[00:00:11] Speaker A: What's worthwhile? It's a question we all need to answer for ourselves. I'm Ramsay Zimmerman. As for me, it's building mind, body and spirit wellness. Let's ponder the big questions together as we seek peace of mind, vitality of body, and joy of spirit.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: A lot of us are not aware of really what stress is and how our thoughts can create our physiology to overreact and telling our immune system to start attacking itself in a way because it cannot differentiate between is there something external or is it something internal? So your thoughts can create this kind of illness that it is a disease that the body's trying to get rid of. And what is the benefit of when you can take accountability for that? You have power over that. You can access that power for yourself.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Hey there. It's Ramsay here. That was Natalie Bedard. She likes to be called Natnat. She's the founder of Lift Oneself and hosts the Lift Oneself podcast where she offers tools to help people regulate their nervous system and transform anxiety into empowerment. We had a great discussion. Natnat guided me through a meditation, and I quickly realized that she has an effective approach that empowers people to first understand what their body is doing and then to begin to impact it. I've been touched by how open and honest and vulnerable Natnat made herself in our discussions. I appreciate that very much. I think you will too. Let's begin. Hey, Natnat, how are you doing today?
[00:02:04] Speaker B: I'm well, how are you?
[00:02:07] Speaker A: I am doing pretty well. Hey, thank you so much for taking the time to come onto the what's Worthwhile podcast with me today. I really appreciate it. Um, you know, your, your website and your online presence is called Lift Oneself.
And you know, to start off with, I'm just, I'm curious why you chose to call it that. And, and do you feel like people really need to lift themselves? And how is that possible? How do you. How do you describe that?
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Well, I first want to be transparent and say thank you for holding the space right now because it's a very vulnerable space.
When we did the pre interview recording, my friend was in the hospital because we had conversations of dnr, which is do not resuscitate. So that just lets some listeners know the medical crisis we were in and she was released from the hospital and today was the first treatment. So there's still uncertainty. Yet here I am showing up and I want to thank you for holding this space for us to have this know, in depth conversation. And also, you know, absolutely. Like we were saying, it's three weeks before the election. So it's a little heavy for a lot of people with the anticipation of what's going to be present. And, you know, thank you for asking me about the lift oneself through. I meditated on the name of my company, and what came to me was lifting the ego, which ego, for me, is the defense mechanisms of the nervous system that guard you from your vulnerability. And when you can go back into your vulnerability, you're in that one self. So it's lifting that ego, allowing yourself to surrender, and going into the one self which is going into your vulnerability, your sensitivity. And in order to do that, you need to feel, and many of us don't know how to feel our authentic emotions. We know how to intellectualize it and intellectually feel that we're feeling our emotions, yet to really embody feeling, you know, helplessness, feeling the fear, feeling the true depth of the sadness, feeling the true depth of what, anger, what happiness, the joy, and not allowing it to hijack our behavior where, you know, a lot of times we project off the energy because it's too intense for us to feel, because we haven't had safe spaces to really engage with what that feeling is and not allow our judgment and our analytical mind to shut things down and shut off the charge of those emotions to allow them to do their full curve, their full current, so that they can be released. Because emotions are messengers, but we think they're supposed to, you know, take control of everything. Where it's like, no, it's data, it's information. Doesn't mean that it's going to, you know, take control of the steering wheel. It's just the GPS is telling you go this way, and it doesn't mean that you have to follow it.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: You said a lot there, and I think we can. We can spend our time unpacking. A lot of that, I believe. First, though, I believe there's a. There's a meditation, a brief meditation that you like to do in circumstances like this to help people focus on kind of what. What they're doing, what they're talking about. Would you like to. Would you like to lead us through that?
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Yes, I'd be honored to. And when I asked Ramsey and myself to close their eyes. Most people listen to a podcast while driving or needing their visual.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: Please don't do that.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. Safety first, do not close the eyes yet. The other prompts you're able to follow through. So, Ramsey, I'll ask you to get comfortable in your seating and if it's safe to do so, I'm Going to ask you to close your eyes and you're going to begin breathing in and out through your nose.
