Introduction – Why Healing the Body Matters as Much as Healing the Mind
HOST (Michelle)
In today’s conversation, we explore how stored trauma impacts both the mind and the body and why therapy alone may not fully resolve it. Joining me is Janine Forte, founder of One Yoga International™, mindfulness teacher, yoga instructor, and meditation guide. Janine blends the science of somatic release with the art of compassionate teaching, helping people reconnect with their bodies to release emotional and physical tension.
From Therapy to Body Awareness: The Missing Link in Healing
HOST
Even after years of therapy, I noticed moments when recalling past events triggered chest tightness or dizziness. I realized:
I was taking care of my mind, but neglecting my body.
The head and body aren’t interchangeable — both require healing.
Physical symptoms without medical markers may signal unresolved trauma.
Key Insight: Reading The Body Keeps the Score revealed that trauma often lives in the body even when the mind has “moved on.”
Discovering Yoga as a Gentle Approach to Self-Healing
HOST
25 years later, I turned to yoga, not as punishment, but as a way to treat my body gently.
The slower I moved, the more my body “spoke” to me.
Relaxing the body mirrored my work in relaxing the mind.
Quote:
“If you’re miserable, shift.” — Janine Forte
(A reminder to change not just your pose in class, but your circumstances in life.)
Janine Forte’s Journey to Yoga and Mindfulness
GUEST (Janine)
Born in Syosset, Long Island → Moved to Santa Monica, CA → Now in Miami.
Discovered yoga after a breakup — first class at Equinox 85th Street brought unexpected tears and emotional release.
Yoga taught her to “just be” instead of constantly “doing.”
Semantic Hooks: Mindfulness practice, somatic release, nervous system regulation.
The Science of Storing Trauma in the Body
HOST & GUEST
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) raise risks for autoimmune issues, migraines, diabetes, and more.
Trauma often stores in the hips (especially for women) and shoulders.
“The issues are in the tissues”, unresolved events can manifest as chronic tension, posture changes, and pain.
Branded Framework: Breathe–Move–Release Method (breathwork → mindful movement → energetic release).
How Yoga Unlocks Emotional Flexibility
GUEST
Flexibility in the body can mirror flexibility in life.
Group energy amplifies the healing process.
Restorative yoga and yin yoga provide deep release for those living in fight-or-flight mode.
Audience Marker: Especially beneficial for single parents, trauma survivors, and those recovering from toxic relationships.
Janine’s Healing Story: Listening to the Body’s Messages
GUEST
Years of recurrent uterine fibroids and polyps led to three surgeries.
Radical life shift: Moved to California, prioritized self-care.
Result: No recurrence in 14 years.
Message: The body will manifest symptoms to demand change.
Quote:
“My uterus said no more.” — Janine Forte
Building Trust with Your Body After Trauma
GUEST
Trust builds over months of consistent practice in a safe environment.
Comparable to forming a new relationship, safety comes first, depth follows.
Students often transition from rigidity to ease in poses like Savasana (Corpse Pose).
Gentle Daily Practices for Beginners
GUEST
Five minutes each morning: Sit comfortably, close eyes, watch your breath.
Add gentle seated cat-cow, side stretches, or spinal twists.
Use apps, sound bowls, or simple mantras (e.g., “I am awake and alert”).
Semantic Anchors: Self-care rituals, nervous system reset, mindfulness tools for parents.
Signs You’re Healing Through Yoga
Increased emotional regulation.
Less reactivity, more patience.
Greater empathy toward others (“sonder” awareness).
Feeling lighter, both physically and emotionally.
The Role of Ego and Authenticity in Yoga
GUEST
The yoga mat is a magic carpet for self-discovery, not a stage for ego.
Authenticity builds safety; students “feel” the difference with a teacher who teaches from the heart.
Social media can dilute the practice if focus shifts from connection to aesthetics.
One Yoga International™: Bringing Mindful Movement Worldwide
GUEST
Offers free online yoga classes and community yoga.
Hosts transformational retreats (e.g., Dominican Republic, Majorca).
Launching 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training in both self-paced online and hybrid immersive formats.
Training isn’t just for aspiring teachers, it’s for anyone ready to deepen their practice.
Memorable Quotes
“If you’re miserable, shift.” — Janine Forte
“The issues are in the tissues.” — Janine Forte
“Let’s start by stopping.” — Janine Forte
“Your body will let you know when it’s had enough.” — Janine Forte
“We’re human beings, not human doings.” — Janine Forte
Raw Transcript:
So, we’re finally in an age in society where like therapy is normalized, we’re talking about our problems, we’re going, we’re seeking professional help, we’re taking to social media to air our grievances. But even with like 10 years of therapy, I started to notice something about myself. Sure, I was connecting dots about my past and finding ways to make peace with it.
But something that wasn’t changing was how I would feel in my body in certain moments of the day when I would recall certain instances in my life and get like this tightness in my chest or like constantly feel like dizzy. And I started to realize something, I was taking care of my head, but not my body. And the two are not interchangeable.
It’s all one thing, right? But we’re going to therapy for our brains, very often discounting what our bodies need. And it started to dawn on me. I was having aches and pains in places.
I was having phantom autoimmune issues without having autoimmune markers in my body. What the hell was going on? And then I read a book called The Body Keeps the Score. And I was like, oh my God, oh my goodness, I got to do something about this.
And it wasn’t punishing my body in the gym. And it wasn’t just seeing how many steps I could get in just for the sake of getting steps in. It was really starting to listen to where my body needed the most support.
And I didn’t know where to start. So, I mean, I don’t know if you guys have ever heard of this thing. I think it’s called yoga.
I was about 25 years late to the game. It started trending when I was in high school and about a year ago, I’m like, I felt really called to it. I’m like, I don’t want to beat my body up anymore.
I want to treat it gently. And the more gently I started to treat it, the more it showed me, the more it told me. And the more my body started to relax, just as much as I was working on my mind relaxing.
That’s why I’m so excited to have this conversation with you guys today. You guys know I’m all about healing from the inside out in whatever way, shape or form that looks like for you. A very special person entered my life at the beginning of 2025 as just someone who was teaching the yoga class I was taking.
