Taming the Mental Chaos: How Gratitude & Movement Heal the Body & Mind

Summit Introduction and Guest Background 0:00

Welcome to this summit. Hormones and mental health. Overcoming anxiety, depression and ADHD in women. I'm your host. Doctor Carson Smith. I'm a functional endocrinologist. And today I have Jana Danielsen. She's an award winning wellness entrepreneur. Transforms the personal struggle with physical pain into a mission to elevate women through self-love and empower. A founder and CEO of Bloom Better. She helps women discover their their selves by integrating physical wellness with mental and emotional health, focusing on mastering mindset, movement, and metabolism.

She was a Pilates master instructor. She is a Polaris Master Instructor, certified instructor, certified Weight Loss specialist, and Amazon International Bestselling author. Gina created the coach for the future for the World first pelvic floor fitness tool for women. She's also a pioneer in the mindset space, thanks to the launch of the Emotional Intelligence AI app called orchid, which we are just talking about. And so she's going to talk to us about that. She was the recipient of the 2023 Mindshare Leaders Mindshare Leadership Summit.

Future of health award was a big deal. I was at Mindshare in September. She's having she's coached hundreds and hundreds of thousands of women globally. And she continues to inspire and guide them towards enhanced quality of life, confidence and impact. Our work proves that when women invest in their health, they invest in their power to change the world. So thank you for joining me today. Hi, Kathy. So we were talking right before this about some really cool stuff. And so I think, you know, if you're watching this summit, hopefully you're watching it because we wanted to talk about some of the things in menopause that maybe don't get as much attention as they should.

So anxiety, depression, ADHD, just like the mental aspect that goes with with menopause. And these are very real, symptoms that can affect your life. Right. And so a lot of times unfortunately in medicine the treatment for that is here's a prescription. And my problem with that is that there is not a Xanax deficiency. There's not a Zoloft deficiency. There are not medication deficiencies that cause this. This is all things that we really need to address. And like you said, like minds that we really need to address mindset and we really need to address like what is causing this now for an imbalance can cause this.

But there are other things. And so you were saying to me, and I just want to kind of start with that because that is like like you're saying to me, you know, you think that with with mindset when people say it's important that nobody really does it. And you were telling me something about about the thoughts that we have. And so why don't we just start with that? Because I think that. Yeah. No, I think, I think what's important to kind of kick this off is that, you know, for myself, at 51 years old, I feel like I am, you know, head and shoulders in a better space than I was when I was 21 years old.

Right at 21 years old, I would go to bed literally with 11 different medication bottles on my nightstand, and I would wake up and see those 11 bottles literally. I was told by my doctor that the pain I was experiencing was in my head, and that I was seeking attention, and that's when the shift for me happened was literally 30 years ago. And so I went into a depression. I was newly engaged, finished my degree, and didn't know what my life would be like. And it wasn't until I found Pilates that I actually healed myself.

And for months that I had this big moment about the body, about health and wellness, our mind, how it impacts every cell in our body. And I realized that going to bed, looking at those 11 bottles of medication

Mindset, Thoughts, and Menopause Symptoms 4:06

and waking up and looking at those 11 bottles of medication was actually a big deal in what was making me ill. And so, through my learning over the last 30 years and, you know, working with many, many women. We. Become our ailments. We become our inability to drop weight. We become our sleepless nights. We become our incontinence, right? We become that. And when I would meet with women, they would they would talk about they wouldn't almost sometimes even get tell me their name before they started going through the grocery list of what was going on in their body.

Right. And so understanding and this is from Doctor Joe Dispenza is work. And this is what really gave me clarity and confidence with what you were just saying. We pay lip service to this mindset. But here's the thing. We would rather live in our familiar past, then step into a new version of ourselves in an unfamiliar future. And he backs this up by saying, we have every single day, 60 to 70,000 thoughts. That's a lot of thoughts. But here's the kicker. Of those 60 to 70,000 thoughts, 80 to 90% of them are the same as the thoughts we had yesterday and last week and last month and last year.

So we might consciously be craving change, right? Like we just wanted so badly. And we do all the things we think we need to do. We eat the right food. We do our 10,000 steps, we get our morning sunshine. We, you know, we drink our water. All of that is going to be minimized. The impact will be minimized if those voices in our head that are subconscious, we don't know they're happening. It's like a movie playing over and over and over. If that continues to happen, change long term change becomes a pipe dream.

And then you hear women and I'm sure in your office you hear them say like, I've just I've fallen off the wagon. Right? I've that that metaphor of being on a wagon, off the wagon. I just there's no wagon. There's no wagon right there is understanding how powerful your thoughts are. Your thoughts become your actions. They do. Your actions become your character. Your character becomes you know how you live your life. And one thing I don't think a lot of women know is that the brain doesn't discern between success and gratitude.

