Episode Transcript

The Nourished Mama - Ep 22

Transcript 

Welcome to another episode of The Nourished Mama Show. I am so honored and excited to have Sarina joining us today. Sarina is a nutritionist and EFT practitioner. She has a huge passion for helping women to really understand themselves and work with their body rather than against it.

She has so much incredible knowledge around nervous system health, which she will be sharing with us today. Sarina welcome. Thank you so much for having me, and I'm so excited to, to be here and to chat all the things today and hopefully offer some little nuggets of support for all the mamas out there.

Oh, I'm sure you will. Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and how did you get into the health and wellness space? Yeah, it's been this. Like gradual unfolding thing. I started in the area of psychology where I was just fascinated with, especially women, like why we think the way we think and why we do what we do.

Ended up getting three quarters through the degree. I was 20 and I thought, no, don't wanna do this anymore. and as I moved into the nutrition world, which I always wanted to be in, but I felt like people said, you don't, you're not gonna make much money. And whatever the jargon was back then. Yeah.

but I went to the nutrition space and I absolutely loved it. I felt so at home in that space, and I remember coming towards graduation, I was like, I don't really know what area I wanna work in, and. I'm a very curious person. So each little thing that happens in my life, I'm like, oh, I follow the breadcrumbs and, find out a bit more about that.

So towards the end of my degree, I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, PCOS, and I was shocked because I felt like I was doing all of the right things with my health and I was eating well, and I was moving and I was looking after myself and even after I had that diagnosis. I still thought I was taking all the supplements, but I just wasn't seeing these shifts or changes that I wanted.

So I ended up finding a book on Cyclical Living, which some of the women here may have heard called In the Flow by Alyssa Viti. Best book, my God best book every woman needs to read that book like a woman's bible. And you know what I've always said as well? It's a book that I think they really need to start introducing in high schools, especially women in high schools, girls high schools.

Because imagine we read that book when we were in our teens. How different would've would our life have played out? If we just, oh my gosh. Yeah. if we only just knew that information. It is so powerful and strong. Yeah, definitely a book every woman needs to read and especially women with daughters. A hundred percent.

I would love, I'm voting for it to be on the school curriculum in Australia. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. But when I started adopting these cyclical principles. You know, you start tuning into your body and I was looking into my menstrual cycle and what was happening, and it then opened this whole doorway into looking at myself as a whole and being like, okay, I actually think I'm a pretty stressed person.

I'm a pretty overwhelmed person. we all have things that happen in our childhood and across our lives that kind of influence who we are and. I think cyclical living and understanding my cycle, it had so many benefits for me and moving through symptoms of PCOS and healing parts of that.

But then yeah, realizing that I was this really overwhelmed kind of person who was stuck in freeze. And so many of the women that I was working with after, university as well had, all these hormone issues and. There was only so much that I could really do to support them with nutrition. And nutrition and supplements and lifestyle changes are amazing.

But I started realising that they're only taking me and them so far. Yeah. So came across EFT, tapping through my mom and she was like, oh, you should try one of these workshops. And I thought, this is so weird. And what are people doing like tapping on their face and their heads? But I did this workshop and I absolutely fell in love with it.

I explained that before I did that workshop. I felt like I was constantly hovering two centimeters above the ground and after it, it's oh, this is what it feels like to have your feet on the ground. and so my practice just naturally moved from. being in the nutrition space to now being in more of this, nervous system space and helping women really connect and understand their bodies as a whole.

And I think I got there purely out of curiosity. I never in a million years thought that I'd be working in this area or with women this way. yeah, so it's almost just unfolded. It was definitely your calling and we'll talk more about what EFT is soon, so don't worry, you'll be able to hear all about that.

But before we do that, and I know you've touched a little bit on this overwhelm and burnout, and we know that mums are more burnt out than ever before. Why do you think that is? How much time have we got? No. we touched on this just before we started actually recording, but yeah. mums these days are just holding so much.

Yeah, they're doing so much. They're holding so much. There is this huge silent mental load. That I don't think mums get enough credit for. And, amidst having children, trying to work and still, look after children, manage a career or manage a job.

on top of that, we've then got social media and all these social commitments and friends and relationships and we're trying to. Keep ourselves feeling healthy and good and keep it all together in the house. Tidy. There's just, even just listening to that list, like there is so much and we're not really creating this time to switch off.

And I've been reading, rushing Women's Syndrome by Dr. Libby Weaver, which is another amazing book. Another amazing book. Yeah. Another missing book. But she talks about how. Our nervous systems have not developed yet to the capacity of how much stuff that we're holding. So our nervous systems are just constantly bombarded more than they ever have, and we're not in nature as much.

We're not switching off as much. So you have all of these mums who are just juggling a thousand things at once. Which of course our bodies are gonna feel burnt out, they're gonna feel overwhelmed, depending, again, how old your kids are. You might be doing all of that. And then trying to fit in sport and all these extracurricular things.

