Why giving yourself permission is good for your health

For your health's sake: give yourself permission!

Have you ever considered the health benefits of being unapologetically yourself? 

In this Thursday Thread episode, we pull out a little thread from Dr. Cindy's episode to talk about how giving yourself permission to live fully and authentically in alignment with yourself is the BEST thing you can do for yourself, down to your actual health. 

When your thoughts and beliefs are not congruent with your actions and behavior, your body goes into self-protection mode. Your sympathetic nervous system gets activated. It signals to the brain that there is something wrong – there's danger! So, your brain pumps cortisol to help you jump into action and fix whatever is wrong. A constant natural drip of cortisol causes longterm inflammation and a host of medical problems. 

Alternatively, when you are in full alignment and joy - fully living your truth, your parasympathetic is activated. This is where you rest, you digest, and you heal. It's where you are your most creative!

When you are you in your most aligned way, and when you write yourself a permission slip to be YOU, you get to hand out permission slips to other people so they can do the same. How cool is that?!

You are healing the world by being you.

Granting yourself the freedom to live authentically is not merely a path to personal fulfillment, but an actual cornerstone of holistic health. As we discuss the power of writing a 'prescription to be yourself,' you'll discover the surprising connections between authenticity, reduced stress, and a lowered risk of inflammation and autoimmune diseases. Embrace the idea that nurturing your true desires and needs is not an indulgence, but a vital component of creativity, productivity, and overall wellness.

As we always do on Thursdays, this episode ends with a moment to breathe together.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hi and welcome to Untethered with Jen Liss, the podcast that's here to help you break free, be you and unleash your inner brilliance. I'm your host, jen, and in this episode we're going to talk about how giving yourself permission is good for your health. Let's dive in. Hey there, unicorn, it's Jen. Welcome back to the podcast. For health's sake, for your health's sake, give yourself permission. Did you hear my megaphone? I put my hands around my mouth For health's sake.

Speaker 1: 0:48

This is Thursday Thread episode. It's a Thursday Thread. It's a Thursday Thread, pulling a little thread out of the episode from Tuesday with Dr Cindy, where she shared at the very end she offered this bit of advice to give yourself permission, and not only to give yourself permission, but to give yourself permission. And not only to give yourself permission, but to give yourself permission to be you. Dr Cindy's prescription to you is to write yourself a prescription to be yourself. And I'm pulling this as all of the things that we could have talked about in this episode. We could have talked about compassion. We could have talked about embodiment. We could talk about the mind. We could have talked about embodiment. We could talk about the mind-body connection and how your body is talking to your mind and your mind is talking to your body. This is the big takeaway that she wanted to share with people, and what I have been considering is how that permission to be yourself, this permission to be me, is the healthiest choice. That is the healthiest thing that you can do for yourself. That is the best thing you can do for your wellness your mental wellness, your physical wellness, your emotional wellness. Your physical wellness, your emotional wellness, your soul, your soul's wellness, your heart's wellness all things giving yourself permission to be you. And why is that? Well, let's talk about this from an actual medical perspective and some of what Dr Cindy was sharing. By the way, it's okay if you haven't listened to that episode. What she talked about is how your body and your mind are always speaking to one another.

Speaker 1: 2:27

So, if your body and your mind are always speaking to one another, if you're not giving yourself permission to do things that feel really good to you and instead, if you don't even know what feels good to you because you've been living a life that is what others have told you is the life that you should be living. You should be getting this job, you should be earning this much money. This is what you need to be happy. You've got to have the two and a half kids. You've got to have this kind of job. You've got to work this much. You got to do this on the weekends. You got to sleep from 8 pm to 5 am or whatever. You can't work at night because that's bad for you. You can't do things this way. You can't do things that way. You've got to do it this way.

Speaker 1: 3:13

If we're abiding by that, we have no connection to what actually feels good to ourselves. And if we have no connection through all of these expectations that we are living, if we have no connection to what we actually want, how could we possibly be having a good conversation between our mind and our body? And if that conversation between our mind and our body is impacting our health? Something to think about here and here's the physicality of it. I'm not a medical doctor.

Speaker 1: 3:47

I studied this because I'm curious about it and because I ended up going into breathwork, because I was so fascinated by it and actually experienced for myself the difference that is made with this that when we are not living a life that is true to us, when our thoughts and beliefs are not congruent with how we actually feel, when everything is not speaking to each other all in line. When we have something that we want, that we are not allowing ourselves to get, when we're doing something one way that doesn't actually feel like our way, our sympathetic nervous system is activated because the body is in fear mode, it's in protect mode, it's in something is wrong mode. There's a disconnection. That's happening. I want this, but I need to do. That activates fear. So you're in the sympathetic, so your cortisol is raised. You have inflammation.

