Hi,
Welcome to Serenity Wellness podcast.
My name is Nicole White and I'm going to be your host for this podcast series.
This series is dedicated to helping you tap into your full potential of how you can heal and balance your mental,
Emotional,
And physical wellbeing.
As our first podcast today,
We're going to focus on just allowing you to get to know me,
What led to me starting this podcast,
And how it might be of help or use to you or someone you know.
I'm a licensed counselor,
Dialectical behavior therapist,
And intuitive Reiki healer.
I also own Serenity Wellness Center in State College,
Pennsylvania.
So to help you understand,
I'm going to just start at actually the beginning of my journey and then we'll land back at my wellness center.
It actually started when I was a kid.
In elementary school,
I realized I was kind of tapped into some,
What I considered at that time,
Freaky abilities that what I now know to be clairsentience.
So that's that empathic ability,
Our ability to feel other people's emotions and sometimes even feel their physical pain in our bodies,
As well as clairvoyance.
And that's that snapshot of the future and things that end up transpiring in front of us then later on.
So I really kind of,
As I mentioned,
Kind of bit freaked out about it at that time and shut down and closed off some of those abilities.
I was also struggling as a child working through some traumatic events that were happening to me that I didn't quite understand and didn't really know where to go to with.
And because of that,
It led to what I now know,
Some really impulsive and poor decision making as an adolescent.
I got into some really bad decision making and ended up in a pretty abusive relationship,
Which ultimately led to me getting pregnant at 16,
Which I am grateful for as I have a wonderful daughter.
She's now 26 and owns her own business as a successful dog groomer and trainer.
But her and I both certainly had to go through quite a journey as I was a kid,
Having a kid,
Trying to figure out what to do in life at that time.
I did eventually,
After a bit of challenge,
We'll put it that way,
Get out of that relationship and became determined that I was going to create a path and journey for myself at that time that would lead to my daughter and I having the healthiest life that I could try to create for the two of us.
And so for me,
That meant I needed to go to college.
I needed to find a degree that resonated with me that could lead to me having financial success and independence was really kind of what was going on for me at that point in my life of not wanting to really have to count on others due to,
You know,
Again,
Some traumas in my life.
So with that,
I began to explore different ideas about going to college.
No one in my direct family,
As far as my parents and aunts or uncles at that time had gone to college.
So I didn't really know much about what I was doing.
And because of my pregnancy,
I was in a Catholic school at that time,
I ended up dropping out of school in 11th grade.
So I was kind of confused and lost and just trying to figure out and navigate what was happening and ended up somehow,
I'm not quite really even sure how,
But I landed myself in college and began to explore different options there,
Really what resonated and what I wanted to do.
I kind of got myself there,
But had no idea really what I wanted to do once I was there.
And then along that path,
I ended up taking a psychology class.
And it really resonated with what I wanted to do.
I knew I wanted to help others in some capacity and in a way that allowed them to really understand their strength and how resilience can manifest and really grow within us.
As it was something that I knew in my own life journey of difficulty and some darkness,
That if we truly tap in and believe in ourselves and we don't give up,
We can strive and continue to grow in the most healthy and beautiful way.
So I was starting to explore psychology and I also at that time,
It was my sophomore year in college,
I took a philosophy class and it had us start exploring meditation,
Zen meditation to be specific.
To back up a little,
When I was around 17,
I started exploring ESP and how to start tapping into some of those secondary senses that I was tapped into as a child.
And when I started getting a little deeper into that exploration,
I had again,
What I would call at that time in my life,
A freaky experience where I was now what I understand having some astral projection stuff happening.
But at that time I wasn't really sure what was going on.
And I went to some sleep study things to see if I had some kind of sleep apnea and stuff like that.
And that wasn't it.
And at the time I was in that very toxic and unhealthy relationship.
But with that part of my life,
There was also a lot of superstitions around the culture of my daughter's father.
And so they told me I had all this other stuff happening with a book that I had read.
And so that also then led me to shutting down everything and I stopped trying to explore meditation until fast forward again to my sophomore year in this philosophy class.
