Posture of Protection: How Trauma Impacts the Way We Carry Ourselves

In this powerful conversation, Hero, Somatic Therapist, and Rolfing Practitioner, Moylan Ryan, explores how our bodies carry the imprints of past pain — and how movement, breath, and presence can help us release those old stories. Moylan explains how trauma, stress, and emotional overwhelm are woven into our physical form and how posture often reveals the ways we’ve adapted to protect ourselves.

From the impact of the vagus nerve to overcoming immobilization, Moylan offers practical insight and somatic wisdom for anyone looking to feel safer, more spacious, and more connected in their own body.

What You Will Learn

• [00:08:18] Why creating space in the body helps us reconnect with ourselves
• [00:10:30] How trauma disrupts our ability to complete tasks or take action
• [00:14:30] Why understanding trauma intellectually isn’t enough — it must be released somatically
• [00:16:30] How elevated shoulders and shallow breathing can indicate a startle response
• [00:21:30] How we use physical tension to suppress adrenaline in a trauma response
• [00:24:00] Why long exhalations help signal safety to the nervous system
• [00:27:30] What “mobilization without fear” means — and why it’s key to healing
• [00:31:00] How restoring peristalsis helps process unexpressed emotion in the body

Resources Mentioned

• Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are – TED Talk by Amy Cuddy
• 5Rhythms by Gabrielle Roth (Movement Practice)

Let’s Connect!
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Moylan Ryan

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Chandler Stroud

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Mixing and editing provided by Next Day Podcast.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Chandler Stroud: Hey guys, it's Chandler and welcome to the Healing Heroes.

I'm Chandler Stroud, an executive wife and busy mom of two who after years of living with anxiety health struggles and an unshakeable feeling like I should be happier, made a profound discovery that changed everything. Join me on a journey where unexpected paths lead to healing and more happiness. On this show, we will explore [00:00:30] unconventional ways to unlock more joy in your own life.

With the help of my very own healers and trusted advisors, the healing heroes.

Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Healing Heroes podcast. I am your host Chandler, and I am thrilled to welcome expert Rolfer and hero Moylan Ryan, back to the show today. [00:01:00] As I've said before, I've so enjoyed getting to know Moylan and his work better after being connected to him through another hero, Katie Wee, who saw him for her own somatic release sessions.

In fact, I was so blown away by our first session together. I later persuaded my husband to join me on a trip out to Arizona to visit Moylan and partake in one of his 10 session packages together. As an early [00:01:30] Christmas gift, we both got so much out of it, and I was particularly intrigued by learning more from Moylan about how our bodies adapt to protect us throughout our lives.

As he put it, the posture of protection. And so today we're gonna dig more into that. And how our bodies are quite literally shielding us from the real and perceived threats of the modern day world. If you're a woman wearing many [00:02:00] hats, whether personally as a mother, wife, sister, daughter, community leader, and more, or even a working professional like I was, who could add boss, colleague, or mentor to your list of roles, then this episode is for you.

As I've embarked on this journey to more self-awareness and healing, I've become very attuned to the moments when my body engages in fight or flight mode, but it [00:02:30] wasn't always that way. I've gotten better at noticing when my shoulders have been up near my ears for long stretches of time, or when I straightened in my chair to realize the muscles in my back were bracing the entire time.

Even at times when my shoulders are curved forward to protect my heart space in some way, I've come to learn that this is our body's way of protecting us from threats while simultaneously [00:03:00] causing harm in other ways. And Rolfing has been an effective way to excavate and release those emotions. So I'm especially excited for today's conversation with Moylan before we dive in.

Since Moylan is a bit newer to the show and we have always a number of new listeners joining us, I'd love to share more about Moy Lynn's background for added context in today's conversation. Moylan. Ryan is [00:03:30] originally from Ireland where he trained as a somatic psychotherapist, but eventually relocated to the US nearly 21 years ago to study at the Dr.

