095: Somatic Therapy, the Inner Child, and Nervous System Healing // with Megan Sherer

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Your body has been trying to talk to you—through tight shoulders, the jaw that clicks, and the tears that show up in a hip opener. We invited somatic therapist and hypnotherapist Megan Sherer to help us translate those signals into clarity, relief, and real change. Together we explore how emotions live in the nervous system and in fascia, the connective tissue that touches every muscle, organ, and nerve. When safety and movement return, that energy releases as heat, tremor, or tears.

We dig into the difference between being trauma informed and trauma trained, why certain breathwork styles can overwhelm without the right container, and where talk therapy helps—and where it stalls. Megan walks us through attachment styles without turning them into identity traps.

We also connect ancient wisdom and modern science, linking meridians and qigong to fascial lines, and bring nuance to cortisol and stress physiology. Most importantly, we share a simple starting point: honor your body’s basic cues. Eat when you’re hungry, rest when you’re tired, pee when you need to, step away when you’re overloaded. That small honesty builds interoception and trust so bigger emotions feel safer to process. If you’re ready to stop overriding and start listening, you’ll leave with a clearer map for nervous system care, relational healing, and sustainable self-respect.

If this conversation resonated, tap follow, share it with a friend, and leave a five-star review. 

To work with Megan:

Visit: www.megansherer.com

Clairvoyaging is now a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a 501(c)(3) charity, so any donations are now tax deductible. If you’d like to support our projects that aim to foster understanding for diverse spiritual belief systems, visit www.clairvoyaging.com/support. 

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Episode Transcript

Lauren (00:41):
Greetings, Moonbeams and Angel Dreams.
In today's episode, we talkedto Megan Sharer, a somatic
therapist, hypnotherapist, andnervous system practitioner.
We discussed how our bodiesprocess and hold on to emotions,
and Frank's new obsession withfascia, aka Frank's Fascia
Nation.

Frank (01:01):
I'm good.

Lauren (01:05):
I'm Lauren Leon.

Frank (01:07):
And I'm Frank.

Lauren (01:08):
We are a married couple learning how to develop our own
intuition, and this is episode95 of Claire Voyaging.
Wayfeather Media presentsClaire Voyaging.

Frank (01:38):
Hi.

Lauren (01:39):
Hi, Poppies.

Frank (01:41):
How's it going, guys?

Lauren (01:42):
Hi, hello out there in the audio world.
Damn.
I know.
It's so good.

Frank (01:51):
Give her a give her a broadcast show live.
Give her a mic, put her on theair.
They will come.
They will come.

Lauren (01:58):
She has the good words.
Guys, we got a good one for youtoday.

Frank (02:03):
Yes, we do.

Lauren (02:04):
Before we do that, just a little reminder, because we
said we're gonna do this more.
Five-star reviews are sowelcomed, and they help our
little show grow.

Frank (02:15):
So give it the cinco.

Lauren (02:16):
Thank you.
Give it for doing that.
Give it the cinco.
And you know it, give it five.

Frank (02:20):
Throw in a little comment too.
People see a comment, they'relike, oh dang.

Lauren (02:23):
I really like the show.

Frank (02:24):
That's from a real person.

Lauren (02:25):
Oh, hey.
That's nice.
That's our three-year-old, Iguess.
Responding.
Oh, real people.

Frank (02:29):
Yeah, who listen to our podcast.

Lauren (02:31):
They really like it.

Frank (02:34):
Club watching?
Really awesome.

Lauren (02:36):
Uh, it's like really good.
Um, thanks for that.
Also, guys, hop on over toPatreon.
You wanna be a member?
You wanna be a member?
Guess what?
It's only four dollars a month.
What?
It's only four dollars a month.
That's so cheap.
If you didn't hear me, it'sfour dollars per month.

Frank (02:56):
Wait, what?

Lauren (02:57):
Four, four, one, two, three, four.

Frank (02:59):
That's still so cheap.
It's really good.

Lauren (03:03):
So those are our those are our pitches.
Our our little uh calls toactually pitches.
Pitches get stitches.
Um, and now let's just getstraight to chatting with Megan.

Frank (03:18):
All right, Lauren, send it off.

Lauren (03:19):
And up to the moon we go.
Well, Megan, we're so happy tohave you on Claire Voyaging
today.
Thank you for joining us.
We love a little backstory.
We love it, we love a good,like, who are you?
So can you tell us who are youand what brought you into the

(03:41):
work that you're doing?

Megan (03:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you so much for having mehere.
I will try my very best to sumup who I am and what I do into
something sort of concise.
Um, what I do is that I'm asomatic therapist and I
primarily support people inhealing attachment wounds and
ultimately like having a betterrelationship with themselves and

(04:04):
their feelings so that we canhave better relationships with
other people.
And how I got here is like alot of people in any sort of
healing profession, it reallystarted with my own struggles
and my own learning and growthand exploration and healing.
Um, I definitely didn't startout on the path of like, I want

(04:24):
to be a therapist or I want tobe in a helping profession.
Um I was in the health andwellness space when I first
started my career, um, when Iwas in my early 20s.
And I just happened to gothrough a series of sort of
back-to-back traumas, all oneafter the other.
When I was 21, I was in atraumatic car accident that

(04:45):
really shook up my lifesignificantly, and was also in a
very unhealthy relationship atthe time and very unhealthy kind
of community situation at thetime that all was sort of just
this convergence for me tofinally take a look at deeper
underlying patterns of how I hadbeen really externalizing my

(05:08):
self-worth.
Like I was one of those um kidsand people who grew up
overachieving and performing andand very much a perfectionist.
And like, if I just do all theright things and check all the
right boxes, then I will beenough and I will be lovable and
I will be worthy and I willfeel okay.
But I did all the things and Inever quite felt okay.

(05:28):
I never quite felt quite feltgood enough or worthy or
lovable.
And so kind of thanks to all ofthese really intense
experiences that I went throughat 21, it forced me to dive
really deep very quickly intoany healing modality I could
find and get my hands on.
And um, I really kind of wenthard in in self-exploration and

(05:50):
healing and personal growth andfound a lot of incredible
practices and practitioners as aresult of that.
And then ultimately realizedthis was work that I wanted to
do as well and went back tostudy and you know the rest is
history.

Lauren (06:05):
Wow.
Okay.
Can you give because I feellike somatic is like a word
that's the first thing I'm gonnasay?

Frank (06:13):
Yeah, you can be used somatic in so many ways.

Lauren (06:15):
And I'm and incorrectly too.
Oh, okay.
Okay, yeah, say more aboutthat, please.
Um, I feel like a lot ofpeople, at least because I think
because we're in this spacenow, like I'm just seeing the
word somatic like constantly.
And can you def can you giveyour definition and also how

(06:37):
it's used improperly?

Megan (06:38):
Absolutely.
Thank you for starting here.
Starting there.
Oh my gosh.
Yes.
Um, so we'll start with justthe word itself.
The the root word soma justmeans body.
So somatic modalities, somaticpractices are really anything
that leads with our bodilyexperience.
And we can just kind of takethat in contrast to um the

(07:01):
therapeutic modality that mostpeople are most familiar with,
like psychotherapy, traditionaltalk therapy, which prioritizes
cognition and the mind and theintellect, how we think about
things.
So when we're instead taking asomatic approach to healing,
we're interested in how the bodyis processing, feeling,

(07:22):
understanding, and experience.
And kind of like you alludedto, I think that word is getting
thrown out there a lot rightnow.
It's super trendy buzzword.
Somatic work is nothing new.
In fact, it's like very, veryancient, like thousands of years
old indigenous cultures.
Like we've been practicingsomatic work for a very, very,

(07:42):
very long time.
When I say we, I mean humanbeings, um, without necessarily
labeling it that.
And somatic practice is reallyintrinsically um rooted in
Eastern healing practices, liketraditional Chinese medicine,
like Ayurveda, um, shamanicpractices.

