Tag: mind

Shawn Flot – Feet on the Ground: Exploring the Mind, Body and Nature Connection

Posted on by Alexandra Kreis

For more than a year now, many of us have been stuck at home. Well, not literally, but the home-grocery routine. Maybe a short occasional stroll outside. But many times we’ve said we’re missing out on a lot of other important things from the human-and-nature connection aspect because of this prolonged isolation.

We also know that we should be moving around more throughout the day to stay healthy. However, working in an office, working at home, or even staying at home can mean you don’t get the chance to get up and wander around at regular intervals throughout the day.

Physical activity doesn’t need to be complicated. Something as simple as a daily brisk walk can help you live a healthier life. Turning your normal walk into a fitness stride requires good posture and purposeful movements.

All of us are born with a sense of movement, and our bodies have their unique language. Some of us lose touch with this sense of movement due to lack of use, illness, disabilities, or blocks from how we perceive ourselves. A movement therapist’s role is to help the person tap into this sense of movement and express themselves, particularly thoughts or issues that may have been repressed.

Shawn Flot, PT, and wellness coach of Moving Into Harmony and Well-Explored Life is back here with us. He studied Manual Therapy at Dynamic Manual Interface w/Frank Lowen. One of his passion projects is encouraging movement with nature by providing online guidance and conditioning to hikers, backpackers, and thru-hikers.

In this podcast, Shawn and Alex share knowledge about moving our feet and going outside with nature. Shawn talks about the coordination of our system and our body when moving. He also shares some experience about his profession and gives some tips on how we should move our body with the right timing of breathing.

This episode is sure to encourage and inspire you that moving outside with nature will help you not just physically but also mentally and spiritually.

Links mention in the podcast

Nature

Podcast Highlights

  • 3:08-7:40 – Getting out of your comfort zones
  • 8:08-11:40 – Connection between our Nervous System and our Feet
  • 15:47-22:14 – People Shawn works with
  • 25:42-28:36 – Walking in Nature
  • 28:57-32:29 – The Trapezius muscle
  • 35:42 39:01 – Felt sense

Pocket Quotes

  • “Walking in nature is freeing myself of things I get stuck at. It allows me to feel more inspired.”- Alexandra Kreis
  • “We’re so uniquely different and we come from such different realms of how we operate our lives.”- Shawn Flot
  • “Find yourself a little bit more. Don’t work so hard at it and that’s the key”- Shawn Flot
  • “Reconnect into the body and let the mind be just the feeler of what the body’s amazement can do.”- Shawn Flot
  • “The feet are one of those places where we regain our fluidity and our ability to move in the world”. – Shawn Flot

Guest Bio

Shawn Flot studied Manual Therapy at Dynamic Manual Interface w/Frank Lowen, Hatha yoga at School of Shadow Yoga, and Spec. Hon. Kinesiology and Health Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is a Physical Therapist and wellness coach of Moving Into Harmony. Also, Shawn Flot has Online Personal Fitness Training at A Well-Explored Life, LLC.  Doing online guidance and conditioning hikers, backpackers and thru-hikers.

Jon Thorisson – Healing the Mind through Recreational Substances

Posted on by Alexandra Kreis

In today’s episode, Alexandra and her guest, Jon Thorisson, take us on a critical conversation on two topics that many people evade or find uncomfortable: death and recreational drugs. Jon, who tried ayahuasca out of curiosity to later find out that he will have to confront the possibility of dying at an unexpected time, is giving this often perceived as a ‘dark’ topic’ a shed of the bright light of life, hope, and happy living. 

Alexandra met and became friends with Jon when he moved to Berlin from Iceland in search of reinventing himself and how to move on with his life after finding out he has lung cancer. He was 60+ and does not have good prospects of recovery during the time of his diagnosis. His tumor was removed and was introduced to psychedelics for his recovery. This led him to a healing path less taken. 

Jon’s willingness to go through healing the mind through substances was mind-blowing for Alexandra. And Jon, who openly speaks about it, takes that sharing about his healing journey as an opportunity to help people in similar situations. 

Recreational substances open people to new experiences and things. This is where the therapeutic benefit of healing through substances comes in—it massages us through revisiting old trauma and memories and looking at it from a different perspective. It rids people of the baggage that impedes the healing of both the body and mind. 

But before his diagnosis, Jon has tried ayahuasca out of curiosity. Introducing him to the experience and idea that demystifies death, he felt this made him ready and more accepting of the possibilities when the news of big C came. It opened a new world for him. He was calm because ayahuasca has taken away his fear of dying. 

Things like this happen and we try to give it meaning. To these two friends, the more important question lies in finding the excuse for not giving up and the springboard for a new determination. Yes, of course, we know we’re all dying. But we do come in egotistical intent when we want to die. So when we are faced with the scenario of dying younger than we intend to, then that’s when it scares us. 

