Julie Howton (00:02.318) Stephanie, welcome to the podcast. Stephanie Nelson (00:04.842) Hi, thanks so much for having me. Julie Howton (00:07.554) I'm so excited for this conversation. A, because it's so needed, but B, I'm looking forward to busting some myths because I feel like there's a lot of buzz going on in your space. I know I see a lot of stuff pop up on social media. and so I I just can't wait. But I would love to know how you got into the somatic healing space and and decided that this was your calling. Stephanie Nelson (00:40.298) Yeah. It has been a really long journey, Julie. It started when I was at the fresh age of twelve years old, when I received a diagnosis of arthritis bursitis and tendinitis in both of my hips, but especially my right hip, where my body was so inflamed at such a young age where I couldn't walk upstairs so often. that I couldn't flex my hip enough to lift my foot onto the next stair. And this wasn't a mechanical issue. Like I wasn't sick. I wasn't unhealthy right, sick, unhealthy, right? I was normal. I was you know in a good weight range and I was active and I, you know, had Julie Howton (01:29.942) Yeah. Otherwise healthy. Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (01:31.788) Yeah, I was traditionally healthy. and all of these massive issues. the chronic pain, I was later diagnosed with an anxiety disorder with ADHD. And throughout all of these diagnoses, I'm trying to understand like why why am I feeling so shitty? All right, can I cuss on here? Okay. Julie Howton (01:56.589) Yeah. You can. We are we are a raw yes. No filters. Stephanie Nelson (02:01.719) Okay. just feeling horrible and at such a young age, and I'm like, there's it's not gonna go up from here. Right. Unless I do something about it. Yes. Yes. Unless I do something different. And so I that really kicks me off on a healing journey where I'm looking at Julie Howton (02:13.74) Right. Right. It doesn't typically unless we learn. yeah. Stephanie Nelson (02:28.971) The food that I'm putting in my body. I'm reading ingredient labels. I'm 12 years old, mind you. Reading ingredient labels, making anti-inflammatory green smoothies, and you know, putting turmeric in things and then moving into yoga and Pilates and chiropractor physical therapy. Like I'm doing all of these different things for the body. Julie Howton (02:53.767) Mm-hmm. Stephanie Nelson (02:54.351) And also noticing that it's impacting positively my mental health, my mood. I had several bouts of depression in high school and in college at university. And eventually I get to a place where I'm introduced to the nervous system, but particularly the work of stress and trauma healing. Julie Howton (03:21.55) Mm-hmm. Stephanie Nelson (03:22.111) And how our experiences in the past impact our physical and mental health. Julie Howton (03:30.99) Yes. Amen. Yeah. Yeah. And I wanna just pop in and ask, like, I believe well, I'm not gonna tell you what I believe. Do you believe that everybody needs this work on some level? Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (03:34.257) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (03:49.728) 100%. Like not a doubt in my mind. I have not what met one person on the planet who's not experienced trauma. The only thing that differs from person to person is the specificity around the trauma. So how intense it was. Was it a single incidence like a car accident or medical trauma? That is, you know, to be to be under anesthesia. Is trauma for the body. Surgery is trauma for the body. so yes, everyone has experienced traumatic experiences that in our society from a Western context, I can't speak to you know, more indigenous tribes have ways of processing this that we have shut down, but from a Western lens. Julie Howton (04:21.827) Sure. Stephanie Nelson (04:45.745) in the United States, Canada, Europe, right? That that we as a culture and as a society have actually shut down our connection to self and our bodies, our nervous system's ability to process these stressors in a way that when we say process, it means like we're ingesting these things. You can think of it the same as food. We're ingesting food, ingesting experience. The body is interacting with it, and we don't give it space to be metabolized, to be processed and released. So those stressful, traumatic experiences stay inside of our system. Because what happens is on a physiological level, we like we respond, we react, you know, we have those fight-flight mechanisms where the heart rate increases, we feel, we feel Our muscles tense to prepare us for action. And if the experience doesn't get to complete, we stay in that vigilant state. So the body is always in this, I'm alert, I'm on guard, I'm protecting myself. Julie Howton (06:04.354) Mm-hmm. Stephanie Nelson (06:07.031) Immune system's always going, always going, always going, right? Because the immune system is our major protective system. So the immune system and the nervous system are very closely connected. So especially for anyone with autoimmune conditions, healing stress is a major pillar that if your doctor is not recommending to you, then find extra support. Yeah. Julie Howton (06:09.368) Yeah. Julie Howton (06:14.188) Yes. Julie Howton (06:19.534) Yeah. Julie Howton (06:33.166) Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. And I and I wanna I I you know, I've heard you talk about And and this gets received different ways depending on where people are in their healing journey. and I went through it in mind this like trying to think your way out and execute your way out of, you know, I can manage my stress, you know, and and like you said, do I believe in anti-inflammatory diet and proper movement and circadian rhythm and sleep and you know Detoxin, toxin, all those all of those are important, but like you said, if we're in this constant stress response state, whether you're aware of it or not. Stephanie Nelson (07:24.373) Yes, yes, yes, but Julie Howton (07:25.154) that's a whole nother that's a whole nother thing it's it's not gonna work and I I love that you talk about perfectionism as not being the solution because I I don't know how many years ago it was where I had this aha moment where I was like wow every client I work with is a perfectionist and then I was like hmm Mirror. Is that how I got here too? You know, it was like, I would have never it like literally took that for me to realize, like, yes, these tendencies are at at some point don't serve us. and so when you're talking about healing, you're not talking about mantras mindfulness. Not that any of those things are bad. Stephanie Nelson (08:17.431) Great. I love a good mantra. Yeah, I'm I see it every morning. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Julie Howton (08:17.474) But this is totally different. Yeah, me too. Yep, me too. so let let's talk about the like how did you get to the somatic work and Stephanie Nelson (08:32.055) Yeah. Julie Howton (08:33.618) I I feel like like fascia's such a big buzzword right now, which is great like educationally, but you know, you're the real deal, so I I want you to to teach us a little bit about our bodies. Stephanie Nelson (08:38.837) No. Stephanie Nelson (08:49.791) Yeah. man, you've brought up so many interesting points. I'm just sort of like feeling into the different threads that we can that we can pull on here. Julie Howton (08:56.846) Uh-huh. Julie Howton (09:02.072) Let's start with the basics, like what is our fascia? And you know, we we've brought up, we've touched on in prior conversations on the podcast, you know, that things getting stuck in the body and the body holding on to stuff. And I know I've heard you reference one of my like absolute favorite books, The Body Holds the Score. Like, like we just Stephanie Nelson (09:05.511) Mm. Mm. Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (09:25.354) Yeah. Julie Howton (09:25.986) But I like take us start at the elementary level of what is going on here. Stephanie Nelson (09:28.565) Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So I even think I'll zoom out a little bit to sort of include like the fascia and perfectionism, 'cause those are two of the threads that have been already dropped into this space. So and a foundational, like what the heck is somatics? Cause yeah, it's a it's a buzzword for sure. And I've been thinking about this so much because Julie Howton (09:35.821) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Julie Howton (09:48.311) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (09:55.744) Somatics in again a Western context is very new. Most of the like game changers, pioneers are still alive, right? We cannot say that about biology, we cannot say that about really any other science. They're mostly still alive. so very, very new. And like, what the heck is it, right? So when we're thinking about healing. The th the my conductor, the master coordinator of all of the systems in the body. So the immune system, the endocrine system, the digestive system, the respiratory system, like all these to create this beautiful health and harmony of you. Yeah, is the nervous system, nervous system master coordinator, and it's all about safety and survival of self of yeah, of self and species. Julie Howton (10:42.414) Yes, yes. Julie Howton (10:50.846) 'Cause I've heard you talk about this too. Yes. Stephanie Nelson (10:58.091) Which when we're on a healing journey can be so individual. But we have to realize that we as mammals are not meant to be alone. And we heal in relationships. We thrive in relationships. So self and species is really, really important. And somatics can often be translated as body, like ooh, body, somatics is working with the body, not working with the mind. Julie Howton (11:03.789) Mm. Julie Howton (11:11.768) Hmm. Stephanie Nelson (11:27.959) I don't think that's a great way of explaining it because Exactly. Yeah. The the brain is part of the body, my friends. Like that is that's together. And sometimes we hear the word body and we think like very mechanical. Like, I have my left arm and my right arm and my shin bone and my knee trap, my tell it, right? Like we're anatomy or mechanical. Julie Howton (11:31.406) We're integrated. Julie Howton (11:39.18) Right. Yeah. Julie Howton (11:51.574) Mm-hmm. Stephanie Nelson (11:56.594) And the thing that I really want to amplify in this space right now, Julie, is that the nervous system is an energetic system and your body is mostly energy. Right? Every cell of your body is 99%, 99.9% empty space or energy. And a very small percent of it is matter. So it's like, whoa, what does that open up? Right? It opens up that there are Julie Howton (12:08.312) Mm-hmm. Stephanie Nelson (12:26.431) It's a dynamic, intelligent, creative, energetic system that is a harmony of a bunch of different things going on inside, right, self and between relationally species. And it's so interesting because our nervous systems are designed again, safety and survival, that if there's a threat to somebody in my tribe, that my nervous system gets that message. Julie Howton (12:50.424) Mm-hmm. Yep. Stephanie Nelson (12:57.787) And because of the internet, for good or for bad, we're seeing yeah, we're seeing chaos happen every Julie Howton (13:01.11) Ha Right. Yeah. The inputs are just endless. Stephanie Nelson (13:09.035) Right. And our nervous systems are reacting to those stressors as if they were happening to our next door neighbor or our sister or ourself. So when you ask, like, should we be doing this? 100%, every single person on the planet, because not only are you taking in so much stress and trauma in the past, present day, but Your ability to show up more patient, more present, more loving, more compassionate, more kind, more curious, like your ability to show up as that is going to impact every single person, not only your immediate, you know, your family and your best friends, right? Your coworkers, but also every single person that you come into contact with, even if you're just exchanging a glance at the coffee shop. Julie Howton (14:05.304) Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (14:07.337) energetic systems. Yeah. So somatics, body-based, but also dynamic, intelligent, creative. and as we're pulling in back the the perfectionism and the the fascia, somatics