Got Pain? The Solution Can Be Found In Your Feet! | Ep 125

Melissa Deally: 00:00:06

Imagine getting up every day full of energy is if you were in your 20s. Again, what would that be like? What would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you? Think about it. Your health isn't everything. But without it, everything else is nothing. And yet too many of us are taking it for granted until something goes wrong. No one wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with a disease or chronic illness. And yet, we've never been taught how to be proactive in our health through our school system, or public health. As a registered health coach and integrative health practitioner, I believe it is time this information is made available to everyone. Combining new knowledge around your health and the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in the comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your health for today and all your tomorrow's don't wait

Melissa Deally: 00:01:01

for your wake up call welcome back to another episode of The don't wait for your wake up call podcast. I am your host Melissa Deally and very excited to be sharing my guest Dr. Michelle Greenwell with all of you today. Welcome to the show, Michelle.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:01:21

Thank you for having me, Melissa.

Melissa Deally: 00:01:23

So excited to have you here. And just to introduce you to the audience. Dr. Michelle Greenwell is involved in a lot of areas of Complementary and Integrative Health and specializes in movement to heal the body with over 40 years as a dance instructor. She offers support with tips and tools from Dance Tai Chi Touch for Health, therapeutic touch, neuro reflex integration, and more. She understands the stress cues from the body and how to easily and effortlessly through the day transform stress into balance and flow. Who doesn't want more of that. So Michelle, I'm super excited to have you here today. And I would love for you just to start out by sharing how you got into this line of work and have all of those initials after your name that I didn't even share because there's so many.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:02:16

I started out as a, I started out in dance. And then I thought I want to be a psychologist. So I went and I took training and about third year I realized this is not what I want to do. But my dad said you finish your degree, then move on. So I opened a dance studio afterwards, you know, random, I thought I would do that until my children were born. And then I thought you know, then I'll move on from there. But alas note 22 years later, is when I closed the formal dance studio with competitive dancers and moved over to a recreational kind of sport and moved across the country. And so just teaching dance recreationally and moving into the healing work. And the reason I had to do that was my body was exhausted, broken, I couldn't walk anymore, I could hardly get across the studio floor. And I didn't have a voice louder enough to speak. So that led me to

Melissa Deally: 00:03:13

healing work. And isn't it interesting how almost everyone in the healing realm has a story of their own healing or their family's healing that brought them into this line of work. And you had to figure it out yourself. And now you get to make it easy for others by sharing what you've learned in that process. I love that. So that's a lot though the body broken, no voice left.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:03:42

Well, and I wanted to point out because just as I was, as you were talking there, I was thinking about when I was 16. My knees were really, really bad. And I was a competitive Highland dancer, and I was trained on cement. So I had several strikes against me with that. Yeah. When I sought help, the help was stopped dancing, right? That's not an answer to a 16 year old,

Melissa Deally: 00:04:06

not when you're passionate. That's your passion. They, you know, that's just like cutting off your left leg really, or your arm or whatever, no 16 year old or anybody who has a passion for something is going to want to be told you have to stop.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:04:21

And that was back in the early 80s. So that's also when dance was done in a certain style. Right. But the messaging that came back was just live with the pain. That's the real message. Right? Right. And so I continued on I opened my studio I continued teaching and dancing and I just danced through the pain because that's what I learned. Right? And how many of us are numb in life? We just go through our day and I always have the same pain in my shoulder. Oh yes, my my neck hurts when I get off the computer. My eyes are strained because I've been looking at the screen too long and we just I normally go along there because we don't know what to do.

Melissa Deally: 00:05:03

And because society teaches us to push through, just like your message was, you know, ignore the pain or live with the pain. And I see that too is so many of my clients, I love to say that the symptoms in our body is our body's way of talking to us. And yet, because we're taught to ignore them, societally, we just say, Oh, it's aging, it's genetics. It's seasonal allergies, whatever that is, right? And we keep going, as opposed to getting curious as to why do I have this symptom? Or this pain? And then looking to do something about it?

