Episode 49 How to Create Full Bodied Success Mastery with Avital Miller

Feb 9, 2022

How can you achieve full-bodied mastery for success and enjoyment for life? What is the relationship between willingness and willpower? Why should you be mindful of who you listen to?

MEET AVITAL MILLER

From Program Manager at Microsoft to award-winning author of Healing Happens and international keynote speaker, Avital Miller has passionately shared spiritual, healing, and dance programs to thousands of people worldwide for over 15 years. Avital helps people feel a touch of love in their hearts, joy in their spirits, and peace in their minds.

She is a certified energy healer, healing breakthrough consultant, former Yoga and Fitness Teacher, and graduate of Washington University with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Major in Dance.

Visit Avital Miller’s website, and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

Visit her Youtube Channel and listen to her Podcast, Healing Happens.

Sign Up for Avital’s Live Webinar!

IN THIS PODCAST:

  • Go with the flow of life
  • Do not listen to everyone or everything
  • Willpower for your life
  • Do what you can do
  • “What is the gift?”

Go with the flow of life

Have dreams, goals, ambitions, and desires, but marry them with a level of ease and trust that things will work out how they need to.

Life is in constant flux, a push and pull, and people can enjoy life more when they allow themselves to be led as well as when they take the lead.

Do not listen to everyone or everything

Take a stand and make decisions for your life as an active agent. Do not give your power and agency away by letting other people make decisions for you.

Be mindful of who and what you are listening to. Many famous people in the world were told at the start of their careers that they would be failures: Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Spielberg, Michael Jordan, Lady Gaga:

They were all told … that they didn’t have the potential for [their dreams] … that they are doing today, amazingly successfully. Thank goodness they didn’t listen because imagine the impact that they’re making that we would have lost if they listened. (Avital Miller)

Imagine the impact that each person in the world could make in pursuit of their dreams and ambitions if they chose not to listen to those who tell them that they cannot do it.

Willpower for your life

With the word “willpower” there’s also [the word] “willingness”, and when we have willingness it is easier to have willpower. (Avital Miller)

Being willing to live your life and be active in your experience can lend you the willpower to do challenging things. Willpower and discipline are the keys to carving out success in your life – you just have to be willing to live.

What is your reason to live? Studies have shown that severely ill patients often heal faster or better when they have something to live for. What is going to give you your willpower?

Do what you can do

Do what you can do and what is within your ability to make your life better, healthier, more joyful, and expansive.

Say yes to the things that inspire you, challenge you, and bring you joy.

Do what you can do within your realm of abilities to get to a healthier, happier place.

“What is the gift?”

What is the gift that you can learn from your own story?

It [comes] from their own story of having this challenge and then seeing themselves overcome it beyond what was expected and creating a gift to give to other people. (Avital Miller)

You do not have to deny the challenges that come up with health issues while you observe the wisdom that you can garner from having experienced them.

Connect With Me

Instagram @holisticcounselingpodcast

Facebook

Join the private Facebook group

Sign up for my free email course: www.holisticcounselingpodcast.com

Rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

Resources Mentioned And Useful Links:

BOOK | Avital Miller – Healing Happens

Visit Avital Miller’s website

Connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn

Visit her Youtube Channel and listen to her Podcast, Healing Happens

Managing the Stigma of Holistic Counseling with Janis Cohen

Practice of the Practice Podcast Network

Transcript

[CHRIS McDONALD]

The Holistic Counseling Podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Behind the Bite, Full of Shift and Impact Driven Leader, go to www.practiceofthepractice.com/network.

Welcome to the Holistic Counseling Podcast, where you discover diverse wellness modalities, advice on growing your integrative practice, and grow confidence in being your unique self. I'm your host, Chris McDonald. I'm so glad you're here for the journey.

