Episode 108: Why You Need to Train Your Mind and Body for Your Lifestyle | Leah Drew | Founder of Mind Body with Leah
Leah Drew is the founder of Mind Body with Leah, a pain management specialist, massage therapist, personal trainer, and ANF Therapist who helps people create lasting lifestyle solutions to feel their best. After overcoming her own health challenges, including a pancreatic tumor, Leah became passionate about teaching others how to listen to their bodies, manage stress, and prioritize self-care before burnout hits. She shares why most people aren’t breathing properly, how daily habits shape long-term wellness, and the role mindfulness plays in preventing injury and illness. From movement and nutrition to mindset and boundaries, Leah offers practical tools to help you train for life not just the gym. This conversation is for anyone ready to take ownership of their health and live in a way that supports their body, mind, and goals.
“Your morning routine is a game changer. The way you start your day is everything.”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters
00:00 Meet Leah Drew, Founder of Mind Body with Leah
04:15 From Health Challenges to Holistic Healing
07:50 Why Training for Life Matters More Than Training for Looks
10:30 The Mind-Body Connection in Pain Management
14:20 How Stress Shows Up in the Body
18:00 Breathing Techniques to Improve Wellness
21:10 Building Mindfulness Into Daily Routines
24:45 Movement and Mobility for Longevity
28:20 The Role of Nutrition in Healing and Energy
31:50 Lessons from Going Furniture-Free
35:15 Creating Boundaries to Protect Your Health
39:00 Why Self-Care Is a Daily Choice
42:15 Women Who Inspire Leah’s Work
46:00 Morning Routines That Change Everything
49:40 Resources for Mind-Body Wellness
53:20 How to Connect with Leah Drew
I take what I like to call a mind body emotion approach to healing because there's, it's not just the stress that you need to support yourself with, right? We, I like to say, have to train for life, and everybody's life looks a little bit differently.
That's Leah Drew, and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Hey guys, I'm your host, Kara Duffy. This episode I sit down with Leah Drew of mindbody. Leah, she's a pain management specialist, a massage therapist, a personal trainer, and maybe most importantly, an educator helping people create lasting lifelong solutions to feel their best. We dive into how stress shows up in so many ways.
How most of us aren't even breathing properly and why choosing to love ourselves and feel well is the most important decision we can make every day. If you're ready to love yourself and your business at a whole new level, I invite you to come and join myself and Leah in the Powerful Ladies Thrive membership.
Thrive is built for you to find the community, the coach, and the tools to create your dream life and your dream business without the overwhelm, the stress, and really just having peace of mind that you're doing it right and you have a community come to with all of your questions, visit the powerful days.com to join today.
Well, thank you so much for being on The Powerful Ladies podcast. Yes, I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Of course. Let's begin. Please tell everybody who you are and what you're up to.
Yeah, so my name is Leah Drew. I'm a pain management specialist and a massage therapist and a personal trainer.
And on top of that I am known as an A and F therapist and practitioner. And that is a really incredible wearable frequency therapy that I get to integrate into my practice to help my clients reduce their chronic pain, reduce their inflammation extremely fast, and help their bodies heal a lot better.
And so that's kind of the business that I'm in, is helping educate people to take control of their own bodies and help themselves heal a lot better. Because I am a, you know, I really believe that our current community and you know, Western medicine community. It really disempowers us as humans and doesn't help us in supporting our own education on self-healing.
And so that's kind of my mission in life is to help people take better control over their bodies and over their abilities to heal.
How did you get into this practice and this whole field?
Oh, it's definitely been a journey, um, my own, my own personal healing journey and I think a lot of healers and practitioners will tell you that.
And I myself am definitely skeptical of those that haven't gone through their own journey, but, you know, kind of sit here and are like, oh, I'm here to help you heal. Because it takes a lot to understand what goes into healing. And unless you've really experienced it yourself and been through. The system and been down the domino effect.
It's really challenging to understand fully and and embody what that takes. And so for me, when I was 16 years old, I found out that I had a pancreatic tumor the size of an orange. And the only reason why I found out was because no one had found it. And I had been complaining as a little girl for a really long time that there was something wrong and it started bleeding in my stomach, which is not good.
Mm-hmm. And my doctors were kind of like, oh wow, I can't believe we didn't find this. And I kind of took a step back and, and was like, you know, now in my adult years I realized that was me as a child just not being heard and not being seen. Mm-hmm. Which also adds a whole layer into the trauma and to the healing.
But as I started to get older, I wasn't informed at any point in time. What was going to have to go into my rehab process. And that's not just physical rehab, which I actually was not prescribed any physical therapy after my abdominal abdominal surgery.
Mm-hmm.
And to give you perspective, they cut my entire abdomen open.
So I have a six inch scar down the middle of my stomach. And that on top of things like, you know, it, it goes along with women that have C-sections, like when you get sliced and when you get cut into via surgery, you need some form of rehabilitation and support. And I didn't have any of that, but there's a lot more that goes into that than just the physical healing.
There's the mental healing, there's the emotional healing, there's the spiritual healing, and then there's the bioenergetic healing, which is mm-hmm. Healing the energies of the system. And so over time I developed really severe anxiety and depression. And I developed really severe lower back pain, really severe belly pain and like organ pain, and I was so confused.
I just didn't understand why all of this was happening because nobody had explained it to me. Mm-hmm. As I started becoming more educated going through pre-med school, I started to understand the deep connections of that mind body and started doing Simone's, some of my own self-healing. Definitely made some mistakes along the way, which is, you know how you learn it's mm-hmm.
It's by making mistakes and. And after herniating two discs in my lumbar spine and, and having debilitating anxiety and depression and just being fed up with the pain, I decided I was really, really going to completely take over my healing process. And that's when my journey really started, was when I hit ground zero and I thought I was healthy and I looked in the mirror and I just was the complete opposite.
Mm-hmm. And so it, it was my own journey and my own experiences that brought me to where I am today, which helps me understand and helps me educate my clients on all of the things that have to be incorporated into their healing process. Because like I say to my clients, it's not the one thing that's going to heal your pain, that's gonna heal your inflammation, and it's gonna heal your chronic symptoms.
It's the cultivation of all of the things at the same time.
