Ancient Wisdom, Modern Healing: Regulating the Nervous System

What if anxiety, burnout, chronic stress, and emotional overwhelm aren’t problems to “fix” — but signals from a dysregulated nervous system asking for safety?

In this powerful episode of Beyond The Pills, Lauren Courtney shares her journey from high-pressure corporate life and anxiety-driven survival mode to embodied healing through nervous system regulation, somatic therapy, breathwork, and energy healing.

If you’ve tried coping tools, medications, or mindset work yet still feel stuck in stress, trauma responses, or emotional exhaustion, this conversation reveals the deeper root of healing.

Modern healthcare often focuses on symptom management. But healing begins when the body feels safe.

Lauren explains how trauma, chronic stress, and unresolved emotional experiences become stored in the body and nervous system — shaping behaviors, emotional patterns, and even physical health.

You’ll discover:

1. How nervous system dysregulation fuels anxiety, burnout, and chronic stress
2. Why high performers often live in fight-or-flight mode without realizing it
3. The connection between trauma, the vagus nerve, and emotional regulation
4. How somatic healing and breathwork restore nervous system balance
5. Why true healing requires safety, embodiment, and presence
6. How ancient healing practices and modern neuroscience intersect

This episode bridges science and holistic healing, revealing why nervous system regulation is foundational for mental health, emotional resilience, and physical well-being.

Imagine moving from survival mode to safety… from chronic stress to calm clarity… from coping to true healing.

As Lauren shares:

“Your body isn’t broken — it’s protecting you.”

When you learn to regulate your nervous system, you unlock emotional resilience, deeper self-awareness, and the capacity to heal at the root.

This conversation is especially powerful for:

✔ high achievers experiencing burnout

✔ those healing from trauma or chronic stress

✔ healthcare professionals seeking root-cause healing approaches

✔ anyone struggling with anxiety, overwhelm, or emotional exhaustion

✔ individuals exploring somatic therapy, breathwork, or holistic healing

🎧 Listen now to discover how nervous system regulation can transform your health, emotional well-being, and capacity to thrive.

If this episode resonates:

✅ Share it with someone navigating stress or burnout

✅ Subscribe to Beyond The Pills for holistic health insights

✅ Leave a review to help more people discover root-cause healing

✅ Join the Beyond The Pills community for deeper conversations

Healing isn’t about fighting your body.

It’s about helping it feel safe enough to heal.

🎧 Listen now to discover how nervous system regulation can transform your health, emotional well-being, and capacity to thrive. If you found this valuable, leave a review on Apple to show your support!

Connect With Lauren

www.laurencourtneyheals.com

www.instagram.com/iamlaurencourtney

💊 Join The Beyond The Pills Community Today, Unlock True Healing Tomorrow!

https://askjosh.gobeyondthepills.com/

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Join me and other practitioners as we guide you towards vibrant health, body, mind, and spirit, and move beyond symptom management into true healing. Hello, welcome back everybody to Beyond the Pills on Josh Rimini, pharmacist Turned Healer. And today, today's conversation is a powerful one. Um, our guest, Lauren Courtney, she's the author of Glow Up Your Chakras from Medicated to Meditated, and the founder of Lauren Courtney Heal.

Uh, so change becomes sustainable instead of temporary. If you've ever wondered whether anxiety, burnout, or even chronic health symptoms or signals of a dysregulated, uh, nervous system rather than disorders, this episode will open your eyes. Uh, Lauren, welcome to be on the pills.

Lauren: Thank you so much for having me.

Lauren: A life?

Medicated was a life filled with anxiety, a life questioning myself. Um, I leave a room and feel like people were talking about me. I didn't feel secure. I didn't feel safe within myself. I thought what would make me feel safe was having a job that supported me financially. And I, you know, I learned that that is not the root of your safety.

Like there was this like little light inside at the time that was like, you're more than this. And luckily we expanded that light.

