Angie Berrett - The Healing Power of Play
In this fantastic episode, trauma survivor and intuitive movement coach Angie Berrett reveals how play and movement unlock hidden pathways to healing, even for those with seemingly invisible wounds. From land to paddleboard, discover how playful practices can balance body and mind, inviting you to rewrite your story and reclaim your inner peace.
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Transcript
Hi, welcome to the You World Order Showcase Podcast we have with us today Angie Berrett. Angie's an intuitive movement coach, a registered nurse and at advanced trauma, informed yoga instructor. And she also teaches stand up paddle board yoga which.
::We're going to talk about.
::A lot because I know she lives in Salt Lake. She also helps people relieve stress, anxiety and depression and trauma through play movements and imagination so they can help live.
::With more joy and peace in their lives.
::Welcome to the show, Angela.
::It's so great to have you.
::Thanks for having.
::Me, I'm so excited to be here.
::We had a little bit of a rocky start. We were talking about technology challenges, but we're here, we're ready. We're going so. So you just moved to Salt Lake a while ago, is that what you were saying?
::We're going.
::I did so. I grew up in Colorado. I've lived. So I grew up West Coast, but I've been living on the East Coast because I'm a registered nurse. I actually for a while was a travel nurse and I was moving all around the country and I ended up staying on the East Coast. So I've been in East Coast for the last 12 years, 10 years, and then moved back to Utah. I've lived in Utah.
::On and off, I actually graduated nursing school from the University of Utah.
::But I moved back about a year and a half ago, but so I'm not from here and I've been gone for a while, but yeah.
::OK. So we were talking about you're a paddle board yoga instructor which?
::In my mind, that's like.
::Pretty wild and I want you to explain how that works. But how did you find some place in Utah to or Salt Lake area to do paddle boarding?
::Yes, it let me explain what paddle board yoga is first. For those of you that.
::Have never heard of it.
::So paddle boards are kind of like a surfboard, but they're longer and they tend to be wider. People stand on them, and then they use a paddle to propel themselves. So it's kind of like a kayak, but you're standing. It's kind of like a surfboard, but you're standing and you have a paddle that helps you.
::Navigate the water.
::About eight years ago, a friend of mine worked at a warehouse and they had some paddle boards that had gotten damaged, so they couldn't sell them and they were going to throw.
::It away? So she asked.
::Me if I want one, wasn't I sure? Great. I'll take a free paddle board. And so I started paddle boarding. And I've practiced yoga for a number of years.
::Years. And so I thought, I'm I I'd seen an advertisement for a paddle board yoga class and I thought I don't even know what that is. I'm gonna go try it. So.
::I went out.
::On my paddle board started doing some yoga and I promptly fell it and I literally could not even stand up on it in a yoga move. But what it is it's doing yoga on this long, wider, often times it's a little bit thicker than a surfboard.
::And so it's one of truly paddle board yoga is one of the most amazing mind body practices I've ever done. Because when you do yoga on the land or when you do anything on a stationary.
::Surface your mind can wander and you don't realize till your mind is gone. But when you're on a paddle board and you start to your mind starts to wander, you get instant feedback by falling in the water. So I only like to do it when it's warm outside. I don't do it when it's cold because I don't enjoy cold water, but it is one of the best mind body practices.
::Because like I said, once your mind wanders, you fall in the water and I always tell people it's also a great lesson because falling isn't failing. It's allowing you to have the opportunity to push your body to new limits that you wouldn't otherwise do.
::So it's amazing, I.
::Love it. I'm out on my paddle board as much as I can. And so to get to the second part of your question, I live in Salt Lake City, UT which if you don't know, is a desert and water is very scarce here and especially bodies of water where you can go out and do this and.
::Not only that, but because it's a desert and it's so closely water is such a scarce commodity here, the state actually regulates.
::Any business conducted on any body of water, so I actually there are, but there are some reservoirs. So they're man made bodies of water around to go and I go up to one for those of you that know that area just outside of Park City called Jordanelle.
::Which is great. It's big enough actually, that speed boats can go on it. People water jet ski, ski, water, ski. All that kind of stuff. So it's relatively big. It's.
::But I had to go through this huge process to get approval from the state to actually teach people, paddle board yoga on it. It took me about a year to actually find somewhere where I could teach paddle board yoga to people.
::That is an amazing story. It and Park City isn't really.
::Fat close to Salt Lake. Either. I mean I've.
::Depends on where you it's.
::Got parties and stuff.
::It's about 45 minutes from me. The bigger problem is it's a higher altitude, so it's colder up there. And so the time, the season time that it, it's open where I'm willing to go in the water is shorter because it's at a higher altitude. But yeah, there's nowhere close to Salt Lake. It's a drive.
::Yeah. And I know my listeners might be thinking.
::Well, what about the Salt Lake? Well, this great.
::Salt Lake is like a marsh.
::It's not really a lake. I mean it's.
::Big, but it's very salty.
::And it stinks, inky. It's very stinky.
::Yeah, I live.
::Yeah. And actually where I go outside of Park City is closer to me than Salt Lake the actual.
::Oh, OK.
::Yeah, because Salt Lake is a big.
::Kind of sprawling metropolis these days.
::It is.
::And growing. Pretty soon it's going to be.
::Right next door to Vegas.
::So with your coaching practice, do you do you help people online as well? Do you have or?
::I do. I actually pretty much work exclusively online and I work individually as well as I have a group class that I teach.
::Is it all offline?
::And how does that look I?
::Mean you're talking about movement?
::Things along those lines it's like.
