Your Body Isn’t Broken — It’s telling you something: A Conversation on Nervous System Healing
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There was a moment recently where I caught myself doing mental gymnastics.
You know the kind.
I was thinking about next Thursday… and dinner… and a podcast… and school pickup… and something I forgot to do three days ago… all at the same time.
Seventeen tabs open. Minimum.
My body was like, Hello—I’m right here!! But my brain was on high alert.
Relatable???
What if that feeling…
isn’t a personal failure?
What if it’s your nervous system telling you that you have neural tension?
🧠 What Is “Neural Tension”… Really?
Let’s take the science-y language and bring it back down to earth.
Neural tension isn’t just a tight shoulder or a stiff neck.
It’s what happens when your body has experienced more stress, pressure, or emotional load than it’s been able to fully process.
So instead of releasing it…
it holds it.
And that holding can show up as:
Reactivity (snapping faster than you want to)
Brain fog (where did my thought go?)
Digestive issues
Muscle tightness
Feeling constantly “on edge”
Or the sneakiest one of all…
Feeling like you just can’t handle one more thing.
Not because you’re weak.
But because your system is already full.
📣 Listen to Dr. Kristina Guerriero the raising wild hearts podcast:
⚡ Survival Mode Isn’t Loud — Sometimes It’s Just… Flat
We tend to think survival mode looks like panic or anxiety.
But one of the most powerful things Dr. Kristina shared is this:
Sometimes survival mode looks like no creativity.
No ideas.
No spark.
No access to imagination.
Just going through the motions.
And if you’re a creative person — or honestly, just a human — you know that feeling.
It’s not just “I’m tired.”
It’s:
“I don’t even know what I want anymore.”
That’s not laziness.
That’s your nervous system saying:
We’re not safe enough to expand right now.
Your Body Already Knows How to Heal
This is the part that made me exhale a little deeper.
Because we live in a world that constantly tells us:
Fix it
Optimize it
Hack it
Improve it
But what if…
You don’t need fixing?
What if your body isn’t broken —
it’s just overloaded?
Dr. Kristina’s entire approach is rooted in this belief:
When the body feels safe, it naturally moves toward healing.
Not forced.
Not rushed.
Not muscled through.
Just… allowed.
Why Slow, Subtle Healing Actually Works
We love a before-and-after moment.
We love dramatic transformations.
But here’s the truth most people don’t want to hear:
The deepest healing?
It’s quiet.
It’s the moment you pause instead of react.
It’s choosing one breath before you respond.
It’s noticing your body tightening — and softening instead of pushing through.
It’s not flashy.
But it’s everything.
Dr. Kristina calls this the “still point.”
That place in your body where things finally… settle.
And from that place?
Clarity comes back.
Creativity comes back.
You come back.
The Most Underrated Tool You Already Have (Spoiler alert: It’s free and easily accessible)
If you’re reading this thinking,
“Okay but what do I do?”
Start here:
Your breath.
It’s the one system in your body that’s both automatic and intentional.
Which means you can use it as a bridge.
One of the simplest tools:
Inhale for 4
Hold for 4
Exhale for 4
Hold for 4
Repeat a few times.
That’s it.
You don’t need a full morning routine.
You don’t need a silent retreat.
You just need a moment of awareness.
A Note for the busy Moms juggling it all (because… I see you… I mean i Am you)
There’s a moment in motherhood where you realize:
It doesn’t actually feel safe to hold everything.
The kids.
The house.
The career.
The expectations.
The version of yourself you thought you’d be.
And instead of asking,
“Why can’t I handle this?”
What if we asked:
“Is my nervous system supported enough to hold this?”
That shift alone changes everything.
Because now we’re not blaming ourselves.
We’re getting curious about our capacity.
Healing Doesn’t Have to Be Dramatic to Be Real
If there’s one thing I hope you take from this conversation, it’s this:
You don’t have to overhaul your life to begin healing.
You don’t have to become a different person overnight.
You don’t have to do more.
Sometimes…
Healing looks like:
Pausing
Breathing
Softening
Choosing one small thing differently
And trusting… that your heart and mind know exactly what the next right thing is.
Up Next: Why (some) kids hate school, what to do about it, and making learning more human in the digital age
Resources: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, mind and body in the healing of trauma
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What is neural tension in simple terms?
Neural tension is when stress, trauma, or overwhelm gets stored in the nervous system instead of being fully processed and released. It can show up physically, emotionally, or both.
How do I know if my nervous system is dysregulated?
Common signs include reactivity, brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, digestive issues, trouble focusing, and feeling constantly overwhelmed or “on edge.”
Can the body really heal itself?
Yes — the body has an innate ability to heal. The key is creating the right conditions, especially safety within the nervous system, so that healing can happen naturally.
What is the fastest way to calm the nervous system?
Breathing exercises are one of the most effective and accessible tools. Simple techniques like box breathing can quickly bring the body out of stress and into a more regulated state.
Why do I feel overwhelmed even when nothing is “wrong”?
Because overwhelm isn’t always about your circumstances — it’s about your nervous system capacity. If your system is already full, even small things can feel like too much.
Is slow healing really effective?
Yes — in fact, slow, subtle healing is often more sustainable. It allows the nervous system to integrate changes safely rather than being forced into quick shifts that don’t last.
