Shownotes
Ever feel exhausted chasing the next wellness trend? This episode is for you. Wellness coach Nancy Thompson explains why true wellbeing isn't something you buy, it's something you come home to.
Nancy and host Dhara explore how burnout builds quietly, why breathwork shifts your nervous system fast, and how self-compassion keeps a wellness journey sustainable when things feel shaky.
About the Guest:
Nancy Thompson is a wellness coach helping people move past wellness trends to reconnect with their own intuition, working on nutrition, movement, breathwork, and sustainable habits. She offers free consultation calls through her website.
Key Takeaways:
- Wellness spans physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health, and looks different for everyone.
- Ignored signals don't disappear, they build up until your body forces the conversation.
- Breathwork can shift you out of fight-or-flight in minutes.
- Comparing yourself to curated social media wellness sets you up to fail.
- Self-compassion, not stricter routines, makes any wellness practice sustainable.
- This is a lifelong practice, not a destination to arrive at.
Connect With the Guest:
Website: nancythompsonholisticwellness.com
Instagram: @NancyThompsonHolisticWellness
Facebook: Nancy Thompson Coaching
Book a free 45-minute consultation through her website.
Episode Chapters:
[00:00] Welcome and Introducing Nancy Thompson: setting up today's conversation on real wellness
[02:00] (approx.) The Biggest Wellness Myth: why buying a plan won't buy you wellbeing
[07:00] (approx.) Why We Ignore Our Own Signals: fear, busyness, and the vicious cycle
[13:00] (approx.) Rebuilding Trust With Your Body: small steps back to intuition
[18:00] (approx.) Breathwork and the Nervous System: a fast way out of fight-or-flight
[24:00] (approx.) Doomscrolling, Comparison, and the Perfection Trap: why social media wellness lies
[30:00] (approx.) Self-Compassion as the Real Anchor: grace over perfection on the journey
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Transcripts
00:00:08 Niharika: We talk about wellness like it's something we can buy off a shelf, something we can track on a screen and something we can fix. We can finally get it right if we just follow the perfect plan. But what if the wellness isn't a destination at all? What if it's something quieter, something more personal, and something that asks us just to listen instead of HP?
00:00:39 Niharika: Welcome to wellness we imagined. And as you all know, this is a place where we explore what it really means to feel whole world in full in a world that's constantly telling us we are not enough. Today I'm joined by Nancy Thompson, a wellness coach who helps people move beyond the noise and discover what truly supports their well-being. Welcome, Nancy. It's so great to have you here.
00:01:08 Nancy Thompson: Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.
00:01:13 Niharika: So to start with, when someone comes to you feeling overwhelmed by all the wellness information out there in the digital world we are in, we are often information overloaded about everything. We have a new trend go by every day about wellness and what is the biggest misconception you find they are carrying about wellness? What wellness actually is.
00:01:40 Nancy Thompson: Um, so I think, you know, as you said, it's, it's like you think it's something you can buy. You think it's something you can, you can get, but wellness really starts from the inside. Wellness starts from, from the, the ground up. And it is something that we, we need to look at holistically. We need to look at the whole person. Wellness does not just include your physical health. Wellness includes your mental health, your emotional health, your spiritual health, your social health, right. We're social beings as humans. We need to have connection. So I think, um, you know, thinking that it's, it's, it's a single tier or it's, it's, it's something that can easily be attained. That's, that's the tricky thing. We need to look at all of the aspects of a human in order to be fully. Well.
00:02:29 Niharika: Yeah. That that is. And if wellness isn't about perfection or buying some trend And what would you say it is about? On a deeper core.
00:02:45 Nancy Thompson: Wellness is about, again, the whole human looking at the whole person, the whole human in front of you. Wellness is about all of the aspects of what that looks like and bringing in, trying to be the best version of yourself in each of those aspects. And that doesn't mean that it's perfect, right? We're never, we're never perfect as humans. We're just not. That's, that's the human experience. Um, but just really just trying to navigate this thing that we call life in a way that takes into account all of these aspects of who we are and what it looks and feels like to be well. And wellness to one person may look very different than what wellness looks like to another person. So it's in, you know, it's very individual as well. And that's an important thing to look at.