::Great question. So I am a trained yoga instructor as well as I'm a trauma informed yoga instructor. That's an additional certification that I've done and the way that it looks, I don't teach traditional yoga anymore. I've kind of pivoted, not kind of. I've completely pivoted to what I call intuitive movement.
::And it's using.
::Play and some traditional yoga moves, but not a whole lot and or adding in some play with it. So what it looks like is when I teach a group class it's run.
::Like a yoga class, it's people come. You can sign up, you can take a dropping class. I pick a theme and then we do moves around that theme and I'll explain some of the moves in just a minute. When I do individual coaching one-on-one with people, that's where it really help people delve into their negative beliefs. So we take what, a negative belief that someone is caring about themselves.
::And I'll give an example of one of mine. One of mine is. So I'm a child abuse survivor as well. That's how I got into this work. And so growing up as a child abuse survivor, I learned that I'm unlovable, based on the things that were that I experienced and that were happening to me. And so taking that negative belief that I'm unlovable, shifting it to a positive.
::Believe if I could, which would be something like I'm lovable and then sit noticing that discomfort. So when we take those negative beliefs and try and shift them into positive, most of us, especially if they're based around traumatic experiences, have this angst, this itchiness, this resist.
::And when we tap into play using playful movements, it allows us to separate from the almost the human experience or the mind the way that our minds have been wired and allows us to experience releasing build up energy, tapping into the sensory information that our body is sending.
::So that we can start to sit more in comfort of the positive affirmation or the positive belief and.
::Our bodies give us so much information that our brains aren't really registering. We're so disconnected in today's society from our bodies. And So what I do is I work to help people start to learn the language that their body is communicating with in order to know, do they need to release energy? Do they need to do a soothing movement?
::What is it that they need? And then we add play in in order to let go of the negative beliefs?
::And so all mammals I go back to our, like primal, primitive, nervous systems. We are all mammals, so humans are mammals are born with our brains pre wired. So we come out with seven things that our brains are pre wired with and play happens to be one of those pre wired.
::Circuits that we have. So if you think of how babies learn how children learn to navigate their world, it's through play and through movement. Think of how babies are learning. You know what their spatial environment.
::Is and so that helps their brains to form and to wire. And when we're adults, we still can tap into that circuitry that we have. I call it our hidden superpower, to help us rewire and rechange those negative beliefs after we learn what our bodies are trying.
::To communicate with us.
::So when I work one-on-one with clients, we work with their individual personal negative beliefs, so we can get really deep into.
::Peoples emotional angst and I really only do that when I work one-on-one with clients because I'm watching them to see to notice the signals that their body is giving, that they may not be aware of yet. And so some of those signals are like what happens with their shoulders. People's faces will start to grimace, peoples color changes.
::Depending on if you're in fight or flight, or if you're in more of a Free State, color changes based on where blood flow is going, so I only do that when I work one-on-one with clients. When I'm in the group setting, I'll pick a theme and I'll keep it so it's running like a traditional yoga class. We do moves around it.
::And people have the space to experience whatever they're experiencing, but we don't delve super deep into people's individual negative beliefs that they carry.
::Interesting so.
::I would.
::Postulate. Open it that way that it would be best to move from the personal coaching into the group coaching so that you have an opportunity to address the trauma portion before you move into the group setting where you can like.
::Bit more ingrained into your whole body system.
::I leave it up to the person's individual nervous system how they're feeling. Sometimes people feel really uncomfortable jumping deeply into their own trauma. They're not quite ready for it. They need to see, like, start to feel comfortable with feeling sensory information in a safe way. And so in that instance, I would recommend starting with the group.
::Because it gives people a chance to start to learn. OK, I can be in control.
::Oftentimes, especially for child abuse survivors, this is something that I experienced, so I'm very conscientious of it. Any type of sensory or somatic work put my system into overwhelm and shut down. Even yoga became too much for me to do as I was really processing through a lot of my child abuse because it was just too much sensory information.
::And so if someone's at that point, I would recommend starting with the group classes starting to learn to feel empowered in your body, and then moving to group coaching. And if you're not at that point where you're that overwhelmed, then group coaching. I'm sorry. Then individual coaching, releasing that.
::Comma actually, my coaching program involves that some individual coaching. So two sessions a month while also doing the class the classes because it gives different experiences of being in the body. So I like to incorporate both actually in my coaching program.
::So how would?
::I know that people know.
::That they've suffered from trauma, but what kinds of?
::What kinds of trauma victims would be more?
::Or I should say trauma survivors rather than victims, because we want to empower people to take control of their lives and be the hero of their own story. So people that have experienced issues in their lives and trauma comes in, kind of.
::All kinds of packages, but do you specialize in one area more than another? Are you like?
::So I actually specialize in child sex abuse because that's what I experienced. However, trauma impacts our body in the same way regardless of what the trauma is. And so I work with people of all traumatic backgrounds and trauma. Actually, there's two real kind of categories of trauma, trauma with a big T.
::Or trauma with the lower case T.
::And trauma with the big T so a lot of people say to me, Angie, I haven't had trauma. Your work, wouldn't, you know, really benefit me.
::Because I.
::Haven't had trauma and I say everybody has had trauma. Everybody who is human on this planet has had trauma because trauma with the.
::Right.
::Big T's are those big.
::Events like child abuse or abusive relationships.
::Medical procedures a lot of times are considered trauma with the big T car accidents, big events that happen.
::Trauma with the lower case T are those chronic life stressors that just don't ever seem to go away. Worries about money, financial security. How are you going to feed your family? Food, shelter. That chronic low grade stress that just never goes away impacts our bodies the same way that trauma big T.