(08:04):
Like most non-Western healingpractices center the body and
really actually revere thewisdom of the body and the fact
that our body knows a lot morethan we give it credit for.
And in Western healingpractices and modalities, it's a
lot of pedestalizing the mindand mindset, willpower, like
think your way through it typething.

Frank (08:24):
Yeah.

Megan (08:24):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So somatic work just re-centersthe body.
And the reason I was saying,like, it's kind of misused a lot
of the times is because it's abuzzword, because like nervous
system regulation is supertrendy right now.
I think people are sort ofquick to um slap the word
somatic onto whatever they'realready doing as sort of a

(08:46):
marketing ploy.
And like I will see on socialmedia all the time, like somatic
weight loss techniques, likesomatic, like things that I'm
just like, oh no, no, no, no.
That's not that's not thepoint.
That's not the intention ofwhat we're doing here.
Or even taking what could be asomatic tool, like breath work,

(09:06):
and assuming that it'strauma-informed just because we
call it somatic, which is notnecessarily the case.
There's a lot of breath workout there that is not
necessarily a trauma-informedsomatic therapeutic practice,
even though it's a body-basedtool.
So there's just like some grayareas, and um, ultimately, I'm a

(09:27):
big fan of whatever gets peopleback in relationship with their
bodies and listening to theirbodies and sensations and
emotions again.
Um, but it can, the lines canget a little blurry sometimes.

Frank (09:37):
Can you please also define the concept of being
trauma informed?
Because I'm seeing that thrownaround a lot in in correct ways.

Megan (09:44):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I think this is reallyimportant to lead with because
um because we're getting a lotof great information and
education on social media thesedays to learn more about
ourselves, but there's also thepotential for misinformation and
miseducation and sometimesharm.
Um so trauma exists on aspectrum, like we may or may not

(10:07):
know, like there's big Ttrauma, little T trauma, meaning
like big overt experiences thatanybody would consider um
harmful, traumatizing, um,severe.
And like you could point tothat and be like, yeah, that
would mess anybody up, kind ofthing.
And then little tea traumathat's more subtle and nuanced
and exists on more of how likehow our individual psyche

(10:29):
perceived an experience andwhether or not we felt isolated
in it, and and how our nervoussystem responded to it.
So being trauma informedessentially means that you have
been trained or or learned as apractitioner, practitioner of
any kind.
This could be a therapist, ayoga teacher, breath work

(10:51):
facilitator, a coach, that youhave the understanding that like
trauma is probably in the roomwith us, especially if we're
working with the body,especially if we're talking
about emotions, if we're movingthrough potentially emotionally
charged experiences.
We're acknowledging that likeeverybody's got varied
experience lived experience, andtrauma is probably on board,

(11:13):
especially if you're teachinglike a class, a workshop with
many people who all havedifferent backgrounds.
Somebody there might have asensitive history, a trauma
history.
And so if we're traumainformed, we're mindful of that.
And we're mindful of the waythat we offer tools and
techniques and um that we teachin a way that's not going to

(11:34):
re-traumatize somebody, that'sgoing to offer um possibly
modifications for people whomight have a trauma history.
So just a simple example.
If somebody does have a traumahistory and has experienced like
physical abuse, let's say, orsexual abuse, or a really
challenging relationship withtheir body, where it actually

(11:56):
doesn't feel good, doesn't feelsafe to be in the body.
It feels safer to numb and likecheck out and dissociate.
Telling a person like that tojust like get into your womb
space and like feel all thesensation there, like get into
your heart, like feel everythingthat your body's feeling.
That's gonna be way too muchtoo soon for that person if they
haven't already processed thetheir trauma history in the way

(12:19):
that they need to in a safetherapeutic setting.

Frank (12:21):
Also, kind of a kind of a funny language barrier as well.
There's like terminology thatfeels very gatekeeping, you
know?

Megan (12:28):
Totally.
They're gonna be like, oh, thatdoesn't apply to me.
I'm not like at that level, Ican't do that.
Like it's already sort ofostracizing.

Frank (12:36):
Um and also no matter how much I look, I still can't find
my womb.
So I don't know.

Megan (12:42):
Like, how do I get there?
Where is it?
What does it mean?
What?

Frank (12:49):
Can someone buy me a copy of Gray's Anatomy, please?
Because I'm having a hard time.

Megan (12:53):
Exactly.
And even if we're like notusing the sometimes woo-woo
ostracizing healing languagethat that can turn people off a
bit, even if we're just leadinga breathwork session,
acknowledging that certain typesof breath work that are very
activating put the body into asympathetic fight or flight
state, which can remind us of atime in our past where we felt

(13:16):
very overwhelmed in a traumaticexperience and it can be
re-traumatizing.
And if that teacher, thatpractitioner isn't aware of
that, it can cause harm to thepeople that they're trying to
help, that they're trying tofacilitate.
Right.
I have heard that.

Frank (13:30):
I have heard that like a breath work is not like an
introductory like uh method inin into like uh uh addressing
your traumas.

Lauren (13:39):
Yeah.

Frank (13:40):
That that could be it's kind of an advanced level stuff
because it can it can really digin there quickly.
It's kind of violent.

Lauren (13:45):
I've never done breath work before, but like I could
imagine, I know that there's onewhere you're like breathing in
and out, like kind of rapidly.
And I would imagine that thatcould trigger some like memory
or something.
And yeah.

Megan (14:00):
Yep.

Lauren (14:00):
There are would freak out a little bit.

Megan (14:03):
Exactly.
Like that there's breath workis sort of an umbrella term
because there's many differentstyles of breath work, but the
one that you're referring to issort of mimics um
hyperventilation, where ifyou've had panic attacks in the
past, like that's not gonna feelsafe for you to just go into in
like a class setting.

Lauren (14:20):
Yeah, right, right.
Yeah.

Megan (14:22):
Yeah.
And so the the trauma informedis like having the awareness,
teaching in a safe way.
But then trauma trained meansthat you actually have been
trained, have the scope, theability, the licensure, the
certification to actually helpsomebody through trauma to
process that trauma.
So those that's an importantdistinction too.
Like a breathwork teachershould be trauma informed.

(14:45):
They should know that whenthey're teaching, that shit's
gonna come up.
Sorry if I can't swear here.
No, but then to be able to thenrefer that person to a
trauma-trained professional whocan help them actively work
through what they're workingthrough.
Does that make sense?

Frank (15:03):
Yeah.
So we have trauma informed andthen trauma trained.

Megan (15:06):
Yeah.

Frank (15:07):
And I'm these are two very different skill sets.
One is knowing and one isknowing what to do after the
trauma has been induced.
Or is that yeah?

Megan (15:15):
So one is like acknowledging that it's in the
room with us and we're beingsensitive to that, mindful of
that.
We know when to refer out, likewe know our limitations with
like if I just teach breathwork, that's my limitation.
I'm not a therapist qualifiedto then lead this person through
healing and resolving theirtrauma.
Trauma trained is like I'm theperson who has the modalities
and the tools to help themresolve their trauma.