And we were talking about just before, how, especially in Sydney, we're so lucky that there is a really big kind of wellness community and everyone is prioritising wellness and feeding our children really good food. But I think there's then This really high expectation for mums to,feed these kids, the homemade nut milk or the homemade granola bars or,making the seed crackers from scratch, which again, is so amazing and so beautiful.

We want to nourish our children, but it adds such a huge expectation. And what I hear so much from the mums that I work with is this almost like this secret mums out wanting to mum each other. Yes, definitely have the cleanest house and have the best food for their kids and show up on Instagram and be really fit and healthy and beautiful, which are all such amazing things, but it just adds so much

pressure and so much overwhelm builds up the comparison builds up, the expectation builds up. There's just so many things that add to that nervous system overdrive, and then of course, leading to burnout. And burnout is so serious from a mental and from a physical perspective as well. And you would know as a nutritionist just the impact that burnout can have on our body.

And this is why it has just. Never been more important to nourish and nurture our nervous system. Why is it so important to do this and how does our nervous system impact both our physical and mental health at the same time? It almost plays a role in everything that we are doing. Our nervous system is it's at the center of our stress response.

Yeah. And If it's dysregulated, if we're in this state of stress constantly, this state of overwhelm and burnout, our nervous system is in control of all the other systems in our body. Yeah. So long term, this is gonna look like impacting our hormones and our reproductive health, impacting our digestion and the way that we're.

Actually digesting our food. creating saliva to digest our food, breaking that down. This is gonna, result in gut problems, digestive problems, bloating, all of the things that so many stress women, experience. It's gonna be impacting our mood and our sleep and our cravings. And even on top of that is.

Our ability to hold and maintain relationships, whether that's with our friends, whether that's with our partner, whether that's with ourselves and chronic stress, whether it's these really huge stresses or all of these micro combined, you're exhausted. You've got, it creates inflammation. it can impact chronic pain and.

It just makes doing everything that little bit harder. And so on the kind of mental health side, if you're on high alert all the time and you are overwhelmed, I hear this from women and I explain it as like the 17 tabs open, maybe 30 for some women, but nothing's loading. Yeah. So you're constantly in this state of, oh, I've got so many things to do.

And the to-do list is so huge, but it's like. you can't move, you can't do anything. Yeah. You're stuck in this freeze state. Yeah. And then you almost go into this shame spiral of, oh, I've got so much to do. Why can't I do it? Or, why haven't I done it? Or how do I even start getting this done?

There's just, it's exhausting to feel exhausted and to feel overwhelmed. And the relationship that we have with our kids we're, we are building these nervous systems for little kids. We're teaching these kids how to feel regulated, teaching them how to feel calm, teaching 'em how to process the anger.

So as a parent. Our physical health and our mental health, our children are picking up on that. They're constantly feeling what our nervous system is feeling, watching us engage in these, poor behaviors or poor habits. And if you wanna be there for your kids and to be running around them and exercising and moving, you wanna have the energy and the capacity to show up for that.

Yeah, definitely.and it all intertwines. And this is something that I always say is. Without a nourished mama, there can't be a nourished home. So when the next time you feel selfish or guilty for taking some time for you, for nourishing your own health, I want you to remember that because. It really is, we are, as mums, the heart of the home.

Yeah. Health and wellness stems from us. And again, it's not to add that pressure, it's to really understand that you shouldn't feel selfish or guilty to prioritize you. And when I mean prioritizing you, I don't mean, checking into a spa, going for facials, It's the basic needs of health and wellness that most mums unfortunately have.

Totally given up and seen as something to be so foreign. Yeah. So it's little things like, making yourself a nourishing breakfast at the same time as you're making your children a nourishing breakfast. Yeah. Going for a short walk around the block. little things like that you know are gonna be able to support your nervous system in such an impactful way.

And these are things that are. they're mandatory really, but unfortunately mums have been led to believe that's not part of our life anymore for some reason. Yeah. Society has made us feel selfish and guilty for prioritizing our own health. Yeah. And that motherhood is all about sacrifice, when really it's should be the complete opposite.

The complete opposite of that. And I, and the mother is in terms of the nervous system impacting so many other parts of our body, I almost say that the mother and the matriarch of the house is almost like the nervous system of the house. Yeah. And as you said, when mom feels, fed and nourished and regulated and.

and I just wanna clear up as well, that regulated does not mean that you are expected to always be calm and chill, happy, and still. Regulated, is your ability to have those highs and lows and get yourself back to the middle point because control. Yeah. Absolutely. And as a, as a. As a mom, you'll be tested by your children many times.

Yeah. And I don't have children yet myself, based on the mums that I've worked with, I've got a little nephew who's five, and he's really starting to push the boundaries of, Hey, I'm my own person and you can't tell me what to do. Yeah. You're gonna be tested as a parent. And so again, that ability to.

