Episode Transcript:

The Nourished Mama - Ep 10

Courtney, welcome to the nourish [00:01:00] from a podcast. I am so honored and excited to have you on here. I know so many mamas are going to benefit from this episode, so I can't wait for you to share your wisdom and your knowledge with us. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. When you reached out, I was like, yes, we've connected for quite some time, but we've never actually had a conversation like this to share.

So I'm very excited. Exactly. And I have just loved following your journey, love to see your passion in this space and just the way you support women, particularly mamas, and just the way people feel heard and seen when they come to your platform is so beautiful. So I knew I had to have you on here. I am just going to give everybody a little background on you, and then we're going to kick things going because I know so many people are going to be curious to hear what you have to say.

So guys, Courtney is best known for her direct work in the nervous system, and she does this through conscious energetic alignment, breath work, and deep meditation. She [00:02:00] supports women in processing emotional suppression, releasing stored tension and finding true peace within their minds and bodies. Her work is closely rooted in honoring the body's innate wisdom, helping you not just heal, but truly feel at home within yourself.

I think that is just an incredible intro. You are such a beautiful woman, Courtney. Can you give us. Sorry about that. Can you give us a little background into you and how did you actually get into this space? I would love to know. Absolutely. So I started in this space,many years ago. but I became certified yoga teacher.

That was my first step from there. I went and became certified in breath work in meditation, body energetics and in Reiki. So I did my, all my Reiki certificates. and I adapted this approach and I think out of context, my work sounds a little bit out there. [00:03:00] It sounds a little bit different.

And I always say, if you haven't really come to a session and experienced it, it is definitely difficult to imagine. so basically, like you said, I work directly with the nervous system. and when I first started out, I quickly realised that people and I generally work with women and a lot of the people I work with the mothers I started to realise that just doing yoga or just doing breath work just wasn't quite enough.

Yes amazing I love All of those modalities, but I felt like we needed a little bit more. so I went, really deep into, nervous system regulation research, and I learned all about the spine and all those sorts of things. And then a couple of years ago, I shifted the way that I did my session.

So I, I moved from yoga and I went more into the energy of the body. so I guess I adapted this kind of conscious energetic alignment, which is really working directly with the nervous system. I do have a [00:04:00] deep understanding of the human experience. So I think when we have a session, I can connect with people on that level.

And to be honest, I feel like everybody can. I just think that we're in survival and we have so much anxiety that making that connection with others is a little bit difficult for some. so to answer your question, I started with yoga and breath work and meditation and then I just adapted this kind of modality that is working really well and helping so many women.

I love that. And I think you can tell so much that it comes from a place of, you just want to be able to support them from so many angles. And I love that you've adapted that way and you haven't followed the trends. You've really stuck with what you know is going to work best and how it's going to best support people.

And I think that really shows and shines through your work. Thank you. Yeah, that's exactly right. Honestly, I feel. I used to be so a little bit of background. I used to have [00:05:00] really intense anxiety as a child. I was a very nervous child. I was always in my head, intrusive thought, and I it was just the way I was.

I was just really highly strung. And I know back then. it wasn't anxiety and that sort of thing wasn't really too much of a thing. It was just like, Oh, they're just a nervous person. and I got, I did get through life, but I did struggle and I really struggled with internalising and just going into my head so much.

And I see so many moms and even their children really following that same pattern. And I just don't, I want people to know that they don't have to feel. That way all the time it. Yes, it is. Obviously you are not going to feel 100 percent all the time. That's not realistic. Life ebbs and flows, but having a baseline of anxiety where you wake up and you just feel, that impending doom sense of feeling like you just don't feel quite right.

And I think a lot of moms, especially. They have just become [00:06:00] so accustomed to that feeling that they do think it's normal. It's their baseline. And I am passionate about saying, hey, you know what? That's not your baseline. Your baseline is homeostasis, which is just that grounding chilled level. And then you can experience stress, but come back down.

So I just, yeah, I feel like I just want all mums to get to a place where they have That anchor, that kind of inner peace that they can come back to when the world is a little bit turbulent. Yeah, I love that. That's so important. Because like you said, we're not going to always have good days. And I think as well that with the world of social media as well, it's so hard not to compare, but I think a lot of people look from the outside and even with both of us having, that larger influence, it's so important that people understand that this is a small percentage of our lives.

I, always try and make sure that I do share the downs as well when I can, even though I obviously don't always feel so comfortable to share those things. But I think it's important for people to know [00:07:00] that I do have my down days as well, but it's all these things that I practice daily that help me come back to that middle state.