Rolf Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Moylan has a private practice as a somatic therapist in Tempe, Arizona, where he offers Rolfing structural integration, neurodynamic breath work, and movement education as integral parts of his healing process. He's taught somatics and [00:04:00] embodied movement as part of the dance faculty at Arizona State University where his practice is based on the nonviolent martial art of a keto in which he holds a sixth degree black belt.

Moylan is currently completing his book, living Aligned, a compilation of over 40 years of experience exploring the landscape of both the inner and outward world. It is so good to have you back on the show. Thank you for being with [00:04:30] us today. 

[00:04:31] Moylan Ryan: It's a pleasure to be here, Chandler. Thank you for inviting me.

Thank you. 

[00:04:34] Chandler Stroud: Of course, I loved our first conversation together. There are so many topics I still want to go deep with you on in the future, but today this just felt so relevant given our first conversation and my experience working with you. So posture of protection. I think before we get into the meat of today's conversation, I'd love to start at the beginning and just ensure everyone listening [00:05:00] is on this.

Same page. So with that, can you briefly explain what Rolfing is and how it differs from massage or the physical therapy we might know and be more familiar with? 

[00:05:15] Moylan Ryan: Rolfing the work of Dr. Ida Rolfe. Created a deep intelligence and knowledge about the role of fascia. This fascial matrix, which is primarily made up of collagen fibers that exists in your [00:05:30] body, in every body, and it surrounds every muscle, organ, and nerve.

And it can become restricted, contracted it can respond to outwardly to outward situations. Circumstances that were in stressful environments, it can also respond to thoughts. For example, if you think stressful thoughts, the impact will have on the collagen fibers is that they both thicken. [00:06:00] Because the mind and the body perceive a threat.

So I Rolf came up with utilizing hands-on methodology to be able to unwind these type of fascial membranes and to allow the muscles that are contained and the nerves that are contained in that fascial web to have more leverage, to have more space to function. What fascinated me was that [00:06:30] I believe.

That our narrative stories, paradigms that have taken a residence in our psychology, but also have taken a nce in our biology, and they live in the fascia in the fascial membranes. When fascia is functioning, it is tropic and go from agel to a solid state so that you can, has a plasticity to it. So you can remold it.

It also has it's astic. That means that when you unwind it, it [00:07:00] doesn't go back like a muscle has elastin. The collagen fibers, once you stretch them, they remain stretched. And the last part, which is very, very important, it has peo electricity that it carries a current, which is your libet life force energy.

So a body that has fascia that's bound tight restricted, it would not have much resilience in it, it would not have much energy passing through. It'll have it'll be in dysfunction, [00:07:30] but our work is to create space within the body. That's what I offered, I said, to create space because we're in this especially people who have, which is probably every body really has some type of stress, but the response to that stress is a contraction of reaction.

We're caught in this type of spiral of contraction. We've lost space. And that's why in our humanity, people have lost space [00:08:00] for another. There's no space in me for you. 'cause there's no space in me for me. So we are losing that connection. We become exiled from one another, from humanity, from community, because we're not in relationship, deep relationship with ourselves.

[00:08:18] Chandler Stroud: Hmm. I believe that. I absolutely believe that. How do you think Rolfing helps those who seek your advice and guidance? Is it usually [00:08:30] physical discomfort that brings people to your office and then they discover so much more? Or is it something else that would. Suggest or provoke someone to call you for for help.

[00:08:43] Moylan Ryan: Many people come because they have some discomfort in their body. Usually some type of chronic pain and something really subtle. It could be like fibromyalgia or something like that. But when they come and [00:09:00] they spend time working with me, they begin to, during that excavation, they discover that. What's happening in them physically.

The beginning of that, the root of that is something to do with their psychology. So there's a relationship between, in their psychobiology. Mm-hmm. A lot of, some other people come because they have seen, or someone has recommended me or they've seen my website and they come because they've experienced traumatic [00:09:30] experiences in their past.