Yeah. Um, I'm really fascinated by food and, and health and wellness in our country right now, and how it's changing so rapidly and it's one of those areas where people feel really overwhelmed about what is the right thing to do. But I think it all starts with the idea that most people are experiencing something that they don't need to and they don't even know it.
So let's start there. Like what, for people who are listening or watching, what is something that they might be experiencing today that they probably don't need to actually be experiencing and there would be a solution to?
Well, I definitely think that that starts at stress. I think that our entire world is just so strung out on stress and.
It's something that we're not brought up and educated on how to navigate through. Mm-hmm. And how to support. And you know, it's really important, especially when we're working with stress, because stress impacts everything else. And the best way that I can put this in perspective is people have an understanding of, oh, if you take a walk through the woods and all of a sudden you come across the bear and the bear starts chasing you, oh shit, you're stressed out.
Right? Yeah. Like that's one of those oh shit moments where you're like, okay, like, I don't want that in my life. But people don't understand that. That has the same effect in your body as the general daily stress that you have and that you experience from school, from work, from kids, from all of the things you know.
Mm-hmm. Around you driving. Right. All of these stresses literally have the same effect in our body, hormonally, chemically, um, on a cellular level as being chased by that bear. Mm-hmm. And so if we aren't supporting ourselves in downregulating, that stress response, it makes a massive impact on our body because when we're stressed, our organ function turns down, our capability to, uh, cycle our blood in, our lymph is impacted, our detox pathways are impacted.
Mm-hmm. And all of a sudden, you know, if you're sitting in that stress response for an extended period of time. You are gonna develop chronic symptoms. That doesn't happen overnight. That usually happens five, usually 10 plus years down the line is when people start to feel those symptoms. But having tools to navigate that stress right now is going to help in preventing you from experiencing, you know, further symptoms, health-wise, down the road.
So I would say stress is probably that number one thing that I think mm-hmm. Every person on this earth experiences that they can always use and work on integrating better tools to help themselves support that.
And stress shows up in lots of ways, right? Because there's the, there's mental stress, there's the anxiety that we feel, but then there's also just the stress that we put on our body and organs and other things, right?
So how, how do those other stresses show up that aren't, um, I guess, um, mental towards your environment? Do you mean like exercise and things like that? Well, I guess like when I think about all inflammation kind of comes from stress of some kind, right? Mm-hmm. So if there's a food that your body doesn't really, like, if you keep eating it, it's stressing out your body or your organ Yeah.
Or whatever it's touching. Um, if you are not having a recovery plan with the fitness routine or not, if it's not even a recovery plan, if you're sitting all day long, that's also a stress on your body. So I don't think we acknowledge as a society how many things are stressing on our whole like bodily sy, um, system.
The same way that when we think about stress, we think about, oh, it's mental. I'm exhausted, I'm tired. It's work. That's like one piece of the entire stress puzzle.
Absolutely. And this is why I take what I like to call a mind body emotion approach to healing because there's, it's not just the stress that you need to support yourself with, right?
We, I like to say, have to train for life and everybody's life looks a little bit differently. Some people sit all day for work, other people walk all day for work, right? Mm-hmm. So there's a big difference in regards to how you need to support your physical body, because what you're eating is gonna be important.
Eating to reduce inflammation, and everybody's gonna have different food sensitivities. Everybody's going to respond a little bit differently to the food that they're putting in their body. And that's really where that mindful piece comes in. Mindful living in a lot of different ways. You know, listening to your body is so, so, so important.
When you eat this, how do you feel when you do this exercise, um, or have this experience in your life? How do you feel after, um, even with sexual partners? When you're engaging with sexual partners? How do you feel after the fact? How does your energy carry over? Because if you're exhausted, if you're tired, if you know that's impacting you for the rest of the day or into the next day, then that's gonna have a negative impact on your overall physiological, um, experience and your biochemistry in the body.
And so, yeah, there's so many things that go into how we can support ourselves with all the different stressors in life, and that's really why I felt when I was going through my education, I started as a, as a personal trainer, and I knew I wanted to be able to help people and prescribe movement after I worked in physical therapy offices as like the assistant and the aide for my whole, you know, childhood from 16 on.
That was my. Technically second job. Um, and I really understood the importance of movement, but I understood it as I started to get older in a sense that it was very different from the general public. I'm really big into functional movement and understanding how our body works as a whole, because you can exercise a muscle, but if you're not exercising the muscle into a movement pattern, you're not integrating it into a whole system.
It's like just doing this one little piece, but not focusing on the whole piece. Mm-hmm. That's really where talking about core strength and breath work comes in. And again, these are both ways to downregulate some of those stressors in your life. Because if you're sitting all the time, or if you're standing all the time and, and you have a nice arch back and
mm-hmm.
Um, and we have a nice, you know, lordotic curve as we like to say. And for those that don't know what that is, imagine a woman in a pair of heels where they're sticking their butt out and sticking their chest out and they have this really big curve in the back of their spine and their lower spine.
That's called a lordotic curve. And when we sit a lot and we sit in this, um, poor posture that has a big impact on our spine and it creates compressional forces on our spine and distributes. Force in a way that is challenging to the system and create stress. And so optimizing your core strength and breath work is a big part of that.
Helps with downregulating the pain, helps with stabilizing the spine. And then things like the breath work are really helpful not just for, for also building strength and stabilizing the spine, but also downregulating that stress response. Mm-hmm. Like we were talking about stimulating the vagus nerve downregulating, you know, from a sympathetic response to a parasympathetic response where our bodies actually have the ability to heal and recover because we're, when we're in that stress response, when we're having all of this pain, when we're not moving our bodies, when we're not eating well.
Our bodies sit in this sympathetic response, and that's that fight or flight response that affects your body. Like you're getting chased by that bear and it prevents you from healing. And so there's so many things that are involved with that.
Yeah. And, and for everyone who's listening, kind of explaining that a little bit more, right?
Because we have our sympathetic and our parasympathetic, and those are just two different ways that our body reacts to whatever's happening internally, externally. And there is a range, right? Like one would be, um, include mental illness and one could include mental health, right? Mental illness is when you need a true diagnosis from a, uh, therapist.
And mental health is what we're dealing with every day of like anxiety and stress and, um, sadness and all the things that we can. As an individual, have some tools to control right. Between breathing or sleep or food. Um, and it's not bad to have any of those reactions. It's really when it's like too much or it's imbalance when it's impacting us.
