In this episode I discuss the concept of "activating your life force" by fostering a healthy relationship with your physical body through proper diet, sleep, and exercise. I discuss the simple re-framing of nourishing your body and what a difference it can make to how you approach your physical and mental health.
I also discuss the power of language in reshaping our experiences and mindset and how this enhances our motivation and reduces the likelihood of self-sabotage!
In this episode I discuss the concept of "activating your life force" by fostering a healthy relationship with your physical body through proper diet, sleep, and exercise. I discuss the simple re-framing of nourishing your body and what a difference it can make to how you approach your physical and mental health.
I also discuss the power of language in reshaping our experiences and mindset and how this enhances our motivation and reduces the likelihood of self-sabotage!
Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast with Fiona Kane. I'm your host, Fiona Kane. Today I'm going to be talking about a few different things that are inspiring me and interesting me, that I've seen in the media or that I've been reading about or remembering this week. So first I wanted to start by just talking about Celine Dion. Earlier this week I saw her special I Am Celine and I think it might have been on Prime and it was heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking.
Fiona Kane:
Now that woman is really inspirational in how tough she is and how hard she fights and it's just tragic to see that it's kind of shown. The specials were showing kind of her life and her performances and things, but also what's happened in the last couple of years since she has been dealing with stiff person syndrome and what that looks like in her life and how devastating that is. It really is. It's an example in life to me of how life gives and how life takes, because she I mean she was given that one in a million voice and talent and she's had this amazing life and this amazing career on the base of her voice and she was given this one in a million. It literally is a one in a million disease that is taking. That and so much more from her. It's just devastating. The episode is it's beautifully done, it's beautiful, it's really interesting. I was also in tears by the end of it, so it really is confronting and really really sad.
Fiona Kane:
But, um, but she is so inspirational, her, how hard she's working to just maintain but also just get back everything she can get, uh, with her, um, with her sort of physical trainers and things like that that she's doing. She's just, yeah, she's just inspiring, phenomenal woman and it's just devastating and sad to see what's happened to her. And she's trying to sing again now, but she can't sing in the way she could before. So I don't know. She sort of was recording something on before, so I don't know she's sort of been was recording something on there. I don't know she's going to record something and release something, just in her different voice, because the stiff person syndrome that she has, what it does is because it it affects your muscles, actually tightens all the muscles around your ribs, around your, around your lungs, so it reduces your lung capacity and reduces your, her ability to like belt out those notes, um, so it's really affecting her voice and her voice was such an integral part of who she is, like a lot of her identity. She identifies a lot with her voice. That's sort of who she is and that's, uh, what's been taken off her, along with so much more so, but yeah, anyway, it's really, really sad and all I just want to say is that she's a phenomenal woman and her strength and her resilience in the face of this is amazing, and just send my love to her and her family and anyone else who's dealing with that dreadful disease. But, yeah, I just wanted to shout out to that that was actually a really good special and yeah, celine, she's an amazing, amazing woman. So that's the first thing I wanted to cover today.
Fiona Kane:
The second thing I actually wanted to talk about is I was reminded this morning of a doco that I saw, I don't know, just over a year ago. I think it was on Netflix and it was called Stutz. It was Jonah Hill's doco that was about his therapist, and the doco was, okay, not the best thing I've ever seen, not the worst thing I've ever seen. Up to you, if you want to watch it. It's probably more interesting if you are interested in different strategies around therapy. But what really did inspire me about it and reminded me of. What inspired me about it is that Starts.
Fiona Kane:
This Therapist has a really great way of reframing and approaching managing health and managing mental health and managing things like depression, and I feel like sometimes it is just a reframe. It's about the language we use. It's about how we frame something. So I just wanted to share that with you because I just thought it was really inspiring and it's the sort of thing that you might find useful in your life for yourself or for those around you, in a way of sort of reframing things. So what he did is and what was interesting too in this reframing is it's not something new or different that we didn't know about or I didn't know about, but essentially what he's talking about is he's talking about nurturing a relationship with your physical body. So that includes things like the way you eat, the way you sleep, exercise, so diet, sleep, exercise, so kind of those foundational things and it's that relationship with your physical body.
Fiona Kane:
In regards to healing in general but in regards to healing, in his case, a lot of people with mental health issues and depression to healing in his case, a lot of people with mental health issues and depression and the way he describes it is he describes as activating your life force, that what you need to do is activate your life force, and I just think it's a lovely way to describe it, activating your life force. So you can say to someone, well, you need to go home and you need to eat and sleep and do this and do that, and kind of just give this kind of therapeutic instructions of what to do, which you know it's fine. However, that all just feels like, oh, something I have to do. And even Jonah in the special, because he had a history of being very large and very overweight as a child and he had a lot of shame around that. So when anyone gave him this prescription of these are the things to do and eat this and do exercise and whatever it was, he actually had trouble doing it, had a lot of blocks in doing it and he had a lot of shame around and a lot of the language around it just really was quite triggering for him. So he said and I agree with him on this that it's really beautifully put that, when this isn't his exact words, this is just the gist of what he said, just to clarify. But he said that when it was reframed to him as activating your life force.