00:03:37 Niharika: Yeah. But that really shifts the conversation because it's not about doing more or adding more to your routine. It's about, um, paying attention to what's already asking for our care our body's asking for.
00:03:53 Nancy Thompson: Yeah.
00:03:55 Niharika: In your experience, what, what drives people to ignore their own inner knowing? And she is external validation and external trends or social media trends about what wellness should look like for them.
00:04:12 Nancy Thompson: Um, a lot of times it's just being so, um, just involved in, in the busyness of what life looks like. You get so, um, just wrapped up in, in being and doing and wanting that, that really having the, um, the introspection to see and feel what's going on within yourself, it kind of gets lost in the shuffle. And then sometimes, um, you know, you're, you're balancing all of the things that come in into your life. And as these, these things that we, um, need for our wellness kind of get buried underneath the surface, it, it kind of builds up and it becomes this vicious cycle. And then sometimes you just get to a point where you, um, are just in a place of feeling terrible that now you're like, okay, I have to do something, right? What is, what does that look like? How am I going to do that? Um, and so I find, I find that people have gotten to that, that place where they're just like, I can't, I can't do this anymore. I don't want to feel like this anymore. I, I need to come back to myself. We so often are so busy again with what's going on around us and all of the things and all the other people that we lose ourselves in that. And so the core of, of that is really coming back to finding yourself.
00:05:41 Niharika: So true. And being authentic self is something so good. Until and unless you're being closest to your own inner spirit or in your intuition. I think those signs of not being are being distant to ourselves and within ourselves are so common, but we often neglect it until it becomes a biggest frustration. Or until and unless you can't take it anymore in, your body can't take it anymore.
00:06:16 Nancy Thompson: And sometimes what happens too, is people get to a point where they have, um, ignored things for so long that they're afraid of what they're going to find out when they start to dig into it. So then that's another layer where people will put things off because they're really scared of, of where they've gotten to. Yeah. Yeah.
00:06:41 Niharika: And when we know, when we don't know what is coming on the other end, when we are digging the hole, that uncertainty, the fear of uncertainty, it is always there.
00:06:52 Nancy Thompson: Yeah. And a lot of people too, they want us to be able to have a quick, easy fix, you know, and that's just not how you, you attain true wellness is you really have to dig deep and look at all of the aspects of what it looks like to be well.
00:07:08 Niharika: So true. At the end, I think wellness is not a destination, but it is a process of choosing ourselves, making choices that matter at every small moment. You can.
00:07:21 Nancy Thompson: Yeah, absolutely.
00:07:25 Niharika: And in your experience, what drives people to ignore their own knowing? And how do you help someone start to trust their own body and intuition again after years of outsourcing that authority?
00:07:44 Nancy Thompson: Um, yeah. Again, so ignoring it a lot of times is because we're so wrapped up in the busy of life and all of the things. And then again, getting to the point where you've gotten so deep in this that you're afraid of what you might find out as you start to dig. And so for me, I just the first step is I want to know who you are as a person. I want to get to know all about you, all of the aspects of you physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually, all of it. And then we can look at each of those sections of your life and decide, okay, where do we need to start first? And how are we going to do it in a way that feels manageable and in a way that that feels safe? Because again, you know, fear comes in here a lot. Um, and so getting people to a place where, and sometimes it's, it's small baby steps and having them understand to this is not going to be quick. This is not a quick fix. This is, this is going to take some time. This is a journey. So getting them to trust, trust themselves, trust their intuition and having that be, you know, small steps and what does that look like? Um, and you know, everything, everything we do, everything we say, everything in our lives comes from a place of one of two places. It's either love or fear. Right. So getting them past that fear to a place where they're, they're learning to love themselves again and then building from there up.
00:09:17 Niharika: So, and it sounds like rebuilding that trust you mentioned is almost like learning a language. We once spoke fluently but forgot over time I'm stuck in this vicious cycle of being busy.
00:09:39 Nancy Thompson: Yeah, absolutely.
