Episode 121
Connecting the Mind and Body Through Movement with Tara Woodson

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Description

In this episode, Chris Burns brings Tara Woodson, our Activities Director, to the show to share her knowledge on connecting our minds to our bodies. Tara brings valuable information on how important movement and breath work can be, not only in a time of recovery and chaos but as a general tool for every day! From mindful breath work to client testimonies of feeling safe in their bodies, this episode is a must-listen for a holistic approach to life.

Talking Points

1. 
   
2. Tara’s yoga journey (1:14)
   
3. Connecting the body and the mind (2:30)
   
4. Connecting client care with holistic approaches (3:35)
   
5. Mindful breath work (4:40)
   
6. Leading up to grief week (7:00)
   
7. How mindfulness practice can be used in a time of chaos (10:02)
   
8. Different approaches to inpatient versus outpatient (13:30)
   
9. The other movement through peaks (18:43)
   
10. Tara’s WHY (21:15)
    
11. Final thoughts (22:10)
    

Quotes

“We tend to go so fast that we don’t notice these signals that our bodies are giving us all the time. A lot of times, we’ll get to a level 10 when really we’ve been having these body sensations that we just missed because we are so disassociated”.

– Tara Woodson, Activities Director

Episode Transcripts

Episode -121- Transcripts

[Music] hey everybody and welcome to another exciting episode of Finding Peaks Yours Truly president founder and CEO Chris Burns joined today by our activities director Tara Woodson so grateful to have you on the show a thank you I’m happy to be here absolutely this has been a show uh quite frankly that I’ve been really looking forward to uh it’s a really dynamic thing that we do at Peaks that I think is really atypical um in our um field and that is actually getting people up and out of the group chair it’s a concept that when I was in treatment I would have loved uh to kind of lean into but it wasn’t like top of mind for a lot of people but the idea that people are walking through a tough weighted intense curriculum something like grief for identity and purpose and relationships this idea of mindfulness comes up um as well as ambulating and I just want I can’t cannot wait to talk with you about that today so thanks for joining us yeah so happy to be here absolutely so why did you start doing yoga initially like what was that about was there an inflection point in your life where it presented itself maybe tell the viewers a little bit about that yeah yeah and honestly it was something that I kind of Ed as just a workout right like it was very Western and then I started going to therapy in my 20s and they’re like well where do you feel that in your body and I’m like what what are you guys talking about feel it in my body I literally had no idea cuz I just you don’t know what you don’t know I was so disassociated from my body and so then they started leaning me into a more healing version of yoga which was slow and intentional and so I started doing it I was like they would cue like feel this in the back of your leg and then I’d be like oh I like you know I do feel that and I was like oh my gosh this is the most beautiful practice because not now I’m have embodiment where I can actually use my body for more than just this machine that gets me to A and B it’s like this beautiful sensory where I get more connected to life and so after I started going to therapy and doing yoga as part of a healing practice I was like oh my gosh everyone has to do this yeah that’s huge like what did it maybe you can talk to the viewers a little bit about like that that mindbody connection because for so many years for me I mean been in recovery 15 years for the vast majority at least 10 or 11 years those things were wildly disconnected yeah and so what is the importance of bringing that together and what can people expect to feel in that right right it’s absolutely so important to bring the body with the mind right like so I always tell the clients or just anyone in life we tend to go so fast that we don’t notice these signals our body is giving us all the time and a lot of times we’ll get to a level 10 when really we’ve been having these Body Sensations that we just missed because we are so disassociated so when we give ourselves that time to become Mindful and connect to the body and be embodied then we get to witness those signals and be like oh my gosh I’m I’m getting overwhelmed right right now and like let me pull away for a minute before I get to anxiety or before I get to a place where I don’t want to get out of bed you know so um I think that embodiment is essential for our mental health that’s so unique too I don’t remember those types of questions getting asked to me when I was in treatment what are you seeing like you know for the clients that you get to work with and and Tera does raiki and sound B healing and yoga and got a plethora mindfulness based resources but what do you be what do you see when clients come in as far as disregulation and what is um not not NE necessarily the benefits but what are you seeing as far as when those