E.008 The Wisdom Your Body Holds | Somatics x Nidra | Matthew T. Cooke - Yoga Nidra & Beyond | Ayla Nova

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you for being here.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
My name is Alen Nova, and it is an honor
to share the practice of Yoga Nindra with you, and
I wanted to also invite you to explore into other
practices that can compliment Yoga Nindra. This is why I've
called in an expert, Matthew Cook, who is the founder
of B three Body based Breakthrough. This is a trauma

(00:23):
informed somatic practice that he has taught over to one
hundred plus coaches. He's got over fifteen years of experience
working with executives in companies like Apple, SpaceX, hicksar Disney,
and the list continues to go on. I encourage you
to listen all the way through so that you yourself
can experience with myself the B three method that Matthew

(00:47):
Cook has offered to all of us through this session.
Thank you for tuning in and I hope that you
enjoyed this episode.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Matthew, thank you for being here.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
I'm excited to be here, excited to chat all things
sematics and yeah, connection itself and with others. Yeah, it's
like the greatest joy on the planet to talk about
this stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Tell us a little bit about what it is that
you do you know sematics can be considered a bit
of a broad word, so yes, we dive into what
it looks like, what it sounds like for you.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
It's such a good question. So sematics comes from the
Greek samaticos, meaning like the living aware living, Yeah, the
living where bodily person and and it's funny even just
in that, like I am just getting over a cold,
which is which is fun to just be present too
for myself and it's like, oh, I get to be

(01:57):
in awareness of that even and all of I think
that's probably my favorite thing actually about sematics is that
it's all about residence, awareness, acceptance and inspired action that
comes from the body. That's how I would think about sematics. Yeah,
high level. Anyways, there's so much we can get into it.

(02:19):
I guess. The one other thing maybe that I would
say is that in talk therapy there's an emphasis on
a bottom or excuse me, a top down approach, which
is the mind is going to inform the body and
like I'm going to set goals and I'm going to
be analytical about it, and there's so much value in that.
And then the sematic way of approaching therapy or coaching

(02:43):
is to let the body inform the mind, and that
we're we're really taking letting the body take on. And
so in fact, the way it works is that eighty
percent of communication between the body and the brain is
from body to brain and only twenty percent of communication

(03:04):
is from the brain to the body, which is really wild.
So we actually say, there's a stat that's our nervous
system receives twelve million stimuli per second, which is wild.
Like our nervous system our body is like taking in
the temperature in the air, what's going on in my organs,

(03:25):
how I feel safe or not safe with this person
that I'm with, Like, there's so much information that it's
taking in, and of those twelve million stimuli, our conscious
mind only can process about fifty to sixty bits of information.
Twelve million, fifty to sixty. It's wild.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, it truly is, and it's and it is so true.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
You know that I've been in talk therapy and it
worked for me at some point, and then I realized
I was just in this repetitive cycle of telling the
same story over again, and I was stuck in that Well,
you know, we know.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
About being stuck.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
It's not really true, but you get caught up in
this cycle of constantly going through that same narrative over
and over again.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
With somatics and also with Yoka Nindra.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
I think the parallel there's so many parallels which I
even want to explore more into that with you, which
is that it is a bottom up approach first getting
into the body, you know, getting into the body before
you jump into the rocket ship.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
Totally. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's wild. There's I mean
not to get all super science y right away, but
one of my deepest passions is the science of the
nervous system in neuroscience and with polyvagalperia all these things.
What's fascinating is that, like our brain is built on
a foundation of what's called implicit memory, which is body

(04:49):
memory or like procedural memory, where it's like our muscles
hold a memory from before we ever learned how to speak,
say pre verbal, and then there's this really cool thing
that happens around two three years old, and as we
continue to grow up is that we start to like
bring on vocabulary and we start to understand the whole

(05:11):
part of being a human is that I'm going to
be speaking language. And so then we build this secondary
way of being in the world, which is communicating through words,
and that's a very left brain process, but the body
speaks this very native language to us that like before
we're even born. It's like fully formed in many ways,

(05:32):
and it's right brain to right brain communication. So I
don't know why I threw that in, but I guess
just to say that, like, to me, that's the most
foundational way that I can communicate with you.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, I love the way that you put that.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
When I first was introduced to your work, I was
actually in a virtual community, and I've always been interested
in semantics. I've put on workshops with sematic facilitators and
so I've always had an interest in it, and.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
I can see these parallels right with yoga nidra.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
But what really caught me was that most of the
somatic practitioners that I've worked with have never brought in
the element of the koshas.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
And when I watched your video, I saw you draw.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
It out on a map and you talked about the koshas,
and I was like, WHOA, this is the first time
that this has been delivered to me in this way
for me to digest it. And I was really excited
to reach out to you and to learn more about
what you're offering. So tell me how a little bit
about how the koshas are brought into your practice or

(06:37):
how you share that with your community.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Littal, Well, if you're ready for it, I'll try to
not make this like a forty five minute soapbox here. Well,
the koshas are so powerful. So we look at it's
in yoga and obviously your community probably knows this, but
we have these sheets of our being, where these layers
or layers of our being, and starting out with what's

(07:01):
called on amiya kosha the body, which is like the
most gross physical, superficial layer of our being. And then
we go into prana maya kosha, which is the breath
and really the life force energy that we're taking in, yeah,
through all of our sensory organs and all the things.
And then we go into monamaya, which is the mind.

