Movement, Exercise & Healing with Julie Ann Dawson

Have you ever wondered how to use exercise as a means to move energy for a more balanced and peaceful life? Can there be a deeper outlet for healing in martial arts, burpees, pilates, etc? What about moving your vocal chords through singing and even screaming? We are SO excited to welcome back Julie Ann Dawson, an intuitive healer, master of multiple energy modalities and the CEO of Chakratoya. We discuss the connection between body movement and our healing process.

Julie Ann also brings up the interplay of food color and nutrition in grounding and healing. Revealing the powerful role of color therapy and grounding foods like carrots, beets, and potatoes, Julie Ann unlocks the magic of aligning nutrition with the root chakra. We talk about our experiences with heartbreak and grief and the significance of self-care using nature, and physical exercise as vital instruments for healing.

Check out other episodes with Julie Ann Dawson:
EP 121: Healing your inner child

Timestamps to help you navigate this episode:
(0:00) Intro
(0:20) FREE Self Love & Sweat MONTHLY Calendar
(1:20) Movement for Energy Healing's Importance
(12:11) Exercise, Healing, and Body Awareness
(21:27) Healing Journeys and Synergy With Clients
(24:20) Sponsor: Snap Supplements 25% OFF using code LUNDEN25
(26:15) Grounding Techniques for Energy Release
(38:27) Healing Heartbreak With Movement and Colors
(44:08) Grief and Self-Care After Breakup
(51:54) Nature and Exercise's Healing Power
(58:14) Mind-Body Connection in Spiritual Healing
(1:06:51) Journaling and Rituals for Self-Reflection
(1:12:26) The Power of Journaling and Coloring

Connect with Julie Ann:
www.chakratoya.com (use code LUNDEN20 for 20% OFF anything in online shop excluding giftcards)
IG: @chakratoya

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:20 FREE Self Love & Sweat MONTHLY Calendar
• 1:20 Movement for Energy Healing's Importance
• 12:11 Exercise, Healing, and Body Awareness
• 21:27 Healing Journeys and Synergy With Clients
• 24:20 Sponsor: Snap Supplements 25% OFF using code LUNDEN25
• 26:15 Grounding Techniques for Energy Release
• 38:27 Healing Heartbreak With Movement and Colors
• 44:08 Grief and Self-Care After Breakup
• 51:54 Nature and Exercise's Healing Power
• 58:14 Mind-Body Connection in Spiritual Healing
• 1:06:51 Journaling and Rituals for Self-Reflection
• 1:12:26 The Power of Journaling and Coloring

Transcript

Lunden Souza: 0:01

Welcome to self love and sweat the podcast, the place where you'll get inspired to live your life unapologetically, embrace your perfect imperfections, break down barriers and do what sets your soul on fire. I'm your host, london Suza. Hey, have you grabbed your free self love and sweat monthly calendar? Yet this calendar is so amazing. It comes right in your inbox every single month to help you have a little nugget of wisdom, a sweaty workout, a mindset activity, just a little something, something to help keep you focused and motivated and keep that momentum towards your goals. So every day, when you get this calendar, you'll see a link that you can click that will lead to a podcast episode or a workout or something that will be very powerful and quick to read. And then you'll also see, on the top left corner of every single day, there's a little check box in the calendar and what that is is that's for your one thing. You can choose one thing every month, or it can be the same, something that you want to implement and make this something that you can easily implement, like daily meditation or getting a certain amount of steps or water, for example, and staying hydrated and even taking your supplements. This can be something if you want to get more regular doing a particular habit and routine. You can choose what that checkbox means.

Lunden Souza: 1:32

So if you want your self, love and sweat free monthly calendar delivered right to your inbox every month on the first of the month go to, lifelikelunden. com/calendar . Fill out the form really quickly and you will have your calendar in your inbox within a few short minutes. That's lifelikelunden. com/calendar . Go get yours for free and enjoy this episode. Hey, welcome back. This week we have Julie Ann Dawson back on the show. Julie Ann is an intuitive healer, master of multiple energy modalities and the CEO and founder of Chakratoya. Julie Ann, welcome back to the show.

Julie Ann Dawson: 2:24

Thank you so, so much for having me. It's great to be here with you.

Lunden Souza: 2:29

Yeah, we had such a great conversation about healing the inner child on our last episode, and so I'm going to link that in the show notes because whoever's listening now, once they listen to this episode and dive into all your wisdom, I know they're going to want to go back and listen to that previous conversation and so, yeah, I'm excited to have you back. It was such a pleasure to um to talk about healing our inner child in that episode, and then you and I we had such a great time. I was like, hey, let's do more. Let's, you know, what else can we, um, you know, discuss? And this was something that you brought up which I thought was so beautiful because it was in alignment with how I was feeling and some of my clients I had been working with.

Lunden Souza: 3:04

And so today we're going to talk about the importance of incorporating movement with the body as a way of moving energy in order to heal, because I started my kind of career in fitness and when we're working out, we might think we're burning calories right, which we are and toning our muscles and, you know, um, uh, improving our cardiovascular health, getting our heart working, a lot of those things, but today we're going to talk about the energy that can move and the healing of trauma and different types of things that movement can can help with.

Lunden Souza: 3:35

And so I'm excited for this conversation because I started really just like go, go, go, do, do, do all the things when it comes to working out. And it wasn't until about a couple of years ago maybe like three or four years ago, I would say that I really started to feel like, oh my gosh, this is wonderful and, um, it's not just about burning calories. This is actually really helping me in a different, in a new way. And so, yeah, I want to just kind of start there and kind of get your take on how movement helps move energy and like what does that actually mean?

Julie Ann Dawson: 4:07

Oh yeah, thank you so much. And uh, first I want, before I go on a tangent I have this really incredible book. I'm in no way sponsored or linked to the book at all, but it's called feelings buried alive never die and it links directly with movement and moving energy out of the body. In, um you know, exercises are all different types of ways to move energy out of the body. But, um, according to Carol Truman, who is the author of the book, estimated about 90 percent of all physical problems have psychological roots, and in the book she said that may sound like a gross exaggeration but it's probably a conservative estimate and I think that's important to touch upon too, because, um, when we have all kinds of like stress and things going on in our physical reality, um, our cells have memory in light and so, with with that said, um, it's important to be mindful of how we're uh dealing with a stressful situation and getting that energy out of us. Um, whether it's doing martial arts like I do, or maybe yoga or another physical activity to get the energy out of the body, because when that type of energy is stored for a prolonged period of time, it can take what I call dis-ease, so it's a disharmonious energies that are not for your greatest and highest alignment. What I mean by that is that there are energies that are not part of your true natural divine state or your your natural state of operating, and so when the body, in the mind, come under stress, it can start to create issues. You know, um, maybe like acne, or maybe you're getting some really severe headaches or something more serious, like cancer. That is the way the body is trying to tell you hey, there's something else going on here. I need you to take a look at it. And so what I really like, um that book, about that book specifically, is that it has a whole glossary of you know different, you know, maybe something minor, uh ailment, wise to something more serious and the emotional, um root cause of what that issue is. So it brings you back to more of an aware awareness of, okay, what is it that I really need to work on and how, how might I go approach about working that out of my system properly?

Julie Ann Dawson: 6:43

Um, so for me, what that looks like is martial arts, and I've been doing Krav Maga. Uh, that sounds like a mouthful, but it's, uh, the Israeli form of martial arts that they teach the military and I've been doing that for five years under Sensei Roy El Canyon of Wreckham, and I live in Los Angeles and so he has trained like special operatives and he's a badass. He has like five dance, which means he's gone through the black belt system five times, and so I was like, oh, I want to learn from the best. So I want to learn from him.

Julie Ann Dawson: 7:19

And you know, with my intention, when I first started getting into it, I didn't go into martial arts, thinking what we're talking about today. But as things came into my life, boy, let me tell you it has been a life saver for me. Um, for example, uh, over a year ago I went through a really, really traumatic breakup and sometimes, you know, just like the feelings that come along with that, like you know, feeling really hurt, anger, depression, um, the whole slew of things, and it felt so good and to just hit something and um, but that is a a natural, healthy way, um, in a controlled environment, to release those emotions that are stuck in the body. And the reason why we want to move those things is to prevent any kind of stagnancy and the dis ease that I was mentioning before.

