What if I told you that you could navigate through the labyrinth of stress, balance your life, and journey towards holistic health? We're exploring all these and more with Leigha Verbeem, a seasoned kinesiologist, integrative health coach, and stretch therapist who’s had her fair share of health struggles. Leigha brings to the table more than a decade's experience and layers of education to illuminate our understanding of the delicate interplay of mind and body in our health journey.
In our conversation, we explore how stress affects our lives, recognising the different types we contend with, and how to create systems to manage them. We delve into the importance of self-awareness and the potency of small, sustainable habits which lead to positive change. Leigha helps us unravel the importance of enjoying exercise and letting ourselves switch gears if a routine isn't working or simply to take a break when needed. We also navigate the emotional landscape linked to food choices and how to nibble at health in manageable, bite-sized pieces, all the while maintaining discipline, structure, and balance.
We uncover the magic of giving ourselves permission to do what our bodies need and how to shift our mindset to be more supportive of our wellbeing. We set the foundation for sustainable habits, underscore the importance of rest, and tackle the physical symptoms of stress.
CONNECT HERE >
HANNAH IG > https://www.instagram.com/hannahkategarner/
LEIGHA IG > https://www.instagram.com/leigha.verbeem/
OTHER RESOURCES > https://www.liinks.co/leighaverbeem
Dont forget to subscribe and leave an apple podcast review if you enjoyed the episode (5* are my fave :) )
Peace and Love Han x
What if I told you that you could navigate through the labyrinth of stress, balance your life, and journey towards holistic health? We're exploring all these and more with Leigha Verbeem, a seasoned kinesiologist, integrative health coach, and stretch therapist who’s had her fair share of health struggles. Leigha brings to the table more than a decade's experience and layers of education to illuminate our understanding of the delicate interplay of mind and body in our health journey.
In our conversation, we explore how stress affects our lives, recognising the different types we contend with, and how to create systems to manage them. We delve into the importance of self-awareness and the potency of small, sustainable habits which lead to positive change. Leigha helps us unravel the importance of enjoying exercise and letting ourselves switch gears if a routine isn't working or simply to take a break when needed. We also navigate the emotional landscape linked to food choices and how to nibble at health in manageable, bite-sized pieces, all the while maintaining discipline, structure, and balance.
We uncover the magic of giving ourselves permission to do what our bodies need and how to shift our mindset to be more supportive of our wellbeing. We set the foundation for sustainable habits, underscore the importance of rest, and tackle the physical symptoms of stress.
CONNECT HERE >
HANNAH IG > https://www.instagram.com/hannahkategarner/
LEIGHA IG > https://www.instagram.com/leigha.verbeem/
OTHER RESOURCES > https://www.liinks.co/leighaverbeem
Dont forget to subscribe and leave an apple podcast review if you enjoyed the episode (5* are my fave :) )
Peace and Love Han x
Hello and welcome back to empower thyself podcast. I'm your host, hannah Garner. As always, I'm really looking forward to diving into these subjects. I'm really into holistic health and somatic practices and so much at the moment, so you might see a little theme with some of the guests that I have, although sharing different expertise and insights. That's the vibe I'm going for at the moment and I hope you're enjoying it too. If you're new here, don't forget to subscribe. If you're a regular listener and you haven't yet subscribed, please do so, because you'll ensure that you don't miss out on any episodes.
Speaker 1:But today I'm really excited to dive into this topic because it's something that actually I was introduced to a number of years ago as a practice, but I never really knew what it was or understood it until more recently, and I am really excited to dive into the topic. We're going to be covering holistic health as a whole, looking at stress, how we can work with our body and our mind to get ourselves into a really great place. Now, my guest today is Leah, and she is a registered kineologist, integrative health coach and stretch therapist. So she's got over a decade of experience, eight years of education, plus her own health journey. She now guides women of all ages through their own holistic health journeys. Through education, movement, nutrition and mindset, she encourages their clients to stretch every day, both in mind and body. So welcome, leah. I'm so excited to have you today. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Hannah, I'm really excited to be here and I'm really excited to just talk about something that seemingly comes up a lot with a lot of my clients but then just day to day people as well.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I think it's a big hot topic right now mind, body, soul, kind of holistic health in general, I think people are wanting to move away from maybe the more Western things, not to say that they don't have a place and aren't great, but how can we support ourselves in prevention, in between, in the healing journey and just life generally to feel our best? So just to give a bit of background about yourself, I feel as though the listeners I always love to give you the opportunity to share your journey. Introduce yourself, how you got to you know being this person who helps women with stretching, with movement, all of those things Share your journey. Let us know a bit more about you, yeah absolutely so.
Speaker 2:I personally think and my parents will deny this but I really think I've always been interested in health. Even as a kid my parents would talk to me about, oh these certain fruits and veggies are good for you, and we would handpick blueberries from the field and we were always encouraged to be active and outside and just busy, just moving in general. And with that, I think, even though I never really picked up like traditional sports or anything, health was just a big part of that. And I really started to deep dive when I went into school, and especially in high school, I had so many friends that would struggle with their periods or worrying about pregnancy or just not understanding what was happening to their body and their hair and their nails, and they would freak out and they would stress and all the time I would have to reassure them, even though I didn't even know anything at the time, just how this stress was impacting their life. Yeah, so fast forward.
Speaker 2:When I was first starting to go to university, I had a friend pass away and of course that brought on a lot of stress. I had never been through a situation like that and at the time I definitely didn't realize how much it was impacting me. I knew I was sad, I knew I was struggling with depression. But looking back, I'm now realizing just how integrative our lives really are. And I was starting to experience gut issues and I was starting to experience heightened anxiety. I was getting nightmares, I was getting sleep paralysis, my hair was falling out, my periods would stop coming sometimes and it wasn't that I was underweight or anything like that, and it just didn't make sense and I was like, oh well, you know it's a gut issue, it's a, you know, like maybe I'm just not absorbing food properly and I was kind of focusing on that and I wasn't realizing how much stress my body was under. And then, you know, I continued into university. I was working two jobs. I was running around like crazy, especially when I started working with clientele. I would run to the studio to train one or two clients or to work as a therapist. Then I was back on campus for one class and running to my car to go to my next job. And then I would run to the gym and I was doing a 45 minute hit workout and I was just go, go, go all the time.
