Betsy Grimm joins us today for a fascinating and informative conversation around anxiety, our thinking mind, and how to calm yourself. Betsy brings a wide breadth of training in the healing arts and provides practical takeaways for dealing with anxiety - both the tools that she has learned through her professional training and applied to her own life. Breathing practices, mudras, and other ways of connecting to yourself are offered in today’s podcast!

EPISODE TAKEAWAYS (what you’ll learn):

• Anxiety as biological and our nervous systems aren’t set up to deal with modern life
• How yoga helps us transcend the limitations of the mind
• How to intervene early in an anxious state
• How to find a practice tailored to your needs
• Mantras that help with anxiety and fear
• A ‘worry’ practice and positive thinking

About The Guest:

Betsy Grimm is a somatic based practitioner trained in Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy. She is a Yoga 500hr YT and has trained in Radiant Body Yoga, Kundalini and Yoga for Mood Management. She teaches yoga and meditation and loves sharing transformational tools that have been lifelines on her path. Her own anxiety, depression, ptsd, and blatant desperation led her to out-of-the-way healing places her former self would’ve rolled her eyes at! Her spiritual wanderings include exploring yoga’s rich breathwork, mantra, meditative and bhakti practices as well as Continuum Movement, ecstatic dance, bodywork, sweatlodges, ritual, guided work with sacred medicines, prayer and deepening connections with nature.

Find Betsy here:

https://www.betsygrimm.com/

Betsy’s Yoga Tools on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpOLHBWgAcYdz3BfzfB6RYw

Worry practice www.youtube.com/watch?v=cprrUm8iJzE&t=4s

How to find a Hakomi practitioner:

https://hakomiinstitute.com/directory/directory-intro

References within Podcast:

https://www.kiamiller.com/

https://thework.com/

About the Host:

Maureen Spielman is the Founder of Mystical Sisterhood, a podcast dedicated to bringing more joy, healing and expansion to the world. She is a seasoned life coach who supports individuals through one-on-one coaching, groups and workshops.

Connect with Maureen:

● Check out her Instagram: @maureeenspielman

● Learn more about her work at www.maureenspielman.com

● Want to join our Mystical Sisterhood Membership community? Find out more here: https://www.maureenspielman.com/mysticalsisterhood

● Email Maureen at hello@maureenspielman.com to inquire about coaching, podcasting & speaking engagements

● Want to view Mystical Sisterhood episodes? Visit the Mystical Sisterhood YouTube Channel here: Magical Sisterhood Youtube

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Hello and welcome back to mystical sisterhood. This is

your host, Maureen Spielman. And today I sit down for a

conversation on yoga, PTSD, and anxiety amongst many other

things with Betsy Grimm. Betsy is in my neighborhood and I was

so thrilled to meet her acquaintance, because she has a

lot to say and share about ways that you can intervene with

yourself when you're in an anxious state. A lot about how

our anxious mind can get in the way of our true self. The

importance of daily practice in coming to ourselves, and we've

got a guided practice with within and mantras that help

with anxiety and fear. So I am excited for you to listen in and

learn alongside me. I'll see you in the episode. Thank you for

being here.

Hey there, welcome to mystical sisterhood. This is your host,

Maureen Spielman. I started the show to highlight the intuitives

healers and other courageous women that I've met along my

journey and continue to meet. Through amazing interviews, I

seek to ask insightful questions to uncover ways in which you the

listener can apply the wisdom and knowledge to your own life.

I believe that we're all in this together. So sharing healing and

joy, and bringing community together is both my passion and

purpose. If you'd like to learn more about the mystical

sisterhood community I'm building please visit www

mystical sisterhood.com See you in the episode.

Welcome back to mystical sisterhood. This is your host,

Maureen Spielman. And today I am sitting down with Betsy Grimm.

And I like to do a shout out if someone introduced me to my

guest. And today, that would be Libby Paul. So I'm super excited

that she introduced the two of us. I am going to just read a

little bit of your bio, because I like the way it's written. And

I think it's gonna give the listener today an overview of

who you are, that where you've studied what you've done before,

we kind of, I think funnel that down a little bit into a few

topics. So Betsy Grimm is a somatic based practitioner

trained in hakomi, mindful somatic psychotherapy. She is a

yoga Instructure instructor

with Kundalini and yoga for mood management, and she teaches

meditation.

I love that you said Betsy. Her own anxiety, depression, PTSD

and blatant desperation, led her to two out of the way healing

places her former self would have rolled her eyes at That's

so great.

And then maybe Lastly, her spiritual wanderings include

yogas, rich breathwork, Montra, meditative and bhakti practices,

as well as continual movement, ecstatic dance, bodywork, sweat

lodges, ritual, guided work with sacred medicines, prayer, and

deepening connections with nature. So you are well studied,

and more than you have so much to share today. Welcome, Betsy.

Thank you for being here with me. Oh, my gosh, I'm worried.