Like you said, that calm state where I can come back to. And I think that's so important to recognise. So I love that you said that it's not always going to be the best day, but just having these small practices that you can use to come back to a calmer state is just so powerful. Yeah, absolutely.

And it's the same with children. I have some people when they come and see me in session and they, talk about, Oh, it's so great. The things you do with your boys and whilst, yeah, I do definitely. Try with them, but they're still normal Children. They still have meltdowns. Yesterday I said to one of my clients, you can hear him screaming in the background, right?

Like they only do see a small percentage, but as often as they do have their meltdowns. I still try and practice. Finding that sense of equanimity for myself and then being able to create a space for them so they can have their [00:08:00] meltdowns just like I can have my anxious days, but then we both can come back and I was explaining to a client just this morning.

She said, my, my son goes into meltdowns that last an hour and I just, I feel so triggered by it and she's I try and implement the things you, you post about. But it just doesn't work for him. I just feel like he just doesn't hear me. And I explained that when a child is having the meltdown and you're feeling a certain way, you need to acknowledge how you feel, find that trigger, find that kind of pivot point, notice how you're feeling first, create that space and take that breath for you.

And then. Allow what is happening to be there. Don't be in resistance to the situation and then moving up when the meltdowns over and you've created that space or whatever happens when they are then in a better kind of frame of mind, then you practice this sort of stuff. So it doesn't have to be, when someone's melting down, you don't have to all of a sudden turn into a Buddhist monk.

You just have to practice [00:09:00] these skills. in the right time. Does that make sense? Yeah, no, I love that because I think a lot of the time we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as mom to say the right thing, to be calm, to, in the moment, we, there's all this pressure that we have to. be the right way in order to stop the meltdown, but that's not really what it's about.

So I love that you said it that way. Yeah. Thank you. I just, I feel passionate about telling people that, like you said, you like to share, you like to share the downs as well. And I think it's important that people can connect with you on that level. And when I have clients, a lot of women, they come in and they sit down and they feel like they are the only one.

They feel like. I'm so anxious and this and that, and I see other people and how can they deal with, motherhood so well, and I really tell them, you are not the only one, you, the way you feel, I've had hundreds of clients feel the same way, so I don't want anyone to feel alone or like they're strange or different because that's [00:10:00] just not the case.

No, we're all in it together and motherhood is one hard journey and we're all just trying to figure it out. So I love that you're able to share that with everybody. Are you able to tell us what are some of the biggest limitations and negative beliefs mamas holding on to? Okay. The biggest thing that I see with mothers is, it sounds strange, but they store it in their throat and it is an underlying sense of just not quite worthy, just not quite doing enough, being enough.

And I guess this correlates well with your work because I find, because they don't feel that innate sense of worthiness, they take on more than they can carry. So they take on, and let's, let's be real, in motherhood, we do a lot. We cook, we clean, we get the kids to school, we work, there's so many things we do, and we continue to take more and more on, [00:11:00] and it leads to burnout.

And this isn't physical, it's not, you're not, it's not a physical tired, it's an emotional and a mental, drain that then leads. to physical symptoms of burnout. So I really find mothers being very hard on themselves. And when we get through the layers and the emotional suppression, It generally comes from a long time ago, like even childhood, just not quite feeling worthy.

They don't feel like they're doing enough or being enough. And it, it actually sits in that throat center. And if you're listening and maybe you can resonate with this, you feel, You get that congestion in the throat. You feel like there's a bit of a knot, just not quite feeling free.

And that's how it physically shows up in the body. And that's how I can feel it for different clients. When you want to cry, let's just say, for example, when you want to cry, but you're out in public or you're in a work meeting and you just, you feel that emotion, but you don't allow yourself to cry.

[00:12:00] You feel that frog in the throat. So you actually feel like that congestion that is not a frog in your throat. That is quite literally you suppressing that emotional charge. that was designed to be released through tears, through releasing cortisol. so I feel like so many mamas, they just, they suppress, they continue to take on.

And they just not, they're not finding the right avenues to, to really start to heal and to release the emotional suppression. It makes total sense. Like when you said it that way, when you're just about to start crying, but you hold it back. It's all coming back. But you do, you feel it in your throat, don't you?

You do. You absolutely. And I always say like when, look up, don't cry. And then you're like, Oh, hold on. I'm supposed to release tears this way. And, but society stops that. Like you can't just go to a work meeting and start bawling. Like I get it. We, there's this social norm that we have to abide by and that's okay.

