Barbara Horsley is an experienced massage therapist with a speciality in the abdomen, scar tissue, uterine health and organs. She talks to us today about how, through massage, she learned that it was more than working on the muscles. In fact, over time she learned that emotions were often expressed by her clients when she worked on their bodies. Barbara shared that she found “the issues are in the tissues”, meaning we store past emotional experiences within our bodies. The healing nature of massage and abdominal therapy allows emotions to be released. Barbara share what it means to live a well-nourished life and lean into our divine intelligence that comes with aging.
EPISODE TAKEAWAYS (what you’ll learn):
About The Guest:
Barbara Horsley is an online educator of abdominal therapy for reproductive and digestive health, herbal medicine for women, mind-body therapies, and natural movement. She’s worked in the healing arts field for over 25 years with a specialty in abdominal massage and Visceral ManipulationTM. She’s worked with thousands of bellies and believes each one is uniquely beautiful and has a story to tell. She has a heartfelt enthusiasm for teaching people how to care for their reproductive and digestive organs. What lights her up is to see people connect with the inner beauty and wisdom of their bodies.
Find Barbara Here:
https://alignmentmonkey.nurturance.net/2019/belly-inspired/
Resources Referenced:
About the Host:
Maureen Spielman is the Founder of Mystical Sisterhood, a podcast dedicated to bringing more joy, healing and expansion to the world. She is a seasoned life coach who supports individuals through one-on-one coaching, groups and workshops.
Connect with Maureen:
● Check out her Instagram: @maureeenspielman
● Learn more about her work at www.maureenspielman.com
● Want to join our Mystical Sisterhood Membership community? Find out more here: https://www.maureenspielman.com/mysticalsisterhood
● Email Maureen at hello@maureenspielman.com to inquire about coaching, podcasting & speaking engagements
● Want to view Mystical Sisterhood episodes? Visit the Mystical Sisterhood YouTube Channel here: Magical Sisterhood Youtube
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Welcome back to mystical sisterhood. This is
Maureen Spielman:your host, Maureen Spielman and today I sit down with Barbara
Maureen Spielman:Horsley. She is an online educator of abdominal therapy
Maureen Spielman:for reproductive and digestive health, herbal medicine for
Maureen Spielman:women Mind Body therapies, and natural movement. She has been
Maureen Spielman:working in the healing arts field for over 25 years, with a
Maureen Spielman:specialty in abdominal massage and visceral manipulations.
Maureen Spielman:She's worked with 1000s of bellies and believes each one is
Maureen Spielman:uniquely beautiful, and has a story to tell. She has a
Maureen Spielman:heartfelt enthusiasm for teaching people how to care for
Maureen Spielman:their reproductive and digestive organs. What lights her up is to
Maureen Spielman:see people connect with their inner beauty and wisdom of their
Maureen Spielman:bodies. So settle in and enjoy today's episode. I'm so grateful
Maureen Spielman:for Barbara for being here. See you in the episode. Hey there,
Maureen Spielman:welcome to mystical sisterhood. This is your host, Maureen
Maureen Spielman:Spielman. I started the show to highlight the intuitives healers
Maureen Spielman:and other courageous women that I've met along my journey and
Maureen Spielman:continue to meet. Through amazing interviews, I seek to
Maureen Spielman:ask insightful questions to uncover ways in which you the
Maureen Spielman:listener can apply the wisdom and knowledge to your own life.
Maureen Spielman:I believe that we're all in this together. So sharing healing and
Maureen Spielman:joy, and bringing community together is both my passion and
Maureen Spielman:purpose. If you'd like to learn more about the mystical
Maureen Spielman:sisterhood community I'm building please visit www
Maureen Spielman:mystical sisterhood.com See you in the episode.
Maureen Spielman:Welcome back to mystical sisterhood. This is your host,
Maureen Spielman:Maureen Spielman. And this week I sit down with Barbara Horsley.
Maureen Spielman:And Barbara was introduced to me through Alicia Isaac's House,
Maureen Spielman:who was a previous guest, talking about the Akashic
Maureen Spielman:records and she and Barbara had met at at an event and at least
Maureen Spielman:you had said, Maureen, I think that she would be great for your
Maureen Spielman:show. So welcome, Barbara. So happy to have you.
