmune issues, like what, what is the correlation between those and people who are struggling with these like boundary issues and relational issues?
C: Well, we look at Dr. Gabor Maté's work, and he does speak to this quite often. The folks who get, you know, autoimmune disease or who get sick often have issues with authenticity and boundaries and saying no. And then the body is reflecting that, that piece. And then it starts to say no for us, which is what we spoke about in the last podcast episode. So I don't know, this is, so it's just, it's a sign from the body of like, Hey, I'm not liking this. This isn't safe for me. This doesn't feel good for me.
Can we change something and nothing changes if nothing changes. So let's get on this healing journey. Let's, let's now shift timelines to this place where you're in healthier relationships, nourishing relationships where you feel safe to be 100% your authentic self, which everyone listening right now deserves to be in those relationships, in those dynamics with, with their community, with their loved ones, with everything around them. Everyone deserves that. That is absolutely. Yeah. That is a human right. That is a soul right. Absolutely.
A: And it's totally possible for everyone too. You know, it is totally possible for everyone. It's about kind of checking inside your own body, inside your own psyche, and really doing that like deeper excavated work. And obviously doing that with the skilled practitioner, you know, accelerates the process, accelerates that connection and that ability, right?
But doing that, you know, checking in and finding where are the boundaries of my own body, solidifying, fortifying that where are the boundaries of my energy, like saying no, when there's like an option, right, to do something or not do something.
And you have been saying yes, saying yes, saying yes, you're committing to this timeline that maybe isn't really what your body needs, maybe is part of those dynamics of chronic illness and chronic pain that you're facing, right? And just saying no puts you on a totally different trajectory on a totally different timeline. Can you speak to that?
C: Yes, yes. And saying no, just remember, saying no allows space for things you want to say yes to. I love that. And it's giving permission to others to do the same. And I want to say a couple of things actually, like when I worked with you, and I know you've said such wonderful things about me, thank you.
But what I noticed was that I really felt like I was 100% in my body by the end of it. Like I was, I think I got pretty emotional during it. And even after it was, it was just such beautiful work, I wish I was like, can you move in with me?
Can you move in with me? I want this every day, please. It just felt so amazing to me in my body. And what I want to share is that after we work together, I then became hyper aware of what was taking me out of alignment, literally and figuratively. And I was able to go, wait, wait, wait, wait, this doesn't feel right.
So I'm going to shift, even if it was like, I don't want to go in this direction, I want to go in that direction, I don't want to eat this food, I want to eat that food, this conversation is not feeling, that is not feeling great, I'm feeling a little bit dysregulated, I'm gonna, I'm gonna move and shift out of this conversation, like just being in alignment and having that co, that co-regulation with you really allowed for me to have this space of knowingness.
And that's why it's so important to work with the practitioner, who is trauma and somatic, both trauma and somatic informed, because there's this level of co-regulation, like when I, when I work with clients, I hope that's my goal, just like for you, right, is that we're creating this safe and courageous space to explore all parts of ourselves and integrate all parts of ourselves and be in our body, feel safe to be in our body together.
And, you know, I work with some people who've never, who've never had this kind of relationship with someone. And so they leave our session and they're like, wait, that doesn't feel good.
Like, I don't like the way they're speaking to me or the way they're treating me. I don't need, I don't, I don't have to be in this dynamic, dynamic anymore. I can say no to this, and I can say yes to what feels good to me. So that's, that's that piece of it of co-regulation and feeling safe enough to explore what the body and the mind feel like outside of this.
And when we say yes to what lights us up inside, I always ask my clients, does it feel like an F? Yes, in your body? Does it? Or does it, and does it further regulate you? Does it dysregulate you?
Does it upregulate you? We talk about these terms, right? And moving like following our joy and moving with that. Because when every time I say yes to what fuels me, what excites me, I'm never really left astray. It's the times where I'm like, I don't know, I'm on the fence.
I'm unsure. I know they're going through a hard time. So I should say, it's when I start shitting on myself, so to speak.
And that, right? Stop shitting on yourselves. But it's, it's when I start doing that where I'm like, I, I noticed that I'm not in alignment. I am not speaking my truth. I'm not following my truth. And it's the outcome is less desirable for me.