Welcome to today's episode of the Holistic Counseling Podcast. I'm your host, Chris McDonald. I hope your week's going well. I know mine is, and I hope you're able to put in some self-care for yourself in order to get your week off into a good start. I'm excited to bring you today's guest Avital Miller. She's here to talk about full-bodied mastery. She's the best selling author of the award-winning book, Healing Happens, is known for inspiring people to experience boundless energy, absolute happiness, and true success in order to live the best life possible. A former program manager at Microsoft, she's an international keynote speaker, neurolinguistic programmer healing breakthrough facilitator, and a global dancer. Welcome to the podcast of Avital.

[AVITAL MILLER]

Hi, thank you.

[CHRIS]

I'm so glad you can be here.

[AVITAL]

Me too. I am so thrilled and really appreciate the opportunity to share.

[CHRIS]

So can you tell my listeners more about yourself and your work?

[AVITAL]

Absolutely. My name is Avital and ---

[CHRIS]

I'm trying to get the name right. I'm trying.

[AVITAL]

Oh, I know, I know, I know, because here's what I tell people, and you can't see me right now, but you'll get the joke in a moment. Siri thinks my name is "I'll be tall," but I am not. I am sure I'll be ---

[CHRIS]

That's a good one.

[AVITAL]

But I think that there's still hope for me as there is hope for all of us. I feel like the tallness that Siri accidentally does is actually representative of us being able to expand, to grow internally, to grow in how we feel, to gain more success in our life. I'm known as a healing breakthrough facilitator. That is basically helping people connect the dots to the results that they know they want and they're just not quite attaining. So people come to me for support in all different areas of life. But the reason why the word healing is in there is because it really started with a healing story for me.

I graduated from college as a mechanical engineer and a dancer. I worked at Microsoft as a program manager. Of course it's a great company, but how many of us know at age 20, what we really want to do for life? So I quickly, otherwise that was not it. I fell into the yoga and fitness industry. Of course, growing up as a gymnast dancer, that's a natural progression. I just quickly went into being a teacher trainer, a fitness, yoga and Pilates, a fitness director. I was teaching 25 to 30 classes all over town. So guess what I was known as; the Energizer bunny.

[CHRIS]

Yes, I bet.

[AVITAL]

I loved that identity all the way from childhood. It felt like that came crashing down. I was on a family vacation and all of a sudden I'm needing to take all these naps on the couch. Then I continued to stay really sick. My hair was falling out. My muscles were turning to fat and I was wondering if I was going to get weaker than my students. You can imagine Chris, if you lost your voice, how do I do this wonderful podcast that impacts many people?

[CHRIS]

That would be quite difficult.

[AVITAL]

Yes. That was going through my head. Am I going to be out of the job? Am I going to be able to keep doing this amazing profession and give to people? Something inside me knew I had a future of impacting a lot of people, which really drove me to say, okay, what is going on here? It wasn't easy because the doctors would run tests and then they'd say nothing is wrong. But of course I didn't feel good. Finally figured out the right tests, we get a diagnosis of Hashimotos as well as hypothyroidism, I get put on a high level of medication and then just sent out the door saying, that's it for life.

I'm thinking, okay, if I'm stuck with this, like being in an arranged marriage, then I better make the most of this because I have this vision for myself. So how do I live with this? This is like key number one for people who are working on healing, is to go with the flow of things versus working against it. I think a lot of people, sometimes they hear this story of this man who was trying to commit suicide by jumping into the ocean and the waves just kept knocking him about and bringing him to shore. He'd be a little beaten up from being knocked around on the waves. He did that a few times and then finally, one of the times he came on the shore, he picks up this little sea shell, very delicate, but in perfect condition. He's like, oh, because the sea shell moves with the waves. Not against it.

[CHRIS]

Oh great analogy.

[AVITAL]

So that's one of the first hints, was just, okay, this is what's happening. I believed the doctors. I didn't know anything different at the time that the prognosis is always a best guess and experience of what they've seen in the majority of people. But it's not necessarily everyone's story. I start meditating. I did a lot of things. I read online. I went to different types of health and healing practitioners. I even studied one on one with an Ayurveda doctor in India and I'm reading books and I'm doing all of these different things and starting to feel steady. Then I start meditating and I feel worse, which of course doesn't make sense, Chris. I don't know if you've meditated, but a lot of people meditate and you feel better. So I went to the doctor.

