I know a big conversation that's happening in the workplace right now is resiliency and empathy. And when we're on that edge, it's really hard to show up in either of those places. And to really break it down, the problem when we're in that spot of being completely dysregulated is oftentimes your head is in one direction, your heart is in another, and neither one of them are actually where your feet are.
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Best thing is there's no longterm commitment and you can hop in and out anytime. Sign up today at liagarvin.com/hub and I cannot wait to see you in our next live Q& A session. Welcome back to the show today. I am so excited to have Corene Phelps with me. Corene is a hypnotherapist and somatic coach for entrepreneurs and executives.
She is a native Washingtonian who left a successful career in luxury real estate for entrepreneurship, investing, and personal development. She became obsessed with combining the power of peak performance, intuition and purpose to harness untapped potential. The last 10 years have been a journey into spirituality.
business, wealth creation, and doing what it takes to create extraordinary impact. Her mission as a hypnobreathwork therapist is to help others tap into the power of regulated nervous system and the subconscious to unlock new levels of wealth, success, and freedom. Karina and I met through a women's entrepreneur community that we're both in.
At the time, really just learning about hypnobreathwork and dove into every single one of her Sessions absolutely loved it and I found it really transformational to both uncover some kind of money mindset issues, really tap into who I want to show up as a leader and entrepreneur. And so I'm just grateful to to be here with you in the conversation.
So, so excited to have you on the show. Oh my goodness. I'm so excited to be here. I know it's gonna be an amazing conversation. Yeah. So I'm curious, you know, you talked a little about your journey and your bio, but share a little bit more about discovering breathwork and how this has been a tool that you've used to help business leaders and entrepreneurs tap into how to reach new heights and whatever they're doing.
Hmm. Well, so I was. And a few pivots in my own personal career, but really what led me there was an extreme case of burnout. It was burnout for the third time, and I had found myself literally walking into a hospital because I thought I was having a heart attack at the age of 38. And when I was waiting to talk to the doctor and the doctor comes in and he's like, you're not having a heart attack.
And I'm like, Oh, well, thank goodness. He's like, but, but you are extremely burnt out. Your adrenals are completely shot. And if something doesn't change, you might be, you might have a heart attack because you can literally from burnout actually damage, damage your heart. And so this is really a wake up call on it.
And it was for me, it was like that kind of like rock bottom moment when you're like, how many times. Do you have to have this kind of experience? And that was an extreme case, but I had had burnout pretty badly before. And it was like, okay, like three times, this is it. Something has to radically change.
And I was in the thick of using hypnosis and hypnotherapy for my clients and for myself and a lot of, a bunch of other subconscious reprogramming. It's a mouthful, isn't it? Tools to really show up at peak performance. And during this phase, when I was healing my burnout, I just kind of accidentally ended up in a workshop that was, that included breathwork and it really changed.
That was the first experience that I'd had with it. And it really changed a lot for me. And I decided to. pretty much right after that sign up for a certification. And when I signed up for a certification, I really wasn't expecting what happened inside to actually happen. It completely cracked me open.
And I had so many different things going on inside of me that I needed to address that I had just pushed down. And I had kind of become a person that really had blocked myself off from feeling anything. And that was That's essentially why I had ended up burnt out so many times, because I would just push myself beyond my own personal threshold over and over and over again, and then I'd get up and do it again.
Yeah. Which I think any leader listening to this is like, Oh wait, that's me too. Right? That that's kind of the cycle we're all in. And I think especially I know for myself, I was. in the corporate rat race and just like resumed continued programming when I became an entrepreneur. And it was really when I found breath work and some somatic work and a lot of the different work that you do and the inner work that slowed me down and said, do I want to repeat these same patterns that didn't actually work that well for me before, or do I want to do something differently?
Yeah, absolutely. That was a very similar journey. And I dove in to breath work head first. And it has changed my business. It's changed my life, my relationships, and it's really changed the trajectory of all of my clients life, businesses, and bank accounts, honestly. Yeah. So for someone listening that's not quite sure, like, okay, well, what do you mean by Breathwork?
How do I do it? Like, how does this really transform my life? Like, share a little bit more for the folks newer at it. Yeah. So Breathwork is definitely kind of an umbrella term. And what I facilitate and what I use most often is hypnobreathwork. And I definitely use some other breath patterns in there, but that's what I use as the cornerstone of the work that I do.
