Welcome to the ADHD Women's Wellbeing podcast.
Kate Moore YoussefI'm Kate Moore Youssef and I'm a wellbeing and lifestyle coach, EfT practitioner, mum to four kids and passionate about helping more women to understand and accept their amazing ADHD brains.
Kate Moore YoussefAfter speaking to many women just like me, and probably you, I know there is a need for more health and lifestyle support for women newly diagnosed with ADHD.
Kate Moore YoussefIn these conversations, you'll learn from insightful guests, hear new findings, and discover powerful perspectives and lifestyle tools to enable you to live your most fulfilled, calm, and purposeful life wherever you are on your ADHD journey.
Kate Moore YoussefHere's today's episode.
Kate Moore YoussefI'm so happy to bring my guest in.
Kate Moore YoussefHer name is Manuela Mitibova.
Kate Moore YoussefShe is based in Lisbon and she is a movement teacher who specializes in releasing emotions through the body.
Kate Moore YoussefNow, if you know me and you will have listened to the podcast, you know how much I think about somatic movement and somatic healing.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd this is just yet another conversation to dive a little bit deeper into how we can release so much of our stuck trauma and our stuck unprocessed emotions through our body and not necessarily having to intellectualize it and have to talk it through hours and hours in therapy.
Kate Moore YoussefWe can gain so much from some movement and understanding it through these experts.
Kate Moore YoussefSo, Manu, welcome to the podcast.
Manuela MitibovaHi, kid.
Manuela MitibovaThank you so much for having me.
Kate Moore YoussefYeah, I'm just delighted to have you here because I followed you on Instagram.
Kate Moore YoussefYou've got a huge audience, and I love what you do because you simplify so much of the movement side and you help teach people, through gentle movement, through different somatic tools and strategies, how we can access these emotions and move through them and release them in a very gentle way.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd I guess I would love to start with Rahel, did this begin with you?
Kate Moore YoussefBecause very often when we do these journeys and we're guiding people, there's always a personal story.
Kate Moore YoussefWould you mind telling me a little bit about what led you to this work?
Manuela MitibovaYes, of course.
Manuela MitibovaSo I started with movement pretty young.
Manuela MitibovaI was into so many sports.
Manuela MitibovaI still am into so many sports.
Manuela MitibovaI started yoga when I was about 18 years old.
Manuela MitibovaI'm 35 now.
Manuela MitibovaSo this is a long way that it's been brewing.
Manuela MitibovaAnd I think I got into it very much like everyone else.
Manuela MitibovaI was just looking for a movement practice to move my body, completely disregarding anything emotional, completely disregarding any kind of mental therapy, anything.
Manuela MitibovaSo it was all about moving the body.
Manuela MitibovaYoga was just starting to come up, and I thought I might as well do some stretching because I was doing a lot of sports and I was lucky enough to have a wonderful teacher.
Manuela MitibovaBack in the time when I was living in Holland, I didn't know anything about yoga.
Manuela MitibovaAnd I remember sitting there in class one day and the only thing she had us do was just do some simple neck rolls, just side to side, back and forth, and just releasing the neck.
Manuela MitibovaAnd I felt such incredible release in my body from such a simple thing that I'm able to do at any point of the day.
Manuela MitibovaI don't need someone to tell me to do that, but I was there in this class, just rolling my neck around.
Manuela MitibovaAnd the release that I got from that was so incredibly powerful, that informed kind of my whole path forward, even though nothing really happened in terms of me going more into somatic movements for many years.
Manuela MitibovaBut I think that was the first 1st spark of oh, I actually don't have to get into some crazy back bends and God knows what and do all these crazy flows, which anyway, I got into doing because of course that was the path for all the yogis at the beginning.
Manuela MitibovaBut I was lucky enough to get this guide and to realize how powerful, very simple things can be in the body and to actually listen to that and to not forget it.
Manuela MitibovaBecause I think that a lot of people experience it in their practice even early on.
Manuela MitibovaBecause when you start moving your body, everything is very sensitive.
Manuela MitibovaSo if you've never moved at all and you start to move, it's enough to do that tiniest little bit and you will notice such a difference.
Manuela MitibovaIt has a huge impact.
Manuela MitibovaSo I think the important thing there is to just go slow and notice and listen to all of these small things that the body is trying to tell us.
Manuela MitibovaAnd so back to your question.
Manuela MitibovaThis was kind of me back in my teenage years still, how yoga can be very daunting on one way, but also very transformative with the simplicity that it can bring.
Manuela MitibovaAnd then I went into Ashtanga, which is a very rigorous type of yoga.