[CHRIS]

It was surprising.

[AVITAL]

I know, I know. But I went to the doctor and she's like, "Well, you overdosed on your medication. That's why you're not feeling well." Oh, okay. So we lowered the medicine and I continue meditating. I feel better. Then I continue meditating and I feel worse again, go back to the doctor, you're overdosed on your medication. Lowers the medication and goes for a while.

[CHRIS]

That's frustrating.

[AVITAL]

Well, it's frustrating at the time because there's so many ups and downs. I was fortunate that I set myself up with a lifestyle at that time. I moved into the yoga community and it just was a peaceful place and a little more flexible also for the healing. I had more time to do the healing practices. So I was very fortunate in that way and I had a lot of willpower. It's like, even while I was teaching the full discipline of 25 to 30 classes a week, I never missed any because of not feeling well.

[CHRIS]

I don't know how you do that.

[AVITAL]

Will power.

[CHRIS]

Yes because most people, I think that would knock them on their ass. Pardon the French.

[AVITAL]

Yes. Well, and I'm about to go take a Tony Robbins course. He says that your brain will give out before your body but I think it was the opposite for me. So you have to match your body with your will. My will was stronger than what my body felt like doing. So it goes, kaput, I have to take better care of it. The other thing that was happening as I'm getting better and I was, the frustration because in hindsight, I learned so much from going through that experience and it's just part of the healing process. It's what we go through mind, body, spirit. You mentioned the term full-bodied success mastery. It's really that connection. But there I am getting better.

[AVITAL]

Then I'm running into people who were saying that they were told they would die in a few months or a few hours, but I was meeting them years after that prognosis; in this wonderment and amazement of how many stories are out there of people healing beyond what was expected, which really opens the eyes to overcoming the insurmountable challenges; and being very careful with how we communicate of what we expect to happen. I love this, I'm hosting an event right now, bigger than what I've done before. It makes me nervous at times. I see some people and they're like, have you done this before? I could just see the doubt in their eyes, but I'm like no, I haven't. So I haven't proven it to myself but other people do this and I've done all of the pieces of this before, pretty much. So I'm just doing it on a bigger scale. So you just scale up what you've done before. So just having that belief that you can make it happen and be really clear from the inside of ourselves, that's actually number two of a full-bodied success mastery. Don't listen to everything.

[CHRIS]

Don't listen to everything. What do you mean?

[AVITAL]

Don't listen to everything. I'll share the story. Maureen Bell was given six to eight weeks to live. She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer. There she was, six to eight weeks later, 85 pounds, bedridden, morphine patches, oxygen tubes, unable to get up or eat. Her son came to visit to say goodbye one last time. As he's leaving, he's remembering the strong single mom who raised him, who knew about natural healing. So he asked her, "Why didn't you fight? Why didn't you fight?" She's going, "Oh, do I have a choice?" She's left with that question then literally wakes up from that for the first time, in a few months, not feeling pain in her body and feeling hungry.

She had one more round of chemo scheduled. She decided to finally look into what it was made of and she realized the first drug she looked up was made from her favorite plant, periwinkle. She planted that everywhere she lived in her adult life. So now she's going into the chemo with a love for the drug. It's made from her favorite plant. Normally it would take nine or 10 hours for all of the drugs to get into her system. This time it only took three. Normally her urine would turn blood red. This time it stayed its normal color.

[AVITAL]

Her hair was growing back in. She was gaining weight and the nurses even called the doctor to say, "Hey, are you giving her a placebo?" The doctor said, "No way, we can't do that in her situation." So she was told six to eight weeks to live, were told what the usual side effects are of chemo. She saw it for her own self and then it was different. Today, I think about 15 years later, she's fully a healthy woman.

