¶ Body and Mind Leadership Coaching
Welcome to Permission to Kick Ass , the show that gives you a virtual seat at the bar for the real conversations that happen between entrepreneurs . I'm interviewing all kinds of business owners , from those just a few years into freelancing to CEOs helming nine figure companies .
If you've ever worried that everyone else just seems to get it and you're missing something or messing things up , this show is for you . I'm your host , angie Coley , and let's get to it and welcome back to Permission to Kick-Ass . With me today is my good friend , ruth Cummings . Say hi , hello , oh , I love that . Let's just do the voice mic for a second .
The mic voice .
Yeah , I like the ASMR asmr .
Oh yeah , I like some of the asmr but I'm not a big fan of like the clicky nails ones .
That for some reason drives me nuts my daughter listens to it all the time and I'm sometimes I'm subjected , so uh , but yeah , I've heard a lot of like that . Yeah , it's not my favorite , but I'm around it a lot .
Different strokes for different folks . We're not being judgy , but we're being kind of judgy . It's okay . I can tell this one is going to be full of so many great tangents . I'm looking forward to it so much .
But before I get entirely lost down the rabbit hole , please tell us a little bit about you and what you do . Perfect Thanks for having me on , angie . It's been so much fun hanging out with you the last year or so . So I'm a leadership coach . I am a peak performance coach and I do that through body , mind , iq .
How well do you know your body and how well is your mind and your body trusting itself ? How much are they being a team ? And yeah'll be surprised , maybe you won't how much are our bodies and our minds aren't communicating in the society ?
so my goal really is to spread compassionate leadership with those , uh , by using body , mind , iq I love that well , and I have a deeply personal experience with that that I will share in just a second . That is probably going to make Ruth laugh a lot , but it might surprise you to know .
So we met last year at a conference hosted by Ron Reich in San Antonio , and back then my biggest concern was I've got a book , I need to find a book , I need to release this . I need to find a partner . I was super stressed about this book and so this book I actually do have a small piece of one chapter .
That's like you need to be aware of how these things manifest in your body Because , like for me stress and anxiety I can tell when they're rolling in because I got like that pinch behind my right shoulder that shows up first If I'm super anxious . It's like a fluttering in my stomach followed by like I think I could throw up at any second .
Seriously , so when those things kick in for me , I know I'm feeling some strong feelings . It's time to check in and see what we can do about managing this . But I'm nowhere near an expert . That is just my amateur hour observations about like hey , my body's trying to tell me something , usually well before my mind kicks in and says something is wrong here .
Yeah , I mean , we are , as a culture , taught to ignore that , so it's really interesting . So I've been a massage therapist . This is my 30th year , maybe my 31st , so a long time , three decades and that's how I come up with this .
I've worked on tens of thousands of people and over 40,000 hours of work on people and it's just amazing because what I found is like I work on a lot of professional athletes , but I also work on people and it's .
It's just amazing because what I found is like I work on a lot of professional athletes , but I also work on a lot of entrepreneurs and CEOs and these big company people and they , when they have the stress , when they have stress right , if you have a , you know you're a quarterback and you you lose a game , like you missed what you're supposed to do , and
then you're a CEO and you miss a launch or you have to fire somebody , like a really big , stressful thing . Their bodies hurt the same and that's what's really cool .
I've been able to bring those specific things that I find in professional athletes and bring it to the CEO and say , hey , as a leader , this is how you could change your body to be better with people , to be better with yourself .
We start with the self , like if you could be compassionate with yourself , then you're going to be way better at being compassionate with others , and so I don't sell it that way because they don't want to hear it first . You know at the beginning .
But that's really what I'm leading up to is how compassionate are you with yourself , and then how does that translate with your leadership ?
So , oh , I get big , like all kinds of fired up , big mad about the topic of self-compassion , because what I hear from so many and the thing that frustrates me the most is these are some of the kindest , biggest hearted bend over backwards to do something for another human being , to stop them from suffering .
They are the hardest on themselves and , like you , piece of crap I'm pointing for anybody that's listening , I'm pointing at myself . You , big piece of crap , you don't deserve this because you failed in XYZ ways and we're constantly beating ourselves up with that internal chatter .
And one thing that I've learned with all the self-development that I've done and all the programs I've been in like we're in a mastermind together is learn that I don't have to think these thoughts and that's been wonderfully freeing . Like just because it pops into my brain doesn't mean that it's a thing that needs to be thought right now .
I'm not about to follow this down the emotional downward spiral and get all kinds of out of control . So I will think these thoughts when I'm ready to process them and deal with them , and until then we're just going to keep it up .
Yes , that's the . What's interesting is that there's a . What I've , what I'm an expert at , is how the body responds to those feelings and those thoughts . So it's not just the thought , like there's a mindset coach , there's many , many mindset coaches , and so that's cool , like you can have those feelings , you can have those thoughts .