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:05:41

Exactly. Yeah,

Melissa Deally: 00:05:42

you had to figure that out on your own. After years of pushing through, and then falling

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:05:48

apart, and it does, it starts

Melissa Deally: 00:05:50

off as like the little whisper, right of a feathers touch is just a little pain. And then when we ignore it, the body's like, She's not listening. I'm gonna make it louder, and then it's the two by four. Right? And then when we still keep pushing through, then it becomes the wrecking ball. Exactly. I'm assuming you're, you got to the Wrecking Ball State.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:06:14

When you can't walk anymore in your teacher, yeah, it's that's a big message. Definitely. And I actually the message that came to me was through a dance teacher who had lived through her pain and said, she said, You know, I had the gifts of my injuries, and I thought you are crazy, you know, is just no way. And she said, Touch for Health. And that was ahead of Google. So I couldn't just go Google it and figure out where I was going to find it. It took me almost a year to try and track that down. But Touch for Health. The information I received from Touch for Health was one that I could gain information from my body, which was unbelievable to me that yes, you have some, you know, signals and things coming. But also you can ask the body what it needs. Yes, boy, is that different than saying, Well, I'm going to give you this vitamin, and I'm going to take this nutritional piece, and I'm going to eat these foods, because I think it's good for me. And instead, the being able to ask the body, what is it you need right now? What is your priority? And it might not be any of those things. It might be something I'm not even aware of? Right? To bring that forward. And I think that was one I giggled, you know, learning the tools of that. Second was just that opened the world up for me. Wow. And I can listen in a better way.

Melissa Deally: 00:07:42

Yeah, yeah. And I've learned that in my journey, as well, through hypnotherapy and timeline therapy and tapping into the power of our unconscious mind. And of course, our unconscious mind connects can connect to our higher self, which has the blueprint for perfect health. And so we can ask, what is our body need, we just don't get taught through society through our healthcare system through our education system, the tools to access this, which is so incredibly powerful, because when we look at our mind, our unconscious mind is 90% of our mind and our conscious mind is 10%. And all we get taught is the 10%. So yes, it's such a game changer. And I love learning it myself and putting those tools to use and sharing with others as I can clearly see you do. So tell me a little bit more about the healing journey. Once you once you learned or got in touch with Touch for Health and started getting this information.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:08:41

Yeah, then I studied everything I could get my hands on anything in the energy world, that would give me more information. And I took it back to my dancers in the studio. And I developed a foot rub that I used to heal my body along with the other things I was doing. But all my dancers rubbed their feet before they put their shoes on. It was lovely if they grabbed them after they took the shoes off, too. But that wasn't always the case. But at least I knew I started them in a good place, right? So that the body by rubbing the feet, it's not just massaging the feet, but actually engaging reflexes in the body, so that everything is functioning in wholeness, rather than when we first start to jump, people notice if they go to jump, they can jump but there's an effort to it, right? And then after you wake up the gates in the foot that coordinates up and down, side to side, front and back. If you engage that then all of a sudden the joints are speaking to each other and everything works in a Unison so when you go to jump, it's much easier. It also can be much higher. So if you're dancer that's important. Yes, but that was a way to to bring the tools in start to really play with them and I played with one tool at a time. Right and what does it do for me? How does it work? Where can I place it in my day? and incorporated. And so that's led to is you said the letters after my name, right? I went back to school nine years ago. So for those people who are listening the podcast and can't see my gray hair, I'm in my late 50s. And I went back to school. It was just before I turned 50, and I did a postgraduate diploma, I did a Masters and then a doctorate. And what I was really looking for was the opportunity to understand how these tools work, what is the research, what's the science, it is in the energy field. So then a lot of people think, well, it can't really be that important or that valuable. But it's, it's amazing how fast you can change the situation. And it can be permanent. That's the other key piece. It's not just putting the bandaid on, and then wait till it shows up again, put another bandaid on it, it's actually transitioning and getting your, you're moving into a completely different space.

Melissa Deally: 00:11:02

They love that. I mean, that's, that's true healing, right, when it can be permanent. And that's what, you know, you and I both want for our clients versus the band aid solution, or the, you know, having to come back every two months, three months, six months for different shots, you know, to help cope with the pain, et cetera, et cetera, that so many people go through. Right, exactly. Yeah. So yeah,

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:11:28

as a dance educator, my focus has also been on empowering people. So the tool is in their hand. Yes, they don't have to come see me every second week to try to fix it. But but I can certainly guide them in how to add a tool, how to add the next tool, and then build that toolbox. So that then they have that resiliency. And then when they do come to visit with me, they have that opportunity to learn something new. Maybe they've gone in a different direction of they need guidance in another way, and then I'm able to support them that way. And that's that's a completely different conversation, then I'm in so much plane pleased peace. Will you come and fix me? Yes. I don't want to fix you. That's a lot of energy to fix you. But I certainly can support you. And I certainly can guide you. Yes.

