March 14, 2025 • 30 mins
In this episode, we welcome the insightful Morgan Rysdon, who shares her inspiring journey of healing through trauma, loss, and the practice of the Alexander Technique. Morgan reflects on pivotal moments that shaped her, including her childhood experiences and the heartbreaking loss of her brother, leading her to embrace a path of resilience and choice.
Amidst profound sadness, Morgan discovered the Alexander Technique, which transformed her relationship with her body and mind. This approach emphasizes awareness and posture as tools for healing, enabling individuals to reconnect with themselves. We explore how Morgan’s experiences led her to understand that true healing begins within and the importance of making conscious choices in life. Throughout the episode, she emphasizes the power of curiosity over judgment and the necessity of seeking movement, comfort, and joy in our everyday routines.
Join us for this insightful conversation, where Morgan’s wisdom will resonate deeply, inspiring you to reflect on your own choices and journey toward living fully. Don’t forget to share your thoughts and experiences with us. How are you stepping into your own pivots?
Guest Bio:
Morgan Rysdon is a nationally certified Alexander Technique teacher and speaker. In 2013, she created Center Studio to help others improve their quality of life through increased awareness and mindfulness. Since then, she’s gone on to teach her work nationally and internationally, helping individuals elevate their performances in the workspace and recover from chronic pain, injury, stress, and anxiety. Committed to helping others, Morgan teaches workshops, introductory classes and works 1:1 with a focus on building self-awareness, self-confidence, and poise through improving the overall function of an individual’s mind, body, breath, and voice.
Connect with Morgan:
Website, YouTube, Instagram
Connect with Theresa and Ivana:
Theresa, True Strategy Consultants: tsc-consultants.com
LinkedIn @treeconti, Insta @tscconsultants
Ivana, Courageous Being: courageousbeing.com
LinkedIn @ivipol, Insta @courbeing
SITP team, Step Into The Pivot: stepintothepivot.com
LinkedIn @step-into-the-pivot, YouTube @StepIntoThePivot
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody, welcome to this week's episode
of Step Into the Pivot.
We're so happy to have you hereand we are so happy to have our
guest today, morgan Rysden.
So hi, morgan, how are youtoday?
I'm good, thanks for having me.
Good, we're excited to have youhere.
So I'm going to let Ivana dothe intro of Morgan.
So, ivana, it's all yours,morgan so even out it's all
(00:22):
yours.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello, morgan, so great to see you here.
Welcome.
And for listeners and watcherswho are taking a look at our
episode today on YouTube, youmight see that I am already
readjusting my posture here,simply being in Morgan's
presence presence.
(00:50):
Morgan, we met during thepandemic, where a mutual friend
organized a really wonderfulevent online to teach women how
to be more relaxed and yet inmore poise at their desks.
We were all transitioningduring that time to Zoom.
Full time remote meetings becamethe reality, and sitting at the
desk in this new way, facingthe screen, was all of a sudden
(01:10):
a new, you know, a new normal,and we were all having all kinds
of physical, I think discomfortbecause of that.
And then you showed up in mylife and started talking about
how we can make ourselves morecomfortable, and you showed a
couple of really cooladjustments we can make at the
desk.
And so now, as soon as I seeyou, I'm like am I doing it?
(01:30):
Am I sitting up straight?
What's going on here?
This is because you're anAlexander Technique teacher, and
that is something we arelooking forward to finding out
more about as we continue ourconversation today.
We are looking forward tofinding out more about as we
continue our conversation today,but what I would love to start
(01:53):
with is you know your story thatprecedes you finding Alexander
Technique and you shared acouple of really massive pivots
with me in this.
You know really, oh my gosh,like integrated way I can tell
when you talk about them thatyou have found a way to heal and
transform some.
You know, pretty immenseexperiences.
Are you open to sharing withour listeners what it is that
(02:16):
I'm talking about, some of thesemajor pivots that have shaped
your life?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, I'm not very shy about things that have
happened to me in my life and infact it started when I was
eight, actually, and I wasmolested by a family member and
my parents had left us in thecare of this individual.
And even right after ithappened, I remember running
(02:42):
downstairs and telling mybrother, as he was taking out
the trash, hey, this thing justhappened.
And my brother was like, stopmaking things up.
And then he hit the garage doorand he walked to school.
And so I feel like from a veryearly age, I've always been
really comfortable sharing thethings that have happened to me
and also knowing intrinsicallythat things are not my fault and
(03:06):
things happen, unfortunately.
And you know, and I think back,and even you know when this
event happened, of course, youknow you say no, you say stop,
you say you know that you're notcomfortable with something, and
then somebody does it anyway,right, and you're a child and
this person is an adult and yousort of go someplace else so
(03:27):
that you can live through thisevent, right, and it took me a
long time before I shared thisinformation with adults and you
know my parents and people in mylife who were able to help me,
because my brother really kindof shut that down immediately,
and so then I started toquestion myself a bit, but this
was probably the first eventthat happened that I really, I
(03:50):
would say, robbed me of myinnocence a little too early and
showed me that there's, youknow, it's not so.
It's always so happy in life,right, there are things that
happen to you that will reallyforever ingrain an imprint on
you, and it was probably around14, you know, when I began to
(04:13):
feel uncomfortable getting hugsfrom my dad and affection from
people, and I remember asking myparents if I could go and see
somebody to talk about it and mymom, you know, of course, was
very happy to accommodate andshe said yes.
My mom and dad, you know, putme in with a therapist and
shortly thereafter maybe a monthor two, it was not long it was
(04:38):
New Year's Eve and my brotherdied.
So my only brother died ofmeningitis when we were on a
family reunion in Nassau in theBahamas, and he, he got I think
they call it meningococcal, youknow it attacks the spinal
column, and he got very sick,very quickly.
(04:59):
You know he was not feelingvery good at dinner and by the
morning time he had died and itwas just my parents and I all my
other family had gone back umStates and and we had decided to
stay in NASA for an extra day.
So it was just my immediatefamily.
And this was, you know, threedays after my 15th birthday.
(05:19):
And I remember, you know, mymom waking me up in the middle
of the you know morning, likevery early, and we had a flight
to catch.
But I remember her being know,my mom waking me up in the
middle of the you know morning,like very early, and we had a
flight to catch.
But I remember her being likeno, you've got to go get
somebody, you have to call thefront desk, we need to get
somebody here.