But what I want to show people is that you can , you can figure this out before it happens , because your , your body's going to give you hints .
So , like I , I also coach soccer for um , I have three uh soccer championships in my state for high school girls soccer , and I have one tennis high school girls high school girls tennis championship , and what I'm most proud of is that they had zero injuries . Why did they have zero injuries ?
Because I am an expert at the stretches , the um , oh , the dynamic warm-up . Dynamic warm-up is like my middle name and so , as a drummer and as an athlete , if you can warm up your body at a specific , in specific ways , you're not going to get injured .
And even if you do get injured , you're going to heal quicker , like immediately not immediately , but sooner . And so , watching how people heal , I've been able to transfer that and say OK , ceo , leader , leader of your family , leader of your body , ceo leader , leader of your family , leader of your body . Why is it ?
Or how can you prep and , before you execute , figure out what's happening in your body before you execute , before you fire the person , before you go on stage , before you do your soccer game , so before you're a mom and you're about to tell your kid that they're they're in trouble or whatever .
Before you execute that , how are you doing a dynamic warmup with your body ? And so that's what I'm . I'm really good at that and so it's really fun because I keep finding different words for it . You know , people call me a body whisperer and they call me I'm .
My podcast is called your body advocate , and when I start my my presentations , I'm always saying I'm an advocate for your body , I'm not an advocate for your mind . I am here talking to your body because we are taught in , especially in America , but across the world I have international clients .
We , we , we ignore our intuition so we can , like you said , go , go , go , go , go , go . You have to succeed , you have to do this , and in order to do that , you're ignoring your own health , you're ignoring all the red flags that go up and it's just a . It's so fascinating . I'm just I'm just thrilled about it and I'm excited about spreading this .
I was spreading this with . I work with a lot of teens and like athletes from , I'd say , you know , like 13 through 30 . And that's an age that's .
There's a lot of stuff happening at that age group , you know , and but I realized that actually in our masterminds that I needed to talk to the people who were leading them , and not just those guys , I mean they're . We've had , we have four adopted kids .
We call them they're , I'm their mentor , my , my husband is their mentor and we we've , we take them in and we we consider them our kids and and we've taught them how to be a respectful human in the world . And not everybody's getting those lessons . And so again , I'm back to the compassionate leadership .
Start with yourself , do it in your home , do it in your first circles , and then , for sure , do it at work and spread love and kindness . That's what I'm all about .
Absolutely . I am here for it . Let the people say amen . I will be up on the soapbox advocating for that . Everything too , amen . And that's funny what I said earlier too . I want to circle back and clarify , just in case anybody mistakes , what I said for shoving emotions down and not dealing with them .
When I say that , I recognize that I'm feeling a feeling and I don't have to think that thought right now . I'm not suppressing it , I'm not avoiding it . I'm saying right now I'm not going to be hijacked by this and I'm not going to let this basically take control of my entire operating system .
I'm going to continue as is for now and I'm going to note as is for now and I'm going to note this is something that needs to be dealt with , because it came up in a pretty powerful way . I'm going to come back to this later , when I've got some time to think about it in process .
So I just wanted to clarify that , like that popped up into my head , and I wanted to bring it up as important because , exactly like what you said at the beginning , a lot of the pain that we don't deal with shows up in different ways in our body , and this is how I found myself right .
Here comes the copywriting hook , sobbing on stage in front of a mastermind group of about 50 people , with Ruth just putting was it like two fingers on a pectoral muscle ? Yep , and I'm sitting here doing it in the same spot that she touched me roughly , for anybody that's watching the video .
And I'm sitting here doing it in the same spot that she touched me roughly , for anybody that's watching the video . And I'm like this doesn't hurt . Why did it hurt ? Why did I start crying when Ruth touched me there ? I don't know what's going on . Can you speak to that a little bit ?
I can give some more context if you need it , but I'm curious about how that all happened ?
Well , you know it's not . So I think one thing about a body whisperer or any body worker out there it takes a lot of practice to know where to touch you and then what pressure to use . And so , very specifically , I was working on a grief meridian , so it's the L , it's the large intestine , and I'm working on a several areas in that area of your body .
And so you say a few words and I know what lines in your body are going to be tight and I know how to like . It's like putting two , like if you're at a kid's museum and you're in the electronics part and you put , you want it to get the light bulb on , and you like match this to this , and all of a sudden the light bulb goes on .
That's what I'm doing . I'm just touching those area in your body , I'm just letting
¶ Healing Through Gentle Touch and Acknowledgment
your body again . I'm speaking to your body with very gentle touch , saying hey , I'm listening , I am right here and I know that you're hurting here and maybe you're hurting here . And then it goes and uh , and the body's like , oh , my God , someone's listening .