Melissa Deally: 00:12:18

And that's really what it's all about. Because the healing becomes lasting. When the person that needs the healing is involved in the journey, and not giving up all their power to someone else. When they take responsibility, that's when they can get to that place of last results. And I love that you teach this to your students. And in my mind, I like how many other dance studios that are across Canada that need this information that you have. And I know we have a very strong dance community in Whistler and Pemberton area, and how many, you know, girls grow up dancing. And then same as you have bad knees, sore backs, et cetera, et cetera. And they're still to this day pushing through because this information, as much as you're sharing it with your community isn't as widespread as it could be, which is why you're on the podcast, so we can help get them

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:13:15

out. So we can get that message out exactly. One piece that I was thinking of while you were you were talking about those communities is everything is cumulative. So So for people to think about, it's not just you go and you fix that one little piece, but you create this cumulative approach that through your day, you've just embedded these things into your day. And they magnify because they're there. You're not, Oh, I haven't been to physiotherapy, right? And they give you their exercises, which you didn't do. And then you're supposed to go back for your appointment, but you hadn't done your exercises, you've put them throw them in, because then it's like, yeah, I didn't do them. But if you actually done them all the way along in the week, the cumulative effect of it would have been, you would be in a much different place. Exactly. That's the other piece of what we do. But also the goal, setting an intention. And we have a different way of working, then the model where you come in with your aches or complaints. I have this pain in my neck, fix it. And we take it from you have a pain in the neck. Where do you want to be? Where do you want to go? What is your goal? Right? That pain is now gone? What are you doing? Right? Because for some people, they'll just you know, the pain left me but it was only gone for four days, and then it was back. Right now it might have been because it serves you in some way. For it to come back might not be a nice way that it serves you and you might not want to think of it that way. But that opportunity then to move us in that forward direction not not stuck in the present, which we have that terminology of being mindfulness and centered. But that means being there and being whole, when you do that not mindful and present. And now my pain is back. You don't want to be in that spot.

Melissa Deally: 00:15:07

Yeah. And I fully agree and I look at pain the same way is what is the secondary gain and benefit, whatever that is giving you that you need. Can you get that in some other more positive way. And once we fulfill that need, that helps to release the pain permanently, so that it doesn't keep coming back because your other need is being met. Exactly. And looking at the pain is, as the other lady, the other dance teacher sent to you the gift of my pain is a gift because it's asking us to pay attention, slow down, pay attention, what's going on? And what do I need, what's the underlying cause of this pain, so that I can be releasing it. So I love that you have such a well defined step by step program that's worked for you, and that you now share with all of your dancers as prevention for them. So amazing. Amazing. So you mentioned before, you know, they rub their feet, and then all the joints are talking. So talk to me a little bit more about the relationship of the eyes to the feet, and the feet sensors and supporting eye health, how that even relates to computer or focused work like that. No one's ever thought about that before.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:16:25

I know even even I know that the feet can do all kinds of things for the body. I the living example of that, because I've learned so much through my feet. And because I had to repair from the feet up. So I have the rubbing of the gates. But then you have these fantastic foot sensors on the on the bottom that how you massage through the foot, when you're standing on it or walking on it changes how you have balance, most people will think they have to practice balance. But actually, what you have to do is make sure the balance reflexes engaged. That's the first one. But then you also have, you know, things within the brain that help with balance, but you can instigate through the feet. And you've got centering, you've got grounding, you've got how you work with gravity, that's the amount of effort you put into any kind of movement that you're doing. So if you're going to the garden, and all those foot sensors have been shut down, because you've been wearing a tight shoe, you haven't really done much with your feet. And you know, you just kind of go from one thing to the next, you could get into the garden and have an experience where you're exhausted when you're finished. And you feel you feel like you had a workout but you're exhausted. It's much nicer if you have the opportunity to inspire maybe those foot sensors get the whole body integrated, everything working together, you go to the garden. And it's not how much work can I put into the garden. But now it's how much energy can I cultivate while I'm there? Right? And when you finish, you're not tired?