Manuela MitibovaI was practicing that for many years and I absolutely loved it.
Manuela MitibovaIt's basically set poses that you do every time exactly the same.
Manuela MitibovaYou can do it by yourself, you don't need a guide there.
Manuela MitibovaBut it's nice to go into a community of people doing that.
Manuela MitibovaAnd it was the ritual of it.
Manuela MitibovaAnd that, I think, was my breaking point, where I realized that yoga can be much more than just going for a random class to move your body.
Manuela MitibovaBecause Ashtanga yoga is a very much spiritual practice.
Manuela MitibovaIt's all about deep breathing.
Manuela MitibovaIt's all about connecting to your body, to your limits, to your boundaries, what you can do.
Manuela MitibovaAnd every time at the end of my practice, I would just lay there in my shavasana, and I would be the most emotional human being ever.
Manuela MitibovaI cried, I was angry.
Manuela MitibovaI was experiencing all of these emotions just at the end.
Manuela MitibovaAnd at the same time, it was not overwhelming.
Manuela MitibovaIt's a very different experience to experience those emotions after you've physically moved your body in a very specific way that it was designed to move stuff out, rather than to experience emotions just in the moment where you don't really know what to do with them, for example, when you're in your car or in an office or having a fight with someone.
Manuela MitibovaSo it kind of teaches you how to navigate a lot.
Manuela MitibovaAnd for me, that was absolutely wonderful.
Manuela MitibovaAnd I did have a lot of cry sessions in my savasanas.
Manuela MitibovaAnd I wondered, how does this work?
Manuela MitibovaWhy does this happen after I spend 2 hours on my mat?
Manuela MitibovaWhat is it that is driving my nervous system to experience this?
Manuela MitibovaSo from there, it kind of developed into me exploring much more about somatic movement, much more about trauma studies.
Manuela MitibovaThis was also back in the time where polyvagal theory was starting to kind of become quite popular, because it's not such a new concept, I think, but it's just gained so much popularization in the recent years.
Manuela MitibovaAnd with the book, the body keeps the score, but also going more into Stephen Porsche and all the polyvagal theory content that suddenly there was out there.
Manuela MitibovaAnd I was so interested by that, and I studied so much about it and how that can be applied to movement, because it can be, and it's just such a light bulb kind of moment when you realize that, oh, okay, this is why.
Manuela MitibovaThis is how we function as humans, and this is why we do the things that we do.
Manuela MitibovaThis is why we feel the certain ways that we do.
Manuela MitibovaIt was kind of like a full circle moment for me, where all of the somatic practices and all of the somatic theory and everything that I was learning and studying kind of brought me back to all those years ago when I was in that yoga class doing my simple neck rolls and just noticing how it feels in my body and being present in that moment without being completely in my head and just thinking about all the work that I still have to do, about what I have to cook for dinner and so on.
Manuela MitibovaSo I think it was, everything was brewing from the beginning, and I think for so many people, there's all these small signs along their path.
Manuela MitibovaAnd at some point, it does come full circle.
Manuela MitibovaMaybe sometimes it takes longer, sometimes it takes less.
Manuela MitibovaBut we are already gravitating towards what we are meant to be going forward, I think.
Kate Moore YoussefYeah, I love that.
Kate Moore YoussefI mean, there's so much to say on that polyvagal theory.
Kate Moore YoussefFor me, I had a very similar experience.
Kate Moore YoussefI did a week's course with Deb Dana, who is like the queen of Polyvagal, and it was the most enlightening week ever.
Kate Moore YoussefBut similar to you, I was applying it to my knowledge in ADHD and seeing how powerful it was to understand our nervous system and understand how we can regulate and we can calm it and we can reset, we can reheal through this understanding.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd especially, you know, we were talking just off camera before about ADHD women, especially, that until we're diagnosed, until we understand, we will have had a history of chronic pain, chronic fatigue, autoimmune issues, gut issues, anxiety, sleeplessness.
Kate Moore YoussefI mean, the list just goes on and on, and the dots have never been connected.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd I'm not saying that if you go and do half an hour of, like, gentle somatic movement, everything is cured.
Kate Moore YoussefBut it's a really lovely, gentle exploration to seeing if that potentially could help you begin this new journey of letting things go and being really sort of compassionate and gentle in yourself.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd I want to ask you, do you notice an area in the body that holds the most trauma?
Kate Moore YoussefAnd I wonder, is it the hips?
Kate Moore YoussefBecause I hear this so much.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd why, if it is the hips, why is it the hips?
Manuela MitibovaSo, for this question, I always answer that every person is completely unique and different, and at the same time, we are built in a very similar way.