And all of a sudden your body feels safe and heard and acknowledged and all those words , and then the healing can start to unravel and the onion layers can start to come off . So it's a fascinating thing because it's really easy to do right here , because there's so much held Right here .
You hold all things that need to be said and so and the neck holds all communication , anything you need to hear , anything you need to say , and when you don't say what you need to say , it creates this , this tension right here , and if you don't swallow , if you don't internalize , if you don't digest what you need to hear , it also gets stuck .
So there's , there's a lot going on right here , and so you know it's , it's easy to , once you're trained in it , to really to really be honorable to the body and to to give it what it needs in a very gentle , sincere , calm , loving way , and and I just love doing that , it's a's a , it's an honor , and thank you for letting me work on you yeah , like I
truly had no idea what to expect when I volunteered for that .
So like the full context for everybody listening is we're at a private mastermind event or a private event in san antonio and it's a three-day event where we're focusing on mindset strategy and execution .
Right , and this is the end of mindset day and we've got got a whole bunch of we've got you on stage , we've got spiritual folks , we've got intuitive folks , we've got mindset coach on stage doing a panel and all of a sudden they ask for a volunteer and I was in the back of the room getting coffee and I just see everybody kind of looking at each other
like who's going to go up ? And before I even knew it was happening , my hand was raised and I'm like what the no , don't do that . And they call me up on stage . So I get up there and I'm like my my go-to when I'm feeling nervous or overwhelmed is to just like crack jokes all the time .
And I think everybody on stage picked up that like I'm scared , I'm cracking jokes , I'm like I'm being the entertainer as a default .
And , um , when Sasha Lipskaya was talking to me and then you were working on me , what came up was and this is why I all of this shame that I had from and I've mentioned it on the podcast before , but like a business partnership that didn't go the way that I wanted it to and I had taken that super personally like a sign that I am a failure .
I don't know what I'm doing and I hid it from the world because I was ashamed of it . And it all came out that day and I had so many people that came up to me afterwards and were like , oh girl , I could tell you a story . Oh , you are so far from alone .
And that was just such a great reminder of like you're never going through anything totally by yourself . Somebody out there in the world understands what you feel and has been through something similar . And shame does you no good . Like you're suffering in silence . Shame thrives in the shadows .
Shine a light on that shit and let people in to help you clear that out and keep moving forward . That was a rant I didn't expect , but there's your context .
Well , you know , I agree with you that there's so many people out here that can help that and to speak to you know , I didn't know if you were going to say what was what was going on , so I , I was being gentle , but I remember . What I asked you was do you feel betrayed ? Do you have betrayal in your life ?
And that's in a very specific spot between the shoulder blades and the , and it's like that spot that you can't get because you've been stabbed in the back . So , it's right where your back would , where , like you'd be like , oh , you can't grab it .
So anybody who can't , who's just listening , I'm trying to grab something in the middle of my back and so that area , um it , it shoots straight through to the front and that's why that's why I was able to find those and um .
So if you're feeling pain or this , this , this chronic uh , uh , nagging , uh , knife pain in your back , then I would suggest looking at , um , um , some type of betrayal in your life sometime . It could be as early as , I'd say , three years old . And then you can look at it and see if , if that also comes to the front .
But if you can work it out on yourself by thinking about betrayal and really working on that , writing it out , talking it out to yourself or things like that , that's how someone , that's how you could fix betrayal on yourself for anybody
¶ Exploring Betrayal and Personal Identity
listening .
So well , and is that betrayal in a like , a self sense , like you feel betrayed by your own instincts ? Is it external betrayal from somebody else ? Is it a combination of the two ? I'm really curious about that .
All betrayal by God , by , by society , um by , yeah , for sure , we got the inner circle . You know , you have yourself like , okay , all right , this week I'm going to exercise every day and not have pizza , and you know , then you don't . And there's this betrayal .
That's a that's one that I use on stage , because we can all relate to that where you just keep betraying yourself , you keep betraying yourself . So that's one of them . The next one is like inner circle Parents betray us a lot . Siblings betray us a lot . Next one is like inner circle Parents betray us a lot . Siblings betray us a lot . Stuff in work .
But you know , like , for me , I feel betrayed by God , I feel betrayed by the medical system , as my husband has passed away after seven misdiagnoses of cancer , so like that , yeah , my back hurts a lot , sister , so like there's . So you can be betrayed by the news . You can be betrayed by a lot .
The betrayal is a big part of our society and being able to have it roll off you like a duck uh , I haven't found many people that are able to do that very well .
So that would be .
That is the truth yeah , I'm , I'm just putting together um a body mind , iq test , body mind . So like , how good are you ? That would be a number 10 ? You're number 10 or number nine , if you can let that roll off you . Someone betrays you and you're like oh , I got this . Yeah , I'm not there yet .
