99. Live Life Awake, Embodied, and in Alignment / Alison Rothman
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Alison Rothman MA CYT, is a Body-Centered Holistic Empowerment Coach, Emotional Doula, Guide, Mentor, and Transformational Group Facilitator with over 25 years of study and experience in somatic healing arts and therapies, yoga and meditation, authentic embodiment practices, and holistic healing channels. Through her extensive studies, practices, and experiences she provides clients and students with the ability to tap into their innate inner resource, release debilitating life patterns, reclaim their body, mind, heart, and soul connection so as to access their true selves empowering them to live life awake, embodied, and in alignment. In addition to her one-on-one work she facilitates retreats and events, runs women’s groups (both virtual and in person), writes, speaks and is the host of the podcast "Embodied and Awake." She lives in beautiful Boulder, Colorado with her partner and teenage son. I can’t wait for you to listen to today’s episode!
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Episode Topics:
How to tune in to our bodies and stillness
The path to embodiment and how to get started
Why your body such a powerful place for transformation
How to get the energy moving
The power of choice in healing
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
feel, life, body, energy, move, journey, healing, breathwork, alignment, allison, layers, love, learn, embody, clients, tools, work, meditation, living, deep
SPEAKERS
Alison Rothman, Katie Kay Graham
Alison Rothman 00:00
We have to tune in to our bodies and move from that place. And to me, you know, it's like yes through movement, but it's also stillness and getting quiet with ourselves because there from there, the answers can emerge from deep within our bodies.
Katie Kay Graham 00:40
As you guys know, body breaking free is all about coming into your own alignment coming into your own empowered state, and untangling all those things that aren't serving you so that you can be in this place of freedom and alignment and authenticity. And today's sponsors resonate with that message. So I'm really excited to share them with you. The first is pause, breath work. So on any part of your journey through breathwork, if you're ready to explore this amazing tool, pause breathwork has many options. So the first one is the pause facilitator program. If you're ready to step into the role of facilitator, this is their six month expert level training. And you guys this is the training I went through, and I couldn't say enough about how amazing the program is. So if you're interested in stepping into the role of facilitator, you can click on the link in the show notes, check out their program, you can hop on a call with one of their team members to discuss the program. You also feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions via Instagram or email me at hello at Katie Kay graham.com. The next is pause breathwork app. So if you click on the link in the show notes, you get your first month completely free. And this app is awesome. They have so many different options, you can do a three minute breath where you can do a 20 minute breath work. And it's just a nice tool to have access to. So you can tap back into that aligned place at any moment in your day. So definitely get that first month free sign up and explore that app. It's super, it's awesome. You're gonna love it. Next, the pause breathwork six week online breathwork course is called the journey. I went through the journey. And it's this beautiful progression of learning about breath work learning how it can be somatic healing. So click on that course if you are ready to dive into it and just kind of explore the six week process. Our next sponsor is element. It is an electro based hydration powder. So I really attached on to this company because this hydration pack it doesn't have a ton of sugar in it like a lot of them that we see out there. And this was actually eliminates mission to begin with is they wanted an option that didn't have a ton of sugar that had a really good blend of electrolytes. And it's really salt base. So it's really sodium based. And actually the owner Rob, when he was on this low carb diet, he was feeling really depleted and not having those carbohydrates. And then he realized he didn't need more sugar. He didn't have to eat more carbohydrates. What he really needed was more sodium. That's what he created and that was his purpose with element. These hydration powder packs are so awesome. So click on the link in the show notes. If you're looking for that little extra electrolyte boost in your day, when you use this link you will get a free bonus sample pack with your purchase when you purchase a 12 count variety pack 30 Count boxes or insider bundles. And this sample pack has all these different yummy flavors watermelon and raspberry and even chocolate so lots of like fun, different flavors to try out. So test it out and enjoy this electrolyte boost in your day. Okay, let's dive back into the episode. Hey you guys and welcome back. Today we have Allison Rothman on the podcast and she is all about embodiment. This is so good. She gives so many good tools as we dive into the transformation and healing and uncovering some of those layers of just stuff, gunk that we need to work through, to arrive back into that place of alignment of living from a place of embodiment. And Allison talks about that today, like, what is that? What does that feel like? Why does the body have so much wisdom, and how we can transform through our bodies? So before we dive into this episode, I want to remind you guys get on that newsletter. I have a really exciting announcement coming up on our 100th episode, which that's next episode, like what? Sign up for that today so that you can get the announcement. And that is just for our newsletter community. So you'll receive that next week. And the link will be in the show notes. But it's Katie Kay graham.com forward slash newsletter. Another thing if this episode is resonating, share it with a friend, share it with a colleague, share it with your mom, I'm here for it right? This podcast is here for helping people come back home to themselves come back into that alignment and there's nothing better than feeling your authentic truth and living in that way and what insights and tools and ways that we can access that from the beautiful wisdom of each guest we have on the podcast. So if you want to share body breaking free with somebody that you love, share it spread the word spread the body breaking free life. Okay, so today's episode with Allison Rothman. She is a body centered holistic empowerment coach, emotional doula guide, mentor and transformational group facilitator with over 25 years of study and experience in somatic healing, arts and therapies, yoga and meditation, authentic embodiment practices and holistic healing channels. Through her extensive studies, practices and experiences she provides clients and students with the ability to tap into their innate inner resources release debilitating life patterns reclaim their body, heart, mind, and soul connection. So to access their true selves, empowering them to live, life, awake, embodied, and in alignment. It's so good. Levine, the embodiment, Levine, awake, wakefulness. solchen. All of that is Allison. Her love for embodiment, her energy. Sit back and take a listen. Alison Rothman, thank you so much for being on body breaking free podcast today.
