Your body is your personal compass, it understands your true path and remembers its past traumas. That’s the sweet spot, the place where you can be sure, without any doubt, that you are following your true “North Star” — and that you are heading in the correct direction. In today’s episode we discuss what happens when we start tapping into our body’s compass and how when we tap into the soul, we begin to let go of roles, responsibilities, and beliefs that are not in alignment with our bodies.
What happens when we start tapping into the body’s compass? We begin tapping into the soul and we begin to let go of roles, responsibilities, and beliefs that are not in alignment with our bodies. This means that we might interfere with other people’s expectations of us, allowing us to have more transparent and open communication pathways.
My foundational coaching tool is using your body compass to align the mind and body. The truth is, I've always been finely attuned to what does and doesn't feel good for me. However, this skill has taken a lot of work to learn. In the process, I have discovered what works and doesn’t work for my body — and you will too. In today’s episode, I discuss what happens when we start tapping into our body’s compass and how aligning the soul allows us to let go of roles, responsibilities, and beliefs that are not in agreement with our bodies.
When things get chaotic—when the noise of the world has you spinning in circles—listen to your body. If my body is talking to me, I will listen. If I don’t listen, I will get sick. After all, your body keeps the score. Listen in to learn more about how you can find the sweet spot, the place where you can be sure, without any doubt, that you are following your true “North Star” — and that you are heading in the correct direction.
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[00:00:00] Dana Frost: Welcome to Vitally You, a podcast created to introduce you to the tools that will be your roadmap for feeling younger while growing older. I'm your host, Dana Frost, a wellness expert, life coach, and energy medicine practitioner. Here's what you can expect: conversations about vitality from the inside out with guests experts in the field of health, culture, and spirituality. And solo episodes along the way from me, where I do deep dives into the topics of aging, heart intelligence, energy medicine, and your innate capacity to heal. If you want to feel younger while growing older, this is the place for you.
[00:00:52] Hi everyone. This is Dana and I am coming to you this week for a solo episode from the sunny skies of Miami beach. I want to offer a big heartfelt thank you for rating and reviewing of this podcast. Today's the day I pulled this month's winner and I pulled Brewsaugh Phillies, but I'm not sure who that is.
[00:01:14] So please be sure to screenshot or let me know that you've submitted your review to apple podcast. It normally takes 24 to 48 hours for apple to post those reviews once. But let me read you what Brusa Finney says. Dana is a treasure in today's podcast world. She is honest and precise in delivering the information, provided presenting in simple and clear vocabulary, making it accessible for anyone to understand.
[00:01:43] She has a wealth of knowledge, not only from an academic side, but also from a deep commitment to our soul purpose. Every episode is true wisdom. Brusa Phillies. I would love to send you a sleeve of Ian. So please connect with me on Instagram or send me an email. So in the spirit of Christmas, I'm going to gift one extra Ian this month, and it's going to go to Bobby a 6 0 6.
[00:02:11] Bobby a 6 0 6 says I just listened to Dana's podcast on how important natural light is to our sleep. And wellbeing makes so much sense that our circadian rhythms are disrupted by the introduction of artificial light, negating all the benefits that flow from natural light. Another example where technology has distracted by all this.
[00:02:33] Thanks to Dana for sharing these sorts of evidence-based insights and pearls of wisdom on how to feel younger while growing older. Well, thank you Bobby. A 6 0 6 and I will be in touch with you to get your sleeve of Ian. So everybody, I am coming to you this week. This is actually going to be my last episode.
[00:02:56] My last solo episode of the year on the first of the year, I'm going to be bringing an episode with my astrologer, Sandy Revie, and I will be taking a break the weekend of Christmas. So this week I thought I would come and share with you. My foundational coaching tool. So I was trained under Dr. Martha back in 2006 in my life coach training.
[00:03:24] I was living in Brazil at the time. I flew to us to be trained with her and she really blew me away. I will just say this, this particular tool. She caught me in something, when we were doing our training, it's a story I've told many times. I remember we were sitting in a circle and I don't remember exactly what we had to share, but I shared a situation about my relationship with one of my children.
