April 8, 2021 • 31 mins
Licensed therapist & host of You Need Therapy Podcast, Kathryn DeFatta (@kat.defatta) is back this week to guest host all 4 things! FIRST THING: Kat talks about collective anxiety and how we don’t always need a reason to feel less than normal these days. SECOND THING: Kat shares one way to help cope with the extra anxiety we may be facing, PUZZLES! Kat explains how puzzles affect our brain. THIRD THING: Kat watched a new Netflix movie that reminded her how important it is to find what she calls, “Little pockets of hope.” We know how much Amy loves gratitude and here Kat talks about why that is so important when it comes to our mental health. Kat also shares one of her top 5 therapy stories. FOURTH THING: Kat invited her friend and founder of Move Inclusive Dance, Lauren Beasley to talk about how to find healing through movement, specifically dance. MOVE Inclusive Dance is a nonprofit dance studio headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. It is an inclusive space that empowers individuals of all ability levels to learn life skills through the power of movement and music while providing a nurturing, inviting community for all.
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Little food for yourself life. Oh it's pretty Bay, It's
pretty beautiful. Laugh a little moth sight you kick with
four Brown. Hi, guys, and welcome to a special episode
(00:36):
of Four Things with Amy Brown, except not with Amy Brown.
This week, you're getting four Things with Kat. And Amy
got super wrapped up this week and so she gave
me the opportunity to come back and talk to you
guys once again. For those of you who don't know me,
I am a therapist who works in Nashville, and I
actually have my own podcast called You Need Therapy that
(00:59):
is on MES podcast Network. So if you like what
you hear today, I highly recommend you heading over there
and checking out my podcast called You Need Therapy. Again.
My name is Kat, and I'm just very excited to
be here. I always love coming on four Things, and
so to get to host it by myself is even
more exciting. So today we're going to obviously talk about
(01:21):
four things. What are the four things? So the first
thing we're going to go through is collective anxiety. What
is that and how are we experiencing it now in
the world. The second thing, I'm going to talk about
brain games and also tie that into how it might
help with the collective anxiety. And the third thing is
something that's all about finding hope and all about paying
(01:42):
attention to the goodness in the world when it feels
really tough. And then for the fourth thing, I have
my friend Lauren now Morris, she just got married, who
founded a all inclusive dance studio called move Inclusive, and
I have her on to talk about how dancing and
movement can help a healing process. So those are the
four things, and I say, let's just get started first. Okay,
(02:08):
So the other day I was having a conversation with
a friend of mine about a recent experience where I
had an anxiety tech for like no actual reason, And well,
I thought it was for no reason, and it was
a really normal day. I had just come home from
an awesome weekend where I got to visit my best
(02:29):
friend and her family. But for some reason, I woke
up with this panic in my body that didn't ever
really go away throughout the whole day. Almost felt like
a low grade like heart attack, but I knew I
wasn't having a heart attack. Well, I was telling my
friend about this, who's also a therapist, and she she
was like, Catherine, you know that as humans, we have
a magnetic energy inside of us that actually absorbs what
(02:50):
is in the universe. And Okay, I know that sounds
very like will wow therapist e, but it's true, and
I'm going to explain it very simply, so it may
doesn't sound so woo woo. And the reason I want
to explain it is because so often I hear people,
especially this year, express confusion and shame about not feeling
great or just anxious in general. And that's how I
(03:12):
was feeling, right And so often we think we have
to have a right or a reason to feel a key,
but that's really not true. And right now, what we're
experiencing is what I like to call collective anxiety. Now,
what is collective anxiety? Typically, collective anxiety is anxiety that
is induced by like a shared belief that there's a threat.
(03:33):
So what might start as a rumor and then everybody
starts to believe it. So what happens is a belief
of a threat starts to spread and then it starts
to grow, so almost like with the more people who
are afraid, the fear starts to grow bigger, and so
then it ends up somewhat distorting someone's individual belief about
something like group think kind of, then that intense belief
(03:55):
has the power to create true emotional, physical, and somatic reactions.
Just like a belief can be intensified by collective believing,
so can the energy we feel. So energy is contagious, right,
we hear this all the time. You know that from
knowing what like a Debbie Downer is right, So when
somebody has an icky attitude, it brings down the energy,
it brings down the mood. Well, that's been happening for
(04:17):
over a year now because of the pandemic. Now, I
wouldn't call people Debbie downers. I would just call us
trauma survivors who are like in survival. So we've been
stripped of our normalcy, we've been stripped of our comfort,
We've been stripped of a lot of things. And then
we're also being put in this constant state of the
unknown as a group. So even if nothing's going wrong,
we're still experiencing the energy that we're all feeling due
(04:40):
to the ramifications of the past year. So, like I said,
the reason I wanted to bring this up is to
offer everyone some grace and the fact that you don't
need a reason to be feeling anxious right now what
we may need and I kind of just gave you
a reason if you really wanted to, but you don't
really need one, because it's just is, that's what our
normal is right now, and so what we really need
are some ways to soothe and cope through the anxiety
(05:04):
and with what's going on around us, which actually brings
us to the next thing. Second thing. Okay, so if
you follow Amy, then you probably already know she's been
really hot on puzzles lately. And the other day my
parents were cleaning out their storeroom and one of the
things my mom found was this Spice Girl's puzzle from
(05:26):
when I was a kid. I mean, this thing has
to be like twenty years old, and yeah, I'm pretty
sure twenty years old. That's crazy. Anyway, I was like,
I'm going to do this puzzle. So I brought it
home and I turned my kitchen table into a puzzle
corner and I actually started doing it, and I was like,
this sucks because I hate doing puzzles. And I texted
Amy and I was like, puzzles are so hard, and
she said, I promise you will start to enjoy it.
(05:48):
And then literally a day later, I was hooked. Like
I was waking up early to do my puzzle, I
was staying up late to finish it, and I really,
really it was enjoying my time doing them. It was
a way that I started to be able to clear
my head and clear my brain after work, and I
could just focus on putting these things together. And it
was a very soothing and common experience for me, especially
(06:10):
with the weight of my job sometimes and also, like
I said, the weight of the world. I also know
that puzzles of all kinds are really good for us
and helps stimulate our brains. And so I want to
talk just a little bit about specifically why, because I
just think the stuff is really fascinating and I think
you might too. And this is like me nerding out
on puzzles. So I'm like kind of laughing at myself
(06:31):
because I never thought that I'd be like in this spot,
but here I am. So let's talk about why puzzles
are so helpful. So one, they do, like I said,
they enhance our mood. So puzzles increase the production of dopamine,
which is a neurotransmitter that regulates our mood, memory, and
our concentration. So dopamines released with every success as we
solve the puzzle. Right, So if you get like a
(06:53):
piece in there, you're making little aha, lightbulb moments, and
that releases dopamine. And what also does is that it's
us in a more meditative state naturally, so then we
can be in like a state of stress release. The
second thing that puzzles do is they actually activate both
the left and the right hemispheres of the brain. So
the left side of your brain controls the analytic and
(07:15):
the logical thinking, and the right side controls creativity. Well,
when you're working on puzzles, you're engaging both sides, and
so you're giving your brain like a real mental workout essentially.