And I started having to study this Zen meditation and had these really transformational experiences in the study.
And I have been a lover ever since of meditation and try to practice it in my daily life in a sitting more focused meditation.
But I certainly really strive and try to practice just daily mindfulness in my everyday living as a way to also help ground me and continue to tap in and expand my own consciousness,
Which I'll talk about in future podcasts.
So anyway,
I in college was exploring psychology,
Had this beautiful integration in this philosophy class of meditation and graduated with this degree in psychology and still unsure of how I could integrate really the two of how I wanted to help others expand their own consciousness and awareness.
So I started working in the field and I worked in a community-based setting initially.
And part of that involved me being a 302 delegate is what it's called here in Pennsylvania.
And that's when you have to go out and do an evaluation if someone's unwilling for hospitalization to see if they need to be hospitalized in terms of safety of self.
So I did that for a few years and then I ended up working in an inpatient hospital for mental health and worked at a time in the assessment department and then later on the adolescent unit as an individual group and family therapist.
I spent a total of six years there in working in the hospital setting.
And in that time,
I realized towards the beginning part that I wanted to continue to expand my degree,
That I wanted to continue to explore different capacities of how I could help heal all the suffering that was going on.
But at that time when I was working in the assessment department is when we had the terrorist attacks of 9-11.
And I received a phone call from my mom that day and she ended up suffering from a brain aneurysm when she was watching the events unfold on television.
And when I left immediately from work,
I knew something wasn't right with her due to our conversation on the phone.
But by the time I got to her home,
She was already in a coma and she never came back to us.
And so that really paused me out for a bit in this exploration of where I was kind of going,
But at the same time it propelled me further in the direction I was going.
It allowed me to really further want to explore how I could help others who were suffering in the ways I was suffering,
But also in their own ways,
In those ways that really create that deepness in our heart and make us feel stuck and lost.
So with that is what led me to get my graduate degree in psychology.
And I started hearing about dialectical behavior therapy and there it was.
It was this beautiful integration of what I was looking for.
With dialectical behavior therapy,
There are four main umbrellas,
If you would,
In what we teach and work on with our clients.
There's mindfulness,
Emotion regulation,
That's understanding all the dialectics of our emotion.
We can have anger and it doesn't have to look like rage,
For example.
Then there is interpersonal effectiveness and that really looks at how can we get out of those people pleasing patterns that we can get stuck in or the misconceived notion that taking care of ourselves is somehow selfish,
Which is just so false.
And then we also look at acceptance and that's about not only accepting all of our emotions,
Many of us can struggle with that and we'll talk about that in future sessions of why that is,
How that gets,
Just these patterns we can get stuck in and tools of how to really rework those patterns into easy learning techniques.
But with acceptance,
It's also about accepting that for many of us,
We've had to go through some traumatic and dark experiences in our life and sometimes those experiences can still vibrate pretty heavy within us and come out in ways that we don't realize affect our daily living.
And so when we work on acceptance,
It's about that deeper true nature of healing,
Realizing that even in the darkest of dark times,
We also have had growth.
We can also find love and compassion and healing towards ourselves,
Which can really bring about a whole different way of healing that trauma and that darkness.
So I began to really study dialectical behavior therapy,
Which requires another five years of training after you receive your license.
With that,
I also began to further dive deeper into my own exploration of meditation,
Consciousness,
Metaphysics and energy work.
And I continue to really explore that at a much deeper level for myself and my own growth in my energy body and exploration of what I can transpire in consciousness and connection.
But also in how I can integrate that further into the tools and techniques and understanding I provide others because it is this beautiful synergy of who we are in our physical body,
But also who we are in our energy body.
So with all of that,
That is what then led me later in my life to decide to open Serenity Wellness Center.
After some more difficult events in my life through my personal and career life,
It allowed me to again further sit within myself and decide where I wanted to go and what that looked like in terms of my path of really what I felt I wanted to do and helping others in their healing journey.
