Kristen

Welcome to the Close the Chapter P{odcast. I am Kristen Boice a licenced Marriage and Family Therapist with a private practice Pathways to Healing counselling. Through conversations, education, strategies and shared stories. We will be closing the chapter on all the thoughts, feelings, people and circumstances that don't serve you anymore. And open the door to possibilities and the real you. You won't want to miss an episode, so be sure to subscribe. Welcome to the close the chapter podcast I am so glad you're joining me today for this episode, I cannot wait to introduce you to my guest. She just moved a year ago from Alaska to Washington State, which is a big move since you were born and raised there. So we were just talking about transitions and like really getting acclimated to new spaces and places and what that's like. So without further ado, let me to introduce you to our guest. Dr. Jennifer blossom is on a mission to help high achieving women professionals take charge of their mental and emotional well being for optimum success at home and at work. Jennifer teaches clients science based strategies and love that to achieve peak mental and emotional well being. So you can stop fixing what's wrong and start creating what is she is the founder and CEO of women's leadership company, an innovative thought leader and one of the most recognised up and coming leadership coaches worldwide. Dr. Jennifer has launched and scaled to successful online companies. Congratulations from the ground up while raising two small boys two and four just asked her that hosting a top rated podcast and her newest venture, launching the Dr. Jennifer blossom Morning Show welcome, Jennifer to the show.

Dr. Jennifer
Hey, thank you so much for having me it just a pleasure and awesome to be here.

Kristen
I'm so glad you're here because we talked about several topics we wanted to cover and one in particular is clients find or anybody on the healing journey. I think most of us in our lives, sometimes feel stuck burned out. And we lose momentum and motivation to make the change. We just feel like I want to, but I don't know how to like I feel immobilised frozen. So I thought today, we could talk about how to move through resistance, that freeze response into action. So having said that, tell me a little bit about your story, and how you got into this line of work.

Dr. Jennifer
Yeah, well, again, thank you for having me, it is such an honour to be here. And it's such important conversations to have. And it really is what started my journey. So I've been in the online space for cash. Almost seven years now I started out on the health and fitness journey and really morphed into a mom journey helping new moms. And then as I kind of grew and evolve myself and really learned how to hone in on this peak performance mentally and emotionally in my own life and helping other women and other business owners that started to grow into more of a leadership company. And so now, it's where I'm at right now is really understanding how we function our best as high achieving women. And we're unique breed because we want the best for ourselves. And oftentimes, we can neglect ourselves in that process, and others and so on my own journey led me to discover that for myself, and now to be in this process where I can help other women do the same because there is a very fine line between wanting and achieving and doing what we're called to do, but also tending to ourselves in that process. When we can find that balance. That's where the magic is,

Kristen
yes, I love the analogy of putting your oxygen mask on yourself first. It's like the aeroplane analogy before you can assist somebody else. And oftentimes, as parents, we will put the oxygen mask on the kids with neglecting ourselves. And so sometimes there's a lot of guilt about taking time for ourselves. How do we start making a shift and stepping into action rather than immobilisation?

Dr. Jennifer
Yes, and that's key, right? Because we can think all the great thoughts and have these ideas of self care and how we should be caring for ourselves. But we can also get stuck in that resistance. And so the idea is this little mental shift to not get stuck into that resistance but to move through the resistance. And to also understand that if we are not taking care of ourselves, we're not going to be operating in our peak performance in our mindset with our children in our work. And so it does everybody including yourself a disservice when you aren't taking care of yourself. And so it really comes down to reshaping our perspective and our frame of reference about how we think about how we show up for ourselves and care for ourselves and the positive impact that that makes an artwork and in In our lives, so

Kristen
what's the first step of someone's that sounds all great and want to make a change, but I'm just don't feel like it like I feel burned out. Yeah, the first step,