Manuela MitibovaSo we all have certain muscles that are much bigger muscles.
Manuela MitibovaSo, for example, your hip muscles, your glutes and your hip flexors and so on, they're much bigger than, for example, the muscles on your wrists, right?
Manuela MitibovaSo just because of the surface area, just because of energetically where they are positioned around your.
Manuela MitibovaBelow your organs, your pelvic floor and so on, there's a lot going on there.
Manuela MitibovaSo there is a much bigger, energetic charge to your core, to your back, to your pelvis, rather than to your limbs, for example.
Manuela MitibovaOf course, it's easier to think about it that our core, which is basically our torso, is the part where the most amount of energy is being stored.
Manuela MitibovaThat's where our organs are.
Manuela MitibovaAnd if you go into traditional chinese medicine, you will see that the organs are what holds the energy.
Manuela MitibovaWe have the meridians, which go through the whole body that are basically moving this energy, dispersing it.
Manuela MitibovaBut the meridians are the energy holders.
Manuela MitibovaSo the torso is very important.
Manuela MitibovaAnd I also, I always like to focus on the torso on, as I said, the back, the core and the pelvis.
Manuela MitibovaSo these are the three big areas for me that can potentially hold so much tension.
Manuela MitibovaAnd if we go back to polyvagal theory, the reason for that is that these are the biggest muscles, the big muscles that we need to fight or flight.
Manuela MitibovaOf course, if you want to start running, you need to brace your core.
Manuela MitibovaYou need to start, you know, you need to create that movement in your body.
Manuela MitibovaAnd how you do that is by engaging the biggest muscles.
Manuela MitibovaOf course, if you want to run or fight, this is how you do it.
Manuela MitibovaSo it's not so necessary to kind of engage your fingers or your wrists or your forearms.
Manuela MitibovaRight.
Manuela MitibovaSo it's the bigger muscles in the body that are directly connected to our survival response.
Manuela MitibovaAnd therefore, if we experience trauma or events that potentially can be traumatic to us that we were not able to process at the time, that energy, of course, as you know, does not dissipate out of these muscles.
Manuela MitibovaAnd then it's as if you're stuck trying to run, but there's a wall in front of you.
Manuela MitibovaI really like to use this example because it really exemplifies very well what that feels like in the body.
Manuela MitibovaSo if you're trying to run as fast as you can, but then just as you're about to begin, there's a wall in front of you and you can't, and your body still holds all of this energy, but it needs to go somewhere.
Manuela MitibovaHowever, when we experience these events, we are not necessarily given a way to process that.
Manuela MitibovaSo we are not allowed or trained or shown how to, for example, do the natural shake or to scream or to stomp our feet and to shake off the body.
Manuela MitibovaRight.
Manuela MitibovaWe are not allowed to do this, and therefore, that energy just has no way of dissipating.
Manuela MitibovaAnd it stays in the muscles and mostly around the muscles of the core, the back, the hips, the hip flexors and so on.
Manuela MitibovaSo this is why it's so important to talk about the big muscle groups and how they're connected to our survival response, because this is then how we begin to understand how stretching them, moving them, activating them, can help release all of that tension that has been stuck there because of that traumatic or potentially traumatic experience.
Kate Moore YoussefYeah, it's so fascinating.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd I was just, when you were saying that, I was thinking about, like, when, you know, a child has a tantrum, you know, like a two year old.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd they will not hesitate to throw themselves on the floor and stamp and bang their fists and shake and cry.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd then you kind of think, oh, my goodness, like 20 minutes.
Kate Moore YoussefThey're like a different child.
Kate Moore YoussefThey are laughing and they're joking and they're hugging you and you kind of go from day to night so quickly with kids who are not afraid to release those emotions in the moment.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd that's why we, as parents say, it's okay.
Kate Moore YoussefLet them experience it.
Kate Moore YoussefLet them do it.
Kate Moore YoussefDon't shush them, don't tell them to be quiet.
Kate Moore YoussefDon't be embarrassed if it's happening in the supermarket, because let them just move through that process.
Kate Moore YoussefBut as we, especially as women, are told to contain ourselves, to not go crazy, all these words, to not be hysterical, and we are frozen in the moment, like you say, and then we don't have any place or space or safety to then process them with somebody that can handle it.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd very often in a traditional male female relationship, the male can feel maybe quite threatened or scared or not know what to do with us if we want to process.
Kate Moore YoussefSo I agree with you.
Kate Moore YoussefI wish that we are taught from a really young age, you know, from our.
Kate Moore YoussefFrom the age of like, whatever age it is that we're told as girls, especially, to keep a lid on it, to keep quiet, that actually some hip stretches or shaking, whatever, is like a really healthy way to process emotions.