Regulate and come back to that baseline of, okay, I can, I'm in check, I'm in check with my breath. I can feel my body and my feet are on the ground. I can handle this. It impacts your ability to keep the house together, like as a, on an energetic level, keep everyone the house regulated.

and you're almost like, yeah, that nervous system that everyone else feeds off. Yeah, definitely. And what are, I know you've touched on this slightly, but what are some early signs of an overwhelmed and overstressed nervous system? Because I think a lot of people don't really understand that it's not always just related back to I'm stressed.

there are so many signs, physical and mental of an overstressed nervous system. Yeah.the list is long, but I think. Some of the main ones to look out for is this feeling, and you hear this a lot, but this feeling of tired but wired. Yeah. It's like you feel tired, you feel like you can't catch onto a thought.

You can't logically think about what's next or what am I gonna get at the grocery store, or how am I gonna organize this at home? It's just this deep exhaustion, yet your body is still like, no, we're on alert. We need to go, we need to move forward. Yeah. this might be, if you're sitting down, you can't just sit and relax constantly thinking about this next thing to do.

mood swings, irritability, feeling really snappy. I know that, one of the mums I was working with, she was like. I'm so tired, and when my kids are in the living room playing with their toys and they're bashing their trucks together, it feels like my whole head is going to explode. I just want to yell at them to shut up.

That is such a key sign of the system just being like, this is too much. we're too overloaded. and unfortunately what I hear is the husband's cop. A lot of that kind of snapping of it's just too much. I can't. Definitely. Yeah. From a No, you go. no. I was just gonna say also from a physical perspective, there are a lot of signs that we can look out for as well when it comes to hormones, our gut health.

All of that stuff as, well,absolutely. how are you, if you are, if you do have your cycle back, if you haven't just had a baby, but are you getting your menstrual cycle monthly? what, what's happening with your periods? Are you having these horrific luteal phases where your PMS is awful?

is your bleed coming each month? Are you ovulating? what's your, what's happening with your digestion? Are you getting bloated after every meal? Are you feeling sick after every meal? do you have no hunger? I see that a lot where women are really stressed. They're like, I just can't eat in the morning.

I feel like I'm gonna gag, or I'm just not hungry throughout the day. And then they're running off caffeine and fumes, or. They're just craving, sweet foods and salty foods and sugary foods. 'cause this is the nervous system being like, oh my God, I just need anything that's going to, gimme that quick little hi, gimme that quick little energy burst.

Yeah. and also shows up in our sleep. So,are you sleeping? Are you waking in a panic? Are you waking up? and you're so exhausted. You're like dragging yourself out of bed.is there decision fatigue, is the thought of what to cook for dinner? oh my god, the world's about to end.

I have no idea what I'm gonna do for dinner. these are all huge signs of an huge, the ground nervous system. Yeah. Yeah. And then, we see procrastination, we see, perfectionism. it's a weird way that our body works where it's almost I feel like I have no control over any of this, but it needs to be perfect.

Yeah. Washing needs to be done now or nothing's okay. The kids' toys need to be packed up now, otherwise it's the end of the world. Yeah. Even people pleasing saying yes to social events with friends when you just don't have the capacity or adding in that extra play date for your second or third child when you just don't have the capacity.

then all of these things again start to build up whereif you are spending, days on end feeling overwhelmed or days on end feeling like it's just all too much. Again, these are major red flags of something in the system is off. Yeah, definitely. And I know you touched on this as well a little bit in terms of like with hubby, but you know how your nervous system affects your family and the way you show up every day.

And I think a huge part of that is the communication between your partner.This all does really come down to the way our nerves are being managed throughout the day and how we communicate, how we express ourselves, our body language. so much of that is connected. Yeah, absolutely. And. Especially when kids are young and they're highly reliant on often mom more than dad.

Yeah. it can be really challenging for the relationship. And, ways that I've heard this play out as well is, mom's out touched, she's been with baby all day, or she's been with, a toddler all day. She's exhausted. Dad comes home and he like, wants to give mom a cuddle, wants to be intimate, and she's like, get away from me.

Like I just can't. And then it's really jarring for him 'cause it's almost like, well I really want connection. And she's like, I'm so overstimulated and exhausted, but they don't know how to say that to each other. And then it just creates friction. And she's like, I need space. And he's like, Hey, I would love a little bit more time with you, or some kind of connection with you.

And then we just get these fights and these arguments and that is one of the huge challenges I hear in that early motherhood of that relationship dynamic. It's not necessarily that it's crumbling, but it is having major changes. Yeah, and the dads aren't to be forgotten here either. If they've received all of the attention from mom for a really long time, and it's been the dynamic between the two of them and.

there are these shifts where they're not getting as much attention, more of this attention's being put on the baby, and even the baby doesn't need dad as much yet. It's really hard for dads to figure out their place of where do I fit into this and how can I be supportive? And again, when you're in that overwhelmed, exhausted burnout state, it's really hard to then communicate what you need to your partner as well.