Speaker 2:And I remember my doctors and I think most of our doctors have said this to us, like, oh, what kind of stress are you dealing with? And we write it off because we're like, well, yeah, but it's just, it's normal stress and it's not normal. And I don't think people realize like it's not just the mental stress of running around, it's the stress of what's happening with your digestive system. Are you eating on the go? Are you in pain? Are you even digesting your food properly? Are your hormones functioning properly? Are you sleeping normally, right?
Speaker 2:It's not just this mental, it's the emotional and it's this like physical stress that we put our bodies through as well, and even like financial stress, like there are so many different aspects to it. But I don't think we realize just how much we actually put our bodies through. And even if we say like, okay, we're going to take away some of our mental stress and forget about meal prepping and having healthy foods, we're just going to go quickly grab something at the drive through. But then you're putting yourself through a physical stress instead, because now you're having to go to your way to go through the drive through to eat food that your body doesn't digest very well, and now you're in this physical stress, even though it's taken some off of your plate from meal prepping at home. It's now just turned into this other aspect and then it kind of carries into your sleep and all of these different things. And that's really where, like the integrative part of my job comes from, is when my clients come to me.
Speaker 1:It's like what's actually going on in the whole picture of your life, not just the little things that you're telling me about 100%, and I think this is probably what you've explained is literally like the 21st century explanation of how humans and young adults function. Yeah, it's normalized, it's, you know, something that we all go through and we all experience and we're it's almost like because of the people having to do it. It's like, well, they're doing it, so I have no right to slow down or no right to complain, or it is what it is and, yes, that's fine if that's the mindset you want to take. But the thing with it is and I'm sure, like you said, with sharing a bit of your journey and how things started showing up in your body if you aren't careful, it will come to slap you in the face later down the line.
Speaker 1:I've experienced burnout. I know so many people have experienced different levels and different scenarios, you know just. But the thing with it all is why do we even need to let it get to the these extremes before we actually look at it? But on the same breath, I know that our society and life and how things are, they're not always set up to be stress free and not to be the least, the most favorable for us, and we do have to live with life, we do have to live in society, so there's no denying that. So, from your perspective and people listening, because they're like, okay, it's all well and good telling me not to be stressed, not to do this, not to do that, but like there's just some things I can't always avoid or this is just part of life. How do we get that balance? How do we start managing the? Okay, let's look at the whole integrative health piece, whilst also accepting that we live in a world that is very fast paced and doing all these things Like how do you merge the?
Speaker 2:two. So I think a big thing is just recognition from the get go. A lot of people don't even realize that constipation is a type of stress on our body. Or eating or not eating enough food is a stress on the body, right, and so I think that's a big piece of it is if you don't know and understand all of these various types of stress that you could be going through, it makes it really hard to change something that you're not aware of. So I think that's the first big piece of it.
Speaker 2:Some things that you can try is just like time blocking is a really big thing. Or even just like looking at your schedule what are you doing every second of the day? Are you eating in your car? Like, what processes are you going through day to day and how can you actually like create systems? We do it in our businesses. Why would we not do it in our own lives? Again, like yes, we do just have to live with the way that the world works, and I get that. But what can you do that improves your life rather than just stressing over it? Right, and if that means that you have to take a step back from your hit workouts and include Pilates instead.
Speaker 2:Right, Not saying that one is better than the other, but you have to look at whole picture and be like, okay, where can I just make little tweaks for some of my clients? That something as simple as like if they don't have time to work out, just do 10 minutes, just a 10 minute walk, just something like just one little change. We're not trying to stress you out more. That's never the goal. It's trying different ways of preparing your food. It's trying different morning routines. Something that I learned from my time management coach for my business actually was having backup routines. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I really liked that one just because it does take a lot of the pressure off of you. You don't have to wake up that's me sorry. You don't have to wake up thinking like, oh, I have to do this 45 minute morning routine and wash my face, my five step skincare, and you don't have to go through all of these different processes, knowing that you can just be like, okay, you know what, this morning I just have time for 10 minutes of me today just creating these routines and just trying different things. And if something doesn't work, you're allowed to change it too, and I think giving yourself permission for that as well as a big piece of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's so powerful actually because I learned, you know, I got very into morning routines when I first started my self development journey and it was really powerful for me and I needed to go hold on a minute. I'm gonna sneeze again. Sorry, high pollen count here and it just gets me out of nowhere and I just was thinking I'm gonna sneeze again. I was trying to hold it in, but it's not working.
Speaker 2:Hold on see you in a couple of other notes.
Speaker 1:No, I think I'll be all right. I just have a tissue somewhere, but I don't know where it's gone. Let me just have a bit of water. I'll just cut this out, don't worry I figured. It's always really difficult when you're like trying to. You know, like I don't normally sneeze, like when I'm podcasting or cough, but when you do it's like, oh, I'll try not to like make a sound, and it's so hard. I know I was like should I pause?
Speaker 2:when I'm saying it yeah, no, sorry.