clients are able to connect those two things oh gosh and that that’s when that happens it’s like the most beautiful experience like I’m just so grateful for Peaks that they are willing to add this layer to treatment right so this energetics and the movement and the mindfulness because I’ll have clients that will like start just crying in the yoga in the yoga class and they’re just like I have never been present with my body before and then they just are breaking down and it’s like this you know beautiful thing to witness that they are starting to feel that beautiful connection to the body again um that’s just one example but there’s so many examples of them being able to calm their nervous system too just with the breath work and ways that they never would be able to do that before yeah right yeah that’s that’s really big and key too like I wonder sometimes it’s it’s like you know what insurance pays for and doesn’t but like these are cost effective resources oh my gosh yeah and so I’m like looking down I’m like well can I all right so I can breathe that’s free we can do that we can do y I love the mindfulness side of things because the resources can be on all of our tool belts oh for sure absolutely and it’s so accessible you know a lot of times when there I iqe breath with them every day and I have a different like I have a curriculum right and so they’ll do this breath work and I’ll have them do it every day and it’s the same one so that they build the practice of it and I’m like I know it seems repetitive but honestly when you’re at a 10 and if you haven’t been practicing and you’re someone’s like just do some breathing they’re going to be like are you kidding me like now I’m 11 right yep exactly and so if we’re doing this practice at a regulated nervous system then when someone asks you to breathe when you’re at a 10 you’re going to be able to utilize that tool because you’ve been doing it when you’re regulated right and so then you’re starting to get more present come out of the emotion the frontal lobe comes back on and it’s like okay and this is a tool belt just by using our diaphragm it’s the why this thing yeah that’s really incredible too especially with like substance use clients right because if I have a craving you know I have a craving that comes up generally speaking those the last minute and a half to two minutes can I get mindful within that craving yep and then I think when at least what I’ve seen is when people can become Mindful and present within the craving the craving seems to move because the craving oftentimes is stuck in what eer tol quotes oftentimes as psychological time right the future or the past and so allowing that just from a substance use side of things I had you know when I first got sober 15 years ago I was like there’s two things that can get between you and a drink I’m like what is that and they said God or another alcoholic may you find him now and I’m like I want to lean into breath work I want to get centered I don’t want to go somewhere that I’m not now mind you I have got a lot of resource with respect to leaning in and counterbalancing with another human right who’s walking with me but I really like this opportunity of like self-regulation oh for sure you know because you’re not only going to have a sponsor or your therapist or your psych do or your community wrapped around you yeah so it’s pretty pretty cool stuff like um as far as the group process I wanted to touch on a week that’s really really impactful for us and that’s grief week you know a lot of programs and a lot of programs I’ve been to and been a part of um they’ll just walk people into grief week grief starts at 9:00 a.m. it’ll end at 2 and we’ll move through that you and your team come in before that maybe talk to the viewers a little bit about the prep work that you do before we engage in in intensive right yeah absolutely well grief week is a different kind of thing of its own you know you walk into that room and you can it’s palpable that they’re walking through shadows and they’re walking through some heavy stuff in their past and a lot of times you can even witness that they are live they’re not here they’re not here and present and so though the griek we grief week in particular what I do is I try and like I don’t come in at a 10 happy Tera I come in and I meet them where they’re at and then I try to bring them back into the present with like breath work with a meditation and allow them to get into their bodies in a very gentle way um I am lucky that I get to do this all the time and I the other weeks I get to like come in and bringing this like amount of joy and bring them into the presence so they’re always going to be ping ponging back from like depression the past or in the future anxiety and so I always like get to celebrate that my job is like let’s bring you in the present let’s have some fun let’s remember the beauty of life and like live here in our bodies in our breath and you can tell from when I walked into the room and when I left I have them do a body scan before and after and they’re always just like a little more there whether it’s more presence or more joy and it’s like another beautiful part