Embracing Change and Creating New Beginnings with Dr. Michelle Greenwell

Interview episode with Dr. Michelle Greenwell

[: 00:00:00

Michelle: That stress is going to completely compress. And you're not going to be in flow. Everything's going to have an effort, but also you're not going to do a good job because your emotions are going to be captured within that tight body and you're going to have a different filter that you're going to see things.

And that's really important too, because you want that filter to be open and free so that you can have emotions flowing nice and easy, and you're not going to respond to something because You're compressed and maybe the wood element, which is liver and gallbladder, they're, they're starting to get a little bit more stressed and the anger starting to build up because those are the emotions related to them.

find that openness and then [: 00:01:00

Laurin: Hello friends, and welcome back to Curiously Wise: Practical Spirituality in Action. I'm Laurin Wittig, your host, and I have Dr. Michelle Greenwell here with me today. So let me tell you just a little bit about her, and then we'll welcome her on officially. Dr. Michelle Greenwell is a neuro arts facilitator using herbs, tea, intention, color, and the Art, music, dance, Tai Chi, and bioenergetic wellness techniques to bring balance and flow to the body.

All of this with fun and interactive tools for your wellness toolbox. Welcome to Curiously Wise Michelle. I'm so glad to have you here.

t, because it sounds kind of [: 00:02:00

Laurin: Well, yeah, but you do so much stuff. And it's, I mean, I've, I've met you and we've talked about tea a bit. We've met a couple of networking places, but but I had no idea that there was so much that you bring to your practice. It's really awesome. And I can see how it would all be playful. And, but also raise your vibration, help you open up, help you shift things.

I see. Yeah, it's really, really interesting. I have looked at your website a little bit, but it's been a while. So it's I know there's going to be a lot here, a lot of great stuff here for our listeners. And sort of the, the, the topic that I want to. focus on, and we may meander, which is fine is the power of intention because you work a lot with intentions.

u mean by the word intention.[: 00:03:00

Michelle: So a lot of people will have a goal and the goal could be for the day to get through their, to-do list. And very often, many of us put 10 times on the to-do list what we're ever going to accomplish. And some people will berate themselves because they didn't make it through the, to-do list. And then have to transfer it to the next day.

And some people will be okay with that. But then they, they have this attachment to this linear piece of. Getting the things done that they feel is most important. And if we look at intention, we can take intention into an overarching kind of umbrella. And that overarching umbrella would be, how do you, it could be, how do you want to feel as you go about your day?

So what kind of qualities do you want to have in the day? And then you can weave in and out of your activities. Because it's going to be weaving according to how you want to feel

Laurin: Mm.

than pushing through because [: 00:04:00

And I'm going to mow that lawn until it's done. And I don't care if I have to come in and collapse on the couch, but what we really want to say is. When I'm out in the garden, I want to really enjoy nature, and I want to hear the plants, and I want to listen to the birds, and I want to, when I'm, if I'm mowing the lawn, that I want everything to just look so beautiful when I'm finished and feel like I've loved it.

That's a completely different way to set your intention over how you want to be in the yard. And when we do that, that takes that push out of it, but it also leaves the space open for things we might not have thought of to come to us. And it might be a friend shows up at a certain time. It might be, you find something in the shed that you forgot about that would look really nice out in the garden.

u put everything on the list.[: 00:05:00

Laurin: Mm.

Michelle: And you're following the list. And so for me, intention is about creating the space for the universe to send back. The information or the activities or the people that are going to help support my overarching feeling of what I want to be, or where I want to go,

Laurin: Yeah. I love that. The focusing on the feeling that's, that's I, I haven't tensioned a lot of things in my life, but I don't know that I, at least not consciously, I didn't focus on how I wanted to feel. It was, it was more goal oriented but I love, I love how that switches it just in my own head. It's just switching how more, how much more powerful that could be.

Because you are getting your emotions involved with it, but also because you be, you'd be more in the flow. You've intentioned the flow that you, you're looking for that day by how you want to feel. And I know that I'm always happier when I've been working in the flow.

