Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: If you don't stop it when it starts, if you don't acknowledge the stressor that is, that's happening, the way that your body is experiencing the stress and you don't cut it off at the start, it's going to spiral back and forth. So you're going to go ping pong back and forth between the physical and the mental until finally it gets so overwhelming that you're just in this constant, I can't do anything, I can't really be anything, kind of freezing state. And some people take it to an extreme where they end up shutting down. And we want to stop that. We don't want to get it there at all.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Welcome to the society, society Gal podcast, where trailblazing female entrepreneurs and creatives come together to spark, change and build their dreams. This is where your passion meets purpose. And together we're crafting a future where everyone has the tools to succeed.
Hey, everyone, welcome to the society Gal podcast. We are so thrilled to have Alessa with us today talking all about the science of stress, especially it applying to us as entrepreneurs who are chronic online in our desk and all those things. And so there's so many great, amazing topics and subjects she's going to really dig into today to simply help us relieve stress. So, Alessa, tell us a little bit about you, and your story's pretty awesome. So I love to hear your story and how you got here. So tell us what you do, how you do, and just how you got to this place. What's your story?
[00:01:23] Speaker A: So, I'm a classically trained dancer, and I was raised in a family of doctors, so I like to call myself a giant nerd because growing up, I never thought about this being my arm bone. You know, like your arm, it was the three different bones in your arm. This wasn't your collarbone, it had names. Your leg bone wasn't your leg bone, it was your femur. And so, growing up, that's what I was taught. And as I got older, people would look at me like, what's your femur? What's your radio? What's your ulna? You know, like, what does that mean? But to me, that was normal. And I just. That's what I thought. In a family of doctors, that's how you refer to your body. And I always took that for granted. And as I got older, I really became infatuated with the human body, this amazing machine that we all live in, right? Because you only get one of them. You don't get to trade it in like a cell phone. You really have to protect it. And as I became more and more of a competitive dancer, classically trained dancer, and I traveled all over for. For dancing. Growing up, I was dancing 25 plus hours before I was even 18. I just became obsessed with, how can I protect it, make it stronger, make it work, like, the best way for me possible. And then I thought, okay, well, I want to twirl around on stage for the rest of my life, so I'm going to go to university for this. And that's exactly what I did. I went to UCLA. I have my ba in dance. And it was there that I really learned that other people that were like me or I thought were like me, dancers who danced all over, they didn't know these things about their body, even though this was literally their instrument, the thing that they were going forward in the world with at their career path. And again, I was the weirdo that was referring my radius and ulna and my femur bone, and nobody had any idea what I was talking about. So at that point, I was like, okay, I want to dive into this more and really figure out, you know, the hows, the whys, how I can make it stronger, you know, make it last longer, really protect myself. And so then I ended up doing my senior thesis in anatomy and injury prevention and extreme athletes. And so that kind of took me, you know, like, into this other realm of diving deep into anatomy and how things work. And then I. After I graduated and I moved back, I'm a New Yorker. So after I moved back to New York City, I ended up breaking my foot in a freak accident. I was on the beach, and I slipped and fell on a rock, and that was it. It was history. I wore rain boots and sneakers for six months. I couldn't dance. That's when I started modeling, and I was so bored. Right? I mean, you just stand there and you're a living hangar. And that's when I started my journey in Pilates, and that really took me further into the anatomy realm. And again, I am a giant nerd. So I didn't just get certified in Pilates, but I became a master certified pilates instructor. So I started certifying other teachers. So I began teaching teachers after all of those things, and I realized that wasn't really my calling because it was great. I was helping other people start their own careers, but really, I wanted to affect change with people. I wanted to help them get stronger, be able to function better and within whatever they're doing. Not necessarily extreme athletes, but whatever. Whatever their goal was with their health journey or life journey, that's where I wanted to support and really teach other people, because you only get one of them. And then from there, my husband literally walked into my life and was like, hey, you want to go on an adventure? And we moved to Japan. And then in Japan, I opened up my own Pilates studio, which was actually the first to the island. So in Okinawa, there were no other Pilates studios. And I started training marine sailors, soldiers, airmen, DoD professionals, stay at home moms and locals. And that was. That was really a massive turning point for me. I started to realize that all of these hardworking bodies, because