Barbara Horsley:Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah,
Barbara Horsley:you're so
Maureen Spielman:welcome. And I'll tell the audience just a
Maureen Spielman:little bit about you. So they have a little bit of a lay of
Maureen Spielman:the land before we begin the interview. But Barbara teaches
Maureen Spielman:self abdominal massage, and mind body therapies for better
Maureen Spielman:digestion, constipation relief, Scar, tissue release, and
Maureen Spielman:emotional tension held in the body, in the belly, better
Maureen Spielman:menstrual periods, menopause and uterine health. So I really
Maureen Spielman:think for our listenership, a lot of these areas are going to
Maureen Spielman:be beneficial to kind of go more deeply into so you know, I, it
Maureen Spielman:was so interesting when I looked at your work, Barbara, because I
Maureen Spielman:shared with you that when I was a young girl, when I was seven
Maureen Spielman:years old, I had an accident. And it was my my sister, Susan
Maureen Spielman:is a listener. And she and I were playing and we were tipping
Maureen Spielman:back and forth. We were on a table like a seesaw. And she was
Maureen Spielman:a long rectangular table. And I was on one side and she was on
Maureen Spielman:the other. And she said Maureen, I bet you can't do this. And I
Maureen Spielman:popped up on the table with her. And we both had our feet on the
Maureen Spielman:edges across from one another. And we were rocking back and
Maureen Spielman:forth and rocking back and forth. And she jumped off. And
Maureen Spielman:the table, I flew up into the air and the table flipped on its
Maureen Spielman:side, and I fell smack dab in the middle of my belly. And of
Maureen Spielman:course, went up into a room to be in pain on my own until I got
Maureen Spielman:very sick. We alerted my mother as to what happened. But the
Maureen Spielman:trauma there was a ruptured small intestine. And so you
Maureen Spielman:know, that was a long time ago. So I have a scar that runs the
Maureen Spielman:length of my abdomen. And I've always been really curious about
Maureen Spielman:it. Because of course, when I was little, there wasn't a lot
Maureen Spielman:of attention paid to it. And I've just been curious. And so
Maureen Spielman:this is one area that you do work around, and I'll just, I
Maureen Spielman:just I'm so excited to have the conversation with you. Because
Maureen Spielman:when I started to watch your free the belly chorus, I was
Maureen Spielman:like, wow, this is speaking directly to me. So we can talk
Maureen Spielman:about how a scar tissue adheres to internal organs and all these
Maureen Spielman:things that I don't even know but yeah, I if there's anyone
Maureen Spielman:out there that doesn't have that similar experience, but has scar
Maureen Spielman:tissue of any kind. That's one thing that we're going to be
Maureen Spielman:talking about today. So I will I will stop there with that share
Maureen Spielman:that's applicable to the talk but you know, this welcome you
Maureen Spielman:and how Barbara How did you even get into this field to begin
Maureen Spielman:with? It's fascinating.
Barbara Horsley:Well, I was Uh, in college in my junior year,
Barbara Horsley:and I was directionless, I didn't know what I wanted to
Barbara Horsley:focus on. And so I thought, well, I'll just go to massage
Barbara Horsley:school until I figure out what I really want to do. And then 28
Barbara Horsley:years later, I'm still a massage therapist. But when I went to
Barbara Horsley:massage school, there is some courses that really spoke to me
Barbara Horsley:working with energy medicine and polarity therapy. And so once
Barbara Horsley:you become a massage therapist, there's just so much more to
Barbara Horsley:learn, you can never stop learning. So I really liked that
Barbara Horsley:about the profession, it because I'm a curious person. And when I
Barbara Horsley:worked with clients, I noticed emotions would come up with
Barbara Horsley:them. And not, you know, sometimes tears would come up
Barbara Horsley:not out of pain, but because it was releasing some kind of
Barbara Horsley:emotional charge within them. And as a body worker, I didn't
Barbara Horsley:know how to work with that. And so I went to the trauma relief
Barbara Horsley:services in Oregon in I believe it was Beaverton, Oregon. And
Barbara Horsley:they taught a course in meta psychology. So how emotions are
Barbara Horsley:stored in the body. And the teacher would have this machine
Barbara Horsley:that had a as a scale on it like a meter. And the person would
Barbara Horsley:hold on to these electrodes in just talk. And when they
Barbara Horsley:mentioned a certain subject, that meter would kind of go off
Barbara Horsley:the chart, and she would say, let's come back to that. And she
Barbara Horsley:would work, not from a talk therapy perspective. But through
Barbara Horsley:working on the meridian system to help release that charge. And
Barbara Horsley:so I don't know if you've heard of tapping or EFT. Okay, so
Barbara Horsley:that's what she taught us. So when you experience emotion,
Barbara Horsley:say, say you're sitting at the table with your family, and
Barbara Horsley:there's an argument and you're eating a certain food. And you
Barbara Horsley:can feel as a child, you can feel like this. In your solar
Barbara Horsley:plexus, and stomach in you can't digest the food very well. And
Barbara Horsley:sometimes people can develop a sensitivity to that food based
Barbara Horsley:on that emotion that was experienced in the moment. So we
Barbara Horsley:would say the tapping or EFT for those of you who don't know, is
Barbara Horsley:you're tapping on the meridian endpoints while you're focusing
Barbara Horsley:on the issue. And to help discharge that stored energy in
Barbara Horsley:so I learned that and worked with my clients with that, and
Barbara Horsley:it worked really well. But as a body worker, I didn't want to
Barbara Horsley:talk as much I just wanted to feel. And so I read, I met
Barbara Horsley:someone that introduced me to Kyle Klein. And he was, is a
Barbara Horsley:practitioner chinae Song Chinese abdominal therapy. And then
Barbara Horsley:Chinese abdominal therapy. They each Oregon has a particular
Barbara Horsley:emotion, can store a particular emotion, and they look at it as
Barbara Horsley:it's a energy. So anger feels different than sadness or grief.
Barbara Horsley:Right. And so it was based on abdominal therapy. So we would
Barbara Horsley:work with the internal organs teach healing sounds for each
Barbara Horsley:organ to release the emotional charge in that way. So we worked
Barbara Horsley:with the liver and the spleen, the intestines, the heart, the
Barbara Horsley:kidneys, all of that. And we didn't focus too much on the
Barbara Horsley:uterus, but when you work with the liver and the kidneys, and
Barbara Horsley:the intestines, and the heart, you're working with the uterus
Barbara Horsley:in an indirect way, but I was very curious in uterine work. So
Barbara Horsley:that led me to Dr. Rosita arvigo. And the reason why I was
Barbara Horsley:curious about uterine work is my mom had a retro verted uterus
Barbara Horsley:when she was young. And it caused her all kinds of problem
Barbara Horsley:back pain even caused issues when she was pregnant when my
Barbara Horsley:little brother really bad back pain and pain. A mass and
Barbara Horsley:painful periods. And back then the doctor said, Well, you're
Barbara Horsley:done having children, let's just take the uterus out. And she
Barbara Horsley:hadn't gone through menopause yet. But that's just what they
Barbara Horsley:did back then. And they've known since the 70s, that the uterus
Barbara Horsley:continues to work and communicate the ovaries as well
Barbara Horsley:with the brain for 25 years after menopause just in a
Barbara Horsley:different way. And that if you take the uterus out, or the
Barbara Horsley:ovaries out before menopause, you increase your chances of
Barbara Horsley:neurological diseases like dementia by nine fold. And my
Barbara Horsley:mom was diagnosed at my age with dementia at 55 and died at 62.
