Welcome back to the Inspired
Living with Autoimmunity podcast.
I'm your host, Julie Michaelson, and today
we're joined by Erica Ziel, functional
diagnostic nutrition practitioner,
board certified holistic health coach,
personal trainer, Pilates instructor,
and postnatal exercise specialist.
Erica is on a mission to help women
live a healthier, active life,
pain free and heal their bodies
through movement and breath work.
In today's conversation, we
explore how movement should be
nourishing your body not punishing.
And if you experience pain, it may
not be coming from where you think.
Our fascia is our body's
superpower and we can change
the way it functions at any age.
Erica, welcome to the podcast.
Well, thank you Julie,
so much for having me.
I am thrilled that you're here
and I know an awful lot about you.
But I don't know how you got
to be doing what you're doing.
I have a, a funny feeling, it may be
connected to being a mom of three, but
I don't know as a fellow mom of three.
Yeah,
Share with us.
How did you get so deep into
this functional medicine
space and, and the body?
Yeah, so I really feel like
it's just been my whole life.
it actually goes back to
starting at the age of five.
I started having excruciating knee
pain, just that inflammatory achy pain.
I just remember.
So many nights, going to bed
all curled up because being in
that balled up position helped
me feel a little bit better.
And I just remember taking
way too much Motrin.
And of course my mom, you know,
took me to the doctor's and they
kept saying, no, it's growing pains.
It's growing pains.
Well, finally, by the time I was
17, um, my mom was finally like,
okay, this is not growing pains.
She stopped growing three years ago,
so we actually went up to the Mayo
Clinic, which is only like three hours
from here, and met with a specialist
and he says to us, he's like, well,
she needs to strengthen her legs.
And Julie, that was like, Like the
very first like big light bulb moment.
I was like, wait, I've been in all this
pain for all these years, and you're
the first person to tell me that.
And so that was the piece that
catapulted me into movement itself.
I started lifting weights.
I just started doing Olympic lifting,
like learning how to do it correctly,
not just doing it for weight.
Actually form and why form mattered
and working on strengthening my body.
And so that's what gave me the bug to
study exercise science, in college.
So that's, so I went that route,
really started to see on my own
body, but also working with others,
the power that movement has to
really help to heal our body.
So then fast forward, I
ended up studying Pilates.
I was really into pre
and postnatal training.
I know that sometimes sounds crazy.
Some people don't really fully
understand what's that have to
do with the body and fascia.
Well, it actually taught me so much,
going through three pregnancies myself,
um, a mom of three, but also working
with so many, so many different women.
And through all of that, I started
looking outside the box, right?
To learn, not just inside the fitness
realm, because I was starting to see a
lot of dysfunction happening and what I
was teaching wasn't causing dysfunction.
I was preventing a lot of aches and pains.
We were healing bodies left
and right, and it was amazing.
And I started learning more about the
pelvic floor and this thing called fascia.
Which I didn't learn anything
about in college, right?
I had to take these intense classes,
for exercise science, and I, we
didn't learn about fascia, right?
It's all about muscles
and bones and all of that.
So that's like the movement side of it.
And then the piece that took me even
deeper into my health journey in
becoming an FCM practitioner was 2018.
I dealt with mold toxicity
and oh my gosh, it just like
about derailed my entire life.
But it was the piece that I just knew, I
was like, this is the piece that's gonna
catapult me to be healthier than ever.
And, I don't wish it upon anybody,
but my husband and I even say today,
like, we would go back and do it
again because of just everything.
It did, it brought us closer.
It, it ultimately led me to learning
more about the body to a deeper level.
And so, yeah, I love helping
people heal their bodies and
movement is such a key piece.
Well, it is such a key piece and
I, I feel like mold toxicity will
just bring you to your knees.
And it appears so different
in everybody, right?
It just, it'll take,
it's so opportunistic.
Um, people say like, you
know, what are the symptoms?
I'm like, well name a symptom.
It
Right.
Exactly.
mold toxicity.
So that's amazing.
I, I want to talk about, and I
really wanna start at square one.
What is fascia right here?
You studied exercise science, and like
you said, it was all muscle and bone.
And muscle and bone.
Tell us what fascia is, because
then I wanna dig deeper and dive
Yeah,
yeah.
of course.
So, I like to explain fascia and we look
at definitions of it is really, it's what
connects everything in the body together.
It is, you know, it is
our connective tissue.
It is what makes up our ligaments.
It wraps around all of our muscles.
It wraps around every
single muscle spindle.
It wraps around all of our nerves.
And if you were to say, take off one
of the outer layers of fascia, of the,
of the body, it would be the entire
outline from our head to our fingertips.
All the way to our toes.
