I’m thrilled to be talking with Nicole Field today. We went to high school together and reconnected over social media, and now Nicole is a certified Pilates instructor and somatic healer. Those paths came from her own needs to heal her body and mind from trauma and injuries. 

Nicole had suffered from panic attacks since she was a teenager and found that teaching pilates and working against the equipment was grounding, but talk therapy wasn’t getting to the root of the problem. Now, she works with somatic stress release therapy to help her clients move the stress and other trapped emotions through the body in order to do what is needed to heal, then release.

Nicole will be offering exclusive packages to my clients to compliment their nutrition and lifestyle coaching work.

You can also find more info about Nicole’s Somatic Stress Therapy work online at https://www.wholelivingsomatics.com/, on social media @Wholelivinghealing and by email at wholelivingsomatics@gmail.com

https://www.wholelivingsomatics.com/

Check out her Pilates Studio in Colorado Springs in person or online at https://wholelivingpilates.com , and at @wholelivingpilates on social.

If you’re looking for support in reaching your health goals, schedule a free 30-minute Coffee Talk here to see if we’re a good fit to work together.

Connect with me on Instagram @joliverwellness! DM me the words “Nutrition Edit” and I’ll add you to my close friends list, where I share exclusive content. You’ll be the first to know about upcoming programs and early access to my waitlist.

Music credit: Funk’d Up by Reaktor Productions

A Podcast Launch Bestie production

Hey there.

Welcome back to the Nutrition Edit Today.

My guest is Nicole Field.

Nicole is the owner of Whole Living Pilates Studio located

in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

She has taught Pilates for over 17 years and is passionate about

helping her clients reconnect to their bodies through movement.

She now also works as a somatic healing practitioner focusing on

somatic stress release therapy.

Nicole see's clients both in person and remotely offering group and

private sessions, and you can find her@wholelivinghealing.com.

I'll also include her contact info in the show notes for you.

We had a really great conversation today about getting in touch with

your body and your intuition and how healing your emotions can

translate into physical healing.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did, and let's jump.

So welcome Nicole.

I'm super excited to have you here today.

Thanks for

joining

me.

Thanks for having me, Jeanie.

I'm so excited to be here.

Yeah.

I'm excited about our talk.

There's so many things I wanna ask you and learn about and I was just

thinking this morning like how cool it is, how we reconnected.

So for those of you listening, Nicole and I actually went to high school together

and lost touch for I don't know how long.

? A long time.

20 years.

Something maybe like that.

We should, I shouldn't even say it.

It'll date us.

and then I think, did we just reconnect through social media

somehow?

I think so.

I think over Instagram.

Yeah.

Don't think it

has Instagram.

Yeah.

So, so yeah.

Really cool.

And we're both pretty different people.

I think we were back then and we've gone through a lot of growth and change.

Probably some good, some bad and everything in between, but you have

had just an amazing journey and you do some really, really cool stuff.

So I'm excited to hear about it and yeah, I think it's gonna be super

beneficial for your listeners clients.

So I'd love to just start off, um, why don't you just tell us about

yourself a little bit and how you got into teaching Pilates and then

eventually the somatic therapy.

Yeah, Well, thanks again for having me and um, I just love that

we've reconnected and have so much in common in terms of like what we're

passionate about with helping our clients and the people that we work with.

And so, um, yeah, it's always a pleasure to talk with you.

So, here.

I was first connected to Pilates, um, in college, so I was a dance major and.

I had a teacher who, who really encouraged me to take Pilates.

She thought it would help me to connect to my center.

So I was always a pretty good mover, but I, I had a really hard

time connecting and feeling my, uh, solar plexus, my abdominals,

and that whole area of my body.

It was just like I had a real disconnect from them.

So I started, doing Pilates.

I couldn't afford to do private sessions, so I bought actually the Ma Winter videos

back in the day with Daisy Fuentez and she taught Pilates, the Pilates, Matt work.

And I literally had her book and I had her videos, and I would just

do these Pilates mat exercises and started to reconnect to my body in a

way that I hadn't ever felt before.

And.

A few years after that, I had my first son and after being, pregnant

and, you know, taking on quite a bit of weight with him, who's a large

baby for my frame , I was introduced then to Pilates on the equipment,

by, a woman named Pamela Pilson, who lived in my hometown of Ventura.

And so I remember that first day getting on her reformer, which, um, if you're

not familiar with Pilates, a reformer is kind of one of the main apparatus

or pieces of equipment we work with.

Um, and it's like a mat with springs attached to it.

And you work with spring resistance.

And I literally just lie down on that mat, put my feet up on the

foot bar and started to press out with my legs, kind of like a squat.

Mm-hmm.

. And it just, something happened internally where I was like,

Oh my goodness, I can feel.

That internal connection of my abdominals, I could feel my body in a way that I,

even with the mat work that I hadn't experienced quite, um, so profoundly.

So I was hooked.

That was, um, back in 2001, I ended up, um, having another baby before I went

it and got, uh, certified to teach.

So I would, I went through the whole process of becoming, um,

comprehensively certified, uh, in 2005.

And, and what does that mean

comprehensively?

Sorry to interrupt.

Yeah, so for Matt and the reformer,

or, Yeah, it's actually on all equipment,

uh, available within Pilates.

So we have a Cadillac, we have what's called a Pilates chair or wounded chair.

We have a spine corrector and multiple other small little

pieces of equipment that we use.

So yes, I was trained on all the equipment and then started

teaching, pretty much right away.

So yeah, that's how I got involved with Pilates.

. Um, in terms of somatic healing work that is a little, is a lot more recent for me.

So just within the last two years, after the pandemic hit, like most of us, stress

was encroaching in my body in a way that was familiar, but also unfamiliar.

And I, I all, my normal tactics of kind of dealing with stress,

weren't really seem to work for me.

and after doing about a year of really intense therapy and emdr, which was able

to heal a lot of trauma for me, I still felt like I had some things within my

body that needed to really be processed and released in a way that, um, talk

therapy wasn't really able to touch into.

Right.

So, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I experienced the same thing.

I mean, I did talk therapy for.

I don't know, two decades off and on, I guess collectively.

And it does help, right?

It, it feels better.

It's good to have someone to discuss our stuff with.

Um, but you're right.

I never felt that sort of shift of, I don't know, call it energetic.

So just the power that those memories or emotions had over me until I started

doing some of the more somatic modalities.

So, back up just a little bit, cause I'm gonna ask you more about this later too.

Um, how long ago did you start your Pilate studio?

Yes.

Uh, I opened the studio in January of 2017.

Okay.

So it's about five and a half years ago.

Okay,

cool.

And then when you, um, and obviously, you know, you don't have to go into any

super personal details about the trauma that you experienced, but I know that

some of it was physical, some emotional.

Um, is there anything that you wanna share about that, that you feel is.

Significant for people to know.

Sure.

Right.

As I have this like thunderstorm rolling in.

Really, I think we hear the thunder.

It's kinda

dramatic.

Yeah.

I've been aware of my trauma for about 11 years or so.