Barbara Horsley:So I just I saw a lot of women suffering with uterine issues or
Barbara Horsley:displaced uterus that doctors would say, yeah, that's, that's
Barbara Horsley:just normal. It's it's no big deal. And Dr. Rosita, arvigo,
Barbara Horsley:focused on uterine placement. And so that's led me down that.
Maureen Spielman:Yeah. Well, it's, I'll just stop there for a
Maureen Spielman:minute. Because I, what, for me, what keeps unfolding is I like
Maureen Spielman:talking to you about this. Being a specialist in the body or
Maureen Spielman:organs are you said the other day when we talked for the first
Maureen Spielman:time, and I've heard this before, but I love it, that our
Maureen Spielman:issues are in our tissues. So our emotions, just like there's
Maureen Spielman:that basic for a lot of people. It's the basic offering, like
Maureen Spielman:learning like, Oh, my experiences are stored in my
Maureen Spielman:body. Oh, my gosh, then it seems like another layer of like, oh,
Maureen Spielman:those experiences and emotions are in my tissues, they're in
Maureen Spielman:the different places in my body. So that alone right there in
Maureen Spielman:your training and going to the place in Beaverton and learning
Maureen Spielman:more deeply about that. That's fascinating. I mean, it must it
Maureen Spielman:sounds like it just opened up worlds. And I really like just
Maureen Spielman:to comment on your path to is that it just taken a lot of
Maureen Spielman:different directions. And you've it feels like you've really
Maureen Spielman:followed the thread of what was calling you next, based on what
Maureen Spielman:you opened yourself up to learning.
Unknown:Yeah, it's all curiosity. And yeah, it was.
Unknown:What's next. And all of the modalities I studied in the
Unknown:abdominal therapies, the Cine song, the arvigo techniques in
Unknown:my abdominal therapy, and visceral manipulation, all had a
Unknown:component of the Mind Body emotional piece as well. They
Unknown:have the pure structural part, but they didn't separate the,
Unknown:the emotional from the physical. It's like in the, even in my
Unknown:training with Katie Bowman in biomechanics, she is a
Unknown:scientist, a bio mechanist. And when I went to do my
Unknown:certification with her, we did a whole week of just chest openers
Unknown:and moving our bodies opening our bodies up. And that night, I
Unknown:had just all these emotions come up, just just crying. And I told
Unknown:Katie, the next morning, she's like, cool, yeah, that happens.
Unknown:And so it and then it went back to in that training and the
Unknown:trauma relief services. We went to a grocery store where they
Unknown:have a little cafe and she, the instructor said, just observe
Unknown:people and tell me what they're feeling. And you start to notice
Unknown:their, their posture where maybe they're just folded in on
Unknown:themselves. And you take on that posture and you can feel oh my
Unknown:gosh, that person's sad or agitated, in so that, that alone
Unknown:with what Rosita taught with Wilhelm Reich, with our issues
Unknown:are in our tissues. You know, he he was a psychoanalyst analyst
Unknown:in the time of Freud. And he really stepped out of the norm
Unknown:and into kind of taboo for that profession where he started
Unknown:massaging his clients, because he felt like that was a faster
Unknown:way to release these emotions from their body rather than
Unknown:years of talk therapy. And so he talked about these armor bands
Unknown:that we hold in our body, which All right in the same spot as
Unknown:the chakra system, but he wasn't aware of the chakra system at
Unknown:the time. But he talks about, you know, around the chest, the
Unknown:pelvis, the throat. The example I like to give is, you know, if
Unknown:you have a parent that says, you know, stop crying, or I'll give
Unknown:you something to cry about, what's that child do but maybe
Unknown:tightness, eyes as throat is neck gets all tight and strong,
Unknown:it's tight, to try to stop crying and hold that emotion in,
Unknown:and it's protective in the moment. But if you're living in
Unknown:that situation all the time, it him it results in the physical
Unknown:symptoms, and maybe issues with the eye, eyes, or the neck or
Unknown:the jaw TMJ. And as Wilhelm Reich, quote, said, it may serve
Unknown:you in the moment, and I'm paraphrasing, because I don't
Unknown:remember the exact quote, to wear this suit of armor. But
Unknown:then in life, it becomes impossible to dance if you're
Unknown:wearing it all the time.
Maureen Spielman:Wow. Yeah, that's such a good example of
Maureen Spielman:how we tamp down our crying and our emotion when we're little.
Maureen Spielman:And how many? I think what strikes me with that example is,
Maureen Spielman:if you grew up with which so many of us did in our
Maureen Spielman:generation, with not allowing our emotions in our houses, or
Maureen Spielman:our parents not so much to keep the peace, what is that? done
Maureen Spielman:over and over and over again, then a lot of energetic is it
Maureen Spielman:would you say is it energetic block, or what he called armor,
Maureen Spielman:or it feels like it gets, like denser and denser energetically?