Whatever us optimize looks like. Um, you know, I think about a lot of the people who I work with write a lot of, uh, CEOs and people starting businesses and people who have really busy lives. Um, how do we know when we've crossed the line of like, this stress isn't okay anymore? Like it's 'cause it's so easy to get sucked into the routine and what we're doing.
What are some warning signs that are like, oh, like this isn't good and two, I should call Leah.
Yeah. Well I definitely think that no matter what stress is gonna happen. Right? And that's where mm-hmm. The importance of having these routines come in and, and where the importance of. Making sure that you are loving on yourself every single day comes in, because you don't wanna wait until all of a sudden the stress is out of control.
You wanna be, you know, like the prehab before the surgery, right? You wanna prepare for that stress because it's not going anywhere. And I think you made a really good point, because we are going to constantly fluctuate between a sympathetic state and a parasympathetic state. Our body needs that for survival.
If we weren't able to get into a parasympathetic, I'm sorry, a sympathetic state, right? If we weren't able to enter that stress response, our body wouldn't be able to properly protect itself from dangers. That's, that's. A friend to us, but when we hold that friend's hand and while we pull on that friend's arm for too long, that's when our friend gets angry.
Yeah. And so, you know, just kind of like exercise, when you're working with different heart rate variabilities, you wanna be able to get your body to a place where you know, you can be in that sympathetic state, but you then have the ability to pull back into that parasympathetic state. Mm-hmm. Just like when you're exercising, a great way of looking at your fitness level is how quickly that heart rate can fall back down into normal range, right?
Mm-hmm.
And so, you know, in regards to warning signs, there are things like brain fog. There are things like, you know, tension in your body if you're feeling muscle tension, if you're getting headaches, there's things that can definitely be signs of stress. But I do think. As humans, we have an understanding of when we're stressed out.
And for me, one of the things that I do in my own life and I teach my clients how to do is how to integrate a good morning routine. Or if you have like a baby or something that prevents you from having that regular morning routine, how to integrate it into other pockets of your life so that you're getting it in, you know, so that you're getting your meditation in so that you're getting your journaling in because it is important to take those feelings and, and things that you're thinking out of this, you know, mid air place that we like to live in where our thoughts.
Mm-hmm. And put them down on a piece of paper because until you do that, they are not real. Yeah. Right. And so there's, I think that there's. There are definitely warning signs, you know, stomach aches, uh, headaches, brain fog, all the things we talked about. But you don't wanna wait until you have those warning signs you want to integrate now to prevent those warning signs from arriving in the future.
And I love that you said about writing things down. Like it's one of my, what I tell clients all the time of making a plan or a strategy, even just getting your to-do list out of your head because we don't need it. Taking up all that powerful space that we need to do everything else and survive and do all the other things with, um, what is it about journaling in particular that really helps people get back to kind of a, a baseline state that's good for us?
I
think
it depends on how you're using the journal, right? Mm-hmm. Because like you said, you have that brain dump where you can just take all those thoughts and those, those things that are just sitting in the tip of your head, right? Mm-hmm. Right on your brain. And you can put them down so that you have more brain space, um, to think about other things, to carry out, other tasks, to do all these other things that we need to do in our life.
But there's also other things like gratitude that help to stimulate a, you know, a sense of accomplishment and a sense of, um, happiness and stimulate those. Those feel good hormones, those endorphins, right. Serotonin, dopamine. Mm-hmm. For me, I really, really love adding the category of yesterday's wins to my journal because that gives me, that really un like, helps me understand that sense of accomplishment and I think especially as a business owner or really anybody that is constantly working, which is most of us in the world, it's really nice to see the things that we were able to do, whether that be for ourselves, whether that be for our business, whether that be for our family and our homes.
You know, whoever that might be like that can look as, you know, that win from yesterday can be as much as like. You calling your mom. That can be you texting a friend. That can be you sending an email to a client. That can be you having a session with a client. That can be you spending time with your family.
So all of these things help you in feeling that sense of accomplishment. 'cause when we can feel that sense of accomplishment, we can support those feel good hormones, which are needed for that healing. So there's a lot of different ways, you know, there's the emotional journaling as well, which help us to work through and navigate through some of those feelings and emotions that we're dealing with and we're having.
Mm-hmm.
Because when they go tucked under the rug and they don't go addressed, that keeps us in that sympathetic state. And so being able to downregulate into that parasympathetic state where we're resting and digesting. Through writing the things down, writing the emotions down, right? Like walking through it.
Be your own therapist in your journal, like ask yourself questions, you know? Mm-hmm. Give yourself support, ask, you know, offer recommendations, help yourself. Like what would you say to a friend that might be like, expressing all of these things to you, like say that to yourself.
Mm-hmm.
So I think journaling is a really powerful tool and it's extremely helpful just to, to, to bring us back home and to just get us reconnected to ourselves.
Well, and there's so many things I feel like we all have to have ownership of today that we didn't think about previously. And sometimes it can be overwhelming, but there's so much power in taking care of ourselves so that we can do all those other things that we want to. Um, you mentioned having a morning routine.
Um, why mornings and what should that routine look like besides journaling? I think.
Well, I know your morning routine is a game changer, so the way that you start your day is everything. So for me, you know, there's a lot of things I do have in my morning routine. Sometimes it shifts and changes a little bit based off of time, but I make sure to have my morning routine every day.
And if I can't do it in the morning, I make sure that there's something incorporated later on in the day. The reason I like the mornings and why I believe the mornings are so important is because those are the first couple of minutes that you, that you have with yourself, and those are gonna set you up for the rest of your day and.
I'm a big believer that the first thing that you should do in the morning is make your bed. Um, I know that you probably haven't heard. Yeah. Um, I'm sure a lot of people have heard that before, but that's, you know, if you can accomplish one task immediately upon getting out of bed again, that sense of accomplishment and that sets you up to be able to accomplish more throughout the day.
And it also feels really nice when you come home and you don't have a messy bed to step into. Right?
Mm-hmm.
Um, and in regards to other things to incorporate into the morning routine, I think journaling's a big part of that because we do dream at night, so there's a lot of things that our brain is doing at night that are really helpful to get out onto paper.