00:09:42 Niharika: And that holistic approach of wellness is so significant because in this, um, digital social media era, we are living in, the word wellness always comes with quick fixes, a yoga mat or a diet. And that's it. People won't go beyond that if even if it is for a click bait or whatever. And people are getting into that loop of intensification.
00:10:12 Nancy Thompson: And those are pieces. Absolutely right. You know, you need you need to have good nutrition, you need to move your body, right? But those are, those are pieces of this journey. And again, they're not, they're not going to be quick fixes. Like if you're talking about, um, and one of the, one of the things that I do with almost all of my clients is look at their, their nutrition and, try to come up with a nutritional plan that is going to work for them. Um, and also working in a, a piece of, of, of what it looks like for, for movement. What do you, what do you like to do so that it's going to be sustainable? Moving your body every single day is so, so, so important. Um, and so yes, those things that you, that you mentioned are so important, but they are also pieces of this very complex puzzle.
00:10:57 Niharika: Yes. They're not the only ones. So true. And can you share an example how this disconnection from our own needs to show up in everyday moments and maybe in ways we don't even recognize as wellness related?
00:11:20 Nancy Thompson: Um, I just as far as like how it shows up in our everyday lives, something as simple as, um, you know, in you're in a situation where in the past it was something that you navigated and, you know, you managed and it was fine and you moved forward. But coming to a place where you just feel so completely overwhelmed and maybe you're snapping at the people in your life because you don't know how to manage this. Um, and then you start to develop stress, right? And stress comes out in so many different ways, including now I'm not being able to sleep and I'm waking up in the middle of the night with my thoughts racing. And so, you know, this, this becomes even. It starts with a simple thing. It's still, it becomes something. It becomes something so much bigger. Um, so yeah, it, when you're, when you're overwhelmed, whatever that looks like, it shows up in so many different places in your life. And then coming back to, you know, stress, we're talking about stress. We, when we are in a state of fight, flight or freeze, that's, that's our body's stress response. You're flooding your body with body with cortisol, you're flooding your body with adrenaline. And these are things that like they're important, right? We want to be able to run away from a bear if we see a bear. When your body is in that constant state, it eventually starts to break down. And so, um, you know, this causes this domino effect of things in your life. So yeah, something as simple as just snapping at people in your life because you're overwhelmed. Yeah.
00:12:59 Niharika: That makes so much sense. And what would it look like to bring more awareness to those small moments without turning it into another thing to perfect?
00:13:14 Nancy Thompson: The biggest thing is, you know, when you're, you're again, gaining awareness, awareness of just where you are and what is happening in your life, in your body. And so being able to take a step back and say, okay, this is what's happening right now and what can I do to manage it? Um, one of the things that I teach my clients is breathwork. It's, it's amazing how powerful breathwork is. You know, we, we breathe every day, thank goodness. But when you are intentional about how and when you breathe, you can change your responses to external external stimuli as well as change what is happening physiologically in your own body. Um, and so that's one of the first things that I work on my clients with. You can, um, you can bring your body from that fight or flight state into a place of relaxation just with breathwork. Um, yeah. So it's, it's really, really important. And again, moving your body, moving your body every day.
00:14:20 Niharika: And I love that because it's not about adding more practices, but it's, it's about being more present in the ones we are already living and working on. Moving and walking, moving your body every day, and being more present in our body.
00:14:42 Nancy Thompson: And finding things that work for you. You know what works for you is not necessarily what's going to work for somebody else. Um, and so you want, you want it to be sustainable because you can say to yourself, all right, I'm going to, I'm going to eat this way and I'm going to start a workout plan and I'm going to do. And you check off all the things. And then a week later, you're like, oh my God, I can't. It's too much. And so finding, finding what works for you in a manageable and sustainable way. And that's really what's at the core.
00:15:12 Niharika: That that is a very significant point to mention because again, in this digital era, we are running after every little trend we are looking and not everything is going to work for us. Absolutely. And we have to customize it our own. And I think a lot of people are missing out on that. And they are thinking we failed at this point. And again, trying another trend following other person and trying to be like other person other than customizing it for your own being. It's where the vicious loop starts.