they worked in very different ways. By about 03:00 in the afternoon, they all had similar problems. Body tension, stress, anxiety, fatigue. There were all these buzzwords, and they were all being affected by these types of things, these external kind of forces, which we'll get into a little bit more when we start talking about stress. But they all had these problems, and there was no real solution at the time. The catchphrase was sitting as the new smoking, and so everyone started standing up and getting these treadmill desks, but it really wasn't solving the problem. And so I started looking around and doing a little bit of research that goes back to the giant nerd in me and the injury prevention kind of brain that I have and looking literally out my window and seeing a very healthy, consistent practice that the japanese culture has, which is, it's called radio workout three taishou. And every day at the same time, it doesn't matter what your career is, how old you are. Children learn this workout in grammar school at childhood age, and they do it through their entire lives. I've seen construction workers do it. I've seen professionals do it. I've seen the little old lady walking her dog on the seawall, who tie her dog up to the little street lamp there and line up with the construction workers and do the exact same movements, which is an awakening, stretching, kind of body awareness. I don't want to call it workout, just movement, movement, eight minutes kind of thing. And it's an amazing practice, and it's something that is built into their culture. And that, to me, was a light bulb moment. I was. This was something that had to come back to the states. And at that point, I started asking a little bit more of my. My clients at the time and just trying to figure out the stress and anxiety and their pain points and how I could best take this practice that I was seeing every day and translate it for people who were predominantly working at their desk chair, desk tech kind of relationship. Not everybody did that. And some people did have standing desks, but people all seem to have the same problems. Neck pain, shoulder pain, low back pain, stress, anxiety, fatigue, you know, the eye pain from staring at a computer screen. That really all had the same kinds of issues, even though their bodies didn't work necessarily in the same ways. And that's really where it all began for me. I started choreographing workout routines that you can do from your. Your workspace and really started to educate people about what is happening, like, why, you know, sitting is the new smoking and why it happens and how you can actually fix it. Because that, I feel, was the biggest issue, is that we had these catchphrases, and the catchphrases continue. You know, we have tech neck, you have digital fatigue. During COVID a lot of these things came kind of bubbled up to the surface, but still, nobody had a solution. The solution was get a standing desk, get a treadmill desk, buy the expensive chairs. But really, in all actuality, the only solution is movement. And that's where I share my content, and that's why I do what I do, because I can provide those solutions. And they're simple, and they don't cost money. They just. They're simple additions to understanding your day. And minutes at a time can make your day better.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: That's amazing. I love your story so much. One thing I love so much about your story is how you've mastered so many things, and you went full force in so many paths, and when you decided to change or pivot, you embraced that pivot, and you didn't, like, say, oh, well, I was supposed to be a Pilates instructor. I'm a master now. I would put all this work into it. You know, now I'm trying to change or pivot. So often people think, oh, you know, I master this one thing, and this is what I was supposed to do in my life, right? My one calling, my one thing, kind.
[00:09:05] Speaker A: Of these, like, the pivot masters, I guess, just to put it that way, just because so much is required of us right beyond our workday, beyond our, you know, we have, like, we're the chauffeur or the dog walker or the cook, who are the, you know, the laundress, all of those things that when it. When different things happened in my life, I was already in that mindset of, like, oh, I take care of my dog, I cook all of my meals, that kind of thing. So, wait, how can I solve this problem? And I think the what it really boils down to is the fact that I really love seeing people's light bulb moments when they can make a health change. And it's so simple, you know, you're not talking about, like, a two week diet program to lose five pounds. Right? This is something that when I teach people my three step posture, check, within a minute, they can make a change, and they have. They've taken away something that will help them no matter what they do. You know, it's not, you know, you're not going to eat a brownie and then feel, you know, so upset about it. Right. Which you should never feel upset about eating a brownie. Indulgences every once in a while are a good thing, but really, the. This, I love helping the bodies have just a slight change. And how. I'm not asking you to do cartwheels down the hall or sit ups next to your desk, right. You don't need that. Just simple mobility movements that take minutes at a time. It's really that. That's what it boils down to for me. So even though there was pivots, it was still very much, okay. What can I do to help the people that, you know, that are around me, that I'm serving?