Kate Moore YoussefI wonder what you could say to somebody that's listening right now.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd they want to start with very gentle movements, somatic movement, whether they're experiencing the jaw release or the neck pain.
Kate Moore YoussefFor me especially, I have had years and years of lower back pain, tight hips.
Kate Moore YoussefIt's something I have to work on pretty much every day to loosen it all up.
Kate Moore YoussefI know that's a lot of stored emotion, a lot of childhood stuff that I've kind of like, stored.
Kate Moore YoussefWhat would you say?
Kate Moore YoussefOr kind of like, where would someone begin and what resources do you have?
Kate Moore YoussefIf someone saying, yeah, I would love to just start very gently.
Manuela MitibovaYeah.
Manuela MitibovaSo starting very gently, as I mentioned at the very beginning, it's extremely important because I wouldn't want people to think that movement means that they're going to do a sweaty session or they're going to do a super bendy session where it just becomes unaccessible to even begin.
Manuela MitibovaAnd then it becomes unsustainable to keep doing it for more than once.
Manuela MitibovaSo setting the bar kind of low for yourself in terms of what you're willing to do, I think, is very important.
Manuela MitibovaAnd especially with people who live with trauma or chronic stress, in burnout, or with.
Manuela MitibovaLive with anxiety or chronic fear, it's really important to start being very accepting of yourself or where you are and not comparing yourself to others and saying that you now need to do a 1 hour movement session.
Manuela MitibovaThat's not realistic.
Manuela MitibovaThat's just not happening.
Manuela MitibovaIt's enough to do two minutes.
Manuela MitibovaThat's all that you need to do.
Manuela MitibovaMaybe it's even a 1 minute.
Manuela MitibovaMaybe it's even 30 seconds.
Manuela MitibovaIt's just that moment that you dedicate to yourself and to spending some time with your body.
Manuela MitibovaIt's not the length is the quality.
Manuela MitibovaSo even if you just sit in your chair, in your work, in your office, and you just do those neck rolls or you just do some gentle pelvic tilt, it's the practice.
Manuela MitibovaThat's it.
Manuela MitibovaThere doesn't need to be anything else.
Manuela MitibovaAnd I have some wonderful resources for free on my YouTube channel about somatic movement, expressing emotions, moving emotions.
Manuela MitibovaAnd they are very gentle.
Manuela MitibovaThey are extremely accessible to any beginner who has never moved in their life, who cannot sit on the floor, do a downward dog from yoga.
Manuela MitibovaIt's just moving energy.
Manuela MitibovaIt's energy work.
Manuela MitibovaThis is what we need to do at the very beginning, and it's not difficult to get into.
Manuela MitibovaSo I invite people to just start with very small movements.
Manuela MitibovaOne of my favorite ones, and I have this a lot in so many of my classes on YouTube, is just the pelvic tilts.
Manuela MitibovaSo it's just laying on your back and just tilting your pelvis up and down.
Manuela MitibovaSo you're kind of arching your back and then flattening your back, I find that a lot of people are almost unable to do the movement.
Manuela MitibovaIf I tell them, tilt your pelvis up and down, like they cannot move the pelvis, it's so stuck, and there's so much stuck energy there that is so difficult for them to do that.
Manuela MitibovaSo I usually lead with actually doing flattening the back and rounding it because that seems to be a little bit more easy.
Manuela MitibovaAnd it kind of moves into the same shape that we want to get the body into.
Manuela MitibovaAnd it's such a deeply restorative and awakening movement for the body.
Manuela MitibovaAnd that's all that there is to it.
Manuela MitibovaYou can just spend a few seconds to a minute or a few minutes just tucking and untucking your pelvis.
Manuela MitibovaIt's just like doing a small wave with your lower back, and that unlocks so much stuckness around your hips and lower back as well.
Manuela MitibovaSo many people are struggling with lower back issues, and they don't realize it's actually tight hips.
Manuela MitibovaWe have so many students like this.
Manuela MitibovaIt's just crazy.
Manuela MitibovaSo there's always a gentle way to start than you think there is.
Manuela MitibovaI think that would be my biggest advice to anyone who's listening and who's just finding the prospect of, oh, now I have to start moving.
Manuela MitibovaDaunting.
Manuela MitibovaIf that is daunting to you, then please know that there's a very simple way to do that, very accessible way to do that.
Manuela MitibovaYou don't even have to have a yoga mat.
Manuela MitibovaYou don't have to have space.
Manuela MitibovaYou can do it in your bed.
Manuela MitibovaYou can do it on.