Yeah, exactly. So what are some practical strategies you can give to mamas to help reduce the overwhelm and support their nervous system health, realistically? Yeah. You touched on this before, is, having something for you. I think, again, so much of our identity can get caught up in I'm mom now.

Yeah, and I'm solely responsible for this tiny human, all these tiny humans that we really do forget about ourselves. But you as mom, as caregiver, as the nervous system of this family, just having a practice for you is so important. And like you said, that doesn't mean going to the spa for the day or anything crazy.

It could be, five minutes in the morning of doing some box breathing where you're breathing in for the count of four, you're holding for the count of four, breathing out for the count of four, and then holding it for the count of four. It could be. Just the time you have in the shower of being like, oh, the way the water hits my body feels really good and being quite present.

it's creating these micro moments Yeah. Where you can, if your child is just sitting, happily, peacefully eating, looking out the window for two minutes, just take that moment to be really present with your food as well. and I think one thing that's really helpful is. the communication with your partner is Hey, can we schedule some time over the weekend?

You have the kids for an hour, so I get to do something for me and vice versa. Yeah, definitely. So that you're not constantly swamped or the time Yeah. And this is the part that I tend to see a lot of as well is the communication side and advocating for yourself. Yeah. I'm a true believer in that, the, at the end of the day, the hard truth is that there is always time and.

But the hardest part for women is not necessarily finding the time, it's finding the support for the time and advocating for themselves going, I need this time, so I'm gonna take it. And I think a lot of the time when we are in that overstressed state and overwhelmed, it's almost like we have this expectation on our partners.

And our family to make the time for us. And then if they don't magically make this time appear for us, we have this like resentment and anger when reality is that you need to make that time for you. You need to advocate for yourself and say, no, this is my time. I need this. I tell my partner, okay, so these are the days that I'm gonna Pilates and I'm gonna try and squeeze in these runs and jogs.

Does that work? With your time. So we, we have to tag team. We have, but I tell him I don't expect him to make that time for me. So I think that is, I know sometimes that can be really hard to digest in here, but I tend to see this happen a lot where it's that expectation that this time should just be made for you when yeah, you definitely need to make that time for yourself.

Yeah. and your partner may not know what's happening for you. That's right. Your friends and your friends may not know what's happening for you. yeah. motherhood seems like this huge initiation into. learning how to do almost everything differently because you have to communicate, you have to learn how to support yourself and look after yourself and as you're saying, how to advocate for your needs and figure out, okay, what is it that I need right now to help me feel grounded, to help me feel nourished, to help me feel like I can clear my head for a moment.

and on that thought as well into, what can really help reduce that overwhelm is. Normalizing that It's hard. Yeah. I think back to my, when we originally started chatting and mom's trying to almost out mum each other. If you feel like you have to show up with your friends or to your family or to your partner that you've got this, that everything's cool and that you are handling it, but inside you're suffering.

Yeah, if you have that conversation with a friend and be like, Hey, I'm really struggling with this. Or another mom of Hey, this feels really hard. Not only do you have that release of oh, I don't have to hold this all in and feel like I'm alone, but you actually give that person permission to be like, yeah, I'm actually really struggling with it as well.

yeah, definitely. Yeah, and yeah, and so many of the mums that will come for tapping, when we're sitting together, they're like. Wow. This is the first time I've been able to share with someone and not feel judged or criticized that this is way harder than I thought it would be. That my relationship is suffering, that I'm not feeling good right now.

That there's times where I don't even wanna look at my kids because they're causing me so much frustration and. All of these sides of motherhood need to be honored. there are times where you may look at your kids and be like, wow, these the cutest things ever. And other times when you're overwhelmed and it's the banging of the trucks or the footsteps running across the, the tiles or something and it can just make your head wanna explode.

I think when we normalize that.children are, they're gonna challenge us. they're really difficult. there's gonna be times where it's really hard. We just have so much more love and compassion for ourselves and, you know, understand that it's hard for other people as well.

Definitely. And just the connection part of it is so important. Yeah. sometimes I know when you're in that state, it can feel really difficult or can feel really scary to make this commitment to even just leave the house to go and have coffee or lunch with a friend. But you will always feel so good after that.

Yeah. So making that, prioritizing time for connection with other people that are in a similar place as you can really go such a long way for your nervous system. I found that really helped me. I was really lucky to have my kids before COVID and. I actually remember, so I don't know if they still do this, but we had mother's groups that were, based on where you were located, so within the council or the area that you're located.

And I remember when they first told me in the hospital, okay, you've got,we've registered you for this mother's group and it starts at in this week. So just go home and then you'll go to this. community center and meet all these mums in a mother's group. There's a midwife there that runs it.