Michelle: Right. [: 00:06:00

That's

Laurin: that's the, really the whole point of intention, right? Is to make this easier to be in the human existence and to, to draw things to us instead of striving for them. Okay. You like my hand motion there? Wow. Yeah.

l on your ears up at the top [: 00:07:00

So, you pull on the ears and so for those people who are listening to the podcast. Yeah, we, we both set up quite significantly different. Right. straight.

Laurin: Okay.

Michelle: So how much stress was our body under before it had shrunk itself down, but by pulling on the ears, we can find where straight is now. That's going to be for some people to hold it.

There's going to be effort because everybody's going to want to go back to take in all that stress and hold it there. But we want to do activities that continue to lift us up and keep us in that straight posture, so that we're actually supporting ourselves in the best way possible. And when we do things that have a lot of effort in it, it adds more stress and our posture collapses.

[: 00:08:00

Laurin: Mm hmm.

Michelle: and things didn't go the way you thought it was going to go. And a few surprises showed up and, you know, and you're looking at that list going. Oh, my gosh, there's I've got, you know, 28 more things to do.

That stress is going to completely compress. And you're not going to be in flow. Everything's going to have an effort, but also you're not going to do a good job because your emotions are going to be captured within that tight body and you're going to have a different filter that you're going to see things.

And that's really important too, because you want that filter to be open and free so that you can have emotions flowing nice and easy, and you're not going to respond to something because You're compressed and maybe the wood element, which is liver and gallbladder, they're, they're starting to get a little bit more stressed and the anger starting to build up because those are the emotions related to them.

our response to something is [: 00:09:00

Laurin: hmm.

Michelle: different, but it's based on how the body's feeling and how you're, how you're coping with that stress.

Laurin: Yeah. And so I'm just thinking about driving. For some reason that's what's coming up. And I, I live in a relatively small town. I mean, it's not a tiny town, but it's, you know, we've got some traffic. It's, it's, it's a lot. I lived in DC for years, so it's nothing like that, but I find myself getting very anxious or very, you know, stressed when I'm driving.

ially if you're sitting at a [: 00:10:00

So if I get there in five, it's not a big deal. I have to talk myself through that sometimes though, you know, and it's, but I, it's I notice it in traffic. I don't know why, but I notice it. I imagine I'm picking up everybody else's traffic anxiety too. So, but it's, I'm learning to just go, okay, we're good.

Michelle: Now, think about the posture that you have while you're sitting in the car. Because most people, because you're going to have a bucket seat, so you have a seat that's going to ask you to roll back, sit on the tailbone. Your back is curved. The front is. forward. So the pecs are going to be tight. Guess where pecs sit?

llbladder again. So you have [: 00:11:00

When I'm in the car and the back of the seat, and I'm usually sitting up quite straight and there are times when I go, you know, what, I just need to sit back and relax and that's okay because it's a long drive and sitting up straight. On a seat, that's not conducive for that could be very taxing, but at the same time, if I'm on a shorter stint.

want while I'm on the drive.[: 00:12:00

Now, I may be running for errands. Which is fine, but then it's like, oh, who am I going to run into who, who needs, you know, who do I need to connect with today that I can share my smile with and that's different than I need to run in and get these 5 things. From the grocery store, make sure I go to the bank, hit the post office and instead it's like, oh, who am I going to see?

How am I going to interact with them? And then you just pick your items up as you're going. It's a different way. And it starts with how you sit down in the car. And the posture that you choose.

Laurin: Yeah. That's fascinating. I have trained myself very well when I get where I'm going. I get out with a smile on my face and I walk in and I make sure I, you know, I smile at everyone and it's genuine. I'm just happy to be here now, but somehow there's that car aspect that I haven't mastered yet.

So.

ght, because a lot of people [: 00:13:00

And so trying to find places where they can sit up straight or to notice where they really compact all the time. That's the thing that I'm usually showing people what they need to adjust. And so anyway, for me, when I get in the car, I really try to be conscious of that because that's my time alone with me.