But me either . Oh my god , I'm around . A four in betrayal , like yeah , no I want to punch you in the same level yeah , I'm gonna punch you in the private parts .
That's kind of how I feel about betrayal . My gosh .
That's so funny , given A topic that came up yesterday I wrote about on social media that I had a couple of instances and these are kind of like a betrayal of the people that I spoke to , given that I'm very upfront about who I am and I was on one podcast where somebody for some reason photoshopped a tweed jacket on me and a necklace .
The necklace is like an extra fantastic touch . I don't understand , but like they photoshopped this on me and I was very much struggling with . Do I go tell them like this is not okay . Why didn't you talk to me ? I would have submitted other photos if you didn't like the one that I did . So there was that situation .
And then yesterday I had somebody give me an article draft to review where they had sanitized one of my stories , and by sanitized I mean I had said I had a life-changing epiphany at a business event when I was at a bar . I got a little bit tipsy and I wound up .
I still don't know how this came up , but I wound up telling a story about getting into a mosh pit fight . You saying junk punch is what reminded me of this and they took that out and said you know , when I told people about the rock show I'd been to they , they leaned in and I was like , no .
When I told people about the mosh pit fight , they leaned in and that was the thing I was ashamed to share with people , because I'm like are they going to think that I'm violent ? Are they going to think that I've got anger ? What are people going to think of me now that I have just like , let the cat out of the bag ?
And apparently what people think about me is she's funny and like she doesn't take any guff from anybody . And , to be fair , all of the mosh pit fights I've been in multiple . So you go , girl , there've been three . It's not like I'm out there fighting every weekend Also like recovery time in your 40s versus recovery time in your 20s .
There's a big difference .
But yeah , in my 20s it was self-defense .
So , oh gosh , where was it ? Oh , shame , tied into that too , and a little bit of betrayal in working with those folks of like . No , I've done a lot of inner work to be comfortable with the fact that I am very unconventional . I've been told all my life I am too much of this or not enough of that .
Change everything about who you are to make me comfortable .
So now that I'm finally comfortable , people who are still uncomfortable with me and uncomfortable with themselves , try to change my image on my behalf and it pisses me off . I've been working with that my whole life .
We were talking about this a little earlier because I was born in Germany and in Germany in those years I was a soccer player and my I have an older brother and we were .
I was going to his soccer practices and at seven the the German society and and they wouldn't , they would let me practice , but they wouldn't let me play , and it it just broke my heart and I can remember being there already . It was like and they're like you're not a boy , I'm like nope . And they're like , well , you can't play , I'm like what ?
And that kind of started this this down , you know downhill . If you tell me I can't , um , no , and so it just started like I , I just , I could care less what people think and I just do what I , what I am drawn to do and so that's not always easy to do and for sure I go into this . Oh my god , are you ? Should you say that ? Oh what ?
No , you should just quit , you should just just be quiet . Just be quiet , and like that's my little me and um , I went on to , you know , play soccer , coach soccer , and then my um , I did the same thing in drumming . I had ADHD and I still have .
I just I'm very , you know , hyper and as a kid that was really really hard , and one of the things that helped that was becoming a drummer . My grandfather was a drummer , but I didn't know that until later . So I paid for a lot of things in high school , paid for a lot of things in college and just have so much fun . And I'm still drumming now .
And that really helped my massage , if you can consider . So my hands were really strong . I go to massage school . I have the strongest hands of anybody there .
But then the other thing that I recognized , like a year later , is that I could hear rhythms with each separate finger and that was so cool and that also has helped me do what I do now is because I can see how you respond Over here . If I'm holding your body . I can see how you respond If I say , hey , how was work today ?
And there's things that tense in your body . I can tell the difference between different spots , and so that's why I'm able to connect them . So I'm like you know the things that that I was drawn to do in my , my journeys .
I'm just so excited because they were meant to be , they were , they were in in the exact place they were supposed to be , and if I hadn't been a drummer , I wouldn't be here right now . And so you know , I I like fighting . Unfortunately , I would probably not . I should not be around any mosh pit fights . Let's , let's not do that .
I would protect everybody .
I used to joke about that in in my 20s . Right , I grew up a very angry child and I'm not sure I'm sure that's fairly obvious , evident by the way I conduct myself these days . I've done a lot of work to heal that , but in my 20s I was still a very angry , spiteful person and a lot of what drove me was anger and spite . Tell me I can't do it .
I freaking dare you . Tell me I can't do it . It's what kept me in the fire department long after I realized I wasn't really born to be a firefighter , because other people told me we're trying to make you quit . We don't think women belong here , we don't think you're strong enough , we don't think that you're capable enough .