Frank (15:37):
Got it.
That's a very importantdistinction to make.
I never see that.
I never see those thatdefinition floating around.

Lauren (15:43):
I need to spread the word for a lot of yeah.
I feel like it's a lot oftrauma-informed, like when you
see, you know, people who are,like you said, yoga teachers,
breathwork, like coaches, anykind of practitioner.
And that one even you want tobe trauma-informed, yeah.

Megan (16:02):
Yeah.
And that's another like sort ofbuzzword that can just like
people can call themselvestrauma-informed because maybe
they've worked through their owntrauma.
And so they're like, I knowabout trauma, like I know that
that exists.
Right.
Yeah.
Not like how to actually holdsafe space for other people.

Frank (16:18):
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
Oh man, that's so important.
In your experience, uh, what isthe problem with Western style
like cognition-based uhtherapies and like like talking
therapy?

Megan (16:33):
Yeah, I think I think that as a collective, we're very
tempted by the idea of like aone-size-fits-all solution.
Like we just want to like knowwhat the one silver bullet magic
pill is.
Like, tell me the thing that Ineed to do or the book that I
need to read to fix all myproblems, and then I'll be
better.
And I think the problem withespecially like intellectually

(16:58):
focused approaches is thatthey're not bad.
They're actually like the firststep for a lot of people.
Like awareness is the firststep, right?
We need to be aware of ourproblems.
We need to be able to talkabout what we've experienced in
order to even get any deeper.
So that's like the gatekeeper.
And talk therapy is a superbeneficial modality for a lot of
people.
And it has limitations becauseit keeps us at that level of

(17:21):
cognitive processing, whichisn't where change happens.
Like awareness is not where thechange happens.
That's five percent of theequation, tip of the iceberg.
The change occurs and like thereal where our habits, beliefs,
daily um choices come from isthat 95% beneath the surface,
which is our subconscious mindand our body and our nervous

(17:44):
system experience.
Um, so I'm not ever gonna saylike therapy's bad, but you
know, maybe you know thosepeople who have been in therapy
for years and years and years,and they're talking about the
same things and they feel likethey're just venting every week,
like cycling through the sameproblem, but nothing has changed
in their life.
That's the limitation.

Frank (18:05):
Right.

Lauren (18:06):
Yeah.
I yeah.
The where there's like oh,there's been some improvement in
maybe a little bit of behavior,maybe a little bit of
understanding.
But yeah, like going deeper,you like the people that are in
therapy for like 10 years, andyou're like, Well, we're still

(18:29):
we're still here.
We're still talking about thatsame thing.

Frank (18:32):
Well, I mean, to your point, like you're addressing
only 50 well, probably probablyless than that, but let's say
50% of the system that makes youoperate, how you interface with
the world, right?
People know, like, oh yeah, Igot a problem.
And then it's very easy tostart identifying with that
problem, saying, Oh, this islike I've identified that I have
this issue.
And then you're like we love alabel.

(18:53):
Yeah, everyone loves the label,and then they have suddenly
that spark of of likerecognition.
I feel like you need to workwith that motivation to then
quickly get to the next part.
Otherwise, you start livinginto the narrative of the I know
this about myself.
I I hate I hate when peoplewear purple.
Uh it just makes me so pissedoff.
You know, oh take my purpleshirt off, man.

(19:15):
I've got a problem with yourpurple or whatever.
It's something stupid.

Megan (19:18):
Yeah, like this is my trigger, so it's but it's your
problem.
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Frank (19:22):
You just know enough to be dangerous, you know?

Megan (19:24):
Yeah, exactly.

Lauren (19:26):
Yeah, that's exactly what it is.
This is my trigger, so it'syour problem.
Like I know it exists, but nowI'm making you responsible for
it exists.
Yeah, yeah.
Like I'm not actually gonnachange it.
I'm just aware of it.
And so are you.

Megan (19:41):
We see this a lot.
Like the example that I use themost because I work in in this
realm and I think it's sorelevant right now is attachment
styles.
Like that has become so trendyover the last few years.
Everybody has maybe like takenthe quiz or read enough social
media posts to be like, oh yeah,like I'm anxiously attached, or
I dated a guy and he'savoidant.

(20:01):
And like you can make it.

Lauren (20:04):
Yeah, I don't, I actually don't either.

Megan (20:06):
So yeah.
This is a whole can of worms.

Frank (20:09):
Okay.

Megan (20:10):
Okay.
How can I summarize this?
Attachment theory is basicallythe um understanding of how how
we interacted with our primarycaregivers and our parents, like
our parents andor primarycaregivers in the early years of
our life, taught our nervoussystem about how to attach, how

(20:31):
to bond, what connection means,what we have to do in order to
get love from the people aroundus.
And that essentially maps on.
To our adult romanticrelationships.
And so there's four primaryattachment styles.
There's secure attachment,which is what we would all
ideally want to be experiencing,where like we're secure within

(20:51):
ourselves and we can bevulnerable with other people.
We can form healthyconnections, have intimacy, not
be scared of it, not be afraidthat we're not fall into
patterns because we're afraidthat we're gonna get hurt.
We can trust love, but we canalso trust that if we if love
goes away, we're gonna be okay.
That's secure attachment.

Lauren (21:10):
Okay.

Megan (21:11):
Anxious attachment is where we feel like we're always
grasping for it.
Like we're really afraid ofrejection and abandonment.
And so we feel like we're we'renot good enough and we need to
like try harder, overgive,people please perform to go get
it.
Avoidant attachment is theperson who who is also afraid of

(21:32):
rejection and abandonment.
Like at the end of the day,we're all afraid of like losing
love or getting hurt.
But their strategy, theircoping mechanism is like put up
a wall, push people away, shutdown, numb out, rather than like
when when connection feels likeit's being threatened or when
somebody feels like they'regetting too close, we feel
scared.
So we avoid.

(21:52):
That's the person who like willghost someone when they're
dating or shut down in a fight,in a conflict with their
partner.
Um, we avoid intimacy.
The fourth category isdisorganized attachment, which
you sort of oscillate betweenanxiousness and avoidance, where
like you really want love, butthen you push it away.
Like, please come closer.
Oh, now you're too close.
Go away.
Kind of push-pull dynamic.

(22:14):
So that has become popularizedon social media in recent years,
learning about what yourattachment style is.
But like to your point earlier,what I was gonna say is that a
lot of people have then learnedabout their patterns and then
latched onto this label of like,oh, well, I'm anxiously
attached.
So like you need to give memore attention in order for me

(22:37):
to feel secure, or I'm avoidant.
So you need to give me space inorder for me to feel okay.
And while it's really great toidentify our emotional needs and
patterns, the goal is actuallyto heal the root cause of those
attachment wounds and buildtowards more secure attachment
rather than just stay in thelabel forever.

Lauren (22:58):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what is the work that you doto heal the heal the wounds?

Megan (23:07):
Great question.
Um well, hold on.

Frank (23:09):
Let's back up a little bit.
Yeah, what is your work ingeneral first?
And then maybe we'll get thehealing.
Lauren has Lauren has veryspecific questions around number
two.