So if we employ a simple gratitude, strategy, getting up in the morning, what are the three things you're grateful for? Pick them out loud. Think them in your mind. Even that can start to shift us. So, you know, that's how I wanted to kick this conversation off, is that we have so much power as women, and I feel like so many of us are actually walking around this planet numb, sleeping, settling for a life because we were told or conditioned that this is what happens when you hit menopause. So you're just supposed to, you know, deal with it, accept it.

And, you know, hopefully it's not that bad. But ladies, I'm here to tell you that that actually is not that belief system does not serve us any longer. Yeah, I completely agree. That's one of the but I worked on that last year. But that's my big thing this year is like being present in the moment. I feel like so many people are just numb, right? Like they wake up with this long list and it's like, I must do this and this and this and this and even and I thought of this last, last year. So I have a trainer I work out with the trainer now, and I realize when I go work out with my trainer because when I'm with and versus when I'm not, it's like he's got this like set of activities for me to do, right?

Like I'm going to do these exercises, this many times with this many reps. I was just doing it and just like doing it with like just mindlessly doing it. And but when I worked out by myself, I was like, oh, contract my muscle. Like I'm just more, I don't know. Doesn't present. And, it changes like so much when you're actually present, you're not just like, I must use my workout as, like a check off list, like everything else with you, right? But when you're actually present in the moment doing it, it's just different.

And, like, you feel different, everything is different. And so I think that a lot of people, unfortunately, like you said, we are in this world where it's like you have so many things to do every day and you're trying to get through this, like your mindset, you have to get through all of those medicines that you just become numb. And it's like when you're numb like that and when you're not grateful and when you're not happy, then you're depressed. When you're because you have all these things you need to do.

Then when you actually need to sit down and focus on something and do it, you can't feel like you have ADHD and you need Adderall or whatever, because it's not that you can't focus is that your brain is like done like you're yeah, there's too much going on. Right? And we just don't listen to those issues at all, I think. No, no. And you know, I think while we're like kind of deconstructing this, there's a really important, emotion that we all experience, the emotion of shame. Right. And I think that that's for some women that is like their modus operandi.

Here's something I learned maybe about 3 or 4 years ago from a women's health perspective. And it actually that was a mic drop moment for me. So the main nerve that runs from our brain to our pelvic floor and genitals in both a man's body and a woman's body. Okay. Both both sexes have this nerve. It's called the Pugh dental nerve. All right. The Pugh dental nerve is a motor nerve. So it sends messages. You know, it's time to go to the bathroom, so the pelvic floor relaxes. It's time to pick up the heavy weight, the pelvic floor contract.

So it's a messaging center, but it also is a sensory nerve, which means it's a it's a feeling nerve. So everything from pleasure through pain is also running through the dental nerve. Well, if you were to Google what is the Latin root of the word pew dental, do you know what pops up? What pops up is an area of shame. That is the Latin root of the word pew dental. For this nerve that connects our brain to the most beautiful part of our body. It's like this beautiful magic cauldron in a woman's body where life.

If a woman thinks that's where life is created. Right? We hold a lot of stress and tension there. And to know that we are actually born into this world with the energy and frequency of shame in and around our pelvis from a women's health perspective, from a perimenopause and menopause perspective, that's a pretty big deal. And so just understanding that, you know, it's not just it's not just you, it's not just you that, you know, holds tension and and squeezes and there's there's fear and there's anger and there's shame in that area.

It literally is all of us. And the first piece that has to happen to move through that is understanding that it's actually there. Yeah. That's crazy. It's very true. I think, you know, I take care of a lot of people just like you. And to your point, a lot of them come in and I'll introduce myself. Hi, doctor. Chelsea, are you fill in the blank. Yes. And they just immediately like, attack you with I've been told for this long I like they want to come at you with. Like I like to start the conversation with, you know, nice to meet you.

What do you do for a living, like try to kind of get to know them in 95% of the time. It's just like this word vomit of white. The hair, all my hair, all my issues. Right? Yeah. Oh my issue, it's me. And it's like, I like to try to stand on the positive note because I always when I go like, well, what do you do for a living? What makes you happy, what you know, like what drives you? Like I try to that usually doesn't happen. And it yeah, it's interesting because and maybe, you know, maybe it's because they think, well, I'm coming to you and you know, I don't know, but it is interesting that we all, like you said, we become our ailments.

Right. It's not like because I take care of I take care of some very high functioning, but phenomenal women. And I really do a lot of cool things in this world. And all they want to talk about are these, you know, like, oh, I'm, I'm, I'm 5 pounds overweight or, you know, I cannot sleep, right? But I'm like, but you do all these things that you need for the world, you know. And so it is I think it's this mindset is so important. Like you said, mindset movement, all of this is so important. It actually in the temple ism, these things help shape your mental health at any point in your life, but especially when your hormones are changing so much.