[00:10:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And like, all of your passions, you said, I choreographed this. You know, I was like, oh, dancing came in there.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: That's like, yeah, I love that. And also, one more point at the end, too, when you talked about COVID and how everyone was trying to get standing desks and products and honestly, and like, especially America, we're over consumption, you know, everything. And we all think a pill or a product is going to solve our problems. And so I love how your approach we're going to dig down into is not a product. Right. It's. It's a skill, and it's really easy and simple. So that. I love that shift of. It's not a product. I've seen so many of those treadmill desks and so many of those, you know, everybody's a treadmill, and it sits in their room kind of thing.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Wearable things that people, like, put on. They take.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, like the posture.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Yeah. With this, the vest thing. And then I recently just saw a. It's like a v that you can put on your chair. And the claim is you can turn any desk into a rocking chair. Ab workout. And I was like, why would you want to do that? Who is this appealing to? And the ad, because of what I, you know, the things that I search for and I research and I read, and I just kind of keep up on the ad that I saw was a woman in a lounge chair in a gown with this behind her. And I was just like, this doesn't. This makes no sense. And it's going to end up, like, you know, like, under someone's bed in a week. Oh, yeah. All you actually need to do is learn proper spine alignment and the keeping your spine in the s curve and what that looks like for your body. And then you just, every once in a while, because we're not robots. Right. You know, we do end up like this every once in a while that you just say, oh, I got to realign my spine. I got to sit back up again. And that's the core workout there, not the, like, let me buy the rocking chair. Yeah.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: That's so funny. Yeah. There's some crazy products out there that people try to sell. I mean, good marketing, you know, anything can be sold. Before we dig into, like, the exercises and, like, the skills and everything, I would like, love for you to explain the downward spiral of stress, like, what's actually happening to our bodies when we're not aware. And how does that affect our daily life?
[00:12:48] Speaker A: Sure. We're going to keep this super simple, like, very, very surface, no scary science here if you want to go and dive in and do a little reading yourself. But I don't want to scare anybody away from this because it really is about noticing the signs in your body and what happens in your body to then cut it off. We don't have to talk about all of the. The things that happen inside, but the simple science goes, stress happens that about 90% of the time, it's because it's an outside force interacting with you. Right? So you have your to do list that's, you know, being given to you by your boss. You have a phone call with the family, loved one. Something happens, some kind of interaction. You go to a workout class for the third time this week. Yay, you. But you wake up really sore, right? So it's things that are coming from your external sources, and these are all points of stress. So stress begins in one of two ways, right? It can start mentally or can begin physically. The problem here is if you don't stop it when it starts, if you don't acknowledge the stressor that is, that's happening, the way that your body is experiencing the stress and you don't cut it off at the start, it's going to spiral back and forth. So you're going to go ping pong back and forth between the physical and the mental, until finally it gets so overwhelming that you're just in this constant, constant. I can't do anything. I can't really be anything. Kind of freezing state. And some people take it to an extreme where they end up shutting down. And we want to stop that. We don't want to get it there at all. So for an example, if you have that phone call that comes from a boss, that comes from a family member, and you're just like, oh, my goodness. Now I got five things on my to do list when before this phone call, I only had two. That's where stress begins mentally. And you start to think to yourself, okay, now I got all this stuff going on. I have to get this done. And what happens? Okay, let's make my to do list. I hunch over my desk. I'm getting really into it. Write everything out. I type everything out. And what happens? You close yourself in, you end up making yourself smaller, and you become this kind of thing, this, like, c shaped thing. And that's when the tension starts. You start to feel it in your head, your neck, your shoulders. You really feel it into your chest. Some people grab onto their thighs or their lower back. You know that tension that happens in your lower, in your hips. That's kind of where then the stress becomes physical. And then what happens? You're like, oh, my gosh, my neck is hurting. I just want to get through this. Let me just write out my bullet points. Let me just write this email to make sure I get everything correct from that phone call I was just on. And then it becomes mental again. So you had that phone call, then it went into the physical because you're trying to get in. Then it goes into that mental, then you're leaning in further, and then the pain becomes more. And you say, all right, let me just get this done. I know my shoulder's killing me, but I'll get up and walk around after I get this email done. And then it goes back and forth. The other thing that happens, too, is that maybe you decide that because you went to that workout class the day beforehand, you're going to work from bed today, and you, which is like a way. No, no, we can get into that later. And you decide to pull up your laptop in your bed because you're tired from that late night workout. You start typing away, you're laying down. You're in a total c curve with your spine. Your back starts to hurt. You start to ache. Okay, let me just write this out. Oh, my goodness. What was that email going to say it becomes mental.