So that's the two different dimensions that happen, the less desirable and the one, the one that is, and every time, again, every time you say yes to something that is in alignment and no to something that's not, you're giving others permission all around you to do the same, to do the same.
A: Absolutely. I, you know, first of all, I just want to thank you. I love that reflection. I didn't, you know, I know how, you know, powerful our session was for you because you were so appreciative and I could see it in your energy field.
And I just watched you really like relax and open in these spaces that maybe you didn't even know could open like that, right? That there was kind of these wow moments that you were having. I mean, when I remember when I was like pressing your spine and reminding your spine that it could be bouncy, right?
I was doing that sequence with you. You're like, it's like you're pressing an on switch. Like this feels like waking me up. And then, you know, what you're describing, like after the fact of just being more in tune with yourself and able to more streamlined, listen to your inner voice. That's your inner guidance system.
That is a big, big theme with my clients. It's a big theme of the work that I do is that it allows you to get in touch with your innate somatic intelligence that's actually there guiding you all the time, moment to moment, you know, and speaking to what you were describing about like, you know, checking in with yourself, is it an F. Yes, you know, or am I not sure? One thing that always comforts me is like, these things shift and change from moment to moment.
And if I had to know right now, that's okay. Because if I check in with myself later, and it's a yes, you know, I can change my mind, maybe not about everything in the world, there might be some circumstances where this is not the case.
But you can, you know, like if it's about like going to somebody's baby shower or whatever, and you're like really not feeling it, you know, for like three days, you're just like, I'm, I need to like not go, I need to like say no to this.
Maybe it's because you need to get better resourced in your body, maybe as you take care of yourself and you get better sleep. And then the day before arrives, and you're like, you know what, I'm checking in with myself right now. And it's a yes, I do want to go there. I do want to be there.
Maybe some of those blocks that were in the way before were just my body letting me know that at this moment, we're not resourced enough for that output of energy. Right?
C: Yes, I completely agree. Sometimes we need to also just ride the emotional wave and see, like I say to my clients, like just sleep on it. Just sleep on it. See how, see what shifts tomorrow if it's a maybe, and just check in. Yeah, you know what, after sleeping, and sleeping in itself is being resourced, right? Getting enough, getting enough rest, not making decisions when we're hungry or super tired or emotionally upset or angry, right? But giving yourself the space and the time to ride that wave and at the end going, you know, actually, it would be nice to see people at this baby shower.
I've actually missed this person. And I think it would be good for me to get out of the house and be in community. Or, you know, it's still just not feeling like it's an alignment. And I'm going to send a gift and I'm going to have one on one time with this person when I feel like it resonates.
A: Totally. Well, and sometimes it's that lag time too between like what we experience. And I talked about this with another woman on a previous podcast where she was really going into detail and describing how it can take her time to recognize like when something was violating or upsetting to her. Like in the moment, it's just kind of like, oh, whoa, like kind of go deer and headlights for a second.
Don't totally know what happened or why I'm so uncomfortable or why this is like a no. Right. And then taking that time to, like you said, sleep on it or allow the emotional waves to ride out and then go, Oh, I know why that really did not feel good. Right. And that like lag time is sort of like, when we're figuring out that we've like entered some timeline or some patterning in ourselves another way to describe it like a patterning that like isn't really in our authentic self.
Right. And how can we like self correct and get back to that place where we're on the right trajectory for our, you know, destiny, so to speak like our where we're really headed where it feels like, Oh yeah, I'm headed in this direction. I have another question for you to kind of in the theme of this.
Yeah, so have you ever had the experience of being in this moment with yourself where it's almost like you can sense or speak to a version of yourself that exists in the future, like maybe way in the future, like a grandmother, crone version of yourself that exists, who's like comforting you from that timeline. Have you ever had that experience.
C: This is the work I do in my sessions. This is the exact work. So, you know, I do, we do timeline hopping on one direction or another, like going into the past and being with our younger selves because we forget we're like babushka dolls.
We have so many layers. And we forget like our all of those inner children teenagers adults within us they don't go away they don't perish they don't die there. They're there they're there with in us so we get to go back in time and and be with them now be the person they so wish they had then. And the scene goes for jumping into the future so when I, you know, I'm working with someone and they're struggling with something that's going on now in like right now in the present.