And very quickly I realized she was just such a special being of light and love, but who really knew and understood what the body needed in order to feel good in the emotional sense. We’re going to be talking about a lot of things related to trauma, the trauma your body has held onto and how that’s affected you. She’s got a background that blends mindfulness with yoga, meditation, psychology.
It’s going to be a really interesting conversation. And at the end of it, you’re really going to understand the benefits of releasing trauma stored in your body. Meet Janine Forte.
Yay, Janine is here. I feel like I’m usually like, you know, in front of you waiting for you to teach me something and now I get to ask you questions. I love it.
Thank you for having me. And you, like myself, are a Florida transplant. You’ve left.
Well, Florida wasn’t your first stop. So born and raised in Long Island like me. Okay, tell us your story.
Born and raised on Long Island in Syosset. Love Long Island. Love New York.
Shout out. Then I moved to California in my 30s and I lived in Santa Monica for several years. And then I moved to Miami about five years ago now.
So I’m only in the Sunshine State five years. And it’s crazy because you, like when I explain our yoga studio that you teach at that I go to to people, I say, you have to take Janine’s class. She’s like the viral one.
Like I remember going to my first Saturday morning class that you teach, which is like, I mean, waitlist only stay like you can’t even breathe in there. It’s so packed. And you really have developed this cult like following.
And I truly believe it’s not because of of the way your body looks after the workout or how much sweat you’ve poured out of you. It’s the way you make people feel. And that’s that’s something to really celebrate.
Thank you, Michelle. I appreciate you for noticing that I am. I love it.
I think that’s what comes through. I love teaching, because I also know that teaching has always been inside of me, but more the yoga has always been inside of me, too. And so I feel that I and I know how much the yoga has helped me and I know that it helps people.
So when I lead and I teach a room and they I’m really pouring from my heart, you are I am and I think people can sense that. And I also, I believe I make people feel safe in their bodies. Because I asked the questions, how does it feel? I bring the awareness inward.
And so I create this space for people to come in and feel and let them know that everything that they’re feeling is OK and not to have judgment. And yes, sometimes I could be wild and crazy and frenetic, especially on Saturday mornings in the power class. But even in that atmosphere, I bring it back to the student.
But you’re doing it not to just, you know, be a cheerleader and hype people up like in that one class I took with you, which almost killed me because I was not at all prepared. It’s a release like there’s this release of like, I can’t explain and I get it why people get obsessed with yoga. I was always like, I would never.
That is not for me. Give me a treadmill and a dumbbell. And now I get it.
The feeling after of just releasing emotional energy that you really shouldn’t be carrying with you all the time. It’s true. It’s amazing.
There is that release. The release is through the breath. It’s through the body.
It’s through the mind. It’s through the energy. It’s just I have the chills even saying that now because I feel that it’s from a visceral level.
You’re just releasing an energetic level. You’re releasing. And I think it’s the combination of the breath, the movement, the space that, you know, when you put a group of like minded people in a room together and we’re moving our bodies and we’re breathing, there’s this energy that’s undeniable and it is electrifying.
And even though it’s challenging because the postures are challenging and the heat is challenging and there’s maybe something going on in our minds mentally that’s challenging, we’re showing up for ourselves. And there’s something about that that is electrifying. There’s like a unity, even if you never talk to the people you’re in class with.
And over the months I’ve, you know, I’ve started chatting with people and it’s lovely because everyone’s just like there to feel good. It’s so nice. No one’s there to like outshine the next person or like, I can hold this pose longer.
You always say it in your classes, like this is personal. This is your journey. And there was something you said the other day that just, I had to grab my phone, even though you’re not supposed to have your phone in class.
And I wrote it down because I’m like, whoa, very simple. If you’re miserable, shift. And I was, I have chills right now because I was like, she’s not just talking about yoga, is she? Because it hit me.
And I, and you and I have talked about this, like I’ve always been a lover of new beginnings and starting fresh and, and finding a way to like, just bring back good energy into your life. And you were talking, of course, in that moment about knowing your body and if the position or the pose doesn’t feel right for you and it’s past the point of challenging and now uncomfortable shift, you don’t have to be miserable, but like what a powerful metaphor for life. So this has to take me to the place of understanding why yoga for you.
Where did this all start? This started, it’s, it’s a, it’s an interesting little story. I was living in New York City and I had just broken up with someone and… Always the breakup. It’s always the breakup.
And I was feeling sad and I was not wanting to get out of my apartment. I was in one of those zones of, of breakup grief. And my best friend, Jessica, and I sometimes write her a little love notes, thanking her for bringing me to yoga.
She said, we’re going to yoga. I said, I’m not going. I was kicking and screaming.
I’m not going. I don’t want to, I want to sit in my apartment and dwell on this. And she’s like, we’re going.
Also worth noting that like in the era that we grew up in and the culture that we grew up in, yoga was like woo woo and weird and like who actually does that, right? Yeah. So it was, I’m like, I’m not going. I was resisting.
She’s like, you’re going. So she basically grabbed me by my ponytail and took me to Equinox on 85th street in the city. And I walked in and I still remember the smell of the lacquered floor.
And I walked in and I was like, what is this stuff? And I sat down and my first yoga teacher that I ever practiced with, Adrian, and I practiced with for years following, led the class in such a way that I cried my eyes out on the mat the whole entire time. I didn’t really even do the poses. I just cried and I released and I let it go.
And my friend Jessica was right next to me and I just felt like I could be, and I could let it all go. Yep. And was it at that moment that you were like, oh, I have stuff unresolved in here.
Oh yes. Oh yes. It opened a whole can of worms.
So I cried my eyes out and I left and then I was addicted. I went back day after day, day after day for years. And I love that feeling of just going into a space where I can just be, and I know it sounds so simple, just being, but we’re so programmed to do.
We’re performative. Our lives are all about performance, right? And society’s telling you do more, be more, achieve more, feel more, don’t feel so, like everything is based on this programming. And when you can just shut it all off, you know, and for me, it’s so layered trauma, as you know, and ADHD and co-parenting, entrepreneurship, all of these things.
When I just get to like go and do it the way I want to do it, if I want to sit in child’s pose the whole time, fine. But that’s more about ability and the personal side of things. But the way it actually scientifically releases things in your body that you don’t even need to release is why you had that crying episode.
