92. Move It to Make It: How Exercise Transforms Your Mind and Spirit

Michelle: Welcome to "Mind Power Meets Mystic." I'm Michelle Walters, your mind power professional clinical hypnotherapist, and I'm joined by my podcast co-host, and our show mystic, Cinthia Varkevisser. Hey, Cinthia, how are you doing today?

Cinthia: Doing really well, Michelle. How are you?

Michelle: I'm doing good. So we decided to take this episode because I needed a little motivation. And I thought, why not share my need for motivation, and my methods of achieving motivation, with our listeners? I have a feeling I'm not the only one in this category. So today, we want to talk about "Move It to Make It," the importance of physical movement in terms of getting things going, accomplishing what you're trying to accomplish, and all those good things. How does that sound, Cinthia?

Cinthia: It sounds great because we didn't really talk about this, but I am actually stagnant on the other side. I'm not feeling so creative today, so this is actually perfect for me as well.

Michelle: Yes, because even though we think of ourselves as being in our heads, and the two of us talk a lot about spirit, the fact of the matter is that all of these things are connected back to our original show title, "It's All Connected." It is important to be able to move things around because if you move things around on one plane, you get some movement on the other planes. I think that's really important. One of the things I wanted to bring up is that frequently, when I talk to a new potential client, and they tell me they're anxious, depressed, or suffering in some way, I will ask about their exercise habits. Are they moving? What are they doing? Part of that is because even though hypnotherapy is extremely powerful and can do all kinds of things, it’s crucial to understand where a person is on the movement side of things as I reflect upon how I can help them. Oftentimes, just adding a little exercise every day, or even a couple of times a week, can do an awful lot to lift a person’s spirits. Depression and anxiety may not be caused by a lack of exercise, but they are absolutely helped by more exercise. I know sometimes that's not easily achievable, or there's not enough time in the day, but we'll talk more about that later. For low mood, exercise and moving in some fashion are really, really important.

Cinthia: Agreed, agreed. I love that you're talking about depression. Especially after COVID, people tend to shut in and stay inside. It's lovely to see people saying, "Hey, it's over, let's go out, let's be in person." But the habit, unfortunately, is to stay inside and be in your own space. So I love that you're getting everybody out of the vacuum.

Michelle: Yes, moving is super important to mood and good mental health. I wanted to put that at the top of our list. What’s next on the list, Cinthia?

Cinthia: Moving gives energy. Actually, I was going to have you do this, but let me start off with a story, and then you can go in with the factoids. If you don't already know, I do martial arts, an amazing Indonesian art called Pink Lench Mini Toulon. When you test for a promotion for rank, the tests get longer and longer as you get up in higher ranks. So what happens for a lot of people, especially for brown sash, which is one below black belt, is that it's such a long test that they believe they should conserve energy. They think about their next form or the next thing, so they're not staying present. The smartest thing to do is to let it all out on the floor at that moment. Use all your energy, put it out on the floor, and then focus on the next thing. You’ll find that you fill up with energy again. But if you don't, you stay in the past, thinking, "I could have done this better," and always worrying about what's going on in the future. You actually become more tired when you don't move it in a way to expend your energy.

Michelle: That is very well said. One of the ways I’ve thought about this is not so much physical movement, but if I don’t have enough on my plate, I don’t feel challenged, and I don’t push myself. You have to be able to have a few things that you’re doing and get things in motion to keep going. One of the talks I give in my leadership work is, "Motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you going." You have to sort of get going and then keep up with the energy. When you keep it up, it actually comes back to you, often in larger amounts. It might seem unintuitive, but for some reason, when you start moving, you get more energy from doing more and being more active.

Cinthia: Right. Well, things in motion stay in motion.

Michelle: Yep, there you go. So, Cinthia, what’s our number three?