And like you said, there's this lip service given to mindset where people are like, oh, you should have a good mindset. But then like nothing is, you know, nothing is sound and mental health is very undervalued in this country. You know, it's almost like a stigma. If you see a therapist like, I'm very open that I see a therapist every week. But day of the week, it's on Thursdays at 5:00. I look forward to it every Thursday. I've seen it for a long time. But then some people, I mean, I find people literally say to me, oh, why do you see a therapist every week?

You don't see it there, you know? And it's like what you do. Like you need to process and you need to. So it's interesting. So, so how do you define like mindset movement, metabolic health. Like how can you explain these to like individuals

Shame, Pelvic Floor Health, and Identity 14:00

and like how do these things help with mental health? Yeah. So when you think about, you know, alone, working on your mindset will impact your mental health. Moving your body will impact your, your, your health. Understanding, I mean, metabolic health. I if we would have been doing this chat 12 months ago, I don't think we would have been using the word metabolic health like we do now. I think that has gotten a really big boost over 2024. And so just to help women understand that, you know, from the from the metabolic health or the metabolism perspective, I think we've come to believe that, you know, we think that when we're young, our metabolism is high and we can burn fat quickly when we age and get into, you know, menopause, metabolism slows.

But at its very basic definition, you know, metabolism truly is how efficient is your body at taking energy from food and converting it into energy for your cells? Because when your cells have energy to do their job, they are going to serve you at the highest form, right? So when you are doing your meditation or going to your yoga, you know, doing your prayer and those mindset strategies, you can gain more clarity and confidence when you move your body in whatever way you love to do, you will gain more clarity and confidence when you understand.

Like I said, morning sunlight, making sure you're hydrated, you will get clarity and confidence. But here's the beautiful thing what I found with the women in my community is that, like if we were braiding our hair with those three strands mindset, movement, and metabolism, when you braid them together, all of a sudden they amplify each other and you start to realize that when you are out for your walk, that maybe you want to pull your headphones off and just listen to the sounds or smell the air, because you're dialing into being more present, which is part of the mindset kind of recipe, right?

That you, like you said, when you're working out on your own, you are focusing on what does that feel? Oh, what does my glute feel like when I do that? Same thing when you're walking, can you feel your glute? You know, the number one reason events that people go from independent living to assisted living is because they can't get up and off the toilet. Well guess what ladies? That is a squat, right? That is a squat, position. And so when we understand and try and plant the seeds for why am I doing this?

I am doing this. Am I doing this for a size? Are my pants? Yes. Maybe that's one of the outcomes. But what about that longevity that we all strive for? Like I think back to when I was young and would go to my parents, my great aunts, 50th wedding anniversary or 50th birthday parties. These women, in a very respectful way, looked old. They dressed old, their body moved right. And I'm like, she's that's me. I'm 51, right? I don't I don't feel that I don't, you know, I still want to plank my kids. And so when you bring these pillars together and understand, like I said, how they optimize each other, it's kind of like putting fuel on the fire.

And we are so conditioned to want to see an outcome. We want to see something different. We want to see maybe less of that double chin, or we want to see that tummy change, or we want to get a full night's sleep. So we don't have a bunch of puffy bags under our eyes. But here's the thing is, when we get so focused on being outcome driven, we miss the beautiful learning that happens in the process of trying to reach those outcomes. So that's where a lot of women, you know, get very frustrated is when we're outcome driven.

Then you get the women like you do in your clinic cases. I need your help doing this. Can you fix me versus here's how I can support you. Here are, you know, your daily I call habits in rituals. Those are chosen actions that boost your life. They're like the super heroes of habits in rituals. Well, when I pick up my bottle of water and take a sip because I know that my brain is going to get hydrated first, my vital organs are going to get hydrated second, and my joints are going to get hydrated last.

My fast is going to get hydrated last. If I got a little knee issue going on and want to heal that, you better believe that I'm going to be dialed in and committed to getting hydrated because I know how my body is using that hydration. Ladies, there is absolute power in this education that you are getting in this summit, with Doctor Cassie. And there's going to be so much information. It's not all going to stick the first time. And that's why it's important. I feel like when you have these moments of learning to take advantage of them, what is resonating and what resonates actually becomes learning.

You're going to start living that information, and then we pass it on to others. And that's when it becomes that women's wisdom that I feel like we just gloss over and I also feel like we're returning to that again. So that's where the mindset, the movement and the metabolic health all intersect in this beautiful way to give us the longevity that we are craving. Yeah, I like that. I think a lot of people are outcome driven. Yeah, very driven, especially like high functioning women. And so they don't focus on the journey and the learning.

They focus on the outcomes. And then that, you know, it's kind of like I say this sometimes, living in the, the gain instead of the gap. So coach Mark Wahlberg. Yeah. What about I used to live in the gap my whole life and it was exhausting.