I'm really excited to be here with you. And especially because

I'm meeting a new neighbor, a new sister, that makes me so

happy. So yeah, I think we're probably just a couple miles

apart. And yes, yeah, I love that too connected. I think

that's a just a great place to start that there are more of us

out there who are interested in having these conversations. And

sometimes, I mean, we may have worked in neighboring

communities, we may have passed each other in the grocery store

on, you know, the main street in town, right, you know, through

the years and not even know and that's I think that's the

importance of connections to when we can connect each other

in this sisterhood, hey, I think you should meet or it's really

valuable to our growth as individuals and these

communities. I totally agree that connection piece is so

important. And I really love what you're creating here is

this community because yeah, that's been a big important

driver for me is really finding places where we can join

together and where we can share our wisdom and also share our

desperation and share all the questions that we have to and

yeah, such a good point with the wisdom and the desperation

because that's like I never want to be bypassing the realness of

life and

And, and there's so many great things about manifestation and

abundance and all, you know, this body of work, and we all

come to the table with our life experiences, which are filled

with joy, and hurt our wounded places, our traumas. So,

you know, that might be a good place to start, because before

we got on, you know, there's a lot of topics that we want to

kind of weave our way through today. But I know anxiety and,

and just this, this discussion around anxiety is maybe a great

starting point. And because I don't know your story, or why

you care so deeply about this, would that be a comfortable

place to start for you? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So my story

is, is I'm a Midwest girl grew up pretty conventionally, and

just kind of following the mold that culture laid out and

actually looked pretty good from the outside.

And then at age 40, my sister unexpectedly died. And

it was just a complete unraveling. For me. Part of it

was the the suddenness of it had an impact. And part of it was

she was my everything. She was two years older, and my only

sibling. And I did later find out I that it was PTSD that I

was dealing with, but it was pretty extreme anxiety. And I

did kind of jump into action, I was trying to care for her kids

and for my parents and for my own kids as well. And trying to

anyway, and

yeah, I started to figure out like, I need help

here. And SSRIs would be helpful for a certain period, but they

really, they just didn't, that didn't sustain for me. And it

was the beginning of my starting into cognitive behavioral work

in sort of digging underneath things. And that was really

powerful to sort of open up these areas that were just blind

to me before, and really started my journey. But before her

death, I had already had some experience with yoga. And I just

kind of knew that this would be a place where I could find some

relief. And so it was, it was sort of it became my lifeline.

And I really appreciated these yogic communities that could

support me and could offer other healing modalities, too.

But I can remember very specifically, I was in an Amy

weintrob workshop, and she works with yoga for mood management.

And it was the first time where in all of my kind of

overwhelm,

that I actually found my way to, like some openness and found my

way to myself. And it was the first time where I felt like,

oh, here I am. And it was amazing. It was so striking the

difference. And later, I Well, I knew like I had to become a yoga

instructor and that I would need to follow her work. And so that

started to really help me understand some really basic,

practical ways to work with my anxiety. Oh, wow. Yeah, thank

you so much for that backstory, and just your life, your life

story, and what you went through, and the PTSD and the

trauma of it all.

And that, and just like, it feels like a gentle coming back

to yourself, but those moments, the that revelation that you had

on that day, and that time, I want you if you can, because I

feel like yoga is one of these things that sometimes and I'll

speak from my own experience, it always felt like that thing that

I should be doing that it was gonna be.

I feel like sometimes like the way

people can approach yoga is like very dualistic, like you're

either doing it or you're not doing it, if that makes sense.

And so

I think it's a really good conversation to even say like,

wow, what are the benefits of a yoga practice? And that seems

like such a basic question. Yeah. But when you describe your

own experience of like, even during those times, that were so

just probably dense and challenging to get through. What

were some qualities that occurred in you or what like

when you

Got to your mat. What did that provide for you? Hmm? Yeah, it's

it's such a good question. And it makes me think, well, first

of all, that not everyone loves yoga. And I'm always surprised

at how many yoga teachers when they talk about their first

experience with yoga, they actually hated it.

And, you know, part of it is, is that work, we can, you know,

bring everything make everything quiet, and we have to be with

ourselves. And that means being with our thoughts. And so, yeah,

I would love to talk about particular types of yoga, that

that can meet more of the the anxious mind. Because, yeah, not

all yoga. In fact, if you went into yin yoga class, it might

actually have you feel really stressed out and,

and in your head, because there is so much spacious that Miss

there.

But, you know, yoga, how it works, I remember we were asked

this in my first yoga training, and it was like, Well, why does

it work? And we all knew we'd have these experiences like,

well, I don't know, I just feel so much better. And what is

that? And,

and it's funny, because I still now I marvel at the people that

come out of the yoga class before me, and they're just

completely changed. And I always think it'd be really interesting

to take pictures of people before they go into class. And

after they go, they come out of class.

But

sorry, I'm losing my train of thought back to off, there's so

much here, marine.

So how Yoga works is really, it is a practice that helps us to

transcend the limitations of the mind. And that's a big concept,

right? And, you know, we're used to the asana practice, which is

so much about body and movement, but there's a whole lifestyle

and philosophy piece to yoga, that's Brett's pretty vast and

deep.

But that really at its base is what we're doing is we're

learning how to work with our mind. And so

yeah, yoga can be

this place where we learn to step away from our thoughts and

learn to become the witness to our thoughts, right. And that's

a huge concept. That's a big thing. And that's part of you

know, why meditation is so important is to learn, oh, gosh,

I'm not that and these thoughts just are right up on us, it's so

hard to have that separation. But man, that is just such a

skill to develop is learning how to witness and, you know, on the

laboratory of our mats, we can really practice that awareness.

And you kind of have to, especially when you're starting

Yoga, you really have to pay attention, where are my feet?