Manuela MitibovaOn your couch.
Manuela MitibovaIt is all accessible, and it is there, and it's.
Manuela MitibovaIt's a portal to something that is potentially so extremely healing to you.
Manuela MitibovaAnd as you.
Manuela MitibovaAs you mentioned at the beginning, it's not that one session is going to heal all of your problems all of a sudden.
Manuela MitibovaOf course not.
Manuela MitibovaBut it's a portal.
Manuela MitibovaIt's about choosing the right way to move your body rather than just having this umbrella term of, now I need to be moving in order to heal my trauma and my.
Manuela MitibovaMy stuck emotions and my pain.
Manuela MitibovaSo, yeah, it's always starting like this.
Manuela MitibovaJust very, very simple and accepting towards your body that you're not.
Manuela MitibovaNo one's asking you of anything.
Manuela MitibovaYou don't own anyone.
Manuela MitibovaAnything.
Manuela MitibovaYou don't have to show up for a 1 hour practice.
Manuela MitibovaIt's all your choices.
Kate Moore YoussefYeah, I love this because you're speaking so directly to so many women, ADHD women, neurodivergent women who have spent a lifetime of perfectionism, and this all or nothing thinking of, well, if I don't do it perfectly, and, you know, like you say, this hour, brutal class where I'm sweating and I feel like I've done, like, a huge workout, then it's just not worth it.
Kate Moore YoussefOr if I'm not doing it all perfectly, then, you know, I've done it.
Kate Moore YoussefI've done it wrong, and I'm just not going to even bother.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd this loop that so many of us have been in of perfectionism, of this very negative, self critical voice that has been driving, I call it sort of like this drill sergeant that has been running the show, and that internal dialogue is much more difficult to remove than the external.
Kate Moore YoussefCan I ask you a little bit about other movement?
Kate Moore YoussefThis is from what I was reading on your instagram, are the releasing emotions such as anger, sadness, fear.
Kate Moore YoussefLike, what other movements would there be for these different emotions?
Manuela MitibovaHow I like to think about an emotion, for example, like anger, what is happening?
Manuela MitibovaSomething is arising in the body.
Manuela MitibovaThat is a very strong energy, right?
Manuela MitibovaHow do we usually, if that wasn't, if, if we take away the polarity of the anger, if something strong arises in the body, how would we usually get that out?
Manuela MitibovaSo we would either strongly push away something or we would jump around or we would try to disperse it in one of these ways.
Manuela MitibovaRight.
Manuela MitibovaSo for anger, I really like to use pushing.
Manuela MitibovaYou can even just sit in your chair, pray your hands like this, and press, press, press super strong towards that.
Manuela MitibovaAnd that's already helping you navigate that surge of energy that is happening in the body because of the anger.
Manuela MitibovaAnd at the end of the day, all of these emotions are just energy arising that wants to be expressed so that it can leave your body.
Manuela MitibovaThat's the only reason for that there.
Manuela MitibovaOf course, then we have the part that maybe it's guiding us to try to understand why that is arising in the body and maybe to fix something that is causing us to be angry.
Manuela MitibovaBut at the same time, that energy is not meant to live in our body.
Manuela MitibovaWe're meant to process it.
Manuela MitibovaSo if we're angry, we're meant to scream it out or punch out something or punch a, punch a pillow, or scream into a pillow or just move the energy out.
Manuela MitibovaSo I think for everyone.
Kate Moore YoussefYeah, sorry, I just wanted to ask you, because with ADHD specifically or neurodivergence, we see emotional dysregulation as one of the hardest things for us to manage.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd especially, it's one thing when it's a child, and it's kind of expected for kids to have this dysregulation.
Kate Moore YoussefBut when you are an adult and you find it hard to contain your emotions, or you feel your emotions so intensely, I don't like the thought of saying, right, we have to contain because that means it's being suppressed in the body.
Kate Moore YoussefBut we do feel a roller coaster of emotions and this sort of just not being able to feel completely in control when we want to feel in control.
Kate Moore YoussefI love the idea of the pushing.
Kate Moore YoussefSo would you say you can use, you use your hands, but can you use the wall?
Kate Moore YoussefLike, what are the ways if you're in that moment and you feel like you want to be able to feel in control and not feel so reactive, what.
Kate Moore YoussefWhat else could someone do?
Manuela MitibovaSo pushing the wall is a wonderful practice as well.
Manuela MitibovaYou can split your stance and just push into the wall with, with your elbows bent.
Manuela MitibovaI always suggest people never stretch out their joints too much when they're doing anything, because then that's stopping kind of the flow of energy through the body.