Unknown:Mm hmm. Yeah, blocks the flow. And so with the
Unknown:massage and with clients, like when I had a treatment from Dr.
Unknown:Rosita, arvigo, she massage along my solar plexus, or what
Unknown:she calls the cement posts, like right here, between the navel
Unknown:and the ziphone process. And she calls it this cement post,
Unknown:because it's that area, when something shocking happens, you
Unknown:get that feeling right there, and you tighten up. And so she
Unknown:massage that area in old memories from when I was maybe
Unknown:in second grade, these boys were teasing me telling me I was
Unknown:stupid. And I never thought about that until that moment. In
Unknown:fact, I never remembered it into that moment. And then I thought
Unknown:about how I went through life and feeling less than
Unknown:intelligent and stupid and never smart enough. And when those
Unknown:emotions came up, it was it was good. It felt like a release
Unknown:like things could flow better. And you know, Rosie didn't
Unknown:notice it right away. And she said when emotions come up, try
Unknown:not to try to figure it out. Try not to go Oh, this must be about
Unknown:when so and so did this. Because that takes the thinking mind
Unknown:takes you outside of the body and you need to be present in
Unknown:the body. So she said Think of it like a train going by, that
Unknown:train can go by but you don't have to get on that train and no
Unknown:one has to get off. Just watch it go by. So I combined why
Unknown:learn from her and from Tara Bach, in radical acceptance,
Unknown:about being present with the body in those emotions notice
Unknown:colors and shapes and textures. And I guarantee it will move.
Unknown:And so where your attention goes your energy flows and helps
Unknown:unblock that dam but we have to go in there with a compassionate
Unknown:heart. giving yourself the attention like a good friend and
Unknown:need just listening answer not trying to control
Maureen Spielman:Yeah, and just allowing it feels like what do
Maureen Spielman:you call that like a cement? What did you call it? The
Maureen Spielman:cement? That post? Yeah, the cement post Yeah. And how that
Maureen Spielman:released because often when you experience something yourself I
Maureen Spielman:was reading recently in a book just like how we're here to have
Maureen Spielman:experiences too. And so just and through experiential, we can
Maureen Spielman:move things we can heal things and that what you're describing
Maureen Spielman:being in the body and being with our body and taking ourselves
Maureen Spielman:out allowing ourselves to go into the body. It's so it's a
Maureen Spielman:whole nother thing I used to when I was younger. I think I
Maureen Spielman:used to say, like, my body feels this way. And my partner would
Maureen Spielman:always, he'd actually pick up on it, which was interesting. It
Maureen Spielman:was almost like I had the way I was saying it was almost like a
Maureen Spielman:dissociation from my body. It wouldn't be like, I feel this
Maureen Spielman:way, I would have this separation. And I didn't even
Maureen Spielman:realize I was saying it. But I think there really was something
Maureen Spielman:to it. That it sounds like it could be intelligence, too. But
Maureen Spielman:it was Does that make sense? Like the way I'm saying it was
Maureen Spielman:like, my body was this separate thing. And it's all one yet. Our
Maureen Spielman:body does have a lot of wisdom and intelligence for us.
Unknown:Yeah, that makes that makes sense. Part of, you know,
Unknown:we talk and in parts to better communicate, but it really all
Unknown:is one. And so when I get a client that is angry at their
Unknown:body, because it's just not working, right. They're having
Unknown:horrible periods, or having trouble with fertility and or
Unknown:negative emotions about menopause, like your body is
Unknown:doing a trillion things right in this very second. And your body
Unknown:is telling you these are messages, your body's not
Unknown:broken. So one of the beautiful things I love about this work is
Unknown:to connect people to those internal messages and change the
Unknown:way they look at things and then what they look at changes. I
Unknown:think that was a quote by I can't remember the physician.
Unknown:Good. Yeah, I've heard that. Yeah. We look at things in the
Unknown:things you look at change. Yeah. And so again, look, giving
Unknown:yourself that loving attention you would a good friend in need
Unknown:a single mother open and compassionate heart.
Maureen Spielman:Yeah, I love that. And thanks for bringing up
Maureen Spielman:the example for menopause because I think whether it's a
Maureen Spielman:younger woman experience experiencing menstrual cramps or
Maureen Spielman:an older woman experience menopausal symptoms it is or is
Maureen Spielman:there. You just gave an example of looking to your body like
Maureen Spielman:what messages are in it for me? What kind of messages have you
Maureen Spielman:seen come up for people in like just take menopause? Is would
Maureen Spielman:that be a question that is answerable
Unknown:by I think first it's like realizing what is your
Unknown:truth and what is cultural views of menopause? Its cultural views
Unknown:of menopause can be like you're all dried up. You have hot
Unknown:flashes, you're aging and you're so you were raised with the that
Unknown:viewpoint even when I went into the library and when I was in
Unknown:perimenopause and menopause now, I want to get Chris Dr.