That have left their nervous system in a, an immobilized dorsal what's called dorsal vagal influence. So they feel, and this is really interesting because. When we're in that immobilization, there's no, there's a lack of completion in your life. People who are in immobilized state, rarely complete tasks in their lives.

They're in a loop, and so they're feeling disempowered. [00:10:00] There's often a feeling of victimization that something is happening to them from the outside world that's immobilizing them. And my work with them through rol in somatic therapy and movement education is to get them back into a mobilized state.

And it's interesting because the work we do is to get them into what's called ventral and, and sympathetic activation. Ventral vagal and sympathetic activation is mobilization without fear. So getting them to move [00:10:30] their bodies. So a person who comes to Rolfing often has a very low level of what's called a bio motion vocabulary.

Bio motion is the energy coming through the body, but they don't move. They move in a very restricted way. They move in a very effortful way. And so you want to have them move with a sense of gracefulness, ease, choice, expansion. I would say take it even further, Chandler, I'd say to the body, [00:11:00] one body can move from fear and another body can move from love.

The Roft body moves from love. The more that we have an understanding of the role of the relationship between the body and mind, that we can heal our own psychobiology. Yeah, it's, we've been so conditioned to be outside ourselves and know about technology and about how our phone work, but how do we work?

What makes us work and what makes us not work? [00:11:30] You know, how can we return to being functional especially in today's world where we, when we're so challenged in staying in deep relationship with ourselves. But the real home is no matter where you're going, you are always at home in yourself. And building those resources is the most important thing.

'cause being estranged from yourself is, and being fractured. It's, it's so debilitating. You know, it is. It really is to get [00:12:00] back into yourself. I would suggest, and I suggest this to my clients, you need to develop a capacity as an adult to be able to go back and rescue that party yourself. So you have to replicate the, the symposium, replicate the occurrence, but in a safe environment.

So, for example, if a person was sexually abused and they were held down and repressed and they went into a stress response [00:12:30] fight or flight, they couldn't do either. They went into immobilization. So they immobilize themselves. There are people who often, as I said to you. Don't finish things because they're immobilized.

There's not a continuity with them. So my suggestion would be to go to a place like an Aikido practice and to find somebody who represents the domination that you experience in that childhood scenario. You're working with that [00:13:00] person who's cooperative, who's a kind-hearted person, but is giving you an opportunity for them to represent a block in your life.

And then you, through training, you discover and develop a practice to be able to break free from the immobilization, from the, the, the restrictions or whatever that you would've encountered as a child and develop a competence around that. And in doing so. When you [00:13:30] develop that competence, oh boy, it's so empowering.

It's in that you go back and you rescue the child that was abused, that had to go into, you're no longer mobilized because you're in ventral vagal and sympathetic without fear, 

[00:13:44] Chandler Stroud: and I love, love, love that you're saying that because it is one of the most. Powerful things I've done seemingly so simple on the surface, just going back and like providing compassion care and really pulling that younger [00:14:00] self out of whatever the situation was.

But it has, I mean, leaps and bounds forward, it has moved me forward. It, it's, it's so, so meaningful that work 

[00:14:10] Moylan Ryan: and, and it's one thing to do that in the thinking mind, the thinking mind and understanding trauma. Is not good enough. Yeah. You need to have a somatic shift in the blueprint. So therefore you need to move somatically in a [00:14:30] free, a freedom beyond the dominance, a freedom beyond the immo.

You need to move somatic. So, and I, I'm a big understanding of, of, yes, I can go back and think about that and understand it. It's in your body is where the trauma is. 

[00:14:44] Chandler Stroud: I totally agree. Understanding 

[00:14:46] Moylan Ryan: mine. So moving a different way and being able to take charge of situations is, for me, it's huge, huge, huge. I 

[00:14:55] Chandler Stroud: know you're such an advocate for I Keto and I still, I have not been able to [00:15:00] partake in that yet, but it is on my roadmap to try because.