[CHRIS]

Really? Wow.

[AVITAL]

She came and visited me at my house on the coast of Oregon and walked the beach and everything. That's what I mean by don't listen to everything. This is fun too, when we think about it in life. Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Albert Einstein, Michael Jordan, Lady Gaga, they were all told at one point that they didn't have the potential for whatever it was that they were going after or in their business field that they're doing today. Amazingly successfully. So thank goodness they didn't listen because imagine the impact that they're making and that we would've lost if they listened. Imagine the impact that all of us can make, because we all start out in their shoes.

[CHRIS]

So she didn't feel like she had a choice to fight. I think that's what you were saying.

[AVITAL]

Initially she just believed them and gave in and thought, okay, I mean, this is the way it's going to be. I'm leaving. So her son put the notion in her head and then she really investigated that.

[CHRIS]

That's incredible.

[AVITAL]

Yes.

[CHRIS]

So it sounds like you went and interviewed a lot of different people for this book.

[AVITAL]

I did. It was really amazing.

[CHRIS]

That had to be so inspiring for you.

[AVITAL]

Yes. Well, it was, I was very focused. First I was doing all the interviews. Then I was getting them in written format and editing. So you're meeting with all these people with all these amazing stories. There's more stories than are in my book, so that's why I did the podcast also to continue those stories.

[CHRIS]

Oh, I didn't realize that.

[AVITAL]

The podcast in the book, they're the name, Healing Happens.

[CHRIS]

Oh, okay.

[AVITAL]

I have a number of things though. I have a blog, I have online courses, ---

[CHRIS]

That's what I was going to say because I was thinking like this is a holistic counseling podcast, but we have lots of holistic things, but you do a lot. I was looking at, you got yoga, dance, meditation, the book. Is it a membership you have too?

[AVITAL]

I do have membership programs. One of the things that I like to do, especially for practitioners is, so what I've focused on is how do we heal with what we have on our own? What can we do to contribute? What's in our own power? That doesn't mean don't use outside things. But it's just fascinating to me to see how much we can do on our own and it's important because we could be on our way to work one day and we have to run straight into a meeting and we have a headache. We sprain our ankle right before we're supposed to go on a vacation. Whatever it might be to just know what can we do to speed that process? For practitioners who are working with clients, when you work with them, it depends on what you do, but for a lot of practitioners, all the work happens in that session. But there's a lot more that people can do on their own in between the sessions. I believe when people are more active participants in the process, they're going to heal faster.

[CHRIS]

Absolutely. A lot of therapists do assign homework too.

[AVITAL]

Yep. Yes. It's so important for really solidifying and just creating the mindset of shifting the energy towards that healing, towards that strength, towards that health motivation, the vigor, the willpower that I was talking about.

[CHRIS]

Okay. So shifting that towards the willpower. So when you say willpower, can you talk more about that?

[AVITAL]

Yes. There's also, with the word willpower is willingness. When we have willingness, it's easier to have that willpower. Imagine this, you are having a huge dinner party with your friends, good friends. You feel it's safe to do. You haven't seen them in a while. You're catching up, you're laughing, you're joking. You're talking till late. The dishes are piling up. You're talking so late that you just leave the dishes, go to sleep. You have to go to work early the next morning. Go to work early. It is a long, stressful day. Come home, dishes are still piled up. You're annoyed. Nobody in the house helped. Then you just plop yourself on the couch and you don't want to do anything.

The phone rings. Of course, since we're all obsessed with their phones, the phone's right next to you. So it doesn't take much effort to answer the phone. It happens to be your best friend from college who happens to be in town just that night. What happens? All of a sudden, you feel energetic. You get up off the couch, you go take a shower and you head out for a night on the town. All of a sudden you had willingness. When you're focused on the stress of the day, the dishes piled high, nobody in your house helping, no willingness. No willpower to do anything.

