Pole Dance & Stress - With Jessica Patching-Bunch

Join us this week as we dive in with Jessica Patching-Bunch, founder of Brain Body Resilience, who helps people find tools to manage their stress and tap into the body. We discuss the research validity, the stress response, how movement and stress are correlated, our individual variability, and tools for managing stress/nervous system regulation. Jessica brings a background in gymnastics, coaching, neuropsychology, and science communication, offering deep and well-developed opinions based on research and experience. To wrap up the podcast we debate some exciting hypotheticals to see what she would offer as a solution to a client in a stressful situation.

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Podcast — Brain-Body Resilience

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The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast aims to help pole dancers feel better on and off the pole by talking with experts and diving into relevant scientific research to find evidence-based insights we can apply to our pole journeys. It’s a production of Slink Through Strength, the inclusive, evidence-based online pole studio, which can be found online at slinkthroughstrength.com.

Transcript:

[00:00:00] hello and welcome to the evidence-based poll podcast my name is Rosie boa and today I am joined by Jessica patching

[00:00:07] Bunch uh who is a stress resilience coach um and uh just a little bit about why I

[00:00:14] thought she'd be a good fit for the the podcast right she's got a background in neuropsychology she's been a science

[00:00:19] Communicator um so it brings in that the evidence-based approach that we are we are so enamored of here at slingsu

[00:00:26] strength um but also has a background as a gymnast so understands you know um

[00:00:32] and also you know coaching and understands the really um strong

[00:00:38] effect of movement particularly a movement that is you know well outside the realm of day to day being a modern

[00:00:45] human uh so Jessica do you want to introduce yourself and I don't know give us a little a little rundown of

[00:00:53] um you know what it is you do what is a stress resilience coach and a little bit about your approach and philosophy to

[00:00:59] stress in bodies yeah hi thank you so much for having me

[00:01:05] um I my name is Jessica patching bunch I usually go by JPB just because those are

[00:01:11] that's a lot of words um and like you said my but my background's in neuropsychology

[00:01:18] um my educational background and really my my love for the brain body

[00:01:25] kind of connection my curiosity about that started when I was in gymnastics because there were so many there's so

[00:01:32] many things when you're using your body that way um that your you know visualization is a

[00:01:38] big part of pre-tumbling routines or things like that and so I really

[00:01:44] um started thinking at that point and I was 20 years ago I guess oh my goodness

[00:01:51] um just like what what is there to this um

[00:01:57] so fast forward to um about four years ago five years ago

[00:02:02] I was leaving the lab that I was working in um because I realized that research was

[00:02:08] not the best use of my Curiosities or

[00:02:14] um it also wasn't it wasn't what I thought it was going to be which was fantastic information

[00:02:22] um and so I started my business um brain body resilience with the idea

[00:02:27] that we have so much information in within Academia and science medicine that we

[00:02:33] that just kind of is is in this Echo chamber and isn't really communicated in

[00:02:39] a way that is understandable to just everyone that as a human body that can

[00:02:45] benefit from this information specifically with the stress response and I am I am

[00:02:52] I chose to focus there because of my history with stress related illnesses and doctors telling me like oh you just

[00:03:00] have you know it's stress related so just have that stress and I would just leave infuriated like I

[00:03:05] don't even know what that means and and at that point in my life I didn't understand that there was something that

[00:03:12] I could do there were interventions that I could just do on my own to help navigate stress and mitigate anxiety

[00:03:20] um so it was just really I just left angry like okay here this this is absolutely

[00:03:26] unuseful um so uh I wanted to just use the

[00:03:31] knowledge that I have acquired over you know education and and also just personal experience and just share that

[00:03:39] as widely as possible and not like forward this information

[00:03:45] um and so what I do is a lot of um just kind of translating these kind

[00:03:50] of dry technical things that people are not interested in I love it and I just like the brain is so fascinating to me

[00:03:57] and the you know brain Body Connection just how we work as humans is so fascinating to me a lot of people aren't

[00:04:03] into it they're like yeah all that nerdy stuff I don't care but what does this mean and so that's what I want to I want

[00:04:11] to just tell people understand that in one aspect we are very simple and

[00:04:16] then at the same time we were incredibly complex um so I do a lot of talks on just what