I will have them jump to them older, even whether it's five years whether it's 20 years 30 years it doesn't matter. And I will have their older selves or wiser selves come speak with them and talk to them about and impart wisdom and thoughts and feelings. And it's incredible because so often like this thing that seems like the biggest deal is like, Oh, she told me or he told me it's going to pass everything's going to be okay that I should choose what's making me happiest right now, or giving me that perspective.
Yes, yes, yes, yes. And it really that shifts the timeline to because it offers a different perspective and understanding and compassion right this really, which is so key self compassion is so key. So yeah, for myself, I do use it and it's an it's an incredible tool we can tap into it at any time, like being with our older selves are wiser. So what would they say to us given all of this life experience between now and then, what would they, what would they say to us. Totally.
A: And then just for fun, we can hop into the reverse idea here which is like that our anxiety about like saying you know if you've ever gone through a period where like I've gone through this and I'm not wishing to send anybody if you don't go through this but where you're like paranoid about developing cancer or you're paranoid about developing an illness. And in a way, you can almost timeline hop to that already being the case you can imagine yourself laying in the bed unable to move.
You can almost touch and sense like that feeling in your body. That experience is actually useful too because it's showing you where you actually are not wanting to go through contrast and be like, Oh no, that's not for me you can get this really loud clear message of like, no, from your higher self that says like, that is not where I want to go.
And it can do the same thing in a way like get us back on track. You know, if we're able to be present with ourselves and not like get so caught up in that fear, you know, timeline that we are unable to like hear the objections, right.
C: I completely agree and I think, and I feel like people will resonate with that more than the other exercise because we, we just do that so easily with ourselves and all that is it's our negative or it's our negativity bias in our brain so the negative negativity bias in our brain is there to ultimately protect us, keep us safe, keep us small.
It's often what that like negative voice in your head speaking down to you or saying mean things to you or projecting. That's what it's doing. It's just trying to keep you safe.
It could care less about your joy and your happiness. It's going to show you the worst case scenarios or tell you, Oh, hey, just wait for the other shoot it things are going well but wait for the other shoe to drop,
A: you know, like, yeah, it's so funny because you say that as you're saying that I'm like imagining like it is the voice of like an authoritarian parent that maybe we once had that's going. Don't do that get off that wall you're going to fall and break your arm you know like it's and what's that mother ultimately doing trying to protect our kid kid from breaking his arm.
Yeah, that's all it is probably fine walking on the wall, but her fear of him breaking his arm is coming in to try to rescue him. And so then we get that voice going on in us that voice of what if what if what if because like you said we're trying to protect ourselves.
C: Yeah, and it's just it's just fear based and what I have clients do is I tell I tell them to love on it right because it can be a bully sometimes like a straight bully borderline abusive and sometimes very very abusive with you know the things I've heard from from clients and what their voice the voice has to say the voice of self doubt and the voice of shame and so many other things and you know I always ask clients to love on it tell it.
But you know validate it like I understand you're scared I and I understand you're on you're wanting to keep me safe. And guess what, we have a new program we're running. And here is going this now I'm going to now we're going to start exercising our positivity by a center brain and saying, Okay, I see this visualization of me getting sick, and I am choosing to reach for this visualization of me thriving in life and what does, what does that look like, and what is that like and especially for clients who are sick, right and they're being told by doctors who they come to see me and they're being told by doctors.
This is the rest of your life, your life. This is only going to get worse and worse and worse like you need to start basically radically accepting things as they are. And I'm here to challenge that with them you know someone comes to see me and they're like oh I'm here to accept my illness I'm like then you're saying the wrong therapist.
I will not. We are we are here to to create a new reality for yourself and so it's really almost painful and so challenging for the clients I work with to imagine a different reality for themselves because they've only been told this is it this is it this is it so who are you if you're not sick, who are you if if you're abundant who are you if you're in an amazing relationship like who are you in all these circumstances that you don't feel are possible for you in this current reality.
A: Totally. Yes, and you know with with the work that I do like I see people go through that. I guess you like reckoning with themselves in the moment sometimes during sessions when you know we have language around it like oh my bad knees or this shoulder is just like my bad shoulder, you know and it doesn't do this or you know oh I you know I have this pain here it's like always there.