And I was like watch me lift this car with my butt , I'll show you how strong I am . But that drove me for so long . And so this is actually what directly led to those mosh pit fights is that was a safe space to let out the anger . That's exactly what people expected in a mosh pit , and there's three basic rules .
All right , we're going into mosh pit lore , we're just going to be musicians today , right ? There's three basic rules . If they fall down , pick them up because we don't want anybody getting broken bones , getting run over and I've actually fallen down before and had the crowd break around me and pick me back up so that that happens .
The second rule is if they want in , let them in , and the third rule is if they want out , let them out . It's like basic rules of how to conduct yourself . And I would go to these shows and , like , literally stand on the edge and if they were having fun in the mosh pit , shove them back in . Like we got a little bit of controlled aggression here .
We're all having a good time , and the first time that all of this happened , somebody punched me in the face and tried to take a drumstick that I had caught , that the band I was there to see had thrown out . I caught this drumstick . He sucker , punched me , grabbed the stick and tried to take it out of my hand , and so it's like . I don't think so .
That is not what is happening today . You picked the wrong one Again . This is Angie and her angry days . I really don't think I would be fighting like that these days . I don't think I would be in a pit these days . I would hurt too much .
That sounds very effective . Effective for anger management too . We got to get that out .
sometimes A sanctioned place to get it out know , that's what I've been learning over the past several years too is like sometimes , when the feelings are too big , I just need to get it out physically , and I've done that through dance , I've done that through drives , I've done that through literally like raking the lawn and singing at the top of my lungs name
neighbors , be damned . Um , whatever you got to do to move it through .
This is amateur hour on my half , but I'll tell you , singing , you know , singing is a huge way . You can do it in the shower , in the car , to get things out that you're not saying . You don't actually have to say what you need to say , you just need to move these tissues in your throat so , like you could hum .
That's why you know the om , om , so hum is is I think that's what it's called is so good because it moves different parts of the throat . It hums um , and then you can change the , the , the , the tone , and it gets out different styles of emotion in your body .
so , oh , that's fascinating you should check that out , go , go , look at those like how to hum , hum and sing it like , then you know , the high notes will do certain ones , the low notes will do certain ones and you can actually hum so that it it makes your chest , uh , vibrate here , vibrate the middle of your throat , vibrate , under your chin vibrate .
Yeah , so that's probably why you love to sing , because it has allowed you in a , in a , in a beautiful way , to get rid of all that anger towards whomever , and it just goes . And then , and do you feel good after you sing ?
I feel fantastic , Like it was such a surprise when all this came up . Actually , it came up with Brian McCarthy , who's a friend of yours and a friend of mine . Um , we were talking about when I get sucked into anxiety spirals or I'm feeling not my best , or it's like how do I get myself back into a state ?
What are common things that I use to feel better ? And I was the one to bring up the fact that I really one of my favorite things on the planet is driving somewhere with the windows down and the music up and singing at full volume , not caring what I look like .
I don't care If you see me driving by and I'm scream , singing into the wind , mind your business or sing along , who cares ? But like I don't care what you think and it just I don't know . It's kind of like letting all of the air out of a balloon .
Instead of being scared it's going to burst and and their catastrophe will take over everything , it just lets it all out , takes all the pressure off and I feel great afterward , even if all I've been singing was angry songs right .
¶ Finding Passion and Self-Compassion
It's interesting because you already you were taking care of your body . You know , without even knowing it . It wasn't on purpose , but you were doing it and you were doing it on purpose . But I , I'm just telling you , you guys were like a team right there and you were like , hey , what I need and I would really like to sing . Okay , that's a great idea .
That's a little conversation going on and then it , you know it's , it's such a loving , uh , it's a gift to yourself and that's a great way to have compassion for yourself is for you to go sing while you're driving . So good for you .
That reminds me of the time that I read a book called Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics . Because , first of all , what an awesome title . Second of all , I grew up in South Texas , where everything related to what we're talking about today is , quote , unquote , hippie , dippy bullshit .
That is like it's all lumped together spiritual woo woo , nonsense , right , and I have come to understand that it is the farthest thing from woo woo like nonsense made up stuff . There's actual reasons why all of this stuff works works in conjunction with our brains , with the way that we understand our bodies .
I'm reading this book and I remember he would talk about certain tactics that he used to calm himself down and I would go that's meditation . Well crap , I've been doing that Like I had my own version of that when I was losing my apartment in LA before I became a copywriter .
I would wake up in the middle of the night with my thoughts already racing , like have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and you're already thinking thoughts from a dead sleep ? So that's what would happen .
I would be thinking about all of the consequences of I'm running out of money , I don't know what to do , I'm running out of time , and I came up with this mantra where I would just say strength , peace , faith in myself , and I would repeat that over and , over and over , while trying to breathe very slow and deep , and eventually I would fall asleep and I'd
like wake up in the morning going okay , cool , we needed more rest . The rest is more helpful than staying up all night worrying , which is not actually helpful .