And the cool thing about that is that a lot
of times therapy work is getting the logical brain and
the emotional brain to align and to get them to
trust each other again. And so this is kind of
(07:37):
a cool way to like practice that and almost like
work your brain out so then it can do that
better in other areas of your life. Okay, so the
third thing that puzzles help with our memory. So working
on puzzles reinforces the connections between our brain cells and
it helps us form new ones, so they're a great
way to improve your short term memory. Now we use
(07:58):
memory in the process of completing the puzz right, so
we remember the shape, sizes, and the pieces and we
visualize where they fit in. And what's really cool is
that there's been tons of studies that have shown that
the growth of new brain connections um that are formed
when you do that kind of stuff help reduce the
amount of brain damage in Alzheimer's patients, which I think
(08:19):
that's incredible and fascinating. Okay, the next thing that it
helps with is basically it helps you use it so
you don't lose it. Right, So, like I said before,
it's like a brain workout. It's like exercise for your brain.
And when you do a harder puzzle, which you know,
I'm starting small, started with five dred I actually have
a one thousand piece puzzle that's been on my table
for a week and it is very intimidating. Puzzles change
(08:41):
the patterns of your brain activity, and they will help
you improve your problem solving skills. They improve oh they
improve your visual and spatial reasoning, which is really cool,
and they help with other functions of your life like
parallel parking. Who has ever been like, can I fit
in that parking spot? I don't know. I always do this.
I would like drive my car up to see if
I can like fit in it and trying to test
(09:03):
it out. And most of the time I'm like, nah,
I can't do it, but I probably can. If I
did my more puzzles, maybe I would be a better
parallel parker. Honestly, I think anybody who's listening to this,
if you're like, I'm going to become a puzzler, I
want to know. So when you get your your new puzzle,
I want you to tag me in it. So if
you don't follow me, you can follow me at at
cat dot to fata and you know, we can have
(09:25):
a virtual puzzle club. Okay, So the third thing we're
talking about how to find little pieces of hope. So
a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting at home
with my friend and we decided to watch a movie
and she picked out this movie called Yesterday with Jennifer
Garner and um. She said that tons of people had
been talking about it, and I was like, well, let's
(09:47):
do it. Let's watch it. It was a super cute
movie and I highly recommend it, and I'm not going
to give the movie away, but basically, it's about a
day where you say yes to everything, which can be
very dangerous, but the sentiment is that it takes the
seriousness out of life a little bit and helps you
come back to your true self and find some hope
in a world that feels bleak and scary and like, hello,
(10:11):
we all need this right now. And while we may
not be able to have a full yesterday, what this
is really talking about is finding a way to hope again,
right And so I talk a lot with clients about
finding little pockets and little pieces of hope and that
in our waiting period or grieving periods, it's essential to
find ways to feel hope for things to come. And
(10:31):
I was thinking about ways that I find little pockets
of hope, and honestly, it's really much like Amy talks
about gratitude. She's huge on gratitude. We know that, And
what I believe is that people who have the most
blessings in their life are the ones that end up
counting them. Like that's really how it goes. And so
when you sit down and notice all these little pieces
in your life, and you can find all these little
maybe they're really small, really teeny tiny things, but they
(10:55):
make a difference, and those little things become the big things.
And it kind of makes me think of the story
which is literally my favorite story to tell ever. So basically,
years ago, I was working with this one client and
she was coming in every week, and every week she
would talk to me about the struggles in her life.
(11:15):
And I will say that she had a really tough life.
I'm not going to give the details of it, but
she did tough life for multiple reasons. So every week
she would come in and she would talk. She would
sit down on my couch. I would say, how are
you doing? She would base probably say not good, and
then she would tell me why, and we would sit
there and process kind of all the crap in her life.
(11:37):
And we did this over and over and over again,
and then like I started feeling like unrest, Like I
started getting frustrated with her as a client. And I
know that's a red flag for me because I usually
have a lot of patience and compassion for clients who
are struggling, and I like really really enjoyed her too,
But I would just get frustrated and get maybe I
(12:00):
was probably getting a little anxious before she would come
in because I just knew what was coming. So the
issue ended up being that, like she wasn't getting better,
it didn't seem like what we were doing was working.
And so when I really sat down and thought about
I was like, Okay, my frustration is coming from this
place of like what I'm doing isn't working. It isn't
working when I she just comes in and I say
how are you doing? And she says not good? And
(12:21):
then I say, tell me about that. And so I
was like, we gotta do something different, because what we
know is when we do the same thing over and
over and over again expecting a different result, well that's
literally the definition of insanity, right. That's crazy to do
the same thing over and over again knowing what it's
given me the last twenty times. So one day she
came in and she sat down and I said, you
(12:44):
know that, like you get to talk about whatever you
want in here, right, So you know that. But I
am wondering today before we get into our usual, is
there anything going right in your life, Beau? Is there
anything good in your life? Do you like anything about yourself?
And she looked at me and smiled like almost that
the kind of smile or like there's something brewing inside,
(13:06):
like she's thinking something. And she said, well, can I
show you? And I said, sure, you can show me,
of course. So she loved art, and so she got
out my butcher paper. It's a long piece of paper.
She got out my paints, and she said, will you
turn around until I'm done so I can just work
on this and then I'll let you know what I'm done.
And I said okay. So I turned around and about
(13:27):
probably twenty minutes go by and I hear her say, okay, Katherine,
you can turn around. I'm done. And I turn around
and there is this beautiful painting like I still have it.
It's beautiful, and I just looked at it and I
was like whoa, And I said, can you tell me
about this? And she said yeah, and she started telling me, well,
(13:49):
this is this, and this is this, and I like this.
She started telling me all these good things in her life,
and I just like stopped her and was like, wait, wait,
why have you never told me about any of this?
I said, I feel like I know you really well,
why do I not know about any of this? And
I will never forget this. She looked at me again
with a smile, and very simply she just said, well, Katherine,
(14:12):
you've never asked me. And I was like speechless, but
really like, you're right, you're right. And she said, Katherine,
you've never asked me what was going right in my life?
You always asked me how am I doing? I say
not good, and you say why, And that's what we
talk about. So that's why I haven't told you. And
oh my gosh, that experience changed really honestly, that changed
(14:35):
my life because it really woke me up to the
idea that like, wow, she's right. I didn't ever ask her,
and so yeah, she didn't tell me, and it just
started making me think about how that affects other parts
of my life. Right, So it's so easy to focus
on the things that are going wrong, it's so easy,
and it sound as easy to focus on the things
(14:57):
that are going right, or the little things. Because she
had some big things that were going wrong. The things
that she drew on that paper were smaller if you
were to compare them, honestly, but there were a lot
of them. And I tell you, guys the story because
I really believe that what we end up focusing the
most on is what we're going to end up finding. Right.