Josh: Well, that that's the story that we continuously have with ourselves, right? Like the. Those deeper questions of like the outside world. I had a job, like I thought it was safe, but something underneath it kept asking these clients.

The intuition, the soul like was like, there's something more here. Right. That turning point, something shifted for you. Right. It shifts for us when we get to the stages in our lives, which is why I love this, these conversations. Was there a particular moment or series of moments? Because everybody gets there in different ways and I love the stories of transformation.

Lauren: So it's definitely a series. Yeah. Of awakening moments for me, and it's interesting 'cause I think we continue to go through them. Even when we are awakened, it's like, oh, let's wake up a little more. But going from the medicated to meditated really began, I was working in corporate America.

And had to have the third jaw surgery in a series of surgeries for TMJ ultimately. And the third surgery I had was reconstructive jaw surgery. At 24 years old, my jaw was broken. Rubber banded shut.

Josh: Oh my gosh.

Lauren: Yeah. Good time. I was put on a leave of absence for work and it was the first time I was like out of a chaotic work environment as an adult.

So it was kind of the start. And from there, I, I left that job and decided, okay, I'm gonna get a nine to five job, which, you know, don't exist at a PR firm in, actually it was financial and healthcare pr. And I went to that job and that inner voice started getting louder and it started being, you're here to help people heal.

So I was like, I don't know. I feel like there's something here, but I'm not sure. And that turned into me starting to make food for myself. I was sick of paying 15, 18, $20 for a salad with avocado for lunch in Manhattan when I was making, you know, $40,000 a year. I was spending it all on my salads at lunch and I started cooking for myself and a coworker asked me to start making her salads 'cause she liked how mine looked.

And then two coworkers started asking, and then three. And, uh, all of this sudden, and I, I was like, maybe there's something here. And I kept getting this advertisement for the Institute of Integrative Nutrition because back then on your blogs, you know, these ads would just pop up. And I clicked on it one day and I can't remember the cost of the school, but immediately I was like, Nope.

I got a credit card. I said, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna figure it out. I got, I enrolled and then I got a call from my office that they were going to let go of my position and I would be out of a job, but I'd get unemployment. So I said, okay, I have no choice but to figure this out. I enrolled in school. I ended up getting a part-time job nannying while I was going through this program.

And from there it led me to connecting with a friend who was in recovery. And he told me about friends opening high end recovery homes in Manhattan. And I started working as a private chef in high end recovery homes around Manhattan. I started. Wow. Yeah. Like that's a

Josh: plus circle moment.

So it was shocking when they wanted to hire me. And their whole thing was, if you wanna take a chance on us, we wanna take a chance on you. It was three men running the space. They really needed a feminine energy in there.

Josh: Yeah.

Lauren: And I said, okay. And I had mishaps, like the first time I cooked chicken thighs.

They weren't fully cooked through and they let me stay. Uh, and from there I ended up evolving. I stayed with them for about a year, and then a competitor opened in New York City and I guess they had been to a meeting in the space, tried my food and reached out to me. I ended up moving over to working with them because I had an opportunity to not only work as a chef, but also to work with people struggling with food addiction and dive into the health coaching piece.

I have this amazing career I found outside of corporate. And then fast forward 10 years ago, my best friend and first love passed away. And the day he crossed the door, he began communicate, communicating with me. I had no idea it was a medium. I didn't really know what a medium was, and that was. You know, the next moment a really big awakening for me that led me out of the kitchen to learning reiki, understanding energy healing.

And, you know, the levels of awakening have, have really continued since

We all have like, my story. Your story. So I love usually starting with that. Thank you so much because, but I, I wanna tap in a little bit. 'cause you've, you've had those intuitive hits but you didn't know what they were, they were just questions and answers and sometimes. People hear direct words and direct things, and for me it's more of that, I call it a poof.