Alison Rothman 08:09
I'm so excited to be here and to be able to dive in with you, Katie, thank you for having me.
Katie Kay Graham 08:15
Hello, yes, dive in. So, I'm so excited to dive into embodiment, really, and your business is called embody life. And, gosh, what a beautiful word like, what would it feel like for all of us to just embody and really be within the fullness of each moment? And how the hell do we get there? Right, Allison? So we'll talk about it today. But let's start getting to know you. I know you have a very profound story. So let's first hear your path to arriving you to your business right now.
Alison Rothman 09:02
Well, it's long. Um, you know, I I'm almost 50 And I grew up as a dancer and was, you know, very connected to the body but also, at the same time very disconnected, developed a eating disorder. Really, at the age of seven, was when I first really became aware of my weight and just started to become fixated on shifting how I looked, you know, there's a crazy story that I've told a couple of times, but in the third grade, I was in this woman, Dr. Hirsch's class and she, for some reason, decided to weigh everyone and then put all our weights up on a board and I was not heavy, but I was tall and I weighed 73 pounds. And I remember the So clearly and I weighed so much more than everyone else. And in that moment, I was like, oh, whatever I can to shift this to make this better in some way, you know. So, really, that was like a very pivotal moment along my journey. And then fast forward over the years, I, like I said, I was a dancer and I was just, you know, always shoved into like, spandex and leotards and on stage and I was competing and just never really felt good in my body then went away to undergrad, and all hell broke loose, I gained like 45 pounds, my first year of school, I just had no gauge how to take care of myself and got really depressed. And, you know, I kind of like wavered over the years with that ended up, you know, one semester had to drop out because I was going to the gym three times a day and just was so obsessed with food and eating and my body. And you know, I miraculously graduated undergrad with after five years and tried to, you know, live on my own and did the ski bum thing and the in various ski areas, and Colorado, New Mexico and eventually hit rock bottom, I was just in on this pendulum of dysfunction, you know, food addiction, it turned into substance addiction, just dealing with depression, and I just wasn't really functioning right, it was very hard for me to hold down a job. And, you know, feel free to interject to if I you know, because I could just keep going. So I was 23 years old. And I just very clearly remember that day of like, I cannot keep doing this anymore. I was I was just at my end and called my parents who happened to be very, you know, very supportive and I was just like, I need something drastic. So I admitted myself into a treatment center holistic treatment center for eating disorder recovery in Tucson, and that I was already a yoga practitioner and meditation practitioner, I found that in my fifth year of school, but that really brought in all the holistic pieces and absolutely changed my life. I lived there for a couple of months and then did undergrad Ira did outpatient, but they brought in you know, the food the nutrition, the herbs, art therapy, group therapy, movement, therapy, nature, sound, flower essences, energy, work, bodywork, I mean, you name it, we got it all. I mean, I say it now. And it's like, sounds like it's like a spa or something. But like, it was hard, you know, really work. But it really was that pivotal moment in my life where I nothing was the same. And I really shifted my entire relationship with myself, with my body with my healing, and really have built on that sense. After, you know, getting out of the treatment center. Like I said, I did some inpatient and then I went into a holistic bodywork training program for a year. And that was a nother profound step along my journey. I didn't even know if I really wanted to practice bodywork, but I knew I needed a supportive community. I knew leaving Mirasol is what that treatment center was called, I knew that I couldn't survive on my own. And so I did this program and I had no idea how transformational it was going to be. It was all about healer, heal thyself. So it was very much about us doing our personal work so that we could show up for others and hold space for others and touch others. I felt like those two years culminating were really just a just a profound reset for my entire system and really just set me on this trajectory of holistic wellness and healing and creating sustainable healing and has translated obviously into how I work with others. So that's just a little background.
Katie Kay Graham 14:30
I think a lot of us can definitely relate to your story whether it's a very similar like me, almost identical. Journey with that obsession around food and body weight and just feeling so disconnected and so wrapped up in the external getting almost tangled. Hold with the expectations, right? Because How were we supposed to know any different following what others told us to do following social conditioning? And at some point, our soul is ready to wake up. We get to a point where it's this is this all of it, it is right? It's craving something so much deeper, and craving our own alignment, that is not congruent with the social conditioning, right? That is different. And we need some sort of path. It's fascinating to understand that, yeah, of course, we're gonna feel that way. Of course, we're gonna want something that just feels so much more resonant. That feels so much more truthful. But it's so hard, because that is not the way that we're taught how our journey happens, right? If this was just a status quo of Oh, yeah, and you're gonna get to a point in your 20s, or your 30s, where you're gonna realize I need to find my own way. Here's all the services. And here's the path, right? But that's not what we kind of understand to be the journey, we're just kind of expected to stay in the cycle, are expected to be in the patterns, we're expected to be a good girl, follow the rules, you know. And it's beautiful that it's highlighted. So well, in your journey, Allison, of finding that alignment, finding a new way to function. That felt really good for you. My question is, how did you feel like you transitioned, from that time where you were existing? And this, this is the way you got to do it into more of your alignment? What was that? Like? What did it feel like? What what what was the difference here? What did you learn what was maybe a few things that just set you into that path of freedom?
Alison Rothman 17:20
You are just so cute. Oh my god, I just love.
