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In this episode, I interview one of my favorite former clients!  Carrie Beall, DO is a Physician that now works as a Medical Advisor with Dr Schubiner (Freedom From Chronic Pain), and helps her patients find chronic pain recovery instead of just managing their pain. It's been so fun seeing her at the last 2 ANTS Conferences! (Association for the Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms) Carrie was quite sure she knew the difference between her "disc pain", "facet pain", and "neuroplastic pain." Well spoiler alert, it was all neuroplastic!  And so were many of her other symptoms (IBS, Migraines, skin issues, foot pain, constipation when traveling). She talks about the rabbit hole she went down with rheumatology, but in the end those symptoms were neuroplastic too. Now her journey with discovering to love and support herself continues, even if her symptoms don't. Like many of us, her symptoms were just a gateway to this work of learning about ourselves, loving ourselves, and releasing resistance. Overall her journey is one of feeling the need to control everything around her (I mean perfectionism is expected in a Physician to some degree!)- to one of letting go, compassion for herself, and not just tolerating uncertainty, but seeing it as a possibility! If you want to reach out or follow Carrie, you can find her here: https://www.serenityosteopathicmedicine.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drcarriebeall And see what I'm up to lately on my instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/

In this Episode I have the pleasure of interviewing Charlie Merrill,a well-known physical therapist specializing in the mind-body approach, to discuss the importance of emotional and physical healing in patient care. Learn more about how pain and many bodily symptoms are frequently generated by the brain as a protective state rather than only by tissue damage, and the importance of distinguishing primary neural drivers from secondary physical changes (tightness, weakness, spasm, swelling) that may resolve when the protective state is addressed. We explore how emotions and fear can impact physical pain and movement, with Charlie explaining concepts like "smudging" - where the brain loses clarity in perceiving the body - and the importance of introducing prediction errors to update harmful pain patterns.   We cover practical applications including working with athletes, managing acute vs chronic pain, and the role of movement in healing, with Charlie emphasizing that the brain learns through mistakes and surprises, and that movement is crucial for feeding the brain accurate safety information. You can find Charlie Merrill on his website https://www.mperformance.com/ Email: [email protected] Listen for more, click subscribe, and share with someone who wants an Unstoppable Body and Mind!

You may have heard of the Love Language concept- that there are 5 main "Love Languages" which represent the ways we receive love best.  Most of the time this concept is used in relationships, but what if we turned them inward?  Self love is the biggest tool to recovery, so in this episode we explore the ways you could apply the five love languages to YOURSELF! Self-love isn’t indulgent — it’s regulating to your nervous system. It’s actually the kindest thing you can do for the people around you, to practice self love!  Read that again and let it sink in. Listen for more, and click subscribe because this year I'll be recording more shows and bringing on some awesome guests!

Here's a quick recap of my 2025, where I took a step back from coaching, focused on Grief Recovery, and explored other things that brought me joy. The biggest change was my name- going from "Betsy" to "Elle" for my 50th Birthday.   *Correction- at about 6:40 I meant to say "placebo", instead of "nocebo."  Hope that makes more sense. Listen for more, and click subscribe because this year I'll be recording more shows and bringing on some awesome guests!

In this episode, we welcome Jake Trembath, a dance teacher from Utah, who shares his journey from discovering dance as a social outlet to using it as a tool for psychological healing and brain rewiring. Jake explains how dance can help process emotions, improve self-love, and create a flow state that is beneficial for personal growth. He discusses the impact of dance on mental and physical health, highlighting its ability to rewire the brain, improve memory, and treat depression. The episode also covers the dynamics of lead and follow in dance, how it relates to masculine and feminine energies, and the importance of creating a safe space for self-expression.   Jake's community, Soal Coast, and its various retreats and events are spaces where people can experience these transformations, check them out below.   00:00 Introduction and Special Guest Announcement 00:34 Jake's Journey into Dance 01:55 From Dancing to Teaching 03:05 The Healing Power of Dance 05:17 Understanding Attachment Styles Through Dance 10:23 The Role of Self-Love in Dance 22:52 Creating Safety in Dance 24:56 Discovering the Power of Safe Dance Environments 25:59 Building a Supportive Dance Community 27:26 Health Benefits of Dance 29:34 Overcoming Personal Barriers Through Dance 40:17 The Flow State in Dance and Life 43:46 Upcoming Events and Retreats 45:41 Rapid Transformation Through Dance   You can find more about Jake and Soul Coast events on the website: https://soulcoast.dance/ Instagram @soulcoast.dance

Wow, I had an MRI done on my back and I talk about my surprising results in this episode.  I’ve had some previous back issues- a snowboarding injury and a mid back problem with my rib that developed during pregnancy.   A couple times in the last few years that my back “went out” for a few days (last time was over a year ago.)     I do not have chronic back pain, and I do not have to restrict my activity.   But if I had pain and numbness and these same MRIs results, I could qualify for disability.    MRI and X Ray results actually do not accurately predict the amount of pain someone is in.     Structural changes in the body are actually normal with age.   And addressing normal degenerative changes with surgery is really nothing more than a placebo.   We now know it’s common for pain free people to have bulging discs, torn rotator cuffs, torn meniscus of the knee, hip labral tears.   We just haven’t been doing MRI’s on pain free people to see that.   