And so when we can understand that
fascia really connects everything
together, it wraps around our organs.
We also have, and this is always
fun for women, I think, to
visualize and understand that
pelvic floor conversation, right?
It's not just about muscles, it's
about the fascia, but also above
the pelvic floor musculature in our
body, we have fascial layers, and so
we get so fixated on the muscles and
strengthening the muscles, and it's
like, yeah, that's important to a point.
But when we actually start to look at
the body from a fascial perspective, it
will make you more muscularly strong.
If we just focus on the muscles, yeah,
you're getting, you're gonna strengthen
your fascia to some degree, but we're
thinking individual, individual pieces.
And I feel like this, like when we
think of the body as fascia, we're
thinking of it in many different
depths and modalities and in, in a
complete thought versus, and even in
health, I feel like it's the same way.
It's like, you know, in functional
health we look at all the pieces.
And in standard medicine it's
like we piecemeal it together.
And it's kind of that same analogy.
It's kind of how I look at fascia.
So it's.
Pretty incredible.
And the couple things about fascia is that
we can change the way fascia functions
in our body no matter what your age is.
This is really where it's, it's such
a superpower to that every one of you
has, you just have to understand how
to unlock it and we can create more
fascia again, no matter your age.
I, of course, as we get older,
that cellular rejuvenation
can slow down, but it doesn't.
Stop.
And so I always like people
like, oh well this hurts or That
hurts cuz I'm getting older.
Like yeah, that's just kind of an
excuse because it doesn't have to.
absolutely.
I always, when people say, oh no, I feel
fine, you know, and then they list the,
well, I, I should be tired in the morning.
I should have aches.
I should, I'm like, no, no, no.
Yeah.
No you shouldn't.
You don't have to.
So, and, and so this ability to regenerate
and, and strengthen throughout our life,
is that why you consider it a superpower?
Yeah, absolutely.
Because when we start to tap into
how to move our body better, how to
breathe better how to hydrate our
body well mineral, balance, all of
those things, and sleep well, right?
And nourish our body well.
When we understand and put all
those pieces together, we can
help get the body out of pain.
And when it comes to movement, one of
the biggest things is understanding
that we can create more space.
In our body, and that's where pain for
so many people comes from is they start
to lose space between their bones.
Like I'll try to break it down and keep it
like super simple when we understand that.
so much pain is because we
lose space between our bones.
And how many people have been
told, oh, you've got a bad back.
And they think it's structural,
they think it's bone related.
Now, I will also say there are always
outliers, but this is, I mean, I've worked
with thousands of people today and it, I
don't see structural issues hardly ever.
It is the, the structure kind of gets.
The blame, but it's really the fascia
that's holding the structure in place
because if we think about it, all of
our bones are held together by what?
Fascia at the end of the day,
they're all held together by fascia.
And so as think about if, you know,
our tissue gets dehydrated, as we sit
more we, we get, we lose that space or
we're rounded, we're on our computers,
on our phones, we get that kyphotic
roundedness that we see so many people
start to get more of as they get older.
And I will tell you,
it's starting so much.
I see it in high school, especially high
school girls that get tall really fast.
So when we lose that space, well, if we're
always like that a lot, then what happens
is our fascist forms the way that we move.
So if we're sitting a lot and we're
around it a lot, the fascia is
gonna get tighter in that position.
But if we start to pay more attention
to how we're moving, how we're holding
our body, You know, it's not gonna
happen overnight, but in time we
can remold that fascia and remind it
like, oh, it needs to be stronger in
a lengthened position so that we have
more space between those vertebrae
of our spine, for example, right?
When we are talking about back pain.
Same with the hips, right?
So many problems, so much pain really
stems from the hips and the pelvis and.
We don't always understand, especially
if you haven't, you don't have any
anatomy background that your pelvis
is all bony structure held together
by fascia at the end of the day.
So this is where I want to get help,
get people excited to realize we can
work at improving the balance of your
pelvis, the balance of your spine and
your core function by understanding
how things all work together and.
It's amazing time and time again.
I love using the SI joint pain cuz
that's so common that for example, like
say you have SI joint pain on your left
side and you go to the chiropractor
and you're getting adjustments and
you're doing this and doing that.
Maybe we're even getting cortisone
injections, things like that.
But what if that pain isn't
actually because of the left side?
What if it's actually because
you're, it's getting your left side's
getting cranked on by the right side.
And we've been looking at this all
wrong because so many times I see this
all the time where we feel the pain
is not the root cause of the pain.
Yes, you have pain there.
I'm not negating that there is a pain
in that left SI joint, for example.
But it really could be that the
right side of your pelvis, maybe
the you're around your hip.
