Sheree 0:00
Okay, I'm so excited that we have Sophia here as a guest today, I have personally done a number of her offerings, including her beautiful sound healings. So we'll be diving into that in a little bit. But Sophie, first of all, welcome. It's so beautiful to have you here.
Speaker 1 0:16
Thank you. I feel very honored to be here. So I'm excited to get into this chat.
Sheree 0:21
eautiful. Now I know you've been through quite a journey, and I imagine a number of our listeners will be able to relate to some or differently some parts of it. So can you touch on what exactly you've been through? And what you do, I guess, as well, and how you got there, because it's quite a powerful story.
Speaker 1 0:39
Absolutely. I guess I'm a very high performing individual, I would say I'm pretty a type personality. And I studied law and psychology at university. And I guess my upbringing, I was from 12 years old, I wasn't entrepreneurial, I was always kind of creating my own businesses and selling products to kind of local rest, homes and so on. I was a baker. So I'd make all this delicious, like Christmas baking, but I always had a very entrepreneurial spirit. And I was very lucky to have like a good education and be motivated to really, I guess, study. And yeah, I was really motivated to put my education at the forefront. But I put a lot of pressure on myself in the process. So I got into yoga, just kind of at the end of my schooling years, I was deputy head girl of my school and did really well at school. And there was a lot of pressure that came with that. So I found kind of yoga and meditation to be a really beautiful practice that kind of gave me a sense of calm. And that really transpired through into my studies where I studied law and psychology, and I had to get a part time job, so became a Pilates instructor. And that was always rushing kind of between teaching classes and studying. But I loved it. I loved being around people making people feel good. And I was able to feel good in myself teaching that I studied, I went on to a legal career, I became a legal intern, I was a grad, I got a top top job with one of the best firms in New Zealand, and as progressing really well in my career there. And I also then went into a smaller, firm and worked kind of more general practice, that was what I was really passionate about, I didn't want to be limited into one box. And then things progressed even further. And I kind of got tapped on the shoulder for a role in a consulting company. And that was kind of launching in New Zealand. So it took two years, and we grew from 20 people, when I started to over 200 people, I ended up in senior management in that role. And I was managing people all over the country, I was flying to the UK and to Australia. And I always used my holistic practices as a baseline to kind of keep me steady and grounded. And I was teaching yoga and pilates on the side still throughout all of this. But it came a point where I was actually just starting to neglect those practices, because my work demands were getting so intense. And there was such a huge trajectory for my corporate career that I did start to neglect a few of those practices, or I would, you know, maybe not teach as many classes so that I could really prioritize that. And it started to take an effect on me, physically and mentally. And it came to a point where Yeah, I was super stressed out, I wasn't really enjoying my my days and feeling like life was it my kind of fullest potential. And whilst I was doing so, well, I felt this urge to put all that energy into what I loved and to doing what was good for the world. And it really did push me to make a really crucial decision. Like they were priming me to probably be around like General Manager, CEO of this company. And which was really beautiful, what everyone dreams are, but I guess I felt like inside I was not kind of being my most authentic self. So it came to this push point of me having to choose. And I did decide to leave that job and pursue my own wellness career full time. And I'm not saying this lightly, because I was hustling that whole time. I was teaching on the side and I built up my own community and in that time my community was saying you look so if you should really like do more of this, you're so good at it and and I really enjoyed it at the time. So it's definitely not an easy transition. If you just move from A to B without anything in between. I always say to people that you do need to really build it up on the side before you make that that leap. But honestly sacrifices come with that but I've honestly not been happier than what I am now. I think last year I had like the best year ever in my business. And it is weird like when you take a passion and turn it into a business because you have to use start to think about all these things that you know you didn't necessarily imagine at the beginning. That yeah, I'm really happy with how things have turned out and I think sometimes you do have to was reach, make that full kind of burnout stage before you are forced to make that decision. And not everyone has the luxury to do that I understand. But you know, you can definitely take steps even if you're not, you know, fully prepared to take the leap, you can take steps to make sure you're prioritizing your health and well being you know, me as a practitioner, I put it on the back burner for a bit and I saw the detrimental effect that had so it's incredible how it has really propelled me to really make that a priority. Now in my daily life, because it's it's so important, especially now even running my own business, you know, because you never switch off. You know, always thinking so it's even probably more necessary. Now. I'm just answerable to myself, not not anyone else.
