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Episode Transcript:

If you feel you often lose control of your eating and your hunger, if you feel anxious or even afraid to enter your kitchen or go out to eat with friends. If you feel you can’t stop eating once you start, or you no longer want to be controlled by food and the emotions that surround it, lean in my friend and get inspired.

This is your wake up call to a life where food doesn’t control you. Where you’re comfortable with what you eat and where you can easily stop whenever you want to. This isn’t science fiction and it’s not another empty weight loss promise. This is hypnosis. And if you like this show, you’ll love my powerful hypnosis audio, The Binge Blocker Protocol. This hypnosis helps you stop out of control eating the moment you feel that urge. It’s a 15 minute audio that deals with the emotions behind compulsive eating. Once those emotions are out of the way, the urge to overeat goes [00:01:00] away with it. Once you get your binge blocker protocol, you can download it to your phone to carry with you whenever you might feel that urge. Whether in a restaurant, in your home or even at your workplace when those breakroom donuts are calling your name. Whether you call it a binge, overeating or simply losing control for a moment, this audio will help you resolve it. You can get your Binge Blocker Protocol by going to anywherehypnosis.com.

That’s anywherehypnosis.com. Right on the homepage, you’ll see where you can get your copy of the Binge Blocker Protocol right now. And I’m serious about that, right now. Pause this podcast to go get your hypnosis today. Don’t worry. I’ll still be here when you get back. Go to anywherehypnosis.com and sign up.

It’s completely free. And if you’re even thinking about getting this hypnosis, trust me, get this hypnosis today. Try it out because you’ll never know just [00:02:00] how effective this can be until you test it out in your own life. Again, that’s anywherehypnosis.com. One more time, anywherehypnosis.com. Now on with the show.

 (QUOTE) 

[00:02:12] Jenn: A lot of it is minerals, especially magnesium. Magnesium is so important for the nervous system. Magnesium is part of what allows us to feel calm. And in our brain, right? Like it’s magnesium deficiency is very correlated with anxiety, but also just tension, right. People who just feel like they can’t relax their muscles at the end of the day.

Like they’re always just kind of holding this tension in their body. That’s often magnesium deficiency and it actually takes a lot of magnesium to process one molecule of sugar. So we already tend to eat diets very low in magnesium, but also the more sugar we eat, the more magnesium we actually need to make up for it. Right. And so you can see how that really feeds into each other.

[00:03:00] 

 (INTRO) 

[00:03:54] Doug: Welcome back everyone to the weight loss with hypnosis podcast. My name is Doug sands, I’m the hypnotist and the host of [00:04:00] this show. And I’m so excited to have this conversation today with Jen Donovan. Jen and I had a fantastic and very interesting conversation about our nervous system. Jen is a nervous system specialist who has quite an extensive background in varied fields. In this conversation, we talked about chronic stress, about immunity, about tension, and about how our nervous system impacts so many areas of these issues. Now, as a hypnotist, a lot of these things seem to stem from our unconscious mind. And I really had to think about what is our nervous system.

And I think I’m going to have to let you come up with your own definition of what is nervous system. Is it entirely physical in our body, or is it something that stems into our brain function? I think Jen has a really fantastic explanation and I think she has her own explanation of this for you.

 I really would like you to take a close look into what you feel is actually going on with your nervous system. There are so many things that are happening at the [00:05:00] unconscious level, whether you call it our unconscious mind or our nervous system or other systems or fate or something else.

[00:05:06] Doug: There are so many things that we are not consciously aware of. And some of these things are existing at the same time. Some of these things are working with each other. This was an absolutely fascinating conversation to have. Now, Jen and I didn’t get to talk about her own story because we got so caught up in other topics.

Jen mentioned after this recording, that she’s got a really interesting story about how she got started in this field. I highly encourage you to check out Jen’s personal story, because it is a very empowering story of overcoming several issues, including severe auto immunity issues, nervous system dysfunction, and generalized anxiety.

These are issues that impact so many of us nowadays. And if this is an issue that you struggle with, I highly, highly encourage you to reach out to Jen after this podcast to learn more information and perhaps to start working with her. Jen was very knowledgeable and I think she’s got a lot to share.