Like, oh, it's just gonna keep going and that's great. Right. So you started hearing these messages, you started getting more of these callings, and I love the, the, the kick in the pants by the universe. Right. You know, slow down, stop. Think about this for a minute. Oh wait, do it again. You know, like that's, that's the other pattern I see in my life.

At least you could take it from what it is. It's like, oh, I didn't really hear that. I'm gonna get another lesson here to slow down. Let's just break a foot. Right? I don't know, like,

Lauren: I can't make it up anymore either. 'cause when it comes in those ways that you could never imagine, you know, you're on the right path, right?

Mm-hmm. Yes, totally.

Nervous system dysregulation piece come in for you? Like, did you start learning it in your classes and then bringing it in, or was it like a self-discovery thing?

Lauren: So that came later. Um,

Josh: because it's such a key, it's a critical piece to where we are today in healthcare and, we'll, we'll touch on this many, many different ways, but I wanted to get your, your pattern of how that came in.

He came and stayed in my apartment one night. Um, I didn't know it was because it was a safe space for him, but it turned out it wouldn't, it wasn't 'cause the next morning, eight undercover cops knocked on my door to arrest him. And

Josh: Oh, that kinda safe. Sorry. I'm like, safe space, like I feel com, like no, like,

Lauren: yeah,

Josh: safe.

Like you

Lauren: totally nailed. He told me he had an interview a few blocks away the next morning. It would be really helpful for him if he could stay over. No, he thought no one would find him in my home anyway. He was found and he was dragged out of my apartment and I was left on my bathroom floor sobbing, sobbing i'd, I'd never experienced something like this in my life and.

I think you'd really like it. Check it out. Sometime I sent her a text message. It's like, where, where is that place? Like, I think I need to go there. And I went to this Kundalini yoga class that might, having no idea what Kundalini yoga was, that it's this series of movements to create a desired outcome different than a Vinyasa Fallot type class.

I don't, I don't know what just happened, but I feel good. Yeah. And I continued to go back consistently. I, I went back, I started doing 40 day practices and I just kept going. I had no idea it was regulating my nervous system. I understood that later on and continued practicing throughout my journey. Again, not really knowing what it was, but about, uh, what year is this?

God, I don't even know. About three years ago, I finally decided to train in Kundalini yoga to become a teacher. And the reason that I chose to do my Kundalini yoga teacher training was I was aware that I wasn't breathing properly. That there was like, I had done all this work, energy work, body work, tons of stuff.

Like, no, there's something that was missed. And I ended up doing the teacher training and I didn't quite find my breath through that. But two years ago I met a woman. She came to my class. We had met through social media. She's based in Canada. Happened to be coming to Miami, right? The universe happened to be coming to Miami to set up her business down here.

So I was doing all this work to regulate. A nervous system that was constantly going back into dysregulation. I'd spend two weeks regulating and then it was like, oh, okay. I gotta go back to the chiropractor. I gotta go back to this person, that person. And, uh, in May of this last year, right after I released my book, you know, I found my voice through all of it, wrote my book, published it, and then I had my tongue tie released in May.

And through that I started even more like doubling down on these practices for my nervous system.

Josh: Well, I, I love this part of the story, and this is what we had talked about prior to the recording of this episode, was like there's a physical, literal component to your. Voice being tied. Right. And like, you're, you're like, there's this analogy between, and I, I love it.

Lauren: Yeah.

Josh: And, and moving that forward. So I, I love that part of it too, because this show is a lot, a lot of what I do and a lot of what this show is about is ancient wisdom meets modern science.

So you were doing that ancient wisdom stuff with the Kundalini and learning, and you didn't know, you just felt right. You felt like, oh, I feel better. Like, I don't know why, but I feel it rather than that mechanistically. But then in the background you kind of figured that out. Like, oh, there's, there's.

Modern day science to what this is all about, which is why the yogis knew it way before we had any scientific component to it. Um, which is why I like both worlds coming at one place for you. That's so cool.

