Energy medicine for trauma with Greg Wieting
“trauma informed is really letting go of an attachment to an outcome and a fixed agenda, which can often get in the way of us being really attuned to the human experience, the lived experience” Greg Wieting
Transcript
Greg Wieting Transcript
Ericka Thomas 0:03
Welcome back to the work in everyone. I'm your host Ericka Thomas and today my guest is Greg Wieting. He helps leaders and entrepreneurs heal anxiety, depression, chronic pain and trauma so they can lead with bold and courageous hearts. And isn't that what all of us in the wellness industry and the fitness professionals out there are really looking to do for ourselves and for our clients? For the past two decades, he's helped hundreds of clients reduce or eliminate their dependence on antidepressants, anxiety, pain and sleep meds. He addresses the unique causative factors at play beneath pain, namely the unresolved trauma that causes inflammation compromises immune function, stagnates emotion fogs thought and creates hormonal imbalance, all of the things that we talked about here on the work in He's the founder of Prisma, a framework that overlays trauma, neuroscience, and energy medicine was somatic and mindfulness based practices and develop this while healing his own anxiety, depression and chronic pain rooted in trauma. So he has his own personal story, and I'm really excited to talk to him today. Because in my own journey to trauma informed yoga and trauma informed coaching, I too, had to heal my own stuff, as many of you know, and it was really interesting in that journey, to understand finally that you know, trauma is not something that just happens to someone else, or to soldiers or to the rare person. It's actually more about the human condition. So let's get started on our work in today with Greg Wieting. Greg, welcome. To the work in
Greg Wieting 2:06
Ericka. Thanks for having me. Great to be here.
Ericka Thomas 2:09
I'm so looking forward to this conversation. Let's just dive in. So my first question for you is how would you describe being trauma informed what does that really I mean, and why is it important for us to understand it not just as wellness and fitness professionals, but also as just individuals as friends as parents as brothers, sisters, and significant others?
Greg Wieting 2:41
Sure. You know, trauma informed is really letting go of an attachment to an outcome and a fixed agenda, which can often get in the way of us being really attuned to the human experience, the lived experience, what is because we have an idea of what should be and so it gets into a trauma informed approach helps us meet either ourselves or the other, whether it's our client or a family member or a friend, a loved one, where they are, you know, oftentimes trauma is too much too soon. And so, you know, in the healthcare industry, I have people who talk about healing crisis, and I think of a healing crisis as actually healthcare mismanagement. It's where a practitioner, you know, and oftentimes, you know, people come to healing, they want change, they're in pain, they want to get out of pain, they want to heal, they want to grow, they want to move they want some movement, they want some change. But we really need to titrate that change in that movement in a way that is safe and sustainable, that the body, the mind, the brain and the nervous system can metabolize and integrate over time. Otherwise, you know, too much too soon is going to re traumatize and it's going to Yeah, what I this healing crisis is really healthcare mismanagement. It's forcing something or imposing an agenda on the body, the mind the spirit that is really coming from, you know, our brain thinking this is what should be, yeah, the body and the nervous system are actually over here saying, actually, this is really what's going on here.
Ericka Thomas 4:19
Right, right. I mean, that is so so true. Right? We are. We are just so Pro I don't know if it's programming or we're just, we want to fix it right? If we're not feeling comfortable in our own skin for any reason at all, whether that's chronic pain, or just or anxiety or depression or whatever. We want the quick fix. But when we approach things from a trauma informed way, it's more about baby steps. You use the word titration. Can you maybe expand a little bit on what that means?
Greg Wieting 4:53
Sure. Yeah. Especially within the realm of trauma, trauma can be lived experiences that have historically been overwhelming, right? So the system hasn't been able to fully absorb and process and integrate that experience. so titration is really not biting off more than we can chew that's helping us metabolize just a little bit at a time. So we don't get indigestion using that as a metaphor really. And so it's and really, especially for the individual who is experiencing the impact of trauma, trauma can often hijack or rob us of our agency and our power and our choice. So this quality of titration is an invitation for the individual to reclaim that power and that choice and that agency, so each individual gets to dictate how much they process you know, how much they bite off and how much they choose in any given moment. And that's really powerful because that's that's the process of healing. That helps individuals reclaim a sense of self.