You can [00:06:00] check out her website at wholebodyhealingeugene.com. And if you want to read her story, go to that website and then go to the about page and read that story perhaps before or after this podcast. All these links will be in the show notes. And with that, let’s dive right into today’s episode with Jen Donovan. 

 (INTERVIEW) 

[00:06:26] Doug: Alright. Welcome back to the podcast, everyone. I am so excited to have today’s conversation with Jennifer Donovan. Jennifer, how are you doing today? 

[00:06:34] Jenn: I’m doing really well. It’s been a busy month, but a really good one. Thank you for having me. 

[00:06:40] Doug: Absolutely. Thank you for being on the show. And I should ask, would you mind introducing yourself to our guests? Just telling us a little bit about yourself and perhaps how you got into your current practice? 

[00:06:49] Jenn: Yeah, absolutely. So, my name is Jennifer Donovan, but I usually go by Jen as all my clients know me is Jen and people in my personal life call me Jen too. So, uh, you can just call me Jen, that’s fine. And [00:07:00] I am a licensed professional counselor.

I am a nutritional therapy practitioner and I am a tension and trauma releasing exercises provider. So I know that’s a whole big range there. It kind of gives a little window in my personality. I just can’t stop learning. So I’m always adding new things into my practice, but, basically my specialty in my work is nervous system health, and that encompasses a whole lot, you know, that ranges from neurological issues to mental health issues to issues with the autonomic nervous system. 

So I work with a really wide range of symptoms, but I really try to approach it from a holistic perspective, as you can see, I definitely have the counseling angle. You know, I focus a lot on stress and trauma and the effects of that.

I focus a lot on nutrition and nutrients datas. And just try to really focus on overall, people’s lifestyle and how that relates to their nervous system health. So I use this very, very wide variety of methods in my work with clients. 

[00:07:56] Doug: That’s excellent. I’ve got so many questions right off the bat. The first one that [00:08:00] comes to mind, I really know very little about working with the nervous system. Would you mind telling us a little bit more about that? About perhaps the basics and what people need to understand to even grasp this. 

[00:08:10] Jenn: Yeah, absolutely. You know, the neurosystem is so fascinating because it really relates to almost any experience or symptom we could be having. Right. Because it’s really the orchestrator of the body. Right. It’s really like the man behind the curtain. And basically what the nervous system is it is taking in sensory input. Right. It’s like anything that might be experiencing in the outside world. You know, any sounds and lights and smells and people around you, your environment, and also what’s going on inside of us. Right? 

It’s detecting our nutrient levels and our blood sugar balance and any toxins we may have been exposed to. And event the thoughts inside of our heads, right. It’s picking up on the thoughts we’re thinking day to day, the emotions we’re feeling and it’s taking in all that information and it’s basically [00:09:00] distilling it down.

And ultimately it’s a threat detection system, right? Ultimately the nervous system is always asking us, are we safe right now? Because with that, assessment is going to decide how to orchestrate every system in the body. It’s going to dictate how we’re going to be interacting with the people around us, if we’re going to be feeling more shy or more adventurous, you know, if there’s things that need to happen in terms of modulating the immune system or the cardiovascular system, it’s basically going to decide what state our body needs to be in, in order to be most optimal in any given situation. 

[00:09:31] Doug: That’s fantastic.

And I’m very curious. it sounds like actually what I often tell people about the unconscious mind, about how it’s looking for threats, how it’s trying to keep us safe at all times. And perhaps there’s quite a bit of overlap with that. I’d love to know, how does our nervous system look for threats and what is the typical response when it sees our threat?

[00:09:49] Jenn: Yeah, absolutely. So like I said, before there’s external stimuli and there’s internal stimuli. Right. So you know, some of these things are very obvious, right? So like, if [00:10:00] you hear a door slam, like you’ll start, all right. Like that’s the nervous system picking up on a potential threat, very obvious. You know, anyone can relate to that. 

Some of it is very subtle, you know, it may be like how much light is in the room. It may be like an ambient noise that you might not even be super conscious of it. May be the mannerisms of a person that you’re talking to. Right. Some of it could be very subtle, but, you know, there’s only so much that we can be consciously aware of at a time.

