Hey, and welcome to Calmer Conversations, episode number 26, Happy New Year. I am recording this way back in November, but you’ll be listening to this, I think on January 2nd of 2025. So Happy New Year. I wanted to record a kind of a welcome to the New Year podcast and specifically have it about nourishing yourself or finding the things that kind of feed you.
Because I think this is a potent and powerful time for setting goals for a lot of people, really any time that you want to set goals or you want to, you have the intention to make changes in your life is powerful. And that kind of having the intention to make change is the thing that makes it potent. But for many people, the new year is a time where this feels like what they want to be doing, or they’re thinking about where they want to be over the next 12 months. And so this podcast is called The Art of Nourishing Yourself. It’s not about eating.
We haven’t all of sudden changed topics on you, but we are going to talk about how to engage in activities that both work with your brain and with your nervous system to help you create calm or whatever feeling it is you’re looking for and then help you create the life that you’re really wanting to have. Right, the whatever that looks like from an engagement perspective. Okay, so.
I am, I just gave birth. have a new baby. It’s November 7th when I’m recording this. And I’m gonna just do a little personal update because it’s so related to the topic of this. So I, you might not expect actually me to be recording a podcast a couple days after giving birth. But I also just taught a class. I taught a class as part of a bigger course on nervous system, working, becoming an expert in your nervous system. So you can,
really work with it to change how you feel in your life and how your life looks and feels. So that’s where I am a couple days after giving birth. And if you’ve listened to the maternity leave episode, you know that I wasn’t planning on taking a big leave, but here I am a couple days later and I’m doing this. And you might wonder why and you might think, well, that’s, I mean, it’s very easy to look at another person.
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what they’re doing and have no idea why they’re doing it, right? So we can we mostly just project our own kind of stuff on to them. So I could be doing this because I feel lot of lack and insufficiency and I need to be doing it to to feel okay in the world or I might feel like I need to do it to kind of prove this to people something. And I have done both of those in the past and I will assure you that’s not why I’m doing these now. Why I’m doing this now, why I taught the course earlier today,
Why I started to go for very slow gentle walks yesterday is because I’m doing things that nourish me and that in to a small and large degree, most of what I’ve done over the past decade plus of this work is trying to create a life that nourishes me. So having work, we have a little, we have a little baby here too. So that’s maybe what you’re hearing if you’re hearing other sounds.
creating a life that is structured that nourishes me in general, that provides for my family and that gives and serves in the world. And I think I’ve done a pretty good job of it. And alongside that, I’ve done a lot of nervous system regulation work and a lot of thought work. And so that when I’m taking actions, I’m pretty good at checking in with myself and asking, where is this coming from? Why am I doing this? What is the kind of motive behind it?
So for instance, going for the walk yesterday, previously I probably would have been going for a walk because I thought I should be doing it. Or I wanted to prove that I was somebody who could walk very quickly after birth and start exercising. Or if I don’t walk now, my body’s never going to be X again and I need to do it right now. Or my goodness is related to exercising, for instance. And so I need to get out there. So those have all been past versions of me to smaller or larger extent.
Now, it was really, I actually had a pretty, a very easy, healthy pregnancy. And she was just looking for, looking to latch on. A very easy, healthy pregnancy. And then also had a very, relatively easy, healthy birth and labor. And I am resting. So.
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don’t, am resting. I do have other people making my food and doing laundry and things like that, which is lovely and amazing. And it feels like such a gift. I feel like I’m supported by a community and family in a way that I haven’t been after other births right now. And that feels really amazing. And my body wanted to move, like had this urge not to like, to, again, not to prove anything, not to go for a long arduous walk, but my body really felt like I want to be outside and I want to be moving a little bit.
So let’s try it. Let’s go. Let’s walk on the driveway for a little bit. Let’s see what it’s like to actually move. Does it feel good? Does it feel bad and go from there? Same thing with teaching and with being here on the podcast is actually asking myself, okay, why do I want to do this? Does it feel like pressure? Does it feel like insufficiency? Does it feel like fear? Is that why I’m teaching the course or does it feel kind of fun and nourishing and like this is actually bringing me home and closer to myself?
And the answer for that one was it was the second, right? this actually, I want to try it out and see how it goes because it could have gone horribly wrong, right? And I gave myself full permission to stop in the middle or stop 10 minutes in if it was going horribly wrong or it felt like the wrong thing to be doing. But one of the people who was there live said, you’re glowing, right? And I think that this is a key in our lives is finding the things that nourish us. And for you, it might not be teaching classes on Zoom about nervous system stuff, right?
Like it’s very likely not if you’re listening to this, but it might be. For me, I learned, you may have heard the story before if you’re in some of my other spaces, but I used to teach cooking classes at a local cooking place. And these were kind of like demo cooking classes where I would stand up and there were 20 people there and I would make them food. And then they got to eat that food. And I kind of talked to them through what I was doing or talked about other things while I was cooking the food. And then they got to eat it.