Reframing Self-Talk and Mental Health 19:48

It was like it didn't matter what I did. There was always more to do. Right? And that's everyone like you. Doesn't matter what you do. Never. I personally don't believe that there's a single human on this planet that goes to bed every night and thinks, oh, I got everything I wanted to accomplish today. It's so good for you. Like, awesome. So what we forget is all the things we actually did get done. So I used to go to bed very anxious, thinking like, oh my gosh, I didn't get those two things. And the day that I really wanted to do, negating the fact that I got 100 other things done that were really important because I am very good at prioritizing by importance.

Right? So if I don't get something done, it's something that I just did not have to be done and it has to be done. I'll get it done. And most people are like that. Like if it's something that's going to affect you living, breathing, you know, your children, some like you're going to get it done. Those other things that you don't get done. A lot of times you may put pressure on yourself, but it's not something that necessarily has to be done. But I think a lot of people lay down at night to the point of these symptoms.

We're talking about depression, anxiety, insomnia. Some of you people listening to this, that these you're the people who lay down at night and go, oh my gosh, I still have five things I'd like to do with setting it down in. Actually roll over and put another one on there that just popped into my head. Instead of thinking like, oh my gosh, I got all my children fed today, I got them all to school. We did their homework. I made sure go ahead and nutritious dinner. I got my job done. I did some laundry. I feel like all the things that you actually didn't do to make the world go round, you know, or maybe you're in a later stage of your life.

You're not dealing with kids. But I got all this stuff done at work, and I made sure that I dropped my husband's clothes off at the dry cleaner, and I made sure he had dinner. And, you know, I took myself to the gym. Like, all these things you get done, you just like I never forget that. I kind of don't give yourself credit for that extra stuff on your checklist to do. And I think that's a lot of the problem, too. And so then your mindset is always, you're not good enough. You didn't get enough done, you know.

And so then that when you have that negative mindset and I want you to talk to this, that drives the anxiety depression. Right. And then the other thing that I hate that a lot, I think a lot of women are in this toxic culture right now. I had this conversation with somebody yesterday. I go to the gym. This lady, this particular person, works out every single day. I go to the gym every single day. I lift every single day at least 20, sometimes 40 minutes. But I don't do enough cardio. I only do like 20 minutes of cardio every day.

And I'm like, Dear God, you work out like three times more than I do. You know? It's just like, it's never enough, no matter what we do. And I think some of that is society, some of that is social media. Some of that is just, I don't know, do we just naturally compare ourselves to other people or do we just hold ourselves like, are we always harder on ourselves? I don't know, can you talk to somebody? Yeah, absolutely. You know, I just I created this what's in and what's out for, you know, mindset movement and metabolic health.

This list that I made for what's out for 2020 or what's what's what's so 2024 and what's so 2025. And this was exactly, you know, part of the pieces of my list that we live in this comparison culture. Right. There's always going to be someone who is looks to be doing it better. They are they drive a better car. They have a better house. The relationship with their husband seems better. They have a better job. There's always going to be that. And that's why I put comparison culture on my what's out for 2024.

I also put on that list that believing that fitness includes a puddle of sweat on the floor every single day, or it's not worth it. I had on there in my what's in list, I had things like restorative movement, and I'm a big proponent of this. So I created something with the couch bomb scooch ball that I, that I have called Terrain Fitness. All right. And so if you think of your body as a garden, okay, well, let's do that. Let's just let's just come with me on this little journey, okay? Our body is a garden.

There are some garden, you know, think about, you know, seeing different gardens that are just covered with weeds, right? They are neglected. And you see, maybe you see some flowers popping through or, you know, you see some vegetables that were planted, popping through, but obviously, you know, neglected, even if there is optimal sunshine and optimal rainfall, those weeds are going to be suffocating the fruits and vegetables that are trying to flourish in that garden. Okay. On the other hand, there might be a garden that is meticulous, right?

Meticulous, but maybe that meticulous garden has an owner that is using toxic spray to get rid of the weeds so that we don't even see the weeds. And we walk by and we think, oh my gosh, look at how amazing that garden is. But we don't understand what's going on underneath and the long term implications of that strategy. Right. And then there's a garden that we see that we're like, okay. Getting optimal sunlight, getting optimal rainfall. You know, we see you know, we see the, the the potatoes, you know, starting to bloom.

Maybe we see the raspberry bushes with fruit on them. And yeah, maybe there are some weeds in between the. I love to use that metaphor because our body truly is a garden, and fitness is one little sliver of that formula. And so. Doctor Amy, a pig in uses this uses this term for trauma. So she defines trauma as too much too soon or too little for too long. All right. Like what a beautiful definition. Too much too soon or too little for too long. Ladies. That is all of us. We have all experienced that, whether it's been, you know, going through our, our schooling, whatever level high school, college, post doctorate, there's lots going on.