And you're going to bring your awareness to watching your breath go in and out through your nose.
You're not going to try and control your breath. You're just going to be aware of its rhythm, allowing it to guide you into your body.
There may be some sensations or feelings that are coming up. It's okay, let them come up.
You're safe to feel. You're safe to let go.
Surrender the need to control.
Release the need to resist and just be, be with your breath.
Drop deeper into your body.
Now, there may be some thoughts or to do lists that have popped up in your mind.
That's okay.
Gently bring your awareness back to your breath, creating space between the awareness and the thoughts.
And dropping deeper into the body and being with the breath again, more thoughts may have popped up.
Gently bring your awareness back to your breath.
Beginning again, creating even more space between the awareness and the thoughts and dropping deeper into the body and being with the breath, allowing yourself to just be keeping that awareness on the breath.
Now, at your own time and at your own pace, you're going to gently open your eyes while staying with the breath.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: What was unusual or difficult about that for me just now was being so aware of my breath without trying to control it. Because as soon as I'm thinking about my breath, then I'm starting to breathe. It was sort of akin to that. Okay, think about anything except a pink elephant.
So tell me about what it sort of means or does or how important it is to sort of be aware of something like your breathing, but actively trying to not control it. Because I feel like there's probably something there.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. I guide people into understanding their nervous system where a lot of us don't even know how to interact with our nervous system because it's autonomic. You autonomous, like automatically breathe, so you're not paying attention to that yet. The breath is always in the present moment and the breath allows you to understand temperamentally what's going on inside your body.
Deep breaths, you're like, oh, relax. Shallow breaths, you're like, oh, I'm holding my breath. I didn't even realize. So then you don't realize how activated your nervous system or, you know, the fight or flight freeze or fawn states. So when I'm guiding people with their breath, it's for them to recognize, oh, okay, here's my breath. It has its rhythm, yet let me not be attached to controlling everything.
Let me go into that observer awareness aspect so that I can even release more of the fear. Because fear wants to control everything.
So it's engaging with that aspect, not belittling it, not making it go away. So yeah, at first you're going to be hyper focused on it because it's a tool. If you've never practiced it before, yeah, you're going to be really obsessed, like, oh, I got to control this breath. It has to go up and down until you start to navigate and recognize, oh, I can surrender this, I can surrender this. I can let go of being identified with having to control everything that I can feel the fear without offloading it in a way of I have to distract myself from it.
Does that make sense?
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like you're describing active listening to oneself.
And I know that active listening is something that's near and dear to your heart because you do that on a regular basis for your clients.
And I'd like to do or try to do some of that with you today, some active listening, because I'd like to hear your story and kind of hear how you got to this place. You know, we're all on a journey and would love to hear some more background about what set you on this journey.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: My active listening has been with me since I've been a young child. I never understood why people would open up and talk to me and tell me, I've never told anybody this. And I'm like, I don't understand why you're telling me, but okay.
So I really didn't understand that. I held this space of safety that I call now. And it where people said it was non judgmental, where I got into the space of lift oneself was almost 11 years ago. I came close to death. I had lesions in my brain stem and in my cerebellum. And I was told that I have a prognosis of six months.
I was admitted into the hospital.
You know, all these different specialists were treating me like Frankenstein, basically going through all kinds of tests and stuff to figure out what is causing these lesions.
And when the medical system doesn't know what the diagnosis is, you go through a lot of painful tests. I had, you know, biopsies, I had radiation put into me, I had spinal taps.
And in that they still came back with atypical yet not enough information to give a diagnosis.
So they released me without a diagnosis. So that means without a plan. So I was put into the wilderness. And you know when you're told you're almost going to die and then medical System can't give you a diagnosis. You're with a lot of fear. And I was a solo parent, and I still am to My twins were 4 at the time, and my oldest was 18.