That ball and socket joint, maybe
you're really restricted around there
on the inside of that hip bone or
the pelvic floor on that right side.
And it's, it's just causing an imbalance.
Maybe that whole right side of
your pelvis has shifted forward.
And because it's all body structure held
together by fascia and not a one of us.
Has perfect alignment.
And it's not about having perfect
alignment, but it's about being
able to move your body pain free.
That's where I always wanna get people.
So we have to start looking at movement
differently, looking at our body
differently so that we can understand
how to approach it and how we many
times need to change the way that
we're moving our body, change the
way that we're breathing, change our
fitness routines things like that.
Oh my goodness.
So many things I wanna dig into.
I wanna touch on for.
First because it, it caught my attention
when you said it the first time.
And, and I feel like what you said
just totally reinforces, especially
when you're talking about back pain.
You know, you, if you take a hundred
people and you do an an M r, I.
You're going to see a
lot of structural issues.
Many of those are gonna be
in people that are pain free.
And so so often I see this
all the time and I get it.
We, you know, when we're in pain, we
want an answer and we want relief.
But it, it's so frustrating to
me when, you know, I have clients
who are experiencing, whether
it's an injury or you know, a,
a chronic condition, back pain.
And then they panic cuz they're like,
well, and I have this, and I have that.
And you know, they, they have
this like doom and gloom, they're
gonna be in pain forever because
their MRI showed structural.
Issues.
And it's like, but that's not necessarily
where your pain's coming from, just
because you can, and I, I understand,
you know, that's kind of the same, you
know, diagnosis, prescription mentality of
like, Ooh, we see something out of place.
Let's inject that.
That must be where the pain's coming from.
So I love that you said it and, and I
actually just recently went through I'm
not even totally on the other side yet,
and an SI issue, which is so not my norm.
And that's exactly what it is,
was the compensation problem.
You know I know, I know for me the
pain was on the right side, but
the issues on the left and, and so.
No, I, I have firsthand knowledge
of, and the, and the body is, I
mean, it's, it's just brilliant.
It's phenomenal.
You mention breath
Yeah.
and so I want to dig a little bit
into, because I've heard you talk about
this and I, I love, I love this topic.
How can in improving our
breath, improve our mobility?
Oh my goodness.
We could talk for hours.
Just about breath.
So the short of it, Julie, is that,
well, we know breath in general
can calm our nervous system.
And if we are living in fight
or flights, which a lot of us
are, a majority of our days.
Our fascia responds to that and
tends to tighten up and be tense.
We tend to breathe more shallow.
We tend to.
Maybe again, con like condense
our body, be rounded forward more
so we're not really getting good
breaths and things like that.
So when we learn to breathe better,
and here's how we should be working
on our breathing, is we should be
breathing slowly through our nose,
down into our body, out into our, the
sides of our ribs, and into our back.
Most people are told, oh, belly breathing,
belly breathing, and I have nothing
against belly breathing by any means.
Please continue belly breathing, but.
To breathe better, more
effectively for your body.
We actually want to breathe and to
get our diaphragm to activate, you
need to breathe into your ribs.
So you think about breathing out to the
sides of your ribs and into your back.
And when people start doing
this, they'll usually say, Eric,
I have no idea how to do that.
I'm like, well, that's okay.
We have to, we have to be aware of it.
Yeah, we have to be aware
of it first or we'll never.
We'll never be able to get there.
Something that can really help just for
everyone listening to start to breathe
into the back is lay on your stomach
and practice visualizing that breath
going all the way down to your sacrum
all the way down into your pelvis even.
And again, people will say,
well, Erica, my lungs don't go
all the way down to my pelvis.
I know they don't, but that magical
thing called fashion in your body.
It's all connected.
So when we learn to breathe deeper,
we will get a relaxation response down
to our low back and in our pelvis.
And I've seen time and a time
again, people just doing that breath
practice releases so much tension
in their low back and their sacrum.
So, The SI joint pain, like
breathing into your back.
But as we learn to breathe out to the
ribs and into our back, we're gonna
activate our diaphragm so much better.
And so many people are really locked up
in their diaphragm and inside their body.
And you know, even the best cranial,
sacral therapists you know, people that
do body work, it can still be really
hard to get that deep inside fascia.
We have a lot of stagnation
of fascia in our body.
We can have fascia adhesions in
our body and specifically, It
can happen for a couple reasons.
I find it common in women who've
had multiple babies or even
maybe even just one, because
with pregnancy, think about it.
I know for maybe women listening
that are like, yeah, Erica, like
my kids are like 30 years old or 20
years old, or whatever it is, and
you think it doesn't apply to you.
It does so much of this stuff.