So here are the results if you want to read them- Right paracentral disc protrusion at T5-6 with mild mass effect on the ventral aspect of the cord. L2-3: Diffuse disc bulge extending 2.5 mm into the thecal sac.  No spinal canal or neuroforaminal stenosis. L3-4: Diffuse disc bulge extending 3 mm into the thecal sac.  Mild spinal canal stenosis.  Mild bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis. L4-5: Central disc protrusion measuring 16 mm in width and extending 5 mm into the thecal sac.  Mild spinal canal stenosis.  Mild bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis. L5-S1: Central disc protrusion measuring 18 mm in width.  Moderate to severe bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis.  No spinal canal stenosis. IMPRESSION: 1.  Central disc protrusion at L5-S1 with retrolisthesis measuring 6 mm.  Moderate to severe bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis. 2.  Central disc protrusion at L4-L5 with mild spinal canal stenosis and mild bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis. 3.  Diffuse disc bulge at L3-4 with mild spinal canal stenosis and mild bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis. 4.  Diffuse disc bulge at L2-L3 without spinal canal or neuroforaminal stenosis. 5.  Modic type I endplate changes at L5-S1 with Modic type I endplate changes. 6.  Straightening of the lumbar spine on the sagittal view which can be seen in the setting of muscle spasm.   Below are some of the research articles I mentioned:   -Takatalo- 50% of healthy 21 year old Finns had at least one degenerative disc and 25% had a bulging disc. -Boos- 73% of adults without back pain had bulging discs.  -Briggs- hip labral tears in 89% of pain free young athletes 16 years of age or older, & 56% of pain free athletes 16 years or younger. -S Rajasekaran- Delivery of MRI results affects pain and healing. -Karayannis Fear of movement is associated with trunk stiffness.   If you are a woman experiencing chronic neck or back pain, I am forming a group especially for you!  Details to come soon.

Today I have a special guest, a leader in the field of Mindbody medicine and President of the ATNS (Association for Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms, formerly PPDA), Dr David Clarke. Dr Clarke practiced Gastroenterology in Portland from 1984 to 2009, treating over 7000 patients whose symptoms were not explained by diagnostic testing.    In this episode, Dr Clarke summarizes Pain relief Psychology.  With research based methods teaching patients to take their focus off the symptom, shift attention to brain, and feel the emotions or deal with life stressors.   Responding to chronic pain or symptoms this way rewires the brain, so that symptoms can be eliminated instead of just managed. Listen to hear more!   Find Dr Clarke and the 12 question quiz on the ATNS website-  https://www.symptomatic.me/   Dr Clarke's challenging patients course https://ppdassociation.org/online-course   For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/   Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA   Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com   Transcript- Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, Episode 135, Treating Neuroplastic Symptoms with Dr. David Clarke. In this podcast, we learn to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become Unstoppable Body and Mind. All right. Hi, everyone. Welcome. We have a special, special guest today. This is Dr. David Clarke. Welcome. Great to be with you, Betsy. Well, we are so glad to have you here. So Dr. Clarke is one of the pioneers and leaders in this field. The head of the PPDA, which is now the ATNS, we can talk about what all of these initials mean and acronyms. But why don't we start with a little bit about your story, coming from being a Western physician to what you do now? Yeah, I didn't know anything about this. The first seven years of my formal training and education, you know, it's kind of embarrassing to admit as a physician that nobody ever mentioned the idea that your brain could cause serious pain or illness in your body, in the complete absence of anything wrong structurally or with your organs. But then I encountered a patient, I didn't know the first thing about diagnosing or treating. In year eight of my formal training, she was referred to us at UCLA where I was in training by another university because they couldn't find anything wrong to explain her symptoms. She was actually averaging one bowel movement per month, despite taking four different laxatives at double the usual doses. We did some specialized testing on her that also was normal. I was doing her exit interview and basically telling her she was just going to have to live with this because there wasn't anything more we could do. But just so the conversation wouldn't be over in two minutes, I started asking her about stress. She didn't really have any. You know, her current day life was really going just fine. But when I asked her about stress earlier, she started talking about having been molested as a girl by her father. Unfortunately, not just once or twice, which would have been bad enough, but hundreds of times. And I had never heard anybody say that before. I didn't know what to do with that information. I had no formal training in how to respond to that. But I fell back on basic instincts as a doctor, which is to try to get the story. When did it start? How often did it happen? When did it stop? Those kinds of things. And she was telling me the story in a perfectly calm tone of voice. It didn't look like she was distressed by this at all. If you didn't know better, you would think that, and I didn't know better at the time, you would think that she had completely processed this information and had moved on. And yet she has this terrible physical symptom with no explanation for it. So I didn't think the two things could possibly be connected, but they were both very striking. So I had vaguely heard of a psychiatrist at UCLA that was interested in conditions like this. And I thought maybe it'll help her to live with this a little better. So I connected her up with Harriet Kaplan, who was a psychiatrist and forgot all about her. Until I ran into Harriet in an elevator three months later, and I've told this story many times before, but this was the elevator ride that changed my career. Because in making conversation with Harriet, it turned out she had cured this patient with less than three months of counseling. And the idea that you could alleviate a serious, real physical symptom just by talking to somebody, that was nowhere in my