Speaker 1:If I do it, just carry on, because my brain can still work, it's fine, like I'll be able to pick it up, right? Yeah, so what I was saying was I started doing morning routines and I really went deep into it like, okay, I need to do X, y, z, ticking all of these things off the box, off the list, and at the time, I think, to give me some structure, to get me into knowing like different practices within that morning routine. It was great because I'd never done anything like that before and it really opened my eyes to how a bit of discipline, a bit of structure works and I was like great. But now I've gone full circle because at some point, like you say, that became unachievable. But I thought that only if I would only be successful or I'd only get things done if I did this list, and so then it became a ticking off exercise. And what I always like to remind people and I'm sure this is something you have to, like work with, with your clients, is a lot and remind them of is the whole point that we add things into our life or the whole point, the real reason but we often forget this is it's meant to enhance our life. It's meant to be a tool to make us either feel better or to support our lifestyle, or to bring us more joy, or to deepen connection and relationships. So if we're doing the healing or if we're doing the morning routines and it's adding stress or it's taking away that, then why the flip? Are we doing it Like there's literally no reason for it?
Speaker 1:And when I had that light bulb moment, I was like, oh, you know, some days Hannah does wanna do a 45 minute some journaling, some movement, some breath work, some this, some that. Other days, she just needs to get up in the morning and whack on a good song that makes her feel brilliant, dance around the room for two minutes and she's good to go and that's all that I need. And when I had that light bulb moment, I was like this is what learning all this stuff is about not making another tick list for yourself, which I think we get into the habit of right Like, oh, if I don't do this, I don't do that, and that was a really like crazy thing for me. So I love that idea of like a backup routine. So, like you say, if you know, you know the things that work for you on a day where you have it. You know, in a perfect morning this is how I'd like to start my day, but actually that's not. We know life's not like that. So what can we do? That still gives us that boost we need, and that might look different every day, but we know what that is, cause I think we then get in that fret zone If we don't have that backup of like oh now my day's ruined and then it's like a spiral, right, yeah, so I really love the idea of a backup routine.
Speaker 1:That is, I've never heard it explained like that and I think so many people are going to be like I get it now. So when you're working with clients, I think what I'd love to, just before we dive into more of the integrative health, is just explaining what a kinsiologist does, because this word is thrown around a lot, which we all, as we spoke about before on the podcast, I can say it without when there's no pressure, but as soon as I'm recording like, I butcher it, as I'm sure so many of us do. But like what is that what? Just so that people can kind of understand that from you know, who may not have heard of that as a job or a modality?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it does vary, definitely country to country. Where I am, it is something that is a regulated profession. In the US, I think it's a little bit different. I don't think like you can go to school for it, but it's not regulated and it's something more like exercise science.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And then again varies just country to country, but overall, at least here, we kind of describe it as like it is just its own holistic sense of health. We study movement, we study anatomy, we study mechanics, we study physiology, but we also study, like, the mindset why do we like to move, why don't we like to move? What's happening outside of our lives that's affecting our ability to do all of these things? And it really is its own holistic way of approaching things. So some people will work in a clinical setting, working with people like just purely in like a rehab, physical therapy type of way. Some people will work with sports teams.
Speaker 2:I like to work specifically with women. I kind of approach it a little bit differently. So, yes, I can program, I can prescribe exercise for certain treatments. So, whether that's like diabetes, I work with women who are struggling with like osteoporosis, menopause, pregnancy, you name it. I kind of work with the full lifespan. That's just personally what my interests are and something that I relate to, especially as I go through each stage of my life.
Speaker 2:I wanna be healthy for all of these different areas and I even for myself. I like to be proactive in those things, and what you said before is preventative. Health is a big piece of that right. So whenever I get a client, no matter what their stage is, it's like okay, how can we improve your health now, but how can we also improve it for the future as well, so you're not falling into old patterns that you can actually like.
Speaker 2:Build these, like we said, these backup plans or these morning routines, whatever it looks like, whatever their goals are in their health space. Even if a client comes to me and they say, maybe they wanna lose weight. But the more I get to know them, I'm like the weight and your food isn't the problem, it's the stress levels, it's your sleep, it's whatever. And so we tackle it from this whole health perspective and with my degree itself like with my kin degree I was I had the ability to learn all about the brain and, yes, how it works with our muscles right, like the mind muscle connection. But also, how does stress impact our muscles? How does it impact our physiology, how does it impact our ability for us to grow hair right and make our skin beautiful and all of these things? So, no matter what it is like, our bodies do work full circle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, and that's kind of like the word does capture a lot, but when I was introduced to it, it was actually more about like how your like muscle monitoring, like the bio feedback from that, like if there's any imbalances in your body, how to relieve those imbalances. But more as well, because I know you can even go into the realm of like I was looking at it with somebody who was doing it from a very spiritual perspective so like what's going on emotionally and spiritually that's causing imbalances that maybe in your body you can like relieve, and so that was really interesting and eye-opening for me to think, wow, like there's so many facets that feed into our health that we don't, as you said, without realizing has an impact. And so when you're working with women in particular cause you know that's a main part of my audience and who you work with, if people are listening, like right, clearly we all know that we're living slightly stressful lives. Now I do think and I'm gonna say this before we go into what I was gonna share Stress in the body in the right way to keep us agile and things like that is great, but at the moment in this world we're not using it the right way we're not like, for example, if you're under immense stress right now and please feel free, once I've shared this, to add what you think but once, like, if you're under immense stress right now, the last thing you're going to need is more stress.
Speaker 1:But once we get our bodies back into balance as best as we can our mind, body, soul then actually exerting a bit of stress onto ourselves is good, because if we didn't have that, then we wouldn't be able to be very agile, we wouldn't be learn how to be resilient. I do think there's an element of that. We do need that, but at the moment we're all functioning with so much stress in ourselves. We're actually we need to kind of undo it and bring it back. So, with your clients and how you work, what kind of approaches do you take? Because I know people listening to this will be like okay, I want to improve how I treat my body with movement and this, that and the other. What does that look like? I know it's going to be very unique to each individual, but what are the tools people can start thinking about that might help them on this journey?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So just to take a step back, like I do want to like confirm, like you are correct in that it's not necessarily about how much stress you take on. People can handle a lot of stress but, like you said, it's the resilience as it's the ability to recover and to cope with it. So, yes, you can place stress on yourself and that's okay. Our bodies are meant to handle that, but it does need to recover. So if you take stress and then you keep stacking it on and on and on, your way up here and you're, it makes it a lot harder to fully recover from that.