Like I kind of said before, like
I learned so much about the body
by understanding what happens with
pregnancy and postpartum recovery.
And with pregnancy, we go back to that
and we think, oh, our organs get shoved
up into our ribcage and our diaphragm
and they get shoved down into our pelvis.
And if we've never done any work to work
on that fascia of underneath our ribs
and our diaphragm and our hips hip bones.
You can get fascial adhesions there,
especially if you have multiple
babies and it's happened time and
time and time again, and those fascial
adhesions can be causing your pain.
And so especially when we're
talking ribcage area, pelvic floor
function, all of that, we can't
get optimal deep core pelvic floor
function without optimal breath.
It's just not possible.
So all the pelvic floor work that women
do, if you're not learning how to breathe
effectively, We, you're missing likely a
big part of that pelvic floor deep core.
And when I say deep core, I'm talking
from the pelvic floor, which is
the base of your pelvis, right?
All the way up through your abdomen,
inside all the organs, your diaphragm,
your ribcage, your intercostal
muscles, which are the muscles
that go in between your ribcage,
even your mid back, all of that.
Encapsulates your core, and so many
times we think our core is just our abs.
So when we are able to breathe more
effectively, we can start to unlock stuff
that has been stuck inside of our body
for so long, and I find so many times.
Women are really locked
down in their rib cage.
Right?
We're, again, it's that kind of
forward motion and there's different,
there's so many different postures,
but these are all point out.
The more common ones that I see is when
we're forward and down a lot, the front
of those ribs would be really locked and
we might be working so hard to extend our
spine, extend our spine from our back.
But we're not locked from our back.
We're locked from the inside of our
ribs and our diaphragm, so we could do
all the back extension work we want.
Or maybe when you do back
extensions, they hurt your back.
You're like, I can't even do
them because they, they hurt me.
Okay, well, one, don't do movements
that hurt because we need to
change the way we're doing them.
But we also need to start
looking at what's happening on
the opposite side of the body.
And the ribs get so they just
don't get enough attention.
And breathing is the best
way to start to unlock.
Stuck stuff in our
ribs, in our diaphragms.
So breathing matters.
And I teach a lot of really soft movement.
Like I have a, a ball that's like, I
dunno, it's like what a nine inch ball.
I think it's, it's really soft.
And so as my career has gone on, I
work more with more and more people.
I've taught more and more gentle
release work ball, rolling work.
And it's so funny cuz.
My clients and students will
say, they're like, Eric, I feel
like I'm not doing anything.
But when they're done, they're like,
oh my gosh, I can breathe deeper.
I have a little bit more
movement and mobility.
I'm like, yes, because you were nice
to your body and fascia likes gentle.
So I will, we will just, I will continue
to agree to disagree with people that like
that say that that really intense deep.
Tissue work works.
I'm not saying it doesn't work.
There's probably a time
and a place for it.
My experience has been that less can be
more gentle, can be better, and when we
do something like a soft, gentle ball
that has a lot of give to it, Like, I
even have clients who start, they'll
roll their ribs you know, on the wall.
And we're doing a couple things.
We're stimulating the brain to retrain
the brain how to breathe better.
But it also gives them a
tactile feeling of like, oh,
I wanna breathe into the ribs.
So they feel that ball rolling
on the ribs, and then their brain
starts to see, oh, that's where
my breath is supposed to go.
And so you're getting
that very gentle feedback.
And I always will tell
clients, start on one side.
Do it on one side first, and then.
the
Step away, see what it feels like,
and then you'll be like, oh wow,
I'm really stuck on my other side.
Then you go balance it out.
And so we, we've gotta get away
from this thought that everything
has to be like, go hard or go home.
You have to be working in the sweat.
I have to feel the pain that, you know.
Again, there's the time and a place for
a hard workout, but if we're dealing
with health issues, we've got pain in the
body cuz we've got massive inflammation.
We really need to be working on
these tools and techniques to get
into our fascial system, to work on
our breathing things that are gentle
and really nourishing our body.
I'm really a big.
Big, like scream this from the
mountaintops about when we're doing
movements, it should be nourishing for
our body and we should never be using that
as a form to beat our body up, to burn
the calories, to lose the weight, things
like that, because that just leads us
into more fight or flight and restriction.
And we look at our
movements and we focus on.
Breathing forward, like how are
we breathing when we're moving?
I, I initiate every single move.
I teach my clients with a cue
of how they're breathing, and
in the beginning you're probably
all backwards and that's okay.
We all have to start all sorts of
doing things wrong and backwards
to eventually get there because
it's not just training your body.
There's a lot of brain training involved
with starting to really incorporate.