::Events impact our bodies, so the result is the same. We all get this build up of energy inside our nervous systems, cause our bodies are trying to protect us. So my services work for even if you don't think you have trauma.
::I've worked with people who are like I just. I'm super stressed out and I need some relief. It works the same because our nervous systems, I take us back to our primal animal nervous systems. They're the same. And so whatever the cause is, the result is the same inside.
::When you're talking about going back to your prime.
::Well, base I it brings to mind animals. When?
::When they go through shock or.
::A lot of stress they'll often shake and humans don't really recognize that sometimes you just need to shake.
::It. Yes, that's actually I base a lot of my work off of that. You are one of the only people I've ever spoken with who's ever even heard of that. Oh my gosh, I love.
::It is. It's called this discharge of energy and there's been a lot of research done around it. Peter Levine, who it is a researcher who's done a lot of research on that. And we need because our nervous systems are built the same way as animals. They shake afterwards, or they do this discharge. And that's what my work is designed around, finding ways to get into this discharge.
::Of energy or this shake this release without going into overwhelm or shut down.
::Yeah, that's so fascinating because when I learned about that, it was just like, oh, well, that makes total sense to me. Why sometimes people do just shut down and it's like.
::Because they have all this energy that they haven't processed and they.
::Don't know how.
::To release it and you know.
::Of course, we're not taught these things. We're.
::Growing the useful things that we could.
::You know.
::I was going to say when we talk, when we're talking energy right now, a lot of times I get people saying ohh energy like woo metaphysical energy out there. You know I'm not interested and that's actually not what I'm talking about. And what animals do when we go into that fight or flight or when we're stressed. When our nervous systems.
::Thick and trying to protect us, our bodies actually release hormones. Chemical messengers. They're getting us ready to run or to fight.
::And so we're getting a build up of actual inertia energy, like swirling tornado of energy. And as humans, we tend to just stuff it down because we don't want to feel it. It's uncomfortable. And we if we never let it out, that discharge is that way to release the actual physical build up of energy. And if we just keep stuffing it down.
::And it builds and builds and builds until we blow our lid at something super little, and then we have that release of energy. We feel better until we.
::Keep stuffing it down.
::Yeah. And I like to say I'm very woo, but really all woo is the energy fields and we are all energy whether you call it woo or you call it science, you call it whatever you want. Molecules are held together.
::By energy, that's what electrons are. They're energy.
::Yes, yes.
::And they all.
::Connect together. That's what makes things solid. I used air quotes with.
::That so it's just.
::There are chemical reactions that happen in our bodies. You know, when you eat, it's a chemical reaction. The chemicals that you put into your body that.
::We call food.
::Cause your body to do certain things and when you have experiences when you have emotions, those also.
::Drive chemical reactions in your body and some of the byproducts of those chemical reactions is a release of.
::Energy the energy has to go somewhere. When?
::You yell at somebody.
::That's a release of energy coming out in the form of words, but it's sound energy.
::Or why do you move your body forcefully? You're expending energy and.
::These are just like.
::It's really not woo, it's basic science, but I like to think that Wu is just.
::Things that you can't personally explain that really are science.
::I think there there's a really big crossover between the Woo energy and in especially in this instance the physical energy.
::For sure for sure. So when you?
::When you're doing your, you're doing your yoga instruction so a.
::Lot of this stuff.
::Is all online now except the paddle board part. That's going.
::Correct that that's in person.
::To be the.
::You can come out and join.
::Her. Yeah. Come out to Utah, yeah.
::Summer starts June.
::June 1st.
::Now it's.
::It's weather dependent here depends on when.
::It warms up enough.
::I was going to say usually by July 1st, summer has officially arrived. It goes from being like 6065, Nice to 110. Just be mentally prepared and it stays that way for July and August and then we go back to normal temperatures 65.
::So does do the reservoirs get run off from the mountains?
::They do so.
::Right.
::So notice the mill till the end.
::Of August, just so you know.
::So the water's cold, but with it being really warm outside, it feels really good.
::OK, OK.
::I can imagine that doing wakeboard yoga would be like I can just. I've done yoga and I've done surfing. So just the amount of concentration to stand on a surfboard, let alone try to do balancing poses or to shift.
::Poses just like.
::It's. It's a mind body practice unlike anything else. I love it.
::Yeah, I just. I can't even wrap my words around the thought of trying to do that. I would be in the water all.
::The time I get all my.
::Exercise climbing back onto the board.
::That does happen.
::So how long are the classes when?
::You do them.
::When I do paddle board yoga, generally I take people out. So I teach private lessons for paddle board yoga. I don't do big classes, I'll do one and two person lessons.
::Because once again, I work with people I work with a lot of people who have fear of being on the water, fear of falling, fear of being in. So I do a lot of private instruction. So I take people out for an hour and a half. We paddle around, we do about a 10 minute instruction before we get on the boards where I teach people how to balance the best ways to.
::On board, we'll go out. We'll paddle for a little bit. We'll go to a spot that I already have prefigured out. We'll drop an anchor. So I have anchors attached to all my paddle boards that drop down that sit on the floor of the water bed. The reservoir that I'm in. And then there's a rope attached to it. And then the board just kind of rotates around that anchor rather than.
::Drifting off with the current so that you stay in place. Then we do yoga for about an hour and then we paddle back in so it ends up about an hour and a half for most people.
::Oh, that sounds like so much fun.
::Ohh so much fun. You'll have to come down next summer. We'll totally go.
::Yeah, I have a camper I could camp up there that would be really fun.
::What else would you like to tell the audience? I do. You have a. You actually have something that you give away healing and motion and you wanna talk about that a little bit.