You're, you know your brother'snot doing very well and um, and
at that point he wasn't evenable to really talk.
Like I was looking at him andyou could, you could almost
(05:42):
sense what was happening.
And I remember my dad wastrying to go get somebody and my
mom and I had to put his shirton and he couldn't even really
like lift up his, his arm.
And I looked over my brother'shead to my mother and I was like
, mouthing, is he going to die,like I, intuitively I knew like
this isn't right, something isis going awry.
(06:02):
And because of the holidays andmaybe because of the resort we
were on, by the time we made itto the front entrance there
wasn't like an ambulance.
My dad found a wheelchair thatwe could whisk him away, but I
mean we had to take a limousineto the emergency room.
It was such a bizarre, you know, and I remember the limo driver
(06:24):
like throwing some fragranceback, like oh see if that will
revive him, like maybe hethought my brother was under the
influence or I don't reallyknow what was happening, but
this whole thing was happeningright before my eyes, almost
like a show, right, like in slowmotion.
And um, and by the time we gotto the hospital, I mean my, my
(06:46):
dad had already begun doing CPRbecause my brother had stopped
breathing.
And when we got there, nobodyopened the doors.
They were all locked.
It was very strange.
I was like pounding on thedoors to try and get someone, as
my mom and dad were caring tomy brother, and, um, and of
course he had already passedaway.
He was only 17,.
You know, he was my onlysibling and this was.
(07:07):
It was just a, really, and Iremember when I came back home,
you know, going back to school,and I didn't really want to
share this with people because Ithought surely they're going to
say I'm a liar about this.
This seems so, so outrageous,you know, of course, obviously
people knew that my brother haddied.
They made an announcement andsuch, but not all of the details
(07:28):
surrounding this and um, and Ithink back to it and I remember
I think it was maybe two where Iwas a freshman and my brother
was a senior, and it was maybetwo or three weeks after that
and I had this um, this sort oflike theater, thespian thing
that as a freshman I was sort ofthis fallback person and all of
(07:49):
a sudden they said, oh, you getto go to the state theater,
something.
And my mom said, yes, it's okay, you can go.
And as a parent now, I'm like,oh my God, my mom, are you
kidding?
I wouldn't have let me out ofmy sight.
Now, as a parent, I reallythink about the, I guess, the
bravery and courage really of myparents to still let me live,
(08:13):
even though this event hadhappened, you know.
And I remember at one pointteasing my parents because my
mom and dad were in a caraccident when they were younger,
before I was born.
They were hit by a drunk driverwhen they were on a motorcycle.
So my mom is handicapped as aresult.
She limps and I always tease myparents.
I'm like you got married at 19.
(08:34):
You were high school sweetheartsince you were 16.
Like you should have gottendivorced because of that.
You should have gotten divorcedbecause of the accident.
You should have gotten divorced.
And my parents are very happilymarried.
You know vacationing inAustralia right now for two
months.
They're just.
You know.
They've shown me that you canstill survive these events that
have happened in your life.
(08:56):
And you know, ever, ever since Ithink you know my adolescence,
I have really woken up to thefact that life is short.
You do not know what's going tohappen and you can't take
anything for granted.
And really living is a choice.
Because I remember being inthat emergency room and I
thought to myself which I don'tknow what this says about me,
(09:16):
but I remember thinking if Idecided to be the kind of
teenager that drank and diddrugs and had sex and did all
these things, nobody wouldwonder why.
Like people would really belike yeah, so much has happened
to that girl, you know, and Iremember in that moment deciding
like that's too simple, likethat's what they expect from me
(09:37):
and I'm going to find a way toreally like be happy and to
really choose to survive theseevents.
And I remember thinking that,even though, of course, anger
you know all the steps of griefdid reveal, did reveal
themselves and do do time, but Ido remember making sort of this
very high level, consciousdecision that, like, I will get
(09:58):
through this, this very hardthing.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You know, I love that you talk about that because I
think people like like comeacross that frequently.
Like I know we've talked aboutit before on stuff I know I had
that when I had breast cancerright, you make that decision to
continue on and to live thebest life and you know, and and
all those things are areterrible things that happen in
(10:23):
your world.
But you know, um, I love thatthey got you help.
I love that they got yousomebody to talk to.
I love all those things and Ialso love that you, you know,
made that decision to reallymake sure that you were, that
you were living, that you'reliving your life Right.
And and also, you know yourcomment about your mom like
letting you go.
(10:43):
But I think she recognized thattoo, that you were still a
teenager and you needed to havea life right.
You couldn't just sit backthere and and think about that
and do nothing else.
So that's what I got from whatyou said, morgan, and you know
what.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Teresa, the universe had a snow storm and nobody
could go, so interesting.
So I remember, all of a sudden,all of these seniors ended up
at my house while watching theseAudrey Hepburn movies and I
think they knew like mysituation and like we should be
at this, this family's home.
And so it did work out in theend as well.
(11:21):
You know, in my mom's case andI I don't want to fool anybody
as soon as we got back from thattrip, I did, you know, the
therapy changed and I did quit.
I did not stay in therapy, Iwas very sort of like I can do
this on my own.
And you know, my parents againlet me sort of decide, and they
(11:42):
followed my lead.
But I, I shut down for a longtime and I avoided therapy for a
number of years before Ifinally, you know, went back in
my mid twenties, but I didn'twant to talk about it.
I kind of wanted to like pushthrough, but I was like yeah,
not going to deal with it.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
I'm noticing, you know, in that part about your
mom saying that you can go.
So even though there's asnowstorm, right, and you don't
end up going, there's somethinggoing on there that almost you
know, foreshadows what is yourlife, you know, and living your
life on purpose, and maybe yourmom is tuning into that.
So you mentioned that.
This is, you know, the thespiancontext, so acting, so stage.
(12:21):
Can you take us there?
Can you take us into that?
You know new realm and chapterand how that relates to what
you're doing today with regardsto Alexander technique and all
of that.
You know the context of healing.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
That's yes.
So of course I dove intoextracurriculars to submerge
myself in the emotions andfeelings of other characters,
which was very effective, to bequite honest, but also it was a
tactic of avoidance.
Now I see back right, and whenI had gone to college I pursued
a degree in theater mybachelor's is in performance art
(12:58):
and it was probably my freshmanyear that I met a movement
instructor, paul Denhart, and hewas my movement stage combat,
and he was pursuing an AlexanderTechnique certification program
and I didn't really knowanything about that.
