“There's nothing the nervous system doesn’t affect. It affects our physical health, our mental and emotional health, our spiritual health, how we set goals, our relationships, whatever we're creating in the world.” 

–Kelly Lubeck

Is your nervous system triggered? It is … but there’s something you can do about it. I’m really excited to talk with Kelly Lubeck, a healing practitioner with lots of experience working with the nervous system. Kelly’s passionate about the nervous system, because it affects our health and well being, our relationships, and our work.

Kelly talks about the different parts of our nervous system. Some—fight, flight, freeze—are about survival. There’s also a part about love and connection that sustains us and allows us to heal and thrive.

Sometimes our nervous systems get stuck in go mode. We can’t step into loving connection. We can’t sleep. Our hormones get dysregulated. We might feel anxious or burned out. Other times or other people get stuck in freeze mode. They start to shut down. That might look like chronic fatigue or depression. Kelly likes to remind people that “the world needs you well.”

We talk about: 

• The sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system
• Modern life makes us feel like we are in being chased by a lion mode all the time, but we aren’t and our bodies aren’t meant to be that way. 
• Being calm all the time is not the goal — we need the go energy sometimes, but we need to be able to turn it off
• Learning to undo the good girl mechanism that makes us try to calm what’s around us
• Doing generational work of healing
• Patterned and predictable vs. doing the new and how we get triggered by new habits

ABOUT KELLY

Kelly Lubeck, MPH, is passionate about changing the world for the better, through individual and community-level healing programs that inspire wellness, health and soul- centered, embodied leadership.

Changemaking is hard work – and can extract a toll on those who deliver it. Kelly guides changemakers and leaders to heal their individual nervous systems and release self- defeating patterns of self-sacrifice and overgiving in their work and relationships that lead to burnout, anxiety and illness. As they expand their capacity for changemaking, this healing ripples out to the world and changes it for the better.

Kelly helps women leaders to stay grounded, centered, and embodied in the midst of changemaking, so they can deliver and lead impactful work, enjoy meaningful relationships and  have deep connection with their purpose, without sacrificing body, mind and spirit to their mission. And that makes an even greater impact.

Kelly’s work happens at the intersection of public service, shamanic healing, yoga teaching and philosophy, science of the nervous system, skilled and soulful coaching, and a variety of holistic health approaches.

She draws upon her personal experiences of journeying back from an unexplained health crisis and burnout (twice!) to guide committed changemakers with clarity, wisdom, confidence and compassion.

Kelly integrates her extensive background of over 25 years of developing and leading public health and early childhood programs in Latin America, the U.S. and Africa, with over 15 years leading educational and resilience building, holistic healing programs, keynotes, workshops and retreats to individuals, groups and organizations around the world.

She earned her Master’s in Public Health at Columbia University. Her holistic training includes her yoga teacher training certification (RYT), Healing the Light Body shamanic healing certification, Sacred Depths coaching certification, holistic health coaching certification, and years of study on the nervous system and trauma healing with a variety of teachers. Her finest teacher thus far, though, is her 12-year-old child, who’s taught her about most things in life and her capacity for love.

LINKS

• http://www.kellylubeck.com/

Doable Changes from this episode:

• ORIENT YOURSELF. Take time to orient yourself in your physical space. Look around you. Notice where you are. Notice your surroundings. This practice is grounding, and it can be calming or activating for different people or at different times. This practice becomes more beneficial as it becomes familiar. 
• IDENTIFY FIGHT, FLIGHT OR FREEZE. Remember that the goal is not to be calm all the time, but we also don’t want to feel like we are being chased by lions all the time. Start by simply noticing if you are in fight, flight, or freeze mode. Notice if you have channels open to love and connection. Are you flowing between modes or are you stuck in one?
• NOTICE SIGNS YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM IS OFF. Our bodies often tell us when something is off. Are you feeling anxious? Having trouble sleeping? Having digestive issues? Do you feel like you can’t settle down? Or maybe you can’t get off the couch? Don’t beat yourself up, but start to pay attention and observe the signs that you might need to make change or get help.