Become One Living
Welcome to the BecomeOne Living Podcast. While yoga maybe the entry way into a deeper understanding of self, we invite you to dive even deeper into your practice. Here we will explore the transformative power of yogic philosophy, anatomy, and mindfulness.
In each episode, we embark on a journey through the rich
tapestry of yoga, drawing from various traditions and perspectives. From the ancient
teachings of The Gita to the mystical insights of the Akashic records, we delve
into the timeless wisdom that has guided seekers for centuries.
We bridge the gap between science and spirituality, exploring
the fascinating intersection of neuroscience and anatomy with yoga. Discover
how understanding your body's inner workings can enhance your practice and
overall well-being.
We also explore cutting-edge techniques like Internal Family
Systems and Neurosculpting, offering practical tools for personal growth and
self-discovery. Our goal is to equip you with a holistic toolkit for navigating
the complexities of modern life.
We’ll share our endless hours of study and insights, providing
you with a deeper understanding of yoga's core principles and how they can be
applied in today's world. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or just
beginning your practice, there's something here for everyone.
Delve into the world of challenging entrenched beliefs, welcoming fresh perspectives, and unraveling unnoticed habits through our podcast. Join us while we discuss a wide range of topics and how yogic principals can weave its way through all facets of life. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Join us on this enlightening quest for self-discovery, healing,
and personal transformation. The BecomeOne Living Podcast is your guide to
unearthing ancient wisdom for modern-day living.
Subscribe today to embark on a thought-provoking journey towards a more enlightened and informed self.
Become One Living
Exploring the Worlds of Body Work and Energy Healing
Discover the transformative world of bodywork and energy healing with Jody and Dan. They guide us through the nuances of physical alignment and body reading, emphasizing the importance of recognizing imbalances without judgment. From discussing what it is to, "field a body" and subtleties of postural alignment in various postures. Dan will bring you through his process of seeing where the spaces need to be in the body for optimal health. Jody and Dan share their expertise, helping practitioners cultivate a trained eye for supporting optimal body alignment and functional movement.
We discuss the importance of body awareness and the essential role of trust between practitioner and client. Our guests share insights on achieving a healing state similar to a wakeful sleep, where true transformation begins, and the importance of altering daily habits for lasting change. Through this conversation, we shed light on techniques such as craniosacral therapy and Source Point Therapy, unveiling their use of sacred geometry to facilitate healing.
Words have the power to heal, as illustrated by our personal journey with Hugh, a practitioner whose profound presence and verbal insights offered us relief. This episode underscores the significance of self-work for practitioners and the impact of their internal dialogue on client interactions. We offer practical advice for clients on finding the right practitioner and emphasize the importance of patience and multiple sessions to fully appreciate a practitioner's approach. Connect with experts like Bob, Donna, and Hugh through our extensive network, and embrace a holistic approach to well-being with guidance from Jody and Dan.
We would love to hear from you! Email us at becomeoneliving@gmail.com or reach out to us on Instagram at BecomeOne Living.
how good morning or good afternoon and welcome back to become one living where we're exploring yoga, body work, energy work, life, emotion, emotion feeling with Jodi Dahmerstad and Dan Boisitz. Today I'd like to take the opportunity to sort of give a big, broad brushstrokes as the difference between bodywork and energy work. As a practitioner, the approach in bodywork is very nuts and bolts, very physical In other words, I imagine that we're going to move some tissue, reorganize some tissue, very physical.
Speaker 2:And so when we take that approach and we get the body aligned in that way, we do diminish pain and there are certain things you look for in the body, meaning when you study what we've studied, there's teachings called body reading and you look at certain areas in the body to see where they're lining up and where they don't line up in body work. Example talus. That's a bone in your foot, where the lower bones of your leg sit on, where the lower bones of your leg sit on, and 100% of your weight is distributed through the talus into your toes and it's dispersed. So let's say you would look at the talus and say, okay, is it rotating in, is it turned out? And then you go up to the knee and this gives you a broad idea about reading the body physically in body work right, good, good point, joe.