[00:03:56] And I was in essence making an excuse for the child and saying, well, This is a child they don't really know. And, you know, I was kind of sugarcoating if I will, the situation and, and sugarcoating how I felt about it, because what was uncovered is that I had a lot of rage and I was sugarcoating it because I had a belief that I wasn't allowed to feel rage or anger.
[00:04:23] And, you know, I had this belief that well, children. Are innocent and could never cause chaos or, or whatever. I don't want to go into the specifics, but she using the body compass really nailed me and helped me. It was as if the scales were appealed for my eyes. And I could see that I was saying one thing, but my body was saying something else.
[00:04:51] And when I say my body, really my system. So, let me, let me just share a little bit about this tool. Your body is a compass. Every moment it is your personalized compass. It's actually the tool that all of my clients needed to become intimately connected. So why do we need the body compass? And why is it pertinent to feeling younger while growing older, it's become more pertinent to me.
[00:05:22] The more I use this tool, but it was 2006 to 2021. The more important it becomes in my life. And the reason I thought I would share this with you is because I had a recent experience where my body gave me such strong feedback. I do try to follow my body compass, but more or less, I'm pretty much in line in alignment with it.
[00:05:45] And this was something that I could see if I didn't change course. If I didn't speak up that I would be out of alignment and everything in my body just kind of exploded. And I'll, I'll explain more about that, but your body actually keeps the school. And there's a book called the body, keeps the score.
[00:06:05] And I discovered this book after I had done my training. I think I discovered it maybe in 2011, 2012. What I like to say is the body is a library of everything that has ever happened to you. And it's trying to communicate with you moment by moment so that it can be of service to your life's calling. I want you to hear me when I say your body is literally your souls earth suit.
[00:06:37] Your body is how your soul is able to have an existence on this earth. And your body remembers why you chose to incarnate at this particular time in history, the body is the library. It's the holder of information. It understands your true path and it knows your past trauma. And there are times when the body and the ego are, I don't want to say they're in combat, but they're, they want to work together.
[00:07:14] But there are times if there's a lot of trauma, that's, unmetabolized, that's not healed the body. And the ego are combative with one another because they're wanting different things. When we heal our trauma, the body, and the ego can sync up and behave as one as one collaborative unit working on behalf of your soul's true calling.
[00:07:41] If you remember in episode eight, I talked about making peace with your past. It was a very important episode if you missed it, because if you don't make peace with your past, you will be ruled by it. And when we are ruled by our past, we create collateral damage in all of our relationships because we take everything personally.
[00:08:07] Have you ever heard of the Chandeliering it's when a seemingly calm person suddenly flies off the handle for no reason? Well, they have pushed hurt and anxiety so deep for so long that a seemingly innocent comment or even a seemingly innocent comment or an event suddenly sends them straight through the chandelier.
[00:08:30] It just, and it's gonna fall on everybody. That's in their pathway. I'd love to discuss that in another episode, but I share that to demonstrate that when we are ruled by our ego, We end up harming ourselves and others. And I've been a chandelier if that's a word and it's, I know this is why I can have compassion for people, but it's not fun to be ruled by the ego.
[00:08:58] And so how the body fits into this. The body will naturally at once to move you towards people and experiences that are aligned with your true nature within that are aligned with your soul's path. It's personalized to you. It's it's what Martha Beck calls your north star. Her book is called following your north star.
[00:09:22] I think that's the title. I will put the title in the show notes and the north star is that point in the sky. That station. It never moves everything in the universe is swirling around it, but there it is fixed in the sky. It's trustworthy, it's immovable. It's where we gaze. We set our direction on the north star and we know that we are going in the direction that is in alignment with our soul's purpose.
[00:09:52] And the body knows the way because the body is like, unlike the ego. The body doesn't have a story it's only responding in agreement or not. And there are different levels to that. There's a spectrum from extreme reaction, which I had in October and again in November and extreme reaction that feels depleting and it, it doesn't feel good and extreme reaction where it's just in alignment and it feels like absolute bliss.
[00:10:26] So the ego is driven by the part of our mind. That's been traumatized and its purpose of survival and the body. As I said, it's just responding like an animal response. That's either an agreement or not, but you know, what's happened in our Western culture. And I do believe in Christian ideology, we've been taught that the body is dirty.