And so coming back into my life, it was a lot of surrendering and prioritizing what was important and actually conserving my energy. The things that I used to do before I got to be really aware of the fond state of my nervous system. That people pleasing, that conforming, that belonging, that rescuer, that helper.
I had to recognize I have to put into myself where I was running to put into other people not recognizing it was an avoidance of really feeling my own emotions to be in my worth. Because unfortunately, when. Well, not unfortunately, because this is my story.
I experienced trauma as a young child, so it took me out of my worth.
And with these lesions, they brought me back into the journey into self, into my worth. And I got to really see firsthand about the nervous system internally. So a year after I was released, I discovered meditation in the form of tm, so transcendental meditation, which they bring you into a mantra to distract the mind to go into the subconscious and all that. And I remember when the teacher, I think it was like the second session I had, she was like, you're going very profound and very deep, very fast. Like, I was like, oh, well, I totally understand why people quit meditation because there's all kinds of stuff coming up. And because I had death kind of on my neck, there was nowhere else to go. So I had no choice yet to feel this stuff and release it. And as some will call it, a somatic release from the body. Where, you know, I was on the floor, gut wrenching, crying, and just feeling. And then feeling the overwhelm of all those experiences and emotions and how I related to myself and just allowing that vulnerable state to just allow myself to feel it without being performative with it. And so in that meditation and the somatic release, slowly my body started to come back online. And the neurologist and neurosurgeon was like, I don't know how you got the lesions, and I don't know how they're reversing themselves yet. What it sounds like you're doing is mindfulness. So whatever you're doing, keep doing it because it's working for you.
And I use meditation. You know, as I said, I learned tm and what they teach you is to create a quiet room in your home and to meditate twice a day for 20 minutes. And as I said, I'm a Solo parent. And the twins were five when I discovered meditation. And they're boys, so there was no quiet time that I could cultivate in my own.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: You. You said 20 seconds, right? You could have 20 seconds of quiet. That sounds about as much as what you're going to get.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
So I decided to take meditation to the couch. So when they were fighting, when the TV was going on, I would be with my breath, and I could see the nervous system wanting to stop them from fighting. Turn down the tv. What is this? And then I would be. Come back to the breath. Come back to the breath. That's not for you. I could see how the nervous system wanted to control the environment, to feel safe, to feel at ease, because things felt disruptive and unsafe and fearful, where it was like, no, come back, come back. So I also got to see a bit of the Kool Aid, of the identity of the parent, that we interject ourselves in a lot of things that our children do without recognizing, not intentionally. It's just our fear interrupts things of their lessons that they need to learn with life. And because I was an only child growing up, I grew up with my male cousins. Yeah. From my mother. I was her only child. I couldn't relate with sibling. Sibling rivalry. So when the twins were at it, I was like, oh, there's something evil going on. Like, oh, my gosh, we. We have to be kumbaya, and you got to be loving with each other. And it was like, I didn't know how to relate to that. And, you know, learning about spiritual text and everything's supposed to be so peaceful and blissful.
It can kind of, you know, contort your definition of the way it is to be human. So with that, I got to learn even more with the nervous system. And as I said, that control aspect, that we don't allow curiosity to listen more. We want. We think we know what's going to happen next without allowing the story to develop a little bit more so that we can be accountable for our fear and not just let our fear hijack our, you know, behavior or interactions or actions and everything else. So I went more deeply, really understood it. I even did, like, silent days with the twins when they were older, like when they were nine, when they could understand. It was like, mom's not going to talk all day today and just engage with silence, but interacting with them to even be more accountable with myself. I even took a year of not spending money so I could deal with my emotional aspect with spending, because we use emotion. Spending with four emotions. I Took away alcohol, I took away sexual encounters. I took away everything to really understand myself, not go outside of myself, to soothe the wounds and soothe the aches that may have been, so that I could actually understand myself and feel those emotions. Do I recommend it for everybody?
