So let's Georgi, hi. How are you? I am good, thank you. Life is good, feeling good, glad to be here. Great, great. First thing I have to mention to all the people that are listening, this is an English episode and a Slovenian podcast, but it's not the first one, so they're already used to it. But you were my faculty member at Elementum Coaching Institute. um I was a part of your mastermind group now for two times. um I have the privilege to be coached by you, to be mentored by you.
And first things first, I have to thank you for and express deep gratitude um for all the insights and for all the guidance that I received from you. So thank you. This is um to open and to introduce from where do we know each other. um I'm quite sure that quite some listeners already know you. because I've mentioned you a few times and your podcast stories within is also listed among uh my favorite podcasts. So I'm sure that some of those who listens already um know you or heard about you.
But anyhow, um I would like if you can give us some introductions, some introduction, some like background stories so we can know more about you. um how you came into coaching space, what mission are you on, so we can have some background of your life and of who you are. Well, thank you for that invitation and thank you so much for that introduction. It's been an absolute privilege to witness your own coaching expansion and your own evolution of your craft.
And being part of that is part of my mission as a coach. I really believe that the world needs the work that we do in the way that we do it. takes the experience of life to another level. And I know that's something that you are just as committed to as I am, because ultimately we are here to live. We are here to live a life in which we feel alive, in which we feel well and really connected to who we are. And so my journey as a coach was sort of my own initiation into that experience.
For 10 years, I'd been practicing as a chiropractor and I was Dr Muir chiropractor and I practiced over the UK and in France as well. And we had a period where we were a military family, so my husband is a soldier, and we moved over to the US and I couldn't practice as a chiropractor and I wasn't earning my own money. And that led to just this huge identity crisis of, well, if I'm not Dr. Muir, then who on earth am I? If I'm not earning my own money, then where is my sense of worth? And...
In that came this amazing opportunity to recognize that my craft and my mission didn't really fit the lifestyle that we had as a military family. And at the time I started a blog called Chasing Lobsters, which was really to just continue inspiring myself in my own life. And Chasing Lobsters was founded on the premise of the world is your lobster, which is what my dad used to say instead of the phrase, the world is your oyster. My dad would always say the world is your lobster.
and that you can do and be whatever you want to do and be, essentially. The world is yours, your life is yours. Live it. And so I blogged and I shared what I knew as a chiropractor, which was eat well, move well, think well, change behaviors and movement patterns to create health and to thrive and enjoy life. And then doing that as a blog and on Instagram, people started messaging me saying, could you help me? Could you coach me on this? Could you coach me on that?
And it was one of those just divinely guided moments of, Georgia, we're going to pause your chiropractic practice because there's a new direction for you. And in this space, you're going to be able to do everything you already do in love, but in an entirely new way that really suits the lifestyle, the very nomadic lifestyle that you lead as a military family. And it's just been the most beautiful, organic unfolding for me professionally.
You know, I started more as a wellness coach, helping people get healthy. And then you realize that people don't do the healthy things until they worked on the deeper things of, you know, self-worth and what do I actually want? And what's driving that desire? Is it my drive? Is it my desire or is it society's drive and society's desire for me and my spouse's desire for me or my parents desire for me?
So once you start realizing that for people to really show up for themselves consistently, they need to do a little unpacking of the deeper stuff. The wellness coaching became life coaching. And then the life coaching, I had the privilege of working with wonderful women in leadership positions. And they then started inviting me to work with their teams and support their companies. And so we've expanded from just working privately to now working with corporations as well.
But the work is the same. It's about the human. It's about who is this person in front of me and how deeply and lovingly are they connected to who they are and themselves so that the way in which they express the choices they make, the way they lead their teams or their own life is an expression of who they are. in therefore, it's that fulfilling, thriving journey of their own life. oh That's great. That's a beautiful story. Thank you.
And I really like, I always like to hear this because I'm also preaching this so many times and maybe now I'm repeating myself on this podcast, but so many times there's so much focus in coaching also on the teams and corporations and how to be a good leader. And usually we forgot um the individual who is living the life and who needs to be um comfortable in his or her own skin, in the body to be able to lead others. And yeah, this is an important mission to be on.
And that's one thing which I would like to talk about you and that we said we will talk on this podcast. And this is the somatics because you... helped me to get in touch with myself, with my body more. And I think there is a, in general, a lack of this body-mind connection in our society. I don't know how do you see it because you have more experience in this field. How do you see today's modern society and this disconnection of body and mind?