So this is amazing , see , you're , you're , you're a natural , you're natural and it's like you know that , that we all have this . I mean this , like you said right at the beginning , that way that we beat each other up , we beat ourselves up . You know we're , we're the , that's the .
You know , I work with a lot of teens and their parents and one of the things that I talk to them about is like , don't they are beating themselves up enough , like if you , if you continue that their body , just it just starts to wither . But if you give them , you know , consequences with love . Then there's like just affirmations .
You know , I just think you're so beautiful , I just think you're , I love your smile , I like the way , I love the way you hug and I'm , you're really good at concentrating just little things . Those are what lift them up . And then , you know , I was also going to say , like you know , the um , I was in massage school . So I went to massage school .
I was an athlete , all I wanted to do was sports massage . So , in , when you talk about woo , woo , there were the classes in the , in the , in the , this massage school , which was awesome , that I was taking , where the classes were about to be on energy and energy healing and you know what to do .
There is like the beginning of that class and I went up as a cocky little whatever 20 year old , something like that and I was like so I'm here for the sports massage and this class really isn't for me , so I'm going to sleep under the table during your class , you know , cause it's just uh , it's just not , it's not for me .
So , um , thank you and um , all right . And then I seriously went under the table , fell asleep or or like totally was a just ignored the class . He was like he was totally kind and probably a hundred massages into my career , it was only a hundred , right ? I was like , oh , oops , you know , I really holy moly , I'm getting headaches .
When people have headaches , I'm getting neck pain . When people have neck pain , I am , I am missing something here . There's no way I can make it in this career If this continues to happen . And I went back to him and I begged . I was like I'm so sorry , sorry , I was so rude to you , but I realized I need this .
And he was like oh , I was wondering when you were going to come back , but it was just . I was raised that way too , like there was no , there's no , there's no room for that , and so I have learned to put all those together and to respect everything that comes to me , I believe , is there for a reason .
I don't believe in coincidences and yeah , it's been . I have some stories , angie , but we don't have time today , but it's just been . I'm so honored . I love my career and my husband used to tell me he goes . I'm so jealous of you because it's like God came and touched you on the shoulder and said you know what you should do this ?
And you said , okay , and you've been doing it since you were little and , like you , you know you have your passion , you make money with your passion and you help people . Like you do exactly what you were told and you're just having a blast at it and I agree with that . So you know , I think that following your passion is I'm also really helping people .
Try to do that , because it just makes life so much easier .
I'm a big fan of following your passion and I admit to being a little bit envious of that too , because every time I told people what lights me up and what makes me happy , I got the message that that's really hard to do . You should do something that is a little bit more stable and more guaranteed .
And I know the hard thing about reconciling all that , because I told them I wanted to be a writer and I wanted to be a musician . Those are the things that make me happy and , of course , we all know what the response to that is . You don't want to be a starving artist . That's a super competitive field . Everybody wants to be a writer .
Everybody wants to be a musician . Good luck , You're in for an uphill battle and at the time and I know that comes from a place of caring that they're trying to protect me from having my heart and my dreams stomped all over . So that's what makes it difficult to reconcile this .
I know this comes from love and I also know deep in my soul that you are fucking wrong . And I also know deep in my soul that you are fucking wrong . This is something I need to do , and every time , I ignored that need to create , to express myself , to write , and tried to push it down and do something else . Quote unquote more professional .
I was miserable , I suffered and I would have thoughts of this would be a lot easier if I weren't here .
Wow , yeah , that's scary , but that's very common , you know , and I'm very sorry that you went through that because it's interesting , because every time , every single , every single thought is something that gets stuffed under the rug , you know .
So , like our rug is the body , the , the , the dirt is the stress or the , the bad statement , and then our mind is the broom , you know . So it goes let's just put it into the body , let's just put it back into the body , and it keeps doing that and unfortunately , it has to go somewhere .
And if you can't let it out with singing or whatever , it does build and it does create this armor for us and it does kind of it .
You know , it makes it harder for us to love and harder for us to be loved , and it's a whole , it's a whole thing and I am , I'm really proud of you , for look where you are , you know , good for you , it's still a work in progress , it's still a struggle .
So you know and that's part of the impetus behind this show is that I just wanted to show people that struggle and success aren't mutually exclusive .
Just because you see somebody on stage shining like a rock star and they've got the business that you've always wanted , doesn't mean that there's not something under the surface that they're super struggling with , and that was really important for me to share with people , because that changed the course of my whole life . Like you don't have to be perfect .