It's not. [00:13:00] Emotional suppression, it's not the worst thing in the world, because you can process those emotions. But you need to be taught how to do it. And if you can do that over and over again, you have this baseline and life is just, you just live life with a little bit more ease. Yes. I love that. And in terms of specific,limiting beliefs and emotions, the guilt, the, the shame, whatever it might be, is there particular ones that you see that women, especially mums hold onto?

I know in my, when I do my programs. One of the biggest ones that I see is that they actually don't believe that they can live a healthy life. They don't believe it. And I always say, you need to be able to work through that limiting belief because it's not true. It's just a story. It's not true. And we have power to change that.

But before they can believe in themselves accomplishing this health journey, there are so [00:14:00] many emotions that sit behind. Why they don't believe. Do you tend to see, I think this is, goes for a lot of women, not just mums. What are some of the biggest beliefs that they hold on to? So when it comes to limiting beliefs, this is so much deeper than just thinking, Oh, I can't do it.

Or just not having confidence. It's so much deeper than that. And it generally comes from years of emotional suppression from many years ago. there's the limiting beliefs. that sits so deeply within the body and again, it comes back to lack of self worth or not feeling good enough.

and even not knowing, just literally not knowing what your opinion is, not really knowing who you are. And I like to say if you think about yourself at a computer and you've got your tab open and you're working on your computer and you're focusing on this one spreadsheet, but you've got 1000 tabs open in the back.

This is that subconscious mind. This is that programming where your limiting beliefs are literally running your life in autopilot. they sit [00:15:00] there and the reason why women probably come into your program and they don't have that belief that they can do it is because all of their pre programming is so deeply ingrained in their brain and in their body that they just can't, they can't feel past it.

I will always advocate for you can't think your way out of things, but you can feel your way out of things. So I think those limiting beliefs, they can absolutely be shifted. Women just have to find the root of it, why they feel that way, and then help them not release it, not let go, not delete it, because we can't do that with emotions, we're human beings, but we can create a capacity in our body to hold on to those emotions.

So when you have that limiting belief pop up, like I, I can't do this. I'm not good enough. You can feel where you feel that in the body, breathe into that, practice all the different tools that we have and just watch that space create. And then what, one of the things I really love, which is when we talk [00:16:00] about limiting beliefs is when I work with clients.

One of the things they always fear, judgment, they always fear criticism or being seen. So even showing up on social media, right? Showing up on social media, they're afraid to post something. They're afraid to, put their opinion out there in case. about them or their friends, don't agree with that.

And, or even they self sabotage themselves or they filter themselves by muting people from their story. okay, I won't show that person because they might judge me. And all they're doing is feeding this idea that they're not good enough. and it's funny to watch because. There's patterns, there is so many patterns of women doing this over and over again until we can actually break that pattern.

And the crazy part about it is a lot of them do it from a subconscious state as well. So they don't even realise that they're doing it, which is the crazy part. And this is what I always say when it ends up controlling their whole life and even their everyday [00:17:00] actions.something that for me, which was one of my biggest limiting beliefs was that for a long time,what's this person going to think?

Or what's this person that I went to school with going to think? Or, oh, I'm not going to post that or whatever. One of my biggest testaments, and I truly can say this, and the reason I have had so much success in the last few years is working through it. Only that particular limiting belief, I can honestly put 99 percent of my success down to that, is I genuinely worked through not worrying about what other people think.

Being my complete self, and what has come from that has been absolutely profound. And what I tell a lot of people is that when you do that, when you create an action based on what someone else is going to think, you are giving that person power over your life. You have given them complete power over your life and you've allowed them to take away things from you.

That person that you were [00:18:00] so worried about has taken away your time, your memories, your money, your everything from you. So look at it that way and then that can really start to shift why you're worrying so much about what other people think. Yeah, that's it. And I feel like when, same situation for me, I think I.

Self sabotaging away when I first started because, my old job, I worked in the media and then all of a sudden I was into mindfulness and I really had this kind of, oh, people were thinking like, what is she doing? Like she was a reporter and now she's doing this. it's very different.