Right.

As I was about to hit 40, um, I started to experience a lot of

physical symptoms that were, could not be explained by medical doctors.

Mm-hmm.

. Um, and that's when I started to realize my body was really trying to process, um,

some of the trauma that I experienced.

Um, I'm a survivor of two near death experiences, so, um, and when I say near

death, it's not like, Died and, um, you know, saw the light or anything like that.

That's just that I, I came very close to dying.

Um, so I'll just clarify that.

Yeah.

Um, one, the first was when I was 10 years old and in a, an accident where

I suffered a, a major head trauma.

And then the second one was after the birth of my third son, um, and

wear a hemorrhage and had to have an emergency hysterectomy to save my life.

Um, so that was at age 33.

And so as I approached age 40, a lot of these things started

to show up as physical symptoms.

I know.

So, And, uh, there we go, kinda almost.

And so, um, yeah, I, uh, I started to get curious about what would that look like

to really start to heal from my trauma.

. that's when I first started to do therapy.

And um, and then I looked at a lot of different modalities.

Massage therapy.

I did cranial sac therapy.

I've done sound healing.

I probably, probably, you name it, I've tried as a part of like,

that's, I need to, to heal from this.

but I guess like a couple years ago, the other piece, was just really understanding

and recognizing the childhood trauma that I had experienced as well.

both of my parents deal with some major like mental health issues.

Okay.

And so growing up in that sort of environment, it was very, um, unstable

in the sense of that we moved a lot and there was always, I was sort

of like, what's gonna happen next?

Like, didn't have a sense of feeling very grounded.

So I think when the pandemic hit, it brought up a lot of those memories in my

body of like this very similar feelings.

Mm-hmm.

. Um, and it wasn't until, you know, really diving into that, that I understood the

roles I had played in life in order to make myself feel safe within my body.

Some of those things were healthy patterns Sure.

And sure not healthy patterns.

Yeah, I can relate to that a hundred percent.

I think most of us probably can if we're exploring it at all.

So how did it manifest for you?

Was it physical pain?

Was it illness?

Was it more than that?

Yeah.

Uh, for me it really started, I actually had a lot of anxiety as a teenager,

but I didn't have the support or really people around me to understand what

that was about or what was happening.

So I was always just told.

You're okay.

Just calm down, , Right.

Calm down.

Those types of message.

Useful advice.

Yeah.

Right.

Or pray more things like that.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

, none of which, uh, seem to work or make me feel calmer inside.

Um, I suffered a lot from heart palpitations when, and panic attacks.

So when those would come on, I would feel just so ungrounded and like, I just wanted

to like, come out of my body and, it was difficult to breathe, to catch my breath.

Yeah, that's kind of the best way I can explain what that felt like for me.

Um, as I approached 40, I started having those almost on a daily basis.

I would be on my way to teach a class and just having a full on

panic attack and somehow getting into that mode of teaching and shift.

To another person would help ground me and I would be able to kind

of, you know, work through it.

but it was such a common experience that I began to have a lot of insomnia.

I wasn't sleeping well, my hair was falling out and big clumps.

I was having even like neurological, like numbness down one of my arms.

so those types of scary issues, stomach digestive issues as well,

like the more anxiety I felt, the more unsettled I felt in my, um, stomach and

had trouble eating at certain times.

Or the opposite of that would wanna eat foods to comfort or

call my nervous system, you know?

So kind of swinging between those two

states.

Yeah.

Yeah.

God, I can relate to that too.

And I think, you know, gut issues and nervous system issues, anxiety

are so, so commonly paired.

Our gut and our nervous system can't really be looked at in a vacuum.

They should always be looked at together because what's going on with us, you

know, neurologically, emotionally will so affect our gut function.

Um, and you're right, people often experience, you know, one or the

other, either emotional eating or, you know, not eating enough.

It can fluctuate between the two.

I've certainly been an emotional eater myself.

I think I still am.

It's just a matter of, you know, us learning how to manage that and take

better care of ourselves around it.

Um, but yeah, I can, I can relate to some of those things.

And the panic attacks is just, it's so scary, especially as a young

person, you know, before you really understand what's going on and anyone's

kind of acknowledging like, Hey, this is normal if you have anxiety.

And you know, certainly when we were in high school, like that was

not something people discussed.

It wasn't common knowledge.

Uh, it was.

I don't know what I would say it was taboo necessarily.

It just something that we had a lot of awareness around.

Yeah, I agree.

Or resources.

Like I don't think, uh, we knew how to get help for that.

You know, what that would even, what our options even were other

than maybe talking to a counselor, you know, that kind of thing.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, exactly.

So how did, would you say that like doing the Pilates itself was helpful

for that aspect of what you were dealing with as far as like the anxiety itself?

Um, did it help with panic attacks at all or was it more the working with your

clients that would alleviate the symptoms?

Actually, it was both.

Which was super helpful to be in that, that career that I had access to both,

um, movement for me has always been kind of the way that I have self-regulated.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so even as a young child, I was really involved in dance, danced all

through high school, and looking back on it now, I can see how I can remember

how I'd feel before going in, taking a class, a dance class, and then moving my

body through all these different range emotions and feeling that these heavy

emotions actually have a, an outlet.

Yeah.

For release.

Um, I could not, I didn't understand that that's what was happening at

the time, but I knew that I would always, I just kind of always felt

more settled after I moved my body.

And so it was the same thing for Pilates.

Pilates at the time for me.

Um, For many years, up until probably the last couple years, the

structure of it was super comforting.

It was like a container and I knew the order of the exercises.

I was familiar with the exercises, I and I, and that it felt very

grounding to work against springs.

And so it was a way, another way, where I could just move heavy

emotion or stress through my body.

And then the aspect of teaching that felt super grounded for me is just this,

like something happens when I get in that mode where I'm just in the zone

and I feel so hyper focused on what's happening that everything else falls away.

Yeah.

And I think that's why I've done it for so many years and why I love it so much.

And also why I'm really loving this somatic work because it's kind of

that same attention that, I'm able to give to my clients in those sessions.

And for me it feels very safe and very grounding to offer that space for others.

Um, I'll be honest, as a Pilates teacher, there have been times where it hasn't

always felt super peaceful and grounding.

In fact, I had to kind of give up teaching group classes, um, for a

while during the pandemic just because the amount of energy coming in to a

group class felt overwhelming for me.

Sure.

And so I took some time to, um, step away from group classes and

really focus on one on one cause that's kinda what I needed as well.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

So that was interesting.

. Jeannie Oliver: Yeah, that is interesting.

Well, I can relate.

I feel the same way when I'm working with my clients.

It's just that one on one time is so, the connection with someone else

and being able to completely focus on them, it does feel really grounding.

And even though there is energy output there, it's.

Also nourishing for us, Right?

So yes, but that's really beautiful that you can bring that into

that space and support others and also feel, feel supportive.

I think everyone wishes we had a career like that, right?

, if all of us should be so lucky,

I feel very grateful for that.

Yeah,

yeah.

Yeah.