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: I have to get this out. Okay. Okay. Let me just really. Okay. If I shift my weight myself a little bit here, then the pain starts to run up your shoulders. Okay, I'm getting this done. Right. The phone rings, so it's going back and forth. It is. I mean, I'm just getting stressed talking about this, going through this with you. So it is really something that at the first sign, right, you hang up that phone call and you say, okay, I have two more things that's on my to do list. All right, let me see what I can get done now. And one of the things that I teach is working within a 50 ten ratio, 500:10 ratio. And that's by looking at your schedule and saying, okay, minutes. What is something that I can do now so that when my timer goes off at the end of the 15 minutes, I get up and move. And for me, I. I like about 30 minutes. But a lot of times when you're on these, like, hour long calls, you don't have control over your schedule. And so 50 minutes seems to be a sweet spot for a working professional. And then you turn it off and then you move, and then that way you can say, okay, I'm starting to get a little bit stressed. Okay, I got. I got this. Okay, 50 minutes. Close it. Step away. Or you're sitting in your. Your bed and you made that decision, right. It's something that you decided to sit down because you had that bad workout, or I should say extreme workout that go you. Because if you realize or the next day you're making changes. Love that. But it's. It is the. The idea that I want to set myself up for success. So I'm going to posture check myself. You're going to check my feet, going to check my spine, gonna press my shoulders down. I'm going to say, no, I'm not ready for my work day. Yes. I'm going to practice proper posture so I can power through and I can stop the stress at the start. So these are the things that you have to realize. Maybe you're a pen biter, you're a pen twirler, you're a knee bouncer. These are all ways that your body will exhibit that little bit of stress. Those are the signs that your body is saying, okay, I need a minute. And the best way to just pause right where you are to realign your body. And actually, if you only have, like, if you literally only have 1 minute, right. Some people just cannot step away from their desks. The one thing that I suggest for people, which is a really great mental reset, is to look out a window. Stop looking at your screen. Look at something in real life. If you're in an office space where there's, there's no windows, make sure you have photos around you. Something that isn't a screen that brings you joy. Maybe it's flowers. I'm a big flower person. Maybe it's the last trip that you took with your friends, your family, you know, a picture of your dog, your cat. Focus on something that brings you joy that has nothing to do with your work. Looking outside is wonderful. Count the birds, count the squirrels, count the trees. Look at the leaves blowing. Do something that is exercising your brain, like numerically that way, so that you're looking away from your work or look around at things that actually bring you joy. That's the best way to just cut it off, because then you can say to your brain, okay, then another quick tip here, which is people are telling me now they don't really like breathing. Doesn't change anything. It really does. The difference is that you have to stop looking at the thing that's stressing you out while you intentionally breathe. So breathing is a passive action, just like our digestive system, just like our heart beating, but it is a passive action. And when you take this passive action and you turn it into an active action, you're taking control of your body and you're saying, okay, let me recenter. And so something as simple as box breathing, which is breathing through your nose for a count of five or six or eight, whatever you can handle holding for that count, the same count, and then exhaling out of your mouth for that same count. That's a simple box breath. And as long as you go look out the window, look at your, your favorite photo, you know, look at the flowers around you, it's really going to help really bring you back to what's in front of you and stop that stress, because then you can say, okay, now I need to stop my knees bouncing. Now I need to take a deep breath. Now I can say, okay, I made that to do list. So those five things that I have to get done today don't look as scary anymore.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And I love those, like, little tips of awareness of what you can, you can do so much with so little and, like, really centering yourself, because you're right. When you're looking at a screen, you're like in a whole other world. It's almost like when you're in a book, like in a fantasy book or something. Like you're in a. You're in a whole other world. And I even feel on my body now of like, what it feels like to be in that. You're like, okay, gotta get this done. You're there. You're just like, you're in it. You're in it for the long run. And I know for me, I know for a lot of people, I fear taking a break because I feel like if I take a break, I'm not gonna be in the same zone I was of focus, and that's me personally. And so I want to hear what you think about that.