Where are my arms, there's all these ways you have to pay

attention, or you're gonna fall over. Right? And so, but it's a

great way to practice that and just watch your mind and be

like, Oh, look where my mind went. Oh, isn't that

interesting? Right? Yeah.

I think too, as I've

been adopting a practice recently, I, for me, it's been,

it's almost like allowance allowing, allowing

the taking of an hour, I remember when I used to try it

more in my 20s. All the classes seem to be an hour and 15 to an

hour and a half. And I what I find now is, there's more in

that hour range that for me, is more more accessible, but it's,

it's an allowance, and that almost like,

it's almost like one of those things that if it doesn't catch

for you the first time maybe try different instructors to because

I think you were gonna say to the the types of yoga casts

depending on which avenue you go down, and we've kind of talked

about that Kundalini. And I recently heard about Kundalini.

And I was super excited. And I logged on to a site and kind of

got on, they had a whole bunch of teachings in a couple of

weeks free and it was so overwhelming. So to your point

about how it can be and then you had said like, oh, maybe you

want to go this direction, Maureen, if you want to know

more about that, but yeah, yeah, well, you know, I'm glad you're

bringing that up. And and yoga, like, even the timing of it. The

important and those hour and a half practices aren't as

accessible for a lot of us. And the truth is, is that even three

minutes these three minute practices can really be worthy

and really be held

helpful. And so yeah, we can kind of be creative at how we

work with these different practices. And there are very

different types of yoga and different ways to work with it.

And yeah, I can talk more about some of the ways that are really

helpful to work with anxiety, that more anxious mind, because

it's actually quite different than how you've worked with a

slower, more in the realm of tomasik, or the depressed state.

There's different ways of working with it, and different

modalities, meet them in different ways. Yeah, I love

that. And And so speaking to that, because when anxiety is

with us, it's in our mind, but does it also settle into our

nervous system and become kind of like a loop for us where we

have that, like, I, before we met today,

I don't carry a lot of anxiety I think I did when I was younger.

And I remember even the first time I had a ramp up towards

like, I don't know, if it was a panic attack. I don't think it

was ever. But I would just remember when, and like you're

saying, you know, things can come up later in our lives, you

had a traumatic loss event. And then I don't know how much

anxiety was with you before that point. But I feel like that

anxiety does live within the nervous system, because I think

I have a lot of ways that I ground myself and study myself.

But this morning, I mentioned to you that I was in the DMV. And

it was for my son's license. But I was sitting to the side and my

body was just more flooded with a memory. There was something

there. I mean, that was definitely the operating. So is

that with anxiety? And this obviously is like a

straightforward kind of basic question too. But is that your

experience that we experience it sort of throughout our different

bodies, our mind our emotions, our nervous system? Well, first,

I just want to give you credit, Mama, because that driver's

license thing is a rite of passage. And so I can understand

and why things were coming up for you. Absolutely. Yeah. And,

yeah, maybe we can talk a little bit about the anxious mind. And

how it does get in the way from us really being more connected

to ourselves and just the pattern, whether it's anxiety or

not the patterns of the mind that really can get in these

ways of looping and can get stuck in these ways of looking

at what we should have could have would have done and get in

these places of forward tripping, that really get us out

of the present moment. Yeah, please, please. Yeah, yeah. So

yeah, so anxiety, it's a big topic for me.

My anxiety and I are tight, we've been hanging around each

other for a long time. And one of the things that I think is

important, as those of us who really do struggle with patterns

of anxiety, is to be friended and to know that this is

actually very biological, and that our primitive limbic

system, which is doing everything it can to keep us

safe, right? It's doing what it can't, it can and that, you

know, it's not exactly the system that works best for our

modern lifestyle. It was built to help us outrun a saber

toothed Tiger, and we're not doing that so much anymore. And,

and so, one place to start with anxiety is just give yourself a

lot of grace, and see if you can, yeah, just find some self

compassion and understanding this isn't me, this is biology.

And another important thing with anxiety is to remember that just

because in the sensations of anxiety are so strong, but and

they feel like an alarm in the body. But just because it feels

like it's an alarm doesn't mean that it's an alarm. And so it's

really important to recognize that my body signaling doesn't

actually mean that that's really as urgent as what it feels. I

love this quote by Robert Fuller, full GM who says Don't

believe everything you think.

Right? Yes, we did get really attached to that. Yeah. And when

we have these sensations that are really strong, we can get

Yeah, really connected, that this is the truth. And so one of

the people that I love and her process, Byron Katie, she asked

these four questions to help work with your thoughts. Yeah,

you're smiling, you know? Yeah.

That is it true, starting with that basic question. And that's

a great place of inquiry. Are these thoughts? Is it true? And

then also, is it helpful?

So those are great places to start and to recognize that the

ways that we're getting stuck in these patterns of being in the

past or being in the future

that really pull us out of the present moment. And that's why I

love how Andrea Gibson, who is a great spoken word poet, she,

they talk about how they talk about worrying. And they say the

present moment is far more doable than the future or the

past.

Right.

So that's why any of these practices that help us get into

the present moment, are so important for all of us, and

particularly, to interrupt that, that anxious mind. Yeah, and I

love all the references that you just brought in there the

the work that has come before the quotes that remind us of the

present moment, but even with the Byron Katie questions of Is

it true? Do I know it to be true?