Cinthia: That it’s all connected. Moving your physical body helps with your emotional and spiritual body. This is totally my jam. If you’re feeling spiritually, creatively, or emotionally stuck, go out and do something physical. It gets you out of your head, out of your heart, and brings you back to the present in a way that is free and fast. It’s so simple. It brings us back to curiosity and joy by just moving our bodies. When we are moving, all our hurt feelings and challenges can start moving. Our old stagnant thoughts can start moving, and who knows, maybe they can even move out of the way. When our physical body is in alignment, our emotional body is in alignment, and our spiritual body is supercharged to receive all the good things—information, gifts, everything. It’s all about that alignment. What do you think about that, Michelle?

Michelle: I am reminded of a little blip a few weeks ago. Something happened that threw me off, and I didn’t know what to do. I went to one of my teachers and guides—this was not Cinthia—and her advice was to get more in my physical body. Get out of my head, take good care of myself, my skin, move, and get more present. In retrospect, she was right. Sometimes I know for me, and I imagine this might be true for some of our listeners, that I look at things and go, "Oh my God, this is happening on a spiritual plane, what am I going to do about it?" One of the things you can do is address it on the physical plane, because that will impact it. You've been teaching me this for years. It’s something that I overlook, yet the physical earth, the present moving of things, inevitably shakes things up. Often, in a spiritual shit disturber way, it moves things into a new energy, a new resonance, a new frequency. That can adjust and fix a lot of bad juju.

Cinthia: That is my phrase, Bad Juju. I like that. It’s not my phrase, but I’m going to steal it from you.

Michelle: I think we can both own it. We can co-own Bad Juju.

Cinthia: I want to remind everybody that you’re listening to "Mind Power Meets Mystic" with Michelle Walters, our mind power, and me, Cinthia Varkevisser, our mystic. If you’re having fun listening to us or watching us on video, because we are now on YouTube, please like, comment, and tell your loved ones. We would love to reach out and help as many people as possible. If you have suggestions, please let us know. We are all about being infinitely curious.

Michelle: And if you are liking this episode, share it with a friend. We have a lot of great things to share, and we hope you will share some of our content with your own friends and networks.

Cinthia: Thank you, I always forget that part. Let’s talk. We’ve talked about how movement helps. Let’s talk about simple, different movements that can get us back into a different space. Why don’t you go first?

Michelle: My number one is to walk. Many of our listeners may know, years ago, I walked 300 miles in three weeks. That was part of a combo physical and spiritual journey when I walked across Spain as part of the Camino de Santiago. Walking is accessible to almost everyone. You don’t have to be gone a long time. Yes, you can walk hundreds of miles, but you can also just walk around the block. Walking is easy, cheap, free, and as long as the weather is not miserable, it’s pretty doable. So my number one is just walk.

Cinthia: I love it.

Michelle: What is your number one, Cinthia?

Cinthia: I’m all about being a kid again. I tend to get really resistant about my exercise because it tends to be more disciplined—martial arts, running for a half marathon, which I haven’t done yet, but gotta get up for that. So I recommend going back to kids' stuff. My number one is hopscotch. It takes a piece of chalk and a little bit of space. Here’s the fun part about hopscotch. You may be playing by yourself, but I guarantee if there’s anyone around, they will want to play hopscotch as soon as you’re done. So go hide and enjoy other people being physical with something that you have created. So hopscotch is my number one.

Michelle: Excellent. And you don’t even need a piece of chalk because if you’re playing in the dirt, you can just draw the lines with a stick.

Cinthia: Truth.

Michelle: So hopscotch is great. My number two is dance. I love dance. I love all kinds of dance. I like structured dances, line dancing, and just dancing on my own to my own music and beat. Dancing is very whole-body. You can stretch, move, jiggle, and whatever feels good to you. I can stand up behind my desk and dance around for a minute or two. It’s great. It moves my body and helps to ease out the kinks and badness from sitting. Sitting is the new cancer, I’ve been told. So, dance is great.

Cinthia: The other thing I like about dance is, let’s say you can’t stand up and dance—chair dancing is just as valid. You can get just as much cardio out of it, just as much movement. It’s all about how much you want to move. I’ve found that a lot of people who chair dance do it from the waist up. You can still move your feet, people! You’re just sitting down. So move your feet as you’re shaking your booty in your chair, doing your little shimmy, and nodding your head. That’s what I have to say about dancing. It’s amazing.

