Episode 284 Minisode: Try my favorite tool: Full Body Reset
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This episode is about one of my favorite tools. I use it all the time. It’s called the full body reset. I originally recorded this episode for my Coffee with Colleen podcast. And I did it on a morning when I actually didn’t use the tool. I did not do the full body reset. And the reason I wanna share this with you is because it’s a great reminder that growth doesn’t mean you’re done and that the struggle is over and you’re never gonna have to deal with negative emotions.
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or overwhelm, or anxiety, or indecision, or funky moods again. Growth is just about staying in relationship with yourself, with awareness and compassion, and the willingness to come back to yourself when you drift away. And I wanna share it with you because this practice continues to shape the way that I move through everyday life. From the small moments of overstimulation,
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to the bigger ones that shake my confidence and belief in myself all the way down to the foundation. So as you listen, notice what stands out for you. Maybe it’s a strategy you can try this week, but at the very least, maybe it will just give you permission to be human.
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Colleen and I’m a mindful drinking coach helping high achieving professional women permanently reduce their alcohol consumption by 80%. Join me each week for evidence based holistic strategies to regulate your nervous system, balance your dopamine and activate the growth mindset that makes you so powerful in other areas of your life so you can stop worrying about losing control and trust yourself again. Get happy, not sober. It’s not about the alcohol.
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So I want to share a strategy that I have been using called the full body timeout. And I want to share it on a morning where I did not apply that strategy last night. So not only do I want to share a strategy that works when you use it, but I also want to normalize the need for ongoing dialogue with yourself, ongoing check-in and reflections. The absence of alcohol use disorder is not
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perfect drinking for the rest of your life, or always stopping at the perfect right time, or never making a decision that you regret. The absence of alcohol use disorder is the absence of thinking that you have a problem or experiencing fear or shame because you do find yourself doing a post-mortem game debrief because you didn’t win the game. When you zoom out and put your drinking
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In the context of life, there will always be time where you ate too much, you didn’t work out like you wanted to, you stayed too long at the party or came home but fell into your phone instead of fell into bed. You grabbed the ice cream or the popcorn instead of making yourself your nighty night tea and sniffing some essential oils. There will always be times when you don’t make the perfect
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best self-care decisions. And that goes across all contexts, not just for alcohol. So the absence of alcohol use disorder is having compassion for yourself and doing what you need to do to set yourself up for success in the future, but not making it mean that you have a problem or that something has gone wrong. You just blew through some stop signs. You need to pay more attention. You need to pick yourself up, dust yourself off.
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and learn what you need to learn so you can move forward. So this is what I got to do this morning. And luckily it wasn’t catastrophic, but I did wish that I had done the full body reset at approximately 8.45 when it occurred to me to do it, but there was one more episode of the White Lotus and there was one more glass of wine in the bottle. And I let my autoresponder brain say,
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there’s only one more episode. You might as well finish it. Even though this season has been stupid and awful and I wasn’t enjoying it, I thought, well, am I gonna leave it undone or come back and finish it? It’s not even good enough to come back. You know, these are the signs, turn the goddamn TV off. But it was early enough in the evening, still in the eights somewhere, maybe 8.30, there was one more episode. And I thought, it’s too early to go to bed, even though I’m in a book club now and I so wish.
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that I would have gone and laid in my bed and sniffed my essential oils and fallen asleep listening to the book we’re reading for next month’s club. I wish that, but that is not the choice that I made. And it would have been an easy choice had I done what I’m calling the full body reset. So the idea that it’s hard to make a different decision to do what is best for you, that is a false idea. It is not actually hard.
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to choose something that is genuinely fulfilling and relaxing over something that is numbing and dumbing and that you’re not even enjoying. It’s not actually hard. But what it takes is breaking the spell. It’s like you’re almost in a spell, right, or a trance. And you kind of actually are, but that’s another episode. It’s just breaking out of autopilot. And I know that had I
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paused between the last stupid episode seven and episode eight, which was equally stupid and who the hell thinks that’s a good show? I don’t know. If I had just paused the TV and walked past the little bit of wine that was left in the bottle and gone to my bedroom and laid on my bed, like full lay down, not thinking about it, not walking around thinking about it, but actually got into my body, got out of my head.
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and into my body so that my body could have a vote. I know what my body would have chosen because I have done this so many times, not just to interrupt an autopilot or a bad habit or to make a better choice. often I do a full body reset when I’m really, really stressed or I’m stuck in my head thinking about a problem. I will go and I will lay on my bed full flat.