(07:22):
And then we go into vision nona myay a kosha,
which is like body wisdom in a way, it's like
a deep, deep wisdom. And then we have a non
to my a kosha, which is bliss my background, and
I can probably like go way deeper, but just having
done over one thousand hours of yoga teaching certifications that
has really informed the way that I work with my people.

(07:42):
And so when I was coming up with this process
maybe fifteen years ago, I really wanted to touch on
all of the layers of our being so that when
someone comes out of a body based breakthrough session or
B three is what we call it, that they have
a sense of feeling like their whole being like a

(08:05):
shower like that, they like got to like feel so
like clean and so washed on every level. Because I
don't know that all practices do now, and I think
that that's lovely. I mean, I think we have different
practices for different things. But for me, this was like,
how do I have the most efficient and effective and simple,
quite frankly process and system to every morning for like

(08:28):
fifteen minutes that I can feel fully cleaned from the
inside out. Yeah, that's like the shortest way I could
probably articulate them.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
And you know, for me, I'm like, oh yeah, go
forty five minutes on that one. I mean, I spend
my life sharing that work and so it's awesome to
hear it from your perspective as well. And wow, a
thousand hours of teacher trainings.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
I love also that it just creates such a tangible
like when you can see it on a map, put
like way to look at what elements we're going through.
And you know, I know we talked about not getting
to sciencey here, but I loved learning about how in
the limbic brain, you know, this is where we're becoming

(09:14):
aware of our senses and then these senses are sending
a response signal to our nervous system, and then from
the nervous system, that's where we create our reaction and
then sending out these signals to the body and that
creates these imprints. And when you think about the koshas,
there's like this wave maybe of that experience that goes

(09:38):
through it. And that's where the somatics comes in, where
it gets a little bit trapped in the body, or
it gets trapped in a nonta mya kosha where you
might not be a cognitive like you can't necessarily know
that it's there, but you can feel that it's there.
And then that goes and bleeds into or you know,
follows into all of these other layers. And that's why

(10:01):
I believe like your work with soumatics and also yoga
nidra is such a beautiful way to approach it from
the inside out.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yes, yeah, yeah, beautiful. I like that's so well articulated. Yeah,
I mean that's how I always I think, even when
I was younger, I was like, how do we approach
this where we can like help support somebody from the
inside out and from the outside in and sort of
like come at it from two different angles so that
we can like really work through the body and bring
it back into a Yeah. For those who are just listening,

(10:33):
like I'm making a bunch of handjusters like this like
a really seamlessly flowing natural yeah, element to working with
the body. Yeah. Yeah, And so that's that's really I
think what gets me so excited. Yeah. So in the
body based breakthrough session, the way that we're working is
we do want to engage the mind, we do want

(10:54):
to engage the body, but we also do engage the breath.
And I know that in Yoga Nindra too, there's also
a that a element of the breath as well, because
that was what was articulated to me a really when
I first started teaching yoga even was that that is
actually the intermediary between the body and the mind is
the breath, yeah, is part of mile So yeah, so

(11:17):
for me, it's like, we can't do this body work
without doing breath And that's why I think like breath
work is actually such a is such a big thing
right now culturally, you know, the big breath work and
there's different styles, you know. So in terms of the
kosha is like, I think that there are there are
ways of doing it with like cathartic release and like

(11:40):
these big monstrous things. And I'm going to say something
kind of controversial, but I think I wonder if you
would align with it or not. Is that you know,
I think that that stuff can be wonderful. But as
I've done a lot of my study in somatic experiencing,
it's a three year training program for those who aren't familiar,
where you walk out a trauma therapist, is there is Yeah,

(12:05):
there's there's something really profound about being able to do
these big cathartic things and it feels really good in
the moment, but then what it's doing is it's actually
training my nervous system to get really good at building
capacity or being able to hold large amounts of energy
through what we might call the stress response. So through

(12:26):
like intensity, I can hold so much because oh I
did this really big thing. But personally, like that's what
I grew up with, you know, and a lot of
us grow up in intensity, And so I'd actually rather
retrain my nervous system towards what we'd call the pleasure response,
meaning to say, like I can hold, because our nervous

(12:49):
systems are amoral, like they're not like holding good or bad.
It's just it's literally just like how much like electrical
impulse can the nervous system hold. And so when we
talk about capacity of what I can like handle in
a moment and still be in presence, it's it's it
doesn't matter if it's pleasant or uncomfortable. And so it's
just like what do I want to train my nervous

(13:10):
system for to like build capacity? So embody based breakthrough
and in a lot of my experience of yoga nidra
is it's building actually through what's pleasant, like through what's like,
oh wow, that feels so good. And so it's it's
interesting because I think we live in such a culture,
at least here in the United States where I live,

(13:32):
it's it's just such a big culture of like pushing
and grinding and going harder and faster and stronger, and
where there is validity in that, there is like moments
and times and spaces that of course I need to
do that, but I don't want to train my nervous
system of it. It's like that's how we operate. Like
I don't want that to be the most OPERENDI like
I want it to be like and can I really

(13:55):
take in that beautiful sunset and like have that just
like ripple through me and be like wow, that's like
actually wild, or like this cup of tea that I'm
drinking that I can just be Wow, that's actually incredible,
And then I can take in with a level of
sensitivity the profundity of that, and that can actually build