And I, and I laughed, right? Because I had been doing this spiritual work for so long, like, yeah. But Jesus isn't coming with a laser to actually remove what's wrong. I did the work through my connection to God, holy Spirit and Jesus angels, guides, loved ones, et cetera, to find the answer, right? Like,

Josh: yeah.

Lauren: So you can be guided to water.

But then are you gonna drink the water? Are you just gonna stand there and die of thirst? Like I, I literally was begging to find the water and if I just was like, oh, I found the answer, but now I'm gonna do nothing about it.

I was like, yeah, I, I totally tracking that.

Lauren: Yeah. And it's interesting 'cause the, the specialist, uh, the surgeon who ended up releasing my tongue tie, trained under my first surgeon who performed my first two surgeries when I was 17 and 21. So I was able to talk to him and understand that it was something that they weren't looking for back then.

'cause I held a lot of anger and resentment. When I got the diagnosis, I remember my dad came with me the appointment 'cause he didn't understand it. He's like, I, I need to understand like my, my brain needs to understand what's happening because

Josh: left brain dads always,

Lauren: you know, 'cause my parents thought they were doing what was right for me and they were based on the information.

And I kept pulling until I found quite literally the thread.

Josh: Well, what's, what's so important for that message? And thank you. I wanna honor that because in my world and in other people's worlds that I know and trust and, and hear about their stories is it's, for you, it was that, but for someone else, their trusting what they know, not what they, there's a knowing, right?

It wasn't this giving up of like, I'm gonna just do whatever the doctors say and this and that. It's, it's more than that. It's like you're, you're, you're, you keep going until. It presents itself in the way and manner it was supposed to. And in the divine timing that brought you to what you do today. Right?

My, my analytical goes into this stuff too. 'cause I've been a student of stress for my whole life, and I've been looking at these things in different ways. But when you can't rest your tongue on the top of your mouth, you can't get into parasympathetic tone. Like, that's the, that's why when you hum and you put the, like, it's the first part, like you said, I was, I wasn't breathing right.

But it was literally from the very beginning. But you didn't know, but you, you kept like, there was this, like that piece that came up and kept, and you kept listening to that. So I want people to really take that to heart as not your specific story, but that what came from that, which is I think is super critical and impactful here.

Lauren: Yeah, it's very, '

But for someone new to this world, what is this somatic work really like for you?

Lauren: For me, it's all about coming back to your body. I was really disconnected from my body without even knowing. And I, I bring it back to the, it's

Josh: talk about that. I want you to expand that, because I think when we say these words, they kind of get skipped over, like literally getting back into your body.

Starting when I was a freshman in high school, I was put on Adderall when I had my surgery, my first one for my jaw, my senior year of high school, I was put on painkillers, muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatories, and on top of that, I was consuming cannabis to deal with the fact that I had no appetite from taking Adderall.

So for me, I was a living in physical dysfunction with a tongue tie. I had stomach issues as a baby. I was colic. I used to throw temper tantrums that I now understand were related to the fact that I am deeply empathic and my parents didn't know how to hold those emotions because no one ever did that for them because they grew up on in some level of dysfunction as well, which is then was brought into my life.

But I, I didn't know any of that, that,

Josh: yeah,

Lauren: I was just living disconnected from reality and, and floating through time and space.

Josh: So, and that, that's a big piece. 'cause I think, you know, this is the Beyond the Pills podcast. Like, we're, we're not dis, we're not vilifying medication, but we're talking about the way you felt masking all those symptoms, right.

Masking the symptom of attention, masking the symptom of all these, the jaw pain and. Just blocking the symptoms, but not getting anywhere. And then creating, this is the, the, the fun part of big pharma is like taking something to get over the side effect of another thing. There's, there's actually FDA approved drugs now for side effects of other drugs.

Like, we didn't know that kids could be super empathic and they have all these feels and they're, they're, they're, they're just tuning in in different ways and like, so I, I love that perspective today 'cause I've gone through that and my children are in that space and it's like. Oh, you're hearing them from a different perspective now, and so thank you for bringing that up and looking at it from that perspective.