No, not everybody. I was just engaged to really clean out my vessel, to really understand this nervous system and allow myself to be in the flow of life, not trying to control life.
[00:19:10] Speaker A: So on the other side of your issues with these lesions, do you have a sense of or a belief about what really did cause them and what really did kind of lead them, Cause them, heal them, lead them to be healed?
And if so, how do you characterize it? So, like, for example, you know, I think a lot and I talk a lot about mind, body, spirit connections.
And I just love to hear how you articulate what you think and what you believe happened that gave you this condition and what happened that your body healed from it.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: What I know to be true and what I understand now, the stress hormone of cortisol, there's only so much the body can take. And after time of decades of running off of adrenaline and cortisol, your body's just going to shut down and it's going to give you signals of, wait, you're not paying attention. So that's where diseases and illnesses come in. Could there have been a virus or some kind of bacteria that I caught also? It could have been. Also, you know, they've done biopsies like I said, and they couldn't find there was something there, but they couldn't find exactly what that was. I had to change my lifestyle, and because of changing that lifestyle, that's where things became that they came back online. What I know to be true right now is when I do start to experience significant stress, certain symptoms come back which allow me to recognize, wait, wait. You are not within yourself, and you're gone beyond the capacity that you're able to serve in and be being able to experience. And like I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, you know, I've been. My friend has pancreatic cancer and was told that she was only going to live for three months. And that was back in March of 2023.
And I've been holding space with her and whenever it gets too much, because it's very subjective, I have learned that I have to take care of myself, which can be very challenging for me internally. Yet I know that my life matters and my life is important and that I have to protect my energy.
And a lot of us are not Aware of really what stress is, of really understanding how the nervous system is based out of negative bias and how our thoughts can create our physiology to overreact and to start telling our immune system to start attacking itself in a way because it cannot differentiate between is there something external or is it something internal? Like for instance, you know, my friend right now, for the past week they've been investigating to see if there's an infection. They've given her a whole bunch of antibiotics and they're like, no, we're just going to say that it's probably tumor induced from the cancer. Yeah. What I know to be true because I know her. I'm like, you're also in a lot of anxiety and you're worrying. She's like, yeah. And I'm like, that will cause fevers also. And a lot of people don't realize that their anxieties can cause the fevers within because you're spiking the cortisol, you're spiking the adrenaline. So then your immune system's like, oh, there's an alert system. So what does. The immune system is going to create a fever because something's inside us that we need to get rid of. So your thoughts can create this kind of illness that it's a disease that the body's trying to get rid of. And what is the benefit of when you can take accountability for that? You have power over that and so you can access that power for yourself. Where a lot of people might feel that it's an inferior or they don't want that accountability yet when you are subjective to something external from your body, you have no control over, you have no power. Yet if there's things within your reach, you would want to access that power, you would want to better understand the things that you are not consciously aware that you're doing to be mindful of what's going on internally. What is it that I am so, you know, a lot of people are worry. A lot of people activate anger. And what is anger? Anger is the protection and bodyguard of sadness and fear. A lot of people don't even know how to say that they're feeling afraid and to really feel the depths of your vulnerability and sensitivity.
So in that, you know, I think I may, you know, have caused it with the lifestyle that I was going in and the type of work that I was in. Yet also there could be other things like a virus and things that, you know, ran havoc in my system because my immune system was so low.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: Yeah. So in, in light of that when you are working with people, how do you. How do you help them to access those kinds of things? How do you help them to regain control or influence over kind of their body? How do you work with them to help, you know, sort of turn the ship, turn things around, begin healing? Like what. What does that look like?
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Well, like I said, I create a space of safety, and we need to feel. If you want to be honest, we don't know how to feel. We don't know how to be honest. Most of us are guarding our emotions.