[00:04:24] you know your brain and exercise your just what the stress response is how to

[00:04:29] mitigate that how anxiety ties in and then I work individually with folks to

[00:04:34] just build those resilience skills and the resilience I think is a word that

[00:04:39] has come to to mean a lot of I think it's just kind of a popular term it's

[00:04:46] like well just be resilient it's like but what does that mean we are naturally resilient and I don't necessarily mean

[00:04:54] that you just I'm helping people like bounce back so that they can continue to be productive or live you know in the

[00:05:00] same way because that's not useful when I think about the term resilience I think about how how we are in our

[00:05:08] original state if we look at children they just get up and try again they fall down and it does

[00:05:15] not they just keep going because they don't know they're not they don't have all the societal programming and all of

[00:05:21] the Learned experience that things are dangerous and all that and so

[00:05:26] that's what I think of is just back to our original state of resiliency um so anyways I work with folks to just

[00:05:32] build these these practical tools that we have in our brain our body and our breath to help understand what stress is

[00:05:39] and then navigate using that biologically adaptable adaptable tool

[00:05:45] that we have which is our stress response um yeah I've definitely also seen

[00:05:51] resilience to use as like um I know you're suffering and I know that I have a direct role in that but I'm

[00:05:57] unwilling to change my behavior I want you to change your response to it be more resilient just be okay with the

[00:06:04] ways that I am hurting you uh so that I can not have to deal with it um she's not not ideal

[00:06:10] no and I think that way I think there's I think it's it's fantastic that we have

[00:06:16] more of a conversation around mental health at the same time with that I think there's a large misunderstanding

[00:06:22] of what that really means and a lot of the there's just a a lot of those terms that just have this like pop culture

[00:06:28] significance of people just kind of throw around and manipulate to be beneficial to them

[00:06:34] um or just like even I'm like maybe it's just a misunderstanding I want to give people some sudden benefit of Doubt but but in

[00:06:42] the in any case I think the having a larger discussion of it we need to be

[00:06:47] aware what um how we're using those terms and what

[00:06:53] they mean yeah yeah um there's anything you learn

[00:06:58] research it is a specificity is uh very important and

[00:07:03] um if you never had to be very specific before you may be surprised at how

[00:07:08] challenging it could be yes yes so you mentioned a couple times

[00:07:15] I turned I think people may be familiar with but may not know you know the exact meaning of and that is stress response

[00:07:23] um so my understanding is that this is a large bucket of things that an organism

[00:07:29] does whether that's you know by on purpose or just sort of like automatically when situations change in

[00:07:36] a way that is not um conducive to them continuing to be the way they are currently I don't know

[00:07:43] hopefully that's sufficiently broad but uh how would you define it um I would say that our stress response

[00:07:50] is something that happens definitely involuntarily when our organism I love

[00:07:56] that you use that term um because that encompasses everything that we are Mind Body all the

[00:08:02] different cells are micro for biome like all of these pieces that make make us up and have input in this

[00:08:08] um so when our organism detects threat or Potential Threat because our number one our number one

[00:08:15] goal is to survive it always has been that's how we adapt that's how we learn

[00:08:21] to live in very different ways if we just think about our lifestyle today as opposed to our lifestyle even 100 years

[00:08:28] ago I have my grandmother's 104 and I think about the things that she has seen in her lifetime in the DraStic ways in

[00:08:36] which life has changed and with that we have to adapt and learn to navigate those things and we have a lot more

[00:08:43] um life is faster Pace now we have a lot more Distributing triggering our stress response all the time

[00:08:48] so because our our goal overall is survival our stress

[00:08:56] response comes from a type of of sense that we have an internal

[00:09:02] um multiple internal senses that we have detecting throughout before our our

[00:09:09] conscious brain is like oh there's something available you know there's there's something there that's where we

[00:09:15] get kind of those those feelings in our gut that's where we get that kind of

[00:09:20] inherent um understanding that something might be dangerous

[00:09:26] our stress response can also be triggered by just our our thoughts

[00:09:32] um I think the most there's so many examples of this and I think the most the most just kind of uh

[00:09:39] ready example that I have is like the way that our thoughts affect our physiology if we just think about uh

[00:09:47] male anatomy and how easily that is um thoughts can lead to a change in in