::I do it.
::Yeah. So it's a, it's a guide called Healing and Motion that.
::Written at a level where it's easy to understand and it talks about, first of all how trauma impacts our body and then how play and movement can help us to connect to our bodies and each chapter, it's not. So it's not really long, but each chapter has a movement that goes along with it. To illustrate the point.
::Or the topic that I'm talking about and so it's an introduction to helping start this connection of learning the language that your body is communicating with. And one of the best examples, and I'm going to give a quick movement example, if you're OK to start.
::Because people will say to me, I don't really know what you mean by movement and play. That doesn't make sense to me because it's kind of different, not kind of. It's very different what I do. So I'm gonna invite you to do this with me if you want. You can do this seated or standing. And this is actually one of the moves that I have in the guide. So this is the type of stuff that I that I talk about and.
::So start with just a side to side sway.
::Start by letting your body just move side to side and once again you can do it. Seated. You can do it standing and start to check in and notice what's happening. Check in with your shoulders still. I just saw your shoulders.
::Drop. I don't know if you felt.
::That check in with what's happening with your jaw, maybe your toes notice what's happening with your gut a lot of times we carry tension like we feel our gut twist when we're full of.
::Tension now switch and go front to back.
::And start to notice what happens. Jill, your jaw just went super tight. I don't know if.
::You felt that so?
::Mm-hmm. And those are those are the things that I watch for when I work one-on-one with clients as I watch to see those signs. But so notice what's happening as you switch to the other direction, we all have One Direction that feels soothing to our nervous systems and one that actually is more creating some tension. So for me, side to side, my body feels fluid. It feels like this wave flowing through me.
::And when I go front to back my shoulders hunch up, my jaw tightens. My gut clinches and I notice my toes really starting to grip into the ground.
::Versus when I go side to side, I just feel this kind of instant relaxation over me. And so it's movements like this that I have in the book as well as what I work with people is to start to learn this language. So when you start to learn that ohh. My jaw just tightened, that's what that feels like when I go front to back or side to side. Whichever way is uncomfortable.
::For you, you start to become aware of those things and movement brings that way. Whereas if I said to you, what does it feel like when you're stressed or when you're tight or when you're anxious?
::I don't know. I don't want to feel that way. So how would I know? But when we come into some sort of movement that all of a sudden, now your shoulders are up by your ears, it starts to bring awareness. Rewire that brain that ohh. I'm in tension now versus ohh. I'm stressed when or I'm stress free when my shoulders are relaxed or released. And so the book gets into some movements, talks about. That's one of the moves that it is in there.
::There's some other ones that are full of play and fun and just ways to get into your bodies to start to learn what it is that it's communicating with you in order to release that stress, anxiety, tension, depression and even trauma.
::I love that and thank you for just that.
::That little exercise because it did bring awareness to me. I don't like going back and forth. That's why my.
::Jaw tightened. It's.
::Yeah, that that causes my stomach to tighten my.
::Feet have to.
::Tighten and the moving side to side. Yeah, my shoulders. Just relax. It's like it's the more natural way that I.
::So anyway.
::Yeah. And it's not until we start bringing awareness in ways that feels safe and empowering that we're able to start to learn what our bodies are telling us. Like I said, if I asked you to think of a traumatic event that you'd had, what did your body feel like? You would be like? Ohh gosh, no. I'm not going anywhere near that. But having a playful movement like that and you're like.
::Ohh no wait, that actually really doesn't feel good when my body feels like that. That's when I'm in stress versus, oh, that's a soothing relaxation. And by the way, I do that sight side to side is more soothing for me.
::I do that when I get nervous. So if you notice, sometimes I'll kind of be doing a little sway and I don't even realize it because I've trained myself that that's a self soothing behavior. When I start to feel stressed, I do it when I'm at work. When you know when I'm sit, whatever, I'll do that I'll find myself doing that and all of a sudden then I feel this relaxation wave go through my body.
::So it's not just for information. It then really does actually help train our nervous systems to go into that when we're not even thinking about.
::It's interesting because I I've had a lot of kids and I have grandkids, and I know when I hold babies, I rock side to side.
::I decide, yeah.
::It's just like you put them in my hand and I'm rocking.
::And some of my.
::Clients front to back is way more soothing for them. Side to side creates that tension, so just everybody out there know if side to side doesn't feel good to you. That's totally normal. Just because that's what is working for Jill and I doesn't mean that that's what has to work for you. Everybody has their own way and some people have said front to back is more comfortable for them because it reminds them of being held in a rocking chair.
::And rocked as a baby. So yeah.
::Interesting. Interesting.
::Wow, this has been so.
::Fascinating, Angie, I really appreciate you sharing this with us so people can find you on your website and your website is.
::Angieberrettmovement.com and I.
::Spell my last name.
::BERRETT.
::So it's Angie Barrett movement.com and it has my free guide. If you don't have the link for it, it'll actually give you an option if you want to get that it has all my social media.
::That's where I do put out videos of playful movements where I'm talking about finding ways to connect to your body. It has my phone number, my e-mail address, every way that you want to get.
::A hold of me is through my website.
::Awesome. Awesome. We'll make sure we put that in the show notes below. So what's the one thing you want to leave the audience with today?
::The one thing I want to leave everybody with is life doesn't have to always be heavy and painful. We get to have fun in our lives. We get to have play. It's how we were born. It's what we're wired with.
::And when we bring that back into our lives, it's amazing the transformation that that we see that you that you will see when you bring it into your life.
::I so appreciate that sentiment. I and it. I know personally that is so true. Just giving your body permission to be and to recognizing what's safe for you and expressing it. Thank you so much for joining me today.