Christa 5:47
So I have a question about before you move into what you're doing now and how you really take care of yourself, what was the signs and symptoms that you were experiencing burnout because I think, especially high achievers, we tend to be are unaware or just go go go go go avoid and ignore all the signs. So can you share kind of what burnout looked like for you? Sure,
Speaker 1 6:10
this sounds really strange, but I'm getting the imagery of like a turtle. So I created this hard shell, and I just retracted into this little shell. I didn't see friends and family, I was just so committed to working through the night, I wasn't eating well, because I was traveling a lot. So you know, I would go for I mean, I'm not a fast food eater or anything like that. And I wasn't eating fast food. But I was just having quite a bit of processed foods and sugars and lots of coffee, and all the things just to kind of keep you fulfilled. And I noticed that my sleep patterns were really hard when I was away from home, as I mean, I know that from like a psychological perspective anyway, it's not easy to sleep, when you're kind of on edge. But yeah, I was really neglecting friendships, my family, my diet, I was not making time for my passions, which was my teaching and kind of building up that community. And I just had probably just kind of spiraled into this real state of general unhappiness. So I couldn't find those joyful moments. You know, I love being in nature, I love being around friends and cooking meals, and all of that. So I was really struggling to find that joy, those joyful moments are those glimmers in everyday life. And it's really subtle. And I think when you have something so big going on, that you're working towards, you'd actually don't even realize it as much. And it's not until, you know, your health really takes a turn, I was getting lots of sickness. So I had to talk a lot in my role. And I would always get these throat issues. So someone led to tonsillitis. But you know, for me, that's that's such a, you know, communication center that was just being neglected, I wasn't really able to communicate what I really wanted. Because I was just on this spiral, to get to the top of the ladder, so to speak, which not, I'm not taking away, it was very fulfilling in that respect. And it was incredibly good at challenging me and I had amazing opportunities. And I don't want to take away from that, because I'm very grateful for that. But I think there needs to be this way to find the balance. And for a majority of the time, I could find the balance. But then when it got quite serious, and with a lot of travel involved, like travel just takes such a toll on your nervous system. If you're not it not doing all the right kind of protocols, to Cherie bells, but then, you know, you do feel like your house just takes a turn. And I think it's almost that lack of motivation. It sounds like quite subtle, but not being motivated to want to do those things that make you feel good. That was, I guess, a bit of an alarm belt for me. I
Christa 9:00
think what I'm going to say really quickly is just that, to reiterate what you said is just to be aware of your emotional state and how you're really feeling and then be aware of your physical body too.
Speaker 1 9:09
Yeah. Because there's a lot of numbing I think that's that's actually such such a good like I did a lot of numbing, like just really threw myself in the deep end with the work and it almost kind of numbs what you're going through during a burnout phase because you're like well working towards us so good that they're getting all the praise at work, getting all the good things coming in, and you almost none that there that desire to kind of need to enhance your own self. So that's so true. Yeah,
Sheree 9:37
yeah, I think it's a beautiful thing that you bought in there because a lot of the times and I know but when we've talked about burnout before even on the podcast, we jump straight into the physical symptoms and we jumped right into the fatigue or the mental clarity that disappears or the overwhelm and the real stress and I think you brought up such an important point and almost different way of looking at burnout as well. You said you lost a lot of the joy, and you weren't making time for your friends and your family. And so I think it's really important takeaway for our listeners to realize that burnout can look so different. Yes, you are getting the physical symptoms as well obviously taking its toll, especially with the travel and you know, when you're head down focused high achiever, you can almost sometimes push through some of those physical symptoms until you really, really break. But being aware of creating that awareness of, wow, my emotional state, my social well being is actually being greatly impacted by this burnout is such a beautiful point to really hone in on because I even know personally, it's like, you just lock it, yeah, I'd lock myself in my office, might let's just go, let's just get this done. And you don't realize, like you say, to kind of come out of it and step out of it, like, wow, those relationships have been neglected for so long. And that's actually also another symptom of burnout. So I love that you shared on that. And I would love to know how you I mean, obviously, it sounds like you've had quite a bit of holistic practice, right throughout your life from a young age, which is amazing why it was even the catapult or the catalyst to getting you into or even thinking about doing yoga at such a young age and meditation.