Lunden Souza: 8:19

It feels good to hit something. What you said I totally resonate with and that's also one of the reasons why I dabble in martial arts here and there when I feel that need. I'm like my body needs that particular release. But what I want to touch on first is you said you're like when I started I didn't have that intention of moving energy or whatever. I was just like needing to work out, and I think anyone who has worked out before has had that feeling where it's like you feel a little bit meh and you go into your workout and something shifts right. You like push through, you have a little bit of a breakthrough, you get your sweat on, it feels good, right.

Lunden Souza: 8:50

So I feel like people listening. You know you don't have to know that energy is moving in order for it to happen when we're exercising. Now, what happens when we couple like intention and awareness and execution is a whole different story, and that's what we're talking about here is like you can have that awareness of like okay, you know something's going on in my life breakup, job loss, other traumatic things, losing a loved one and having that knowledge of like okay, there is this energy that needs to be moved and move its way out. And how can I use exercise to do that? Because sometimes we get caught up in like you know, what do I look like? Or you know is this, and people pick apart their bodies. But it's like, at the end of the day, most people work out because it makes them feel so great, right? So would you agree that there's already energy moving, even when we don't realize it, when we are working out? Like are we already getting a little bit of benefit for those that have been working out, to kind of get excited about that?

Julie Ann Dawson: 9:46

Absolutely. I think your body is a very unique. I like to compare it to like a computer system. There's so many different systems that are working together to make the whole of the mind, the body, the spirit, everything together. And a lot of that is happening naturally without you having to think about it. Like when you go to walk you don't have to think I am going to walk left foot in front of the right foot, like it just happens automatically. So you're then. You know you're really in the state of flow. You don't have to focus on flowing your energy. It just, it just happens.

Lunden Souza: 10:18

And I remember when I was really involved in fitness as a fitness trainer in my late teens, early twenties, it was really all about like the specific plan and doing what was going to change your body aesthetically. And as I continued to work in personal training and fitness, it didn't take me long to realize there's like something else happening and I'm not sure that three, four days, five days a week of these exercises in this system, with this many reps and weights and progressive overload While that's wonderful and like has a lot of scientific basics for physical transformation, I was like I'm pretty sure that we can choose modalities that kind of fit where we are and get good at choosing what workouts our body might need, whether that's weekly, whether that's seasonally, because sometimes I feel more called to particular workout styles depending on the season right, like indoor, outdoor, if it's hot or cold. Knowing what our body could need has been really helpful and I royally yeah, I mean I don't want to say royally destroyed, but like I really jacked up my hormones and my systems by thinking, oh my gosh, I need to do five days a week and it needs to be. If I squat this much this week, then it needs to be this much next week and to your point of the acne stories or the underlying root cause and issues, I read a book, similarly like you could heal your life by Louise Hayes, and there's a glossary in the back too of a lot of the root causes for some of these dis eases that you mentioned.

Lunden Souza: 11:52

And so learning that acne for me, specifically learning that it had a lot to do with self love or even self hate and dislike for the self, and just like that lack of confidence for me, that was like kind of like like a goal, like a hard pill to swallow. But then, after I dove deeper, I'm like, yeah, that makes sense, because then when I don't do the workout, I'm beating myself up because I'm going to look a certain type of way or I'm not going to be in a certain type of shape, and when I'm working out I'm not working out to because I love my body. Like I started to have this awareness that I was like using it as a tool to, like you know, kind of beat up on myself and do the thing. And so then, you know, my body didn't respond by. I mean, I guess my body composition changed once.

Lunden Souza: 12:39

I was really, you know, found my flow and groove, but it wasn't like, oh, I want to lose weight, or my body's not looking a certain type of way, let's say like weight. Physically, it was like all on my skin and face, and that actually was a good thing. That happened because I couldn't work out all the time. I couldn't be sweating and working out when I had this like vicious so I mean vicious oozing continuous acne, like I'd have to get like a tissue and like blot my face because it was just like nonstop. For a few different bouts of it I would have right, and so I'm so grateful for that because it allowed me to like slow down and stop.

Lunden Souza: 13:14

And then when I started to reintroduce exercise into my life, it was much more strategic and much more like Okay, I want to move this, or I want to move this Outside of the feeling, I want to hit something. So maybe I'll try martial arts, what would be some maybe common issues or problems or struggles that you see, healing issues maybe, or healing journeys, let's say, with people, and then like what ideal exercise would you kind of recommend? I want to help people, listening, be like Okay, yeah, I kind of resonate with that healing. Okay, maybe I'll try some of these other modalities.

Julie Ann Dawson: 13:50

Oh, definitely, it's really different from person to person and depending on what a client comes to me for. For example, if they're coming to me for Reiki healing, I do channel. I am a medium, psychic medium, and I channel a person's high self and their angels during a session, if I have their permission, of course, and so sometimes I'll get even dietary stuff. I mean, I'm not a doctor so I can't prescribe anything, or, you know, this is in addition to your practical license, medical advice from your doctor, of course. But sometimes the angels will show me different stretches and exercises that are good to. Let's say, somebody had trouble with sciatica opening up the back and getting into, like a child's pose, different hip opening stretches, and that also helps open up the energy center of the. It's called the. Well, it can kind of start in the solar plexus, but it's mostly in the sacral chakra and it goes around the backside of the low back is where the sciatic nerve starts. So it's really amazing. I've learned a lot about the human body since becoming a reiki master teacher, thanks to the angels, and you know, of course, like cross referencing, the stuff I'm channeling, so it's been pretty amazing. So it really depends on the person and what they're dealing with. So that's an example of sciatica and that also has a emotional root cause of not feeling grounded and not feeling like you're really home. I guess you could say what else. So it's a great example of that. So I would recommend that you come to me for like different anxiety, like anxiety, depression, and with that I would actually just, you know, have them. If they don't feel that sitting in meditation is okay, like if they're highly anxious, I would recommend going for a walk outside and like even getting your feet into the grass, because getting grounded is really going to help you feel the energy and the natural life force, energy from source and universe. And I know that sounds really woo woo and esoteric, but it's very similar to the practice of people that have been doing Tai Chi for thousands of years. And that is the movement of a person's key, or other people say Chi or Prana, it's all the same. I'm referring to all the same thing when I say Chi or Prana, or Chi, and that is the flow of a person's life force, energy around them, their physical body and also nature, trees, the grass and everything that's around us. And so Tai Chi, movement, martial arts, yoga, just walking outside or going for, you know, like a walk or dancing Even if it's a dance in your living room with no, no lights on, nobody's watching getting into the groove, that's all movement too.

Julie Ann Dawson: 16:51

And you just have to sometimes also ask yourself like in your heart, like, okay, does this really feel good for me? And you know, if you're dancing at home, to just shake out your hands, release energy. Sometimes that anxious energy can just get built up in the body and what is best to do sometimes in the moment is actually just shake out your hands like this. I'm like literally just really loose If you're listening to this instead of watching the video. I'm just shaking out my hands, letting them be all flabby and like directing the energy down to the ground maybe, and then shaking out one leg at a time.

Julie Ann Dawson: 17:28

When I used to do theater, there's this really fun exercise that they would have us do is we would count down from, I think, 10, and we would be in this star like position, so two hands above our head and our our legs are about hip width apart, and then we'll start with one hand in the air. So let's say, I'll start with my left hand in the air and I'll shake it 10 times. I'll say one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight or like nine, 10. And then I do the other hand and I shake it 10 times. Then I go to my first foot, like let's say my left foot, and I shake that out 10 times. And then my other leg I shake out 10 times. I come back up to my hand and I'll shake that out nine times, other hand nine times and just repeat the process until I am down to zero.

Julie Ann Dawson: 18:16

And it's kind of fun too. If you want to make it more of a game or you, you can do this with your kids too. Kids love this exercise. You can increase the speed. So if you do it at 10, like what, you start out slow and then you go faster and faster with each different rotation. So that'd be kind of a fun thing to incorporate with your kids too, if you have kids at home.

Lunden Souza: 18:36

Yeah, I can imagine my niece loving that and I love the shaking. I feel like that helps so much. I love the 10 to one style because I do workouts like that too. I'll be like, okay, push-up, squats, you know, shoulder press and whatever exercise 10, nine, all the way to one. That style really resonates and I think anyone can do that. Right, we can count up to 10 or whatever and kind of go through that and what you?