I, you, I mean, somatic practices are critical to what we talk about on the show for that very reason, right? The Rolfing, the MFR, the acupuncture, the yoga, all of that. Now, I know from our past conversation, you make the point that that is solo in nature. And that Aikido offers the benefit of having someone invade that personal space and seeing how you can influence that [00:15:30] resistance.

The push and pull, and I'm so intrigued by it. I can't wait to try. I can't wait to try, but I totally agree with what you're saying on it happens and lives within us somatically, not just in the mind. You suggested in our last episode that our posture tells the story of our protection. I'm curious what you meant by that, and if you could expound on that, especially given the context of today's conversation together, 

[00:15:55] Moylan Ryan: you know, and the person who's traumatized or.

Physically attacked [00:16:00] or whatever, they'll try to protect their, their vulnerability, their vulnerability's gonna be the front of their body, so they will shape their body and they will present the back of their body to take, whether it's a physical blow or whatever, because it's more resourceful and more armored, if you understand.

So there's a tendency to be in this type of withdrawn, drawn into your body. It pulls in, so you're not seeing, your vulnerability is protected. [00:16:30] You go into a frozen type of state. Two of the main things I've seen in, in many, many people that I've worked with over the years, one is the elevation of the shoulders.

And that happens habitually in people. And, and, and people don't understand why, but there's a specific reason for that is because we. Raise our shoulders up to protect our blood flow. The oxygenated blood going to the [00:17:00] brain to the carotid artery. Now if you have a, a dog and attacks another dog, it'll grab her by the throat 'cause that dog knows instinctively that it will render the other dog.

Unconscious after a period of time if they can seize the, and prevent that blood flow. So because we're animals ourselves, we, when we feel fearful, we'll protect our, our neck. So the shoulders come up to protect the carotid artery. The second thing that happens is that we're in a startle reflex, habitual [00:17:30] startle reflex.

So the diaphragm is pulled up and we start to breathe to secondary muscles of respiration. Which is here in the neck. They elevate these muscles, elevate the first and second rib. Their secondary muscles are respiration where the diaphragm isn't functioning business in a startle reflex. So when these things happen, they then send a message to the nervous system to release more adrenaline cortisol.

And that's the, the hormonal activation that comes flooding through the body. And [00:18:00] this is the habitual pattern of a posture that's created through having some type of a trauma response. For example when the neck becomes tight and restricted because we're using these muscles to breathe, the muscles at the back of our head also gets tight, and these are called a suboccipital muscles, and they pull on a fascial layer called the dura mater.

Which surrounds the brain, a spinal cord. So [00:18:30] they put a strangle hold, and then they reduce the oxygen of blood going up into the brainstem, into the brain itself. So you get kind of a fogginess, a vagueness about you. Hard to, and the message is going to cerebellum, which is the cerebellum is a part of the brain that helps you to navigate space that becomes dysfunctional.

So it's hard for you to navigate. And, and here's even interesting Chandler. It's hard for you to feel safe in your space that surrounds you. [00:19:00] So you can just see how the posture is reemphasizing and maintaining the traumatic response. So when we come into a roughing environment and we start to unwind these postural habits patterns that the body can have greater.

Expansion ease. We restore function to the breath. We restore function to the head and neck in the eyes. So a person feels safer in their body, but also they feel more [00:19:30] competent in navigating the space around them because during times of trauma, that is what the greatest threat is. It's about something coming into our space.

We're able to be in charge of our response to the space around us. 

[00:19:43] Chandler Stroud: That makes sense. Moylan, thank you for sharing. I'm curious to build on that, how do our bodies unconsciously adapt in response to emotional stress, trauma or chronic fear? 

[00:19:54] Moylan Ryan: The embodied response to stress and trauma [00:20:00] is, as you already know, is the release of adrenaline and that adrenaline starts to flood through the body.