How many times are you like, this isn't the space to reveal this kind of emotion because it's not professional, it's not ethical, It's. It's going to change different things.
And then we continue that in spaces with other people because we. Especially for men, you know, there's the saying, boys don't cry. How many men swallow their tears and do not even know how to have a healthy relationship with tears?
Because we label tears as sadness, where it's like, no, it's a plethora of different emotions that need to be expressed through the body. You know, a lot of times, if, you know, a child is born, people are crying. People don't see it as sadness, though. They're like, oh, it's relief. Yeah. When there's a deep vulnerability, all of a sudden people want to label it with a sadness and that they don't have the capacity or space to witness that for other people.
So what I create is we start off with a meditation most times, or there's a space of, how are you doing?
And in my space, people are like, you know what? I can actually say how I'm actually feeling.
And then that starts to unravel, to be able to explore what's going on internally. What are these emotions that you have suppressed or pushed down or repressed that need to be felt and be released?
And, you know, safe spaces anybody can relate to, where certain people, you feel vulnerable and you feel safe to say what you're feeling, what's going on. Yet other people, you're like, oh, I could never show you my emotions because you'll weaponize them or use them against me, and you'll feel judged or feel like it's a character defect or flaw.
Yet if you're not even able to feel them with yourself, then there's always this constant conflict and you're always wearing the mask. You're not even able to be you and reveal yourself.
And of course, we all wear masks in this world. That is so harmful with Authenticity and so harmful with emotions. Yet the more that you can create a safe space in your body and be comfortable with those emotions and feelings, other people cannot use those things against you. Yet that is the work, to repair the holes with an H within yourself, to be whole with a W and to be strengthened within yourself.
Yet a lot of us are looking on the outside of ourselves for that safety and security, that validation, that worthiness.
And you know, that, that everything's going to be okay.
Where it's like, that is your responsibility within yourself and to connect into, as I say, that one self, your life force.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: And is creating spaces and creating safe spaces, something that we as people can aspire to do for one another, for. For friends, for family members. Is that, you know, part of a human connection that is perhaps sometimes overlooked?
[00:29:01] Speaker B: Oh, definitely. That's the reason why we're the way that we are right now. Our villages, our communities have been shattered and splintered. And this false narrative of being independent and just go it alone has done such havoc and destruction with human connection that when we try to create these spaces, we don't even know how to, you know, be in them. This younger generation, they're okay with emotions. They're talking about it, they're feeling it. And the older generation will be like, what is this? Like there's something wrong with you.
You're not supposed to be doing this. And so, you know, there's a spectrum. There's always a spectrum. We can go way left and way right with things, and it's finding that balance and recognizing it's going to be an array of a spectrum. Everybody does life differently. Everybody's experiences are very subjective. Yet when you can engage with your nervous system, your neurodivergency, and understand yourself better, not have other people tell you that you should feel something other than what you're feeling right now, like, how are you supposed to get yourself out of a situation if somebody's telling you you're not on the right map? You have to be able to feel your own experience to be able to navigate out of that. And how many times, like for instance, when you were a child, possibly you were told, don't be angry, don't be sad, don't be sulking, don't be ungrateful, where it's like, well, if you're telling me there's something wrong with what I'm feeling, rather than holding the space of what's going on, what are you feeling?
What is going on? So that there can be expression and then they can understand more of what is going on internally, not try to be something else. To appe. Well, not that you're being something else, feeling something other than what you are feeling to be able to have a sense of belonging and conforming with other people. So, you know, coming back into that safety of your body and feeling your emotions, it's warrior work because the defense mechanisms have protected you so much from doing that that you're like, okay, surrender. And it's like, no, no, no, no. I don't think it's safe enough to do that. We got to still keep that armament up. So to come back into your body and create that safety, that these emotions can be felt and processed and released, there's liberation in that. That's going through the other side. Is it uncomfortable? Yeah. Is it a lot of work? Yeah. Is there a lot of conflict at first? Yeah. Yet the more that you engage in it, the more that you are coming back into self and being able to listen to your intuition, listen to your own voice, not the, you know, where people are saying the inner critic. It's. That is the activated nervous system. It's trying to protect you from feeling what you need to feel.