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the feeling that washes over my body. Like I get these bubbles and I allow myself to sink into my little nest and just breathe. And it shifts the gears on my nervous system. I remember what it’s like to feel good and relaxed. And in that action that I take there, I can access a different emotional state. I can access
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bigger and better options. can remember who I am and what I really want. And I can escape whatever’s going on in my head that is keeping me stuck on whatever negative thought pattern or negative behavior pattern that I’m in. The full body reset is the most powerful tool that I personally have ever used that is the easiest way. And I’ve even done this in other locations. You know, like if I’m traveling
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or I’m at my parents’ house or I’m staying with friends. Not just go to the bathroom, which I’ve talked about that, going to the bathroom and looking at yourself in the eye and talking to your tomorrow self. Sometimes that’s not enough of a full body experience. I sometimes it is. It can be helpful. But if you can do a full body reset where you actually lay down in a comfortable place,
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Walk into somebody’s bedroom and shut the door and just lay down on the bed. It is literally a matter of minutes that you come back into yourself and you remember that you have other options. And when there is something you’d rather be doing, your body reminds you of that. The full body reset gives your body a vote for what comes next.
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Do you want to keep doing this? Do you want to keep thinking this? Do you want to keep feeling this? Or do you want to reconnect? It’s almost like when you’re a kid and you have to touch base before you run back out and tag people. I don’t remember exactly. I just remember the concept of touching base. Just imagine if you touch base, how you remember. Like your body will tell you, oh my god, I’m so tired. I don’t really want to go. I don’t really want to be here.
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oh, this isn’t important to me, or you remember what is important to you. Like if I had gone and done the full body reset, I would have remembered I’d so much rather be laying in my bed and listening to a book right now. It wouldn’t have been hard to make that choice. But the bridge to making that different decision is to tell myself that’s on autopilot, sitting on the couch, getting ready to start the last stupid episode of a stupid show that I’m stupidly sitting here, wasting my time watching.
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If I had just said, you know what, we will watch the next episode if you want to. But first, I’m going to go into my bedroom and I’m going to do a full body reset. And I’m going to give myself the option to remember that I have other options. And that’s really the key to pattern interrupt to changing a habit is to pull out of autopilot long enough to see the bigger picture and then reconnect with your body.
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because your body desires. There’s a reason you’re trying to change your habit. It’s because something would feel better. Something would be better. You would be happier if you made a different choice. And you just have to reconnect with that awareness. That’s all it is. And so I share this with you on a morning where I didn’t execute it successfully to normalize the fact that this is an ongoing process of staying connected.
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getting disconnected, and then reconnecting with yourself. Nothing has gone wrong. And what I appreciated about this morning is that I actually took the time to acknowledge I was disappointed in myself, that I wish that I had made a different choice, and also that we’re still a team. I’m still team me. I’m not against myself. This is how you change your relationship with yourself is you have these conversations.
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There is no relationship that you are with, with any human being where you don’t have to do the compromising. You don’t have to do the repair of letting someone down and dealing with someone else’s disappointment. Like you are a human being. And when you see yourself as a human who’s going to make mistakes and who’s capable of listening and learning from those mistakes, life gets so much better.
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You just have to stop being an asshole. And I don’t even think I was an asshole last night to myself. I didn’t over drink. I just was watching a show that I didn’t enjoy. And I only get so much precious time to check out and not work and just relax. And I wish I’d made a different choice. And that’s OK. I forgive myself for that. And I really appreciate.
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the opportunity I gave myself this morning to acknowledge that so that I can do better in the future. And isn’t that all we can ask of anybody? I love people that aren’t perfect, but who are open and not defensive and not over-justifying themselves and be like, yeah, yeah, I can see your point here. And um I am open to feedback.
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and I look forward to getting it right next time. Like, isn’t that all we can ask of anybody? And that’s all we need to ask of ourselves. The absence of alcohol use disorder is not living in fear that you’re gonna make a mistake or beating yourself up with shame and anxiety when you do inevitably make a mistake, but just relaxing and loving yourself. So I highly recommend that you add the full body reset to your list of tools.
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And you can even do this at work. Shut the door of your office. Lay down on the floor. Do a little bit of stretching. Just get back into your body. Your body is a safe place when you welcome the truth of whatever experience you’re having. I’m tight. I’m sore. I’m tired. And then giving yourself what you need for a few minutes. When you have what you need,
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It’s like you’re putting your own oxygen mask on and just acknowledging what you need is such a power move. It’s just as powerful as doing your pushups or taking your ice bath or cold shower or whatever, like laying down and doing a full body reset, reconnecting with the experience that’s going on in your body so that you are aware of how much gas is in your tank and reconnect with yourself long enough to give your body a vote.
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to notice what your body is experiencing and respond to it like it matters, because it does. It’s not actually hard to check in instead of staying checked out. It’s much harder to stay checked out, actually. It’s easy to make good, better, best, happier choices when you’re actually responding to a felt sensation of what you need instead of just letting your brain and your autopilot
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drive you around crazy town. So try the full body reset. Let me know how it goes.
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All right, thanks for listening. And if you’re a high achieving, coachable woman who is ready to commit to manifesting your best life, and you’re going to need to reduce your alcohol consumption by about 80 % so that alcohol goes back to being a pleasure instead of a soul sucking problem, get in the show notes and click the link and schedule a discovery call with me or my team.