Speaker 2:And kind of what we were saying in the beginning, like when you reach that full burnout phase. Like if you, let's say, you have a little bit of stress, okay, and then your day ends and you have a nice nighttime routine and you have some sleep and then you go back to your stressful day the next day but you've recovered a little bit, that's fine. But if you have a stress and then you go home and you're go, go, go and then you sleep like crap and then you add more stress to your day and you just keep piling on and your stress is way up here and then all of a sudden you hit burnout and you need a lot more time to recover. And it's not just that, oh, I'm burnt out, I need to go on vacation, right, because, a you haven't learned the ability to cope with day to day stress and, b realistically, if you've hit full burnout, that could take years to recover from. So yes, like stress is good and I don't want people to feel like it has to be demonized. I think right now there's especially anyone who is involved in the fitness industry sees that, like cortisol, like the way that we respond to stress, is very demonized right now. And cortisol is a good thing, we need it, we want it, but it does hinder our ability to do other things.
Speaker 2:And so the importance, like you said, is, yes, placing stress on yourself, but knowing how to cope and be resilient and come down from that stress before going back to it is really important. And the same goes for the other side. I think some people are so afraid of being in a stressful situation that they don't put themselves in it at all. They don't get any variability in their stress versus their non-stress, so when something stressful does come up again, they don't handle it well. So, yes, stress is good. It's the same as when we do a workout you're placing stress on your muscles and joints so that your muscles and joints can become stronger and more resilient to those things. So you get stronger every time. But just the same as your muscles, it's the same as your mind. You need to be able to actually rest, recover, get healthy foods, get good sleep, do your routines, take a step back from life before you go and throw yourself into another stressful day or another stressful situation.
Speaker 2:So kind of leading into that with my clients. Like you said, it is very different for every client and even, like you were saying before, with the checklists, I have clients that love checklists are very, very motivating for them. For most people that doesn't work, but it is really getting them to recognize as well what their stress levels are, and it's not always easy as me just telling them hey, I know you're stressed at work or I know your stress is coming from all of these places, but they also have to accept those things as well, and it's about sometimes putting up boundaries. It's finding your non-negotiables as well. What we were saying with, like the morning routines. For me and non-negotiable is making my bed in the morning. Right, it's something so simple, but it makes or breaks my day, and so if you're like so stressed out and you're skipping these little things that make you feel really good, then you're not really getting that moment of resilience or stress less hours in your day, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, and I think that's the thing that you know. With the way we are sharing information on the world, the main minute, it's almost like two extremes, like, oh, we can't like remove all stress from our lives, and actually that isn't great for us, but at the same time, sometimes we do have to have that little bit of discipline, like in order to achieve, like, do something, almost what might be classed as hard to continue with. That actually, though, overall, makes your life so much easier and makes you function, like, for example, for me clutter and dirt and mess I cannot work or live in that it doesn't work.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying that it stresses me out. I was at a client's the other day and their office just was full of paperwork and files and everywhere. And luckily we were in the boardroom downstairs, which was very clear. But I literally every time I went up there I was like like I tensed up, because I was like I can't think, because all I want to do is go and sort out all of the stuff around me. And interestingly, I learned the other day and I didn't even know this until recently, you know we say you know clear, clear like house or place, like clear mind.
Speaker 1:But there's actually studies now and I don't I can't recall the exact name of it, but someone's talking about it there's a study now that shows clutter actually makes you more depressed and the longer you leave it, the harder it is to get out of it. And I was like wait what? And so sometimes clearing things up in the moment coming up, oh, but I'm tired, I'm this, I'm not, I don't want to do it, but in the long run, once you've done that, you're like I feel so good, I can relax, I can actually have that rest and recovery period. And so for me, like one of the things I do is like, when I get back in from work, a lot of people just want to jump on the sofa and lie down, and I'm like, right, when I get in, I'm just going to do the few things that enables me before I sit down, because once I'm sat down, I'm not getting back up type by like, what can I do? Okay, I'm going to put my bag away, I'm going to wash my my lunch cutlery and stuff like that and get that done. I'm going to repack my lunch ready for the next day.
Speaker 1:And yes, that might seem like, oh, why would you want to do that as soon as you got back in from work? Because it then allows it to go autopilot. It takes me, you know, no more than 15 minutes. I'm already standing up, I'm already doing the things and then, once it's done, the next day is easier. When I'm relaxing, I'm not worrying about the fact that I've got all of these dirty dishes on the side and it sounds so simple, but we often miss those points. But it's been game changing doing that. And so I think for me, like, when we look at this whole integrative health, yes, we can go and do all these very particular things and movement, and, you know mind, body, all of this stuff. But sometimes it's like the day to day habits that we create that can be the most powerful and sometimes they feel difficult in the moment, but once you've done it, the benefit way outweighs that kind of period of like, oh, can't be bothered. Is that how you find things?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and it again it's going to vary for everybody and it does take a little bit of creativity. I will be honest, and that's okay, like it's just trial and error. Sometimes, same as you like, I don't like clutter it just it makes my mind feel very cluttered, it stresses me out. So for me, like part of my bedtime routine, like I'm already up and washing my face and brushing my teeth, so I take that time to make sure all of my dishes are done and put away. Right, my bed is done, my clothes are away, because otherwise I'm laying in bed and I can just like feel the clutter around me and it feels awful, and then I don't sleep well. Versus I'm like, wow, my room is really clean and it feels nice and everything is put away and now I can sleep really well and I'm not stressed about knowing that I'm going to wake up to this mess or these chores to do right.