Ericka Thomas 6:04
Right, and a lot of that process is building an awareness of what is too much. And sometimes that's a little bit difficult to know, especially if you've been living with some kind of trauma or the the body's adaptation to trauma for so long. It can really cut you off from a trusting relationship from the body. I know for myself, there were points in chronic pain where I just couldn't figure out what exactly was going on. Am I hungry? Am I Am I sick? Am I what am I what is happening and so that can take some time. Right?
Greg Wieting 6:54
Absolutely. And it can't be forced. You know, I talk a lot about embodiment and embodiment, helping us reclaim our connection to our bodies where, you know, the conscious mind is 5% of what we believe and what we really are what we think we believe and what we really believe the subconscious and the unconscious 95% is stored in the body, the tissue cells. And so when that is if that content that is stored in the body is traumatic in nature, it makes it a hard place to inhabit. So I love the imagery of just like well to demonstrate this point that I appreciate the imagery of a bird flying into a window that drops to the ground. And it's in shock, right it can't absorb the impact of flying into that glass so it completely freezes. And so over time, it starts to have the capacity to feel some of that impact, you know, at first is just too overwhelming. So it has to completely shut down. But over time it starts to twitch and it starts to regain its bodily connection and then can find the wind beneath its wings and fly off. You know, as humans we don't shake off and switch that the imprints of trauma so well so we continue to carry and harbor that pain until we develop a capacity to actually feel our pain. And I think that's so much of what healing is creating a context creating an understanding and creating a support system to feel pain so it can then start to move through us instead of become calcified. And so instead of holding on to our pain we become more adept at letting it move through us. And that's another piece around trauma is usually lived experiences where we lack safety and support. So, you know, we and like I love how you just talked about the human condition as we started our talk. You know, we live in a culture that's just feeding off of alienation and division and fear. So so much of the human condition is very much traumatic in nature.
Ericka Thomas 9:11
Yeah, yeah. And, and stress in general tends to be kind of a badge of honor that you were like, this is this is my life is so stressful and people can I start to identify with that as part of who they are. And it can kind of soak into all of their relationships really, and maybe not in very helpful ways. Let's let's talk a little bit. I'm really interested Greg, in your journey to get to this point in in your trauma work. Were you always working on it in a trauma informed way? What was that progression like for you?
Greg Wieting 9:56
Sure. So, you know, I developed Prisma through my own journey, healing my own pain, you know, I'm three inches taller today, excuse me than I was 25 years ago. So I have a severe curve in my spine, which was where a lot of trauma then started to calcify and hold onto my system and a lot of my identification with my wounding started to calcified to then amplify the chronic pain and the anxiety and the depression. So early on, I found that a lot of traditional approaches to therapy were really ill equipped to address the residue of trauma and my physical body. So while I maybe had a good intellectual understanding of my pain, it wasn't helping me move the pain through my body. And so I through serendipity was introduced to the world of energy medicine, through a friend who was a massage therapist at the time. You know, this kind of relates to this conversation around trauma informed care. She offered me a massage and physical touch was just excruciating ly painful, like I did not want a massage. So at that point in my healing journey, massage wouldn't have been a very trauma informed approach because it would have aggravated my pain, it would have made it worse, right? So that's what she introduced me to energy medicine. Excuse me, a tickle in my throat. And I had never heard of energy medicine. It was completely new to me, but I had implicit trust in her. And within minutes, I just had an experience where I just started to lift up outside of my pain body, where up until that point, it was as if my pain was all I knew, like I was my pain. And so that was a pretty remarkable experience. To get a glimpse of myself beyond my pain. So that led me on a journey of studying energy medicine and Reiki which launched me into the world of mindfulness and somatic based practices into the world of Yoga and Ayurveda. And then trauma and neuroscience, which is everything I work with within Prisma. And yeah, the word trauma informed wasn't on my radar. I'd say nine years ago, one of my students was a therapist, and she said, you know, you're teaching trauma informed healing. And then at that point, I knew I was healing my own trauma. But yeah, I didn't have that framework. I didn't know what trauma informed meant. So she was a professor at the California Institute of integral studies, and she invited me to become a teacher's assistant in the trauma course. So that's when I started to really develop a deeper understanding and nuance of what trauma is and how to meet it where it's at instead of override it. And just another thing you said earlier, yeah, this tendency, if something's wrong, we want to fix it. And that's a big piece of trauma informed healing is to actually recognize that nothing's broken, nothing needs to be fixed that these imprints of trauma and then the symptoms of our pain are signals from our body that are trying to gather get our attention. And these protective mechanisms are trying to guard us so I like to think of our wounding as more of a sacred guardian. Where, you know, in my early days of healing, I had so much pain inside of me that I was fighting against it. It almost felt like there was a monster living inside of me. And, you know, it took time to realize that what I thought was a monster was just a wounded part of myself. And so, to fight against a wounded part of myself was just further you know, deepening my hurt and my pain. So to to understand that the wound and the hurt actually needs a loving attention. And care is a radical shift, and then following its wisdom following its messages and learning how to listen.