(14:16):
my capacity to experience life and to be in presence
with life. So that I think that's my biggest take on,
like at least like the breath work thing to get
really controversial, but so when I'm focusing on the breath
and when we do that in body based breakthrough, it's
all about like as breaths or what we might call
like cooling breaths rather than heating breaths.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
So I love that moment of it. Well, I feel
like it.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, maybe controversial, but it would be amazing if maybe
near the end, we can.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Share practice where we can experience something like.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
That, and then I can get a chance to understand
what you're sharing, and also everyone else can get an
opportunity to experience it as well.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yes, well can I just can I just say correct?
But that too, like I'm excited about this stuff is
like part of it is it's it's for me. It's
less about like I'm going to be an optimized human
and be a robot and you know Elon musk Tesla,
this stuff it's very Instead, it's like what's the felt
experience when I'm done with something? And so when I'm

(15:22):
done with yoga Nindra, I feel incredible, Like I just
feel really good, and so like my system wants more
and more of that, and so I'm always considering, yea,
how do I want to feel? And ideally I'm imprinting
my system and sort of saturating in more and more

(15:43):
of what I want to be experiencing more of doesn't
make any sense, I don't know, like it's like we
have much.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Sense it makes it makes so much sense, and actually,
as you're sharing it, I'm like feeling it.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
I'm my body's like oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Remember when you used to push yourself to the absolute
limit and you know and what that would do to
you and then you had to take rest. It wasn't like, oh,
I'm going to take rest now because I want to
nourish my body. It was like if I don't take rest,
I will literally the off button is going to go
off on its own, you know. So I know in

(16:21):
a period of my life it was like that. It
was just being productive, always on the go, trying to
get everything done. And for me, it was realizing in
what the beauty of yoga ninitra is too. Is that
and also somatics too. When you start to create a
relationship with your body and your mind, then you can
actually begin to use those self awareness practices for that softening,

(16:44):
for that gentleness. And you know, I've been to those
somatic ones where it's like ha, and you know, like
it's really really intense and it's fun, right, but I
almost feel like I get a little bit of a
hangover from it, do you know what I mean? Where
it's like, Okay, now I have to deal with like
my body of exerting all of that. So I'm really
excited to learn about what you're sharing because what I

(17:06):
think I'm understanding is that your approach with it, with
the element of yoga and the sematic experiencing that you've
learned and dived into.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
Who's that with again, Peter.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Levi Peter Levitan, Yeah, yeah, Peter, he's kind of like
the grandfather, like Oge of all the somatics were all down. Yeah,
he started doing this stuff in like the late fifties
or early sixties, which is like wild down in terms
of formulating like a system around it. So yeah, one of.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
The offerings that he gave that I integrated into the
Yoga Ninja program, I shares the voo breath.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yes, the boo. I use you all the time. It's
so good for me.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
It was like, you know, not just tapping into the
body and also working with like.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
The vague vegas, the vegas nerve.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, yeah, the vegas nerve, allowing that vibebration of sound,
because you know, with yoga nindra, you're you're going into
this internal practice, you're being in stillness and so complimenting
it before or after with that.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Somatic voo breath.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
I felt like it brought like a tangible felt experience
of the vibration before going in, but also you come out,
they just compliment each other.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
So well that's such a good articulation. Yeah. Yeah, I
mean it's like like like I want organic maturity. I
don't want forced maturity.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
MM tell me more about that.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
Do you know what I'm saying. It's like, yeah, I
feel like with like the cathartic release stuff, it's awesome
because it's like, you know, it's like we take like
these her role with doses of psilocybin and nyahuasca and
all these things, and again it's like but to me,
it's like it's perpetuating the cycle of like forced maturity.
It's like, well, I'm going to go really hard in

(18:57):
my life and I'm going to like break down all
the doors and I'm gonna like make a million dollars
overnight and all of these things and those are those
are lovely and this is what leads to burnout because
it's what my tea when my teacher says, we have
an addiction to intensity, give an addiction to intensity, and
so it's like then we find self development. We find medicines,

(19:20):
you know, quote air quotes medicines. You know, they can't
they very much so are medicine for a lot of people.
But then we do we like apply that same level
of consciousness to the spiritual work, and we like we
overdose it and we go really intense, and that's where
we get these cathartic releases. And and again it's yeah,
I don't know if there's anything wrong with it. It's like,

(19:41):
I think it's just like what do I want to
train my system for. So I guess I don't want
to like totally like bad mouth it. I think it's
just like what I'm choosing in my life. And people
that come into my work are kind of like also
done with the burnout thing, and they're just like I've
been there, I've done that, and I just like I'd
like to try try something else. And Albert Einstein even

(20:02):
said you cannot solve the problem from the same level
of consciousness that it was created. I like that in
a different state of consciousness. Yeah, And so that's what
body they s break through is in so many ways.
And actually yoga nidrid does the same thing, like it
takes us into these really beautiful like alpha and beta
brainwaves like it take it literally from a science perspective,

(20:24):
It takes us from beta like these really high frequency,
like super high buzzing brain waves into a much lower
state of consciousness in terms of brainwave state, and then
new possibilities are there, New possibilities are there, and like
that is where I get stoked. I'm like, yeah, what

