How To Foster Mind Body Connection with Ginny Hoyt. Episode 2.

In this second insightful episode, we build upon last week's exploration of somatic vision by delving into the awakening of the mind-body connection with somatic practitioner Ginny Hoyt. 

Discover practical techniques for cultivating embodied awareness and understanding the impact of Polyvagal Theory on self-awareness and emotional regulation. 

Learn about the transformative power of the witness perspective, the interplay of the brain's evolutionary development, and how to expand your window of tolerance. 

Join us on a journey towards greater empathy, compassion, and personal accountability as we explore the profound connection between our physical and emotional states.

 Connect with Ginny: www.ginnyhoyt.com

Transcript

PMD: 0:28

Last week we delved into the intricacies of the somatic vision, we explored the profound interplay between the physical and the metaphysical, grounded in the knowing that the body serves as a conduit for the spirit, and we addressed societal conditioning and generational trauma and ego limitations as obstacles to embodiment. We uncover the transformative potential of somatic awareness and facilitating healing and personal growth. Building on this foundation, we're going to continue exploring the journey with Ginny Hoyt, a somatic practitioner, by exploring the awakening of the mind body connection. Ginny, introduce yourself and we'll go from there.

GH: 1:12

Yeah, sure. So I'm a somatic practitioner. I've been practicing for a handful of years now with twice as much of that time under my belt, exploring my own internal landscape and diving into my own personal shadows of work to process and what I do is help facilitate that journey for others. So helping them take a look at what is going on under the hood of their personality, the things that they recognize are patterns that they may be stuck in that are holding them back, or even perhaps patterns that they don't have a lot of clarity around being there, but just a sense of, I know that I'm not where I'm supposed to be, or the person that I want to embody and getting to that precipice of change, if I'm ready to take ownership and responsibility to do something about that, is where I step in and help people use their body and process the energetic blocks within that trauma or early life experience can accrue in the subconscious to unravel, work through, give those things the emotional support that they needed initially when they were formed to help them release and help people transcend and move through what it is they're looking to leave behind.

PMD: 2:25

Can you talk about today's episode because we're going to be focusing from our conversations on practical techniques for cultivating embodied awareness and diving deeper into the mind body connection.

GH: 2:38

Yeah, so this week It's a little bit more science y, I think it's gonna be at the beginning and that is something that can feel a little overwhelming, but is so important, and I promise to keep it very simple and basic. It can be just so important to really understand how parts of the brain function, because it can be really difficult to try to work with parts of self if we don't have the knowledge behind why what I'm experiencing is happening. So having a basic background understanding of what is going on with me physically in this present moment can help create a lot more empathy and release self judgment when we can understand that what we're experiencing while it may feel unhelpful in the moment or something that we're looking to work through is actually a very natural process and the body is simply doing exactly what it has evolved to do really helps create more of that space between the things that we've experienced and feeling so identified with those old stories and being able to take that witness perspective that we talked a little bit about in that first episode and have some spaciousness there to be able to watch ourselves moving through life and having more of that objective perspective. Like I said rather than being so identified with it that we're just sitting in this puddle of self judgment and stuckness because that space isn't there for us to be able to watch ourselves go through. My objective for this episode today is inviting in a little bit more of an understanding of why we do the things that we do and creating some more of that space between our actions and who we actually are to invite in a little bit more of that witness perspective and objectivity.

PMD: 4:20

As you alluded to is to bring the science in because there can be a lot of misidentification and misinformation about what is actually happening to us. So we do need the science to understand more about the mind body connection and to explore awakening of the mind body connection because we have to confront the challenges of navigating the complexities of our brains evolutionary development and the influence of societal conditioning on our perceptions, our behaviors, our thoughts, our reality and despite our innate biological instincts for survival, we often find ourselves trapped in these ego driven narratives that obscure our true essence. In terms of understanding, first of all, the polyvagal theory, Can you talk about what polyvagal theory is and how it can assist us in cultivating greater self awareness and emotional regulation, particularly in high stress situations?