Katie Kay Graham 17:26
I wish the listeners could see me I just get sent out.
Alison Rothman 17:32
I always catch clients like looking following my hands. I'm like, Okay, pull it in here. So, you know, it's interesting, because I always look at it as it's like you're living in like a fog. You know, you're not there's, there's no awareness of anything else around you. You're just in this like, tunnel vision of like, food, body food body, what am I going to eat? Where am I going to eat? What am I going to do? What am I not going to eat? When am I going to exercise? You know, it's just this constant. So for me getting out of treatment, I felt so raw, I didn't even know how to like function. It was fascinating. Like, I can remember walking into the coop. And I literally was like, I don't even know what to do right now. I don't know how to interact with people. And I felt so exposed. Because all of that shit was like, stripped away, you know. And here, I was just the essence of me. But I'm just like young, and I didn't know what I didn't know how to bring this into my life, how to acclimate it, how to integrate it. So I was I mean, it really took me years of diligent practice, have lots of support, you know, and that is part of why I did this bodywork training, because I was like, I need to be able to go somewhere every day, where I can be however I need to be because I was crying all the time. I mean, it was just like layers of gunk were coming off of me. It definitely took years and I always think about that just in like relating to people's healing journeys. Now, anytime you go through a big change, or you're like, you let go of some behavior or relationship or you're kind of like, you know, this, like Virgin and like the world, okay, now, what am I now? And how do I, how can I move through the world in alignment with who I am now, not who I was six months ago, or two years ago or a week ago? You know, I mean, I feel like we're in this rapid change process most people are. So it took years to really, really bring it all the pieces together.
Katie Kay Graham 19:57
It's almost having the courage to say strip away the identity of who you thought you were. So that you can open up to a new sense of being, which is really your own truth and your own alignment. But there is courage there, right? You have to have a willingness to be in this very vulnerable state. I mean, they talk about the healing journey as this path of unbecoming.
Alison Rothman 20:26
Yeah, you're on your unbecoming or unlearning. And I felt like a foreigner in my own life. Like I literally just, it was like, I was learning how to walk again, I was learning how to interact with other humans, I can remember I used to go sit at this coffee shop and knit and drink tea, just to be like, around people, but not necessarily have to interact with them start to like, dip my toes into, okay, like, what does this feel like? Because I was so there was so many layers on me, those years of just like accumulating layers and stories. And you know, it was like, as soon as I was unraveling those, it was like, Okay, how, how can I function now? Like, who am I now? It was a journey.
Katie Kay Graham 21:19
Yeah. And I'm thinking about the listeners. And if there's somebody looking to change, which I feel like most of us are looking to improve, or seekers, we're wanting to find that path of alignment, we're wanting to body breaking free, right, we want to feel that freedom. And in the process of unbecoming, I think there's an awakening to how much we're living in the patterns of our subconscious. It's like, something ridiculous, like 95%. And we stay in this loop of over and over and over and over, because we're so stuck in it, that it does take a kind of energy to really push or shift to break that mold. And it is so raw, like the I'm just reflecting back on my own journey, there's times where I've definitely had to surrender and be in the space of, I don't know, I'm gonna try it this new way. It's gonna feel sticky. Like, I think Pema children talks about that, it's like, it feels like you're in this sticky place. It doesn't feel quite right. But you know, somewhere deep down, that you need to move and you need to shift and this is the growth this is the emerging.
Alison Rothman 22:51
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's, it's not comfortable, to grow and to change, and to do things differently. You know, I work with a lot of women, mostly midlife, women at this juncture, who are breaking old patterns a lot around food, you know, and other little habits that they've picked up along the way. And, you know, I'm just always like, you have to hit the pause, and be okay, feeling uncomfortable. In order to make a different choice, you have to be able to drop your energy down into your body, and move from that place rather than from your head and just grasping for anything that, you know, keeps you like, quote, unquote, like comfortable, right. So there is that sticky point. And that's the point is to really get curious and to lean into and to trust, you know, we have to, there's a lot of faith and courage to actually be willing to sit in the discomfort and you know, to me, that's where the meditation practice comes in. Like meditation is essential to me in life period, but especially in recovery process, from, you know, eating disorder and really any addictions to learn how to sit and breathe with ourselves so that we can feel what it feels like to a feel aligned with our with our bodies, with our hearts, but also allowing things to pop up to come up where normally we'd reach for something, but we just learn how to breathe with that.
Katie Kay Graham 24:31
Something that you said I thought was so juicy is drop into your body. You got to drop into your body. Tell us about that.
Alison Rothman 24:42
I truly believe that we cannot heal from anything from life. We cannot function in life unless we are dropped down into our bodies. What does that mean? It means to be able to gain the capacity to breathe into ourselves to allow our nervous systems to settle, to really breathe deeply into our bellies. I mean, the amount of people who are not breathing is like epidemic start to move from this place of center of our from our core, rather than from our heads. The answers are here, you know, we're not going to find them in our heads, we're not over analyzing, you know, the stories, the messages, the all of it is very, it's our mind and our ego that just loves to just take us on all these journeys. So if we can drop our energy down into our bodies, and really feel ourselves grounded, and you know, I feel like the term and even though it's part of my business, but the term embodiment is very overused these days, you know, but to me, it means to be integrated, to feel connected, in all moments. So it's a goal. I mean, it's not like a one and done like you. Okay, I'm embodied. And now I'm, I'm golden, you know, it's like, how can we like bridge the gap between, you know, when we feel disconnected, and when we feel connected, and to me feeling connected is when we are dropped into our bodies? And we are having that experience of authentic alignment, and authentic embodiment? Does that make sense?