Melissa Deally: 00:18:03

And how much joy can I receive from working in the garden with my hands and feet in the dirt and getting all those good microbes into our gut microbiome as well? There's so many benefits to that.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:18:15

Yes, yeah. I love that. Yeah. So the foot sensors have this ability to link up to how your reflexes work. So that's how your body knows how to move without you thinking about it. That subconscious programming. Yeah. But different parts of our body are linked to other parts based on how the youth in utero how we were developing as a fetus. And so the the feet and the eyes were very close together, right. And then when the body developed, they became separate. So we think of them as separate, but they actually still have a really fast communication to each other. Interesting. You're sitting at your computer, you spend a lot of time on your computer, you're staring at the screen, then you take a break, and you think I'm gonna go watch some TV. Let me stare at another screen, which is still going to have my eyes focused in. But what you can do is I call it dynamic sitting because instead of just sitting at the computer, you can actually be engaged in movement. That's inspiring the whole system. So it's always functioning. And I say it this way, because I came off of previous to the pandemic. My body was really tired from the pace I was teaching dance, and that was traveling in the car, putting on lots of miles every week. And then I went to sitting in front of my computer for three years. And everything became on a zoom call. Yes. And so my whole body transitioned into stuck in static, but because I use these tools all the time, I actually have a body that functions much better than it did while I was moving. Which is really fascinating to me. What's Also just shows how much energy you can cultivate while you're working at your computer on a screen, or if you're driving a lot, right as you can, you can pace the way you drive, you can change the habits you have before you get in the car and your habits you have before you when you get out of the car before you go to do something else. And so those are all those kinds of tools. So the feet, feed the eyes. And the feet bring whole body movement and connection of all the systems so that when you move, you're moving whole body capacity, and the eyes get to be reprogrammed. So instead of that narrowing focus, they have the opportunity to feel like they have been massaged into that bigger space of movement. Yeah,

Melissa Deally: 00:20:48

I love that. So the first thing I'm hearing here is none of us give our feet enough respect.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:20:55

Exact Exactly. Yep.

Melissa Deally: 00:20:57

And I love what you're talking about the eyes there too, because that's something that I teach when working with my clients on Zoom and teaching a class etc, is the learning state, which is again, all learning all change all behavior happens in the unconscious mind. And so when we tap into our learning state, we're then allowing learning to happen really easily through the unconscious mind. That looks like a daydreaming state, it allows the eyes to open up and bring more into the unconscious mind. But very often teachers will say, Hey, Johnny, pay attention, because it looks like Johnny is daydreaming. And they think he has to be super focused on them to learn. And that's not actually the case. And so this is also in alignment with what you're sharing, about, you know, how our body works, you know, together from the feet all the way up to the eyes, and then the eyes being able to take more in and get out of that focused screen space that too many of us are in all the time.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:21:58

And one of the things we often do, too, is where our pain point is we try to fix the pain point, yes, the eyes are tired, and then go, Hey, let's do some more work with the eyes to so that there'll be stronger. And it's like, but I'm so exhausted, right? Why would you do that? Right? You're tired, your whole body's tired, you go lie down on the couch, right? Don't say I'm exhausted, I'm gonna go work out some more. Right? You don't do that. But what we can do is go I have fatigue in the eyes. What other body part can be supporting that? Right? And so we know through this conversation, it's the feet deed, right? So we could do it through the feet.

Melissa Deally: 00:22:39

So when you talk about, I think you call them the sensors in the feet? Is that the same as the acupressure points in acupuncture? For instance? Are they the same? Or is it different? Again,