(20:46):
are the new possibilities? Because I've done everything in the
beta brainwave thing, and I can try all that all day,
but that's when I end up hitting my head against
the wall trying to figure the thing out and it
just doesn't always work. And sometimes it does work and
that's lovely. But for me, it was actually on long
walks and on the yoga mat was when I found
that I got my best ideas. And so that's actually

(21:09):
like how we did it. That's how it started. What
twelve thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years ago was we like I
started to find that this is when I was giving
my best ideas. And I remember there were teachers that
were like, let your thoughts pass like clouds, and I
remember thinking like, well, that's crap, because like I'm these
ideas are gold and I don't want to lose this
ideas like this is my best thinking right now, this

(21:31):
is my work, it's my most work. So I actually
started and I've done. I obviously do both. I do somewhere.
I do do the practice of like the thoughts past.
But part of what body based breakthrough for me has
been so impactful in my life and in the over
one hundred practitioners we've certified and all of the people
that we worked with over the years is that it
allows us to capture those thoughts onto paper, to externalize

(21:55):
our thoughts on paper, as David Allen says, and to
have mind like water. He's sort of referencing Bruce Bruce Lee,
but yeah, yeah, yeah, But David Allen talked about that
a lot. It's like, as you in his getting Things
Done method, It's like, as you put things on paper,
then like I don't have to hold on to them,
like it doesn't have to take up mental real estate.
So then like I can just like actually let that

(22:16):
thing move on, and then the beauty is that like
then then it like starts to go more like back
into the back I guess you could jokingly say like
the back of the brain, and it's like more of
an unconscious just sort of floating around and I don't
have to like mentally hold onto it tightly, so it
actually kind of loosens the experience. I don't know if
any of this is making any sense.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
It makes so much sense.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
I feel like I'm listening to you and I've just
got these fireworks going.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Off in my head. I'm like, this is gold.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Yeah. Thanks, yeah. So like so that for me is
where the real magic happens. And what Dead Dana talks
about is she says this thing she's one of like
the polyvagel polyvagel theory pioneers alongside Stephen Porgies, and she
talks about restorying this idea that as my state changes,

(23:07):
my story changes, which like that could be a whole
other podcast and of itself, but essentially, as like as
my body changes, like as I soften my state or
as I get my state pumped up, it does change
how I think. Like you think about when you are
with a partner or a best friend and you get
into a big fight, like you it's just like you're

(23:28):
a horrible person and I can't believe that you know,
And it's like and our thinking gets so extreme and
it gets in fact, it gets very black and white.
But then when we are able to then walk away
from that conflict and separate rooms, maybe I go for
a walk, she goes and does something else. Then we
come back together. There's a softening in our thinking and

(23:49):
there's more nuance, and there's more color, and there's more
possibility there. And so that's what bodybased breakthrough does and
what some addicts does is it offers more color in
our experience life.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Oh, I like that, more color. Technic color body breakthrough.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
Totally technic color. Body based breakthrough is totally Yeah, I
love it.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
If those of you were listening, you could see that
he also has this technic color, beautiful picture in the background.
So I'm like hearing you and visualizing it in real time.
I love that, and you know, it's so fascinating. I
was talking about Visjon and Maya Kosha in the program
that I share at the Peace and Rest just last night,

(24:34):
and this is one of those elements in La Kosha
is the inner wisdom of the body. And that's why
I feel like the fireworks are going off inside of
me because what I shared was that when we go
through Vishonamya kosha.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
It's allowing us to have that.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
You know, now that we've gotten through on amaya connected
with a body, we've bridged it with our breath, experienced
our beliefs, our emotions, located them, and then we go
into Vijhona may A kosha, which is like this parallel
to the dream state, where all of a sudden, these
different neurons start firing on both sides of the brain,
not just one, and then you start building up these connections.

(25:12):
And so ever since I had this like felt experience
of that in the teachings of it, I started realizing,
oh my goodness, this is just like you know, you're
sharing what you share through the lens of your experience.
I share what I share through the lens of my experience.
And now I'm picking up these books like you look

(25:34):
at David R. Hawkins the Levels of Consciousness, and then
you see the Inner Work the Yogi I think they're
called the Yogi Couple, and they've created the Inner Work book,
which is like looking at these themes of consciousness as well.
And I'm realizing all this work that we're all doing
to embody our experience rather than try to, you know,

(25:56):
dissociate from it. It's all leading to this direction and
then it's and this is that inner wisdom within us
that in that you know, technicolored body breakthrough that's happening.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
It's so personable. Yeah, well even just to go a
layer deeper of like how I look at vision on
mya kosha the body wisdom and this very much so
comes from Peter Levine in his work. He talks about
it as CIBAM as an acronym. In Body Based Breakthrough,
we refer to it as a somatic signature. So as

(26:30):
as Ala has a very unique somatic signature, as I
have a very well as just say, you have a
very unique signature. I have a very unique signature anytime
that I pose a question to my body, what's the
next step in my career, how do I get back
on track with my health goals, how do I repair
with my partner, or whatever the question may be. And

(26:51):
that's what we articulate inside of our journal for Body
Based Breakthrough. But whatever that question is, there's a very
unique body signal nature that I have when I ask
that question, And there's a very unique signature that your
body has when you ask that question, meaning that inside
of somatic practice. Again from leaning very heavily into Peter