Megan (23:22):
Around the anxious attachment.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
I I can understand why.
Yeah, what do I do with this?
Yeah, that's the work that Ido.
Um so essentially it's, youknow, we talked about awareness.
Like you become aware of thisis my pattern, that's step one.
Then what?
Like, what do I do with this?

(23:42):
And the the real change thatoccurs is when we learn to like
take a holistic approach andlook at how is this how is this
pattern showing up in my life,in my choices, in my self-talk,
in my nervous system.
Um, and so the work that I dosort of blends a few different
modalities, somatic practice,where we're understanding what's

(24:05):
going on in my body with myemotions, with my nervous
system, um, subconscious work,where we're actually getting to
rewire beliefs that we formed asa result of those core wounds.
Um, and parts work, which isessentially an exploration.
It's kind of like I liken it toinner child work.
It's an exploration of theyounger parts of us that are

(24:28):
still living in that old storyof the wounding, of the thing
that happened, and then carrythis burden of like, I'm not
good enough, I'm not lovable, noone will stay, no one sticks
around for me, like whatever thestory is, we have to actually
work with those young parts ofus that are still living there
and carrying that burden.
Um so it becomes this dancebetween becoming more and more

(24:52):
aware, more observant of ourpatterns, thoughts, feelings,
being able to attune to what'sgoing on in our nervous system
so that we can regulate enoughto feel a feeling and identify
what's the need beneath it, andthen meet that need internally
and then communicate in ahealthier way to our partner or
whoever it is in our life thatwe're wanting to be closer to.

(25:14):
So it's a multi-step process,but I it works very well.
Yeah.

Frank (25:20):
Can you do me a favor?
Because we also throw peoplethrow around inner child a lot.
And it's it's actually one ofthose terms similar to somatic.
I'm always, I always have, I'llfind a thing to have an issue
with.
Um it's a term that's abused.
Yeah.
Inner child is abused.
What what when we say innerchild, I know you you gave us a
brief definition just now, butlike what is the when when we

(25:43):
say inner child, are we talkingabout like 10 and under?
Is it beyond that?
Can you yeah, yeah.
Can you give me a a range hereof what's going on?

Megan (25:51):
Your timing is great because I I just taught a class
on this this morning and lastnight.
So I'm very immersed in thisconversation right now.
But yeah, before I answer, Iwould love to hear like what
comes to mind for you when youhear Inner Child and and also
like what's the problem that youhave with it.

Lauren (26:08):
Ooh.

Frank (26:08):
Okay.

Lauren (26:09):
Oh, Megan's doing some work already.

Frank (26:13):
Um, so Lauren and I are in the process of like kind of
building out our own kind ofworkshops to go through like a
healing modality that we're inthe middle of of developing.
And um we will be sure to betrauma informed once we go to
market with it.
But when it comes to innerchild stuff, so here's here's

(26:34):
what I have an issue with.
I I feel like there's anelement of inner child work that
that that same um methodologyis appropriate to do with things
that might have happened to youlast week.
So and that's kind of why I'malways like, why has it got to
be child?
Why can't it just be likeinner?
I I don't have a an uh adifferent definition for it.
I suppose people throw the wordshadow work around a lot, but

(26:56):
same thing.
It's like, well, what does thateven mean?
Like, I'm not I'm not young.
No, hold on.
I'm young and attractive, but Imean I'm not Carl Young.
And you know, like not everyonehas like the intimate knowledge
of that definition.
So for me, when I think ofinner child work, I always think
about what I do when I've donethat kind of work is I go back,

(27:16):
revisit a period of time where Iexperienced some kind of
trauma, and I make sure that I'mthere for myself, now being the
like adult I needed for thatthat moment.
But sometimes, like maybe I hada maybe I got really mad at the
guy that was wearing a purpleshirt last week, and I want to
be like, you know what, Frank?
Like, you really don't need tobe mad at that guy.

(27:36):
It's just purple, it's just acolor.
That's some people's favoritecolor, you know?
It's okay.
And I like mentally and likespiritually want to put a hand
on my shoulder and be like,you're gonna be fine.
You can walk away from thiskind of thing.
So I guess the the issue that Ihave with the term inner child
is just the child part.

Megan (27:51):
Yeah.
Yep.
Um you're honestly really spoton there.
So you might find a lot moreresonance with this concept I
mentioned called parts work.
Um, the most well-knownmodality of parts work is IFS or
internal family systems.
I practice um a similar butdifferent modality that focuses

(28:12):
more on the somatic experienceof our inner parts.
And essentially, it's theacknowledgement that we do all
have these inner parts of ourexperience.
Some of them are younger, likean inner child, because you're
an adult, let's say like30-year-old adult today, but you
were also once a five-year-oldand a 10-year-old and a
15-year-old.
And those versions of you don'tgo anywhere just because you're

(28:36):
not that age in that sized bodyanymore.
They're still part of yourpsyche.
And they have their own beliefsystems and patterns and
emotions and reactions to, likeyou said, what may have happened
in the past.
And you can go back in time andput a hand on that version of
you and be like, you're good.
I'm here with you now.
Like you do have a safe, lovingadult who's capable of taking

(28:58):
care of you.
And to your point, you couldhave had an experience last week
where frustration or anger cameout, and you're like, ooh, that
version of me needs a littlelove.
And maybe if you sat with thatversion longer and you unpacked
it, you might find that that bigemotional, angry, frustrated
reaction actually was a youngerpart, but maybe it wasn't.

(29:21):
And today you can still supporta week ago you.
It doesn't matter who is whatage.
What really matters is thatyou're learning to create that
internal system of curiosity andcompassion and support rather
than like judging yourself forhaving the reaction.

Frank (29:41):
Well, that's cool.

Megan (29:43):
So good job.

Lauren (29:44):
It's so interesting because he because I I've been
talking a lot more about innerchild stuff in the last like
year or so, and that's likewhere this conversation, I feel
like, has come up because I'mlike, oh, it's the it's that
like little version of you thatmaybe didn't have control, like

(30:06):
understanding or control overthings and was traumatized in
some way, and now as an adult, Ican go, okay, like I understand
this better on your behalf,little little Lauren, you know,
and like um I've done a lot ofhealing in like let me let me

(30:28):
write her a letter or you know,tell her all the things that
like she needed to hear when shewas four or six or twelve or
whatever it was.
Um the term I feel like becauseFrank, I've been like, oh, I
want to do like an inner childworkshop or something like that.
And Frank will be like, butwhat how how old?

(30:51):
What's the limit?

Megan (30:52):
The logical brain, yeah, goddess.

Lauren (30:55):
Yes.
He'll be like, uh, are they 18?
Is your inner child does it gountil they're 18 or 15 or what?

Megan (31:01):
Yeah.
I mean, here's the thing likelanguage does matter, like we
were talking about before.
Some language can make peoplefeel ostracized and not included
in a self-conversation, in a ina conversation.
I talk about this a lot withself-love.
Like some people hear that termand they're like, that's not
for me.
I yeah, self-love, like, no,that's I can't even

(31:22):
conceptualize what that would belike.
That's too whatever.
They don't believe they'rethat's a conversation for them.
But maybe they can wrap theirhead around a con a conversation
of self-respect, of caring fortheir body, of treating
themselves in a way that isdignified and kind.
So language really does matter.