Ericka Thomas 13:57
Yeah, I think that's story is going to really resonate with a lot of our listeners out there because even if you don't consider yourself someone who has experienced trauma, like for many years, I would have thought that I was not on that list. Yet the stories that my body was holding on to absolutely fall into that category and was showing up in things like anxiety and panic attacks and some depression and chronic pain that just sort of subtly builds over time until all of a sudden you're like, I don't know what's wrong with me everything hurts and, and you're exactly right that it's a protective mechanism and the body will whisper until it has to scream, if you're not going to pay attention to it. So what would you say to, to to fitness professionals who are are maybe thinking oh, a trauma informed way of teaching might be a good step. What? What would that look like when you are standing in front of a group of unknown people, right? Like if it's a group of people, or even one on one I found in my own career as a health coach, and group fitness instructor people don't tell you their stories up front, right? You just have to know that these are human beings, and so they're carrying things with them. So how do we how do we approach that kind of work in a meaningful trauma informed way? No.
Greg Wieting 15:38
I think a lot of that in offering invitations for people to explore what fits fits them on for size, whether it's, you know, instructions for movement or an exercise. So recognizing that everyone's going to have their own limitation. Everyone's body functions differently, you know, with the severe curve and my spine. You know, I was in the world of yoga for well over 15 years, and there's just certain yoga poses, my body will never, they will my body will never get into and so it's not overriding that and forcing myself into a posture or position. That isn't right. And now in my world of lifting weights, there's just certain limitations musculoskeletal B that I want to honor right and so in honoring that I've never had a sports injury. Right. And so it's inviting people to really pay attention, pay attention to their breath, and helping them develop that internal sense of awareness, that internal sense of touch to listen to their edge to ride their edge, not override it. And so, yeah, it's really following instead of forcing and pushing through.
Ericka Thomas 16:52
Yeah, that what you're talking about is really something that could very well elevate a practice right. So we want when you're speaking about yoga, I also I'm also a Yogini and teacher, and I too, have a double scoliosis curve. So that makes me super exciting when you're on the mat, right? But it is really easy. To fall into that temptation of performance, over practice for your own self, especially when you're in a group of people. For sure. I'd like to take a little, a little off shoot here and talk a little bit about anxiety and depression and PTs some of these other symptoms that rise up outside of physical pain in conjunction with physical pain, though, because I've heard you speak on other podcasts about the possibility that anxiety and depression is the correct response. So I was hoping that you could go a little bit deeper into that kind of explain what that is for people who may be suffering from some of these things and looking at them like this is again something that needs to be fixed.