For those that can remember their dreams, first thing upon waking up, I do recommend writing them down because it's a really great way to, to track where your subconscious brain is and what it's thinking about. And sometimes it's pretty eye-opening to see the things that come up and. Dreams that we have are a direct reflection of what's happening internally and what's happening in our subconscious.
And our subconscious is 95% of our brain function and our conscious mind is the other 5%. And so, you know, we pay so much attention to our conscious mind, and yet it's only 5% of what our brain is doing all the time. So that's a huge piece to, uh, my morning routine. And the other one that I always recommend for people is meditating.
Meditating is one of the most important things that you can do when it comes to healing, when it comes to recovering, when it comes to reducing pain, reducing stress, reducing chronic symptoms, because you're allowing your body to sit with your breath, which is the foundation of everything. Mm-hmm. And you're bringing your body back into that awareness.
Uh, you're bringing awareness back to your body and you are supporting that parasympathetic state like we're talking about. And if you can do that before you start the rest of your day, it's inevitable that you're going to face some sort of stressor in your day. Again, even if that's not an emotional stressor, like that could be sitting in traffic or standing at a red light.
Mm-hmm. Just a little bit too long. Right? So, especially here in la. Um, so, you know. Having a morning routine that feels good for you? Um mm-hmm. You know, for me on, after I meditate, you know, I get up, I make my bed, I do my journaling, I do my meditating, I then move my body. I try to get outside and put my bare feet on the ground.
I make sure to do that at least three times a week. I'll walk over to the, or head over to the beach and take a nice walk on the beach. And then I'll come back and I'll do my movement for the day. So my morning routine is a little bit longer. It takes probably mm-hmm. You know, two to three hours of my morning.
And again, I can fluctuate that depending on the day and what's ahead. But for me, I, you know, I work with clients. I'm constantly giving my energy to others. I'm hands-on with people's energetic fields. Mm-hmm. And so if I'm not consistently keeping my energy strong and supported. It's really hard for me to show up in my full presence, show up in my full power and support other people the best way I can.
And that's goes for everyone else too. You don't have to be a manual therapist, a massage therapist, a personal trainer, like you can be a mom and you need to make sure that you are filling up your cup filling before you can fill up others. Otherwise, you're not gonna have anything to pour from.
What do you think is the minimum amount of time people should dedicate to a morning routine?
Is it like, can the morning routine be 20 minutes? Like does it have to be two to three hours? Like how do people, I guess what's the minimum and where people start and what would be an ideal from your perspective?
I think anything that you can incorporate into your morning for yourself is a win. So it doesn't matter if your morning routine is 20 minutes long.
It doesn't matter if your routine is, you know, two hours long. What matters is that you're doing it. And so I like to say like, sit down, think about what your values are, what are things that are important to you, and incorporate those into your morning routine. Is stress relief important to you? Right.
Well, if, if that's important to you, what are the things that help you the most with mitigating stress? I do recommend meditation to every single person on this planet. I think everybody needs, like, like, you know, when we, when we go through school, we have the Pledge of Allegiance, like I feel like that should just be like, like a two minute meditation.
Um, that would be a good way to teach people. Yes. Right. Restructuring the education system, um, important but. Any amount of time that you can give yourself routinely is what matters. So again, it, it's not about what goes into it, it's about you showing up for yourself regularly.
Well, and I think that's something I'd love to expand on because most people are not scheduling time for themselves into their day.
Right. I'm a big, um, proponent of time blocking everything that matters to you. Making sure if it's not on my calendar, it's not real. Mm-hmm. If it's not on my calendar, it's not gonna happen. So making time for ourselves really matters. And the areas that I see people sacrifice the most, people sacrifice movement.
Every, for themselves or, or working out people sacrifice, um, planning ahead for, for healthy food options, people sacrifice, um, lots of things that are justified behind. It's easier, it's faster, I deserve it, like whatever the, the hack is. And, um, I'm happy to see that there's a lot of things culturally shifting into taking our time and planning things out and being more intentional because the things we tend to sacrifice the most us and our, our fitness and our health and wellness and our food is actually the things that matter the most for us to have vitality.
Um, we really have this kind of backwards priority list of where we should be investing our day and how we spend it. Because I'm sure plenty of people listening here, like a two hour morning routine. Like, that's insane. I don't have two hours to like do anything. Um. The truth is we're actually empowered to make whatever schedule we want.
Even those of us who have full-time jobs, like there's ways around that. And if you're curious what that looks like, please send me a note. Um, but you know, how, how do we rightsize or reprioritize these things that actually change our experience of life versus the things we're told to focus on?
I think that's hard.
Um mm-hmm. And it's not an easy answer because it's gonna take time. Right. It, it takes time to deprogram habits. It takes a minimum of 18 days to actually really start and integrate a new habit. And so just like, you can't expect something to change over net. Mm-hmm. And so that's why like, writing things down and going back to them, having little reminders.
If, for me, I want to start doing something more routinely and regularly, I set reminders on my phone. I put sticky notes on my walls, like I do things, so I'm gonna see it every single day. Even something as simple as like setting a lock screen on your phone with a reminder on it so that every time you pick up your phone you see that reminder.
There's, you know, there's, there's a lot of ways that I think that we can go about shifting that, but like you said, you know, society educates us to not be. Focused here. Mm-hmm. Society educates us to be focused on all of the external. And you're lucky if you have parents that do teach you how to be present with yourself because most, most people, I think the generation right now, um, especially my generation, um, you know, people in their, you know, early to mid twenties, into their like mid thirties, early forties.
Right now, I think it's a really powerful generation. A couple of generations I'll say, because I really see us as being the ones that are gonna be able to make this change in our kids and the people around us and making ripple effects to say, Hey, I know you are a hard worker, but you also need to love on yourself.
I don't like calling it working on yourself because that makes it feel like work. Like we need to love on ourselves. And if you think about, you know, our, our our, um. Our heritage and our, and the ancient tribes where ultimately we all stem from, you know, they weren't sitting on their phones and sitting on their laptops and pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing and grinding every single day.
That's important. The grind is important for survival, which can be challenging at times, but they had so much attention that they put into themselves and mm-hmm. And so many things that they did on a daily basis to show up for themselves and the people around them and take care of their bodies and take care of the bellies of, of their, their families and their friends.