And, and it's, it's fantastic, you know, because it moves us to take action and it, its purpose is just telling us, telling the body how to stay alive. If you have to run away from something or you have to fight against something, but that energy stays in the extremities, it's in the arms are fighting and in the legs for [00:20:30] running away.

So it leaves the center of the body and takes up residence. So if you're habitually in a stressful, reactionary pattern, most of your energy will be in the, in the extremities of your body. Now, at the time, if you find yourself that you are unable to run away or to fight. Then the next thing that the body does, it goes into a state of immobilization.

The dorsal vehicle aspect of the [00:21:00] vagus nerve activates, so that's what's called a shutdown state. Breath, digestion, heart rate, energy conservation. The action drive becomes suppressed. And here's the interesting thing about it, is that you have to. You have to suppress the adrenaline that's being there prior to the stress to trauma response.

When the stress response became activated, you had a [00:21:30] lot of adrenaline for the immobilization. That adrenaline is still in the body but has to be suppressed, so you use tension in your body to suppress the adrenaline flow. So you can go into an immobilized state now. You could stay in that immobilized state for quite a long time.

You could be disassociated. You could develop an inaction habit. Of not being able to take some type of action as such when that adrenaline and cortisol is in your body. It [00:22:00] has such a, well an impact on the frontal cortex of your brain, for example, it can begin to shut that down. So the, what's running the show then is the, the amygdala part of your brainstem.

Which has an emotional reactionary pattern. So everything that happens to you has an emotion attached to it because you're not clearly thinking because the frontal cortex has been adversely affected by the excessive adrenaline and cortisol, especially cortis. [00:22:30] 

[00:22:30] Chandler Stroud: So what do we do in those moments?

I'm just curious. I mean, if your amygdala's running the show, logic is kind of out the window at this point. What do we do to get out of that state? And I don't mean if you're running from a lion or your life is in danger. 'cause I know that you can activate those states. In modern times in a stressful meeting or with an endless to-do list.

I mean, this is where I think we're so [00:23:00] often triggered and we find ourselves in these states, and we may not even realize it, but I think. As I said in the beginning, how often I've felt stressed out in a big meeting or preparing for a presentation or just thinking about the 20 something things I have to get done with not enough time, and I realize that my shoulders are by my ears or that my heart is beating quickly or you know, I'm just curious, like what do you tell women when they've noticed they're in [00:23:30] this state to.

Kind of shift gears and shift their energy back to a place of peace. 

[00:23:37] Moylan Ryan: The first thing you need to do is to go to the breath, because you'll find when you are in this place of immobilization, the first reflection of immobilization is in that startle reflex. The diaphragm isn't working. You are in that.

You're breathing up here in your neck, and so therefore relaxing the shoulder. I would say to a person to have this [00:24:00] practice. You have to build resources outside of stressful events. So you have to be able to, when you're not stressed, you build a resource so you'll have those resources when you are stressed.

Don't wait until you're in the fight to develop your skills, so relaxing your pelvic floor, relaxing the diaphragm. Relaxing the shoulders, relaxing the jaw [00:24:30] core of the body, the central line of the body breathing. Having a long exhalation. A long exhalation. Being in gravity, being aware of the surrendering of that tension, that rehearsed tension, but long term for people who are in.

This type of embodied pattern of trauma to get out of [00:25:00] this habitual flow of those hormones I mentioned, like cortisol and adrenaline and, and get out of this stress response and trauma response. You have to find a portal that brings you into what's called a parasympathetic. So that's all to do with the vagus nerve.

Mm. So look at the dorsal vagal immobilization. So you're immobilized, you're not getting things done, you're not taking action. You might be disregulated, [00:25:30] you might be disassociated from your body, so you're not knowing how you feel. You feel a little bit of a separation or exile from yourself. You have to get back into your body, so you need to develop new movement.

