00:00:06 Yusuf: Some days mindfulness feels like a luxury word, something you do when life is already calm. But what if mindful living is not about being peaceful, but if it is about becoming honest with what your body has been holding before, it turns into burnout, anxiety, or numbness.

00:00:31 Yusuf: Welcome to the mindful Living a slower space for real conversations, gentle clarity and practical inner steadiness. I am Yusuf and today I'm joined by Hailey Coleman, known for her work as a psychic, nervous system coach and creator of the Self Healing Hub. In this episode, we are exploring a mindful living topic that touches so many people quietly. How nervous system. Safety shapes our ability to be present, and our intuition gets clearer when survival mode softens. With that, I welcome my guest, Haley, to the show.

00:01:18 Hailey: Good morning. How are you?

00:01:20 Yusuf: I'm doing well. Most welcome to the show, Haley. I'm really excited to get the conversation started.

00:01:26 Hailey: Me too. It's such a great topic, and I think that we need to talk about it more openly across the world. So thank you for having me today.

00:01:37 Yusuf: Okay, Haley, the phrase mindful living, what does it mean in a real Tuesday kind of way?

00:01:47 Hailey: To me, mindful living is trying to be present in the moment, trying to allow yourself to truly, uh, feel what is right within your nervous system. Uh, a lot of people go about their day with work, kids, life, and they're so busy and they burn out and they get stressed and they get anxious. And sometimes it's just key to slow down, being mindful of how your body feels when you're doing certain activities, being mindful of how your body feels when you're relaxing, and just being present in the moment. Whether you are exercising with your friends or family or working.

00:02:38 Yusuf: Yeah.

00:02:43 Hailey: Um, to me, mindful living means focusing on your body and listening to your body. So if you are going to work or if you're busy being a parent or doing different activities, how does it feel in your body? I always tell clients, this does do you feel like your body is super tight or stressed? Or you have just a weight on your chest while you while you're doing things. To me that tells me that it doesn't feel like pleasure in your body. So something is telling you that that's stressing you out. And so being mindful of your everyday activities, movements, um, certain people being around certain people's energies, really try to listen to your body and see how it reacts in those situations, and that will tell you mind body connection and whether or not it's something that you should continue doing.

00:03:43 Yusuf: Um, yeah. I already feel the honesty in that. Yeah.

00:03:50 Hailey: Because it's like if you go and like if you're in a group of friends and it's just maybe you're just going for coffee and one of the friends is just super negative and you just feel like, oh, like, this is draining me. Like why I'm telling my clients. Why continue to be there? Just excuse yourself. Or same with work. If it's not something that brings you joy. Try to change things so that you can feel less stress in your body when you're doing these everyday things. Same goes for family. Sometimes family is very stressful too. Yeah, yeah. To that.

00:04:35 Yusuf: And Haley, what do you think is the biggest misconception people have about mindful living, especially when they are anxious, overwhelmed, or carrying trauma history?

00:04:46 Hailey: Honestly, um, with all my clients around the world, I've noticed that a lot of people are like, well, I meditate, so I'm not. So I think I'm mindful. But that has nothing to do with being mindful. That's a tool to quiet your mind and center yourself. But mindful is in the moments in your day to day life. How does my body feel? Am I anxious? Um. Before I go and do that thing, am I excited about it or am I dreading it? Like, really listen to your body like I do this activity even with my kids where I say, okay, well, how was that? And they usually always say, oh, it was fine. And then I say, no. How was your heart? Was it super fast or was it slow and quiet? And then the kids will answer. Or do you feel like you're kind of sweaty or are you not? Um. Another one is how's your stomach? Does it feel kind of funny? You know, just like. Really?

00:05:57 Yusuf: Yeah.

00:05:57 Hailey: Spooning back into our body after a situation, you know? Or did body feel super tight Or does it feel relaxed? And as for all those for yourself day to day, whether it's in work life, in a relationship, in a family situation, in a friend situation, um, even with trauma, did that just trigger me? What did it feel like in my body? That is mindfulness, not meditation. Meditation is a tool, and I'm seeing that across the globe where it's like I'm a mindful person because I meditate. It's like, well, no meditation's amazing for you. But it's a tool. It's a tool to quiet your mind. It's a tool to recenter your energy, to ground you. But that doesn't mean you're mindful all the time, right? So that's kind of the inception I'm seeing, like on Instagram and all the all the social medias, like people just saying, well, I'm mindful because I'm meditating and I just don't argue with that.

00:07:07 Yusuf: Yeah. And when someone believes that misconception, what tends to happen inside them emotionally or physically?

00:07:19 Hailey: Well, everything gets stuck and stored. So they're not actually working through their emotions and they're not working through their trauma. So if you're ignoring all the signs, usually what happens, which I've seen with my clients, is that the signs get louder and more, uh, and bigger until you have to listen to the signs.

00:07:45 Speaker 4: Mhm. Yeah.

00:07:46 Hailey: So it's kind of like when people just think they're doing one or two tools like, oh well I'm mindful because I journal or I'm mindful because I meditate. Those are amazing tools and keep doing those. The practice being mindful all day, every day. Check in with your body because if you don't, your body signals are going to get louder and more severe, and then you're going to burn out, or you're going to have a panic attack, or you're going to be triggered by trauma. You have to work through them. You have to listen to your body.

00:08:28 Speaker 4: Mhm.