Speaker 1:So there are essential and we're talking about, you know, the, the bulk of society, we, we, I always it. What always comes to mind is certainly there's congenital concerns, um, and, and we're we're not downplaying those or or anything like that, but we're just saying, talking by and largely right, the, the ordinary person yeah, we're not absoluting.
Speaker 2:What we share isn't all or nothing right. This is a discussion because I teach functional yoga, which is body autonomy right, so we're talking whatever's happening in your body is what we're honoring. So we're looking at every day Joe coming in or Sally, and we're not trying to fit body work into a cookie cutter.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But we need a general place to start.
Speaker 1:Right, and so the general place to start in terms of a physical body, if you want to start from the ground up is is the talus bone and essentially the second toe pointing forward and and the knee cap essentially pointing forward and above the talus, and balanced in between the second toe right there and then, as you go up right above, we'll have the most prominent part of the hip bone, the ASIS.
Speaker 2:Part of the pelvis.
Speaker 1:The pelvis.
Speaker 2:The two bony parts that stick out above your pubic symphysis, which is near your genitals.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:The bottom of your pelvis the top two bones stick out, called anterior superior iliac spine.
Speaker 1:Right. And then, as we move upward, we're going to look at the costal arch, because the costal arch can show whether there's an overly anterior pelvis, because it will flare right a little bit. And then we want to look at the shoulders.
Speaker 2:Come back. How can we describe more the costal arch? Little bit. And then we want to look at the shoulders. What's to come back? What's? How can we describe more the costal arch?
Speaker 1:costal arch. How can we?
Speaker 2:describe where is it? Is it t12?
Speaker 1:uh, yes, and and, and it is really just the bony in in the front body it's, it's the, the bony part that envelops the belly right.
Speaker 2:So okay, so it's your ribs, part of your ribs, that come out and flare left right right so the front part of your body, those ribs that flare and cover some of your side body and your front body. Right, that's the costal arch, right, right, okay, right. And then we move up and look at the arm bones or collar bones.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Collar bones and arm bones in relationship. So the collar bones in an ideal they're horizontal Right, and when you look at the arms at the side body, we want to be able to ideally see space in between the thumb and the index finger so when your arms and this is functionally I want to sneak this in we don't do tadasana, where people bring their shoulder blades on their back and palms face front of the room.
Speaker 2:That's face front of the room. That's anatomical. The way we do it is shoulder blades are on the back and the arms fall and relax at the side body so we can see the rotations in the arm and to allow the arms to hang naturally and unwind. There isn't that rigid palms face the front of the room. No, that's not how we function.
Speaker 1:Right right.
Speaker 2:So that's how you would look at a body in body work. You're looking generally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's safe to say for an audience that's not practicing this or a practitioner, we're just going over general guidelines.
Speaker 2:Go ahead Sorry.
Speaker 1:No, because it's really a trained eye that's going to see this. It's not something anyone ordinarily cares about, unless you're in this business.
Speaker 2:And the trained eye that you have and I have, that we've worked on for 30 years. When someone walks in for yoga class, I see them, the imbalances, no judgment.
Speaker 1:It's discerning right, you see a favoring of a leg or a knee or or one shoulder higher than the other, or the butt sticking out. Another one is we call this um. When the chin leads, we call that that the cervical spine is stuck in extension. Right. So we don't want to be stuck in extension, we want lengthened up. So the chin's down. I'm from the side view, at the ear, the head of the arm bone, the head of the leg bone.
Speaker 2:Oh, and in yoga therapy in the become one method. In yoga therapy in private, I teach people and Dan does. Dan comes in, he does this whole segment on teaching you as a practitioner to look at someone's body, because we want to help people realign their body to become a conduit for their potentiality. So if someone's shoulders are rounded or arm bones are in front of their ears when you look sideways, that could be a problem Hearing, eyesight, jaw pain, cognitive imbalances and that's what we do in yoga therapy. There's an aspect of it where we look at the whole being, which is part of the body.