So to get into the, and this is very, very interesting to get into the portal for parasympathetic, which is ventral vagal. Is [00:26:00] back through a sympathetic activation. So you are in dorsal vagal. You need to get into ventral vagal, but the doorway is a sympathetic activation. But that's what I said is that it's, it's sympathetic with ventral vagal.

So it's mobilization without fear. 'cause what you had before is the trauma. This person has immobilization with fear. You want to get into mobilization [00:26:30] without fear, that means movement, dancing shaking the body attending breath work. And of course, I have to say, doing aikido practice. These are all mobilization without fear.

So if you've had traumatic experience where you felt. Dominated by the external environment and you only resource of survival was to immobilize yourself. You're stuck in that pattern until [00:27:00] you go back into. But you have to go into mobilization without fear. So you put yourself in situations where that energy, that adrenaline that you've worked so hard, unconscious is suppress.

That's why we have tension in our body. We're suppressing this tension. That's a stress response. Now we're such a release that adrenaline from the body. That's extremely important. So we, we released the adrenaline by going into mobilization without fear, which is [00:27:30] ventral, vagal and sympathetic activation.

[00:27:33] Chandler Stroud: And just to clarify for listeners, as you're talking moylan, when we say parasympathetic, that is a state of peace, calm, zen. Right? And when the nervous system is in sympathetic mode, that is when you are fight flight. Fawn or freeze essentially. And so if that's helpful, just as we're talking through it 

[00:27:56] Moylan Ryan: let me just say this much here though, that that's [00:28:00] something that we need to be correct on because you use the word freeze as describing sympathetic.

Freeze is parasympathetic, so fight or flight is sympathetic. 

[00:28:13] Chandler Stroud: Yeah, no, that's a great point. That's a great point. I wanna build on this a little bit. Why? Why do these physical adaptations stick around long after the actual stressor is long gone? I'm curious about that. 'cause I've [00:28:30] experienced this myself, but I think a lot of adults who have experienced trauma as children.

Right are still experiencing those stressors and triggers in new ways in present day. And I'm curious, like the physical adaptations that kept them safe when they were young are still showing up in the present. And I'm curious why they stick around for so long. Even though the external circumstances have shifted.

[00:28:56] Moylan Ryan: I believe that we have an ingrained type of [00:29:00] history. His story, her story, and that's mm-hmm. Blueprint that was created at a, at a time of a traumatic experience. That blueprint, even though we've gotten older and hopefully wiser and we're in the world, but at the time of that traumatic experience, that download takes place and it's in the nervous system, and it's always in the nervous system until such time.[00:29:30] 

As the person receives some work and primarily in the body, because what has happened is that the energy that was in the core of the body has left and has gone to the extremities for fight or flight. We spoke about that earlier, I think. So restoring that energy in the core of the body and restoring what I call, oh, well, not, I call what we call peristalsis.

[00:30:00] BLS that we hear in the.

That is the number one way of processing unexpressed emotions in the body. So taking, getting the energy from the extremities back into the core by restoring parasitic upsurge is the only way that I know of to recalibrate that blueprint. And when that happens, the [00:30:30] body begins to let go of the old outdated software.

Our hard wiring so we can begin to upgrade and create a new software in the nervous system. And that's the reason why we're stuck in this loop. 'cause we're still working from an old hard wiring that was created, a blueprint that was created at the time of trauma that's still in our bodies. In our bodies.

And its influence in our mind. Because 80% of messages come from your [00:31:00] body to your mind. 20% come from your mind to your body. So your body state is creating your thinking, mind, worry, anxiety. That's why it's very important. And I Gerda Bo and the founder of the system I studied and body psychotherapy.

She came up with that whole idea. She was a ri in therapist, so she worked a lot with body armor and she came up with what's called psycho peristalsis. The restoration of psycho peristalsis in the body is imperative to breaking that [00:31:30] cycle. And, and when I hear that in the client, that person I know our work is it's, we're on the right track.