of my job that I get to witness that that is so cool you know I was it I know you’ve been as well but I the Survivor like you think about Survivor at The Meadows which is phenomenal program um but if we go into that room after breakfast and we can engage with some mindfulness now I know there’s a meditation playing and everybody sitting down and like dancing and whatever yeah but to have something anchor you into the moment that’s powerful because what we know to be true about trauma is we’re not up here it’s in my body so I need to access needs to be an access point as I’m moving through a week like that to get into my body to provide some repair oh yeah you know so I really really love that and why wouldn’t you want to go there instead of be here you know what I noticed when I’m in grief week or Survivor whatever it might be I’m like thinking about the letter I wrote I’m thinking about my development the last thing I’m thinking about is growing where my feet are yeah and being with yourself fully yeah yeah it should almost be like the movement team like directors of presence like and being where you at and empowering you to do so it’s a really really cool thing and I I can’t talk enough about I’ve talked about it on other podcasts as well of just how youi ique this is not only for our clients that we serve but Peaks recovery in the community in general and so how can mindfulness uh based techniques be used in the midst of Crisis now you’ve talked about we’ve talked about potentially some substance use stuff but how about on the mental health side folks that actually don’t cope with substances how are you able to ground folks that are suffering I’ll give you a good one like from severe depression yeah how do you get them to turn the lights on be where their feet are and move through that process I know you worked with a lot of people yeah that suffer with that yeah for sure you know I I somewhat treat mental health and substance abuse the same right but in particular depression they’re state they’re already in this very lower level their energy their Chi their Prana is very low and so what I try to do when or emphasize when they are in a low state is actually try even just get the breath to change so it’s going to be more of a breath that’s going to activate the system kind of uplift the system where I wouldn’t tell in an anxiety state to do this breath work but when you’re in a lower State having them do that allowing them to just build a little bit energy inside the body through breath is a much better way than trying to do some diaphragm slowing down they’re already slow right um and then if you could get them to start to do that maybe we could get them to get get out of bed do some movement with us and stuff motivate them in that way but going at it very gently uh and recognizing and just being present with them you know there’s so much you know had someone come in and he’s like I am just so low today like I can’t and it’s really just sitting with them and looking them in the eye and being like I’m here like what can I do for you and that type of relationship then lets them trust you so that you can give them these tools to utilize when they’re in that space and I’ll tell you that gentleman now comes to every single yoga class and it’s just really nice to have that yeah I in I know at Peak recovery we definitely don’t SE separate substance use and mental health I was just interested from a mindfulness based perspective but to hear that it’s pretty synonymous yeah um as far as how they show up I really love that some of the greatest Joys I’ve had as a professional um you know I worked with substance used for 10 years and now we just do mental health we just treat suffering but some of the greatest experiences I have is when somebody who’s uh experiencing chronic or severe depression you know goes from here to here before they leave and it’s just amazing to watch you and the rest of the team and the clinic clinicians do their thing and provide some authentic healing for people and I think it’s a little more simple than you know I think we chocked it up to be over the years so um you’ve spoke about your curriculum right I want to chat about that a little bit maybe you can talk to the viewers about how you’ve set that up and what that looks like yeah absolutely so I’ve changed my curriculum quite a bit but uh when I first started I thought okay I got to do grief work we’re working with the hips like I tried to make it to the curriculum was very like copae but I realized they’re already like doing so much work in those therapy rooms and my goal is for us to just create something that again brings them into the present lets that kind of stuff leave and just be on the mat with me so my curriculum has changed it’s more just about doing different body parts making sure that they have utilize the same breath work enough times that it’s definitely in their tool belt um teaching them to trust themselves a lot of stuff is around intuition and listening to their body so a lot of the curriculum is queuing Sensations in the body so that they could witness it and so they could start to build that trust and that intuition so that they