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: And that's actually good. That's a good point. And so, notice how I, when I talked about the 50 ten ratio, set a timer for 50 minutes for that controls work. You also need a timer for that ten minutes, because then it gives urgency also to the fact that you're taking a break. So you can say, okay, I have ten minutes. I need to use the restroom. I need to microwave my coffee for the third time. If you're like me and have kids and you never finish your coffee while it's hot, you know, or I need to change that laundry over whatever it is that, you know, if you're, if you're working from home or, you know, I'm going to go for an indoor walk. I'm going to walk the perimeter of my office. I'm going to make sure I go up and down a flight of stairs three times so I can get some bum work out in there, whatever it is. For those ten minutes, you have to give yourself the same kind of urgency for your actual work as your actual break. And then that way it'll say, you'll say to yourself, like, okay, I I it's not about earning the break, though. You have to be careful about that, too, because you want to get your, your work done. But also, if you are stressed and something is really stressing you out and, and you haven't made it to that 15 minutes pause. It's okay. I think also, you know, in America and the west, we have this tendency to be, like, I committed to the 50 minutes. I have to get the 50, you know, and that, that something that is, like, for us, like our, the way that our brains work here for whatever reason. But you, like, you have to know these signs. Like, if your knee starts bouncing, push your chair away, look out a window, you know, really just take yourself away from it because it's 1 minute, but also with the same thing the same kind of urgency of, okay, I walked three flights of stairs, right up and down, up and down, up and down. I got my glass of water. I'm going to achieve again because I want to get through my to do list so that it doesn't cause me stress anymore. So you have to look at it in both ways.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: Hey, this is Dana from society gal. And I wanted to take a quick break to tell you about the society gal Academy, the exclusive membership that helps entrepreneurs like you launch, grow, and scale your business. Join weekly expert led workshops, access to on demand courses, and connect with a supportive network of go getters just like you. Are you ready to elevate your business? Visit society gal academy today? Yeah. I mean, yeah. I love having the urgency for the break as well, to get you back into what you're doing. Because I know a lot of us who work from home that are listening to this, you know, have those tendencies just be like, okay, I'm gone from my computer now. I'm gone for an hour because something else distracted me.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: So I really like having the timer for the break so you can get back into your deep work. And I also think about when you, when you talk about this in the moment, it does feel like, oh, if I sit here for 2 hours, I'm just gonna get this done. I'm just gonna get this done. I'm gonna be good. But then I, you know, I know for me, I would think about, well, how do I feel at the end of that? At the end of that, like 2 hours in my bed writing these emails. I feel exhausted, I feel sweaty. I feel like, so stressed out. So I think, you know, when we are in the middle of that, like, I can just a few more hours. Just one more hour, I think thinking of, okay, well, I'll just take this ten minute break. I'm gonna feel so much better in the end. My creativity will flow better. Like, I feel like, you know, I've done this before. Taking breaks, your creativity flows more, you feel more engaged with your tasks to do them, like, get them done faster too, with more quality.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: If you think about it, when you take, you're working, right, you're going along, right? And you work and you hit that 15 minutes mark, and then you take that break, you're going to come back and your productivity is going to stay here. But the longer that you go between breaks, your productivity actually goes like this. So if you take a ten minute break, the amount of time that ten minutes, you're probably going to, it's going to shorten your workday probably by about 20 or 30 minutes. Minutes. Because you're giving yourself that, like, okay, I'm realigned and I'm ready again because just, like, personally, for me, I'm a morning person, and I grab my laptop, I grab my water, I sit down with my coffee, my phone goes on do not disturb, and I, like, crank it out. But for, you know, like, I need that break later on in the day. So really having that. Having that break every, you know, 50 minutes resets it almost to back to that beginning for me where I can say I'm fresh and I'm ready to go all over again. And it does. It really does help shorten days.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And even just compounds or accumulates, you know, either stress or not stressful. Right. It's like it will accumulate not only to the end of the day, but over weeks, months, years. Like, I know people have had. People have had heart attacks because of stress. Like, I know there's so many crazy things that happen to your body just because of, like, a compound amount of stress that happens over multiple days, years.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: That's truth. Yes. Yeah, for sure.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: So I love. I love how simple, um, you're making this because it really is so simple. So you did talk a lot, like, a lot about, like, quick ways to do it. Like, we don't have a lot of time, the ten minutes. So what are some other ways? I know you talked about choreographing certain exercises. So how can we, like, get past the stress when we're feeling it in. In some other ways that involve movement?