::Jill, thank you so much for having me. I've enjoyed this.
::Been really fun.
Audio file
Angela Berrett Podcast 1.m4a
Transcript
::Hi, welcome to EU World Order Showcase Podcast we have with us today and to Barrett, Angie's an intuitive movement coach, a registered nurse and at advanced trauma, informed yoga instructor. And she also teaches stand up paddle board yoga which.
::We're going to talk about.
::A lot because I know she lives in Salt Lake. She also helps people relieve stress, anxiety and depression and trauma through play movements and imagination so they can help live.
::With more joy and peace in their lives.
::Welcome to the show, Angela.
::It's so great to have you.
::Thanks for having.
::Me, I'm so excited to be here.
::We had a little bit of a rocky start. We were talking about technology challenges, but we're here, we're ready. We're going so. So you just moved to Salt Lake a while ago, is that what you were saying?
::We're going.
::I did so. I grew up in Colorado. I've lived. So I grew up West Coast, but I've been living on the East Coast because I'm a registered nurse. I actually for a while was a travel nurse and I was moving all around the country and I ended up staying on the East Coast. So I've been in East Coast for the last 12 years, 10 years, and then moved back to Utah. I've lived in Utah.
::On and off, I actually graduated nursing school from the University of Utah.
::But I moved back about a year and a half ago, but so I'm not from here and I've been gone for a while, but yeah.
::OK. So we were talking about you're a paddle board yoga instructor which?
::In my mind, that's like.
::Pretty wild and I want you to explain how that works. But how did you find some place in Utah to or Salt Lake area to do paddle boarding?
::Yes, it let me explain what paddle board yoga is first. For those of you that.
::Have never heard of it.
::So paddle boards are kind of like a surfboard, but they're longer and they tend to be wider. People stand on them, and then they use a paddle to propel themselves. So it's kind of like a kayak, but you're standing. It's kind of like a surfboard, but you're standing and you have a paddle that helps you.
::Navigate the water.
::About eight years ago, a friend of mine worked at a warehouse and they had some paddle boards that had gotten damaged, so they couldn't sell them and they were going to throw.
::It away? So she asked.
::Me if I want one, wasn't I sure? Great. I'll take a free paddle board. And so I started paddle boarding. And I've practiced yoga for a number of years.
::Years. And so I thought, I'm I I'd seen an advertisement for a paddle board yoga class and I thought I don't even know what that is. I'm gonna go try it. So.
::I went out.
::On my paddle board started doing some yoga and I promptly fell it and I literally could not even stand up on it in a yoga move. But what it is it's doing yoga on this long, wider, often times it's a little bit thicker than a surfboard.
::And so it's one of truly paddle board yoga is one of the most amazing mind body practices I've ever done. Because when you do yoga on the land or when you do anything on a stationary.
::Surface your mind can wander and you don't realize till your mind is gone. But when you're on a paddle board and you start to your mind starts to wander, you get instant feedback by falling in the water. So I only like to do it when it's warm outside. I don't do it when it's cold because I don't enjoy cold water, but it is one of the best mind body practices.
::Because like I said, once your mind wanders, you fall in the water and I always tell people it's also a great lesson because falling isn't failing. It's allowing you to have the opportunity to push your body to new limits that you wouldn't otherwise do.
::So it's amazing, I.
::Love it. I'm out on my paddle board as much as I can. And so to get to the second part of your question, I live in Salt Lake City, UT which if you don't know, is a desert and water is very scarce here and especially bodies of water where you can go out and do this and.
::Not only that, but because it's a desert and it's so closely water is such a scarce commodity here, the state actually regulates.
::Any business conducted on any body of water, so I actually there are, but there are some reservoirs. So they're man made bodies of water around to go and I go up to one for those of you that know that area just outside of Park City called Jordanelle.
::Which is great. It's big enough actually, that speed boats can go on it. People water jet ski, ski, water, ski. All that kind of stuff. So it's relatively big. It's.
::But I had to go through this huge process to get approval from the state to actually teach people, paddle board yoga on it. It took me about a year to actually find somewhere where I could teach paddle board yoga to people.
::That is an amazing story. It and Park City isn't really.
::Fat close to Salt Lake. Either. I mean I've.
::Depends on where you it's.
::Got parties and stuff.
::It's about 45 minutes from me. The bigger problem is it's a higher altitude, so it's colder up there. And so the time, the season time that it, it's open where I'm willing to go in the water is shorter because it's at a higher altitude. But yeah, there's nowhere close to Salt Lake. It's a drive.
::Yeah. And I know my listeners might be thinking.
::Well, what about the Salt Lake? Well, this great.
::Salt Lake is like a marsh.
::It's not really a lake. I mean it's.
::Big, but it's very salty.
::And it stinks, inky. It's very stinky.
::Yeah, I live.
::Yeah. And actually where I go outside of Park City is closer to me than Salt Lake the actual.
::Oh, OK.
::Yeah, because Salt Lake is a big.
::Kind of sprawling metropolis these days.
::It is.
::And growing. Pretty soon it's going to be.
::Right next door to Vegas.
::So with your coaching practice, do you do you help people online as well? Do you have or?
::I do. I actually pretty much work exclusively online and I work individually as well as I have a group class that I teach.
::Is it all offline?
::And how does that look I?
::Mean you're talking about movement?
::Things along those lines it's like.
::Great question. So I am a trained yoga instructor as well as I'm a trauma informed yoga instructor. That's an additional certification that I've done and the way that it looks, I don't teach traditional yoga anymore. I've kind of pivoted, not kind of. I've completely pivoted to what I call intuitive movement.