Do, do you, I, I love this conversation, so I love having other people talk about it. Do you think that the ancient wisdom is catching up to the modern science, or do you think the modern science is catching up to the ancient wisdom?

Lauren: Hmm.

Josh: You studied on both sides now, right?

Lauren: Yeah. I think as you're asking, like, my intuition is the modern science is catching up to the ancient wisdom is that because there's been so many people on the front lines of where building the pressure of the ancient wisdom to be brought up, that now the other side is like, okay, we have no choice now because too many people are, are smart.

Josh: Yeah. I, I just, it's, it's one of those questions and topics of conversation that probably doesn't have like one answer. It's like, you know, all of my tribe of soul pod people, like, it's like there is this awakening, like there's this kind of like.

We, we sense it, we feel it. This is why like people are listening to these things more and they're acting on these things because that, it took me 49 years to get to the word beyond because it wasn't this way or that way. It's like people are awakening to not complimentary and alternative. Literally looking at this from the perspective of they know the system that is, is failing them in some ways, and they're looking for these other solutions could not because they're, they're, they're, they're failed per se, but they're, there's something underneath that says, there's nothing.

And I wear it at like dispenza retreats and all the places I go. Um, so talk a little bit about your, your experience and, and we talked about the medicated side and, and do you believe medication is overused in cases of dysregulation?

Lauren: I, I'm so far removed almost from medication at this point, but I can't speak to it a hundred percent.

People aren't really satisfied. And, you know, I've been a pharmacist my whole life, but it's like we're not satisfied with just, you know, the pill for the ill anymore. And this is a big one for me because I, I believe the tools we use in lifestyle, the tools we use in breath work and energy and, and, and all the, the, the things we've been talking about today, like they're, they're really impactful in the spaces that we're talking about with stress and nervous system dysregulation.

Lauren: Yeah. So I have, um, I'll talk about one of my good friends, one of my best friends from growing up. I could consciously see over the last few years physically that she was holding onto stuff. 'cause I, I saw her weight go up. Um, I saw that she was uncomfortable in her body, but she wasn't verbalizing that, she wasn't talking about it because as far as she knew, I'm just getting older.

You know, like I have two kids, life is busy. And over the summer she reached out to me and was like, I am not okay. I'm having these really weird physical symptoms. And they were specifically pelvic floor symptoms. And at the same time she was working with a therapist. She decided I need to go back to therapy, or I need to start therapy for the first time.

The pelvic pain has dissipated. It's not there. She does notice if she gets a spike in anxiety or stress that it comes back. Like this week she was traveling. They got, uh, snowed out of flying back to New York and she said to me, I'm feeling anxious and I feel like that pain is coming back. I said, okay, let's breathe.

Let's just, let's just pause for a moment. Let's breathe. And she was like, you're right. I can control this anxiety. This anxiety isn't real. This anxiety isn't me. I am having a physical reaction. You know, we were able to talk through. So having a physical reaction to, she's not home so she doesn't feel safe and secure, that's been pulled from her.

Yeah. As well as meditation and movement, because I think there is that important need at times. I'm working with another client who's been really suffering with gut health issues for 10 years, and she finally, we've been working together for the last eight weeks. Last week I was like. I'm really feeling a specific energy of anger that you're holding onto, like you haven't allowed yourself to process that you've been sent on a wild goose chase through your journey to find healing and once we were able to process a lot of that anger and move through it, she actually got a diagnosis this week of endometriosis and found the doctor that can actually help her in dealing with the physical symptoms.

Josh: Yeah. Well that's powerful stuff because, and thank you for leading us down that space we're, medications are important, especially when people need.

They, they need something to move them past where they're at. Right. It's, it's, to me, that's why when I call it a symptom blocker, that's sometimes the first step that's needed to get them out. Right. But then moving them through their journey to support them in those ways. To then you said the, the outcome that your client is now is that first client is now she's looking at that from a holistic perspective, but also in a, a space of discernment now.