Dr. Jennifer
the first step is starts in our mind and making the intentional decision to now change your perspective of, okay, don't feel like it, but I'm going to do it anyways. And here's why. And so it's making that commitment to yourself to understand why you're going to put action behind the motion. Because if you don't have that deep rooted truth, or belief, or whatever it is, your steps won't feel fruitful moving forward, and you'll be more likely to have those, I call it the cute quips, the quick quips. And so it's having that unbelievable unshakable faith in yourself of knowing why you want to do this. And then the next step is you commit to yourself and you show up anyways. And it's just that next right step forward. I think, as entrepreneurs and as women on this self help journey, or journey in therapy, or wherever we're at in our life, to try to improve ourselves, it's really easy to look at how far we still want to go, instead of taking that next right step. So as soon as we can make that mental shift in our mindset, and understand why we want to do this, and then instead of looking at that whole process ahead, and what is that next right step that you can do today, and take that little step forward, because over time, those little steps are going to compound on themselves in a positive way instead of the other way. Right? Instead of those little negative thoughts of oh, I don't want to do this. I don't feel like doing this. I'm not worth doing this for. I'll just start tomorrow, those little cute quits or quick quits, those can compound also. So it's really taking a step back and saying, Well, which way do I intentionally choose to go? Because both directions are a choice.

Kristen
How do you help someone figure out the next right step? So that's the next thing people say it was like, that sounds good. I don't even know where to begin. Like, it's so overwhelming. I don't even know where to start, like, what's the first step? So they have the mindset, then how do they figure out the next right step?

Dr. Jennifer
That is such a loaded question. And it's such a good question. Because you're right, it sounds great, right? It sounds very abundancy. And very new agey. And like it's like, it should be so easy, but it's not. And it's where the deep inner work of doing the hard work, it comes out to play. And that's where most people don't want to go because it is hard, and it's uncomfortable. It's sticky. And it's sorting through all of the crap and figuring out yourself, and it can be yours. Like, I know when your work of trying to work through all this stuff. And so when we try to figure out like, who we are meant to be and what that purpose is, and what our next right step is, I think, number one, just having that awareness of where you're at now in your life, what season are you in, right? Like we're not so far in the past in our mind, and we're not so far in the future, but really pushing all that aside, and getting present and clear with where you're at right now? What season are you in in your life? What brings you joy right now, like really tuned into who you are and what you need. From that point, we can start to create our first step. And I think when we start taking that first step forward, we'll start to uncover the work that needs to be done. And for many of us is that deep work of processing and figuring things out and doing deeper questions and all of that. But I think for our audience today, it's just getting quiet and still with where you're at now, right now in your life and in your season, and figuring out what you need. And I think so many people can look externally for that, and want to grab on to things or look what's worked for other people. But it really is that inside job. I mean, what would you say for your clients who are like trying to grab that, that I feel like that's the best way I can try to describe it and figuring out what that next step is, is like going out what you'd be now would you describe that differently?

Kristen
Well, I would say to add on to what you're saying I wanted the main thing is people have fear around saying they really want they're afraid to tell the truth. Because one, it wasn't okay for them to tell the truth as a kid, because they were either told that they were shamed for it or told that was wrong. Or their parent wanted them to do something different. Because the parent was afraid the parent was like living vicariously through their kid. And so they were projecting a lot of what they wanted onto us as children not trying to blame our parents. But what happens is we get afraid to tell ourselves the truth that we get afraid of what then that will change in our lives. So I think it takes a lot of being giving ourselves permission to be honest. Yeah, what we need and what we want and then connecting the dots like why do I have that unmet need? What does that adds in to? Why do I want this and not to get caught up in the why but to explore with curiosity, the why why is that something I want in my life? Is it one to make me feel important because these are the reasons that are good. feel empty. If you're doing it for external validation, like, oh, I want to feel important, I want to feel like I matter, I want to feel special. I want to feel lovable. Okay, that's something you're gonna have to offer yourself. It's not going to come from XYZ, whether it's success at a job, yeah, that can feed us for a little bit, but we're feeding the ego. And so that's not really sustainable. We're not doing that deeper dive. So Trump really, to me is so big, because we were so afraid we were conditioned out of it disciplined out of it, there's so many things to say what we really wanted,