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:22:52

it's a little bit different, okay, so you do have all the reflex points on the bottom of the foot, which would reflexologist would know how to go into the different organ systems by the way, they dislodged the foot, yes. And so you do have that capacity. And you do have your acupuncture points on the bottom of the foot. So bubbling springs at the bottom of the pad of the ball of the foot. So just below that is the bubbling spring point, which is what we use in Tai Chi, but that would be the end of k one. So it can be Meridian there. And that creates a dome for your foot. So your foot can actually be very pliable. You know if it's all functioning correctly. If I go to the foot sensors, I'm working with all of that, on how I'm massaging the bottom of the foot. So I could and I, if it was in a clinical setting, a person would come in, lie down on the massage table, somebody would rub their feet in a certain way and get the result. But I can't do that with dancers. And they can't do that with people in the office. They don't have that option. So I have to with me, I've always transferred all of the tools over to things that you can do while you're right there. And so for a dancer, they go out onto the stage, they find out they're really shaky, they're not feeling quite right, they can come off, they can instantly massage their feet around just by standing on them, and then go back out. And it's all reset. So what I'm doing with those foot sensors, is working through those reflexes. So just by rolling around, so if I wanted to do which one do I want to do? Gravity as an example, gravity is through the heel up to the top of the toe and then back down onto the heel again. And so you're rocking back and forth through and I do that opposite. Right so and some people would do that toe tapping. You could do that toe tapping, but it's the Massage through the foot. So you are working. There's that bubbling spring and i k one point. But you're also to the ends of the toes, which each toe has a different energy line attached to it. But then you have also those reflex points, which all correspond to different organ systems. So you're massaging through that, which is inspiring conversations throughout the body, while engaging that gravity reflex.

Melissa Deally: 00:25:26

I love that I'm standing here doing it as you're talking to me and thinking, our feet need even more respect than what I felt before. When I said it just five minutes.

Melissa Deally: 00:25:39

If you're enjoying my content, and someone that wants to step into being proactive in your health and learning more, I would love to invite you to join my membership community, there's a link in the show notes for only 1999 a month, you get access to all of my content. And there's a lot as well as weekly calls that you can come and get your health questions answered. It's truly priceless. I'd love to see you join the community, check out the link in the show notes.

Melissa Deally: 00:26:08

So yeah, this is really fascinating. And I hope that the audience is loving hearing this and wants to learn more from you. Because clearly you have so much to share. And what a beautiful way to easily take preventative action in looking after your whole body movement so that we don't have aches and pains. And here's the thing, we are not supposed to have aches and pains as we grow older, our body is so wonderful. And those aches and pains are that symptom and don't accept them, look into why you have them. And you know, work with someone like Michelle who can really help you get lasting results so that you know exactly what you need to do so that you can enjoy movement for the entirety of your life. And how many people are ending up without movement, yourself included, until you learned all of this. So I love it. So I want to move to something else that we all spend a lot of time doing all day long, which is sitting, that you talk about dynamic sitting, and you've kind of alluded to it just earlier, but if you want to elaborate a little bit more on that I would love you to.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:27:20

Yeah, so we often, you know, we've got that, that recommendation for 20 minutes at the computer, look away for 20 seconds. And you know, and see a bigger volume, right. And you have that, but how many of us do that none of us do that we get locked into a project. And we're like, our brain is you know, in there, and we're totally focused. So what I've tried to do in Juniper myself, even with what I'm working on, is I've tried to figure out where I am in space. So you know, when you you're sitting at the computer and your head starts to fall forward, right? And then then that you get that that burning sensation at the base of the neck. If that tells you you've been there too long, and you really actually should leave the computer. But what I tried to do is find myself in that position, bring myself back up to a straight position. So okay, that's consciously doing that. But now when i i can do is I can think about the space that I have. So how much space is there between the neck and the skull? Right? How much space is there between the neck and the shoulders? Right? And then if I lift myself off the seat, what does that feel like? Now usually we sit down on the seat, right? And most people will flop into the seat, right? And they give them the give themselves to the furniture, right? And very often they'll give themselves to an ergonomical chair. But they're not using that for their own well being. They're using the mold of the chair, and then saying to all the muscles you can shut off now because you're being held right here is holding me. Yes. Right. So one is you won't see me with a chair with a back on it. Right I sit on a flat surface, I sit supported myself. So I know that my back is always straight. And I know that it's always supported because I've got everything balanced. But then I also have that opportunity just to find the lift in the space. So I know even even as you're standing there, I can see you going up right and as I talk about I even go up so this space between my ribs and my hip bone has expanded. Yes, yes. And now from there. I'm working on a project. I'm supporting myself completely but I've given myself space. Now what happens to the mind? If you give the mind space? There's possibility right instead of I gotta get this done. I've done I gotta get this job done and you do close in race. So I'm now sitting so that all my, my muscles, all of the fascia, everything is all linked together in a conversation. And then if I have to think about something, I can roll on the chair. So I can roll around in a circle, and work through the pelvic floor, I could go forward and backward, which would give me a little bit of curve, the base of the spine where everybody always complains their backs, tired, and then I can roll forward. And that's pretty simple. But all of a sudden, you have this conversation going on. And if you notice your feet become part of that conversation, right? Because your feet are gonna push you back, and then your heels going to kind of pull you forward. Right, right. And all of a sudden, now that's all engaged. Now, you may have your hands busy on the keyboard, but you may not know what you can do with your hands. If I'm on a call. Zoom call, say, I might have my hands turning. People can't see it in the screen in the