Speaker 1:Sure, and then you begin to add on and take shortcuts with the experience of knowing essential things. Let me think you know. So let's, let me give. Let me think for a second. So, for example, the crural, or the outside of the lower leg, is the most weight bearing part of the human body, right. So knowing that we can focus in on that part of the body and then, in relationship, look at the knee and the foot and begin to see is this person standing? A lot, you know, you'll find clues there. The head stuck in extension is another one, but I have to. What keeps buzzing in my head is, honestly, when I first field somebody or meet somebody for the first time they come to the office, I honestly can tell you that I look at their face and their eyes. The eyes are the most revealing when it comes to somebody in pain.
Speaker 2:Wow, that made me I felt sad.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When you what you just said. Here we are talking, oh, body works, about the body, and this is how my husband works. This is why he is amazing at what he does, and that's hard because he's my husband and y'all think I might be saying that, but that's what he does. He sees the face, the eyes and the spirit.
Speaker 1:Most definitely, and I want to just take a half a step back and say to the audience that, as much as Joe appreciates the work that I do and I hear it's important to know that unless you find somebody, a practitioner, that you trust, nothing's really productive is going to happen. So I could be the greatest practitioner in the world and all these celebrities could proclaim that you have to go see this practitioner or that practitioner and that's great. I'm not saying that they're not good practitioners, however, they could be the best practitioner on the face of the planet. But if you don't resonate or trust that person for whatever reason, it's not going to be as productive, right? So just the headline is I could be the greatest practitioner in the world sitting right here, but if the person coming in, the client, doesn't receive or agree with me or trust me or whatever, whatever the thing is, whatever the hang up or the obstacle is for us being productive, then I would encourage that client to move on and find something, a modality that they do appreciate.
Speaker 2:And that's a whole nother thing. The modality could be. We've had that happen, where someone will work with Dan a few times and then come to me and we Dan did work and it did work for them. They don't even know it, though and then they come to me and we I'm able to get in more because of what he did, and and some people don't connect with me- they don't want to work with me, and I send them to Dan, and we also send them out to other people.
Speaker 1:It's not just us two that exist and then and then, and in the defense of practitioners, just so they have a piece to feel supported, is that just like in psychology typically, that that that is their the own person's or the client's resistance to change or transformation? Yeah, um, and and I shared this the last time we talked about body work in a prior episode that the kiss of death is. Somebody comes in. I hold right, you know, I'll do a double contact where I'll hold in by the ileocecal valve and hold the lower back and they'll go out in about. It's usually 12 minutes right Before the body totally relaxes, and then probably 25 minutes where their eyes it's like our dog when she's trying to stay awake, but she's falling asleep and they go into the zone, and they go into a deep zone and I stay there because that is is the magic touch.
Speaker 1:But then, 75 minutes, 80 minutes later, after holding them just that in that one place, I start to bring them out of the session and and they'll say something like wow, I guess I really needed that. Huh. Additionally, they won't feel the hamstring pain that they came in for, but but in that moment. But then I don't see them again and and I don't I never take that personal because I know that it's we're getting close to them, really seeing what it is they need to work on for themselves, not not that they're going to, but they're seeing that in their face.
Speaker 2:Something rose. We don't know In IFS, we don't know what part came up, what happened, and we also know neurologically the world I want to say 95, 98% of the world is afraid to slow down. So relaxation and deep rest is very vulnerable to the world we live in because we live in a society of hustle.
Speaker 1:Hey, you got to hustle, you got to go?
Speaker 2:You got to go, yes, and hypervigilance, like where am I going? What am I doing? I got to go get the kids, I got to do this. And then they lay on your table, you put them out, they're in drool and in that state that is achieved. We're going to talk about this as we dive in I like the word using you drop in and you drop in from the physical body, you go under, you go into a theta state, these brain waves where you're kind of conscious and not like a wakeful sleeping state. That's where you start healing. That's when people get off the table and now they're rushing home to go do something or going to the gym. When I ask, what are you doing? I'm going to the gym, going to the gym. You just completely altered your being Great point.
Speaker 1:So another phrase that we hold in our mind when we're doing body work is that the awareness makes the change right. So, as a practitioner, yes, I'm doing stuff and I'm hydrating tissue and rearranging things to a degree, and just just hands-on alone is a healing in and of itself. However, if the person goes back and does the same repetitive motions with the same intensity and doesn't use the awareness that was just created to start to shift, even if it's just a little bit, and change the way they're using their body, it's just going to be like watching this Groundhog's Day yeah, light style this Groundhog's Day, yeah, lifestyle.