00:08:29 Yusuf: Yeah. You know this lands because it is like people try to think their way into calm while the body is still sounding the alarm. And then they feel like they feel that mindfulness when really the nervous system is asking for safety first.

00:08:47 Hailey: Yes. Yes, exactly. It's they're ignoring all the signs. So even if our mind thinks we're and our mind feels calm and we don't have racing thoughts, our body can still be telling us things. Maybe you've gained a lot of weight. Maybe you've lost a lot of weight. Maybe your hair is starting to fall out because you're so stressed that you're not, um, retaining any nutrients. Maybe you're not eating properly or sleeping properly. You know, like there's so many signs and symptoms. Like your skin can look off, your heart rate can be off like it can go on and on. Right. But it's if you're if you're not listening to those physical signs, you're just going to get louder and louder until either you get chronically sick. Because we all know that stress and the nervous system can cause chronic health conditions, or you're going to mentally burn out and both are scary.

00:09:59 Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:10:03 Yusuf: What tends to happen in day to day moments like parenting, relationships, work when someone is regulated by trying to act mindful.

00:10:17 Hailey: I think as a as a parent myself, I'm a single parent of three amazing kids. And it's it's easy to get caught up in the busyness of it all. Um, but you just need to practice. Like, what I do is if I feel overwhelmed, um, in a moment with the kids or, uh, in a relationship, I already recognize what signs my body does when I'm stressed. But I've practiced that. Right? I've. I've listened to my body, and I'm. I'm trying to remember what signs happened during stress. So when those signs start happening again, I pause. And that's when I do my tools. That's when I do breathwork. I take a moment, I tell my kids, like, I'll be right back and I'll go to the bedroom, or I'll go to the bathroom and I'll do my breathwork, or I'll talk to myself and, you know, like just the tools that work for me. Some people like to journal. Some people like to meditate. I also meditate, but it's hard to meditate in the moment when you're heightened. So I tend to do breathwork in those moments. Um, and that just recenters myself. And same with, uh, relationships. If your partner is triggering you, instead of arguing, take a step back. Go to the washroom for a few minutes. Regroup. Do some breathwork. Recenter yourself. You know, really try to learn your own signs for when you feel overwhelmed because everyone's different.

00:12:07 Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:12:09 Yusuf: I love that that you are naming the unimpressive wins because that's where real healing lives. A pause before a reaction, a breath before a spiral, a boundary said without a speech that are the those are the real winnings in my opinion.

00:12:30 Hailey: I think so too, because there's no point in yelling at your kids, or no point in yelling at a partner or family member. You know, like the calm. So go and calm yourself and then come back calm and watch how fast that energy shifts in that environment.

00:12:54 Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:12:55 Hailey: Bring that energy. Right.

00:12:58 Speaker 5: Mhm.

00:12:59 Yusuf: Haley if someone wants to live more mindfully but they are honestly running on fumes. What's a simple starting point you trust? Not a twenty step routine. Something that meets them where they are.

00:13:15 Hailey: Learning breathwork. You can do breathwork in the shower, in the bathroom, in the car, in while you're cooking dinner for your family. Um, breathwork can be done everywhere and anywhere, and it is such an ancient tool to calm both of our nervous system, our nervous systems, that people forget to do it. Um, and I think it's something that can be done during a heightened environment. So you can, like, literally turn around and just do some breathwork for a minute before you turn back around environment. You know, um, it's so easy to do, but you have to learn it. So I always suggest take the time to learn different breathwork strategies when you are calm, so that when you are stressed out, you already know what to do. So always learn the things when you're calm and feeling great. Um, I teach this to all of my clients and so if anyone's interested in in learning, um, I do one time sessions so I can teach them some nervous system grounding tools. Um, or I can help them through a situation with some of my private coaching. So, um, I did the same. I learned and learned all of my tools from one of my amazing gurus, uh, from around the world. And, um, it was life changing and also saved me. So I highly recommend learning from somebody.

00:15:02 Yusuf: Perfect and with that healing for people who want to connect with you and want to know more about your work, where can they find you?

00:15:12 Hailey: They can find me on my website. So it's w-w-w. Com um, or on Instagram and my Instagram handle is live dot empower. But I'll put that in the chat here, uh, for you. Um, and anyone can reach out to me and, and ask me questions and I can help them feel supported with different tools and techniques that they can do on their own.

00:15:46 Yusuf: Perfect. And to everyone listening, all these links are in the show notes, so just go and check those out. Hayley, is there any last message that you want to leave us with?

00:16:00 Hailey: I think the biggest message that I say to all my clients is just try to be your best self and if you feel like you're not your best self, take a five minute break and regroup with breathwork or hand on your chest. Hand on your on your stomach and just feel your heart and your breath and just close your eyes and recenter yourself just for a few minutes. It is magic, and it's such an ancient way to just recenter ourselves. So if you can do anything, do that, even if it's twenty times a day.

00:16:41 Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:16:43 Yusuf: Thank you for being here. Really?

00:16:45 Hailey: Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity, and I hope I can reach as many people as possible with this gift.

00:16:55 Speaker 6: So yes.

00:16:57 Yusuf: And to everyone listening, if you take nothing else. Take this. Start small. Start kindy. A regulated breath. A softer thought. A moment of truth without judgment. This is the mindful living. I am Yusuf. If this episode met you in a real place, share it with someone who's been trying to push through alone. Until next time. Go gently.