Unknown:Christiane Northrop's book wisdom of menopause. And I took
Unknown:the book off the shelf, and I kind of like, kinda, I didn't
Unknown:want anyone to see this. So I was gonna read. And then I
Unknown:started reading, I'm like, Heck, yeah, this is powerful time in
Unknown:our lives. I looked at other cultures and how they looked at
Unknown:menopause is, this is a time when you're, you've accumulated
Unknown:all that wisdom. And think there is there is a quote that the,
Unknown:the young girls the, the flower and the mothers the fruit in, in
Unknown:menopause, you're the seed that helps spread this condensed
Unknown:Kernel of Wisdom that you've accumulated for the years, over
Unknown:the years, and there's, I'm noticing in menopause, I don't
Unknown:hold back as much about what I'm thinking. And I try not to make
Unknown:it emotional. But you know, in before that, I think there's
Unknown:kind of like keep peace, kind of worried about what other people
Unknown:are going to think or how they're going to react to you
Unknown:like if a woman is assertive. A lot of times are labeled as
Unknown:bossy instead of a leader. thing, so shifting that in your
Unknown:mind and if people aren't okay with that, then you don't have
Unknown:to have them in your life. That's 30
Maureen Spielman:Yeah, I love that the pointing out though, of
Maureen Spielman:because I do think it for a Other cultures, I haven't
Maureen Spielman:studied it, but just that idea that you're more of a wisdom
Maureen Spielman:keeper when you're moving into menopause. And there's so much
Maureen Spielman:to be said. And to your point with the, I don't care as much.
Maureen Spielman:What people think of me when I share of myself is that I hear
Maureen Spielman:people, I hear women continually say that, like, there's
Maureen Spielman:something about it, I just and they can be 50 plus, or, you
Maureen Spielman:know, in that age range, when that starts to emerge more. So,
Maureen Spielman:thanks for saying that as well. So a lot of your work is around
Maureen Spielman:uterine and then I love that about menopause. I don't know,
Maureen Spielman:is there anything else that comes to you that you want to
Maureen Spielman:share there?
Unknown:Um, well about menopause,
Maureen Spielman:or just don't? Yeah, it just from that part of
Maureen Spielman:the body? Or because you've covered sort of, like the wisdom
Maureen Spielman:of the organs and our tissues and our body in general? And
Maureen Spielman:then some specifics, what, what we go through as women? Yeah. So
Maureen Spielman:could be anything, but otherwise, we can talk about
Maureen Spielman:your courses or, but I always like to, you know, give space to
Maureen Spielman:that. If there's more.
Unknown:Yeah, if something comes up, I'm bringing it up.
Unknown:Yeah.
Maureen Spielman:Well, I started. I really love your
Maureen Spielman:description to like, just the different kinds of trainings
Maureen Spielman:you've had and the and the wisdom keepers who have taught
Maureen Spielman:you, you know, your craft, but I was really I thought, your
Maureen Spielman:course you have a few courses that are available on your
Maureen Spielman:website. But I'm just the freeing the belly. And I think
Maureen Spielman:what jumped out at me most that's about abdominal scarring,
Maureen Spielman:and some what you've touched upon abdominal treatment, but
Maureen Spielman:just how I think one of the things I got from it is that
Maureen Spielman:when we have scarring and that goes for people who have had C
Maureen Spielman:sections that adhesions conform beneath the surface, and attach,
Maureen Spielman:and so maybe talk about that a little bit because I really
Maureen Spielman:found it fascinating, especially with C sections. How if the
Maureen Spielman:adhesions are occurring beneath the surface, that that they can
Maureen Spielman:affect placement of different organs within and just things
Maureen Spielman:that we don't we're not educated on post surgery, and things that
Maureen Spielman:we just don't know about or think about.
Unknown:Right? Well, anytime surgery is performed, there's
Unknown:probably going to be adhesions that are going to be formed. And
Unknown:the scar is like an iceberg. Only 10% of it is visible at the
Unknown:skin surface. And then the surgeon believe that was a quote
Unknown:from John Pierre, which is who is the osteopathic physician who
Unknown:I studied at the Burrell Institute and visceral
Unknown:manipulation. After the Maya and Chinese abdominal therapy, I
Unknown:continued in that direction. And so, yes, scar tissue can be from
Unknown:surgeries, traumas, infections. And the internal organs have a
Unknown:slippery surface that they slide and glide on. So they each have
Unknown:a motility which is this intrinsic movement that they
Unknown:probably they think that it is as the embryo is forming how the
Unknown:organs formed in kind of unfold from the midline. And they
Unknown:maintain that motility. It's very subtle. And mobility, which
Unknown:is from external sources like breath work, massage
Unknown:intercourse. And the uterus also has these innate contractions
Unknown:depending on where a woman is in her cycle. So if she's ovulating
Unknown:on the right, the uterus may kind of contract right before
Unknown:ovulation towards that ovary. And sometimes that there can be
Unknown:this organized contraction in so that can get in the way of
Unknown:conception. And of course, at the time of menses, the uterus
Unknown:is helping the blood to go out and down. So I found that very
Unknown:fascinating and OBGYN watched ultrasounds in very slow motion
Unknown:to pick up on these things. And there's a on my website and
Unknown:alignment monkey blog. There's a whole blog post about uterine
Unknown:contraction. You can watch that that video It's so mobility. So
Unknown:this is the uterus different ways the uterus can move to the
Unknown:left and the right. And she should be able to move in many
Unknown:directions depending on what's going on, as and up and down. So
Unknown:with intercourse, the uterus should be able to move. And so
Unknown:if there's a C section scar here, that could adhere to the
Unknown:bladder, which is in front, you see the bladder here in yellow.