Katie Kay Graham 26:33
Yeah, I want to dive into it a little bit more. So within our body, do you feel like there is wisdom there within the body that is not necessarily in our mind, like in our conscious mind, but there's a consciousness within?
Alison Rothman 26:54
Absolutely. This is where our truth is, this is this is story up here. This is ego, this is story. Yes, we need our brains to operate as humans, but our bodies hold all the answers, they hold all the wisdom, we simply we cannot think our way through our healing journey. We just can't, we have to tune in to our bodies and move from that place. And to me, you know, it's like, yes, through movement, but it's also stillness, and getting quiet with ourselves. Because there from there the answers can emerge from deep within our bodies.
Katie Kay Graham 27:37
So why do you think the wisdom is in the body?
Alison Rothman 27:43
You know, I don't have a definitive answer, I feel that for whatever reason, as humans, we are meant to live our lives from that embodied place. And that, you know, our bodies store everything, every memory, every trauma, drama, everything, it the embed in our cells and our tissues and our organs. And, you know, it becomes this journey of uncovering through various practices and means of getting these, these, this energy moving so that we can obtain the answers that that lie within. I believe that we all have that wisdom within us that sometimes we just need some guidance to help usher us through a portal that we're going through or to help us to learn how to access our bodies. And there's a trust piece here, you know, I mean, for many of us, which I'm guessing you can relate to those of us who have been, you know, I've had some sort of like war with our bodies, it's, it's this journey of learning how to trust again, to trust our body's wisdom, you know, to trust our hunger to trust, you know, the cries for rest or movement, or no, this is a definite no with a relationship or a situation and you know, but if we can learn and I keep saying, learn, because I feel like it's a lifelong journey of learning how to do this, to start to be able to track the sensations in our bodies, to start to learn how to hit the pause and drop our energy down before we respond before we react before we engage in some behavior or conversation. So I feel like I'm on a tangent. So now.
Katie Kay Graham 29:50
It's a really profound conversation and, and the reason I say it's a really profound conversation is because I've talked to many guests, it's probably in the 70s right now. And through this journey of listening to people's stories and listening to their insights and the tools that they recommend, I've learned this aspect of listening to the body and dropping into the body, and maybe not well known, talked about yet. But there's simplicity there. That's so beautiful. There's so much beauty, there's so much magnetism, there's so much energy, and we get a shift through so much, I call it taking out the garbage taking out the trash like, that we're holding on to, like you said, in ourselves and our nervous system. And I've done the breath work, I've gone through breathwork facilitator program, I've tapped into that somatic healing, even though I know like, I feel the shifts, and I feel the dropping in and the amount of transformation has just blown me away. And that's why, you know, I'm facilitating now. But I, my mind wants to ask, you know, why, like, what, where, why is the body? So, you know, why does it hold so much wisdom? And why are why is there so much transformation available there? And, and it might be the mind just wanting to analyze and figure it out and be in the ego and all the things back again, right. But the podcast is a great opportunity to really dig in a little bit deeper into transformation. And like, why is the body such this like capacity to move through, like you said, energy moving, and like energy flushing out, moving through those layers, like we have those external layers, right, like food body, then we have these, like, deep layers of like, fears of like, I feel unworthiness, I feel so much doubt, I feel not good enough. Every day. It's like deep stuff where you're like, not really realizing it. But then you're like, Whoa, I mean, like, move through the energy body. And you get access to those deeper layers. And in that, there's simplicity, because you connect back into that source, energy, you connect back into that soul alignment, it's there, like that within the body. And in that place, it's like, it gets simpler and simpler and simpler. There was a lot that I just pulled into that conversation. Um, anything that I said that you want to dig into a little bit deeper? Well, you
Alison Rothman 33:00
know, I just want to acknowledge that the the mind body connection, you know, has been studied for ever, you know, and it's so real. So, you know, we can work on such deep levels, if we can grasp this. And it's very foreign, for a lot of people, very foreign for people. And, you know, again, I'm in the midlife range. So there's a lot of, you know, I had a conversation with my current or the other night where I was, like, floored that he didn't understand this, you know, what he's asking me? What does that mean to drop in your body? And I'm like, hey, you know, like, why you don't know this. I mean, he'd like kill me if he knew I was like, saying, podcast. But regardless, it just was a wake up to me in recognizing this is my native language. This is how I talk all the time. This is how I move through the world. But there are a lot of people that they they don't understand. They don't understand intellectually, and they also don't know how to feel what that feels like to be bumped into their bodies. So I just want to name that that like, yes, it's, you know, and like I said, the term and body is like, so overused, but a lot of people really just don't get it. And to me why this is the way it is, I have no idea. But what I know is that it's true. And it's real. And it's a learned way of living and being an existing and relating and all of it when we are able to relate from a place of our embodied selves when we are dropped into our body and we are moving through the world from that place. We're moving through the world from a place of truth. From a place of authenticity, we can actually really connect because our minds are out of the way A and it's not easy, that authentic
Katie Kay Graham 35:02
that authenticity, feeling that in the body, it's like you can't really explain it in words necessarily. I mean we do and we can but feeling that authentic alignment especially just really dropped in their body, it's there's nothing yummier than that there's nothing more powerful than that feeling. So within your work, Allison the embodied life embody life. This tell us some of those tools that you recommend to your clients to really help them arrive into that authenticity and in dropping into the body.
