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Science based strategies and life coach tools to help you feel better in your body at any age!
Episodes
Wednesday Oct 19, 2022
Wednesday Oct 19, 2022
I know some of you are not on my email list or following me on social media (Why not?!?)
But if you aren't, you may not have heard yet about my amazing "Founder's Special" for Alignment Academy.
Alignment Academy is my group coaching program with 2 calls per week, modules, and resources for healing.
Normally it's $99 per mo, but for the first 49 it will be a fixed rate of $49 per mo for as long as you are in Alignment Academy.
9 spots are gone in just the first few days, so be sure and click on the link for more information if this is calling to you!
Alignment Academy information:
https://betsy-jensen.mykajabi.com/alignment-academy-membership
For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy
on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA
Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com
*Free Nervous System Modules- 4 free videos explaining the nervous system, how it affects your health, and how to regulate it https://view.flodesk.com/pages/620ffa96e0eda1a0d870b5a6
*Curable App- 6 Weeks Free with this code http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen
If you like this podcast, please give it a five star rating and review on Itunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543
Thursday Oct 13, 2022
Thursday Oct 13, 2022
Predictive coding is like a brain's subconscious shortcut.
Predictive coding is the #1 reason for chronic pain symptoms. Especially for people who tell me they feel calm, but their pain is related to a movement, food, time of the month, etc.
I give you a few examples of how predictive coding works in our bodies to produce symptoms, and how it can be reversed! Be sure and listen to find out more
Want help with applying this into your life? Check out Alignment Academy (my group coaching membership). Click here:
https://betsy-jensen.mykajabi.com/alignment-academy-membership
For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy
on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA
Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com
*Free Nervous System Modules- 4 free videos explaining the nervous system, how it affects your health, and how to regulate it https://view.flodesk.com/pages/620ffa96e0eda1a0d870b5a6
*Curable App- 6 Weeks Free with this code http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen
If you like this podcast, please give it a five star rating and review on Itunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543
Transcript-Automatically Generated:
This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, episode 104, Predictive Coding.
In this podcast, we learn to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life. Become unstoppable body and mind.
Hello, my loves. Today's topic is predictive coding, which I have to say is probably the number one way that people keep themselves in chronic pain, is by looking at what I would call predictive coding, the way that the brain predicts what's going to happen and actually generates pain based on beliefs. When pain comes and goes, and it seems related to stress, it's very easy to see, oh, there's an emotional component.
But sometimes people will tell me every time I bend over, I feel this pain, or it's just when I'm typing, or it's a certain food that I've eaten, or when the weather changes or bright lights, or it's that time of the month. And they tell me about this predictive pattern that they have seen for months and maybe even years. But what they found in neuroscience is that our brain is very efficient.
There are many things that we subconsciously assume that change our body. Think of the example of food poisoning. You could have food that you ingested and then you got very, very sick.
So in the future, just thinking of that food has a physiological response on your body. Your stomach may tighten up. If you actually tried to eat that food, you might physically not be able to even swallow it, or you might get sick.
Your brain and your body want you to remember that time that felt so horrible. So any traces of that now, your brain can actually create, recreate some of those symptoms. When a car next to you moves, you may feel your body feel like it's moving when the car next to you moves.
Nothing actually moved, but because of the environment and what your brain has put together as this is what this means, your brain creates a sensation in your body. What they found in neuroscience is that our brain is very efficient. So it can very easily form some subconscious thoughts about what happened and what is going on.
And then our reticular activating system, this part of our brain that's designed to back up our beliefs will actually cause us to only find those things in reality that back up our beliefs and remember those and forget the rest. So an example is someone might tell me that their back pain is related to their periods. And every time they have their period right before they have back pain, for example.
And then when I question them a little more, sometimes they'll say, yeah, when I was on vacation, that one time I didn't have it. Or out of the last four months, three out of the times I had it and one I didn't. And that is actually showing that it is not something structural, right?
If it was something structural, it would happen every single time. And so just by that alone, you can see the brain tends to kind of overgeneralize to see the patterns it's familiar with. It happens at this subconscious level.
So we're not even consciously aware of it, but it's like Pavlov's dogs. When he would ring a bell repeatedly right before he gave them food, they came to associate the bell with food, and physiologically their body changed. So if I injured my back at one point and bending over hurt, then my brain would associate that bending with pain.
And there are a lot of people that would verify that, yes, bending, there's these structural things that happen, and so that increases your pain, and your back has this damage. So there are a lot of fearful things that you could also hear about bending. So long after the injury is healed, typically three to six months is the longest it takes an injury to heal.
And after that time, it's fair to assume that there are a lot of predictive coding pathways that your brain has generated. Right? It wants to be efficient.
Your brain saves time. It's like a shortcut by having this predictive coding. So after your injury has healed, you may still feel that pain with bending forward.