Melissa Deally: 00:31:09

audio, but yes, oh, so you don't do it so high that so that it's seen in the zoo, it's gonna

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:31:14

be distracting, right? If I'm on I'm on a screen with like, 20 people, yeah, and I put my hands up and start turning them, it's gonna distract. So I won't do that. But I certainly can do that under the screen. And so just by turning my hands with a lifted posture, I actually can change my spine, I can change my neck, I can change from my knee down to my shin, I can change into my ankle, I can change all the way to my foot, just by turning my hands.

Melissa Deally: 00:31:45

And you're showing them upright right now. So people can see it in the screen, if they're watching on video, right? Can they be horizontal for when you're trying to do it below the screen or does the the I would

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:31:57

just just have it outside of the screen that I positioned my camera. So ideally, you want to have your posture lifted. So the way I described first, yeah, and then if you were to put your hands up into the air in front of you, your hands would be across from your shoulder, elbow would be dropped. But you'd pull out just enough that you could feel the shoulder blades separate, right? Just enough, you don't want to do this big pole, right, everything is just very subtle. And then you just start turning the hands forward and back. But you need your hands to be in line with your shoulders. Because when you have that position, that's when you have the reciprocity of the body. So you have your forearm is reciprocal to your spine, it's reciprocal to your tibial and your lower leg. So if I have everything engaged in that shoulder open, then conversation start moving to different body parts. And so I can actually be changing. If I'm noticing that there's tension in my neck, but I can't do much about my neck on screen, then I could do that through my hand turning. Because just the way that the spiral action is coming through my arm is going to be the same that can be happening through my neck.

Melissa Deally: 00:33:20

Fascinating. Yeah, I love that. And it's interesting because I went paddleboarding this morning, as I love to do before I start my workday. And just as I got my board to the dock, and it's not a blow up paddleboard, it's a full paddle board. I felt a little kink in the back of my neck. And I went oh, isn't that interesting? And the board is quite heavy. And yeah, so even as I was doing this, I can feel that my neck is releasing like that kink is gone a little bit. So I will need to do more of that, apparently. And apparently I need that kink. So I could do have this experience with you today.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:33:55

Love the universe. Yeah, exactly. It

Melissa Deally: 00:33:57

happens exactly as we want it to, or as its end to. So let's just move over to as well as talking about kids at school. You mentioned people driving for long periods, or kids waiting for practice sessions or you know, after school lessons, etc. What can they all be doing to help through their days and to maintain the energy as well.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:34:26

One of the first things would be water. Yes, most people forget about water. And students and I had students say to me dance dancers because I would they would come to class, and they would be so exhausted. And it's like just after school and you're thinking, Okay, you just got out of school, but you actually get to do something you really want to do you get to dance, and you're lying on the floor exhausted why? They weren't drinking water at school because they didn't want to have to go to the bathroom. Right? Isn't that interesting? So then you get you build up this pattern in your mind. Oh, I have to go in the car. Oh, it's gonna be a while before, so I won't drink water. So I'm just bringing that up because we have some times these conversations in our head. But if you can continually SIP that water through, the water is going to actually perk everything up. And that's really vital.