(31:43):
And if somebody's having a hardterm time with the term inner
child, like maybe we insteadcall it younger self.
And it's more inclusive becauseyeah, your younger self also
includes like 21, 22-year-old mewhen I was going through that
very hard time.
That version of me needed aloving adult.
Like she was struggling.
I can go back and support herif something's coming up from

(32:07):
that period of time in my life.
And maybe she wasn't a child,but it doesn't mean she wasn't
still in need of some support.

Frank (32:15):
Right.

Megan (32:15):
Yeah.

Frank (32:16):
Right.
And I do think it's importantto acknowledge that like so many
of our like foundationaltraumas do occur when you're
like sub like eight.
You know what I mean?
So I I I totally like get whyit's called inner child, but
like that same method stillworks like forever.
Like I think it's reallypowerful.
So I'm always I'm always like,why are we calling it why why

(32:39):
are we calling it that?
Like there should be a largerumbrella.
But I like I like the idea ofparts work being like a
terminology.
Yeah, maybe that would bebetter with you.
And that thank you for comingto uh our Frank and Lauren
semantics uh conversationstoday.

Megan (32:52):
No problem.
I think it's important becauseI think then it it welcomes some
people in who might have nototherwise felt included in a
healing conversation.
And they're like, oh, okay, Icould see why that would be
beneficial.

Frank (33:04):
Yeah.

Lauren (33:05):
Yeah.
I have to say, I mean, before Ifeel like this podcast, I would
hear inner child and I'd belike, I don't, I don't not, I'm
not quite sure if I understand.
No one gave me the definitionof that, and now I feel like too
dumb to ask.
Well, if we're just part ofwhat this podcast has been,
where we just we ask all thethings we're like, I don't know

(33:27):
what that is.

Megan (33:27):
So yeah, and nobody ever did tell us.
And also, yeah, we have our ownjudgments.
Like when I first heard aboutinner child work, I had a really
defensive part of me that waslike, that's dumb.
I'm not a kid anymore.
And like I'm a grown-up.
I need to just like not likewhy would I go back in time?
The past is the past.
Let's focus on what I can dohere and now.
Like, I just didn't think itwas relevant.

(33:48):
I didn't want to complain aboutthings that felt like they were
out of my control because theyalready happened.
And it felt silly to imaginelike going and hugging a
five-year-old version of me.
Truly, I like really judgedthat idea.
And that was a part of me thatI had to really show some care
and support to before I couldeven imagine loving the

(34:09):
five-year-old version of myself.

Lauren (34:11):
Right.
That's so true.
I I've I've told people like,you know, close friends or or
whoever, whoever will listen,that like get like talk to your
your little, your young self orwrite them a letter or whatever.
And saying it sometimes feelsit really does feel silly if

(34:33):
someone hasn't like considereddoing that.
Cause then it's like, I knowit, I know, I know, it's gonna
feel a little weird.
But like, but maybe it'll work.
But yeah, like it, yeah, Idon't know.
There's something somethingreally powerful about that.

Frank (34:49):
Well, part of it, especially because of the angle
that we're coming from.
My one of my one of my issueswith it with it in the first
place was that you know, we comefrom like more more of a like a
woo spiritual angle, right?
So it's I was like, hold on, amI actually am I actually
attempting to establish contactthrough time and space with an

(35:11):
old version of myself?
Or is this just a mentalpractice of me addressing
something that I that Iexperienced?
And the truth is from myperspective, it doesn't matter.
No, and like it it works, whichis kind of spooky if you think
about it.

Megan (35:28):
Yeah, totally.
It's like, yeah, maybe both.
Like, we don't need to makethis a podcast on like quantum
mechanics, but like what istime, you know?

Frank (35:38):
Yeah, yeah.

Lauren (35:39):
Let's get into that.
No, have you have you heard ofanyone?
I've seen like stories ofpeople, just while we're on the
topic, um remembering being like10 and see like either seeing
like a shadow of someone whilethey're having a hard time, they
have like a memory of there's ashadow of someone who shows up

(36:02):
like in a moment that where theyneed them, or they they need an
adult or something like that.
And then the adult version ofthem does a meditation and goes
back and like visits that10-year-old version of them.
So they were actually seeingthemselves somehow.
Have you heard any of the I Iprobably didn't explain it very

(36:26):
well, but no, yeah.

Megan (36:27):
I've totally heard crazy stories like that where someone
like there's just like a weird,unexplainable thing.
And then yeah, as an adult,you're like, whoa, maybe that
was actually me.

Lauren (36:36):
Yeah.
Like, oh, this woman came andvisited me one one night and
said like everything's gonna beokay.
And then like I as an adultwent back and told myself
everything's gonna be okay.
Yeah, like that's so wild.
It feels like a movie, but butit happens.
I've seen this enough storiesof it that I'm like, oh, maybe
people have done that.

Megan (36:56):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's cool stuff.
I'm a big fan of doing pastself, future self type
practices.

Frank (37:03):
Yeah.
And that's like part of it too,right?
Like if you can do this, if youcan like potentially hill heal
yourself regardless of theconcept of time, like you could
possibly do it with other livesand lifetimes of yourself too,
which is something that I havebeen working on, which is uh
probably a topic for anotherepisode.
But yeah.

Lauren (37:23):
Does any of your practice or like what are your
thoughts on when people do likespecific somatic exercises that
are like, oh, if you like rubthis area of your shoulder,
you're gonna start yawning andthen you're gonna maybe start
crying, or like if you put yourhips in this certain way, that

(37:47):
those things.
Yep.
You know, like those aresomatic exercises.

Megan (37:51):
Okay.
So I'm gonna go where I thinkyou're you're asking.

Frank (37:57):
Your guess is as good as any of ours.

Megan (37:59):
So I'll start with this.
Are you familiar with the termfascia?
Yes.

Frank (38:04):
Yeah, yeah.
So our our audience might notbe, if you don't mind.

Megan (38:08):
Yeah.
For anybody who doesn't know,fascia is connective tissue.
And our connective tissue isthis sort of um like thin, wet,
like almost like cotton candytype web of tissue that runs
throughout your entire body.
It wraps around every muscle,every organ, and your nervous
system.
It's everywhere.
It's this one sort of likecontinuous piece of fabric under

(38:30):
your skin in your body.
And fascia is really, reallyimportant, not just for like
physical health, but it plays ahuge, huge role in emotional
health.
So most people here canprobably relate to having
experienced like physical painof some sort, maybe even chronic

(38:51):
aches and pains, like your neckalways hurts, or you've got a
bad hip, or you know, somethingfrom an old injury.
Like if you injure yourself,you hurt your knee at some point
in time.
Your body develops umcompensatory patterns, like you
shift your weight more to theother side to favor your better
knee.
And then the muscles maybebecome a little bit imbalanced

(39:13):
or under or overdeveloped, andyour fascia sort of contracts
and hardens and calcifies incertain parts of the body as a
result of physical injuries.
It becomes a little bit denser,less oxygen, less blood flow in
that area.
And so we get stiff, we getkind of achy.
The same thing is true though,with unprocessed emotional

(39:37):
injury.
So when we don't let an emotionfully flow through the body and
express emotion how we'renaturally designed to, um, the
body sort of braces and andthese patterns of contraction
and density are created in ourfascia and um can sort of
harden, get stickier over time,and become what we then know as

(40:00):
like my tense neck, my tightshoulders, my jaw that always
clicks kind of thing.

Frank (40:08):
This seems like something everyone should know about.