This is why the, the mind can make you sick and it can also make you well. And so thank you for enlightening the, the connection points that people can have from an emotional or the mind component into the emotional component, which then transfers into the physical realm, which manifests as dysfunction.

Lauren: They truly are. And even with that second client I mentioned, when she came to me, my intuition said, only see her first six sessions, have her book six sessions.

She doesn't need more than that. Session five, we got to the bottom of the anger the week after she got her diagnosis. Today is essentially her last session with me. If we move forward, it will be for different reasons than what she came to me for in the first place.

Josh: Don't you love, don't you love the how the, the stuff always works out.

Like you don't, like you don't bring intuition into like the factual realm. Like, oh, I was told six, you're gonna do six. It's like, no. Like that's just the feeling I had. And then all of a sudden it's like, Hey look, it worked. You know? It's like, oh yeah, I like, like that little awe, like the little, oh yeah.

Lauren: So this book I had kind of envisioned over the last eight, nine years, but it started as Glow Up Your Chakras, the Cookbook.

You are gonna burn out. You need to write your book. I was like, oh, well that feels like very direct orders. And this was at sometimes

Josh: that's how it works.

I'll listen. Uh, I will slow down. So I started slowing down, doing more breath work, getting deeper into my healing, which led me to the Kundalini. I went on three, um, breath work retreats. I went and studied with a former Navy Seal and his body work technique just to really understand. And at the same time, I started having.

This inner knowing that the book wasn't so much a cookbook, though I did include recipes, that it was gonna be more of a healing book and it was gonna be healing through storytelling. So it became a memoir meets chakra healing experience filled with knowledge on eating for your intuition as well as recipes for your chakras.

I wouldn't want people to know my stories.

Josh: You know,

Lauren: my stories could be a lot worse it seems. Um, but nonetheless, I started telling those stories in the book. So every, the beginning of the book is, you know, the story I really shared in more depth of how I went from medicated to meditated. And then part two is all about the chakras.

And I tell a high and a low of the chakras and you know, my low of the root chakra is losing my virginity on ecstasy. And I tell that story and, you know, the mess that it created for myself right then continuously to chase a certain energy based on that initial imprint. Uh, I talk about learning to use my voice in different ways.

When I was living through it. I really didn't wanna talk about it because we had broken up. I, you know, there was so much shame. So writing these stories allowed me to release the shame in a lot of ways that I was holding within myself. And the intention behind that was first and foremost, what I can heal within myself.

Like I get to put them on the shelf and be done with it. They're there, it exists. It's a part of who I was, but it's no longer who I am.

Josh: Hmm. I love that. And most people that I, I know in my close circles that have written books, like what you also said is like, you inadvertently, or maybe you purposely, like you wrote it for you.

Transformation of telling the story, building it up, making it human like we're we all, we all have stories. We all tell each other and most of the stories in our head are incorrect. We know this five fact, right? We, we, we tell ourselves the story rather that it's 'cause it's a story, right. And not, it's not actually real.

It's our real, you know, and that you were able to do that and, and help other people. So, um, where can people, where can, where can people find your book? If they, uh, if they're looking,

Lauren: it's available on Amazon. Okay, cool. There's talker is from medicated to meditated and a piece, you know, which each chara there's healing tools as well.

Josh: I'm glad that we brought that up in, in this organic fashion because these are the. Simple, no cost.

Things that get overlooked. Like when I call, I call it wellness made simple, right? There's simple doesn't mean easy because you could throw out, oh yeah, journaling, whatever. But it's like, no, if you actually commit few times to just doing it, um, sometimes I go a step further and I say, you know, go, go to your backyard where you have your fire pit and burn the thing, right?

Like, get it out, get that energy out and, and moving it. Um, so let's talk about sustainable versus temporary change. Why do you, why do so many personal development strategies in your mind? Why do they fail long term?