GH: 5:27

Yeah, so there are two theories that I really love working with to just paint the landscape of how the brain has evolved to function. One of those is polyvagal theory that I think has become pretty popular in the last couple of years for people to talk about. It's basically the three different stages that the vagus nerve can experience, which is the nerve that starts at the base of the brain and then hits every major organ on the way down and really makes up the essence of our nervous system because it touches so many major parts of our internal systems. When we are at a state of regulation and we're feeling calm, cool, collected, and everything is fine, that's when we can say that we are in the ventral vagal state. That is also what we can call the parasympathetic state of the nervous system where we feel like we're fine, we're able to think rationally, we are in the essence of our best self, but when activation does occur is when we start moving into the sympathetic state of the nervous system where we start getting a little bit more activated we're not necessarily acting as our best selves or becoming a little bit more reactive leaning on some patterns of self protection and survival mechanisms that we learned earlier on in life. When pushed even farther is when we dive into the dorsal state of the nervous system, which is complete shutdown, this is survival, this is the time when you're saying things to your partner that you just can't even believe that you're saying because it sounds so unlike you. Understanding is something that your body has evolved to do as a means of self protection invites much empathy and something that you'd touched on a little bit earlier as humans, we have this understanding that we are so evolved past where the places that we've come from and we are different than the rest of the animal kingdom and life on Earth, like humans on our own very specially evolved thing when in reality we are still connected to our early stages of evolution and these things are driving us so much more than I think most people recognize and appreciate. Seeing these parts of our evolution, or parts of our brain development are so old, and when we can learn to see the characteristics of what they look like when they show up, we can see them within ourselves, and bring in that own personal evidence that, oh, this is some ancestral stuff, some things that developed within me hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago that are coming online because there's a part of me that feels unsafe. The other theory that I like to use to describe this is called the triune brain theory that I find a little bit easier, I think, for people to remember just because there's a little bit less scientific terms. In the roughest sense, breaks down the brain into three stages, so it overlays really nicely to the polyvagal theory where the oldest stages of the brain are called the reptilian brain, and this is the part that is rooted in survival and impulse very much like the dorsal vagal state. Then we have the mammalian brain which is focused around emotion, social connection, habits, memory, then there's the primate brain, which is the youngest part, which is the part that humans like to feel so special that we have this is rational thinking, long term planning logical, critical decision making. This is what really does set us apart from, the rest of the animal kingdom. An analogy I like to use for this and seeing how all these parts of the brain work together is like a parent teaching their child how to drive the car. The child is, driving the car, but the parent is still present, they're very much there, they are online, but they are somewhere in the background, so the mammalian and the reptilian parts of the brain are still present, they're always scanning to see how things are going, assessing, am I needed here to help redirect if something goes wrong. For the most part, if everything is cool and fine, then the child can drive the car, no problem. When we come into situations that feel unfamiliar, they might be dangerous, perhaps driving through a city could be an example, or coming across a construction zone where the rules feel a little iffy, we're not totally sure what to do, is when the parent would come in and take over and be like, okay. I have the experience to navigate this situation, so I'm sitting in the driver's seat now and I'm taking control. That relationship is very much how these brain states work together where they're always present, but they do take turns driving the bus in relation to what is going on in our external experience. If we hit a state of activation where it feels necessary for them to jump in and take over, I think understanding that's how we evolved, that there's nothing wrong with that if you do find yourself to be in these different states of being and can explain why we tend to act out in ways that perhaps we don't understand, that we're tapping into older parts of the brain that aren't so concerned with being politically correct or thinking long term into the future but are very rooted in I just need to survive the situation right now and I'm going to do say whatever it is I feel like is going to give me the best chance to do that. That understanding can create so much more empathy for there's nothing wrong with me in acting this way or perhaps saying things that are destructive while these aren't habits that we're looking to cultivate does create a lot of empathy of at least I understand why this is happening. That alone, being able to find these pieces of evidence in your life can really help create that distance of disidentifying with that, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're a bad person something's wrong with you. This is my body how it's evolved to be. What do I get to do to reprogram, reparent these parts to learn that perhaps the situations that are being flagged to my nervous system as dangerous maybe aren't as life threatening and dangerous as I am reacting as if they are which is a whole big conversation we get into eventually about, what that looks like and how to do it but this type of knowledge and this type of self understanding to me is very much that first step creating spaciousness of I can understand why this is happening a little bit better than I did before giving me that space to release self judgment and invite spaciousness for compassion and curiosity.

PMD: 11:52

a huge conversation to have in terms of the reaction, the response and the space in between those two. In terms of your explanation, what I'm gleaning from what you're saying is understanding polyvagal theory can assist us in cultivating greater awareness and emotional regulation, particularly in high stress situations. I'd like to explore with you, about the witness perspective. Can you firstly talk about the witness perspective and how it enhances our capacity for compassion, and empathy towards others and how this can contribute to fostering harmonious relationships within ourselves and also within our communities?