[00:09:55] blood flow um and how how that

[00:10:00] you know how your body works which obviously is not specific to mail I just feel like that's a very kind of

[00:10:07] vivid um example um so the stress response is what

[00:10:13] happens when your organism feels that there is a shift in demand for energy yeah and so that could be you know

[00:10:20] actual oh no no the car coming or it could be you

[00:10:25] know um I'm imagining that I'm crossing the street and I see a car coming right so

[00:10:32] it doesn't have to be a um an actual physical presence it's just something that like changes the the arousal State I think

[00:10:39] would probably be what a psychologist would say um that doesn't have to be sexual in psychology

[00:10:46] no absolutely not I just think that's a great example um definitely not limited to that

[00:10:52] and yeah it is I think we hear all the time like your brain doesn't know the difference between you know what's happening and

[00:11:00] what you're making up which is partly partly true um

[00:11:06] your thoughts have a a Cascade of physiological responses that can also

[00:11:12] trigger you know a fear State we talk ourselves into a lot of things in your

[00:11:18] uh you know our brains are incredible the way that they can create an

[00:11:24] environment in our within us in our internal environment um both in ways that help

[00:11:31] increase or decrease that arousal State um and so

[00:11:36] the perception of that threat internally is is very similar yeah so maybe an

[00:11:43] example from Paul might be um you're learning a new trick you find it very scary for me this is handstands

[00:11:49] away from a surface right like I can handstand next to the pole all day I

[00:11:54] cannot handstand four feet away from the pole uh because that's scary and it's just like a block when I think about it

[00:12:00] my hands get sweaty um I I start to like breathe a little bit faster right

[00:12:06] um if you had you know some sort of heart rate variability monitor on me it might be like oh oh she's feeling some

[00:12:13] um and even though like I'm not actually even trying to do that handstand away

[00:12:18] from the poll it's already like beginning to create that that stress response as you say

[00:12:24] um and I love that it's such a great example because it's not very different doing the

[00:12:31] handstand against the pool as opposed to just away from the ball a pool is not uh not like a large surface that you have

[00:12:38] all of this support so you're really doing the same thing

[00:12:45] but there is that increased potential or injury and so it is scarier

[00:12:54] and and then we make up a story about that about what it means or about our our capacity to

[00:13:01] face that challenge our capacity to deal with the outcome of that um

[00:13:06] and then and then that is how our that's what leads to our our response and I

[00:13:12] love that you mentioned like the sweaty hands and the heavy breathing and these are things that come from that stress

[00:13:17] response uh being activated because we have these internal resources of extra

[00:13:24] energy that comes so that we can you know historically run from The Lion and

[00:13:30] the Savannah or whatever which is not what we're doing now but our stress response hasn't evolved you know past

[00:13:36] that point where it can understand oh this is kind of dangerous but it's kind of safe

[00:13:41] it's it just is it just does what it does um and so we get you know the the focus

[00:13:50] and the elevated heart rate and the blood goes to our muscles so that we can run if necessary and there are all of

[00:13:57] these internal physiological changes that create this arousal energy that we

[00:14:02] then have to spend and that's and we have to learn how to do that huh which I think segues really nicely

[00:14:08] to um something that we've been talking about at the the studio this month so I have monthly themes in the studio and

[00:14:13] this month it's um parasympathetic poll so we are doing you

[00:14:19] know exercises not necessarily like you know jumping jacks although I mean that's part of it

[00:14:24] um to to help us sort of down regulate and um you know address the stress response

[00:14:30] a little bit because I know particularly if you're in the northern hemisphere particularly if they're children in your life August can be a very stressful

[00:14:36] month there's a lot going on so uh just trying to help folks still enjoy their pull practice and get

[00:14:42] the benefits but also um you know address just overall elevated stress responses

[00:14:47] um but with that said do you want to talk a little bit about the link between movement and the stress response and how

[00:14:54] like what do we know do we have good research evidence actually helps because people will say a lot of things and

[00:15:02] sometimes you're like that sounds interesting I'm gonna go try and find you know some research on that and you're like oh there isn't any oh you

[00:15:08] made this up okay um I see how you got there but I would like for evidence before I you know

[00:15:14] adopt this into my practice um and I think that was the end of that that sidebar there right like what is