Breath with our movements and
being gentle with our movements and
articulating through our spine and
doing all these different things that
are so many times so foreign to us
when it comes to movement and exercise.
Amazing.
And so if somebody's just starting, so
someone's listening and they're like,
oh, I'm gonna try, I'm gonna start by
lying on my stomach and I'm gonna be
in, you know, take intentional breaths.
Is there a, a magic num, you know, how
often, how long, you know, what, what do
you, where do you start people so that
they can really start to move the needle.
So, I mean, if we can do
it daily, that's ideal.
A really good time to practice
it honestly, is at night when
you get into bed because then
our body we're calming down.
Right?
We're, we're, we're.
We're moving into that time of like
our body should be calming down.
So it's a really good time to
practice that back breathing.
When you get into bed, just
roll over onto your stomach.
Just, I mean, I don't have a magic number
as to how many to do, but maybe you find,
maybe you find it takes you 10 breaths
and then you start to feel something open.
But as you do it more, you'll start
to get it on breath five and then
breath two, and then before you
know it, Breath one opens it up.
It is it is really a, you know,
where are you at with your body?
And so it's very, very individual,
but I can't stress enough the
importance of consistency.
Starting to take little things and apply
them to your movement on a daily basis.
Even as simple as start to bring
more awareness to your posture.
That is huge because we can do all the
right movement practice, and if our
postures we're not working on our posture
during our day, paying attention to how
we're sitting, then our breath is gonna
be more shallow, which then means we're
gonna be likely more in fight or flights,
and then that the movement practice
you're doing is not gonna be as effective.
So everything I teach, I'm always,
always reiterating to my clients
is that, What you're learning from
me, I don't want you just doing it.
When you're doing your movement
practice, you need to take those concepts
and apply 'em to your daily life.
How you're sitting, how you're moving.
If you're carrying children
groceries, walking up the
stairs, like it's all of it.
It's, it's It's a new way we have to
start looking at it really in a new way.
And it's almost going into it thinking
like, okay, everything I've ever
learned about movement and fitness,
I'm just gonna like, kind of wipe the
board clean and we're gonna start over.
And I'm telling people that all the
time when they enter my world because
they're like, wait, Erica, so much of
what you teach is like the opposite
of what I've been doing my whole life.
And I'm like, yes, but.
That opposite of what I teach
is why people are in pain.
So we have to remember if we want
different results, we have to change
the way that we're doing things.
Amen.
it's the same, you know, it's with
movement, it's with nutrition,
it all the, it's the, it's what
would you and I, these are the
conversations we have all day long.
exactly.
Yes.
Oh no.
You know, fat is bad.
No, it's not.
So I, I'm thinking about, you know, I
started this podcast because it was so
impactful to me in the beginning of my
healing journey when I would listen to
podcasts and I would either get inspired,
get information, or, you know, learn.
And I'd try this and try that.
And so I am like channeling myself
10, 15 years ago listening to this
conversation and I think the thought
that would've been going through my head
is, well, this is really interesting,
but I have rheumatoid arthritis, which
is, you know, affecting my joints.
And so she sounds smart, but the fascia
thing isn't, isn't gonna help my pain go.
Okay, so actually the, the way that I
teach Maria, I talked about breath and
gentle and how less can be more, that is
actually the best for people in pain and
inflammation because we're working on.
When we're simulating fascia, we
know that we're actually, we actually
have energy electrical currents that
run through fascia, which is quite
fascinating to think about that.
We're doing gentle movement with
breath work and I know with people
with autoimmune issues, we can
tend to overdo it really easily.
And then you get really sore for days and
then you like, oh, I can't move my body.
I've been there.
I know what that feels like.
So, This is why actually doing doing less
learning the techniques that I teach.
It's, it's so gentle.
It's like the most gentle way
of moving, but yet it gets
amazing results for clients.
And honestly, I will tell people
10 to 10, 15 minutes a day,
sometimes that's all you need.
And sometimes that's maybe all you can do.
And I'll tell you that 10 to 15
minutes of gentle movement is going,
can be moving you forward to help
strengthen your mu, your fasa and your
muscles help to create more space.
Help to give you a little
boost of your energy.
And this is why a lot of times I teach.
A lot of the movement videos
I teach are 10 to 15 minutes
because one, everyone's busy.
But then, especially if you are
dealing with health stuff too,
sometimes that 30 minutes or more
seems like, oh, I just can't do that.
But you know what?
10 to 15 minutes, I hear all the,
they're like, I can do 10 to 15 minutes.
I'm like, I know you can.
And then they go do that 10 to 15
minutes, and then they're like,
okay, I feel so much better now.
I'm so glad I did that.
Now I wanna do a little bit more and.