It's a blessing that goes in both ways, both directions.

So give us, if you will, an overview of what Somatic work

actually is and how it works.

yeah, I think somatic work is kind of, could,

can be a big general term.

So I'll kind of focus more on like what I do and the app that I'm

using, um, to work with clients.

So I've been trained in a, um, technique called somatic Stress release therapy.

So that is really just.

Connecting with a client, creating space for them to be able to come

into their body and check in and see what area, what part of their body

might be wanting more attention, might be wanting more care, might be

wanting to even communicate to them.

And so during that session, we'll spend time just kind of focusing on

that, listening in to, and feeling into those sensations, what that might

be experienced for each individual.

And then, and then we ask the body with that sensation, what and how does the

body wanna move or move that stressor or emotion or whatever it might be through.

Um, sometimes it's not possible to do that.

Mm-hmm.

because of trauma or it's just too intense.

And so we back it off and we do a lot of boundary work, containment work.

Um, It's really important for clients to feel very safe within their own

body to even start somatic therapy.

And so depending on what's going on with the person, uh, we approach it that way

and we, it's very client led and I am just a guide and a witness to be there

to help them to process some of the stress or thing or stuck emotions that

might be held in their body and to help them come into better relationship with

whatever is there, whatever is present.

Mm-hmm.

. So, um, not necessarily, it's not necessarily a practice of like

pushing stuff off or throwing stuff off or casting it away.

It's more of like, how can we be more present with what is there

and what is showing up for that person right in that moment.

So,

Every single session Identifying it and

accepting it to some degree.

Yeah.

And even that process alone can be, can take some time.

Sure.

I know for myself, it took me a while to feel like my, my body was a safe

place to inhabit that all the sensations that I felt, that were challenging,

that I can be with them, you know, because for a long time I just wanted

to like, I wanted them to go away.

Right.

There are, That's

an instinct.

Yeah.

Like, let's just move away from anything unpleasant.

Like unpleasant equals bad.

And I think that mindset shift of going, Okay, it's just what it is.

And maybe it's my body trying to tell me something.

Yeah.

Actually I think that's a really important piece of, if we can look at

it, our bodies is neither good nor bad.

they just start our bodies.

Yeah.

And the incredible things that they do for us every single day

to carry us through this world.

Yes.

We can start to shift that and to see it as, magical in a way, what is

there, What is it trying to communicate?

How can we get more connected body, mind and spirit versus just being

kind of cut off and compartmentalized?

So the work that I do is just kind of helping to facilitate that process.

I love that.

And I think that's such a gift for people, because in our world of western

medicine, we put everything in a vacuum.

There's the heart guy, there's the, you know, lung specialist.

There's someone that does, you know, women's health, there's B gyn and then

there's, you know, the neurologist or.

Whatever.

And we look at these different things in a vacuum, and obviously those

people play very important roles.

I mean, obviously if I, you know, tear an acl, I want a good orthopedic

surgeon working with me on that.

I don't necessarily want someone that's, you know, a natural path addressing that.

Like I, we need those different specialties.

But I also think that what gets missed in the larger picture is the fact that

everything is so intertwined and that we're a whole person and everything

is constantly working in, in concert.

And, being able to kind of recognize what's going on.

I know that you and I have talked about the book before, Uh, the Body Keeps

the Score and I know you've mentioned a couple other books that you found

really helpful as you were learning in, in going through your personal

experiences and journey of healing.

And just that whole concept of your body receives information from every input.

Every experience and it's somehow stored in a positive or negative way, right?

But it's just stored and that's going to manifest or resurface in in some way.

And often if we're dealing with health issues or pain, if we can actually

tap into where is that coming from?

Like, what is that about?

And address it accordingly.

Like we can see huge changes for the better and healing and growth,

whether it's emotional or physical.

So I think it's really important and exciting work.

And especially with stress.

I mean, obviously stress levels have been through the roof this last

several years for us, especially in the United States, especially as

women, Um, recently more than ever.

Yes.

But yeah, so it's, it's a lot.

So what have you seen with your own health, your own symptoms, anxiety as

you've started to do this kind of work both for yourself and with your clients?

Yeah, I mean, I think sometimes we, we look for these

big huge shifts or changes mm-hmm.

Um, but if I look kind of over a period of time, the cumulative things that have

happened, um, or shifted for me it's kind of, it's pretty massive in that way.

But if you look at just one day, it might not feel bad.

Right.

You know?

Yeah.

People

look to see this big, sexy, like monumental shifts,

but , it's the little stuff that adds up that's usually the most significant.

Absolutely.

I think the thing that I'm really fascinated with right now is, I

sort of call this embodied boundaries.

Mm-hmm.

With women in particular.

And for myself personally.

So I think the more that I have come into this understanding of my own personal

boundary, or I call it even the container that exists, the energetic container

that exists around my body, the more aware I've become of that and also of

the ruptures that have happened mm-hmm.

and the repair that's needed in those areas, just working through

those practices, have helped me so much to know, what's mine, what am

I responsible for in this world, and what have I picked up from other people

that I might feel within my body?

And what is then my responsibility outside of myself?

So really being clear about that, has, I don't feel a sense of heaviness in

the way I think I used to in a lot of my relationships and even in the client

work, as much as I've always loved that, it used to be very, you know, at

the end of the day, it would be quite drained just from being around so many

people all day and taking, and their energy and their, um, struggles and,

um, you know, whatever that might be.

Yeah.

So learning, um, practices, embodied practices of how to maintain my own

personal sense of containment and boundaries, has really been life changing

and the work I've done with clients around that as well, has been very powerful too.

I'm really loving that part right now.

, Jeannie Oliver: Are there practices or

the beginning of your day, throughout your day, at the end of the day, For example,

I know when I used to work at the Lyme Disease Clinic, like just the ritual of

washing my hands after seeing a client, I used to have, this is like a, a more

woo woo thing, but I had an essential oil spray that was supposed to like, help

shift energies, whatever, and kind of, you know, give you a clear, fresh start.

And I would sometimes just miss that over my head if I didn't have time

to, you know, actually like get up step outside, have like a, you know,

visual and physical energy shift.

Um, but just those little rituals sometimes would really help.

And, you know, often just prayer was a tool for me.

Prayer for either my client or for myself at the end of the day.

Just kind of giving that to my higher power, the concerns

and things that I felt.

What are the practices?

Like?

How do you do that within this?

Somatic stress release therapy, Like what does that look like?

Yeah.

I loved all the things that you shared.

I do some very similar things as well, . Um, in terms of working with clients,

I, I've, over the last few months, I started to work with like Paul Santo.

So I will burn this sacred wood before and after a session, and it does have

kind of clearing properties, for energy.

And so just that sort of simple practice of lighting that and then letting the

smoke kind of cleanse the space and cleanse myself, has been very helpful.

I do have several essential oils as well that I use.

And those are great.

And washing your hands.

Any picture of just like, Okay, I'm, letting this sort

of wash off of me because our.

Our idea around helping people really needs to be in a, come from a healthy

place that we can help people most when we stay connected to ourselves.