I didn't know, I'd never heardof the and I didn't really know
anything about that.
I didn't know, I'd never heardof the word, I didn't understand
.
And he did this simple exercisein class.
I remember we were standing infront of sort of these ballet
(13:20):
mirrors and he took us through asimple movement of like one arm
up, one arm down, and I justremember looking in the mirror
and like one shoulder was superhigh and the other one was
really low, and I was like, well, this is weird.
And he didn't, he didn't touchany of us, he didn't.
You know, he, he didn'tmanipulate it, he talked us
through an exercise of movementthat we did to ourselves and it
(13:41):
caught my attention and itdefinitely piqued my curiosity
because I was confused and I waslike what is going on?
So he needed some students towork on his own practice of
utilizing his hands as a teacher, because he was in a
certification program and thatprogram is three years.
It's over 1600 hours.
It's very intense.
And I remember when I would gosee him he didn't do a lot of
(14:04):
talking, he would put his handson me in a very gentle way,
either in and out of a chair oron a massage table gentle way,
either in and out of a chair oron a massage table.
And I remember not reallyunderstanding what was happening
in the moment, but feeling thissort of weight that I had had
on my body for what I perceivedto be my entire life, like all
(14:24):
of a sudden it was levitated offof me and I felt like I could
breathe.
It was like air came in and Iwas like oh, wow, like whoa,
thank you for carrying thatweight that I didn't even know
was sitting on my heart and onmy body and really just
suffocating me and it wasexhausting.
(14:44):
Actually, I suffered from a lotof anxiety and a lot of
feelings of sadness.
I wouldn't say I was depressed,but I definitely struggled.
It was hard to show up the waythat I knew I wanted to, because
it was conflicting with how mybody was living, if that makes
sense.
So intellectually andemotionally maybe I was
(15:06):
available, but my bodyphysically was not able to do
that sort of thing.
So I knew when I graduated fromcollege that I would want to
explore this thing calledAlexander Technique, and so I
started with lessons with ateacher in Chicago.
When my husband moved us to NewHaven, when he was pursuing his
master's, I ended up workingwith a teacher there in New
(15:30):
Haven and then ultimately Idecided to pursue my training
program in Manhattan.
So it was the oldest trainingprogram, acat, the American
Center for the AlexanderTechnique.
And when I started thistraining program I still am
going to be quite honest I stilldidn't understand.
I knew how I felt, but I didn'tknow the level of
(15:51):
responsibility that I had.
With that experience and withthat teacher program I really
kind of came full circle and waslike, oh my gosh, I can do this
myself, you know, not just as ateacher but as the student
right.
And I remember when I graduated, feeling really upset about the
(16:12):
fact that not any one of myfour teachers I had had had ever
explicitly explained to me howyou're feeling is not because of
me, it is because of the workyou're doing with me.
And I remember getting very madand like, oh, my teachers.
And probably three or fouryears into my practice I
(16:32):
realized, oh no, no, no, oh no,I'm the common denominator.
You know, I had all thesedifferent teachers and not one
of them said anything Like whatis it about me that they saw and
observed?
And I realized if they had toldme it was more work, I wouldn't
have done it.
I really would have quit,actually, because I didn't want
to do a lot of that stuff, youknow.
(16:54):
So it was really interesting,this sort of arrival to the
awareness of how I can take careof myself and how I can help
calm my nervous system down andexperience myself differently.
And that's when I really saw mybody start to shift and change.
You know old pictures of me inthe past I had very horrible
habits around poor posture, myhead was very far forward.
(17:17):
You could never see my neck.
I was slouched, you know, I wasreally like hiding, and you can
, when you look at them, you cankind of see like she's pretty
sad and she looks like sheprobably suffers from anxiety.
You know you can see it nowthat I reflect on that.
But it's interesting becausethen my body started to really
shift and change.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
So what can our guests do right when they have
those things are there?
Are there some very simple tipsyou could share with some of
our guests who are, who arelistening that I?
I'd love to hear them because Ihaven't heard them before.
So do you mind sharing just afew very simple things?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Of course not.
No, in fact, even a nose.
This is when you're going tohave to stop me, because I just
go into teacher mode and then I,like you, can't.
But the simplest thing that Ialways tell individuals is
things like constructive rest,which is probably the only like
exercise that you'll ever hearan Alexander teacher talk about,
and that's where you get acouple of books on the floor
(18:14):
with a yoga mat in a quiet spaceand you just lie down.
Now I have plenty of videos onYouTube about this and I'm sure
you can share with yourcommunity.
But this is a way that you'regoing to remove all the outside
stimuli.
So no, you know, distractions,no conversations.
You're not thinking about otherthings.
You're just tuning in to howdoes my body feel, and some
(18:37):
people find this very restfuland very restorative, and other
people get fidgety.
Some people don't like it, theydon't like to quiet themselves
down, and there's no rightanswer.
It's just something that youcan do to begin practicing,
getting in touch with what isactually happening.
The same thing with usingmirrors.
We oftentimes, I would say,misuse mirrors, in the sense
(19:02):
that we're using them to sort of, you know, fix ourselves and
make sure everything is rightand really you can use mirrors
to see like, oh, why is my headalways crooked when I'm
listening to Teresa, you know?
Or why am I shoving my jawforward as I'm, you know,
confused, or I'm shaking my heada lot and I do have a lot of
(19:22):
neck pain, you know.
So, like you can start to usemirrors, or even reflections
when you're walking down thestreet, if you happen to be in a
city and you catch a glimpse ofyourself.
Reflections when you're walkingdown the street, if you happen
to be in a city and you catch aglimpse of yourself.
And you know, I always tellpeople pause and try to resist
the temptation of the stronghabit of judgment and instead
tune into curiosity.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I love that, and you know what I was thinking as you
were talking about.
That was like in that pre-COVIDworld we would have never sat
on the Zoom call.
Nobody wanted to be on, nobodywanted to be showing this or
sharing this, and now it's kindof commonplace.
But you've had to learn how notto judge yourself, how not to
like, so it's very interesting,morgan.
(20:04):
It kind of came a little fullcircle for me there, but I loved
what you had to say, so I thinkthat's amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I think I can give a personal example of what you're
talking about here, how it allconnects.
So, for example, one of thethings you helped me catch,
morgan, is my turtleneck.
So I'll do this thing.