You know, I teach such a variety of, of
different movements, so, you know, maybe
in the beginning it's more ball work.
It's like you're spending your time
improving your breath and doing really,
really little things that don't,
sometimes you may not even think they,
how could this be doing anything for me?
But it makes you feel a little bit better.
And when you do that on a consistent
basis, before you know it, it's that.
Part of that missing piece that's,
that you need and it's doing
the movement in the right way.
It's when you ask that question.
Cause I actually just today read a, a
testimonial from one of our students
in my core rehab program, and she was
basically saying how much pain she'd
been in and she was like, you know,
she had to shift her perspective on her
workouts and she was like, I'm so glad I'm
doing your program, because it was the.
Like absolute best thing for me because
it's gentle, but I'm feeling such a
difference in my body and we've been
so brainwashed by the fitness industry
that we have to go hard or go home.
And like I said, there, there may be
a time and a place for hard workouts.
You know, I'll do a hard one
here and there, but I also know
like, You know, I also have to be
careful not overdoing it as well.
And so I'm doing my movement stuff
all the time because it's what makes
me feel good and keeps my bones from
getting out of place and prevents pain.
So
And I, as you know, was being de playing
devil's advocate because I, I want, it's
part of that changing the conversation
and, and shifting perspective.
And I always joke, you know,
people think that when.
You know, I'm working with a client
as a health coach, you know, I'm
getting them to exercise more.
No, for the most part, my
autoimmune clients especially,
they're totally overdoing it.
They're doing it all wrong and,
and driving their inflammation.
And I, I will say for listeners,
literally, if you just do
the breath work, You will.
It's, it's not just even if, and I, I
chose, you know, RA intentionally because
people get so stuck on, well, it's
joint pain and so, you know, maybe the
fascia conversation doesn't apply to me.
Even just the breath work will reduce
your inflammation, reduce your pain,
get you out of flight or flight,
you know, it's fight or flight.
It, it is amazing.
And I just love that you are j just.
You know, having this conversation of
really changing our perspective, we
need to be on the same team as our body.
And you know, we, I, I know that
especially when people are living
with chronic pain, whether it's from
autoimmunity or not we do tend to kind
of, Try to separate ourselves from our
body and, you know, we, we get frustrated
and no, we need to realize like, you,
you can be being kind and gentle is
how you're going to make the progress.
So I love that message.
Like, really it should be in all caps.
Exactly, yes.
It changes.
It changes so much when you are working
with your body and being kind and you,
it's, it's so, and again, it comes back.
It's the brain piece, right?
We've been ingrained, so we just
have to keep reminding that voice
inside of our head that's saying,
oh, well, you're not doing enough.
This isn't doing anything.
When the reality is no, it's exactly
what your body needs, and it is going
to make you more progress because when
you overdo it, that just sets you back.
So much farther, and then you can work
out for a couple days when if you do
less and you're kind to your body and
gentle, you can slowly keep moving, moving
forward and mobility is huge and I am
sure you talk about this with clients.
It's like if we start to lose our
mobility, it also decreases our health.
And we sometimes don't
think about that so much.
We don't talk.
I talk about it all the time.
I sometimes have a younger audience,
but because I see pain start so
early, like it is amazing in my
audience it's mostly 30 to 45 year
olds and I, and they're in pain.
Right.
To think about that is
almost mind boggling,
I'm not in pain now, but I was in my
thirties and forties, so I, I get it.
It's, it's you know,
it's, it's mind boggling.
And obviously my story goes way back.
I was in pain from a very, very young
age and you know, so we just, we have
to just keep sharing this message
that, no, we can move our body.
We need to move our body, but we need
to change the way we are doing it.
I love that.
I love it.
I.
I'm gonna kind of ride you under the bus.
You, me?
So you mentioned stuck fascia,
you used the example of pregnancy.
And I love that you said, you know,
cuz my kids are in their twenties,
they're all in their twenties.
And I, I'm guessing because you were
saying it's never too late, that even
if we've got stuck Pasha from pregnancy,
you know, even in my fifties, I can,
I can do the work and unstick it.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
We have a lot, I have so many moms in
their thirties and forties that end
up doing my core rehab program and
they're like, my mom needs to do this.
And so then she gets her mom into it and
doing it and yeah, it's, it's amazing.
It's just I always get, get so excited
when I hear like, how women's lives
are changing at any age, you know?
So it really never is, is
too late to start to make.
These adjustments with your body and how
you're moving and how you're breathing,
and you know, really at the end of the
day, what I teach is not mainstream.
That's why people don't
know about it, right.
Right.
No, it's, it's, but it is, it's so
effective and, and accurate which is why
we're having this, this conversation.