Speaker 2:This is how what I've witnessed People come in and they don't want to transform, they don't really want to change. Anthony DeMilo he was amazing. He talked about how he was a priest, he was a psychologist, he spoke on how he would counsel people and he would say right to their face you don't really want to change, you want to be happy and feel better living the way you're living. You don't want to be happy, he would say. And he would say also you get married sleeping. You get married. You eat sleeping, go to work sleeping. Yeah, you're sleeping. You don't want you eat sleeping.
Speaker 1:Go to work sleeping.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're sleeping. You don't want to wake up. And coming back to what you said, that's not being mean. I want to share. I didn't want to wake up. I also didn't know I was sleeping. I didn't know I was lost. What came to my realization was what I'm doing isn't working and this doesn't feel good. It's not working. I have nowhere to go. And to go back to the point that you shared, to bring it back to lifestyle, people come to you me, or yoga, or a therapist, someone and they think one session, boom, you're done and I'm going to go home, eat, drink and engage in whatever I used to do. The same way, I carry my bag on the same shoulder in which you just helped me realign, and that's what me and Dan want to offer you in this podcast is. This is long-term change, this is lifestyle stuff.
Speaker 1:Lifestyle, lifestyle yes.
Speaker 2:You don't get to wholeness and healing from biohacking. I'm sorry, I know some people are going to disagree and that's cool, yeah, but I've tried everything.
Speaker 1:I'm sure we're going to have plenty of people that disagree, but a lot of these things, it's like 20 years ago when I was hearing about people becoming nutritionists right, you, you, you, you. Um, when you have a, when you're, when you're a nutritionist, you're almost over breaking down ingredients and stuff like that. It's like, okay, I got to put the exact ingredients into this human body and and once I put this in, they'll get what they need. And they're overlooking that what you put in a person's body, there's a reaction and interaction with that. So it that you know? So it's like it might not exactly be, it's not, it's not. It doesn't work like that. There there is the, there is this thing and that thing, and then there's the interaction in between the things, right, and that's just like a practitioner and a client. And then there's the interaction between the practitioner and the client.
Speaker 2:One plus one equals three. Right In the philosophy it's me and you equal a third and so you and body work and a person is a third thing that comes from that. It's not from about you or them and your individuality. It's what can you co-create together? And to see if we can talk a little more about the energy you were saying Right right.
Speaker 1:So energy work versus body work. So now, in my mind, energy work, let's say craniosacral energy work, it has a particular technique. There are layouts of techniques to address specific, say, headaches. However, by and largely, in the biggest broad brushstrokes, body work is more physical nuts and bolts and energy work is more. The concept that I always come back to is lying hands and touching the body and being patient enough to allow the body to use that contact, to organize, reorganize around that contact. So it's calm, slow, patient time.
Speaker 2:Which is spirit. Spirit is calm, it's conscious, it's regenerative.
Speaker 1:Regenerative yeah. Thank you, and I would almost pose to the audience to say you know, find someone that would allow you to and just put your hands on them and set a timer for 20 minutes.
Speaker 2:And see what happens.
Speaker 1:No, speaking, just lie your hands on somebody for 20 minutes and see what happens.
Speaker 2:Dan and I also studied something called source point therapy, which is an energy work created by Bob Shree and Donna they're in New Mexico Sometimes and it's based off of nature. It's based off of the Fibonacci Code and it's based off of nature, and the concept is it's called Source Point because everything comes from one source, and even in utero sperm egg you become one cell, one thing. From there you unfold, and that unfolding nature they have found within everything that exists and everything that's alive. That's the Fibonacci code, and so we learned which Dan said we're working with energy.