And once you can engage of. Wait, this is, this voice. It's trying to protect me? It doesn't feel like protection yet. It's trying to protect me. What is it protecting me from? That is the question.
What is underneath that that's trying to come through?
[00:32:29] Speaker A: So in addition to doing the kind of internal work that you're describing and understanding yourself and feeling the emotions that you have and kind of getting in tune with the kind of physiological responses from that in addition to. And beyond that, like, once you've achieved. Well, I don't know that anyone ever achieves it completely, but once you're. Once you've gained some skills and some abilities to do that, what is next? And what I mean is how does that empower you to interact with others and to better interact with your environment?
And what other things do people kind of need to do to continue to be healthy? And what kinds of things are they able to do in interacting with others and interacting with the world in a healthy way as a result of getting better connected with themselves?
[00:33:30] Speaker B: Many people are not even in their own story.
They're in the story that other people projected on them.
Say, for instance, you came from a family that was highly high achievers and only you could only be in the medical system. You could only be.
You could only be in the medical system. You could be a lawyer, you could be this you could be that. Yet internally what you really wanted was to be an artist or be a, you know, something different than what you were in. And wondering why. There's always this gnawing feeling of not feeling fulfilled, not feeling energized.
Yet when you come to in me, your body, you come to recognize, wait, am I in control of the narration of my own story?
Am I showing up in an authentic way?
Am I even allowing myself to be me? Or is it always this performative Persona that has protected me to engage in the world? Do I even feel safe to be me? And when you come more into self, then you recognize, like, wait, there's so much more to life that I haven't even been aware of.
Like, when is the last time that I really smelt the fragrance of a flower?
When is the last time that I really felt the beams of sunlight on my skin?
When have I felt the wind against my skin, blowing in my hair?
When have I even looked into the eyes of my loved one, like profoundly just looked at them, not skim by them?
When have I been able to look at a stranger and see them as a human being, not my constructs that I've created?
There's much more depth into life when you start expanding your self awareness and you're able to show up in such a different way that your emotions aren't creating this static in your mind that things that would happen at one point you would personalize and it would send you in a tiffy. Now somebody may do it and it's like, oh, that used to bother me before. Now there's nothing I can just continue on and go wherever I was going without being disrupted.
So it's being able to have more profoundness in your own life and taking control of the pen of your story. Many are not writing their own story.
They don't even realize that they have permission to write in their own story.
And this doesn't mean that, you know, there's going to be rainbows and unicorns and I'm going to get my way.
No, like the environment that I'm in, has it changed? Yeah, it's changed in certain ways, but other ways it hasn't. It's just I show up differently in it.
I'm no longer trying to escape from my story. I can be in my story and see the beauty in my story. I can be in the eye of the chaos rather than being banged around in it. And I can profoundly appreciate who I am and be in the confidence in that. That is something no money like many People are trying to strive for success and accolades and monetization and materialistic things, to feel a sense of worth and appreciation and confidence where when you have it just within yourself, you recognize, oh, all these things externally really have nothing to do with who I am internally. This is for the outside world, but it doesn't mean to be a minimalist and not have anything. If that's what you want to do and that's what helps you navigate the world, then, yeah, you use the tools that's needed that your mind doesn't get so disrupted.
Yeah. Once you start removing, there's. There's profound change that happens.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: And I think too, that people respond.
It seems like I can always.
It seems like I can tell when people are genuine. I think it's human nature to respond to genuineness. And I think that there is a lot of pressure to be performative. That's sort of the norm and it's the default, if you sort of listen to the messages that we get these days, that it's valued to be performative or to, you know, have that perfect picture on Instagram or to make that perfect comment that is, you know, just a little snarky but informative on X, you know, formerly known as Twitter.