And then I can be like, okay, I've got my energy lifted. I'm ready to go feeling good. Now, what do I want to think about?

Laurin: Good. Thank you. I'm going to take, I'm going to take your, your your structure there, I guess is a good word to put it. You're what you've put in place for yourself. I'm going to, I'm going to add that to what I've accomplished so far. And this is actually, it's great because that's the way we expand is we don't just go, we got it all.

of take steps and it's okay [: 00:14:00

Michelle: and it's experimenting. So, when I started, I remember thinking, I will never be able to do what my instructor is doing with energy. And then it was, you know, several years later when I went. Wow, I'm doing some of those things now. And then, you know, the toolbox gets bigger and bigger. But at the same time, when I started, it was take one tool, try the tool, see how it works for you.

Try it in all different kinds of things all week long, and then use it until it seems like it's time to play with something else. and then go play with something else. And that tool will come in and out of the toolbox, depending on how you need it, but it'll always be in your back pocket because you'll know how it worked for you and when it worked for you, and you can pull it out.

And then the next tool comes along and you just keep playing

n: Yeah, that's the, I love, [: 00:15:00

And I, I am, I am actively. Practicing finding moments where I can do that so that I can then string those moments together and just have a beat all the time. So yeah, so so when you're setting intentions, you're looking at the feelings You're intentioning how you want to feel while you do whatever you've decided you have to do, because it is a choice, right?

just, I'm going to enjoy the [: 00:16:00

How do you teach them to set intentions?

Michelle: So I usually start asking, what is their reason for the session? And they usually tell me what ailment they have. And I say, now that ailment is no longer there. What is it you're doing? And most of them don't know because they spent so much time on their symptom, they don't know where they would go with if it wasn't there, which is, how are you going to let it go?

ur destination and you might [: 00:17:00

That's not my, my protocol. John Thie in Touch4Health, that was the way he approached goal setting. And you keep asking questions. Some people get a little bit aggravated because they're like, I just want you to fix my shoulder.

Laurin: Mm-Hmm.

Michelle: And it's like, I can fix your shoulder today and we can have the pain release out of it, but you'll be back next week because you didn't know where you were going and you didn't know how to fill the void when the pain left.

now with its stress based on [: 00:18:00

Laurin: Mm-Hmm.

Michelle: For some people, the shoulder issue has already left. Just having made that decision here. I want to go the shoulder. All of a sudden has no need to hold on anymore

Laurin: Mm

Michelle: other people. It might still be there and we can work on it, but then other things show up. But now I have a pain in my knee. I have this feeling running down my left leg.

We go, okay, so this goal does provide stress into the body, which is fine because we want to put it into flow. So there is no stress.

Laurin: mm-Hmm.

Michelle: If it was already in flow, it wouldn't make any difference to the body. So these little clues that are coming up are important because they tell us how the body feels about what you're trying to accomplish.

t keep going around the pond [: 00:19:00

Laurin: Yeah. Yeah. It's, yeah. And I love that. I need, I need to make sure I go get the book that you just mentioned, . Because I, because because of the way I started, I started so intuitively as a healer that I would just get information from the body. But I love getting the brain involved. You know, getting, getting the thinking mind involved in the process is something I have not added to my practice, but I'm going to learn how to do that now [00:20:00] because it makes total sense to me.

If you, if you, I mean, even the way I work, I'm bringing up. Oh, I get old stories, I'll, I'll, you know, say somewhere between three and four, something happened and you hurt your knee and you know, and whatever it is but getting them actively involved in the process. To me feels like it would be a lot faster way to work for one thing, but also it would empower them to be part of the process as opposed to just receiving what I'm, what I'm getting from them.

I love that. That's amazing. So I will be digging that out of the transcript and I will , I will put it in the show notes in case anybody else wants to

rning how to do that process [: 00:21:00

Laurin: Yeah. Mm-Hmm?