And so with my decision to open the Wellness Center,
It was because of what I found most helpful for myself,
But also in my years prior to opening my center,
What I found really helpful with those I've worked with in a professional way in my clients,
But also in professionals I've worked with alongside them in them working with clients in their own ways.
Serenity Wellness Center came to be as a way that I could try to develop a place to not only build community where people felt a safe place to really explore all of these beautiful elements of energy and consciousness,
But also to provide a center that could offer an array of different services to really tap into healing the full mind,
Body,
And emotion self.
How I work with my clients is always encouraging them to develop a wellness toolbox.
That's kind of like our theme at Serenity.
I'll talk just in a moment about really what that includes,
But this idea of a wellness toolbox of how we are each different in our own way and what resonates with me might not resonate with you.
I am very outdoors.
I love hiking.
I love nature.
This cold weather we're in at the moment is prohibiting of that here and there,
But that's what really resonates with me in movement.
That and yoga where for some people they really like to go to the gym and be in a routine of that.
So it's one example among many.
Some people like chiropractic.
Some people like acupuncture.
Some people like massage.
Some people don't.
Some people,
You know,
We're all different.
And so this development of a wellness toolbox is really about who are we and what do we need in our own personal way to fill that.
So by opening the wellness center,
It was a way to try to offer some of those services under one roof so we can all collaboratively work together in helping each other heal and then also bringing about that sense of community through our weekly group activities and group meditation and lots of different wellness workshops and yoga classes and just different ways for us to not only explore self,
But to really connect with those around us who are on this same journey.
So all of that being said,
How it led to me wanting to start this podcast is that we have a beautiful community here in State College and a beautiful team of healers at Serenity Wellness Center.
But with it,
I am and the other therapist at my center who provide mental health counseling are often referring out sometimes 10 or more people a week who because our caseloads are full we haven't really been able to take on many clients.
Throughout this four and a half years we've been open because we've remained pretty full since we've opened,
Which is a beautiful thing because it not only,
You know,
Obviously in terms of how it is beautiful and how many people were able to help,
But also a beautiful thing and it's showing us how many people are on this journey right now,
How many people are seeking and trying to help understand themselves because we're a holistic center.
You know,
People seek our service because they want to tap in to this true nature,
This true ability that we all have to heal ourselves in the most full and beautiful way.
So because how many people I have to refer out because I can't bring them on as clients,
It led to the decision to start this podcast.
This podcast I thought would be a wonderful opportunity to share what I know with others and to assist you in this mind,
Body and emotion balance.
With a combination of sharing information in terms of research and tools,
It can allow each of you to go within,
To explore your true nature and to reprogram those patterns that might keep you stuck and reprogram them and design them in a way that's going to help you reach your full potential.
So this podcast series is going to offer that in many different ways.
I'm going to try to have not only these weekly offerings of just what we're going to call Wellness Wednesdays,
So tapping into different research tools and techniques to add to your wellness toolbox,
But also offering different guided meditations,
Different ways that you can develop your space to help you heal,
And then also tapping into some of those other elements like how are we eating?
What are we putting in our body?
What are we doing in terms of our sleep hygiene?
You know,
If we develop all these tools and we're getting four hours of sleep a night and we're eating once a day and what we're eating is not really conducive to healthiness,
Well then,
You know,
The tools might not be the best assistance in really providing that full balance.
So we want to be able to provide you with a plethora of information to really look at your whole self and what you can do to really tap in to all the ways you can heal and balance.
So for today to end,
I just want to give you an offering of a simple technique.
So this has to do with our breath.
So often in life,
We are stuck up in the chaos and the busyness and the have tos and the I should haves,
Which will be a whole nother podcast,
But with it,
We often forget to breathe or we get ourselves in this constant state of chest breathing.
And so with chest breathing,
It's actually keeping us in an anxious cycle.
I'm going to talk much more about the idea of breath and how it can be a foundation of something to have in your toolbox through different techniques of even breathing itself,
But also different techniques of how breath can anchor us,
How breath can provide space and thought space in just being.