And if we don't stay connected to ourselves and take on everybody else's

energy and problems and struggles, then it gets heavier and heavier and we're

less able to do what we're called to do.

So those practices and rituals I find them extremely important.

I take a bath probably every single night.

Yeah.

Just as a way of cleansing and up salt bath, relaxing.

but throughout the day, the somatic side of that, oftentimes

sometimes it's just like shaking it.

I feel like excess energy, all that, you know, I don't have

time to do a 30 minute workout.

Right.

Every I see a client , I might, you know, kinda bounce or jump or shake it out.

Or even this like movement, like with my arms, I'll, I'll reimagine

like my membrane around me, the safe container, and even like, kind of

imagine that I'm feeling the edges of it.

Oh, that's cool.

And then like, um, with gratitude, like I press my hand to, to the client in my

imagination, in my head, like, thank you.

And then I send you on with gratitude.

You know, just a way of, of having closure.

Oftentimes I need this with.

With family, you know, dealing with family huggers.

It gets so intense and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I need to, I need a reset.

Yes, I'm feeling everybody's ANGs or whatever it is.

You know, I have three teenage toys and aging parents.

And, um, so yeah, I, I'm grateful that now I think of doing that because before,

right, it would take me until I felt sick to my stomach, exhausted, burnt out

all these other things to go, Maybe I need to like release some of this stuff.

, Jeannie Oliver: right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

It, and that really is just such a practice, isn't it?

Like getting used to, Well, first of all, learning the tools and yes, having

that toolbox of ways to, you know, shake off energy, maintain your healthy,

Boundaries and self soothe as well, right?

. Yeah.

And so learning what works for us, learning those tools and then

having them at the ready is the key.

But it takes some time before we kind of just know to go to that practice

versus like, Well, I'm just going to eat a bag of cookies, or I'm just going

to, you know, for some people light up or have a cocktail or whatever it

might be that we're using to self.

So that's not serving us well.

Yes.

Because our body is constantly wanting to go back to that homeostasis.

Exactly.

Window of tolerance.

So of, of course if we don't have the tools available, we're gonna

go to whatever is available.

Exactly.

The quick and easy.

Yep.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

So, and that's not, I don't think that anyone should feel like bad about that.

I think that is just what your body is doing.

To try to help itself.

Exactly.

And it's not, you're not a bad person because you do these things, right.

It's just your nervous system trying to come back and do a state of,

um, regulation and throughout every day we're going in and out of that.

And really, the, the somatic work, that ideal helps you kind of increase

that window of tolerance and that capacity so that you come back to that

place of homeostasis or regulation a little sooner than you might

before by having tools and processes release the stress as it comes in.

Cause it will come in, It comes in every day.

Oh,

absolutely.

Yeah.

We don't have control over so much of that.

Right.

No, no, I totally agree.

I think part of that too is just releasing, like understanding that

as humans we need to regulate.

Self soze, whatever you wanna call it, you know, and that's our natural sort

of state that we're trying to return to.

And so releasing any shame around that need?

Yes.

The self-soothe is really, really crucial because, and especially if

we're talking about addictive behaviors, you know, um, and I include, you

know, food and sugar and that too.

I mean, that was my challenge for so much of my life.

And so I think the shame drives a lot of those self-destructive behaviors.

So if we can release that around it and just go, Look, I, I need a way to regulate

my nervous system and calm down and feel better and self soothe, I just need to

learn ways to do it that serve me well and that are actually healthy, that actually

help with the problem versus masking that problem because then it can just grow.

Right.

Kind of fester there.

Yes.

Um, absolutely.

And I think like, It's oftentimes, um, we think of regulating our

nervous system as just being calm.

Right?

And that's not necessarily true.

You know, some students That's a good point.

You know, what, what we need and is to express something or vocalize something

or, um, move things through versus in order to get to a place where we feel

like we can find restoration mm-hmm.

And, um, our stress response cycle is often thwarted because

of cultural ideas around that.

Is it, do we have permission to express or say, or do or think what, what our

body is actually asking for in the moment?

Oftentimes, that's right.

No, we don't have that.

Right?

So that gets suppressed within our body.

And how do we find opportunities?

To complete that stress response cycle so that we can come into not just the

state of relaxation, but restoration when we're in restoration, Right.

Our digest system, you know, all our body is working as a whole in the way

that it's healing or that is healing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a really important, important point to make because again, it's that like we

always think, well, if my body is doing what it's supposed to do and I'm, you

know, everything is okay, then I'll just feel happy and I'll feel good constantly.

It's like, well necessarily, like it might be really uncomfortable initially,

, um, but, you know, change is, is good.

Movement is good.

Yeah, absolutely.

And then just knowing that for so many of us, we just have to go,

we have to take it really slow and gentle, you know, that, um, forcing

yourself to do this type of work.

In a really intense capacity, could backfire, you know?

So just like really listening, like giving yourself bits of, of permission

and then coming back to a source of safety or, or, um, groundedness

I think is really important too.

And that it's a process.

Everything, every thing we do to kind of move in that direction is helpful.

And it doesn't all have to happen in one moment, right?

Yes.

Oh, that's so crucial.

And I just had a similar discussion with Amanda Gibby Peters, who's a function

way expert, and she, we were talking about this exact thing that people

love this like long like to do list.

Like here's what you do to fix it, whatever.

It's, and.

So many of the women that I work with are very type A, they're very goal driven,

data driven, and they're kind of all or nothing like either all in or not.

And you know, I think for both of us, a lot of the work that we do is

helping people, people find comfort to some degree in that gray zone.

You know, where you're sort of, you're doing, starting with some things,

starting small, doing what feels easy and accessible first, and then

eventually building on that, right?

Adding things in instead of trying to do all the things immediately, burning

out, being overwhelmed, , et cetera.

And then feeling like you've failed miserably because you've given it all up.

And it's just sort of a, I think a fast track to failure when

we try to do too much too fast.

Right.

It sounds like it's the same thing with this type of work.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, it's.

Again, that is even one piece of learning to listen to what is enough that

might, or how much can my body really process in each moment, you know, or

in each session that I do with clients.

Like just tapping into that and knowing when things might feel a little bit

more overwhelming, and how can we, how can we, um, penate from something

that's maybe a little more challenging, coming back to something that's not in

order to, um, help someone build that capacity to handle bigger stressors.

You know?

So it's really good to start with smaller things, you know, like I don't

have an example right now, but things that are not gonna be at a, at nine

or 10, maybe a four or five, right?

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's cool.

as a Pilates instructor and a studio owner, how have you seen

your clients' trauma and experience present kind of in that setting?

Do you see that present in that setting?

Um, yes.

I, I, I believe so.

Now, it's not always, we are not psychotherapists, . Right.

It's not, Of course, our scope of practice, unless you've done some

trauma informed work, it's not, that's not really our training.

However, I think anytime you're working with bodies mm-hmm.

That might show up as, tension.

You know, like sometimes I'll be working with a client and they just feel

really tense and like, it's difficult to just find the flow of movement.