Whether you chose to become a mom, I mean, the physicality of growing a baby, delivering a baby, you know, nurturing a baby, the relationships we have, you know, we might we might not always be in the same city as our family. And being able to not have those hugs for so long. I know our middle son is a big, big hugger, right? And so when he comes home from college, he loves that physical touch aspect of it. And so. Too much exercise that is too intense. So instead of like I said, in my train fitness world, laying on your couch ball and doing some breast release, doing some, you know, lymphatic work to make sure that that lymphatic fluid is moving, that it's our body's garbage disposal system can work wonders.

Mindset, Movement, and Metabolic Health 26:48

Imagine a body that is being worked out every single day. We are going to put ourselves literally into that state of cortisol spike. The body thinks we're in danger because we are. It's wondering, what the hell are we training for? What? When's the when's the big fight coming? Or when, you know, when is the threat coming? Because we must be training for something really major to happen. We don't allow ourselves to think, you know, if a lot of women will be like, should I go and do cardio or should I go to my yoga class?

Nine out of ten of those A-type personalities will. Choose. The cardio, the hard run, the high intensity interval training over that yoga class or that Pilates class because they'll quickly do the math in their head and they'll think, well, I'm going to get way more out of the 60 minutes running because they physically get sweaty and their heart rate goes up. But for most of us, what we actually need is that 60 minutes on a mat, diaphragmatic breathing, getting that main muscle of respiration, shifting us into a parasympathetic mode, getting the diaphragm to start to talk to the pelvic floor because they're upstairs and downstairs neighbors taking it 600% more oxygen when we're breathing that way.

Right. Like that's truly what our body is craving. And because we didn't come with an owner's manual for the different phases of our life, we just subscribe to what others are doing and that we are aspiring to that recipe or that recipe. And so bio individuality. The end of one. Like imagine that you are back in your grade ten biology class and it is your day for your lab. You are your lab ladies. Like what happens when I exchange two cardio sessions for, you know, a breathwork class and some meditation?

What happens after four weeks? Let me let me commit to this short term and see what happens. Right? What happens when I get my feet on the ground or my morning sunlight within half an hour of waking up? How does that help to reset my circadian rhythm at night? These, you know, I feel like if I could invite one, one thing for the women in your audience, Kathy, is. I want to invite you to be curious about your body. Like return. Find a picture of yourself at six years old or seven years old or eight years old and ask yourself, would that six year old version of yourself like, go hard or go home every single day?

No. There are some days where she's going to be rambunctious. There's going to be some days where she's just going to want to play house, and there's going to be some days where she's going to want to read a book, and there's going to be some days right. And so why in our 40 and 50 and 16 year old selves, don't we honor that curiosity anymore? That's one of the major things that was on my in for 2025 is the restorative curiosity about our mind, our body, and our soul and watch, watch and feel what starts to happen to yourself when you reframe a lot of those belief systems that were promoted to us, right.

The no pain, no gain. How often did we hear that? Calories in, calories out? I just got to burn more calories than what I take in. And the scale should tell me you know the outcome. No, actually not. What about macros? What about how much protein you're taking it? How many like what? What are your what's your good fat profile look like? What? So this is this is the curiosity. And this is what like I said, summits like yours offer women is. I didn't know that. Or, you know, talking to your sister.

You know what I just heard on this summit? Have you ever heard that? That's like curiosity sparked that? I feel like events like this gift women in your audience. Yeah. What's so cool that you're saying this is so I'm a huge advocate and proponent for weight lifting. Anyone that listens myself knows this. I was honestly last year lifting weights, pretty heavy weights, probably five days a week. Sometimes I don't do a lot of cardio, and I get on Sarah Connor for 10 or 15 minutes, like a lot of weights, because last year I was like, I really want to put on some muscle mass.

At the end of last year, I felt so terrible. My trainer even tells me it's like, what is wrong with you? And I'm like, I don't know, I'm just tired. Like my body's tired out. And so I decided I went on vacation last week. I barely lifted weights. My husband was like, are you okay? I lifted weights maybe two days, but the days that I lifted, I felt really good. And I did a lot of walking and I do yoga occasionally. It's hard for me to shut my mind off, but when I do it, I want it. And I did this one day.

Never done for at least embarrassed to tell you about never. No. Plus I get a reformer license. Okay, so coolest, coolest thing, I loved it. I was like a little kid in a candy store. And so when we came back, I told my husband and I told my trainer, who's not very happy with me, I said, I'm going to work out with you one day a week for the next two months. And he was like, what does that mean, working out? And five days a week I said, I'm going to work out with you on Mondays, and I'm going to run the other two days a week, and I'm going to at least one.

And I go to and I don't know what else I'm going to do, but I'm just going to do that because I feel like I need something different. And so I will tell you that this week, it's Wednesday. Now I have lifting weights. One day I went to yoga. I'm going to go to Palani State like and I'm just going to see. So it's interesting that you say that because I don't know, because I just felt like I was at this point where I was tired and I was like, I told you, I, I was lifting weights, but I wasn't really present and I wasn't really into your point.