Speaker 2:So, same as you, just get it out of the way, it doesn't take long. That's something that works for me. Is it going to work for everyone? No, but again, like I give a lot of my clients this one rule. I'm like just 10 minutes, right, 10 minutes of cleaning. That's a huge difference in your place. Or 10 minutes of walking, or 10 minutes of just deep breathing, like whatever it is, whatever your body needs. I'm like just do 10 minutes. It's so hard to talk yourself out of that when it's just 10 minutes, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's a really powerful tip and something you know it's achievable for everybody.
Speaker 1:That's something that everyone can tap into and no matter what your lifestyle is. And you know, there are occasionally days where I'm so tired and I've had a stressful week where I think, do you know what, I am going to leave that all there. But it's knowing those moments, actually that's going to benefit me more. And, like, do you know what? In the morning I'll just get up and have like a little refresh, first thing, so I'm reset. But actually that night, in this moment, I do actually need to just do nothing and just dump stuff and go. You know, relax. But I know the difference and that's the thing. It's about learning to know what works for you.
Speaker 1:And often when we're on this hamster wheel of life, we kind of just get sucked up into it all and don't really realize what is impacting us. So for me, sometimes just sitting and taking stock of like what right now, what's weighing on my mind, because normally those are the things that I need to sort out, and it could be something as simple as the dishes, okay, well, if the dishes are just in the back of your head while you're trying to do something else, go do them first. Or if it's like I know I really need to go to the gym because my body's craving movement, but I'm feeling lazy, but I'm on my mind like I should go to the gym. I should go to the gym, like, go do it, because that's before you're not going to be able to do anything else. If that's what's going on and I think, just like having that little quick stocktake of your day of, like what's coming up in my mind, that's maybe taking up more space and it needs to go deal with that first, and then you're going to open up a whole lot more space.
Speaker 1:So you also look at movement and that's a big part of your job and all of those kind of things. What does that look like for you? Like, let's dive into that a little bit more. What kind of tips and recommendations can you give when it comes to moving the body? Because that's a big part of health, whether we like it or not, moving our body, and that doesn't just mean, like you say, hit workouts. What is that? What does that look like?
Speaker 2:So it's gonna be different for everyone, kind of based off of their goals. Some people will have very specific goals. Some people are just like, hey, I just wanna be healthy, I just wanna move, and that's okay too. One thing that I really try to emphasize with all of my clients is do something that you like. Right. We can argue all day what's better, if running is better or weightlifting or Pilates or bar classes or walking right. Like you can argue so much for each activity of what's better, but at the end of the day, what's best is what you actually enjoy, because it's what you're actually gonna show up and do and it's what's gonna make you feel good and it's what's gonna help you achieve your goals. Because if you came to me and you're like, hey, leah, I love running and these are my fitness goals, and I was like, okay, great, we're gonna go swim, right, and maybe you hate swimming and you're like, okay, like, I guess I'll go do that, just because I said, okay, well, swimming is gonna help you reach your goals faster, but it's not because if you don't like swimming, you're not gonna go, or it's gonna be this like mental struggle and what you were just saying. If it's something on your mind that you're like I have to go do this, but then you're sitting on the couch for a half hour wasting time dreading your workout, and then you don't put all your energy into it. You're just like, okay, let's just get this over with, right? So you don't try as hard, you're not enjoying it, you don't leave feeling good, right. And so a big thing is just do whatever feels good.
Speaker 2:And what you were saying before, like recognizing what your body needs if your body is craving movement, go for it. But is your body craving stretching? Is your body craving just deep breathing? Maybe it's craving some kind of like meditation. Maybe it's craving a hit workout.
Speaker 2:Maybe you're craving a run or a walk right, like I do set, like I have a weight lifting routine for myself, but sometimes I'm just like you know what? I just wanna go for a walk today and that's okay. And I think something that keeps coming to mind as we're like having this conversation is give yourself permission to do so, right, like give yourself permission to say you know what, it's okay that I'm not gonna go to the gym, even though I feel like I'm supposed to be doing this. Just say like, yeah, it is okay to just go for a walk, it is okay to just stretch today. Like, whatever your body needs, you will be okay. Like nothing bad is gonna happen if we don't do all the things on our to-do list. Like stop making it a chore, because these things are meant to improve ourselves and they are meant to be positive stressors.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, and I think that's probably come from you know, when we've gotten to this should do this, should do that. That's come from the fact that historically, maybe we've been told we need to do things like you have to work out five times a week, or, like you know, there's so much information out there that kind of contradicts that. One minute this is bad for you. One minute, that's great for you. One minute this is the amount of time. One minute it's that amount of time, and so it's all this confusion, and then we build up this kind of like story for ourselves of what we should do. And, yes, there is definitely times where we do need to have that discipline, because we can sabotage ourselves and make excuses for not doing things over a long period of time.
Speaker 1:But that's very different too, and this is what I feel like a lot of us are really terrible at, especially women, is, like you said, giving ourselves permission to know that, okay, I'm not just because I don't go to work out today, it doesn't mean I have to, I've lost all my progress and I'm gonna quit and I'm not gonna go back, cause that's what a lot of people do.
Speaker 1:They're like, oh, I didn't go to the gym this one day. So let me just start again in a week or in another time, because we've got into this toxic mindset of that, whereas actually being able to tune into your body, like you're saying, being like do you know what, I'm just tired and I need a walk, or I'm just really not feeling these weights, I'm feeling spinning, or I'm feeling polarities or whatever, that's gonna serve us so much more. But then, knowing that, but tomorrow I'll be back on my normal routine, which feels great to me, and I think we're really bad at giving ourselves. If we go against that kind of feeling and say, okay, I'm gonna go on this walk instead of weight, we then give ourselves the mental torment of, like you should have done weights, I can't believe you didn't do that. All of that stuff.
Speaker 1:And that's also not healthy, and I've been there, which is why I'm sharing it, because I'm sure there's so many people that have been in that situation. Even if it's not exercise, it might be something else. And you're like, oh, I didn't do this today and now you give that mental torment that's just adding more to your load and so it's not sorry, it's not like you said, it's not healthy, but it's also not helpful either.