is okay, so how how am I experiencing life, right? How am I embodied? And that can be sleep patterns, it can be reactionary patterns, right? Like is your primary method of reacting to stress and triggers? Is it to get really frustrated and yell? Is it to slam a door? Is it to shut down, right? So all of these different behavioral things that we used to only address through the mental health field are embodied patterns that have been practiced over time. All for the sake of safety and survival, right? They're all adaptive survival strategies. Everything we don't like about ourselves, adaptive survival strategy. Served us at some point. Exactly. Exactly. It served us. And so the beautiful work that I get to do in somatics is really bringing it's it's healing our relationship. Julie Howton (15:14.392) Yes. Julie Howton (15:19.532) Yeah, served us at some point. Yep. Stephanie Nelson (15:36.129) to not only the stress that we experience, stress and trauma that we're experiencing on a consistent basis. We live in a world of stress, it's just how it goes. Like and stress is required to live a meaningful life. So if we're experiencing stressors, we're not growing, we're not evolving. Julie Howton (15:44.494) Sure. Yeah. Yes. Stephanie Nelson (15:55.256) So we heal our relationship to stress and we also heal our relationship to our adaptive survival strategies so that we get to be more choiceful in, ooh, challenge is happening. How do I want to organize myself? How do I want to show up? How do I want to be in relationship to myself, to my work, to my partners, to my family, to my house, to my movement practices, right? To my relationship to food. Like who am I? Julie Howton (16:26.05) Who do I want to be? You get that choice, yeah. Stephanie Nelson (16:27.285) And who do I want be? You get the choice in somatics, especially one of the lineages I work with really closely and really practiced in is the Strozy lineage of somatics. And they are very practice-centered, practice-oriented. In Strozy, we say 300 reps for embodiment. Три тазен формід удерше. Julie Howton (16:56.376) Yes. I love that because yeah, the like, no, I'll do that when I experience the stress like no, if it's not in your toolbox, it's not happening. So that's yeah. Stephanie Nelson (17:08.243) Exactly. Exactly. And practicing something, you know, so often people are like, if it doesn't work like immediately, you know, I tried it for like a week or two. I'm like, okay, but in that week or two, how many times did you give it a go? Seven? It right? Julie Howton (17:18.252) Right. Julie Howton (17:22.144) It's it's kinda like being s kind of gluten free. Like it's just not a thing. Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (17:27.191) Yeah. I mean just think like I'm 36, so I'm like, I've been practicing anxiety for decades. Like right, the ADHD. I had that in my system for a very long time. Yeah, exactly. And so now with somatics, I get to practice something else. Julie Howton (17:35.406) Right. Julie Howton (17:44.206) I'm a master at that. Stephanie Nelson (17:54.844) enough times that I can create new neural pathways where even when I'm faced with stressor pressure challenge, I'm like, ooh, all right, I have another place I can go. Julie Howton (18:08.3) Got this. Yes. Amazing. I love it. I love it. And and thank you for the the shift because I'm a lot older than you. I got a couple decades on you. and my original background was in psychology. And so when I hear somatics, I too connected to the word body. Stephanie Nelson (18:12.567) So that is somatics for me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (18:34.337) Yeah. Julie Howton (18:35.226) And it really is like it should be being, right? Like because it's so I I love that. and I really appreciate that you're sharing with us that perspective and and giving an understanding because for some people like they maybe have never even heard the word before. and so yeah, so much so much goodness. Stephanie Nelson (18:40.491) Stephanie Nelson (18:56.341) Yeah. Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (19:01.791) Yeah. And so now I'll layer on and bring in the perfectionism and the fascia as you named earlier. And so when we think about adaptive survival strategies, they're really freaking cool, right? They're really, really cool. And most people are familiar with the fight or flight response, which are actually very different responses, but they're both sympathetic. They're both mobilizing, but very, very different. Julie Howton (19:22.306) Yeah. Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (19:30.347) We also have as you named earlier, Juli, a shutdown response. And as we're thinking about nervous system, safety and survival, self and species, our first line of defense when we're faced with a stress or pressure or challenge is our social support. That's actually our first place we go. Is our network, is our community, is like, like I'm doing this thing, I don't really know how it goes. Like I reach out to my mentor if I've got a question, right? Julie Howton (19:51.256) Yes. Julie Howton (20:04.611) Right. Stephanie Nelson (20:06.561) First line the defense, social support, then we drop into a mobilizing. We and this can be anxiety, ADHD are really really common survival strategies. And then the shutdown response, but perfectionism is a way of Julie Howton (20:19.8) Mm-hmm. Stephanie Nelson (20:28.095) It's an attempt, an adaptive attempt to stay in relationship, right? To stay in that social engagement, stay in relationship by being good enough, being valuable enough to make sure that I am safe and I am secure in my tribe. Stephanie Nelson (20:48.534) So Julie Howton (20:49.838) And it shows up differently for everybody, you know. I think that was part of my big aha several years ago was it it's not necessarily the CEO or the, you know, it it's and for me perfection is perfectionism was my route to immobilization, right? It would keep me frozen. Stephanie Nelson (20:52.343) Principle. Stephanie Nelson (21:14.518) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (21:18.166) Yeah. Julie Howton (21:18.262) If I didn't have all the answers 10 steps down the line. And so, for listeners, the reason I'm sharing that piece is because sometimes we have this perception of what that label looks like or means, and we're not even actually honestly assessing, like, is this a part of my pattern? Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (21:21.451) Right. Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (21:39.5) Right. That's beautiful. Thank you for bringing that up. For me, it was like I'm only one to do list away from figuring it all out. Or I just have to spend the next hour and a half tweaking my schedule, making sure my schedule for the next month is perfect, and then I'll have it all figured out. I was in that cycle for years. Sometimes I find myself in that cycle again. I'm like, I know what I'm doing. Julie Howton (21:49.997) Yeah. Julie Howton (22:00.556) Yeah. Julie Howton (22:08.382) Right. But you recognize it. Stephanie Nelson (22:09.979) Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. There and there is that that procrastination that's really can be connected because if it's not exceptional, then I just can't put it forward, right? There's that fear that it has to be perfect in order for it to be good enough, in order for me to be good enough. And until I get there, nobody else can see it. Yeah. Julie Howton (22:13.657) huh. Julie Howton (22:22.604) Right. Then it's Julie Howton (22:36.3) Yeah. I get you, sister. I get I really I mean I remember really fighting against my first business coach used to just constantly done is better than perfect done and I'm it was like you don't understand it can be done and perfect. Just give me more time. Stephanie Nelson (22:59.831) I just can't sleep for the next three weeks. It's fine. Yeah. I won't shower. I will order out most of my meals. Yeah. Yeah. Julie Howton (23:09.262) Yeah. So so yeah, it is it is interesting how things just, you know, can show up differently in all of us, but yet it's a similar pattern or that it's a similar survival skill. again, that those behaviors for me defin you know, like at some point, whether it was childhood, infancy like does it we don't even have to know be able to I d yeah, exactly. you know, I have one of my children was was Stephanie Nelson (23:20.427) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (23:24.246) Yes. Stephanie Nelson (23:34.379) Mm. Millonero, mm, mm. Julie Howton (23:42.017) delivered with the cord around his neck. Guess which one of my children has had the most lifelong anxiety. You know, now to be fair, genetics, like I we you and I have like the anxiety ADHD thing is a you know, it could be a thing. but it's like, you know, I mean he was literally Stephanie Nelson (23:44.843) Me too. Stephanie Nelson (23:50.869) Uh-huh. Yeah. Julie Howton (24:11.254) Traumatized at birth, not even mentioning, or at the clinic we you know, we see you know, a a stressed mother is literally just bathing her baby in stress hormones while she's pregnant. So, you know, we we know like it starts way earlier. but again, the the patterns aren't wrong, it's just they may not serve us anymore. Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (24:31.126) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (24:37.565) Exactly. Exact and it really is about being flexible, right? So many people are in the like, somatics, nervous system work to be calm. Calm down, calm down, calm down. The goal is not to be calm. The goal is to be flexible. The goal is to have choice. Yeah. Resilience to have choice. Like how do I want to show up? How like who do I want to be in this moment? Julie Howton (24:47.032) No. Go with it. Yes. Resilient. Yes. Stephanie Nelson (24:59.775) How do I want to face this challenge? How am I gonna rise up and meet the moment in front of me? But it's about choice and it's about flexibility. It's not about calming down. Julie Howton (25:09.548) Yeah, I love that. that's so enlightening. So can we can we talk about fascia? because you used to only hear it, you know, in certain body work and I don't know and of course, you know, our feeds are always Stephanie Nelson (25:18.995) Yes, I was going on that. Yeah. Julie Howton (25:29.686) Targeted right. So, but I am seeing, you know, you have chronic pain, it's fascia. You're not flexible, it's fascia. You have trauma, it's fascia, you have autoimmune, it's fascia. Like, what is A really like what even is our fascia? Stephanie Nelson (25:31.039) Right. Stephanie Nelson (25:44.959) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (25:48.427) Mm-hmm. Julie Howton (25:50.137) then we can pull it all together with how the work you do, you know, helps us release and, like you said, create that flexibility and the practices that enable us to be strong and survive as a human and a species. Stephanie Nelson (26:06.091) Yes. So your fascia is connective tissue. Connective tissue is one of four types of tissue in your body. So you have your connective tissue. Fascia is one of them. And it is a web. It connects everything in your body. And I think that's why everyone's like, it's the fascia. it's the fascia. Because it does, it literally connects. You have a superficial layer that is like a bodysuit, you know, if you've ever seen like I don't know. I used to watch it's always sunny in Philadelphia, so maybe some people will get the cell phones, maybe not, but they're like the green man. It's like they're just the full bodysuit. and that's the superficial fascia. The deep layers have are more like chains. Tom Myers calls them anatomy trains, and he's a really great resource if people want to go deeper into the fascia. Tom Myers, and his work Anatomy Trains. So you have those deep. what we're finding, which I think is really so exciting, particularly for the nervous system, is that we you your fascia is your richest sensory organ. Far beyond the eyes. We used to think the eyes took in the most amount of sensory input. Now we know it's the fascia. And the skin is a close second. Obviously, there's a lot of fascia in your skin. Again, we're talking about the superficial fascia, but we also have the deeper layers. But it literally connects every bone, every