And I remember that first week I had a really tough time with my firstborn. I was said to Michael, I'm like, there is no way, no way. I'm going to mother's group. Like I can't even get out of the house without feeling so stressed and overwhelmed. But he really pushed me to go. He said, just go. So I got, remember I got Beau in the car.

And he was screaming in the backseat the whole way there. screaming. I had parked my car, he was still screaming in the backseat and I thought, I can't get out of, I feel so embarrassed to get out of the car with this, like really overwhelmed overstressed baby who just won't stop screaming.

'cause I'll just. Felt like I was gonna get so much judgment because I thought no one else's baby is doing this, which was just crazy. And I actually sat in my backseat with Bo for about 15 minutes crying with him. And I saw these mums walking down the street and I thought, they're definitely going to Mother's group.

And I was seeing them go into the building. I was almost gonna drive home. And I thought, you know what? No, I'm gonna get out of the car and I'm just gonna go see what this is about. I calmed Bo down, went in. It was so overwhelming and daunting 'cause it was this like 10 group of 10 mums just all sitting in a circle.

I remember I sat down with Bo and in that moment he did a massive poo explosion, which went all the way up his back and all through the front of my chest and. It was and I just thought, I should have never come. I should have never come. Long story short is that afternoon I ended up connecting with so many mums.

We ended up going out for lunch after mother's group, and one of those mums is now my best friend in the whole entire world.and. The connection that we were able to build and the clarity that just gave me in those moments of need. As a first time mom, the connection that I had with these mums of, we are all going through this together, I.

I can honestly that say that in itself really helped me out of that funk, that the blues that I was going through, that small bit of connection was everything. Just to know you're not alone. You're going through this, all at the same time. And just sharing advice, even just having this space to vent, which you can't really always do with your partner in the same way.

Oh, that was so powerful. Yeah. Yeah. And it, the connection piece is so important. And on the partner front, the, your partner can't be everything to you. No, that's right. It can't be all those parts and. Women sitting in circle is so magical and powerful. Yeah. Let alone women who have, all fresh mothers, all no one's given me a book on how to do this.

I don't know what to do here. I was on a plane recently and it was a seven and a half hour flight, and the woman in front of us had a screaming child for basically the whole flight and. She kept apologizing and she kept looking sideways. And this poor woman, I just wanted to pull her into my arms and hug her because she was so embarrassed.

She had so much shame. people were giving her dirty looks and about four hours into the flight I actually went over to her and I said, Hey, you don't need to apologize. Yeah, I understand that. Whatever's happening with your child, that's okay. Like I'm not judging you. And she, her whole face welled up as in oh my God, that's all I needed to hear.

Because it's emotional, because I've been in that situation before. Yeah. It's really overwhelming and daunting and yeah. Yeah, just to to look around and see, faces of disappointment in that, in those moments is really hard. I had a colic baby as well, and I had to fly at that stage and yeah, it's not fun.

It's not fun. Yeah. And I, yeah, like I, I could see the levels of distress and I said to my friend, I need to go and tell her that it's okay. Yeah. Yeah. And that would've just. Helped her so much in that moment. Yeah. Yeah. and yeah, just again, normalizing that it is hard and definitely you are being stretched as a human.

I think on another practical level, which, you touched on this, is making sure that you are fed. Yes. It doesn't have to be perfect, but being fed, especially in the morning. as a woman, our body is so much more sensitive to whether we're eating in the morning or not compared to a man's.

Yes. And having that breakfast signal to the body that you are safe, you're okay. You are being nourished. And even if all that is, even if all you can get in is like a piece of toast and some avocado or a boiled egg, just something that's gonna signify to your body that it's safe and it's being fed is going to support you across the rest of the day.

I. yeah, definitely and support your blood sugars and your cravings and, instead of, constantly reaching for the croissant or the next week thing or the chips, it's hopefully gonna be able to set your body up that little bit better just by having something very small in the morning.

Definitely, it's just so important. our stress levels are generally always at their highest first thing in the morning, and a nourishing breakfast goes such a long way and can really determine how the rest of our day plays out. So it is a really powerful tool to just commit to having a small, nourishing breakfast.

Doesn't have to be anything fancy just yet. Like you said, being fed first thing in the morning. Yeah. Now I wanna get coffee is not food. Yeah, exactly. Coffee is not food. Definitely. Now I wanna get into a little bit of the good stuff. we've spoken about so many good things, but I want you to share with us, because I'm sure a lot of people are going, what is this?

Tell me more about it. What is EFT and how can mother use this wonderful approach to support their health? Yeah, so EFT or tapping, it stands for emotional freedom techniques. And it looks weird at first, but basically what you're doing is you're tapping on different acupressure points along your body. we're using mainly the face and the up, the upper part of the body.

And these acupressure points are based in traditional Chinese medicine. So in the same way that use ac, we use acupuncture needles along different points. We're just lightly tapping. And what this does is it sends a calming response to that sort of threat center part of your brain that threat centers activated by emotions is activated by, Things that are happening outside, wild sensations in the body, if that's that tension, that tightness. and so when we're tapping, it sends a calming signal so that your body can shift from this state of stress into a state of calm. And so when we're tapping, we're generally, talking about a problem or something that feels uncomfortable for us at the moment.

