Movement, Mind, & Meaning Podcast

Why are so many people still stuck in pain, anxiety, and chronic stress—even after trying therapy, breathwork, and nervous system tools? In this episode of the Movement, Mind & Meaning Podcast, I'm chatting with special guest Cynthia Allen as explore the hidden connection between trauma, the brain, and chronic pain… and what most healing paths completely miss. You’ll discover: Why calming your nervous system is just the beginning How trauma rewires the brain and body to stay in pain The surprising role your body plays in retraining your nervous system How to unlearn stress-based habits and escape the pain loop for good What your nervous system is actually craving to feel safe and heal Whether you’ve tried talk therapy, somatic work, or meditation—and you’re still asking “Why do I still feel this way?”—this episode will show you the missing piece in your healing journey. Learn more about Cynthia here: Cynthia Allen has been working in wellness practices, health care management, and organizational consulting for over 35 years. In 2001, she became a Certified Feldenkrais® practitioner and, more recently, a Senior Trainer in Movement Intelligence. She has a personal history in overcoming childhood trauma and found the Feldenkrais Method to be a vital part of returning to present moment living. In her private practice, she has had the privilege of working with many people who also have had a history of significant trauma wanting to come home to their bodies and movement. Cynthia has written about the Feldenkrais Method, pain, and trauma for the Alternative and Complementary Therapies Journal as well as the online Chronic Pain Partners. She has conducted and published a research paper: Alternative Movement Program in Geriatric Rehabilitation in the Functional Neurology, Rehabilitation, and Ergonomics. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband, business partner and NLP guru, Larry Wells and their puppy Darby. Visit her through her website at FutureLifeNow.com Grab her free gift of the Turning, Seeing, Sitting, Standing, While Improving the Neck mini course here: https://futurelifenow.thrivecart.com/turning-seeing-sitting-standing-ever/   Please find the show notes below. Since it is a transcription there may be spelling errors and/or weird grammar. Ignore that and enjoy!  Today we're talking about the missing piece in healing with my special guest, Cynthia Allen, a Feldenkrais practitioner. Welcome back to the Movement Mind and Meaning podcast. I'm your host, Megan Nolan, and I am really honored and happy to have one of my fellow BBD. What's BBD, Megan?Business by Design, one of the business courses that I'm in, one of my fellow BBD family members here with me. today. Cynthia Allen, as I mentioned, is a Feldenkrais practitioner. She'll explain what that is if you don't know. But today we are going to be talking about the sometimes missed, sometimes neglected, sometimes ignored, really essential component in your overall healing, thriving, abundant success, you know, pretty much everything today. So welcome, Cynthia. It's lovely to have you here. Oh, it's good to be here, Megan. I'm excited to to share with you and explore with you. Thank you. Thank you. So we'll have you circle 26 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:05,1000 back to what Feldenkrais is 27 00:01:05,1000 --> 00:01:08,720 and all of that magic in a moment. But we like to just get right into it. We like to just get right in and get to know you. So you have an incredible list of certifications and experiences which people, if they're curious about that, can certainly read in the show notes. But. We just like to just just get right into the beauty of the magic that is you and that has really led to where you're at now, what you're doing, what you do, and how you serve and all that beautifulness with a little bit of a glimpse into your life and into your 41 00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:35,1000 story. So will you please take us to a 42 00:01:35,1000 --> 00:01:38,880 moment, maybe where you had a open heart, open mind, realization, situation, whatever it was for you that led you to where you're at now and doing what you do?Yeah, yeahSo I think it's important just to. Say something about my earlier background that would have led me to even want to do this. So I am somebody who had quite a significant amount of childhood trauma in a variety of ways. And then I also had movement coordination problems. I had definitely difficulty with chronic pain starting at a young age, so you know. Like many of us, you you do OK. You somehow manage to keep it all together. And then there's usually some point in life that people realize they can't keep it together anymore. Mine came in the mid to late 20s when my first marriage was breaking up and my mother was also dying from breast cancer, and I really began to realize I couldn't keep it together any longer. And so I did many things. I did psychotherapy, spiritual direction, shamanic work, several different kinds of body work, art-related