I was busy point in my life where, like, I had a lot of stuff going on and try to finish my book and trying to make this course, I just. And so I think I need that restorative, like our time to just relax and just like, I don't know, mindfully do something else because I do have muscle. I mean, I don't have, you know, too much, but I have muscle. So maybe to your point, I need to get rid of some of these pesticide weeds, things you know, I need to work on some of that as opposed to building muscle.

And so it's kind of cool that you've said that because I'm sitting here thinking like, that's exactly. And I actually felt guilty when I texted him. And he kind of made me feel guilty when you texted me back about, like, what you don't want to know. And so I have had this like, and I feel bad because I probably shouldn't be working on where I probably should. But then when you just said, like, you need to rewrite your own owner's manual, like maybe I should for that though, because maybe it body used to me like I need more of that restorative like time because I'm strapped down all day, right?

I take care of people all day and five minutes behind all day somedays. And do you want some days I don't like? So it's okay for me to want to go sit in an A amount to breathe for an hour. It just not be set. Like I think that's okay. I think that's a beautiful thing. And you know, you're what you're doing, Cassie, is you're actually listening to your to your woman's wisdom, to your to your body. Your body is communicating with you. And what most women don't do is you're listening to it now, it's maybe not whispering.

It might be like a little bit of, you know, in a quiet voice. But most. For me, it's all it's. Well, that's what I was going to say is most women wait till till she's screaming, which maybe that's what's happening with you. And the beautiful thing about the movement that you're inviting into your body is going to optimize everything you're doing with your weight. So your weight lifting is concentric movement, right? Like those muscles are getting shorter and longer and shorter and longer in response to a load at the end of a lever.

It's it's simple physics, right? But now with your yoga and your Pilates, what you're going to be working is the muscles are going to be working opposite to concentric, which is that eccentric or is centric way. So you're going to be working your muscle fibers through a lengthened position through a range of motion. So now your joints are going to get yummy love. The range of motion is going to be improved. I bet you you're going to see you should like I would take I would take some photos. You know, maybe take a few measurements just just to do a little end of one experiment with your own body.

And then in 12 weeks from now, let's see, you know how you're feeling, how you're sleeping, what your body looks like. Because what I have known with the women that I've worked with who have been in that must lift weights, must run my five miles a day, and then we do a little bit of a shift, which includes some fascia release, lymphatic work, diaphragmatic breathing. They will actually release it. And it's not necessarily fat, but it's the inflammation they've been holding on to because their body has been in this inflammatory state trying to keep up with everything.

Our prefrontal cortex CEO has been telling the body, no, we got to do it.

Restorative Exercise, Curiosity, and Bioindividuality 35:48

Got to do it more and more. More. Right. They actually start to release a lot of the weight through the middle. We start to see their mental health improve because again, we are a society of like outcomes for sure. So when we can shift the process and then the outcomes start to happen, then that CEO is like, Look at that. I don't know, that doesn't make sense. We didn't work. We're supposed to work harder for those outcomes, not different. So it's not necessarily working easier or less. You're just working different.

So good on you. I'm excited. I want to keep tabs and see how you feel over these next few months. Yeah. And like I told you, I'm going this yoga retreat at the end of February with these people who I'm assuming are a huge yoga, like I've done yoga very minimal times. I can barely touch my toes. And so to your point, it's very awkward when I do. Do you never get out of a frame of the studio and I'll go? I like to like, be in the very corner and hope nobody's looking at me. But at the same time, like I told myself the other day, I don't have a clue.

I don't really care. I don't care if people. It's like, I know I'm here, I'm breathing. It's like I kind of closed my eyes last time I went because I, I was looking around, you know, and there are people doing handstands and all this crazy stuff, and I'm like, I need to try and test. But the last time I went, I was like, I just I closed my eyes the whole time and I'm going to open my eyes and I'm just going to like. And I felt my body like just kind of like it was weird, just like release. And then I was like, I can almost touch my toes.

Like it just dropped. It was more comfortable. And so your point, I think I have done it because I'm uncomfortable. And then I went to that blog was super uncomfortable. So all these like skinny little ballerina people doing all this crazy stuff, I can't do it all. But the instructor was really nice and she was like, oh, you're doing great, but I actually really liked it. So I'm going to do it. Although it's uncomfortable and it's kind of weird and I'm not. But to your point, I realized I needed to do it because, you know, my thought was like, I'm taking any people on this yoga mat or at the slightest class said deadlift. I thought to myself that that's a problem.

Feel like. So I probably need to work on that, right? Like I need to set. I need to so I'm actually kind of excited and I'm kind of getting to that age, working for an hour care what people think anymore. I'm over it. And I think when you get into social media, you just get over it too. You have to real quick. Yeah, people are no nice at their comments sometimes, but yeah. So I'm kind of excited to see what happens. I'm very that's my goal for 2025 with you. I'm part with the life. This is what everyone else does.