An emotion that we might have, a physical sensation so that whilst we're talking about the thing that doesn't feel good and how it might be impacting us, we are continuously sending that calming response so that. Moving forward, if that thing does happen again, we don't have as intense a physiological response to that, if that makes sense.

Yeah. it's rewiring the brain in that response. Yes, absolutely. It's rewiring essentially that physiological response to whatever kind of stimulus is happening outside and. we can use it very generally. It's a self-led tool that you can use at home, which is what I love.

Because if you are having a moment where your kids just drop their whole plate of food on the floor and you're like, I literally can't deal with this, you can stand, you can do some tapping for five minutes and it will help to calm you down. So we can use it generally in the every day, and then we can also use it on those much deeper subconscious levels when you're working with a practitioner to figure out.

Okay, I'm being triggered by this thing in the present right now. What kind of, what stored memory or past experience that is lingering in my body is being triggered right here, right now. So we can use it on lots of different levels. And the way that this can support mums is, on a very generalized level, is just helping to reduce that overwhelm.

If in, in a moment of being with their kids or you drop the kids off to school or daycare or whatnot, and you just feel like your body is really heightened, really,glitchy or like electricity, sitting in the car and doing a few rounds of tapping while you're breathing just helps to calm everything down.

Yeah. And on the bigger things that are happening,your kids may be triggering things from when you were a child. Your partner may be triggering things from when you're a child. Feeling alone as a parent may trigger, unresolved feelings of feeling alone as a child. And so we can use EFT on a very deep level to be able to work on that as well.

I like to think of EFT tapping as almost this kind of emotional first aid where we can use in the moment, we can put a bandaid on it and support us in that moment. Or we can do these big surgeries, where we're really like figuring out what's happening underneath. It is the most impactful tool that I've used for myself and that I've used with, a whole range of different things from anxiety to overwhelm to birth trauma.

To fears related to pregnancy and becoming a parent, body image, and then food cravings and food addictions and binging. We can use it across such a wide range of things because it's working on that emotional level and calming down the nervous system so that you don't have such, big responses to things and just the wide. Array of areas that it can support. That's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. And I often refer to our nervous system as this bucket. So each of us has this bucket and each time a stressor or something happens in life. We're late for work. We have an argument with our partner, our kids are frustrating us.

It keeps filling up this bucket, and sometimes one thing might tip a cup in. Sometimes one thing might tip a jug in, or it might just be little drops. But if that bucket is full and you have no tools to empty that bucket, whether it's a cup or a drop, that thing's overflowing. When you're getting triggered, it all feels too much.

You're overwhelmed. You're frustrated at your kids, and so the way I think of EFT tapping is almost poking holes in the bottom of this bucket so we can release the stress that just builds up in our system. Yeah. Oh gosh. We all need that, don't we? Yeah, absolutely. Sarina, you are actually going to walk us through a quick EFT session.

yeah, that you can do yourself at home right now. if you like, if you are listening, then Sarina will tell you where to tap, but we do also have this available on YouTube as well. So you can watch Sarina, walk us through. Sarina has also kindly offered a beautiful download, which we'll put in the show notes as well.

you'll be able to download that and follow those instructions as well. but Sarina, I'll let you walk us through and I'm gonna follow your guidance as well, and hopefully everyone at home can follow. Yeah, absolutely. We'll use something pretty broad and generalized overwhelm. I'm sure most of us can connect to that in some area of our life.

Yeah, so if you're listening to this now or you're replaying it, I just want you to start to connect to what that overwhelm might feel like in your body and start to notice where you feel it. It might be a feeling of, tightness or constriction in your chest. It might be in your head, it might be that your body goes hot or cold.

Want you gonna start to notice where it is and what it feels like,

and then I want you to rate how intense it feels right now from zero to 10, 10 being most intense overwhelm and zero being not that over, not that much overwhelm.

Then once you've got that, you can come to the side of your hand almost where you would karate chop. And you are using two fingers. I say you can use your dominant right hand to tap, I'm a lefty. but you may wanna use the other hand, whatever feels comfortable for you. Maybe Anna, we'll use you as an example if you continue to overwhelm, where do you feel it in your body and what does it feel like?

I'm feeling it a combination of it in my chest and then also on the surface of my head, like there's a little bit of pressure on the surface of my head and then a little bit on my chest. Okay. And which feels like it's the most intense out of your head and your chest. They might feel the same.