Right. And so, you know, I, I think that it's just gonna take some time for all of us to get to a point where we're really recognizing how to shift our perspective from the external to the internal. But that's where that morning routine and showing up every day really comes in handy because it reminds you, oh, I need to be with myself today.
Mm-hmm. At least for those 20 minutes. Um, and you did bring up something, uh, that I did wanna just touch on. You brought up the, the movement and the exercise piece.
Mm-hmm.
And one thing that I've recently, not super recently, but over the last couple years I've stopped doing was calling it a workout. And again, there's that word work like popping up again.
Right. And the reason I say that is because movement is movement is movement is movement. I don't care what you are doing as long as you are moving your body. That can be skipping on the sidewalk with your daughter. That can be taking a walk on the beach. That can be going for a run, going for a bike ride.
It can be, you know, lifting weights. It can be crawling on the ground with your children. Like it can be playing outside. You know, there's so many things that movement is considered. And movement is the medicine. You know, working out is great. And yes, as we age, we need to have some sort of strength training to reduce osteoporosis and, and support strong bones.
That is very important. But keeping your body moving is where, where the success comes in. And I think that as you know, the busy humans that we are, we have this pressure on ourselves to, you need to get a workout in, you need to go to the gym, you have to be there. Mm-hmm. You know, and sometimes that's just not the, not.
Gonna happen. Sometimes your day is gonna get to the point where it's just like you don't have time for the gym, and that's okay. Mm-hmm. But if you can get up, get outside and move your body with a walk, that's gonna be doing more, giving you more support than not doing anything at all. And so being easy with yourself, you know, I went and played volleyball yesterday.
That was, that was a good ex, that was good exercise and good movement for me. But I'm, you know, and, and that's why I try to stay away from using that term workout because I think that, that, that puts a lot of pressure on us. And again, trying to remove that word work, it's important.
And, and it also makes me think about.
As you said earlier, we're not working on ourself, we're not working out. And this all kind of stems under the category of how much pressure we put on ourselves, assuming what we're doing is wrong and that we're wrong. Um, it's a big, uh, I'm a big proponent of the strength finder, um, quiz that tells you what your strengths are.
And part of what I love about their philosophy is like, screw trying to fix your weaknesses, like double down on your strengths. Like, we are not broken, we just have different strengths and we don't need to fix, you know, these things that we, we score lower on. Like, it's okay to not be a hundred percent in every category.
It would be humanly impossible. And so this whole idea that there's more we have to do and like that change takes more effort and more work. Um. We have to break that, that connection between get what we want in life and where we are today is going to take work. And I think the best example really is that is a meditation, right?
Because you don't need to do anything to meditate. Like that's the opposite of what meditating is. So for people who aren't familiar with meditation, how do you just sit still for two minutes? That's it. I love this question. Yeah, there's like, we, we put so much pressure on meditating, like we have to be floating in midair.
And it's like, no, like my favorite way to meditate is a walking meditation. It allows me, you know, being someone that's always looking for the hack, I get to get movement in and I get to get a meditation in and I don't listen to anything. I'm just walking in, you know, my own silence. But obviously there's.
The environment has sounds around me. Um, but there's so many ways to meditate and people make it really harder. So it's the absence of doing that. I hear in everything you're talking about, how do we do less and just lean into whatever we would be doing anyway.
Mm-hmm. And that brings it back to presence, right?
And mm-hmm. That's one of the big things that comes in when people start to meditate is, you know, I, I, that's one of my intake questions, uh, when someone comes to see me for pain is, is meditation a part of your week? And a lot of people say no. And when I ask them, they say, well, it's just, it's intimidating to me.
And I just, I can't. Mm-hmm. I can't sit still and I can't shut off my brain. And I say to them, you know, it's not shutting off your brain. It's being aware of the thoughts coming into your brain and then allowing them to pass and just staying present with where you're at because thoughts are normal. But it's, you know, it's how you navigate through those thoughts.
Just like, again, you know, you can't control what happens to you. You can only control your reaction to the things that happen. And so that's, that's where that meditation piece comes in. It's, it's like if you've ever, you know, sat on the ground and laid on your back and just watched the clouds stroll by, you know, that's what meditation is.
It's just being present where you are and allowing these things to just come in and go up and, you know, when you can start to add that in, it will make drastic changes to your life. Um, I will never, I will never forget the journey of my meditation. I was actually having a conversation yesterday with someone about my desire to sit in a vipasana, which for those that don't know what a vipasana is, it's a 10 day silent meditation.
And so you go off, everything's taken from you, you have no phones. You, you're not supposed to talk to anyone, and you sit and you meditate for 10 hours a day, and you do do nothing other than sit with yourself. And it's, it's, it's grueling, like from everything that I've heard, it is one of the most challenging things you'll ever do, but it puts you back with you.
And that's, that's something that, that as much as I have my morning routine, I still want that. I still wanna know what it's like to sit with myself for 10 hours a day, for 10 days straight, because we don't have that in our world. We, we just don't, it's not, it's not a thing anymore, but for people that, you know, are just starting and are just getting into meditation.
Counting your breaths, bring your awareness to your breath. Your breath in is one, breath out is two. And just count, count to 10 and keep going. Or count to 10 and start over. Because starting over helps to kind of bring your awareness back to that like starting place so that you're not losing yourself at like 20, 21, 22.
Um, you know, and when you can do that, you know, that's, that's how Headspace, it's one of my favorite apps to use when you're starting. That's the beginner packs of Headspace is what they do is they remind you to bring your awareness and attention back to your breath, back to that spot, render underneath your belly button, really making those big belly breaths and counting them, because counting can be a form of meditation as well.
And counting turns on a part of your brain that actually helps you take that attention away from those other places where your brain is kind of getting lost a little bit.
And I think that's such a great example. I love, I love the option to count. I love the analogy of like laying and watching the clouds go by.
Um, and I think anytime that anyone has ever felt clear or gotten new ideas or felt relaxed, those all count as like a meditation exercise. So hiking in the woods, great option, right? Like, that's why people do it. You, you go on a hike and suddenly all these new things make sense or you have an idea. Um, sometimes people are meditating on a bike ride or whatever it is, right?