(15:18):
I focused more and more and more on all the
I and the crap of my life. I'm just going
to find more of it. But if I really start
to focus on these little pockets of hope, it might
lead me to another pocket of hope. Right. And you know,
what I'm not doing is trying to encourage this idea
of toxic positivity. What I'm not doing is say, ignore
(15:40):
the stuff that isn't going well. But what would happen
if we started to bring in more stuff? That was
what would happen if if we did that? And the
best part about that story is, you know, because that
changed a lot of our conversations and how we communicated
with each other, and then how she started to think
she didn't have to see me for very much longer
after that. And how crazy is it? Because that was
(16:01):
so simple. That was a simple shift that we created
that made a huge difference. So I don't know if
that means maybe you need a Yesterday to give a
little pocket of hope, or maybe you need one of
Amy's four Things gratitude journals. Who knows what you need?
But I think it would be really cool if you
spent some time maybe thinking about like what's going right
(16:22):
for me, and how do I give that more attention,
and how do I turn these little pockets of hope
into like medium sized pockets of hope and then like
large pockets of hope and then really big pockets of hope. So, oh,
that story, I love it. Now. I have my friend
(16:52):
Lauren on and she is somebody that I met years
ago last year in college. I thought of her when
Amy asked me to come help out with a podcast,
because I think a lot of you guys think, um,
when I come on, I'm going to talk about therapy
and in ways to help us heal from different parts
of our lives. And that's obviously true, because that's what
(17:12):
I'm doing today, but I wanted to be a little
creative in it because I think sometimes we get really
stuck in this one lane way of moving through stuff.
When I say stuff that could be anything from trauma
to just you know, everyday stuff. And so what I
want Lauren to do today is talk to us about
another avenue. So she founded a really cool dance studio
(17:33):
called Move Inclusive Dance. Do you ever get tongue tied
when you say that not anymore, You're like, it's actually
just three easy words, and it's an awesome studio and
let her tell you guys all about it. But we're
also going to talk about how dance has been a
healing agent for her in her life and how she's
watched it be a healing agent in other people's lives.
(17:54):
So one, Lauren High, I don't think i'd like to say,
hi's fine, thank you for doing this, and all not
to be said, welcome Lauren, And can you like where
should we start with all that? Yeah? So well, when
you mentioned to me that you were interested in kind
of talking through this topic with me, immediately I was like, yes,
because I have tons of personal experience where, you know,
(18:16):
movement has been healing or therapeutic to me in a
lot of ways. I grew up in a dance studio.
I was three years old when I took my first
dance class, and so dance was always a part of
my routine, and therefore movement was always a part of
my routine. But I didn't see a therapist for the
first time until I was maybe twenty six, and talking
(18:37):
through my childhood and even my you know, like teenage years,
we were able to really see how that that was
my therapy for my whole life. I had no idea.
So I have a lot of personal experience, like I said,
but now with what I do at move, I'm able
to see that in other people, and oftentimes in people
(18:59):
who who needed, maybe even more than I do, who
really don't have an outlet to express their emotions or
process things, And it's just an amazing thing. First of all,
shameless plug of myself. Lauren was on Lauren was on
my podcast You Need Therapy? When was that October? That
(19:20):
was the fall maybe where she told her story, well
part of her story, and I'm just going to leave
it there because I want you guys to go listen
to it. But what I'm registering now is like, oh
my gosh, how had dance had been holding you almost
like safe for until it couldn't do its job by
itself anymore about you know? So that is so cool.
(19:42):
So definitely go listen to that episode because that your story.
I just think it's cool anyway, and we say that,
we say like this is my therapy or this is
my therapy, but it's like dance really was your therapy.
Without you knowing that it was without you knowing that
was therapy. Yes, absolutely. And I say oftentimes whenever I'm
you know, speaking for a fundraiser or something for for
(20:03):
our because we're a nonprofit, so I'm constantly asking people
for me um, and I often find myself saying that,
you know, I know it's cheesy, but dance saved my
life in a lot of ways, and it's it's the truth.
It was my outlet, like I said, where I could
go and and I knew that it was a safe
space for me to just let out whatever was going
(20:23):
on inside of me. Yeah, so you've noticed that in
yourself and you felt that yourself, and then can you
tell us what are some ways that you have noticed
change in a healing process happen like in front of
you with some of the people that you work with
at your studio, or just in your experience as a dancer. Yeah.
So we see it every day and for those who
(20:43):
may not have put it together or no yet, but
we are a dance studio for people of all ability levels.
So we do have some typically developing students that come
and take classes with us, but for the most part,
it's individuals that have various disabilities, and one story in
particular that comes to mind. It was a couple of
years ago we were doing a summer camp. It was
at the end of the day and my friend Megan,
(21:05):
who's the program director for move and and teaches a
lot of our classes, she was leading this camp and
everyone was just like really tired, and you know, it's
long hours and we weren't really getting much out of them.
You could tell everyone was kind of like done for
the day. But we had about an hour left, and
so she looked at me and she was like, I'm
going to just kind of go off course here and
do a really long cool down session with them, and
(21:29):
so I was like, okay, great. It was actually we
were doing like a dancing through the Decades theme that week,
and so this was I think nineties day. So she
turned on some inya. Uh, she turned on some inya
and uh just lad like a stretch series really and
and like constructive resting and breathing and uh, just really slow,
(21:52):
gentle movements to this very very calming, peaceful music. And
about probably thirty minutes into it, one of the students
started crying, and so you know, we noticed it, but
we didn't really do anything at first, and then it
felt like it was time to maybe you know, step in,
and so anyway, she she cut the music down, and
when we asked her what was wrong, she told us
(22:14):
that she had recently had a friend pass away and
the music made her think about this friend makes me
want to cry talking about it. And she decided while
she was moving that she was moving in honor of him,
and there was everyone in the room was just you know,
totally silent taking this in. And then it opened up
(22:34):
this beautiful, very deep conversation where another student now, oh, well,
my grandpa he passed away last year, and so we
talked through that, and then it was just a ripple effect.
And anyway, at the end, Megan and I looked at
each other and just had this moment. We didn't say anything,
but we're both you know, tears in our eyes, and
we're like, this is why we do what we do
(22:56):
because for a lot of people, especially those that we
work with, you know, they may not have an outlet
where they can process those kinds of emotions. Is really
really heavy feelings, right, and I think for a lot
of people that maybe you know, don't know someone with
the disability, or have not spent a lot of time
around someone with a disability, you can oftentimes look forget.
