Jul 11 2024 65 mins
Today's guest is Jen Mann, ex-ballet dancer and co-author of the international best-seller, The Secret Language of the Body. In this conversation we discuss how Jen’s early life contributed to the perfectionism, people-pleasing and self-criticism that would ultimately end in chronic illness that traditional medicine was unable to solve. Frustrated and anxious, Jen started connecting the dots between the mind-body cross-over with the clients she was supporting after her ballet career ended. She pieced together insights on how to heal herself by increasing her vagal tone and somatic experiencing, alongside talk therapy and physio. She shares 3 key tips for longer-term healing, as well as 5 practical things you can do right away to decrease your perception of stress during days of back-to-back meetings.
3:52 My childhood was a perfect set up for anxiety
9:21 Jen becomes a professional ballet dancer
13:31 What came after Jen’s ballet career
14:50 Jen spots connections between her clients’ work stress and their physical pain
16:00 The symptoms she was seeing in her clients – and how her own chronic illness symptoms started
20:50 Unresolved feelings of not-enoughness and emotional repression cause illness
25:40 Jen’s body said “Enough!”
28:42 Window of Tolerance
35:17 Conventional medicine didn’t work for Jen, and what she discovered instead
39:57 Vagal tone
44:39 Three tips for longer-term change
51:15 Five strategies you can use at work to soothe your nervous system during hectic days
1:03 Jen’s Brick of Wisdom
Links:
Jen Mann and Karden Rabin’s website (with book and program)
Jen Mann on Instagram
Mandy Lehto on Instagram
Episode 55 with Tatiana Poliakova