when they leave it’s these are tools that are not just oh I have to go back to Peak to get it these are tools that they’re like oh yeah I can witness this I trust myself enough to know how to utilize this and trust my body enough to be able to take control of my life that’s cool and that’s both inpatient and outpatient does anything change as far as levels of care do you do something different when they hit outpatient because I know you circle around the outpatient levels of care as well yeah yeah pH P I do try to teach them a little bit more of what they’re going to meet outside of the walls right so some yoga that they’ll they’ll see out there um and IOP is really just trying to help them utilize building routine right because they they don’t have us every day with them anymore um so I just try and help them build morning routines and evening routines um so that they can start to have this you know self-reliance and reassurance in themselves yeah it’s it’s it’s wild to think that you know for a number of years at least that I’ve been in recovery it’s like it’s interesting message because it says don’t trust yourself it said keep doing what you’re doing you’ll always get what you’ve got your you’re thinking got you here there’s a lot of negative messaging in our field that says that you’re sick you’ll always be sick may you find people that aren’t you know and you’re providing humans with agency like it and it took years into my recovery to be like oh my God it gives me chills right now I just got good too like I get agent and so by thees days they Haven had the ability to be where they’re at be in their own body have agency probably from a really young developmental age and the fact that we provide that and you and your team does it so intentionally is just very very special to me so cool yeah thank you yeah that’s like one of the things I really want to kind of debunk right is like we need we can’t trust ourselves because we’ve done X Y and Z we can’t trust ourselves and I just really a lot of times try and bring them back to you know compassion compassion for that so that you because you can trust yourself that intuition is there that knowing is there and for us to have this messaging that you can’t trust ourselves because of is just not it’s not real and so I try to bring them back to the reality that they are strong and they are wise and they just need to slow down so they could hear that wisdom you know yeah and really burying that into and it’s it’s an interesting in ction point where you marry that information because what I always talk about impatient treatment and it’s like you’re going to come in you’re going to do a 30-day curriculum but you’re probably going to get three to five years of therapy why we turn the volume down the nervous system settles for the first time it’s an option to be where your feet are at prior to that it’s fight ORF flight we don’t have the opportunity to do that and so I love the idea that like we can experience three four weeks and this is not nonsensical it’s like we used to be told that we don’t make it decisions for oursel in the first year of recovery right but 3 four weeks in people are experiencing healing MH really intentional healing that can walk with them um and they can actuate and pull a tool off their tool Bel for themselves at any given time yeah it’s really cool yeah I they talk about clients talk about it all the time like this is like the safest I’ve felt this like this is a bubble that I just feel like I don’t want to leave because it’s so wonderful I’m always like that’s why PHP it’s like you still get that bubble but you got a little taste of life you know because we do I’m like so grateful for peaks in the way that they whole everyone that works there shows up and it does create this safety where people really feel like they are getting the deep healing that they need so they could take on life yeah and I love love the way you kind of frame that too because it’s like it doesn’t have to go away because we can provide right we know about how the environment informs right it informs everything and so when we come to Peaks and around great people like yourself the environment’s informing all that man I don’t want to leave we actually don’t have to you can build a TR traded version of this in your own personal life so that you can have people in your community that speak this life into you yeah which is really really important because I think the idea is sometimes like well this bubble’s gonna I don’t I don’t think it’s a bubble yeah it’s it’s actually my reality and I’m going in to get this healing but it can walk with you it packs well it carries well it’s like a good door Dash good door Dash you know travels well it does travel well I love it that toolkit that you talk about that the team’s been recognizing it’s like it’s an empowering set of tools um and I just really like that I’ve been talking a lot lately I’ve been reading about to finish the dang book like somebody told me it’s a 3our audio book but it’s like a 12-h hour audio book it’s called the biology of belief oh okay by Bruce Lipton PhD and this idea that like Words matter for our biology oh my God right