This sounds like fun. I'm going to see my best friend; willpower. So the key is what is, this is the number one full-bodied success mastery. What I'm going to say is your reason to live. And Dr. Bernie Siegel has found this, that his cancer, his terminal cancer patients who healed were the ones who focused on something to live for. This one man just wanted to make the world beautiful because he was a landscaper. There's one story. It's not from Dr. Bernie Siegel, but there's one story of this woman who wanted to finish watching a soap opera series. I love that because we'll commonly think of having your kids grow up, seeing your kids walk down the aisle, but your reason live can be anything. So

[CHRIS]

There's some good shows out there. I understand that.

[AVITAL]

No kidding. I do not start a TV series unless I'm ready to finish it like that moment because it's fascinating. Absolutely. All these stories are amazing. So we're looking at what is going to give you that willpower? I like to call this Avital Science because as I said, I have an engineering degree and when you have two ---

[CHRIS]

You do, wow.

[AVITAL]

When you have two opposing forces working against each other and they're equal in strength then nothing happens. But if one is stronger, it over comes the other. I like to imagine that the health of our body, like a disease entering in our body is one form, one force. Our desire to live to enjoy life is another force. Which one do we want stronger?

[CHRIS]

The one you feed. Like that Wolf story.

[AVITAL]

The one you feed, the one we want to win. So really consider what is going to give you that willingness to go after life. If nothing else, you're going to feel a lot better while your body is having challenges. If you find creative ways, this is actually why during the pandemic with COVID I really stress do what you love, do what you love. Find a way to do at least a piece of that, do it in a different way. Find something else that you love. Because a lot of us couldn't do what we normally do that we love but if we're really going to stay happy during that time, we have to follow through with what we're here on earth for. I mean, it was such a challenging time for so many people to have that stripped away. That impacts the health, the physical health of our body.

[CHRIS]

I think it was hard because there was, I think some things that we love that we couldn't do and sometimes seeing our friends on Zoom just didn't have the same effects.

[AVITAL]

I know

[CHRIS]

So I think that was a big struggle for a lot of people.

[AVITAL]

Yep, absolutely.

[CHRIS]

To be able to find ways to still discover what is it I love that I can still do in a way that's safe.

[AVITAL]

I know it's hard for people who are extroverted and Zoom doesn't quite satisfy that either. How do you create that satisfaction?

[CHRIS]

Yes.

[AVITAL]

I liked it when we could walk and just be socially distanced even from the person we're walking with.

[CHRIS]

Outdoor stuff was always one way to get that in.

[AVITAL]

Yep. Oh yes.

[CHRIS]

It sounds like from what you're saying too though, is that it comes from within the healing, that being able to discover it, somehow.

[AVITAL]

I have this suspicion, you could say that; every physical thing that happens in our body comes from something emotional. Now there's a lot of people who have studied written books, found correlations with us. But I don't think any of them are able to say it's 100% that

[CHRIS]

Right.

[AVITAL]

But I just believe that our souls are actually navigating to a degree what is going on with our body. We're not always aware of that full scope and I like to think of our body having a mind of its own as well. So we're like soulmates and we have to tune in to each other to work together in harmony. But I truly believe that also when people leave this world that there's something inside of them that feels done. I know that's really, really hard to imagine because life can be so amazing. Like why would you ever be done? But there's, my almost a 87-year-old grandmother and she fell and hit her hip. She had hip surgery. There's nothing going on with sort of the mechanics of all of her organs and nothing wrong with her mind. She calls me up and she says Avital, Tally, because I was called Tally, growing up. She says, "Tally, I'm going to die tomorrow. Don't be sad for me. I've lived a full life. I'm really happy. I'm just done. But please come to my funeral."

[CHRIS]

That's sweet.

[AVITAL]

She didn't die the next day, but she did die two months later.

[CHRIS]

Oh, okay.

[AVITAL]

Again, there was nothing like physically wrong. She just was done. She lived a very full, wonderful life. She was few days away from 87-years-old.