Right. And so the nervous system is often like taking in all that information and distilling it for us, even if we’re not super aware of it. But that’s why it can sometimes feel like we get these, maybe activating symptoms that kind of feel like they come out of nowhere. It’s not really out of nowhere and nervous system is picking up on something. Right. So there’s a lot of that. But again, there’s internal cues too. And this is why I also take this very holistic, nutrition based approach as well. Because if we don’t have enough nutrients to fuel ourselves properly, that’s a threat to the nervous system, right? If our blood sugar is [00:11:00] spiking and crashing, that’s a threat to the nervous system, right?

So it’s picking, even if we’re in a very safe environment, if we’re not safe inside of our bodies, that’s still going to be a problem and vice versa. And there’s basically these, like frameworks that the body uses in terms of how to deal with threats. So there’s kind of step one and two.

And I think understanding, the stress responses in the nervous system is getting more well-known at this point, like, this is kind of more in like pop psychology. Now you hear this kind of stuff a lot. So your listeners may be familiar and you’ve maybe talked about it before. But there’s the fighter’s light system and there’s the freeze system, right. And usually it’s kind of step one or two, or kind of plan a or B in the nervous system in response to these threats. 

[00:11:41] Doug: Interesting. Again, so many questions I’d love to ask. Looking specifically about nutrition. So many people who listen to this podcast or come to work with me, they’re people who have cycled through diets, cycled through restriction and tried to forcibly control what they’re eating, what their body is doing. What does that do to our [00:12:00] nervous system? And how does that play out for us? 

[00:12:02] Jenn: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, these crash diets are very disregulating to the nervous system, right?

Because our nervous system needs to have certain nutrients statuses to be regulated, right? Now. Uh, unfortunately a standard American diet is not only very low in those nutrients, but the high amounts of sugar that we intake in a standard Western diet actually depletes essential nutrients that we need for the nervous system to feel calm and regulated.

So most people are already, unfortunately starting their lives out with a lack of the raw materials that their nervous system actually needs to be really healthy and regulated. And then what happens is that people go on these crash diets, which usually doesn’t look like actually fueling their body properly.

It looks like just restricting the amounts of food of the same food that they were eating before, which is even worse. Right. Because now not only your body [00:13:00] feeling like it doesn’t have enough nutrients to function, which it probably already did. But now, it’s even more so that, right, because now you’re even restricting more of the amount of that food you’re eating.

And so it really does put people into this chronic stress survival state, and it can be very disregulating to the nervous system and it can really confuse your body’s own cues in terms of what you need, because what the body needs when it’s in an optimal state may look different than what the body will accept when it’s in this like crisis survival state, right.

When it’s in this crisis survival state, it’s like, give me any fuel of anything so I can just keep going. And that’s often why people get into these cycles of having these really intense, restrictive diets. And then going into these really, serious binges, right? Because the body gets so depleted that it basically is giving you a craving for anything at all that you could find in your environment, even if that’s actually very low quality nutrition, is just so desperate for anything that could give it more energy to [00:14:00] keep you alive. Right? And then people feel really bad and guilty because they’ve binged on all this sugar, but that hasn’t actually replenished any of the nutrients that they were deficient in, in the first place.

And then they go back into the next crash diet and it turns into a very vicious cycle. 

[00:14:13] Doug: That’s really interesting. I’d love to ask you about the chronic stress as well, but first, a quick follow up question.

You mentioned that the sugars in our diets remove essential nutrients. I’ve heard that, you know, sugar is really bad for our gut microbiome and other ideas about sugars, but I’ve never heard that one yet. Would you explain that a little bit more? 

[00:14:30] Jenn: Yeah. A lot of it is minerals, especially magnesium.

Magnesium is so important for the nervous system. Magnesium is part of what allows us to feel calm and, in our brain, right? Like it’s, magnesium deficiency is very correlated with anxiety but also just tension, right. People who just feel like they can’t relax their muscles at the end of the day.

Like they’re always just kind of holding this tension in their body, that’s often magnesium deficiency. And it actually takes a lot of magnesium to [00:15:00] process one molecule of sugar. So we already tend to eat diets very low in magnesium. But also the more sugar we eat, the more magnesium we actually need to make up for it.