Speaker 1 11:10
Yeah, it's interesting. I was actually a friend took me along to a class, that was when Bikram yoga was all the rage. As my friend was a male at the time, and I just remember, like, it was really on my towel, it was not glamorous at all. But again, as an A type personality, I loved Vikram, because you got like this reference point. And you could see yourself getting better. And weirdly, to look at yourself in the mirror and kind of you know, you could watch your progress. I mean, it's something I just could not do now. Like, I could not probably go through a Bikram class and enjoy it, you know, but at the time, it was an incredible practice. And then that kind of morphed like when I took up that job. And I was studying actually knew when I went for the interview, the owners were just putting their their daughter into the school I went to so that was like a nice connection. And they, they were like, oh, you know, we'll give you this this chance. And they trained me up. And that was beautiful. So I have been lucky. And then I've attracted, I guess these practices into my life. But I guess it's once I've attracted them, I've really gone deep and found the practices within those kinds of genres that work best for me. So you know, I started with the really intense hot yoga, and then it's kind of more for my whole career morphed into more fluid and kind of yin mate practices and soft flows. And, you know, so have really found what is my own throughout. And I think once you begin that journey, it's so broad, and there's so many different tools available that it gets quite overwhelming at times, because you just want to know everything. And you want to learn everything you do. Sometimes I'll take up a passion and my husband's like, Yo, you don't have to make this one a career. Like just enjoy it. I'm like, okay, yeah, I get that. So it's hard sometimes, because when I feel that benefit, I want everyone to feel it. So I want to be able to share it with everyone. And that's happened, obviously, with Pilates with yoga and meditation and sound healing. So, yeah, I am just trying to really, I guess, find that joint practice just for me sometimes. But it's pretty addictive. And I have an addictive personality. So once I'm on that trajectory, it's hard stuff.
Christa 13:30
So you do a lot of sound therapy, right? Yeah. Can you talk to us a little bit about for people who are unfamiliar with sound and the just how does it yeah, what's the science behind it? Like, how does sound and wave? I'm assuming it has to do with the waves? How does that affect our brain? And how does that benefit us? Absolutely.
Speaker 1 13:51
So and there is a lot of scientific evidence behind it, which I think I kind of nerd out on. And unfortunately, you know, sometimes it has this kind of woowoo aspect, but because I have a pretty corporate background, and passionate about making this accessible to anyone and everyone. So I'm so happy you asked this question. But I guess when we're in our normal kind of conscious waking state, we're setting in this kind of beta brainwave level, what happens when we when I play the sound balls is that they can transport your brainwaves into a theta state, which is a very kind of relaxed, it's when you can dream. And it's also when you get a lot of subconscious creativity. And then some people will go even further into a Delta State, which is that real level of deep sleep that's when we have restorative sleep. And this is when you can actually get a lot of intuition and insight. So what draws people to sound healing I think a lot of the time is how it can benefit their sleep not only in the actual sound bath, but also outside of the sound bar. I it's amazing if you have kind of like the ability to track your sleep At Pipedrive, I have guests all the time who come along and share their data with me. So for example, when a 45 minute sound bath, I had a person come along who experienced 26 minutes of deep sleep and seven minutes of light sleep. And a lot of the time I mentioned where you might be able to speak to this, but you can actually feel quite awake and conscious during that you go into, like a transcendental state. So very similar to like a deep meditation, and but sometimes even a layer further than that, because you can hear people snoring. It is incredible. And that what's happening at the moment as well what's happening not at the moment, but when you're in the sound bath, there's this thing called our brain entrainment, so we're actually you know, all kind of vibrating at a particular frequency. And when our cells are exposed to this frequency, they gravitate to vibrating at the same frequency as the ones that are here. So it's kind of like, you know, we are natural beings, we are actually trying our best to come back to our most natural state. And the beauty of a sound bath is that does that without any kind of in terms of invasiveness, just by simply hearing the vibration, because