There's so many solutions to give ourselves credit for connecting in this way. Where we're we? It doesn't need to be sitting in, you know. A perfect yogi pose, eyes closed. Like that's not what it has to be at all.
Nope, it's not. And I think, like I said, people can get lost in that because they see all these fads that are happening and yeah, they're, they're fads and they're great and we should move our bodies and yogi's great.
And it gets us in tune and it's great for processing emotions and trauma. But like, connect to the earth, put your bare feet on the ground, like put your feet in the grass, you know, take your shoes off when you go for a hike. People look at me so funny when I do that, and I'll be like, walking around LA like hiking and people are like, wasn't chef shoes on?
Like, but as true, like, it slows you down, right? Mm-hmm. You can't walk as fast if you don't have your shoes on. And now you're getting the energy from the earth, which is literally reducing your inflammation and helping your body heal. Mm-hmm. So yeah, just being present with where you're at and, you know, noticing the thoughts that come up and like getting yourself outside with nature is such an important part of that healing process.
Getting sunlight, like we don't get nearly enough sunlight 'cause we're sitting inside all day, like, set your laptop up on your balcony and, you know, get some, some morning rays and get outside when the sun comes up and the sun goes down again. There's so many things that you can do and incorporate into your day, into your morning routine just to support yourself, um, and support your awareness at the, the present moment.
And like you said, they don't need to be big. Um. Of course, when people usually call you, they've gone too far down the path and they need help getting back to themselves. Um, what are the types of things that you find yourself treating people for or recurring things that you are, um, you know, prescribing to people?
Yeah, so number one, people come to me and they have no idea how to breathe. Mm-hmm. And that is, that for me is, it's heartbreaking in a lot of ways, but it's also really, really empowering for me because to be able to give somebody back their ability to reconnect with their breath is one of the most powerful experiences.
You know, the last couple of weeks I've had so many people come in and lay on my table, really hardcore chest breathers. I've been seeing a lot of models that have been coming into my office lately and completely disconnected from their breath. They forget how to breathe into their belly. They forget how to reconnect with, with that, that parasympathetic response.
And that's gonna, like I said, do a lot of things between bringing a sense of calm and also strengthening your belly and your gut and, and you're strengthening the organs and strengthening your spine. And if, mm-hmm. Just as a little side note, like, you know, back pain, if you're, if you're struggling with back pain and you're going through rehab and your therapist is not coaching you on breath work, please reach out to me because that is, that is a problem because your breath is this stabilization.
It is the groundwork for everything that you build on. You wouldn't build a house on a foundation that had holds in it. And so in order to prevent those holes from being there, you have to start with the breath. Um, but I would say breath number one is one of the most, um, important things that I reeducate people on when they come into my office.
See a lot of back pain and a lot of neck pain. And I see a lot of that because people forget and they don't know how to move anymore. Like I, I asked people, I'm like, when's the last time you got on the ground? And people are like, look at me. And they're like, what do you mean? Like, like, get on your hands and your knees, like crawl around the floor, you know, play on the floor.
That that's, you spent so much time on the floor as kids and you stop doing that. And if you think about how long it takes a baby to learn to crawl, just crawl, right? Mm-hmm. It's mind blowing because each phase teaches them how to stabilize their spine. How to move their limbs around their spine and how to move their spine.
Mm-hmm. And we forget how to do that as adults. So movement reeducation is a huge thing that I educate people on or support people with. I'll say breath work is huge. Mm-hmm. And just reconnecting with their selves and becoming more present and aware and mindful of their present state. A lot of people that come into me, you know, like we talked about earlier on, they come in with those chronic symptoms that now all of a sudden are there and they've taken 10 plus years to develop.
People kind of look at me like, like, I can't figure out when this why this happened or like, what started this? And like, it's not the one thing, it's the cultivation of all the things. What are you eating? How are you sleeping? You know, how, how's your stress levels? Right? Are you moving your body? Are you, are you stimulating your lymphatic in your cardiovascular system?
Are you allowing your, your body to detox from the environmental toxins and chemicals that are being inputted into your body every day? So I see a lot of like the chronic symptoms of, um, like chronic, chronic disease symptoms, a lot of GI gut issues, a lot of lower back and neck pain because of a lack of movement and a lot of loss of connection to breath.
Mm-hmm.
There's a woman I remember hearing on a podcast ages ago who. I ended up removing like, all the furniture from her house because it was limiting her and her family's ability to be healthy. So they got rid of the couch, they got rid of the bed, they got rid of chairs, and they started doing just everything standing or on the floor.
And they did have like pillows, but they had, their bed became like the really small, kind of traditional Japanese, uh, bed. Mm-hmm. Uh, really thin. And it just basically allowed her to be in more, um, traditional, um, postures for a human versus the like three postures that we have in modern, modern society of like standing, sitting and laying down, but never laying down straight, always laying like a banana.
Yeah. Um, and so it was really interesting to see her get rid of it and just how. You know, we think we needed to, so often friends or someone will say like, oh, like my joints don't work, or, and I'm, it's like your muscle. And just by her not having chairs and like sitting on the ground, you kind of get this self massage between your body weight and a flat surface and mm-hmm.
It was really interesting to think about things that way. 'cause there are times when I'll just grab my yoga mat and lay on the floor because I can tell that I haven't been like straight the right way in a long time and sleeping that way. It's, it doesn't feel comfortable at first, but after a couple of days it's no big deal.
Yeah. You get
used to it and you, you make a great point, like think about, you know, if you've ever been camping or if you've ever slept on the floor, like it's not comfortable to sleep on your side. You sleep on your back and that's the best way to support your spine. Yet a lot of us, including myself, like I'm a side sleeper and I fall asleep on my back.
I prop myself up, I put a pillow underneath my knees, but I often wake up. On my side, and then I'll mm-hmm. You know, reshift myself to my back because that's how, how forced is going to be properly distributed through your spine. But even on a bed, you know, it's, it's better to definitely have a firmer bed than a softer bed because it helps with distributing that.
Um, there's a company called Purple, um, that has a product with where the mattress helps with, um, more evenly distributing, um, the weight of your body and, and, um, support your spine a lot better. Uh, so there are, there is technology out there that is, is supportive for posture, but you know, you, you, you're right, you know, there's no comparison to sleeping on the floor on your back.