organ, every gland, everything in your body is encased with fascia, but also running through your fascia. Yeah. So it's connecting everything, which is why people are like, maybe it's the fascia. Probably has a fascial component, right? But as you were naming earlier, everybody is so. different. So the way the fascia inputs is gonna be different from person to person. So it's really important to find I think it's really important for everybody to find like a team of people to support you. so it's important that you have somebody who's really skilled in fascia or at least knows some enough about fascia to get you going and and help you point out things or find somebody else. Stephanie Nelson (28:25.687) so very connected. What we're finding about it now is that it's richly innervated with sensory inputs, and your nervous system is using all of that sensory input to send either safeties of signals of safety, danger, or life threat to the nervous system. And the vagus nerve. Julie Howton (28:49.304) Yes. Stephanie Nelson (28:52.821) Very, very famous nerve, right? I'm sure most of your listeners have heard about the vagus nerve or vagal toning or vagal stimulation. it's the 10th cranial nerve, it's the wandering nerve, it goes to all of your internal organs everywhere. It's 80% sensory, so it's gathering sensory information from the body. Julie Howton (28:55.106) Yeah. Julie Howton (29:07.916) Everywhere. Every Oregon. Yep. Stephanie Nelson (29:19.615) Including the fascia, which is connected to outside of you. Yeah. Taking all of that input, sending it to the brain, for the brain to go, this is how we have to adjust, and then sends 20% of the pathways back down to the motor pathways so that you behave differently. 80% sensory. A lot's coming from your fascia. It has to be. It's a richest sensory organ. So yeah. It's definitely definitely making a dent there. So that is that's really, really fascinating. And you mentioned muc muscle tension earlier. Julie Howton (29:49.762) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (30:02.087) I saw some again from Tom Tom Myers. He was like, do we have and I I forget how many muscles we have in the body, but over 200, right? 200, I think, 206 or 209. And he goes, Do we have 200 and let's just say 209? 209 muscles, or do we have one muscle with 209 fascial pockets? Stephanie Nelson (30:28.587) So we're really starting to get that so much of the pain that we're feeling could be referral pain from fascial tightness or trigger points, or they're called, from different parts of the body. So that's how it might be connected. So we talked about connected to the the nervous system, we talked about connected to muscle tension. and another peaceful name is Julie Howton (30:50.254) Mm-hmm. Stephanie Nelson (30:57.726) When were Stephanie Nelson (31:01.663) Everything that we are experiencing now is a practice. It's been practiced, right? As we named earlier. Part of that practice is our posture embracing patterns. So one of the things that happens when we're more in the shutdown. Julie Howton (31:19.169) Mm. Stephanie Nelson (31:21.124) is we forget to breathe. Julie Howton (31:24.642) Yes. Stephanie Nelson (31:26.773) And that is really freaking smart. If there is a predator and you're like, I can't make a noise, I cannot let them hear me breathe. Hold my breath. Super smart adaptive wives survival strategy. Julie Howton (31:30.904) Right. Julie Howton (31:35.399) Mm. Julie Howton (31:42.127) Sure, it's great if you're, you know, living in the jungle two thousand years ago and like you know. But when you have all of these inputs of stressors all the time, it does not serve us anymore. Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (31:50.815) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (31:56.3) Right. Exactly. Exactly. There's fascia holding inside of that too. Because again, the fascia encloses, it enwraps, it entangles. There's three different layers of fascia. It runs through every like strand of muscle. It runs around the whole muscle and then it runs runs around the whole organism. So so interwoven. Julie Howton (32:07.374) Sure. Stephanie Nelson (32:22.155) That when we adopt these, like I'm gonna hold my breath, or I'm gonna breathe high into my chest, or often shoulders or up near the ears, like or the heads coming back, or maybe we've got the rounded forward posture and we're like sort of slumped and collapsed and like why bother? Like nothing I do makes a difference, or right, or we're like leaning forward because we're like, I'm just gonna go for it, I'm gonna get it done. We have postural Julie Howton (32:31.298) Mm-hmm. Stephanie Nelson (32:51.807) Адаптаціон And this is very connected to behavior, very connected to stress, very connected to adaptive survival strategies. What's holding that is the fascia. We used to think the skeleton, we used to think the bones is what held us up. Now we know if we took the fascia up, we'd just be a pot like a puddle of skin on the floor. Julie Howton (33:09.411) Right. Julie Howton (33:14.542) Yeah. Amazing. So for all our listeners that have their checklists and they're, you know, eating well and they're they're executing and they're not improving, share with us some of your magic. Like what what are some things that that where do you have people start? Stephanie Nelson (33:23.019) Ha ha ha. Stephanie Nelson (33:28.182) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (33:33.077) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (33:41.303) Mm. Stephanie Nelson (33:48.246) Yeah. I have people start in resourced, and that is a membership that I have for the sake of resourcing your nervous system to become more aware of your patterns, not aware mentally, aware somatically. So that you can make better decisions for how you want to show up and how you want to meet the moment. Right? We resource ourselves to feel safe enough to come home to ourselves and to come alive again in the most authentic way possible. So we always have people start in resourced. And the really freaking cool thing about resource, which we just figured out how to do, I'm so excited about this. Is that we have a forever-free entry level option, forever free, where people can come in and get the foundational somatic practices and the foundational breathing techniques, because breath work is such a big buzzword right now, but we like don't know how to breathe. And then we're trying to like do all these crazy breathing techniques. We're like, let's just let's Julie Howton (34:58.796) Right. Right. What what's in the middle? Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (35:04.639) Let's learn how to walk before we learn before we run a marathon is like kinda my thing, you know, like if we're trauma is anything that's too much too soon, too big, too intense, or not enough. But if we're like, let me just get into breath work and do, you know, a holotropic breath pattern or what Julie Howton (35:14.413) Right. Julie Howton (35:21.89) I knew you were gonna say that because that was where my brain went. Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (35:26.327) You're like, that might be too much too soon. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe, maybe not, right? But for so many people who aren't connected to body and they do these things and they're having these like big cathartic releases, it's not trauma informed, it's not somatic, and it can often do more harm than good. So we really have to get connected to body, listen to, learn to listen to body. Like, hey, what's going on in here? Julie Howton (35:47.992) Yeah. Which is essential for healing, period. Hard stop. Like yeah. Stephanie Nelson (35:54.07) Yes, I should get your quote on my on my landing page. Hard stuff. Yeah. So there's a forever free option, foundational somatic practices, breath practices. And then if you want to upgrade, which you don't have to, but there's other you know, there's practice yeah, there's somatic practices for setting boundaries, somatic practices for taking up more space, somatic practices to restore your energy, so forth. that is by far Julie Howton (35:59.485) Yeah. Julie Howton (36:09.794) You go deeper. Yeah. Julie Howton (36:15.114) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (36:23.519) In my opinion, the best place to start with somatic work, especially somatic work with me. Julie Howton (36:29.646) I love that. That's amazing. It is interesting. I just want to circle back to because I get this question all the time, you know, well, okay, if if humans are designed with this, you know, beauty and intelligence, and and and you we've touched on it, but I want to kind of underscore how differently we're living now. Stephanie Nelson (36:53.264) Julie Howton (36:56.872) versus how we were designed to live and and lots of benefits. Like I love that we're in different states and I get to see your beautiful smile this morning and learn from you. So you know yes, lots of good, but that just means we need to be actively Stephanie Nelson (37:09.025) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (37:17.259) Yeah. Julie Howton (37:18.39) you know, making sure that that we support the systems we were designed with. And so you touched on you, you know, you mentioned like indigenous cultures. One of the f the first, not one of the first coach training I did, which was amazing. one of the first things I learned was shaking medicine. Like not what I was expecting when I, you know, but there Stephanie Nelson (37:42.955) Great book. Yeah. Yeah. Julie Howton (37:46.379) There was and and you did say this, but I want to underscore for people if they're like, well, you know, why do we need to be doing these things? Why do we need to get, you know, how did we lose touch with our bodies? All the things. and what was built into daily life and culture A, just right off the top, we didn't have the global stressors because we had no idea what was going on, you know, a mile away. Forget, you know. Stephanie Nelson (38:02.522) Stephanie Nelson (38:11.267) Mm-hmm. Right. Right. And a totally different continent. Wild. Wild's wild. Yeah. Yeah. Julie Howton (38:16.272) yeah. Yeah, it is. It really is. And so we've talked about that part a lot, but but also, you know, I I love that you you highlight like what we're discussing right now is is a is a modern Western culture problem because we don't have Stephanie Nelson (38:25.483) Mm-hmm. Julie Howton (38:41.96) dance, like all of these things, like forgetting just the day-to-day life, like there were and are in other cultures practices built in to community. Stephanie Nelson (38:43.799) Yeah. Julie Howton (38:58.014) And and we tend to, unless we can find and create our community, we tend to not have those. and we need them more than ever. And so I just wanted to kind of highlight for the I I I'm a skeptic. I'm a and I'm proud to be a skeptic, exactly. and so for for for the listeners that are like, huh. Stephanie Nelson (39:10.892) Why? Stephanie Nelson (39:15.903) We should be. We should be called They're not some lies left and right. Yeah. Julie Howton (39:25.64) I just wanted to highlight that, you know, like these practices used to be incorporated into life and they're not anymore and we need them so much more than ever. so yeah. Stephanie Nelson (39:34.059) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful question. I think I mean there's so many places that I could go, so I'm gonna rein it in and I'm gonna choose two two things to share here. and one is that where this comes from Julie Howton (39:46.264) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (39:57.056) My belief and what I we talk about a lot, you know, with my teachers is Rene Descartes, if you remember him, he said, I'll just do the English translation because this was in French. Yeah. Yeah. I think therefore I am. And therein lies the Western split. Julie Howton (40:10.018) Thank you. It'll be more meaningful. Julie Howton (40:17.464) Therefore yes. Julie Howton (40:24.236) The problem. Stephanie Nelson (40:26.561) That we prioritize this brain, our ability to think, our ability to reason and logic, which is really freaking cool. Like that is a beautiful skill set. Yeah. And it's not everything. We're so much more. We're so much more. And I think it's so important