And when I wholeheartedly. Went in and did all the inner work and really thought I generally at my soul don't care what they think. And that's when things pivoted for me as well. That's when things changed for me as well. So I can very much relate to. , if you want to be successful, and I know this isn't a business chat, but if you want to be successful, you have to be authentic and the energy behind the content that you create, If it is [00:19:00] not real, if it is not authentic, it is not going to land and it can't be real and authentic If you have these limiting beliefs that you're not good enough, bottom line. And I think a lot of people put authenticity down to just being truthful, but it's actually not only about that. Like you just said, it's also about you.

taking away that barrier where you're worrying so much about what somehow someone is going to perceive your opinion, what you say, how you show up, because when you're worrying about what someone else thinks, then you're not showing up authentically. But I know it's not a business chat, but we can both.

be a testament to this where if we hadn't worked through a lot of our limiting beliefs, our businesses wouldn't be where they are today. you didn't have any business strategy. You can work with some of the best people in the industry, but if you don't work on your mindset, you will never succeed. So yes, a bit of a tangent, but.

We'll just leave that there. Now, we did touch on this a little bit, but [00:20:00] with those limiting beliefs, with those emotions that a lot of these mums hold on to, how do you see them manifest physically throughout, actions and things like that?I am a very big believer of, obviously, the energy of the body.

our body doesn't end at our physical body. It's scientifically proven that there's an energetic field two to three feet around us. if you're a bit more in tune with yourself and more aligned, you know that. You go out, you see someone, you have a conversation and you feel off. They're just not right, or the vibe isn't right.

energy is, It would be silly to not think that energy is everything and everywhere. so when it comes to the energy of the body, certain things that we store, I believe that you can go a long time storing things and feel,I'm okay. Yeah, I'm all good. Everything's fine. But eventually your cup will fill up and it will overflow.

And what that looks like is different for everyone, but it can cause physical sickness. It can show up as lower back pain. It can show up as a [00:21:00] persistent sore throat. It can show up as acne. it can show up as dermatitis, heart problems. Honestly, so many different things. in terms of the way somebody carries themselves physically, limiting beliefs and self sabotage show up in Not trusting you and just not knowing really who you are, not putting yourself out there, not doing the thing that is on your heart, that you really want to do out of all of that fear, everything that's swirling around in the body, it shows up that way.

And also. Just not feeling safe and safety in the body is a massive thing to feel, truly feel safe and at peace in your body. It's very powerful and it saddens me that, a lot of people are living their life every day, just not feeling that. it's heartbreaking to see. It is so heartbreaking to see and that's why I love what you do because even just to get someone to a point where they can feel safe.

in their own body and come back to that, common ground that you mentioned. It's just, it can change someone's life completely. [00:22:00] So yeah. And those physical symptoms as well, I think we don't talk about this enough, especially in mothers. I think I, I touched on this with you when we were off camera, but.

I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition, seven, eight years ago. And obviously I completely overhauled my physical life. I studied nutrition. I went on an anti inflammatory diet to reduce the inflammation in my body. So incredible results. I was off my medication within months, which they told me would never be possible.

But one thing that. I was missing for a long time was that mindset piece of the work. And when I truly delved into that part of my health, that's when I started noticing more of the physical symptoms repair themselves. just to that next level, I no longer have flare ups, my skin dramatically got better.

I, wasn't getting bloated. I didn't have IBS anymore. I was even diagnosed with PCOS and [00:23:00] endometriosis at one point, and I've had no physical symptoms for three years now of any of those, diagnosis. And I can honestly say that is a testament to also working on my mindset piece, which is

huge and working through those limiting beliefs. And I think we don't talk enough about that in the health space where a lot of these symptoms are associated to trauma in the body. and I'm hoping that we'll be able to talk about that a lot more in the medical space, in the health space. And it's just so important.

there are actually studies coming out now that have linked to autoimmune disease. To,basically 80 percent of diagnosis of autoimmune disease are in women. And a lot of that percentage is mothers. And a lot of that stems from being the people pleaser, holding onto, judgment, fear, shame, like all those emotions that we hold onto in the body.

And I know that is a bit of a, people might be listening, going, what the hell is she [00:24:00] talking about? Like autoimmune disease and trauma in the body. But I think people are going to be opening their eyes a lot more to that in the near future.

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I think so. And if you're listening to this and thinking, what the hell, you're not going to like the rest of what I'm going to talk about, but trauma, I think it's coming a long way.

I think, years and years ago, it would have been classified as very woo woo. And some people probably still use that term, but trauma. if we talk about an emotion, an emotion is the end result of an experience. So you have an experience, based off of your experience, you feel an emotion.

If you do not process that emotion correctly, it will become stored in your body. emotions are not felt in the mind, they're not felt in the head, they're actually felt and stored within, the sites on [00:26:00] the body. None of us learn how to process emotions, and they have become stored and a lot of the time, they're not great emotions, so anger.