It happened to me once, I did like a full moon restorative class. And restorative is like not really my jam because it’s uncomfortable for me. But in that class, I realized why it was so uncomfortable for me.
It was the stillness it forced me to find and sit with myself in that just started like all of these repressed memories from my childhood started coming up. And I was like, you know, people do ayahuasca for this. And I’m just like in a yoga class.
I was like, oh my God. And that’s where it all clicked for me. And I’m so glad that like, anyway, back to Adrian.
And he, you know, it’s just, he created, he created a space for us to just be right. And that’s what I feel that, you know, I’ve had great teachers in my life and I learn a little bit from each of them or a lot of bit from each of them. And I bring that into my teachings too.
And one of the greatest lessons was just to be, let it go, give yourself permission to just lie on the mat in child’s pose like you wanted to do or just cry or feel uncomfortable because we are so programmed to do. And when we do, we’re distracting ourselves from being. And that often then brings everything, you know, it represses everything.
You hear that over functioners. It’s not because you’re born with this energizer bunny butter battery, energizer bunny battery that just drives you. It’s actually detachment.
It’s you trying to like avoid whatever’s going on on the inside. And then it probably is the most uncomfortable part of a healing journey is really having to face yourself, right? Whether it’s yoga or anything else, but the somatic release, okay. I want to talk about this.
I have, I have questions, right? So the science behind storing trauma in the body and, and the, the body keeps the score is that your body was designed a brain body connection. Your brain will protect you from things, but your body is still experiencing it. So if your, if your brain doesn’t remember it, because, you know, like I had a really bad car crash in my late twenties in New York.
I don’t remember the act of the crash, but the trauma and the tension and all the injuries I had thereafter, like that moment lives in my body, right? Now you take into account child to trauma, whether there was sexual abuse or physical abuse or any kind of abuse where you kind of had to just like leave your body to survive. Your body was still there and isn’t, is experiencing it. And this is what we’re just learning now is so important to release because research has shown the more trauma someone experiences when they’re young, the higher rate of autoimmune issues, migraine issues, ACEs, adverse childhood experiences, which are traumatic experiences that children face under the, under the age of 18, the higher their number on an ACEs score chart, the higher likelihood of cancers, diabetes, suicide, mental health issues.
And so where are we treating the body? You know? Right, right. The, the word disease, right? You’ve heard disease, dis-ease. It’s when the body is not at ease, right? And the other phrase that’s been coined, the issues are in the tissues.
You have said that before. Yeah. And the body keeps the score.
It’s, it’s the body holds on to what the mind may not recognize because after trauma, the nervous system doesn’t know how to process. So sometimes we emotionally detach. Sometimes we physically detach.
Sometimes it’s a combination of both. So when you’re in a yoga class and let’s say you have trauma stored in the body, which I think most people have some sort of something. Unless you grew up in a bubble.
Unless you grew up in a bubble or in a cave somewhere, there’s something. So when let’s say I’m leading a hip opening class, I know that emotions get stored in the hips and emotions get stored in the shoulders. So if I’m leading a hip class, I’m hyper vigilant that there may be stuff going on with people as we go into the hips even more, because we’re storing in regions that are susceptible to the emotions.
That’s so interesting. Why the hips? They say with females, research has shown that with females, because it’s close to the pelvis area, that there, that’s why the hips store because of the closeness, the proximity and also our reproduction, reproductive organs. So there’s something to that.
And there’s still research being done, but they’re saying that it goes into the hips a lot for females and then in the shoulders. So people, when they stand, I can see it sometimes, people will stand this way, hunched over, closing off the shoulders, but also closing off the hips. Or people will be thrust out and then they’re open this way and you can see the difference in the body.
Right. And so what I teach sometimes is even just how to stand, right, and feel comfortable standing or comfortable sitting, because the body holds onto things and then what happens is muscle memory. So the hips are bones, but around the hips are all these muscles.
So if the muscles are super tight, it’s going to affect everything. It’s going to make us shrink. It’s going to make us contract.
It’s going to make us small. So now not only is your brain stressed out, your body hurts. Yes.
Amazing. Lovely, right? Great. Good times.
Yeah, great. Fantastic. So being aware.
So I will bring awareness into a hip opening class. Like how does it feel in your right hip? And then if we switch sides, how does it feel in your left hip? Most people aren’t paying attention to their hips. They’re just mechanically going through until it hurts.
Right, until it hurts. But paying attention to it, then things may start to open up and it gives you space to A, feel physically into it, but then there also could be an emotional release. Hence why I’m aware if tears happen, if some sort of closing off happens, or if they’re working the hips and then I see this a lot.
They don’t want to feel here. So the body and mind is clever. It’ll put the sensation elsewhere.
Oh, I don’t want to feel this. I’m going to put this here. So then I’ll say, relax here.
But then I see this again tighten. So it takes time to open up and to create space in the body and the mind. It’s not easy stuff.
It’s interesting how we talk about flexibility in the physical sense and in the personality sense. And I wonder if the more flexible your body becomes, the more flexible you become in how you live your life personality wise. If you are a very rigid person and you need control and then you start doing something like yoga where you don’t realize you’re learning to release and let go of control and kind of let the body do what it needs to do.
I wonder if we got to look into this, if there’s like a correlation, a correlation, because I know for me, and that’s, that’s the spiritual side of yoga. You do feel some kind of energy shift or some weight lifted off of you when you walk out of class. Like, there’s no question.
It’s euphoric. It’s different from a high intensity workout. It’s so different.
And I guess you need to do it to realize. But I could see why the practice becomes addicting because you, you like that feeling of just kind of surrendering to your body. Correct.
And that lightness that happens, right? When you give yourself the space to breathe and to be, there’s this sensation of lightness. So for example, in a restorative class or a yin class, I like to do a body scan. So having the student lie flat and simply breathe into their feet.
Now you may say, I can’t breathe into my feet. The idea, take a breath. Imagine the air is going there.
And then oftentimes the feet I’ll see rigid. And then if I say, take a breath into the feet, the feet relax. The knees, the muscles around the knees, take an inhale into the knees, exhale, the knees soften.