I always forget the fourth one I know like, what would I be

without that thought? I love those because they allow us to,

like you just said witness our thoughts. And we believe were

our thoughts before learning ways to witness them. And when

we witnessed them, they, they I feel like they it loosens up the

grip a little bit. They if we believe that we are those

thoughts, then that's a hard pattern to break. But if Yeah,

yeah, I love how you said that loosens up the grip. I think

that's what it's about. It's like teasing out those spaces,

and getting more space between the thoughts. Yeah. And then

there's just more space for you. Right? And then you have a

little bit more clarity. And the more you can tease that out, the

better. So yeah, I very much resonate with that. Yeah, I was

also, yeah, sorry, go ahead. Well, I was just gonna say

during yoga classes, I would love to experience your teaching

at some point. But I know that Yoga also gives the opportunity

for the person experiencing it when the teacher brings their

wisdom in. And it can be the most gentle reminder of setting

an intention or talking about your thoughts and anxious lives,

whatever it is, that is sort of the theme of that class or that

day. But it brings this reminders because we were

talking before we started to about like how we can pull in

all the books in the world. But sometimes I will read an entire

book. And if you asked me a week or two or two later, what it was

about it like, I can't really give you a synopsis. But, you

know, one of the

I know one of the takeaways you wanted today for the listener

was what are the simple things I can do? What are what are

reminders that helped me connect to myself? So, you know, you

know, if you want to talk a little bit about that, like any

things and I know today, you also were interested in leading

the listener through meditation as well. Yeah, yes. I'm excited

to do that. Yeah. Yeah. So getting practical with it, I

would love to do that. Because

the reality is, is, you know, how we frame our thoughts and

how we think about our anxiety, that's important, but, or just

how we think about whether it's anxiety, or just the mind

getting the best of us, right? That's really important. And for

the anxious mind, it's like, we can't quite think our way out of

anxiety, right? We got to, in my opinion, we got to intervene,

and we got to go to the body. And so some of the tips that are

really important to me is one is to intervene early. And so

before we get really, really amped up, and this is where

witnessing helps to be able to recognize, Oh, I see what's

going on. I know that pattern in my body I see and to intervene.

And one of the best quickest ways to do that is to find our

breath. And so, you know, fear which is at the root of our

anxiety. It has a particular breath pattern, in fact, come to

find out all emotions have a particular breath pattern. So

it's really interesting. Anytime that we just shift our breath

pattern, we can help get us out of that emotional state. And

with fear the breath is a pie and it's fast. It actually feels

like we're not getting enough oxygen in but it's not true. We

are getting enough oxygen we're actually

depleting

the carbon dioxide is actually more of a situation but we've

we've got plenty

We have oxygen coming in. And it's this upper energy that is

that has us kind of spinning in our head. And so one of my

favorite breaths and we can bring this in right now is is

that navel breathing that diaphragmatic breathing. And so

I like to teach it that if you place your hand on your belly,

and just let the inhale, expand and puff up the belly so that

you feel your hand move with the belly on the inhale. So each

inhale, there's this puffing up the belly, and the exhale, the

hand will descend. And sometimes that's harder for people,

they're not used to it. And so it can be helpful to put your

upper hand on your heart or on your upper chest and make sure

that that hand isn't moving, you can kind of test yourself, and

just see if you can really concentrate on getting the

breath down into the belly, we're actually bringing breath

into the lower part of the lungs, and that flattens out the

diaphragm, which puffs out the belly. And just that awareness,

forget about the science of slowing the breath down. Because

it does, you'll probably notice the breath is slower. But it

also works with our awareness that when we bring our awareness

to our bellies, we're getting out of the head, we're bringing

our awareness down, right. So that is a quick one. And let's

stay with it, actually, you can stay with this belly breath, you

can stay with it for the rest of the podcast, you can stay with

it for the rest of your life. It's a good one. And this is one

of my favorites. It's so darn simple. But especially when we

get into things like panic attacks, where we're just not

thinking as clearly we're not in our prefrontal cortex, it's

really good to have simple, simple, simple, so this simple

tool, just place your hand on your belly and breathe into your

belly.

So breath, yes, that is an important one for me, and then

getting moving. So anxiety is a lot of energy, right? And that's

like going into again, class where you're like, rolling

around. It's like, yeah, I don't know, that doesn't work for me,

like to meet that with movement, meet it with some vigor, that's

where I find that we can actually start to move some of

that energy out. And so that that vigor can come in yoga can

come in the form of sun salutations, but it can come in

forms of, you know, really doing some sweaty movement, playing

tennis tennis is is a great one. Because again, you've got to use

your awareness, use your focus, dance, right, get yourself

moving. And then there are particular ways that you can

use, use your yoga to support that anxiety, whether it's with

getting really into your legs, again, getting your awareness

down, getting your awareness into your feet, and doing things

like Chair Pose, doing things like balancing poses that take a

lot of focus, really, really helpful. And then a big tip that

I find incredibly helpful is getting into naval practices,

where we're really working our core. And my teacher, Kia

Miller, who I can't say enough about her wisdom, but she is all

about the core. And the belief is, is that if we are not strong

in ourselves, how can we be with all this change and all this

stuff that's happening in our environment? And so the practice

of our times is about getting into the core. And so yeah,

yeah, super important. So yeah, getting into the body is great.