medical education or training. And I thought, you know, if I'm going to be a complete doctor, I should know a little bit about this. So I got Harriet to teach me how she thought about these things. And I thought, you know, maybe I'll see a couple of patients a year that have this concern or this issue, and I'll be able to use this information, and get the patient over to whoever the Harriet is in my medical community. And I was, you know, started practice in Portland, Oregon a few years later. And I was wrong on multiple counts. First of all, there weren't any Harriots in Portland. I would send patients to mental health, they would get cognitive behavioral therapy, it wouldn't help them, and they would come back and they say, you know, now what do we do? And so I did, you know, I tried to help them by trial and error. And I'm confident I wasn't very good at it in the beginning, but even as a bumbling beginner, I was helping people. They were having improvement that they weren't getting from the rest of the healthcare system. So, you know, that was back in the 1980s. Today, it's been 7,000 patients I've treated like this. It was 250 or 300 every year, which was another shock for me, one out of three of my patients. And I just got better and better at it as time went on. My first book, which is called They Can't Find Anything Wrong, came out in 2007. And then I started getting invitations to speak. And then I met other people who were doing this work, which I'd never met before. And we founded a nonprofit in 2011, which is now the Association for Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms. And you came to our conference in Boulder just six weeks ago. Yeah. That's where we met officially. And I realized how tall you are in real life. I look a lot shorter on Zoom. Yeah. You said it's your superpower to look short on Zoom. And yeah, that I have to say was such a cool conference. It was really, really amazing just being around all of these people who we've read their books, we've followed podcasts and done research and read a lot of works and studies that people have put out. And a lot of those big name people were there. It was kind of the everyone who's anyone of this world, the mind body world. It's really true. Yeah. The speakers we had were tremendous. I mean, I've been doing this all these years and I learned a lot from them. And the research is something we haven't had before. Just in the last mainly three years, there has been gold standard randomized controlled trials of the treatment methods that we recommend at the ATNS. And they've been getting stunningly good results at universities across North America, everywhere from Halifax to Los Angeles is showing the power of first of all, focusing on relieving people's symptoms like that first patient, not just helping them live with it, but actually relieving it and focusing on stress in people's lives, trauma, the long-term impact of adversity in childhood, other life challenges. When you do that, people actually get better. Yeah, yeah. And it's not just digestive issues, as we know. Like that can be a main one. That's what brought me to the work was ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel. Yeah, absolutely. That's how I started. But when people found out that I was doing this kind of work, they started sending me mysterious cases with symptoms from head to toe. You know, I didn't, I have to say, I didn't see that many with migraines, but all kinds of things, dizziness, itching of the skin was one, back pain was a big one, fibromyalgia, pelvic pain, pelvic pain was very common in my practice. I had a whole slew of gynecologists that would send me patients that they couldn't find anything wrong with the pelvis, and yet it was very painful for people. Some of them had genital or bladder pain as well. So, you know, joints, skin issues. Genital urinary problems, like incontinence could have a mind-body component, right? It should be checked for, that's the thing. What we emphasize is, you know, we're not going to have this mind-to-body connection in every single case, obviously, but there are a lot of people it should be checked for to get a complete evaluation. Yeah, I personally know that because I had incontinence issues during a super stressful time, and I also just had four kids. So I thought, well, this is just my life. I'm just going to have this now. But turns out I don't have that anymore. So, but I read Dr. Sarno's book when I first, because I found out about this stuff kind of like 2019, I think, 2018-19, a little before, I think, Cureable came out. I didn't really know about the PPDA. I kind of found Sarno first, and he did say genitourinary issues. So I just got curious, and I started noticing some patterns with incontinence that I was like, oh, it's only certain times. It's right at the end of a conversation, right when I get home in the driveway. Not the whole ride home, just right when I get home. No, it's good that you had the insight to figure that out. That's what a lot of practitioners call gathering evidence, that it's not an organ-based or structure-based condition. For example, if the sympt

Fellow Physical Therapist, Jim Prussack, joins me today for an interesting interview about his experience moving from PT to pain reprocessing Coach. We discuss the principles of PRT (pain reprocessing therapy), and how we treat differently using a mind vs body based approach. Check out Jim at https://www.thepainpt.com/ >>> If you have not yet given my podcast a rating or review, PLEASE do that here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543

This Meditation will help you find and process your emotions.   Many of us have learned to subconsciously repress our emotions, to talk ourselves out of them or judge ourselves for having them.   But we also know that what you resist persists.   So sometimes the best way to “get rid of the emotion” is actually to lean into and embrace it.   Emotions are just sensations, and can not hurt you as long as you don’t resist them.   Allowing your emotions and learning to feel them safely will prevent them from being expressed through your body.   Today’s meditation is based on Dr Howard Schubiner’s “Embracing Emotions Meditation” from “Unlearn Your Pain.”   For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/   Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA   Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com