Resentment, grief. Grief is a big one and they do, they become stored in the cells in the tissue of the body and they eventually cause issues. So when I talk about one of my, I never really use the word energy healing, just because I don't know, but I use the conscious energetic alignment, which is working energy through the body, working with the energetic layer of your body.

Figuring out where you are storing emotional suppression, more often I can tell you what it is, and helping you create that space in the body. I do it with,energy work, obviously, with the way that we move the breath through your body, the way that you get into that subconscious, start to rewire the patterning and When you come into a session, you don't even have to be a full believer.

And I welcome skeptics. I really welcome them [00:27:00] because I love to see the transformation post session. And I think when, you come into a session, most people are quite nervous. There's I don't know what to expect, but I was very curious and, I am open minded and we we work through the body and every session may be a little bit different.

If you think about all the years that you have suppressed, things are going to come up at different times. There's different layers, but one of the main points. Let's talk about mothers and women. The main points I find very, deep emotional storing, is generally from the throat all the way down to the stomach.

So the heart center, the solar plexus and the stomach. if there's fertility issues and stuff like that, it will be felt in the hips. but. it is so very, you can feel it. and when we do a session, the client can feel it. It shows up in different ways. The sessions aren't comfortable. You're not coming in to relax.

it's definitely not comfortable at all. but the wonderful thing about this work is. You don't [00:28:00] have to attach a thought to your feeling. You don't have to sit there and go, Oh, I'm feeling this grief in my chest feels tight. It's definitely because I lost my grandparent. Like you don't have to have the thought.

You just have to feel the feeling, let the emotional charge peak. And then with my help, we can allow that to soften rather than feeling the emotion, having it peak and then suppressing it. And that's where we run into the trouble is nobody. Everyone is in resistance to their environment. Nobody wants to feel the hard things and you just simply cannot duck and weave and dodge your emotions.

Like you have no choice, but to sit with them and feel them so that they don't take up so much space in your body. That's so important. One of the exercises I get my clients to do even in week one is, we go through a few limiting beliefs and I ask them to write them down, obviously change them into a positive belief.

We know that doesn't change overnight, but the power of taking that [00:29:00] action to just simply write it out is so powerful. And another part that we do is I ask. them when they have a little bit more time towards the end of the program to spend a couple of hours, actually just writing about their entire life,

And I have had people message me back with the most incredible messages of things that came up for them and just the power of going, okay, that was a really negative experience. Now I understand why I do this. Maybe I can try and say this to myself instead. Now, that is so simple, so surface level, I know, compared to what you do, and that's why I really wanted to have you on here, just to, how people can go to that next level.

But you know yourself, just the power of acknowledging, because I think so many people just walk around with this trauma, but don't even know. They don't even know that they're holding onto it. and it's not necessarily so much about knowing where it comes from. It's just trying to figure out the trigger [00:30:00] point, which is exactly what you touched on.

Exactly. And it's not about going, okay, this happened to me, poor me. This is where it came from. And this is why I feel like that. I just have to, do this to forget about that. It's not, that's not what it's about. When you journal your whole life, it's finding those trigger points and how to be able to, again, come back to that on a more positive light.

Now, I know you touched on this a little bit, and we know that, again, like we've said, a lot of these beliefs do stem from trauma, and we know that we can't just get rid of trauma, but what are some things that we can do to help transform these beliefs into a more positive light? What are some other activities that you might have for mums?

Absolutely. you hit the nail on the head when you said it's not about, Remembering and thinking, okay, I'm like this because this happened to me. It's about finding that pattern in your own life. Exactly. Like you said, and finding your trigger now. Often, especially as [00:31:00] mums, when we are triggered, we will misdirect our anger.

for example, let's just say our child is having a meltdown or we're not getting help or whatever, and sometimes we get angry at our partner. But we're not angry at our partner, but we're misdirecting that anger. you start to notice patterns, finding self awareness. what you do at the start of your program is perfect because you simply cannot start your healing journey unless you have self awareness.

You need to cultivate self awareness and go into those parts that are uncomfortable because your brain will want to protect you. It will become defensive. You won't want to explore, your toxic behavior and my toxic behavior And the brain does that because the brain is designed to keep you safe.

It's not designed to make you feel happy. so first things first, self-awareness. So cultivating that first, and then moving through the rest of the layers. So in terms of some simple exercises you can do, breath work is obviously amazing. The simple box breath, which [00:32:00] you've spoken about before.

Inhale for four, hold for four. Exhale for four, hold for four. This is a good way to help you. regulate your nervous system. If we go deeper and everything I do is deep, I don't do anything surface level. but the activation or the holotropic breath, which is in through the nose, no pause at the top out of the mouth, no pause at the bottom, long breath holds.