(23:17):
And these were peers. We were working with adults, so
they were it was people our age and maybe even
older than us that day. But you can sometimes forget
because you're like, well, they look different than me, or
maybe they talk different than me, or maybe they don't
they don't talk at all. But inside we all have
the same things going on, right, We have the same emotions,
we have the same feelings, we all experienced trauma, and
(23:37):
while it may look different on the outside, inside it's
it's all the same. And so that was a really
really cool moment to just be like, Wow, we are
way more alike than we are different, And what an
honor it is for us to be able to create
these moments and just like foster this this community where
(23:59):
people can and experience that. That is the coolest story.
Thank you for sharing that. And my wheels are turning
it in my head as you're sharing that, because everything
you said I want to echo. What I know to
be true is that our bodies hold everything that we
need to know, everything sometimes we don't need to know,
but our bodies are more than just these bodies. They
(24:21):
are like their storytellers. Our bodies will tell us the
story if we let it. And I think what you
have created is a space where people's bodies are allowed
to tell them the story that they need to that
they need to hear, they need to know because you
created a moment there where it triggered a response, whether
it's from I hear something which triggers something, or a
movement trigger something, or I mean, it's that's incredible. And
(24:44):
even if none of the other students in that example,
we're even moving with that one student, it's like her
movement then created that ripple effect that is just so
cool and and I mean exactly why I wanted you
to come talk because I think a lot people, you know,
we used to do I guess we call it dance
therapy at the treatment center that um I worked at,
(25:06):
and it was like a lot of people were like
too cool to do it. You know, It's like, no,
I don't want to do that. I'm I'm like one
that's not going to do anything, but like I'm too
cool to like look like that or do that. And honestly,
after somebody would do it every single week, it would
turn into the client's favorite part of their day or
their week. And because it just turned something on and
(25:29):
wanted it can it can trigger good memories too, Right,
So this reminds me of of something from my childhood
that I had forgotten about or this or that, And
so I think the essence of my rambling, I don't
feel like the essence of my rambling for the end
of my rambling is a little bit about the fact that, like,
sometimes we need a release that we don't know that
we need. And you can walk into a class like
(25:52):
you walked into class for twenty six years not knowing
that you needed a release, you know, and dance gave
you that, and um, sometimes it's something really big like
that story, and sometimes it's just you leave with some
endorphins and some dopamine and all of that. But I
think that's so cool. So that being said, because your studio,
I mean, anybody can show up right Like you can
have dance experience, you cannot have dance experience. You can
(26:15):
have any kind of disability and you guys will show
up and be there to support that. So what prompted
you to create that kind of studio? I knew that
dance transformed my life in a lot of ways, and
like I mentioned earlier, saved my life in a lot
of ways and was very critical for me growing up.
And at the same time, I also just like I
(26:35):
loved it. It's fun, you know, and it was something
that I enjoyed doing, and I saw a need where,
you know, there was this group or community of people
who can't as easily access something as simple as a
dance class like I can. You know, I can pretty
much go to any dance studio that I want to
and say, hey, I want to take a dance class.
If they have an adults class, I can sign up
(26:56):
for that. And I think that that should be available
to everyone. And I guess is because of my personal
experience with it being so healing and therapeutic for me.
I saw this this group of people that I knew
could so benefit from it, maybe even more than I do,
and why wouldn't that exist? And so honestly, a few
years ago, I was like, I'm just I couldn't get
(27:16):
the idea out of my head. I've been thinking about it,
uh for probably over a decade. At that point, I
was I was thirteen. The first time I thought about
it so anyway, I couldn't. I couldn't stop thinking about it,
and so I was praying and I was like, I
don't know why this keeps coming to me because I
don't have any experience working with people's disabilities. I don't
know anyone ability. How could I ever pull this off?
(27:39):
But I will entertain the idea if you just, you know,
show me the way. And after that, it was like
doors just continued to fly open in front of my face.
Everywhere I would turn. It felt like someone would be
in front of me that I'm like, oh, they're the
perfect person to talk to. And everyone that I talked
to was like, yeah, that's a great idea and we
(28:00):
do need that and you should do it. And so
after that I was like, okay, well here we go
off to the races at that point, and and we
launched with a with a summer camp that was really successful,
and then after that we opened our studio and it's
I just haven't looked back since. What would you say
to people? Like? You know how I said? Some people
(28:20):
are like I'm too cool that there's that, And then
there's the person who thinks I can't act. I can't.
I can't dance, and you created this studio so more
people could have this amazing experience that you were able
to have um growing up and be able to have
movement as a healing practice. So what would you say
as some encouragement to people who might be like, not
(28:40):
for me. That's great for you, but not for me,
because what you've shown us through that story is it's
for everybody. It's for everyone. Yeah, and and literally everyone
can dance. Everyone. We I'm telling you, we make that
possible every single day. And I don't know, do you
not remember when I danced and you can't as you
can move? Uh? No? I think like neurotypicals like you
(29:05):
and I we so in our head they were like,
oh I don't have rhythm. Oh I'm gonna look, you know,
crazy or people at make where with the people that
we see that that have some type of disability for
whatever reason, that filter is usually like yeah, not there.
They don't care, like they just hear songs come on
and they're like, yes, here, this feels right. You know
(29:27):
what's funny though, because you say, like people who are
like I don't have rhythm. I used to always say
I don't have rhythm, but I literally teach a rhythm
based I teach a rhythm based cycling class where I
have to have rhythm for it to make sense for
me to teach it. That it's a that's a story
I told myself because I probably was scared of looking
not good at something. That's right. I guess that's exactly right.
You would say, get rid of the filter. Get rid
(29:48):
of the filter. There are some people who you know
aren't interested in dance. That's that's fine too, not it's
not for everyone. Just like I have no interest and
I could play some type of sport, I'm sure, but
I don't care to. It kind be for anybody, but
exactly exactly so when they go to a place like
your studio or can I take like adult dance without experience,
(30:11):
I would love that. I'll get a group of people
and we'll come do it. I love watching the videos
that you put up on Instagram. So it's like I
tell people all the time that reach out and they're
like can I stop them? And you know, just drop
in a class and see what I'm like, Yes, it
is the best mood booster. Yeah, it's just it's a
good time always. So so okay, So with that, then
how do people If you live in the Nashville area,
(30:34):
then you can come to the studio. Yes, so I
want you to tell us where they can find information
on that. And then if you don't live in our area,
then what are ways people can still be involved because
you have created something really special that I think people
will want to be a part of and want to
follow along with two So locally, well, you can find
(30:54):
us on social media move Inclusive Dance. That's all of
our our social media handles. Our website is moving close
of dance dot com. And for those that are are
local to the Nashville area, just there. There's a place
on the website where you can reach out and I'll
send you the class schedule and we can get you
signed up that way. Um, there's also places where if
you want to sign up to be a volunteer, if
(31:15):
you're interested in maybe joining our board of directors, we
have a Young Professionals committee. So those are all things
that local people could could look into. And if you're
not local to us, we're also doing virtual classes. That
was a pivot that we made yeah in and we
have students across the country that take classes with us
(31:36):
every week. So if anyone is interested in that same thing,
just pop on the website, which I forgot you were
doing that. Yeah, yeah, okay, so anybody can be involved
in any way. All right, that's amazing. Well, thank you
for being here and talking with us. I appreciate it.