Speaker 2:If we are sitting there and we're so stressed out and I have clients that will text me like hyperventilating and I'm like, what you're doing right now, how is it helping your case? Right, like what is actually happening, that this is actually a helpful, productive thought for you. Just give yourself permission, just take a step back, do what your body needs you to do, and that doesn't mean that you failed. I think you only fail if you completely give up, if you're just like well, I failed this one day. I guess it's just not meant for me and they give up completely and they throw everything at the window and it's like no, give your body what it needs today.
Speaker 2:And tomorrow's a brand new day, and that's okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's such a powerful shift that we can move into because, as I said, it's yeah. We've definitely got ourselves women particularly in this toxic cycle of like shaming ourselves or, you know, telling ourselves off when actually who gives a fuck. Like, to put it quite frankly, like we don't need to be so hard on ourselves. Life is so nuanced and in and out and things like, in different moments we're gonna need different things and the quicker we learn to accept that, the quicker we can actually find more joy in all the different aspects of what we're doing for our health, and then it's not a chore, then it's not, and that actually is very freeing. But I think it takes a lot of work to move out of that mindset because that's how, for a long time, we've done things and so when you're I know obviously your role you're doing movement, you're doing this, you're doing that you also look at mindset. How do you help people shift that mindset that maybe more toxic or whatever mindset into one that's gonna be more supportive of creating less stress?
Speaker 2:I think again it goes back to that recognition of what's actually happening and I can help point those things out to people, but it's really them asking these questions. If I have a client that maybe it's their food that is becoming like a physical stressor for them and they come to me and they're feeling a lot of guilt because they had a piece of cake on the weekend. It's asking yourself what was that cake Like? How was that helpful to you? A, that cake is not gonna throw you off of your goals. First of all, the world is not gonna implode. You're not gonna gain 500 pounds from eating a piece of cake. That's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2:The biggest stress is you stressing over that piece of cake realistically a lot of the times. And so it's not only that, but it's how did that cake actually make you feel Like, can you eat it guilt-free? Did it make you feel gross and heavy and did you have a bad sleep or did you feel okay? Was it an emotional decision at the time? Did it? How did it taste? Did it actually taste good or was it kind of disappointing?
Speaker 2:Right, if you were craving a pizza late at night and you're like, yeah, okay, I'm gonna order it, and then it gets there and you have a few bites and you're like, okay, I actually like this isn't even as good as I thought it was in the time, right, and that's just like a small example with food. But it's the same with workouts, it's the same with stretching, right, like how is it actually being helpful to you? And maybe you really wanted that piece of cake and maybe it was really great, and that's great, right, like why not? We are allowed to enjoy life. Life doesn't have to be this like awful, stressful, seasonless food, right, like it doesn't have to look like that it's.
Speaker 2:I think we have to remember like we are human and we are allowed to enjoy all of these other aspects as well. And so, just giving yourself permission to do so when you need to, asking yourself questions like how is this helpful to me? And again, like what's the worst that's gonna happen? Right, with you, with your dishes, if you don't do it today, what's the worst that's gonna happen?
Speaker 1:You just do them tomorrow right, 100% yeah, and I think especially around the whole food piece. I know that can be quite triggering for a lot of people, but sometimes the joy and the emotional like dopamine hit that you get from food can outweigh the benefit, can outweigh the negative of the fact that maybe it's not nutritionally perfect.
Speaker 1:Now that doesn't mean you go to the extremes and sabotage yourself with the food in that way to you know that we've seen. But in the sense of you know, sometimes it's just as impactful having that joyful piece of delicious cake or whatever, that can be almost as good for your health from an emotional and like joyful point of view, as not having it and or like stressing about the fact that it's gonna do, you know, put you off on all of these things. And I think sometimes, when you like, when you start realizing that you're like, oh, it then almost takes the charge away from it being so bad. It's like, okay, this is gonna give me a piece of like small joy and happiness in this moment, but then the rest of the day I'm still gonna make great choices for my body and fuel it, so actually it doesn't matter. And then you start to realize, oh, okay, I can have fun with, like you say, flavors and foods and, like you know, one of the things that I'm probably the most proud of, and there's a lot of reasons for it, for sure.
Speaker 1:Like you know, I've had parents, have always been into food and you know my mom, when we were younger, would never discuss weight and any things like that, which you know, even if she was going through her own things, it was never fed to us, which I know has been so positive as an adult that that's had a great impact on me, because I've seen friends have the complete opposite in how they have issues around food. But, like I, will eat any food. Yes, day to day, am I conscious of you know, I do meal prep, I try and cook from scratch. I cook healthy lunches, I cook healthy dinners most of the time, but you bet that I will have that double scoop of ice cream. I'll eat a whole pizza to myself. Yesterday I had a burger that had four patties in it and you know the cheese and everything, but I'm okay with that because it was delicious and I was out with my friends and I was at home.
Speaker 1:I hadn't been at home for a while, but then I still keep to my routine generally week to week, and once you get to that flow, life just feels easier.
Speaker 1:It does feel and it's hard to get there and I know other people have, you know, a lot deeper work, but that's one of the things I'm most proud about is not putting like a good and a bad thing on food yes, there are things that are less nutritionally valuable for you.
Speaker 1:Yes, there are things that have, you know, chemicals in that might not be great for you, but if I'm treating my vessel great most of the time, my body's gonna be able to deal with that. It's only when you're using that all of the time, and I think that's where we wanna get to. So we've kind of dipped in our toes into lots of little bit like aspects of like integrative health Right now. What are the things that you are seeing come up that you can recommend for people to start doing, or things that you kind of if somebody said to you right, I just wanna change like my whole life in the sense of being more aware of my holistic health, support myself. What are really powerful things that you've seen that you use with your clients that are like the biggest game changers for people that you can just start doing?