Michelle: but also then is that that freedom of when you can guide them out of the box, how much more is possible. And some people that may not be where they want to go and that's okay, because you can then deal with the quality of the way they want to be living, and the space and time, and the activities that are really important to them in their day.

o the body and you can find, [: 00:22:00

Laurin: Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle: Yeah, yeah, so it's a subtle piece, but for me every day, I'm, I'm always using intention. There's a reason for everything that I'm doing, or I try to connect in with my, my pets, my plants, the outdoors my students to really be where they are. And when you do that, what I've discovered, it's like when you do it all the time, like, it's a wormhole to the future

Laurin: Mm

Michelle: these lovely pieces from the future show us little glimpses of themselves.

And that can be the friend that calls you, you're thinking about your friend and they call you.

Laurin: mm-Hmm.

r, the direction you want to [: 00:23:00

The more I play, the more there is.

Laurin: Mm-Hmm.

Michelle: So, yeah,

Laurin: Wow. Okay. All right. So when you set an intention, do you have any sort of ritual or process that you go through? Or is it just something that you do in the moment and without anything else?

Michelle: it depends what I'm doing in the day. I have a class on Saturday morning where we very specifically go through an entire checklist, which has 5 pages of all these wonderful things about the energy field and the body that we can go through. So my Saturday morning is an exciting. Deep dive into that, but I wouldn't do that every day.

benefit from each other. So [: 00:24:00

I'll have intentions before the class, just how I want to feel or what I hope people get from it. And then, as I go about my day, it's what's in my day. So, if I look and I see, I've got a podcast to record and maybe after we finish, it's pink tea day today, which is the famous 5. They honor women who've done really incredible things with their careers, and then they interview them.

And we always drink tea and have a toast at the end. So if I know that's the kind of day I'm going to have, that's like my play day. So I'm like, Oh, so today I want to have it nice, loose, easy. And I really want to feel like anything that needs to be done will find its way to me. It'll get accomplished.

really want to notice it so [: 00:25:00

And I can connect into herbs so I could play with it that way. But I could also do Tai Chi first thing in the morning and I could set my intention of it's going to be a play day. And then I might decide I'll do a saber set and today I'll put it to music. And then that's a way that I could play with it rather than so much being in the moment of the movements of the set,

Laurin: Mm.

Michelle: but it kind of flow freely from my body.

So, yeah. So I play with it different ways.

to just set it and move on. [: 00:26:00

You know, so there's no one right way to set an intention is what I would say. I do like that you've brought the very positive into it. You know, how do you want to feel and you can tell you light up when you talk about it. So you can tell that it's very powerful for you and it's, it's something that brings you joy in your life.

And, and so, yeah, so that's, it's, I just want to put that out there too, that just because this is the way Michelle does it and I, I may do it a different way. Okay. Although I'm gonna really focus on the more positive feeling that I want instead of the outcome that I want. You can do it. Help whatever works for you and play with it.

See how it works best for you and, and and what feels good to you. 'cause that's, I work a lot on what feels good to me. If that doesn't feel good, good. I'm not doing that. You know,

d you're thinking about that [: 00:27:00

So, you know, today is I have to do the spring cleaning and aren't I lucky I have five bathrooms and I get to clean five toilets. Isn't that fun? You know, and then you can decide, well, how am I going to do that? You know, and then it's like, Oh, my favorite music goes on. I'm going to make myself a cup of tea or a snack that I really enjoy.

And then I'm going to make sure no one else is in the house and off I go. Right. And that's different than, okay, I got to get that done because then I can go do and it's just like, it's in the way of the other stuff I want to do.

ovelist, I, one of the ways, [: 00:28:00

So I would procrastinate and stuff. But so I took a lot of workshops from people going, so if you're having trouble settling in and doing your writing, then here's what I do and you should do this. And often it was, you know, write down the list of what you need to do, write down. The prize you're going to give yourself or the gift you're going to give yourself when you get there.