So if you're watching, you cansee that I'm like sticking out
my jaw and then I'm like goingout of my shell.
And if I first of all, if I'munconscious about that, it will
(20:33):
happen throughout the day,throughout all of my calls, by
the end of the day I'll haveshoulder tension, neck tension.
I will just feel so exhausted.
If I apply principles of innerwork, if I do some inner bonding
on this, if I have aconversation with somebody like
you guys, either one of you andI start tuning into why this is
(20:54):
happening, I can catch at leasttwo things going on.
One is technical.
It's eyesight related.
Sometimes I can't see as wellas I would like to.
I don't want to interrupt theflow.
So, for example, like right now, it's really comfortable for me
to be without my glasses.
But if I want to take a closerlook at you know where is the
(21:15):
mute and unmute button on Zoom,it would actually be a good idea
to put my glasses on, and thenI wouldn't do the turtleneck.
So there's this like technicalpiece about it that I can adjust
and like even I just put yourfreaking glasses on and then you
don't have to do the turtleneck.
But if I keep going, I'll findthat there's a deeper layer.
And here's, morgan, where we'restarting to go into that space
(21:37):
of your you know your historyand the important stories that
you shared which is that I havea tendency that does not come
from a very high place, it comesfrom kind of from fear, really
to make sure that people are OK.
Is everybody OK?
Are you OK, morgan?
Are you OK as we'reinterviewing you, teresa, are
you OK?
Are we OK?
Are we on time?
How is it going?
And there's this like gestureof like how are we?
(22:00):
How are we doing that iscausing this turtleneck to
happen, if I don't catch it.
So then it's like whoa, stopthat, come here, let's also,
morgan, does that resonate?
And as you're thinking aboutthat, maybe you can start
helping us.
You know, conclude we coveredso much here.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Well, I think the thing that I always tell people
there are these sayings that Ithink are very rich and
applicable, like this idea ofhave a backbone, have a spine,
and it's this idea of likecoming back to yourself and not
feeling the need to come forward, and these habits are going to
happen.
You know, I sometimes peopleget really critical and I try to
keep the work, at least in mypractice, very fun and
(22:43):
nonjudgmental and playful, evenyou know when, when you find
yourself messing up.
In your case, if your neck iscoming a little forward and you
find that turtleneck sort ofhappening, it's like smile about
it because you're catching it.
So you're already.
In my opinion, you're alreadyahead, right, and the more that
you can remind yourself of yourability to either technically
(23:04):
yes, there are alternatives.
If I need to get something, Idon't have to stay on my chair
and reach my shoulder.
That's already giving me someproblems.
I could actually stand up andgo across and pick something up,
right.
There's very technical thingsthat people can start to adjust
and shift to make their lifemore comfortable.
But then it's also tuning intowhat are the needs that I have,
(23:28):
because a simple question of iseveryone doing, okay, and if not
, in the chat box, can you justlet me know and I'll keep an eye
on it.
It's like how can I meet my need, but not at my expense, right?
And that, I think, is somethingthat oftentimes we don't always
take the time to sort ofreflect on, and I don't think in
(23:49):
our society in general, we'reasking people to pause long
enough and think about that forthemselves, right?
But the more that we do thatwork for ourselves, the more we
can share it with our colleaguesand our family and friends and
we can support people takingbetter care of themselves.
You know, whether it's at adinner party, like Thanksgiving
just happened, so you know.
(24:09):
Or the holidays just happened,right, and so we have these
opportunities to say when peoplecome to our house listen, if
the temperature is not good,I've got a whole bunch of
blankets over here.
I can turn a fan on for you ifyou need some slippers, you know
, helping people to feel morecomfortable so that they can
take better care of themselvesin different situations, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Awesome.
We will definitely put the linkto your YouTube because I'm
very interested in watching themmyself.
I I need that disconnect timeand I don't take it enough for
myself, so so I love that.
So can you kind of come fullcircle with this for us, like
kind of wrap this together?
We always ask, you know, how isthis pivot, a step forward?
(24:51):
And I'd love to kind of hearyou you know that, alexander
technique how how that kind ofmoved you forward from these
other life events that westarted off this conversation of
.
Can you tie that together forour listeners conversation?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
of.
Can you tie that together forour listeners?
Yeah, I think, at the end ofthe day, nobody is more invested
in your recovery and yourhealing than yourself, and so
often I think we go to peopleoutside of ourselves looking for
answers, which can be veryhelpful, but in the end, the
true help is going to be aninward work.
(25:27):
It's going to be something thatwe have to learn how to do for
ourselves, and good teachers,right, good practitioners, good
therapists, good, you know,having people who have have
either done the journey a littlebit ahead of you are going to
help make it easier for you.
So I always tell my students Imean, it's not I'm, I'm just a
(25:48):
little higher on the staircase,you know, you're a little bit
behind me and my teachers areeven further up right, and our
life is ever evolving and everchanging, and so, the more that
you learn how to think about thethings that you've experienced
as opportunities for you, to thethings that you've experienced
(26:10):
as opportunities for you toreflect and think about what
habits have I had, you know, inmy case, I realized my pain was
internal.
A lot of my students come to mewith physical pain.
To be honest, they have backpain, neck pain, shoulder
problems, repetitive stress,injury the list is long, right.
Mine was more internal, as Icall it, and both of those
things, though, have habitsaround them.
(26:30):
Mine were my habits to swallowmyself up and try to make people
happy and not giving myself thetime and space I needed to stop
and think about what wouldactually make me feel better.
You know, and and I think,people who are in pain start to
develop habits around oh, let'ssay, you have a bad knee.
(26:53):
I've started to avoid bendingit too much, um, and now I've
got a hip problem.
You know it's so.
One thing can lead to another,and if we're not taking the time
to reflect on those things, wedon't have the opportunity, you
know, to change things and tomake sure that we're.
Do these habits still serve me?
Are they still necessary?
Are they still important?
And those needs can change,right?
(27:14):
I actually don't even know if Ianswered your question, but
that's where my brain took me.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I think you totally answered it.
I think that your answer wasright on.
I mean, I think that'sabsolutely true.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
A hundred percent.
Morgan, thank you so much forthe shares.
You know there is so much powerand bravery that you
demonstrated here throughoutthis whole conversation, and I
feel that you actually answeredthe question about how this
pivot was a step forward veryearly on.
When you said these twobeautiful gems, you said
(27:49):
tomorrow is not promised.