Melissa Deally: 00:35:18

And the more dehydrated we are, the less water our body can hold. But as we slowly steadily increase our hydration to what it should be, which is 50% of our body weight, our body can hold more, we become more absorbent, just like a dry brand new sponge can't hold water, it has to actually have a whole bunch of water put into it first before it softens and becomes absorbent, our bodies exactly the same.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:35:44

Yeah, yep. And if you want to have that quick signups and those thoughts happening, that's where even just the sip on the water that just brings that piece back up. So I'll just bring that in there, because that's really important. But for students sitting at a desk, they could be massaging on the bottom of the feet. So the pattern that I'll give you, and I'll just describe it, and there is a video on my YouTube channel. It's in the cards, I have videos into the cards. And so there's a foot series, so people could look that up if that's what they wanted to do. But if you were to take your feet, if you went up onto your toes, and then go flat, and up onto your toes, and then go flat. And that one, you've got that pumping action that's coming through the heel coming through the calf, that can help de stress the whole system. So you do have the foot sensor, but also de de stresses, so you've got that little piece. And then what you can do from there is go like you're on a clock, so you can just roll around your feet, like you're on a clock. And so your toes are at 12 o'clock side of the foot set three heel is going to be six, other side is nine. And he's rolling around. Now I'm sitting down near you standing up,

Melissa Deally: 00:37:07

I'm standing, I was standing desk, and then I put on a ball. So I don't have a back either. And I do a lot of the roll rolling on the ball, which is why I have the ball because I love it for that.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:37:18

Exactly, exactly. Okay, so if you're rolling around, then with your feet, I was just gonna say if you're sitting, you'll notice that your pelvis is going to join in with you. And so you'll be massaging also on the pelvic floor, which is going to be really valuable, because that's going to open the hips and open the lower backup. So you've got that. So then you have from there, you have the one that I already talked about where you change the feet, so one toe goes up, one heel goes up, and then you go down flat, and then you can raise opposite. So one toe goes up, one heel goes up on the other side. So you can roll through that. And that is putting a little bit more because the toe is coming up on this one. So it's just a little bit different. So you've got that, and then you can roll side to side. So you can roll to the outside edge. But like playing the piano, your toes come across, roll over to the other edge. standing position, I very often will notice when I'm not really totally whole body together, then when I roll from side to side, it's like my feet roll, I can feel my ankles, I can feel my knees. But when everything comes together, my shoulders, my hips, my neck, everything just flows back and forth from side to side. And so I've started to develop that awareness of when everything integrates, and when it is still isolated. So you've got that side to side. And you can feel that too. If you're sitting down, you can feel that roll that's going to go from one sit bone to the other sit bone. And that's going to change dynamically what's happening in the pelvis, which goes back up into the jaw, which goes into the shoulders. And then the last one is your feet are going to roll in to the center. And then you're going to roll to the outside edge. And I'm going to say it with feet. But if you're standing like you are, instead of rolling with your feet, which they are going to do, roll open and closed with your hip will open and close with your shoulder. And I know that's a different way to think about it. But sometimes our language keeps us in a box. So this allows us to incorporate the whole body instead of just the feet. So I just ran you through a little sequence. That was the five foot sensors. So those are neuro reflex integration. So that that is how you move in space. So gravity centering balance, but then I also ran it through in a five element wheel and the five element wheel from Chinese medicine. That's a nurturing cycle. So the body is calmed by that which means the whole nervous system could completely relax x rayed and then I created the idea of whole body movement by moving the language from the feet up into the body. What do you notice in the body? And how can you move it? So if I was a student waiting for the bus, I could pick one of those. And I could just roll through. If I was waiting at school, you know, when you're talking to people, sometimes people sway back and forth. Some people, moms often do that calming effect, yes, I often will do a figure eight pattern using figure eight patterns in a lot of my work. But if I was a student, I could easily roll on a foot. And now nobody's going to really pay too much attention. And if I found that I was fidgety sitting at my desk, just being able to move the feet is enough movement to calm the system back down, right, they've been sitting for too long. So you can if you get used to that pattern, you can just start rolling through the pattern. And I just do it. Now when I'm out waiting for something, I just find myself doing it. And it feels lovely.

Melissa Deally: 00:41:09

But nobody's doing it. As I'm doing it standing here moving through all.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:41:14

What I find with it is like my whole day is energized. Everything I'm doing is energized. And yes, I have my time when I go, I'd like to just relax, lie on the couch and watch TV. And I'm going to lie back and sit on my tailbone and shut down my cerebral spinal pump. I'm going to do that because I'm choosing to do that. But the rest of the day, I am dynamically working to always be engaged and keeping everything going. So that when I move from one project to the next project, I'm not tired when I get there, right? Or when I go to take my lunch break. I'm not going because I'm exhausted and I need a break. Right? I'm actually going and I'm like, oh, so what can I do on my lunch? You know? Am I going to be I work from home? So am I going to be cooking? Am I going to go outside? Do I want to take a little walk? Well, everything's cooking, I have that option?