Lunden Souza: 19:00

What really came to me when you were doing that is like movement doesn't have to be exercise. It doesn't have to be like particular exercises that we are used to hearing, right, Like squats or push-ups or pull-ups or sit-ups or lunges, like moving our body to get that energy to move can happen when we're not in the gym, exercising typical, whatever way, and dancing has been so helpful. Oh my gosh, just moving our bodies, whether it's alone or even with friends. Sometimes I'm like I'm going to turn on this song, let's just dance, and you can tell you know things a little bit. People get there the judgment kind of oh what are what? Are people thinking of me, or whatever.

Lunden Souza: 19:41

And then we just kind of let loose and it just feels so good and so wonderful. And to be able to utilize different modalities is helpful and you never know what you might find works. And I like how you said yeah, it's unique to the individual. You know, sometimes it can be area specific that we can work on. Sometimes we just need like a full body shakeout. And I remember, you know, I had, I used to have, you know, regular anxiety years ago in my late teens, early 20s, and now very rarely will certain anxious feelings come up. I think maybe this year I've had maybe two anxiety attacks which before it was like every day, regularly, right, and I I remember well, and I remember the second one, it was actually triggered by nutrition. So to your point of talking about foods and just different things like that to help, I realized, you know a lot of the trigger, for it was when I was like in airports just grabbing snacks here and there, not really honing in on my nutrition. So that was something I could pinpoint which was helpful. But my boyfriend, he's a doctor and when I was in that moment he goes you know what, he goes go upstairs and do burpees like just you need to move, you know, and I was like okay, so I go upstairs Hi, zoe, the dog came in, so I go upstairs and do. I think I did. No, I did the 10 to one thing. I did burpees and I did squats and I did 10, 10, nine, nine, all the way until I got to one. And it was so helpful because what I noticed and maybe this is for some people, maybe it's not for everyone, but I noticed where my heart rate was in the anxiety, and then when I did the burpees, it was almost as if I got my heart rate elevated, maybe even more to that like euphoric workout state, and then when I was done, everything all came down together and that was really helpful and really profound to see. And then afterwards I did what you said go outside. I got, I took my shoes off and I put my feet on the grass and I like use my toes to like pull the grass if I can, like I try to use them like hands and kind of get my toes all up in the the grass and the dirt. And that was like the best modality ever. Usually I would just like lay in bed and just like let it pass, you know, and that was really helpful too sometimes, but the burpee thing was so helpful just to get moving. And then another thing I want to mention, you know, to the I love.

Lunden Souza: 21:57

I don't identify as like a you know psychic medium or anything like that but when I work with my clients there's, like you know, there's this connection right, there's this like synergy that we develop. And I remember I was working with a client on a particular issue healing journey and I had this feel like when I was about starting the call, you know she had done my workout programs before that I used to have and they're they're, you know, using dumbbells and strength based and all those things. But as I was starting the call, just getting things up on zoom, I was like she needs Pilates, like Pilates, we need core strengthening, we need pelvic floorwork, we need and we get on the call and I'm like you know, and she's, and before I even said it she goes yeah, I signed up for Pilates, like I think that's going to be good for my next step, and I was like, yes, that's exactly what I was thinking because through this healing journey, just needing a lot of core strength and powerhouse stuff, we just could feel that was where the energy, you know, could be moved better and that the healing journey would be better with that, versus running and strength training, which is what she did and what she had always done, cause, quite frankly, she had always worked with me, so we were just like running and doing strength training, whatever. And so, yeah, I'll admit here you know learning curve for me to understand my clients even better, to be like I don't think I'm the one that knows all the workouts, but I think I can develop this synergy with my clients, to be like you know what. I think this is going to be a good net step for you to try see how you feel, you know. And it ended up being wonderful. And that's the time I reached out to you. I was like, hey, let's talk about this topic, because when we're in this healing journey and we might feel like oh my gosh, I couldn't even lift weights, go to the gym, like no, there's so many other modalities, but sometimes we forget because we just get kind of tunnel visioned in there. And so Pilates was the answer and really helpful for her to even connect with the different parts of her body and core and pelvic floor that she had never realized like even existed right, which is so cool. And yeah, those were two instances with my anxiety and the burpees or the not my anxiety. What I'm trying to say is the anxiety attack that I had and the burpees, and then that particular client and the synergy we kind of had developed to choose Pilates, kind of separately and together. It was really cool and that was a knowing for me that my client, like she got it, like we were on that journey, and she's like, yeah, you know, I know I need to move, but like I don't want to run, so I'm not going to run, so I'm going to choose something that my body can, can, like receive better right? Hey, really quick.

Lunden Souza: 24:21

I want to interrupt the podcast for just a minute to tell you about one of my favorite supplements for hair, skin, nails, digestive and gut health, and that is snap supplements super greens with collagen. Now, if you're following me on social media, you've probably seen me post about this a bunch because, honestly, this product tastes amazing and it's jam packed with nutrients, like I said, to support healthy hair, skin and nails. It helps support detoxification, a healthy immune system and there's even probiotics in there for a healthy gut. It's non GMO, no sugar added, soy free, grass fed collagen, and every scoop is going to give you seven grams of protein. And this is why I love it, because it's not like a protein shake, it's just a scoop of powder. It tastes amazing. I put it in water or, if I want more hydration, I'll put it in coconut water and mix it up, and it's like having a nice refreshing beverage that's packed with a bunch of super greens and protein.

Lunden Souza: 25:17

So what I'm super excited about is that for listening to the podcast, you'll get this discount here. Nowhere else, but for listening to the podcast, you can save 25% off on all your SNAP supplement purchases, including the super greens with collagen, and you do that by using code LUNDEN25 at checkout. That's L-U-N-D-E-N-2-5. LUNDEN25 to get 25% off at checkout. You can shop on snapsupplements. com or you can shop on my website, lifelikelunden. com/ supplements and you'll see there there's already an additional 10% taken off. But you, because you're a podcast listener, you're going to get 25% off when you use the code LUNDEN25 at checkout L-U-N-D-E-N 25 at checkout to get your SNAP supplements super greens and collagen and all your SNAP supplements for 25% off. Now let's get back to the show.

Julie Ann Dawson: 26:18

And it might be like a multi step process too, depending on where you're at, and just to be really open and honest with where you're at, because the last thing you want to do is really push yourself into overdrive even more and create potentially more issues for yourself. So I really loved what you were saying about you know. I feel like that was your own intuition also coming in what recommending your you know Pilates to your clients, and I feel like there is a really beautiful synergy and flow when you know you, you connect with the right people right and just kind of piggybacking off of what you said about the energy not always having to be like a really intense workout or burpees or pushups. Right, the release of this kind of energy that we're discussing today, I believe can also come from your voice and different types of what I would call primordial noises. So being you know when people chant ohm, like ohm, like different kinds of chanting can really open up the flow of your prana, your tea, open up your energy centers, your chakras, and help move the flow of any kind of blockages that might be in your energy field that might be causing some issues or linking to being ungrounded, but also sometimes, if you're really going through a lot.

Julie Ann Dawson: 27:42

Sometimes it's great to just scream into a pillow, like just put your face into a pillow and like get the energy out that way. There's nothing wrong with that. Maybe let your neighbors know there's nothing going on here, you know, and so no one calls the cops on you. But you know, it's just like a great way to just really get the energy out through that kind of like primordial, like force. It's like you know, we're still like animals at the end of the day and that's like a very natural thing for people or animals to do is like vocalize the feeling that they're going through. Or, if you're in a really great mood, like singing, even if you're not a great singer. I would recommend this to somebody who might have a little bit of a throat chakra block or might have trouble speaking their truth. It's to actually exercise and remove any kind of stagency that's in the throat chakra, which would be any kind of communication or making those noises and singing or just screaming into a pillow.

Lunden Souza: 28:50

Yeah, those are all really great ones and I especially like the O'M one because I feel like on the mmm there's like this vibration that happens like in my face and my lips, and so there is some movement happening. Right, the vibration is creating some movement. It's just that we have to choose to see movement in different ways if we want to have kind of different results. I remember where was I? I was in Scotland on a on a. It was the sacred Scotland tour. So wonderful, we were 11 people for two weeks, just yeah, having a sacred experience in Scotland. And we were.

Lunden Souza: 29:25

We went to a lot of different like of the stone circles which are in the middle of nowhere, so like no neighbors, no worries whatever in terms of like getting it out. But we were all sitting together and then I remember one of the girls that came with us. She's amazing, but all of a sudden we hear the scream and she had gone out kind of far but she just was like like, just like like the most beautiful but like painful, just like scream. She just let it all out. I get goosebump I have. My hairs are standing up right now thinking about it, because I remember looking over and at that part where I was on my journey, I understood what she was doing, but not really you know what I mean. I was like, oh, maybe she's angry and she like wants to get it out. You know, I didn't fully like realize, like no, she probably just felt there was something inside that needed to be released through a scream. And then somebody that was there with us he goes oh, yeah, she's getting it out for all the ancestors.