Greg Wieting 18:23
I think there's just so much stigma when it comes to mental health. And yeah, I think a lot of folks if they're struggling with anxiety or depression or chronic pain for that matter, they think something's wrong. With me. And for sure, there may be a check engine light that is inviting us to open up the hood and investigate what's happening. But what if what's happening is actually a healthy response to lived experience or a healthy response to an unhealthy environment. You know, and I have so many clients that come to me that they're referred to me through their psychiatrist and the psychiatrist that refers patients for PTSD and complex trauma, you know, and his scope of treatment is to treat the chemical imbalance medically. And while that sometimes helps people find kind of steady ground. I often find it's has a lot of folks still kind of walking on eggshells and just like treading water, but the subconscious message that that sends is that the individual has a chemical imbalance. So something must be wrong with them. And the fact of the matter is, research hasn't proven that chemical imbalance causes anxiety or depression. And what if chemical imbalance and anxiety and depression for that matter are just the tip of the iceberg? And so what if we want to investigate what are the causative factors beneath that, and oftentimes, trauma and attachment wounding is a piece of that. And you know, I think, for the folks who don't identify with trauma because they think well, nothing bad happened to me. The other idea about trauma is well, sometimes not enough. of the right things happened for too long, so maybe not enough for too long. So in early development, if we didn't have our basic needs met in a reliable and consistent manner, it's going to signal that perhaps our very life is at threat because if our basic needs aren't being met, that could really be dangerous. And so that can set up a whole you know, dynamic of hyper vigilance, that helping the nervous system stay at a very elevated flooded state. And so, that's gonna that's gonna have effects over time. And so then and later in life when anxiety and depression and that does have an impact on chemical imbalance. It's like, well, we can treat the chemical imbalance but let's not kid ourselves if we're not addressing the unresolved trauma and the attachment wounding beneath the chemical imbalance there's only there's only so much healing that can happen. And so, I like to just Yeah, name that so then people can understand that the anxiety and the depression actually make sense based on their experience in this world. And yeah, there's definitely a feedback loop, you know, where, you know, again, the residue of trauma is stored in the body, and that's creating this rigidity, these identity structures around pain and wounding. So, you know, when I was hunched over and chronic pain, you know, I'm three inches taller today. But I carried a much different identity and I carried many different emotions when I was living like this, right. So as I've started to work through that wounding my body no longer had to organize around it, my identity was no longer organized around it. So there's just more space for me to be me instead of me being my pain. But yeah, when we are feeling these pain signals get activated. Well, that's going to bring up a lot of fear and anxiety, right? Then that's gonna cue the depression. So it just starts to create a cycle. So polling is really, you know, how do we pattern interrupt that cycle? And I think the mindfulness is a big piece. That's the mind training where we start to say, Wait, I'm not my pain. So let me reorient from pain possibility. Oh, and that's how we can start to then dissolve the the identification and the holding with our pain. So we start to access more of our fluid nature. Again, starting to feel more movement, I think of health as movement and expression and disease and illness is stagnation.
Ericka Thomas 22:46
Yeah, there's a couple of really great points. That you that you brought up there and there's so a couple things I want to tease out. You mentioned hyper vigilance like this, this sense of being on edge, right, always an on high alert. And that's typically what we think of when we think of somebody who's suffering from PTSD or something like that. That that hyper vigilance sometimes can be reinforced by the things that maybe we we think are going to make it better. So can you speak to how, you know how do people if they're in a state of hyper vigilance or they discover that they're in a state of hyper vigilance? Finally, notice it what would be appropriate? How would they discover their own appropriate ways to to come out of that state?