The hips, even lying down, people will contract their glutes, creating a barrier around this whole region. Take an inhale into the hips, exhale. Once the glutes soften, the whole body lowers like sometimes half an inch.
It must be amazing to watch it from your level when we’re all on the mat. Seriously. It’s amazing.
I love it too. And then I notice if the low body is, it gets soft and then I move up the chain of the body in a body scan to let’s say that the hands, I see a lot of this. People don’t even realize the gripping.
I had an interesting experience with that. You did. Wait, I have to bring it up to you because maybe you could help me figure it out.
I did a somatic release massage. I don’t know what, not a massage, but it was like, I forget what it was. Something somatic, right? Where she’s trying to move the trauma out of your body.
And we did the first breathing exercise and I’m laying on my back and it was as if I was like panicked. I couldn’t open my fingers. They got so tight like this.
And I was like crying. I was like, I can’t open my hands. I can’t open my hands.
And she was like, just sit with it. You know, it was like the trauma trying to release my grip on life, you know, literally. And I was like, oh my God, this stuff works.
It really, really works. That’s not the first time I’ve heard that where the hands will grip and get clawed. That is when there’s a severe anxiety attack, the hands will claw up because the body doesn’t want to release.
Wow. So I’ve seen this and I was with somebody very close to me that was having a severe panic attack and the hands actually contorted. Wow.
Almost like a seizure. Yes. Yeah.
And then with breathing, I helped her. I had her be mindful of the breathing because you want to be careful when someone’s in a trauma response or in an anxiety attack. To breathe too deeply sometimes can trigger whatever it is even more.
So just calm breathing in and out through the nose, just being aware of it. And then the body started to relax. So I’ve witnessed that before.
So it’s not uncommon. And sure, I mean, I’d love to look into it more myself too, but why the hands, right? Why are they clawing up like that? So, and it could be scary. And did they eventually, eventually it released after a while.
It took a few minutes, but it was like, you know, she explained it as part of the process. Sometimes it can happen where your chest feels like it’s burning or your neck is on fire. Like that’s your body’s indication to you that there’s something in there that you’re trying to hold onto that you desperately need to let go.
Now you have your own cool story about something with your body that you were telling me before. And I would love for you to share just an example of like what the body is capable of and also what we are capable of teaching it. Yeah, it’s a body is very interesting.
And the mind-body correlation. So for several years, I was getting breakthrough bleeding between my periods and I went to the doctor and it turned out that I had fibroids and polyps in my uterus. So the doctors prescribed a DNC and I had it removed and they said, you’ll be fine now.
Everything will be okay. Well, about a year later, it happened again. Okay.
I thought I was just vacuumed out, you know, what’s happening again? And so I went back. I did another DNC. Happened the third year later, polyps and fibroids.
Had to get a third DNC. Now I’m saying, what are these masses developing in my uterus and why? And this is right around the time where I was starting to really tune into my yoga on a deeper level, my meditation on a higher level and also my spirituality. And that’s when I decided something’s got to change in my life.
So I picked up my whole life in New York as I knew it and I moved to California. New beginning. New beginning.
Big believer. And I said, I have to do something. I need to stop standing in the middle of New York City and feel like the world is circling around me and I’m standing still and nothing’s happening.
And I started to look at my life and my childhood and my conditioning and my friends and my family. And I realized that I was this people pleaser making everyone around me feel always so good. But what about me? So I decided to go to California and focus on me.
I called it my selfish error. And I went. And guess what? That was 14 years ago when I left, 13, 14, 15, 16.
Yeah, about 14 years ago. Not one polyp, not one fibroid, nothing in my system since I left for California and started focusing on me. So I’m correlating or I’m trying to correlate.
Your body will literally let you know when it’s had enough. Seriously. So it was so much that was happening.
Now there’s more layers to that. But the level of my body was saying to me, all right, we’re going to create this masses to make you pay attention, that things need to change because you can’t just take care of everybody else at the detriment of your own happiness. You know, you can’t please the boyfriends and the family and the friends and the work and everything and run and take care of everyone and not take care of yourself.
So my body was creating masses to say, hey, you pay attention. I can’t even imagine how many people are listening to this, especially from like the people pleaser perspective. And now who are going through a breakup or divorce and they’re like, I have to stop doing this to protect me.
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s as women, I think we’re natural nurturers that we want to take care of everybody. And also then, you know, you bring conditioning into that, like how you were raised, like taking care of everyone around you, being the girl that smiles in the room, the one who is always happy, go lucky, doesn’t work.
It catches up to you. And it’s no coincidence that it was in my uterus, which was an area for females that’s reproductive. And when I look back and I did a lot of therapy on that, I realized that I was nurturing everyone else except for me.
And my uterus said no more. So that’s when, and it’s been 14 years. And I have to say, because of the yoga, because of the meditation, because of living mindfully, because of taking care of Janine, I healed myself.
That’s amazing. And I’m not, it’s not even surprising in the least. I mean, just seeing the shift in me and not even a year of doing this in all areas of my life, but especially in places where I had chronic pain, I haven’t gone to physical therapy since I started yoga.
I’m not taking pain relievers and it, how much of it manifests physically because of what’s happening mentally. And doctors need to be paying more attention to that. Clearly they’re not.
I think for women’s reproductive issues, I mean, I started developing out of nowhere, just my body around ovulation and my cycle, not just cramps, but like full-on contractions. Anyway, I was going to the doctor, help, I can’t like stand up for two days out of the month. I’ve never had this.
Oh, you just need birth control. And I’m like, no, I’m 41 years old. I don’t need birth control.
I need to figure out why this is happening. And I feel like women’s issues are kind of just like, oh, she’s just crazy. You’re making a big deal out of it.
It’s just cramps. I was still, it’s just cramps. I’m like, but you’re not understanding.
And until I worked with someone who actually helped me figure out what was going on, it’s unfair. I think women do when they are the people pleasers or they’re conditioned to make themselves smaller, to make other people feel comfortable, the complaints go away. And you don’t want to speak up for how you’re feeling for fear being labeled or looked at as crazy.
Right. And I love what you said, like the doctors don’t try and get to the why. In yoga, in meditation, living mindfully, you get to your why.
Doctors are so quick to prescribe medication. They’re so quick to prescribe. But I often believe it’s a band-aid for the wound.