Alison Rothman 35:48
embody life was really birthed from I was a single mom for 11 years. Very high need child and was just like, really in survival mode for a long time. And I really just learned I had navigated house fire, I had a near death experience. I mean, like, so much crazy stuff. On top of already being, you know, really feeling like I was running on fumes, and this is my mission is to learn how to embody my life, because this is it, like, I am not going on, you know, a bit, not going to Mexico on retreat anytime soon. I'm, I'm in the nitty gritty of parenting, working, et cetera. So, you know, that's really the premise of how I work with people, how can you access yourself in the storms of life, in the middle of real relief, shit, you know, like, I don't know, straight, you know, just life stressors. I mean, we just came out of three years of craziness. So all the tools that I offer are very applicable, and user friendly. For everyday life. Like, you know, like I mentioned before, meditation is just an absolute essential, and I still have clients who have worked with me for years, who they're, they're iffy with, if they're practicing or not, it's not very consistent. But you know, I always talk about when my son was about three, he's 14 now. And, um, he like, did not sleep, I was like, getting zero sleep, I was barely functioning. And I just decided, I was like, I have to start getting up early and sitting quietly, or I haven't just like, not going to survive this. And so I did. And I started getting up at five. And it has stuck. And it has been, it's non negotiable. So to me, I don't care. I mean, I do care if you meditate or not, but I really like, just spend time with yourself first thing in the morning, get up before others to not scroll on your phone, you know, not read the news, Dear God, don't read the news. But to be quiet with yourself, and to breathe with yourself and to access your body. Right. And then, you know, I'm a big fan of writing. So and this is all, you know, these are all tools to get the energy moving, for us to access ourselves on a deeper level. So I don't know if you know, morning pages. Yes. So I sometimes do morning pages, sometimes I just write but I really encourage people to sit and then to turn to their writing the breath, obviously, you know, and for a lot of people just sitting and breathing is not accessible. So I you know, often will say, once a day, I want you to get on the floor. And you know, plant your feet and your knees. That was a good breath, I decided and really let your breath drop, let your body weight you know, meet the earth, like, feel that heaviness and let your your breath circulate. And so it's practice because then we can translate it into life. Right. So, you know, I work also with a lot of herbs and food movement practices. And really it's about uncovering these layers. And I'm like on this layers kick right now because I feel like we heal in layers, but it's not like this like, methodical like Okay, I hope check that now I'm ready to go to the next slide. It's just this you know, sick clickable. Yeah, you work one layer of healing, you release it in some way, you know, feeling the emotions, getting it out of the body, and then another layer appears, and then another. And sometimes you have to go back and hit that other one again, you know, so I'm just trying to give people tools to use in midst of their lives, you know, so that they can start to learn how to become emotionally attuned to what is happening in them, so that they can break out of the cycles of just grasping for anything, or staying busy to avoid feeling so that they can really tune into themselves and their bodies, in midst of the swirls of life.
Katie Kay Graham 40:45
Oh, my gosh, it's so if we all did those tools, of every day, I swear 95% of all of our issues would be healed. I mean, I could be wrong. But there is a block, like let's acknowledge, again, we're living in these patterns. We're living in this subconscious, hula hoop that will not end and it's not going to end unless you disrupt your patterns. It is a choice. And it blows my mind. And I think it just needs to be sad that what you're looking for and what you're craving, what you've wanted all along, is to come back home to yourself. And we're looking externally, over and over and over, we're wasting all of that beauty, disrupt the pattern, drop into the body, do the meditation, you're really craving this anyway. So you're gonna start moving through that conditioning, and you just come back home, you come back home, you come back home, just like Allison said, it's like, that nervous system starts to settle, you start to feel safety, like how they're, I would guess many of us do not feel that sense of safety on a daily basis, anxiety, the busyness of the day traffic moving from one thing to that like that safety, building that real resilience within the body that is so nurturing. It's so foundational. Plus, like, you get an immunity boost, you get mental clarity, you've got all these like positive side effects. But that safety allows you the foundation to start coming back home to yourself, you start to feel that. And yes, I totally agree. Allison, like the layers, and I just want to know that we can bypass all those layers and hit that soul level, because it's there, that place that you are love, right? All that you are is love. And you come back into that energy. It's like, there's wholeness. It feels so good to feel whole. It feels so good to be an energy. And I feel like when I do my clients, I'd say my job as a coach is to plug you into that Wi Fi is to plug you into that source energy can feel that right? It's like come back home come back home. There's a lot that energy that I just threw out there and in the universe. Oh, man, it's so those tools. They seem so basic. And yes, we talk about them. It's like meditation, okay. dropping into the body, laying on your floor, feeling the way of your body feeling Mother Earth holding you. You know, I had a mentor once asked me because I was trying to analyze everything I was in my head. I was like, So what do you do in the morning? Like meditate breath work, then like what's your process? Blah, blah, blah. Like there has to be a secret code. And then, and then she looked at me and she said, What's stopping you from being in your body? All day? Mm hmm. And that was what she responded to me. I said, Oh, what's the what is stopping you from being in your body and every moment every day? And it hit me so hard, and I started sinking into my body more and more. It's uncomfortable. Didn't you know I feel like I get to face those. I get to face those fears. Feel that unworthiness move that energy just like Allison saying, move that energy. I mean, and move that energy sinking in, move that energy, alignment, authenticity, truth and attaching from other people and other people's opinions. Freedom. There's right. Okay. Tell me about that. Have you seen my hands? Like, what is that freedom?