Greg Wieting 23:51
Well, I think there's so much of this as a path of awareness. First, it's just noticing that pattern of hyper vigilance and once we start to notice it pause creates a little more space or distance between us and the hypervigilance and then there's a little more space for us to perhaps choose a different route. Not necessarily though, because that's kind of an intellectual process where some of us are processing more bottom up where we need to feel something shift energetically and physically in the body before we can grok you know, have some insight intellectually. So, so much of this is creating safety. Right. So how do we develop safety? How do we regulate the nervous system? To just find that sense of being steady and settled within ourselves? And again, we can't force that. So yeah, I think that that hypervigilance, even when we're starting to find a healing practice can be alright, well now I'm gonna be hyper vigilant about my healing practice and I'm gonna, you know, go to the gym, you know, twice a day. Seven days a week and so it's like we're even though we might be doing something therapeutic and healing, we can still be coming at it from that same nervous system drive. But over time, we'll probably find how that's not all that sustainable. And
Ericka Thomas 25:11
that is exactly why I asked that question because it tends to be like that, that feeling of hyper vigilance. I mean, we've already touched on this, like, the thought is we want to meet that where it is right. So, so yes, maybe that wants the two a day gym workout, the high intensity boot camp or whatever. Maybe on the surface, that is where you want to go because it just sort of feels okay, you're already there. You're already there. Let's go get yelled at to lift harder, run faster, whatever. When may maybe the opposite would create a little bit more balance at some point. So there might need to be some sort of balancing piece to that where you start high and then bring yourself down but you did talk about mindfulness. And I'd love to go a little deeper with mindfulness because first of all, we want to frame what that means when you're moving. Like how do you be mindful when you're in that hyper vigilant state because as we know, the higher that hypervigilance goes, the less likely we're we're rationally thinking about things. So how do we bring that to a point where we can actually be present in the moment? And then where is the line where we can you know, bring in meditation or moving meditation, I would say to help bridge that gap between the body and the mind.
Greg Wieting 26:56
Yeah, good. I think all this is a process and I think if I can share just a story with a client it's a little different, not directly related to fitness, but I think it it runs parallel. Our work together. You know, she was very much a high performing entrepreneur, and her anxiety and her stress was a big driver. So over time her healing process helped her to not be driven so much by stress, and she was actually starting to understand what relaxation is. And yet if relaxation is so foreign relaxation can feel dangerous, right? Because that pedal to the metal drive is what we feel like is going to save us and that's that's how we feel, like safe. And so she reached a point where even though she was making all this progress and starting to relax, it started to freak her out. Like Wait, what if I can't perform what if my business doesn't? I can't What if I still can't drive my business forward? The way I have been as I'm relaxed. So so much healing is having these repaired experiences where we're creating the climate for that relaxation. We're creating the climate for that mindfulness, we're creating the climate, for that sense of presence. And then over time, when we realize that the world hasn't fallen apart, we realize that oh, it's okay. So over time, she realized she's still relaxed, and actually her business is still growing and she's actually performing better than she was. But she's also sleeping better her relationships are improved. Her boundaries are better communication, this better, you know, so much of healing, you know, the that developmental needs when they've gone unmet, so much of healing is tracking. And this is through mindfulness. What are those unmet needs? And can I now process the emotional impact of those unmet needs from early development that I've been harboring in my body? And as I do, and I'm no longer carrying the emotional imprint of those unmet needs. It frees me up to be more present in the moment because I'm no longer being driven by the unmet needs of the past. So then yeah, I can track my breath more, I can feel my body more because my mind is not scanning for danger as much because it's actually just has more access to now. And so yeah, I think for me in terms of fitness, it is very much allowing my breath to fuel the movement, so tracking breath and movement as one and really moving into sensation, never moving into pain. So letting that be kind of the understanding of what my edge is. And I think those two are really big
Greg Wieting 30:00
And I guess for me, I came into the world of movement and fitness from such a place of being so in pain and you know, with a severe curve and my spine that for me like the idea of competition was almost it was always off the table because for me competition like I just knew that B being in that world of movement and fitness and strength training was all for the sake of healing my spine. And so, in that sense, all of that wounding was a really great blessing because it's helped me superimpose this level of mindfulness with all as my movement from the get go.
Ericka Thomas 30:41
Yeah, I think at first of all, thank you for sharing that story. I think you're speaking to all of our perfectionist listeners out there and I I love what you said about your own your your own personal physical practices, because that's a real important shift for people to make when when they're when they're going to start moving, especially if it's like a beginning thing if they just are trying to get something new. Is the intention behind what they're doing. Is your intention to look a certain way on the outside? Or is it to feel a different way on the inside? And I think that that can be huge. Especially if you do carry some of that physical trauma or emotional trauma or any of these things because it definitely will change the outcome of what you're doing. So, Greg, what, what would you say is the most important reason for for people to really understand a little bit more about this nervous system connection in the body and how it shows up, how trauma shows up for people.