we're kind of all vibration energy. So yeah, it brings that phrase, we hear that resonance, and it actually begins to where our bodies begin to mimic that exact resonance. And then that brings anything in our bodies that is out of balance, or not in synchronicity kind of back into synchronicity. It also has an amazing ability to stimulate our vagus nerve, which is a huge part of that parasympathetic nervous system. I know, there's a lot of research going on in that area. I'm no expert right now. But it's a beautiful way to bring about stress reduction, and just calming of the nervous system. So you know, you don't have to necessarily fall asleep to receive all these benefits, it helps to lower the heart rate, blood pressure. And I honestly think it's not so scientific. But a huge part of it is just this ability to be able to disconnect and have literally like a bit of a blackout moment where you get to just be without any stimulation of you know, screens, or devices, or family members or friends, like, like coming at you, but it's just this time with yourself. And that can be scary to some people. But I honestly think having that hour of peace, have that ability to be creative in your thoughts, or, you know, have these insights or just take up that little bit of sleep if you are sleep deprived, because majority of the population is. So there are beautiful scientific benefits. And they're also really beautiful, just kind of lifestyle enhancements that you will receive. So I've also done a lot of work just with people who are quite sick. Some people, you know, it's kind of more on a case by case basis, but just bringing peace and calm to people near the engineering the end of their life, if they're really suffering that it can also have incredible effects for people with arthritis. Because as we increase the vibrations, we actually reduce that tension on bones and on cells. And it relieves pain for a lot of people. So go on and on. But I'll stop there.
Christa 18:11
How often do you like along the lines of the sound? Do you recommend you do it every day? Is that something that people should do every day?
Speaker 1 18:17
I mean, you could but let's be realistic. I love sound bites, and I will listen to them online as I'm like driving in my car, or if I needed like a moment just to really chill out. So you can the beautiful thing is that they are pretty accessible now online and so to speak. But a sound bath experience where you're in the room with that vibration, it's enhanced. You know, it's like listening to a song versus being at the music concert. You know, like, it's just, it's just a different experience. So I run sound baths twice a month. And I have people that come along who say when they miss one, they feel it. So they literally come as like, I guess wellness, hygiene, you know, like to kind of keep that all those benefits flowing. And it's when they're not doing it that they really feel that impact. So I would say if you can do them at least once a month, like that's an incredible practice. So similar to like a massage. I think of it as like a sonic massage, I can energetic massage. And when we're working with energy, it's really hard to measure, like we can see in our physical bodies when we're not feeling good, or we can and we can get measurements or whatever that might look like. But when we're working on an energetic level, it's really hard to tell, you know, when we're depleted and quite often, it's when we're past that point of depletion that always kind of things begin to snowball. So if you can be proactive about your kind of energetic health, that's so much better than kind of getting to that breaking point of really needing to go and do something about it. And I guess we're taking on energy all the time, people were around environments that were in just all the unseen kind of You know, electromagnetic waves around us, there's so much that is being put into our system without us even knowing. And I wish there was more in this space in terms of research, and I'm sure it will get there. But yeah, I think when you kind of tune in to that, and you become more heightened and more sensitive to energy and places and environments, it is a really beneficial thing. And I think a lot of people are now being exposed to it and feeling that shift and becoming an addict like me. So, I think you can't do it too much. If the answer to your question like, you know, it's always going to be beneficial. And I've got people that you know, will listen to them as they go to sleep and in outcome in real life. So yeah, that's the more an area,
Sheree 20:48