And if you felt that pain for 10 years, every time you bend forward, you have a lot of evidence gathered of times that you've bent forward and it's hurt. And again, your brain might have even had sometimes that it hadn't hurt, but it will quickly not remember them or not even realize that they ever happened. We know our bodies will subconsciously prepare for movement.
For example, if we're going to go from sitting to standing, our blood vessels constrict before we go to stand up so that our blood pressure regulates. So the same thing can happen, for example, with our muscles, when we have a pattern of, I've had this before myself, that's how I know, when my back has been very tight, and then I know, you know, with a certain movement, that that's when I feel pain, I prepare to go from sitting to standing, and I actually, before I even do it, feel my back tighten up and then go to standing. So it's like the brain believes there's this area to protect, it has to tighten up, and in doing that, it is actually causing pain.
It's causing the pain that I feel that reinforces that there is damage that it needs to tighten up to protect. One example of predictive coding in the body that happens physiologically is that when we drink water, we stop feeling thirsty. Now, it would take 20 minutes for ourselves to actually register that the hydration level has changed.
But our brain through experience and through what people have told us is that when we have that thirst signal, that when we drink water, that will solve it. So instead of drinking water for 20 whole minutes until we stop feeling thirsty, we actually drink water, stop feeling thirsty, and then the body goes on doing what it needs to because that task is taken care of. You could think of predictive coding and the reticular activating system, like when you buy a new car and all of a sudden, you notice all the same cars that are out there that are like yours that you had never noticed before.
So this can happen with pain, with these patterns. I know for me, I associated drinking coffee with my stomach hurting or drinking caffeine with urinary urgency. But once I started questioning that maybe this is just some predictive coding that my brain is using as a shortcut, I started to see examples of when it wasn't true.
And this is what we do when we think there might be some predictive coding. We want to really lean into detective or the opposite. So this is where you look for any examples of how your belief is not true.
So if you say, you know, every time I drive for more than an hour, my back hurts, but then you notice, you can sit in the passenger seat for two hours, and your back doesn't hurt. Or you notice that you can sit in the movie seats for two hours, and your back doesn't hurt. So you start to look for, like a detective, you know, making its strongest case.
You want to look for every shred of evidence, every time that you feel better than you think you're going to, any time that it possibly might be a different pattern than what you expect. Doing this does two things. First of all, you start building this effort and building this evidence for yourself that you can look back on in times of doubt.
You could even write it down, get a notebook and be a detective. The other thing it does is it shifts your brain, that reticular activating system that is used to being focused on looking for pain and what creates pain, it shifts it to looking for when you're feeling better, things that feel good when you're distracted. So shifting your focus there, it's like a gratitude journal.
When you start focusing on just three things you're grateful for each day, by the end of 30 days, you have a whole shift in how you see the world and your happiness level, because you start to look for things to be grateful for each day, and then that becomes the habit of your brain, the habit of that way of thinking. So looking for, ah, that's interesting. This feels slightly better.
Ah, when I was distracted, that's usually when it happens. When I was distracted, that felt better. And when you notice pain, notice those stories that you have around your pain.
There have been so many stories of people that have evidence, they have medical evidence of this research study or this person, what they said, that this causes their pain. And when they start believing differently, I've experienced it myself with foods, with exercises, with movements. When you start to believe differently, amazing things can happen.
So just have some curiosity. I urge you to be that detective for the opposite. And notice any times you see yourself getting stuck on some kind of belief that you just believe is true for you, it might just be predictive coding.
All right, thanks you guys. Have a good week.
Thank you so much for listening. I hope you learned a little bit about your brain today. That helps you in your life, like it helped me.
Please be sure and subscribe and leave a review. And of course, be sure and share this podcast with someone you know that wants an unstoppable body and mind.
Monday Sep 19, 2022
Monday Sep 19, 2022
In this episode I talk with Lifecoach and former client, Dr Katrina Ubell.
Today we talk about Katrina's journey as a weightloss coach, and getting out of chronic pain.
And we talk about Katrina's new book, out tomorrow- September 20, 2022!
Get the sneak peek on "How to Lose Weight For the Last Time- Brain Based Solutions for Permanent Weight Loss", and how it relates to coaching on chronic pain.
For more information on Katrina Ubell and her new book, check out her website here: https://katrinaubellmd.com/
To hear my original podcast episode with her on her "Weight Loss for Busy Physicians" Podcast in Oct 2020: https://katrinaubellmd.com/how-i-cured-my-chronic-pain-and-acid-reflux-with-betsy-jensen/
For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy
on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA
Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com
*Free Nervous System Modules- 4 free videos explaining the nervous system, how it affects your health, and how to regulate it https://view.flodesk.com/pages/620ffa96e0eda1a0d870b5a6
*Curable App- 6 Weeks Free with this code http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen
If you like this podcast, please give it a five star rating and review on Itunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Today I interview Torie Henderson- Lifecoach for exhausted, overwhelmed moms.