Greg Wieting 32:16
I mean, the nervous system is directly linked to how we think how we feel, how we behave. It's linked to you know, our the function of our cardiovascular system, our immune system. So it is just so foundational to who we are. So bringing awareness to, you know, when we default to hyper arousal, fight flight or hypo arousal, freeze and appease. It's really important and that and helps us start to detect when we have lost access to our upper brain of logic and reason and we've defaulted to our lower brain that is around organized around survival. We don't want to be living our lives out of survival. You know, there's moments when we are in dire threat and that survival response is appropriate, and it will help us you know, get out of harm's way. But that's not a sustainable place for us to live 24/7 And yet, that's in our modern lives very much. What's happening is we're being bombarded by signals and texts and emails and this and that, which is having us move into these elevated states and flooding the nervous system. So I think that's really an integral piece for us to develop psychological safety and trust, for us to just access a sense of fulfillment and purpose in our lives, not to mention just our physical, mental, emotional health.
Ericka Thomas 33:49
That is, that is so important and as you were talking, I was thinking okay, so let's give the listeners some, some tools, some ideas. Can you share a little bit about kind of what Prisma does for people and you know, what are what what belongs in that toolbox? for healing? Sure.
Greg Wieting 34:15
Yeah. So Prisma is both a course a training program and a community. So the online course is basically a trauma and neuroscience roadmap. And, you know, I found I was going to healers in therapy for years, and I knew I was making strides of change. You know, I knew that I was better understanding my anxiety and my depression and my pain. But I didn't really know well, I didn't know understand the nervous system, and I didn't really know where I was or where I was headed on this healing path. So I find that having a roadmap is really essential to help us travel without blindfolds. And within that is the seven Prisma pillars which really helped people map the journey from nervous system regulation to purpose and that includes embodiment, emotional intelligence to again work through the emotional impact of unmet needs, values orientation to develop a sense of belonging within ourselves. The narration, which is flipping the script on a lot of the behaviors and beliefs that are organized around pain and help to rewire the brain neuroplasticity towards possibility. Identity again, dissolving identity around wounding to really get to understand who we are from a place of present moment awareness and that is a place of dynamic change. You know, from moment to moment, we are refreshed and renewed if we're no longer carrying the imprints of the past. And then that sense of impact is purpose really derived from intrinsic motivation. And it's not so much what we do but who we are. And so yeah, the trauma and neuroscience roadmap helps to lay all of that out with tons of somatic and mindfulness based practices. And then I offered guided practices throughout the course of a year because it's one thing to learn a practice it's another to embody it. And so that is the mind training where we really are helping to develop just the sense of being okay with what is and so we're training the brain to not react to pain to not react to anxiety to not react to depression, but to zoom out and start to gather some more data points and understanding around what is so we can start to read constantly and read constantly and reorganize around what at one point seemed fixed and come into more of a fluid experience of who we are.
Ericka Thomas 36:55
Yeah, that sounds that what you're describing to me sounds like post traumatic growth, right? We're taking our experience, whatever that was without judgment and then we are turning it into something new, maybe better, maybe stronger. That maybe looks nothing like we were
Greg Wieting 37:19
and that growth is unique for each of us and our our world often limits the possibility of that growth. You know, I stand three inches taller today. And I can't tell you how many doctors and chiropractors have told me that's impossible. Yeah, that's my lived experience.
Ericka Thomas 37:36
Yeah. Yeah. So what was what Tell me about that transition for that transformation for you that physical transformation is it something that you felt happening in the moment? Or was it a subtle, like relief of pain, how? I'm just very curious.