Oh, yeah. I don’t buy into that anymore. I am, you know, from the mindset of, okay, clear this off.
Like, let’s not shield this. Let’s look at this. Okay.
What’s behind the ailment? What’s behind the pain? What’s behind the masses? Whatever it is, what’s behind that? You’re in crippling pain for two days. Okay, take this. That’ll stop.
No, no, no. Right. Don’t put another hormone in my body and call it a fix.
No way. Right. It’s like, you know, the same thing with doctors for years, because I run high with cholesterol.
It’s in my DNA. And they’re always like, here’s a statin. And I turn to them.
I’m a little, it’s a New Yorker in me. I’ll be like, you take the statin. Yeah, yeah.
You take it. And so I did an experiment and a little off topic, but I decided to just watch a little bit more with my fat intake and take red yeast rice. I just did 50 points in the six months.
And I went back to the doctor and he’s like, I guess you didn’t need that statin. I was like, guess not. Well, this is why functional medicine for me is the only way to go, because they will gaslight you through the roof.
Anyway, I want to go back to, so a lot of people who have experienced trauma in the past, like you, like me, who are now getting to this place in their adulthood, in their level of self-awareness, where they realize they want to feel better, but maybe they don’t trust their own bodies. Like my trauma led me towards having no trust in my body, even though my body had done so many good things for me and recovered so many times from so many brutal accidents and surgeries. It’s almost like I didn’t trust it.
And I started doing yoga. I started to feel the shift. When is it that you see for people that they learn to start trusting their bodies and just letting it be how it needs to be in these classes? Like where does that happen for people? It all depends because everybody’s so different and everybody’s levels of trauma are different.
But I think for the majority, it’s after a few months, because they start to A, trust the room they’re walking into. They start to trust the teacher. They start to trust the people around them.
And when they’re in a space where they feel safe, that’s when they start to let go. And then they tune really into the body. And that takes some time.
It’s like a new relationship. It’s like a friend or a therapist. It takes time to get to know people and feel safe in an environment.
So it takes a few months, I think. And then once you feel comfortable and you start to let go on your mat, there’s this sweet release that happens. I can see it.
I can see it as a facilitator because I can see the girl who may have come into yoga in a corpse pose, let’s say, who’s holding and rigid now getting into corpse pose with more ease, more trust that she can let go or he can let go. So it takes some time. I don’t think it’s an overnight.
And it’s really important to feel safe in the environment and with the teacher. Now, just like with therapy, right? You go to therapists, some therapists you hit it off with, and then some may not. So you have to find your right space and your teacher.
Absolutely. And I’m a creature of habit. I was with my teacher in New York City for five years, practiced with him religiously.
And then my teacher’s in LA seven years religiously. I believe in finding a teacher, not to say don’t try different classes, but find your teacher or teachers that you feel really safe with because it will be a benefit to you because you’ll be able to go deeper. Yeah, and I wonder if like, you know, you have this experience like you had with your first teacher, like I’m having with you.
And also Loretta, I gotta shout out Loretta. I love her. She’s amazing.
She brings a whole nother level of like warm hug, like mommy energy. She’s delicious. The best.
She’s delicious. But I wonder if it’s like you hold so much value in that first teacher because this was like popped your cherry. Basically, you never forget your first, but they held your hand into this new world that you are so grateful to have entered.
Absolutely. And it’s a great way of saying it. They held your hand in.
It took you, it took me, it took us to be brave enough to walk in. And then the teacher met you. There’s that saying, you know, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
It’s a collaboration. That’s so beautiful. We walk in together and then we do this, right? And we create this space where I’m gonna hold the room and you, but you’re holding you.
Your mat’s holding you. And it becomes this intimate journey. And it’s so beautiful.
And it only gets more beautiful and better. I’ve been practicing now 17 years and the practice keeps getting better and better and better and better and better. It’s like this depth, this trust.
And I call the yoga mat, your little magic carpet. You go on your magic carpet and you just be. We’re human beings, right? Not human doings.
We get to go to yoga and be. Yeah. And I remember, and part of it for me is like the whole ego thing, right? So I remember saying to a client of mine, a local client of mine here in Miami, who was experiencing just a horror show of a divorce and her ex was doing terrible things to her.
She started going to yoga and just, it became her safe space. And I remember she told me you should try it. And I’m like, I don’t know.
Like at my age, like I wouldn’t even be good at it. And she’s like, but that’s the whole point. That’s not the mindset you go in with because nobody’s looking at you.
Nobody cares about you. It’s about you being good to yourself and you doing whatever you think you need to do in order to feel good in it. And I was like, huh.
You know, I was so used to this performative mindset. So I went in thinking I have to master every pose and I need to look like that girl or the instructor. And it really just became like about how I felt in each moment, practicing different things.
When you and Loretta both say play or fly, it’s almost an invitation to like, be childlike. Like don’t take yourself too seriously. And some of us really need that.
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So all you need to do is visit worthy.com slash moms and I’m gonna give you an extra $100 on me if your jewelry sells for over 1500. That’s worthy.com slash moms and I’ve got you covered. Now I wanna go to more of the benefits of yoga when you’ve been living in fight or flight mode.
A lot of women who are coming out of very toxic, very damaging relationships. Maybe it’s not trauma stored in the body from the past but they’ve had to live in survival mode because of a really unhealthy relationship and now they’re without it and they’re trying to rediscover themselves. What are some of the benefits or gentle ways like yoga will help you? Through this process? Because when there is fight or flight and you’re in that sympathetic nervous system, you’re wearing armor.
So when you come into the room and you feel safe in that space and with that teacher and on your little magic carpet, you start with the breath and the breath is the gateway into the parasympathetic nervous system. Not to say deep breathing because that can trigger, which I alluded to before, that could trigger someone in fight or flight. Yes, it could cause some physical or emotional reactions but with the breath, it invites the person to tune into something that’s automatic all day long.
So it’s not something that has to be forced. Breath is natural occurring all day long. So with someone who’s in fight or flight, when you get them to just breathe, automatically the nervous system switches over to sympathetic.