to and I talk about this all the time, we have three languages that we know. Julie Howton (40:30.957) Right. Julie Howton (40:38.026) It's amazing, but we're so much more than that. Stephanie Nelson (40:55.933) And we lose the first two because we prioritize the thinking brain. So it's culturally indoctrinated in us that the brain, the mind, the ability to think is the only thing that matters. It's the only thing that's worthy. But the first language that we learn, and we don't even we don't have to learn this. We are born knowing the language of sensation. I know if I'm wet. Julie Howton (41:01.378) Right. Yeah. Julie Howton (41:20.066) Yes. Stephanie Nelson (41:21.791) I know if I'm dry, I know if I'm cold or I'm hot. I I can feel my mother, my caregiver holding me. I can feel the sensation of pressure. I can feel when I'm pooping myself, right? I can feel when I need to do that, right? Yeah. Not now when I'm a baby, right? As a baby, we know all of this. Julie Howton (41:37.144) Thank God. Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (41:47.964) it's so inherent in being human and being alive, just and being alive. So Julie Howton (41:54.713) Well, and it it it's not even sorry, but it's it's not even it doesn't stop at the perception. Like you take touch, hold being held, being hugged. Well, hormones are released. Oxyto like th this is these are the things that are running our bodies. And so, yeah, sorry, I just had to I got excited. Stephanie Nelson (42:02.347) No. Stephanie Nelson (42:09.781) Hmm? Hmm? Exactly. This is my point. Exactly. Yeah. No, that was beautiful. That was so beautiful. I'm glad you brought it again, 'cause it's all connected. T we were talking about talking about the fascia, talking about hormones, like it's all it's all connected. Spring somatics is so cool. It's 'cause it's like we do a little bit of everything and then we're like, Okay, you need a hormone expert. Okay, you need a this expert, right? you need a body worker, whatever. So first thing with education. Yeah. Julie Howton (42:22.583) Right. Yeah. Julie Howton (42:41.378) Sorry, the languages, yes. Stephanie Nelson (42:43.255) touch, exactly. Hormones all connected. So important. The second language we learn is our emotional language. We learn when we're happy and sad and mad. and and gotta say, my generation, I mean third, you know, I'm millennial. I did not learn this very well. I'm sure your generation did not. I think we learned it more than you guys learned it, sorry. but the emotional language, right? where we're b able to really identify something that we're feeling and have an outlook, like have a re have a relationship with it. Julie Howton (43:26.836) express it safely because that's the yeah some of it isn't even some of it could be not generational but but familial or you know what I mean like so yeah and and you're right because I think it's it's it it does kind of this like what's acceptable and and what's being taught and what do we talk about and you know Stephanie Nelson (43:28.567) Exactly. Exactly. Stephanie Nelson (43:37.173) Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Stephanie Nelson (43:52.855) Mm-hmm. Julie Howton (43:54.987) then there's the whole masculine phenomenon of like societally what's accepted, which isn't actually true masculine and feminine, but Stephanie Nelson (43:59.274) appropriate more helpful yes yeah we all have masculine energy we all have feminine energy masculine energy is allowed to cry it's allowed to be vulnerable it's allowed to be upset it's allowed to be for you know yes yeah yes we do definitely have to heal that toxic masculine Julie Howton (44:08.876) Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But you're right, so those are quashed. Stephanie Nelson (44:23.317) Those are those are the languages and and you know, I might even argue that we don't even actually learn the emotional language. I I feel and I'm seeing this around with you know my friends and on social media and things is that so many caregivers now are teaching their children emotional language, which is yes, just thank you, thank you, thank you. then the third language we learn, you know. Julie Howton (44:41.474) Yes. Julie Howton (44:47.084) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (44:52.415) around the age of eight, you know, really grasp with the language, seven, eight, nine, ten years old, is to speak and to think in in complex and and intricate language. So this with Renee Descartes, this is the only one that was prioritized. The thinking I'm pointing for anyone listening, I'm pointing to my cortex and my medial prefrontal cortex. That's the part of the brain that is prioritized and everything else is Julie Howton (45:02.925) Yeah. Julie Howton (45:12.088) Yes. Stephanie Nelson (45:20.247) Swept under the rug is deemed less important and and then you add on capitalism? Julie Howton (45:27.97) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (45:29.219) And the worthiness attached to what your job title is, how much money you make, and the status of what you own, how big your house is, right? All of the things where we're just now on this hamster wheel of deny. And again, if we don't learn the emotions, we like don't even know how to connect to what we're feeling. I can't tell you how many people I start working with, which is why I'm like, resource is the best place. You will learn this really deeply, is to learn those languages so that you really understand who you are and what you want and what's important to you, and what's worth your time, energy, and attention, and what is not worth your time, energy, and attention. Because there are things we are saying yes to that we really should not be saying yes to because they're not important to us. Julie Howton (46:20.308) Amen. Absolutely. Stephanie Nelson (46:23.425) So there's there's where I think it comes from. And again, we can go on whole big tangents and rants, but Renee Descartes, Mind Body Split, I think, therefore I am, capitalism, big part of it, where we're just suppressing our emotional needs. Like, how often do we skip meals for the sake of being more productive? Or like