[00:31:37] Chandler Stroud: Mm. Love that. I think that's a really good transition to ask what is happening in the nervous system during and after Rolfing sessions. So how does like Rolfing as an approach start to help women get from that? Sympathetic mode back into a [00:32:00] state of peace and harmony. 

[00:32:02] Moylan Ryan: My goal is in helping people to move beyond this immobilization and to reclaim.

There's a, there's a beautiful movement artist named, and you might know her name, Bonnie Banbridge Cohen, and she's been around for quite a long time, but she talks about five basic neurological actions that inform the function. Of how we move through the world. And they are to yield, [00:32:30] to push, to reach and to grasp and pull.

So when we're going through the raw fame series, we start to re establish these movement patterns so the individual's body is able to open, to receive, to reach out. So we're breaking the pattern of. Immobilization of contraction of resistance. So [00:33:00] all of that influences the individual's nervous system when they're able to move in a, what I call, what I call the posture of equanimity, to move through the space, to move through space, to move through the world in a non-polarized way.

So our body's moving from love. Rather than fear. So our, our, we feel confident in being able to navigate space around us and being able to use that space as a representation [00:33:30] of the expansion that we experience within our own somatic sense or somatic self. So all of these, how we move through the world because fin is done.

As you remember when you came to work with me horizontal, you're lying on the table. But that's not the world. The world isn't lying, lying down. The world is standing up and taking a stand. Taking a stand for what you value, taking a stand for your empowerment so that you're able to move from that platform of [00:34:00] confidence and competence.

This all affects your, your nervous system so often is really about, moving beyond Quarted movement, 

[00:34:09] Chandler Stroud: how can someone tell if they're still living in survival mode, even if everything looks fine from the outside, like what are some signs or symptoms they might be experiencing if they're in that sympathetic state?

[00:34:23] Moylan Ryan: I think one of the biggest things is that is the disassociation. Disassociation and, and ask a person who's [00:34:30] disassociated how they feel. They'll say fine or good. I ask them, really, how do they feel about that? So people who are exile from themselves, people who are not really present, you'll see that in their conversations.

They'll, they'll just drift away when they're speaking with you because they're, they've, they've, they've become expert at disassociation, disregulation not knowing how they feel, and depolarization not really being present in themselves, present in conversations, a lot of [00:35:00] absence. I would say, 

[00:35:02] Chandler Stroud: what would you say to the woman who's having maybe an aha moment right now saying, I always say that I feel fine, or I recognize that maybe sometimes I feel absent in my life.

I feel tight, exhausted, and often anxious, but she might not know where to begin. What advice would you give to her? 

[00:35:22] Moylan Ryan: Breathe. That's what I would say. Because not breathe. It's because people who are stressed or [00:35:30] traumatized, they don't want to feel their vulnerability to connect with that vulnerability. So it's like, well, you can't be selective about feelings.

So if you decide not to feel vulnerable or whatever, then you have to shut off all feelings. So the first thing I would say to a person is to become aware of the breadth. Having long exhalations, breathing in long exhalation, so the body begins to relax. Building [00:36:00] resources, the first resources to breathe is the first thing you do when you come in, and the last thing you do before you leave this earth.

So we've become so dysfunction in our breathing patterns. Breathing means presence. Breathing means awareness. Breathing means connection. With yourself, with others, with humanity. Yeah. That's what I would say to a person. And the other thing I would say is to take some time to meditate. You know? [00:36:30] To just to be, just to be.

To find that quiet time to be able to build a resource so you can return to being centered, being grounded, being present, being responsive rather than being reactive. But the person who's stressed and who's absent and dysregulated, they're, they're on a, like a treadmill and they. Have the same thoughts, disturbing thoughts as they had yesterday and what have the day [00:37:00] after.

It's like a rehearsal. This what's called reacting. We're reacting a script that's been written for us by the external world. So the first thing I would say is to realize that you are in a reactionary, react reactionary. And to be able to change that to responding. Responding takes place in the present moment is a choice.