And I use it as a tool for coaching. So breathwork, essentially any kind of breathwork is flooding the body with oxygen. And when we do that, we're changing. The carbon dioxide oxygen ratio in the body, which changes the pH of your blood. And depending on the breath pattern does a multitude of different things inside of the body.
But the path that I'm taking my clients on, what it does is it starts to change the chemistry of what's going on in your brain. And it kind of is like a cocktail party for lack of a better explanation of what's going on. All these neurotransmitters start getting released. We hit pause on your prefrontal cortex, which is the place we tend to get stuck.
It's those place where we get those habitual thought. loops. If you're a high achiever, high performer, it's the place where we get stuck because we're so logical and we approach all of our work, especially in the context of corporate or in business. And we actually give that part of your brain a break because that's also the part of your brain that puts blinders on and keeps you from.
expanding, thinking outside of the box and finding new ways of thinking, new ways of being creative solutions. And that all happens inside of your subconscious mind. And so that's really what we're doing was we're opening the doors to that part of your mind. That is, when you think of what you hear, these things of like, being exponential or being limitless.
It really comes from that portion of your brain. Yeah. And I mean, thinking about, well, what are some of the things top of mind in the workplace, doing more with less change and uncertainty, all the stress. It's like this tool could be pretty damn helpful for all the things. Like I can see why the work is so powerful, both for entrepreneurs and for folks in the corporate world that are really trying to like rise to the challenge right now of.
How do we just exist in this moment? And, and we're all kind of depleted, I think, in any sort of workplace situation, managers and leaders are really trying to balance showing up for their team amidst not having all the answers, feeling like still recovering from all that we dealt with, with COVID and so much uncertainty, like it's like, we're all probably our nervous systems are on, on edge.
So to have this tool to be able to use for yourself and with your teams is incredible. Absolutely. It's a definitely a key for regulating your nervous system. And I know a big conversation that's happening in the workplace right now is resiliency and empathy. And when we're on that edge, it's really hard to show up in either of those places and to really break it down.
The problem when we're in that spot of being completely dysregulated is oftentimes your head is in one direction, your heart is in another, and neither one of them are actually where your feet are. Yeah, exactly. And then how are you supposed to make decisions from that space or motivate people or lead with authenticity when people see like, like I can see you're not doing okay.
Yeah, you're either operating from fear or anxiety and clear. Great decisions don't come from that place. Clarity doesn't come from that place. That cohesion of a team doesn't come from that place. And there's a massive ripple effect. So it's like one person in the office can be that way. One person in your business.
And we actually, cause our nervous systems impact those around us. You can actually basically enroll someone. into your energy, your nervous system, and you can do so in a positive way or a negative way. And this is where this work comes in, especially for leaders that when you can learn how to regulate your nervous system, it has a massive impact just on just the fact that you can be in a calm place as you're leading.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So what is, you know, we talked about breathwork. What are some of the tools that you offer to folks or you work with folks on kind of in the suite of things that can be helpful for regulating our nervous system so that we can create that positive impact? Yeah. So a multitude of them.
I mean, breathwork is definitely the thing that I lead with because I feel like it's such a, you know, immediately that it's working and I, sometimes this work can be a little bit like, is it working? Is it not working? But with breathwork, you have this instant. Oh, it's working. Yeah. Other tools that I use, though, are some somatic practices.
One of them is it's called orienting, which literally it brings that head, heart and feet all in the same place, which essentially just means that you are able to be present and it's connecting to your environment, bringing yourself into the here and, and the now through using your five senses. So anybody can do it in just a few, few moments.
You'd like. Listen with your left ear, listen for a few sounds, listen with your right ear for a few sounds. Start to actually fixate on a few objects that are in your like sphere, like where you are, like the pen that you are holding in your hand, the mic that you're talking to and like looking at it, noticing the color, the texture, the temperature, the shape, all of those things.
And when we just take, I don't know, five minutes, even less than that, like two minutes to do that, it completely brings you into the here and now. And when we come into the here and now, that's when we start to regulate the nervous system. And then inside of like a, maybe a coaching context, I use hypnosis, we use meditation and all of those things.
They're not just like independently like, Oh, do that thing. There's conversations that get connected to that, that it's like, what came up? What did you see? We talk about it. We create a strategy, a plan of what to take action on. Yeah. I love that. And it sounds like, you know, the It's often going to take a lot, like many, potentially a few different kinds of things to kind of go deep and figure it out.