This is a very good technique for you to, and I normally say do that with a trained practitioner because it does bring up a lot, lots of different sensations in the body, but it can. It can really make you understand where you're storing. So if you start your breath and I find a lot of women breathe wrong, they, when they inhale, everything lifts up, they breathe into the chest and then they let it go.

Whereas your inhalation, if you're listening to this at home, just take a second and do a natural breath. You should be breathing in and your belly expanding. And then when you exhale, then the belly should retract, not the other way around. So [00:33:00] even as simple as becoming aware of that in your everyday life, set an alarm for, every hour and just follow the breath.

I'm just going to watch as the breath comes in. I'm filling up the belly. I'm going to watch as it's released. Little things like that are incredible. A great place to start. And of course we can build on that and we can go deeper and deeper, but I will also always advocate for meditation. And I say this to every single person and I will shout this from the rooftop.

You do not meditate wrong. You cannot meditate wrong. And people say to me all the time,no, I cannot meditate. I can't shut my mind off. Do you get that? yeah, because in, in my program, every week we meditate and I actually, every week do the same speech where it's okay, so you're not meditating wrong.

You don't need to find a really quiet place amongst trees and nature. Any form of meditation is. a form of meditation and it's just that action of saying, I'm going to take this time for myself. [00:34:00] That in itself is powerful and that in itself is meditating. I'm going to take the next two minutes for myself.

That's it. Exactly. And like you just said, you don't have to sit down and really, okay, I'm going to blank my mind. There's nothing here. I'm a monk. that's not what you do. My best tip for anyone who says, no, I can't meditate is sit down. If you feel comfortable and safe and you can do close off the eyes.

You already block 80 percent of stimuli out. And then this is not about blanking and stopping thoughts. We are human beings. We have intrusive thoughts. It's the way we are designed. What it is about is. Popping out of your thoughts and becoming the observer, noticing sitting back and going, okay, I'm a human being and I'm sitting here.

Oh, there's an intrusive thought. Okay. I'm thinking about what I have to cook for dinner and labeling every single thought you literally may have to do it a thousand times. But when we practice non resistance, we don't jump into that intrusive thought and go down this tangent. A worst case [00:35:00] scenario, you come back to baseline over and over again, and the more times you do this, truly, you practice that skill of noticing, the easier it becomes, and you create this mental awareness and like karate in the brain.

Where your body doesn't, it's not activated due to an intrusive thought and you create a beautiful space. it takes consistency, but it is absolutely something that you can find. 100 percent and it's just getting to a point where you're not being controlled by that. Thought and you're controlling the thought.

That's what we want to get to. I tell my clients to look at their thoughts as bubbles above their head. I love that. And just okay, that bubble of a thought has popped up and then just picture yourself slowly pushing it to the side with a little bit of air. and I just, I personally still do that.

I've been meditating for three, three and a half years now. And even I. Still do that. I still, to this day, even though I meditate daily, I don't think I've ever [00:36:00] probably a handful of times gotten through a 20 minute meditation with not one thought, but majority of the time my meditations are for my thoughts to appear and for me to be able to take control over them and say to them, okay, I know you're there, but this is my time.

So can you just go over there for a little bit. And that's what I do.and I think that in itself is just so powerful and it gives us that little bit of control over our thoughts and that in itself can change our everyday actions and the way the rest of our day plays out. Definitely. And I find also that when we drop into the body and when we work with the energy of the body and create space, When you find safety in your body, it no longer sends signals to your brain that there is a threat and you find that a lot of those intrusive thoughts will naturally soften and you fall into this really beautiful kind of inner smoothness.

it's not always, it doesn't, it's not, 24, 7, 7 days a week, but you do start to, with consistency, find that safety in the [00:37:00] body. The mind then feels safe. And you just, yeah, you have this inner smoothness. Let's go with that word. And I think you also are able to get to a point where you might look at that thought while you're meditating and it actually doesn't actually feel as bad as what you thought it was.

doesn't feel as intrusive when you look at it from that perspective as well. I think I've found that in the past as well, where I've thought something is so bad and so consuming. But when I've looked at it from a point of meditation, I go, Oh, it's actually not so bad. And I can manage things. I can work through it.

So yeah, I love meditation. I think every mama needs meditation in her life. And I think, like you said, we need to get away from this perspective where it needs to be this perfect setting, this perfect set of time, this perfect energy, breath flow. It's not about that. No, 100%. And I, if I can give one tip and one advice to moms who, are [00:38:00] potentially struggling right now, it would be to try and not be in resistance to your environment.