GH: 12:48

Yeah, absolutely. The witness perspective is something that will naturally start evolving as we integrate this information that I had just shared about developing greater understanding for why we do the things that we do. When we internalize and integrate information, you can begin watching yourself do certain things or reacting in certain ways. For most people this does tend to start evolving in hindsight where you may have something very triggering happen to you and you may react just as you have always reacted and perhaps it's not in the most graceful manner, but it is what it is. It may not be until perhaps the next day where something clicks in your brain and you do recall this information of Oh, that was an example of me dropping into, a state of being where my body felt very defensive and it was trying to protect myself. We can begin connecting some dots around what is it that my nervous system, my body, has decided are dangerous situations, and how they, show up in my personal life. The more we begin practicing and weaving in those personal examples of how this information shows up and pertains to us, the quicker that witness perspective will begin to drop in, where it will start closing in, where maybe it doesn't take you a whole day to look back on and realize, oh, that was an example of this, but it might be a couple hours later to an hour later to a few minutes later until you can see yourself doing it in the moment as the words are coming out of your mouth as you're feeling the contractions starting to build in your body. You are noticing that it's happening as it's happening. That is exactly the place you want to be because that is where reprogramming, reparenting gets to happen where we can invite in the news stories that we want to weave, spaciousness of analyzing, is this really a situation where these types of reactions are necessary? Am I really defending myself for survival right now? Or, maybe am I just feeling like someone isn't respecting what I'm saying? Or do I feel like I'm being overpowered by someone else's, strong opinion? Or it's not exactly survival, but there is a part of us that feels like, But it might be, it could be, because this is something that I've learned in early life experience caused me some pain. Not to understate it, that early life experience, it really did feel like survival. But as adults, we're carrying these patterns into present day where it does not necessarily anymore mean survival, but we're continuing to play out these patterns. When that witness can come in real present timing, Is the space that we want to start inviting in that exploration of what is it about right now that I'm feeling is so dangerous. That is a beautiful place for the type of work that I do that comes in where we explore what is it about early life experience that you're painting onto the present moment as being something where these defense systems are feeling required to come online to protect you. Which you can paint a really beautiful map of your subconscious doing this type of work and connecting those dots. That invites in so much self exploration and self understanding and, as always, curiosity and compassion for the things that you went through and how they're coloring your perspective of the present moment. Which brings me into my next big point here is a concept that I like to call the lens of perception or the lens of perspective is recognizing just how much of the past we use to color the way that we move through the world today which is tremendous once you learn to see it in that way of just whoa how much all of us are walking around half blind bumping into each other because we are constantly projecting experiences from our early life on to whatever's happening now. I tend to find that more often than not when we run into conflict or resistance with other people there is very rarely any malicious intent. It's much more likely that it is the bumping into of perceptions that we are bringing to the table that are not matching up to what's actually going on. We have the objective situation happening, and you're looking at it from this angle, they're looking at it from another angle, and that's where the conflict happens. It's just a miscommunication of what both people are interpreting is what's happening. What can be so tricky about that is because our lens of perception is something that we, start developing so early in life, where the brain, the body is taking in information and experiences as they're happening to us and learning from those experiences. It can be really important to paint just how vulnerable we are in early life experience. Nothing is in your control. Your life is in the hands of your caretakers. That is a vulnerable place to be that I think can be really understated in what it feels like to experience that. We do tend to forget how that feels. When we go through experience and we're learning from it, trying to figure out how can I best make my way through this experience, given what I've been going through, we will project the things that have happened to us in the past onto the present moment so we can apply the things that we've learned as our best resource of tools to make our way through life. What we're doing when that happens for better or for worse, as we are practicing patterns, we are more deeply ingraining those neurological pathways in our brain to interpret certain situations as meaning certain types of things when they may not be exactly like the situation that unfolded for you when you were four years old, but if there are cues in the body, can we tap into those older parts of the brain that feel like, oh, this is familiar, we have been here before, this is what we learned last time and what we're gonna try to avoid, here's how we're gonna compensate to get through it, is how that lens of perception forms. We are really digging into those grooves and ruts of the mind and practicing these same patterns when we might be disregarding information from the present moment to see actually this is different than it was in the past. Perhaps this person doesn't have the same intentions that the person who hurt me all these years ago had back then. That can be really challenging and confrontative to look at yourself and realize that's something that might be going on. But yeah, taking a look at that and seeing just how much that colors our experience is a huge thing to start to unpack and look at and I think a big lesson that people can take away once they start doing this from themselves is learning that the way that you are interpreting the world around you says a whole lot more about you and what you've been through and your past experience then it does what's actually happening in this moment and using your reactivity, your responses, your tendencies towards other people or stressful situations as a mirror or a reflection for you of what does it say about you that you feel the need to act this way, compensate in this way, say these things, rather than it is a justification of those actions that you know exactly what another person's type of intentions are. It's really so much more about us rather than it is about anything external that is just a huge turning point, I think, for a lot of people. Tremendous for me when I went through that and was seeing like, oh my gosh, projections everywhere I am coloring everything in a lens that might not be accurate. I do remember feeling oh my gosh, I had so much work to do, and cleaning up the stories I've been telling myself about the way the world works. For me, what that looked like was realizing the world is a whole lot less dangerous than my body, my nervous system, these older parts of my being thought that they were. That I was dropping into trigger states so often. Oh my gosh, I was just in a state of chronic stress, to be honest in the way that I was reacting to things and I got to learn actually people aren't as dangerous as I've been painting them out to be I got to sink into that Ventral vagal state more often that primate state of the brain where I could be more rational more calm, everything was fine, and I was chilled out more than I was. I think that's something that a lot of people might be able to relate to is this sense of feeling like I have to be hyper vigilant. I have to be on edge in that chronic state of activation or stress because we have learned to label and identify things around us as being dangerous or needing our attention much more than they might actually require.

PMD: 21:33

Okay, so just so that I understand this, get it clear in my mind, the ventral vagal system, that's the most recently evolved part and promotes social engagement behaviors. When the ventral vagal is engaged it facilitates calm physiological states. The sympathetic nervous system, this mobilizes the body's fight or flight response by increasing heart rate, breathing rate, and other physiological arousal in response to perceived threats or stressors. Then we have the dorsal vagal system, and this is the most ancient circuit and responds to life threatening situations by promoting freezing and feigning death behaviors through conserving metabolic resources. I feel it's important to understand how the interactions between these three circuits influence our autonomic responses, our emotional experiences, and subsequent social behaviors because when the ventral vagal is engaged, we're in an optimal state for social connection. But if threats activate the sympathetic nervous system or the dorsal vagal, then our physiology shifts to more defensive states that can impair our ability to self regulate emotions and connect inter personally. The key point you're alluding to is recognizing how these autonomic circuits shape our subjective experiences and behaviors and can provide insight into developing strategies to promote resilience, self regulation and interpersonal attunement. which essentially is improving our capacity to stay grounded in present bodily awareness rather than being hijacked by past conditioning or future worries. Can you expand on this by talking more about those three circuits so that we have a better understanding because it's important in terms of comprehending how we respond, how the nervous system responds to stressors and how that influences our emotional experiences and shapes our social behavior.