Greg Wieting 37:57
And so yeah, and that's the energy medicine piece, which is the final piece of Prisma. You know, energy medicine is helping to flush out the stagnation of trauma stored in the body. So to geek out for a moment, if our connective tissue in our fascia is what kind of holds us together, it holds our muscles and bones together, more so than our skeletal system. And so, you know, without the fascial system, our bones would just drop right so the fascial system, that's what's holding them together. Well, the connective tissue and fascia is also where we store memories and beliefs and emotions and trauma. So when I was struggling with the severe curve in my spine, well, I was carrying all this wounding all this fear all this garden, right. And so over time, energy medicine helps the system start to dissolve and start to reorganize around that pain. So then I was no longer being held in that fixed rigid posture, right. So our posture is very much a reflection of our beliefs and our behaviors and our identity structures. And so, yeah, energy medicine is really effective at regulating the nervous system, calming the cardiovascular system, strengthening the immune system, and you know, those three pieces alone are pretty foundational in helping to, to derive a deeper sense of wellness, a deeper sense of balance within ourselves, and that helps to fortify our body's innate capacity to heal. And that's a term that is really important, innate wisdom, which is a term I think first coined in chiropractic many years ago. But you know, if we get a paper cut, there is a healing mechanism that sends platelets and proteins and orchestrates all these biochemical transmissions to heal that paper cup. So the more we're carrying trauma, it's like the more we are disconnected or we lose contact with that innate wisdom. So I find energy medicine helps to reconnect us to that innate wisdom. And as we are reconnected to that innate wisdom, then the body and the mind and the spirit can come back in into an understanding of our natural balance, and that helps the system start to restructure and reorganize itself according to that wisdom.
Ericka Thomas 40:21
Yeah, for people who are maybe an uninitiated what is energy medicine? Exactly what falls under that category?
Greg Wieting 40:33
Yeah, so Reiki is part of Prisma. So Reiki is how people apply Prisma and Reiki is a hands on healing practice, although I practice it virtually so I teach students you know, all over the world, because we are working to Reiki is defined as a universal lifeforce energy. I like to speak in metaphors. So I like to give illustration so if the body and the mind and the spirit are a symphony, orchestra, so if every thought if every neurotransmitter if every hormone, if every belief, if every muscle tissue, ligament organ, are all parts of the symphony orchestra, when we're experiencing health, all those different parts are communicating with one another. So then the entire body mind spirit is in tune. And so we're making sweet music. There's this harmonic resonance, and then because of stress because of trauma, when the North nervous system gets short circuited, and we default to survival mode, all of a sudden the communication between all these parts starts to break up. So instead of making music, we start to make a lot of noise. And then that noise is first the whisper of our symptoms, and then sometimes the scream of our pain. And so energy medicine functions to just break up that noise, energy medicine is breaking up what blocks the harmonic communication between all the different parts. So the function of energy medicine is in restoring the relationship between all the different parts of the body mind spirit, so they can function harmoniously as one. And the beauty in that is we can bypass the brain so there's just some pain we can't think or talk our way through. But with energy medicine, it affords us the capacity to move through that noise without having to figure it out intellectually. that over time we become we develop a greater awareness of ourselves. So then we start to notice and track when we're in that hyper vigilant state, because we started to develop a capacity to actually not be so hyper vigilant.
Ericka Thomas 42:51
Yeah, yeah, that's great. Now so Reiki is an energy system would you call like, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, anything any other modalities which they've, that other people would maybe know about? Would that fall under those categories as well?
Greg Wieting 43:12
You know, I think acupuncture is definitely working with the energy system for sure. I think energy medicine, you know, I think that energy medicines are more of an emerging field. So Body Talk is another healthcare system I practice which was developed by an osteopath, chiropractor and acupuncturist, Reiki teacher. And so, you know, cuz here's the thing, oftentimes, even with and I love acupuncture, so I'm not knocking any modality out there. But, you know, with acupuncture, you may the acupuncturist may take your pulse and they may say, Oh, the kidney Qi is low, so, they may throw some needles to strengthen kidney Qi, which may really help kidney Qi rebound. But energy medicine is actually helping to break up the noise because why is the kidney Qi blocked? There may be other causative factors that are impacting the flow of kidney Qi. So just to rebound kidney Qi, there could still be some level of treating symptomatically
Ericka Thomas 44:19
I see what you're saying now. Yeah, there's a time and a place
Greg Wieting 44:22
for that. I think sometimes, DME and pain management aren't necessary and can be very helpful. And what I love about energy medicine is helping the system reorganize and restructure from the bottom up to address underlying root causative factors instead of just treating the tip of the iceberg.