Well, I saw it first and foremost in my practice as a chiropractor. You know, when people are coming to me, usually their body has been giving them warning bells and I always speak about before the body shouts, it will often sing at you and it will hum at you, then it will sing at you and then it will shout at you. Most people would end up in my office as a chiropractor when their body was really screaming and shouting at them because they hadn't been tuned in.
and listening to those subtle signals from the body of, I'm not feeling great, or this isn't comfortable for me, or my energy is low. Because we're so in this process of mind intelligence leading the way and that that's what we value. And so we're in the process of doing and doing and doing, rather than really staying attuned to and how am I feeling within that? And what is my experience within that? And so that was my first awareness.
of both the power of the body, you know, we have this incredible innate intelligence within the body. So somatics is really just the stoma, the body. And we have an incredible innate intelligence. We don't have to tell the body how to breathe. We don't have to tell the cells how to restitch together when we cut our skin open. There isn't just an innate intelligence that lies within the body. that comes to our expression of health.
And when we give it the ingredients it needs, and we remove the stresses or the toxins that damage that, the body knows how to express health. It just needs our partnership, both environmentally and chemically and what we pretend and how we move and think. So I was really acutely aware of the power of the body and the intelligence in the body. And what happens when we stop partnering with that? When we stop listening to its cues?
And so as a chiropractor, I was seeing it very much in the expression of pain or the expression of injury. When I started shifting into coaching, you see that disconnection less in terms of pain or injury, and you see it more in terms of your experience of your life. It's your joy, your pleasure, your capacity. for energy and to really be thriving energetically rather than just living and surviving.
And that for me was where these two realms of mind suddenly started to come together in the most beautiful unison where that power, that innate intelligence of the body started to combine with coaching in that more intellectual mindset sense. and they could come together as a really powerful force for healing and freedom and joy. And I really, always think we have IQ, intelligence, mental intelligence, we have EQ, our emotional intelligence, and then we have BQ, our body intelligence.
And it's that blend that comes together in my work and I know in your work now as well, that I think is the most powerful sort of set of... Yeah, you mentioned body intelligence. was just recently, I think it was in my mastermind, I was talking about that a lot of people have this desire to change something and they, I don't know, they can hire a coach or they join some collective collective coaching group or training or whatever.
And they usually aim just to, I will shift my mindset and everything will be all right. And it's not like that because if the body is not on board, it's pretty damn hard to shift or the shift is really short term. So I think this awareness of how important the body is and the memory that we carry in our body, it's really crucial. Yeah. uh really, I really see the body as, the vehicle and the vehicle that either will put the foot on the gas for you or the foot on the brake. And it can do both.
You know, when we're tuned into that body intelligence, we're tuned into our intuition, we're tuned into the needs of our body, we're tuned into the needs of our, energy systems, whatever. So it can really, when we tune into those and we listen, it will guide us to know, don't eat that. Yes, do do that. Yes, that direction excites you. So that's the foot on the gas sort of part of the body. And when we can learn to listen and respond to those cues, again, it's this powerful partnership.
And at the same time, the body and specifically the nervous system has an incredible ability to hit the brakes on direction and hit the brakes on change. And that isn't because you don't want it, right? It isn't hitting the brakes because ultimately somewhere you don't want the thing that you're saying that you want. Usually it's because your nervous system has a conditioning and imprint that believes that that change is unsafe. And that is hardwired from a very young age.
And this has nothing to do with your mindset. This is just. primal neurological signaling from the body of what direction is safe and what direction isn't. And you can mindset your way all day into that. But if you don't allow the body to come on board, it will be in a state of stress during that change. And when you're then in that state of stress, things become harder, executive function becomes narrower, our ability to see clearly and decide quickly becomes lessened.
So the safety piece is so important and being aware of what system your body's operating in. I operating in a restful, calm state or am I operating from a stressed and heightened state of arousal? It's so important because the decisions you make from one system to the next are very, very different and they will either lead to longevity and sustainability or they can lead to crash burnout. and ultimately your body putting the brakes on full time. Hmm. Yeah, well said.
in case someone now wonders, someone who listens to us now wonders, but how can I listen to my body? How can I hear because I'm not used to hear my body? What kind of... Yeah. Yeah, well, this is one of my favorite playgrounds to be in is first and foremost, if you're listening to this and one, recognizing that to all the Slovenian nationals who are welcoming a Brit into this conversation, thank you. Thank you for having me here in this language.