GH: 23:56

Yeah, diving into those three states of being, I think, also invites in conversation around the fight, flight, freeze, spawn response that fits right in with what you referenced to the mobilized energy, the immobilized energy of the polyvagal system. That ventral vagal state is when we are within our window of tolerance when we feel like everything is okay, we can show up being relaxed and we don't feel this call to be on alert and to be defensive. What we're working towards is really learning how to expand that window of tolerance so that we can encompass a wider range of situations and dynamics that feel like I can be okay being here. I don't need to be triggered into these higher states of being of reactivity. The goal of all of this work is expanding that window of tolerance, holding greater capacity for discomfort and realizing I can still be present with myself and my body as discomfort's happening. It is not always required for me to defend myself as if I'm in a survival situation. When we do feel like we're triggered outside of that window of tolerance is when we start moving into that next stage is the mobilized energy is when we drop into that sympathetic nervous system state where we might often find that fight flight response where we are either going to get really combative in your face I'm going to defend myself or I am out of here I'm going to do what I need to do to extract myself from the situation. Both of those motions that energy directive is very external which is why they call it mobilize. There's a lot of action involved in both of those things where I'm either coming forward at you or I'm making the motion of leaving that I'm just going to get out of here. There is a really wide variety of what those states can look like, but I do have a sense that if one of them does relate to you, you know which hat you fall under primarily and different types of situations, different types of people, different types of dynamics may trigger different types of responses from you, so most people aren't going to be solely a fight response type of person where that's going to be your default all the time. But you may find if it comes to a work situation that maybe you do find yourself more aggressive, but when you're having a tough conversation with your parents that's not what comes out of you and you do collapse on yourself a little bit more which is where we start finding the immobilized energy. So when we are pushed past, okay, me coming at you is not working, and I cannot get out of here these mobilized states of energy are not protecting me enough and I like this is not working for me is when we drop into that dorsal vagal state of immobilized energy where we find the freeze fawn response. This is where we start collapsing within ourselves and the energy it gets directed more internally so what that can look like is for that freeze response is very much like i'm hunkering down i'm going to be like a rock and immovable object like you cannot touch me because i'm not letting anything penetrate my system anymore. The fawn response is to a people pleaser mentality of I'm going to just do or say whatever it is I think you need to hear so that you are going to leave me alone. So you're totally abandoning your sense of self at least in terms of what you're portraying outwardly, where, I might feel incredibly uncomfortable and might want to tell you to back off and get away from me, but if I feel like that's not something that is possible for me to do in this moment, if I feel so overpowered and I'm just going to do or say what it is I think you need to feel so that you're going to feel safe enough to leave me alone. it's so interesting that direction of energy movement being such a reflection of the differences between these states, that mobilized energy is usually very externally focused, and the immobilized is, I'm retreating within myself to find that sense of comfort internally because it feels like it's no longer an option for me to find any of that outside of myself. I think a lot of people can figure out, where they fit in on that system, on that chart of what types of situations pull on those strings for them personally in terms of where they fit there.

PMD: 28:13

I see this in certain professions like the emergency services, because we can observe some interesting contrasting behavioral patterns. If I use the example, let's say of firefighters, there are those who rush towards the dangerous scenario. So like a fire to address it directly, but in contrast, others instinctively move away from the threat. So there's this towards versus away dynamic, and we can also see this in the business world as well. Entrepreneurs tend to be towards type moving forward decisively based on their gut instincts without getting bogged down, even if it means taking risks. But on the other hand, roles like accountants often act as the away voice urging caution, risk assessment and pulling back before making major moves. So there's this push pull between towards and away impulses and that is something we all experience in daily life as well. When faced as an example with a problem like a headache, the towards impulse makes us reach for a pill to address it directly, essentially moving towards relief and away from the discomfort. So this fundamental towards versus away dichotomy underlies many of our instinctive behaviors across different domains, whether it's life threatening emergencies, business decisions, or everyday discomforts. I think if we start to recognize and understand this core dynamic, it can provide valuable insights into our inherent response patterns, So I don't know if that fits in a way with what you're describing.

GH: 30:08

Yeah, I do think that there are like a lot of different archetypal personality types that do fall within these categorical systems. You can see are more present with certain types of people. And yeah, something that I think you pointed to that is really important is that our society does tend to reward people who are a little bit more energetically externally focused. Those fight people like in business it's very provocative and beneficial for the company to be aggressive, to be assertive, to push the boundaries and claim what it is that you want. Of course those benefits can be really beautiful when they are worked within, the gifts of those things, but there is a dark side to them as well, that it's important to recognize just as within the parts of self that can feel more internally directed energy that collapsed state, they're less rewarded in our society, but the gifts exist within those states, too, that these people tend to be much more comfortable noticing the subtle nuances of other people, that these are people who make really excellent therapists, for example, because they can really sense into the subtlety of what it is that you are feeling that you might not even be aware of within yourself. Just like the external responses, there are downsides to it, too. There are gifts and distortions within all of this. None of these are better or worse than the other, they all have beautiful things they can offer, and as they show up within us just recognizing that you have gifts to offer to the world wherever you fall into the system, whatever you more closely identify with, and how that shows up in your personality. Even though I think our society does reward some more than others, I think that says a little bit more about our society than the truth of what value these parts bring to the table that they all have really incredible gifts and nuanced gifts as well as the shadows, the parts that need to have a closer look taken to them that might not be serving us as well as they could but exist nonetheless.