[00:25:37] Speaker A: One thing that this is, like, shameless self promotion. I'm just. I'm going to throw this out there. The one thing that I share every Thursday are videos on Instagram and LinkedIn. I prefer LinkedIn, but LinkedIn's a little bit behind sometimes, like Monday or Tuesday for LinkedIn. But our are in under a minute. How to add movement to your workday. And then Tuesdays, if you want to join me, I do live sessions where for ten minutes that you can actually move at your desk, but that. That's over on Instagram. But all those things get. Are there. Right? So if you want examples, I do them for sitting, sitting workspaces and standing workspaces. So I alternate back and forth between the two. And right now, if you want to get some. A couple of things in, the biggest issue for, you know, on your computer, typing all day long happens to be pain that kind of, like, goes down like this, that goes in through your wrists. And I think that that's something we, we ignore. I call them forgotten body parts, your fingers, toes and eyes, just because they work so hard for us. But no one seems to think that, okay, how do I help them, right? They just say they think, like, this is just how it has to be, right? That they do so much for me. And this is what you're doing, whether you're, you're a chef chopping, whether you're typing away on your, on your computer, your baseball, throwing baseball, whatever it is, and your skills. These are, this what we use, right? This, it's nothing our main tool, but really simply to fix it now. And actually, this is exactly what I did on Tuesday. So if you want the actual video, like a full video, you can go and check out my instagram for this. But it's a mobility hand mobility workout, because mobility, if you don't use it, you lose. It goes for everything. If you don't reach up your lights, up your fingers, all the way up to the lights, if you don't touch your toes every day, you won't be able to do it as you get older. So I suggest this kind of mobility, simple. We can do it together really easy. You want to extend your hands and make them as big as you possibly can. Really stretch through your fingertips as big as you can. And then you're going to squeeze into your hands and really, and warming up, getting the blood to your fingertips, squeeze tight as, as tight as you can. And then stretch your hands all the way out nice and wide. So you can see my fingers are turning pink right now because I got the blood going to my hands. Yeah, because it's going out that way. And then you're going to squeeze one more time. It really works. Just something very simple. And then you're going to stretch your hands all the way long. And this is, this is a classical Pilates move, by the way. This is something that we did that I learned years and years ago. And it really works for computer based professionals who are typing, anyone that has to use, you know, really small mobility, tiny movements over and over again. So you're going to start with each finger and you're going to tap it three times on the palm of your hand. So you start with your thumbs, you three, two, one. Then you're going to go your pointer, three, two, one. Then your middle finger, three, two, one. Then your ring finger, three, one. Then your pinky, three, two, one. Now we're going to do four with each finger. So you have 432-143-2143 214-321-4321 last time, five times each finger. 54321. 543-215-4321 ring finger. 4321. Pinky 2345. And you can relax everything all the way back down, but you can feel, as you're tapping through each finger, how the stress, you know, that is starting to release as it moves through your wrist. And that's really great because you sit like this all day long if people aren't using their hands correctly. And that's really a way. Way to kind of release the tension there. You're using those mo, the mobility. And also it's a great way to focus not only on the finger that's tapping on your. The palm, but also the fingers that aren't. That aren't moving, that are stabilizing to really make sure that they're pressing up to stat that. And that will be the mobility exercise there. So that's a really great thing. The other thing I'll finish with, we'll just do one more for your head and your neck, because this, this happens a lot right when we're typing away on our computer. This is what ends up happening. And what I like to tell people is your skull. Your head is like a watermelon sitting on top of a toothpick, your cervical spine right here. So you really need to protect it, and you really want to keep your head, your neck, and your shoulders in alignment. It's the top of the s curve, right? So there is a curve to it. So you don't want to think, like, push it back, right? You don't want to think, push it back. But you do want to have just kind of a natural lift to your head. So there's, okay, two things here, because I have to say this. When you're setting up your computer, you need to make sure that, right where the www dot bar is, you know, what's that thing called? The address bar for the Internet, I guess. Yeah. Whatever it's called is right at your eye level. Okay. So you want to make sure that the top of your screen is about an inch above your direct line of sight. So you're not looking down all the time. You're not looking up. Right. If you have a giant screen, you want to just make sure that it's right above. Above. You have an inch above right where your eyes are. It's a. That will help you keep everything in alignment. But if you still are, because we inevitably hunch forward, we get smaller. Right. We're on our phones and we're like this, and we're hunching forward. And if. If that is where it's coming from, we want to be able to undo the hunch. And there's a couple of things that you can do that are so simple and easy. By sitting up nice and tall, and you are actually keeping your chest steady. So I like to put my hand on my chest. If you need a little extra awareness there, we just put your hand on your chest and you shake your head no and just be aware of how much your chest is not moving. It's amazing. And then shaking your head. Yes. And making sure that your chest is not moving, because as humans, when we go through our day. Yeah, I know you're talking to people, you're getting really or no, I can't get that done by the end of the day. Right. And we're shaking our head yes and no, but we're involving our shoulders in that. And then the last thing here that I will definitely say is a game changer for your spine is this very, very, very silly move. You want to lead with your chin, and you don't want to drop down, because that's what we do during our day when we're, you know, tight and everything else. We actually want to press the chin forward. So you putting the hand on the chest. So we leave it behind and then pull back to that neutral. So make sure you're not pressing back. You want to be back at your neutral and then lead with your chin. You're going to, like, chicken neck it and pull it back in. And then I like to add a little bit of pressure to my chest so I can really force my chin forward and come back in. There's so many simple things that just reset to your body so that you don't have to get away to get better, to get. To stop that tension, to stop the stress. But just taking a moment to say, okay, I'm just going to bring awareness to myself, to, like, where I am, to physically being here, to looking down at my feet and making sure both of my feet are on the ground and not sitting on one of my heels so that my hips are up and my spine starts to hurt. Really bringing awareness to where you are to stop the stress and really get on with your workday, have better work days. It's as simple as that. That was two minutes to make an amazing change with wherever are.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And even just, yeah, I mean, really relieving the pain, because I think we feel the pain there. We're just like, oh, well, it's there. It's just gonna be there nothing we can do because I'm sitting at a desk. But I mean, how simple those things were.