Speaker 2:The one thing I would say is like that 10 minute, even a five, give yourself a five minute rule, but overall just bite sized pieces. A lot of my clients, when they come to me they especially the older ones they're like Leah, I've tried every diet, I've tried this, I've tried that. And the biggest theme that I see is they go from zero to 100, it's too much, it's not sustainable. They haven't learned habits that work for them. They've learned it for things that have worked for other people. They haven't built their own routines right, like, personalize it to yourself. Do it in bite sized pieces.
Speaker 2:Once you feel good with one healthy habit, move on to the next one. Right, it's really. You want it to be sustainable, you want it to be long lasting. You don't need an hour long routine in the morning if that doesn't work for you, and that's okay and right. Just start with you know what, like I, just I wanna make my bed in the morning. Great Takes two minutes. Make your bed, do the rest of your day as normal. And a lot of times you will see that these healthy habits compound on each other too. So if I told my client like you know, like we wanna start having more water, right, if I'm like okay, you need to have a glass of water with every single meal.
Speaker 2:Most of the time they're like well, you know, like I was feeling, like I was making this healthy choice, so I decided to get veggies instead of french fries, as a side and they just do it without even thinking about it, because they are so focused on this, like one little habit of having a glass of water with their meal, and they're like, well, I am making this one choice, I might as well make this other one too, right and so, or with me, like making my bed. It takes two minutes, but I find it makes me massively more productive throughout the day compared to if I don't make my bed and I don't get dressed and I'm in my PJs all day. Same thing. It just it massively changes what my day looks like.
Speaker 2:So, those little bite-sized things that we intentionally do, whether it's in our routine or whether it is with a workout, whether you're just like you know what my first thing that I wanna try is five minutes of stretching. Great, but that five minutes of stretching can massively change how you feel throughout the day, and you might be like you know what that five minutes of stretching made me feel so good. I now feel like just going for a walk, even though it's not a habit that you're trying to tick off throughout the day. You're just like, wow, I feel so good because this five minute thing that I did, yeah, and it really alternates everything else without you even having to mentally think of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, and I think, yeah, it's a domino effect and you know it might not be the same every day, but, like you say, it's tapping into, though, what works for you, because you know you getting ready and being dressed up and doing all those things might work. Some people might love to lounge around in luxurious pajamas.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's knowing like, okay, this makes me feel good. This doesn't make me feel so good and I think that's a journey in itself, like practicing with these things. So you listen to the experts or the people that have got insights or ways of things that work for them and you're like, okay, that's great, now let me go away, try it. And some things you're gonna be like, yes, this is great. Five minutes of this like said perfect, and you might try something. You might you know what. It isn't the best or it doesn't make me feel, like maybe it made that person feel and that's okay too, but it's having that moment, whereas, as I, when I mentioned at the start, I did this morning routine for so long out of like because I thought I should, rather than actually just having that awareness of actually this isn't working the way I wanted it anymore. Let me switch it up. And so just if you can take anything out of what we've discussed is start to like make those decisions quicker. Don't delay it, like I've possibly done and you know many of us have done before. If it doesn't resonate, find something that does Skip it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's so many alternatives out there. That's the luxury of the information that we have out there. There's so much out there we can choose from. Try it on for size, put the pants on. If you don't like it, move on. And that doesn't mean that later down the line you might come back to that, because we're in different seasons of our life. You know, for a long time I wasn't really liking a lot of the meditation stuff, whereas I'm really into that at the moment. But that might change in a couple of months or a year or whatever, and I'm so fine with that.
Speaker 1:So I think we've covered quite a lot. I just wondered is there anything that like from what we've discussed that you really wanted to touch on in more depth or go through that kind of needs that you think people would like to hear? It's fine if not, but I know we've kind of like gone full circle with this thing. Is there any bits that maybe you think, oh, do you know what? I'd really like to share this in the episode.
Speaker 2:That's a really good question, I think, to like something. I think a common theme today has just been recognition of what's happening in your life, and so I think what comes with that is just recognizing some signs of stress too. I think a lot of people are like, oh no, like I do this and I do that and it's working for me, and I'm like Is it because? Then, why do you still feel like the weight won't come off? Or why do you think your hair is falling out? Or why are you telling me that you're waking up every night at 2 am or 3 am? Why do your nails keep breaking right? Like, why are all these little things happening? I don't think people realize how stress manifests in our body, especially in the physical, and they're like well, I don't feel stressed and I'm like well, you look stressed, yeah do you think that's because we've learned to kind of like live with that level of stress, that it feels normal now?
Speaker 1:Do you think that's what it is? So we then just like downplay it as an actual like thing, but we're ignoring the symptoms.
Speaker 2:I think so. I think part of it is just like the education piece isn't there, right? It's not something that we're born with just knowing that Brittle nails could mean stress, right? That's not something that we innately know. And I think, yeah, like it is very normalized and all of our friends deal with it, and so why wouldn't we think that something that's very common? Why wouldn't we assume that it's normal, right?
Speaker 2:And I think another thing too is I'll have clients come to me and they're like well, you know, I've tried a keto diet in the past and it worked for me. And I'm like okay, but if it worked, then you wouldn't be coming to see me, right? So again, and they're like oh well, I've done this in the past and it worked. And I'm like it worked For six months, but it wasn't long-lasting, it wasn't sustainable for you, and so Whatever symptoms you were struggling with are now back, and so, yeah, I could make you do that certain diet again, but if it didn't work before and you need to see me now, then it obviously just wasn't a good fit for you.