But instead or in social reactions to always reply, oh, everything's great, to the question of how are you?
But when there are people that we interact with who are.
Who have gotten some abilities to be authentic, I think people respond to that and I think that also allow people who are authentic and who are in contact and connection with their own selves. I think they have more skills and abilities to.
To create safe spaces, hold space for other people, to be that with them as well. And so that.
It sounds like a beautiful thing. It sounds like something that can be not only personally empowering, but also can, you know, spread health and wellness, you know, through. Through the world, through other people. So I just, I really like. I really appreciate kind of how you describe that. I think that's really great.
[00:39:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, you know, the things that we're looking for is all within ourselves, yet we have been told and we can't. We keep getting bombarded with the message that we're not good enough and we haven't achieved it yet. And we haven't attained it yet. And you have to go outside here to find it, and you have to go there to find it and you have to go there where nobody has really been able to see everything's within me yet it has to be developed.
People want this arrival place to and arrival again is because they want safety, I want security, that everything's going to be okay.
Guess what? I know this might disrupt some people. Spoiler alert. Nothing is certain. We are always in the unknown and uncertainty.
And once you can navigate in that, then that's where there's such a relief. Our minds want to always create these constructs of the way the world ought to look like. That's why many people, when there's grief, when there's death, they don't know how to go through that process. Because that's another thing that hasn't been held in our spaces of conversation, that things are not linear. We don't really understand the impermanence of life. We've been really focused on making everything concrete and staying the same.
Where, you know, the world is transient. Like the world has its own evolution. The, you know, there's climate change. Yeah, there's climate change. And if anybody believes in the dinosaurs, there was an ice age. They weren't drinking, digging holes for oil or, you know, creating plastic and all these things.
The world has its own evolution patterns.
Humans, unfortunately, we get this indoctrination that we can control all.
And we haven't been really taught to be able to navigate with the flow of life. And it has its own frequency. It really does. And I know some people will be like, yeah, I've been in that flow where it doesn't feel forced, it doesn't feel like I have to doubt myself. Everything just worked itself through.
And when you can go into that, does it mean it's all easy peasy and like I said, rainbows and unicorns? No. Yet it doesn't feel forced or difficult.
And when we can go into that flow of life, that's where we're all connected into this energy of a life force that's in there.
Yet unfortunately, you know, the seducing powers of the ego, which is the defense mechanisms of the nervous system, and us not feeling our authentic emotions.
We're seeing what anger, not feeling, you know, sadness or not being accountable for the fear, what it does with wars and violence and separation and segregation.
So change is within ourselves. It's not out there in the world. It's within each of us to show up for ourselves and be able to hold space, to see the person that's in front of us, not the narratives that you have actually see the person that's in front of you.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: We've spoken about a lot of things and a lot of it has been very heavy and I would love to lighten it just A little and ask you, what are you looking forward to? What do you have coming up? What do you. What are some things that puts a smile on your face that you're. That you're looking forward to doing here in the near future?
[00:43:43] Speaker B: Presently, I'm writing a book about the experience that I had in the hospital. I'm hoping to get it done by the end of the year or beginning of the new year. So it's out there because a lot of people have asked me, like, where's your book? Like, what you say makes so much sense and it's so simplified and everything else. So. And then, you know, I get experiences like I've been through in the past three weeks where it's like, I haven't been able to write towards my book yet. It's having that discipline. So I'm looking forward to, you know, finally finishing that task and that project and putting out that baby out into the world. I'm also creating some course content so that it's not just one on one that I have with clients that people can engage in this work in a community setting. Because as you said, when we can do it in community, that fosters more safe spaces that people can hold each other. Like, I can be in a space right now where I'm elevated with my energy and you may be a little dense, so I can hold that space of what, what are you feeling? And I can remind you of where there's a higher vibration, where you can access the tools and create these spaces of accountability that we're not chastising ourselves and putting ourselves down, that we're actually encouraging ourselves to be empowered, to continue to develop our tools and to continue to grow our spaces of health and wellness and, you know, adaptability.