And I, I do have a lot of clients that, that do make that shift. I, I have people that come into me and they're like, yeah, I, you know, I, I've got some back issues. I stopped sleeping in my bed. I sleep on the floor now.
Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it's crazy when you start looking at how many cultural things have been layered on throughout society that are pulling us so far away from what's good for us so far.
Yeah.
I just got the book, um, uh, Pegan by Dr. Mark, uh, Hyman. Mm-hmm. Who's, who was talking about the, the combo of a paleo vegan diet. And he also goes into like, why soil matters and why, um, restorative farming matters and the environment, like all these things get impacted by this type of, um, food lifestyle.
And, um, in that he goes, he kind of goes off because he's so frustrated at how complicated we've made it when it doesn't have to be.
Yep. Yeah, we've, we've gotten so far away from our roots and, you know, sustainable farming is certainly the best way to know and, and to be confident that what you're getting is packed so high in nutrients and, and is nutrient dense, I'll say.
'cause think about it, the foods that we're, we're getting, if a lot of them aren't local foods and what happens is, you know, they have to treat the food with something so that it doesn't rot on the way to the grocery store. So, you know, there, there's so many things that are happening and we're trying to keep up with the, the need for how much food, you know, we, we have to supply.
There's a, there's a huge demand right now, and that's just growing. And so it, it is hard, you know, I, I, I'm a strong believer in, in, you know, kind of finding that balanced diet as well. I am a really strong believer that we as humans should be getting meat in our diets. That's something that I, I truly, strongly believe helps with supporting and healing our DNA and our, our ancestors hunted and gathered.
But you have to think like a lot of the meats that we're getting, if they're not local, if they're not sustainably farmed animals, you know, they're not supporting our body. If you're not eating grass fed meats, that's gonna have a massive impact on your body.
Mm-hmm. I,
myself use ButcherBox. I really love the company Butcher Box because the meat quality's great.
I know that they're coming from local farms as much as they can be, and mm-hmm. They, they treat their animals with love, respect, and they allow them to have a healthy lifestyle. Um,
you know, and well, you, you really are what you eat, right? So if they're eating. Junk from a factory farm, which I just heard as well, that sometimes they candies included to help them fatten up.
Like, huh. Yeah. So, yeah, if, if you're, if whatever you're eating had the best food sources itself, it's just gonna give you more nutrient dense material to, you know, build your own self.
Yeah. And even with organic foods too, like organic food doesn't mean that there's no glyphosate in it. Organic food doesn't mean that they're not sprayed with any insecticides or pesticides.
They're still gonna have traces. Absolutely.
Mm-hmm. And
then you've got runoff that you have to think about too, because likely they're coming from an area where there's other farms around, and the pesticides and herbicides that are being sprayed on their foods are gonna travel through the air, travel through the, the, the soil.
Um, and that's again, importance of sustainability in sustainable farming. Mm-hmm. Having your own garden in your backyard is the ultimate goal. And again, it's like. I'm this huge supporter and believer that we need this ground up or, or, or bottom up and top down approach where it's like, mm-hmm we should be integrating these, this type of education in our school systems.
We need to be teaching our kids how to farm. We need to be teaching our kids how to meditate. We need to be teaching our kids how to be more in touch with themselves. How to live a lifestyle where they're, they're here and they're present, but at the same time, we need this top down approach because you'll never forget what your parents taught you.
You'll never forget how your parents acted and what they did in their lifestyle and how they led by example. So if you can support that top down approach, which is a big part of what I do for my clients, then their ripple effects are going to make waves through their communities. And so I, I think that it's not just this one way, it's this, it's targeting this, this whole world from all these different angles.
Um, and you know, that's where I've really tried to come in, uh, with how I educate. And one of the things that I do is I support my clients through an online program for people that are really struggling with movement, really struggling with inflammation, really struggling with how to take care of their bodies.
And so I've created a, um, a movement, it's called The Mind Body Initiative, and it's a 16 week program where. All of the things that we've talked about today are things that I cover. And we, each week we go through a different topic about how you can better support yourself. 'cause again, like you don't deserve to be in pain.
You don't deserve to sit with inflammation. You don't deserve to feel lost and feel out of control about how to navigate your own health, your own lifestyle, and your own healing process. Mm-hmm. And so when you feel empowered with the information and with the tools to be able to support yourself, not only are you gonna apply it to your to you, you're gonna apply it to the life around you.
And then that's gonna make ripple effects on the people that are watching you. Because if they're gonna see you putting the time and energy into your morning routine, into the way that you're eating, into your movement, into how you're navigating and supporting your own emotional self, they're gonna say, oh wow.
Like. Wow, that looks really interesting. Like, what are you doing? They're gonna ask you questions and they're gonna wanna learn too. And we're all educators. I don't care if you're a teacher. If you're not a teacher, you're still an educator because you are leading by example and people are learning from your example.
And so my whole goal in my 16 week program was to help people that are both in pain and not in pain, but it, it can be for those that don't have discomfort as well. But you know, for people that are ready to move their body better, that are ready to live a healthier lifestyle, that are ready to reduce their inflammation and learn how to continue to support their body in doing so.
And ultimately how to heal and, and just live better. And I think that that's so important. And those are things that we're not taught anymore and, and we really need help with right now or else 10, 20, 30 years down the line, we're gonna be in a. In a place where it's gonna be really hard to come back from.
So that whole, like pre-care versus post-care, like support yourself before the storm comes
completely. And that 30 years down the line is both a individual concern and a, and a society concern. Yep. Um, and I think the, the one thing that I hear in what you're sharing is that no matter what hand you've been dealt from.
Life experiences or genetic disposition or whatever those things are, there's always solutions to get you closer to your ideal, um, vitality and your ideal life experience. Um, it really breaks my heart when people talk about like, this is just the way it is. Or I'm just getting older and I'm like, Nope.
It's the same as saying I can't in different words. Yep. And it's really, it, it just doesn't need to be that way. So what does it look like to choose yourself? What does it look like to be, um, you know, not demanding that we're not gonna compromise and really get the most we can out of this life and like, just to feel awesome, like, everyone should feel awesome like that.
That's part of our, um, universal, uh, human rights, but we have to choose it if we, if we want to actually experience that.