Dr. Jennifer
yes. And to now create those new neural circuits of belief. It is deep work. And it doesn't just happen in a day. For some of us. I mean, we're all at different paces. But whether it's days or weeks or months, I feel like now I'm just now coming out of a really deep season, seven months of doing all this deep inner work of figuring out what this next chapter is. And it was a lot of work. And it was hard. But we just keep digging. And we keep figuring out like you said, like, what are we afraid of what have we believed and been conditioned to believe for so long. And now what is our truth, and giving ourselves permission to create that truth, maybe for the first time and step out fearful, even if you are afraid, do it anyways, and figuring that out. And I love what you said, too, about when you are on this journey, like we don't want to be reaching for the ego and reaching for these quick, external validations. That will stroke the ego in the moment, but ultimately leave you more unhappy, more confused in the long run. And that's where I think society gets so wrong. And it's such a slippery slope for so many people's because we're fed this message that more is more and your happiness, and your success is based on your achievements. But it's not. It's that mental shift, it's that you are you and you are just as worthy as you are now than any achievement out there and go like go do your purpose and live boldly and abundantly and give and love hard and do all of the great things that you're called to do. Don't base your worth in your achievements or your status, or any of that. And I think that's where so many people can get caught in this cycle and this circle.

Kristen
Yes. So I wanted to go a little bit deeper into this because you had the courage to move you were raised in Alaska, you and your husband, because this pertains to getting unstuck and making a change and taking action. You moved from everything you knew. How did you get the courage to one rumble through and accept like, your truth was you wanted to move away from family, you see, you had to tell the truth about we kind of want to try this. Yeah, to get from I want to move to moving

Dr. Jennifer
that what's ironic is my husband and I were just having this very in depth conversation last night about this, we would just talk all of this through and we're What 13 or 14 months in now with our new move. And like I was telling you before we went on air is I feel like we're finally coming up for breath to breathe. Now. It was an open, honest communication first with myself. And it was paying attention having a self awareness, noticing that I was not feeling fulfilled, or like I was fully living my purpose or my calling and was not wrapping my worth up and any of those external achievements. But doing that deep inner work of I know, I meant for more, I feel like I'm being pulled elsewhere. I want to give my kids more experiences and not in a sense of like Alaska was not giving that to us, because it's an amazing state. It just wasn't for us. And so it was paying attention to what I was feeling first. And then having that open communication with my husband notice. And he was doing the same thing. We had that open dialogue about what we want in life where we feel like we're being called to what we want to give to our kids. And so having that self awareness first and then realising Okay, well, what's our plan of action? What's our step forward, we can either stay here and feel this or be on this journey. And so let's just figure out and try it. Let's go for it. And so that's what we did. And we took all that we knew, and we left it behind. And it this journey was so hard and so challenging, but honestly, it shaped us into stronger individuals and a stronger family because of it. And we went through so much as a couple and individually as well. But we have grown so much because of it as well. I mean, for our listeners today, it doesn't have to be this big dramatic move that we went through. But it could be as simple as having the courage to really own your self awareness and pay attention to that and then figure out well, what do you need and what are you being called to do and taking that action forward? Not sitting in the resistance, but stepping out and stepping into your next chapter and doing it afraid, because that's discomfort and that growth happens. We do it afraid and then you're like, oh my gosh, I am strong. I can do this.

Kristen
That's the key. So fear is not bad, like fear can help us keep us safe. It's well it's a maladaptive. It's what it's trying with things. It's protecting us. but it's really preventing us from taking flight. So because fear is universal, we all have it. And I really think resistance is fear. Like I really think those two are tied together. Fear is something that we're afraid of rejection, abandonment, judgement, something bad happening, we kind of sabotage our joy, because we're like waiting for the next shoe to drop. So how did you work through your fear, to be able to take action, because that's really what people get stuck in.

Dr. Jennifer
So it is your soul, right? This is what people get stuck in, in the brains funny, the brain will tell us right, like, avoid fear, seek pleasure. And so when you're actively working through a season, where it seems like fear is all around you, whether that fear is in your own mind, or you're scared to leave the cave or the house, because it could be fearful out there, or scary out there. Like, that's when we get stuck. And so for me, honestly, it was finding a mentor, and a therapist and a coach who could help me through this, even though I thought I had the tools, we all need that somebody in our life to help guide us and to help us see things differently. And so that was a huge piece of this is knowing that I can't do this alone, um, or I can, but it's not going to be as effective. And so that was huge for me is to have someone helped me process my thoughts process, my emotions helped me see things differently, helped me build these new life skills that I needed to have that I couldn't establish by myself. And so I think that was my biggest takeaway was having a mentor, a coach a therapist all through this and still have one. And we able to work through what we went over together, share this with my husband, and really work together as a family on overcoming those obstacles. And so that was huge as just to face fear and all the hurdles head on. And knowing myself enough where I could battle this myself, or I could have someone helped me through it. And so that was the key for me is to have that humility, and also have the confidence and the grace on myself to know No, I'm not going to back down from this. I'm going to face it head on I make become stronger because of it.