Lunden Souza: 30:20

And I loved that because it was like that moment you could tell like shit was just backed up in her. You know we get backed up can't go to the toilet constipated and think we can be energetically constipated too and the way that she just like like let it all out, like this lioness, like roar, but like there was like yeah, it was like this roar, but this pain in a good way, that was just being released. And so when you said that, I was like oh, that reminds me of when Brianna did that and it was so beautiful and I remember, just remember, looking up and being you know. So I think that's such a powerful reminder too is moving our vocal cords right, using our voice, the screaming and the pillow thing. I like doing that after breathwork. Sometimes if I've done an intense breathwork session then I'll put the pillow over my face and just scream into it just to let a little bit more out, and I just see. I'm grateful that you brought that up.

Julie Ann Dawson: 31:12

Yeah, thank you. I've definitely done that too with breathwork. It's very, very powerful in a way, to move emotions and energy and in kind of a sign of energy out of the body. I think it's also really important to know when we're talking about moving energy out of the body and linking that with being grounded, because when we're, when we're very grounded and present in our bodies and I'll go on to what I mean by grounding and like the kind of signs of being ungrounded but when linking those two things together, when you are grounded, a lot of the energies that don't belong to you or the stagnancy will actually go out through your feet. As a Reiki Master Teacher, one of the techniques of Reiki I teach is use traditional Yusui Reiki and so the any kind of stagnancy and things that don't belong to come out through the feet and into the earth. And the earth is like this great recycler and replenishes our own life force, energy. But when we're not grounded, we get a little bit disconnected from that and so things do get backed up, you know, like energetically constipated, as you were saying. So it's really important to be grounded, especially if there's like a lot happening around you. You know everyone is dealing with something. So it's really important to just remain grounded.

Julie Ann Dawson: 32:35

Some signs of being ungrounded would be feeling tired or fatigued, having a difficult time following a sleep, experiencing difficulty concentrating. Sometimes your heart rate might be beating really fast, not quite like with high anxiety, but like the start of it. No, like you can feel like almost like an onset of a panic attack coming on. Sometimes that heart rate speeds up quite a bit Not present, almost like a disassociation. So the feeling of your like floating almost like above yourself I have actually been in that place before. It is not a good feeling and I'll get into some techniques, how to get yourself back into your body. But not feeling like you're yourself, or not even feeling what's happening around you is even real, like that's that disassociation and can't seem to really get things done, you're easily distracted and really losing track of time are all signs of being ungrounded. And so the trick to getting grounded is well, there's not just one trick, there's, there's so many. So I'm just going to give you a couple that you don't have to be, you know, like a reiki master teacher or an energy healer to do, but I will say reiki is very, very effective at getting grounded. So reiki is one I also use sage or palo santo to clear the energy in my home, because your home and even your workspace has its own life force and Prana. Or if you work with a lot of people around you, they're bringing their own energies to the situation, to your area. With my clients, I like to say to them you know, if it's hard for you to visualize, just simply setting the intention to ground is very, very powerful. So you don't have to be an expert at visualizing these things. But imagining if you're standing up straight or sitting straight up with your back straight in your feet, flat on the floor. It does help if you don't have shoes on, but I mean, if you're at work and it's not appropriate, don't take your shoes off. You can do it just fine with them.

Julie Ann Dawson: 34:45

On Imagining that there are roots coming out of your feet like a tree and rooting all the way down into the center of the earth. And then, once you feel or sense or know that those roots are really deep into the earth, when you take a deep inhale through your nose, nice and slow, imagining that the energy is coming up through the roots back up to you, and when you complete the inhale and your lungs can't breathe in anymore. Imagining the breath like the breath comes all the way up to the top of the head and slowly release the breath out through your nose. Imagining the breath and all the energy that you just drew up from these roots slowly going back down your body, all the way back down into the earth, to the center of the earth where the roots originated, and you can do a couple of cycles of that and I'm telling you you'll feel so much better. So that's really good.

Julie Ann Dawson: 35:43

Sometimes I'll say you can imagine a like a different color or an aura around you, or a grounding cord, some kind of like a golden cord that extends from your spine, because sometimes having a physical anchor is also great to ground yourself. The word comes from an extension from your actual spine into the ground, whereas imagining that there's all these roots coming from your feet, that might be a little easier to set your intention or visualize for somebody that might have difficulty with visualizations and having that go into the earth. And then same technique like breathing in through that cord from the center of the earth. Imagining the energy going all the way to the top of the head and all the way back down through the cord into the earth and doing a few repetitions of that.

Julie Ann Dawson: 36:35

There's another thing that you can do where you interlock your thumbs. So for those who, excuse me, may be listening to this, I'll do my best to explain. So, if you take your hands and you go to fold your hands into each other, where, if your index finger and your thumbs are making almost like an L shape and you go to leave them into each other, so let's say my right hand is gently laying on top of my left hand and my thumb is gently resting over the piece of skin that is between my index finger and my thumb, so they're gently placed like this and then just like having a physical anchor point sometimes is really helpful when you feel like you're starting to disassociate. You could be going through kind of a traumatic situation and just actually being able to touch something or like have a physical anchor. So when you're doing these other exercises let's say you do the roots like a tree grounding exercise you can program a part of your body to have that sensation be triggered in some way, and I forget what specifically.

Julie Ann Dawson: 37:51

there is a word for this technique, but it's escaping my mind at the moment.

Lunden Souza: 37:55

I think well, what we call it in NLP is the champion's day anchor.

Julie Ann Dawson: 37:59

Well, okay, yes, thank you for that. And yeah, that's what we call it champion's day anchor, and so if you don't have time or if you're in a kind of really hectic situation, you're able to program let's say you're pinky, or your thumb to instantly bring in that grounding sensation back to you.

Lunden Souza: 38:17

Yeah, and you did it after the grounding of the feet or the spine right. So you get yourself in that state and then you anchor the state with the physical action, which I love. I have a couple of physical anchors that I use that are two ones with the hand and then one's hand over the heart and I pinch this finger one I do this depends on where I'm at, and then also I have one where I do this If you can't see me, but I'm like shaking my arms side to side. I do that when I'm walking from my room to the coffee machine at my parents' house, because my parents wake up super early and they like to talk early, right, and I'm. That's hard for me because I like silence. For the first couple of hours I like to you know, but then it's like what are we doing today? What time here or there? So instead of getting mad at them every time, I move my arms like this and that like flowy way to remember, like be flexible. This is their house, like whatever they want to talk about is good and this is you're not going to be here forever. So I like that you mentioned that because that's been really powerful in my life is to have those. I like this one too.

Lunden Souza: 39:15

I like the hand one you did, because that fleshy part in between your thumb and your pointer finger like it's like a little couch, it's like cushiony, you know, it's like super soft and lovey, it's like a little stuffed animal. So it's like when you come in and do that I never had did that before, I do this for headaches you know you kind of pinch that point or whatever. But when you pull that in, I was like, oh, it's kind of like your own personal, like teddy bear or something, cause there's like a little squish and I think that is so helpful because these are the things we can do, like nobody knows right. You are in a situation. You just do your little hand thing. I grabbed my finger. I don't have to be like I'm activating my anchor now, you know, you just do it and it's helpful. So I love that. You mentioned that. Those are good tools.

Julie Ann Dawson: 39:52

Thank you. Actually, I'm one of the Ricky courses that I teach for a certification that some interlock is one of the techniques I use to describe how people are able to release cords and different attachments from their body. But that that's a little bit, you know, beyond the scope of our conversation in the moment, but that actual movement can be used for so many different things, including including that as well. So there was something else I wanted to say too. Oh yeah, and you can actually eat certain foods to get grounded. Did you know that?

Lunden Souza: 40:25

Yes, yes, I'll go for carrots or beets, more potatoes, parsnips, when I know I need to ground Absolutely.

Julie Ann Dawson: 40:34

Things that come from the earth are very grounding to add into your diet, and apples, too are are so healthy for you. I've been incorporating more of those into my diet, actually, too. And and they're red. So any kind of foods that are red in color resonate and harmonize with the root chakra, because that that chakra vibrates at a color frequency of the color red. So anything that's red will also assist you in grounding.