[00:15:21] the relationship between movement and instruction response and what do we know actually helps and I guess is there anything that doesn't help is there

[00:15:28] anything that would make your stress response worse maybe in the in the movement Realm

[00:15:33] um movement is one of the best tools that we have um it is we evolved with movement our

[00:15:42] brain grows and changes with movement our brain works better with movement

[00:15:49] um so many different and it's and that's with movement not I think we get confused between movement and exercise because of

[00:15:56] the way that our society you know thinks about the use of exercise which is

[00:16:02] basically for aesthetic purposes um your brain health is dependent on your

[00:16:07] movement and it's you know the benefits of your your brain benefits are true

[00:16:14] across all types of movement and they do kind of different things but it's not

[00:16:20] specific to it's definitely not linked to whatever aesthetic outcome is happening

[00:16:26] um and so I think that I think that's important to note because I think when we think about movement it's only worth

[00:16:33] it if it's intense or if it's long or if you're lifting heavier or whatever your thing is walking is one of the most

[00:16:40] beneficial things we can do for brain health and I think a lot of people are like oh but that's not really doing

[00:16:45] anything and it and it is it depends on what our goal is right

[00:16:51] um so movement is so important because of the benefits to um

[00:16:56] how our brain so much of our brain needs to be active

[00:17:01] um our social awareness our our spatial recognition our memory

[00:17:07] um our just our whole somatic mapping there there's just so much of our brain

[00:17:14] that gets involved with movement um and then obviously the cerebellum there's just the whole brain is like hey

[00:17:21] now I'm working and now I am changing with these things I'm learning and specifically with the stress

[00:17:26] response because there is that arousal energy that happened that that energy so that

[00:17:32] we can face the challenge or run away or fight or play whatever it is

[00:17:37] if that energy is not dispelled it stays in the body

[00:17:42] because it has nowhere to go it has no way to get out movement is one of the best things that we have if we think about

[00:17:50] um there's a book um well it's

[00:17:56] why zebras don't get ulcers and it's a fantastic book just for the

[00:18:01] very for the science behind the stress and the stress response and the title is because when we think about

[00:18:11] animals of all kinds we see this in dogs we see this in cats we but if we're looking at like a zebra I think this is

[00:18:17] just a great visual example they're just like minding their business they're hanging out eating grass doing whatever

[00:18:22] they do and then a lion comes and they have to run for their life and then after that they Shake

[00:18:29] vigorously to dispel that arousal energy come back to that parasympathetic State

[00:18:37] come back into a balance between the two where we're not stuck in that fight or flight

[00:18:43] and then they go about their time because they don't have the the massive

[00:18:49] frontal lobe that we have that deals with reason and logic and storytelling and and and all all of the higher level

[00:18:57] kind of executive function to ruminate on those things to think

[00:19:02] about how scary it was to think about oh no what if it happens again all of that they just get to go be animals again

[00:19:09] um so with that we need to dispel that energy so high intensity exercises

[00:19:15] things like hit really great for getting some of that out also for elevating into that stress

[00:19:22] response and then we can practice bringing ourselves back down um I think that that part the practicing

[00:19:29] bringing ourselves back down into that parasympathetic state is the piece that's missing so much

[00:19:34] I do some I do a several talks a year with the running group

[00:19:40] and I see this in Runners so much are like but I run all the time

[00:19:45] but yes but that is an activation of your stress response and so we have to

[00:19:50] look at what kind of movement we're doing and we need to vary that if we're looking at things like yoga or

[00:19:56] stretching just mindful even Mobility mindful movement that is you're just paying attention to yourself is what

[00:20:03] that means we have a better we have more calm our brain can't be calm our mind

[00:20:08] cannot be in a calm space unless our body is um because of that intricate connection

[00:20:15] that we have so yes vast benefits across across the brain and body with movement

[00:20:21] and it varies depending on kind of the type of movement and exercise

[00:20:27] it is one of the best things we do have research I don't have any specific studies that I can cite

[00:20:33] um but they're out there if you want to look them up um there is there is ample research on

[00:20:39] the benefits of exercise on decreasing mitigating symptoms of

[00:20:44] anxiety and depression specifically in the way that to the point where those