Join me today to hear Hypnotist, Melissa Tiers, as we discuss integrative hypnosis and how it helps with chronic pain. Melissa has been training clinicians in the use of hypnosis for pain relief for over 25 years and her own chronic pain history was pivotal in the creation of her pain protocols.   Melissa struggled with years of migraines and is now migraine-free through this approach (as long as she stays congruent!  Listen for more details as to what that all means...)   We discuss the unconscious lens, how to be more mindful, and how to change your memories through memory reconsolidation Addressing the subconscious directy is the fastest way to see change. Melissa Tiers is a multi-award winning author, lecturer, key note speaker and hypnosis trainer. She is the founder of The Center for Integrative Hypnosis, co founder of The Ethical Coaching Collective and creator of Coaching the Unconscious Mind. Melissa has earned three IMDHA Pen and Quill awards for her books, Integrative Hypnosis, Keeping the brain in mind, and Integrative Hypnosis for kids and teens:Playing for change. Check out "Integrative Hypnosis for Pain Relief" by Melissa Tiers Thursday, August 8, 6:00-8:00 pm EST Sign up here: https://www.centerforintegrativehypnosis.com/offers/FNGSVfrz/checkout   Find Melissa at https://www.melissatiers.com/   For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/   Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA   Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com

Today I interviewed Renee Kammer, who has an amazing healing story.  From 30 years of chronic pain and 5 years being bed bound, to now hiking, biking, and gardening. Renee had several diagnoses, including: Stiff person’s syndrome, Ulcerative colitis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Ankylosing spondylitis, Fibromyalgia, Headaches, Migraines, Back pain, Hip pain, Anxiety, Depression, Pelvic pain/ IC, Chronic fatigue, Chest pain and High blood pressure.   Renee joined Alignment Academy and went through all of the exercises in Dr Schubiner's workbook to unlearn her pain.   She got off 14 medications in the last year, and has been feeling better and better!   She now has more joy and hope in her life, and is even starting a baking business with her new found time and energy. Listen here for Renee's story.   And if you want to apply the work Renee did to your life this summer, be sure and check out my Book Club Integration Group! https://www.bodyandmindlifecoach.com/book-club-integration-group Transcript- Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, episode 131, Life After 30 Years of Chronic Pain with Renee. In this podcast, we learned to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become Unstoppable Body and Mind. Hello, my loves. Today we have an amazing episode, an amazing testimonial from Renee. I want you to listen to her story and apply anything that you can to your life, to what you're going through. Hi, everyone. Welcome. Today we have a special guest, Renee. She has such an amazing story. So welcome, Renee. Hi, it's good to be here. Great, great. It's so good having you. Renee has been in my coaching group, Alignment Academy. Oh, I was going to look up how long. Less than a year, I think, right? I think it's been since November, December. Yeah. So about like six months, seven months. And you've made such amazing progress. You were already on your way of this journey of like, getting rid of some medicines and some things. We'll go into your story, but watching your progress has been amazing. And I think it will be really inspirational for people. So let's just go ahead with maybe just a little bit about yourself and how you got to having chronic pain and the symptoms that you had. So my name is Renee. I live in Ohio and I grew up just across the river in Kentucky. I have two kids, a son who's 14 and a daughter who is going to be 17 next month. I've been married to my husband Justin for 23 years, and I love life. When I go to tell my story, it always starts when I was younger because as far back as I can remember, I remember carrying around Pepto-Bismol, because my stomach was always upset as a kid. As a kid, yeah. Yes, and it was kind of a family joke, you know, that she always has that Pepto with her. But my stomach was always upset, and I can see now that was just a lot of anxiety and worry. But there were just, there were several things that had happened with friends and in my life. When I was about 16, that I started getting chronic pain then. And so my story goes back over 30 years of chronic pain. It's honestly, when I think about it, it can be a bit overwhelming to see that the majority of my life, I've not known anything but pain. Right. Yeah. Yeah. We're getting deep fast here. But there's a happy ending though, you guys. Just very happy. But yeah, that's a lot, right? It's a long time. It's a long time. And so although I've had much easier years here and there coming and going, my body always managed to drag me down. And so I guess the relief that I feel now at being free from pain and not living in fear is just, it's so incredible. I have not felt like this the majority of my adult life. That is an amazing transformation. It's crazy. Yeah. Okay. So as far as your diagnoses that you've had or that you've been diagnosed with, do you have kind of a summary or a list so we can have an idea of what you were diagnosed with and how severe it was? So my latest diagnosis was actually stiff person syndrome. That was the last two years, which is a muscle disease, which they thought it might be autoimmune. But I think I proved that one wrong. I've been diagnosed with that when I have ulcerative colitis. I've been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis for years. I was treated for enclosing spondylitis, which is just another form of arthritis. I've been treated for years for fibromyalgia, for headaches and migraines, back pain, hip pain, anxiety and depression. There were years that I went through therapy for pelvic pain and intercistal cystitis, chronic fatigue, chest pain, high blood pressure. All of those were diagnoses that I've had. And years actually include a lot of autoimmune ones too, which is kind of on the rare side. That's an area where that can cause physical damage and physical disease, and also can be regulated by the nervous system, can be controlled by the brain's interpretation of safety or danger. So you really defied some odds here. You're kind of the unicorn. You know, when reading the book, I read what Dr. Schubiner had to say about those diseases, but I decided that maybe it wasn't true for everyone who had that. And I was going to give it an honest shot and see if it really, you know, if it helped me. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so this is fascinating. Like, how bad was it as far as like, what did your daily life look like at kind of at its worst? And then how did you come to this work where you were just like, I'm going to give it an honest shot and just see what happens. I have had a life that was very active. My kids were active. I had had jobs. I had had a life years ago that I loved, that I managed to do well in despite some chronic pain. And then about five years ago, when chronic pain took over my life, I went from being an active wife and mom and sister and friend and church member and all of volunteer to living at home in my bed. I was in my bed all of the time. The things that I needed, my extra water or snacks, were just a few steps out of bed, so I didn't have to travel far. People came to my house to see me, to visit. I didn't go visiting. I didn't attend very many of my kids' games, get-togethers. I stopped all my volunteer work, which was really heartbreaking for me. I used to teach. I wasn't able to do that anymore. I didn't get to do a lot of my work at the church, which really, it all just really made me sad. And there was just so much that I couldn't participate in because unless it happened from my bed or my couch, then it didn't happen at all. And I wasn't going to live that way the rest of my life. My kids had things going on, and I wanted to be a part of my husband's life, my family's lives. And so I started looking for a way out of that. Yeah. And then how did you come to this work, and how did that go for you? I had downloaded the Cureable app, and I think I probably got it when it had a couple months free. And then the subscription snuck up on me, and I thought come out of my bank account, and I was like, oh, you know, I've not even used that. I had better go try it out since I just paid for it. I better go see what's on there. And so I read some of it and thought, I don't know about this. This is different. Oh, really? Yes. In all of my years of being sick, I just had not come across any of this mind-body work, which really blows my mind. And so I was researching, I came across your Instagram. I was researching some ideas that I had found out from the Cureable app, and I listened to the success stories. And oh my goodness, if these people can do it, why can't I? I mean, I had tried everything, and I was just so done with being in pain. It absorbed my days. Yeah. And you were taking a lot of medications too, right? Yes. And have you already started getting off some of those medications? Because you came off quite a lot of medications. Was that all just since Cureable or was some of that before? Some of that was before. I went to the ER last spring with high blood pressure. It was extremely high. And they automatically put me on three blood pressure medications. Oh, wow. And I came home and had quite a few side effects to those. And I was like, you know what? This is not what I want. I had a friend because I have been in a wheelchair the last couple of years. I had a friend take me to my regular, my family physician, and we were going through the medications about a year ago, and she gets, oh, my goodness, you take all of that medicine? And I said, yeah. I mean, I know that they had listed off about 16 things. And I thought, you know what? This is getting kind of crazy. And I knew that I had a lot of side effects from the medications. And so I guess after getting other people's reactions to those and realizing how crazy it was to actually be on all of that medication, that I decided I was going to start getting off of them. Okay. So yeah. So you'd already started that, and then you found curable. And checked into it, and it didn't resonate really at first. Yes. And so then once I followed your Instagram and did a lot more research, I thought, okay, you know, maybe this is something for me. And in the course of the last, I would say, 14 months, I have got off of almost 14 medications. Yeah, that is amazing. It blows my mind. Like you guys, Renee's story, it's so incredible, and it just keeps getting more and more incredible. So yeah. Do you want me to tell you some of them? Yeah. Because these are hard hitters, I feel like. Oh my gosh. Oxycodone. Neurontin, I was on 2,400 milligrams of Neurontin a day. Effexor. 100 milligrams of Baclofen a day. Clonopin. Carvetilol. Welbutrin. And then I did Botox for my migraines every three months, as well as a monthly emgality syringe for my migraines. Yeah. And then, you know, a handful of other medications, but some heavy

This episode includes a 6 minute technique you can do to deactivate your triggers. My coach who studies hypnotherapy taught me this somatic hack to decrease the intense feelings of a trigger. It is not to ignore the trigger or brush it under a rug, but to make it more emotionally manageable so it can be processed and let go. Think of something that triggers you, and try the process along with me in this episode.  Best if you can sit or lay down with your eyes closed.   If you are a woman over age 35, and you're interested in a supportive coaching community to help accelerate your progress, check out Alignment Academy here: https://www.bodyandmindlifecoach.com/somatic-coaching

This episode is a clip from an Alignment Academy group coaching call.   Listen in to see how I apply somatic tools in a real life situation to help Carrie feel calmer and even excited about a situation that caused anxiety. If you are interested in a supportive coaching community to help accelerate your progress, check out Alignment Academy here: https://www.bodyandmindlifecoach.com/somatic-coaching Transcript- Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, Episode 129, Coaching Call. In this podcast, we learn to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become unstoppable body and mind. Hello, my loves. Today's podcast is actually taken from a coaching call I did in my group coaching program, Alignment Academy. We have a couple of these group calls per week, and Carrie came on for some coaching about anxiety. I wanted you to have a chance to hear this so you can hear how I use these somatic tools in coaching to help create a different result. And with some of these techniques I use, think for yourself about something that may be causing symptoms or anxiety, and you can apply these same things to yourself. Maybe even if you can listen in a place where you can relax, you can do some of the meditations along with Carrie. My question is, tomorrow, I'm going to be away for a good chunk of the day. And so I'm trying to not drink out and keep myself calm. And I just need a little bit of help with that. Yeah. I'm curious, yeah, if you close your eyes and think of the anxiety that comes up, thinking about tomorrow, anything that gives you anxiety, how strong is that? Like how much intensity is there from 0 to 10? Like an 8. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. So a lot of intensity. Where do you feel that mainly? In your body? A little bit in like my throat and then between my eyes behind the bridge of my nose. Oh, interesting. Okay. And is this like the anxiety? Is that what you called it? Or is there another emotion? Yeah, okay. Yeah, it's anxiety, and now that I've been doing this long enough, it's fear. I mean, it's fear. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, do you want to try that peripheral vision technique? I have just really liked it, because it just seems to take the intensity out of it, and then we can still process other things, but it's hard to when there's, you know, 8 out of 10, when you're thinking about it. Yeah. We can't really talk ourselves out of anxiety. So, all right. So go ahead and find a spot that you can look at, not on the screen, but maybe on the wall behind you or out the window, and just focus on that one spot, and then start opening up your peripheral vision. So you kind of soften your eyes, let those, all those little eye muscles relax. Start to see kind of those blurs on the side, opening up more and more to the side of you. Keep focusing forward and even imagine that space behind you that you can somehow sense. If you can sense that room around you. How does that go? Yeah, that's, I'd give it a four. Okay, nice, so definitely a shift. Okay, so now I want you to just go back to those same thoughts, close your eyes, think of being gone tomorrow. How long you'll be gone. I just got the pain down my leg. I know that's like stress-related. There's a neural circuit there that, just thinking of that. Okay, that's cool. More evidence. More evidence, yeah, yeah, totally evidence, right? That's one of the fit criteria, pain that gets worse when somebody talks about it, or talks about, he doesn't say this, but something emotionally charged, or yeah, and then that happens. He does say under stress, but yeah. Okay, sorry, I'm gonna hijack for just a second, because there's another one I've been wanting to share with you, and I just remembered it. Oh, great. I finally hit the place in my pain journey where I have gratitude when, like just now, I have gratitude when I feel it, because I'm like, this is like, it's humorous. I laugh about it. And I'm like, thank you for telling me that clearly I'm unsettled right now. So, yes, I never would have thought, yeah, that I'd ever have gratitude for this pain. But right. Yeah, it almost sounds like, you know, especially when you're right in it, and you hear those people and you're like, okay, that just, you know, that's annoying. Or they think, oh my gosh, so you're telling me the whole rest of my life, I'm still gonna have pain. But when you have pain like this, it's like, oh, just a message from the body. You know, I didn't realize there's this like trigger and response there, but let's go ahead and detach that because I'm safe. It's okay. You can turn that off. Wow. I love that so much. That was really good. Okay. That's cool. So now when you close your eyes and think about tomorrow, what comes up? So my initial thought was like, yeah, that's a little bit scary. And then immediately my thought was, it's another chance to practice. That feels different. Okay. Very cool. From zero to 10, how much intensity is there? As you think about tomorrow being gone all day. Don't forget about all those things you need to stress out about. Yeah, okay. If I start to let other things creep in, then it's like six. But it's also, there's excitement too. So I start to, you know, cross a line between fear and anxiety, and also like more into the yellow of pleasant, high energy and excitement and, you know. Yeah, yeah. And how does that excitement feel in the body? How does it feel? How does it feel different than the fear anxiety maybe? Yeah, okay, so the fear anxiety was like inward pressure, and this is like an outward pressure. So it was like an inward vibration, and this excitement is like an outward vibration or energy. Oh, that's cool to know. Yeah. So maybe there's even some metaphor thing you could, you know, a switch you could flip or a knob you could, you know, it's like, oh, I'm in the inward pressure. It's the fear anxiety. How can I turn that into like excitement? Oh, yeah, I am excited about this tomorrow. I am excited about, right, the adventure I'm going to have. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You did something with me once where you had me think about, I don't actually remember what you asked me to do, but what I did was I imagined like a tree, and it was like the roots were in my chest going down, and then the leaves and the branches were in my head reaching out. What was that? Yeah. It was like a tree metaphor of that excitement, anticipation, or fear that's like the leaves shaking in the upper part of the chest, and then going down to the root, or like the trunk, I should say, of the tree, more stability, feeling more grounded, maybe even feeling grounded in support by the chair, and your feet in the chair, that kind of thing. Yeah. But it was like a communication between the two things, like my head and my heart, or my solar plexus, and I forget, I kept notes probably somewhere, but that would take me a while. Yeah. I mean, I know I even have a meditation on my podcast, that's this tree meditation. So I bet the way I remember it is the way I always explain it, and probably with you, we had a special version of it, and that part I don't remember. Yeah, I just found it. Yeah, I liked that, and that really seemed to... And what I'm feeling now was like brain and chest and gut, and it just seems like it would, I don't know, be helpful. Yeah, yeah, maybe even that brain part could be part of the metaphor. It's something in the tree or it's part of the tree, but the sensation in the chest might feel more like that. I think we talked about the... Well, I'm like, how much should I explain it first or should we just do it? But the wind basically in the storms, that actually makes the tree stronger, right? Like then the roots are able to grasp down and grow down, so that it's really strong because of that turbulence, that kind of thing. Okay, I like this even more because that plays into the thought that I had of like, this is a chance to practice. Practicing will make me get better at this. Yeah, exactly. You're just, you're at your growth edge. Yeah, and that's why this is scary. Your brain is like, okay, there could be physical danger or emotional danger. Either way, we're going to send these symptoms, and we want to just be like, brain, you know, this is safe. We got this. This is our growth edge. That's why it feels like this. This means this is our chance to practice. This is our chance to evolve. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So let's have you close your eyes and first feel that anxiety and the fear. And thinking about tomorrow might be even harder to, it's not an eight out of 10 probably anymore, right? No. But you probably remember that anxiety feeling. And now that you've done this work a while, you know that. And let's do have you think of all of these things that might cause anxiety in the future tomorrow. And maybe some of the things we haven't thought about that might be closer to an eight out of 10, just anything that's a fear or anxiety producing topic. And imagine that tree that's blowing in the wind. It's in a storm, and you're watching it, right, and you're watching those leaves shake, and you're watching the branches even sway. And it may even seem a little scary to watch it like you're worried about the tree. But then as you turn down to see the trunk, you see that the trunk isn't even moving. And then when you look down and you know that those roots are down beneath the ground, like the ground's not moving. It's totally stable. So imagine feeling that in your body as you take your attention down towards your belly and pelvis, and I guess that solar plexus. And how does that area feel to you? Warm and confident. Okay, warm, confident. Does it have a different movement, or is it just kind of different than the movement above? It's yeah, it's not, it's really not moving. It's jus

In this episode, I interview Tai Kuncio.  She is a fellow moderator in the "Tell Me About Your Pain" Facebook Group. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/695823314550483)   Tai had various pains starting in childhood, which they attributed to being athletic.  But she struggled the most with chronic knee pain. At one point after knee surgery, she was doing physical therapy 4 to 5 hours per day and still not getting better.   It wasn’t her weakness or muscle dysfunction, but her fear that was driving her pain.   Finally when she moved across the world to Africa and gave up the intensity with what she was trying to heal, she embraced the mind-body approach.   She no longer struggles with chronic daily pain, and when symptoms come up she knows how to handle them so they don’t stick around long.   Listen for her inspirational story and what she learned about letting go of the intensity to heal.   You can find Tai at https://www.retrainyourchronicpain.com/ email : [email protected]   For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/   Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA   Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com   Here's a free 6 week link to Curable:  http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen

This week I share an interview with my client, Lucas.   He struggled with several years of anxiety that was getting worse and more debilitating with time.   At times it was even difficult for him to go to the store or to lunch with a friend without worrying, "what if I get an anxiety attack?"   After 3 months of somatic coaching with me, Lucas felt like he had found the missing piece.  He had already tried meditation, breathing, yoga, acupuncture- all the "right" things to decrease the anxiety in his life.   But this approach taught him the tools he needed to actually unlearn the anxiety- so his brain produced it less and less.   Listen for more, and be sure and get on my "Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression" Book Club list if you want more help in this area for free! https://body-and-mind-lifecoach.myflodesk.com/bookclub   You can check out Lucas' music here: Hannah/Lucas Pop Music - Idylmind  https://linktr.ee/idylmind   Meditation Album- https://lucasfackler.bandcamp.com/album/meditations-vol-1   General info: lucasfackler.com   For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/   Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA   Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com   Here's a free 6 week link to Curable:  http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen Transcript- Automatically Generated: This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, Episode 127, Unlearning Anxiety with Lucas. In this podcast, we learn to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become Unstoppable Body and Mind. All right, today I have a special guest, and we're going to be talking more about anxiety. As you know, I've been doing that Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression Book Club by Dr. Howard Schubiner, talking a lot about anxiety, really realizing how much it's actually so prevalent with my clients. But I asked Lucas to come here today because his story is mainly with more the anxiety, not complicated with a lot of other symptoms, although of course, some things come and go. But it's really been cool to see his progress over the last three months, addressing his anxiety somatically, and how that has just changed things so quickly for him. So welcome, Lucas. Thank you for coming. Yeah. You hit the nail on the head there. It's my anxiety drives my anxiety. It's kind of the thing. There's not a lot of tangible things I worry about other than having an anxiety attack. And it took a while to kind of realize that's what's going on. And so here we are. Here we are. Well, let's start at the beginning. And if you could just tell us kind of what brought you to this work. Like, how did anxiety develop for you? And like, where were you when you found this? I think I actually noticed anxiety when I was a kid, but it didn't really dominate my life, you know, but I just remember a couple of times when I was really young. And then in my early 20s, some periods of time that were tough, but it didn't really start to become like a problem affecting my day to day life until like about five years ago after some business stuff went south for me, where, you know, I had a video business and