I would say. I would say at the moment, my head. Yeah. Okay. at the top of my head. I feel this sort of like tension and pressure. Okay. So we're gonna use Anna's example, but wherever you feel that overwhelm in your body, you can just replace your own words. And so I'll get you to repeat after me and everyone can repeat at home.

even though I can feel this tension and pressure on the top of my head, I can feel this tension and pressure on the top of my head. It feels like overwhelm. It feels like overwhelm right here, right now, right here, right now. All I have to do is notice it. All I have to do is notice it and I accept where I'm at, and I accept where I'm at.

We're just gonna repeat that two more times, so you're still tapping on the side of your hands. Even though, even though there's this pressure and tension at the top of my head, there's this pressure and tension at the top of my head. I'm so overwhelmed. I'm so overwhelmed, and I'm just noticing how it's showing up in my body today, and I'm just noticing how it's showing up in my body today.

Right here, right now, right here, right now. I accept where I'm at. I accept where I'm at. We're just gonna do it one more time, even though, even though I can feel this overwhelm in my body. I can feel this overwhelm in my body. It's like tension and pressure at the top of my head. It's like tension and pressure at the top of my head.

All I have to do is notice it. All I have to do is notice it right here, right now, right here, right now. I accept where I'm at. I accept where I'm at, and so the fingers you were using to tap on your hand, we're just gonna bring them to the crown of your head. And we're gonna create a reminder phrase, which is just taking parts of that setup statement so that we're continuously connecting to what that overwhelm feels like while sending the calming response to our body.

So again, Ana will use you as an example and you can repeat after me. This tension and pressure in my head is tension and pressure in my head. When it comes to your inner eyebrow, you can use two hands or one hand. I'm just connecting to this tension and pressure in my head

side of the eyes, just on the very edge of your eye, and you can continue repeating after me. It feels like overwhelm in my body. It feels like overwhelm in my body, and then under your eye on that occipital bone. I don't have to shift or change it right now. I don't have to shift or change it right now.

Top of your lip. I'm just connecting to this overwhelm. I'm just connecting to this overwhelm under your chin. It feels like tension and pressure At the top of my head, it feels like tension and pressure at the top of my head. And if you bring your fingers two or three centimeters below your collarbone, you'll notice a little meaty hollow part in your ribs.

So just tapping there, and again, repeating after me. All I have to do is notice it. All I have to do is notice it side of your ribs. All of this tension and pressure at the top of my head, all this tension and pressure at the top of my head. Top of your head. Again, I'm giving my body permission to release some of it.

Now I'm giving my body permission to release some of it. Now back to your inner eyebrow. All this tension and pressure on the top of my head, all this print, tension and pressure at the top of my head, eye to the eye. It feels like overwhelm in my body. It feels like overwhelm in my body. Under the eye. All this overwhelm in my body, all this overwhelm in my body, top of the lip.

It's like tension and pressure at the top of my head. It's a tension and pressure in the top of my head under the chin, so I don't have to shift or change this feeling. I don't have to shift or change this feeling. Under the collarbone. I'm just connecting to this feeling of overwhelm. I'm just connecting to this feeling of overwhelm side of the ribs, and then I'm giving my body permission to release some of it.

Now I'm giving my body permission to release some of it. Now I'm just taking a breath in and out.

I just want you to recheck in with that feeling, Ana, for you, that pressure in your head for anyone else at home, wherever that sensation was showing up in their body and just starting to notice now how it may have shifted or changed. It might get a little, might ease off a little bit. Definitely I found the tapping in my face really helped.

Yeah. Just not, it felt like when I was really focusing on the pressure, it was,getting more exacerbating. But when I started focusing on the tapping in my face, it really started to ease off me even noticing it as much as well. Yeah. Yeah. And often we'll find that when we do tune into something, we are putting our attention on it.

We are putting our awareness on it, especially when it's emotions that sometimes it may heighten at first. yeah. And then we see it start to come down. Yeah. And so the reason that we really get you to focus in on. You know what that experience feels like in your body. Where do you feel it? So whilst you're connecting with that discomfort, you're still sending your body that calming response and that signal that it's safe so that it's able to actually move through the emotion and process it.

'cause emotion is energy in motion, and when we don't have these tools to process it, it gets stuck. Yeah. And obviously this is a very brief example. Usually sessions are. About 75, 60 to 75 minutes. Yeah. but you can continue going around and cont just feeling into that sensation, watching that number drop and drop.

The sensation might shift, it might move throughout different parts of your body. But just honoring exactly where you are at teamed with that acceptance statement helps our body to process whatever's happening for it in the moment.we'll also make sure that we share in the show notes, the download, um, yeah, Sarina's download, which can help you walk through your own,form of it at home.

But you can also connect with Sarina, um, she does at home sessions as well, don't you, Sarina? Yeah, we, I do sessions online and in person. And I always get questions, our in person session, our online sessions as powerful as in person. And I see the same results in person and online.

Obviously having that face-to-face connection adds more. but you are always tapping on yourself. I'm not tapping on you. Yeah. and yeah, it's just such a beautiful space to. Honor exactly what you're feeling. we don't often get space to just share what we're feeling and what's on our heart.