[00:20:50] the exercise intervention is as effective as some of the most most

[00:20:57] common ssris or antidepressants that we prescribe and I'm not in any way saying

[00:21:02] don't take your medication or anti-medication or anything like that but there are other interventions things

[00:21:08] that we can do and when it comes to our stress response being you know a lack of certainty and a

[00:21:16] lack of control are huge in the brain does not like that and so when we have

[00:21:23] an intervention that we can control the duration control the onset we get to

[00:21:28] decide how long how much how fast that is that is such a key piece in uh

[00:21:35] in calming our psychology um also um we talked about this in the last

[00:21:42] episode when this comes out also really important for helping you learn skills faster as well right that ability to

[00:21:49] control your movement and have autonomy um I think it's I don't know particularly the Western education system I think it gets

[00:21:55] downplayed well I shouldn't say particularly the Western education system I know from my experience the Western education system my autonomy as

[00:22:02] a mover was not a not a central point of the of the activity

[00:22:09] and I just actually looked at me looked at my notes and part of the question that you had I really wanted I want to

[00:22:14] address this because it's difficult there's so we're in a time of just

[00:22:20] over saturation of information and some of it is crap some of it is absolutely

[00:22:25] not based in science whatsoever um I think about like an example that

[00:22:31] comes to me is is breathing breath work has become a really like hot

[00:22:36] thing your breath is one of the uh you know best neuro hacks best tools that

[00:22:43] you have for stress it is absolutely linked to your brain heart lungs your gut function so many things

[00:22:50] but I was I was watching this um a pretty popular account on Instagram they were doing it live and they were meeting

[00:22:56] people through this uh breath exercise and the type of exercise they were doing

[00:23:02] was kind of quick shallow breathing which stimulates the sympathetic response that fight or flight uh arousal

[00:23:09] response and then at the end uh the person who was leading asked can you feel your

[00:23:15] pleasure Center and you feel calm all these things and I not not to say like oh they're doing it

[00:23:22] wrong but I think about the people that are like no I can't I'm more worked up this

[00:23:28] doesn't work this you know this doesn't work for me I can't do this when in reality it was just not the type

[00:23:35] of intervention that makes you calm and so understanding a little bit about how you work in your physical physiology is

[00:23:41] so important and so many of these things like uh

[00:23:50] meditation which we do now since like 2005 Harvard did kind of a landmark

[00:23:55] study on the benefits of meditation and growth in the brain in that area

[00:24:01] um it's shown to you know increase the gray matter in your like frontal areas and then decrease the activation of your

[00:24:09] or your kind of um stress response emotional regulation amygdala area so since then we've been

[00:24:16] really the science has been like oh what is this about and there's been a lot of neuroimaging studies and that

[00:24:22] intervention has been around for thousands of years before Western science wanted to like verify it

[00:24:29] and so I do have there's a balance right just because there isn't research on it doesn't mean

[00:24:35] it's not true or effective um it means that

[00:24:40] and like after working in research I see there are a lot of questions we have to ask about why there isn't research

[00:24:48] um is it's you know who is funding it who is getting published what types of research are

[00:24:54] um approved and for so long those types of interventions Mind Body interventions

[00:25:00] or even just the concern with our selves and our well-being we can't solve

[00:25:05] people's meditation very well that's that's not going to help me make a lot of money no it will exactly and

[00:25:12] in the system that we have it is all very profit profit concerned and

[00:25:19] for so long we operated under under kind of a um an interest of pathology an

[00:25:26] interest of what's wrong how can we fix what's wrong instead of looking at

[00:25:32] okay but how do we what do we currently have and you know and how do we work with that and how do we focus on the

[00:25:38] wellness part rather than the sickness part um so because of all of that people

[00:25:44] weren't interested in doing that science people were not uh funded you couldn't get published so

[00:25:50] I could go on about that after seeing kind of in research how how that works

[00:25:56] um who who gets grant funding who gets published all the things because there isn't a depth of research

[00:26:02] on it does not mean that it's not effective or or valid that's true although and and people make up

[00:26:10] yeah which is why I appreciate having the

[00:26:15] educational background and understanding of of that's because it does take kind of a particular skill to sift through

[00:26:23] all of the information that is out there yeah it is uh

[00:26:30] there's a reason that peer review is like a whole thing that takes a while and expertise