Try as often as you can to not be in resistance, to sit down, to practice a sense of equanimity, which just means Whatever's happening right now for me, internally, externally, I'm gonna be okay with it, even if it's for a few moments, even if it's during my meditation, even when my child is having a full blown meltdown, even when I have to do the groceries and the tax and this and that, if you're not in, resistance to your environment, I truly find being in resistance is putting you So deeply into survival mode and so deeply into defense mode that you just you can't find that kind of inner smoothness and all of the work that I do and that you do and you bring it all together and you can create This safe feeling in the body.

You can do that. Definitely. I love that. I always say this, 80 percent of one's successful physical health journey comes from mindset. Even being a nutritionist, I tell all my [00:39:00] clients. That I can give you all the meal plans under the sun, but if you're not focusing on your mindset, you won't be able to maintain the lifestyle it will make maintaining and staying consistent.

A lot of that comes from working on your mindset and without a strong mindset, it's so hard to have a successful journey and maintain that healthy lifestyle. Like I just mentioned, what are some practical tips you can give mamas right now to start cultivating that positive mindset? I know you mentioned meditation.

Breath work. What are some other things they can do to start just seeing things in that more positive light and not letting those thoughts be so overconsuming for them. So there is a few different techniques that I give. clients. So one is notice and reset.

So basically, when you have that, negative thought come up or limiting belief or you feel down on yourself because you didn't follow your, plan, your meal plan T. You need to notice. So firstly, [00:40:00] back to that self awareness, I notice, I am aware of this. Where does this feel in my body?

Okay. I feel a bit anxious about it or in my chest, I feel a bit guilty. There's a bit of shame that I can't do this. Other people can, and I just don't have the discipline. Sit down, notice, where do I feel that in my body? Okay. There it is. Don't overthink it. You will feel sensations in your body. Your body will always communicate with you.

It will always communicate with you, but we are so highly strong that we can't tune in and listen. So practicing, I noticed what has happened. I noticed my trigger. I am self aware. Okay. Where do I feel it in my body? How do I reset that? So how do I change that? one, I work on forgiving myself firstly, always forgiving.

 when we forgive, where even if we forgive someone else, we're forgiving for ourselves. So forgiving, allowing that to be as it is, we're not resisting. And then what can we do now to move things along? What can we do to,to not make up because we don't need to make up for the mistakes that we've made, but what is a healthier [00:41:00] choice that we can make now?

Healthier in terms of food and mindset. so that really that noticing and then resetting that over and over again, it's the same concept of sitting down in a meditation, noticing your thoughts, accepting they're there observing them, becoming curious about them, and then watching them float on by and you do it over and over again.

 you get to a point where there's this real shift in your mindset and this becomes a lot easier to do and when you master the skill of non resistance and equanimity, it trickles out into everyday life, it trickles to your family, the way you interact with your friends or any conflict that you're dealing with your friends or in business and you really start to notice.

So when you find that self awareness, find that place that you feel it in the body, potentially where you're storing it. reset that, do your breath work, move that energy into that space, allow it to be settled, and then go ahead and doing it over and over again and not waiting, like you said earlier, not waiting for the perfect time.

I'm not gonna start [00:42:00] this on Monday. I'm gonna start this right now. I'm gonna start this in this moment, right now. we don't, oh, I'll start the diet on Monday. no, we start in this moment because the present moment is really all we have.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, definitely. And I think as well, when you are able to even just, working that way and taking that and acknowledging that emotion, being able to move past it as well, it helps you stem away from perfection as well, which is what I found. I think that a lot of the time. As women, especially mamas, we put this pressure on ourselves to do things perfectly, and if we can't do it perfect, then we don't do it at all, and I think that's your biggest downfall.

I think that's women's biggest downfall. At the end of the day, every action you take is a step towards success. Healing towards a better you. And I think when you're able to work through those emotions, it helps you build resilience towards yourself, where it's not so much about the [00:43:00] resilience towards having this perfect health routine.

It's actually quite the opposite. It's the resilience to go, okay, I wasn't perfect today, but I'm going to give it a go tomorrow. I'm not just going to throw in the towel. And I think that's what it really comes down to because. Nobody has the perfect routine. I don't have the perfect routine.