Unknown:And so that can cause painful intercourse when, when there's
Unknown:scar tissue there, and I'm sorry, your, your listeners do
Unknown:have audio probably, unless you're doing but I just want to
Unknown:show you the difference, this is a mobility and then and then the
Unknown:mortality might be more like this. Like soul in this room
Unknown:manipulation, we're tuning into how the organ is moving, and
Unknown:feeling the restriction and just kind of nudging it into the
Unknown:direction that it wants to go, rather than from, like, if you
Unknown:feel some people might think that if you feel a scar tissue,
Unknown:or adhesion or restriction the belly just want to kind of deep
Unknown:cross fiber friction or tear it apart. But you don't want to do
Unknown:that, because that creates wounding and then more
Unknown:adhesions. So we work in a way that you're taking the tissues
Unknown:in the way they want to go, just give it it alone Lodge, and then
Unknown:laying itself correct because your body knows what to do. We
Unknown:just have to sometimes clear the pathway, or just give it a
Unknown:little assistance when there's any kind of restriction.
Maureen Spielman:So when you do the visceral manipulation when
Maureen Spielman:you begin to feel how, because I know on your free the Baladi
Maureen Spielman:free the belly class, it's really teaching individuals to
Maureen Spielman:begin to feel and get to know their body, which is so
Maureen Spielman:beautiful, too. But is the idea that when you were just gently
Maureen Spielman:with the outer scar tissue, do the adhesion start to let go a
Maureen Spielman:little bit? Or what's happening beneath this or is there more
Maureen Spielman:but like blood flow to it, and so even with a scar that might
Maureen Spielman:be older?
Unknown:Yeah, so with any type of massage, that even if it's
Unknown:not that specific, you're increasing blood, lymph, nerve
Unknown:and energy flow to the area in blood is bringing oxygen and
Unknown:nutrients to every cell in the body, and the lymphatics is
Unknown:nourishing the area and carrying away pathological debris. And
Unknown:you're bringing awareness and just blood flow to the area. So
Unknown:sometimes, in the case of the uterus, if it's it's tipped,
Unknown:over, say, tipped back against the rectum, and it's just not
Unknown:moving, that can cause lack of blood flow in there. But it can
Unknown:also affect constipation, especially right before your
Unknown:period or your stools may be thinner. Yeah. Or if it's tipped
Unknown:too far forward, it can affect the bladder causing urgency. And
Unknown:not a lot of pee comes out. But there's the uterus that's
Unknown:sitting on the bladder, there should be space in between, but
Unknown:those organs are structurally connected through foster
Unknown:peritoneum. Okay, but they shouldn't be sitting directly on
Unknown:each other. So you can imagine if you were sitting cross legged
Unknown:for hours, you know, your legs gonna fall asleep, you're not
Unknown:getting blood flow through the area. So the massage can help
Unknown:just basically improved in the mobility and motility and blood
Unknown:flow.
Maureen Spielman:Okay, yeah, that makes total sense. And then
Maureen Spielman:you had said something, I don't know if it was in your course.
Maureen Spielman:But I thought it was really interesting. How, if if we were,
Maureen Spielman:if we experienced trauma when we were young, that will often not
Maureen Spielman:breathe into the area of the body. Can you talk a little bit
Maureen Spielman:about that? Just for the listener? I thought that was
Maureen Spielman:really interesting. And a call for deeper breathing, you know,
Maureen Spielman:as adults.
Unknown:Yeah. Yeah. So I incorporate breath Work into
Unknown:many of my courses. Because when you're breathing in a full
Unknown:circumference breathing, like into your, your lateral ribcage
Unknown:is, ribcage is opening up, you're creating this natural
Unknown:massage in the belly, like you'd massage you 30,000 times a day,
Unknown:that's 30,000 Low massages when you're breathing nice and full.
Unknown:And they've also captured this sun imaging, it's really cool to
Unknown:watch that, as with a full breath, even as far down is the
Unknown:uterus, the uterus is moving a couple centimeters with that
Unknown:breath. But oftentimes, we're just in the upper chest, maybe
Unknown:because we're stressed or sitting all the time. Or like
Unknown:you mentioned, there might be a trauma in that pelvis, or
Unknown:abdomen may be a physical or emotional trauma. So when I was
Unknown:little, I fell off the bunk bed and fractured my hip. And when I
Unknown:breathe deep, it, it really hurt. And I've had ribs out
Unknown:where it just hurt to breathe into that area. So then you
Unknown:you'll learn that to breathe into the area. So you keep your
Unknown:breath shallow. And sometimes it just becomes habit. Or there's
Unknown:that emotional component, or area of your body, you just feel
Unknown:disconnected from where you just don't breathe into that area.
Unknown:And when you're not breathing into the area, you're not
Unknown:getting that nice sliding glide of the viscera and the blood
Unknown:flow to the area. So that's why I incorporate breath work.
Maureen Spielman:Yeah, I love that. Because I know in your
Maureen Spielman:work, first of all, when anyone ever talks about breathing, it
Maureen Spielman:just I feel like it just activates a slowing down of
Maureen Spielman:breathing in general. So I don't know if any of the listeners
Maureen Spielman:alike feel that too. But I feel like a lot of your work is
Maureen Spielman:almost like nourishment of our bodies. Because I know too, that
Maureen Spielman:you're an advocate of the an anti inflammation diet, which is
Maureen Spielman:something that, you know, I hear over and over and sort of feels
Maureen Spielman:like my life's work to make choices every day to support
Maureen Spielman:that. So yeah, so that nourishment you're saying of the
Maureen Spielman:breathing of our nutrition, that's so important for for
Maureen Spielman:healing. Yeah, just for life and sustained, long life.