just drink caffeine instead of taking a little siesta, right? not culturally acceptable. Like it's we wear busy as a badge of. Julie Howton (46:29.261) Yeah. Julie Howton (46:52.844) Yeah, no, it it's not actually and and like that is so out of style. It's time to time to take that off for sure. So where can listeners I'm gonna ask anyway where they can find you, but while we're we're on this right now, where can they find resourced, where can they find some of your amazing work? Stephanie Nelson (46:59.489) Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Love it. Stephanie Nelson (47:18.806) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (47:22.379) Yeah. So if you search for the Stress Healers, my website is thestresshealers.com. and you'll find resourced on my website. You'll also find resourced on my Instagram, and that's also you can find me at the stress healers. So it's my highest intention is that everybody learns to be their own stress healer, that we are so empowered. to know who we are and what we need, that we don't always have to be looking outside of us for the answers. So that's my goal is that we all become our own stress healer and we get to share that with our friends and our families and and and share nervous system health and harmony. but that that is Julie Howton (48:08.906) I l I love, I heard you say, and I was like, I say that all the time. Not a great business model, but like if I do my job well, you don't need a coach, right? If Stephanie's doing her job well, you become your own Yeah. So Stephanie Nelson (48:20.927) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a great business model because there are enough people on the planet. Yeah. I'm not worried about Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Julie Howton (48:27.916) Well I I don't mean it from a scarcity place. I just, you know, it's like there there's not if you have to work with me for the rest of your life, I I'm not good at my job. Period. So, and that's not the goal. We're we're both, and that was what resonated with with me for you know, when I was like digging in and researching you, I was like, it's about the empowerment, it's about Stephanie Nelson (48:41.375) Yes. Carrion. Yep. And Mickey. Stephanie Nelson (48:53.057) Mm-hmm. Julie Howton (48:56.94) Because that's what all of this is about, us, you know, losing that. And so stepping back into that by connecting is is amazing. So we're at the point where listeners are leaning in because they want to know Stephanie's one step that they can take starting today to improve their health. Stephanie Nelson (49:05.205) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Stephanie Nelson (49:21.151) Yeah. Stephanie Nelson (49:26.517) I already named resourced, so I'm gonna let that be. And I'm gonna bring actually back in the second part to what I wanted to name a little bit earlier. And I I did go on a tangent of Rene Descartes. So this is the other piece that I wanted to name is around how much we're looking at screens and the nervous system. When we are stressed, when we Julie Howton (49:26.836) Yeah. Julie Howton (49:46.647) Mm. Julie Howton (49:51.17) Yes. Stephanie Nelson (49:57.706) are triggered by evolutionarily speaking, when there's a stressor, a pressure, a challenge, a threat, we focus in and we track it. Julie Howton (50:06.286) Mm-hmm. Yes. Stephanie Nelson (50:08.951) We're doing that eight or more hours a day on a computer, on a phone, on a TV. We're tracking. This is sending signals of danger to your nervous system. The tracking. Tracking a fine point, little tiny point, and I'm tracking, tracking, tracking. So one thing that I will invite people to do is at least once in your day, if not ten times, because this is gonna take you 10 seconds, look away from your screen, and look wide. Look wide. So maybe that means you literally get up from your desk and open a window and you look outside at the horizon, at the trees, at the mountains, or a ridge. That you are just several times a day looking away from your screen. Julie Howton (50:42.99) Yes, and yep, love that. Stephanie Nelson (51:05.727) Letting your eyes widen, soften, and relax. Super simple. Again, it takes ten seconds. Julie Howton (51:12.632) So impactful though. It is. It it works. It's not something, again, if you go back in time, we were, you know, we were scanning the horizon throughout Stephanie Nelson (51:15.361) Yeah. Julie Howton (51:30.178) the day and that you know and so I love that you said that that's not something that that we've talked about if we have it's been a few years. and I love it's free, it's fast, it's simple, and we like we need to do it. And and so yay Stephanie, I love it Stephanie Nelson (51:40.577) Great. Stephanie Nelson (51:52.745) Yeah. Julie Howton (51:55.328) so I'll repeat again for people listening on the go who aren't going to check the notes and the links, whether it's your I'm typically one of those people as I listen when I'm on the go. Stephanie Nelson (52:01.974) Yes. Julie Howton (52:11.15) Your website, your Instagram, and there's my gosh, do you have amazing, fantastic content on Instagram as well? so check out the stress healers, thestresshealers.com at the stresshealers, and look for Stephanie's content and and check it out because I totally concur. This is not my field of specialty, but I know for a fact that we all need this work. So I really appreciate the not just that you're bringing it to all of us, but the way that you do. so guys, l if you're listening on audio, like you you gotta check out Stephanie's content because it's you're just make it all so relatable and and tangible. Like anybody can do the things that you are are teaching. And so thank you for what you're doing. Stephanie Nelson (53:09.185) Wow, thank you. I'm holding yeah, for those listening, I'm I'm holding my heart and really taking that in. I appreciate that reflection. Thank you, Julie. Julie Howton (53:11.703) Yeah. Julie Howton (53:19.0) Thank you for everyone listening. Remember, you can get those show notes, transcripts, and links by visiting inspiredliving.show. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.