Speaker 2:You can't see energy in energy work. Example Reiki. Reiki has symbols. Source point has sacred geometry and why the brain needs the symbols to trick it into believing in it, because most people don't believe what they don't see. Does that make sense? So, in the end, though, if I touch you with an open heart and say may Dan receive what he needs to receive, in my experience you will unwind and you will receive whatever is meant for you. The diamond points in source point, the sacral hold, and in cranial sacral. Those techniques are conduits, if you will, tools. Tools, just like the body is in yoga To connect, to feel, feel something, to open something, to allow it all comes back to awareness and allowance, like we don't allow ourselves to just be and allow our body to come back to its natural state of calm.
Speaker 1:Right and where there may be a crossover. Everything to me starts to come into one with these types of things, and an example is Bob. I can't remember if it was Oxford or where he was studying, but essentially Bob was studying architecture.
Speaker 2:He was an architect. He's an architect.
Speaker 1:And his drawings is essentially how he lies his hands on people is. I mean, I don't know where you start the conversation or what door you go in, because it's it's really. I'd love to be in Bob's head for a second just to see like I could see his like paintings.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, his paintings are beautiful.
Speaker 1:And simple.
Speaker 2:Oh, basic.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm saying simple just to describe it, but I don't know if it's simple to create but really bold in its simplicity.
Speaker 2:And it holds the power. So Bob was a rolfer and realized people weren't holding the 10 series, meaning they'd get rolfed and it would go back. And his wife channeled SourcePoint and they practiced it for years on their own, privately, and he found that when he did just one point, just one point, that the person, some people, never came back One session free of pain and because it reconnected you to the blueprint that exists. There's an innate intelligence beyond us that when you cut your arm, how do you think it heals? You think I call or I press a button and it happens. It's innate and we get broken off from that innate intelligence from nature.
Speaker 1:Oh, gosh, yeah, I mean so many of those things that are that powerful, are that simple, or those things that are simple and powerful we take for granted and overlook all of the time, like we. It's just like we forget about it. And and that always takes me back to it's like when you're conceived as a, as a being, it's like you don't have bones. You're literally, you're literally entered a bunch of cells rallying around some energetic center. There is nothing to it, there's more space than anything. Then the intelligence of those cells begin to form into bones and heart and lungs and kidneys, perfectly designed mechanical structure that that helps you live a life. I mean, it's just like how do you take that for granted?
Speaker 2:and we do but I mean, and we remove the energy piece from that meaning we're not the spirit. We talked about spirit on one of our episodes. It animates us. So if we didn't have spirit, we would have these little creatures, human creatures, walking around like hi hi, robots or just empty bodies. Because spirit, prana and yoga animates you and energy work touches that. Energy work touches the life force. It hangs with your life force and you have to, you're invited to. You don't have to do anything, but you're invited to study your own life force. That's the thing. When we don't have energy, we drink coffee. When we're tired, we'll sleep all day.
Speaker 1:No, we'll drink coffee. What we do is tend to avoid all the red flags. We just ignore all the red flags. Which awareness. If we get better and better at being aware, we would listen to all those and get better, rest and eat better and live better.
Speaker 2:Another aspect of energy work I also studied with Dr Nikki Elliott. She was based out of.
Speaker 1:California.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Pasadena.
Speaker 1:I think, so, California.
Speaker 2:I went and stayed with her for a week or two and learned inner light method and it was for children and she has her PhD in education and she brought energy work, which is similar to neurosculpting, to kids and found that when she spoke about energy and colors and feelings, that stomach aches disappeared, headaches disappeared, that children weren't able to say I'm sad. So she would go in and say what's going on? I have a stomach ache. Well, what does it feel like? What does it look like? Can you imagine taking a deep breath and blowing it out? And because the kids aren't tainted or have limiting beliefs, their imagination came in and allowed them to release stomach pain and allow some of them to lower their impact of sensory.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to summarize those ideas. Essentially, the energetic piece of that is what you're saying to this little human is I see you, yeah, and say, when you just lie hands on somebody, you're witnessing them. And what more do we want than to be long somewhere and to be seen? And those are energetic pieces of this work that, again, we can overlook all day long. But for those practitioners like me in the early days, it's just working so hard to help somebody feel something and it really didn't take that much. All you had to do is lie them on the table and let them you know, especially outside of New York City just let them relax for an hour and they felt like a new person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dan's teacher and mine. I studied with him briefly, hugh Milne. When I walked in for a session and that man looked at me and he just sat and he talked to me. I said whatever you do to me is fine, talk about trust. I didn't even know what was going to happen. But Dan said, joe, you need to fly toregon and you need to meet this guy. And I said, all right, let's do it and we are going to have him on the podcast with bob. We'll reach out to bob and lisa wimberger. We've asked all our teachers and friends. We'll. We'll get there. We promise for a deeper, more expansive yeah. Conversation about that.