And then also working with our energy system. And this is why I

love the practice of yoga is that it is working with our

energy system, as well as the body. And let's face it in

anxious energy, or in most of the energy we're moving through

the world with, we're kind of out fractured, like we're out

here. We're tending to this, we're looking at this, we're

worried about this. And we're sort of outside of ourselves,

right. And it's a really discordant energy. And so these

practices that help to harmonize our energy, like yoga to work

with our energy in prescriptive ways, can be so fabulous. And

that includes working with, you know, body workers that have

ways of helping our energy system come into balance, Reiki,

whatever that is, but also just the simple task of grounding to

the earth. So taking your shoes off, going out and connecting to

the earth. Yes, it sounds hippy, like but the reality is, is that

we are electrical beings, and right beneath us, is ground and

it's actually really important for our energetic systems to

You connect to it. And so we can bring our awareness to our feet,

we can soak up the negative ions that are in the earth. And that

is so important for our whole for our, to ground our energy.

And then yeah, sorry, no, no, it's it's

what I'm getting from a lot of this too is yes, you're kind of

coming at it from the anxiety, sort of, you know, lens, but

then how important even how you were just saying, in these times

and this discordant energy. And it's really kind of neat,

because I see it coming together as like, oh, wow, this isn't

just a conversation about this conversation today. I can see

like, even Betsy, almost all the conversations that have been

happening even through this podcast, it's just a reminder

for everyone listening, or reminder, a reminder to to

practice practice. Never has there been a more important

time, because, and I'll have you go on to the next and I'm

curious about even lifestyle practices, aside from breathing

movement, and I'm almost thinking like, I love to have

sort of, sometimes a screensaver on my phone, for whatever I'm

working on at that point in my life.

Like, right now I'm doing a process with a group of people

the presence process. So mine says, I love myself

unconditionally. You can't see it. But it almost I feel like

for people Oh, it's 1111.

For people who do experience anxiety, it's almost like might

be above someone's, you know, design abilities. But having

like a cheat sheet where, where you're saying that intervene,

intervening? When you feel it coming on? When you feel it,

that's so important, right? Or like, and then you have like,

okay, these four or five things I can I can look to, in order to

call me because I do believe that it's in the moments,

remembering, remember, oh, my gosh, isn't that the trick? It's

practice, right? It's going back, it's going back? So yeah,

because I know, like a lifestyle, what I do is really

limit my news consumption greatly as to not take in that

energy. And that's not for everybody. But yeah, well, I

love Yeah, how you're working with this personally, and just

bringing up this idea of practice. And for me, that

actually, is something incredibly important to me is

having a daily practice, it's something in the Kundalini

lineage that they take very seriously. In fact, it might be

that you work with the same type of practice for 40 days. Or it

could be extended, it could be your whole life. But this way of

deepening into a practice is so important. It's like our body

can as we do it day after day, it really, it's like it gets

into a new groove. And what I find is, it can just give you

structure, and it's like, you come back to this friend, you

know, okay, I can go do this thing. And I can find myself

again. And really, that's what these practices, all of them are

about is how we find these pathways back to ourselves. And

when you can make that a regular part of your day.

It kind of just simplifies things. And in kundalini, they

do recommend that you do it first thing in the morning. And

the reasoning there is that it's like we kind of get ourselves in

our body, we get our energy, rolling and coherent. And then

we can take on the day from a different place. And even just

the idea of in the morning, that we're just more connected to

other realms. And so there's a way that morning, time slot

really works. And it doesn't work for all people, obviously.

And there's always value and just sneaking in the little

practices throughout the day. But for those that are like, Oh

my gosh, I couldn't possibly take on

daily practice. I understand that too. And I don't want to

say oh, you you know, this is something this is an assignment

you must add to your day. But I do find that when I'm grounded

and find that pathway to myself, I just I am more efficient, I

can be more present. I can meet people from a different place.

And so sometimes we want to think, Oh, we don't have time

for it. But I see it as like, well actually, I think that it

makes it makes us just more efficient throughout our day.

Yeah, I think I can create that spaciousness. And then I think

that's why there it's good for the repetition of these messages

of the messages over and over from different

voices and conduits because I was thinking, the simplest of

things like, fill your own cup first, you can hear it like, Oh,

I heard that 10 years ago, first or eight years ago, you know

what I mean? But then the more you hear it, the more and then

you begin to know, oh, that's really true. Maybe I wouldn't

say it that way, or I don't like those particular words. But it's

that self nourishment. And that really putting yourself first

and it makes sense to kind of

honor yourself in the beginning of the day, in order to, to, I

don't know, be able to give to the other parts of the day that

you are required to because we all have to, whether it's a job

or our kids or an aging parent, that's there for us. So it seems

really important to me, right? Yeah. I couldn't agree more.

Yeah. Did you want to share your breath practice today? I do.

And, and yet, there's a couple more things just on the anxiety

front that I can't not share, because they've been so

important to me. And again, because our mind gets stuck, it

wants to stay in the mind that I think hearing these ways to

intervene, can be really important. And one of the things

about,

about anxiety is a place we can really get stuck is that we can

really feel alienated, we can feel all alone, nobody gets it.

And it's a it's a feeling it sort of feels like we're

trapped. And, and so yes, we can bring that anxiety to to others.