[CHRIS]

No kidding. I think you're right. Some people are done at a certain point.

[AVITAL]

It was 97.

[CHRIS]

Wow. And they just don't feel any more, maybe more, don't have any more of that reason to live, like you mentioned.

[AVITAL]

Yes. But I think, I mean you can think, too, on smaller scales in your life, like what did you do as a kid that you don't do now? Because you're done. Don't have the craving for that anymore.

[CHRIS]

Or been there done that. Too much.

[AVITAL]

Oh yes.

[CHRIS]

That could be. So I guess, was there any other common threads that you found with all these healing stories that came out from all your interviews?

[AVITAL]

Yes, I would like to say so I usually share four full-bodied success, mastery tips. So I said reason to live. I said, don't listen to everything. Number three is do what you can do. This is helpful because there's millions of tips out there of what we can do. Sometimes you only need to do one and that impacts the whole circuit. It's following that reason to live or that passion that you have. So in my book, there's also another doctor in there and she was, she had lupus and she just did her best with it. I mean, it was a really, really bad case of lupus and she didn't expect to live long or have kids and she falls in love and this man asks her to marry him and she's like, "But you're going to have to take care of me and I can't have kids and I don't know how long I'm going to live."

He's like, "That's okay." Then she goes, "Okay, well if I'm going to get married, I want to look great." He actually used to train people to MTV stars, if you remember MTV, to help people lose weight quickly for their next video shoot. He had to alter the diet for her because she was vegetarian. She wasn't vegan, I think. So it ended being a vegan diet and she did her routine lupus testing a few months later, right before the wedding and there was no sign of it. So it was vanity. That was what drove her. I want to look great for my wedding.

The other one, I'll say number four is asking, what is the gift? I mentioned that this really drove me to learn a lot more about health, which is how I'm able to share all of these tips with everyone. But all of these practitioners who I interviewed, it was the same thing. I mean, it came from their own story of having this challenge and then seeing themselves overcome it beyond what was expected and creating a gift to give to other people. There's other stories of people who just needed to change relationships, move to a new city, change jobs and all of a sudden they heal. We don't need to deny the challenges that come up with health issues. We don't want to blame ourselves. This is so important, so, so important because there's a lot of people doing what you're doing, who don't have health issues and it's because it is fine for them to be doing that.

It's like an alignment with their sole purpose in that moment. Part of the physical body having these challenges is simply because we are shifting, I actually have a whole podcast episode called Diseases Assigned to Spiritual Progress. So sometimes we are shifting on a mental, emotional, spiritual level and then the body is just catching up and it goes through disease in order to get there. Sometimes the disease can be like a message to the body saying, "Hey, there's something for you to pay attention to that you're not paying attention to. Then there's a gift because when we learn what that is, we make that transformation in life. We feel so much happier.

[CHRIS]

I like how you said, it's a gift because I think a lot of people, it becomes the opposite. Because there's a lot of mental health issues that people that have a lot of physical complaints and problems, disease, whatever you want to call it, that can lead to depression and why me and a lot of negativity around that. So that's a different reframe.

[AVITAL]

Yes. How you frame the situation doesn't always change the situation. But there are studies showing that when you frame it negatively, it does impact it that way. When you frame it positively, it does impact it that way. Even if it didn't, you're going to feel better if you frame it differently. So why not focus on what is going to make you feel better?

[CHRIS]

True. I guess with mental health issues like depression, anxiety and trauma, I guess, is this healing happens, this can be helpful for that as well, not just physical problems.

[AVITAL]

Absolutely. And you know what depression is?

[CHRIS]

What is it?