You didn't say it like thatthis is I'm paraphrasing, but
you were talking about likenothing, it's not guaranteed.
The experiences you had showedyou that you don't know what the
next moment is bringing, andthe fact that you know we may
not be here tomorrow.
It's not guaranteed, sotomorrow's not promised.
The other thing you said thatis a quote is you said living is
(28:12):
a choice, and I think those two, when you put them side by side
, can be like a, can be aparadox, but they're not.
That is how these you knowpivots are transformative
experience.
They show us that tomorrow'snot promised and you know living
and thriving is a choice.
So thank you so much Morgan.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
I really appreciate being here.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, thank you so much, morgan.
I think this was some very um agreat, a great a, a not so
great story that turned into agreat um a great ending.
And you know, even I love theway you sum that up, because I
totally agree with you on boththose points.
So thank you again, morgan,thank you to our listeners for
being here today.
We really appreciate it andremember if you have a pivot
(28:57):
step into it.
Hello everybody, welcome to this week's episode
of Step Into the Pivot.
We're so happy to have you hereand we are so happy to have our
guest today, morgan Rysden.
So hi, morgan, how are youtoday?
I'm good, thanks for having me.
Good, we're excited to have youhere.
So I'm going to let Ivana dothe intro of Morgan.
So, ivana, it's all yours,morgan so even out it's all
(00:22):
yours.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello, morgan, so great to see you here.
Welcome.
And for listeners and watcherswho are taking a look at our
episode today on YouTube, youmight see that I am already
readjusting my posture here,simply being in Morgan's
presence presence.
(00:50):
Morgan, we met during thepandemic, where a mutual friend
organized a really wonderfulevent online to teach women how
to be more relaxed and yet inmore poise at their desks.
We were all transitioningduring that time to Zoom.
Full time remote meetings becamethe reality, and sitting at the
desk in this new way, facingthe screen, was all of a sudden
(01:10):
a new, you know, a new normal,and we were all having all kinds
of physical, I think discomfortbecause of that.
And then you showed up in mylife and started talking about
how we can make ourselves morecomfortable, and you showed a
couple of really cooladjustments we can make at the
desk.
And so now, as soon as I seeyou, I'm like am I doing it?
(01:30):
Am I sitting up straight?
What's going on here?
This is because you're anAlexander Technique teacher, and
that is something we arelooking forward to finding out
more about as we continue ourconversation today.
We are looking forward tofinding out more about as we
continue our conversation today,but what I would love to start
(01:53):
with is you know your story thatprecedes you finding Alexander
Technique and you shared acouple of really massive pivots
with me in this.
You know really, oh my gosh,like integrated way I can tell
when you talk about them thatyou have found a way to heal and
transform some.
You know, pretty immenseexperiences.
Are you open to sharing withour listeners what it is that
(02:16):
I'm talking about, some of thesemajor pivots that have shaped
your life?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, I'm not very shy about things that have
happened to me in my life and infact it started when I was
eight, actually, and I wasmolested by a family member and
my parents had left us in thecare of this individual.
And even right after ithappened, I remember running
(02:42):
downstairs and telling mybrother, as he was taking out
the trash, hey, this thing justhappened.
And my brother was like, stopmaking things up.
And then he hit the garage doorand he walked to school.
And so I feel like from a veryearly age, I've always been
really comfortable sharing thethings that have happened to me
and also knowing intrinsicallythat things are not my fault and
(03:06):
things happen, unfortunately.
And you know, and I think back,and even you know when this
event happened, of course, youknow you say no, you say stop,
you say you know that you're notcomfortable with something, and
then somebody does it anyway,right, and you're a child and
this person is an adult and yousort of go someplace else so
(03:27):
that you can live through thisevent, right, and it took me a
long time before I shared thisinformation with adults and you
know my parents and people in mylife who were able to help me,
because my brother really kindof shut that down immediately,
and so then I started toquestion myself a bit, but this
was probably the first eventthat happened that I really, I
(03:50):
would say, robbed me of myinnocence a little too early and
showed me that there's, youknow, it's not so.
It's always so happy in life,right, there are things that
happen to you that will reallyforever ingrain an imprint on
you, and it was probably around14, you know, when I began to
(04:13):
feel uncomfortable getting hugsfrom my dad and affection from
people, and I remember asking myparents if I could go and see
somebody to talk about it and mymom, you know, of course, was
very happy to accommodate andshe said yes.
My mom and dad, you know, putme in with a therapist and
shortly thereafter maybe a monthor two, it was not long it was
(04:38):
New Year's Eve and my brotherdied.
So my only brother died ofmeningitis when we were on a
family reunion in Nassau in theBahamas, and he, he got I think
they call it meningococcal, youknow it attacks the spinal
column, and he got very sick,very quickly.
(04:59):
You know he was not feelingvery good at dinner and by the
morning time he had died and itwas just my parents and I all my
other family had gone back umStates and and we had decided to
stay in NASA for an extra day.
So it was just my immediatefamily.
And this was, you know, threedays after my 15th birthday.
(05:19):
And I remember, you know, mymom waking me up in the middle
of the you know morning, likevery early, and we had a flight
to catch.
But I remember her being know,my mom waking me up in the
middle of the you know morning,like very early, and we had a
flight to catch.
But I remember her being likeno, you've got to go get
somebody, you have to call thefront desk, we need to get
somebody here.
You're, you know your brother'snot doing very well and um, and
at that point he wasn't evenable to really talk.
Like I was looking at him andyou could, you could almost
(05:42):
sense what was happening.
And I remember my dad wastrying to go get somebody and my
mom and I had to put his shirton and he couldn't even really
like lift up his, his arm.
And I looked over my brother'shead to my mother and I was like
, mouthing, is he going to die,like I, intuitively I knew like
this isn't right, something isis going awry.
(06:02):
And because of the holidays andmaybe because of the resort we
were on, by the time we made itto the front entrance there
wasn't like an ambulance.
My dad found a wheelchair thatwe could whisk him away, but I
mean we had to take a limousineto the emergency room.
It was such a bizarre, you know, and I remember the limo driver
(06:24):
like throwing some fragranceback, like oh see if that will
revive him, like maybe hethought my brother was under the
influence or I don't reallyknow what was happening, but
this whole thing was happeningright before my eyes, almost
like a show, right, like in slowmotion.