Kristen
Yeah, and I think having support systems, like you're saying are so important. And people are afraid to say they need help, or they need guidance, because they feel weak or shame. And when we can go, oh, you know what, I'm a human being. And it's okay to ask for help. It's okay to cry. It's okay to have my emotions, it's okay to feel afraid. It's okay to have grief over a transition, I think really helps lean into that discomfort some more. Rather than trying to push it away, numb it out, avoid it, shove it to the side, take a deep breath, and you're leaning in, like when people make the call to come to therapy. That's a big deal. That's a huge deal. It's one of the most scary nerve racking anxiety phone calls. Unless you're really at the point of rock bottom, then you're like, Okay, this is my only option. But really, for most people, it's scary. I mean, this is vulnerability asking for help. Yes, it's a huge step. So I take that, and our team takes that so seriously. And I acknowledge because I go to my own therapist, what that's like to work through the fear, breathe through it, nurture myself through it, and then ask for help and say, what's really going on the truth about what's really going on inside? Thank you sick people so long to get there because it feels so unsafe and scary.

Dr. Jennifer
I know it does. And I think it all boils down to to just the stigma that we're in society and like thankfully, like mental health and emotional health is now being talked about. But there's still such this reserve. And so what I love to tell our clients is that you are being proactive with your mental and emotional well being. I'm also a paediatric occupational therapist. And so one of my favourite things and favourite kiddos to work with is kids who struggle with sensory processing disorder. And so I love helping parents create a sensory diet for their kids. And I was just thinking last night, we should be creating since read

Unknown Speaker
as an adult and tell us about it. Tell us about huge why aren't we doing

Dr. Jennifer
this and so when I think about this for the parents and the families that I'm working with, it's really a proactive approach to helping their children become more regulated, emotionally sensory wise, all of this. And so when I think about us as women on this journey of growth and healing and going to we're meant to be, we need to be proactive with our mental and our emotional well being. And so if that is I'm a firm believer in seeking out a coach or therapist or a guide or learning those, whatever new strategies and tools because if you're not out here playing offence and being proactive with that, you're gonna eventually be in a place where you are playing defence and you are reactive and you're cleaning up this whole mental mess. And so what if we could just shift that dynamic and shift that conversation around? There's nothing to be shameful about as it is the one of the greatest blessings and the greatest investments you can make into yourself is your journey of understanding what's going on in here. And so I love The idea of being proactive about that.

Kristen
Okay, you just hit something, I think we need to dive into the sensory processing for children. Yes. Talk about what you would do for adults and kids like, what are some of the things that you teach? Yeah, because we're have highly sensitive people. I'm sure you've heard that term. So many of us right now are the walking wounded, and noise chewing. I mean, every little thing is on our nervous systems are like, Hi wired, what are some of the tools that you teach for highly sensitive people,

Dr. Jennifer
all these things, I'm creating this new sensory diet programme. So without going fully into this, we have to understand our nervous systems are so out of whack right now for so many people. And there are different things that we can do throughout our day to help find that regulation. And so just some really basic strategies, everyone's going to be so different. And so without doing like a full assessment on our people today, I think it's understanding that your nervous system needs different types of input throughout the day to find that regulation to find that calm. And so like you said, one of the ways we can do this that people respond right to is chewing. So if you ever noticed, like when you're at work or being focused, sometimes if you chew on gum, it can help you just stay in the zone and focus longer. I know for me, if I'm really in the Zone, I'm like in YouTube uses a mint gum, let's go, having that increased oral motor input can help with the focus. So that's one of sucking through a straw second, something bold through a straw that can be really helpful, whether it's ice water, or you can do a thicker liquid like a smoothie that can help again with that increased oral motor input. And with that regulation, some of the kids that I work with, we do like a dry brushing protocol. And so that's huge for draining getting the toxins out, it can be built into a nighttime routine. This is something that I do with my kids with myself also. And yeah, we start from the shoulders, you're brushing

Kristen
for those that can't see you're brushing with a is it a special brush

Dr. Jennifer
as a therapeutic brush. But for adults, I mean, we could use that brush, we could use a dry brush. And yeah, it's a therapeutic like a sensory brush. And we knew

Kristen
coming from your top your shoulder down your arm over and over slowly.