I can definitely definitely attest to the fact that there's such a difference when you are in person, like I was into my binaural beats that have at the frequency of deep sleep before I go to sleep every night. But being in a sound bar, or being in a sound healing, you know, you get to the point you can feel the vibrations like in your body. And one thing I'd love for you to touch on a little bit is, and it's like a metaphor, the way I look at it is like it's meditation, but you're also getting the bonus of the healing in a toe. And it's almost similar to the shavasana practice at the end of yoga, where I hear a lot of people either get up and leave the room or they you know, I don't do that part of the the yoga because one that's not beneficial for me. And two, I've just got too many things running through my brain. And when you are a high performer, when you are a high achiever, when you are someone that's got so much going on, I always had people like you need it the most, because you need to be able to switch your brain off. But one thing that I love that you shared and be really cool to talk through this a little bit. When because I know that the first couple of times, okay, my brain was so active, and I was like, I'm doing this wrong, you know, you have all these expectations of yourself that I'm going to have all these creative downloads and insights. And I'm going to feel like this massive shift out of Yeah. And I felt so calm, and I felt beautiful. And like I said I can You can feel the vibrations. But thankfully you shared at the beginning of the class, like there is absolutely no expectation of how you should feel. And so it's the same sort of thing with meditation, like it is a bit of a practice. And it is that wellness, hygiene. And yeah, can you talk to how, you know, there's actually no wrong way to do it and the benefits that still come? Regardless of how you show up?
Speaker 1 22:33
Absolutely, absolutely. And I think that's such a good point. I think thoughts can be fantastic in it. If you think about it kind of like a funnel, if you haven't done a practice, where you have allowed the body to come into this extreme state of calm, because it's quite hard to get there naturally like to the mean, it's easy to calm the nervous system, but what we're doing through these frequencies is really bringing your body back into homeostasis, or its most harmonic state. And, you know, without additional things in the body, sometimes that's a really hard place to come. And some people have not experienced that in a very long time, maybe ever. So if you think about your thoughts, and then more coming kind of into like a funnel, like, as we're accessing these places of calm, you almost need to like, let go of as much as you can. And that's why all these thoughts rush in, you know, people can have thoughts the entire time, they can be like, Oh, I don't want to be here, but then feel fantastic afterwards. There's a lot of almost I'd say like cathartic release happening as you're experiencing. But it's so different for everyone, like some people might be quite visual and see things. Some people might see color, others will feel vibration, and they'll feel, you know, vibration and different parts of their bodies as they play different roles for different chakras and others will just be literally planning what they're going to do for the week. Some people will fall asleep and not have even heard the gong, which is insanely loud. You know, they're really quite asleep. And, you know, there absolutely is no expectation when you're there. What I love to say is that your body actually just receives what it needs to in that moment. And it's an incredibly kind of personalized experience. Because from a vibrational aspect, you know, we're, we're all vibrating in different ways, or there's different parts of our body that could be out of alignment. But the beauty is hearing these really Healing frequencies will bring whatever it's not back into alignment. So how everyone experiences that is going to be incredibly different. And you know, you can probably have those sound bites but you're really active in your thoughts. That's actually a form of stress release is when we're having lots of thoughts so I'm not sure if you experienced that Sheree that afterwards. Yeah, had that real loud. That sense of calm you probably that next few days felt really clear for you because you'd actually done a lot of release and the very odd occasion people can actually get a little bit sick afterwards. In terms of feel quite ill or, you know, maybe, you know, just that almost like a purge. It's only happened a couple of times, but I think everyone will experience differently, depending on what they're going through that day, what they've been going through just moments before, or just even as they're laying there. Others might even connect very spiritually and, you know, see loved ones or people that have passed on, you know, and I don't guarantee that to anyone. But you know, there are some just quite profound experiences that can happen. So everyone's called to it for a different reason. But you don't have to have a spiritual background. And I love that I have people, an energizer bunnies, and they're, like, drawn there, they get taken there by a friend. And then they're