Lessons from Jon’s extraordinary healing journey are extraordinary gems, too, because it confronts death by approaching life. It’s important not to feel that we are just victims of our circumstances. Letting go of the baggage, as well as possessions, are immensely freeing. And so we must go for the experience. 

Just stay open. Be curious. Embrace life. 

Links mention in the podcast     

Podcast Highlights 

  • It was this fortunate discovery—that dying is not the worst thing—that made me accept and ready for the possibilities of having cancer. I had the presence of mind to make my own decisions about how I want this to evolve. – Jon Thorisson 
  • People think that death is something that can be totally avoided. With the pandemic, we’ve become so risk-averse. When you’re not afraid of dying, it doesn’t mean you want to die, but it makes you more relaxed in your approach to life. – Jon Thorisson 
  • People who came up with healing methods came out of situations like Jon’s. People make choices and embrace death, and in embracing and accepting it, is where the healing journey actually starts. In moments when we feel helpless, we want to get help. But sometimes, that help is like somebody else taking over our mind and guiding us to something, while the crucial part really is our own mental aspect in it. – Alexandra Kreis 
  • When you’re not controlled by fear, you’ll see the opportunities. You approach life with an open heart and a positive mind. And that influences whatever situation you enter. – Jon Thorisson 
  • At the root of healing is letting go of old ways, of old tricks, and becoming more connected to our nature. – Alexandra Kreis 

 

Ilyse Soutine – Befriending the subconscious

Posted on by Alexandra Kreis

We could all agree that change, for us to be successful, has to happen not just in one area but also in our minds, bodies, and spirits. And that these three must work in synchrony, in alignment with each other. Fortunately, this is what we’re learning from today’s guest.

Meet Ilyse Soutine. A subconscious transformation coach, creator of her method called the Subconscious Shift method.

Ilyse has been on the transformational journey for about 30 years. She has been exposed to many modalities but has put the best combination of these into her methodology by reaping the lesson from her own life experience.

Having suffered from extreme depression and anxiety, a lot of violence, severe trauma from childhood, running away as a teenager, and having a hard time as an adult, Ilyse’s journey to healing and helping others to heal is truly inspiring.

Her life experience is living proof of research-backed discussions around how meditation physiologically changes the brain to make logical and sound decisions. When she found her connection to transcendental meditation and tried its consistent practice, she noticed how it helped her end the panic attacks and make better decisions and not from a place of fear, scarcity, and survival. She then came across the subconscious mind, which is now at the core of her practice and methodology.

Through the ups and downs, twists, and turns along Ilyse’s journey, she finally found her gift: to coach and help people heal. Her practice, which is devoted to the subconscious, helps people remove blocks in their subconscious to meet and be aligned with their conscious minds. She now works with entrepreneurs and coaches with programs to release what holds them back, so they become authentically aligned with what they were born to contribute to this world.

In this podcast, we are lucky to have Ilyse share lessons that come from a profound, unique place of her being and how she continues to heal and unfold the vast wisdom and knowledge from the rollercoaster ride that was her life.

 

Links mention in the podcast

Podcast Highlights

  • When you’re in trauma, you are living from the survival part of the brain. You don’t make good decisions. But with meditation, which I learned from Gabriel Bernstein, my mind was opened up to the idea that I have a choice with which to perceive my life. – Ilyse Soutine
  • With meditation, we begin to uncover the truth of who we are that we have become so divorced from living this life. The truth that we are inherently whole, complete, and healed. When we are still, like in the practice of meditation, yoga, or just by being close to nature, we begin to become close to that truth again. – Ilyse Soutine
  • We all need each other to heal. We can’t see our blind spots. We can’t go really deep within ourselves without someone holding space for us. We’re meant to help each other heal. And I’ve learned that the hard way. – Ilyse Soutine
  • Healers and coaches are not perfect human beings. We are also continuing on our healing journey. It never stops. And that’s the beauty of it– the constant unfolding of the wisdom, strength, and knowledge. – Ilyse Soutine
  • It is not only a matter of shifting the mindset. It’s really about transforming the subconscious identity. We can’t shift our life with just reframing things. We have to go deeper and recreate and reprogram a new identity for ourselves that is in alignment. – Ilyse Soutine

 

Guest BIO

Ilyse Soutine is a subconscious transformation coach and creator of her method called the Subconscious Shift method. She is also a certified hypnotherapist. She helps entrepreneurs and others become happier, more plugged into their intuition, and have a stronger sense of themselves and what they’re here to do. She does this through various programs such as the Subconscious Shift Call, Hypnosis Recreated for Anxiety, among others.