Thank you for having me
Little food for yourself life. Oh it's pretty Bay, It's
pretty beautiful. Laugh a little moth sight you kick with
four Brown. Hi, guys, and welcome to a special episode
(00:36):
of Four Things with Amy Brown, except not with Amy Brown.
This week, you're getting four Things with Kat. And Amy
got super wrapped up this week and so she gave
me the opportunity to come back and talk to you
guys once again. For those of you who don't know me,
I am a therapist who works in Nashville, and I
actually have my own podcast called You Need Therapy that
(00:59):
is on MES podcast Network. So if you like what
you hear today, I highly recommend you heading over there
and checking out my podcast called You Need Therapy. Again.
My name is Kat, and I'm just very excited to
be here. I always love coming on four Things, and
so to get to host it by myself is even
more exciting. So today we're going to obviously talk about
(01:21):
four things. What are the four things? So the first
thing we're going to go through is collective anxiety. What
is that and how are we experiencing it now in
the world. The second thing, I'm going to talk about
brain games and also tie that into how it might
help with the collective anxiety. And the third thing is
something that's all about finding hope and all about paying
(01:42):
attention to the goodness in the world when it feels
really tough. And then for the fourth thing, I have
my friend Lauren now Morris, she just got married, who
founded a all inclusive dance studio called move Inclusive, and
I have her on to talk about how dancing and
movement can help a healing process. So those are the
four things, and I say, let's just get started first. Okay,
(02:08):
So the other day I was having a conversation with
a friend of mine about a recent experience where I
had an anxiety tech for like no actual reason, And well,
I thought it was for no reason, and it was
a really normal day. I had just come home from
an awesome weekend where I got to visit my best
(02:29):
friend and her family. But for some reason, I woke
up with this panic in my body that didn't ever
really go away throughout the whole day. Almost felt like
a low grade like heart attack, but I knew I
wasn't having a heart attack. Well, I was telling my
friend about this, who's also a therapist, and she she
was like, Catherine, you know that as humans, we have
a magnetic energy inside of us that actually absorbs what
(02:50):
is in the universe. And Okay, I know that sounds
very like will wow therapist e, but it's true, and
I'm going to explain it very simply, so it may
doesn't sound so woo woo. And the reason I want
to explain it is because so often I hear people,
especially this year, express confusion and shame about not feeling
great or just anxious in general. And that's how I
(03:12):
was feeling, right And so often we think we have
to have a right or a reason to feel a key,
but that's really not true. And right now, what we're
experiencing is what I like to call collective anxiety. Now,
what is collective anxiety? Typically, collective anxiety is anxiety that
is induced by like a shared belief that there's a threat.
(03:33):
So what might start as a rumor and then everybody
starts to believe it. So what happens is a belief
of a threat starts to spread and then it starts
to grow, so almost like with the more people who
are afraid, the fear starts to grow bigger, and so
then it ends up somewhat distorting someone's individual belief about
something like group think kind of, then that intense belief
(03:55):
has the power to create true emotional, physical, and somatic reactions.
Just like a belief can be intensified by collective believing,
so can the energy we feel. So energy is contagious, right,
we hear this all the time. You know that from
knowing what like a Debbie Downer is right, So when
somebody has an icky attitude, it brings down the energy,
it brings down the mood. Well, that's been happening for
(04:17):
over a year now because of the pandemic. Now, I
wouldn't call people Debbie downers. I would just call us
trauma survivors who are like in survival. So we've been
stripped of our normalcy, we've been stripped of our comfort,
We've been stripped of a lot of things. And then
we're also being put in this constant state of the
unknown as a group. So even if nothing's going wrong,
we're still experiencing the energy that we're all feeling due
(04:40):
to the ramifications of the past year. So, like I said,
the reason I wanted to bring this up is to
offer everyone some grace and the fact that you don't
need a reason to be feeling anxious right now what
we may need and I kind of just gave you
a reason if you really wanted to, but you don't
really need one, because it's just is, that's what our
normal is right now, and so what we really need
are some ways to soothe and cope through the anxiety
(05:04):
and with what's going on around us, which actually brings
us to the next thing. Second thing. Okay, so if
you follow Amy, then you probably already know she's been
really hot on puzzles lately. And the other day my
parents were cleaning out their storeroom and one of the
things my mom found was this Spice Girl's puzzle from
(05:26):
when I was a kid. I mean, this thing has
to be like twenty years old, and yeah, I'm pretty
sure twenty years old. That's crazy. Anyway, I was like,
I'm going to do this puzzle. So I brought it
home and I turned my kitchen table into a puzzle
corner and I actually started doing it, and I was like,
this sucks because I hate doing puzzles. And I texted
Amy and I was like, puzzles are so hard, and
she said, I promise you will start to enjoy it.
(05:48):
And then literally a day later, I was hooked. Like
I was waking up early to do my puzzle, I
was staying up late to finish it, and I really,
really it was enjoying my time doing them. It was
a way that I started to be able to clear
my head and clear my brain after work, and I
could just focus on putting these things together. And it
was a very soothing and common experience for me, especially
(06:10):
with the weight of my job sometimes and also, like
I said, the weight of the world. I also know
that puzzles of all kinds are really good for us
and helps stimulate our brains. And so I want to
talk just a little bit about specifically why, because I
just think the stuff is really fascinating and I think
you might too. And this is like me nerding out
on puzzles. So I'm like kind of laughing at myself
(06:31):
because I never thought that I'd be like in this spot,
but here I am. So let's talk about why puzzles
are so helpful. So one, they do, like I said,
they enhance our mood. So puzzles increase the production of dopamine,
which is a neurotransmitter that regulates our mood, memory, and
our concentration. So dopamines released with every success as we
solve the puzzle. Right, So if you get like a
(06:53):
piece in there, you're making little aha, lightbulb moments, and
that releases dopamine. And what also does is that it's
us in a more meditative state naturally, so then we
can be in like a state of stress release. The
second thing that puzzles do is they actually activate both
the left and the right hemispheres of the brain. So
the left side of your brain controls the analytic and
(07:15):
the logical thinking, and the right side controls creativity. Well,
when you're working on puzzles, you're engaging both sides, and
so you're giving your brain like a real mental workout essentially.