But the first and foremost is meeting yourself there without criticism. You know, if you're here and you're hearing this from me and being like, what are you talking about, Georgie? How on earth, I listen to my body, what does that even mean? My invitation is to just start getting curious and be very playful with it. And so signals from the body, they can be, I like to almost discern it as either an expanding, calming, opening experience, one where you feel like it's.
expansive, it feels opening, it feels a lightness or a lifting or a calmness to it. Or we can have the other that may be more of a collapse or a constriction or a heaviness or a pullback or a shaking or a sort of smallness energy. So we just start to pay attention to when I choose this thing or when I think this thing, what are the actual sensations in my body? And we start really, really small. So I'm just trying to think if somebody's saying, why would I want to connect with my body?
Where would I start? Again, it can be, do we want to focus initially on the foot on the accelerator on the gas, part of the body's feedback, or do we want to focus on the foot on the brake, part of the body's feedback? My favorite place to play with the foot on the gas, the foot on the accelerator part is that. Am I, is this an expanded energy? Is it an opening energy? Do I feel lifted and at ease with this? And start with things like what clothes you put on in the morning.
Okay, so when you think about dressing a certain way, before you choose, just think, well, if I wear this, how does my body feel in it? How does my energy feel? Do I feel, what shape do I, and posture do I want to sort of take on when I think about this? And it's one of my favorite games to play every day is almost letting my body choose what I wear for the day. Which of these feels most freeing, lifting and opening to me? Same with food.
When I think about eating this for my breakfast, when I think about having that second coffee, does my body expand and open and lift and soften, or does it constrict and harden and get heavy or tight? And those are those little signals of the accelerator that we get to play with. But start small, start simple, start really trivial so it's not intimidating.
When you then build trust of the experience that you have, for example, when you run and you're like, should I turn left or should I turn right? Should I go down this road or should I go down that road? And then you realize that, actually I needed water. And I remember there's a water fountain down here and my body knew to take me this direction because I found the water fountain. It suddenly all starts to make sense and we start to trust it more.
Hmm. would be that sort of accelerator on the gas piece. And then the conversation with the body on the breaks of the, am I in my stress system? And when am I in my expanded full executive function regulated system? It's similar. It's do I feel calm? Do I feel centered? Do I feel grounded? Or do I feel twitchy? And do I feel uh jittery? And do I feel a bit restless? and sensations, we noticed the experience. I just remembered my exercises while we were in Elementum.
I remember when I was visiting, it's like a food corner or something. It's like 10 different ah restaurants to choose. And I didn't know what I will pick. When I came into that place, it was like, what do I feel to eat right now? And it was odd at the beginning, but eh more and more it was like... that feeling I don't want to eat that thing now. It's like I was, I felt deep down that this is not the right choice now.
And, and more and more I practiced, I think the, the more confident or the louder this, the clearer this voice was, was in me, like what to, what more like what not to choose, not what to choose, but like avoid that thing. It was, it was in that direction. Usually we'll have, we'll have a quite a clear pattern of what's a yes in our body and what's a no in our body. And if you can learn your own body's language of yes and no, what does a yes feel like to me?
So like I said, mine is that very lifted, very expanded. feel my chest widening, my shoulders pulling back a little bit. I feel a lifting up through my chest. My breath softens and slows. So I feel That's my yes. My no in my body is tight. My tummy clenches, my shoulders round, my shoulders drop.
get this very constricted like, oh no. And that's the sort of sound that my body wants to make it's like, no, not that, oh no. And so it's learning your own language of your yes and learning your own language of your no. And so what you were speaking to there was, was sort of noticing it ahead of time. what we can do is we can actually learn our signals after as well.
So when you make the food choice and you realize it wasn't the choice that you wanted or it wasn't the choice that you wanted to have, pay attention to what your body's signaling then. What do you notice and where do you notice it? Is it a clenching? Is it a heaviness? Is it a shakiness?
You know, if I have that second coffee, my whole body's gonna be screaming at me, Georgie, that was a terrible idea because I'll be shaky, I'll feel some anxious, sort of some excitation in my chest, I'll feel my heart a little bit faster. Those are all signals that it was just too much for my body. And so we can learn before and we can practise sort of following those cues ahead of decision, or we can allow ourselves to make decision.
And notice, okay, that was a no. And this is what a no feels like on the other side. So we do get to be playful with it. We don't have to take it too seriously. And there's one important thing also, because you mentioned nervous system. Sometimes we feel the know in our body, but deep down we always know that we have a choice. We can choose to reject, refuse to do something, whatever, but we decide to do it anyway because Maybe it is an important thing which will lead us to something else.