But for today,
Let's just check in on how are you breathing?
So for this,
Go ahead and put your hand on your chest right by your heart and put your other hand about two inches below your belly button.
Close your eyes and just breathe in and out three times.
Don't try to change your breath.
Just get yourself breathing.
Now as you're taking those three breaths,
Focus on which one of your hands is rising.
Do you find that your hand on your chest is rising more?
Do you find that your hand down under your belly button is rising or maybe a little of both?
So now go ahead and take a nice deep breath and try to get that breath all the way down and get that hand to rise below your belly button.
Some of you might be finding this a bit tricky and that is okay.
You can go ahead and release your hands.
And now let me tell you what just happened.
So if you are one of the many who may have just found yourself in that glorious chest breathing,
That is that breath of anxiety,
That is that breath cycle that helps us stay in alert anxiousness.
It is signifying and telling our body that we have to be ready for a crisis.
So it's really hard to be relaxed when our breath is telling us it is not okay or safe to be relaxed.
It also does many other things to the body such as not really allowing that oxygen to fully get down into that lower area,
That dantian area below your belly button.
It's also prohibiting the oxygen from feeding your cells,
Picking up on toxins and allowing that exhale to fully release.
Keeps us in that short breath cycle which again is keeping that anxious mind actually fed.
It makes our adrenals start to respond because it is part of the anxious body cycle which we'll go over more fully in a future podcast.
So if you are one of the many who find yourself chest breathing,
Here is a simple technique to get yourself back into diaphragmic breathing.
You were born diaphragmically breathing so no worries,
Your body knows exactly what to do.
And if you are one of the many of us who love singing,
When you are singing,
Truly singing,
Singing that song you love maybe alone in your car or in your place,
Maybe even dancing around to it,
When you are truly singing,
You're diaphragmically breathing.
So you can also do some of that.
But if you're trying to move that air down and you're finding it very difficult,
Some people feel they can't move it down at all initially.
Sometimes people tell me about how it's like a brick and it can't seem to get much past right under their breastbone.
So some training techniques you can do.
One,
You can lie down and put a book below your belly button,
Not a super heavy book but one that's going to create a little bit of weight.
And you might do this for a few minutes for a couple days,
Just trying to focus on moving that air down.
And you can focus your mind on the book.
And that way your mind is just focusing more on moving the book versus moving the breath.
Because sometimes when we try to move that breath down,
That anxious body cycle doesn't really want us to.
Because if you've been in chest breathing for a while,
It's created this false sense of safety.
So the idea of moving that breath down,
Sometimes the body might resist.
So by focusing on the book,
It allows that space,
It allows that freedom to focus on moving the breath down and getting that full nature and full rhythm of breathing.
After you get down into that breath cycle,
How to then transform it is choose five things that you're doing in your everyday life.
So you're not adding anything new.
Maybe it's when you get out of bed or after you have breakfast or when you arrive at work.
Just spread out from morning till night.
During those five check-ins,
You're going to do what we did at the beginning here,
Where you're going to put that hand on your chest,
Put that hand right below your belly button,
And just take three breaths.
When you notice that you're up in your chest area,
Go ahead and take three nice deep belly breaths.
You might find resistance initially,
But don't give up.
And you'll find after a couple days,
It's easier.
And then sometimes you're already actually down there diaphragmically breathing.
Once you find you're getting a little bit more into that rhythm,
Then maybe you might reduce it to checking in three times and then maybe two.
And usually it takes about two weeks or so to get that body back into that natural rhythm cycle,
Which is a beautiful tool that you'll see really adds into some other tools when it comes to body awareness,
Emotion regulation,
Identification of emotion regulation,
And a lot of other things.
So that is your first little tool is how are you breathing and let's get you just breathing.
I hope you enjoyed our first podcast and I look really forward to future meetings together and how I might be able to help you or someone you know,
Really again,
Tap into your full potential of how you can heal and balance your emotional,
Mental and physical wellbeing.
Talk to you soon.
Bye bye.