(27:16):
Levine's work, we say that there's there's an image, like
every time I think about what's the next step in
my career, some there's some image that sort of like
unlocks there for me. You know, maybe it's a memory
or a picture like I can see like a sunset
or something. Everyone has a very unique image that comes
to them. That's that's the first piece. There's thoughts. Now,

(27:39):
we're all really good at thoughts, so like I don't
need to spend much time on that, but we all
have thoughts that are that are unique to us. But
then there's also which that probably is more in the mind,
that's more monomia. But then there's but then there's a sensation,
Like there's a very unique sensation so as I think
about what's next in my career, Actually i'll just do
that for a second. Yeah, there's like there's like a

(28:00):
buzzing and like a brightness in my chest and like
it's like it's very light and buoyant, and my shoulders
feel like really strong. There's like a tightening in my shoulders,
but in like it feels like very pleasant. So anyways,
that and I could probably keep going on because I
love sensations. I could hang out there all day. But
that's part of body wisdom. And then you have emotion,

(28:24):
which we all know what emotion is like, there's some
like that, but many of us are not like quite
aware of some of these channels. And that's what's sort
of been we talk about them, is like channels of experience.
So there so for as I think about what's next
in my career, there might be an emotion of joy,
there might be an emotion of sadness. There might be
discussed happy, sad, whatever, Like, there's a there's a full

(28:45):
range of possibility there. And then the last one, the
one that a lot of us don't actually always realize,
is that there's there is an impulse. There's like there's
like a behavioral like physical primal impulse that is there
that is active inside of me any time I think
about that thing. And so that's what we talk about
as a unique somatic signature that I have as I

(29:07):
call upon that body wisdom, as I as I write
down what we call in body based break through a headline,
my question, whatever it is that I want to pose
to my body, almost like I'm going on a date
with my body or I'm like interviewing my body. That's
how we kind of jokingly talk about it with body
based breakthrough is like, yeah, there's a very unique signature

(29:27):
that my body has. And so when we are in
a body based breakthrough session, what we are doing is
we're moving and we're breathing, but we're asking the body
like as I think about that headline, what images come up?
And like really giving this is what I get so
peeky about it. ELA's like really giving that time and
space to like unfold. Because the thing is, for many

(29:50):
of us, we may have not been taught that we
grew up in a household where you know, like, oh
so I'll just say for me, thought was really heavily
ought to me and and I guess image probably, but
like sensation and emotion, like that's just like that became
a very atrophied muscle in terms of my body wisdom

(30:14):
for many, many years. And then the cool part is
I worked on it and now it's just like you
work a muscle in the gym, it totally comes back
and you have availability of it. And so that's what
I think is like what I want to like make
a call out to people is that these are very
real There's very real information that your body has to
share with you all of the time, like it is
always speaking to you. And the question is are you listening?

(30:38):
Are you listening? And so again it's some of us
have real strength in this, and then some of us
just it's like it's just it's not even a weakness,
it's just that it hasn't been built up and it
hasn't been utilized. And what I love is in yoga nidra,
like there is so much space to open up to
that that that awareness.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, well I see such a beautiful compatibility between these
two practices in the sense that they are sharing the
same essence through a different lens. And you know, I
always I'm also sharing with people. You know, you can
lie down, lay it to rest, but you also need

(31:21):
to get it out, you know, get it out of
your body. So this mention of like creating a headline,
you know, asking yourself the question, receiving the information, but
then not just like sitting with it allowing it to
like flow through you in whatever way that looks like,
whether that's like art or writing or you know, speaking
up and sharing whatever that truth is or experience, and

(31:45):
you know we've got to you know, think about yin
yang energy. Right, I'm kind of I'm getting exciting excited
talking to you, Matthew, because I'm.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Thinking, like, what a beautiful compliment.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Because I myself agree in that this you know intensity
of you know, doing something really intense and then doing
something like yokin n inja right afterwards. I would rather,
you know, just gently bring myself through an experience rather
than having to go to that spike, because like yourself,
you know, I grew up in a pretty rambunctious household.

(32:18):
You know, it's on a farm with lots of animals
and brothers, so you know, it's just like very curious
and fun, but it also was chaotic and so doing
these practices now I realized, you know, I was doing
spin classes, going on this intense bike ride every day

(32:39):
and raw like loud music and like, I don't get
me wrong, I loved it, but it's so fun. But
I recently had to take a back seat because I
was thinking, you know, if you continue to run from
the bear, then you're always gonna feel like you need
to shut it down, like you have to calm it down.
So just bring this element of relaxation in and you

(33:02):
know there's seasons for everything, right.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
You can take a se hundred.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
That's thanks for naming that, because I think you're right.
I think in different seasons, people need different things. Yeah. Yeah,
in in our youth, I mean, and I don't know
as much about China, like traditional Chinese medicine, but I
hear this A lot is like this idea of like
in our youth, I like, yeah, like you're meant to
be like building and using like lots and lots of energy.
But as we get older, hopefully the ideas that we're

(33:27):
gaining more more wisdom and experience and then we do
it smarter not harder kind of thing. But I love
the way you just said that though, Ala, because like
I think about this, a lot is building in consistency
over intensity, consistency over intensity. It's like I'm like, I'm
in the marathon of life. I'm not trying to be

(33:48):
in sprint, and I think a lot of us are
like sprinting, and it's like, well, but how long can
you actually sprint? If you really like if you if
I just set you down on like a long track,
like how long could you actually sprint for maybe you
could legitimately sprint for two laps, I don't know, but like,
could you sprint for fifty laps? Sixty eighty ninety laps?