And um, and by the time we gotto the hospital, I mean my, my
(06:46):
dad had already begun doing CPRbecause my brother had stopped
breathing.
And when we got there, nobodyopened the doors.
They were all locked.
It was very strange.
I was like pounding on thedoors to try and get someone, as
my mom and dad were caring tomy brother, and, um, and of
course he had already passedaway.
He was only 17,.
You know, he was my onlysibling and this was.
(07:07):
It was just a, really, and Iremember when I came back home,
you know, going back to school,and I didn't really want to
share this with people because Ithought surely they're going to
say I'm a liar about this.
This seems so, so outrageous,you know, of course, obviously
people knew that my brother haddied.
They made an announcement andsuch, but not all of the details
(07:28):
surrounding this and um, and Ithink back to it and I remember
I think it was maybe two where Iwas a freshman and my brother
was a senior, and it was maybetwo or three weeks after that
and I had this um, this sort oflike theater, thespian thing
that as a freshman I was sort ofthis fallback person and all of
(07:49):
a sudden they said, oh, you getto go to the state theater,
something.
And my mom said, yes, it's okay, you can go.
And as a parent now, I'm like,oh my God, my mom, are you
kidding?
I wouldn't have let me out ofmy sight.
Now, as a parent, I reallythink about the, I guess, the
bravery and courage really of myparents to still let me live,
(08:13):
even though this event hadhappened, you know.
And I remember at one pointteasing my parents because my
mom and dad were in a caraccident when they were younger,
before I was born.
They were hit by a drunk driverwhen they were on a motorcycle.
So my mom is handicapped as aresult.
She limps and I always tease myparents.
I'm like you got married at 19.
(08:34):
You were high school sweetheartsince you were 16.
Like you should have gottendivorced because of that.
You should have gotten divorcedbecause of the accident.
You should have gotten divorced.
And my parents are very happilymarried.
You know vacationing inAustralia right now for two
months.
They're just.
You know.
They've shown me that you canstill survive these events that
have happened in your life.
(08:56):
And you know, ever, ever since Ithink you know my adolescence,
I have really woken up to thefact that life is short.
You do not know what's going tohappen and you can't take
anything for granted.
And really living is a choice.
Because I remember being inthat emergency room and I
thought to myself which I don'tknow what this says about me,
(09:16):
but I remember thinking if Idecided to be the kind of
teenager that drank and diddrugs and had sex and did all
these things, nobody wouldwonder why.
Like people would really belike yeah, so much has happened
to that girl, you know, and Iremember in that moment deciding
like that's too simple, likethat's what they expect from me
(09:37):
and I'm going to find a way toreally like be happy and to
really choose to survive theseevents.
And I remember thinking that,even though, of course, anger
you know all the steps of griefdid reveal, did reveal
themselves and do do time, but Ido remember making sort of this
very high level, consciousdecision that, like, I will get
(09:58):
through this, this very hardthing.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You know, I love that you talk about that because I
think people like like comeacross that frequently.
Like I know we've talked aboutit before on stuff I know I had
that when I had breast cancerright, you make that decision to
continue on and to live thebest life and you know, and and
all those things are areterrible things that happen in
(10:23):
your world.
But you know, um, I love thatthey got you help.
I love that they got yousomebody to talk to.
I love all those things and Ialso love that you, you know,
made that decision to reallymake sure that you were, that
you were living, that you'reliving your life Right.
And and also, you know yourcomment about your mom like
letting you go.
(10:43):
But I think she recognized thattoo, that you were still a
teenager and you needed to havea life right.
You couldn't just sit backthere and and think about that
and do nothing else.
So that's what I got from whatyou said, morgan, and you know
what.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Teresa, the universe had a snow storm and nobody
could go, so interesting.
So I remember, all of a sudden,all of these seniors ended up
at my house while watching theseAudrey Hepburn movies and I
think they knew like mysituation and like we should be
at this, this family's home.
And so it did work out in theend as well.
(11:21):
You know, in my mom's case andI I don't want to fool anybody
as soon as we got back from thattrip, I did, you know, the
therapy changed and I did quit.
I did not stay in therapy, Iwas very sort of like I can do
this on my own.
And you know, my parents againlet me sort of decide, and they
(11:42):
followed my lead.
But I, I shut down for a longtime and I avoided therapy for a
number of years before Ifinally, you know, went back in
my mid twenties, but I didn'twant to talk about it.
I kind of wanted to like pushthrough, but I was like yeah,
not going to deal with it.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
I'm noticing, you know, in that part about your
mom saying that you can go.
So even though there's asnowstorm, right, and you don't
end up going, there's somethinggoing on there that almost you
know, foreshadows what is yourlife, you know, and living your
life on purpose, and maybe yourmom is tuning into that.
So you mentioned that.
This is, you know, the thespiancontext, so acting, so stage.
(12:21):
Can you take us there?
Can you take us into that?
You know new realm and chapterand how that relates to what
you're doing today with regardsto Alexander technique and all
of that.
You know the context of healing.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
That's yes.
So of course I dove intoextracurriculars to submerge
myself in the emotions andfeelings of other characters,
which was very effective, to bequite honest, but also it was a
tactic of avoidance.
Now I see back right, and whenI had gone to college I pursued
a degree in theater mybachelor's is in performance art
(12:58):
and it was probably my freshmanyear that I met a movement
instructor, paul Denhart, and hewas my movement stage combat,
and he was pursuing an AlexanderTechnique certification program
and I didn't really knowanything about that.
I didn't know, I'd never heardof the and I didn't really know
anything about that.
I didn't know, I'd never heardof the word, I didn't understand
.
And he did this simple exercisein class.
I remember we were standing infront of sort of these ballet
(13:20):
mirrors and he took us through asimple movement of like one arm
up, one arm down, and I justremember looking in the mirror
and like one shoulder was superhigh and the other one was
really low, and I was like, well, this is weird.
And he didn't, he didn't touchany of us, he didn't.
You know, he, he didn'tmanipulate it, he talked us
through an exercise of movementthat we did to ourselves and it
(13:41):
caught my attention and itdefinitely piqued my curiosity
because I was confused and I waslike what is going on?
So he needed some students towork on his own practice of
utilizing his hands as a teacher, because he was in a
certification program and thatprogram is three years.
It's over 1600 hours.
It's very intense.