a music business, and I found where they both meet. And it was like making videos for audio brands. And it got like pretty quickly. It was doing really well. But then after a few years, some relationships changed and stuff changed and it fell out on me, which was like financially devastating. And that's really screwed with my confidence and everything, just all the things I was doing and everything I had planned. Didn't really pan out how I thought. And it left me kind of doubting myself often and ruminating on what I could have done. And doubt and ruminating and thinking about those situations turned me into an anxious mess because I was in my head more than I was out in the world. And I thought I was putting time into like fixing my business or being a better business person. But like, oh, if I just like think about it. But I was doing a ton of damage and I did not realize. Until, you know, a couple of times I had some pretty like mental break moments, you know, complete with high heart rate and all that stuff. That I realized I need to take a look at why is this happening? And what are some steps that I can take to kind of undo this or work with this? Yeah. So over the last five years, did anything get better? Did it get worse? Did it stay the same? A little bit. I mean, it used to be chronic pain in my neck and shoulders. So I sought out treatment there. I sought out physical therapy. And one was like a therapist literally just pushing a knot out of my shoulder. Right. And another other physical therapy was doing the work myself, different stretches. Another one was finding a massage therapist doing this method called Hendrickson Method, which is incredible. He helped me get over some kind of lingering pain. And it was also mindset stuff. So that led me down the path of like, okay, like it's not just about stretching and getting massage, but it's about mindset things. And then so I did acupuncture. Yeah. With a really great acupuncturist who also was like more than just stick me with the needles, mindset things and always had good advice. Yeah. And then yoga. So all the right stuff, taking the right path, and then even daily walks. I haven't missed a walk for four or five years, every day, even when I had COVID. So I thought I have this under control. Look at all the things I'm doing over five, six years. That's a lot of work. But what I didn't realize I wasn't doing was confronting the anxiety itself. I thought if I did the work, the anxiety would go away. But it wasn't until my first sessions with you after I had kind of a really tough December, the beginning or end of the year, we got together and did some sessions. And you taught me how to confront it and breathe through those feelings. And in talking to you, it was pretty easy to bring back that adrenaline and cortisol rush and that tension that I get. And then we get into the comfortable state and do the somatic work to acknowledge it's there. And kind of diminish how much it can dominate your body. Yeah. That's the biggest one. So, yeah, I remember one of our first sessions, you saying something like, I just want to not feel that at all, right? Like, I just want to be able to go out because you were at the point where even going out to the store was stressful and getting at times, yeah, it would get me secluded. And so, that idea of like, hey, if I do the work right, then I won't have a symptom. And that trips people up in their healing if they're thinking that when they have a symptom, it means they're doing it wrong because like, you could still have a symptom. I could still have symptoms. I still do have symptoms. Yes. Because our body is giving us feedback. So when we interpret it as we're doing it wrong and I need to never have anxiety, that actually perpetuates more anxiety. Yeah. So the other day I was taking a walk thinking about doing this podcast and thinking like, everything I just said, how I identified it and I had all these things I was doing right to like work on my anxiety, but what was I not doing? And what did that keep me from? And so I wrote down five things. I wrote down one was identify, which I did to just elaborate just a little bit. Oh, sorry. So one was identify there's an issue and identify that you have anxiety. Yeah. So I did that. Did you identify that pretty early on, by the way, like when you first like five years ago, or was that more when it started impacting your life in different ways? I think it was after I got through the pain management. Yeah. It's when I identified that the anxiety may have been responsible for the pain management. And then rewind years earlier, I would have like stomach issues from time to time. I started to go, oh, there's always some lingering thing with me that is never diagnosed as some medical issue. Then I was like, damn, that's anxiety. So once I identified it, my step two was to be proactive, which was seek treatments physically and then mentally yoga and walking and all that stuff. The third step is the one that I kept skipping and that was confront it. Instead of run from anxiety, it wasn't until with you, I confronted it that I could then my fourth step was accept it. I'm going to have anxiety. It will never go away. And once I accepted it, now I can start to keep working on it. But then healing comes with after I accept it. Those are my five steps that I realized I was doing one and two, one and two, one and two, one and two, skipping three, I could not get to four or five. So, yeah, in doing three with you, I have now accepted it. I now have regular scheduled therapy as well. I'm ready to, you know, it's going to be my life, but I'm ready to move forward from having it dominate my life at times. Yeah, right, right. It's like that, that classic case of like, when you have that, that thing that you're avoiding, it's like pushing a beach ball under water. And you're just, there's so much resistance and there's so much, it takes so much energy and it's so draining, and then it just rebounds up anyway, right? And so that idea of the more we want to get rid of something, whether it's chronic pain, and we go that route of like trying all the medicines and trying all the doctors and procedures and all these things and still having chronic pain, or what happens, I had forgotten about the neck pain because we didn't, like I didn't deal with that symptom. But that makes sense, actually, I see a lot of people whose chronic pain symptoms decrease and then anxiety comes up. You know, it's like they kind of, it's like a whack-a-mole. It's just like, yeah