Alison Rothman 45:30
You know, it's interesting, I want I want to loop back to something you said earlier. But loop, loop and loop. I'm gonna loop because it's relevant. But you mentioned something about and I literally just put this out about that our healing is a choice that heal when we choose to heal. As simple as that sounds. It's true. Because, you know, and I love that your mentor asked you, what's keeping you from your body? You know, I, I'm kind of in a, like, a no bullshit phase of my life. I don't know, it's like, my age, or like, I don't know, but you know, with clients, I mean, I'm calling people out, like, left and right. And I'm just because I, I'm watched people go in the, in that loop of, you know, I just can't do it. I'm this, like, you can, you are choosing not to. It's not easy, and it's not comfortable. But yes, there are definitely moments of feeling that freedom, feeling that ease of being feeling comfortable in your own skin, like your skin is just breathing on its own, you're in that like, fluid way of like dancing through your life, you know, and it takes time, it takes work, it takes effort, you know, but I want to just reiterate the power of choice, nobody can do our work for us. Nobody, nobody can tell us, you do this, and then you're gonna that's gonna happen. This is about tuning in and trying and finding your own little magic formula, you know, and what is going to work for you. But to remember that, like, we really, truly have choice every single day. And that does not mean that I am like, perfect by any means. Like, sometimes I forget, and I yell at my kid, and you know, my partner and I are just like not getting along. And you know, it just is it's part of being human. But to remember that we can access that, that point of truth and resilience and strength, and truly transform ourselves from the inside out. But it's not a one and done. It's not like you do it. And then that's it. So yeah,
Katie Kay Graham 48:16
no, that's workable, so helpful. Yeah, it's like holding space for our humaneness. We're always gonna be human, we're always gonna feel, feel some darkness, feel some sadness, feel the heaviness, right, and making space for the healing journey. And I've also found that our timeline and our head for the healing journey, like what we think it should be, our body has its own timeline, its own processing, and there's a trust, there's a surrender into that. That's healing in itself. We don't have to be in control. Thank God, we don't have to be in control. Yeah,
Alison Rothman 48:58
yep. Yeah, you know, I love the phrase, like, you have to feel it to heal it. Because I really, really believe that, you know, I feel like we, we do need to move through the stop in order to get to the other side. It doesn't mean we dwell in it, it doesn't mean we drown in it, you know, and that's, you know, what I see time and time again, again, like, you know, the women who are coming in or, you know, in midlife, so they're very imprinted up to this point, you know, and there's the searching for something more, you know, and who they really are. But there's so much like so many layers that have come with them and so many imprints from life, you know, from being human, but, you know, how can we, you know, let that be what it is, but continuously turn in the other direction, like it's not like it's just going to disappear. But if we don't have to give this part of ourselves that attention then we can continuously through, you know, affirmations, mantras, breath, or whatever your your go to is, we can continuously turn towards a different way, a new path we can choose. I mean, you know about neuroplasticity, I assume. And so, you know, neuroplasticity is real, you know, and we can bring that into our entire lives, we can literally change our neural pathways, like, not taking too long, you know, like, we can we work with our own minds, we change the neural pathways in our brains, but then we can translate it into the neural pathways of our relationships, you know, the neural pathways of our life path, just by working with our minds and dropping ourselves down into our bodies. I know it sounds like so simple, but I know it is more complex than that. But yeah,
Katie Kay Graham 51:02
I love how you said, you can just let it be. I'm really I want to highlight that point of, we don't have to just always be in the healing in the light. And maybe darkness isn't the right word here, because healing doesn't have to be just darkness. But we don't have to be in that continual dark place. I learned that through years of moving through and just feeling like, Well, I'm just like, I'm moving through these layers and healing. I was caught in it, though. And I think that's a really, really important piece, because I don't think this is talked about enough that you can let the light in as you're moving through. And you can let it be like, let it be. And shift when you need to write or when you want to when you want to. It is a continual process. I don't think healing ever stops. So it's like, liberate. Let's look at the present moment and see how living life to the fullest. How can you heal, but also be in a place of just enjoying it, like enjoying where you're at living in the truth of who you are? Embracing the wholeness of, yeah, I've got some parts here that are wounded, and I'm working through and then I've also got some parts here that are just like Bas and confident joy. And then there's a wholeness of being in each moment and bracing everything. So I'm so glad he made that point. Because that's really Sunday night, I think is important to bring into this conversation. When I wake up in the morning, I every single morning, have to reprogram I have to come back into alignment. I have like little you know, things that I do a little routine that I do affirmations, and meditation and breath work. By the end of those things, I am back home to myself, right? It doesn't mean I have some I still have wounded parts that I'm healing and working through. But it's an everyday reprogramming. So I can come back into home and I'm like, I'm here. I'm in alignment, I feel that lightness, I feel that source energy moving through me I feel the energy I want to feel I purposely move into that space because I'm wanting to live my life in a conscious way. Right. So it's important, it's important to hold space for all of it. Yeah,
Alison Rothman 53:48
I love that. You, you know just kind of elaborated on that because Okay, so I'm a Scorpio Scorpios like to like dig deep. And we're very intense and sure and everything and you know, but I have learned and when I'm really trying to, you know, emanate is also like we can be doing our work always because like it's that I mean, it never adds but like find the joy and the pleasure and the fun and the levity because that is going to accelerate your process, you know, 100% If we're constantly moving, and I did I mean for years I was like churning and did and I got a process and it just, you know, you only get so far, but to remember to, as you said, let the light in. Because that brings it just it brings more wholeness into your journey and to me, accelerates everything.