Mm-hmm.

, Um, and maybe that tension.

It's not my job to, to really figure out the origin of that tension,

but just to maybe notice it, right?

And can I create enough safety in my interaction and my teaching of this

client to allow their body to come into a little bit more of less tension

to build, to move a little bit more.

Um, so that's kind of how I approach that.

Um, sometimes people cry in sessions.

Yeah, it just comes up, You know, there's an emotional disease when we move

certain parts of our bodies, you know, we might hold a lot of emotion or pain

or trauma in our pelvis, our hips, or our neck and shoulders or whatever it is.

And if we get that area to move, um, there might be a, an emotional release.

And so I'm always trying to just create an environment where my

clients feel safe enough that they can, whatever is their experience is

allowed, whatever that looks like.

And, um, , there's no judgment for me, I find all of that extremely beautiful.

Yeah.

And fascinating the way the body, um, can work through some of these things.

So yeah, it's just, for me, it's just noticing and just trying to,

uh, be someone that is a co regulator to them so they they have yeah.

The ability to maybe, maybe let go a little bit more than they did previously.

Yeah.

A co regulator.

I love that.

I think that's a great way of saying that.

And I ask you that because I've had really interesting experiences where

either if I'm getting body work or I'm doing some sort of exercise and

out of nowhere, I'm not necessarily even thinking about something.

You know, upsetting or whatever, but just emotions will well

up and I will start crying.

And I remember in the past thinking like, what is wrong with me?

Like, this is ridiculous.

Where is this coming from?

Get ahold of yourself, Jean, for God's sake.

You know, I hear that, that inner critic, right?

Yeah.

And now it's, you know, having people like you and my life that I've been

lucky to work with, be they body workers or, you know, fitness instructors.

Um, God, even doing some of my like, online workouts at home, my home

gym, I'll find like sometimes I'll just be doing something and it's so

much fun and I'll have this total, like I'll just burst into tears and

all this emotion will just come up.

I'm doing some ridiculous cardio workout.

Like, what is that?

But it's so profound and I think that it's really exciting, to be

able to offer that, that safe space.

For people.

And I think it gives them an opportunity too to be like,

Oh, this is stored in my body.

This is something that I can actually, like.

It's empowering to some degree to know like, all right,

maybe not be in control of it.

But I think that wound, we're able to acknowledge that something's there,

then we can go, All right, this is cool.

I can deal with this now.

Versus just having something that's so buried so deeply we

don't know what it's about, where it came from, what to do about it.

We just know that like, shit feels bad and we don't feel good, and that's

manifesting in one way or the other.

And so I think that that's super exciting.

And you know, you and I have talked before about partnering software,

different services to my clients.

And I think that it's something that, you know, I would love

everyone to have access to because.

Yes, therapy is wonderful.

It's great, but I think it's one piece of the puzzle and I think that our

physical body is a huge piece of it too.

Yeah, and like you said before, like movement, exercise and even, I think

especially like building strength.

Mm-hmm.

, there's something there that is so healing.

I mean, obviously we know that it's good for stress management.

Great.

Yeah.

But I'd love to hear from you too, like what you feel is the role of, I don't

wanna even use the word fitness, but I think movement, getting in touch with

our bodies, strengthening our bodies.

Like what's the role there in our overall healing outside of the picture

of like, you know, aesthetics and being in shape and looking a certain

way, weighing a certain number.

Yeah.

that's a great question.

I think.

There's something really empowering when you can start to build a sense

of connection and strength within your body in order to function through life.

And that might be like very simple things.

Like some of my clients wanna be able to go up and down

their stairs without hurting.

Yeah.

Or some of my other clients wanna hike a fourteener in Colorado here, . Right?

Those are different goals, but they're both can be really powerful

when our clients start to feel their sense of capabilities.

So I think so often our voice that we hear in our heads is, I can't, we're

always thinking about what we can't do.

Mm-hmm.

, Jeannie Oliver: that's what

we negative for me is what I heard for so long.

You know, that that negative, um, self talk.

And even when I have clients come to me that are dealing with

a lot of injuries, Um, pain.

Mm-hmm.

the focus.

We try to focus on what their body can do and build from there, because it, that

shift is so healing and once they start to, to see a bit of success in one area

and they feel that in their body, Yeah.

It's like, it's so empowering.

I'm like, Oh, I did this a month ago.

I could not Right.

Get out of my car without my hip popping, or whatever it was, you know?

Now it's like I'm doing this functional activity and I'm, and I feel great.

Last month I was at my parents packing up their house, lifting extremely like

heavy boxes, and I just, I haven't been able to do intense work like that

because my body was in such a protective mode for so long until I got to a place

where all of those pieces started to come together that I could really.

Start strength training working with, Right.

And then connecting that into the Pilates work that I do as well.

And to be in a place where I can do things that I, I never thought I

would be able to do is like amazing.

And same with my clients, you know?

Yeah.

But sometimes we have to heal these other things to get there

and that's okay too, right?

Need to take a gentle approach in order to reach our goals.

Right?

Yeah, definitely.

I think that speaks back to, you know, my goal with all the work that I do and

what I know is important for probably our listeners and all of the clients who

I work with, is that personalization, meeting you where you're at and being

able to say, You know, I don't have to do X, Y, and Z, or, You know, ABC

because Susie down the street does this, or this works for my husband.

Or you know, whatever bandwagon there is that people think that

they should be following that isn't necessarily going to work for them.

But people try to do that and that's when they get injured or they just

get frustrated or they do something that doesn't serve them well.

You know, nutrition wise, they end up feeling worse and then they just get

discouraged and just throw it out.

And I think that this is another modality where people can go, Okay,

I'm getting in touch with my own body, my own emotions, what's gonna actually

work for me where I'm at right now.

And I think developing that self acceptance, I think self love can come

way down the road and that can be a lot of work, but that self acceptance and just.

um, awareness, right?

? Yeah.

Starting there.

And it can feel really scary and uncomfortable at first, but as we

build on that, it just is, man, it's, yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty

awesome and it feels really good.

It does feel empowering.

It does feel empowering.

And I've had the same experience with, with fitness.

I got into that before I ever got into nutrition.

Just that movement, like doing something that felt powerful with my body,

even though I didn't like how my body looked, I feel myself getting stronger.

And just that little incremental shift from day to day was,

life changing over time.

but man, you know, it, I didn't start out with being able to, you

know, lift super heavy weights and do a bunch of pushups on my toes.

Yeah, I think that people put too much pressure on themselves to meet

a certain standard out the gate.

Right?

Or they're self-conscious to go to a gym because they imagine everyone

else is fitter than them, or, you know, pushing themselves to do a

class that's too hard cuz their friends are all doing whatever it is.

Whatever it is.

So it's cool to hear that reaffirmed from someone who's actually a fitness

instructor, that you don't have to come in as this like perfect

, super strong fitness woman, out

the gate.

No.

Yeah.

You just have to come in as yourself and just have a willingness to meet

yourself where you're at and to ask like, Hey body, like what, what do you need?