Lauren: A lack of integration.

Josh: Hmm.

But when I think about plant medicine in a whole. We see a lot of people go and they're like, oh, I went to the jungle and I did this journey, and now I've had this spiritual awakening and my whole life is gonna change. And six months later they're still in the same job and they're back in the jungle again because they didn't actually do the integration work.

Josh: Yeah.

Lauren: Um, even with my work, I've recently said, I'm, I'm no longer offering single sessions. No, I, I can't offer you a single session because we're gonna, it, it might only be two. Right. But we're gonna bring to the surface what needs to be brought to the surface, and then we need to spend time in, into integrating what actually came up.

Otherwise, I am doing you a disservice.

There's preparation, work for any type of growth. There's journey work, what you're doing in the actual moment, like that visit, right? But if you don't integrate it into your experience, into your life, that, like, whether it's lifestyle, plant medicine, functional medicine, like any protocol, and I, I do the same thing now, Lauren.

I do not take one-offs anymore. I, I can get you to a place where you can recognize what's here. But if we're gonna work together, there has to be a period of time where we both agree that this is the 'cause because it's through our experience, it's like we know we don't get what we want. From the quick fix or the tell me what to do, like diagnose me and just, yeah, just tell me what to do.

Lauren: Yeah. It's

Josh: like they've been fed this for so long, right?

Lauren: Yeah. It's like you get that hit of adrenaline, you get that, that oxy like, oh my God, I I it all out the dopamine hit. Thank you. And, and, um, but then what? Like, cool, like we spiked your dopamine. But now what? And I, I think that's why people like, you know, you, you wanna a psychic reading or card pulls and people always ask me, oh, I went to this psychic and they told me X, Y, and Z, but I don't know, it doesn't relate.

And I was like, of course it doesn't fully relate because that psychic told you what she sees when you're sitting in the chair at this moment. Like, life can change because after the reading, you can choose to walk out of your door. And she saw everything if you made a right turn. But if you choose to make a left turn, now the reading is invalid because you invalidated it.

And it's like, you're, I love that analogy. It's like, oh, the psychic told me, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. It's like, really? Okay, well now what? Now what? Right. And like, I love that word. I always tell, I I, I mess with people with that. I was like, great. Now I do it with my kids all the time, is like, dad alone's. Like, okay, cool, now what?

And they're like, stop it. You know? They're, because they're, they're stuck in that moment, you know? It's like, okay, let's, let's freak

Lauren: out because it like becomes this obsession of,

Josh: yeah,

So the work is, for me, it's like, come back to your intuition, come back to your truth. Connect with your gut and your inner knowing before you give everyone outside of you the power, because that just creates more dysregulation.

Josh: Well that, and that's, I love, I love when I have questions that gets answered without me asking the question.

It's like you get busy, things happen. All of a sudden you get re reminded, slow down your life. My life, like slow down a allow my, my, one of my best favorite mentors, she's one of my energy medicine gurus now, is we have a, she, she allowed me to borrow and, and use her, one of her mantras, which is push less, allow more.

And so allowing these things to unfold and allowing yourself to literally hear yourself

Lauren: Yeah.

Josh: Is, is, is so powerful. And I think it's so overlooked. And that's what you do, right? You help people listen. More by being in their body and grounding them now.

Lauren: Absolutely.

Josh: You build this, you mentioned we have the same kind of avatars.

Um, so people that are listening or, or have any of these things is like, what's your, what's your favorite place to play? Like where do you like to work with people?

Lauren: I, I'm feeling called more into the arena, like quite literally the arena of sports and athletics.

Josh: Hmm.

Lauren: That door hasn't fully opened yet, but Right.

Let's speak it into existence. 'cause I know that's the arena I'm entering into next. That really excites me because when you're working with people on that level, they create a massive impact, not just to their company, but to the world. And it's like, okay, well how do we expand this out to the world and make the impact in that way?