And the cool thing about that is that a lot
of times therapy work is getting the logical brain and
the emotional brain to align and to get them to
trust each other again. And so this is kind of
(07:37):
a cool way to like practice that and almost like
work your brain out so then it can do that
better in other areas of your life. Okay, so the
third thing that puzzles help with our memory. So working
on puzzles reinforces the connections between our brain cells and
it helps us form new ones, so they're a great
way to improve your short term memory. Now we use
(07:58):
memory in the process of completing the puzz right, so
we remember the shape, sizes, and the pieces and we
visualize where they fit in. And what's really cool is
that there's been tons of studies that have shown that
the growth of new brain connections um that are formed
when you do that kind of stuff help reduce the
amount of brain damage in Alzheimer's patients, which I think
(08:19):
that's incredible and fascinating. Okay, the next thing that it
helps with is basically it helps you use it so
you don't lose it. Right, So, like I said before,
it's like a brain workout. It's like exercise for your brain.
And when you do a harder puzzle, which you know,
I'm starting small, started with five dred I actually have
a one thousand piece puzzle that's been on my table
for a week and it is very intimidating. Puzzles change
(08:41):
the patterns of your brain activity, and they will help
you improve your problem solving skills. They improve oh they
improve your visual and spatial reasoning, which is really cool,
and they help with other functions of your life like
parallel parking. Who has ever been like, can I fit
in that parking spot? I don't know. I always do this.
I would like drive my car up to see if
I can like fit in it and trying to test
(09:03):
it out. And most of the time I'm like, nah,
I can't do it, but I probably can. If I
did my more puzzles, maybe I would be a better
parallel parker. Honestly, I think anybody who's listening to this,
if you're like, I'm going to become a puzzler, I
want to know. So when you get your your new puzzle,
I want you to tag me in it. So if
you don't follow me, you can follow me at at
cat dot to fata and you know, we can have
(09:25):
a virtual puzzle club. Okay, So the third thing we're
talking about how to find little pieces of hope. So
a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting at home
with my friend and we decided to watch a movie
and she picked out this movie called Yesterday with Jennifer
Garner and um. She said that tons of people had
been talking about it, and I was like, well, let's
(09:47):
do it. Let's watch it. It was a super cute
movie and I highly recommend it, and I'm not going
to give the movie away, but basically, it's about a
day where you say yes to everything, which can be
very dangerous, but the sentiment is that it takes the
seriousness out of life a little bit and helps you
come back to your true self and find some hope
in a world that feels bleak and scary and like, hello,
(10:11):
we all need this right now. And while we may
not be able to have a full yesterday, what this
is really talking about is finding a way to hope again,
right And so I talk a lot with clients about
finding little pockets and little pieces of hope and that
in our waiting period or grieving periods, it's essential to
find ways to feel hope for things to come. And
(10:31):
I was thinking about ways that I find little pockets
of hope, and honestly, it's really much like Amy talks
about gratitude. She's huge on gratitude. We know that, And
what I believe is that people who have the most
blessings in their life are the ones that end up
counting them. Like that's really how it goes. And so
when you sit down and notice all these little pieces
in your life, and you can find all these little
maybe they're really small, really teeny tiny things, but they
(10:55):
make a difference, and those little things become the big things.
And it kind of makes me think of the story
which is literally my favorite story to tell ever. So basically,
years ago, I was working with this one client and
she was coming in every week, and every week she
would talk to me about the struggles in her life.
(11:15):
And I will say that she had a really tough life.
I'm not going to give the details of it, but
she did tough life for multiple reasons. So every week
she would come in and she would talk. She would
sit down on my couch. I would say, how are
you doing? She would base probably say not good, and
then she would tell me why, and we would sit
there and process kind of all the crap in her life.
(11:37):
And we did this over and over and over again,
and then like I started feeling like unrest, Like I
started getting frustrated with her as a client. And I
know that's a red flag for me because I usually
have a lot of patience and compassion for clients who
are struggling, and I like really really enjoyed her too,
But I would just get frustrated and get maybe I
(12:00):
was probably getting a little anxious before she would come
in because I just knew what was coming. So the
issue ended up being that, like she wasn't getting better,
it didn't seem like what we were doing was working.
And so when I really sat down and thought about
I was like, Okay, my frustration is coming from this
place of like what I'm doing isn't working. It isn't
working when I she just comes in and I say
how are you doing? And she says not good? And
(12:21):
then I say, tell me about that. And so I
was like, we gotta do something different, because what we
know is when we do the same thing over and
over and over again expecting a different result, well that's
literally the definition of insanity, right. That's crazy to do
the same thing over and over again knowing what it's
given me the last twenty times. So one day she
came in and she sat down and I said, you
(12:44):
know that, like you get to talk about whatever you
want in here, right, So you know that. But I
am wondering today before we get into our usual, is
there anything going right in your life, Beau? Is there
anything good in your life? Do you like anything about yourself?
And she looked at me and smiled like almost that
the kind of smile or like there's something brewing inside,
(13:06):
like she's thinking something. And she said, well, can I
show you? And I said, sure, you can show me,
of course. So she loved art, and so she got
out my butcher paper. It's a long piece of paper.
She got out my paints, and she said, will you
turn around until I'm done so I can just work
on this and then I'll let you know what I'm done.
And I said okay. So I turned around and about
(13:27):
probably twenty minutes go by and I hear her say, okay, Katherine,
you can turn around. I'm done. And I turn around
and there is this beautiful painting like I still have it.
It's beautiful, and I just looked at it and I
was like whoa, And I said, can you tell me
about this? And she said yeah, and she started telling me, well,
(13:49):
this is this, and this is this, and I like this.
She started telling me all these good things in her life,
and I just like stopped her and was like, wait, wait,
why have you never told me about any of this?
I said, I feel like I know you really well,
why do I not know about any of this? And
I will never forget this. She looked at me again
with a smile, and very simply she just said, well, Katherine,
(14:12):
you've never asked me. And I was like speechless, but
really like, you're right, you're right. And she said, Katherine,
you've never asked me what was going right in my life?
You always asked me how am I doing? I say
not good, and you say why, And that's what we
talk about. So that's why I haven't told you. And
oh my gosh, that experience changed really honestly, that changed
(14:35):
my life because it really woke me up to the
idea that like, wow, she's right. I didn't ever ask her,
and so yeah, she didn't tell me, and it just
started making me think about how that affects other parts
of my life. Right, So it's so easy to focus
on the things that are going wrong, it's so easy,
and it sound as easy to focus on the things
(14:57):
that are going right, or the little things. Because she
had some big things that were going wrong. The things
that she drew on that paper were smaller if you
were to compare them, honestly, but there were a lot
of them. And I tell you, guys the story because
I really believe that what we end up focusing the
most on is what we're going to end up finding. Right.