Speaker 1: 4:42

How many of us are living with autoimmune diseases? Me, which came on thanks to shitload of stress. You have inflammation. How many of us are living with autoimmune diseases? Me, which came on thanks to shitload of stress? So many people, and mine's so much better now, but we I still have the tendencies like we. We have those well-worn paths that our body likes to go into. Like we, so many of us are living. We know, know this. This is a pandemic a pandemic is not the right word an endemic of this problem of stress, of inflammation. We're all living in that stress mode. So much of the time. If you're not being yourself, that's inducing that stress. It's inducing the sympathetic nervous system. You're living in the sympathetic stress. It's inducing the sympathetic nervous system. You're living in the sympathetic.

Speaker 1: 5:32

When you are doing things that feel so good for you, when the actions and behaviors that you're taking are aligned to what your body wants and needs, what you want and need, what your soul is calling for, what feels so freaking good, your parasympathetic is activated. Parasympathetic mode. That's where you can be most creative, that's where you can be in most flow. That active, activates the part of your brain that accesses actual creativity and productivity and all of the things that all happens in the sympathetic. Real productivity I'm not talking about just like checking things off and stress, checking off our to-do list, like the real real that happens in your parasympathetic and generally we're all toggling back and forth between these two things. Most of us are spending way too much time in the sympathetic and actually physically get stuck there. That's what we talk about dysregulation. So all that said, that was a lot, but all that said, we back this up again to the very beginning.

Speaker 1: 6:28

Your overall health is impacted by the amount of permission you are giving yourself to be you and taking this one step further the permission that you are giving yourself to be you and to do things aligned for you that feel true to you, that feel good to you, that activate your parasympathetic nervous system. So you're acting in the most creative flow, magical, awesome space. That's like, yes, and your health is so good and you're so yummy. You're giving other people permission to do that too, because when you be you in your most aligned way, other people see that and they're like I want some of that. Oh my gosh, if she's doing it, I can write myself a prescription too. So then you pull out your prescription pad and you start writing permission slips to everybody else, simply by writing yourself a prescription. Other prescription pads are just magically appearing all around you and people are like give me one of those, heck yes. And they're writing themselves permission.

Speaker 1: 7:28

And now we've all got more parasympathetic activation. We've all got more creativity. We're all living more in flow. We're flowing with the universe. Imagine the world that we could create. There's love and there's fear. Fear is sympathetic activation, like physiologically limbic brain. Fear, fight, flight, freeze, fawn that's fear and there's love. Parasympathetic heart, open flow, creativity. There's love and there's fear. We are living in a fear-based sympathetic society. Imagine if we all started to choose love and flow and creativity and magic. We're actively creating the world that we are living in and it's easy for us to look around and blame, similar to what Cindy said about she said one of the things that I really want people to know is that when you go to a doctor's appointment, when you go see a physician, when you see a practitioner, when you see somebody like me, a breathwork facilitator, when you see these people come with your empowered questions, know who you are and what you want.

Speaker 1: 8:37

And if you don't come with the curiosity of a question about that, what is? The number one thing I'm worried about was the question that she suggested that we ask ourselves. I really like get really honest with yourself. What am I worried about? What am I most worried about? Beautiful question to take and consider for yourself when it comes to your overall health. But imagine, just imagine, if we were all coming to the world with these empowered questions, with this empowered state. You're in an empowered state when you're in your parasympathetic nervous system, by the way, because that fear-based sympathetic nervous system is all reactivity, reactive, reactive, reactive, new thoughts, new possibilities. All of that happens in the parasympathetic activation. So I think this is so important for us to all talk about more often to really understand. The latest research is all showing this that it matters for us to be in the parasympathetic nervous system. It matters that we spend more time there and we have to spend time in both Ultimately. Ideally, you're toggling between the two beautifully, in your most healthy state. That's what your body's meant to do.