[00:33:04] Speaker A: And I think that that's, that we have a culture of, I hate to put it this way, but bad bosses that think, like, I struggled to get here, you need to struggle. And I think that there, there's an element of earning your place, right? You need to be able to earn your place. But when those bosses were coming up in their careers, some of them didn't have computers, they didn't have telephones in this way. They had a secretary because that was just the way things worked. They didn't even have to type. And now we're requiring people, and they sure as heck didn't have phones right back then. So they didn't have all of these, you know, like being available. Twenty four seven. And now we're starting to understand the negative effects of being available all the time. Looking at a screen all of the time. And if you don't say to yourself, okay, I'm going to take 30 seconds, I'm going to take three minutes, I'm going to take ten minutes to make sure that I'm going to remain productive. You're going to be nowhere at that point, right? Because you're not a 60 year old, you know, ad exec or business owner that runs a Fortune 500 company. You know, that they, they didn't have these things when they first started working. So now we have to really learn to protect our bodies so that we can succeed, so that we can, you know, eventually get to those positions.
[00:34:25] Speaker B: Yeah. And one thing when you're talking about, just, all you're talking about is, like, awareness. Like, really just a lot of awareness. And that practice is so amazing because I think when we get into work and we get so stressed out about tasks or a meeting or what people want us to do, we think that's what matters the most. Like, if we don't get it done, then the world's gonna end. And when you talk about looking at pictures of your family or looking outside or connecting with your body, you start to remember, oh, things can wait. Things can wait. And there are more important things in my life that are priorities that, like, other things can wait. And it's okay because like you said about the whole 24 hours, 24/7 thing, we feel like it has to get done right now or we're done for. And so that feeling is great. I just feel for me, brings on so much stress, especially as entrepreneurs, solopreneurs out there too, do, or it's all on us, right, to do it. But when you connect with the world, with yourself, you're like, wait. Things can wait. It's gonna be okay.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: Quiet your brain recenter, your body, and then really go for your goal. Like, achieve what, you know, what is on your to do list, what you wanna do for that day. And that's. That's really the name of the game, is you only have one body. You have to learn to protect it, because if there's. There's no upgrades, you know, we. You can get your hip replaced when you're like 70, I guess, but I. Why would you want that? Why not just learn how to sit correctly, how to add movement to your workday and be productive, pain free, and prevent any of those kinds of things. Who wants surgery?
[00:35:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Who wants surgery?
I don't. And one last thing before we finish today, I would love to hear, we talked about how to manage stress when it happens. I would love to hear your insight on how we can get ahead of stress before it happens.