(15:18):
I focused more and more and more on all the
I and the crap of my life. I'm just going
to find more of it. But if I really start
to focus on these little pockets of hope, it might
lead me to another pocket of hope. Right. And you know,
what I'm not doing is trying to encourage this idea
of toxic positivity. What I'm not doing is say, ignore
(15:40):
the stuff that isn't going well. But what would happen
if we started to bring in more stuff? That was
what would happen if if we did that? And the
best part about that story is, you know, because that
changed a lot of our conversations and how we communicated
with each other, and then how she started to think
she didn't have to see me for very much longer
after that. And how crazy is it? Because that was
(16:01):
so simple. That was a simple shift that we created
that made a huge difference. So I don't know if
that means maybe you need a Yesterday to give a
little pocket of hope, or maybe you need one of
Amy's four Things gratitude journals. Who knows what you need?
But I think it would be really cool if you
spent some time maybe thinking about like what's going right
(16:22):
for me, and how do I give that more attention,
and how do I turn these little pockets of hope
into like medium sized pockets of hope and then like
large pockets of hope and then really big pockets of hope. So, oh,
that story, I love it. Now. I have my friend
(16:52):
Lauren on and she is somebody that I met years
ago last year in college. I thought of her when
Amy asked me to come help out with a podcast,
because I think a lot of you guys think, um,
when I come on, I'm going to talk about therapy
and in ways to help us heal from different parts
of our lives. And that's obviously true, because that's what
(17:12):
I'm doing today, but I wanted to be a little
creative in it because I think sometimes we get really
stuck in this one lane way of moving through stuff.
When I say stuff that could be anything from trauma
to just you know, everyday stuff. And so what I
want Lauren to do today is talk to us about
another avenue. So she founded a really cool dance studio
(17:33):
called Move Inclusive Dance. Do you ever get tongue tied
when you say that not anymore, You're like, it's actually
just three easy words, and it's an awesome studio and
let her tell you guys all about it. But we're
also going to talk about how dance has been a
healing agent for her in her life and how she's
watched it be a healing agent in other people's lives.
(17:54):
So one, Lauren High, I don't think i'd like to say,
hi's fine, thank you for doing this, and all not
to be said, welcome Lauren, And can you like where
should we start with all that? Yeah? So well, when
you mentioned to me that you were interested in kind
of talking through this topic with me, immediately I was like, yes,
because I have tons of personal experience where, you know,
(18:16):
movement has been healing or therapeutic to me in a
lot of ways. I grew up in a dance studio.
I was three years old when I took my first
dance class, and so dance was always a part of
my routine, and therefore movement was always a part of
my routine. But I didn't see a therapist for the
first time until I was maybe twenty six, and talking
(18:37):
through my childhood and even my you know, like teenage years,
we were able to really see how that that was
my therapy for my whole life. I had no idea.
So I have a lot of personal experience, like I said,
but now with what I do at move, I'm able
to see that in other people, and oftentimes in people
(18:59):
who who needed, maybe even more than I do, who
really don't have an outlet to express their emotions or
process things, And it's just an amazing thing. First of all,
shameless plug of myself. Lauren was on Lauren was on
my podcast You Need Therapy? When was that October? That
(19:20):
was the fall maybe where she told her story, well
part of her story, and I'm just going to leave
it there because I want you guys to go listen
to it. But what I'm registering now is like, oh
my gosh, how had dance had been holding you almost
like safe for until it couldn't do its job by
itself anymore about you know? So that is so cool.
(19:42):
So definitely go listen to that episode because that your story.
I just think it's cool anyway, and we say that,
we say like this is my therapy or this is
my therapy, but it's like dance really was your therapy.
Without you knowing that it was without you knowing that
was therapy. Yes, absolutely. And I say oftentimes whenever I'm
you know, speaking for a fundraiser or something for for
(20:03):
our because we're a nonprofit, so I'm constantly asking people
for me um, and I often find myself saying that,
you know, I know it's cheesy, but dance saved my
life in a lot of ways, and it's it's the truth.
It was my outlet, like I said, where I could
go and and I knew that it was a safe
space for me to just let out whatever was going
(20:23):
on inside of me. Yeah, so you've noticed that in
yourself and you felt that yourself, and then can you
tell us what are some ways that you have noticed
change in a healing process happen like in front of
you with some of the people that you work with
at your studio, or just in your experience as a dancer. Yeah.
So we see it every day and for those who
(20:43):
may not have put it together or no yet, but
we are a dance studio for people of all ability levels.
So we do have some typically developing students that come
and take classes with us, but for the most part,
it's individuals that have various disabilities, and one story in
particular that comes to mind. It was a couple of
years ago we were doing a summer camp. It was
at the end of the day and my friend Megan,
(21:05):
who's the program director for move and and teaches a
lot of our classes, she was leading this camp and
everyone was just like really tired, and you know, it's
long hours and we weren't really getting much out of them.
You could tell everyone was kind of like done for
the day. But we had about an hour left, and
so she looked at me and she was like, I'm
going to just kind of go off course here and
do a really long cool down session with them, and
(21:29):
so I was like, okay, great. It was actually we
were doing like a dancing through the Decades theme that week,
and so this was I think nineties day. So she
turned on some inya. Uh, she turned on some inya
and uh just lad like a stretch series really and
and like constructive resting and breathing and uh, just really slow,
(21:52):
gentle movements to this very very calming, peaceful music. And
about probably thirty minutes into it, one of the students
started crying, and so you know, we noticed it, but
we didn't really do anything at first, and then it
felt like it was time to maybe you know, step in,
and so anyway, she she cut the music down, and
when we asked her what was wrong, she told us
(22:14):
that she had recently had a friend pass away and
the music made her think about this friend makes me
want to cry talking about it. And she decided while
she was moving that she was moving in honor of him,
and there was everyone in the room was just you know,
totally silent taking this in. And then it opened up
(22:34):
this beautiful, very deep conversation where another student now, oh, well,
my grandpa he passed away last year, and so we
talked through that, and then it was just a ripple effect.
And anyway, at the end, Megan and I looked at
each other and just had this moment. We didn't say anything,
but we're both you know, tears in our eyes, and
we're like, this is why we do what we do
(22:56):
because for a lot of people, especially those that we
work with, you know, they may not have an outlet
where they can process those kinds of emotions. Is really
really heavy feelings, right, and I think for a lot
of people that maybe you know, don't know someone with
the disability, or have not spent a lot of time
around someone with a disability, you can oftentimes look forget.
(23:17):
And these were peers. We were working with adults, so
they were it was people our age and maybe even
older than us that day. But you can sometimes forget
because you're like, well, they look different than me, or
maybe they talk different than me, or maybe they don't
they don't talk at all. But inside we all have
the same things going on, right, We have the same emotions,
we have the same feelings, we all experienced trauma, and
(23:37):
while it may look different on the outside, inside it's
it's all the same. And so that was a really
really cool moment to just be like, Wow, we are
way more alike than we are different, And what an
honor it is for us to be able to create
these moments and just like foster this this community where
(23:59):
people can and experience that. That is the coolest story.