[AVITAL]

Depression, and I'll say this is more for short-term depressions than necessarily long-term ones, but I believe it can apply to that as well. Because sometimes doctors can find out there's just a chemical imbalance that somebody has. That's an easy solution, but depression is you noticing something existing that isn't in alignment with who you are anymore, which again means that you grew in some way in order to move beyond or just be done with something. As long as that other thing still exists, because it takes time for it to fall away then it feels depressing. But like for people who go through the dark night of the soul, you'll notice this more poignantly where you get to this extreme, like negative feeling state, because part of you has shifted and a part of you hasn't and then that part of you falls away. That's ready to shift and all of a sudden you feel just fine and sort of forget that you went through a dark night of the soul.

[CHRIS]

Sounds like a lot of shifts and transformation into something else.

[AVITAL]

Yes, it's really just as sign that you are wanting something better and you can progress that by really investigating what are your complaints? What are you sad about? Well, turn that around and what do you really want. Then how do you start moving in that direction as hard as it is? Take one step and then the next.

[CHRIS]

I think that's the difficulty, especially with long-term depression is. That motivation level isn't there to get moving and once you can get some momentum, that's when I know clients I work with a lot of times can show some progress.

[AVITAL]

Yes. The momentum, that's such a key word that you say, because I do a lot of work with energy and the concept of energy, not just energy healing itself but actually enjoy sharing with people tips on how to raise your energy, you could say. Because if you can just direct your energy upwards, you actually start to operate at a level above the level of the problem. The second thing is it will naturally motivate you to take action, to come up with solutions and to feel happier.

[CHRIS]

Interesting. So how would you, you said raise your energy upward?

[AVITAL]

Yes, let's do something.

[CHRIS]

I'm just getting a visual, I'm a visual person, so I'm trying to visualize, what does that look like?

[AVITAL]

I know. I'll share a couple things, but first let's just do something so you can feel what it feels to shift your energy. It's so simple. You could do it sitting in your office chair if your energy starts to drone during the day, or if something really annoying just happened. You just take a double inhale and tense all the muscles in your body and then double exhale out through the nose and mouth and release everything. Now I actually believe that we have an unlimited supply of energy. So the more you put it into this, the more energetic you're actually going to feel. So you can do that two or three times and do it even more intensely so you're really feeling all the muscles in your body vibrate.

Then after you do that, go back to whatever the challenges that are coming up and see if you approach it differently with a different sentiment. But the meditation practice that I do is all about inviting energy up that you talk, you hear a lot in yoga and meditation about looking at the spiritual eye, the point between the eye blows. But basically when you're sad and tired, where are you looking? What's your body posture? It's down. When you're happy and excited, what's your body posture? Where are you looking? Up. So that's an easy way to think about this.

[CHRIS]

Oh yes. I learned that in my yoga training too, eyes up for energy eyes down for grounding.

[AVITAL]

Yes, and for going to sleep.

[CHRIS]

Yes.

[AVITAL]

So if you don't want to fall asleep in Shavasana at the end of yoga, when you're just laying on your back, you look up under closed eyes.

[CHRIS]

Now there's some truth to that, with energy. Because sometimes we do need more grounding and that's okay. We can look down more and think about eyes to the earth, eyes up to the divine.

[AVITAL]

Absolutely. Well, and the earth is part of the divine too.

[CHRIS]

That's interesting. Breathwork is so tied in with energy.

[AVITAL]

It is.

[CHRIS]

Really helpful.

[AVITAL]

You can't be anxious if you're breathing deeply.

[CHRIS]

So true.

[AVITAL]

So it's so simple when you're having anxiety, just start breathing slowly and deeply.

[CHRIS]

So I guess as far as anxiety goes, what are your thoughts on that, because I know you mentioned about depression? How do you look at anxiety?

[AVITAL]

I almost feel like it's the same thing, but we just get worked up differently. In a way it's sort of one scatters us and our mind runs through a lot of things. So it's like energy being directed in all different directions whereas depression is energy being directed downwards.

[CHRIS]

So more scattered.

[AVITAL]

Yes.

[CHRIS]

I think you're right. It does start with breath work and that's usually where I start with clients with treatment.