like, I don't want to be here, like I've had this set, the thought of sitting still for an hour is just the most, you know, torturous thing. And then and they're like, oh, my gosh, I literally did not have a thought I was just all consumed by the music. And they will hear it was amazing, you know. So some people, I think, will have hesitations going into it. And it's one of those things you just have to experience, unfortunately, to know, but yeah, there's absolutely no expectation going in. And it's you don't obviously need any kind of experience or kind of physical capabilities, or spiritual capabilities or anything, it will really meet you where you're at. And that's why people keep coming back as well. Because every experience is different. And I think they're always kind of building and refining on what has happened in the session before, which is really cool. And I think when I work with corporates, I see that a lot, because by the time they haven't voluntarily, like put themselves in this space, and sometimes that's the most profound, they're the most profound kind of anecdotes is just these guys who had no idea what they're getting themselves into in this, you know, obsessed by the end of it, you know? And nerding out. So that's really cool. To see. Yeah,
Christa 26:57
it's amazing. Do you incorporate any kind of breathwork with your practices? Or do people just breathe normally? How do you generally, what kind of Yeah, I mean, how can people do this outside of sound, I mean, do you use any other kind of modalities.
Speaker 1 27:12
So I'm very passionate about all the senses, and really kind of sensory wellness as a whole. I think at the start, I will use a lot of aromatherapy to engage the senses and bring in the sense of calm, I always kind of cleanse my space before people come into the room. I'm staging it and clearing it and, and all of that I do start with just a very kind of gentle breathwork and meditation. And it's usually a visual guided meditation just to really ease people into the space. And I use your own therapy throughout. And at the end, I steer away from heavy breathwork. Because again, I don't want there to be like a barrier for people that haven't experienced that. And it's something that I might explore a bit more in my day retreats, but it's not what I would do in a sound bath. Because we're just there for an hour, I do want it to be accessible. So it'll be probably just a very natural, almost like a box breath, like just encouraging people to take deep breaths, and deeper out breaths. And then when we do the guided meditation, that could be more like a body scan, or something quite visual, kind of letting go mentally have thoughts or roles that they're going through. Sometimes I relate it to the chakra system. But I'm also aware that, you know, maybe not everyone is on that level. So I guess I want to keep it as generic as possible and as accessible as possible, so that people feel like they're included, and they don't have to be on some type of spiritual journey to feel the benefit. So I kind of get a little bit more progressed in my day retreats, or when I do specialized events for that, for that side of things. And lucky in that, with the sound, it kind of does the work, you know, just by simply being in the room. So I definitely think it's very great. You know, when it is coupled with things like breath work, or with yin yoga, or with yoga nidra, or with a static dance, because you know, you've taken your body from a high and then it can really drop in. And I experienced that on my day retreats because I do the sound bites at the end where they've had the whole day doing yoga and pilates and walking and breath work and meditation and people drop in super quick. So it's not to say that you won't still have a great experience, but you can definitely enhance it maybe with those more holistic practices tagged on my events, I guess. Yeah, the aim is just to allow everyone to be able to enjoy it out without having to do too much at the beginning. And that I think keeps it really inclusive and accessible to anybody.
Christa 29:44
Yeah, let's do that. Because I think that, especially when we think about putting us all on a bucket of high achievers, let's say you tend to be very mentally driven right like you're, it's it's tough sometimes for people to tap into the Spiritual sides of themselves to be quiet. And so things that may sound a little woowoo might be like, Oh, heck no, that's not what I do. I like your approach that you number one, you know, the science behind it, like what it's actually doing on a cellular level. And then also just keeping a variety. I mean, for people who want to go deeper into that great, but if not, then you keep it at a way that anybody can pop in and feel the benefits without feeling overwhelmed or, like completely lost, or what world did they just tap into? So I yeah, I like that you have that variety. I think that's really helpful.