Katie Kay Graham 54:57
Yeah, accelerates everything. Yeah,
Alison Rothman 55:01
and I love and, you know, we started to talk about different tools, and I, you know, neglected to mention the affirmations. And, you know, just to give your listeners just a couple other little pieces of, you know how to work in these. And it doesn't have to be work, you know, it's mirror work, you know, standing in the mirror, when everybody goes to the bathroom, you're standing there, after you wash your hands, you make eye contact with yourself, you say something so loving and kind and uplifting to yourself, looking yourself in the eyes, when you're walking, dropping your energy down, dropping your center of gravity, keeping your knees bent a little bit and moving slowly. So I just wanted to like, throw that in, there's just endless ways of bringing these, these tools and these avenues into our everyday lives.
Katie Kay Graham 55:58
Oh, you're so generous, Allison, to give us all of these tools. Really, I'm excited to ask you about your coaching, because you've already given us so much. Tell us about your offerings, and what is it that you help through your coaching, I think you do some retreats, and working with women specifically. So tell us a little bit more about your work?
Alison Rothman 56:23
Sure. So I I have been in this field for a very long time back 25 years, and it's evolved, you know, I started out in the realm of dance movement therapy, and have done, you know, just a lot of movement based rites of passage work, bringing in movement and creativity into, you know, into the healing journey. So, you know, in my one on one work, it's, it's interesting, because some, you know, some clients or zoom, I have a lot of clients who do not live locally. And it's very hard to explain exactly why it's funny, you're asking this, right, I'm in the process of writing a book about this methodology, because it's been very challenging for me to articulate it into words, but it's unique in that everybody's different. So I feel like I've got so many tools in my toolbox to draw from. And for me, it's about learning how to be present with whoever I'm working with. And to get them to start to move in a different way, both literally and figuratively, you know, start to approach themselves from different ways, so that they can start opening up in new ways, they're crevices of their lives start to shine out, and they can gain new awareness, so that they can learn how to work within whatever it is that's bubbling up for them, you know, and we're very multifaceted humans, and sometimes it's dense, sometimes it takes a long time, but I always say, I'm like, This is not a quick fix. This is not a tear the band aid off and everything's great. You know, I mean, the clients who have the most success working with me, it's like, at least a year, if not a couple of years, you know, consistent. And there's a lot that has to happen outside of our sessions, you know, so I feel like, you know, I have a, my, my gift really is in. I do run women's groups. I have a virtual group that is opening to new members in the fall. And there's some women who have been in that for three years, and it's been an absolute lifeline. So I do that, and I run, I run retreats. They mostly have been in Colorado and in the process of starting to venture out but they are, they're not like just wellness retreats, and they're not yoga retreats. They are a combination of very unwind. I trained as a yoga teacher forever ago, but I don't really call myself back because I don't really do any like the poses. It's a very unwinding fluid yoga, meditation writing, ritual and ceremony, women's circles dance. And this particular one that I do in July is that some hot springs here and in Colorado, so it was hot springs soaking and organic food. I bring a chef with me the food pieces super important. So That's just kind of a little synopsis of what I'm up to,
Katie Kay Graham 1:00:06
you know, when you're saying, Oh, I just, I can't quite articulate it yet, that is actually really inviting for me, because it allows me to see there's not a bullet like a script, right? It's, it's the coaches that invite in a certain energy, like, you can just feel kind of that resonance within them. And words in themselves are just limiting. They don't necessarily. They're just limiting those like, especially when we're talking about body stuff and Stillmatic stuff, a lot of the time, there's not words that actually describe the experiences within the body, which is interesting in itself, too. But it does allow space to see the coach really invested in the uniqueness of the client. So I want to point that out that I actually really like that in perfectionism re about your you're embodiment of yourself, allowing it to be unique and what the client needs. And like you said, you have the toolbox, right of bringing them back in an opening. I love that word that you said, opening them up. Yeah. And there's like all the offerings, a group. Yeah, like coming into a group energy, a collective energy. I mean, one on one, coaching is a gem, right? It's an exchange of energy, and you're exchanging of coming back into alignment within yourself, you're coming back home to yourself, and it's those people that are ready for that, and it's beautiful. That you offer.
Alison Rothman 1:01:56
Oh, thank you. And that's so sweet of you. i Yes. I mean, it's interesting, because I even struggle with the word coach, like because I'm like, Yeah, I actually had a client call me an emotional doula. And I was like, Ooh, I like that, you know. And she's, she's a zoom client, she lives in Oklahoma, and she, we went through this huge emotional release, and I was able to guide her through it and I was like, you know, so it's like, piecing all these things together. It's like, Coach Yes, that's my training. Also therapy that's also part of my training but you know, guide I'm like, teacher, I don't know I don't know what you know, whatever you want to call me but, um, but I know you know, I know the results that people will have if they take the leap if they choose to, you know, really show up for this work and be willing to get comfortable being uncomfortable and trying some new things.
Katie Kay Graham 1:03:08
Thank you for sharing all of that and showing up in this way. Before I let you leave Allison. I love to ask all of the guests what is their daily wellness routine?