Manuela MitibovaThis is why when we're doing any kind of qigong practice or anything that's more inspired by traditional chinese medicine, we're always doing it with soft joints.
Manuela MitibovaSo we're always kind of sinking to the ground with soft knees and with soft elbows so that the energy can flow through the whole body.
Manuela MitibovaAnd since we're working with energy, which is the emotions, we're trying to open up the meridians and the channels so that all of that can move.
Manuela MitibovaSo if you're pressing against a wall when you're just experiencing a surge of anger, just try to still kind of keep a small bend to your elbows and keep that softness, even though that you're very kind of activated and tense, but sinking into the ground and allowing also the wall and the ground to take up that energy and connecting with those points of contact.
Manuela MitibovaSo your hands and your feet are now the place where that energy can drive out of your body.
Manuela MitibovaSo we do a lot of this as well in yoga.
Manuela MitibovaWell, in traditional yoga, I don't think that people do this very often in classes these days, but it's noticing where the body is in contact with the ground and then guiding anything that is excessive in the body, any emotions, any energy out of those points, because now we can imagine how that is moving out.
Manuela MitibovaRight?
Manuela MitibovaSo we need to give it a place to go.
Manuela MitibovaSo always thinking of kind of connecting to something that is a hard surface, the earth, and allowing that to be dispersed there, giving that energy a place to kind of go.
Manuela MitibovaSo if you're doing this pushing practice, it's just wonderful to imagine that all of it is kind of being driven out of your hands and of your feet out into the earth and the walls of.
Manuela MitibovaSo, of course, then there might be a different practice, like shaking.
Manuela MitibovaSo it's just starting to skip on 1ft on the other and shaking off the body completely.
Manuela MitibovaAnd this is now more about just dispersing the energy out of the muscles, and it's just relaxing the whole body.
Manuela MitibovaAnd this is wonderful.
Manuela MitibovaI also have these practices on my YouTube channel, and it's just beautiful to notice how people are experiencing in their bodies, because it is all about getting rid of any kind of toxic energy, even though if you don't know what that is.
Manuela MitibovaSo some people might be experiencing a surge of something that they identify as uncomfortable, and they don't necessarily know, what is this now?
Manuela MitibovaIs this anger, is this frustration?
Manuela MitibovaIs this jealousy?
Manuela MitibovaAnd in some sense, sometimes there's not even such a point in naming that.
Manuela MitibovaJust let that go.
Manuela MitibovaBecause as soon as we start labeling all of these things, it becomes, once it becomes a story, and once it becomes a story, now we start asking questions.
Manuela MitibovaNow we start going into the why and what if this and what if that?
Manuela MitibovaAnd then that emotion, that energy lingers because we are creating this whole thing around it versus it was a surge of something.
Manuela MitibovaIf we let it go, then there's no story around it because no longer are we attached to it.
Manuela MitibovaSo I would say that whenever something that is very overwhelming arises, allowing that to exit the body through having some practices that work for you.
Manuela MitibovaSo for some people, the shaking is a really easy practice to do because they can do it everywhere, or even stomping your feet, just being somewhere and just starting to stomp your feet and just throw a tantrum.
Manuela MitibovaBasically, if you're experiencing some of these more agitated emotions.
Manuela MitibovaAnd then of course we have emotions that are a bit gentle and not so agitated, not so frustrated.
Manuela MitibovaSo we would have grief or we would have sadness or depression.
Manuela MitibovaAnd then how we would deal with that is slightly different also depending on the state that the person is in.
Manuela MitibovaSo some people might be stuck a lot in free state, and this would be the survival response that they have been kind of nurtured to keep because of any of the experiences that they had in their life.
Manuela MitibovaAnd now they're kind of stuck in this numbing freeze mode and they cannot, they cannot even move their body.
Manuela MitibovaSo it's very difficult to do something as a practice like shaking or pressing because this is already activating my sympathetic nervous system even more.
Manuela MitibovaSo it's very difficult for people who are in a free state, for example, experiencing depression, which is very common with free state, that it's just such a lowering of the, of the energy.
Manuela MitibovaEverything is numbed down, everything is, is going kind of downwards, and there's no joy and there's no agitation at all.
Manuela MitibovaSo what we want to do in this state is kind of introduce just very gentle activation to the body just by maybe nodding the head yes and no, just side to side or even just looking around the room.
Manuela MitibovaAnd this already is helping to bring the system alive so that all of those emotions, even of depression or sadness or grief, can start to be moved outside of the body.
Manuela MitibovaSo there's kind of, there's, it does get very specific based on the, the state that the person is in, the emotions that they're experiencing and so on.