Megan (40:10):
Yeah.
I like geek out about fascia.
I've so I'm trained in amodality of nervous system
regulation that centers fasciaand fascial release because so
much of our dysregulation is isjust intrinsically related to
these patterns of tension in ourbody from unprocessed emotion.
And yeah, people aren't talkingabout it enough.

(40:32):
I'm seeing it a lot more onsocial media these days, but
that might just be the, youknow, my algorithm because I'm
super interested in this stuff.
But I'm trying to talk about itmore so that more people learn
because it's so important.
And I think the easiest way tounderstand, like you were sort
of alluding to like maybe Ipress on this certain part of my
body.
Maybe you've had a massagebefore where somebody's

(40:52):
massaging a certain part of yourbody and you all of a sudden
feel something, like you feelheat build up in that area.
You feel an emotion rise up,you feel um sadness or
agitation, or maybe you're doinga yoga class and you're holding
a hip stretch and you feel likeyou want to cry all of a
sudden.
And you're like, where did thatcome from?

Lauren (41:11):
I did one when I was pregnant and I was like, why do
I feel like I want to just sob?
And because I don't know Maybebecause you were pregnant, but
also Yes.
Yes, very true.
But yeah, I think I left thatclass like, oh, I'm I like wept
like Yeah.

Megan (41:30):
Yeah, it happens all the time.
I teach therapeutic and somaticyoga when I lead retreats and I
teach it with some of myclients.
And and I'm not like trying tomake them cry, but inevitably
everybody cries, or everybodylaughs.

Frank (41:43):
Like at some point, we all know that the the like
signature, the signature, likeyou you know you did a good job
of someone crying.
You know, absolutely yes.

Megan (41:55):
Like having the perfect song and the right cospose, the
right flow, and like it just gotthem right where they needed to
be.
He's like, We got one.

Frank (42:03):
Come on, give me those, give those tears, cry more.
Give those tears right now.

Megan (42:07):
Such a win.
Such a win.
Honestly, though, I do lovebeing bringing people back into
their emotions, even if it feelslike a little scary or
overwhelming for them.
Like eventually, the more youfeel, the better you feel.
And it's it's hard, but it'salso cathartic.

Lauren (42:24):
Pressing on this, like either so it has to do with like
releasing something that's inyour fascia.
That's like why that happens,because you've been storing
stuff.

Megan (42:34):
Yeah.
Okay.
So imagine it like this.
Like, let's say somethinghappened to you.
Again, this could be last yearor in childhood.
Let's say you were in a littlecar accident, like a fender
bender, and it was enough of animpact that, like, that's scary.
Somebody hit your back bumper,but not so much that it was like
massively traumatic.

(42:56):
You didn't get injured, nothinglike happened.
Um, but still, that's astressor to your nervous system.
Like, that's gonna put us intosympathetic activation, fight or
flight mode.
But our rational mind looksaround and goes, Oh, I'm fine,
everything's okay.
I need to like exchangeinsurance information with this
person and like handle thelogistics of this, and I'm not
hurt, so it's okay.
But there was a stress responsein the body.

(43:19):
There was a buildup of thisstress energy that we then like
push down because we were like,I've got to handle shit and not
deal with this.
Um, and so that impulse, thatsomatic impulse, it doesn't just
go away because we don'taddress it, it sort of gets
suppressed and the body willusually it kind of gets held

(43:39):
somewhere in a pattern ofcontraction or bracing or
gripping around that stressresponse.
So you've got this sort of likestress response and the fascia
tightened around it.
Then a year later, 10 yearslater, you go and do this yoga
class or whatever practiceyou're doing, and you create
first of all, you're already inenough of a safe environment,

(44:00):
you're not in danger, so yournervous system senses safety.
And then you create enoughmovement, enough mobility around
that tightened place that thatstress response has the chance
to now move through the tissuesagain.
And it can move as likeactivation, like shaking, it can
move as emotional energy, liketears.
Like it just wants to get outof the body.

(44:21):
That's all.
It wants to get released.

Frank (44:26):
You know, on occasion, we talk to somebody who doesn't
know they just sent me on ajourney.

Megan (44:36):
I feel like I've given you a lot of homework already.

Frank (44:40):
Man, I'm a very tense person, but like I'm always
like, oh, I'm doing an internalwork, like I'm healing, I'm
healing.
But I like I have a lot of alot of body tension, and I just
attribute it to like I shouldprobably drink more water, which
I should.
But now I'm like, oh no.
Yeah.
And this is why the Grinch'sheart is three sizes too small.

Megan (45:01):
It's just too much tension and contraction around
it.

Lauren (45:04):
Yeah.

Frank (45:06):
Oh man.
Okay.

Lauren (45:08):
Like specifically when you said like a small fender
bender.
I just thinking about that,like I remember driving to work
one day.
I was like 18 and got into it.
I like rear-ended someone on myway, on my way to work, putting
on lip gloss and the liketraffic flowed.

(45:30):
And exactly what you said, Ihad to deal with like okay,
exchange stuff, and I had to getto work.
So, like that thing of likethat was super stressful.
My my front bend my frontbumper was completely, I said it
was like frowning.
It had completely like comeundone, and I had to like drive

(45:52):
to work, continue my day.
And like just thinking abouthow I just pushed that
completely down, but it wassuper stressful.
I like wanted to cry about it,but I couldn't because it was
like, no, you gotta hold ittogether.
But just all those littlethings that you you go, I can't

(46:13):
process that right now.
I can't think about that rightnow.
I gotta, I gotta go do thisother thing.
I don't have time for, youknow, even 10 minutes of tears
or whatever it is.
Yeah.

Megan (46:25):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that happens all the time inrelationships.
Yeah.
Some like a disagreementhappens and we're like, oh, I
don't want to feel that.
I'm gonna push that down.
And sometimes it happensconsciously where we say, like,
I don't have time for this.
I have to go to work.
But sometimes it's anunconscious bias of I don't want
to feel that because I don'thave the bandwidth to feel
something so uncomfortable orpainful right now.

(46:46):
So let's not look at that.
And all that gets accumulatedover time.
It's not like like it's aphysiological impulse.
If you have to go to thebathroom in the middle of a
meeting, you hold it till theend because you want to make it
through the meeting, but thenyou don't just like not have to
go to the bathroom because youheld it, like you've still got
to go.

Frank (47:06):
That'll reabsorb into your body.

Megan (47:10):
Exactly.

Frank (47:11):
Wait, can I ask you like what is this like a is this uh
because I'm not like a again,like I said, I need a I need a
copy of Grey's Anatomy, but isthis like a newer thing that
people are really realizing,like how much fascia affects?

Megan (47:26):
Yes and no.
Again, I think that there's alot of like, if we look way, way
back, I think there's a lot ofancient indigenous window wisdom
that like had an inherentunderstanding of how our
connective tissue impacts us.
Like the study of, like I saidbefore, traditional Chinese
medicine um and the meridiansystem, that is sort of

(47:48):
inherently connected to ourfascia.
Like that, that's fascialmedicine, basically.

Frank (47:52):
That's really funny because I I I I recently did a
whole uh Reiki training thing.
And I was kind of pouringmyself over the meridian stuff.
I'm like, wait, this seemsbecause it was just kind of
thrown out.
I was like, oh, here and checkthis out.
And I was like, check this out.
This seems like this could belike a decade of study.
What do you mean, check thisout?

Megan (48:10):
Oh yeah, it's a lifetime of study.

Frank (48:12):
Yeah.