Look at us showing up here with our broken bodies and our sometimes dejected spirits and still waking up every day to try again . Like what a miracle . How freaking badass are you waking up and choosing to be here today for everybody listening ? I love you . If nobody's told you that lately , I absolutely love you . I say that from the bottom of my heart .
We want you here . You need to create . You need to be here . You need to inspire your fellow human being . You need to inspire yourself . I did not anticipate that rant coming out today , but here we are .
Well , you know , yeah , I mean loving each other . That's what we're here for and I think a lot of times we forget that Again . Um , I think a lot of times we forget that again , it has to start with ourselves .
But even when we're not loving ourselves , like if you go out and you help somebody , or just smile , what I tell my guys , like if you're , if you're just down and you're like , oh , I don't have any money , I don't have any ideas , I'm going to , you know , every my whole life's going to go , or at the park or anywhere you can find another human um to pay
it forward just with a smile can really change your life and theirs . And I have a whole , I have a whole presentation on just the power of a smile and I think that we , we have a lot of power towards others and if , if just a smile can change someone's life , then you know , I think that helps your life .
Just know how powerful it can be in the , in the days that you just don't feel like you're you're going anywhere . I can remember , I mean , the amount of days there's . Definitely , angie , I think we've talked about this before there's more times , um , feeling down almost than there are like , hey , I've got this . Oh my gosh , I , you know , I .
There's just all those , all that doubt where you , I'm a list maker and I'm actually writing a book with Cindy , right With Cindy Childress , who's also in our mastermind , a great friend of both of ours , and Cindy , you know , she's like Ruth , you know you've given me the same list about eight times and I've made the same list
¶ Mindfulness and Self-Awareness Techniques
. That's how my mind , you know , and because I doubt , I have this doubt of what , or maybe I'm going to miss something and so . I have the same list and I give it to her and I'll make a same list on the notes app center , that way , and I don't realize it's the same list .
I think I'm really making some progress on my book and she's like , hmm , um , ruth and you know she's so gentle and kind and she's like , can we you've this is the same list . And I was like what ? And yeah , I'm learning , like that's what I do , is .
I repeat , what I know is positive and that's because what I teach that when you are doing something like for you , the singing , if someone's out there and there's a time where you feel really good maybe it's gardening , maybe it's hugging your pet , maybe it's cooking there's different ways .
We all have our own ways and if there's one thing that makes you feel better , like why does it make you ? Where in your body does it feel better ? And try to do more of that , do more of that and then try to like like an eclipse that can eclipse , like the this week , that can eclipse the other , the negatives , the imposter syndrome , the .
You know I don't deserve this and I'm just . You know what am I ? Why am I even trying ? You know , I can remember starting my massage business and the people at my parents church were like so um , why are you learning how to be a prostitute ? What ? Wow , oh my .
God Thank you so much . Talk about a logical leap there . And no disrespect to sex workers Like okay , come on Right . Yeah , oldest profession , do what you got to do . More power to you , be safe .
Yes , be safe .
Yes .
It was just some , you know , and like to not take that personally , like you're saying it's hard not to go and um , obviously , cause I'm saying it now , here we are , 30 years later . I'm like huh , um , but that was a definite you shouldn't do this , you can't do this . This is a terrible thing for you All .
That list that you make , you know , you make in your head , after all they say is one word to you and it's like wow , wow , you know , I'm gonna , I'm gonna make this work , you know , and so , and I did , and I'm proud of it , you know , absolutely .
Well , I think that's fascinating . I wanted to circle back to something that you said and unpack it a little bit , because we were kind of talking about when everything is intense and like why am I even trying ? This is such a struggle . Right At the root of all of that and I say this without any trace of judgment whatsoever is me .
I'm suffering , my life is hard . This is a struggle for me . I don't like this , right and I'm not saying that you don't matter when I say this , but right .
But when you're the center of the universe and your world is this small , like I'm holding up my fist to the camera so that people can see , of course , your problems are literally taking up the entirety of everything available , right . And so one of my friends actually changed my life .
She's a psychotherapist by the name of Dr Julie Helmrich and she said most people think that when you're in this space where , like , all of your problems are taking up all of your life and there's no room to breathe , that the answer is to shrink the problem somehow . And that is not the answer .
The answer is actually to expand your world so that the problem doesn't take up as much of that . And that really helped me to understand this , what I call me versus me thinking , versus mission thinking .
When the world is all about me and my problems , that's when I tend to hear that quiet little thought that would say it's easier if I'm not here , right , because my problems take up all of my vision , all of the air around me and it's hard to see .
But doing something like you said , going outside and reminding myself there are other people in the world they're also suffering too , can I do a little thing like smile , compliment someone's outfit , start a conversation with a stranger and see how they're doing today ?