Manuela MitibovaSo I invite people, if they're very curious about this, to check some of the classes that I have on YouTube that other people have on YouTube about expressing kind of emotions thematically.
Manuela MitibovaAnd I would even say going through all of the emotions, not just going, oh, I think I'm angry now, so I'm gonna skip the grief and I'm gonna skip.
Manuela MitibovaSkip the anxiety.
Manuela MitibovaI would invite people to actually go and do all of the practices and to see what comes up for them, because oftentimes we are holding so much more than we think and that we put a label on it and we think this is what it is.
Manuela MitibovaAnd actually, there's a lot of layers behind that.
Manuela MitibovaSo anger can also be a result of.
Manuela MitibovaCan be a part of grief.
Manuela MitibovaSo it's very important to acknowledge all of the different emotions that we might be holding in the body and just give the body a way to kind of express that.
Manuela MitibovaAnd I really liked how you mentioned at the beginning that there's actually no reason for us to have to go into the history and the story of what has happened in order to heal.
Manuela MitibovaAnd it's wonderful that in somatics and in more holistic therapies, we are basically working with the body to express and allow those energies and those experiences to be processed and to move out of the body without having to go back into it and re traumatize ourselves and relive the experience, because it is something that is stuck in the body, and we can remove that out of the body without having to relive it.
Manuela MitibovaAnd I think a lot of people don't realize how potent this is.
Manuela MitibovaAnd this is why we have so many thousands of students who are crying in classes, who are angry in classes, who are experiencing all of these emotions.
Manuela MitibovaAnd a lot of them are, at the beginning, very confused.
Manuela MitibovaWhy is this happening?
Manuela MitibovaI didn't think of anything.
Manuela MitibovaI didn't.
Manuela MitibovaI wasn't processing any kind of memory in my brain.
Manuela MitibovaSo why am I feeling like this?
Manuela MitibovaIt's very sudden.
Manuela MitibovaAnd just goes to show how powerful these movements are, because they really press that button, that exact button that you need in order to release that without actually having to know what you're releasing.
Manuela MitibovaAnd it can be confusing, but at the same time, it's so healing, because for once, you don't have to go back into history.
Manuela MitibovaYou don't have to go back into everything that you've been through.
Manuela MitibovaJust let that go.
Manuela MitibovaAnd it happens through the body.
Kate Moore YoussefYeah.
Kate Moore YoussefWhile you were talking, all I keep thinking is this should be introduced as, like, a practice for kids, you know, in school, and it should be just part of, like, a daily five minute routine, especially as we're understanding more about neurodivergence.
Kate Moore YoussefWe're understanding that kids who are being sent out of school, being excluded, who are seemingly sort of, like, chaotic and disruptive, are actually have probably gone through some childhood issues and trauma.
Kate Moore YoussefThere's probably dysfunction and chaos in the house.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd if we can get to these kids and have maybe a practice for five minutes that a teacher can do, it could be some gentle yoga practices, just stamping on the floor, pushing against the wall, and just allowing kids this moment to process so they don't have to hold on to all the things that we've held onto.
Kate Moore YoussefI think maybe we're coming out of this generation of understanding.
Kate Moore YoussefYeah, therapy.
Kate Moore YoussefTherapy is a good thing.
Kate Moore YoussefBut I wonder, the next generation, are they going to be realizing, like you say, that somatic work and not having to re traumatize ourselves and understand that the body knows a lot more than we can, we can articulate through our minds.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd like you say, we sometimes don't even know what's going on.
Kate Moore YoussefLike, we don't know.
Kate Moore YoussefIs it anger?
Kate Moore YoussefIs it fear?
Kate Moore YoussefIs it resentment?
Kate Moore YoussefIs it grief?
Kate Moore YoussefAnd we don't have the words.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd especially kids don't have the words.
Kate Moore YoussefThe kids don't have an understanding, but they know if something feels wrong in their body and it comes out in being naughty or being, you know, hyperactive or whatever that might be.
Kate Moore YoussefThere's so many different, you know, things.
Kate Moore YoussefI think this conversation is vital, and I think it's so important.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd I'm so glad that I've had you on the podcast, because I hope that this has just dropped a little kind of nugget or like a little nudge of curiosity for people who might think that maybe medication or therapy is not working for them or they've not seen enough of a change.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd perhaps somatic movement therapy, healing, nervous system regulation, however you want to look at it, might be something that they consider.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd I know you mentioned that you've got free resources on your YouTube.
Kate Moore YoussefHow else can people work with you?
Manuela MitibovaYes.
Manuela MitibovaSo I do online courses.