Megan (48:13):
Like the meridian, meridian lines are fascia lines,
essentially.
And like qigong, which is theirmovement practice, like their
sort of meditative medicinalmovement practice in the realm
of TCM, that inherently helpsloosen our tension and works
with our fascia and helps usmove emotion through the body

(48:33):
and move energetic blockages.
So, like, no, it's not new inthat regard.
And in the realm of likeWestern study and science and
research, like it seems likethis huge new discovery in the
last 30, 40 years of, and thereare incredible pioneers in the
Western world in the last 30 or40 years doing this research,

(48:54):
which is amazing, but I thinkit's so important to say that
it's not new.

Frank (48:58):
Right.
Yeah, it's so funny.
You know, one little discoverycomes out, and then everyone's
like, oh, everything else is oldnow.
We we find a microorganism andnow it's like meridian system,
yeah, right.
It was these all along.
Um, it's so crazy how manytimes we find ourselves like
rediscovering old wisdoms and inunder new contexts.

Megan (49:16):
Yeah.

Frank (49:17):
And man, what the hell, dude?

Megan (49:19):
I know.
We love colonizing stuff, don'twe?
We're like, I discovered this,it's mine, not yours.
Like, I'm the hero here.

Frank (49:28):
What?
So, I mean, according to theMeridian system, I know that
like if we are kind of workingoff of that as a as a model, um,
that will say that like, youknow, that system speaks to
almost every organ in your body.
Are we saying the same thingabout fascia?
Like, tension can affectanything?

Megan (49:48):
100%.
Because, like I said before,like I wasn't kidding when I
said it's one continuous pieceof fabric.
Like it wraps around everymuscle, every organ, every nerve
in your whole body withoutstopping.
So if you imagine like a bigpiece of fabric, if I pull on
this end, something's gonnahappen to this end.
So if you pull on your foot,something happens up here.

(50:10):
It's all connected.

Frank (50:12):
So it is why the Grinch's heart was three sizes too
small.

Megan (50:15):
And also like attachment wounding, because he his parents
gave him away and he wasn'traised.
But yeah, like it's all there.

Lauren (50:23):
He has anxious, anxious, no, uh disorganized for sure.
Oh, disorganized.

Megan (50:29):
He wants love, he wants love so bad that he pushes it
away because he's scared ofgetting hurt again.

Frank (50:34):
Yeah.
The Grinch.
The poor ass Grinch.

Lauren (50:40):
Do some some inner child work, brother.

Frank (50:43):
That's so wild.
Man, I am I am gonna go on afascia journey now.
It's funny because I'd heardabout it, but I'm just like, oh
uh uh, sure, it's some otherthing that like we could point
to.
This seems like a big deal.

Lauren (50:53):
Yeah, big, big deal.
Can um in your realm, doescortisol come up a lot because I
feel like that's been a bigbuzzword lately, or or is that
not related?
When we talk about nervoussystem stuff, everyone's like,

(51:16):
oh, it's raising your cortisollevels and like you need to get
the cortisol down.
That feels yeah.

Megan (51:22):
Another sort of misunderstood, some some
definitely relevant, but not howwe all think.
I'm not um, you know, uh afunctional medicine provider or
a doctor.
I don't read labs, I don't workwith labs.
And yeah, when we are in asympathetic stress response, our
body produces more of thestress hormones like cortisol

(51:43):
and adrenaline, but we actuallyneed them.
Like we sort of vilify thesehormones like they're a bad
thing, but we need our body toproduce cortisol.
It's what wakes us up in themorning.
If we don't have any cortisol,we are not gonna wake up and get
up and going.
If we don't have our body'sability to produce cortisol and
adrenaline, we won't be able tosense danger when we need to

(52:03):
sense danger and get away fromit.
So cortisol production isn'tbad.
And yes, if you are in aconstant state of dysregulation
and you have an imbalance,either too much production or
too little of any hormone in thebody, cortisol included, like
that's going to create somedownstream effects, but it's not

(52:25):
sort of this end-all be-all,like again, miracle fix that I
think people are looking for.

Lauren (52:30):
I have a basic but also large question.

Megan (52:33):
No such thing as basic, too basic.

Lauren (52:37):
Because this is like could potentially be
overwhelming for someone who'slike, oh my god, I got a lot of
shit to do.
I got a lot of work to do.
What's like one thing that youmight recommend someone to start
with?
Like you do this.

Megan (52:58):
Yeah, I I don't ever want to overwhelm people to the
point where they're like notinterested in then in exploring
any of this further.
And I think that at the basisof what we're talking about here
is just learning to be morepresent in your body more of the
time and more curious aboutwhat it's telling you.

Lauren (53:16):
Yeah.

Megan (53:17):
And in order to do that, for most people, the easiest,
most basic place to start andthe place you actually need to
start is just developing abetter um relationship, sensing
your body's natural cues andrhythms for your basic bodily
needs, meaning, uh, do you eatwhen you're hungry or do you try
to like power through the day?

(53:39):
Do you override your fullnesscues and overeat and
emotionally?
Do you listen to when you haveto go to the bathroom or do you
try to hold it to be moreproductive?
Do you like go to bed whenyou're tired, or do you scroll
for three more hours on socialmedia?
Like, can you listen to thosebasic bodily cues your body is
sending you and practice meetingthose first?

(54:01):
And then from there, it's likemaybe you then start to notice
when your body's telling youthat a person isn't right for
you.
Like this relationship doesn'tfeel right, something about this
doesn't feel good, doesn't feelsafe.
Um, we start to get more cluesand messages from our body when
we're first just uh meeting thebodily basics.
And and that helps us practiceexpanding our capacity to stay

(54:25):
with more emotion when it showsup.
Because if I feel safer beingin my physical body, then when I
feel sad or when I feel angry,I'm more attuned to that.
I'm less scared and less likelyto numb it or run from it.
And that's a beautiful place tostart.

Lauren (54:40):
That's really great.
Yeah.

Frank (54:42):
We we throw the term interoception around over here.
And or like in other terms,like using we always talk about
using your body as a map to helpyou like sort through the
things that you might not beaddressing.
It's actually really well, letme pose this as a question.
Do you find it curious as tohow many people have learned to
try and fight those sensationsand just ignore them and uh

(55:05):
survive through them as opposedto work alongside them and work
with them?

Megan (55:09):
Absolutely.
I find it so fascinating that Iam writing a book about it as
we say.
Oh yeah.
I mean, we're just sort ofconditioned to perceive our body
as an inconvenience.
Like we talked about earlier.
We do not think that it's wiseat all.
We think that it'sinconvenient.
Like we want to look a certainway, and the fact that I'm
hungry means that I'm not gonnalook how I want to look.

(55:30):
Or like I should, you know, behave more energy than I do, and
I'm like so annoyed that my bodydoesn't have more energy.
Like, we just like thinkeverything about our physical
bodies is an inconveniencebecause of the very like
productivity forwardcapitalistic society that we
live in, appearance-orientedsociety.

Frank (55:48):
Just speaking my language.
I want to give you a hug rightnow.

Megan (55:53):
Perfect.
Because I could go on and onand on.
But I guess to answer yourquestion, yes, I agree.

Frank (55:58):
Why does everybody want to be a Viking?
Like they wanna they wanna wakeup in the morning, drink a big
cup of cortisol so they can wakeup and get going.

Megan (56:07):
Do their cold plunge, do their breath work, do their
27-step morning routine.