What do you wanna say to me?

And that, you know, even in our own journeys of getting.

Stronger and more capable maybe with certain movements or exercises, et cetera.

There's still days where I need to walk or I need to do something

more restorative, um, because that's what my body's asking for.

Yeah.

And I might have a whole plan of like, I do all this time and then I wake up

and I'm like, there is no way, like that would just push me to the edge.

And you know, we're so used to like using pain as a gauge.

Like, Oh, this has to have to be so harder.

Go home.

Yeah.

You know, that mentality and it's like, what, what would it look like if

we switch that and just go instead of pushing, pushing, pushing all the time?

Like, what does my body need to feel it's best today in this moment?

Are you familiar with Elizabeth Gilbert, the author?

I

know who she is, but I, I haven't read her

work.

Yeah.

She, I would highly recommend her books.

She fiction and non-fiction.

Um, but she was in Denver this spring and she spoke and she said,

she talked all about the last two years and how she's come back into

relationship with herself in a way that she's never experienced before.

And she said, You know, I always thought that the most revolutionary

woman was a woman who was making all these changes and doing all these

things and, you know, involved in everything and helping in all the ways.

Shaker.

Yeah.

Right.

All of that.

And she said, what I now believe is a revolutionary

woman is a woman who is rested.

Relax.

Oh my God.

Amazing.

And that space came into that.

Oh, and how hard is that?

Right,

? Jeannie Oliver: It's so hard.

And I think too, you know, it's constantly reinforced in the culture that we live in,

in our workplaces amongst our friends and family and the media that the more you're

accomplishing, the more value you have.

Yeah.

Right.

And more is better, I can't tell you how many women that I've worked with who are

like cardio queens and they're going to like five days a week of spin or CrossFit

or something that's really high intensity.

And they are struggling.

They're struggling with health weight.

They're exhausted all the time.

Their adrenals are shut.

Like, and they have on top of that, like kids high powered, demanding careers.

Um, you know, households that they're managing, work, travel, like it, it's

an insane amount of stuff for one person to deal with on a daily basis.

And here they are pushing their bodies harder and harder and trying to eat less

and less and work out more and more.

And it's just this completely unsustainable, awful

depleting way of life, right?

And it's pretty incredible when I can convince them to get off the cardio coin

train and do more restorative exercise, be it Pilates or yoga, or just take a day

off between your high intensity workouts.

Like whatever that is.

Like, they're so fearful about that because it's an identity, but it's

also that like calories and calories out mentality that they're stuck on.

Like, well, if I'm not burning more calories, am I gonna gain weight?

But when they're actually willing to trust the process, like these

women feel better, they sleep better, they do lose weight, like they.

Have happier lives.

I mean, it just can change everything.

And then there's some space created within that too, for them to get a

little bit more in touch with their body and their emotions through

those more restorative practices.

So yeah.

I mean, have you seen shifts with people over time that are working with you as

far as doing more restorative stuff?

Yeah, for sure.

Um, I think it, it can be incremental for some people, but

still make a huge difference.

and even just, I think a part of that is like creating, we have to create

capacity within our body to not be busy all the time, to not be pushing, to not

be doing, I think in a way we get addicted to that, I'm honest, because we don't,

we don't have to connect to ourselves.

if we're doing something, whether it be exercise or work from the

morning, from the time we wake up till the time we go to bed.

And so it can be really scary to slow down and come more in touch with ourselves.

Right.

You know?

But I feel like that's like a window to the doorway of the

possibility of so many things.

Shifting and healing and weight and heaviness.

Not in terms of like body weight, but just like a heavy weight Yeah.

That we carry as women.

Yes.

And start to, to fall away.

And we can start to, to recognize that maybe there's another way, you know, we

can still be responsible for these things, but maybe we can take care of ourselves

a little bit more in the process.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, that's, that's a beautiful way, beautiful way of putting it.

I love that.

I think it is really hard for some people to be alone with their thoughts.

Yeah.

And to have that, that quietness, because that's when those, um,

negative thoughts, emotions, whatever, that are unpleasant will surface.

Yeah.

But I, I just think it's so liberating to actually be able to acknowledge

those things and face them head on and learn to deal with them in

healthy ways versus just suppressing and suppressing and suppressing.

Because I feel like that is often what is driving us to make, like we talked about

before, the self-destructive choices.

It prevents us from reaching our goals professionally, you know,

health wise in relationships.

It really has a huge effect.

So that slowing down and aligning for some quiet space, even if that

quiet space gets noisy, is sort of a crucial first step, right.

. Nicole Field: Yeah.

Just to be able to hear like, what is there.

Exactly.

There are those feelings and emotions and sensations that, um,

are wanting to, to come forth.

I mean, I feel like that is literally why I kept having so many panic

attacks and all these health issues.

Like my body was like, Okay, you have not listened to me for a

really long time, and so I'm gonna get louder and louder and louder.

Yeah, exactly.

Until, until you acknowledge me and listen , you know, for a minute.

And, uh, that again, can be one of the most difficult things to do.

But I think, like you said before, we can, we, we can build that capacity to face

what's there, to process what's there, and to allow our bodies to heal emotionally,

physically, spiritually, like, It's just, I feel like I'm just scratching

the surface of what it even means to like, feel really good , you know?

Mm-hmm.

. Mm-hmm.

. And it feels good lately based on all this stuff that I've done.

I'm like, Oh my goodness, this is just like a little taste of it, you

know?

Yeah.

That's exciting.

Yeah.

I love that.

Yeah.

As far as, Well, I'd love to hear what you think this work can do, either, you know,

if you wanna share what it's done for you or what you feel it can do for people

in terms of, you know, we talked about kinda like physical healing, but also like

body image and relationship with food.

Mm-hmm.

. Nicole Field: Yeah.

That's, um, that's a big one, isn't it, for all of us as women.

Gosh, I think, I mean, I, I think I'll just speak from my own story of.

Growing up in the dance world and kind of, you know, hearing a lot of messages

of you're not quite skinny enough, or Oh, you need to lose weight and,

you know, whatever those things were

the dance world in Southern California.

PS Yes.

And you know, I put on a lot of weight when I went through

puberty and was a, you know, 15, 16 year old, like, and that, that kind of had

a lasting impression on me on my self esteem and how I felt about my body.

And then add on top of that some of the family dynamics I was dealing with.

And then, um, you know, coming so close to dying a couple times, I didn't necessarily

think that my body was this gift to me.

Sure.

You know, I saw it more as like a problem.

Right.

And then I had to solve and I had to figure out, and I think.

in my own journey of healing, um, I have just come to view my body as more

and more of, almost like I see myself as this little, it, the little girl

version of my body that just needs, like care and just needs someone to

like listen for a minute and to notice.

Yeah.

And when I ha the more I've worked in, um, coming back into relationship with

my body, the more I see it from that perspective of like, what do you need?

And yeah.

You know that it has precious, um, intel and wisdom, right?