And the first time, the first class I taught, I very boldly went into this and these were, I taught specifically Ayurvedically based cooking classes. These were like local chefs and other people did other kinds of classes. It hadn’t occurred to me that I was going to need to talk while I cooked food for these people until a couple minutes before we started. And I’m kind of glad that it didn’t, because I might not have done it. But the…
Cecelia Baum Mandryk (07:08.096)
result was I spent just a few minutes kind of thinking about like what I might talk about or what kind of things I might want to cover and then I just gave myself permission to to kind of go with whatever came up and to which isn’t sometimes not a great plan I know for some people for me it it usually works out specifically if I’ve kind of asked for guidance and so I ended that class really learning something about myself that that teaching about things that matter to me like
eating in a supportive way or working with your nervous system is really powerful. It is really nourishing for me. It feeds me. It’s a thing that helps me feel present in my life, present in the moment, connected to other human beings. It is something that lights me up in a way that most other things don’t and that I never felt before when I was, for instance, working in geology. That’s not totally true.
When I gave presentations, I felt a little bit of it. So maybe I should have had some inclination. But in general, it wasn’t something that I knew that I liked to do. And so all this is to say that finding what lights us up is really important. And then for me, just having had a baby, there’s this interesting question of why would I stop doing the things that I love doing just because I had a baby? And I do believe in rest and I do believe in nourishment and I am going to go take a nap after this. And I’ve been taking naps every day. And again, I’ve had people
making food for me and cleaning and doing laundry and things like that. So I am doing those as well. But with those, I am also I’m not going to stop walking for the entire you know, for the however many weeks after giving birth, I’m not going to stop doing the things that feel like they feed me and nourish me. Because I think one of the things we can some especially high achievers, interestingly enough, I think
is that one of the things we can be really, really great at is not giving ourselves the things that nourish us or believing that the things that nourish us and help us feel alive are somehow the things we shouldn’t be doing. And I think that there is an art and a practice of noticing what gives you, what lights you up, what gives you energy, what nourishes you in your life and going with those. Okay, so that is…
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obviously part of the episode, but just some introduction for why we’re here. And then in the nervous system class I just taught, one of the people who was there live mentioned that sometimes they have a hard time. We were talking about different activities that help promote regulation in your nervous system. And we talked about some of the more traditional or kind of thought of ways like EFT or tapping or breath work or somatic movement, but also things that maybe we don’t think about like
enjoying a warm drink very consciously or moving your body through dance or basketball or knitting or connecting with other humans. We’re going to take just a small pause while I reposition the baby.
Cecelia Baum Mandryk (11:21.122)
So these different activities that can help to bring regulation into your nervous system and essentially it’s starting to feel into the present moment and be really present. So another person that was there mentioned that they’d started doing coherent breathing, which is a kind of breathing that I teach for five minutes a day. And that today they did it, they didn’t set a timer, they just kind of were breathing until they felt like opening their eyes. And then in that moment, they felt this
this being present, this almost an aliveness of the moment. And that’s kind what we’re looking for, right? It’s hard to tell somebody, it’s hard for me to tell you what nervous system regulation feels like for you in your body because I’m not in your body. But you can start to feel into it. And we feel into it by doing these activities that nourish us, that sometimes can feel even fun or joyful by connecting with those and connecting with them and doing them from a place of intention of this is for me.
I’m not going for a walk to prove something or because I need to check a box, but because I love being out in nature. I’m doing the breath work not because I’m trying to be the best at breathing this year, but because I like that feeling of presence that I get afterwards and I know that this is something that supports me in getting there. And I want to give that as a gift to myself. And so as we enter into a new year and you might be thinking about setting goals for yourself and what you want to be doing and how you want to show up this year.
And this is kind of the direction that I’m taking my business this year is actually working, spending the next 12 months thinking about, I start to identify things in my life that do feel like they nourish me, that do feel like they give me something? They give me energy, they give me aliveness, they give me connection with other human beings, they give me creativity and expression, they give me affection, they give me connection. Can I find those things?
and can I start to intentionally be with them? So this person that said that they sometimes avoid these activities because it can feel scary to be in the present moment. So one of the people said that. And I think that’s really true. And I think oftentimes we are afraid to do some of these things that feel good because we might have some like programming that says we’re supposed to do the hardest thing. I definitely had those. Like I’m a better person if I take the harder route. But sometimes we also feel like we’re not maybe supposed to do the things that feel fun and easy.