PMD: 32:04

Yeah, you remind me of a scenario many years ago, I was called to do some coaching for a company. I sat in one of their board meetings and there was a lot of disagreement about things. And the CEO said to me at the time, I just cannot get people to agree on what's going on here. It became very clear to me that some people were procedural people and some were options people because some folks were by the book, procedure focus types, while others were much more open to exploring different options. So you have this disconnect between the rule book followers who are like, Nope, we've got to do it this way. That's the procedure. And then the out of the box thinkers, were looking at the situation through different lenses, trying to bring new perspectives to the table. So you had this incompatibility of alignment between the procedural, by the book people and the options people who are looking at the scenario through different lenses of perception. They were viewing it from different perspectives. But once they understood the difference between the procedural and options mindsets then they can make allowances for each side to come to some kind of understanding and alignment. By understanding these dynamics it's important for conflict resolution when you think about the challenge of reconciling our biological instincts with our higher consciousness as we embark on this journey of self-discovery and personal growth. As we engage in practices that promote introspection and self-awareness we have to take proactive steps towards transcending the limitations of our conditioned beliefs and embracing the inherent interconnectedness of all things and that realization can help bridge divides like the one between the procedural and options, fractions that I witnessed at that company many years ago. The question that comes up is how can individuals cultivate a mindset of curiosity and openness towards different perspectives, thereby transcending the limitations of their conditioned beliefs and fostering personal growth.

GH: 34:42

Yeah, I think that there's a concept here that ties in so well to what you're explaining that, yeah, there is a much bigger picture at play where all of us are just playing like one little sliver of a, much bigger symphony, and it can be really hard when you have somebody on the opposite end of the spectrum to understand, like, why are they reacting that way? I would never handle this situation like that. And it's so easy to meet that with judgment. But instead learning how to open that up into that compassion and curiosity, which I think are the two biggest ingredients if you're really looking to dive into self exploration to bring to the forefront of the way you're looking at the world. If you have played dominoes, you set up a series of dominoes, realizing that the person that you are interacting with, or even the person who you are is really just a culmination of so many factors outside of themselves compiling together to create the end product of this person that you're seeing today. When you are meeting them with judgment, what you're really doing is judging the set of circumstances that they came from, how much can we hold people responsible for the set of circumstances that they've come from? Probably just as much as you can hold yourself responsible for the set of circumstances that you came from which, how much control did you really have over the influences that shaped you, not a whole lot if you had the the parents that these people had, the early life experiences that they had, the genetics that they have, the generational compounding of whatever events their ancestors lived through and compensated through, you would be that person. You would be acting the way that they are today, if you came from exactly where you came from, that would shape the type of person that you're looking at, and you are no better or worse than that person for the way that they have culminated all the factors that have shaped them. While it is important to have rules of what is considered acceptable behavior for society, that's something that we do need to function and learn to work together, when using those types of rules and meeting these people, or even yourself with judgment, if that strips you of your empathy for what people have experienced that have shaped them into having the responses that they are today, to me, that only, or at least most, is a detriment to you. When you're practicing judging other people, you're also practicing reflecting that upon yourself, and you are the person who you're sitting with. More often than you're sitting with any other person that you're interacting with in your life so we practice how you treat others can be a reflection of how you treat yourself and when you can have empathy for how much control you didn't have over the factors that influenced you today. It's easier to extend that to other people as well. But I find that people who have a lot of rigidity or judgment in how they approve of or disapprove of the way that other people tend to respond also are pretty stringent with themselves and very rigid with what they expected themselves, which how much does that serve them. On the surface it probably does or could push them very far in life. But I would be curious to know how much emotionally do they feel they have the availability to enjoy the rewards that they have reaped for themselves when we have so much constriction and rigidity that you have a really narrow window of tolerance to be able to feel things like joy in your life. So yeah, I think that recognizing that sense of a domino line that when you're looking at another person is really just a culmination of what they've gone through and that's simply all it is instead of it being just like a person who has terrible judgment, or is a malicious person, or whatever the case may be perceived by you, it's just a person, and they would be no different than you if you had lived through what they had been through.

PMD: 38:28

Another person passes by just like you. We all have our hopes, aspirations dreams and realities. When you strip it down, it's not that different. What comes to mind is introspection which I see as a pathway to knowledge and self-awareness, and these are essential components for personal growth and self-discovery because they can offer profound insights into our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Let's frame this in terms of cultivating a mindset of curiosity and openness. Towards differing perspectives thereby transcending the limitations of our conditioned beliefs and fostering personal growth. What steps can we take to cultivate a mindset of inclusivity and respect towards each other from diverse backgrounds thereby dismantling barriers to social cohesion and promoting collective wellbeing.