Ericka Thomas 44:43
Yeah, it sounds sounds a little bit like well, Reiki is its own thing. And I teach trauma release exercise tra, which I don't know if you're familiar with but it actually works through the fascia and the tremor mechanism that all mammals naturally have that humans have decided not to ever do. So a way to release stored tension store trauma in the body and it's a very similar thing when you can get into that tremor and into the fascia itself where the fascia is actually moving where you can start to feel like those little sticky places that you didn't realize. We're holding on to that, that tension. I think for so many people, they just accept all of those tight areas in the body and try to cover the sensation that that brings up rather than digging deep to to figure out why. Figure out the why and allow that stuff to come out. Which sounds like what Prisma really does quite well.
Greg Wieting 45:58
Yeah provides the tools for us to make contact with what is and through that contact, we develop capacity to understand and that understanding helps the whole system come into a new under organization unto itself. So that repatterning helps us start to let go of what was once holding us together so we can which is often again organized around pain or fear or isolation. And as we're connected more and more to the wholeness of who we are, and more and more connected to the environment that we find a sense of safety and belonging within ourselves and within the world. Then these mal adaptations distress can fall away.
Ericka Thomas 46:43
Yeah, I love that. I love that. Well Greg, if people want to work with you, if they resonate with your message, if they're curious about Prisma where, where could they get in touch with you?
Greg Wieting 46:56
Sure, yeah, correct. waiting.com you can learn about my one on one work and Prisma which is the online course and the community and the training program, and it all starts with a phone call. So folks schedule a discovery call. And yeah, we really get to know where you're at where you'd like to be. And we're kind of vetting each other out. I'm all about creating win wins. I want people to get results and I want people to get results in a fun and meaningful way. So we are assessing out if we're just a good fit. And if we have a good resonance to do good work and really commit to an Arca transformation.
Ericka Thomas 47:30
Awesome. Awesome. All right, last question, Greg. I asked all of my guests because this podcast is called the work in and I am curious what your personal work is, especially since at the time of this recording, and this is the first week of 2023. So what do you got going on?
Greg Wieting 47:54
Well, everything we've been speaking about is you know, I literally teach what has helped me heal my own pain and my own anxiety and my depression. So all of Prisma all of these tools, energy medicine are just part of my toolbox and you know my non negotiable day to day kind of self care. But about three months ago, four months ago, this fall, I started doing open water swims. I live in San Francisco out of China beach. So I think the waters dropped down to about 5051 now and so doing 2025 minutes swims but it's yeah, really a meditation because when your body's learning how to adjust to those cold temperatures, and you're out in the elements, it really demands you to be present. So that's my newest practice to go in.
Ericka Thomas 48:45
Well, I've heard really great things about being in the cold water in general for for resilience to build resilience in the human body. So I guess if you're brave enough to jump in there out there in that open water. I think that's that's pretty amazing. More power to you. I'm not a swimmer. So I'm always impressed by swimmers especially out in the ocean.
Greg Wieting 49:08
Yeah, it's, it's great. I'm still learning how to regulate my breath. And yeah, it's a whole different world out there. Um, so. Yeah. And so, again, and everything we were talking about earlier, you know, because I see people who, like just start to swim into the deep water, and they're not ready for that. So it's again, it's just a really great practice to know my edge and to know well you know, where I'm at and to really listen and not override that. So it's a great practice.
Ericka Thomas 49:35
Right, right. Exactly. And that could change on a day to day basis, right where your edges and one day doesn't. It's not necessarily the same the next so it's important thing for people to keep in mind when they're starting to work towards that edge. Right. It's not always going to be the same. Exactly. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, it was fantastic. Speaking with you, Greg, thank you so much for coming on the work in.
Greg Wieting 50:00
Thanks for having me Erica. Really glad to be here with you.
Ericka Thomas 50:05
Thanks for joining me today on the work and if you like what you heard, and you're looking for a little bit more, be sure to head over to savagegracecoaching.com/theworkin for all of today's show notes and links to our amazing guest. You'll also find lots of free resources as well as previous episodes, and be sure to check out our free holding space guide for trauma informed fitness professionals. It is an excellent resource to get you started on all things trauma informed. Thanks again everyone. And I'll see you next time on the work in
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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