She talk about how teens can trigger survival brain, but the concepts here can apply to close family members or friends too if you aren't a parent of teens!
Torie also struggled with chronic pain- vulvodynia starting at age 21, then lower back pain and TMJ. She talks about how she learned not to carry stress in her body.
Join to listen to the insidious ways we cause ourselves nervous system dysregulation when we have teenagers or chronic pain.
AND if you want to practice nervous system regulation with us, be sure and join our "Relaxation Challenge" September 26-30!
Each day we will go over different techniques together so you can try them out for yourself and see what works for you!
****The Relaxation Challenge will be on Torie's "Supermom is Getting Tired" Facebook page, and you can sign up here:
Facebook Group - Supermom is Getting Tired https://www.facebook.com/groups/Supermomisgettingtired/
Torie Henderson is a master certified life coach, teacher and owner of LifeCoachingforParents.com. She has helped thousands of overworked and exhausted Supermoms release self pressure so they can more fully enjoy their life as mom. Torie is host of the Supermom is Getting Tired Podcast and is devoted to helping moms release the burdens and the guilt so they can enjoy raising their great kids all the way into adulthood.
Website https://LifeCoachingforParents.com
Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/LifeCoachingForParents/
Supermom is Getting Tired Podcast https://lifecoachingforparents.com/podcast/
Time for The Talk - Sex Education Class https://timeforthetalk.com
Leading Your Teen Group Coaching Program https://LeadingYourTeen.com
For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy
on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA
Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com
*Free Nervous System Modules- 4 free videos explaining the nervous system, how it affects your health, and how to regulate it https://view.flodesk.com/pages/620ffa96e0eda1a0d870b5a6
*Curable App- 6 Weeks Free with this code http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen
If you like this podcast, please give it a five star rating and review on Itunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543
Wednesday Aug 17, 2022
Wednesday Aug 17, 2022
This episode is all about how your brain functions in survival mode, and how survival brain actually changes your thinking.
The idea from the podcast was from a clip on Youtube by Jacob Ham called "Learning Brain vs Survival Brain." So since it's back to school time, I thought about how these survival states even affect our ability to learn.
In survival brain you do not like ambiguities and are prone to black and white thinking. You have a hard time seeing another perspective and you are afraid to make mistakes.
In learning brain you are able to see the big picture, and accept nuances in thinking. There is more receptivity, creativity and ability to connect.
And learning brain is the parasympathetic/calm state which is the "rest and repair" state for your body- where it performs at ultimate health.
So check out this episode for more about detecting survival brain and how to get to the learning brain state more often!
For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy
on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA
Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com
*Free Nervous System Modules- 4 free videos explaining the nervous system, how it affects your health, and how to regulate it https://view.flodesk.com/pages/620ffa96e0eda1a0d870b5a6
*Curable App- 6 Weeks Free with this code http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen
If you like this podcast, please give it a five star rating and review on Itunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543
Sunday Jul 31, 2022
Sunday Jul 31, 2022
In today’s episode I want to tell you about how I coach on healing chronic pain.
I merge PRT (Pain Reprocessing Therapy) with Life Coach tools and Nervous system regulation, for an amazing mix of learning and application into real life.
PRT teaches us to reframe and rewire the brain’s signals of pain, because pain signals are either amplified or decreased depending on how we react to them.
When the brain and nervous system do not interpret sensations in the body as dangerous, the brain produces less and less of them and chronic pain can be extinguished. (This is shown in the latest neuroscience research).
PRT tools include somatic tracking, detective for the opposite, graded exposure, and outcome independence. You can read more about them in detail in “The Way Out” by Alan Gordon, or listen to my Somatic Tracking and Graded Exposure Meditations on my previous Episodes.
The way I coach applies PRT tools by understanding your nervous system.
You can have all of the best tools, but if you are applying them in a way that puts you into a survival state, you add a lot of resistance to your healing.
I teach you to regulate your nervous system by finding those things that distract or feel fun. Finding calming thoughts or actions will help you get to the parasympathetic/calms state where your body can heal.
By learning to neutralize pain, process emotions, feel positive emotions on purpose, and read your body’s cues, you can become more embodied and intuitive.
You can use your body and your emotions to tune into your internal guidance system. This will help you make decisions and trust yourself.