GH: 39:40

I'd say the first step in doing that is integrating that information about the domino lines. That can do a lot in releasing judgment when you're meeting with someone who you just realized that you were not understanding at all is recognizing that we are all moving through the world with the same goals in mind. We are all looking to feel accepted, to feel respected, to be loved by those we care about, to feel safe in our environment. And while the way we go about doing that will be very different from each other because of what we had just talked about, early life experiences shapes, the paths we practice taking that is still true, that we are all at the end of the day looking for the same thing. When it comes to making progress and being able to see each other a little bit more clearly a phrase that I like to use to do this is painting truth into another person's experience. You can really hold on to the fact that at the end of the day they want the same core things that you do. Actually you and this person have way more in common than perhaps how you're expressing it on the surface may look like there is something that you need to bring to the table of that type of respect of giving them the biggest benefit of the doubt that may be the way that they're going about something you don't understand, but they are trying in earnest to get to the goal that you probably also share about how you want to feel living through this world. That is your responsibility to bring to the table. I know that they want certain things, that they want to be seen in a certain light, respected in a certain way and even though perhaps they don't understand the way that they're going about it, where can I meet them to see where what they're doing makes sense from their perspective. When you make a decision and you move through the world, it's because you feel like it's the best course of action. To you, it makes very logical sense that you act the way that you do. That experience is very similar for other people. Other people also feel like they are doing things that make the most sense for them to be doing. Bringing that to the table and integrating that to them, this is the thing that makes the most sense, and perhaps there's something about my lens of perception that I'm bringing to the table that is keeping me from seeing how this makes sense can part the seas in that way of clearing the clutter to see how is what they are doing something that could be considered a very logical and rationable and reasonable way to approach this problem. I need to bring that perspective to the table to investigate how that could be the case to give this person the benefit of the doubt that they're not just out here floating off in space and doing irrational things, most of us really do feel like we're operating in the most rational way that we know how. So it's painting truth into their experience. How can I try to find their lens of perception, their perspective? How can I make their perspective make sense? Bringing that to the table, oh, just does so much, it does so much in helping you take your ego out of the conversation and really step into their shoes, where people get to feel more seen, heard, and respected. And when people feel that way, what happens? They are much more likely to try to do the same for you, to meet you in that same space. To work through whatever it is that you guys are missing each other on and that's a skill that isn't intentionally taught very often, but when somebody meets you in that space, it is easy to meet them back in that space. So it does take a lot of work to be that first person to try to find that positioning But when you do, more often than not, people will be happy to meet you in that space, because it feels good to feel respected for the choices that you're making, where someone can say I see where you did that, and that was really creative or intelligent, or I wouldn't have thought to do it that way, and I see why you chose to approach it in this direction. That feels nice. It feels good. You feel very seen In your experience. It makes people want to do the same back for you which makes conflict resolution or problem solving much more seamless when you can get both people approaching from the same direction. They're both on the same side. They want to work together rather than chipping away at what each other is bringing to the table getting both people on the same side of the problem it's a great way to approach that type of conflict resolution in my opinion.

PMD: 44:00

I love that term, painting the truth. It reminds me of taking a virtual paintbrush and painting the truth in. We all make diligent efforts to challenge societal conditioning and expand our consciousness. Because this is what we're doing here on this podcast and I know in our previous conversations and conversations off air, we both have experienced moments of profound epiphany and self realization because we do the work of it and we come to understand that true liberation. Lies and embracing the witness perspective and transcending the confines of ego-driven narratives. But we have to recognize the inherent dignity and interconnectedness of all beings because the transformative power like you were talking about of compassion and empathy. How can the practice of self compassion and empathy towards others contribute to building more inclusive and supportive communities particularly in times of adversity.

GH: 45:14

Yeah, I feel like it is a big question. I feel like when it comes to infusing this into a sense of community particularly one that faces adversity, I think, honing the blade on these types of skills that we're talking about, requires a very delicate touch, if there are factors at play that feel like people have been under strife or working through adversity around I think requires extra grace and bandwidth to allow people to have the reactions that they're going to have and to practice not taking things personally. Seeing it as a reflection of their own Internal state of being and their past experiences, shaping the way that they're looking at the world is a practice that is much harder to implement, easy to say, but I think that can be what it comes down to, is really, integrating that sense of the domino lines. Feeling some spaciousness with, recognizing that everyone is just operating in their lens of perspective, and it does not have to be something that I take personally when I feel like their daggers are being directed at me, if that might not be necessarily warranted. But recognizing the way that people treat others is very much a reflection of their inner states, what they've been cultivating within themselves. the way that you seek to look at the world and the judgments you're placing on other people says a lot more about you and your past experiences than it does about any objective truth that exists externally. If you're looking to cultivate a sense of community, I do think it is giving people a lot of grace in what it is that they're bringing to the table and practicing, not taking things personally let them have their experience and if you can maintain that sense of open, gracious energetic state, that people do feel that and while it may take time to really integrate and warm up to if you can emanate being that safe calm state and steady anchor in the storm people are drawn to that. There's definitely a sense of co regulation that people enjoy that there are certain people that you do feel magnetized to you might not be able to explain why you feel so attracted to these types of people where it just feels good to be around them and maybe you feel more at ease yourself being in that space. But I think it's so much of energetic management that I can stay within my power, in my own energy and not be affected or shaken or thrown off or provoked into reactivity when you bring your content to the table, that I can stay within my power and you can do what you need to do, but I'm gonna be okay. When you can mirror that to another person, there is a sense of oh this feels really good that this person is not meeting me in this charged state, but there's still relaxed energy here and being able to co regulate within that as being that energetic blueprint of what is possible for what calmness gets to feel like and non reactivity is a really beautiful gift to be able to offer to people that I think everyone can feel. But few will be able to consciously recognize what's going on, can be a very nuanced thing, that people might not be able to explain why you feel good to be around, or why they like you. But they will know that they like you, and they will know you feel good to be around. That can just be such a beautiful gift to offer to people, because I don't think there are too many people who can be in their power in that way. But it is like a candle lighting another candle, right? That if you can be that for them, that is something that can ripple through to so many other people in ways you will probably never be able to see the full extent of how you have affected those around you.