But I think what I always remind folks is if it feels like, Oh, I don't have time for that or whatever. I'm in survival mode. It's like, how much time is it costing you to feel stuck? Like, or how much money are you, you know? spending in the wrong places or that you could be reinvesting in your business or yourself, or if you, if you actually took a minute to figure this out, because I'm sure folks that you work with, like you might be on autopilot for a really long time and it's affecting your relationships, affecting your teams, it's affecting your own career progression or your own ability to grow your business.
And I think right now it's been inspiring to see this being talked a lot about a lot more in the. corporate world. I think entrepreneurs probably were like aware of the need to do it, deal with their own internal shit for a while, but maybe now more so is like a real, you know, resurgence of investment of energy and attention and resources into it.
Because I don't know, like I found the minute I became an entrepreneur and realized I have to like figure out all my own stuff that, you know, I hadn't really thought about around. You know, building clients and talking about my work and put myself out there every single day and getting through all the, like I mentioned, you know, money mindset.
And like, if I didn't have any way to sort of like, you're not going to figure that out. Like you're not, you're just not. Yeah. I mean, I think when you step into the role of being an entrepreneur, you really start to realize that no one is coming to save you, which I think we kind of have that false sense of certainty in, in like the corporate world that, okay, I, Like I can just show up and, and go along in whatever fashion and you don't necessarily have to be concerned about that, except for that's, we've, we've all come to know that.
Yeah, of course. Cause you have to show up and do a good job and you have to like, you know, basically build your own personal brand within the, the company that you're, that you're at. But absolutely. If you look, what's the cost of staying stuck. And on top of all of that, really nervous system regulation.
And the work that we're talking about, it's a lifestyle. And the reason it is, is because all of these things, it's, we love to talk about it, helping us make more money. We love to talk about it, making us more productive. But if you don't have your health, you are not, you have none of those things. And when our nervous system is dysregulated at its core, that's where all disease comes from.
And so when we start approaching it from that place, that's when our high, like high performance skyrockets, which then obviously your business is going to grow. Your bank account's going to grow. And so when we start at the very fundamental place of basically prioritizing the business of you, everything else falls into place.
I love that. And now bringing that back to, you know, corporate folks that are listening, it's like, this is an investment in. Like you said, like healthcare costs are costly, losing, losing talent to things like medical leave or leaving because, you know, of burnout or, you know, all of the reasons that people can't perform at a high level, like this is an insurance policy really around, around being able to sustain.
Stay in great work. And I think there is a lot of, you know, well, there was a lot of investment estate during COVID and wellbeing and work life balance. I think now it's like sort of like the pendulum swinging in many cases, the other way. It's like, no, we should be doubling down on that because people are really, really fried.
They're losing that sense of purpose in their work. In many cases, we're still seeing a lot of people leaving the workforce, you know, by choice feeling, Hey, I want to start writing the thing. I don't want to, I got laid off and I don't want to go back to that same situation, like. We're really in a moment where everyone's shifting into prioritizing themselves in some way and the companies that are aware of that and like are doing things like this and bringing in these tools and having coaching programs around this and bringing in experts and, and offering this kind of thing as, as, as benefits to their employees.
Like that's where employees are going to want to be. That's where we're going to want to go. Absolutely. Because it doesn't just change the dynamic at inside of the office, it actually changes it for your employees in their home life too. And we can't really actually act like those are separate when your employee leaves and goes home and they take the stress of that home and then it impacts their home life and then their home life starts to take it.
That's like, you know. feeling the impacts. And then when that's going bad, they bring that to work. And so it's this cyclical sort of thing. So if you can help form a happier, more whole human, and you can have some sort of tool to provide them with, it is going to make an impact full circle. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And I think we're, you know, a lot of the conversation from work life balance has shifted a little bit to harmony, right? Recognizing, you know, whatever, or whatever words that, you know, Folks feel, you know, represents the most. I think like you say, it's not just life or work or home or friends or whatever.
Like we're all figuring out how to be these multifaceted people that this stuff shows up wherever you go. And, and like you say, when you're as an entrepreneur, if you're like the person that has to be sort of on figuring all this stuff out, if you don't have the tools to be able to get unstuck and figure out when, When you've hit a roadblock, what to do about it.