Well, I was so blocked by the overwhelm of just getting whatever it was done. I, I would always go, I can just give that to myself anytime. I don't have to finish that. Very self defeating behavior, but So so it, it, for me, the feeling is really more important than the outcome, you know, and, and I know what's his name?

happen? But how do I want to [: 00:29:00

You know, I knew I, I grew up knowing what I did not want, you know, because I was steeped in all that I did not want. So it's, it's still something I'm in my sixties working on, you know, really turning the mirror around and looking at the positive what do I want positively? Not what don't I want.

. And that reframing is, is, [: 00:30:00

Michelle: Yeah.

Laurin: because it's one of them is defensive and the other is inviting, you know? So it's it, that little piece of that also is really important. And I think this is, I think intentioning is a good place to practice that for me. You know, I'm like, I don't want to feel like everybody else when I'm driving, but how about, I want to feel joy when I'm driving. That then also will ripple out to everybody around me. So that's a win win.

s emanating out past our car.[: 00:31:00

We have the opportunity to make that ripple effect. But it has to be because we fed ourselves, lifted ourselves up and we have that flow happening because that's how we get the influence out from us,

Laurin: Yeah.

Michelle: rather than everybody influences us because we're taking it in.

Laurin: Yeah, because we're sponge.

Michelle: I'd rather be a sponge of all the stuff I want, rather than the sponge of all the stuff that's out there.

Laurin: Right. Yeah. No, I absolutely

Michelle: that's just work to get rid of it.

Laurin: And that's part of the work that I've done on my journey is to, to be aware of what does lift me up. What makes me feel good? Who do I like being around? I mean, I have some friends, I could just sit in the room with you for a while and I'll be happy because their, their energy is so good.

d and they weren't doing any [: 00:32:00

How does it, and, and, and taking some action to create that because like you, I'll put the music on that matches what I want to feel like. And it always helps. It always helps. And during the pandemic, I danced a lot all by myself because my husband won't dance and I would put on music that just made me want to move in a flowy way.

And it just was, that was one of my coping mechanisms. And it was, you know, to some degree, that was a reframing. I'm stuck at home. Ooh, I can listen to some good new music and I can dance to it. Yeah.

in a door, but I haven't had [: 00:33:00

And it's like, okay, Let's reframe that. What can we do? What can we cultivate from here? And the same, I was, you know, put the music on out in the backyard, dancing in the garden, things that I would do with the kids. If they came for a dance class at my house, we would go out in the garden, but I wasn't doing that myself.

But boy, does that ever feel lovely? Get out there. And, and my family just knows me as bright, colorful and crazy. And I will do things because I don't have the fear. So I will just dive in and yep, I might look silly, but it's okay because if I look silly, everyone else is going to try it and they'll have a good time most of the time.

And that's, that's the repercussion. And as an educator, you always have to do things 10 times bigger. In order to get the result from the student that's just trying it for the first time. So, yeah.

kind of a vulnerability to, [: 00:34:00

You Yeah, it's yeah, the pandemic for me was, was a quiet time. I had just come, my mother died just about six months before we went into lockdown. And that had been a really, really hard road to travel with her, especially at the end. And what I needed was that space. And we were lucky in that my husband's in the IT business and that.

hings that I want to create, [: 00:35:00

Michelle: Mm-Hmm.

Laurin: You know, but so it's, it's interesting how I wasn't, I was, there was some fear, but But there was also this knowledge, this deep inner knowing that it was going to be okay.

At least I, I knew I was going to be okay and my family was going to be okay. It's, you know, crapshoot for the world, but that. We were going to come out of this fine and, you know, and now, now is a good time to just take care of yourself. And not everybody had that advantage. Not everybody had the financial advantage.

t's, yeah, I think those are [: 00:36:00

Or to dance and be silly or to, you know, giggle with the kids or whatever it is. Just, yeah, go with it. Have fun.