Fiona Kane:
Well, that's a very different thing. So if someone says to you, go home and lose weight or do this or do that or whatever, and kind of changing a diet and changing habits and things like that can be quite challenging so when it's explained in that way, it's kind of like oh, it's hard, and why am I doing it? And is it some sort of punishment? And there's all this stuff around it, all this head stuff and all of these sort of reactions that we have based on. One of our previous experiences might be how we respond to those kinds of instructions and a lot of us have been given those instructions or read those instructions throughout instructions, and a lot of us have been given those instructions or read those instructions throughout our lifetime in a way that is very negative or very judgmental, right? So he's just like okay, you're encouraging someone to activate their life force. That just feels like such a different thing and it is essentially what you're doing. So when you connect with your body and you move your body and you make sure you get enough sleep and you eat well, you nourish yourself well, you are activating your life force. That's what you're doing, right? However, it's just never described that way. So, rather than be this kind of thing, that's a drudgery and you have to do this and you should do that, and a kind of a judgy sort of thing, it's like, no, no, what we're doing is we are activating your life force.
Fiona Kane:
And when you think about, especially for someone who's dealing with depression and dealing with a lot of those mental health issues, or even if you're just you know you've had chronic health issues for a long time and you did and you're just you are feeling really down because of that, as it's just such a beautiful way to frame it and to begin a conversation around the things that you can do to support your health and to support yourself. And and when you think about what it looks like when someone is feeling down and depressed. And when you're feeling down and depressed, it's quite the opposite, where that person looks like they don't have a life force. So the person will be maybe very low and their voice is very flat and they're slow and they're flat and there's just not, doesn't sound like or look like there's any life in them. You know, the eyes are dull, the skin is dull, the person's just not very animated and the way they hold themselves, the way they move.
Fiona Kane:
All of that you will see in someone when they have. You know what they have what you would term as a really low or dim life force, right, and so what this is doing is it's activating the life force so that they can awaken again and so that they can start to glow again. So it's almost starting that inner glow within a person that glows throughout. So it's not just a physical thing, starting that inner glow within a person that glows throughout. So it's not just a physical thing. So it is the physical thing, as in you're getting the nourishment in there and you're getting sleep and you're moving your body and all of those things that are the physical nourishment of a person. But it's also, I see it as on a spiritual, soul level as well, that you are kind of awakening that.
Fiona Kane:
So I just think the reframing of talking about activating your life force is such a beautiful way to approach healing, whether it be from mental or physical health issues, to use that language as a way of framing what you were doing. I just feel like to me that language is quite inspirational, it feels very supportive and it doesn't feel judgmental in any way. So I don't know how you feel about that, I don't know what your thoughts are on that, but I just think it's just such a beautiful way to encourage and inspire people and to such a beautiful language to use to describe what you're doing. And I feel like, if I'm talking to my clients about activating their life force and the things we need to do to activate your life force, it's very different to the things you need to do to fix your diet. There's just something about this language that I find that really just sparked something in my mind and sparked something in me that just feels very, very different. So I would love to hear what you think about it as well and how that language makes you feel and if you feel like it feels different or seems different to kind of just the usual prescription for you know sort of diet, lifestyle, that kind of thing. Just reframing it in what you're actually doing, because underneath all of that, just reframing it in what you're actually doing because underneath all of that, what you are doing is activating and or reactivating someone's life force, and I just think that is just such a beautiful way to approach it that I wanted to share that with you. I'm taking a break. I'll be back in a moment. I'm back.
Fiona Kane:
So some of the other language that I've talked to you about before but it sort of just goes with this, so I think it's worth bringing up again is again, I talk about language all the time. It really, really matters for all the reasons I just said, for everything I've just been talking about in regards to activating your life force. But the other language that I see that makes a really big difference for people is, instead of saying, oh, I should do this or I have to do this, it's like I get to, I want to, I choose to right. It's very different. So, oh, I should go to the gym, or I have to go to the gym, I get to go to the gym, I get to go to the gym.
Fiona Kane:
There's such a different energy around it and also it's actually true because if you're in a position where you can get yourself to your gym, you've got a lot of things going for you, right. You're able to get somewhere, you've got some money so that you can go there. You're physically well enough to go to the gym and go and do a workout. You're doing a whole lot better than many people in the world, just for that reason alone, right? So, yes, I get to go to the gym, not I have to or I should. They feel different, they sound different, they are different.
Fiona Kane:
So you know, or I get to pick up the kids from school, not I have to pick up the kids from school, like one day you won't get to do it because one day they'll be grown up or they won't be around or whatever the situation is. And there's people who know, like people who have lost children, and they don't get to. Right, you get to. So, again, as hard as it might be and as challenging as life is, and it's like life is busy and you've got so much on and you're doing so much, being able to kind of go, I get to. I get to pick up my kids from school. I get to go to the gym. I get to go shopping in the supermarket or grocery store and get some healthy food. I get to cook grocery store and get some healthy food. I get to cook. So, the fact that I've got a beautiful working kitchen and I haven't always had that in my life and I know how frustrating and how difficult it is when you don't but I have a beautiful working kitchen and I've got healthy food in my fridge. I live in the Hawkesbury area of Sydney, where we have so much fresh produce available to us at very, very reasonable prices, so I get to access all of that beautiful food. I have a beautiful kitchen and a functional kitchen where I get to make healthy food.