Right. And so you can see how that really feeds into each other. These diets low in magnesium, people are eating a lot of sugar that depletes the magnesium even more. Right. It’s also true with the B vitamins, B one is a nutrient I work with a lot. Because this is so important for the nervous system, it’s so important for the vagus nerve and the vagus nerve function. A lot of people with autonomic nervous system issue, dysautonomia kind of spectrum disorders, chronic fatigue. A lot of these people are actually really depleted in B1. And part of the reason people get depleted in B1 is because B1 gets depleted by the process of eating and processing refined carbohydrates as well.

So people who are eating diets very high in refined carbohydrates and very low in protein and sources of B1 will often start getting this depletion. So those are just two examples out of many. 

[00:15:58] Doug: That’s fascinating. And thank you for [00:16:00] sharing that. And this is not to kind of give like a quick hack or something, but just as a kind of understanding, do you typically recommend people take vitamins like magnesium and B vitamins?

Or do you recommend that they get those naturally by changing their diet? 

[00:16:12] Jenn: Often people need to do both. And it also depends where someone’s at. Right. I work with clients who are in all stages of being ready for change. Right. And when someone gives me the green light, I often give them very intensive protocols.

Right. Because I really like to see people get better. And I want people to have all the tools they possibly can. So that being said, if someone isn’t ready to make a major change in their diet or lifestyle supplementation is better than nothing, right. That can often help at least reduce some of the most acute symptoms that people are experiencing. So it’s absolutely an option. That being said, food is the foundation of life. Like every cell in your body is made from the raw materials of the food you’re eating every day. Like really every bite you eat does either feed illness or repair damage from illness you might be experiencing, it’s really that literal.

And so as [00:17:00] much as people are ready to embark on that journey of really shifting their diet into something that’s really going to replenish and nourish them, I always really push that as a primary method of treatment. Now people who are particularly depleted, they may need to change their diet and supplement on top of that for awhile.

So it really depends on what you’re dealing with and where you’re at. 

[00:17:19] Doug: Gotcha. Thank you for explaining that. I’d love to ask a little bit about chronic stress is specifically related to the nervous system. We hear a lot about how stress is slowly killing us and how it can relate to heart disease and other issues.

What is your take on stress, especially chronic stress from the nervous system perspective? 

[00:17:36] Jenn: Yeah. I mean, it is really one of the major root causes of illness in our society. You’re absolutely right. And the reason is because we are living in a modern world with caveman nervous systems, right. So, you know, anatomically modern humans have been around for at least 200,000 years, if not more. 

And we have not really changed [00:18:00] physiologically very much in that time. But if you can imagine how different the world was too much a thousand years ago. Right. And a lot of the change we see in terms of the structure of society, there’s major change with agriculture and larger civilizations around 10,000 years ago.

But that’s tiny compared to 200,000 years and then think about since, you know, globalization and the industrial revolution and all these modern technological advances in just a couple hundred years, right? That’s like nothing compared to how long we have existed in these bodies. Right. And so our nervous system is completely unprepared for the world that we live in today.

There are so many little things that contribute to our overall stress load. And it really is a matter of accumulation. Our nervous systems are incredibly resilient, right? If you think about everything, our species has survived over the last 200,000 years. It’s a lot of crazy stuff like, I mean, this is like droughts and natural disasters and [00:19:00] starvation and warfare.

And just all kinds of really intense things. Stress and trauma are a part of life, right? Like this is just what it’s like to be an organism on the planet. Right. We have stress and we have drama, but it’s really about the accumulation of all these stressful factors that our nervous system is not used to in an evolutionary perspective and the inability to escape those stressors.

So if you think about some of those stressors, I was just talking about, you know, if we’re being chased by a lion, the outcome of that is either you get away from the line or you get eaten by the lion, right? There’s no, just like I’m going to be running from this lion for 20 years straight. That’s not a real thing.

Right. But that’s the kind of stress we experience nowadays. Like we are going to the same stressful job for 20 years straight, and that is so unnatural for what our nervous system evolved to cope with. And so we’re often in this chronic state of stress overwhelm. It’s not that our bodies can’t handle stress.

Our bodies are incredibly well at handling stress. It’s the [00:20:00] type of stress that we can’t escape from that is so damaging. 

[00:20:03] Doug: That’s so powerful. And thank you for really explaining that. I’d love to know, looking at your own practice, just to start off with, what does your process look like when working with the client?