This is like I'm very I promised myself this year I'm going to listen to my that me to myself. I'm to be that set myself up to your point. I'm going to get rid of some of these like yes. Yeah. Just said yeah. And so I think that's very important that people realize that. And so when you do like you're talking about the benefits with weight, when you move your body and you do all these things, like what benefits you see is that it's like mental health for people. Do you see that the movement in the exercise and all of these things, do they actually help their anxiety?

Do they help their depression? How long does it take? Like what are some of the things that you see? Yeah. So, you know, it can be the length of time it takes before someone sees or feels a difference, obviously is very individual. But here's what I know is that the the more vulnerable you can be to allow that guard to your point of going to your yoga class and not being able to touch your toes, you did something just innately, Cassie, that I tell all of my women, close your eyes and get rid of the visual stimulation.

Go inside your body and feel the movement Doctor Joe Dispenza talks about. That's the he. I love this statement because he says thoughts are the language of our mind, and feelings are the language of the body. And when there is a disconnect between our thoughts and our feelings. So I'll give you an example of just to make that more clear, you're in line at the grocery store. You're, you know, you're in the checkout line. The clerk says to you, how's your day? What's our countdown? Good. Fine. How is yours?

Good. Coming. Great. Every day. How's yours? Right in that moment, if you are in a state of depression or anxiety and you are, you know your stomach is in knots, you're you're maybe having a bit of a even a hot flash in that moment, you feel your armpits sweaty. You feel, you know, it's it's it's a challenge to take big breath. What's going on in your body are all these little messages like, no, you're not, you're not good. Like, look at your guts and not your squeeze in your butt with all this tension you have.

You have got a killer headache. All you want to do is open this bag of Doritos instead of going home to cook a nice meal. Right. So there's this inner dialog between your mind and your body that's like, you're lying. You're not good. So we when we understand that inner dialog, that thoughts are the language of our mind and feelings are the language of our body, we don't want to change that. But what if we lived a little less here, or started here but then closed our eyes and, you know, maybe you just got off a phone call with your mother in law, or maybe you just got a call from the school or something at work and you're here in your head vibe.

What if you just took a second and went in your butt? Where do I feel that? Where do I feel that is my heart feeling like a raisin? Is my gut in knots and feel it and acknowledge it. So when people come in and start moving their body, it's like they have this canvas and some canvases are like a, you know, like a paint splatter. They're all over the place. Some canvases are completely white, not even a drop of paint. Some are being very meticulously and trying, you know, we're we're controlling what the outcome is. OG's.

That line was too thick. I got to fix that now. So movement can become a movement. Is medicine in itself. Because especially when you can go within, especially when you can get off the treadmill, get the head set out, lay with yourself, putting on, you know, some sort of, you know, there's these amazing frequency type playlists you can get on Spotify that have healing frequencies or abundant frequency. And as uncomfortable as it might be or as what is the point of this as it might be, there is there's beauty in that.

Because like I said earlier, we live in this state of sympathetic nervous system where the body is preparing for war and that actually that system, it's it keeps us alive. Because in those moments when we do need to get the heck out of a space because there is danger, you know, our, our thirst mechanism gets shut off, our hunger gets shut off, our our heart pumps blood to our extremities so we can physically get out of an unsafe situation. The issue has become that we live in that modus operandi.

The saber tooth tiger is always right behind us. The danger is always right behind us, so we never get to tap into the rest and digest, right? We don't. I think I read a stat that said that 60% of North American families eat one meal, or 1 or 2 meals a week at a table. Otherwise it's in their vehicle in front of the TV. What do you think is happening when you're watching your favorite crime drama and you're eating? What do you think's happening to that nutrition? It's going into an anxious body right?

It's not being received in a beautiful way. So that's what I see when it comes to movement. And you know, and mental health is that, you know, the women that come to me that are defined, like we talked about earlier, defined by their pain point, you start to see like almost like the snake of a skin being shed and the vulnerability and the rawness get to like, I've had many, many women, you know, will be in a Pilates class, will start breathing, will start moving the spine. Because spinal movement is what Pilates is all about.

The health of the spine dictates the health of the body and they'll come up to me at the end and I'll see tears just streaming down their face. We'll be doing little baby swans right, which is a heart opener. Tears. And they'll come up to me at the end and they'll be like, help me understand what just happened. And that is that that is where movement does become medicine, where it's like a little chisel and it's gently chiseling away at this hard exterior that we have believed for so long. That's how we have to show up as these superwomen.

We got it wrong, ladies. An independent woman doesn't mean doing it all ourselves. It doesn't mean doing it alone. Even a wolf has moments where they are the lone wolf. But when that wolf looks back, there is a pack behind them. Behind her. Right. There's a pack of women that are ready to support and that's. Oh, I'm just getting kind of goosebumps. That is what movement can offer the body and the mind and the spirit is like a playground. That's why when you said a polite reformer class, I was like, I love it because that reformer is like a playground for an adult body that can let down her guard and just feel her body move.

