We are working our way through 5 categories of health with our Cat 5 challenge and today we’re diving into category 4 the nervous system. Last week we discussed the overlap of the nervous system and sleep and how we’re looking for ways to help the body feel safe enough to be able to relax into that parasympathetic so we can rest and be close to other people. Today I want to discuss how playing it safe ALL the time can actually keep you in a state of protection, hypervigilance and anxiety.

We might be in an adapted or more accurately a maladapted state. In other words your nervous system, brain and body have conspired to keep you safe and help you survive based on your experiences in the world. And because the brain lives in a dark cave and only has memories to make decisions with, it doesn’t always make the best choices. The only choices it gives you are fight, flight or freeze. And those can end up looking like anxiety, hypervigilance and depression. How can we balance these perfectly rational moods for better mental, physical and emotional health?

Anatomically, the pelvic floor is a web of muscles woven through and around the most intimate vulnerable parts of the body. At best it’s misunderstood at worst it’s tangled up in a mess of sexual shame and trauma history. Especially for women. Today we’re going to demystify the pelvic floor and open the door for women to reclaim a sense of trust and reverence for this part of themselves.

Now there's a lot going on in your head when you're standing in front of a room teaching a class. Whether you teach math, or kickboxing, history or yoga. There's a process that our brains go through to lock information in. As teachers, instructors and coaches. we need to be aware of that so we can support our students and clients in their learning process. Today, you're going to hear about a foundation that you need to learn just about anything, what memory hooks are and how to use them. How to create a location filing system for your memories, and why forgetting is important to this one's going to be good.

An unsung and underappreciated piece to being successful as a fitness professional is creativity. Today’s episode is a mindset reset on what creativity is and it’s value to learning and memory. Collin and I discuss how to use creativity, curiosity and imagination to help our brains adapt to perceived environments and how stress can kill creativity and limit our success learning or remembering things.

The body, nervous system and movement are intricately connected to how we learn and remember things. And one of the biggest fears for our aging populations is memory loss, dementia and alzheimer’s. Movement is a key aspect to maintaining brain health so it makes sense that we should expand our understanding of that connection.