Michelle: And I did have, you know, I lost my business during Covid. Now I could take that two ways because I lost my business and I could carry the weight of that, or I can let it go because it just is what it is. And it allowed me to move over into some things I hadn't had time to look at. I also was able to pick up a, an arts grant.

led to creating some really [: 00:37:00

Continuing to teach the way I was teaching, so I have 2 choices. I can look at it 1 way, or I can

Laurin: Mm hmm.

Michelle: which 1 is going to move me forward. It's going to be the 1 that's, you know, here I am. And this is my, my new business. And this is the new way. I have to look at things and. And that's great because now where do I want to go?

And how much did I grow?

Laurin: Yeah.

Michelle: you know, and was it a hard road? Yep. It was a hard road, but I had my intention setting in there and I was activating every day and I did 108 days of Tai Chi online for people. So it was, you know, for me, that was, that was saving for me to, to have that commitment. But it also meant that I could manifest every single day.

Where am I going to go? Show me what direction how I'm going to do this what came out of it?

Laurin: Wow. Lovely. [: 00:38:00

Michelle: Well, I think if we're looking at intention, because we can have an intention, but you have to activate it in some way. And so I'm sure people are going, well, what does that mean? Give it a shot of something,

Laurin: Yeah. Right.

Michelle: you need, you need to energetically put it into flow. Yeah. So you could sing a song, you could put some music on, dance in the kitchen and just really be free.

You could decide to go for a walk in nature and really connect and then really feel like you've connected to that intention. It could be a simple tool, like I did pulling on the ears, but, but another tool that's really simple is to rub the ears and rubbing the ears from the top to the bottom. And you do each ear three times.

And that goes into every [: 00:39:00

And so it's not gonna put your goal into flow, but doing something you might get on the trampoline, but you might really gently, you know, just move and just feel [00:40:00] the openness. and feel the expanse. And then I would say go back and check in with the posture see if as you're thinking about that goal, the posture holds solid.

And if it does, then you've moved yourself into that quote. That would be the easiest way for me to do How could you do it from home? Because there's lots of ways that we could do it, but that that might be an easy way for people to be able to experiment with it

Laurin: Yeah. I love both of your tips about the ears.

Michelle: I do them a lot while I was traveling. This is also great for jet lag. Crossing time zones, and so you, when you rub the ear, you can just think of what time it is where you need to be next or if you're in the plane and you've got 5 hours and you travel a couple of time zones, you can Change the time zone as you go along.

And so I, I use this a lot in the last couple of weeks. So it's one of the tools that's really easy to get at.

tool to do that. You've got [: 00:41:00

Michelle: Right. Yeah, just choose the things you've already got. The other 1 that I, I like to do a lot with this is my feet. And how you stand on the feet, because for most people, they'll stand on their feet. And they'll just assume it's normal. Normal would be. Everything feels flat across the whole foot. It's all even.

The weight is distributed into the center of the foot. So, if anybody's listening at the moment, and they stand up and check it out, they may notice that their weight kind of rolls into the center. Maybe they're back into their heel. That's all a sign of where there's stress in the body, and that'll be a sign of which filters will be working, and the way your thoughts might be coming forward.

that goes all the way up the [: 00:42:00

And so that's another really simple tool that people can use. And I, I did that standing in line, waiting for the bus, waiting when we Waiting for the train when I'd walked too far with my suitcase, then I, I just did that for a little bit just to bring my legs back into flow. And then off I went again. So,

Laurin: Wow. All right. You are just a wealth of information here and I, I really love it. So all right. I think that brings us to a good stopping place. why don't you tell the listeners where they can find you?

t it'll also get you all the [: 00:43:00

Laurin: Thank you so much. And of course, all of that will be in the show notes, so you can easily just go to the episode show notes and click through nice and simple. All right. I want to thank our guest, Dr. Michelle Greenwell for being here with us today. And I want to thank the listeners and the viewers for being here with us as well.

If you liked this. Please share the, share the love turn somebody else on to the, the, the work that Michelle is doing and, and this podcast, please. So I want to just say until the next time I hope that you will stay curious. Have a great day.

questions and exploring new [: 00:44:00