Holistic Life Navigation

On today's episode, Luis teaches about pendulation, a term coined by Peter Levine, and taught through Somatic Experiencing. Luis shares about his understanding of "active" pendulation, how to not bypass, and how the practice changed his life. At the end of the episode, Luis takes us through a guided pendulation practice so you can experience firsthand what he's teaching about.

You can read more about, and register for, the Navigating Weight & Body Image With Somatics webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/weight-and-body-image-webinar

You can register for November's Community Somatics here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/community-somatics-november

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at [email protected]

On today's episode Luis discusses his practice of humanizing those he disagrees with, and how the killing of Charlie Kirk, and the response to it, inspired him to share his reaction.

When one of the people who had abused him died, Luis thought he'd feel relief, but instead found grief and love underneath the fear he'd been trapped in. His own self-inquiry made him decide that it hurt him more to hate his abuser than it did to humanize him. 

From this realization Luis began his personal radical rehumanizing practice. He discusses what humanizing isn't, how we can dehumanize ourselves, and how we can relate to the sensations and emotions that arise when we dehumanize ourselves or others.

You can listen to the episode Luis recorded with Daryl Davis here: 

[Ep. 199] How A Black Man Humanized KKK Leaders & Changed Their Minds w/ Daryl Davis

and read more about him on his website.

You can sign up for the HLN newsletter here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/join-my-newsletter

You can read more about, and register for, the Navigating Weight & Body Image With Somatics webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/weight-and-body-image-webinar

You can register for November's Community Somatics here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/community-somatics-november

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at [email protected]

Most of us were alone during our most traumatic experiences—and then left alone to try to heal from them. In this episode, Luis explores why isolation is at the root of so much trauma, how unexpressed survival responses can stay stuck in the body for decades, and why healing requires connection. He shares why group work is so powerful, how somatic practices and whole-food nutrition work together, and what it means to witness your body rather than become it.

Register for Food Therapy

Explore the 7-Week Course

Learn more about Inner Relationship Focusing with Maureen Gallagher PhD

Watch Luis Teach about Freeze 

You can read more about, and register for, the Navigating Weight & Body Image With Somatics webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/weight-and-body-image-webinar

You can register for November's Community Somatics here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/community-somatics-november

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at [email protected]

Luis has lived the ADHD diagnosis, along with tics, tourrettes, binge eating, self-hatred and suicidal ideation. All of this stress does a number on the gut lining, which leads to brain inflammation and brain fog. Luis began to notice that all of his symptoms would shapeshift depending upon what food he had eaten. Eventually this practice taught him how to eat for a nutrient deficient brain, while somatics taught him how to be a conscious witness. The combination of nutrition and somatics allowed the stress hormones to reduce and his gut lining to heal. 

Join Luis as he shares his favorite way to increase gut biodiversity and sustainably get dopamine. Get the webinar for free here: https://hln.thinkific.com/courses/food-therapy-adhd

You can read more about, and register for, the Navigating Weight & Body Image With Somatics webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/weight-and-body-image-webinar

You can register for November's Community Somatics here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/community-somatics-november

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at [email protected]

Do you have ADHD? Has anyone ever asked you what kind of food you eat and if your life excites you? 

Luis had self-medicated his ADHD with sugar, caffeine, and cigarettes because stimulants boost dopamine. This can help with short term productivity, but these substances also stimulate the heart, nervous system, and adrenals, eventually leading to burnout. 

What if we learned how to use dopamine deficiency as a compass to find what truly lights us up? 

Want to learn more about how to eat for ADHD? Get the webinar for free here: https://hln.thinkific.com/courses/food-therapy-adhd

You can read more about, and register for, the Navigating Weight & Body Image With Somatics webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/weight-and-body-image-webinar

You can register for November's Community Somatics here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/community-somatics-november

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at [email protected]

Luis explores the correlation between ADHD, dopamine, and the gut. He explains how certain foods can change and shift your microbiome, which then can improve your dopamine levels and lower brain inflammation.