Lunden Souza: 41:05

Oh, that's a good way to think of that too. I always would think of like root vegetables, but when you said red, I was like, oh yeah, then like red bell peppers, red apples, I love red cabbage. We had that. We had some tacos yesterday and there was like red cabbage on top. It was so good and I think that's fun for kids too.

Lunden Souza: 41:22

I mean, I, I don't, I'm not a parent, but I have a niece. She's four and a half, and I'm just always thinking, okay, how can we make this like absorbable for a little mind, you know, so that she doesn't need to get to where she's 30, 35 and learning some of these things that I learned later on and that could be super fun with kids too. It's just like, hey, we're going to work on our roots today, so we're going to pick out red food when we go to the store, or let's eat what's red, or and I know that each chakra has a different color and I love using foods and even clothing to identify with which areas I'm really, you know, working in on. I love that, the colors sinking.

Julie Ann Dawson: 41:57

There's something to that too, with different color therapy. I believe there's been a bunch of research studies on it I can't think of one off the top of my head, but I know that I've read them and experimenting with different color is really powerful too, because it does affect your mood, so I think that's really fascinating that you brought that up too. It's fun.

Lunden Souza: 42:21

It's super cool. I want to talk a little bit because I did a podcast episode on breakups and that one was really people really resonated with that. I got really real. I told you know, opened up a lot of my heart about how I was feeling and I know you mentioned that you had gone through a really challenging breakup and yeah, and then used movement and ways to move energy to kind of help you in that way.

Lunden Souza: 42:45

And I think of I'm going to say things that maybe we hear like on the media, right, it's like the breakup diet or like the revenge diet or like. And then I can think of, like you know, we're women and maybe like girls and you're like forget him, just you know, whatever. Or then I know, like you know, people have gone through breakups where they're just like go hard in the paint with workouts and habits and routines and all these things. I can't remember specifically like what order certain things were in my healing journey of that breakup I was talking about. But for someone listening that maybe has just gone through a breakup or maybe they went through a breakup a while back and they're still like that stuck energy or, just like you know, some stagnance there.

Lunden Souza: 43:28

What do you feel like, when it comes to movement or maybe even some colors that we kind of talked, talked about, like for someone who maybe is listening to this and this is like all brand new, but they're like, oh my gosh, I'm in this space of like heartbreak. What do you say was like the best next step and like I don't know. Just, I think that I like to be on the internet, but sometimes I hear things like the revenge diet or the breakup, this, and you're like, well, why? Why now do you need to be your best self, like where was this work? Kind of you know what I mean. Like I just don't like that word and I'm kind of picky on words, but what would be like a good way to use movement or ways that we can move energy when we're going through a time of heartbreak, because that's hard?

Julie Ann Dawson: 44:08

It's definitely very challenging and I think, depending on where that in the process, because grief affects people so differently and there's all these different stages of grief and sometimes once you think you're, you're good, you're over it, another wave, another like title wave comes. You're like, where did this come from? So it's just your body actually giving like being able to release this trauma in a safe way for you. It's not that, you know, it's like a continuous cycle of torture. It's just like your body is a very smart system and it wants to release this in a safe way where you're not energetically like blown out. But you may feel like that already, but for me, you know, I'm very grateful for energy healing because I did do it on myself every single day and it really I would do it in the morning when I woke up and before I went to bed. It helped me actually get over and insomnia, but I did not want to move my body at first.

Julie Ann Dawson: 45:09

To be quite honest, I did take a very small break. I took, like, I think, three weeks off from Krav Maga because I was in such a complete state of shock and I'm also being very vulnerable because, if this helps anyone that's listening to this. This is why I'm talking about it. I was very gentle with my body. I took some really nice epsom salt baths. I was like, you know, just having these like little rituals for myself and maybe we can get into that another time but I would put these essential oils in my bath epsom salts, I would bless the water and just like have a self love practice and also incorporated the energy healing because my body wasn't ready to move. I was in my bed and you know that's all I could do is just lay there in bed and I was just like a vegetable for a few weeks and I just had to let my body process what happened before I could get myself going again. And there was a certain point where I knew, okay, it's time for me to incorporate a little bit of movement. So I started doing a little bit of yoga. I went back to my Krav Maga class and I had the best workout and I just felt all these things come up and my sensei was like, yeah, you bring that energy every class. He was like really impressed and I'm like, yeah, I guess it only took a, you know, a traumatic break up to me being really aggressive in class, but I felt so much better. I felt like this huge weight. It felt like I don't know if you've ever used a weighted blanket, but it felt like that was over my entire body. It just felt like it was not me. There's like this weight over me that wasn't me, and doing those exercises and the Reiki and doing little rituals for myself lifted that energetic weighted blanket off of me and cleared out this stagnancy that I had going on inside my body.

Julie Ann Dawson: 47:23

So you know, every person is going to be different, especially, you know, whatever stage that you're in. I think you need to again like I always say this to like go back into your heart and see, like okay, what is really best for me right now? Because if you listen to you know, the first thought that comes to mind like maybe your ego would be like the revenge diet. That definitely to me. When you first said that, I couldn't help but laugh a little bit because that definitely sounds very ego driven to me when I hear that it's probably not that healthy. You know just from, like the first time hearing it.

Julie Ann Dawson: 48:02

But and just also, don't forget to take care of yourself and know that you have, like, so much love and support around you and be able to communicate to others, like how you're feeling, reach out to a friend. People can always reach out to me too if they need somebody to talk to or for a healing. You know you have a supportive community around you, so don't ever feel like you're alone, because I know during a breakup you can really feel like super isolated too. So I think also, being able to just get outside if you don't feel like you're in a space to really do a full workout, just going for a walk outside, get some fresh air, is really helpful, and that's one thing I did every day too. I got out of my bed and I sat outside for at least 10 minutes a day. I just let the Sun be down on my face and it just felt so good. The Sun itself is Really good for you, um, and it's good for your brain, and you know just like not a ton of sun exposure, but just a little bit a day is really good for anyone who's who might be dealing with depression.

Julie Ann Dawson: 49:13

Um, and as far as colors go, to touch up to answer your last question, I think anything bright color maybe. Avoid black, like grounds you want to, I think, lean more toward like orange, yellow, purple and also I don't want to just like say those colors too, because those are the colors that I personally like. They're like a bright blue Things that you're automatically attracted to that you go oh you know, it's probably the best color you need to work with at the moment, and so you can incorporate that with your clothing. Or maybe it's just getting a new like throw Blanket, or maybe just changing out one of your pillows. It doesn't have to be like a huge thing or like I'm seeing through my third eye right now is like buy yourself some flowers, put a pop of color in your house. That way, that's like relatively inexpensive and like also a ritual and a form of Self-love. To get some flowers, you could go to Trader Joe's. I think they're like three dollars, so mm-hmm, that for themselves. Just you know a little, pick me up that way.

Lunden Souza: 50:23

Yeah, that's super sweet, I love that. And yeah, fresh flowers are just a pop of color. And even the shift in my of environment Knowing hey, I made this shift because this thing particularly happened you know and know that you put that there for the purpose of like Upleveling or elevating how you might be feeling a little bit. And I love what you said about how you kind of, you know, stayed in bed or were a vegetable for three weeks. I think that people need to hear that when we're going through breakups, like you said, you think you're alone, you think that you're the only one that's going through it, or that yours is like way worse. And if you tried to explain it, no one would understand. And I just think that's something that really resonated with me too Is like, yeah, there's sometimes you just you just can't like movement is not the answer at that moment, and it's totally okay to take that time. And sometimes it's helpful just to hear somebody else say oh yeah, I took three weeks off and then I got back into it. It's almost kind of like that Unofficial permission slip you didn't know you needed and you never had to ask for anyways, but when people say it, it's like oh, yeah, okay cool. That's actually, you know, almost a month of like no working out, and I think a lot of people can think, you know, have an idea of what that means in their head if you don't work out for three weeks, if you're late, whatever. And I love that, because our body does need that sometimes and it needs, yeah, it needs the no movement, it needs just that. You know, that being which can be really, yeah, really challenging. And With my breakup, I also started walking a lot too, because I just felt so emotionally exhausted.