Speaker 1:But to your point, hugh, before my he has seven parts of his primary educational series, right, and the first time I went out to see him before he even laid hands on me with words, he was the first, you know. So I'm a man and he's a man. He was the first man in my life that used words and made me feel like he saw exactly who I was like on a cellular level, using a poetic terms and and adjectives, and that alone set me at ease, made me feel feel relaxed and so diminished inflammation and pain in my body, just by using words to let me know that he sees me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he saw. He asked the class what do you see about this guy? And Dan was sitting there and people.
Speaker 1:I was swinging my legs a little bit.
Speaker 2:He was swinging his legs and he's tense. He what they say you're tense, you're anxious and unhappy unhappy and if you, if you ever meet this guy in person, those really aren't things you would ever ever say about him maybe me, but not him. And hugh turns around and says he's in his buddha nature he's.
Speaker 2:He's happy as could be, he's he's done a lot of work right he said this guy has done a lot of work and he's in his buddha nature. Dan came home different from that. That's a beautiful point. Words, words hold energy. Matrika, shakti Bhakta In Sanskrit, word has vibration, word has power, and words have the potential to lift you, empower you or cut you destroy you. And, as a practitioner, the reason I do work on myself is to change how I talk to myself, because that's how I talk to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean and are you kidding? Being a practitioner? That's what it's all about. That's a cornerstone, that's key. You can't do anything without that right. The work on yourself, yeah.
Speaker 2:I have a tendency if you listen to all our podcasts or episodes or some, I can be very clear which comes off sometimes as harsh or sassy, um, and that doesn't land well. That could be allowing someone to become defensive, right, and I've had to work on or not work on work with those parts that are dry or harsh and ask how can I speak more tenderly. But then I look back and ask how am I not tender with me? Right, there's that, this whole thing. We're talking about body work and energy work, and yet under it all is relationship and intimacy with self and with someone else. And, if you have, there are students that say whatever you do, I'll do Not, because I'm a guru or a magical that they trust me so much that that we can just sit and be and things change. And then there's other people that are repulsed by me, which is cool, it's all good. They, they will find someone else that can do that for them.
Speaker 1:Yes, but if you're a client and you go find somebody to work on you and they're like, oh, we're going to do this and I'm going to do that, and I'm going to do this on you, we're going to fix that, and you won't feel this and everything's going to be great.
Speaker 2:That's not a good sign. That's not a good sign. And if someone says we're gonna, I'm gonna, really I'm going to release that block in your heart chakra and your pelvis is closed, y'all, please don't tell people what you think or you're projecting on them what's wrong when energy starts or when you do energy work or body work. You don't know really what's happening. I don't know. I trust that if I'm connected to source, to intelligence, and I get out of the way and we have this connection, that whatever is meant for you to happen will. I'm not God, I'm not divine universe, I'm not innate intelligence. I don't know anything besides techniques and hope and knowing you're already whole, I'm here to remind you and witness you.
Speaker 1:And just finally, hugh has a recipe, but I would say something like this Finally, if you come across a practitioner as a client, give that practitioner at least a handful of sessions before you in your small mind and uneducated mind. Allow the practitioner the time to work with you in mind. Allow the practitioner the time to work with you so that you can fully feel the results or that person's worth. Because it takes that time, it could take that time to get there.
Speaker 2:This could take some time. Yeah, if you have questions about SourcePoint Inner Light Method, cranial Sacral and Google it, or reach out to us if you want some practitioners near you. We know people pretty much everywhere. We could even put you in contact with Bob and Donna and Hugh, and that's it. So becomeonelivingatgmailcom. See you later.