Speaker 1: 9:59

You look at your dog. I have a new dog, alfred. He gets super excited. He gets so jazzed. His tail's waggling. He gets so excited in the morning to come in and see me. When I wake up, his tail starts beating the wall. His tail was beating the wall so hard the other day that I was like our neighbors are going to think that we're having sex over here. He's just beating the wall so loud. He gets so excited. And then what does he do after I get out of bed? And he's so excited and he starts to jump up on me and I say no, don't do that. And he sits down, he shakes, he shakes it off. He had so much energy, his sympathetic was all activated. He's like my God, I'm so excited. He shakes it off.

Speaker 1: 10:42

As human beings, we don't do that. We don't give ourselves permission to just oh, okay and get ourselves back. Ultimately, we want to be doing both. We want to be in the excited. I want to do, I want to go, I want to take action. That's your sympathetic. It helps you to take action. We need that. We want that. It's good. And we want to be able to come back down into the parasympathetic, where we can start to have new ideas and creativity and get all the good stuff flowing. It's where your problem solving happens, is there Can't solve problems in the other place, including your own medical shiz.

Speaker 1: 11:20

So whatever you can do to support yourself, cindy suggests that you build your team. What's your team? Who is the team that is around you that is supporting your health? Who is the team? Here's another way to think about it. Who is the team around you that is helping you be the most you that you can be? That is the team that you need to support your health. So that can be your medical professionals. That can be a coach. That can be your best friends. It can be people in your family who deeply support you and help you to feel like you can really, really fully be yourself. Maybe that's your sister. Maybe that's your cousin. Maybe it's some randos on the internet that you just feel so safe with. Maybe it is an energy healer. Maybe it's the community, like what I'm building with Brilliant Breathwork, could be.

Speaker 1: 12:13

Whatever that place is, you can have so many of them. I think she said at least 12. Who are those people who help you feel like you can be you? Who are those people who help you feel like you can be you, because that's going to help you be the most whole, healthy self that you can be. So make a list of those people. That's my prescription for you. As you give yourself permission to be more, you write down who are the people who are there for you, who is your group of people, and notice if there are any little holes there, is there something that could be filled. What do I need? What am I most worried about? Because if you are worried about something, there's probably somebody who could more deeply support you, and there's so many people out there who would love to do exactly that for you.

Speaker 1: 13:05

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. As we do on every Thursday Thread episode, we're going to breathe together. We're just going to take a few moments together to consciously recognize and be with our whole selves. We're going to breathe into the magic that is you, so getting comfortable wherever you are, if you are able to close down your eyes, we're going to do that together. If you're driving, you can come back to this later or listen in with your attention firmly placed on the road.

Speaker 1: 13:44

So, taking a big, deep breath with me into the nose and out through the nose, another deep breath into the nose, out through the nose, last one into the nose, filling up the belly, pausing at the top, exhaling, completely, closing down your eyes if they aren't yet, replacing one hand on your heart, one hand on your belly, simply noticing the rise and the fall of your belly, of your chest belly of your chest, consciously noticing your breath, let that air in, how they whoosh that air back out, and noticing now how you are able to take conscious control of that breath, maybe drawing a little bit more air into the belly, expanding the belly, how you can consciously release that breath, playing around with your own conscious choice. Now you can decide how much breath comes in, how much breath goes out, how long each inhale is, how long each exhale is. After a few breaths, here and when you're ready, once again releasing that conscious control, maybe inviting a sense of wonder. Once again releasing that conscious control, maybe inviting a sense of wonder for all that your body does on its own and how you can also choose to shift that breath. Like magic, bringing your awareness to your heartbeat, noticing this heart that beats thousands of times each day for you. Like magic, thousands of times each day for you. Like magic, recognizing the magic that you are, the magic of this body, the magic of your heart, your lungs, your mind, your creativity, everything that makes you you. Taking one final inhale into the nose, exhaling with a sigh, ah. Bringing your awareness to your fingertips. Maybe it's still placed on your heart and your belly. Be feeling the texture of the cloth beneath your fingertips. Be rubbing them along it. Be wiggling the fingers, maybe also wiggling your toes, fluttering your eyes open if they were closed, coming back to the here and the now if they were closed. Coming back to the here and the now.

Speaker 1: 18:40

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope it gave you some food for thought about the power of being your most magical self. If you enjoyed something about this episode, whether the breath or something else, I encourage you to share it with a friend who might need to hear it, who might learn something or experience something for it themselves. You can also share it with all your friends. Take a screenshot of this episode. Share it on social media. Tag me. I'm untetheredjen on Instagram. I will always reshare your post if you tag me. Thanks again for listening. You just keep shining your magical unicorn light out there for all to see. I'll see you next time. Bye.