PMD: 49:03

It's a beautiful thing you spoken about because even in your work as a somatic practitioner, we come back to awakening. We come back. To the body. We come back to when you cultivate the soil for self compassion and empathy that can bloom and enrich our lives and relationships. We can foster resilience and emotional wellbeing and social connection. When we do that, we can create a more compassionate and empathic world for ourselves and for others. When we realize our journey towards awakening, the mind body connection is not merely a solitary endeavor it's a collective journey towards healing and wholeness. And if we have the presence of mind to harness our inherent agency and take responsibility for our actions as distinct from reacting we can become catalysts for constructive change, not only in our lives, but in other people's lives, by the ripple effect and in our communities and through forgiveness, acceptance and compassion we can transcend the cycle of judgment and condemnation paving the way for reconciliation and collective harmony. My question is in terms of how can individuals harness their inherent agency to create meaningful change in their lives and even in the world and what role does personal accountability play in fostering a sense of being in the body and being in purpose, being in fulfillment.

GH: 50:56

Personal responsibility is definitely a big factor in doing this work and I feel like so much of this conversation today was about depersonalizing your prior experiences that have shaped you the way that you are today to create that spaciousness. The other side of that coin is while you are not fault for the factors in your life that shaped you into who you are today, you are responsible for how they are showing up in your present life. We don't get to off load this back onto our parents or back onto whoever it was. This is your work. This is what is alive within you and the ways that you have compensated for that experience and again, while that wasn't your fault of the things that you lived through that is to me, your soul's curriculum. That's the reason why we're here, is to process these energetic woundings to be able to neutralize them and invite in more beauty and spaciousness and resource as a blueprint, like what you're talking about, to be that light for other people and create a beautiful world where one day we can be not all operating out of reactivity and pain, but have spaciousness and compassion kind of be more of the default. So personal responsibility is a huge part in this. For me, at the very beginning of my journey where I was starting to see this be evident in my own life, that was really hard for me to swallow. Because I felt like I was holding people in my past responsible for things that had happened to me, and I wanted them to pay for that or give me apologies or reassurances that I didn't deserve what I went through. While all of that is still possible and can be well and good, isn't really the point. You can do this work, and you can transcend pain without any of that, you don't need other people to be involved. But recognizing if it exists within you, and this is something you're dealing with in your present day life it is your responsibility to do something with it. Nobody else can do this work for you. You can get all of the apologies in the world from people who may have wronged you in your past, but it's not going to take away from the ways that you have learned to compensate from that pain. That's still going to be showing up in your present day life regardless. So it is something that we need to wrap our minds around, that's just the way that this thing is, that you inherited a certain amount of pain and it looks a certain type of way and we can, feel if that's fair or unfair, that's fine to have that time to take to accept that is reality. At the end of the day, at least the way that I've learned to approach it is I see it as a really beautiful opportunity to get to learn more about myself in a deeper level. Twisting it into being a positive thing, because every time I do get a chance to bring light into a shadow, I get to unlock something that is abeautiful gift that has not been actualised. Or, learning more about who I am as a person, and I think those are beautiful things that can come from hard places that we only get to find by doing that work. I definitely went through a period of time where I just did not want to take that responsibility and was like this isn't fair. I didn't deserve what I went through. So why am I the one to fix it? On the other side of that work is a lot of beauty and gifts that you receive that correlates to the amount of work that you put into it. I found that to be very motivating and was a really beautiful incentive for wanting to take a deeper dive into this work that drove me so much that this is now all that I want to talk about and now I help other people do.

PMD: 54:39

The work that you're doing. I see it as the holy work. Because it makes people whole. But there's also a holy aspect to it in terms of what we've spoken about today in the conversation. I'm reminded of the profound impact that each of us can have when we take ownership of our actions and strive to make a positive difference in the world. And it's evident from your values that you embrace accountability. When you work collaboratively towards common goals, you create meaningful change both individually and I would imagine collectively. Your insights and perspectives have enriched this dialogue in profound ways, because it reminds me of the importance of self-awareness compassion and empowerment in fostering, not only personal transformation but societal transformation. Ginny your wisdom and passion for creating a more just compassionate, sustainable world serves as an inspiration to us all. As we continue our respective journeys. I trust we carry forward the lessons learned today and embody the principles of meaningful change and personal responsibility, in our thoughts in our actions and our words and our deeds, because then we can create a world where empathy, compassion and collaboration, reign supreme. So I want to thank you for sharing your time and wisdom and insight today. Do you have any parting messages and where can people find you?