And when that happens, the heart rate drops and the muscles start to relax and you’re able to tune into the now as Eckhart Tolle says, that present moment because you’re focusing on something that’s natural that feels safe because you know you’re doing it all day long but if you just focus on it, it helps you relax some more. So when you step on the mat or you sit in a meditative seat and you’re able to just breathe, you do switch over from sympathetic to parasympathetic just by breathing. Just by breathing.
That’s all it takes. It sounds so simple. We gotta come in and breathe and sit down and that’s usually how I’ll lead classes.
Let’s start by stopping. Close your eyes. Let’s take a few conscious deep breaths in out through the nose and then just watch the natural flow of the breath.
Watch it go in and watch it go out and that will make most people just relax. Let’s start by stopping. You do always say that and I’m like, man, it’s true because my brain is never not on overdrive.
I have anxiety. I have PTSD. I have ADHD.
So it’s like being forced to just stop and I was finding and I was really nervous. I was like Googling WebMD every morning. I would hold my breath and all of a sudden, I’d find myself gasping for air throughout the day doing nothing and it was a form of my anxiety showing up in my body not allowing me to take oxygen in.
Like how scary is that? That was another reason for me where I was like, I don’t know if I need a breathing coach but then I decided to try meditation, right? I took your meditation class and really suffered through it but I learned a thing or two and I was breathing. And that’s why, especially with people with PTSD and they talk about it in the book, The Body Keeps the Score, PTS people really benefit from restorative types of yoga, yin yoga and meditation because that contractual tightness as armor, I call it, but when they go into a space that they can start to let that go by just being aware of the breath calms the nervous system and that’s why it’s not easy. Like you said earlier, restorative classes are sometimes more challenging than the vigorous classes because of the just- The brain is forced to not think.
Like the challenging classes, you have to be thinking about your position and the next move and how quickly do I go from one post to the other. My first restorative class, I felt like I was crawling out of my skin and I was just laying there and that was a big indication to me that I needed to get uncomfortable. I needed to see what was in this body of mine that wasn’t connecting with my brain and my daily functioning every day.
And that’s why it’s wonderful that even though it was challenging, you came to the meditation because you’re putting yourself in, I love when you said, I’m getting uncomfortable today. It’s great. That’s how we tune into what’s going on and if we keep going on autopilot without tuning into the silence and there’s a great quote that says, the quieter you become, the more you can hear.
We need that though. It’s scary. It is.
That’s why it needs to be done in a tender way and with a compassionate undertone in a room because it can be scary to be in the silence and be in your thoughts and then feel into the body. So all of us, when we’re in a space where we are in quiet, the mind’s gonna race. It’s going to go and what do we do with that, right? So it’s a practice of going and sitting, even if it’s two minutes a day, three minutes a day, four minutes a day, five minutes a day or going to the restorative class once a week or once a month.
And this is so helpful for people who are listening, who are adjusting to parenting on their own because parenting in itself is like traumatic and hard enough when you have two people under one roof who help each other out or try to balance the load. You take parenting into your own hands as a single parent after divorce, you’re over-functioning, you are stressed. There is no way around that.
Like I remember going to bed every night just with my heart racing, am I gonna make enough money to pay the bills this month? How is my daughter? All the more reason why you need to tune into yourself, right? It’s when you feel like you don’t have the time or the resources or the energy to do it is probably when you need it the most. So what are some like gentle ways, like you don’t have to go buy a mat and go to a yoga class right off the bat, but what are some gentle ways to start tuning more into your body? I would say in the morning when you wake up, before the day starts, the household wakes up, give yourself five minutes in an upright position sitting in crisscross applesauce. Close your eyes and watch your breath.
I know it may sound so simple, but truly five minutes a day helps you tune into you. And if you wanna add some light movement, you can move the chest through the arms, inhale, exhale, chin to chest. It’s a seated cow cat.
And you could do a couple of those just watching the breath. If someone’s not ready to sit in that stillness in that meditative seat when they first wake up, invite them to do the seated cow cat or invite them to reach the arms up and lean to one side, open the side body, come into the other side. That’s my favorite.
And then the spinal twisting, we call that Pratapana. It’s when you do the six movements of the spine. So something like that, where you can just give yourself those few minutes before the day starts to set the tone.
And I just wanna say this too. Mothers, I believe are superheroes. I truly, truly do.
I applaud every single one of you. I think that women are superheroes in general, especially mothers. That you raise these children and you alluded to single moms.
Wow. They need these tools. I call it the tools in the toolbox more than anyone to give themselves that time of five minutes before the day gets away from them to tune in to themselves.
A few spinal motions, a few breathing techniques. You could even put, there’s tons of apps out there. Five minute meditation, guided, Spotify has a ton of them or sound bowls.
There’s so many different avenues and just tune in or repeat a mantra. Close your eyes and say, I am awake and alert today. And then I am awake and alert and do the mantra on repeat.
And it just gives you that, those few moments to tune in. So then when that little person needs you, you can be there for them but also have taken care of yourself. I don’t wanna discount that you, without having had children, aren’t, I mean, you’re a superhero in your own right because you are giving people, you are the mother to people who are coming into this space of finally learning to trust their bodies and releasing whatever’s been in there that they didn’t even know needed to be released because you help people in such a gentle way.
But what are some signs that people can look for in themselves that they’re really starting to heal their bodies emotionally? And I mean, I guess the presence of no fibroids is a good indication, but like, you know, is this practice really working for me? How is a person gonna feel when it is? They will, there will be a lot more emotional regulation. I will say that. Because yoga gives us an opportunity to find that space between stimulus and response.
That quiet moment, the in-betweens. Because when you’re on your mat for an hour, there’s a lot of time there, right? And it’s being patient with yourself, being kind with yourself, being compassionate with yourself. And I often believe that our yoga mat is a mirror for how we operate out in the world.
So what we’re doing on the mat, if we become and learn to become more patient with ourselves, if we learn to breathe into whatever the sensation is, if we’re just alert and aware, then we take that on the mat and we bring that out into the real world. So there will be less reactivity. There will be less aggravation.
I don’t wanna see it’s gonna be eradicated. You know what I also think it is though? I think when you are forced to take a minute to sit with yourself, it allows you to have, at least for me, there’s this concept, I don’t know if you’ve seen it floating around on social media, concept of sonder, which is everyone around you is going through their own thing. So that person who cut you off in traffic, maybe someone they love is in the hospital.