What about, I have heard, and,
and maybe again, if people
haven't had fascia conversations,
they may be like, huh, what?
What do you think about
emotions getting stuck in fascia
Oh yes, that's a real thing.
For sure, especially for women around
the pelvic region and pelvis area,
and, you know, I'm not like a trauma
specialist or anything, but they'll,
a lot of times things will kind of be
talked about as trauma, big teeth, little
tease it, it doesn't matter what it is.
I don't even care if you
know what it is or not.
I'm a big believer that if you're
feeling these emotions coming up, then
that's, to me, that's a sign that you're,
you need to start to let go of it.
Whether, how we express it
in a very, Safe, healthy way.
Whether that's crying, whether that's
go punching a pillow, whatever it is.
But we do hold so much and I will
always tell my ladies when they
start, cuz we start, so much of
what I teach starts with the pelvis.
Even if you're having neck pain,
I'm gonna start you with pelvic work
cuz we just have to start there.
And I will tell them, remind them,
hey, like it's very normal that
you may start to feel like you just
wanna cry and you're doing pelvic
tilts and you have no idea why.
Or you may know why, but
we, it doesn't matter.
It's all about you recognizing,
listening to your body, tuning into
what your body needs, and it's time
for you to cry that out and move on
because that's also part of why maybe
there's some pain, physical pain can be.
Manifested with emotional stuff and maybe
there's more work that needs to be done,
therapeutics stuff, things like that.
But honestly, like I have seen.
Wonders done with movement and
starting to get deeper into the
body, moving that fascia moving,
that stuck energy, stuck emotions.
It's quite amazing.
And, and because again, I do work with
so many, you know, moms there will be
conversations and all of a sudden I'll.
Kind of have that conversation, like
I just said in one of my group calls,
and a mom will be like, oh my gosh, I
didn't realize I was holding onto so much
from say, the birth of her last child.
She's like, even though it went
fine, it didn't go as planned,
and I held that against myself.
Like it could be as simple as that.
Like it, it doesn't
have to be anything bad.
And I think so many times we think,
well, it has to be something really bad.
And it's like, no, it's all
about how your body per.
Receives it and if your nervous
system perceives it and you were
hard on yourself, maybe you had some
postpartum stuff going on, and again,
this could have been 20 years ago.
It doesn't matter if you're still
hanging onto it, it's time to let go of
it so you can move on and move forward.
Enjoy your life, go be
active and and pain free.
That's my biggest message for women.
I love, and I love that you said that
because I, I do think so often We, we
don't need to know what it is, and we may
not know, you know, what it was from, I
believe that so much of that stuck emotion
is from those of us that sh shove it down.
Shove it down, and so I love that you
highlighted like, no, when you feel
stuff come up, if you need to cry, cry.
If you need to scream or punch,
scream or punch, you know, Because
I do think often that's hell
got stuck to begin with, right?
Either it
I agree.
or it wasn't safe to express or
whatever the myriad of of reasons.
And, and so that is, that is how you
can just then let go, just move on.
And I have had those experiences
of, you know, people doing
fascial work on me and I just.
I'm crying and it's like,
is it from the pain?
No,
M No.
No.
It's like, ooh.
I don't know what that was,
but I'm glad to let go of it.
Yeah, it's, it's really incredible.
The body is so incredible and so
many times we overwrite it with
our mind and we need to actually
get and step into our body.
And when we start to let our
body guide us and not let lead it
all from our, our mind, the ego,
logical brain it can just open.
I feel like it opens up such a world for,
for people, and I hear all the time from.
For my clients that, you know, in the
beginning they're trying to like force
the connections, force the breath of
trying to force what I'm queuing her and
what I'm asking her to have her body do.
And it's foreign to her.
Right?
And so the more you try to force your
body to feel the things, the slower
the progress is actually gonna be.
There's, I like the word surrender.
I think when we actually.
Can almost like surrender to our
body and be like, you know what?
I'm here to learn about my body.
Things that I have never learned before.
This may feel uncomfortable.
This may feel foreign.
I may feel like I have
no idea what I'm doing.
Like you feel like a fish out of water.
Right?
But we have to get, we have to be there.
To get to the other side so many times,
and when we actually do that and we move
a little bit slower, we take our time
working through the program or whatever
you're doing, then it's amazing how
all of a sudden there'll be days where
you're like, I felt something new today.
Like something woke up inside my body,
or oh my gosh, I can breathe a little
bit deeper today because we're not.
Forcing it when we're
trying to force the results.
And I feel like this is true
for anything with health, right?
And sometimes, sometimes it's
like it's trying to knock at the
door and we're like not listening.