Dr. Jennifer
And it's not a light tickle, it's a deep, firm pressure. And so it really helps to get that energy moving through. It helps with drainage, it's phenomenal a cold shower, so that is huge. So for kids, we can do either a hot shower or a cold shower. So hot shower is going to have that more of a calming effect, or hot bath. I know for me, if I'm feeling anxious or overwhelmed, I will go in the shower to in the afternoon or whatever I can or take a bath. And something about that in itself really resets the nervous system. I'll even sprinkle in some aromatherapy. So some lavender or eucalyptus essential oil on there and just take those deep breaths. That is huge. I start my day I've kind of a wimp with this, but I'm working on it. I'll take my shower in the mornings. And then I'm like, and I'm right now I'm like up to like 20 seconds of having to be ice cold. But there is something too about the cold that almost like the Cairo therapy that really resets that nervous system as well. It helps to regenerate cell growth. So that is something that I'm working on building but I still like such a wimp with that in the mornings. What else is there I think paying attention to lighting. So if you ever noticed you are in a hospital or a store, like those very bright fluorescent writings can feel visually overstimulating. So having more calming lighting, if you are visually over stimulated and distracted, helping you reduce the clutter in your work environment. That's huge. And then lastly, I mean I could go on forever about this but looking at like audio so it's loud and noisy, do you need a break you know, getting out in nature and just taking some time for quiet time or put your air pods and and listen to nature sounds or classical music or instrumental music. I mean, there's different tools that you can give your body every single day movement breaks that will help you feel and get your nervous system into alignment. And so all these things I'm like, Okay, why did I have all these thoughts last night because they're all coming out today. But I was really thinking that because I have two kids I'm seeing today and I'm bringing over sensory diet information. And I was thinking as I was praying this like why aren't we doing this for adults? Because adults need this do

Kristen
I feel? I really think it's big. I think sensory, like weighted blankets. Do you? Are you a fan of weighted blankets? blankets for my kids? I mean one of my daughter she sleeps with a weighted blanket and like 10 layers of blankets. I'm like, sweating. She's like, No, it feels so good in my nervous system. I've taught her nervous because

Dr. Jennifer
that proprioceptive input Yes. So weighted blankets, the deep hugs. We're not going to go bare walk but I tell like our kids like animal walks. I'm there's just there's your hands

Kristen
and knees is that what you're getting on your hands and knees and acting like you're

Dr. Jennifer
a bear. Yeah, that is like your body craving that input in everyone's nervous system is different. Like we're all wired differently. Some of us will crave more of that proprioceptive input, vestibular input, there's just swinging. There's so much we could get into. I'm like, I got it rocking, rocking rock,

Kristen
I'll have some clients just me Do you have a rocking chair at home, they're like, why I'm like, I need you to rock at night for like five or 10 minutes. Because as children, we know, if you were rocked or you're held while you're rocking, how soothing that is to the nervous system. And it creates a sense of attachment to the parent bonding and safety and secure like you feel secure within yourself. Yes, you can offer that to yourself. If you didn't get that as a child. They don't remember any of this, but they really don't remember being held rocked physical touch, and there's ways to recreate that so your nervous system can come back to calm. And I think this is totally ties in to overcoming burnout, resistance and fear. Because if your nervous system can feel secure and calm, you are going to overcome fear and take action more. Yes, feel like these are critical. And even if you decide to do one or two of these, like, Okay, I'm stuck, I'm gonna go get in the shower, okay, I'm stuck, I'm gonna go put my feet in the grass, listen to the birds and take a few deep breaths. If you had a note card. With these written out, I call them brain cues, because I think I'll remember everything. And I don't remember anything. Write it down, where I see it visually, because that's just how my brain functions. And I realised I need brain cues. So that's why I love cards that can remind you, you're feeling stuck, here's your options, and pick the ones that work for you. To your point, pick the ones that you play around with. And you're like, Oh, my nervous system likes to go for a 10 minute walk with the dog. Yeah, I'm back. And now I'm more creative and more fresh. And I feel like I can handle that all the emotions that might come up, and I can tolerate that, versus me just sitting here and spinning in my head.