And we might want them to amp it up and be then meet us where we

are like, Oh my gosh, can you see this person and we might

want them to kind of stir up to our level.

But what I suggest is not coming towards people with that energy,

but rather with this very vulnerable energy. And you have

to find the right people to do this with. But to be able to

reach out and just say to someone who cares about you, I

am anxious, and it is really hard right now.

And just being able to reach out and touch someone and not have

to have them fix it. But just to have them see that and hear

that, that that is that can change everything. And it

reminds me of this story we heard in our hakomi training

about monkeys, there's a particular monkey that when they

are under threat, that or after they've had some stressful event

happen, that they will go in touch another monkey. And then

that monkey touches another monkey.

And they're just using this energetic charge. And there's

just something so incredibly beautiful. And that is such a

powerful reminder. And just also in that place of touch and the

power of touch. That if we can also find the person that can

give us a hug. If we can ask for a hug, and have a hug. We know

there's there's science in how that can co regulate our

systems. We don't have to talk. It's just this feeling of touch

in the way of being held and resting into that. So yeah, more

hugs. So beautiful. So beautiful. It feels like themes

of safety and trust in there and leaning in and receiving. Hey,

right. Yeah, yeah, knowing you're not alone. That's

beautiful. Yeah.

I know, you've got your training and hakomi. And you just

mentioned it. Do you want to say you know a little bit more about

why it's so special to you? You know, I do but maybe before we

go there worrying? Sure. I'd love to talk a little bit more

about Kundalini. Beautiful. Would that be okay? Yeah. Okay,

great. Kundalini

is kind of its own breed of yoga. And

so yeah, we talked about, you know, there are so many

different types of yoga out there. And Kundalini is

different than a lot of what we see those Hatha and vinyasa

classes. And

it is very much tied into how we work with the system, the energy

system of the body, and how we bring ourselves into coherence.

And we do it through these very interesting and sometimes

unusual ways of using the body sort of as an instrument. And so

you might be working with the breath in a particular way you

might be having the arms out in a particular at a particular

angle. And in these Koreas there actually designed so that maybe

for a couple of minutes, you're working with one movement, and

then another the next couple minutes, you're working with a

completely different movement. And it's all

All with this way in which we are systematically working with

the energy systems of the body, so it's quite different. And

yeah, often we are trying to build the energy or stabilize

the energy or direct the energy. And so through that, you can

actually get really prescriptive about

different effects that you're looking for. And so this is

where Kundalini gets really interesting is that they have

different practices that can meet different needs. And that

could be anything from anxiety, to feeling foggy in your head,

there's actually Korea that's really helpful for Alzheimer's

that's been proven to help with Alzheimer's.

There can be taught detoxifying Korea's ones that build

confidence that have that emphasis at the Naval, self

love, emotional balance, there's all these different ways that

you can actually kind of shop for just the right practice that

meets you. So it's quite different. And it's a little

odd. But

to me, it's, it's a, it's sort of like supercharging, your yoga

practice. And so for me, because of my high anxiety, there's a

way that that has met me in ways that other yoga hasn't

really beneficial, is it? Is it easy for people to find

practitioners or, you know, I can make it easy for you,

because I have a teacher that has, that I couldn't recommend

more highly. Her name is Kia Miller. And she has her classes

on glow, which is a subscription site. It's jell o.com. And she

has hundreds of these and you can search on them depending on

what you're looking for. And she really truly is just a masterful

teacher, she has

gone deep into her own practice unto her studies of Kundalini.

And yeah, she has everything to do with sort of my evolution as

a student and as a teacher. Okay, thanks for that share.

That will be really beneficial.

Awesome, thank

you. Yeah. So where would you like to go from there? Do you

think?

Oh, I didn't know if you wanted to jump into the breath

practice? Yes, that would this would be a great time to do

that. Thank you. So yeah, let's take a little practice here.

I'll break out. There's so many and this is where it gets hard

for me because there are so many good ones to choose from, but I

thought I'd pick one that we can do with the group. And this can

work for people that are even driving in their car or doing

whatever you're doing, okay.

And this this breath, my teacher Kia Miller calls this the anti

insight and sanity breath.

So

it's very practical breath. And yeah, you can, it's pretty

portable, you can take it with you. And so maybe before we get

started with this breath, we can just start to find our way to

our seat. And if you are driving, you can, you know, do

this driving. But if you can sit on something that kind of gives

you a firm base underneath you. So you can find that tall spine,

that's great. We're again, working with the anatomy of the

body, sort of the instrument of the spine here. And we're gonna

work with mudra. So the mudra, the hand position, is this left

palm is going to come and face the heart and the left elbows

kind of winging out to the side. Yeah. And then the right hand is

going to be placed on the back of the left hand. So both palms

are facing you right palm on top of the left, left palm closest

to the heart, but not touching the heart, maybe about, I don't

know, four inches away or something. And then the thumbs

connect. So this is how specific Kundalini gets. And then if you

can get the arm so that they're parallel to the ground. So the

forearms are sort of in this parallel line. That's great. So

if someone's driving, they can just do the breathing part.