::And it's using.
::Play and some traditional yoga moves, but not a whole lot and or adding in some play with it. So what it looks like is when I teach a group class it's run.
::Like a yoga class, it's people come. You can sign up, you can take a dropping class. I pick a theme and then we do moves around that theme and I'll explain some of the moves in just a minute. When I do individual coaching one-on-one with people, that's where it really help people delve into their negative beliefs. So we take what, a negative belief that someone is caring about themselves.
::And I'll give an example of one of mine. One of mine is. So I'm a child abuse survivor as well. That's how I got into this work. And so growing up as a child abuse survivor, I learned that I'm unlovable, based on the things that were that I experienced and that were happening to me. And so taking that negative belief that I'm unlovable, shifting it to a positive.
::Believe if I could, which would be something like I'm lovable and then sit noticing that discomfort. So when we take those negative beliefs and try and shift them into positive, most of us, especially if they're based around traumatic experiences, have this angst, this itchiness, this resist.
::And when we tap into play using playful movements, it allows us to separate from the almost the human experience or the mind the way that our minds have been wired and allows us to experience releasing build up energy, tapping into the sensory information that our body is sending.
::So that we can start to sit more in comfort of the positive affirmation or the positive belief and.
::Our bodies give us so much information that our brains aren't really registering. We're so disconnected in today's society from our bodies. And So what I do is I work to help people start to learn the language that their body is communicating with in order to know, do they need to release energy? Do they need to do a soothing movement?
::What is it that they need? And then we add play in in order to let go of the negative beliefs?
::And so all mammals I go back to our, like primal, primitive, nervous systems. We are all mammals, so humans are mammals are born with our brains pre wired. So we come out with seven things that our brains are pre wired with and play happens to be one of those pre wired.
::Circuits that we have. So if you think of how babies learn how children learn to navigate their world, it's through play and through movement. Think of how babies are learning. You know what their spatial environment.
::Is and so that helps their brains to form and to wire. And when we're adults, we still can tap into that circuitry that we have. I call it our hidden superpower, to help us rewire and rechange those negative beliefs after we learn what our bodies are trying.
::To communicate with us.
::So when I work one-on-one with clients, we work with their individual personal negative beliefs, so we can get really deep into.
::Peoples emotional angst and I really only do that when I work one-on-one with clients because I'm watching them to see to notice the signals that their body is giving, that they may not be aware of yet. And so some of those signals are like what happens with their shoulders. People's faces will start to grimace, peoples color changes.
::Depending on if you're in fight or flight, or if you're in more of a Free State, color changes based on where blood flow is going, so I only do that when I work one-on-one with clients. When I'm in the group setting, I'll pick a theme and I'll keep it so it's running like a traditional yoga class. We do moves around it.
::And people have the space to experience whatever they're experiencing, but we don't delve super deep into people's individual negative beliefs that they carry.
::Interesting so.
::I would.
::Postulate. Open it that way that it would be best to move from the personal coaching into the group coaching so that you have an opportunity to address the trauma portion before you move into the group setting where you can like.
::Bit more ingrained into your whole body system.
::I leave it up to the person's individual nervous system how they're feeling. Sometimes people feel really uncomfortable jumping deeply into their own trauma. They're not quite ready for it. They need to see, like, start to feel comfortable with feeling sensory information in a safe way. And so in that instance, I would recommend starting with the group.
::Because it gives people a chance to start to learn. OK, I can be in control.
::Oftentimes, especially for child abuse survivors, this is something that I experienced, so I'm very conscientious of it. Any type of sensory or somatic work put my system into overwhelm and shut down. Even yoga became too much for me to do as I was really processing through a lot of my child abuse because it was just too much sensory information.
::And so if someone's at that point, I would recommend starting with the group classes starting to learn to feel empowered in your body, and then moving to group coaching. And if you're not at that point where you're that overwhelmed, then group coaching. I'm sorry. Then individual coaching, releasing that.
::Comma actually, my coaching program involves that some individual coaching. So two sessions a month while also doing the class the classes because it gives different experiences of being in the body. So I like to incorporate both actually in my coaching program.
::So how would?
::I know that people know.
::That they've suffered from trauma, but what kinds of?
::What kinds of trauma victims would be more?
::Or I should say trauma survivors rather than victims, because we want to empower people to take control of their lives and be the hero of their own story. So people that have experienced issues in their lives and trauma comes in, kind of.
::All kinds of packages, but do you specialize in one area more than another? Are you like?
::So I actually specialize in child sex abuse because that's what I experienced. However, trauma impacts our body in the same way regardless of what the trauma is. And so I work with people of all traumatic backgrounds and trauma. Actually, there's two real kind of categories of trauma, trauma with a big T.
::Or trauma with the lower case T.
::And trauma with the big T so a lot of people say to me, Angie, I haven't had trauma. Your work, wouldn't, you know, really benefit me.
::Because I.
::Haven't had trauma and I say everybody has had trauma. Everybody who is human on this planet has had trauma because trauma with the.
::Right.
::Big T's are those big.
::Events like child abuse or abusive relationships.
::Medical procedures a lot of times are considered trauma with the big T car accidents, big events that happen.
::Trauma with the lower case T are those chronic life stressors that just don't ever seem to go away. Worries about money, financial security. How are you going to feed your family? Food, shelter. That chronic low grade stress that just never goes away impacts our bodies the same way that trauma big T.
::Events impact our bodies, so the result is the same. We all get this build up of energy inside our nervous systems, cause our bodies are trying to protect us. So my services work for even if you don't think you have trauma.