[00:20:12] Jenn: Yeah. So I really try to focus on assessing people’s symptoms. I will look at tests and things like that if people have already had them done, but so often people are coming to me when they’ve been to five different doctors and they’ve had all the testing and they still don’t have answers.

Right. So I really like to think, the body speaks to us through what is happening every day. Every symptom we have is a message from the body. It’s just our body trying to communicate with us about what is going on. Unfortunately we are so used to kind of pushing through, you know, we have this very, like pull yourself up by your bootstraps, kind of like grit, your teeth kind of culture.

That a lot of people unfortunately have had some dumps trying to talk to them for a very long time and don’t come to me until their body is yelling at them. Right. [00:21:00] But I do really mostly work with assessing symptoms and just trying to create a story about what the body is trying to tell us through the symptoms they’re experiencing.

So I really try to help my clients see how the symptoms are actually playing an important function in their body. I really believe the body is very, very deeply wise and really knows what it is doing. And there’s a reason for any symptom that is happening in the body. It’s either a message or it’s a side effect of some kind of survival mechanism happening in the body.

And if we can learn to kind of speak the body’s language and meet the body where it’s at and work with the body, we can make really profound change. So I don’t work to band-aid symptoms. I don’t want people on a medicinal diet or a huge supplement regiment for the rest of their lives. I want to actually figure out the root cause that the body is trying to communicate to us.

These underlying imbalances, the places where the body may be a little bit stuck. Right. And [00:22:00] so from assessing what those stuck places might be from looking at symptoms. I write a very comprehensive treatment plan. No, obviously I meet people where they’re at. Sometimes people are ready for certain things and not ready for other things in terms of what they’re willing to change.

But I look at, you know, nutrition, obviously I’ve been talking about that a lot. I often will recommend certain supplements. I talk a lot about mindset, you know, I really want people to form a new relationship with their nervous system. And like I said, really learn to communicate in a positive way with their own nervous system as they’re going through this process.

And so we also look at stress relieving practices, lifestyle practices that they can use on a day-to-day basis to help get their nervous system in a more regulated state. So I really try to give people a whole picture. 

[00:22:49] Doug: That’s excellent. And for listeners, oftentimes we were at that symptom level, meaning we don’t quite know what the issue is.

What kind of symptoms do you work with? And I guess what [00:23:00] are the processes different for working with different areas? 

[00:23:03] Jenn: Yeah, that’s a great question. So, you know, because I’m a nervous system specialist, I get a lot of different presenting conditions that come to me because like I said, the nervous system modulates every system in the body.

And so a lot of people are starting to realize that a symptom that maybe they thought was just an issue with there digestion or, you know, an issue in their brain. They’re starting to get a bigger picture of like, oh no, this is about how my whole body is working together on a nervous system level.

And so I get all sorts of different conditions coming in, but I will say that I often do get a lot of mental health concerns, especially because I have the background in counseling, I am very trauma informed in my approach, you know, and a lot of people with these kinds of mental health issues have, you know, significant trauma histories.

And that’s not always understood by all practitioners, you know? And so I do get a lot of people in that demographic, a lot of anxiety, PTSD, things like that. And then I also get a lot of more neurological or autonomic [00:24:00] nervous system disorders. Just because again, a lot of practitioners don’t really know how to work with this.

Often the symptoms are ambiguous, vague, but debilitating. Right. So, and that tends to be my population. Like if I was going to summarize it instead of like particular conditions, it’s the vague, but debilitating. So a lot of dysautonomia, a lot of pain, a lot of autoimmune type issues. 

[00:24:22] Doug: Gotcha. 

That’s fantastic. And thank you for explaining that.

I’d love to ask, you mentioned detention earlier. That’s something I really have not spoken with anyone about on this podcast. Would you mind explaining, perhaps your expertise, intention, and what’s the foundation of this and how does it actually impact us? 

[00:24:36] Jenn: In terms of like tension in the body?

[00:24:38] Doug: Yes. 

[00:24:38] Jenn: Yeah. So we often, you know, we say like, mind and body connection, right? That’s a better way of looking at it, than those things being totally separate, but really like it’s one thing, right? Like the mind and the body are not separate at all. Right. So whatever’s happening in our mind is being expressed in our body. And what’s ever happening in our body is being expressed in our mind.