You know and when we suddenly do some movements during the session and that pain just goes away that pain that's always there just goes away and they can move their arm again. They have literally entered a new dimensional reality. And I think I pointed that out to you because we were playing with this concept like we were working with the right side of your body and everything got really calm and relaxed and then you could feel the what was unconsciously holding the holding pattern that was going on on the left and I'm like here's a new dimensional reality you could be in and here's the old pattern.
C: You can and you can really sense it from like I was like, you know I always think like dimension we open up a door right and we walk through it but it like felt like one half of my body was on one side of the door and the other, the other half was on the other side of the door so I really once you worked on this side.
It's like I entered into this rally where I was 100% in my body and it felt I cried it felt so good it felt so good and like I said it put me into this mindset, or this this energy where I knew the difference between what was and what wasn't an alignment for the coming days especially being at a festival it was like so perfectly aligned that we work together, sort of at the beginning of the festival, because I noticed as things came up I really noticed the difference.
A: Yeah, no and it's the things that come up that are sometimes in the way of, you know, going into that new reality which you kind of touched on like what are the blockages what are the beliefs what are the, you know, things going on inside of me that reinforce that old timeline.
You know, like my ways that I operate in like my relationships or the types of foods that I'm attracted to eating when I get stressed out that are reinforcing this like old pattern this old timeline and this is where, you know, kind of playing with this idea of epigenetics because this is another thing that I like learned about some years ago and just was like, Oh my god that explains so much.
Like my face and you talked about this to like literally morphs, like the shapes of your face morph because your DNA is getting little switches turned on for certain characteristics and turned off for others based on your behaviors and what's happening in your life. Right. Yes.
C: Yes, yes, yes. And, you know, we think of epigenetics to and how like trauma from the past can affect us and they they're finding that 14 lifetime. Like so if you had for imagine, or not lifetimes but 14 so like you're great what is that your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great. Grandparent if they experience trauma that can show up that can show up in your body.
However, we forget that strength also comes from 1414 generations it's not just trauma it's also strength and that we can shift and change patterning we can shift and change the you know how our genetics show up in our, in our current state. Totally. It is possible. It is yes. When it's it in myself you're you've shared and I witnessed it and so many other people.
A: Yeah, and it's like it's something that takes some effort you know and that's why in the intro to this episode it's like commitment you know committing to this new timeline committing to this new reality, because it's not going to be like you just turn a switch and you're there there's going to be every moment in your life, where you get to make tiny little micro choices that either are in the best alignment or not in the best alignment and it's kind of this little dance of finding your way through, you know. In that, again that like trajectory towards your destiny or towards who you're really meant to be, because there's all these little micro choices along the way and ways we kind
C: of get it would be quite it would be quite boring yeah the the non-linearity of this all is what makes life interesting and what I want to say too is that, you know, when we were talking about like, oh imagining ourselves having cancer like so many of us have had these instances not just related to the health but you know accidents happening or relationships, you know, ending or or anything like that like that is the negativity bias.
And these little micro changes that you are, you know, an actionable items that you're speaking to like that is what strengthens that positivity bias so you're up, you know, you're up against that negativity bias at all times but as your positivity bias as you build that muscle just like anything else, you will notice that negativity bias gets quieter, and quieter and quieter mine used to be so loud especially when I was really really sick and for good reason for good reason it was just trying to protect me.
But as you realize like hey, you know, I'm stuck in a rut now and this isn't actually, this is doing more harm than good for me because I got to the point where I was unable to leave the house I was so scared of anything outside of my home and the irony is I had mold in my home so like just just interesting just so so interesting but those little so as you make this decision of like no I want to switch things.
You have this like epiphany and you start to take those those actionable steps and work towards a positivity bias in your brain or you know, work on strengthening it, you will notice huge shifts begin to happen and back to one other thing you mentioned where you're working with someone and they're like I have a bad shoulder about this or like, etc etc like I you know those those thoughts are going to pop up I asked that you just challenge them every time so like I, you know.
I have this, this health journal this healing journal, a mind body spirit journal, and one of the questions is name one thing you love about your body, which is really hard for people when they're doing this they always say that's one of the hardest questions in the entire journal. And what I ask is if you're walking past the mirror, and you say something negative to yourself which so many people do.