[00:10:51] It's bad. It's not to be trusted. We've been told that the heart is deceitful and I just don't see any evidence for that. The more that I've really leaned into the wisdom and insight of my body and my heart, the more I trust it implicitly. I know when it is giving me the communication lines, I know to trust those communication lines, those signals.
[00:11:16] And that's what I want to impart to you today. So when we talk about the body as a company, We're not talking about the thoughts in your head. We are talking about the physiological responses we get from the body. So let me share a story that I had. So I thought I had set a boundary with clear communication in a particular situation.
[00:11:40] I do know the boundary setting. It wasn't only dependent upon myself. There were conversations that took place where I wasn't involved, even though I made it clear to this. So it's as if this one person was, you know, setting the boundary for this scenario. And it became apparent to me that the boundary had been crossed as soon as I learned what was happening.
[00:12:02] And I could see. My body started reacting strongly. So what does that feel like in my body? It's going to feel different in everybody. In my body, my breathing became constricted. It became shallow. My heart felt like someone was sitting on it. I felt my chest. I felt panicking now that's, that's an emotion, but I felt that in my system, my stomach constricted, all my muscles constricted and my breathing constricted.
[00:12:33] That's what it felt like physically. That was my body compass saying, stop right there, pay attention something's going on and you need to pay attention. And I did, I I've learned. And so I call myself down. And I just start having a conversation. It's it's not audible most of the time for me, it's not, it's just this inner dialogue to determine what is going on.
[00:12:59] And so I had that dialogue and I realized, okay, the boundary setting did not go as, you know, as I had talked about as we had planned. And so what are my other options? You know, so that happened. And then fast forward in between person tried to remedy the situation fast forward. It wasn't really being received by the other people.
[00:13:22] And before we know it, I realize I'm in the situation. My boundaries have been crossed again, this time, my body, it just wants to give up it just when I say that it's like, it just wants to lie down and go to. That's how I felt like I just, my body was like, just lay down and go to sleep. So, you know what I did, I took myself to the beach and I laid prostate on the sand.
[00:13:47] I laid out a towel and I just surrendered everything right there to the earth. I prayed, I just let everything go and really sought wisdom on how to handle a certain situation I leaned in and I allowed my body to do what it needed to do. And, you know, I don't know. I think it was like 30 minute. I restored myself.
[00:14:10] I really bonded with my, the wisdom in my body and decided, okay, I need to have a strategy to deal with this situation. And so I did, so I, you know, I made a plan and how can I say this? I salvaged a situation and now I can say, I feel really, really good about. My strategy and how I salvage the situation.
[00:14:33] All of that came from the wisdom and insight in my body. My body was giving me physiological symptoms. I listened, I didn't say, oh my gosh, I'm overcome by panic. Or I didn't break down. I really leaned into my own agency because you know what, I've healed my as much as I'm aware of, let's just say, According to my conscious mind, I've healed my past trauma and I can move through these situations.
[00:15:01] They're not easy, but I have the tools and the body compass is one of my primary tools along with my heart intelligence. So when I used to see clients, one-on-one, I literally had a worksheet that had the front of the body and the back of the body. And we would talk through why don't we, you know, we would talk through a time to polar opposite times of.
[00:15:25] A time when stress and or trauma was heightened and a time when life felt pleasant and aligned. And I would ask my clients to go back and remember how your body felt during those two opposing seasons or experiences. When we are having stress and trauma, the body responds with physiological symptoms that don't feel good.
[00:15:53] They feel like constriction, you know, we feel like we can't breathe or we're breathing really heavily, or we get a headache or we get pain or we are sick. There was one period in my life where every time I traveled, I got sick. And that truly, yes, I got sick, but it also was my body trying to get my attention that I needed to add in transition.
[00:16:14] I needed to up my self care. I was lacking some nutritional elements in my diet. You know, your body will talk to you when you feel tired after eating. If you feel tired after you've eaten, your body is saying you fed me too much, or you fed me things that I just cannot metabolize. That's your body talking to you at your body compass?