That I think as women, we hold such incredible wisdom in our body that

we, we are not taught to tap into.

because we're taught to fix and to change and to make better and all this stuff.

But what if we were taught like what, what is, what are those deep giftings that our

body holds, that wisdom that wants to come forth and we start to open up that portal?

You know, that blows my mind and that has changed my perspective

of like how I see myself.

You know, I used to be so critical in certain, you know, like my belly, Oh,

it's not perfectly flat, or whatever.

My thighs are touching all the stupid things that we get caught up into in

terms of aesthetics instead of like putting my hands on those areas and

then feeling into and thanking that part of my body for what it's given me.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, it's such a shift.

It feels subtle at times that it can be really profound.

And, and now I um, you know, of course I still have days where I'm like, Oh, I'm

getting more wrinkles or whatever, . But I feel like my relationship myself is, it's

like this, uh, it's like a book, you know?

And I'm just starting to like learn and read and discover

like what it's here to teach me.

Yeah.

And isn't that just so it's so cool and it's just so in, you know, part

of me, I really am enjoying my forties because I feel like a lot of the BS

that that clouds are thinking when we're younger, I've kind of let go of that.

You know, I think that's one of the blessings as we get older is we're

like, I don't really give a shit what people think that much anymore.

And you know, I'm just gonna do me.

. But there's part of me that grieves the fact that I didn't clue into

this stuff at a younger age because I feel like, wow, if I had been able to

appreciate my body, even if I didn't like exactly how it looked at a much

younger age, like in my twenties, or I would've just not wasted all that

time in self hatred, and you know, that feeling of just not being enough, right?

Never being good enough or perfect enough, or pretty enough or thin

enough, all that nonsense that we waste so much of our lives on.

And so ladies, if you're out there and you're younger and you're listening

to this, like, just let that shit go.

that shit go.

Because you'll hit a point in your life where you're like, Why did I

waste my time worrying about it?

You know?

And everything that we're taught, At least in our culture, um, and to a

lot of us who grew up in the church, there's the whole purity culture thing.

I mean, there's so many layers to this.

We're not, We are deconditioned away from our intuition and

being in touch with our bodies.

We're actually conditioned for the opposite.

We're taught like, and we're told too, especially even to this day, women are

dismissed so often in doctor's offices.

Yeah.

You know, were told it's all in your head.

Oh, don't worry about it.

You're just being paranoid or you're just whatever it is.

Yeah.

I remember as a child being told, you're just tired or hungry whenever I was upset

about something, which I'm sure some of that was true, but it also, the message

it sends is that your emotions don't matter or don't take yourself seriously.

Don't listen to that intuition.

Don't listen to that gut thing.

Um, yes, I remember being a young person and every once in a while I would have.

A sense of something, something would pop into my head like, Oh, this specific

instance I can think of is my godparents.

One day I'm just, I'm in high school, I'm driving along for no reason.

Out of the blue, they popped into my mind and I just felt a really strong

sense of like urgency and concern.

And all I knew to do in that moment was just pray for them.

Yeah.

And I found out later that day they had been in a car accident

at literally the moment.

And I remember telling someone about that.

I had lived with this family at the time and, um, , they, the

father was a pastor and they were very different types of Christians

than I was and had grown up with.

They were very conservative and, you know, much more rigid and legalistic, which was

not my experience and is still not the way, you know, my faith is to this day.

But they, I told them that for some reason in conversation and they mocked me.

The wife mocked me and she goes, Oh yeah.

So apparently Jeanie has these premonitions.

And it was very mocking and dismissive.

And I remember a few instances like that where people were

just so dismissive about that.

And I think that we experienced that a lot now, less often, maybe nowadays

because people are more embracing luo.

Like we embrace things, you know, that are a little bit more, um, what we

used to call hippie luu and maybe a little more, um, new age that we speak

we're, it's a little less out there.

Um, but I do think that there's a real job for us to undertake in

reconnecting with that intuition.

Yeah.

Um, that sixth sense, if you will, It's that kind of spy sense that

people refer to as like, you kind of know if someone's right behind you

or looking at you or whatever that is, and tapping into that and really

learning to trust your instincts.

Listen to our gut feelings.

Yes.

I mean, there's a reason we say gut feeling, right?

It's like we're doing more nerves around our, our gut

then we do in our spinal cord.

And so, you know, I wanna encourage people like connect with Nicole,

connect with someone that can do this sort of work with you so that you

can better tap into your intuition.

Recognize that.

And I think for a lot of us too, there's so much noise in our world and we do

have, if we special, especially if we struggle with anxiety, um, those of

us who are newer, divergent, it can be really hard to distinguish between

just anxiety or fear and intuition.

Yes.

So being able to connect back in your body and distinguish those two things, I

think is a really, really crucial thing.

And.

What a gift, right?

If we can go, Oh, okay, no, I know.

I can recognize that as anxiety or whatever else is going on, and

no, that's not what's going on.

This is my intuition and I need to trust it and listen to it.

Especially when it comes to physical healing, right?

It would better allow us to advocate for ourselves with doctors and

when they say, Oh, just do X, Y, Z, or, Oh, that's not reality, you're

just imagining it or whatever.

We can go, Nope, no thanks.

I need to seek out better help.

Or, I know what I need to do for myself and I'm gonna do it regardless of what

somebody in a white coat says to me.

Anyway, that was a long tangent, but

I love it.

I love everything you shared, . I think that's a good piece to

embodiment and connected to our bodies.

Connected to our intuition and, and I guess, you know, I was

kind of calling that that inner wisdom that our body holds for us.

Um, . And I definitely believe that there are, when we're in touch with

that, we are gonna get messages about things in the moment or people or what

we need or what someone else might need.

And um, the more we can tap into that and get comfortable with that

communication, the more we'll be able to use those gifts to not only heal and help

ourselves, but to help others and yeah.

Absolutely.

I still think it's, a lot of people think it's taboo or a little bit like

out there, but this is our birthright

Yeah.

You know, to be able to have that and Absolutely.

Um, and to call that forth, that's so powerful.

And we, we deserve to be living and moving and walking in our intuition as it's

connected to our body and spirit and mind.

For sure.

So thank you for sharing that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, in another instance, or example that comes to mind is, you know,

often children, as children, we have a sense about certain things.

I've had so many clients come in and say, like, as a kid, I

never wanted milk, for example.

Like, I hated it.

I hated dairy products when my parents forced me to drink milk because

it's supposed to be good for me.

And it turns out like later in life, the person had like a

full on like dairy intolerance.

And as a child, they knew it.

Mm-hmm.

. But it wasn't acknow.

Like they weren't trusted.

Right.

And all the societal things, they're supposed to be what you do, were

pushed on them by the parent with the parent's best intention, right?

It's not trying to have a child, but it's just an example.

Or kids that, don't wanna be around a certain relative.

and the other friends to like give them a hug or give them a kiss when they

greet them, like that kind of thing.

It's like we know so many women or, and even men who have been molested by

relatives, they had no business being around, but because the parent was

concerned and didn't take the child seriously and didn't wanna offend a family

member, they were pushed into a situation and then they were harmed because of it.