(34:11):
I don't know, could you do that?

Speaker 1 (34:12):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
I couldn't.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
I've the word sprinting automatically sends a signal to my
nervous system.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
Yeah, totally, totally, So yeah, I think that's it. It's
like I want to do consistency over intensity, like you're saying,
instead of the spikes, because I think some people are like, well,
but that's not is that realistic? Like how am I
supposed to be calm all the time? It's like, well not,
you don't have to be calm all the time. You
don't have to be like regulated all the time. But
to know that, like if I'm more consistently than not

(34:40):
moving at that ed like just a consistent pace instead
of these like high highs and low lows. Yeah, like
I'm not going to crash. Yeah yeah, which is just exciting.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
You know.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
The guy talk about is like the roller coaster of transformation,
Like I'd much rather get off that roller coaster. And
you know, I don't know, like a maybe like a
chill bike ride, you know, not like a high intensity
bike ride, just chill on, like along the beach or something.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
I don't know, yeah, I didn't. I know the feeling.
I know the feeling.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
I remember hiking mountains and just being like wow, the
treachery to get.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
To the top. I'm just like so exhausted. And then
more recently, I'm.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Like, you know what, I'm just going to hang out
at the strong, sturdy base and enjoy the flowers and
the but.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
You know, just take a little bit of a.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
Step by step rather than like the I've got to
put a flag on the top of this thing. But
I would love to maybe now would be a good
time for us to explore some of what you're sharing,
what you're talking about. I'm like, now, I feel like
my body's like, yes, craving.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
This experience totally. Yeah. When we do that, this is fun. Yeah.
What I'd love to do is give us an experience
of osmatic somature. I think that'd be really fun. So
one of the things we'll talk about it is like
just letting your eyes just take a walk about your room.

(36:06):
So if you're watching on a screen, just taking a
few moments just to allow the eyes to walk and
even just like maybe softening my visions, I can take
in a little bit more of the room, just kind
of checking it out, noticing are there any plants or paintings,

(36:30):
or maybe there's a tree outside that's just like kind
of pleasant to look at. What this does is this
tells my brain, like I number one, I like it
gives us a sense of self in space. I am

(36:50):
here in this place at this time, so I'm existing
in space right here, right now. And then secondarily, as
you're looking about your space and finding things that just
kind of like nice to look at, Like it's kind
of like it's kind of cool thing out with this
lying room plant that I have in the space. Maybe

(37:12):
it's kind of nice that I'm also recognizing that there
aren't any immediate threats in my environment. Hopefully right, hopefully
there aren't any immediate threats in my environment. So it
actually allows my biology to go like okay, cool, like
it's actually maybe a little okay to go inside. So

(37:33):
then you can start to bring your attention awareness like
back in front here, like back to yourself, and if
you want, you can either close down your eyes if
you feel comfortable or safe or even just to like
draw your vision maybe two feet down in front of you,
just a gentle, soft gaze. And then feel your feet
on the floor. I just notice that actual sensation or

(37:59):
like yeah, okay, that's why my feet feel like on
the floor. And then feel your seat in your seat.
So we're starting to kind of work the periphery of
the body. So he did the full environment around me.
Now we're kind of coming in a little bit, and
then if it feels safe just to kind of like

(38:20):
check out your breath, just notice or your eyes closed
or your eyes soft, what's going on in my breath
right now? Do it feel like it's low in my
belly or does it feel like it's high up in
my chest, or it's my clavicles or like my collar bones.

(38:43):
It wouldn't have to even change anything. You're just kind
of checking it out. It's like I'm just kind of
tracking it. I'm just sort of watching it. And I
don't know about you, but I notice as I start
to track it, my breath just actually kind of naturally
expands a little bit. And so then will do a

(39:07):
cool exercise for somatic signature. So I want you to
think about your favorite person in the world, you're absolute
favorite person and if people are scary that seems kind
of silly to some of us, but some people that's true.

(39:28):
Maybe there's a pet, or maybe there's a tree, or
maybe there's yeah, something in your world that you feel
really connected to. And as you think about that, what's
the immediate thought that comes to mind? So with your

(39:56):
eyes closed, what images surface when you think about this person,
this animal, this piece of nature. Is there a memory

(40:17):
and don't noticed any physical impulses? Do you feel an
urge to smile or to like reach out or to
perhaps embrace this person or this animal, this piece of earthing.

(40:46):
Really close attention to the sensations in your body, like
is there warmth in my chest or a tangling sensation
in my belly? Maybe my hands feel really warm.

Speaker 5 (41:15):
Oh, serons arrives as I think about this person, this animal,
this earth, the emotions that were happy, love, comfort.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
And see if you can really take that in like
even just like two percent more like just like drawing
or a full really letting that imprint. After going through

(42:02):
the images like sort of impulse or behaviors, the sensations,
the emotions, has your initial thought about your favorite person
changed or deepened in any way.

Speaker 6 (42:23):
Like there's more information available to me. The more data,
more wisdom. And if you have the journal around you,
you know, I invite you to just to take a
few moments to just sort of jot down note your observations,

(42:45):
like what did you find out?