That person who snapped at you at the grocery checkout line, maybe they just found out someone they love is not, whatever it is, when you get still with yourself and you realize you need that gentleness, you realize how much other people in the world need it too, right? Like I have the gift and the curse of being very empathetic and a deep feeler and thinker. So I’m always giving people like these, I wanna say free passes, but the benefit of the doubt that their projection isn’t, you know, it’s not personal to me. They’re going through their own thing.
And I found that’s the thing that has helped me more because I deal with a lot of difficult people in my day-to-day life as doing the work that I do. And it’s this concept of like, I got still with myself and that was a gift. This person probably could use that too.
And I think empathy, I mean, it teaches you so many great things. Because it’s the ripple effect, Michelle. So you, you know, you being more patient and kind with yourself is gonna have the ripple effect to your nucleus, your immediate family.
And then from there, your friendships and then your community. And then I believe it goes out into the collective. So I’m a true believer that the one creates, it could create many, right? One breath has a positive ripple effect on the collective, right? So if we all sit and we breathe and we work through our stuff, we’re bettering everything.
There’s something you always do. And it’s so simple, but it always, I’m like, oh my God. When we’re like, you’re telling us a pose, right? And you’re like, maybe you want to take it a little further.
Maybe you want to extend your back leg. Maybe you just want to smile. Maybe you will.
And I, and I’m like, every time I’m like, oh my God, because it’s a reminder to not take yourself too seriously in the practice and in the world. And yeah, I mean, that one smile, even if one person smiles back at you in class, it’s gotta feel so good. It’s fun.
It is, especially when they’re in challenging poses, like in a vigorous power class. And I say to them, well, maybe, you know, lift your arms a little higher, extend your back leg a little bit more and maybe smile. Most of the room will smile.
Yeah, it’s great. And it like breaks that intensity barrier a little bit. You know, be a little playful with it.
Have a little fun, you know, don’t take this too seriously. There’s a lot more serious things in life than what’s happening in this yoga pose. But here’s something for people to consider.
If you’re getting divorced from someone who is high conflict or a narcissist or personality disordered, whether you’re diagnosing them yourself or they’re actually diagnosed, a lot of ego is at play. And yoga is like the anti-ego. And so if you’re feeling in your divorce process or in your life, or maybe it’s with a toxic parent or friend, your ego is constantly being triggered.
The quickest way to learn to like put the ego aside is in a yoga class. I never realized the power of that. And I’ve started operating my life from a point of, is this like an ego-based response or is this truly like an intuitive response? Or, you know, and I think it’s really important to be more gentle with yourself when there’s so much ego driving the process of life that you’re in.
And that’s another benefit of yoga. But I mean, you teach yoga beautifully. You’ve shared so many beautiful thoughts and tips today.
You’re also bringing more of what you know and what you’ve developed over the last 17 years to the world. And like you say, we’re going to put it in a pretty bow with One Yoga International. Can you talk about this a little bit? Because I follow and I’m like, ooh, it’s coming.
I’m very excited about it. So for quite a while now, I’ve been developing an online platform where there’s free yoga classes, because I believe that yoga should be accessible to everybody everywhere. You teach community yoga.
I do. Yes, I do teach community. So it’s an online platform where people could take online classes through our YouTube channel.
And it’s also where I’ll offer retreats around the world and offer teacher trainings. And so One Yoga International, our idea is that yoga is for everybody and everybody. And we’re a community space where we’re all one.
So it’s a safe haven where people could come and take free classes online. They can attend workshops or retreats if they want to, or they can do teacher trainings. Oh my God, wait, you do these retreats and I’m like, on what planet am I going to get to do this one day? She’s in Majorca.
You’re in the Dominican Republic, right? Yes, yes. That’s the next one that you’re doing. And that’s going to close out the retreat schedule for 2025 is Dominican Republic Cabaret.
It’s one of the windsurfing capitals of the Caribbean. And it’s a really sweet retreat where it’s very earthy and rustic. I looked into it and I was desperately trying to find on the website if the rooms are air conditioned.
Some are, some aren’t. Okay, see, that’s helpful for me to know. Yes, I’m glad you asked.
I’m still a New Yorker. I’m glad you asked, yes. Some people, like when I had gone there in June to scout it out, I was in a room without air conditioning because I always like to try everything before I put it out there.
I take zen right out of me, Janine. Well, I have to say it was not for the faint of heart, but some people like to challenge themselves. I don’t know.
One be one with nature. I sleep like an Eskimo in an igloo. And anyway, that’s neither here nor there.
I wanna really quickly talk about teacher trainings. I know a lot of people who have taken the 200-hour training not to teach, but to just learn. And this is something that’s really interesting to me.
Like I mentioned too, I wanna take it not because I have any intention of being a yoga teacher, at least not right now at this phase in my life, but I wanna learn the names of the poses. I want to learn to do them right and well and practice them at home. So you’re gonna be offering this 200-hour training what is like the prerequisite for it? Can anybody take it? You know, famous last words.
It’s exactly what I said. Not that I’m gonna be a yoga teacher. I literally would say that’s exactly what I said during my teacher training in Los Angeles.
I said, I’m not doing this to become a yoga teacher. I just wanna deepen my practice. So at what point were you like, okay, fine, I’ll be a yoga teacher.
It’s the funniest thing, Michelle. I was sitting there and I remember saying, you know, at the end of my training, there were 50 people in my training. It was a big training.
And one of the girls said, I’ll never forget her. She’s from Boston. She goes, so when are you gonna start teaching with your certificate? And I said, I’m not.
She goes, oh, you’re gonna teach because you have something to share with the world. I went, really? Yeah, well, that’s so funny because I’m intuitive, but I’m not like a psychic. And I knew there was more to you than just I can do the poses.
I was like, what is happening here when she said that to me? And I had a full-on career. I was a jewelry designer. I was an event planner.
I was, you know, doing my entrepreneurial thing. And I was like, I just wanna deepen my practice. And I took the training and my grandmother had just passed recently, right after my training.