I'm just going to ask that you, you follow up with something nice about yourself. I'm not liking the way my stomach looks but I'm so happy that it's able to digest all of my food.
A: Yes, no and then that's such a big deal like what you're describing like getting out of our third person perspective on ourselves. So, you know that's a huge theme and the somatic work that I do, which is that we are disembodied we're looking at ourselves from the outside, judging the way that we look versus being inside of ourselves inside of our bodies and appreciating what we get to experience through our bodies.
And that is a huge shift because so much of our conditioning culturally is conditioning us to look outside of ourselves at ourselves and judge ourselves like when you ask that question know what do you love about your body. I think most people start to think like, what do I like about how my body looks what part of my body do I like how it looks that's the question they actually think you're asking when really the question is much much deeper.
You know, someone could like about their body. I love that my body produced three healthy babies. You know, I love that my body carried my child I love that I love that my arms can hug and hold the ones that I love. You know, I love that my legs can take me on hikes into beautiful places.
You know, I love that my that my stomach is sensitive and when someone touches my stomach it tickles like there's other things we could love about our embodied experience other than just how does this look from the third party outside. Exactly.
C: And I also say like specific to chronic pain and chronic illness like when you have an area that's showing up that's alerting you more than the others to to show it to show it even more love like five shoulder pain well I love you for carrying as much as you have.
And I'm going to be mindful of you carrying less in the future of using other body parts, you know, just, just really like challenging it with love with love with love rather than so often like, oh, my shoulder banishing it it's awful I hate it, becoming disembodied and growing kind of, or getting further away from it rather than getting as close as possible and being with it and being with the pain, right and being with comfort.
A: Yeah, being with it, being with it, that's with it and I want to say to you like this is a really great like kind of the work that I'm doing and you experienced this is very non invasive in the sense that it's very gentle, and it's very attentive to pain and discomfort. And some practices aren't like that some practices are like, let's find that pain point, and let's dig in.
And I'm not saying that's wrong, I'm just saying that's a different way than doing things that how I was trained, and the approach that ultimately works the best for me. Like, I don't really enjoy like deep tissue massage anymore because it feels really invasive.
I need a very gentle, stroking, you know, tender kind of touch that is, you know, aware of the pain points and instead of pushing harder into them is being softer with them, so that they can feel that sense of, oh, I'm heard, you know, I'm heard, and I don't have to scream someone's doing something about this and attending to this and I can be calm and relaxed.
And so, you know, the approach that I take in my online sessions when people are having pain that shows up, we get to be with that pain and do a more gentle version of that same activity. Oh, you're noticing that your shoulder hurts when you lift it, like, well maybe lift it less. Maybe let's give your shoulder a break and let's work with your left leg and help your left leg relax and then your shoulders listening that whole time your shoulders going, oh, it's okay to relax.
Look, my left leg is relaxing. And then we come back to your shoulder, it's easier to work with because it's gotten that love that tenderness that you're talking about, rather than what we're often, you know, kind of doing with ourselves is like beating ourselves up or trying to force ourselves to be different rather than being with ourselves. And it takes practice. That's why you get a practitioner.
That's why you work with a therapist is, you know, someone obviously who's got that somatic trauma informed perspective as you do is that, you know, someone like you and me is going to help you be with what's happening and not, you know, poke at it, not cause more disruption or invasion or, you know, that pattern of overextending your boundaries. Right.
C: Yes, yes, yes, I could not agree more with that. Yeah. You actually said. Thank you.
A: Yeah, you know, it's, it's such an interesting thing this idea of hopping timelines. Do you, you know, you did a little presentation at Joshua Tree Music Festival, where you kind of took people through this concept a little bit more. Do you would you would be open to kind of taking us through like an experience of that for the people listening right now.
C: Yeah, yeah, I did this like nourishing neural retraining workshop where, you know, it's this idea of when we, when we heal the brain, we heal the body when we heal the nervous system we heal the body so really shifting things for ourselves with consistent dialogue within within our brains within our bodies.