It can really cost you being able to move forward or, you know, sustain the team that's relying on you and you alone to kind of be their livelihood. Yeah, it's definitely, it's powerful stuff. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about money mindset. I know that's like always a hot topic. You probably talk about it way too much.
I mean, where do people often get stuck when it comes to kind of the money things and, and how does that impact them as leaders? Oh my goodness. So many, so many things that we can talk about inside of this because money is, it's never about the actual money. Money is so emotional. And I know that people can try to be like, Oh, it's not, there's no emotion.
It's just money is just money, but there's so much of our own worth tied to it. There's so much tied to relationships when we connect it to money. And so it shows up in so many different ways, but I would say. First and foremost, it really, there's the, the worthiness piece of whether it is you feel a not like self worth to potentially charge or receive for your talents and gifts.
Because a lot of times the things that are our zone of genius or genius, like the real talent or gift, a lot of times people don't think that they should be paid for it because it's come so easily to them. And so there is this weird dynamic of being able to be paid for those things and receive. Then there's also the blocks around feeling like you have to struggle that to, if you're going to make money and you're going to make a large amount of it or a comfortable living, that it has to feel like a struggle, which is definitely a very common one.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I wonder, I mean, I think for me it was like, I don't know, I, I wrestled with both of those things, both in the corporate world and, and, and then beyond, I think as, you know, even when it comes to advocating for yourself, negotiating for yourself, right? And I think this comes up a lot of times for, for women more so than men or for different cultures like these, these beliefs that you've been ingrained in when you're on money and talking about it and not wanting to show off or it's awkward or whatever, like this starts to.
create limitations on what you're able to create for yourself. And, and I do, I did a lot of coaching in the corporate world with women around owning their accomplishments and talking about their work and, and really leaning into their value and how that shows up with negotiations and things like that.
Because like when you haven't even, when you're not even aware of these things, you don't even know what's possible for you, but you deep down know you're not being like compensated fairly. And I think that can create this feeling of you know, being undervalued, like kind of not feeling like, you know, like, what am I doing here?
And I, I saw a lot of that show up. And I think for managers to really think about, are you doing everything you can to support your own team members and figuring out some of these money blocks? Because if you have a team member that realizes that they got a bad deal with whatever, even if it had nothing to do with you, So like if you're in the corporate world and you know, maybe you had nothing to do with the salary negotiation, but you have a team member and you see what they're getting paid or, and like, you realize like it's very inequitable.
Like maybe there's things that you could do to support them in figuring out, you know, how do they, how do you make it more equitable? How do you make it more fair? How can you make up for some of that or, or educate that person? Because, you know, you have more insight into this and visibility and we shouldn't like let these patterns continue just because someone wasn't informed or didn't have the tools.
Oh my gosh. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so what else? I mean, where, if you were to say to a, an entrepreneur, Or, or business owner or corporate leader right now, like you got to focus on this one thing. Like, what would you tell people for, you know, how to support their teams better right now or even themselves if they're feeling kind of the feelings of burnout or starting to wonder like, is this sustainable for me?
Hmm. So I think if you're asking the question, is this sustainable for me? I think the first place you, you have to definitely take a little bit of a step back. Of course, I would say take a nice deep breath and allow yourself to get centered. And then I think you have to do a deep audit. I think you have to look at what it is that is.
like a hell yes for you. What is something that's like, is there something that's encroaching on your values? Basically looking at what is it that you want, need, and can possibly delete to make something sustainable. And if, and do you want to make it sustainable, whether that's within your business or within your, your job.
And if you go through and there are a certain number of no's to that, then it probably is time. to make a pivot and look at another option, whether that's you're in business and maybe it's time to start looking at going and finding a job because maybe entrepreneurship and running a business on your own isn't the thing for you, or maybe it's not the thing for you right now and maybe you're in a job and it's like, Oh, this is never going to be right for me.
And you're really going to be doing a favor to both the company and yourself if you pursue the thing that is going to light you up and lead you in the direction of your purpose. Yeah. Yeah. I love that idea of the audit. I mean, I think the more, the more we're self reflecting and the more we're tuning into where am I at?
What do I need? I think one thing I work with entrepreneurs and business owners is like, how am I spending my time? You know, am I, how is my team spending their time? Like how are we making sure this work makes sense? Like how are you getting things done? The more awareness you can bring, like you've already said, then you can take action on it.