::I've worked with people who are like I just. I'm super stressed out and I need some relief. It works the same because our nervous systems, I take us back to our primal animal nervous systems. They're the same. And so whatever the cause is, the result is the same inside.
::When you're talking about going back to your prime.
::Well, base I it brings to mind animals. When?
::When they go through shock or.
::A lot of stress they'll often shake and humans don't really recognize that sometimes you just need to shake.
::It. Yes, that's actually I base a lot of my work off of that. You are one of the only people I've ever spoken with who's ever even heard of that. Oh my gosh, I love.
::It is. It's called this discharge of energy and there's been a lot of research done around it. Peter Levine, who it is a researcher who's done a lot of research on that. And we need because our nervous systems are built the same way as animals. They shake afterwards, or they do this discharge. And that's what my work is designed around, finding ways to get into this discharge.
::Of energy or this shake this release without going into overwhelm or shut down.
::Yeah, that's so fascinating because when I learned about that, it was just like, oh, well, that makes total sense to me. Why sometimes people do just shut down and it's like.
::Because they have all this energy that they haven't processed and they.
::Don't know how.
::To release it and you know.
::Of course, we're not taught these things. We're.
::Growing the useful things that we could.
::You know.
::I was going to say when we talk, when we're talking energy right now, a lot of times I get people saying ohh energy like woo metaphysical energy out there. You know I'm not interested and that's actually not what I'm talking about. And what animals do when we go into that fight or flight or when we're stressed. When our nervous systems.
::Thick and trying to protect us, our bodies actually release hormones. Chemical messengers. They're getting us ready to run or to fight.
::And so we're getting a build up of actual inertia energy, like swirling tornado of energy. And as humans, we tend to just stuff it down because we don't want to feel it. It's uncomfortable. And we if we never let it out, that discharge is that way to release the actual physical build up of energy. And if we just keep stuffing it down.
::And it builds and builds and builds until we blow our lid at something super little, and then we have that release of energy. We feel better until we.
::Keep stuffing it down.
::Yeah. And I like to say I'm very woo, but really all woo is the energy fields and we are all energy whether you call it woo or you call it science, you call it whatever you want. Molecules are held together.
::By energy, that's what electrons are. They're energy.
::Yes, yes.
::And they all.
::Connect together. That's what makes things solid. I used air quotes with.
::That so it's just.
::There are chemical reactions that happen in our bodies. You know, when you eat, it's a chemical reaction. The chemicals that you put into your body that.
::We call food.
::Cause your body to do certain things and when you have experiences when you have emotions, those also.
::Drive chemical reactions in your body and some of the byproducts of those chemical reactions is a release of.
::Energy the energy has to go somewhere. When?
::You yell at somebody.
::That's a release of energy coming out in the form of words, but it's sound energy.
::Or why do you move your body forcefully? You're expending energy and.
::These are just like.
::It's really not woo, it's basic science, but I like to think that Wu is just.
::Things that you can't personally explain that really are science.
::I think there there's a really big crossover between the Woo energy and in especially in this instance the physical energy.
::For sure for sure. So when you?
::When you're doing your, you're doing your yoga instruction so a.
::Lot of this stuff.
::Is all online now except the paddle board part. That's going.
::Correct that that's in person.
::To be the.
::You can come out and join.
::Her. Yeah. Come out to Utah, yeah.
::Summer starts June.
::June 1st.
::Now it's.
::It's weather dependent here depends on when.
::It warms up enough.
::I was going to say usually by July 1st, summer has officially arrived. It goes from being like 6065, Nice to 110. Just be mentally prepared and it stays that way for July and August and then we go back to normal temperatures 65.
::So does do the reservoirs get run off from the mountains?
::They do so.
::Right.
::So notice the mill till the end.
::Of August, just so you know.
::So the water's cold, but with it being really warm outside, it feels really good.
::OK, OK.
::I can imagine that doing wakeboard yoga would be like I can just. I've done yoga and I've done surfing. So just the amount of concentration to stand on a surfboard, let alone try to do balancing poses or to shift.
::Poses just like.
::It's. It's a mind body practice unlike anything else. I love it.
::Yeah, I just. I can't even wrap my words around the thought of trying to do that. I would be in the water all.
::The time I get all my.
::Exercise climbing back onto the board.
::That does happen.
::So how long are the classes when?
::You do them.
::When I do paddle board yoga, generally I take people out. So I teach private lessons for paddle board yoga. I don't do big classes, I'll do one and two person lessons.
::Because once again, I work with people I work with a lot of people who have fear of being on the water, fear of falling, fear of being in. So I do a lot of private instruction. So I take people out for an hour and a half. We paddle around, we do about a 10 minute instruction before we get on the boards where I teach people how to balance the best ways to.
::On board, we'll go out. We'll paddle for a little bit. We'll go to a spot that I already have prefigured out. We'll drop an anchor. So I have anchors attached to all my paddle boards that drop down that sit on the floor of the water bed. The reservoir that I'm in. And then there's a rope attached to it. And then the board just kind of rotates around that anchor rather than.
::Drifting off with the current so that you stay in place. Then we do yoga for about an hour and then we paddle back in so it ends up about an hour and a half for most people.
::Oh, that sounds like so much fun.
::Ohh so much fun. You'll have to come down next summer. We'll totally go.
::Yeah, I have a camper I could camp up there that would be really fun.
::What else would you like to tell the audience? I do. You have a. You actually have something that you give away healing and motion and you wanna talk about that a little bit.
::I do it.
::Yeah. So it's a, it's a guide called Healing and Motion that.