Yeah, I, I couldn't agree more. And that's really where it comes to that, like self-empowerment, you know? Mm-hmm. And I think one of the, the incredible things about working with a coach who's going to teach you how to take better care of yourself is that it is not just an investment in yourself for, you know, the interim for that current period of time.
It's an investment in yourself for literally the rest of your life. Because if someone can come in and make an impact and influence you to make changes that you then can carry with you moving forwards, then that is, that's priceless. That's something that you can't, you know, you can't put money on because it, it just, you can't put a price on, on love learning how to love yourself better and taking care of your body better so that you don't end up in those places where, like you're saying, you're, you're, you're, mm-hmm.
In pain and you're not moving well and your joints hurt. Like hit the, hit the nail on the head before, before it happens.
Yeah. When you hear the words powerful and ladies separately and together, what do they mean to you? What do they make you think?
Yeah.
Well,
uh, that's a good question. So powerful. The word powerful I think can really mean so many different things.
Um, for me, when I hear the word powerful, it really brings me back to myself, like, where, where is my power? And, and how am I cultivating my power? And again, for me, like I feel that I'm best cultivating my power. When I am taking optimal care of myself, my mind, and my body. And so that's what I see. The word powerful meaning to me and ladies is, is such a beautiful word because it, it creates this, a sense of community with other females that, you know, we have to be connected with one another.
You know, obviously we have to be connected to everybody in our lives and community is so important. And, you know, it's important to connect with males too, but men and women, our brains don't work the same men. They, they work very, very differently. We use different parts of our brains to do different things and, you know, women are emotional beings.
And ladies I think is such an important word to, in term to emphasize. Because if you're not integrating with the ladies around you and with the ladies in your community. You're not going to be your most powerful self, and you're not gonna be able to step up. And again, it's, it's leading by example. And so like, the ladies around you should be an influence for you.
They should lift you up, they should support you. And so, like, separately, that's what they mean to me. And then together, you know, powerful ladies just really shows me that when you're working on yourself as an individual and then you come together as this group of women, you can just become this, this endlessly powerful, you know, um, I wanna use the word environment because your environment affects all the things around you.
I, I don't know why that, mm-hmm. Why that word is resonating right now, but it is so. I think that when you can come together as powerful ladies, you can just create so much of an impact and so much change, um, internally and externally.
When, um, we ask everyone on the podcast where you put yourself on the powerful ladies scale, with one being average, everyday human and 10 being the most powerful, um, you know, lady, you could be.
Um, where do you think you rank yourself on average days and where would you rank yourself today? That's a very interesting question.
So my goal is to always be that 10. I'm that woman that walks into the room and changes the energy in the room just with my presence. Um, I've always been that way. So my goal every day is to be that powerful tent to just create change.
And, you know, I also think it's, it's a normal part of life to go through hills, you know, and troughs. And, um, for me it's actually been a really challenging month and this conversation has actually been really. Inspiring for me because there are things that I'm doing to support myself right now. But even just talking about all of the things that it can sometimes be easy to forget, like we're human.
Mm-hmm. And sometimes you have to reconnect with those things. Um, so right now I would say I'm probably falling at about like a six or seven, which is not where normally feel, um, empowered, uh, in my power. And so that's something that I have recognized and I'm working on to bring myself back up to that 10.
Um, and so yeah, I aim for that 10. Right now today, I would say I am at like a seven and a half.
Okay. Making progress. Yes. Yeah. Um, for everyone who's really curious about your 16 week program, about your other services, how can they find you, follow you, support you? Yeah, so you can find
me on all platforms, mind Body with Leah, LEAH, and then my website is, you can find Mind Body with leah.com.
It will reroute you to leah drew.com. So just so you know, you're in the same place. Um, and then, um, if you wanna reach out through email, you can find that on my website and on my platforms. But it is leah@mindbodywithleah.com. Yeah, I'm always, I'm always interested in learning more about others' journeys, where they've come from and how they're supporting themselves.
And if I can offer any support or guidance, I'm always so grateful to do so. Monday nights, I've actually started hosting a really beautiful room on Clubhouse. So for anybody that's on Clubhouse, shoot me a follow, it's on Clubhouse. Leah Drew, L-E-A-H-D-R-E-W, and. The room is all about pain management, holistic healing and movement as medicine.
And I've developed and put together some really amazing groups of practitioners that come on as moderators and talk to anybody that comes up with questions. And I've had an incredible amount of feedback from just beautiful souls that I've never met before, just explaining how much space that has been held for them and, and how much it's been helpful and supportive.
So if you're interested in learning more, if you have any questions and you wanna come join us, um, on Clubhouse, please do. It's a whole lot of fun. But I would love to connect with you on any platform.
And as we're wrapping up today, um, is there anything else that you would love for people to know or Yeah, just what do you wanna tell everyone that's listening right now to wrap up?
I just wanna
remind everybody that this is a journey, that life is a journey, and it's so important to enjoy the journey even on the days that feel so challenging to the core. And no matter where you're at in your journey, you have the complete ability to heal yourself and to take complete control over your present experience.
And that's not always easy to swallow. It's definitely challenging more times than others, but you do. You have complete control over your life and you can make any change in your life that you desire with enough awareness, attention, and really energy flowing in the right direction. And so again, you know, you've got this life, you can heal and you can be and feel anything that you desire.
And again, if I can support you in any way, shape, or form along your journey, um, I would love to do so.
Aliya, thank you so much for being a yes to the Power Ladies podcast and sharing what matters to you and the world. With everybody listening, this has been great, and I can't wait to hear, um, how everyone responds and, and who shows up for your next 16 week program.
Yeah, thank you so much Kara, and, um, it's been a pleasure being a part of this movement. And, uh, thank you for holding space to share my value today.
Thank you for listening to today's episode. All the links to connect with Leah are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com slash podcast. There you can also leave a comment and ask questions about this episode. Want more powerful? Ladies, come and join us on instagram@thepowerfulladies.com. Subscribe to this podcast and also help us connect with more listeners by leaving us a five star rating and a review.
If you're looking to connect directly with me, visit kara duffy.com. I'd like to thank our producer, composer, and audio engineer Jordan Duffy. Without her, none of this will be possible. You can follow her on Instagram at Jordan K. Duffy. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful with your life.
Go and be awesome and up to something.
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