And I remember when I would gosee him he didn't do a lot of
(14:04):
talking, he would put his handson me in a very gentle way,
either in and out of a chair oron a massage table gentle way,
either in and out of a chair oron a massage table.
And I remember not reallyunderstanding what was happening
in the moment, but feeling thissort of weight that I had had
on my body for what I perceivedto be my entire life, like all
(14:24):
of a sudden it was levitated offof me and I felt like I could
breathe.
It was like air came in and Iwas like oh, wow, like whoa,
thank you for carrying thatweight that I didn't even know
was sitting on my heart and onmy body and really just
suffocating me and it wasexhausting.
(14:44):
Actually, I suffered from a lotof anxiety and a lot of
feelings of sadness.
I wouldn't say I was depressed,but I definitely struggled.
It was hard to show up the waythat I knew I wanted to, because
it was conflicting with how mybody was living, if that makes
sense.
So intellectually andemotionally maybe I was
(15:06):
available, but my bodyphysically was not able to do
that sort of thing.
So I knew when I graduated fromcollege that I would want to
explore this thing calledAlexander Technique, and so I
started with lessons with ateacher in Chicago.
When my husband moved us to NewHaven, when he was pursuing his
master's, I ended up workingwith a teacher there in New
(15:30):
Haven and then ultimately Idecided to pursue my training
program in Manhattan.
So it was the oldest trainingprogram, acat, the American
Center for the AlexanderTechnique.
And when I started thistraining program I still am
going to be quite honest I stilldidn't understand.
I knew how I felt, but I didn'tknow the level of
(15:51):
responsibility that I had.
With that experience and withthat teacher program I really
kind of came full circle and waslike, oh my gosh, I can do this
myself, you know, not just as ateacher but as the student
right.
And I remember when I graduated, feeling really upset about the
(16:12):
fact that not any one of myfour teachers I had had had ever
explicitly explained to me howyou're feeling is not because of
me, it is because of the workyou're doing with me.
And I remember getting very madand like, oh, my teachers.
And probably three or fouryears into my practice I
(16:32):
realized, oh no, no, no, oh no,I'm the common denominator.
You know, I had all thesedifferent teachers and not one
of them said anything Like whatis it about me that they saw and
observed?
And I realized if they had toldme it was more work, I wouldn't
have done it.
I really would have quit,actually, because I didn't want
to do a lot of that stuff, youknow.
(16:54):
So it was really interesting,this sort of arrival to the
awareness of how I can take careof myself and how I can help
calm my nervous system down andexperience myself differently.
And that's when I really saw mybody start to shift and change.
You know old pictures of me inthe past I had very horrible
habits around poor posture, myhead was very far forward.
(17:17):
You could never see my neck.
I was slouched, you know, I wasreally like hiding, and you can
, when you look at them, you cankind of see like she's pretty
sad and she looks like sheprobably suffers from anxiety.
You know you can see it nowthat I reflect on that.
But it's interesting becausethen my body started to really
shift and change.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
So what can our guests do right when they have
those things are there?
Are there some very simple tipsyou could share with some of
our guests who are, who arelistening that I?
I'd love to hear them because Ihaven't heard them before.
So do you mind sharing just afew very simple things?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Of course not.
No, in fact, even a nose.
This is when you're going tohave to stop me, because I just
go into teacher mode and then I,like you, can't.
But the simplest thing that Ialways tell individuals is
things like constructive rest,which is probably the only like
exercise that you'll ever hearan Alexander teacher talk about,
and that's where you get acouple of books on the floor
(18:14):
with a yoga mat in a quiet spaceand you just lie down.
Now I have plenty of videos onYouTube about this and I'm sure
you can share with yourcommunity.
But this is a way that you'regoing to remove all the outside
stimuli.
So no, you know, distractions,no conversations.
You're not thinking about otherthings.
You're just tuning in to howdoes my body feel, and some
(18:37):
people find this very restfuland very restorative, and other
people get fidgety.
Some people don't like it, theydon't like to quiet themselves
down, and there's no rightanswer.
It's just something that youcan do to begin practicing,
getting in touch with what isactually happening.
The same thing with usingmirrors.
We oftentimes, I would say,misuse mirrors, in the sense
(19:02):
that we're using them to sort of, you know, fix ourselves and
make sure everything is rightand really you can use mirrors
to see like, oh, why is my headalways crooked when I'm
listening to Teresa, you know?
Or why am I shoving my jawforward as I'm, you know,
confused, or I'm shaking my heada lot and I do have a lot of
(19:22):
neck pain, you know.
So, like you can start to usemirrors, or even reflections
when you're walking down thestreet, if you happen to be in a
city and you catch a glimpse ofyourself.
Reflections when you're walkingdown the street, if you happen
to be in a city and you catch aglimpse of yourself.
And you know, I always tellpeople pause and try to resist
the temptation of the stronghabit of judgment and instead
tune into curiosity.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I love that, and you know what I was thinking as you
were talking about.
That was like in that pre-COVIDworld we would have never sat
on the Zoom call.
Nobody wanted to be on, nobodywanted to be showing this or
sharing this, and now it's kindof commonplace.
But you've had to learn how notto judge yourself, how not to
like, so it's very interesting,morgan.
(20:04):
It kind of came a little fullcircle for me there, but I loved
what you had to say, so I thinkthat's amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I think I can give a personal example of what you're
talking about here, how it allconnects.
So, for example, one of thethings you helped me catch,
morgan, is my turtleneck.
So I'll do this thing.
So if you're watching, you cansee that I'm like sticking out
my jaw and then I'm like goingout of my shell.
And if I first of all, if I'munconscious about that, it will
(20:33):
happen throughout the day,throughout all of my calls, by
the end of the day I'll haveshoulder tension, neck tension.
I will just feel so exhausted.
If I apply principles of innerwork, if I do some inner bonding
on this, if I have aconversation with somebody like
you guys, either one of you andI start tuning into why this is
(20:54):
happening, I can catch at leasttwo things going on.
One is technical.
It's eyesight related.
Sometimes I can't see as wellas I would like to.
I don't want to interrupt theflow.
So, for example, like right now, it's really comfortable for me
to be without my glasses.
But if I want to take a closerlook at you know where is the
(21:15):
mute and unmute button on Zoom,it would actually be a good idea
to put my glasses on, and thenI wouldn't do the turtleneck.
So there's this like technicalpiece about it that I can adjust
and like even I just put yourfreaking glasses on and then you
don't have to do the turtleneck.