Cecelia Baum Mandryk (13:42.21)
Right, so nervous system regulation couldn’t be as easy as dancing for five minutes when you come home from work. It needs to look like hard and arduous in some way. Rather than saying, could I follow, could I identify again the things that feel good to me and could I actually do them? And then could I create some safety for myself to actually participate in these things regularly? Right, so the first step is maybe, well, maybe the first step is the intention for the year.
of I want to find things that feel like they nourish me and help me move into a space of regulation and being my favorite version of myself, right? Feeling my most alive, that moment that I, that kind of like sense that I had after this cooking class of, this is something I like doing. This is not something I should step away from. This is something that I should step towards. And how can I give myself more of this? Or how could I create a
a for myself, a career for myself, a vocation that gives me this in some way, that allows me the space to explore this and to feel into it. So having the intention to kind of find more of those, to identify them, right? So to play around with different things, to identify what it is, and then to actually do them. Because cognitively knowing that swimming is something that helps you feel alive and supportive, or cognitively knowing that
when I teach I actually feel really alive is not enough then I have to do it right so
Cecelia Baum Mandryk (15:27.616)
Hi.
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It was your hiccups, huh?
Cecelia Baum Mandryk (15:56.042)
So cognitively…
Cecelia Baum Mandryk (16:04.682)
Hi. Hi.
Cecelia Baum Mandryk (16:30.53)
You got some hiccups on.
Cecelia Baum Mandryk (16:43.17)
Yeah, I hear you. You got some hiccups going on.
Cecelia Baum Mandryk (16:55.476)
Good job. Good job.
Cecelia Baum Mandryk (17:03.646)
Cecelia Baum Mandryk (23:44.714)
Okay, we’re back. I don’t know if this works, but I’m gonna mark a clip that says… Okay. So, cognitively knowing what you enjoy or what nourishes you is very different than doing what nourishes you or what you enjoy. Giving yourself that leeway. So, my husband…
follows a kind of like a running message board and one that stuck out to us is this guy who said like, you know, I wanted to be happier in life. So my goal over the year was to do more things that made me happy. And that can sound really simple. It sounds almost trivial and almost like duh. But how many of us don’t follow through on that, right? If I had taught that cooking class and realized that I really like teaching about things, it would have been very easy.
for me to say, to just step away from it, to never do it again, to never teach another cooking class, to never figure out how could I create a job and a career where I get to do this thing that I really love doing and feels like I’m actually pretty good at making concepts accessible and applicable into people’s lives, whether that’s how to cook ayurvedically or how to regulate your nervous system or how to incorporate somatic movement in a way that empowers you, right? Or how to work with your brain in a way that doesn’t.
that isn’t kind of toxic positivity or gaslighting, but it is actually a way to reprogram what’s happening in your brain. So it feels like there is a distance between recognizing these things. mean, it takes a while to actually recognize them and then to figure out how to give them to yourself. So moving forward into this year, how I am structuring what I do and I’ve made some changes to kind of the programs that I have and that no one will have this open
club coaching, but have this year long program that you come in and we’re actually stepping through how to figure out how to love yourself, to figure out how to, how to figure out how I just, sorry, if you’re watching this on YouTube, you just saw that I have baby poop on my hand, we’ll wipe that up and wash our hands afterwards. So we, how to,
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how to figure out how to show up for yourself and love yourself, how to recognize some of these things and give them to yourself in life so that you’re moving in the direction of creating a life that does feel nourishing, a life that you don’t feel like you need to escape from or step away from, but a life that you feel very nourished by, right? And this starts slowly.
And it can start by not making a lot of really big changes. And actually I would encourage you not to make a lot of big changes first because that’s saying that the circumstance, the changes will create my happiness. Instead, what we’re trying to do and what I’m doing in my business now is, well, have always been doing in my business, but now I’m doing in this more methodical way is how do you start thematically month by month, go through and spend a year.
creating a life that really nourishes you not by changing your outside circumstances, but by changing how you relate to each of these topics and each of these kind of ways of being. And so if you’re in, if you want to join that, amazing, and there’ll be some details that I can put in the show notes, but even if you, even if you’re not joining that, you might consider in 2025, spending time or having it as an intention, know, but sometimes people have like words of the year.
It can be to have an intention of the year is thinking about how do I actually want to nourish myself and show up for myself this year? How can I figure out what actually nourishes me and give myself more of those things? Whether that’s again going for swims or for walks outside, laughing with friends, watching silly videos. What is it that you want more of in your life? And so somebody that I know wanted more fun in their life and so they started listening to intentionally sought out podcasts that were kind of funny and
brought humor into their life and started doing some things that kind of nourished their sillier side for, this was two years ago for them. And it was really amazing at the end of the year, they thought that they did have more fun in their life. They did have a lighter overall feeling. So going into this year and even me going into this baby, this version of motherhood, having that intention of how do I want, how can I look for and give myself what nourishes me?
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How can I bring that in and how will that actually support me in becoming more myself and having calm and joy in my life? Okay, I think we’ve reached the limit for today. And so I’m gonna say thank you so much for listening. Happy New Year. It is such a pleasure to have you here and really truly thinking about this question of what nourishes me and how can I give myself more of that? How can I make it feel safe for me to give myself more of that?
to be more in the present moment.
to actually get to know me more this year feels like, what an amazing way to use a year. All right, I will see you next time, bye.