So one of my favorite things to do with folks is to create a like a proclamation of what they want for themselves in the present tense, even it feels even if it feels like this is so unattainable right now. And it could be anything from like, I am happy I am healthy I am healing I, you know, mine for the longest time was I can go wherever I want whenever I want and eat and do whatever I want because I was down to 20 safe foods I could eat without an EpiPen.
And then I was scared to leave the house because I was so sensitive to chemicals and so many so many other things out in the world. And so that when I remember I created my proclamation for myself I was like yeah right I'll ever get to this which is a good sign by the way I want I want it to feel weird and uncomfortable because we're now using, you know, 95% of what we do is subconscious so we're using the conscious side of our brain.
So it's going to feel uncomfortable it's like when you first start driving a car right you're very uncomfortable you're like what does this do, especially think of like a manual car, which I'm trying to learn right now and I'm like, how, but eventually it becomes subconscious even driving becomes subconscious so I want you to see this as the same, the same thing it's going to feel uncomfortable, until it becomes uncomfortable, comfortable until it becomes your reality.
So, I, you know, you're going to make a series of I am statements of who you want to be but it's in the present tense because our brain does not understand nuances of something that has happened, and something that will happen which is all about the dimension hopping so when we go back in the past I'm going all over the place I'm hopping right now within this, but we go into the past with our past selves are our younger selves, and we're with them, and we're the person they wish they had this is doing the inner child work now.
That's extremely healing our brain assumes that you now actually did show up in the past to be with your younger self, and all of a sudden you're noticing a shift in your reality, wow, I kind of had a different upbringing or childhood experience it wasn't great but something shifted something changed, because you, you became present in that moment in time.
So, it's, it's really amazing and fantastic to see how this all, how this all transforms but one of my favorite activities aside from the proclamation and I tell I tell anyone I work with, put it as the make sure it's the background of your phone.
Put it make it the wallpaper for your laptop put it in front of your toilet I want any time and the negativity bias comes out to play I want you to challenge it with these I am statements, and I want you to feel it, feel it in your body I want you literally to use. I wanted to invoke all of your senses because that's actually how memories are created there there's usually a feeling attached.
Often you will not remember things if there was not a strong feeling attached to whether you taste of something, you smelled something, you felt something right you can all remember like certain sense from your childhood and memories attached that's our strong that's the strongest way that we actually remember things from the past. So, there's that and another fun exercise I like to do with folks is if you envision or visualize something for yourself in the future like one woman in our group.
wants to write a book the one the group at the Joshua tree music festival. So we did this exercise where imagine in one year from now, you're a really good friend or family member in your life calls you and you get to share the news of you doing something you've envisioned for yourself.
So she went through this with one of her friends of like the book was just published, and I'm feeling so excited and like, oh, she it was amazing to just witness her be in the present with what that will feel like in the future, and, and I could already see her like gears shifting of like, okay, I'm ready to take these next steps for myself because she then she then shared that where as before she was feeling really scared and intimidated and right.
That's a pipe dream there's no way that could happen and where so many people are already doing this I love when I hear people say that so many people already you know already created, you know I hear this often with podcasts and or blogs or this or that and I always.
My rebuttal is well how many pizza shops are there in your in your town and that's well are all you know they're they're all successful in different ways. I like this one better because of because of the crust, right and they have gluten free crust and it's a little bit thicker.
That one is, you know, not, you know they use cauliflower and it's not my not my ideal kind of crust, but they're still successful because someone else prefers that. So totally.
A: I think that like the activities you're describing are super powerful because when you are imagining yourself doing something, and we call this in like you know my training we call this a motor plan. So you, there's invisible firing of motor units or neuromuscular connection throughout your body that actually prepares your body for the thing that you're imagining.
Right. So you can start to already feel literally the pathway into that experience as you're visualizing it so this works like with you that imagine doing a yoga post before you do the yoga post you imagine yourself doing it in your head, your brain is going to start firing those neurons to do it.
And when you do it, you'll probably do it with more precision and with more strength than if you had just flung yourself into it, watching somebody else do it. Right. So these motor patterns already start to fire when you just imagine and get into that space of that thing being true.
C: 100% and you know they've done studies on folks who just literally visualize themselves working out versus the control group that does not. And they noticed that they had stronger muscles. The ones who were simply visualizing themselves working out without working out hey guys you can actually tone your muscles without going to the gym by simply visualizing yourself strength training that's incredible.