Maybe it's part of our job, whatever. And there are still tools that we can use to calm us down and to choose to do the thing which is not the right, which we know that it's not the right thing, but we can do it like in a not so stressed way or how to put it.
So this is also worth mentioning because I think with, with knowing the signals and with this knowledge or awareness that you have the tools which you can use to calm yourself down, ah you can go ahead much more ah with confidence and in a much more healthy way for yourself. Absolutely. And I think what's important to note as well, is that there's a difference between body wisdom that is intuition, and body wisdom that is instinct. And intuition is more of that body led intelligence.
It's the Georgie, I know you're going to feel good if you eat that and I know you're not going to feel so good if you eat that. There's this intuition in the body. That is a very different sense in the body than instinct because instinct is more linked to survival. So instinct is more that nervous system programming of fear, safety and survival. Intuition doesn't carry the same urgency as instinct does.
So people will often say, well, how do I know that my trauma or my patterns of past that have created these behavioral patterns today, survival strategies today, that they're not guiding my intuition. And the key is that the experience of intuition versus instinct is very different. Instinct really carries with it a sense of urgency and it repeats itself. boom, boom, boom, until you avoid the thing, it's going to be saying not here, not here, not here. Don't go there. Don't go there.
Don't go there. Don't go there. Don't Don't, don't, don't, don't. Intuition is much more calm. It's much more grounded and it's usually a one and done. It's like a eat that Matty. That's what you want. That's it. And so when you can see that your instinct is firing, Like you say, the first stop is to recognize that stress systems are activated. Great, your body's trying to do something that it thinks is going to keep you safe.
But we know that in that state, if there isn't real immediate threat, that we're coming at decision-making from an aroused state rather than a uh centered, calm, and full brain online state. And so that's where we get to go, okay, I'm noticing that I'm stressed. I'm actually in a safe environment where I don't have to suddenly run for my life. So I'm going to take a couple of deep slowing breaths, regulating, calming myself, just to let my body know it is safe.
So we can look at this, this situation, this question, this decision with IQ, EQ and BQ and not just from our survival. strategies, not just from our nervous systems programming that occurred after insult, injury and events that happened when we were young. Yeah, and we are carrying these memories and we are usually not aware of them, but there's something might happen, I don't know, and something triggers us and we are back in that uh feeling from, I don't know, when I was five, ten, whatever.
um without even knowing what's happening. It's like something is off and I don't know what. And yeah, this is important to catch ourselves and stop and breathe. And that's why it's so important, especially when I'm working with leaders of companies is you have to know your signals of stress. You have to know your patterns, both from your body's experience, from your, way you behave, the way you communicate.
What are your little flags that you have slipped out of a regulated state into a, okay, now I'm in a stress state. Now I'm in a highly aroused, limited executive function. tunnel vision, uh we have to learn those signals in ourselves so we can catch them. So I had a client meeting, a client session just end of last week, and he said to me, Georgie, tough season, tough quarter at work, team's not hitting numbers, and he's jumping in. He's jumping in to fix, fix, fix, fix, fix.
when we know that we need our leaders in the moment to really pull out, hold the line and allow others to continue to keep the engine running. But he's jumping in there shoveling the coal himself to get those engines going. And I said to him, he said, why do I do this? You know, I reflected back, he said, why do I do this? And I just said, this is because you've hit that point of stress where you're no longer making the decisions.
Your little boy, You're, you're less than 12 years old, learn systems are taking control. They taught you how to survive when you were young. So tell me who were you when you were before you were 12, when, who were you within team? Who were you within stress? And he was like, okay, it makes sense. I was a star player. I carried the whole team. I had, it was on me. If we won or lost, it was all on me.
And as soon as he could see that that that survival system, that patterning from when he was young was what was driving the choices today. He could look at the behaviors, he could look at the way he was communicating and showing up with others. He could look at his own signals from his body that go, my 12 year olds jumped into the driver's seat rather than my full adult brain being the one that's driving right now. And we do that compassionately. Yeah, I remember this from my work with you.
This is me catching the train. Yeah, yeah. That is so good. But maybe the problem is because being stressed out is for a lot of people the new normal. So they're not able to catch themselves when they come into that state because they are all the time in that state. And... That is the problem. How to catch them or how to get them out of their head and slow them down and see what's going on. So do we have such cases?