I mean, we [00:25:00] do have a physiological mechanism for this, which is the vagus nerve, right. Which connects to all of our major organs and goes up and connects into the brainstem. And so that’s kind of the direct line of communication there. But we will create these chronic tension patterns in the body related to any kind of stress we experience, you know, so a lot of people maybe have had an injury maybe in sports when they’re working out or something like that.

And they know how that area gets really tight intense when it’s trying to heal. Right. It’s because it’s responding to stress. So it’s tightening up. Right. But the same thing, there’s really no difference in what’s happening when we’re encountering social or mental or interpersonal stress as well. 

If you think about what happens when you get scared, right? Think about what happens to your body. You go like this, right? You curl inward like your shoulders pull in your chest, kind of caves in, you know, your head comes forward. And it’s protective like you’re trying to protect like your major organs in case of some kind of assault or something like that.

It’s a very instinctual response. But what happens [00:26:00] is, again, when I was talking about chronic stress earlier, a lot of us never relax from this position, right? We’re like this all the time. And that creates these chronic tension patterns in the body that are actually basically holding the energy of our stressful experiences.

And so it’s really important to start looking at how your body is moving through the world day to day, to start to help unwind some of those tension patterns. 

[00:26:24] Doug: That’s really interesting. Some listeners may be familiar with the idea, you can change your body posture to change mood and everything, but for those who perhaps this is the first time ever hearing about this. Why are the mind and body essentially one. Why do they have such a strong connection? 

[00:26:39] Jenn: Well, I mean, we are just a holistic, systemic organism, right? Like even this idea of mind body separation, that’s a very recent, like Western philosophical idea, right?

That is not the way the body has been understood for most of human history. And so really to think that they’re separate is kind of the weird [00:27:00] thing, right? That’s kind of the unusual perspective when we look at the bigger picture, right. You know, our brain is a bit of a control center, right?

Absolutely. But it’s a two way communication highway that is happening at all times. So anything expressed in the brain is being expressed in the body. And anything being expressed in the body is also affecting the brain. And so we really see it as just kind of one system. 

[00:27:22] Doug: It’s fascinating.

Thank you for sharing that. For listeners who may be dealing with some stress, you know, the last two years have been very stressful for all of us. And for those who may even have diagnosed mental illnesses, what are some tips, some resources, some ways that they can work on their nervous response to stress and to just perhaps notice that they have some control over their own emotions.

[00:27:45] Jenn: Yeah. Yeah. Well, the very first step is to actually rethink your relationship with your own stress response. And this is honestly one of the primary things that I work on with my clients. Because a lot of times, people when they’re [00:28:00] feeling stressed, maybe they have a lot of stress in their life. Or like you said, they’re dealing with some kind of symptoms of mental illness or nervous system based issues, they are very afraid of those symptoms. They’re very self-critical about those symptoms. And they see their body as engaging in some kind of problematic or dysfunctional behavior, right. When they’re having those symptoms. And that is 100% the wrong way to look at it because your nervous system is spending’s all it’s time trying to save your life every moment of every day.

Right? That is its purpose. Right. It’s talking about as the threat detection system, it’s keeping you safe. And any time we’re getting these symptoms of stress, it’s your body trying to protect you. Right? And so a lot of times people will feel tension in their body or they’ll have these intrusive, anxious thoughts, right.

Or maybe they’ll get like really profound fatigue, or muscle weakness. Your body is trying to protect you with those symptoms. Right. And so a lot of us are really avoidant in paying attention to what [00:29:00] our body is saying, because if we notice something that’s uncomfortable, we think, well, something’s wrong with me.

You know, my body’s doing something bad, my body’s betraying me, what’s wrong with me? Why can’t I tolerate more? And that just creates an antagonistic relationship between you and your nervous system. Your nervous system saying, Hey, I’m doing my best down here. You know what I mean? Like I’m really, really trying, you know, and you’re not listening to what I’m saying.

And so the first step is really to change your relationship with those symptoms so that you can approach them in at least initially a neutral, but ideally, eventually a compassionate way, right. Where you can say, wow, I really noticed, I am feeling like my heart rate is elevated right now, you know, and at least have like a neutral, curious mindset to start of like, that’s interesting, I wonder what’s going on.