Lunden Souza: 51:54

I didn't feel like I had the energy to run, which is was my usual form of, like daily activity, even if it was just short, and Because of that now it's like I walk way more than I run. I went on a 45 minute walk this morning. I'll go on another one later. It just became part of my routine and then I would talk to myself. So I put my earphones in. You know, and people think you're talking on the phone who cares anyways? But sometimes you know you need to let it out. So I'd be on the have my headphones in, pretending like I was talking to, like a friend or a coach, and just talking it out and just like getting it out or even Talking to him right, or even if it was, like, you know, even if it was a little bit of like a tell-off moment that I didn't want to say to him, that I knew didn't resonate like fully, but I needed to get it out. You know, that was really helpful as well, just to like walk and talk it out. And you know, sometimes I, you know, would cry and just Like get some of those emotions out.

Lunden Souza: 52:44

But yeah, to your point of your sensei or your Krav Maga instructor saying like hey, where that intensity come from, you know, and it's kind of like you unlock something through a lot of that heartbreak. And that's how I felt too. I'm like now, 10,000 steps, easy, I have that before lunch. You know, I'm just like I love to walk and then be out in nature and get my feet on the grass and, you know, utilize all my other senses to experience nature and to be outside. And I know you said kind of at the beginning, like this might be, you know, a little woo, woo or whatever, and then you might have mentioned did you say that? Or I had a bunch of podcast episodes earlier. But I like sometimes we can think like, oh, being out in nature, connecting with that, is like woo, woo, whatever, but it's been like the most beautiful healing, grounding, like experience, just to be Outside. So I love that. You were like, yeah, I needed to be in bed inside, whatever, and so if someone's listening to this and maybe they're in bed or they're in that breakup mode or you know, it's like that first step can be just to get outside, get that fresh air. I did some sun gazing this morning. I just kind of like was looking at the Sun and had my eyes, my eyelids a little, you know, like clothes because I don't want to look directly in the Sun, and I just like stood there and I just like with a little smile on my face or whatever, and it was Everything I needed. You know, in a way, that I was always looking for a high-intensity workout, a crossfit style workout, to achieve, but when we realize, hey, there's a lot of other modalities, it can be really helpful and I think, yeah, heartbreak Heartbreak is heart is is necessary.

Lunden Souza: 54:16

And a friend of mine, her Son, he was just going through his first breakup when I was home this last time and I remember talking to her and being like, okay, but that's good. Like you, that happens. You know we were kind of like sad but also happy for him. Like you just got that first, you know, heart heartbreak out and You'll be stronger because of it and kind of be better because of it. And then her and I were talking to about previous breakups and just different things like that that have been Heavy, like that weighted blanket feeling like just yeah, heavy and we might not know what to do with that heaviness and yeah, at the same time, you're not alone. But exercise and movement outdoors I feel like it's like a game changer.

Lunden Souza: 54:57

This morning I was walking. I like my arms open, I was like I am receiving, just like moving through, you know, just using all of that and our walking can be so helpful, instead of just, you know, being on our phones on a walk or scrolling through Instagram on a walk or something. I think those intentional where we open up our eyes and look around and see a lot of the magic in the world is helpful, because when we're in that heartbreak state it's just like Everything kind of sucks or is hard, you know, and I I love the way that nature can be like oh, if I just kind of looked up. It could be a little bit more helpful, right.

Julie Ann Dawson: 55:30

It definitely helps you step more into being more present and and more mindful of you know when you are in the world and all the beauty that's around you, and you know if you are going you know on a walk, I do recommend you put the photo away. Or if you want to listen to music, great. But to get the most benefit out of your grounding exercise, I I highly suggest to put the phone away. Don't be scrolling on tiktok, or you know, I know it's tempting to scroll through Instagram reels, but you're gonna get the most benefit out of just putting it away in your pocket, because your brain and your subconscious mind is gonna be running about all, all of the things that you're scrolling through Instead of being focused on being present and in the moment, which is the whole purpose of going on the walk to begin with. So that's just a little little tip from me, yeah, and for all exercise too.

Lunden Souza: 56:27

I mean, I've Been in gyms or different places, or people are, yeah, like working out and on their phones. I've done that too. Like even today I went downstairs in the garage for a 20 minute workout and I just had my phone playing my music, but then I saw something pop up. But I was doing a 20 minute like for time workout, right. So I was like kind of resting and I looked out my phone, I started type and I was like no, no, and I put my phone down and I just had that awareness moment of like that's not the intention of why we're here. Like I'm doing my workout, I want to.

Lunden Souza: 56:57

You know I had said an intention before of like what personal goal I kind of wanted to achieve and At the same time, you know we talk about this, I podcast about it, and I still have moments where I have to catch myself and be like wait for what? This workouts for time number one. So get to work. You're here for this 20 minute like square block of time that you've created and and, yeah, I, we can easily just get sidetracked it sidetracked into just grabbing our phone and scrolling, and so, no matter what exercise you're doing, do it with intention and bring the the intention even of, like you said, of just grounding or Moving the energy, even if you don't know what that fully means, looks like or feels like, just to say, hey, whatever stagnant in me, I want to move that. I want that to you know, permission to exit, thank you and please, goodbye. And I think when we can do that and be in that space with our workouts, there's so much more magic that can come from it, right? Cuz I just think of that typical View I've seen there's so many times that machine where you sit down at the gym and you work like two muscles on your adductors on the outside, you know, and people are like doing their legs inward and outward and like on their phones and I'm like I think you're burning more calories with your thumb, you know, and I just yeah, our muscles are gonna get work right, they're gonna be, you know, like more toned or whatever. Get that, that stimulus from the exercise. But that mind muscle connection is so powerful and with that intention and focusing on where you're at and what you're doing, it makes for your workouts so profound.

Lunden Souza: 58:26

And I think you know I'm down for like a longer Hour, whatever, but for the most part I have these short, intense, focused if I'm gonna do something like that Workouts because of that point, because I'm like I want to keep my attention there, I want to be focused, I want to do what I need to do and then be done so that I, you know, want to make time for some other modalities, because I used to, you know, carve out an hour, hour and a half for working out.

Lunden Souza: 58:52

But now I'm like, okay, I can do a 20 minute workout, I can fit in my meditation, I can do some breath work, I can go for a walk. That doesn't mean I don't do the hour and a half, it's just like what's in there is different now and I've included different stuff in that because, yeah, it can be, we think we need to do hours of this. And then we're doing hours like on the phone, kind of half there, half not, and I think the Phone can really be a great connector, right, because that's how we met and like I would have never known what you were doing through Instagram, whatever. It's so cool, but it could be such an addiction and something that, while we're trying to heal in process, we could be like, you know, comparing ourselves to others or getting lost in different trains of thought that are not, like Healing, focused, if you will. They're more dissociated, distracted, kind of, you know, going away.

Julie Ann Dawson: 59:41

Right, exactly, and I love that.

Julie Ann Dawson: 59:43

You mentioned the Mind body or, like the mind muscle connection, and I can actually link that to the in a spiritual way where we connect and Get more in touch with our physical body, because when we're experiencing a discomfort or maybe a dis ease or some kind of annoyance with our body I'll go back to the sciatica example it's coming up for a reason and the more that we're in touch with our body and we can take our awareness into the area and actually address it directly, like in a way where you know it's natural to get aggravated at this situation and especially depending on how severe it is right.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:00:30

So going into your awareness and Marlin a meditation and asking the sciatica directly In your body hey, I know this is happening. Is there something that you want me to know? Is there something that I need to be aware of or something I need to work on for this to be released and actually just having like grace, compassion and giving thanks to your body for bringing that up, because it's a way for your body to actually Communicate with you hey, there's something not right and this is. This is how I'm, this is the only way I know to communicate with you and so Approaching that in a way where you can tap into your, like your spiritual sense, or or just getting really in touch with your body, coming back to Communication with your body is really important, um, you know, when addressing those type of issues. So I just wanted to make a note of that too.

Lunden Souza: 1:01:30

I love that when you're working with a client and you tell them to do that, ask your sciatica what it's saying. If they're not, or maybe maybe anybody right, maybe your clients come and they already have this awareness that they can connect with certain parts and hear Right, because our sciatica, if you just look at it from the let, that our eyeballs that pure, like our senses, that people Are our five senses. Let's say that we're we're used to hearing about like people aren't used to hearing their sciatica talk, right, but we know from doing a lot of this work and understanding that there's a voice and a feeling, and sometimes a color, a sensation, a picture, whatever that can be coupled with that. Is there a way that we can talk to the people listening now to be like okay, if you've never asked that before, how do you know what you're hearing? Like what is a good nugget to help someone Unlock their ears a little bit in a new way?