Speaker 3 (42:47):
What did you did you notice? And I'd say, like,
let's come back.

Speaker 4 (42:52):
Out the same way that we went in, which is
to slowly, as you feel comfortable, kind of feel your
feet on the floor or fit your seat and your seat,
and they just start to peek.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
Open the windows to your eyes and then just take
a grown your environment again, just such your eyes take
a walk, just kind of notice what you notice now,
and then as you're looking around, you might notice that
things look a little different.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
There.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
Some of my clients that'll will walk into session and
you know, they'll just look outside and they'll go like,
that's a crunny day outside, Like it's just so bad.
It's not it's a bad day outside. And I'll talk
to them forty five minutes later, after we've done a session,
nothing will have changed outside and they look outside and
they're like, wow, it's just like it's it's just a

(43:53):
bright beautiful day outside. It's really sweet. So this is
I'll just one quick piece here, is that one of
my teachers calls it outside, which is to say that
whatever I see on the outside is just a reflection
of what's going on on the inside. In some schools
of thought, they might call that projection. But I think
the projection can also have like a bad connotation to it.

(44:16):
But sometimes it's a really beautiful connotation. It's like, oh,
if so if the outside like looks really good, and
even right now, like I'm looking outside and there's like
this really beautiful like glimmer on the trees, like on
the leaves, and my heart feels really like big and
bright and full like as I look at that, and
so like that just tells me like, yeah, there's really beautiful,

(44:37):
Like I'm experiencing those glimmers and stuff on the inside,
like those little those little like the sun dancing on
the leaves, Like that's yeah, that's what's happening inside me,
you know, as I'm experiencing on the outside.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
I love that, Yeah, you know it. I also had
a contrast of experience inside and outside. I was thinking
of my grandma.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
She's not with us, but she's come to me in
a dream recently, and so she just automatically I was like, oh,
I love her so much. And I had this memory
of her eating ice cream with me with the orange
sweater on, and so the color that came up for
me was orange. All I could see was orange everywhere.
And so then when I opened up my eyes, I'm like, wow,

(45:20):
there's a lot.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
Of yellow in here. Such a funny like it was like, wow,
it's yellow in here, not orange, like such a funny experience.
That contrasted is to share my own.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
But nothing else to you? Yeah, what else did you notice?
You know?

Speaker 1 (45:43):
I I noticed that, Yeah, yeah, I noticed that.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
As as we do it, you know, there is becomes
this surrendering and the way that you queued something was
really beautiful. There was almost like no no placement on
the breath, and then it was just a noticing of it.
And sometimes we can get cut up in that Y're like, okay,
watch my breathing, and then you want to change your
breath automatically, but this just takes you out of it.

(46:09):
And it was just really nice to go through that
acknowledgement of the breath and not have to, you know,
change it. In any way, just be with it, and
so that automatically brings one sheath, one layer down, and
I could just feel my body automatically start to settle
into the experience.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
And I really loved that.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Yeah, so automatically, yeah, going into that excitement to experience this,
and then that experience like alchemizing into this sort of
a really lovely header of I'm going to hang out
with my grandma and stillness for a moment, you know.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Again, Yeah, did you can I aspect did you notice
was there was there like an impulse that you felt
or it's her or like or was there like a
pushing away or bringing towards or did you feel you know, and.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
You don't have to also, Yeah, well I think initially
I was like, oh, I think I was supposed to
you know.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
I was like, I should probably think.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Of someone who is presently here, and then I and
then the cognitive mind was like, but no one's actually
presently here except for you and Matthew, So you can
think about anybody.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
You want right now anymore.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
So then I let that in.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
And then I loved that you offered the options of
like other elements to bring into like what it is
that you love because I mean, I'm not trying to
like break down what you shared. But for me, the reception,
the way that I received it was like, you know,
it's funny. We have this narrative that plays out.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
In our head.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
Am I doing this?

Speaker 5 (47:46):
Right?

Speaker 1 (47:46):
Should I be doing this? Should I be doing that?

Speaker 3 (47:49):
You know?

Speaker 2 (47:49):
And when you can allow yourself to just get into
the body, get into the breath and listen, you know,
that's when you can allow the felt experience to shine through.
You can I'm like, now I'm in this beautiful orange
bulb with the energy of the essence of my grandma,
and I'm thinking about ice cream. So it's like, you know,

(48:10):
who's not smiling when you're thinking about ice cream? Unless
you're lactose intolerant then maybe you're not smiling.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
But totally Oh what a sweet memory of Grandma. Yeah,
and I think, what's really special? Yeah, So I'm just
like cool, more more orange in Ale's life, just like
just like a touch of orange. Yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
This is the yellow room, gold, the gold room.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
Oh yeah, yeah yeah. But it makes me think like
that might be an inspired action that you may like,
I mean, I don't want to give it to you,
but obviously, it's like that's usually one of the questions
that will then ask and we don't do it necessarily
feet favor people. Normally, it's just like a fun little
taster for us to experience. But but typically we do
walk away from every session with like, what's the inspired action?