Michelle: And let’s not forget belly dancing. Belly dancing is super fun, super sexy, and it’s cardio and upper body.

Cinthia: Yes.

Michelle: Okay, go belly dancing.

Cinthia: There’s a lot of stuff.

Michelle: What is your next one, Cinthia?

Cinthia: Sticking with the be a kid theme, jump rope. Jump rope by yourself, jump rope with others. It doesn’t have to be all about quality cardio. Can you double jump? Can you jump backward? Can you run and jump at the same time as you jump rope? Can you do crossovers? Do you remember your schoolyard songs? There are so many things, and there’s also a personal competition. My best was double jumping five times, which isn’t great, but you can challenge yourself in many different ways with jump rope. Jumping is no joke.

Michelle: Jumping is no joke. When I went to see a trainer to help me get better for the Camino, she said, "Okay, jump." I was like, "Jump?" It’s just not something that middle-aged people think about doing that much. But it’s such a good exercise to get off the planet for a second and jump.

Cinthia: Right.

Michelle: Okay, I’m going to go on to my third one and take a page from Cinthia. What about hula hooping? Super fun, super cardio, and not necessarily a piece of cake. You kind of have to get your rhythm to keep the hoop up for any period of time. I have a hula hoop and a little trampoline on my patio. It’s another way to get myself moving—either hips back and forth or jumping up and down.

Cinthia: I love it. I love hula hooping. Have you seen the videos? They have acrobatics where you’re not using the hula hoop as we know it, but you’re just jumping through hoops. They’re doing amazing things with the hula these days.

Michelle: I’m seeing all the opportunities in front of me.

Cinthia: Yes.

Michelle: What’s your next one, Cinthia?

Cinthia: This goes back to my childhood. Play with a ball. I grew up playing softball, and thanks to my partner, I’m back to playing softball. It doesn’t look the same, but the joy is still there. I grew up playing soccer, so there’s a soccer ball, volleyball, basketball, tennis ball, racquetball—you can move around, use your upper body, lower body, and create games. When I was 10 years old, I went to the Netherlands to see my grandmother. Back then, there was no real cable, so I got to experience other kids' games. They played different wall ball games, tossing the ball against the wall, doing twirls, and throwing the ball against the curb so it pops back. There are so many things you can do with the ball, and you can get creative and curious while moving things around. So that’s what I’ve got—playing with a ball.

Michelle: I love it. And I think that pretty much covers what we wanted to talk about for "Move It to Make It."

Cinthia: Agreed. But I want to talk about our latest new endeavor, "Mind Power Meets Mystic: The Project."

Michelle: Okay, let’s do it.

Cinthia: Tell our listeners, Michelle, what is "Mind Power Meets Mystic: The Project"?

Michelle: It’s an amazing tool where you work with both of us. You get on Zoom, and we talk about what you want to amp up or release. Through an intuitive session, we get down to the core or deeper into what can be done to help you move through this. Then, I come up with an RX of three simple tasks. While I’m doing this, Michelle is standing by and listening intently. As soon as I’m done with you in our 25 minutes, I say goodbye and drop off. You then have a half-hour hypnotherapy session with Michelle created specifically for you and this one item.

Cinthia: Yeah, so it’s a really powerful way of working in combo with me and Cinthia in this one-hour session. You’re getting a half-hour reading from Cinthia, where she does a fantastic job, and then a customized hypnotherapy session from me. At the end of the day, you walk away with a video session, a three-part prescription from Cinthia, and a custom hypnotherapy audio to reinforce positive changes. It’s an absolutely beautiful means of getting the best of both of us in a one-hour Zoom call. If you’re interested, we have a link in the show notes to our page that describes it in more detail. You can book a time with us or reach out for questions. We would love to help you with "Mind Power Meets Mystic: The Project."

Cinthia: I love it. Thank you so much. I love working with you, Michelle. Even after all these years, I learn more from you every day.

Michelle: I learn more from you every day, too. Thank you for listening to this episode of "Mind Power Meets Mystic." Be sure to join us next week.

Cinthia: Thanks. Bye.