You know, that my nervous system feels like it has to elevate my heart rate right now. And then ideally, eventually as you get more comfortable practicing that, you can actually communicate some compassion to your nervous [00:30:00] system, right? Of like, oh my gosh, you must be really sensing some stress or a threat in the environment right now to feel like you have to raise my heart rate right now.

Like, I really wonder what that’s about and I wonder what I could do to help you see that maybe I’m actually not in any threatening situation right now. You know, so a lot of it is just changing the way that you’re engaging with your own body. And I find that if people are, there are so many like little hacks and we can definitely talk more specifically about some of those little hacks.

There are a lot of ways that you can work day to day to help your nervous system stay regulated. But I find that if people approach it as a way of like, I need to like override what my body is doing, because it’s doing something wrong. That’s actually not going to benefit their health in the long-term.

So it’s really important to approach it with the right attitude in the first place. 

[00:30:45] Doug: Absolutely. And I think that’s such an important reframe to, so many times when you feel stressed or some negative emotion, our first thought is to run away as far as possible from it. 

[00:30:53] Jenn: Yes. 

[00:30:53] Doug: But it’s actually trying to help us.

And I think that’s such an important point. You mentioned the tips and hacks. I recommend [00:31:00] that listeners check out your website and your work, perhaps getting in touch with you for some of those resources. Jen, I’d love to ask you, looking at your practice in general.

This might be a little bit off the wall, but what’s one question that you wish people would ask you more often? 

[00:31:14] Jenn: Oh, that’s a really interesting question. Well, I think it might have to do with kind of what I’ve talked around already in terms of not seeing this process as a hassle or a chore or something in the body that has to be overcome. A lot of times people approach me and kind of this attitude of like, you know, what am I going to have to take away?

What am I going to have to give up? It’s very scarcity mindset around, like, how can I kind of, keep my life as the same as possible. And just kind of like add things here and there, like, seeing this process of healing as a chore basically, or like a task to check off the list that they’re trying to minimize as much as [00:32:00] possible.

And, you know, I think people who come to me who are saying more how can I really transform myself through this process? Like that’s the mindset we want. That’s, what’s really going to give people the incredible results. People who are able to see this as an opportunity, right. That’s not focused on like, what can I keep in?

You know, what can I hold close? But like, in what way can I really grow from this whole experience of healing? You know, and I think a lot of people are able to come to that mindset eventually. And those are the people I actually usually see do the most complete healing when I’m working with them.

But yeah, if someone asks me that question on our first session, I would just be blown away and so excited. Yeah. 

[00:32:48] Doug: That’s fantastic. Looking at the nervous system, mentioning that it’s something that impacts so many different issues, so many presenting issues. I’d love to know when you work with clients, are they sometimes surprised at some of the [00:33:00] results that they see, like, you know, they were expecting this thing to change and it did.

And then all of a sudden this thing way over here also changed. Do you see that quite a bit?

[00:33:06] Jenn: Almost with everyone. It’s so amazing. Yeah. People will come to me and they’ll often have a long list of symptoms that they want to talk about, you know, and we’ll talk through it. And then, you know, a few months into our work together, they’ll say, this is the weirdest thing.

I didn’t even tell you that I had this thing. Like, I’ve always just had this weird little quirk and it’s gone, you know, or it changed in this way. There’s always surprising things that happened. And that’s, you know, again, because everything is so connected, everything is this feedback loop that affects each other in ways that even the most intelligent scientists in the world, like still doesn’t totally understand.

So yeah, I have that all the time of just bizarre little things that they didn’t even think to mention. We’ll just change. 

[00:33:46] Doug: That’s so interesting. I think this conversation has been excellent and fantastic. I’ve learned quite a bit. Looking at just a couple last questions. Where can people find out more about you?

[00:33:55] Jenn: Yeah. So I have a website, [00:34:00] wholebodyhealingeugene.com. And on there, you can look at the services I offer. I do work with people one-on-one. I also have quite a few online self-guided courses that you can download. And they really run the range of, you know, very intensive through just some kind of basic lifestyle changes.

So you can kind of look through those and see what’s gonna fit for what you’re ready for. And I also have a YouTube channel and I try to post weekly on there. And so I talk about a lot of different topics on there. Those are probably the best ways to find me. I have lots and lots of resources on those platforms.