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:02:24

Well, we're all, we're all into it as beings, we're all human and we have that capability, you know. And you don't have to be a psychic medium like me, anybody can do this. So I think the most important first step is to get yourself grounded, so that way you know your ego isn't trying to chime into the conversation at all. So what whatever that grounding exercise is for you, just make sure you're feeling like you're in your body and you're being present Without distractions, and then I I like to close my eyes, because if it's something that's inside my body, I set my intention of, of taking my awareness to that area and I feel with my heart Okay, not necessarily saying out loud, hey, what's, what's up? You can feel, just being able to feel into it, and the first thing that usually comes to you is the answer. So if it resonates with you to actually speak it out loud, like you're talking, like you and I, a conversation, that's perfectly okay too. You can also ask with your thoughts, and the answer may come to you with a clear feeling or knowing, and Some people might hear and when I say here, it's not like somebody's talking in your ear, it's like when you have thoughts throughout the day it will come in kind of like that, but it will come in like boom, like immediately, and you'll just feel it in your body. And I keep touching my heart because your heart will also know the answer if and and not to overthink it, this is the biggest problem people have when they're developing their intuition and Getting more in touch with their body and communicating with their body and their spirit. Is they second guess themselves? And I used to do this all the time and do it way less now when it comes to my own personal stuff. But for clients it's so easy, it just like, comes, like, like so perfectly and you know, just being able to get over no, oh, that can't be true.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:04:34

Or you know, then just take yourself back into your heart and like, or maybe even place your hands over your heart and Like, get grounded again and then maybe ask again. It might take a couple times. So just have grace and compassion with yourself, especially when you're learning something brand new. You can't expect to be a complete expert on it, you know, but you should be able to trust yourself that you have all the answers. You do you, your body and in your soul. They have everything that is like that you need in this lifetime. You have all the answers within you and you have the power to To address those things yourself. So that's why I like to teach this to other people, because I I feel like it's my duty to also empower others to have access to that information that is already inside them.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:05:26

And so if you feel like you're starting to second guess yourself, bring yourself back to your heart center or Take a nice few deep breaths and get back into being grounded, because it's from a grounded state that we're able to have more of a clear answer.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:05:43

And it's usually the answer that comes first is the correct one. And again, that might be like a feeling or a just a knowing, or just like a immediate thought that pops in, and you can also use inquiry too. So if that thought comes in and you're like, hmm, I'm not quite sure what that really means, you can ask it. When I mean it like your body, you can give your body a name. You can give the sciatica or whatever it is, a name or something.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:06:13

So it's like, if it's easier for you to formulate a conversation that way you know everyone's different you could give it a like a cat, make it a character or something Is as long as it makes it a little bit easier for you to actually get the answers that you need. So yeah, just use, use questions, use open-ended questions and see what else you get, and then just keep going on from there until you feel comfortable with Tangible or like actionable steps, how to move yourself Forward and get out of the situation or to make an improvement or whatever it is the intention of. It was to begin with mm-hmm.

Lunden Souza: 1:06:54

Yeah, that would have been my, my thought too. Right, my first thought was what you said about the first thought of like, okay, well, what's the first thing that comes. And I love how you said you're not saying it out loud, but just like we think our thoughts throughout the day and we hear voices in our heads say x, y or z, which I think everybody can, I done up, you know, can, yeah, can relate to and knows what that feels like. And then to be able to ask, I like the name idea. I know that that's really helpful to give it a name, just to kind of talk to it a little bit and to see what comes up and to see what happens and and, yeah, oftentimes it is that first thing that comes up.

Lunden Souza: 1:07:35

And really, sitting with there's been times where it was very clear and I just knew it and yes.

Lunden Souza: 1:07:42

And then there's times where certain things would come up and I'm like huh, okay, and just like kind of write it down, put it in your back pocket somewhere. And it kind of revealed itself later where I was like oh, okay, like I, you know, I just I took that because it resonated, it felt like it was that right answer for me in the moment, even though I had it yet, you know, let's say, interpreted yet or it didn't make that meaning wasn't revealed right away. I just kind of jotted it down. I have this yet journal that I use when I meditate or whatever I like. Draw on it, I'll put like little whatever things to remember my experience. And yeah, there's been times where that's revealed itself kind of later and does that happen sometimes too? So if someone's listening, it's like you might hear something that resonates right away, but sometimes for me it's just like maybe it takes it till the afternoon or maybe the next day or something, where you're like, oh okay.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:08:31

Yeah, I can't believe you just brought that up because, as you were talking, I was taking notes on my open notepad here Because it helps me focus on what I'd like to discuss, and you literally said exactly what I was going to say about the journaling, and I think you know. Another good exercise free too is for people to get more in touch with, not just like, their body, but if you're more spiritual or you want to explore that a little bit more, is calling in what's called your high self, which is your soul. Essentially, it's your, the part of you that knows all of the answers, and and. So when you call in your high self, you could it could just be as simple as hey, high self. Or you could say your own name or give your high self a different name.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:09:23

Um, referring to your high self, can you be present with me in this moment and help me reveal what it is that I need to know? And you could also work with angels. I work with angels every single day, so angels can be really helpful, not only healing the situation, but also giving more clarity to the situation and help you Uncover what it is that you need to know. Journaling is also a really great way to uncover All sorts of things. Journaling is really, really healthy, and I believe that journaling is a way to also Get energy out of the body, because when we're putting a pen to paper, our thoughts have energy and when we're actually putting it the words on paper, it's like the energy I can see almost coming from our thought out of our arm onto the paper being released and when we were talking about these different ways to release energy.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:10:21

Earlier I kind of touched upon some rituals, but One thing I have done to get over this break up my head was write down like not necessarily a letter to my ex, but Things I was holding on to, that I really wanted to let go of. That I was holding on to and I Wanted to release it. And so I wrote everything down like feelings. I was having just all this stuff and I Folded it up in a piece of paper and I put it in a pot, a fire safe pot. I lit it on fire and I just watched it burn to ashes. And I did that because fire Is a very powerful element and journaling itself is very powerful to get that out of my body but but to actually light it on fire.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:11:15

Fire as an element is Also to like release or destroy, but also a rebirth, and when I think of that, I think of like this Phoenix kind of energy, and that was really a big theme for me last year.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:11:29

It was like the death and rebirth that I had, like the death being, you know, the end of the relationship and what I, what I felt at the time, was like oh my god, my life is over but things get so much better and like there's this whole world is waiting for you and like With the fire was like burning thing, like the Phoenix, like burning things alive and like you know, burning away what I guess could be like intentions or like what I journaled about, and that's all being released. Like I set the intention that the fire is gonna clear all of that energy away and I felt so much better after and it just like it allows that Space to open up to all these endless Possibilities for you. It actually like clears away and it kind of like stangency and the energy that might be blocking from from moving forward or Whatever the next step is. Excuse me, right, my ring light just died.

Lunden Souza: 1:12:23

I think you're good, take your time. No, I, I love journaling. Journaling has, oh my gosh, change the game for me and in this topic of movement that we're talking, I was like, oh yeah, moving the pen on paper and I like journaling pen to paper. Have I done it on a Google Drive and, like created a folder on my online? Yes, I've even done group journaling with a close friend of mine where we would journal every day and read each other's and we've got Super honest and raw, which was like one of the most beautiful, yeah, cool experiences ever. But I love the pen to paper and I also love the burning of the paper. I did that last year.

Lunden Souza: 1:13:01

I had, I had journaled a lot we I had been introduced to written exposure therapy, to write through your trauma and then write what you're gonna make it mean. And then I started using it a Lot with my clients and it was just I had this thick Notebook full of the stuff I had journaled about and I remember being like afraid I was gonna lose it, you know, because I'm like, oh my gosh, like every single thing that ever happened in my childhood. Everything is in this journal, you know, and I just remember like kind of being nervous about it. And then my cousin, who's also a Reiki master that I work with, he was like burn it, he's like get rid of it, you know. And I was like, oh yeah, duh, because I was like nervous I was gonna put it in my backpack, or was my mom was gonna actually grab it, or whatever, on accident, you know like whose book is this? Oh, first page is like when I was this you know everything you could ever imagine in that book.