We're muddled up in such a toxically positive culture that it's oh, just think positive or just find the good thing, which is beautiful. But at the same time, the things that don't feel good and that feel hard deserve that attention and to be processed in our body and in our nervous system.

Definitely. Before I let you go, Sarina, can you share with us maybe some of your non-negotiable daily health habits, in order to inspire,some others in the community? Yeah, obviously being a tapping practitioner, tapping with one of them, I always do at least five or 10 minutes, a day that might be in the morning if I had not had a good sleep or before I go to bed, just Maybe even talking through some stuff that hasn't felt good in the day with myself and like sending, not coming. Yeah. I love that. I actually was just before you said that, I thought, I love the idea of trying to do this in my night routine just before I go to sleep and I thought actually really want to try it just before I go to bed just thinking about the day and trying to release the day to help me sleep better.

Yeah. so I love that. Yeah. it's a really beautiful practice and. It is one of those things that now I've seen it, I can't unsee it and I think how would I get through my life if I didn't have tapping? I tap in the car, I tap if I'm, you know, I tap before this, podcast,I get nervous speaking.

I tap before,in between clients just to process whatever's happened. we get into some really big things during sessions. so yeah, five to 10 minutes of tapping a day is really important. It's so practical. Like it's so practical. It's easy, it's free. It's just, yeah. Absolutely.

Absolutely. it's an incredible tool. I try to get outside if, even if it's just for five minutes. Nature is so impactful for me. And if I put my feet on the grass or I look at the ocean, or I just get some sunlight on my body, it changes my whole day. so powerful. Yeah. Always make sure I'm outside.

I'm a very big, physical touch person and Actually, I've noticed it impacts my day if I don't have some form of hug with someone. So I always make sure I'm either having a really long hug with my partner. I. Or with my flatmate, and not everyone has that relationship with their friends. I'm very lucky that I have very close relationships, but I need some form of physical connection every day to just help me feel grounded and connected to my relationships around me.

And that's just making sure I get one hug somewhere. Yeah.hydration. I can't, yeah. These are all basics, but I can't function without adequate water and making sure that I'm hydrated. I notice it impacts how I think, how I feel. definitely. And for people who have been, long-term, like chronically dehydrated, when they start drinking more water, it is amazing.

The change that it has on their digestion, their health, their mood, their capacity to like, think clearly. so that's a really big one for me. Yeah. obviously prioritizing good nutrition, making sure that I am eating in the morning. I know for me that my weeks get really busy and my days get really busy and there was a period of time where if I didn't have food prepared, I just wouldn't eat, or I'd be eating crackers or something that just wasn't gonna help me.

I now, me and my partner will do this on Sundays, blessed that we have the time on Sundays we'll do a really big cook up. And so we've all got containers of food for the week. yeah. Yeah, and that's been my personal hack to make sure that there is food for me to eat during the week. you might have something else that works for you, but figuring out a way to make sure you can get food into your body, definitely three times a day at least.

Really important.yeah. And my final is showering before bed. And I know this might seem like a basic hygiene thing, but there's something for me about my friends laugh at me and my partner laughs at me 'cause I cannot get into bed without having to shower. For me, it's like a cleansing ritual and like an energetic thing where if I've been seeing clients all day, I've been working all day, and my body is filled with all these different things, having that shower is my wind down.

Yeah, absolutely. And I always have a shower with a candle lit. I've been doing that now for two years, and it just, it's like a, it's like a envelope seal for the rest of the day, and it's part of your routine. And I think routine is so important when it comes to nighttime and just switching off and letting your body know that it's time for rest.

Yeah. so having some form of routine, whatever that looks like is just so important and. A shower is such a great way to help your body go into that state of it's time for rest and time for sleep. Yeah. Yeah. And as soon as that candle gets lit and I get in the shower, my body is we're done for the day.

Yeah. We're closing off. It's time to read, it's time to wind down. and that's probably my favorite ritual. Oh, that's beautiful. I love that. Yeah. And those are all such, doable and realistic habits as well that so many of us can add into our routine. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that, Sarina.

And where can everyone find you? Yeah, Instagram is always easy. Um, it is Sarina Coventry underscore or my website. I've got lots of, articles on there about tapping and how we can use tapping in the women's health space. and that is ww dot Sarina coventry.com.reach out if you have any questions from this episode or, have grab the download so that you can see the points a little bit clearer.

There's instructions on how you can create your own setup statement, which is what we did on the side of our hand. yeah. And if one thing you take from this is just learning those tapping points. There's, you don't even have to, you don't even have to say anything. Sometimes you can just tap and breathe in and out on each point just to send that calming response to your body.

The body. Yeah. Love that. Thank you so much, Sarina. I know so many people are gonna take so much away from this episode. Thank you for sharing all your beautiful knowledge and walking us through that session. It was so beautiful. Thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure. Amazing.