Speaker 1 30:34
Thanks. And I, I have had people come in and do some breath work before, like it begins. So every now and again, you know, there will be people that they bring their own, they might come a little early, and they hear them doing some breath work. And that's beautiful. And I encourage that, and um, yeah,
Sheree 30:50
I know, one of the beautiful things, and you've mentioned them that you do is your day retreats. And like you said, you kind of take people through this journey. So if you are wanting to dive deeper, but I know something that you really weave in, and I've noticed that you try to change it as the year goes on. And as the seasons change is seasonal living and how that links to like cyclic living and that sort of thing. And can you touch on that? Like, I know, you work with both males and both females? So how does that work? I know, we've talked a lot, even on the podcast about how females have their inner cycles, but the seasonal and cyclical living and how that affects everybody.
Speaker 1 31:25
Yeah, absolutely. This was born when I started creating wellness programs for corporates, and I was looking at ways to make wellness practices as accessible as possible for men and for women. And I just thought nature is the biggest indicator of that. And unfortunately, the way most of our jobs and lives are structured is this very linear focus. So you know, we start at 9am, we finish at 5pm, we, we do the same gym routine every morning, and we make the same meal plan each week. And it's it doesn't allow a lot of space to kind of ebb and flow, which you know, as women, obviously we do a lot naturally. But even men, I think, unfortunately have kind of also been very encouraged to live this very linear lifestyle. So being a nature lover, and just knowing all the evolutionary benefits of changing our rhythms with the seasons. And I think we have beautiful reminders happening around us all the time, that are encouraging us to wake at different hours to go to bed at different hours to you know, spend more time indoors versus outdoors. So I developed a program that was a year long, and it is to do with how to enhance your well being practices and alignment with the seasons. So just subtle things that we see, like the adjustment of our circadian rhythms, as you know, we lose daylight hours or gain daylight hours, you know, the types of produce that we should be eating that are in season at the time, different movements that are encouraged during different seasons. So quite often, you know, practices, like let's say, you know, like hit workouts versus you know, more inward even like practice practices are associated with different seasons, because we have seasons that are very heating and might need more cooling practices. And then we have seasons that are very cooling and might need more heated practices. You know, most people enjoy doing a hot yoga class during the winter versus during the summer just naturally. There's also a lot around, obviously, I look at a little bit of the traditional philosophies and traditional Chinese medicine or beta, I look at Maury kind of they use a lot of the Mara Mikado working with the moon. And there's a lot of different philosophies that I draw on from overseas, for example, and different festivals that are celebrated at different times of the year. And also going back obviously, to our kind of caveman days, and how we would forage you know, in during certain seasons, and then there were other seasons, we would sit around the bonfire and share stories and be with family. So there are really ways to structure your life and actually like unstructured. So whilst we can, you know, benefit from having routines and rituals, I think it was it's also a good reminder to shift and ebb and flow with the seasons and it could even just be taking up different hobbies for each season. Because yeah, the whole world is experiencing these shifts. And the most simple way to look at it is literally like through light. You know, when the sunrise it's when the sun goes down, but noticing you know what flowers are in bloom or 1000 aren't blooming and how that could encourage or just be a trigger to things that we could be doing in our own lives. You know, there are times where fruit and veggies are growing really plentiful Li and then there are times where they're not and times where we should be having stews versus salads and things like that. So it's very simple. Well, when again, accessible material, but I think it gives a little bit of excitement in terms of, you know, bringing more joy and bringing more ebb and flow and bringing more creativity into our lives, a lot of us are, you know, in roles where we're feeling an element of control of having to be at a certain place at a certain time and do a certain thing. So I think it's very much about empowering people to be creative, and to be more attuned with nature and the cycles that are going on around us. And also taking away some of the pressure that we might have, I don't feel like doing it today, or I feel like doing something different. And giving people more empowerment to listen to their intuition and that respect. So by attuning ourselves to these, you know, reminders that are around us all the time, but yeah, I have found it's, it's taken off really well in that in that corporate space, because it helps people be more productive and more efficient and enjoy their job more, when they are kind of feeling like there's more beyond their structure or that they have a bit more control and, and autonomy over the way that they're structuring the year. It's not just a Groundhog Day, another day, the same. And I think the great thing is women in the space are really, you know, tuning into that and also bring it in for men and how they can be more creative as it's been really beautiful to share in it and watching. It's not rocket science by any means. But it's a beautiful practice. And you can be as simple or as complex as you like, you know, a, I know when I'm talking to big groups, not everyone is going to respond in the same way or have the same interests. So my intention is always to put out a smorgasbord of, you know, opportunities, or rituals or techniques that might work. You know, even breathing techniques, there are ones that are good for summer ones that are good for winter ones are good for spring. Yeah, because they're creating different physiological impacts in our body. So you know, Breath of Fire, you probably want to do more at certain time of year than others, and even for women certain times in our cycle, and then others. So it's been a beautiful program, I guess, to create and share for that reason. Me,
Christa 37:17
so you've shared so much juiciness with us? Where can people find you and work with you? I mean, we're here in the US and you guys are both in us. So I do have anything for across the planet? Do you have any virtual ways that people can connect with you or experience what you have to offer?