And it's the it's back to the motor patterns and also they've done like brain scans on Olympians because when Olympians are training they're not just physically training when they're when they're not physically training.
Their coaches are having them constantly visualize like swimming those laps do you know gymnastics doing doing all the flips all the turns etc. And they noticed in a brain scam and an MRI that the the muscle when they're visualizing the right muscles are turning on for those exact activities.
So when you're visualizing yourself writing that book like the right the right neural pathways are being like set off basically. Oh yeah, for that to get you ready and again it's that from the beginning of this conversation it's that idea of B do you have I am I'm writing this book. You are naturally going to start taking those micro steps to do it until you have it.
A: Absolutely yes and I mean super excited because I love the depth at which you're able to kind of go into this because you know particularly that word proclamation like that is such a fun powerful word for like what is going to be true like what is coming forward like I proclaim.
You know this is a powerful statement I mean like I've used the term affirmation, you know, I've used the term a mantra right when I do like I've done somatic yoga workshops or mini retreats where I have people do that like they write a statement or to the I am or my statement where it's ownership of this thing. Right, and then they do somatic and then we do some somatic yoga, which opens up their body which opens them up to different brain waves where they're more suggestible.
Right there less like, you know, holding their pattern of resistance to things where they're softer and they feel relaxed and safe. And then I invite them to place that statement and in your words like their proclamation in what area in their body needs to hear that. Where does that statement belong in your body. Wow, stomach your chest.
Right maybe in multiple places maybe belongs on the surface of your skin. You know, so then I invite them to plant their seed and I call it a seed of being you know that's going to grow into something so I love the synthesis here that I'm seeing in like the work that you do and that I do and I know we've talked about other kinds of collaborations.
But I'm just so excited for that, because I hope that the people listening today, you're getting this idea of like something as complex as, you know, quantum theory, which is really ultimately what we're talking about here is as simple as what little micro choice am I making that is aligning me with where I really feel drawn to going in my life and sometimes when we're feeling directionless that's where, you know, finding a practitioner, someone like Christina or I that can help you sense into that new patterning that's possible for you.
Right, is a game changer it's absolutely game changing, like that woman sitting there and she got into that experience of, you know, the book is being published and I'm so excited for it, versus where she was a moment ago on a completely different timeline where that wasn't going to happen.
C: That wasn't the reality she had it was a literally she called it a pipe dream so that's two, two very very different things and if you're listening to this, I believe that anything is possible for you, that it can come to fruition that you can, you can manifest it is possible for you whatever whatever that is in your life and Aimee I feel like we needed you like a neural retraining somatic workshop maybe online in the future. So fun, I would love that yeah. Yeah, it's happening it's already happening. I'm visualizing it I feel it in my chest I feel it in my throat.
A: Yes, I love it and yeah and stay tuned for that listeners. You'll see Christina's information in the show notes also mine there if you're interested in learning more about how to release muscle tension stress and pain from your body if you're dealing with chronic illness, and you've been having a hard time finding someone who actually understands.
That is totally Christina's wheelhouse so get in touch with us you can find us on Instagram. That information will also be in the show notes and any last words here Christina before we close.
C: No if you're listening to this thank you so much for being here and yeah I believe in everything that you desire to be. You're amazing.
A: Yes, you are amazing and you will find your people, the more that you align with what's true for you. It may sometimes feel like you're losing people or you're losing, you know, friendships but I want to say like as a testament even just sitting here with Christina, you know. Stay on your authentic timeline your authentic path keep re-orienting to that, and you will find people who are on your wavelength, who can be the kind of friend or partner that you really needed that you really need.
C: Oh my gosh yes that resonates so deeply. I've lost various people on the way but that space allowed for people who were more in alignment and on my level and in the same frequency and I'm so, I am so grateful for even moving through the grief of that that loss of those relationships so yeah thanks for sharing that.
A: Absolutely. Okay everybody enjoy the rest of your day and we'll let you know about upcoming stuff.
C: Yay, thank you Aimee.
A: Hey there friends. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I would love to hear your thoughts. Follow me on Instagram at Aimee Takaya and send me a DM about this episode. I'd like to thank you for being part of the 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.
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