[00:26:35] um yeah and I think it's good points right like a if you try something and it works for you it works

[00:26:41] for you right like that is fine especially if it's something where there's um

[00:26:47] relatively little risk like why not why not see if it works but uh also a lot of

[00:26:53] people will just say stuff with no evidence Beyond you know they came up with it or like they heard somebody say

[00:26:59] it and they sort of kind of have remember what was going on there um and they're sort of yeah I think

[00:27:05] specifically with your breathing exercise like there has been quite a bit of research on the fact that like a longer exhalation than inhalation

[00:27:11] specifically is what is uh is relaxing in breath work um and you know I would also probably

[00:27:19] not ask people to do light shallow breaths in in class because that's the sort of thing that could if you were

[00:27:25] prone to panic attacks potentially trigger ones so yeah absolutely and I think just like

[00:27:31] you said a lot of issues I think come from people saying like oh this worked for me so it'll work for you

[00:27:38] and the way our physiology works it it's very we are experienced dependent

[00:27:44] Learners that's how our system works and so the experiences that we have had in life shape

[00:27:50] how our stress response functions it shapes how a lot of our physiology

[00:27:55] interacts with how are different systems interact with each other and so the it

[00:28:01] worked for me so it'll work for you just is not is never a good model

[00:28:07] um uh and I think there's also um I don't I think I think this is one of

[00:28:13] those things that's not really general knowledge outside the field it's something you mentioned like there's a lot of stuff that like is well

[00:28:18] established in Psychology or in other fields and has not really made it to sort of the the general public but I

[00:28:24] think a lot of people have been taught that there is you know everyone has this area of the brain and it's in the same place and it does this right and

[00:28:31] everyone has you know language in the left hemisphere and the other stuff in the right hemisphere um and the degree of individual

[00:28:37] variation just in like brain anatomy is way higher than I think most people

[00:28:43] um no right even the fact that like oh you know language is going to be in the left hemisphere does not hold across the

[00:28:50] population it is sort of a general pattern it's true for lots of people but it is certainly not you know

[00:28:57] the way that brains are period um so I think that individual variation

[00:29:02] is downplayed okay there's there's so much in there worms here you go

[00:29:09] I think that uh yes part of that like the language is such a good example because they're like oh language comes

[00:29:15] from that there are multiple uh areas on both sides of your brain that deal in

[00:29:21] language and the different parts of language whether it's creating language or understanding language or understanding the different pieces of

[00:29:26] language and and language learning like it's there's it's not just like

[00:29:32] these different like areas on your head that do this thing within that you know

[00:29:38] specific region that maybe deals in this thing there is also connections to all these

[00:29:44] other various parts of your brain that are interacting with that and it is usually like a global event that's

[00:29:50] happening uh to some extent and so I think that

[00:29:58] again I'm like I don't want to think that like people are just out there lying but that they are though sometimes

[00:30:04] um I think it's a misunderstanding and I think um misattribution to to those

[00:30:11] those areas of like this is the one thing that this area does and I think

[00:30:17] the simplification of that helps people understand like oh there is an area in my brain that deals with language

[00:30:25] but to really understand that you have to get a little bit more more complex understanding of like okay but it's also

[00:30:31] interacting with all these other areas and this you know and then it gets into like the weeds of the complexity of the

[00:30:36] science of it and the understanding of those things from research come from

[00:30:42] the samples that we have and for decades

[00:30:48] White middle or you know uh early to to middle-aged men were the only people

[00:30:56] that we were researching and if there was you know an outlier it would kind of be disregarded as a

[00:31:02] subject because it didn't fit into the hypothesis it didn't fit nicely into what we're trying to get published

[00:31:09] and so I mean women weren't even used as study subjects until

[00:31:14] oh my gosh I just heard this too um oh I think it's in the 70s for medical studies

[00:31:20] yeah very recently because there were too many

[00:31:26] uh too many kind of unknowns with different hormonal changes and things so it's like

[00:31:31] if we're not taking those into account how valid is this research anyways and how um

[00:31:37] how applicable is it across varying populations so when we talk about like

[00:31:44] the variation in brain and brain function again a lot of our because of

[00:31:49] neuroplasticity which happens when we learn new things it's just a fancy word for the fact that your brain grows and