[00:34:31] Doug: Excellent. Perfect. And listeners, I highly encourage you to check out all of those links. They will be in the show notes or the description if you’re watching, wherever you’re watching this. And finally, Jen, do you have any tips, wisdom, or final thoughts that you’d like to leave listeners with? 

[00:34:45] Jenn: Yeah, absolutely.

 So, I guess, I just want to reiterate that a lot of times people coming to me feel really broken. You know, they feel really damaged. They feel like their body has betrayed them. And I think the most beautiful thing [00:35:00] that we can gain from being sick and deciding that we want to heal is that we can really learn to have a new relationship with our body and we can really see it as an opportunity for full transformation.

[00:35:13] Jenn: One thing that I see people, do when they really take their healing practices seriously, is that they do have a bit of a personality change, right. They actually really start seeing the world in a different way. They start seeing a lot more beauty in the world. They come to the world was more of a sense of trust, and faith. Not even in a spiritual sense, but just faith that the universe is just kind of like all working in harmony and your body is a part of that. Your body is a part of this kind of bigger natural system. You know, we are animals living in an ecosystem and people often feel a more, a part of that when they really start healing in a deeper way.

And so, I just really want to emphasize that there is a way to really approach your body in a more collaborative way. [00:36:00] And there is an opportunity to really feel more a part of the world and more grounded in your own body through this process of healing. And that’s really the bigger picture.

 Obviously we want to reduce negative symptoms, we want to feel better. But a lot of the times, it’s people who realize, wow, even if I don’t get better, I am going to feel so much more at peace in the world through this healing process. And then inevitably, they do get better. Right. But it’s like all these pieces falling together.

[00:36:33] Jenn: So I guess I just want to emphasize that. 

[00:36:34] Doug: Absolutely. This has been a fascinating conversation and listeners, I highly encourage you to check out Jen’s work. I know I’m going to be checking out her YouTube channel and just learning a little bit more for myself. 

[00:36:44] Jenn: Jen, thank you so much for being on the podcast today.

Absolutely. Thank you. This is a great conversation.

 (OUTRO) 

[00:36:49] Doug: What an incredible conversation that was. Again, if you’d like to get in touch with Jen, you can find her on her website, or you can reach out to me directly and I can get you in touch with her. And I’ve got [00:37:00] to ask, if stress in your life leads to emotional eating, have you tried the binge blocker protocol yet?

I know I’ve spoken about it quite a bit on this podcast and it’s completely free. It’s a completely free resource that I am giving away when I sell these hypnosis audios on my website or after fundraising shows, these things go for 30, 40, $50 at a time. And this was something that I used to sell on my site that I thought this is something I want to give away to people.

This is something I think that many people can benefit from, and it can show that our minds actually do have some influence over what’s happening in our lives. This binge blocker protocol is something you can use in the very moment that issue comes up. And it also helps to build long-term habits so you don’t need to rely on it as a crutch.

You can get that by going to anywherehypnosis.com. That’s my business anywhere hypnosis because I do hypnosis anywhere that you can have an internet connection to reach me. You can get that right on [00:38:00] my homepage. And that homepage again is anywherehypnosis.com. 

So my name is Doug Sands and I help compulsive and emotional eaters to end the obsession with food and make peace with it. Often in as little as two sessions. I thank you again for listening into this episode, and I look forward to seeing all of you in the next one.

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Like what you heard in this episode? Remember to Subscribe! Click the + button on your favorite podcasting app, because there are plenty of resources here to help you on your journey.

Want to watch the interviews happen? Check out the Weight Loss with Hypnosis podcast on YouTube! Whether on a solo show or a guest interview, you can view everything that’s happening behind the scenes.

Want to know more about weight loss and Hypnosis? Check out Doug’s website! Here, you can learn more about how Doug helps people with losing weight, changing their body image, and overcoming compulsive eating. You can also get your Binge Blocker Hypnosis, to help you overcome uncontrollable eating whenever it strikes!

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To your journey towards better health,

Doug

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P.S. If you’d like to see what Doug’s better half is up to, check out her travel site here!

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgp0ylxhJsL2QXsU8IdmQVQ

https://anywherehypnosis.com/

https://www.instagram.com/anywherehypnosis/

https://www.tiktok.com/@weightlosshypnosis?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en

https://www.bonvoyagebrittany.org/