00:15:52 Nancy Thompson: Yeah. And you know, you had brought up social media seeing, um, the, the perfection, right? The perfection that's on social media. And that's what people are striving for is also, it's just not realistic. And it's, it's so unfair to compare yourself to that. Um, but that's what's put in front of us all the time. Another thing I talk about with my clients is call it doom scrolling, right? When you start scrolling on your social media, and then you just keep going. And now you're so far down this rabbit hole where you don't even remember where you started. And that is another, um, place that floods your your brain and your body with these, these hormones and chemicals that are just not sustainable. And so really finding ways to completely unplug, even if it's just for, you know, an hour every day is, is really, really important.
00:16:45 Niharika: And when someone starts listening to themselves and their body and things do feel shaky or uncertain, how do you encourage them to save the day instead of going back to what's familiar?
00:17:01 Nancy Thompson: Um, so we're going to take a step back and we're going to look at everything that's going on. We're going to look at all of the pieces that we've put into place. We're going to look at what's working and what is feeling like it's too much. And then we'll make adjustments because we want, again, this this is a marathon. This is not a sprint. So we want this to be sustainable. So if you're telling me that, you know, I put this workout plan in and it's just it's too much. Okay. That's that's fine. Let's look at another way. Maybe it's just a thirty minute walk every day or a twenty minute walk every day or whatever. So we will, um, we'll make adjustments. And another thing is really having people understand that it's, it's okay to, to feel not okay. Like if you, if you don't feel okay, that is okay. Honor it, recognize that and understand that's, that's also part of this journey. Um, and give yourself a little bit of grace. You know, don't, don't beat yourself up when things aren't going perfectly or the way that you expect them to. That's also part of this journey. So take a step back. Let's look at that and how can we make those small adjustments.
00:18:16 Niharika: So true. And what role does self-compassion play when someone feels like they are slipping or losing momentum.
00:18:28 Nancy Thompson: Yeah. When a person is able to give themselves a little bit of grace, give themselves that compassion and, and recognize that it's okay. Um, it makes this journey more, I guess, I don't know if sustainable is the, is the right word because we're on this journey, whether we want to be or not. This is the journey. Um, but making it more manageable, I guess, and feeling, um, feeling okay that this is my journey, this is my, you know, way of moving forward. Um, and just really being okay with yourself. The, the core of the core of anybody's wellness is, is really, um, loving themselves, really, really loving themselves. Yeah.
00:19:23 Niharika: I think it's such an important reminder. Yeah. Stumbles are failures. And they're just part of the process. Becoming more ourselves. And we just have to choose to get back to ourselves again and again.
00:19:41 Nancy Thompson: Yeah, absolutely.
00:19:45 Niharika: And Nancy, if listeners want to continue this conversation or learn more about your work, where can they find you?
00:19:53 Nancy Thompson: So my website is Nancy Thompson holistic wellness dot com. Um, and then if you want to find me on social media, my Instagram is Nancy Thompson holistic wellness. My Facebook is Nancy Thompson coaching. Um, and that's where you can find me and from, from my website, you can book a call with me. It's free. We will spend forty five minutes together talking about your journey. Um, and a plan for you moving forward, whether or not we end up working together. Um, So yeah, I would love, I would love to hear, love to hear from the listeners.
00:20:27 Niharika: Thank you so much for sharing that. And Nancy, if you want to leave our listeners with one advice or one life practice, you want them to follow, which will help in the long run, in the, in the wellness journey, what it would be.
00:20:46 Nancy Thompson: Um, breathe, pay attention to your breath. Um, be mindful about your breath and be kind to yourself. Be kind, give yourself grace and know that you know you. You are, you are okay and you are loved. And there are people out there who want to want to help you. Yeah.
00:21:11 Niharika: Thank you so much again for that. And thank you so much for being here today and for such a grounded and human approach to this work. Thank you so much for joining us.
00:21:24 Nancy Thompson: Thank you for having me, I appreciate it.
00:21:28 Niharika: And to everyone listening, I hope you take a moment this week to check in with yourself, not to fix anything. Just to begin. That simple act of attention is where the real wellness begins. Until next time, take gentle care.