Instead we're trying to force our
way through the healing journey
and we have to almost have this
place of surrender, whether it's
with movement or other things.
And I definitely felt that when
I went through mold for sure.
There was definitely a big surrendering
thing I feel like I had to do to be
like, Hey, What am I supposed to do now?
What?
What am I supposed to learn?
What, what, whatever.
And it's so true with
this type of movement.
And when you do that, I hear all the
time from my, my students will be
like, Erica, I finally truly listened
to you the third time through.
And you know what?
Oh my goodness.
Like her whole, she's like,
my whole world has changed.
She's like, but the first time through,
I just wanted to get the results.
And I did get results.
But then, you know, and so I
try to speed it up for people.
Be like, don't wait till the
third time you go through.
Like do it right away.
Start at the beginning of being more open.
But it's so foreign to us
because we live in this.
Go, go, go get the results yesterday.
And that's not what our
bodies were designed to do.
And I'm the first person to say, yeah,
I'd love to have results yesterday.
But I also know, because of the work
I do, the stuff I've been through, I'm
like, It's, we're in on the journey.
It's, you just have to almost
think of it as a journey.
And you know, in some aspects
there is no destination.
It is the journey we are on
and it continues to, to evolve.
And I'll even say too, like
there'll be an exercise.
That I do today, that I've been
doing for 20 years, and I'm like,
I feel it so much different today
than I did even three years ago,
and I've been doing this forever.
And it's just this, we, we have got so
ingrained of like, okay, we're here.
We wanna do this program, we wanna get
these results, and then we're done.
And it's like, no, no, no,
there's no getting done.
There's no done
no done.
It's just, it's a
you're done.
But we're not rushing that,
right.
We're not, And you're continuing
to learn and evolve and better your
health and your body and your mobility.
And when you start to look at it
that way, like I just, I feel like it
becomes a little bit easier because
then we're not in this rush and this
forcefulness, we're again that surrender
of letting it be and be like, okay,
this might take me longer than I want.
Everything always takes you
longer than it wants, right?
Let's face, that's everything in life.
Like it just
All the important stuff.
Yeah.
But in a sense, you'll get
there faster because you're
learning more along the way.
So amazing.
Sage, Sage advice.
I, and I always say, and it is, I
know I, I'm sure when you're talking
to your clients in the beginning
too, you know it, it's such a
paradigm shift to you say surrender.
I say allow, Same, same concept.
You know, because we are also purpose
driven and, and then in the beginning
people are like, how am I s you
know, how am I supposed to allow?
What does that mean?
So I love allow surrender,
just stop pushing,
Yes, exactly.
Stop forcing.
So I, I always love in my own
head to guess the answer to
this question before I ask it.
I, I certainly have plenty to
choose from, but what is one step
that listeners can take starting
today to improve their health?
So because we're talking about
fascia and movement, I will leave
everybody with, do not forget the
cube to lengthen through your body.
So if you're sitting right now, if you're
standing, just think about, just like
this gentle lift and lengthen all the way
through your body to the top of your head.
So it's very gentle.
It's not like, oh, I'm standing
soldier straight and stiff,
cuz that's not good either.
But if we could just start to think
about just being lighter and gentler and
lengthen through our body, you're going
to start to wake up your deep core more.
We're gonna start to activate
our fascial system better.
We're going to be able to start
to breathe more effectively.
And again, it's not gonna
happen overnight, but we have to
start to bring awareness to it.
And you can do that all the time.
You don't have to be working out to do it.
You can be doing it, sitting,
standing, walking, doesn't matter.
So I.
I love leaving people with that.
That cute to think about.
So stand tall all the time.
Sit tall, you know, lengthen upward.
Love it.
See, and that's not what I thought
you were gonna say, so Yay.
Amazing.
For people that listen on the go
like I do and aren't gonna check
the show notes, where's the best
place for people to find you?
Well, Julie, first up, thank you so much.
And for everyone listening, you can
find everything over on my website.
It's erica zeal.com.
My last name is spelled Z i E
L and everything's on there.
And of course I always encourage, you
know, reach out if you have questions.
If you're like, I'm not sure if what
you do would be good for me or not,
you can always, always reach out to me.
It's fun to have chats on Instagram
cuz I get to voice message people back.
Love it.
Love it, and take advantage people.
She's such an amazing resource, and
what you're doing is so important.
You are leading the shift
in the conversation.
And it is past time that we
learn how to move properly.
Thank you so much, Julie.
Erica, thank you.
You have shared amazing
gold with us today.
For everyone listening, remember,
you can get the transcripts and show
notes by Visiting InspiredLiving.Show.
I hope you had a great time and
enjoyed this episode as much as I did.
I'll see you next week.