Lunden Souza: 1:13:52

So when I burned it was so beautiful I used a colander, you know, like a metal colander with the holes in it where you would drain pasta. We were I didn't have a fire safe thing, we were at air B&B I just took it and I lit it, which actually worked, because all the air was going through it. So it became like this fire pot and then, yeah, I just rinsed it out and poured it out and that was so helpful and so powerful. And one of the things that journaling really helped with is like Consolidating the stories, because I think there's a there was a lot of stories and details running through my head and the way that written exposure therapy works is you write it over and over and over again.

Lunden Souza: 1:14:27

You write the trauma story three times before, then you write the what you're gonna make. It mean, right, right. So you're writing through it and then I'm like my hands tired, like you know, like let's make this story short. How can I take these four sentences and make it? You know one, how can I? And it was cool because then I could get the stories on like one page, when before they'd be like 10 pages because I'd be, and then this happened, and then this person did this and then I'd backtrack, you know, and it was so helpful to To shorten that, because then in theory I could have taken that story, like folded it up, filed it away, which is how it feels in my brain now, where it's like it's easy to access.

Lunden Souza: 1:15:03

I know what happened, but what happened is actually not as important as what I'm gonna make it mean. So the because this happened, that part of the journal, I didn't burn those. So I still have all my becausees from those particular things and quite frankly, they're all kind of the same. Like all that stuff just kind of led to the same kind of purpose and mission and kind of outcome, which is really cool to see.

Lunden Souza: 1:15:24

But that was so helpful the journaling and to to realize, man, no wonder I had acne and stress and anxiety and all these things. Because I was like all these Details were running around, as that saying goes, like rent free in your brain and until I was able to journal and like put that down, I was like, oh my gosh, like it became so clear to me through journaling and now, just like walking, journaling is like a Daily thing. I just can't not journal. I love the pen to paper, even if I'm just like drawing little swirly pictures or I just decide today journaling is gonna be like drawing or whatever. So helpful, but that consolidation of like information.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:16:05

Oh.

Lunden Souza: 1:16:06

I was like they talk about grounding. I was like oh because there was so much just like, and I didn't realize it, and so I started writing it down.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:16:16

That's beautiful. I love that you did that and I actually have found a lot of healing in adult coloring books and I actually created one. It's on my my store website but it has all these mandalas that I created Myself and there's a couple animals and they're like Like peacocks and unicorns, but they're all mandalas. You know, um, but you can print it, download and print it out at home and then just start coloring and what that's. That's great if you're not resonating with journaling, actually using some colored pencils or like marker and just like being able to color, and sometimes it's actually just like the movement of you know, getting your thought off, something getting you back into your body, becoming more present. So when you're coloring it's like you're here and now and also working with beautiful colors is like kind of tying back into our conversation with the color therapy and in presence, as we were talking about earlier.

Lunden Souza: 1:17:18

I, yeah, coloring is so fun. In fact I went to a birthday party of my close friend Last week. She had a unicorn and mermaids theme birthday party. She turned 37. It was so wonderful. We had the best time ever and for her presence she got it. Like everyone knows her so well. So she got like you know, kids stuff. And someone got her like a bunch of adult coloring books and they were so cool and I saw them and she's like, yeah, I do coloring dates with my niece and nephew's on FaceTime. We FaceTime and we talk and we color and hang out and I thought that was so cool, whether you do it with someone or just on your own by yourself, but that was such a fun birthday.

Lunden Souza: 1:17:55

I think you guys would get along with all your unicorns and different stuff, but it was like I wore a unicorn onesie. I was like I'm going all out, you're going to have this party, let's go. And a lot of my friends' kids and stuff were there and so when you said adult coloring book, I was like, yeah, that's like me getting in touch with my inner Brittany that's her name. I love her so much. She's like she'll be coloring and doing kids crafts till she's 95 or beyond and that can be something like a lot of the kids' stuff Can we can get out of touch with and it's like just because we're grown up doesn't mean that we can't play and dance and color and have fun with our lives, right.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:18:31

Absolutely. That's really coming full circle from the last time we were on the podcast together and it's so funny because I also have a unicorn onesie.

Lunden Souza: 1:18:42

Well then, next time we do our podcast together, we're going to do them in unicorn onesies.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:18:47

I love it. I will think of a really fun theme for that one.

Lunden Souza: 1:18:52

So we talked about so much today. I love it because really our topic was movement and mainly exercise, but we talked about so much more than what I thought we might cover today of moving our body, not moving our body, choosing that stagnant or that still three weeks in bed type of thing, choosing not to move. We talked about moving our voice through like oh, my vibrations, but also speaking our truth or singing or screaming right, we talked about moving pen to paper and colored pencil or color crayon to paper, and I'm just so grateful for this conversation, because what I love about these conversations, what I love about just like words and communication, is they open up different possibilities. You know, and I'm like, oh yeah, even though this is what I love, how come I don't?

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:19:41

Whereas I want an adult coloring book, like in my head.

Lunden Souza: 1:19:44

And these are little things that we forget. Sometimes we just get so focused on I got to do the workout and maybe I got to eat the right food, but it's really like there's so much more to movement and processing and healing and, like you said, connecting and becoming more in tune with that higher self of like who you know you are and you're working to become. And yeah, movement can come in all different forms and I'm so grateful for you and for everything you put out into the world and also for reminding us that movement can come really in all different forms. So thank you so much.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:20:17

Thank you. I'm so grateful for you having me back on the show. It's always so fun talking with you and it's really beautiful how we can start off with an idea or a topic and then it just unfolds very organically and flows, and it's always nice to talk with you. So I appreciate you having me here and thank you for providing your platform to inform and educate others and help empower others. So I appreciate the work that you're doing as well.

Lunden Souza: 1:20:47

So thank you, thank you Same For those listening, go check out the last podcast that Juliana and I did on Healing the Inner Child. That was so wonderful and such a good conversation. I can just yeah, for me also. But then I got a lot of feedback from those of you that are listening, so check that out. Number one and then number two what was the name of the book that you mentioned again at the beginning of the episode?

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:21:12

I want to make sure I it's called Feelings Buried Alive Never Die by Carol Truman.

Lunden Souza: 1:21:23

Oh, here we go. What's it say? Feeling Feelings Buried Alive.

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:21:26

Never Die by Carol K Truman. Carol with a K for those listening.

Lunden Souza: 1:21:32

Got it. Yes, perfect, thank you, because I haven't read that one yet, but it kind of reminded me of one I had read. So I think those books are really powerful to especially like that little index you mentioned of just looking a little bit deeper, not just going for the band aid of like, oh this is this, but looking at some of those underlying root causes is really really cool and can be really empowering. So I'm so grateful for that. Listen to the podcast and then I'll put that book in there too, and then before we exit, let's tell everyone where they can find you. I know you mentioned you have your coloring book on your website. What are some of the things that others listening can connect with you on?

Julie Ann Dawson: 1:22:12

Oh yeah, definitely. So you can find me at chakratiyacom. That's C-H-A-K-R-A-T-O-Y-Acom. Chakratiya is also my TikTok and my Instagram. Through my website, you can book me directly or shop my online store, where you can find that coloring book, or I have a grounding guided meditation, or you could book a service, or, if you're interested in becoming a Reiki practitioner, I have all of that available on my website. And for the listeners here, I created a special code. You'll take 20% off anything in the online store by mentioning London L-U-N-D-E-N-20. It's all caps, so that'll take 20% off anything in the online store, minus gift cards. So Cool.

Lunden Souza: 1:23:03

Thank you for doing that. That's so wonderful. We really appreciate that. And, for those of you listening, go check out her online shop, chakratiyacom. And yeah, see, you have some of her courses, certifications, coloring books, fun stuff, and you can get 20% off. So thank you for doing that. We really appreciate you. Thank you guys for listening and for being here.

Lunden Souza: 1:23:22

This is a longer episode than I normally do, but I told Julianne I'm like let's talk more, like let's go a little longer, let's share more stories about our lives, let's share some resources and things that have happened and, most importantly, let's do the no-plan plan and just let it go and see what happens. And so, yeah, it just worked out perfectly. I'm so grateful for your time. Thank you guys for listening. Check out Julianne everywhere that she mentioned and we'll see you at the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Self Love and Sweat the Podcast. Hey, do me a favor Wherever you're listening to this podcast, give us a review. This really helps a lot and share this with a friend. I'm only one person and with your help, we can really spread the message of self love and sweat and change more lives all around the world. I'm London Suza, reminding you that you deserve a life full of passion, presence and purpose, fueled by self love and sweat. This podcast is a hit spot. Austria production.