Speaker 2:So I think, even little things like that and with that recognition piece and just understanding, like, and asking yourself, like, did it actually Work and was it long-lasting and was it sustainable? And what symptoms are tied to my stress or to whatever like, even like a Like some kind of diagnosis, that's still a stress, right, like if your kidneys aren't working properly or you have cancer, like mental stress, but it is still a physical stress on the body too, and so just recognizing those little patterns, I think it's going to be a game changer for a lot of people, and just what we kept saying is just try, like bite-sized things, and Give yourself permission and understand that, yes, stress is a big part of our lives. It's a biological thing that we go through, but rest and recovery is also a biological need. So why are we telling ourselves that stress is normal and rest isn't? Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's really powerful. We are definitely, yeah, like, taking rest feels not productive, like not what we should be doing. Yet Actually, it's a fundamental human need, isn't it? Yeah, it's buried because we all know, when we've had good rest, how much we can then like, enjoy and do things and, you know, be a better person when we are rested. Right, like you know, when you're you're, you can't be the best person. You know. We say, oh, I'm so grumpy because I haven't had enough sleep. Yeah, well, clearly that is a sign that you know rest is very important and that's just like a tiny piece of the whole puzzle. So, but I think, just because we've, like, we've been in this time where Productivity has been the forefront, because that and like, when I say productivity, productivity that produces some kind of outcome that is visible or whatever that because we can't, because sometimes rest is invisible in terms of internally we don't, we might feel better, but we can't show the world that, yeah, we're like, oh, we can't do that, we can't do that.
Speaker 1:And that's one of the things I've been working on for a long time, because I am, like, was queen of them, doing a million things all of the time and I still have the energy for that. But actually being like you know what, I have a boundary. I need my eight hours sleep. Then I can perform my best and I'm not ashamed to say it, whereas I used to be that, oh, I can function on four hours sleep and you know I'm doing all x, y, z and fitting all of this in. Now I'm like no, no, no, no, no, I need that eight hours. And you might turn around and say you like, oh, that's too much sleep or this or that. Fine, that's for you, because that's how you know we've been conditioned. But actually I want that eight hours. That's important to me and I'm not going to compromise that on that.
Speaker 1:The majority of the time, you know, and I think, yeah, it's just funny, isn't it? And I think it's just having that like, like you said, the golden thread here is the awareness of what we need and just because, like, we've maybe been told we shouldn't do this, because like or like, it's not the common thing, because we've kind of built up this toxic relationship with rest, recovery and all of that. Actually, it's okay just to go against the grain, because the more that all of us start Doing the healthier choices we're gonna inspire others around us because they're gonna be like oh wait, you look really fresh, you look really glowing. You look, you've got loads of energy, like what's your secret?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I agree and I think even this morning I was just like scrolling through social media and a guy was talking about his morning routine and he wakes up, he tries to get up when the Sun is coming up, he goes for a walk, he drinks water, he waits to have his coffee in the morning and he was just explaining what works for him and all the comments were so stressful to read Because I could feel it like seeping through the screen. People are like well, he doesn't have kids and I have to wake up at 6, 30 and I have to do this and I have to do that and I'm like that's okay that his routine doesn't work for you.
Speaker 1:That does not mean you cannot find something that will right 100% and I think what's really interesting about that because I've had a few scrolls on comment sections recently on different topics just out of curiosity and the reality is these people are just projecting their desires and what they would wish.
Speaker 1:Like in most instances, they're just triggered by the fact that they don't have that or can't do that, or feel when I say can't, they can, but in their current setup they feel like that's not achievable for them. Yeah, so it's like why are you shaming me? Why are you doing that? Like, let's all just start being opened, the fact that we're also different as humans. Like if it doesn't work for you, great, move on. You don't need to like tell the world how bad this person is for doing something a different way to you. And if you start censoring people from sharing this information, we're also gonna have a big problem and that's like a whole new Conversation podcast. So we're not gonna go there now. But it is really interesting, like, and I think a lot of it stems from the fact that actually, those people probably desire Some of the elements that he's got. They just can't find them how they can do it.
Speaker 2:And that's all. It just goes back to permission, like, just give yourself permission to say, like you know what, that's okay, that I can't do these things, you don't need to stress over it, you don't need to be upset that you have a different lifestyle than someone else does. Just say you know what, that's okay, I'm gonna do things my own way and that's fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a hundred percent. I think we've covered so much here and I'm hoping it's gonna be really helpful for people now to end the Kind of episode I always like to ask Question. That's kind of not related, and but I just think it's a really powerful way to end and that is what is one thing that's really exciting you, that's lighting you up at the moment, whether that's a product, a material thing, whether it's something you're working on, something you're doing like, what is like Lighting you up at the moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so actually I have been working on a YouTube channel. I've always loved Teaching to people. I like I don't know. I like giving information out. I have worked with so many business coaches and you know they're like you need to charge X amount of dollars and I just it doesn't feel good to me and I've spent, like I said, like the last 10 years in this industry. So, even just for myself, I've all of a sudden just been learning how to edit videos and Looking at analytics, and from a totally different Area than what I am used to.
Speaker 2:I'm used to taking health courses all the time and I still have like 10 others on the go. Right, like I love learning, but being able to learn something that's absolutely, totally different than what I've been doing like, yes, it is still within my job, it is still within health, but I'm like wow, like I never knew these programs were out there. I didn't know what SEO was like, I didn't know any of these things right, and so for me that's been a lot of fun to kind of step outside of my own health and actually have like a hobby, I guess. Yeah, there's a lot of times people are like, oh, what are your hobbies? And I'm like it's all health and fitness Related all the time, and so it is kind of nice to have something just different to focus on right now amazing.
Speaker 1:I absolutely love that. And Just so that you know people listening, they might want to get into energy. Find out what you do. Connect with you more. Where's the best place for people to find you?
Speaker 2:I'm usually pretty active on Instagram so you can find me just at leoverbeam Website is the same leoverbeamcom. Or you can even check out my YouTube. It's still very much new and in the works, but it is the same. Leover beam, the name of my channel is stretch every day and just kind of going back to that, like it's just it's meant to be educational likes. Like we said in the beginning, I want people to stretch their mind, stretch their bodies, just grow just a little bit, a little bit. Just that 1% every day.