[00:31:56] changes and the way that your brain cells talk to each other changes with different experiences that you have

[00:32:02] which makes literally makes the size of your brain the the the volume of the the

[00:32:08] different types of matter in your brain grow or or Shrink depending on what's going on

[00:32:14] but because of that like everybody's brain is a little bit different and we all have the basic same Anatomy but like

[00:32:20] how that interacts with each other and how that functions varies depending on on so many factors including

[00:32:28] environments and genes and experience and you know there are all these things

[00:32:35] and so I think one you know we we talk about like not being neurotypical now is a term that has has come up and I

[00:32:43] appreciate again I like I appreciate the the expanded conversation on Mental Health but I think

[00:32:49] in a lot of ways it's problematic and I feel the same about this term I love that we're recognizing that not

[00:32:55] everyone's brain works the same way but just that term means that somebody

[00:33:00] that they're somebody's typical and you're not and we all vary in how we understand

[00:33:06] things and how we learn things and how our brain works a little bit and so I think that's such a good point to make

[00:33:12] that but how we have a basic understanding of like okay this your brain works like

[00:33:17] this we're so far from really understanding all all the components of how and why

[00:33:23] yeah brains are complex bodies are complex um the

[00:33:28] connection between your brain and body maybe deeper than you uh learned in say

[00:33:34] middle school science and that's okay yeah so

[00:33:40] um before we sort of wrap up I just want to sort of quickfire prick your brain and give you a situation and see what

[00:33:46] your your recommendations would be okay so um you know obviously you are a stress

[00:33:52] resilience coach you really work with people who are working to manage their stress so um let's say I've gotten acutely

[00:33:57] stressful event coming up um today I'm a pole dancer and I have a show I'm performing in uh right what are

[00:34:04] some things that I can do coming up to that to really help manage my stress

[00:34:10] response and you know in pull in particular if your hands are really sweaty you can't stick good uh so

[00:34:15] emotional regulation and grip Aid is part of what helps us stay on the pole

[00:34:21] um a unique challenge of the sport we're not the only sport but or activity

[00:34:27] but you know one of the ones that we got to think about so what are some tools that you know just for obviously

[00:34:32] different folds are going to work for different people but just like if you were like okay here's three things that you can do to help you manage this

[00:34:38] extremely stressful situation that's coming up that you know you want to do you can't just avoid it entirely what

[00:34:46] are some some techniques that you can use now how far before like is it directly before the performance or days

[00:34:52] leading up let's change the answer uh this episode

[00:34:57] is gonna come out the day before oh no it's gonna come out after nevermind um let's say it's the the week before

[00:35:04] your your performance and like you thought you're gonna be fine but now you're starting to get a little bit nervous Maybe

[00:35:09] yeah um so I would start with start with your breath that's oh

[00:35:16] that's always like always and never those are those are complex terms um most of the time most all of the time

[00:35:23] that is where we should start because it has an effect on both your psychology

[00:35:29] and your physiology and so once we get ourselves into a parasympathetic state with like you said

[00:35:35] some longer exhales and there are so many different breathing techniques

[00:35:40] um and it that also can be complex because people get get nervous about their breath but

[00:35:46] um with kind of a proper understanding and kind of

[00:35:51] training of that you can use your breath to activate your parasympathetic response

[00:35:58] and then when you're in that state you have more access to deal with your psychology to deal with the thoughts and

[00:36:04] the emotions and so that's what I would do for a kind of immediate relief and

[00:36:10] then we have to look at um there are some studies out of Stanford Dr Kelly McGonagall has great

[00:36:17] stress research suggesting that how we think about stress affects the biological markers

[00:36:24] um which I think is so fascinating again how we think and perceive things affects

[00:36:29] our physiology and so looking at okay I'm really nervous I'm starting to freak out I'm going to comb myself with my

[00:36:35] breath and this is a daily practice it's like brushing our teeth that's what

[00:36:40] I I work with folks on his nervous system hygiene um meaning that we do it daily not just

[00:36:46] like once that like one time for an hour that's great if you brush your teeth

[00:36:51] once a week it's not it's not going to be as effective as doing two minutes a day right and it's the same thing here