[00:16:36] We get these two opposing experiences in life. One is going to have physiological symptoms that we don't prefer. And one is going to have physiological symptoms that we prefer. So for me, everything, my body feels light as a feather. The inner feeling I have is when I was a child and I was on a swing set and I was swinging back and forth.
[00:17:01] And it was, I just love that feeling. I can bring it up right now. Well, I'm on a swing and I'm weightless and the swing is just taking me back and forth and it feels just like pure pleasure. My breath feels deep and nourishing. I feel strong. I feel centered. My head feels clear. Some of the things that happened to me when I'm in alignment and my body is saying move in this direction.
[00:17:33] You know, one of the reasons I knew that being in the sunshine was so important to me is because how I feel when I'm in the sunshine. Now I know people who feel alive when they're in, when. We all have even on Beyonce's and weather patterns that feel better to our physiology and our soul. And for me, I think maybe it's the Leo.
[00:17:57] I just, I love the sun. I love the tropical climates. I love heat. I feel so happy when I'm hot. That's not true for everybody. That is my body compass talking. How does your body compass talk to you? Remember not thoughts and really not feelings, it's physical symptoms. So you're going to have a spectrum from, you know, the extremes of a really traumatic situation and how the body responded.
[00:18:22] And, and then, you know, the time when wife just felt like it was perfect. And you're going to just move into like the zero point, the negative 10 to zero, which is neutral to positive 10. You're going to find situations that are along that spectrum. And there will be seasons in life, depending upon what's going on in your life, where you may be really neutral, but it's so important to identify how does your body talk to you?
[00:18:51] And it, you can discover this by paying attention. How do you feel around. All the people in your life, which people does your body respond to with the sensations of, wow. I feel at ease, I feel the urge to merge. I feel like I want to be with this person more, or I feel repelled, or my breathing gets shallow when I'm around this person.
[00:19:15] My body constricts around this person, you'll have, like I said, weather patterns, people, situations, food, you'll begin to notice. If you pay attention to how your body responds to different food, what is an alignment with your body and what is out of alignment? So I mentioned a way to get familiar with this concept would be Martha Beck's book following your north star.
[00:19:39] And I can't remember how to say the name of the author who wrote the body keeps score. Those would be two really important books that I would point you to. So I want to, along those lines, I want to talk about a concept because really when we talk about the body compass and leaning in to the messages from our body, really bring up this issue of boundaries.
[00:20:10] And I love the idea that boundaries are beautiful. There was an, uh, very small art exhibit in Chicago years ago in, I think it was the unity church. And I think the exhibit was called boundaries are beautiful. And they have these different exhibits that demonstrated boundaries around the heart. To me, boundaries are not limiting boundaries are expansive when we know where we and others began, that allows us to be fully expressed as a human.
[00:20:41] When we know what our past trauma is, and we've taken the time. To heal the past trauma, our boundaries are really clean and clear and we no longer need to chandelier over people. People who have clear boundaries have a strong spine and a soft heart. I want you to hear me on that. When we have clear boundaries, we have a strong spine and a soft heart.
[00:21:12] So our spine. I could withstand what happened. This boundary issue that I had, where I, my body really gave me this very strong reaction. I, my spine was strong. I had roots that went deep down and allowed me to handle that situation for myself and for others. But my heart is soft and open. And I wasn't offended.
[00:21:40] I wasn't a victim. I just knew what my boundary was. And I was like, oh, okay, well I need to make some adjustments here. So just because the heart is soft, if we don't have a strong spine, but we have a soft heart, people will trample on us. They will trample over our boundaries. If we have a strong spine and a hard heart, we will hurt other people.
[00:22:07] Let me say that again, a strong spine and a heart, heart hurts others, a weak spine and a soft heart hurts us. Other people trample over us. So what we want is a strong spine and a soft heart. We develop a strong spine and a soft heart by healing. Our trauma, really understanding. And making peace with the things that have happened in our past.
[00:22:38] And one of the ways that we can do that is beginning to have this conversation with our bodies, understanding our body compass. Where's our body leading us. I can tell you that when I started my coaching practice, I was living in San Paulo, Brazil, and I remember several women made some really serious decisions about their life based on what their body was telling them.