If this approach is calling to you, I have amazing group options going on now! Check out Alignment Academy here:
https://betsy-jensen.mykajabi.com/alignment-academy-membership
For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy
on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA
Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com
*Free Nervous System Modules- 4 free videos explaining the nervous system, how it affects your health, and how to regulate it https://view.flodesk.com/pages/620ffa96e0eda1a0d870b5a6
*Curable App- 6 Weeks Free with this code http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen
If you like this podcast, please give it a five star rating and review on Itunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543
Wednesday Jul 13, 2022
Wednesday Jul 13, 2022
Today I have a special guest on the podcast, Dr Aimie Apigian.
Dr Aimie is a leading medical expert on how life experiences get stored in the body and how to restore the body to it's best health.
We talk about the chronic effects of trauma on the nervous system, and ultimately the health of the body.
Dr Aimie sees all chronic health conditions relating more to dysregulation of the nervous system, rather than genetics or other factors.
"The nervous system is what drives our health"
Listen in for how trauma is stored in the body, what types of health concerns are most common, and what to do to heal trauma from the somatic and biological approach.
If you want more information about bridging the biology and somatic work in trauma, be sure and register for the upcoming "Biology of Trauma Summit" Aug 8-14, 2022. It's free and online, and has an amazing panel of speakers!
Register here: https://biologyoftrauma.byhealthmeans.com/?idev_id=31259
For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy
on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA
Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com
*Free Nervous System Modules- 4 free videos explaining the nervous system, how it affects your health, and how to regulate it https://view.flodesk.com/pages/620ffa96e0eda1a0d870b5a6
*Curable App- 6 Weeks Free with this code http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen
If you like this podcast, please give it a five star rating and review on Itunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
Here is a question that I heard a lot this weekend at the coaching retreat I went to- "What if it's not?"
The survival brain will want us to focus all of our energy on figuring out all of the bad things that could happen and to prevent them.
So it quickly forms habits of what foods or activities, physical things, or situations to avoid.
The Reticular Activiating System in our brain is designed to focus on only seeing things in the environment that fit our beliefs, and ignore what doesn't.
So by asking "what if it's not", it's like taking off the blinders you have been wearing that you think are keeping you safe.
If you want to move out of survival mode and in to purposeful living, healing, and creating, start asking more of the question, "What if it's not?"
For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy
on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA
Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com
*Free Nervous System Modules- 4 free videos explaining the nervous system, how it affects your health, and how to regulate it https://view.flodesk.com/pages/620ffa96e0eda1a0d870b5a6
*Curable App- 6 Weeks Free with this code http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen
If you like this podcast, please give it a five star rating and review on Itunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543
Sunday Jun 12, 2022
Sunday Jun 12, 2022
There's a lot of information out there if you have chronic pain!
So in this episode I wanted to simplify the three main concepts that I have found most important in getting out of chronic pain or disease.
1-Detective for the Opposite- This is the best place to start, by changing what you focus on
2-Understanding and Regulating the Nervous System- Notice when your body is in a survival state and develop a toolbox to use to regulate. The techniques can be top-down (thought based), or bottom-up (somatic).
3-Compassion- Self compassion in the process can be the most challenging, but necessary part.
Listen now for more details!
For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy
on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA
Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com
*Free Nervous System Modules- 4 free videos explaining the nervous system, how it affects your health, and how to regulate it https://view.flodesk.com/pages/620ffa96e0eda1a0d870b5a6
*Curable App- 6 Weeks Free with this code http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen
If you like this podcast, please give it a five star rating and review on Itunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543
Friday Jun 03, 2022
Friday Jun 03, 2022
Get out of living in survival mode and start to regulate your nervous system by becoming more satisfied!
Many of us have an underlying belief that we need to be hard on ourselves to improve. So we train ourselves to look for problems or flaws, rather than feeling satisfied.
But what I want to propose is that feeling more satisfied is actually the best way for you to evolve and grow!
Looking for problems to fix puts us into a survival state, whereas the parasympathetic/calm state (where you feel satisfied) is where the nervous system is regulated.
When the nervous system is regulated, you are more receptive, creative, able to learn, and able to connect with others.
True growth does not come from beating ourselves up or looking for things we dislike in the world and then finding more problems to fix.
When we feel more satisfied and aligned with our true selves, we will be able to move on the path of growth and evolution with less resistance and with more ease.
Plus being satisfied feels so much better in your body!
Listen in to learn about becoming more satisfied!
For fresh content on healing chronic pain or disease, follow Betsy
on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bodyandmindlifecoach/
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXZSYYGL2cfJl-oEOzqspA
Website https://bodyandmindlifecoach.com
*Free Nervous System Modules- 4 free videos explaining the nervous system, how it affects your health, and how to regulate it https://view.flodesk.com/pages/620ffa96e0eda1a0d870b5a6
*Curable App- 6 Weeks Free with this code http://www.curable.com/betsyjensen
If you like this podcast, please give it a five star rating and review on Itunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unstoppable-body-and-minds-podcast/id1493360543