So you know what? That for me in my body on those 11 medications, it took me four months from my first Pilates class to literally weaning myself off of those 11 medications that four years of white coats and stethoscopes had no impact on my health.

Movement as Medicine and Building Support 45:48

So that's I mean, that's what it took for me, was 16 weeks of twice a week Pilates mat. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. What you did for me was make me realize, like, wow, I really do need to stretch because like, I, when I did those things at hurt, right? And I was like, you should probably be able to do that. So and even. Yeah. Go ahead. No. And to your point, to like the whole, when you made the comment about like, we're assuming we're supposed to do this, like hard person that gets everything done and like it took me until 2024 to realize you need a team of people.

And when you start having that team of people that you can rely on changes your life. So like, I have a team of people that I'm still working on it, but like, I have an amazing social media team and an amazing time team and an amazing assistant. I have all these, you know, stacked emails. I have so many people that help me do things and there's no way I could do it. I, you know, my husband helps me do that. Gave me the audio for this. Like, if you don't have people to know, I have a therapist and a trainer.

You have to have these people because it's not like it just. But for so long in my life, I was like, no, you should just do it. You should just be able to do it. You don't need an assistant. You should be able to go through it. You also you should be able to. And when you finally are like, nope, I need the help. It's like, yeah. And then you show up so much better. Yeah, I feel like I show up so much better for my patients. I show up so much better for my husband. I show up so much better for myself because all these people are helping you now. You just have to get the right people.

And I joke, I sort of joke, but like I say, 2025 is my year, 2025 is the year where you're going there on the Carson Smith Modern Endocrine in training or you're not in there. Get on. Get the hell out of the way. Yeah. That's it. And we're looking for people to get on in health. Not like that's where you have to be, right. So that you can take care of yourself and that you can. And then you have to listen to yourself. And that's the hard part I think, for people is like, it's uncomfortable and it's weird and it's like, this is weird for me to ask my assistant to do things that I know I could do.

It is weird for me to send email to Stephanie and say, hey, can you book that? So can you put it? Also, like, I know I don't have the time to do it right. It's a little uncomfortable, but then the longer you do it, it just fits right. So so to your point, I think that that's something people need to remember and realize to. Yeah, I think yes, I think all of everything that you said is, is so amazing. And I think one is just listening to ourselves. And we did more movement and mindfulness and did some of these things, people would feel a lot better.

So will you kind of tell everyone where they can find you, where they can learn more about you? I guess you're actually on that. Of course we'll put it in the notes, but so tell people about, you know. Absolutely. So, on all the social medias, just Jana with one n dot Danielson. That's where you can I do have a free telegram group called The Blooming Babe. So I'm in there, you know, kind of twice a day answering questions, leaving little videos on, I do like little recipes and little restorative type movements or.

Hey, you know what? I was feeling a headache. Come on. Today, I actually use my swell bottle as my Tylenol today. You know, here's what I did. Right? So, that's a great community. My YouTube channel, my Instagram, and then bloom. Better life is my website where you can see, you know, information on the Bloom Room experience, which is my community membership. I just launched a book last fall called The Sacred Woman's Guide to Blooming. Better. So there's information there. And I mean, I'm just here. DM me.

I am here to support. And this is the way I explained myself last night on a masterclass or this is the way I explained women, is that I feel like we are lighthouses in the ocean, right? What is a lighthouse to a lighthouse shines lights for boats that have lost their way. Okay, so just think of us, Cassie. You're a lighthouse. I'm a lighthouse. And we're trying to shine our light. Yeah. And there's all these boats out there. But imagine a lighthouse with dirty windows. So the light we're shining, the boats can't see.

What I feel like I love doing is showing women how to take, nontoxic, cleaner, maybe some vinegar and water and clean a little bit of their lighthouse window so that two things happen. All of a sudden they realize, oh, my gosh, there are boats out there that I can help. I thought I was helping, right? And the boats are like, oh my gosh, there's a light. That's the way I have to go. When you talk about, you know, getting on the doctor Cassie train, that's what you're doing is you're shining a light.

That's exactly what we do in this space. And it's usually because we've been in the dark and we know that. I mean, you can't know what health is without disease or sickness, right? We wouldn't know what day is if we didn't have night. So in those shadowy moments that you and I have had throughout our life, that's how we become who we become, and that's how we can take that experience to show up for the women, to show them the contrast. Work doesn't last forever. Winter doesn't last forever. This summit might be the kind of the little bit of momentum.

Remember momentum only exists when you have a moment and you add another moment and you add another moment. You can't catch the wave, right? Without having these little moments. And, that's what you create. That's what I create. So bloom, Better Life and Joanna Danielson is where I can be found on the worldwide web. Thank you so much for your time. I think that this is very beneficial. And so if you're listening to the summit and you found it beneficial, make sure you check Jana out and then make sure you listen to the rest of the summit and share this with other people.

So thank you. Thank you Cassie.