Yeah. Just do the breathing point. Part. And there is also a

position are a drishti gazing point for the eyes. And so

obviously, if you're driving, keep your eyes open. Listen and

come back. That's right. So the actually the drishti is to look

down towards the tip of the nose, which is very funky and

weird. It kind of has a little bit of a cross eyed feeling to

it. But this is again, very prescriptive in the way it's

working with the optic nerve and putting some pressure on the

pituitary gland.

So, all that said, will start to bring in the breath here. And if

you know makes your eyes crazy, just let that go and do your

best. But the breath is taking an inhale, it's all through the

nose.

And then pause at the top of the inhale.

And then exhale

and pause.

And then cycle again, as you inhale,

pause for maybe three, or four or five counts.

And then exhale.

And try to pause for that same amount.

So we'll continue that pattern inhaling,

and pausing.

Exhale,

and pause.

And here's where you can start to lengthen that pause if it

feels available. So I like to say kind of, make it

interesting, make the paws interesting. So you're

stretching it out a bit, but not so much that it's like you're

gripping. And so you can stretch it out, maybe it reaches as far

as 10 counts, but you make it work for you and try to keep the

pause at the top of the breath. And the bottom the breath the

same.

This pausing of the breath has a fabulous way of just

interrupting our automatic cycles. And so we have this

opportunity as we pause to actually kind of wake up and pay

attention. So be with that, but little paying attention. It's

available, this kind of breaking off automatic.

And you can pay attention to notice if you sort of are

gripping in the pause. And if you are to see if you can find

some gentleness there, it's almost like you're just cutting

a butterfly.

So stay with that, that

gentle pause, stretching it out,

as long as it's interesting and comfortable.

And then trying to keep it the same at the bottom of the exhale

as well.

And if you've lost that little eye gaze, sometimes we forget

about it, you can bring that back in, or maybe you want to

disregard that, that's great, too.

We'll just be here for a little bit longer, we're going for

three minutes here, three minutes can

really make a difference in our nervous system.

So see if you can stay with yourself and just notice way

when you move away from yourself when the thoughts take you away.

And then just use the breath to guide you gently back to

yourself.

And then to finish our practice will inhale together and find

that pause at the top of the inhale. And if you know Mala

abunda. So that's that lifting up of the pelvic floor. It's a

little Kegel exercise, you can bring that in and that draws

energy upwards to the center of the head.

And then exhale, you can release the arms down and just release

the breath so that you're finding its natural, or it's

finding its natural rhythm.

And you might notice as you're released, the breath, that there

is more

just smoothness to the breath, it's a little smoother, a little

deeper,

a little longer.

And here's where you might also notice the thoughts and whether

the thoughts might be coming at a different pace a little

slower. A little more space between the thoughts

and a little bit more space for you.

And so if you're feeling more of the you or the deeper you within

you pay attention notice that you can even say hi you.

So this is really what all these practices are about is finding

this deeper connection to ourselves.

And in fact, we often close our practice with the sound Satnaam

and Satnaam is this way of recognizing that

If, at the essence of ourselves at the core of ourselves is

truth, so we say sloth known

for

so beautiful,

and calming. And just it feels, it just feels really like

luscious. Or is

it like a luxury like a luxury, right? But but our brothers

should not be a luxury because it's with us. But we get so far

away from it that when we do the practice, it's like, oh, wow,

no, it's it's actually part of me. Are there also?

I feel very calm right now. So thank you for them. Are there

also for those, either, whether you're experiencing anxiety more

often? And even if you're not in that form, like you were saying

earlier, our minds are on overdrive a lot. Are there

phrases, or, you know, mantras that you use to come to yourself

as well? Hmm. You know, I happen to love these mantras that are

in Sanskrit, Sanskrit is such a amazing language and the way it

works with kind of the anatomy of sound. So even the all

the way the Oz in the back of the throat, the O is the center,

kind of opening up the throat, at the lips.

It has this resonance, and yet for a lot of people, these

Sanskrit words, they're, they're not familiar. And so it can be

really nice to just have English words that are meaningful. And

so you can simply work with mantras like I am peace, or I am

love. Yeah, you can create your own mantra for whatever it is

that you're working with just something that helps bring you

to yourself. Yeah, I always think of I am safe or, yeah, I,

what comes to mind is, I can trust myself or I trust myself.

I have I have resources I and I recently heard, I had never

really heard this kind of work either being referred to as

resourcing, or to feel resourced, or to be resources to

be able to tap into these kinds of skills and tools that we can

just use on a daily basis. So yeah, I think what you've

offered today is so incredibly, just beneficial and helpful.

Talking about it from so many different lenses of Yeah, the

topic of anxiety and our mind. But then the practices that are

really, they're really pretty accessible. And practical Betsy,

is right there, especially the breath. It's just right there.

It's just a matter of remembering.

And as we talk about mantra, maybe I just want to bring in

this one other thought around that because this is such a

lovely one to work with is just the sound.

So vibrates the lips. And this is what is always so crazy about

this yoga practice is that these Yogi's figured this out 1000s of

years ago before they knew anything about polyvagal theory,

right. But somehow they knew that the sounds, you know, which

does affect the vagal nerve, are calming and so just that sound

we sometimes do that naturally.

really calming.

And then I'll mention one other sound I just have been working

with lately that I love for bringing more clarity to the

mind. It has a very different sense of the way that it feels

in the body. And that and it's very similar sounds similar to

own but its own O N G own. And it vibrates the crown. So I'm

just saying that five times on can really help bring some

clarity. So beautiful, beautiful. Thank you for all of

the insight, the wisdom and the the walkaway tools today. It's

amazing.