Dr. Jennifer
Exactly. It's being proactive with that, giving yourself what you need. And like you said, playing around with them, combining them, I know we have a trampoline out back and I came home a few days ago. And I was like, man, like I gotta get something moving here. I'm not gonna be able to do some work. So I went in junk for like two minutes and my kids trampoline. I'm like, Oh, my neighbours don't save me. I'm like getting my input in since we go over here. No, I think it is true. It is not just ploughing through things, and really paying attention to that what your body needs trying on a few of these things and knowing that your needs are going to change every day, but having a list for yourself. And like you said, when you're in the moment, it's hard to remember these things. And so having those brain cues and giving your body what it needs, calming it down. So you can come to a place of centeredness and focus and to operate from that place of power. Instead of letting your nervous system just feel all jacked up and running all over you.

Kristen
I think in the trauma world, we have fight flight, freeze fawn is our people pleasing response, or flop is like when we faint in our body goes into complete kind of gets just shut down, right. And when you think of those four responses, and when we're in trauma, when we learn how to attend and connect to our body and get back into our body and our nervous system, and we have a list of these, it shifts us back into the prefrontal cortex, which I love to talk about the brain and I know you do too, it helps us have rational thought come back to centre clarity of thought, because how often times do we feel like our brains are mush, or I'm in brain fog, and I can't think straight. Maybe my anxiety is so high or I feel pressure like to get things done? Well, that doesn't. Sometimes that doesn't work, because we have to regulate the nervous system, which means I need to come up with a few of those items on my list. And know what works for me might work one day may not work the next and that's okay. It just means your body needs something different that day.

Dr. Jennifer
Exactly. And giving yourself the authority and the autonomy to to figure that out and to take action and to know that you are in the driver's seat is nobody else's responsibility, but yours. And so there's a lot of freedom and liberty that comes with that and knowing that, hey, I got this and I for the first time I'm going to give myself that freedom to start to feel better. I think that's one thing too is we can get so used to feeling so stuck, that the newness feels scary and so just knowing that anything new is going to feel scary until it becomes your new familiar and so just keep pressing into that keep showing up for yourself. Keep trying this. Keep figuring out what works for you and you just keep taking action forward because you're worth it.

Kristen
Here's the other thing that was coming up for me As we were talking, so my kids, I've given them full permission to name their like sensory triggers this and we say it out loud. So one of my daughter's husband takes the fork and scrapes the bowl to get that's how he grew up. Like we get every drop off the plate and like scraped the pole, she's like, my nervous system cannot handle that, the scraping of the fork on the bowl, and he's like, Thank you for sharing that. And he's very mindful now, when he's around her to go, oh, the scraping of the bowl. There's something when we can, because I love family systems work where we can name things out loud, and it's okay and acceptable to say, hey, when you're chewing the gum, really, my girls like to say, Mom, you're like chomping the gum. And I'm like, Thank you for and it's hard sometimes because I want to get defensive. And I'm like, I'm not chopping the gum. I was gingerly quietly chewing my gut. Well, no, I was chopping it. So that I can humble myself and say, Thank you for sharing that. I'll be mindful about how I'm chewing my gum. They're not being mean at all. We say it very respectfully with love and kindness, but they have the freedom to share how their nervous system might be handling something and my other daughter, she's like, this is way too many people. It's just way too much for me. This is not no, she's just like, I can't be around all these people. So we've come up with strategies for her to like grab a book, she has full permission to say, hey, I need a break. And we can give ourselves that permission, we can liberate other people to have their connect to their own nervous system and say it out loud. And it's not a threat to us. It's like not being disrespectful. We are naming it with love and kindness. And they're so connected to their nervous system. I'm empowering them. I love that what I want for other than that's because I have to do my own work. And then when they give me feedback, I have to do my own therapy. No, I really, because it's hard sometimes.