Yeah, I mean, really the invitation and I really encourage the audience to take a moment and just ask themselves this, how do I feel in my body? Take a breath, not what do I think I'm doing well and how do I think I'm doing? How do I actually feel right now? Am I tired? Am I needing the loo? Am I hungry? Just tune in to your experience. of right here, right now, of how you're operating. Really slow down enough to take a deep breath, breathe in and ask yourself, how am I?
And in that moment, we don't judge, we don't criticize, we just notice. And from there we can ask, what do we need? I think the challenge is, because when we're running in stress states, often, And again, we can ask this is it will take the back going bang. It will take our burnout leading up to us being bed bound for us to really notice how disconnected we have been from the needs of our body and our experience of the life we've been living.
And this is what I say to all, all the clients I work with. Purpose, fulfillment, joy. um Even success, they are not just a uh concept of mind. They are a lived experience. They are a felt experience in the body. Purpose is not just a concept. It is an actual, it's a lived full body experience of I feel purposeful. I feel fulfilled.
But what happens is when we come so disconnected from that felt sense of our experience, we're charging towards something from the mind, meaning that we're never going to know if we even hit it. We're going to run straight past those goal posts because we're not connected enough to notice when we've reached them. We're not noticing the experience. I think one is noticing and one is also having the aligned vision towards where we are going, aligned with our true self.
Because a lot of the times we are chasing chasing someone else's goals and we are simply burning out, ah running towards something we actually don't want. Absolutely. And when we really look at goals, and this is one of the most important parts of our work as coaches, I think is when we look at goals, ultimately, we have to recognize that the reason we're wanting to achieve that goal is because we believe that achieving it will help us feel a certain way.
When I have achieved this thing, then I get to feel pleased, peaceful, calm, joyful, fulfilled. And so it's not really ever the goal that we are moving towards. It's the experience we think reaching that goal is going to create for us in this life. And if we are so disconnected along the way to the experience that we're having, A, we're missing the whole journey and we've missed out a huge chunk of experience along the way.
And B, we won't know we've actually got there because it's just, it's a mind game rather than a really felt lived. experience in the body. Great. So well said and we could continue this probably for quite some time. But I'd like to be respectful to your time. uh I have one question which I do ask all ah the guests in this podcast and this is what is your definition of success? ah So I also have to ask you. have to. I would like to ask you. So what's your definition of success?
My definition of success is feeling and experiencing the life I'm living in the way that I want to feel and experience life. I want to feel joyful. I am here for a joyful life now. That does not mean that my life is not without challenge. It's not without hardship or pain, but I am so committed to at the same time experiencing a joyful life that is felt and lived and fulfilling in my whole body, soul and mind. And so it's all about the experience for me.
That's my definition of a success is how it feels. That is beautiful. So we covered some ground um regarding coaching and semantics, but is there something that we didn't mention, but you would like to um send this message to the audience? If there's something that you would like to speak up about? Gosh, so many things, Mate, that I think we could talk about forever. m you There is no greater gift to the world than you really gifting us yourself.
The new really connecting with who you are here to be, connecting with your unique set of skills and zones of genius that will feel like nothing to you because they come so naturally and they come so easily. We have such a notion that success needs to be hard. But really when you align yourself with who you are and you give yourself permission to express the gifts that you have naturally, innately, easily, like hush, hush, it gets to be easy.
When you actually give yourself permission to start to express you and show up to what is true for you right now and what your body needs right now and not making that wrong, but simply allowing it. and being present with it and responding to it. You're going to create not only a life for yourself that feels good, truly doesn't just look good, but feels good. You're also going to be a human who shows up amongst other humans in a way that we need you, in a way that you are here to give back to.
humanity and to your community and to your team and to your family. Because when you deny who you are, when you suppress who you are, you're limiting the gifts that are available for all of us that you get to share. So my invitation is to meet yourself more fully in your mind, in your body, in your soul, and allow that to guide the decisions and allow that to guide how you show up. Because that, my friend, is what we pray. and one from each of you. Yeah, great. Great. Thank you.
um Just one last thing. Where can people find more about you? Where can people find you? Well, I suppose at the moment, the easiest place is at Chasing Lobsters on Instagram or email me georgie at chasing lobsters.com. We've just moved internationally at the beginning of this year. And so I have taken a much slower start on the old social media, but I am still there and I will absolutely get back to people. so that's the place or on LinkedIn.
I'm Dr. Georgie Muir. Everything will be in the show notes and for all of you who are listening and watching, uh pause, take a deep breath and ask yourself how do I feel and what do I need right now. So yeah, thanks. Thank you, Georgi. This was a pleasure.