Yeah, there are many things that I do now that have taken me years where, you know, yeah, I do sometimes work out twice a day, which had to be very unusual, but then I also have a week where I don't feel like it at all. And I'm able to go, okay, I had a shitty week. But I can come back from that rather than going, okay, I haven't done it, so I'm just not going to do it and then six months goes down the track.

And you're like, okay, how did I get to this point? I think being able to work through that and go, okay, it doesn't have to be perfect. that's what we want to get to. We don't want to get to that resilience and consistency, which means that things have to be perfect. It's actually quite the opposite. It is. And that's coming back to that inner smoothness, literally that inner smoothness. I'm [00:44:00] not in resistance to my environment. I trust myself, I forgive myself and when I get something wrong or when I get knocked down, I get back up and I keep going and I do it over and over again.

So that inner smoothness, I feel like that's the sentence for our podcast today. I love that. Now, Courtney, tell us a little bit more about how people can actually work with you. So I know you do the one on one sessions. You've got your app. I do. Yes. So it's called Align and Awaken and I created this.

It is a purely audio based app. So basically you sign in, there's a dropdown, you choose how you're feeling. Okay. Right now I'm struggling with anxiety. Click on that. It will take you to a whole bunch of anxiety. meditation audios. if you're struggling to sleep at night, you click on the nighttime routine.

 it is completely audio based and There's a lot in terms of energetic alignment. So I also have classes in there that you can do at home, whereas I'm guiding you through how to move that energy through the body, how to pinpoint [00:45:00] that emotional suppression. So I put that all into this one place, by audio, because, Let's be real, who has time to film a thousand videos a day, literally.

 so I made it as simple as I can. And so people can put their headphones in and they can listen rather than having to overcommit with watching things. so I do have that, other ways you can work with me is through my one on one sessions, which. Have progressively got extremely popular, which is amazing and I'm very grateful, but I'm one person.

So it's sometimes hard to fit everyone in. so you come to a session and you will experience the energetic alignment. I don't. Really? We talk at the end, but I don't really need to know much about you. to begin, I just need you tolay there and breathe with me,follow what I'm saying.

And then we work our way through it. so you can book in for one of those sessions or you can do, I'm actually offering like month coaching for. People that really need to go deep. So some people are well on their healing [00:46:00] journey and they, would just love one session and, some meditations, but the coaching really is it's that in depth we do four conscious energetic alignment sessions.

I personalise meditations, breath work, and audios. for you. and then we, it's for the person that needs that consistent, okay, what do I do today? I wake up, I press this, I do this. so I also offer that as well, but it's all it all links in very well. It's all about emotional suppression and direct nervous system regulation.

So there's a way for people to connect with you on all different ways, which I absolutely love, because I know a lot of people might not be local listening, because you are based in south of Sydney. So if you are around Sydney, I would definitely recommend getting in touch with Courtney, but if not, there are so many other ways you can connect with her and use her to your advantage.

I love that you launched that app. That's amazing. Thank you. Yeah. It was something that I've been wanting to do. For a long time. I just felt like I don't [00:47:00] know. I just felt like it was needed and the meditations are short. So they range from about 5 minutes and the longest is 25 minutes. So there's mamas can fit it into their day because I'm very realistic.

I have 2 small children have a 1 year old and a 5 year old. So I get it. Trying to find that time is difficult. so yeah, and if anybody is thinking, how do you do energy work over zoom? It's. I understand that question, but you need to know that, energy is not. It's not bound by time. It's not bound by space.

it's nothing to do with that. And, our minds are a little bit acute, so we can't really understand, but connecting with someone the way that you and I are doing, it's the exact same as if I'm with you in person. So it works the same. You will have the same sensation in the body. I will pick up the same.

trauma and suppression as I would in person. And to be honest, I really, it's 50 50. I see so many people, online and just the same amount come and see me in studio. at least everyone has a chance to be able to connect with you, which I think is so important in [00:48:00] this space as well. because.

Yeah. Having that option to, have those meditations in your pocket, or have those sessions with you is just wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing all that incredible knowledge and wisdom, Courtney. I know so many people are going to love this episode and resonate with it. If you want to reach out to Courtney, where can everyone find you?

What was your Instagram account? So my Instagram account is bendbycourtney. It's that was my, when I started doing yoga, it was, that was my business name and I've just kept it. So it's just bendbycourtney. and if you would like to reach out on my website, it's just www. bendbycourtney. com. Amazing. And I'm sure people can DM you as well, which is amazing.

And we will pop all those links in the show notes. Thank you so much, Courtney. Wonderful. Thank you. It was so nice to actually finally properly speak to you. So thank you for having me. Oh, I love it. See you soon.