Frank (56:12):
Oh my god.
It's so like at some point,it's just like working against
yourself and your body, yourbody's natural rhythms.
And definitely we haven't noone's saying, Oh, yeah, part of
my all those people that aredoing that stuff, they're like
uh treating their entire liveslike drill sergeants.
There's no step in there oflike, and take a second to
assess your emotions.

Megan (56:33):
Right, you know, exactly.

Frank (56:35):
Why did that guy with a purple shirt piss you off?

Megan (56:38):
Exactly.
Like, let's dig deeper intothat.
What's going on with purpleshirt guys?
Yeah, it sounds like he'sreally bothering you.

Frank (56:46):
I love purple.
Okay.
I tell my daughter.

Megan (56:49):
Oh, so maybe you were jealous of his purple shirt.

Frank (56:52):
No, that's what it was.
I need that.
Take that shirt off and give itto me.
Yeah.
That's what it was.
But yeah, like so.
You're writing a book.
Tell us about the book.

Megan (57:01):
Um, okay.
This one I can't say much aboutat this stage, but yeah, I I
really like everything we'vesaid here, like really want to
help people have a betterunderstanding of the wisdom and
cues that our bodies andemotions hold rather than
constantly like battling againstthem.
And um and I I just think thatyeah, we as a society are a

(57:24):
little too focused on lookingfor the quick fixes and like the
overriding um rather thanlistening to our our natural
rhythm.

Frank (57:33):
This is kind of a I feel this is such a delicate subject
to ask about, but like uhbecause I don't want to shame
anybody, but uh I feel likewe're kind of too fast too fast
to um prescribe pills and stufffor things, you know.
But also uh no doubt, like ifyou need that, you need that,

(57:55):
and that's fine.
Like I don't want to shame, butI'm also recognizing like that,
you know, whenever I hearsomebody talk about, oh, I went
to my doctor, I was feeling thisway, and they gave me this, and
now I don't, or I really don'twant to, but it's still there a
little bit, but it's enough forme to ignore.
And that's the thing that I'mlike, ah, dude.
But that might have beensomething that that might have
been like a trigger to help youlike that you're listening your

(58:18):
body, and you might live a morefulfilling life instead of
taking the the pill.
And I'm speaking from someonewho was on Prozac for a long
time, like I needed it tofunction, but function in a
space that I shouldn't have beenin.

Megan (58:29):
Yes, yeah, exactly.
Like there are plenty of validuse cases for medications and
they can be life-saving for somany people.
And we currently live in amedical system that is does not
take a holistic, whole personapproach to healing.
It takes a sort of band-aidapproach to symptoms and never

(58:51):
gets to like root cause medicineand and addressing like, yeah,
maybe there's a deeper imbalancethat we need to look at, or
maybe you're trying to operatein an environment that's just
not right for you.
But I don't think we're evergonna see that change here in
America, at least.
Other places have a differentapproach, but yeah.

Frank (59:09):
I that's true.
I have heard of like my I havea Russian friend, and she was
like, Oh yeah, I always like,I'm I went to the doctor, and
they're like, Oh, you're allright.
She was like, I said I'mdepressed.
And he's like, Well, what'sgoing on in your life?
He's like, No, she's said, I'mhere for the pill.
He's like, No, let's talk aboutwhat's going on.

Lauren (59:25):
Yeah.

Frank (59:25):
And and like, yeah, we're the only place that operates,
like, what do you need?
Okay, yeah, here you go.
Get out of here.
Next, you know, yeah, such adrag.
But that also like is such amirror of how we try to operate
in Viking mode.
Yeah, and it's not great.
A little bit of Viking's okay,not a lot of it.

Megan (59:42):
Yeah, like we need to be able to access that energy when
we need it.
And like for some people, moreof that energy is gonna be more
authentic in their body andtheir physiology, and some
people it's less.
Also, the conversation aboutlike men and women's nervous
system having very differentneeds.
Like, there's just nuance toit.
We shouldn't be trying toprescribe one size fits all.

Frank (01:00:00):
Right.

Lauren (01:00:01):
I think that the the even just the thing you said
about like the basic listeningto your body's basic needs is so
we just we really ignore, wetreat our bodies like trash cans
sometimes or like oh, I did umthe Avon walk, and I remember

(01:00:22):
talking to Emily, my sister inlaw, about our bodies, and she's
like, we just keep referring toit as it.
And I've thought about that.
That was like 15 years ago, andI still think of how funny that
is that when we talk about ourbodies, we Say it.

Megan (01:00:40):
Yeah.
But then if you try to getsomebody to refer to their body
as like she or him, they'll losetheir minds.
Oh, like absolutely.
It doesn't work.
No.
Yeah.

Lauren (01:00:51):
You have to say it, but it is really funny.
Like we treat it as like anobject.
Separate.
Yeah.
Like, yeah.
Yeah.
I'm gonna be thinking about mymy basic how often I pay
attention to my basic needs.
Good.
Because I do, I do like, youknow, if you're like, I'm I just
need to write one more email.

(01:01:11):
I gotta pee, or like, I'm sohungry, but like, whatever, you
know.

Megan (01:01:18):
Yeah, you just we override all the time.
And just yeah, changing thateven a little bit, you'll maybe
become a little bit more attunedand feel more at home in your
body.

Frank (01:01:28):
Such an important conversation.

Megan (01:01:30):
Good stuff.
Megan.

Frank (01:01:32):
Uh do me a favor, give everybody your plugs, tell tell
everybody where to find you.

Megan (01:01:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
The the best places to be inthe loop about all of my
programs, retreats, offerings,books, et cetera, are my website
and my Instagram, which areboth my full name,
MeganSharer.com and atMeganSharer on Instagram.
I do also have a TikTok and aYouTube where I share lots of
things, Substack where I writeessays.
I have a book that's outalready called Choose Yourself.

(01:01:58):
And um that's mostly aboutattachment wounds and
relationship patterns.
And yeah, I host programs,retreats, and all the things.
So if you're curious, those arethe places you can find out
more.
Amazing.

Frank (01:02:09):
I think we're gonna dig around there a little bit.

Megan (01:02:11):
Yeah, I think so.

Frank (01:02:12):
When you're not looking.

Megan (01:02:13):
Oh, please do.
No, let me know what questionsyou have.
I'd be happy to send you allthe things.
I have a podcast as well, soit's a great place to deep dive,
binge all my content and what'syour podcast called.
We'll say it at the same time.

Frank (01:02:24):
And what's your podcast?

Lauren (01:02:28):
It's called well then.
Well then.
Yeah, well then.
Thank you so much.
That was like it's just so muchamazing information.
And I feel like the the anotherjourney has begun.
Oh, I see it in Frank's eyes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I see all the wheels turning.
I love it.

Frank (01:02:47):
And that hurts a little bit.
Yeah.
Oh no.
Oh no.

Lauren (01:02:50):
Yeah.
Oh no.
Stored emotions.

Frank (01:02:52):
Do I need to go get a tissue box and then figure this
out now?
I think I'm going to do it.

Megan (01:02:56):
Take it one sensation at a time.
Yeah.
Open up your hips.

Frank (01:03:00):
Open up those hips.
Megan, thank you so much forspending time with us today.

Megan (01:03:05):
Thank you so much for having me.
It was so fun.

Frank (01:03:10):
Thank you for listening.
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(01:03:31):
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