GH: 56:28

Yeah, as a parting last thought on all of this, I think if people are interested in starting down their own journey and maybe are struggling to know what exactly is a practice they can do to depth in some of these things we talked about, like the witness within themselves. I think a really easy tangible exercise that people can do at home or actually I guess anywhere that they are it's something that is homework that I assign to all of my clients almost right off the bat is something called body scans. That is just turning your awareness into yourself and doing a quick scan of where is my body tensing where am I holding on to contraction? What feels like there's emotion alive within me whether that's nervousness, fear, anger, or, feels really open, feels really spacious, feels really nice is really the beginning practice for a lot of people learning how to make that reconnection with their body. Because it forces you to turn into the body and assess what's going on in there. It can be really amazing to realize when we exist most of the day in our heads that we are just totally asleep at the wheel to the lively conversation that's going on inside of our body. So body scans are a really easy, quick practice that you can do anywhere. You can make them as short or as long as you want them to be. To start re engaging with that dialogue inside of what is it that my body wants to communicate, what is going on with me internally, and getting a little bit more of an intimate. understanding of where you are operating through different parts of your day around different types of people in different types of situations. So I would recommend that as a really beautiful practice to get back in touch with yourself to reconnect that relationship with your body.

PMD: 58:15

I get up in the morning. I'm sitting on the side of my bed. What is the first thing I need to do in terms of a body scan?

GH: 58:24

I personally find it most helpful to close my eyes to just eliminate one source of stimulation that might distract me from what is going on internally so I can invite you to close your eyes and then from wherever it feels most natural for you if you want to start at your head or start at your feet finding a place in your body to start focusing your attention to and bringing some curiosity around what would I color or describe the sensation that I'm experiencing in these parts of my body. For some people you might be able to label it with an emotion like I feel fear in my chest and then inviting in like does that fear have a texture? Is there a color there? How big is it? How small is it? Is it tight? Inviting in some more description to really flesh out the nuances of what it is that you're experiencing. Then taking that as a practice throughout your body. It can be so interesting that once you start bringing awareness to these things going on, that you can watch them move and change. You can invite, your hands to be in certain places around your body, wherever you're feeling that experience. It's a very simple thing that can do a lot in letting the body know that you are here and that you are present with it and building that sense of presence with yourself. It's just like watching, how is the energy manifesting within you now. How is that changing when you bring awareness to it. What can you learn about yourself from this information that you've received, and how are you going to let that shape the way that you're going to move through the day. That's all really valuable and potent information for us to operate a more authentic level. Being able to connect with your body in that way and get a sense of what's really going on with me? How am I actually feeling? Getting curious, around the stories of why these things are existing within me when I'm in these certain types of dynamics. The practice of the body scans really is all about building presence within yourself and that is a muscle just like any other muscle. You just have to do the reps to build it and being able to make that a habitual daily practice for yourself even multiple times a day. I have a teacher who recommends doing it minimum five times a day of doing that check in with yourself. Okay. How am I going to reorient now in my day with this information that I have about how I feel where I am presently. To me is part of building the foundation for the inviting that witness to come in that you are reacquainting yourself with yourself being more present with that, with the body and its sensations.

PMD: 1:00:57

The whole thing of being responsive versus being reactive, because I know for quite a while now I've had a bit of sciatica and I know it's coming on. But I react when it's only a full blast at least I used to. But now that I've been doing body scans I can feel when it's surfacing. I know I need to stretch or I need to move or I need to go and see the chiropractor or mobilize or get a massage or whatever it is I need to do to release it. So I think this is huge in terms of what we're talking about earlier accountability responsibility. The ability to respond as distinct from being reactionary.

GH: 1:01:45

Yeah, I think that proactiveness of being able to take the information your body is giving you before it escalates into being a problem that you need to react to is part of what builds that window of tolerance of I am like constantly reorienting myself into the direction that is going to feel most spacious for me to be in I think that can only be done when we are in dialogue with the body who is the driver of the state you feel like you are in within your experience that if you're not going to listen to it Eventually it does get pushed into a place where it has to be in your face to get your attention whereas when something like body scans you can be a little bit more proactive in how you're going to use that information where you can keep things at a certain level where okay I know I need to stretch or I need to take alone time or it would feel really great to get in some sunshine. That keeps you in that window of tolerance before it escalates into something where it's okay now I'm yelling at people when I shouldn't be or i'm in a lot of pain when I could have avoided that by simply addressing this need earlier when my body was gently tapping at the window rather than screaming in my face that you need to stop and address this it's a simple practice, but it can lead to some really impactful change.

PMD: 1:03:02

Like you alluded to earlier, it's a muscle, it's a muscle that you have to build. It's not that you can't lift the bar. It's just that you're not strong enough yet because you haven't built the muscle. You haven't put in the reps, you can lift the bar, but you've got to engage in the practice of it. In other words, there has to be a consistency to it. Would you like to introduce the topic that we'll be talking about next week?

GH: 1:03:29

Yeah, so next week, we're diving in even deeper into embodied awareness, getting really into that dialogue of what is the information my body is trying to give to me? So I think actually this the body scans was a really great segue for that. This is, gonna be the episode where we really dive into triggers and what information they're trying to give you, what they signify and starting to invite in the beginning of that journey of okay now that I have a better sense of the information that my body's trying to give me What do I do with it? So that's going to be the beginning of the next episode.

PMD: 1:04:07

Where can people connect with you Ginny

GH: 1:04:09

I am on Instagram at Ginny Hoyt. That's where I show up five days a week on there with tips, tricks, and things to implement in daily life in regards to this work. I also have a website ginnyhoyt. com that has all of my offerings if you're interested in working together.

PMD: 1:04:26

Thank you once again. For sharing your time and your wisdom and your insights, your presence. Has truly been invaluable and I'm so looking forward to continuing this journey of growth and exploration together.

GH: 1:04:38

Yeah, thank you so much. It's a great conversation to be a part of.