Melissa Deally: 00:42:06

Yeah. Well, I love all of these tips that you've shared and so easy to implement. So easy to implement. But I also love what you said earlier about setting the goals and what is your intention? And how do you want to get there, because it's easy to learn this, it's easy to hear this and then not do it. We've all done that, right? So I love that in your work, you're really helping people through that process of actually not just telling them what to do, but having them do it. And that's where your clients see results. So I absolutely love this. And I think you should teach this in every school across the country as well. There's so much opportunity out here to get this message out. So thank you so, so much for coming on this show and sharing all of your knowledge, it's been a fabulous episode. And as you said, I've been doing these things, as you've been saying them from a standing position, I'll have to try later from a sitting position. And I'm really enjoying them. And also feeling that calming of the nervous system, which we all need more of, because most of us are living in fight or flight all day long. And, exactly, that's not good for our health, our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual health. So this is one easy, easy step that you can implement in order to drop yourself out of that. And give your body the support and the energy and the love that it needs. No matter where you are, as you said, waiting for the bus sitting at your desk at school, sitting at the dining table, et cetera, et cetera. So thank you. I love to ask all of my guests. What is don't wait for your wake up call mean to you.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:43:47

Most people will wait until that pain strikes. And then they go I should do something now what did I learn before so even if they were listening to me and they got a tool, they're going to wait until the pain they're going to when they're stressed, they're going to wait till they're stiff, the joints don't move. Instead you start the day. How do I want my day to go and maybe it's I easily and joyfully create my new project, whatever it happens to be, or I move in flow through my day, so that I feel rejuvenated at the end could be something like that. You set what your intention is, and then you activate it somehow. And so the tools that I gave those energetically activate, I have teas with intention so the tea could be activating could be glass of water could be if you do something that puts it into motion, and then everything that you choose to do through the day. You're choosing things that continually suspend and hold up that vitality. Instead of waiting till the vitality has left you and then you try to rejuvenate it So,

Melissa Deally: 00:45:02

percent agreed Prevention is always better than waiting till something's gone wrong, and then trying to fix it. So I love how you've shared that. And if people want to work with you, how do they get ahold of you and I know that you have very generously offered a free gift as well top eight easy stress release tools, if you would like to talk a little bit more about that, too.

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:45:23

So you can go to my website, which is dance debut.com. And there's a pop up window that will come up, and it'll ask you, if you'd like to receive those top eight tips. Those are so simple. They are like, they can do it in less than 60 seconds. And they can completely transform the day. And as I said before, I just took one tool at a time played with it. So what it did for me, so we're kind of fit in my day, and then carried on, you've got eight tips sitting there that you could take one of those, work it through, maybe you've just one for the week, you could go two months and have all these tools that could really rejuvenate things. So that would be the way that they can connect when you go to my website, it has my email, so they can easily find me there. And I did mention my YouTube channel, which is at Michelle Greenwell. And that's full of resources. There's hundreds of videos there, Tai Chi dance, I mentioned my it's in the cards. So I have a video there of how those cards work. And if they're looking for the foot sensors, because they want to actually visually see something. And that's the way to do it. And I talked through that exercise as well.

Melissa Deally: 00:46:36

I love it. And I have all of that information in the show notes for everyone. And so they will be able to find you and find the free gift, your YouTube channel, etc, etc. So thank you again for coming on and sharing your wisdom. Is there any last tip or message you'd like to leave with the audience? Before we round out this episode,

Dr. Michelle Greenwell: 00:46:56

I would say that if you've accepted some things into your life, that have put you in a place you don't want to be, you have the choice to change it. And it can be very simple. And it's just one step forward. So that one step forward could be rolling around on your feet. And that's enough to inspire you to think differently and not to underestimate that fact, because when those reflexes work correctly, you do think differently. And so you can make different choices. So two

Melissa Deally: 00:47:24

beautiful tip. Thank you very much. And thank you to my audience for always tuning in and listening. I hope you've loved this episode with Dr. Michelle Greenwell. And if you know anyone else that needs to hear it, please forward it along and let them learn