Alison Rothman 1:03:27
Well as if I haven't said it enough, I meditate I do meditate in the mornings I get up before my household. I strive to be a solid hour before anybody else and I sit and I I burn something either palo santo or sage and just cleanse and draw card light a candle and I'm actually an open AI meditator that is a kind of something unique that I do and then I moved to writing and I tried to sit and you know if I don't have time to do full morning pages, I'll sit and write a you know, free write just gratitude just to get myself you know centered. And then I do I'm a coffee drinker. I drink coffee I loaded up with all sorts of good stuff but and then you know depends on the day sometimes I have time to to move sometimes I have to go right to work but movement is always a part of my day somewhere in there if it's in the morning or midday or and then I'm usually a mom in the late afternoons and just try to connect with my son and you know cooking is a big important piece of my wellness, just making sure that I'm eating well, throughout my days and staying grounded. I have I also have an evening ritual and routine and I you know, I say to clients a lot, it's good to book, you know, bookend your day, you know, no matter what goes on in the middle of the day if you fell off the wagon or whatever's happening, but I put on the binaural beats, and I'm certain Do you know the binaural beats?
Katie Kay Graham 1:05:30
Yeah, and then just find them on Spotify or
Alison Rothman 1:05:34
on YouTube, YouTube is like gazillions and some of the tones I'm not super resonant with but others it just drops me down. So I will either take a bath Usually I take a bath and then I'll do some restorative yoga, I'd scratch and just you know, really just pull it in. Before I drift to sleep like candles, I like to dim my house you know, that sort of thing. So and I I drink a ton of herbal teas throughout the day. And I'm really I don't know if you know which garden tinctures they're actually a local this brand actually had a link on my website, too. I think there's a little discount on there there's alright, you know, I just have a bunch of different blends that I did mess up a little little spritz of so you know, that's just the basic
Katie Kay Graham 1:06:37
that what's your favorite tea?
Alison Rothman 1:06:40
I am pretty obsessed right now with Tulsi. Tulsi Ashwagandha is just like my go to right now. And but I you know, I always tell I think it is such a accessible nerve tonic. And so I'm always telling clients to drink it rather than you know, some drink caffeine throughout the day. I'm like, try Tulsi. Just let your system build. I also go to there's a local herb shop here called Rebecca's make a little shout out for Rebecca. She's been a business woman owned for like 17 years. She's fabulous. But she I go and I buy big, you know, loose leaf, herbal teas in bulk and steep overnight. So um, you know that also is a ritual for me I like to I like doing like the slow cooking kind of thing you know, the bone broths and the crock pot and herbal tea steeping overnight is just so so nourishing. Hmm,
Katie Kay Graham 1:07:47
do you have a go to flavor that you like to drink? Normally?
Alison Rothman 1:07:56
No, she has a blend called the nourishing tonic blend that I usually I use that and then I add some stuff but nettles are great for women. There's like Oatstraw super good like nervine lady's mantle wood Bettany. I mean, there's so many but but herbs are fascinating to me. And I feel so much better when I am drinking the teas regularly. So highly recommend overnight Steve, I'll do it in like a French press. And I have actually been sleeping overnight and drinking before my coffee lately, because we'll try to be a little bit better about that. And it makes such a tremendous difference. So and I know you can actually order her stuff online, so
Katie Kay Graham 1:08:50
okay, I'll get the link to and I'll put that in the show notes. I I'm a coffee drinker. But I don't know for some reason why it really were explaining I was like, oh, that sounds really good. And and in the morning like having I always walk down to my kitchen and flip on my hot water. And that's kind of like my signal almost like I just immediately after that, go and meditate and I don't know if you've read atomic habits, but he talks about having a small habit that is linked to another habit. And so if there's like a more enjoyable like turning on your hot water for coffee or or sipping your tea or something, it's like you attach a really enjoyable habit to something new. That is like meditating where you're not as like stoked on. And so that's been a good process for me like I'm not I'm not really really thinking about meditating. I just like automatically go do it. Because I'm like, I want my coffee Yes, I'm fine.
Alison Rothman 1:10:00
So I know where we're hanging out I'm hanging on coffee right now but i i love it and I you know it's a ritual you know i i You know turn it eat from start to finish making the the water he didn't have the water brining the beans like a good organic beans and put this delicious cacao mushroom powder in it, you know, I live short. Right?
Katie Kay Graham 1:10:31
Oh, good. Thank you so much, Alison, for just bringing your lovely energy on a podcast today. And I'll put all of your links to your website, to the coaching to your Instagram. So people can just click and go follow you. Is there one platform that you want would prefer the listeners like the best one to kind of direct them into?
Alison Rothman 1:10:59
Well, I'm the only real social media I do is Instagram and I'm moderately active. But I have I put out a weekly newsletter that is full of really, really awesome content inspiration. And so if you go on my website, there's a pop up. And when you sign up, you get this download with my go to is my holistic wellness go to some suggestions. And you also get a free 11 day meditation jumpstart program. So you know that's some incentive you get a freebie you can always unsubscribe, if it's too much. I send something out every Thursday. And I really really put a lot of heart into this. It feels like such a deep service to me. I struggled for a lot of years and I don't if I can alleviate the suffering of a fellow human. I genuinely want to so it's it's like, like, you know, deepest honor. So that's a great way to connect.
Katie Kay Graham 1:12:06
Huh, amazing. Thank you so much. Such a pleasure having you.
Alison Rothman 1:12:16
to connect. Thank you.
Katie Kay Graham 1:12:19
Good, good. All right, listeners. Thank you so much for your time listening. I will see you all next episode. If you have made it to the end of this episode and you want more, more wellness tools, practices and insights from this episode and others, make sure to sign up for email lists. This is where we connect and support our body breaking free community. So if you're ready for the next step, the link to sign up will be in the show notes at KatieKaygraham.com/newsletter
