36 min
Your Mind Might Lie, But Your Body Never Will with Melanie Weller Going Beyond with Randi Zinn
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- Health & Fitness
You all know how much I enjoy exploring topics that fuse the body and mind, and I think my guest today will help give you insight into the way our bodies are affected by stress, particularly during this challenging time.
Today I’m honored to be joined by trained Physical Therapist, Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist, and Certified Athletic Trainer, Melanie Weller. Melanie is a medical visionary, specializing in decompressing the vagus nerve, a nerve responsible for bridging our stories and our physical experience in the body, and for countering our fight or flight response. Her work involves weaving a combination of science and ancient wisdom together using the vagus nerve as the pathway to help heal patients from chronic stress and trauma, empower and optimize their voice, and recognize the signs of vagus nerve compression that most of us are all too familiar with: sweaty palms, a racing heart, digestive issues, feeling like you have a lump your throat, and stifled vocal chords (4:10).
Vocal dysfunction happens to be the basis of Melanie’s own story and the inspiration for her work. Growing up, Melanie never felt like she had a voice at home, and on top of that, her choir teacher at school insisted she lip sync rather than sing. From then on into adulthood, she believed that her voice had no value and she became a master at repressing her emotions, which she proved each time her husband deployed with the navy for months at a time. Finally, when he retired 20 years later, she broke down and the stress she bottled up all her life, in addition to the new stress of facing a crumbling marriage and a lawsuit, showed itself in extreme foot pain and high blood pressure (15:22). The combination of her story, her career as a physical therapist, and the knowledge that 75-90% of illness is stress-induced inspired Melanie to help others realign and recognize stress both in their body and mind to ultimately live a healthier, fuller life.
We then talk about this challenging year and the undeniable stress it’s caused us. Melanie reminds us that “2020” is also a term that means “perfect vision”, coinciding with how dramatically different we now view our lives and the effect we can have on others. In her opinion, 2020 is offering us an expanded vision for finally choosing to pick apart the root of our issues - something that is directly mirrored in the work that she does (26:51). Before Melanie leaves us, she gives us some much-needed advice on how we can better handle the stress we’re all experiencing, and that is understanding your unique body language, because while your mind will often play tricks on you, your body never will (33:20).
You all know how much I enjoy exploring topics that fuse the body and mind, and I think my guest today will help give you insight into the way our bodies are affected by stress, particularly during this challenging time.
Today I’m honored to be joined by trained Physical Therapist, Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist, and Certified Athletic Trainer, Melanie Weller. Melanie is a medical visionary, specializing in decompressing the vagus nerve, a nerve responsible for bridging our stories and our physical experience in the body, and for countering our fight or flight response. Her work involves weaving a combination of science and ancient wisdom together using the vagus nerve as the pathway to help heal patients from chronic stress and trauma, empower and optimize their voice, and recognize the signs of vagus nerve compression that most of us are all too familiar with: sweaty palms, a racing heart, digestive issues, feeling like you have a lump your throat, and stifled vocal chords (4:10).
Vocal dysfunction happens to be the basis of Melanie’s own story and the inspiration for her work. Growing up, Melanie never felt like she had a voice at home, and on top of that, her choir teacher at school insisted she lip sync rather than sing. From then on into adulthood, she believed that her voice had no value and she became a master at repressing her emotions, which she proved each time her husband deployed with the navy for months at a time. Finally, when he retired 20 years later, she broke down and the stress she bottled up all her life, in addition to the new stress of facing a crumbling marriage and a lawsuit, showed itself in extreme foot pain and high blood pressure (15:22). The combination of her story, her career as a physical therapist, and the knowledge that 75-90% of illness is stress-induced inspired Melanie to help others realign and recognize stress both in their body and mind to ultimately live a healthier, fuller life.
We then talk about this challenging year and the undeniable stress it’s caused us. Melanie reminds us that “2020” is also a term that means “perfect vision”, coinciding with how dramatically different we now view our lives and the effect we can have on others. In her opinion, 2020 is offering us an expanded vision for finally choosing to pick apart the root of our issues - something that is directly mirrored in the work that she does (26:51). Before Melanie leaves us, she gives us some much-needed advice on how we can better handle the stress we’re all experiencing, and that is understanding your unique body language, because while your mind will often play tricks on you, your body never will (33:20).
36 min