You can read more about, and register for, the Navigating Weight & Body Image With Somatics webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/weight-and-body-image-webinar

You can register for November's Community Somatics here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/community-somatics-november

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at [email protected]

Have you ever heard the reference to, "a seat at the table"? As in, "everyone deserves a seat at the table"? Camille and Luis riff on how they feel about "the table". They. Don't. Need. Your. Table. Luis wasn't allowed into spaces to spread his work because of how he looked, so he built his own HLN-shaped table. 

If we are constantly searching for a table to belong to we are always in a co-dependent state (that most of us were modeled as children). Fawning and controlling might get us a temporary seat, but at what cost to our nervous systems? 

Co-regulation through connection leads to truly belonging to oneself, not needing the proverbial table. When we truly belong to ourselves we can relate to others as they are, rather than as we want or expect them to be. We can love people and not have to (co-dependently) need them. Healthy relationships are made of clear communication, boundaries, desires, and preferences. From that place of clarity we can choose what part of ourselves we want to make decisions from.

Even if you can't feel it yet, you exist, and therefore you belong. 

You can find the podcasts Luis mentioned in the episode here:

[Ep. 49] The Spiritual & Somatic Practice of Decolonizing Ourselves | Dr. Amber McZeal 

[Ep. 271] Live Seasonally: Prevent Burnout w/ Camille Leak

Into Healing with Mira Kaddoura

You can read more about, and register for, the Navigating Weight & Body Image With Somatics webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/weight-and-body-image-webinar

You can register for November's Community Somatics here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/community-somatics-november

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at [email protected]

Let's explore attachment styles. Luis has learned from personal experience that avoidant attachment types are simply bodies overwhelmed by a connection that feels overly needy, like a burden, and as a result they over-identify with independence. 

Anxious attachment types seek safety outside of themselves, and often end up seeking that safety in an avoidant partner. So anxious types and avoidant types often end up partnered. The overwhelmed avoidant's behavior "proves" to the anxious type their need to grasp for safety, while that same grasping "proves" to the avoidant type that they need to run. A match, my friends, made in hell. 

Do you find yourself in an anxious and avoidant relationship pattern, or have you had these patterns in past relationships? In the upcoming 6-month Embodied Relationships slow group, Luis will teach the difference between a trigger and a need, how to fawn less, and how to identify and state preferences. 

With somatic tools, an avoidant and anxious couple can learn to connect from a soft place and even become a match made in heaven. 

You can read more about, and register for, the Navigating Weight & Body Image With Somatics webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/weight-and-body-image-webinar

You can register for November's Community Somatics here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/community-somatics-november

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at [email protected]

Join a crow, a fawn, and Luis on a morning walk to chat about the avoidant attachment style.  There is a myth that avoidant attachment style folks are narcissistic psychopaths. He challenges this through the lens of somatics, seeing the avoidant attachment style as a habit in bodies that don't have capacity for connection. Their lack of capacity for their own feelings makes connection feel repressive work. So they push connection away. Instead of processing the feelings they often soothe the big feelings they don't have capacity for with porn, cheating, and addictions.

You can read more about, and register for, the Navigating Weight & Body Image With Somatics webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/weight-and-body-image-webinar

You can register for November's Community Somatics here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/community-somatics-november

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at [email protected]

Today Luis chats with Dick Schwartz, developer of Internal Family Systems (I.F.S.). Dick started his career as a family therapist. Upon asking the question, "why isn't family therapy working?" he began to develop what has become I.F.S. He learned from being in the field, and from making mistakes, how to tend to the parts of us that are usually frozen in the past. Dick found that when we talk to the inner critic with compassion, the deep healing work unfolds.

Luis asks if Dick's work sprang from a spiritual or clinical place, and how he feels about it now. They discuss their views of "self sabotage", and they delve into the intersection of psychedelics and I.F.S. 

The cherry on top of this black bean brownie is the journey Dick guides Luis on to tend to his own inner critic. If you follow alongside Luis on your own journey, please drop us a comment below and let us know what, or who, you find. 

You can read more about Dick Schwartz, and the IRF Institute, here: https://ifs-institute.com/about-us/richard-c-schwartz-phd

You can read more about, and register for, the Navigating Weight & Body Image With Somatics webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/weight-and-body-image-webinar

You can register for November's Community Somatics here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/community-somatics-november

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at [email protected]