Speaker 1 37:36
Yeah, I always get this request to do online Soundbuds and husband's a musician and we've tried to really set it up, you need a pretty hefty, hefty investment to actually create, unfortunately, over zoom, the sound waves just say they're too amazing. They just get blocked out and you can't hear anything. So I do offer kind of one on one virtual kind of coaching and mentoring, so to speak. And I'm running singing bowl trainings here in New Zealand, which I do sometimes have people travel for, mainly within New Zealand, but also from overseas. I have my website that people can see where my events are. I do two Soundbuds a month and I do seasonal day retreats. I really have a huge desire to actually come to the States. I have friends in LA and they're saying, Oh, we love New Zealanders over here. So watch this space. Who knows. I'd really love and I trained in LA my sound healing trainer. She's incredible. And I that was in LA where I first experienced sound healing. So America is a big place in my heart. And hopefully this year, yeah, I can really work on providing more virtual content, I have done a recording of a sound bath, which is beautiful. It's intertwined with nature sounds so it kind of it's an elevation on what I've done, obviously what you hear in a sound bath that was designed to be part of an infrared sauna experience. So the beautiful business here in New Zealand, Hannah. And it's kind of encouraged me to create some bite sized pieces. So watch out for that, because I'll probably be releasing that this year. And it's a nice way for people to tune in and hear it. And yeah, but mainly on Instagram, I share a lot and my website is the place to be and if anyone's interested. Yeah, I always do kind of online console that's just kind of as a camera as you just send me a message or an email and I'm more than happy to connect on that level.
Sheree 39:32
You're gonna fall I just I hope everyone can just feel the and I know when I'm in your space like in person. It's so beautiful and grounding and I've just been watching myself and noticing myself while we've been on this. You know, I'm not there this fast talking. And it's just been beautiful. Like I feel so grounded. You just speak so eloquently and so softly and I'm like, Oh, I'm ready to go into my day and I feel beautiful and you can only imagine and how much more enhanced that is when you're actually inside of Soundbuds. So, and in any of your beautiful offerings, so if the annual crossing paths on Instagram that's correct, right? Just one
Speaker 1 40:09
yeah crossing little x and then pads and then my website is crossing x ads.com. So we'll pop
Sheree 40:16
all of that in the show notes. But yeah, we really appreciate you being here and sharing on this because it's it's such an under tapped topic, I think, to really be diving into the energetics and the sound healing. You know, there's a lot of hype, like you've mentioned at the beginning with the biohacking and some of these more like these protocols that are getting a lot of attention. But the benefit that you can literally just show up and not have to do anything and still receive the incredible magic of being in a sound healing I think is something so so beautiful, alongside the other incredible work you do. So thank you so much for being here, and I was just gonna love this.
Unknown Speaker 40:55
Thank you. Thank you. It's been such a joy
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