Welcome, as we wrap up, I don't know if you've got anything else

you would like to add before we kind of share with the audience

where to find you. You know, one thing that I thought to mention

because as women and many mothers, I'm sure are listening,

just talking a little bit about Worry.

Worry of our kids. You're nodding, right? Like it's sort

of Yeah, how do we not get stuck there and so in this place of

worry, just a couple points that might be

A helpful.

One is is to recognize that fear of our kids safety is

biological.

And it's how we're wired. Right? It helps us keep our kids alive.

Yeah. And so one of the things about worry is to just give

yourself again, give yourself grace, like, Yeah, I'm a mom, of

course, I'm worried and just you can talk to yourself and be

like, Yeah, I understand. And also do that check in like,

recognizing that our what our biology is telling us, even

though it sounds like an alarm, that it might not be an alarm,

right. And you can do that, kind of looking at these thoughts

that you're worried about, just as we talked about with Byron,

Katie, and sort of looking at, like, really, what is my fear

here, and is it true.

But one of the things that I can't stress enough is just this

idea of self care. And, you know, we know this again, and

again, you mentioned it putting on the oxygen mask first. But

when we are more in ourselves, when we can access more of our

bandwidth, where we can access our higher self, we're parenting

from a different place than from this place of worry, and our

kids do feel it, and they pick up on it. And we definitely

don't want to bring to our kids like, Oh, you're making me

worried, and I'm scared and this energy that we want them to fix

us, we need to show up to, to them as like, I've got me, and I

can help you too. And so that way in which like really feeling

grounded in ourselves is is the work and we can always come back

to that.

And then there is this worry practice, and I'll put a link to

that. But I really like it actually involves drinking

water, because water is so helpful for the emotional

balance of the system.

And

and then just taking that step back from as far as from the

parenting role to recognize that, you know, our kids are

going to have their own path, and that we can't control it,

and we can't fix it all. And to recognize that they are going to

work through their own path just as we well to

in it reminds me of what is in my control, and what's out of my

control. And what's in our control. Are the practices are

the choice, the choice to come back to ourselves the choice,

but I am happy that you pointed out the worry, because that's

another

real thing, the real thing that we experience. And you know,

even if we try to,

you know, I think bypass it and

even go to positive thinking or what try to I do feel the

biological part of it. It's reminded me go in for the hug

for that to be oh my gosh, yeah, we do. We all do carry a lot

around. If you are if the listener is a parent is a mother

and even if we're not a biological mother, we are

mothering others. So we need to go in for that. I'll get that

support, and also give it to ourselves. 100% Yes, that is the

answer.

Yeah. Thank you for everything. And where can our listeners find

you if they go to look for your work? Yeah, so my website is

Betsy grim.com. I also am on YouTube with some of these tools

that sees yoga tools, you can find me there. And I'll put a

link into some of the specific tools that I recommend. And

yeah, I think that's it. That's great. I'll link everything in

the show notes. And we I'll try to go through my transcript and

just pull out everything and everyone Kia and Byron, Katie,

and just everyone we mentioned today. So the resources. Yeah,

awesome. That's great. Don't worry, I don't know if we have

time for this or not. But there's this kind of umbrella

notion that has been on my mind and what I've wanted to share.

And so again, I don't know if there's time to talk about this.

But there's something that's really helped me that just kind

of guide my way of thinking about my life, and finding these

ways in which we find the pathway back, you know, whether

it's through our yoga practices where we find these glimpses of

ourself or like all these places where it's like, yeah, here I

am. And it came from this this poem. It's really sort of a

prayer that pixie Lighthouse says where she talks about

healing places

is, and what she says is teach us to see, read the tracks and

follow the markings that lead us to the healing places. And it's

when I heard that because I was already doing that. But I wasn't

really even recognizing that that actually can be sort of a

way in which we navigate our whole lives, like we can create

our whole life around finding healing places, and what a

different world it would be if we all oriented around healing

places. And there's so much out there, there's just so many vast

ways to find healing and find that pathway back that can be

just as simple as the breath.

Yes, thanks for I mean, that's such an invitation for people

and that discovery of the things that will speak specifically to

you to the to each of us, right, it might look, there might be

overlap, but it's going to look distinctly our own too. And

that's the beautiful blend that you brought today. And you do

bring is everything that you've pulled in, together, at paired,

first and foremost with your experiences and what you really

came to teach and offer to people and to cultivate within

yourself. I mean, it's just such beautiful work and thanks for,

for doing it and being it and being here today with us because

it was just a pleasure to have this conversation with you. Oh,

well. It's such a pleasure to be here and to be with a mystical

sister. It really lights my heart up. It's a pleasure. Yeah,

I loved our conversation. Yeah, me too. We will continue it in

the future. And yeah, to our listeners. Thanks for being

here. share with a friend if you have someone in your world that

would benefit from any part of this conversation. And we'll see

you next time.

Thanks for listening to this episode of mystical sisterhood.

If you love what you heard, please visit Apple podcast and

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called to do so. To learn more about my one on one coaching

programs, or join the mystical sisterhood membership, visit

Maureen spielman.com or mystical sisterhood.com Thanks so much.

I'll see you in the next episode.