Fiona Kane:
Now, am I a big fan of cooking? Not a huge fan of cooking, but my oh my, have I got gratitude for the fact that I can, and I've got that ability and availability to do that, and I can choose to do that. So I choose to cook. Sometimes my husband cooks for me, which I love, which I love even more but I choose to cook, I choose to prepare food and I get to, and that's very different from, oh, I have to make dinner, right. So it's just the reframing of things, taking things back to a place of gratitude rather than a place of things being sort of being victims or being forced into something, and that's the thing too.
Fiona Kane:
What happens is if we feel like we're being forced to do something against our will, or we're somehow a victim of something, or we don't have any buy-in and we're not being you know, we're not being asked what we want. We're not, you know, like we've been railroaded in some way. That's where we can often act up or often not want to do things and often sabotage ourselves and our health. So when you change it around, because a lot of these situations you're not being forced to do it, it's actually you. You want the outcome right. So, whatever the outcome is you want from doing this task which is usually in, what I'm talking about is a health-related outcome. So, whether or not it's a specific health challenge that you have, or whether or not it's about how you're going to feel or not know, not having pain, having more energy, whatever it is right you want. Whatever that outcome is, there's a certain outcome you want and so you're not being forced. You actually have a choice. You have a choice to do the things that will help you achieve that right and so understanding that it is a choice and that you actually do have ownership of that and it is a choice.
Fiona Kane:
So sometimes, when we find ourselves rebelling against something or sabotaging ourselves, sometimes it is really useful to kind of go all right, what's going on there and what's that about? Because often it's just a rebellious part of us that comes up, that feels like we're being told what to do or feels like we're depriving ourselves somehow, feels like we're we're being judged or something along those lines, because we've got sometimes a history of all that sort of stuff. So it's worth kind of noticing if you feel like you're kind of um, really tensing up and kind of arcing up at being at doing things that are good for you, like that. It's like, well, what's going on there? And just reminding yourself no, actually I'm an adult and I'm in charge of this and I can take ownership of this, and I'm actually doing this by choice and I want a certain outcome. I'm doing this by choice and I want to do this, I want this outcome. So therefore, I want to do this thing to get there, and not only that, but I get to, I choose to, I get to, I want to.
Fiona Kane:
That language is so, so different to. I have to or I should, all that kind of stuff. So when you do find yourself struggling with that, if you really find you are sabotaging yourself or working against yourself, you've got this negative language, I encourage you to reframe it and think about okay, well, I am the adult here and I actually am choosing this for myself, because once you are an adult, you can choose for yourself. When you, when you make it a choice, when you make an active choice where you're actively choosing to do this thing, you're actively choosing to engage in this thing, it's something that you're choosing and wanting to do, you're not going to get that rebel rebelliousness in you. You're not going to be pushing back against yourself.
Fiona Kane:
So sometimes, when we do all these things because we think we should or we have to or whatever, when in our mind is that language, that is when we're going to activate that sort of rebellious part of us who says I shouldn't, why should I do that? And I don't have to listen to you. We get that sort of stuff going on. So if you find you've got that going on, I encourage you to kind of reframe it and kind of go. No, actually I'm the grown up here, right, I can drive this, I'm in the driver's seat, I'm the adult and this is a choice. And I'm making a choice because I want a certain outcome. And so I am going to the gym because I choose to, or for a walk, or to a yoga class or whatever it looks like for you, right, dancing around the house to your favorite song right, but it's. I'm choosing to move my body, I'm choosing to nourish myself and eat well, and I get to choose and I'm grateful and I choose this.
Fiona Kane:
So I want to just encourage you to look at your language and to be aware of that and maybe have a reframe, because when you have a reframe, it can make all the difference to your outcomes.
Fiona Kane:
If you reframe the way that you approach these and this is for health, but it also would work in other things as well when you reframe why you're doing something and the fact that you actually have a choice and that you're choosing to do it and why you're choosing to do it, it can be a lot easier to achieve your goals and to not be sabotaging yourself or sort of feeling like you're fighting against yourself all of the time.
Fiona Kane:
So, anyway, I hope that that was useful for you and, like always, I will ask you please like and subscribe and share and all of those beautiful things, and if you are on Rumble or YouTube, you can also do a comment if you'd like to, or tell me about something that you are doing well, a reframe that you have done that is working for you or a strategy that you use, that sort of really encourages you. But going back to what I started with activating your life force, I just think that's really beautiful, and any health goal that starts with activating your life force, I think that's a really, really good way to start things. So thank you so much for listening today, or watching today, and I'll talk to you all again next week. Thanks Bye.