Unknown:Yeah, it's how our body maintains that homeostasis, or
Unknown:that balance within, it does rely on those five systems of
Unknown:flow, and nourishment. And of course, blood brings the
Unknown:nourishment. With with diet, yeah, diet can cause
Unknown:inflammation in the body. And inflammation can cause the
Unknown:lining of the intestines to break down and can cause leaky
Unknown:gut, then you have systemic inflammation. And inflammation
Unknown:over the long term can cause adhesions in the body. So that's
Unknown:where the making those choices of what you're putting in your
Unknown:body, and how you're eating that food. Because it could be a
Unknown:really good food in the new you're seeing in front of the TV
Unknown:watching something that's stressful, or you're just
Unknown:gobbling it down because you only have 30 minutes for lunch
Unknown:break. Your digestion starts in the brain before we even put the
Unknown:food in our mouth. So being present with what we're eating,
Unknown:smelling it. The memory of food helps increase the digestive
Unknown:juices for that incoming food, chewing it, well. You're
Unknown:breaking it down, so that those digestive enzymes can actually
Unknown:get to those food particles. So
Maureen Spielman:it's good, it's great advice slash
Maureen Spielman:reminders to take time I often, you know so many of us are more
Maureen Spielman:alone than ever because we're working out of our homes. And so
Maureen Spielman:maybe we're not even having that many shared meals and I know
Maureen Spielman:sometimes when I eat my lunch alone, I'll eat it very quickly.
Maureen Spielman:And I feel I don't know what that is like almost like I'm in
Maureen Spielman:a hurry for the next thing but what you're saying is putting
Maureen Spielman:more mindfulness to it more intention and I've heard that
Maureen Spielman:recently to about my girlfriend was here and we were all making
Maureen Spielman:like a smoothie together and it was not good. landed down all
Maureen Spielman:the way. And she said, Yeah, you're supposed to masticate it
Maureen Spielman:a little bit when you take it in to let those digestive I guess
Maureen Spielman:enzymes start to activate your saliva. And it's this whole
Maureen Spielman:process of feel like so much of the message these days really
Maureen Spielman:for so many things is the slowing down.
Unknown:Yeah, a lot of times it goes back to really simple
Unknown:things like that mean, simple as in, you know, foundational.
Unknown:Yeah, like be more challenging in today's world because we have
Unknown:a lot of distractions, or we're on a timeline. But you're making
Unknown:space to have a nourishing meal touching the food. Yeah, we
Unknown:don't touch our food anymore. Yeah. You're many of us that
Unknown:aren't gardening or, or cooking our own meals from scratch?
Maureen Spielman:Yeah. Oh, it's so good. It reminds me of I'm
Maureen Spielman:not sure I'm gonna get this quote down our right but you had
Maureen Spielman:quoted, I think in your free the belly chorus Caroline nice. And
Maureen Spielman:it was some I wrote it down. But it says what drains your spirit
Maureen Spielman:drains your body. So I'll say that, again, what drains your
Maureen Spielman:spirit drains your body? What fuels your spirit fuels your
Maureen Spielman:body. And then you had suggested I loved the suggestion of, you
Maureen Spielman:know, what drains you and what nourishes you. So yeah, do you
Maureen Spielman:want to add anything to that? I love this suggestion.
Unknown:Sure. I think it's a good exercise to maybe start
Unknown:with a meditation and think about really what nourishes your
Unknown:soul. So for me might be walking in nature, and looking at plants
Unknown:and seeing what's edible. And what's medicinal. It connects me
Unknown:to the earth and my surroundings. And it makes the
Unknown:walk so much more interesting for me. And I feel happy. I feel
Unknown:happy when I'm near a waterfall or in a forest. And you can it
Unknown:that changes the chemistry what's going on in your body?
Unknown:Oh, wow. Yeah, there was a Harvard study that showed people
Unknown:a video of Mother Teresa. And it brought up true feelings of
Unknown:kindness in them, and then they took their blood samples in
Unknown:there. I can't remember what it what immuno marker it was by
Unknown:increased her immune system for a whole week just from having
Unknown:true feelings of happiness. And we well know what stress does to
Unknown:the immune system. But we rarely think about the other side. So
Unknown:how can you bring in? What makes you happy? Sometimes we forget
Unknown:about that. And then looking at what drains what can you let go
Unknown:off? A lot of these shoulds are for me, it's like people that
Unknown:complain all the time or gossip. I don't need that in my life. I
Unknown:don't want that's not productive to me. I find myself hanging out
Unknown:with AB and 90 year olds lately. Because the stories and the
Unknown:preset their their life. Perception and wisdom is just
Unknown:great conversations are still curious. Yeah.
Maureen Spielman:They were just masters too of telling stories.
Maureen Spielman:I think about my dad, he just remembered everything. And I
Maureen Spielman:think it's because when they were young it was you know,
Maureen Spielman:there was only the radio to listen to you. And you heard the
Maureen Spielman:stories through that. And then the storytelling kept on going
Maureen Spielman:down the line. But yeah, yeah. What's essential, right, what
Maureen Spielman:feeds our soul and what drains us? It's so important to look
Maureen Spielman:at. Yeah, I love that exercise.
Unknown:Yeah, and just like with food, instead of thinking
Unknown:about what you shouldn't eat, think about all this wonderful
Unknown:food you can eat and then you eventually crowd out the bad
Unknown:stuff. Right? Same thing when you're scheduling your day. To
Unknown:add in things that nourish your soul, you're gonna start to
Unknown:crowd out what doesn't you know what drains your soul?