[00:36:02] Speaker A: So I jokingly say to do lists are so 2019, but really what it comes down to is scheduling. And I touched a little bit on this, but finding that you're inevitably gonna end up with a to do list. Right. To do lists are, you know, inevitable. It comes every ask, not even just work, but, you know, like, you have to get the laundry done, dinner cooked, whatever it is. You know, you gotta go pick up a parent at the airport. There's always going to be to do's in any aspect of your life, and it all comes down to scheduling. So even if I'm in the car, I just had my parents visiting the other week, and I'm in the car for an hour, right? And I go to pick them up. You pull up to the curb, I get out of the car, and I, like, do a couple of, you know, marching in places and stretch out my calves. So it comes, it's every aspect of your life, these kinds of movement sessions are vital to you. So really, if you schedule this. So, you know, I have to sit down. I have a call at 09:00 a.m. when my. My call is done, before I get to it, or whatever, you know, whatever has to happen after this call, you say, okay, I'm gonna move. I'm not stressed yet. I'm not tired yet, but I'm going to prevent that from happening by scheduling my movement into my days. I've had clients go so far as to adjust the call times. When they have people, they schedule calls, so they'll schedule calls within 20 minutes or 50 minutes so that, that way they can have that ten minute buffer to start moving it. So if you have control of your schedule in that way, that's brilliant. Go for it and, and then make a point of what you're going to do. So in the morning, if you have an hour, and then you're going to take a ten minute break, work on your upper body, you know, do some, do some shoulder rolls, some arm circles, you know, awareness with your head and neck that we did, then, you know, you go through it. Then the next time you're going to schedule, okay, now I need to get up, right? So I'm going to move around. I'm going to walk. If you're in a sitting desk, same thing goes if you're standing, too. If, if you've been standing, standing for 4 hours, you need to sit down, you need to take a break, you need to go for a walk, and then you have to sit down. You have to give yourself the opportunity to do something different, because standing is the same problem as sitting in the opposite direction. You're going to have the same joint pain. You're going to have the same problems with, with mobility, just in a different direction. So you really have to take it, take awareness of that as well because there was a while where everyone's like, I have a standing desk. All my problems solved. But, yeah, schedule the movement, no matter what you're doing, and schedules will help you stay on top of the stress, stay on top of the body pain, the fatigue, the anxiety, all of those things. Schedules are the solution.
[00:38:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And I feel like eventually it'll be for you, probably. It becomes a habit. Right. Where, like, you just have triggers. Like, okay, my meeting was over. Okay, I'm gonna get up. I'm just, I'm. That's what, it's just what I do is I move around after my meeting's over, and I feel it.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: The brilliant thing about all of this, too, is your body will start craving the.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: Yes, that's what I was about to say.
[00:38:58] Speaker A: Yes. And so then it doesn't feel like a have to do this. It's a. All right, I need to do this now because that's what I know. Like, that's the habit of the, of the day.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: So, yeah, you'll bring so much awareness to that knowledge. Like, your, your body's already telling you that. Like you said, your body's already telling you this stuff. I think it's just that practice of, like, that neural link of, okay, when this happens, this is what I need to do. So my body needs, um. Cause I know, you know, if you're really active, like, I'm really active. I go to the gym, you know, most every single day. My body always craves that because I'm. I'm so active. I'm like, well, I can't. I can't even sit down for that much. I have to. I have to walk.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: The movement thing, if you're able to go for an indoor walk, you know, if you can't get outside, you want to go for an indoor walk. You're talking about workouts, endorphins, right? Workouts, endorphins make people happy. Get a little bit of the happiness in there, because then your body is going to say, okay, I want a little boo boost here. You know, I'm going to march in place. I'm going to do some heel raises. I'm going to do some arm circles or spine rolls, and it'll start triggering those things, and that's going to help build the habit even more.
[00:40:04] Speaker B: I love it. My favorite part about all this is just how simple it is. I mean, like, this simple, you know, doing. Doing a lot with a little. Right. A lot can happen with just a little bit of time throughout your day. And. Yes, and I don't think a lot of people just know, you'll know this. And I'm so happy to have you on here because thank you for having me out there. And people need to implement more, especially as young people who are like, we're 20, we're 30, we're right, until, you know, we're forties. And they were like, wait, what's happening?
[00:40:31] Speaker A: Yep. Exactly. Yes.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: Really awesome, Alyssa. Well, thank you so much for being on here and sharing your amazing knowledge. Where can everyone find you, connect with you? You already talked about some things that you do, you know, consistently each week to share, but where can everyone. Where's the best way to find you?
[00:40:46] Speaker A: Best way to find me, I think, is to go to Instagram and click on the link in my bio, and then it has all of the links in there. Every week I send out three minutes. It's a three minute email to help you have better work days with a little tip, a little reminder for a live session where it's going to be that week. And that's really the best place to get on my email list by going to my Instagram, which is alessa, a l e s s a jobufit, which is my company job, the letter ufit. And that's really the best way to find me on Instagram and go to link in my bio.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: Yeah, that's awesome. I'm excited to follow you and get all these.
[00:41:23] Speaker A: If you. If you have a problem, if there's something that you're like, my shoulder hurts. This hurts. This is what I do for a living. Send it to me. I will help you fix it. I love creating content when people tell me I need this. So, like, that is what I'm here for. So just send me a message, I guess I will do it. Or if I have something for you, a video that's already up, I'll send it to you because that's that's the goal, is that's why it's there to be used. You know, use it, interact. I'm here.
[00:41:47] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on here today.
[00:41:49] Speaker A: Thanks for having me. Have a great day.