Manuela MitibovaThese are longer journeys that are focused on a part of the body.
Manuela MitibovaThe most popular one, which is.
Manuela MitibovaWhich has thousands of students in it and everyone loves it, is hips like honey.
Manuela MitibovaAnd it's about releasing kind of the tension, emotional and physical tension from the hips and basically dealing with anything that might be stuck for you in the pelvic area, and especially for women, this is extremely powerful.
Manuela MitibovaWe do have so many, many men in the practice as well.
Manuela MitibovaI would like to say that it's also very, very important for men to take care of their pelvic health and for their hips, because it's almost as if, because we are now, as women, kind of coming out of this era of empowerment and so on, that men are also being kind of relegated to not have to care about these things.
Manuela MitibovaAnd they do.
Manuela MitibovaThere's so much trauma that they have also experienced.
Manuela MitibovaThere's so much that's been held in their hips as well.
Manuela MitibovaSo hips like honey is a wonderful practice for anyone to do.
Manuela MitibovaI still do most of the practices on a daily basis, and it's just such a releasing way of treating your body with acceptance and love without having to push it into anything crazy.
Manuela MitibovaI do have other programs as well, for the back muscles and for releasing any tension that's stored there and for opening your heart, as well as the meditation program and so many more other things.
Manuela MitibovaBut I think hips like honey is the one that I know that has been the most transformative for people.
Manuela MitibovaAnd, yeah, the hips just hold so much for us.
Manuela MitibovaAnd I know that it's such a helpful way to just go into a journey of that rather than just do one class.
Manuela MitibovaThis is why I wanted to do something that is a little bit more journey like, so that people experience the progress, and it's something that also allows them to have accountability and not just give up after a first class, but also be a part of a community that are healing together.
Manuela MitibovaSo it's just been a wonderful way to see how that is making a difference in people's lives.
Manuela MitibovaEven if, as you said before, with your audience, with a lot of people who are struggling with perfectionism and hdhd and really kind of sitting down and doing something, even if it's for 510, 20 minutes, this is a way for them to have something to just click on open every day, and they always know what they're doing, and they always know that they have a community there to support them throughout that.
Manuela MitibovaAnd everyone is kind of in the same boat.
Manuela MitibovaYou know, we're all healing together.
Manuela MitibovaWe're all exploring the emotions together and kind of navigating everything.
Kate Moore YoussefSo is it a live class or they recorded classes and how long is it for?
Manuela MitibovaYes, it's recorded.
Manuela MitibovaIt's recorded prerecorded classes.
Manuela MitibovaSo everyone can do it at any time.
Manuela MitibovaAnyone can join.
Manuela MitibovaWe have students from literally every part of the world.
Manuela MitibovaIt's for, I believe, one month you can basically also choose which I love.
Manuela MitibovaYou can choose what kind of focus you want to have.
Manuela MitibovaSo whether you want to focus more on flexibility, or if you want to focus more on releasing emotions, or on balancing your emotional and physical state, we even have ways and pathways that you can do for menopause and how to combine that with my other programs.
Manuela MitibovaSo there's a lot that you can do there.
Manuela MitibovaAnd we see people repeating these online programs seven, 8910 times.
Manuela MitibovaSo people are really kind of working through it, and it's, you can do it once, you can do it multiple times, and it's still going to work like magic because it is energy work.
Manuela MitibovaIt's not physical work necessarily.
Manuela MitibovaSo if you're interested in anything that is more about bringing you in contact with your subtle body as well as your physical body, it's the perfect way.
Kate Moore YoussefWell, I just want to congratulate you because what you've done is amazing.
Kate Moore YoussefYou've built this huge audience and, and you are serving them in such a wonderful way that is so needed.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd hopefully there's a collective healing that's going on through your work.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd it's amazing to hear that you're hitting so many people around the world and may it continue.
Kate Moore YoussefSo, Manu, thank you so much for being here.
Kate Moore YoussefThank you for being on the podcast.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd yeah, I would love to talk more.
Kate Moore YoussefSo, yeah, let's keep in touch.
Manuela MitibovaThank you so much, Kate.
Manuela MitibovaIt was such a pleasure talking.
Kate Moore YoussefI really hope you enjoyed this week's episode.
Kate Moore YoussefIf you did and it resonated with you, I would absolutely love it if you could share on your platforms or maybe leave a review and a rating wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Kate Moore YoussefAnd please do check out my website, adhd womenswellbeing dot co dot UK for lots of free resources and paid for workshops.
Kate Moore YoussefI'm uploading new things all the time and I would absolutely love to see you there.
Kate Moore YoussefTake care and see you for the next episode.