So I'm glad that you're, you're, you're, you're leaning into that a little bit more. I'm sure it will unfold in the way you want it. You need to, yeah. If someone's listening and feels this, they don't feel right. There's something more, they're a little, they're feeling dysregulated. Whether it's anxious, overwhelmed, burnout.

I always like to give people what, what's one simple thing they can start with today?

Inhale four, hold four, exhale four. Just to regulate your breath because. Our breath is quite literally what brings us through life. If we're not breathing, we're not living. So you know when it comes back right to what we've been saying, slow down, breathe.

Josh: Slow down, breathe.

Lauren: There's this saying in Kabbalah that I've learned, and I always come back to pause.

What a pleasure. Pause. Wow. How lucky am I to be experiencing this moment? What a pleasure. Even if it's seemingly not a pleasurable moment, pause. What a pleasure. I'm alive right now in this experience. What is this here to teach me? What is this an opportunity to unlock for me as opposed to, oh my God, why did she do this?

Josh: I love that. And, and one of my good friends says he always, he reframes things beautifully and a lot of times we get stuck in the I should or I need, and he's like, no, you get, you get to,

Lauren: yeah.

Josh: And, and that's, it's powerful because if you pause, you're actually pausing to be more present, right? If you're looking at your breath, like a box breath is simple. Uh, but it's like do three cleansing breaths. Like literally pause, sit on your breath and cleanse. If you're doing a box breath, I'm gonna challenge everybody.

And it's fun because if you do four, three or four box breaths, your nervous system literally starts to dis like to regulate and get into parasympathetic rest and digest home. That's what it's for. And we, we, we don't realize that the breath is so powerful and you're pausing to say, wow, look how beautiful breath is.

I do it in the shower, like when I'm, my mind's going, I gotta get somewhere. It's like, no, Josh, stand there and breathe three times before you move. Like, there's that pause and that it, it's, it's so therapeutic every time I, I think, to do it. So,

Lauren: yeah. And it's like, it's like we're breathing anyway, but it's an unconscious breath.

Like we're, we're, we're just breathing 'cause we're alive, so we're breathing. And when you could bring the awareness to, wow, I'm breathing it, it really changes everything. And I, I guess I appreciated so much more now that I'm like, oh my God, I, I can breathe. Because for so long my breath was stuck in my chest and so shallow because my tongue quite literally was in the wrong position and I couldn't deepen my breath.

Josh: Well, and then one of, one of my friends and, and mentors, he's ego and deep dives on breath work. And James Nestor crowed a whole book on breath.

It's so much more than just the, the, the unconscious. Like, we're just breathing. 'cause your, your, your automatic system just does it. Right. It's like if you literally check yourself, like even if you're breathing outta your chest, not your belly, like, and then you, you look at a baby and it's how natural is it for them to just do the belly breast and like how, how quick we get into our own stuff.

And so simplicity is so beautiful.

Lauren: Yeah. Truly cute.

Lauren: can find me online, Lauren courtney heal.com. I'm on Instagram at I am Lauren Courtney. And then of course, the book is Glow Up Your Chakras From Medicated to Meditative.

Josh: We'll, we'll have those where we just created our community portal, so we'll, we'll have additional resources that you're, we're gonna connect on for people to do things. Um, this has been fun.

Lauren: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.

Josh: Oh, it has been great. I, I love the connection, especially in this day and age, as we start thinking about how do we move in this high stress, high, you know, toxic environment.

Um, so beautiful.

Lauren: Thank you so much. All right, guys. That was a fun one. That's a wrap. Uh, until next time, stay well.

Josh: Thanks for joining me today on Beyond the Pills. If our mission to de-prescribe 10 million unnecessary medications resonates with you, share this episode, subscribe and leave a review. Whether you're a practitioner or someone ready to reclaim your health, visit rx to wellness.com for free resources to begin your journey together, let's go beyond the pills and co-create a world of vibrant health and true healing.

Until next time, live better and stay well.