Thank you for sharing that. And my wheels are turning
it in my head as you're sharing that, because everything
you said I want to echo. What I know to
be true is that our bodies hold everything that we
need to know, everything sometimes we don't need to know,
but our bodies are more than just these bodies. They
(24:21):
are like their storytellers. Our bodies will tell us the
story if we let it. And I think what you
have created is a space where people's bodies are allowed
to tell them the story that they need to that
they need to hear, they need to know because you
created a moment there where it triggered a response, whether
it's from I hear something which triggers something, or a
movement trigger something, or I mean, it's that's incredible. And
(24:44):
even if none of the other students in that example,
we're even moving with that one student, it's like her
movement then created that ripple effect that is just so
cool and and I mean exactly why I wanted you
to come talk because I think a lot people, you know,
we used to do I guess we call it dance
therapy at the treatment center that um I worked at,
(25:06):
and it was like a lot of people were like
too cool to do it. You know, It's like, no,
I don't want to do that. I'm I'm like one
that's not going to do anything, but like I'm too
cool to like look like that or do that. And honestly,
after somebody would do it every single week, it would
turn into the client's favorite part of their day or
their week. And because it just turned something on and
(25:29):
wanted it can it can trigger good memories too, Right,
So this reminds me of of something from my childhood
that I had forgotten about or this or that, And
so I think the essence of my rambling, I don't
feel like the essence of my rambling for the end
of my rambling is a little bit about the fact that, like,
sometimes we need a release that we don't know that
we need. And you can walk into a class like
(25:52):
you walked into class for twenty six years not knowing
that you needed a release, you know, and dance gave
you that, and um, sometimes it's something really big like
that story, and sometimes it's just you leave with some
endorphins and some dopamine and all of that. But I
think that's so cool. So that being said, because your studio,
I mean, anybody can show up right Like you can
have dance experience, you cannot have dance experience. You can
(26:15):
have any kind of disability and you guys will show
up and be there to support that. So what prompted
you to create that kind of studio? I knew that
dance transformed my life in a lot of ways, and
like I mentioned earlier, saved my life in a lot
of ways and was very critical for me growing up.
And at the same time, I also just like I
(26:35):
loved it. It's fun, you know, and it was something
that I enjoyed doing, and I saw a need where,
you know, there was this group or community of people
who can't as easily access something as simple as a
dance class like I can. You know, I can pretty
much go to any dance studio that I want to
and say, hey, I want to take a dance class.
If they have an adults class, I can sign up
(26:56):
for that. And I think that that should be available
to everyone. And I guess is because of my personal
experience with it being so healing and therapeutic for me.
I saw this this group of people that I knew
could so benefit from it, maybe even more than I do,
and why wouldn't that exist? And so honestly, a few
years ago, I was like, I'm just I couldn't get
(27:16):
the idea out of my head. I've been thinking about it,
uh for probably over a decade. At that point, I
was I was thirteen. The first time I thought about
it so anyway, I couldn't. I couldn't stop thinking about it,
and so I was praying and I was like, I
don't know why this keeps coming to me because I
don't have any experience working with people's disabilities. I don't
know anyone ability. How could I ever pull this off?
(27:39):
But I will entertain the idea if you just, you know,
show me the way. And after that, it was like
doors just continued to fly open in front of my face.
Everywhere I would turn. It felt like someone would be
in front of me that I'm like, oh, they're the
perfect person to talk to. And everyone that I talked
to was like, yeah, that's a great idea and we
(28:00):
do need that and you should do it. And so
after that I was like, okay, well here we go
off to the races at that point, and and we
launched with a with a summer camp that was really successful,
and then after that we opened our studio and it's
I just haven't looked back since. What would you say
to people? Like? You know how I said? Some people
(28:20):
are like I'm too cool that there's that, And then
there's the person who thinks I can't act. I can't.
I can't dance, and you created this studio so more
people could have this amazing experience that you were able
to have um growing up and be able to have
movement as a healing practice. So what would you say
as some encouragement to people who might be like, not
(28:40):
for me. That's great for you, but not for me,
because what you've shown us through that story is it's
for everybody. It's for everyone. Yeah, and and literally everyone
can dance. Everyone. We I'm telling you, we make that
possible every single day. And I don't know, do you
not remember when I danced and you can't as you
can move? Uh? No? I think like neurotypicals like you
(29:05):
and I we so in our head they were like,
oh I don't have rhythm. Oh I'm gonna look, you know,
crazy or people at make where with the people that
we see that that have some type of disability for
whatever reason, that filter is usually like yeah, not there.
They don't care, like they just hear songs come on
and they're like, yes, here, this feels right. You know
(29:27):
what's funny though, because you say, like people who are
like I don't have rhythm. I used to always say
I don't have rhythm, but I literally teach a rhythm
based I teach a rhythm based cycling class where I
have to have rhythm for it to make sense for
me to teach it. That it's a that's a story
I told myself because I probably was scared of looking
not good at something. That's right. I guess that's exactly right.
You would say, get rid of the filter. Get rid
(29:48):
of the filter. There are some people who you know
aren't interested in dance. That's that's fine too, not it's
not for everyone. Just like I have no interest and
I could play some type of sport, I'm sure, but
I don't care to. It kind be for anybody, but
exactly exactly so when they go to a place like
your studio or can I take like adult dance without experience,
(30:11):
I would love that. I'll get a group of people
and we'll come do it. I love watching the videos
that you put up on Instagram. So it's like I
tell people all the time that reach out and they're
like can I stop them? And you know, just drop
in a class and see what I'm like, Yes, it
is the best mood booster. Yeah, it's just it's a
good time always. So so okay, So with that, then
how do people If you live in the Nashville area,
(30:34):
then you can come to the studio. Yes, so I
want you to tell us where they can find information
on that. And then if you don't live in our area,
then what are ways people can still be involved because
you have created something really special that I think people
will want to be a part of and want to
follow along with two So locally, well, you can find
(30:54):
us on social media move Inclusive Dance. That's all of
our our social media handles. Our website is moving close
of dance dot com. And for those that are are
local to the Nashville area, just there. There's a place
on the website where you can reach out and I'll
send you the class schedule and we can get you
signed up that way. Um, there's also places where if
you want to sign up to be a volunteer, if
(31:15):
you're interested in maybe joining our board of directors, we
have a Young Professionals committee. So those are all things
that local people could could look into. And if you're
not local to us, we're also doing virtual classes. That
was a pivot that we made yeah in and we
have students across the country that take classes with us
(31:36):
every week. So if anyone is interested in that same thing,
just pop on the website, which I forgot you were
doing that. Yeah, yeah, okay, so anybody can be involved
in any way. All right, that's amazing. Well, thank you
for being here and talking with us. I appreciate it.
Thank you for having me
Feeling Things with Amy & Kat News
Host
Amy Brown
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