[AVITAL]

Anxiety's usually more about fear of the future. Depression is often a sadness about the past.

[CHRIS]

Yes, so true. Is there anything else about the full-bodied success mastery you wanted to share?

[AVITAL]

What I would like to share also is to think about this as overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges and apply these four steps to all areas of life. Because how we approach success in one area is how we can apply it in other areas. But the other thing is that there may be an area of life that it's easier to apply this to and that will automatically pick your energy up so that it's easier to pick your energy up in the area. That's more challenging. It's also this idea of success magnetism. What we want to do is focus more on where we can be successful and that will raise the whole energy of our system. It'll be easier to be successful in the other areas too.

[CHRIS]

Absolutely. It's all connected. All holistic.

[AVITAL]

Yes.

[CHRIS]

Everything impacts each other. Is there a takeaway you could share today that could help listeners who might be just starting their holistic journey?

[AVITAL]

Yes. What I want to say is, this is my quote, seeing your sweet song. I adapted it from one of my spiritual teachers. Think about your reason to live. That is your song and it's not necessarily the job that you do. Your reason to live could be smiling at as many people on the street as you walk by. So really think about what is it that makes you want to live? What are you excited about and keep looking until you find those things you're excited about, what impact do you want to make on the world, and then sing that in your own sweet song; and become sweet because you really acknowledge your true identity and embody that. It's always going to be sweeter when we're fully in alignment with who we are. Then trust from there that everything else that needs to happen will get swept up on that path.

[CHRIS]

Oh, that's so lovely. Thanks for sharing.

[AVITAL]

Thank you.

[CHRIS]

What's the best way for listeners to find you and learn more about you?

[AVITAL]

Well, first I would say to take advantage of this gift, because I'm talking so much about energy and how did I go from being Energizer bunny to fatigued and back to Energizer bunny? Where do we have control to naturally shift it in any moment? So I have a webinar that I will gift all the listeners. If you go to unlockunlimitedenergy.com, you can access the Energize Your Life webinar. I do it live. It's not one of those recorded ones. So we actually get to interact and you get to ask me real questions at the webinar. For my book and all the other healing happens programs that I made, just go to healinghappensbook.com. That will get you access to everything. Then if you want to connect with me directly, just write to me at infoavitalmiller.com. Avital it's spelled like a vital, A-V for victory, I-T for talented, A-L.

[CHRIS]

T for talented.

[AVITAL]

I know. It used to be how many times do I have to spell my name, say the boring things. Then finally I was like, we got to make this more exciting if I'm going to have to do this all the time.

[CHRIS]

Exactly. That makes it more fun. Oh, but thank you so much, Avital for coming on the podcast.

[AVITAL]

Thank you. This was a pleasure.

[CHRIS]

You have such a light about you. I really love it. It seems like you have a great message to share.

[AVITAL]

Thank you.

[CHRIS]

I want to thank my listeners for supporting the podcast. I could still use your help though, to keep the podcast strong. Please give a five star rating and review wherever you get your podcast. This is Chris McDonalds sending each one of you much light and love. Until next time, take care.

If you're loving the show, will you rate review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform? We just started this and that helps other people find this show. Also, if you're feeling uncertain about your modalities and you want to build your confidence to be your unique self, why don't you to join my free email course, Becoming a Holistic Counselor over at holisticcounselingpodcast.com.

In my Becoming a Holistic Counselor course, you'll get tips for adding integrative care into your practice, what training you need and don't, and the know-how to attract your ideal holistic clients. If this sounds like the direction you are headed, sign up at holisticcounselingpodcast.com.

This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.

Find A Topic

Feeling stressed? My Self-Care Companion workbook is designed to guide you through practical exercises that promote balance in body, mind, and spirit. The Workbook provides easy-to-use strategies that are not only practical but profoundly beneficial. 

Check Out My Book!

Self-Care for the Counselor - a holistic guide for helping professionals by Christine McDonald , MS,NCC,LPCS