Speaker 2 (49:03):
Yeah, yeah, well, I feel like the inner wisdom that
shines through for myself is kind of like that playfulness,
you know, she has assessence of painfulness. So the orange
to me is like representing in this moment, kind of
like that sacral chakra energy, like being in slow creation
bringing that to light too. And also the theme of

(49:26):
what we've been chatting about, you know, vision and may kosha,
how that inner wisdom starts to shine through. And I
also mentioned this as these associations of like, Okay, so
orange to me represents this, you know, so I love
what you're sharing.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
I want to learn more about it.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
So how can everybody else listening learn more about body
based breakthrough and what you are sharing with the world,
because this is in the short period that we've been
talking and going through this experience, Like, I'm just so
curious and excited about learning more.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Well, a couple of ways yeah, Instagram. We're on Instagram
at body Based Breakthrough. We also obviously have a website
called bodybased Breakthrough dot com. But you can also find
we have on the School platform, which I know you
and I have talked a little bit about. And for
those of you who don't know, School is a newer platform.
It's lovely. And we have something called the Somatic Coaching
Community and that's totally free and that's a really easy way,

(50:27):
excuse me to start to check out what we're doing.
Then you can actually do body based Breakthrough sessions with
us for free, so that's a really cool way. But
for those of you who are like, oh my gosh,
I've been waiting to deal with Smatic Coaching certification, we
have a three month certification that we train Sematic coaches,
so you would be a Body Based Breakthrough or B

(50:49):
three certified Somatic coach. So super happy to chat about
that as well. Friend, mean, who's interested? We have our
next one. This is going to kind of date this podcast,
I guess, but January thirteenth, twenty twenty five, but then
absolutely run them three times a year as well. So yeah,
it was super fun trying to think there's something else Oh,
I guess the only the thing is and this is

(51:10):
a little bit newer, so this is like hot off
the press. We're going to start Actually, you have been
incredibly inspiring to this. We're going to start doing more
stuff on YouTube. Cool, So starting to bring more of
this kind of goodness to YouTube because I think you
have done a beautiful job paving the way for just
giving of service, just really sharing your gifts. So that's

(51:33):
kind of our next foray, starting to play on YouTube
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
Oh, I love that. That's so amazing.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
Yes, it's been such a beautiful space to share all
of this work. And yeah, I'm in your school community
and the Somatic Coaching Great space. Also did a meditation
there as well, which I absolutely loved. So for all
of those of you who are listening or watching, please
I'll leave all of this information in the description in

(52:03):
the show notes so that you can get in contact
with Matthew his beautiful work with the B three body
based Breakthrough. And I'm just really so honored to have
you on the show today and to be able to
share your work.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
I would love to have you on again because I
feel like we just brush the surface.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Yeah, So we'll have to explore that as well.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
So I'm really looking forward to how all of you've
experienced this today and wherever you may be, whether it's
on Spotify or if it's on YouTube, please leave in
the comments or below what came up for you in
the session that we did today. Maybe how allow the
comment section to be that free flow where you share

(52:50):
what you experienced through this practice that we did today
with Matthew And was there anything that you wanted to
share before we sign off with everyone?

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Maybe?

Speaker 2 (52:59):
So one thing that if somebody was getting into sematics,
then they were just first entering into that realm.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
You know, we got a little touch point of it today.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
What would what would you have said to yourself before
getting into the sematic work to like enhance your experience.

Speaker 3 (53:14):
Yeah, that's such a group. Okay, you totally got me.
That's so good. It's it's like when we grow up
with our best friend who lives right next door, and unfortunately,
you know, one of their parents gets a job in
another country. Then they move away to this foreign country

(53:35):
with their parents, and we call that friend every day
and we're super excited to hear about them and their
other country and they're learning all these new languages and
it's super fun. And then it starts to be like,
you know, time goes by. We call them once a month,
and then we call them every three months, and then
we stopped talking as much, and then we start actually

(53:57):
getting in fights because like culturally, like things just don't
make as much sense anymore, and things are changing and
we just don't get each other's world anymore. And maybe
we just stopped talking entirely and we lose that best friend.
And this is an analogy for I think how many

(54:17):
of us experience the relationship that we have with our bodies.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
You're gonna make me cry. Oh this is what I
shar too. So oh that's really yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
Yeah, So like coming home to the body, like coming
home to the relationship with your body. I think we
sometimes forget it because our worlds are becoming so much
more cerebral, the technology and the way that we do work,
most of us on the internet now, so it's we're
like losing touch with the relationship that we have with
our bodies. So like mind body connection, Like that's cool.

(54:54):
It sounds buzzwordy, but when I think about it, I
think about it, it's like the relationship between our body.
So if you're someone who's like I want a deeper
relationship with my body and I want to share that
with other people, then that is Yeah, that's what sematics
is about.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
For me. Oh, what a beautiful way to sign off
this session that we've shared with everyone, and yeah, smiling
ear to ear, feeling really happy in my body, really
feeling like grateful to hear everything that you've shared, and
thank you so much for being here. It was really
lovely to be in this space with you today where

(55:32):
we could explore the trauma informs paths of yoga, Nindra
and sematic work. If you feel called to explore this
even further, I have left the links below so that
you can join Matthew's community in Somatic Coaching as well
as the Nova Nidra community.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
Together.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
I believe that you're going to find a space of
deep rest and beautiful connection with it. We'll see you
on the other side.

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E.008 The Wisdom Your Body Holds | Somatics x Nidra | Matthew T. Cooke

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}E.008 The Wisdom Your Body Holds | Somatics x Nidra | Matthew T. Cooke