Maureen Spielman:Yeah, I think the truth of it is too a lot of
Maureen Spielman:us end up getting pretty quiet and it might be uncomfortable
Maureen Spielman:because as we sink into what is nourishing to us. It is it is
Maureen Spielman:much much quieter and maybe it used to involve bigger groups or
Maureen Spielman:outing things and things like that. But we do change as we get
Maureen Spielman:older. And the outer world right now is very busy. So I think we
Maureen Spielman:need our inner nourishment more than ever.
Unknown:Yeah, yeah, just like a tree doesn't bloom all year
Unknown:round, you know, in the winter, the leaves fall away, and the
Unknown:energy goes into the roots. And that's why I like living with
Unknown:the seasons, as well. As I look forward to winter, here now,
Unknown:people might complain all the snow and all this, while I'm
Unknown:like, Oh, this is a time to make nourishing soups, go inward, and
Unknown:recharge yourself and read good books. And you can still
Unknown:schedule in social time and get out. But it's okay that your
Unknown:preferences change. You have to listen to your body and what you
Unknown:want. And one thing I love about my friends is like, if there's a
Unknown:party, and I was going to go and I'm like, you know, I'm just
Unknown:feeling like just nourishing myself and they support that
Unknown:they don't guilt you, you got Come on, just don't be a loser.
Unknown:You know, we that they support, they get it, they understand.
Maureen Spielman:I love the I'm almost thinking, you know, you
Maureen Spielman:and I both live in the Midwest now. So obviously, we get four
Maureen Spielman:seasons, but how much we sometimes fight the seasons?
Maureen Spielman:And, you know, I know that in the past, I thought, oh, you
Maureen Spielman:know, gosh, the cold season, it's not for me, but you're
Maureen Spielman:bringing up the question of like, How can I embrace it? And
Maureen Spielman:I think that I have friends in more extreme climates in the
Maureen Spielman:south of the country. And those are those field challenging to
Maureen Spielman:me in the way is even for them because there's not a break in
Maureen Spielman:seasons as much. Now currently.
Unknown:Yeah. I we get away during, you know, a month. And
Unknown:we go away almost three months. But you know, we have long
Unknown:winters here. And you know, yeah, my husband's helps me get
Unknown:out of my shell and want to travel a little more during that
Unknown:time as well. But we do get our winter time here and in
Unknown:Michigan, and I'm trying to encourage him to go inward and,
Unknown:and more cuddle time.
Maureen Spielman:Sounds nice. Well, before we finish up today,
Maureen Spielman:Barbara, I Are you do you still see people in person? Or do you
Maureen Spielman:do mainly offering your online courses?
Unknown:Mainly the online courses. I'm not seeing any new
Unknown:clients right now. And I'm living kind of remote. So it's
Unknown:tough for people to get here and do follow up sessions. But right
Unknown:now I'm focusing on online.
Maureen Spielman:I love that. Yeah. So delivering your
Maureen Spielman:messages and the and the work online. Yeah. And you can be
Maureen Spielman:found at is it nurture? And nurturance.net?
Unknown:Yep. nurturance.net. And from that website, in the
Unknown:main menu, they can get to my courses, the four courses I'm
Unknown:offering right now, and also my blog, there's lots of
Unknown:information on the blog. If any of this startup interests like
Unknown:in the mortality and or return health are you there? Yeah,
Maureen Spielman:I love it. Definitely, I you had offered me
Maureen Spielman:the free the belly course. And I just found it was just so your
Maureen Spielman:delivery and just the information provided into it.
Maureen Spielman:And I'm, I'm really excited to dive in a little bit deeper to
Maureen Spielman:begin to understand my body and to I think I think these
Maureen Spielman:conversations in general, get us all more into the body. You have
Maureen Spielman:the special, you know, the specialty in the abdomen. But I
Maureen Spielman:think these conversations are really good. Because I think
Maureen Spielman:humanity's also taking us in the direction of oh my gosh, for so
Maureen Spielman:long. We've been in the mind and thinking our way out of things
Maureen Spielman:and looking for the solution so much, but what if so much was
Maureen Spielman:stored within us?
Unknown:Yeah, I think the more we soften, soften the more we
Unknown:can connect to other people as well without that defensive
Unknown:armor,
Maureen Spielman:I believe so. Yeah. I love that. Well, thank
Maureen Spielman:you so much for being here with us today. I'll put in the show
Maureen Spielman:notes, the you know, your website and the different
Maureen Spielman:resources we had mentioned today. I only got to go a little
Maureen Spielman:bit to the art it was the arvigo website and I began to fall down
Maureen Spielman:a rabbit hole and so I need to I discovered that more because I
Maureen Spielman:like to look at who your teachers were to. But the work
Maureen Spielman:is coming so beautifully through you and thank you for being here
Maureen Spielman:with the listeners. And yeah, we will put links in the show
Maureen Spielman:notes.
Unknown:Okay, great. Thank you.
Maureen Spielman:Yeah, you're so welcome. Okay. Thank you for
Maureen Spielman:being here to the audience listeners again. I so appreciate
Maureen Spielman:you and I hope you got a lot from this episode. Thanks for
Maureen Spielman:listening to this episode of mystical sisterhood. If you love
Maureen Spielman:what you heard, please visit Apple podcast and subscribe and
Maureen Spielman:leave a review and share with a friend if you're called to do
Maureen Spielman:so. To learn more about my one on one coaching programs, or
Maureen Spielman:join the mystical sisterhood membership, visit Maureen
Maureen Spielman:spielman.com or mystical sisterhood.com Thanks so much.
Maureen Spielman:I'll see you in the next episode.