[00:36:56] and we're looking at when we're looking at brain changes or changes in patterns just in your body it's frequency rather

[00:37:03] than duration the more times those things happen the more uh

[00:37:09] the more you're you're brain and body will respond to that so

[00:37:14] daily we're doing a little breath work and then we're looking at okay I am nervous and I'm not trying to

[00:37:21] make that go away because when we try and Force things to go away when we're not

[00:37:26] allowing our natural body processes to happen that's a that's a threat

[00:37:32] and so that perpetuates not only the feeling that we have but that heightened

[00:37:38] awareness of it and that can activate our stress response so

[00:37:44] understanding I think is a big part of like understanding that being nervous is Supernatural

[00:37:49] um there's nothing wrong with it it doesn't mean that something's wrong it means that you care about what's about whatever that thing is

[00:37:56] and that's so much of anxiety as well I think working with some kind of somatic

[00:38:03] tracking which really just means paying attention to how you feel what is happening in your body do you

[00:38:10] have butterflies are you tense is your breath you know what is your breath doing just paying attention to your body

[00:38:16] rather than trying to distract outside of yourself which is what we do so much of the time

[00:38:21] um so some breath work some understanding some really kind of thinking about the thought patterns if you're like oh my God I'm gonna die like

[00:38:27] maybe just like okay no I care about this thing um and now trying to talk yourself out

[00:38:34] of it but just looking at more of an objective uh objective reality about it

[00:38:40] like um and then doing some some somatic tracking

[00:38:45] following what's happening in your body um so that you can

[00:38:51] relax your muscles if they're tight so that you can get curious about about what's going on

[00:38:57] um and kind of doing that daily is going to help keep you in more of a

[00:39:05] balance we don't want to stay calm all the time we're not trying to always be in a sympathetic State that's not useful

[00:39:11] we are meant to flow between all of the states of of Being Human all of the emotions

[00:39:17] uh anything we have the capacity to to feel we're meant to feel so it's just

[00:39:23] navigating that and understanding that our nervousness something interesting about uh nervousness is

[00:39:31] physiological kind of markers in response to nervousness is the same as excitement

[00:39:36] and it's just kind of the story We Tell behind that which is really hard when you're in that

[00:39:41] moment I know people are like oh I'm excited like well no you still like hey you're not we're not trying to pretend

[00:39:47] it's something it's not but having that understanding lets us know that we're not actually in danger

[00:39:53] that we are safe and so I think that's what I would keep it

[00:39:59] really simple add in some movement if we are feeling really like really worked up

[00:40:04] uh and maybe movement in a way that you don't normally shaking bouncing dancing

[00:40:10] something that brings your kind of Joy um to dispel that energy

[00:40:17] so I think those are the three things that I would I would recommend and in little doses throughout the week

[00:40:26] [Music] so a couple apartments yes absolutely

[00:40:32] um so we're down out of time I want to make sure I'll let you get back to your day because I know you're you're a busy person uh but if folks wanted to work

[00:40:39] with you more I know you you mentioned you offer coaching um how would they do that and also where are some good places to follow you

[00:40:47] um I am always on Instagram so uh and that's a good place to find me my I have you know

[00:40:54] the link in my bio leads to my website and um all of the other things

[00:41:00] um I also have my own podcast spring body resilience podcast and

[00:41:05] um my website brain body resilience um I think those are the best best

[00:41:11] places to find me um and I love connecting with folks on on Instagram so you know find me there

[00:41:19] hey if you if you are looking for um for more on nervous system hygiene

[00:41:25] and just like what what are these practical tools like how can I build my nervous system

[00:41:31] hygiene routine I do manage your stress mentorship um and that's a one-on-one offer

[00:41:38] and we work for um several weeks on building that and then helping you

[00:41:45] a little bit of psycho-education just understanding like why am I doing these things and then what is it that I can do

[00:41:50] so definitely check that out I'll put um links to some of that stuff in the show notes as well so uh you can you can

[00:41:58] take a look at those so thank you so much for joining us uh today jpv sorry I'm not gonna uh Lisa

[00:42:06] your your preferred shortening um and I will see everybody else next time

[00:42:12] I hope you found this uh enlightening win some stuff I have some tools you can use uh and I will talk to you later

[00:42:19] thanks for having me bye