Dr. Jennifer
But it starts with us if anything does. That's one of the greatest things about this is that it first has to start with us because we can't teach what we don't know. So another great example about this, this happens to me frequently is you go throughout your whole day or whatever. And then I'll come home and my husband, like bless his heart, he will have on the ESPN or sports game really loud. And then he'll come up to me and just touching me somehow. And I'm just like, I just need a moment. Like it's too loud, I don't want to be touched just it's too much. And so I'll give me a moment like turn this down. So I'll go up and stairs to our room, whatever, take a quick shower, get dressed, come back down. And then I feel ready. But it was like you said it was too many people too much touch too loud, and all of these sensory things. And then if we don't realise that about ourselves, all of those sensory issues can just come out as like a snap, like a very aggressive snap to my husband or to my kids or to whatever. And so I think it's that moment of knowing that you're feeling overstimulated, and knowing what you need to just kind of check out and recenter and then come on back instead of just ploughing through it. And then wondering why you're yelling at everybody

Kristen
is so liberating when you can do this and really start with you, like you said, and then play around with it. But really connect to your nervous system. Yeah. And I like to then for therapy, I might if something's really activating for me, I will then go, Okay, I'm going to journal about this. And then I'm going to dive deeper into therapy around what could this be connected to that I might need to reprocess, clear out of my body, connect to those emotions around whatever that craft in my nervous system? And there's many ways you could do that through massage? You can do that through occupational therapy. I mean, there's so many options. So how can people find you? This has been an awesome conversation, we could keep going. I know, I was reading

Dr. Jennifer
out. I didn't even honestly, the whole sensory thing just came to me last night because I've been doing it for years for kids. And then all of a sudden last night, I was like, Wait a second. Why isn't anyone teaching adults this? It's just so I'm so glad we were able to have this conversation go that way. Because it's just it's a whole new world. And I think it will radically change how people show up for themselves. And like you said, make those connections. I feel like there's so many answers that can be found in that and it's just, it all comes back to that self awareness and being that loving kind person to yourself with compassion with grace, curiosity, continuing to move forward on your journey to growth and it just kind of all wrapped up in a big bow of like, yes, this this all this work matters. You guys. It's a lot of work, but it matters. But thank you. Yes, thank you for having me on today. It was just pleasure to be here and talk about this. Dr. Jennifer blossom.com We have a podcast the Dr. Jennifer blossom show. And then over on Instagram, I'm at Dr. Jennifer blossom so goobers, anvil all across the boards.

Kristen
Yes Dr. Jennifer blas go follow her and I think we're onto I think you're onto this sensory processing for adults. Because I think we need more around it. We have more now for children but we haven't For those children, when we were children, we didn't really have this, there was no name for it, right? We didn't call it anything. That's what it is today, not at what it is today, it's evolved, which is exciting. Now for those folks, those adults that might not have gotten the services earlier. Now, they can have a label for it. And I think that's empowering. And know that you can have some tools and strategies to help your nervous system along when you feel that your sensory system is overloaded. There is options and the breadth of course I teach this every podcast we breathe on the podcast, to recenter. We never really learned how to breathe as children. My girls like oh, there's Mom's doing breathing again. But guess what, when they're in the doctor's office, they're learning to breathe, the doctors telling them to breathe. So it's essential part of working through resistance and burnout, taking care of yourself really starts with the breath and know that it starts with awareness and the breath. So I am so glad you're here today with us. Thank you for your heart, your energy and your time. I loved our conversation. And I'm just so appreciative for you.

Dr. Jennifer
Thank you. Likewise, thank you so much for having me and just for your work in the world was just amazing.

Kristen

Thank you for being here. Take care. Thank you, you too. Thank you so much for listening to the close the chapter podcast. My hope is that you took home some actionable steps, along with motivation, inspiration and hope for making sustainable change in your life. If you enjoy this episode, click the subscribe button to be sure to get the updated episodes every week and share it with a friend or family member. For more information about how to get connected visit Kristen k r i s t e n d Boice b Oh ice.com Thanks and have a great day.