and so the example that they give is that if you go in to the hospital today and you get tested for cancer they’re going to say Terry you’re cancer free it’s awesome great I’m not waiting for the boogeyman yeah but if somebody who’s had cancer before and they get tested and they’re cancer free what do they say well I’m sure they’re waiting for the other shoe to drive good news is is you’re in remission ah that matters so now if I hear remission I’m thinking oh I look over my shoulder scary but why don’t we just tell those people they’re cancer free and so anyway lots unpacking the book but this idea of words matter empowering individuals matters speaking life into them matters that’s what I really love about the movement and mindful mindful situation that Peaks and that you bring to the team maybe chat a little bit before we wrap up about um the other side you do you got Dan on the team yeah he throws punches right so what’s he about you know I just love him because I’m like this kind of like calm nurturing and he’s like let’s do this thing and it’s we’re just such a per perfect like ying and yang and so he brings boxing and he brings weightlifting um and he just brings like this energy that like will help motivate those people he does self-defense classes for the women and it’s just like a really beautiful class or like balance between us we have one class that we do together and it’s our favorite one it’s morning routine so they start it’s 30 minute class they start with Dan and he’s you know like CrossFit warmups and then I settle them down into a breath work and then we meditate and then Journal afterwards and the feedback from this class has just been like amazing they’re absolutely loving this very intentional way to start the day and it’s a good balance B of like the activation as well as dropping into that that inner world so that’s dope so literally they have a class in the morning before group starts it’s called morning routine I walk into the office and I see it they’re like running in the group room and then before you know they’re sitting but like whoa okay so we have this opportunity to really entrench behaviors in this 30-day model call it a bubble call it what you will you’re going to experience a lot yeah but that morning routine really s satiates and entrenches on like a foundational level what will do in the morning to continue to empower myself provide agency and a quality of life that’s pretty addicting yeah for sure for sure right it’s so cool they have that routine that they started and like they get to get that feeling that they really enjoyed feeling it Peaks every morning if they continue with it so yeah it is a really cool class love it’s so much better than being like and and not to say and I’m AIT really passionate about this obviously but not to say that the 12 steps is bad right wrong or different but it is a tool mhm but I want to hear that when I leave treatment instead of like 90 and 90 or you’re gonna die you know that’s that messaging it’s like I’m 22 years old I’m not 22 right now by the way I’m 38 but when I got sober I was 22 years old I’m like I remember thinking to myself I have a life sentence of mediocrity and I did this to myself just couldn’t be further from the truth before we end today yeah I wanted to ask you one question just to wrap it everything up with a big beautiful bow yeah what is your why like why do you do this why are you so passionate like there’s got to be some sort of story or connection or is it just to be helpful like what is it yeah you know I my why is pretty big uh but I have Addiction in mental health in my family and I see this kind of trap or prison that they are wrapped up in and I would love just want to be of service and like help those people and allow them to just get that little bit of freedom and self-reliance and trust and intuition and growth and so I provided that for myself I walk through my own challenges and now it’s like become my like marching orders you know my heart calls for it and I just want to be of service in that way because I know it’s just some simple things that start to build build that strength for ourselves and we are our own you know Temple we can do this ourselves and I want to empower people to know that they can they can do it all on their own that’s cool yeah yeah I love that too it’s like this this self-empowerment that just didn’t fit maybe it maybe it did fit 15 years ago it just wasn’t being talked about I saw so many people unfortunately use and never come back or do the things that they were talking about but like this is really nurturing it’s authentic it’s present it’s mindful yeah creates a lot of Hope hope for me and I should create a lot of Hope for the viewers out there too so I really appreciate you coming on today Tara Woodson activities director she’s also raiki certified yoga teacher training at what degree uh 400 400 level that’s a lot um as well as anything any other certifications um no that’s good yeah trauma certifi just straight up badass mindfulness yes let’s go well I appreciate everybody joining us for the mindfulness moment that matters today with Tara Woodson until next time peace peace [Music]