But if I keep going, I'll findthat there's a deeper layer.
And here's, morgan, where we'restarting to go into that space
(21:37):
of your you know your historyand the important stories that
you shared which is that I havea tendency that does not come
from a very high place, it comesfrom kind of from fear, really
to make sure that people are OK.
Is everybody OK?
Are you OK, morgan?
Are you OK as we'reinterviewing you, teresa, are
you OK?
Are we OK?
Are we on time?
How is it going?
And there's this like gestureof like how are we?
(22:00):
How are we doing that iscausing this turtleneck to
happen, if I don't catch it.
So then it's like whoa, stopthat, come here, let's also,
morgan, does that resonate?
And as you're thinking aboutthat, maybe you can start
helping us.
You know, conclude we coveredso much here.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Well, I think the thing that I always tell people
there are these sayings that Ithink are very rich and
applicable, like this idea ofhave a backbone, have a spine,
and it's this idea of likecoming back to yourself and not
feeling the need to come forward, and these habits are going to
happen.
You know, I sometimes peopleget really critical and I try to
keep the work, at least in mypractice, very fun and
(22:43):
nonjudgmental and playful, evenyou know when, when you find
yourself messing up.
In your case, if your neck iscoming a little forward and you
find that turtleneck sort ofhappening, it's like smile about
it because you're catching it.
So you're already.
In my opinion, you're alreadyahead, right, and the more that
you can remind yourself of yourability to either technically
(23:04):
yes, there are alternatives.
If I need to get something, Idon't have to stay on my chair
and reach my shoulder.
That's already giving me someproblems.
I could actually stand up andgo across and pick something up,
right.
There's very technical thingsthat people can start to adjust
and shift to make their lifemore comfortable.
But then it's also tuning intowhat are the needs that I have,
(23:28):
because a simple question of iseveryone doing, okay, and if not
, in the chat box, can you justlet me know and I'll keep an eye
on it.
It's like how can I meet my need, but not at my expense, right?
And that, I think, is somethingthat oftentimes we don't always
take the time to sort ofreflect on, and I don't think in
(23:49):
our society in general, we'reasking people to pause long
enough and think about that forthemselves, right?
But the more that we do thatwork for ourselves, the more we
can share it with our colleaguesand our family and friends and
we can support people takingbetter care of themselves.
You know, whether it's at adinner party, like Thanksgiving
just happened, so you know.
(24:09):
Or the holidays just happened,right, and so we have these
opportunities to say when peoplecome to our house listen, if
the temperature is not good,I've got a whole bunch of
blankets over here.
I can turn a fan on for you ifyou need some slippers, you know
, helping people to feel morecomfortable so that they can
take better care of themselvesin different situations, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Awesome.
We will definitely put the linkto your YouTube because I'm
very interested in watching themmyself.
I I need that disconnect timeand I don't take it enough for
myself, so so I love that.
So can you kind of come fullcircle with this for us, like
kind of wrap this together?
We always ask, you know, how isthis pivot, a step forward?
(24:51):
And I'd love to kind of hearyou you know that, alexander
technique how how that kind ofmoved you forward from these
other life events that westarted off this conversation of
.
Can you tie that together forour listeners conversation?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
of.
Can you tie that together forour listeners?
Yeah, I think, at the end ofthe day, nobody is more invested
in your recovery and yourhealing than yourself, and so
often I think we go to peopleoutside of ourselves looking for
answers, which can be veryhelpful, but in the end, the
true help is going to be aninward work.
(25:27):
It's going to be something thatwe have to learn how to do for
ourselves, and good teachers,right, good practitioners, good
therapists, good, you know,having people who have have
either done the journey a littlebit ahead of you are going to
help make it easier for you.
So I always tell my students Imean, it's not I'm, I'm just a
(25:48):
little higher on the staircase,you know, you're a little bit
behind me and my teachers areeven further up right, and our
life is ever evolving and everchanging, and so, the more that
you learn how to think about thethings that you've experienced
as opportunities for you, to thethings that you've experienced
(26:10):
as opportunities for you toreflect and think about what
habits have I had, you know, inmy case, I realized my pain was
internal.
A lot of my students come to mewith physical pain.
To be honest, they have backpain, neck pain, shoulder
problems, repetitive stress,injury the list is long, right.
Mine was more internal, as Icall it, and both of those
things, though, have habitsaround them.
(26:30):
Mine were my habits to swallowmyself up and try to make people
happy and not giving myself thetime and space I needed to stop
and think about what wouldactually make me feel better.
You know, and and I think,people who are in pain start to
develop habits around oh, let'ssay, you have a bad knee.
(26:53):
I've started to avoid bendingit too much, um, and now I've
got a hip problem.
You know it's so.
One thing can lead to another,and if we're not taking the time
to reflect on those things, wedon't have the opportunity, you
know, to change things and tomake sure that we're.
Do these habits still serve me?
Are they still necessary?
Are they still important?
And those needs can change,right?
(27:14):
I actually don't even know if Ianswered your question, but
that's where my brain took me.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I think you totally answered it.
I think that your answer wasright on.
I mean, I think that'sabsolutely true.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
A hundred percent.
Morgan, thank you so much forthe shares.
You know there is so much powerand bravery that you
demonstrated here throughoutthis whole conversation, and I
feel that you actually answeredthe question about how this
pivot was a step forward veryearly on.
When you said these twobeautiful gems, you said
(27:49):
tomorrow is not promised.
You didn't say it like thatthis is I'm paraphrasing, but
you were talking about likenothing, it's not guaranteed.
The experiences you had showedyou that you don't know what the
next moment is bringing, andthe fact that you know we may
not be here tomorrow.
It's not guaranteed, sotomorrow's not promised.
The other thing you said thatis a quote is you said living is
(28:12):
a choice, and I think those two, when you put them side by side
, can be like a, can be aparadox, but they're not.
That is how these you knowpivots are transformative
experience.
They show us that tomorrow'snot promised and you know living
and thriving is a choice.
So thank you so much Morgan.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
I really appreciate being here.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, thank you so much, morgan.
I think this was some very um agreat, a great a, a not so
great story that turned into agreat um a great ending.
And you know, even I love theway you sum that up, because I
totally agree with you on boththose points.
So thank you again, morgan,thank you to our listeners for
being here today.
We really appreciate it andremember if you have a pivot
(28:57):
step into it.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Boysober
Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.