Viktor Frankl said between stimulus and response, there is a space. [00:37:30] In that. Space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom. So between stimulus and response, there is a space. The space is the breadth. If you don't have the space between stimulus. And response. You have stimulus and reaction, no space.

You're reacting the script. You're caught up in the reactionary stimulus and response. The [00:38:00] breathe allows you a choice of response. These are practices that we must, we must embody so that when we are in stressful situations, we have these resources that allow us to respond, to be centered, to be present, to have choice.

And if we don't have those, we're caught in the flow. It's like as if we're constantly being pulled into a riptide of reaction every day. We're drowning in that trying to [00:38:30] survive. And that's not what we deserve. 

[00:38:35] Chandler Stroud: No, I would agree. It's not. It's definitely not. Thank you for expounding on that. I think just to summarize and even go a step further, if there's one thing you'd want every woman to understand about the connection between our posture, protection and peace, what would it be?

[00:38:59] Moylan Ryan: I remember [00:39:00] seeing a, a lady named Amy Codi and she was on a TED Talk. I know Amy familiar with her. Yeah. And, and she talked about this posture and power postures and, and she made a very interesting declaration. She said that in the Olympics, for example, when everyone wins a race, no matter where they're from, they put their arms up over their heads.

No matter where you're from in the world and, but there's no lesson, I don't think, no athletic lesson that says, oh, when you win the race, put your arms off immediately. [00:39:30] All I can say to you is that what my wish for you is to be able to encounter and fully embrace your ability to expand into your full potential immobilization contraction resistance.

They're all habitual patterns and reactions to. External dysfunction. When we come home to our own body and [00:40:00] we recalibrate through doing this type of somatic work, we can break those patterns and reverse those immobilized contractions into immobilized expansion where we reach out into the world where we're open.

As I said to you earlier on, we yield, we push, we grasp, we pull. We have all those type of interactions, we feel empowered. And to go back to my earlier saying, we take a stand where our presence is [00:40:30] felt. So replace the conditioned contraction with a beautiful sense of expansion, you know, expansion.

And the first expansion is to the breadth.

It's a magnificence, you know, and that's what I would suggest for people. But also, you know, I'm, I'm, of course I'm biased, you know, I'm a big proponent of somatics movement, [00:41:00] movement, five Rhythms, Gabriel Roth. Breath work, hoa, breath work, a keto all these things, you know, they, they teach us and, and not teachers, they allow us to break free from the, the immobilized encapsulation Chandler, the encapsulation that we have accepted.

That keeps us living in a smaller version of ourselves because at a time of trauma, we've tried to make ourselves disappear so we won't be seen, so we won't suffer. But it's time for us [00:41:30] to, to, to break free from that encapsulation. Just like the butterfly knows that the chrysalis, they have to build the muscle to push through the chrysalis so they can fly.

If they don't build that muscle, they'll never fly. So it's time to build our muscle of consciousness to be able to allow us to spread our wings and reclaim our sovereignty. 

[00:41:50] Chandler Stroud: Thank you for sharing that. I so appreciate it. Moylan. And I think it's a very helpful and beautiful way to end the conversation today.

Thank you for being [00:42:00] here. I so appreciate it and I always enjoy going deep with you in these areas of self-awareness and somatics, and I just, I really appreciate you sharing your wisdom and knowledge and expertise with everybody today. So. Thank you 

[00:42:18] Moylan Ryan: and thank you Chandler. I really, from the bottom of my heart, I really, really appreciate this time we've spent together today.

Thank you so much. 

[00:42:26] Chandler Stroud: Ugh, it's my pleasure, truly. And to those tuning [00:42:30] in, if you enjoyed today's conversation, please share it with friends and don't forget to follow the show. You can also visit healing heroes podcast.com to get resources, meet the heroes, and share your ideas for future episodes. Thanks for listening, everyone, and until next time, remember.

Be curious, be courageous, and be kind to yourself. You've got [00:43:00] this.