So I was passing by a senior center and I wanted to pay homage to my grandma in a way. So I walked into the senior center and I said, are you guys looking for any volunteers? Because I just got my yoga certificate so I could do yoga with the seniors. And they said, yes, we are.
Oh my God, great. So I started teaching seniors and it was for the memory impaired. And it was very challenging.
What a beautiful thing to do. It was. And it was the highlight of my week.
I went once a week for three years and it was where I would sit and do chair yoga with them. And that was the extent of my teaching really. Like I wasn’t interested in doing public classes and anything like that.
And then one of my friends asked me to do some privates and I did that. But I was very humble always. Like I always looked at my teachers with such respect.
Like they’ve done so much training and so much work. Right. I don’t wanna.
Did you have a little bit of imposter syndrome? Of course I did. I still do, Michelle. I still do.
I’m not gonna lie. I’m not gonna lie. But you’re like, everyone’s like, no, no, she’s Jeanine.
Like I was hearing about you for months before I even took your class. That’s so funny how we view ourselves still. How we view ourselves.
I know. And I’m working with this right now with the therapist imposter syndrome because I’m saying to myself, I always used to look at my teachers and I had the utmost respect for them. And like, wow, where’d they learn this and all this wisdom.
And now people come to me and I’m like, are you sure you wanna know? Every day I look in the mirror, I’m like, why do people like you? I don’t know. And I’m glad to have an honest chat about that because it’s like, you know, I don’t have it all figured out. And yeah, I have bad days or, and I’m always constantly learning.
And I think that humbleness is important too because I see a lot of things in the yoga world today that scares me a little bit, especially with the new graduates that. They’re watering it down and making it more about. Physicality and what they look like and pretending they’re these gurus.
And it’s dangerous because when you’re dealing with people’s bodies and minds and, you know, everyone’s coming into that room with a story, you have to be mindful and you have to have wisdom behind you and you have to have experience. And yeah, anybody this day and age could put up a pretty photo of a pose on Instagram and everyone thinks that that’s, you know, so exciting. And yeah, sure, there’s a time and place for that.
But there’s so much more to the yoga than just that. I think if you are truly looking for an authentic yoga experience and you want to appreciate the practice and respect the practice, as a student, you know, right away, like, remember, a couple of months ago, I had to forget, I think it was a sub for you. And you were like, what’d you think? And I’m like, didn’t feel it.
And you’re like, yeah, I know what you mean. Like, because there wasn’t this connection to the practice, this love for the practice. It was more just like going through the motions and probably posting good pictures on social media.
Right. That’s, and it’s kind of like, it’s in any industry too. Like with the presence of social media, you don’t know what’s real, what’s for passion and what’s for likes.
And that is very scary. It could be dangerous, yeah. But you’ll feel it though with a teacher, I think.
I think so. I hope so. I mean, there is a difference between, you know, I could smell out authenticity and I hope people can also.
And there’s a lot of different offerings out there. So to each his own. And, you know, not everyone’s gonna like my style and not everyone’s gonna, you know, agree with the way I teach.
But there’s a lot of other teachers that you can take, you know, and try out. But I can smell authenticity and I hope people can too. You know, there’s- Here to say they can, real recognize real.
You know, I think, but it’s like, you’re saying like you’re giving people the opportunity. Like you’re not there with ego. You’re not there like, you know, trying to posture yourself as the best person in the world.
There’s a humbleness to it. And that makes people feel safe with you. And that’s really what the authentic practice is all about.
I hope so. I’m glad you see that. I hope that’s what people sense, you know, there.
Cause ego could be tricky. It can, especially when you get notoriety and, you know, you get attention and, you know, sometimes you’re in the spotlight at times. And it’s, I think it’s coming back to yourself and being humble because there’s the lowercase self and then there’s a higher case self.
And the lowercase self really likes to reside in ego and take space in the spotlight. And there’s this level of grandiosity that I am the best. That is, that’s a recipe for disaster.
It’s going to the higher self and saying, okay, I’m wise and I know what I’m doing, but I’m also humble. And I’m recognizing that I’m always a student as well. Well, and I think that’s where we can turn the idea of imposter syndrome into a positive quality of like always knowing there’s more to learn that we’re never the best at anything.
Nobody needs to be perfect in order to be respected or be good at something. And so maybe we’ll start looking at imposter syndrome through a different lens. I like that, I do, I like that.
I’m always trying, you know, a perspective shift is always my goal in any conversation with someone who is struggling with something. And so, yeah, you can reframe it, you know, just like I reframe for a lot of people. Like, you know, there’s this idea that like, okay, you go find yoga later in life, you’re having some kind of midlife crisis.
Am I, or am I finally doing the things that I know I need to do for my body, right? Like- Your body and your mind and your energy, you’re tuning into you. You’re just saying, I’m ready now. That is not a crisis at all.
It is not a crisis. And that’s why I’m excited for you to do a 200 hour teacher training program. And then I can take your class.
And then I am not going to be a yoga teacher. Let’s see. Let’s see, let’s see.
But I do think for me, it is worth incorporating into my coaching practice, just from like a very like low, like breathing level. Like we need to come and center ourselves before we can go about our day as a single parent. Anyway, One Yoga International.
I’m like itching to get out of here and like go to class tonight. Who’s teaching today? I didn’t go this morning because I was here. Very well, you’ll come tomorrow.
I’m teaching tomorrow. But yeah, it’s whenever you’re ready. I’m doing two types of yoga teacher training programs.
I’m doing a completely 100% self-paced online program through One Yoga International. And then an 80%, 20% hybrid where 80% is online learning and 20% is an in-person immersive where you take everything that you learned and you put it into play. I like that.
I learned by doing. Love that. Love this conversation.
I hope if nothing more, you are just tuning into treating your body a little bit better. Nobody says you need to go out and be a yogi, but you do have to give your body the gift of honoring it, especially if it’s been through way more than you ever expected to handle. Janine, thank you so much for this conversation, your openness, your just light.
I love it. And for all of you listening, thank you so much for being here. We love having you tune in here at The Moving On Method.
If you haven’t checked us out on YouTube yet, we’re there. We’re everywhere. You can’t avoid us.
Send us your questions, info at momsmovingon.com if you have a topic request and we’ll see you next time. Thank you. Thank you.
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