And I think that as parents as, and I'm not a parent, but you

know, I have, oh God, what is it?

Eight nieces now and a couple nephews, . Um, just as people, you know, we can

really help younger people, be they small children or teens, young adults, other

young women to really embrace that because it's kind of our superpower, but it's yes.

Suppressed a lot.

So anyway,

, Nicole Field: I absolutely agree

something that needs to be encouraged.

For sure.

And it's never too late exactly.

To tap back into that part of you.

It's still there.

It just, you know, it went away or you think it went away because you

had to protect it or keep it buried because it wasn't safe to express.

So more that you can safely express those things that come up for you, the, the more

you're gonna to tap into that and, um, and feel that flowing a little bit more.

For sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think that that's where hiring a professional to help you with this

can be really key because it's someone that's there for that specific purpose.

Yeah.

You, you're not wasting their time.

It's not a friend or family member that you're expecting to show up

in this level or this capacity of holding space for you and guiding you.

Right.

But it's a professionally safe person, . Cause often times you don't have that

safe person in our social or family life.

Um, . And so, you know, it's, it's a good thing to seek out and have that

safe space with someone that knows how to help you through that process.

Um, absolutely.

Anything else that you wanna say around just how this work can influence our,

our mindset overall level of motivation, ability to stay consistent with the

changes that we wanna make in our lives?

Yeah, I think it's just another piece of the

puzzle that sometimes is missing.

You know, we do sure, it, it's a lot easier for many of us to access

mindfulness or focus on maybe just exercise or nutrition, but we maybe

might not think about like, how does our body fit into this whole equation?

And it does.

It definitely does.

Um, and I think the more we open that door to coming into reconnection to

ourselves, um, that a lot of the ne for me, like a lot of the negative beliefs

and things like that are starting to just fall away because I've dealt more with

what's in my body, if that makes sense.

You know, coming at it from through that doorway and releasing emotions or beliefs,

then I, it's like I don't feel the same struggle that I did before where I was

constantly just like, Okay, come on now.

Just can you believe that this is true and this is not?

And just tell yourself like Right.

You know, sometimes that can only go so far.

Yeah.

Um, so for mindset, that's, um, that's been really powerful for me.

Um, and what else did you ask me?

What others?

Just maintaining like, you know, maintaining habits as we're

trying to create new habits stuff in our life or being consistent with

the things that we know service well.

Yeah,

yeah.

Again, I think, um, all of that is just kind of built one on the other.

And the more we sort of practice things, the easier it becomes

to do them consistently.

And then if you feel and see the results in your body and in your life, you're

more apt to like continue down that road.

Right?

Yeah.

So, um, when you feel less, um, heavy energetically, emotionally, mentally,

it's a lot easier to stick to whatever your goals are than it is when you feel

really, um, pressed down by those things,

right?

Yeah.

Cause it stops your.

Exactly.

All your energy goes into that.

Yeah.

Right?

Mm-hmm.

. Jeannie Oliver: So what are just, I know

respectful of your time today, but what are just a few simple practices, like

maybe the top few things you can think of that people can do to, help regulate

their nervous systems or put this kind of into practice for stress relief.

Mm-hmm.

. Yeah.

Um, cause we went super deep on this stuff, right?

But it's like the end of the day people just wanna feel less stressed out,

, Nicole Field: Right?

And again, it's, um, it's difficult to just go, just do this and it'll

Right, you know, feel better.

But, um, I think a good doorway to some of this work is are grounding practices.

So often time I'll start a session with, um, just having a client

maybe place one hand on their heart.

One hand on their belly and wherever they're seated, they just start to feel

that surface underneath them, supporting them, their feet on the ground, maybe

even imagining there's roots that come from their feet into the earth that really

have this support system underneath them.

And guided, even just spending a couple minutes just breathing and just feeling

a sense of maybe even like honey dripping off your body and just feeling a little

more grounded or weighted into the earth, um, can just help us to feel

a little less like frenzy and mm-hmm.

anxious.

Um, I will say for some people that that might not feel good, and if it doesn't,

, definitely don't do that on your own if it doesn't feel like it's helping you.

So really just listening in and, and, um, trying out different things.

Maybe it's breath work that is a doorway for you into your body.

Um, you know, perhaps it's movement practices, things like that.

Um, but just finding like, what is a doorway that feels like I could go

walk through in order to connect with myself a little bit deeper and go there?

So for me, that's been a, a really windy path.

And I'm like, I've tried some things and I'm like, Oh, okay,

that was interesting, but that's not quite what I need right now.

I have this one massage therapist that it's just not working right now.

Yeah.

It's making me more dysregulated every time I go.

Mm-hmm.

And then I went to this other type, I did a fun, uh, guha facial massage and

it was the most amazing, relaxing thing.

Um, you know, like you go and you have your sauna sessions mm-hmm.

, which

is amazing.

Oh my god.

I know.

I think God has sauna.

Yeah.

And that's like so beautiful.

And you're able to get a sense of yourself in that space, um, where you

can connect and, um, feel like maybe you can slow down a little bit, maybe

you could breathe a little bit more.

So whatever that looks like, it's, maybe it starts with just a question

to yourself, What do I need?

Yeah.

And walking in that direction, getting the help that you need, support that you need

from others, Trying some practices out.

And um, and that's honestly like, that's what I do with clients as well, is.

We try on different things and it's very individualized to what they need.

And that might change session to session because our needs change as well.

Right, right, right, right.

Yeah, absolutely.

Awesome.

Well, this is super, super exciting and helpful information, Nicole,

and I appreciate you joining us.

I am excited because Nicole will be offering her somatic work with, well

to some of my clients here soon.

Um, but tell us in the meantime where people can find you and how they can

work with you.

Yeah.

Well, thank you again for having me.

I just, I love these conversations.

I feel like I could talk, we could talk for hours.

I know for sure.

Thank you for everyone, for just listening.

we both really appreciate that.

So I, right now I'm on Instagram, Nicole at Nicole Le Field.

So you can find me there and I'll be posting probably more from my

personal, um, page, how to get to my website and how to work with me.

And so my website will be whole living healing.com.

And so you can reach me there when, uh, that should be up

and running here quite soon.

And then email, whole living healing gmail.com as well.

Okay, cool.

You can also connect people to me as well, . Yeah.

And then how about your Pilate

studio?

Yes, and so my plot studio is whole living pilates.com on Instagram.

And you're Colorado Springs, correct?

Yes, we're in Colorado Springs, Colorado, so if you're in the

area, we'd love to see you.

Um, but yes, and then Instagram is at whole living supplies,

so.

Awesome.

And I'll put all that in the show notes too for everybody so

you don't have to remember it.

Perfect.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much

for your time today and, um, this was just great.

And so we appreciate you joining us, and I'm excited to do this again soon.

We'll have to get more specific next time.

Do another

episode down the road.

Oh, I'd love to thank you again.

This was such an honor just to be here and to share with your audience, so yeah.

Thank

you.

Awesome.

You're welcome.