::Written at a level where it's easy to understand and it talks about, first of all how trauma impacts our body and then how play and movement can help us to connect to our bodies and each chapter, it's not. So it's not really long, but each chapter has a movement that goes along with it. To illustrate the point.
::Or the topic that I'm talking about and so it's an introduction to helping start this connection of learning the language that your body is communicating with. And one of the best examples, and I'm going to give a quick movement example, if you're OK to start.
::Because people will say to me, I don't really know what you mean by movement and play. That doesn't make sense to me because it's kind of different, not kind of. It's very different what I do. So I'm gonna invite you to do this with me if you want. You can do this seated or standing. And this is actually one of the moves that I have in the guide. So this is the type of stuff that I that I talk about and.
::So start with just a side to side sway.
::Start by letting your body just move side to side and once again you can do it. Seated. You can do it standing and start to check in and notice what's happening. Check in with your shoulders still. I just saw your shoulders.
::Drop. I don't know if you felt.
::That check in with what's happening with your jaw, maybe your toes notice what's happening with your gut a lot of times we carry tension like we feel our gut twist when we're full of.
::Tension now switch and go front to back.
::And start to notice what happens. Jill, your jaw just went super tight. I don't know if.
::You felt that so?
::Mm-hmm. And those are those are the things that I watch for when I work one-on-one with clients as I watch to see those signs. But so notice what's happening as you switch to the other direction, we all have One Direction that feels soothing to our nervous systems and one that actually is more creating some tension. So for me, side to side, my body feels fluid. It feels like this wave flowing through me.
::And when I go front to back my shoulders hunch up, my jaw tightens. My gut clinches and I notice my toes really starting to grip into the ground.
::Versus when I go side to side, I just feel this kind of instant relaxation over me. And so it's movements like this that I have in the book as well as what I work with people is to start to learn this language. So when you start to learn that ohh. My jaw just tightened, that's what that feels like when I go front to back or side to side. Whichever way is uncomfortable.
::For you, you start to become aware of those things and movement brings that way. Whereas if I said to you, what does it feel like when you're stressed or when you're tight or when you're anxious?
::I don't know. I don't want to feel that way. So how would I know? But when we come into some sort of movement that all of a sudden, now your shoulders are up by your ears, it starts to bring awareness. Rewire that brain that ohh. I'm in tension now versus ohh. I'm stressed when or I'm stress free when my shoulders are relaxed or released. And so the book gets into some movements, talks about. That's one of the moves that it is in there.
::There's some other ones that are full of play and fun and just ways to get into your bodies to start to learn what it is that it's communicating with you in order to release that stress, anxiety, tension, depression and even trauma.
::I love that and thank you for just that.
::That little exercise because it did bring awareness to me. I don't like going back and forth. That's why my.
::Jaw tightened. It's.
::Yeah, that that causes my stomach to tighten my.
::Feet have to.
::Tighten and the moving side to side. Yeah, my shoulders. Just relax. It's like it's the more natural way that I.
::So anyway.
::Yeah. And it's not until we start bringing awareness in ways that feels safe and empowering that we're able to start to learn what our bodies are telling us. Like I said, if I asked you to think of a traumatic event that you'd had, what did your body feel like? You would be like? Ohh gosh, no. I'm not going anywhere near that. But having a playful movement like that and you're like.
::Ohh no wait, that actually really doesn't feel good when my body feels like that. That's when I'm in stress versus, oh, that's a soothing relaxation. And by the way, I do that sight side to side is more soothing for me.
::I do that when I get nervous. So if you notice, sometimes I'll kind of be doing a little sway and I don't even realize it because I've trained myself that that's a self soothing behavior. When I start to feel stressed, I do it when I'm at work. When you know when I'm sit, whatever, I'll do that I'll find myself doing that and all of a sudden then I feel this relaxation wave go through my body.
::So it's not just for information. It then really does actually help train our nervous systems to go into that when we're not even thinking about.
::It's interesting because I I've had a lot of kids and I have grandkids, and I know when I hold babies, I rock side to side.
::I decide, yeah.
::It's just like you put them in my hand and I'm rocking.
::And some of my.
::Clients front to back is way more soothing for them. Side to side creates that tension, so just everybody out there know if side to side doesn't feel good to you. That's totally normal. Just because that's what is working for Jill and I doesn't mean that that's what has to work for you. Everybody has their own way and some people have said front to back is more comfortable for them because it reminds them of being held in a rocking chair.
::And rocked as a baby. So yeah.
::Interesting. Interesting.
::Wow, this has been so.
::Fascinating, Angie, I really appreciate you sharing this with us so people can find you on your website and your website is.
::Angiebarrettmovement.com and I.
::Spell my last name.
::BERRETT.
::So it's Angie barrettmovement.com and it has my free guide. If you don't have the link for it, it'll actually give you an option if you want to get that it has all my social media.
::That's where I do put out videos of playful movements where I'm talking about finding ways to connect to your body. It has my phone number, my e-mail address, every way that you want to get.
::A hold of me is through my website.
::Awesome. Awesome. We'll make sure we put that in the show notes below. So what's the one thing you want to leave the audience with today?
::The one thing I want to leave everybody with is life doesn't have to always be heavy and painful. We get to have fun in our lives. We get to have play. It's how we were born. It's what we're wired with.
::And when we bring that back into our lives, it's amazing the transformation that that we see that you that you will see when you bring it into your life.
::I so appreciate that sentiment. I and it. I know personally that is so true. Just giving your body permission to be and to recognizing what's safe for you and expressing it. Thank you so much for joining me today.
::Jill, thank you so much for having me. I've enjoyed this.
::Been really fun.