That will just add a little bit more positivity to the world and I think that'll reflect back to me and do some good for me too . Fantastic , let's do that . So I'm a big fan of like reminding myself when stuff gets tough . Get out there and remind yourself it's a big old , big old world .
We are a speck of dust on this giant blue rock hurtling through space . Oh worlds , we are a speck of dust on this giant blue rock hurtling through space .
There's a lot left to do and we can still have a hell of a good time , even if today is pretty rough . Yes , no , I totally agree .
The smile you know you're talking about that I talk about in my smile presentation , about and Mel Robbins , there's some other people that mentioned this If you go in front of a mirror and you smile to yourself , it's very hard to be angry . And then that moment and like practice , your best smile .
And I also tell people like when they're walking into a room , you're feeling really insecure , what I've always done since I was little .
I don't know how this came up , but I , I I can remember doing this in Germany so that was before I was seven and I'm walking into a room with a bunch of people I've never met or they're angry with me , and I walk in as if I've just heard the funniest joke and I'm kind of laughing like I just heard it , like that's so good .
And then you come into the room like that , and people are like you know , they look at you and they smile , and then they , and then you've got this whole . Okay , we've dissipated the . You know , they look at you and they smile , and then they , and then you've got this whole .
Okay , we've , we've dissipated the , you know , the , the discomfort , and at least I have a smile over there , and so , like then I would look , I'm like , okay , I've got four smiles , all right , which was best .
And then I would go over that way and I've told people to do that and I still do that to this day Like if I'm feeling insecure , I just smile my chest out and I'm like , oh , my God , that was the biggest joke and it's no joke and it's so funny . It works every time .
And I , I that's one of my things that I do to deal with my stress of , like you know , I'm , I'm quite an extrovert , but there's times where I'm I'm an introvert which is really interesting because my parents are but so , anyway , smiling just and giving . Another thing I like to say is to pay it forward .
Pay it forward Just , even if you don't feel like you've gotten anything , like you're feeling in lack . You know , oh , no one , no one gives me anything . So I don't want to give anybody back . And I'm like , well , that's not where it starts . It starts with you Go and give for it , pay it forward , and then you'll get back , and that has never failed .
That has never failed , and I just encourage people to do that too . All those things that I'm telling you . They help the body . Every time you smile , your body relaxes . Every time you give , your body relaxes . Giving is more about us , because we get so much from it . It calms , it , puts things together . It really calms the body .
It , it , it connects all those electric points I was telling you about before , all by yourself , just by smiling .
So oh , that is like that's the perfect note to just wrap it up , tie it in a little bow , just smile and breathe . Okay , uh , I could go for like three more hours because this is fascinating to me , but I'm going to cut it short here . Please tell us more . Where do we learn how to work with you ? Where do we look all of this stuff up ? What can we ?
How can we work with you ? I want to know .
Perfect , thank you . So I'm working on a book , but it's not ready . That's going to have all it's . It's , it's a , a reference guide of everything that I've ever learned about where things are held in the body and all those things . So that's coming .
But I do what's called a body audit , so , and that will be in the show notes and what , and it's online and what that ? What ?
What happens is I , you and I talk on zoom and I can when I say you , I mean your listeners and I can look at their body and tell them where they're , where they're hurting and what it means and how to get rid of it , and we do a body map and it's a whole thing .
It's what I did for you , but you know , but I can do it online and it's going really well .
We just started these last year and my team is just so cool and it's really fun and I'm on I'm Ruth Cummings coaching on Instagram and , yeah , anybody can get ahold of me there , or you can go to my website , ruthcummingscom , and you can get ahold of me at support at ruthcummingscom , and so I'm happy to help and I can give you some ideas also to work with
teams or with teens or whatever . I'm happy to help .
All right , I'm gonna make sure that they have clickable links to all of these things in the show notes so that it's as easy as possible to get ahold of you . Thank you so much for being a wonderful guest . I'm like I'm going into the rest of my recording day with such a big smile .
Oh yeah , hey , I want to let you know also . I'm letting your , your listeners , have my body audit for free until I yeah , cause it's $300 for free until yeah , because it's $300 , for free until April 22nd I'm not sure when this is airing , but then it swaps over to a paid version .
So if they still need it for free , they can DM me and we'll make it happen .
All right . Thank you so much . What an incredibly generous offer . What an incredibly generous offer . Thank you so much , because you're awesome . You're awesome . Let's just keep this awesome fest going . Thank you so much for being on this show . I'll talk to you soon . That's all for now .
If you want to keep that kick-ass energy high , please take a minute to share this episode with someone that might need a high-octane dose of you Can Do it . Don't forget to rate , review and subscribe to the Permission to Kick Ass podcast on Apple Podcasts , spotify and wherever you stream your podcasts . I'm your host , angie Coley , and I'm here rooting for you .
Thanks for listening and let's go kick some ass .