The planet is changing, so how are we going to adapt with it? Humans are evolving. How are we going to adapt with this and be able to thrive in these experiences? And, you know, I understand that, you know, the way this dialect went, it sounded very heavy. I have a lot of play with the work that I do. If I didn't have play, I would not be able to access my tools. That's why I have the name Natnat.
So when people around me, they see the lightness because your nervous system needs play to be able to be deactivated. If you're too serious, it becomes too constricted. So although some of these topics that I spoke about feel heavy, it's just being able to engage with them in a different way that, oh, there is play that I don't have to take this on as a responsibility. There's something higher that's in control of all of this and how do I show up to do my part and how do I still stay tethered with joy despite all of the es and flows of what life is going to present me with experiences.
[00:46:36] Speaker A: That is wonderful.
How can people learn more? How can they find you, get in touch with you?
Where do we find you online?
[00:46:47] Speaker B: I have a website, liftoneself.com that's L I F T O N E S E L f dot com.
You can find some meditations on there. If you want to book a 15 minute discovery call to see if we can work together that's accessible. Also, whatever events I'm doing, they're on there. I'm also on social media, on Instagram, Facebook, a little bit of TikTok where I leave, you know, little inspirations, little quotes, little, you know, parts of my own story to empower people to still continue to show up and be valid with whatever like social media. Like you said, it's so polished and everybody's in always in a high state state like there's a such thing as this toxic positivity that does a lot of harm to people. You, you cannot always be in a high elevated state. That's just humanly impossible unless you're doing a lot of bypassing. There's going to be some experiences that are going to bring up dense energies and it's to be able to have a proper relationship with those so that they don't keep you down for long, that they can be passed through and that you can remember, you know, what the growth is and everything else. So you find me on social media, you find me on the, my website. And if at any time there was anything in this conversation that you know, triggered your limbic system that was like, oh wait a minute, that sounds familiar. Or you saw yourself in my story, just reach out, send me an email, send me a DM. And I also have a podcast called lift oneself.com and the main intention of that podcast is to remove the stigma surrounding mental health. So I have guests from all over the world that talk about different modalities or talk about their own personal stories. And Ramsey, I'd love to have you as a guest on my show so that you can share your insights and experiences with the listeners.
[00:48:46] Speaker A: That sounds great. Let's make that happen. Natnat, this was a really great conversation for me. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate the way in which you're encouraging people to look within themselves to be honest with themselves, to try to understand what they're feeling and to try to communicate with their own bodies. You know, I think that that's, I don't know if that's a lost art, if that's something that people maybe, certainly I think some people do that very intuitively, but many, many people don't. And I don't hear a lot of messages or people certainly not from like mainstream kind of sources giving that message of connecting honestly with themselves. I mean, I guess in many ways people give really kind of shallow reflection of that, but I haven't ever heard anyone articulate it as well and as deeply as you. So thank you so much for your time and thank you for joining us.
[00:49:57] Speaker B: It's been an honor. And thank you so much for again having me in a very vulnerable state, a very, you know, I'm in the crux of the fragility of life. So I really appreciated this conversation and I thank you for creating a different wavelength in the platforms and, you know, letting people hear more profound, more in depth conversation. Ramsey, it's truly, truly appreciated. So thank you for all that you do. And I just want to remind you to please remember to be kind to yourself because you matter.
[00:50:33] Speaker A: Thank you, thank you, thank you for asking. What's worthwhile visiting visit whatsworthwhile.net to learn more about me, Ramsey Zimmerman and please provide your name and email to become a supporter. I'm asking for prayer, advice, feedback and connections. The what's Worthwhile podcast is on Spotify, Apple, Iheart and Amazon. You can also
[email protected] thanks.