creative expression, and all of these things, or I should say most of them did help some, and maybe some of them even more than just a little bit. And still though,I was still a pretty big hot mess. That's just the truth of it. I was going through several years into this. I'm 78 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:09,1000 still really struggling. So now I'm into 79 00:03:09,1000 --> 00:03:12,080 my mid 30s and I tried, 'cause I'm trying everything, right, that I can think of to try. I'm trying the Feldenkrais method. I go to a few classes and I think to myself, ah I don't know, this is a weird work. It's not too slow. It's too methodical. What the heck?And yet I kept feeling better and better and better. And I would think to myself, hold it, I didn't know anybody could feel good like this. I'd be at work managing my department and I'd 92 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:42,1000 go, how is it that people, is it other 93 00:03:42,1000 --> 00:03:45,120 people who actually feel good?I never knew that you could actually feel good. And about a year into that exploration of just kind of going to some weekly classes, the instructor asked me if I thought I might like to train in the work 'cause there was going to be a training. coming to our area, to Cincinnati, Ohio. And I said, No, no, no noAnd then she said, Well, I'm gonna give you an application anyway, 'cause I think 105 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:11,1000 there's something here for you. And I 106 00:04:11,1000 --> 00:04:14,200 took the application out. My husband and I were doing the classes together. I took the application out and he got into the driver's seat and I got into the passenger seat and I started to cry. And he said, What's wrong, what's wrong?And I said, I'm coming home. It was so clear. Now, I didn't really know that I was going to practice it as a practitioner. I thought I was still taking it for my own health and well-being, but which was true. But about a year in, I thought this is actually, I've been looking to make it out of traditional healthcare into something more aligned with where I was and my beliefs and. my life at the time. So it 125 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:57,1000 did become, it took a while to 126 00:04:57,1000 --> 00:04:59,840 transition, but it did become that my transition out of healthcare management and development into being a Feldenkrais practitioner. And for me, it was, you know, it was very, very meaningful to just have a possibility to find that, oh, my body. is okay, despite everything that I thought and believed, and despite how I felt to just have someplace where there was no judgment, where I could explore movement in a way that I would never have been able to explore because I didn't really have that capacity as a child. And when I did do it through the sort of traditional physical education, that kind of thing, it was horrible. I didn't really probably know for sure at that point how much it was gonna affect my emotional state, but I was still having regular PTSD like nightmares uh when I went into the program. And And that really started to shift over the course of the first year of study to where I could you know get in bed, fall asleep and not be scared to sleep. Because I didn't know what horrible thing I was going to dream up again that night. So it's just been an incredible blessing to me and I'm so happy to share it with others. Wow. Thank you. And thank you for your vulnerability and honesty in that and. And I love that you were able to explore different modalities and approaches to find your way back home to yourself and find a tool set that really worked. And that's really the 167 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:41,1000 essence of this podcast is mind and body 168 00:06:41,1000 --> 00:06:44,200 tools to help us thrive and overcome and move beyond anxiety and depression and trauma and stress. And and you know, as my teacher likes to say, there's many paths to the same mountain, the same mountain being that. Thriving, vital, resilient, balanced self where we do feel at home, where we do feel like we're thriving. And I know that I can relate to what you said and and perhaps many of the listeners and watchers can relate too of having that moment of realization like this is this feels like my true and natural state and and having that realization that. For a long time I was like, really? Like, do people really feel that good?Do they feel this happy?It seems like it's not a real thing, you know, cause it just felt so foreign to me. And so I love that Feldenkrais and and I know later on you're gonna share some ways to get connected and to understand and explore that deeper. And so if people are curious about it, definitely check out the link that we're gonna share a little later on. But just so you know, it'll be in the show notes. So can we talk about how many people may understand at a deep level, but maybe not conceptually understand the interplay between many of the things that you mentioned, complex trauma