[00:23:03] And it was. Fascinating for me to watch the body compass have the same impact on me, but to be able to watch it play out in others' lives and was really powerful because what happens when we start to listen to the body compass, we really start tapping into the soul. What are the soul's desires? What's the soul's purpose.
[00:23:21] And we begin to let go of roles and responsibilities. And beliefs that aren't in alignment with our soul's purpose. And that means that we might interfere with other people's expectations of us. And then, you know, we get to have a lot of transparent, authentic, open communication, or we lose people in our life.
[00:23:44] And I find that when we are in alignment with the body compass, we really ended up being okay with that. For me, there's just no compromise. If my body is talking to me, I will listen because I know when I don't listen, I get sick. You know, I have a health crisis. I'm tired. I get grumpy. The certain way to secure that you have the feelings that are fueling is to follow your body compass.
[00:24:15] Let me leave you with this. The body compass is not going to automatically send you down the path of tradition and the path of, well, this is how we've always done it. Your body compass is going to send you down the path that is in alignment with you and your soul. And sometimes that's not what you've always done.
[00:24:41] There are times when we need to change things up. And so for me this year, I am changing traditional. I've been married 31 years, so I've spent 31 years celebrating holidays with first, my husband and then our immediate family. And this Christmas, you will find me without my family without that immediate family.
[00:25:02] And you'll find me in Missouri with my mom and my two aunts. It's something that I haven't done. 31 years, but yet my body led me down that path and I'm excited about it. But if you would have asked me a year ago, Hey, if you would have whispered to me a year ago, Dana, next Christmas, you're not going to be with bird.
[00:25:24] You're not going to be with Abby or Kathleen or Cokie or Esther or Bruno or Charlie. You're going to be with your mom. Now. I love my mom and I want to be with her. My priority has always been the family I created. And yet this Christmas, my body compass is leading me to do something different and I'm following it.
[00:25:51] And so I leave you with the encouragement to stay open to how your body may guide and direct you. It. Not may, it will guide and direct. You are your ears open. Is your heart open and is your spine strong so that it can receive the message and feel the strength of it instead of feeling like you can't hold it because you're not strong enough.
[00:26:16] My friend, you are strong enough, you are strong enough. I know that you are, because I know that if I am, you are too. And this idea of feeling younger, growing older, Is the spine is getting stronger and the heart is getting more open. So conventionally, what happens with the spine as we age it compresses and it gets weaker.
[00:26:40] What happens to our musculoskeletal system? As we age, it gets weaker, feeling younger, growing older, your spine is going to feel stronger and your heart is going to feel more open. So I leave you with this for me, I'm a Christian. Although I hold all faiths in, I should say respect, admiration. And I follow a lot of the practices of many different faiths of astrology of shamanism, but I just know that my path is the Christian path and I leave you this time of year with the magic that can be found.
[00:27:23] By leaning in to the wisdom and communication that comes from your body. So on that note, thank you for being with me for this beginning season of the vitally you podcast. Thank you for sharing your time and your listening ear. I can't wait to welcome you back in 2022. As I mentioned, we will have, our first episode will be with Sandy Reedy, my astrologer, and trying to just be open to any closing thoughts I want to give you other than your gift to me could be rating and reviewing my podcast.
[00:28:05] That would be an amazing gift. And I will be drawing a new winner in January to win a sleeve of Ian. If you would, please leave me a rating and review. I would greatly appreciate it. Please have a wonderful holiday season. And until next time as always, I am streaming love from my heart to.
[00:28:31] Thank you for joining me on the vital you podcast. If you like it, please spread the love with a review and share it with your friends as a thank you for the first three months of my podcast, one reviewer each month will be selected to win a sleeve of Lifeway X 39 stem cell activation. Lifeways X 39 patch is the only product on the market that resets the body's own stem cells.
[00:28:57] So they behave like younger, healthier cells without injections, chemicals, or pharmaceuticals, experience the power of the patch on your journey of feeling younger. While growing older, to be entered, to win, leave a review, screenshot your review and send it to dana@danafrost.com. Or pop it into a direct message on Instagram at Dana frost, vitally free.
[00:29:22] Don't miss a vitally you episode drop sign up for my newsletter on my website or Instagram link tree and tell next time streaming love from my heart to yours.