Like if we don't know. We can't do anything about it. So even if it feels like, Oh, like I don't want to, I don't to uncover. I don't want to go there. Like it's always worth it. Um, you absolutely have to. I think, I mean, when you start looking at it that way, you're giving yourself agency, you're giving yourself a choice when you, rather than sitting in the, I'm so.
I'm frustrated. I'm unhappy. I don't want to do this anymore because when you start looking at it from a space like that, asking these deeper questions, I think sometimes you start to uncover that there's more potential and possibility and then there's solutions there. Maybe you feel like, Oh my gosh, this job is killing me.
And then you say, look at it from this audit and you can ask the question, well, what would I need? to make it work for me or to make me excited or to make me energized. And then you can ask for it. And if you can't find a solution, then you know that, right, it's time to make a change. Yeah. I love that. I think in, in looking at it and saying, you know, well, is there something that this is a way that this is serving me right now?
So like, let's say it's not a moment where you can leave your job. Well, maybe saying, okay, this in this moment right now, this serves me because I can learn a skill. You know, I can really develop myself as a leader. I can be saving money. I can, whatever, like tuning into why through this audit, through this exercise, this is going to help fuel more resilience if it's not the right time to make a change.
But it is as, as Karine saying, I mean, I think you reach a certain point where like. If it's all like justified and you're still not happy and a lot of time has passed, it is a moment to use these tools to actually go underneath and go deeper and see what's coming up for you. Because I think if we are always operating and kind of like rationalizing everything, that's where we can be staying stuck longer than we have to.
And we haven't made ourselves accessible. to be able to see beyond what we already know. And I think that's one of the biggest things that I've found so incredibly valuable in doing hypnobreath work and, and in these tools that Karine talks about is like you access, you realize you had so many more ideas, so much more possible, so many more paths you could take than what you already had thought about.
Like the whole point is going beyond what you already know. Oh my gosh, absolutely. And we always, I mean, I think when we're in that place of like frustration, stress, anxiety, all of it, it's really hard to see outside of the silo we feel like we're in in that particular moment. And that is really what this work does.
It lets you step out of that place and feel that expansiveness. And it does, it trains you and builds that resilience. in your nervous system. It builds the strength and gives you these, the answers to what is the right next step for you. Yes. I love that. So ending on that, I'm, I'm curious, you know, share a little bit more about your work, how folks can work with you, you know, what are, what are the, some of the areas that you're excited about that you want to share?
Oh yeah. Well, I mean, Money mindset, of course, is something that I love to coach on, to work on. But honestly, this work can be applied in so many contexts. I am really excited about helping entrepreneurs, leaders, executives, really start to show up. and operate in a place where they're able to do so from instead of feeling stressed in a negative way, but harnessing the power of stress, the pressures that we experience in day to day life to be high performers, to be able to do more with less stress.
Yeah. Oh, I love that. And so where can folks find more about you and your work? Yeah. So I. Probably the easiest way to find me is just to come over to my website. It's Corrine Phelps. I'm also on LinkedIn or Instagram, whatever your favorite platform is. I'm pretty much on all of them and my handles are all my name, Corrine Phelps.
Awesome. I'll include that in the show notes. Yeah. Um, anything you want to leave our audience with before we drop? I think always really the goal is just trying to find that presence. And so when you feel those moments of anxiety bubbling up, you really can use your breath to change the channel instantly.
So if you're feeling, feeling it, feeling it all, just hit pause for a second and take a couple deep breaths and allow yourself to get your head. Your heart, where your feet are. Yes. I love that. And I'll also say Corin has a podcast Super expander where she talks a lot about breath work. You do breath work sessions sometimes as well, right?
So folks can get a taste of it too that, that wanna learn more. Yeah, absolutely. I definitely, I do pretty much monthly workshops. I'm actually just now opening the doors to a. Breathwork membership, which includes a live session and then a library of recorded ones so that you can kind of have those at your fingertips if you want to experience and test drive this work.
Awesome. I will include that as well. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. I really enjoyed our conversation and such a fan of your work. I could not recommend Karine's Breathwork sessions enough, so please, please check it out. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. I so appreciate you. That's all I have for today.
Thank you so much for tuning in to the Managing Made Simple podcast, where my goal is to demystify the job of people management so that together we can make the workplace somewhere everyone can thrive. I always love to hear from you, so please reach out at LiaGarvin.com or message me on LinkedIn. See you next time.