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Ryann : 00:01
Welcome back to Raising Wild Hearts. This is episode 142. I'm Ryan Watkin, and around here, we believe we can change the world by starting at home in our own minds and hearts. This show is really about transforming from the inside out, and today we are doing just that. I am joined by Dr. Christina Guerriero. Was that right? Yep, that's right. Okay, a chiropractor, nervous system educator, and founder of Still Point. Dr. Christy's work is rooted in a simple belief. The body already knows how to heal when we give it the right conditions. So today we're going to be diving into neural tension, nervous system regulation, and why slow, subtle healing often creates the deepest change. Dr. Christy, I'm so glad you're here.
Dr. Kristi : 00:52
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you about all of this.
Ryann : 00:56
Yeah, me too. So it's crazy. My podcast app that I record on just spit out my most popular word for 2025. And I posted like a cute little funny reel on Instagram of a montage of my guests and I saying the word body, body, body, body, body, body. That was my most used word for 2025. And I was like, just found this out today. Thank you, universe, because this is like the perfect way to kick this off. It feels like no matter where the conversation starts, no matter what it's about, it all comes back around to what is inside of us, whether it's our relationships, our career, like anything. It all really starts with us. And so I feel like that's really the perfect place to start with you, Dr. Christy. You say on your website, Still Point was born out of personal experience, watching my own family walk through addiction, recovery, and physical pain, and realizing how much people carry in their bodies that force alone can't fix. Uh, you said you saw firsthand, even with good care, people still got stuck in cycles of pain, anxiety, and burnout, and that this is a new kind of chiropractic experience, gentle, specific, and grounded in the belief that real change happens in safety and stillness. And I just, when I read that, I was like, yes, like it really made my nervous system just calm down like 10% more. And for somebody though, who's maybe hearing that sentence, your body already knows how to heal. What would you say to that person who might be hearing that sentence for the first time and who's like, really? What?
Dr. Kristi : 02:41
Yeah, I think that we're taught in our society that there's something wrong with us innately. Um, you know, I don't want to kind of bash any other professions or any of that kind of thing, but the message is that there are conditions within us that need to be fixed, whether that's through medication, surgery, therapy, you name it. So this type of care is so personal and so important to me because it's empowering for us. It puts the power back in our own hands rather than having to rely on an outside practitioner or source in order for us to get healing from that.
Ryann : 03:18
Yeah, that's big. I mean, it's interesting. I think it's coming at us from all angles in the culture from school to family life to you, we're just taught like seek outside yourself for more stuff, more answers. Like, you know, the other day I like DM'd some like, and this is embarrassing to say, I like DM'd an influencer on Instagram and it was like basically like tell me what I should do. And I thought about it like 20 minutes later. I'm like, why am I asking this person on Instagram about my life who has no idea about me?
Dr. Kristi : 03:53
Yeah.
Ryann : 03:54
And it was interesting. That question was about balancing career and motherhood and being able to really, I guess, hold those both, like in the way that I want to. So when I envision myself like being a mom, like you see me be a mom, like our kids go to the same school. Like I, it's one of the most, if not the most important aspects of my life, like mothering and the way I show up for my kids. And then, you know, my career. Like I love my work, I love this show. I'm growing. I I want to grow. You know, there's so much more I want to do in this life, career-wise. And I get stuck in this like, how am I gonna have the capacity to hold both? This is like a nervous system capacity issue, I feel for me, in that it doesn't actually feel safe to hold them both. So let's talk about safety in the body.
Dr. Kristi : 04:52
Yeah, well, I wanted to start off by saying there's absolutely nothing wrong with asking questions to other people. I mean, that's how we learn. So it's even though you ask, like, what do I do in this situation? It's okay to gather as much information as you can and then decide from there, like, then kind of go inside of yourself, center yourself, give yourself to like these are my options, and then kind of choose like what path works best for you. You know, like I think it's amazing. You know, I went through years and years of school gathering information, and then I get out and practice and I have to figure it out for myself. You know, it's like you create this tool belt for yourself. And we do the same thing in chiropractic with adjusting techniques. We create this toolbox for ourselves and we're able to pull from that with whatever patient situation presents to us. It gives us a variety of options, which helps you make the decision for yourself what's what works best in your specific situation. So shifting gears to your second part of what you said is if you're my patient and you're coming in super strung out, overwhelmed, there's too much going around you. My job specifically with what I do isn't necessarily talking patients through their problems, although I do listen because it does paint a picture for me with what they're going through. My job is to see how their nervous system presents itself to me in that moment. So when I get somebody on the table, I'm not only looking at different cues that the body is presenting, like muscle tension, heel tension is something that I check in the feet. It actually is like a it's a reflection of what's going on in the central nervous system. But I'm also looking at the way the breath is moving through the body because you mentioned the words, you feel stuck like there's too much going on and you don't really know which direction to go. I can actually see that reflected when the breath isn't necessarily moving fully through the body. So it that's giving me a cue into where I need to potentially make an adjustment in the system to help your body achieve this eased state. Like one thing that I talk a lot about is accessing ease in your body. Because what you're talking about is like overwhelm, difficulty, strain. And we want to start to peel back the layers of everything that's added on, added on, added on over the years in order to get back to this almost like it's like a baseline. Like we were born at ease. You know, obviously everybody goes goes through trauma in their life, birth trauma, adult trauma, you name it. But we're designed to feel that ease. And that ease is the still point, which is why I named my business that word, because that is the moment where the body can finally take a deep breath, fully expand into all the tissues and release. So that's my goal with care. And that's people that come into me and talking about the same situations that you've experienced. I'm able to work with their system in that moment to help them release. And it's from that point of clarity that you can then move forward with your life and make decisions, you know, difficult decisions about your career and your family, and learn how to balance that for yourself. Right.
Ryann : 08:06
So then the question becomes a smaller question of hmm, what do I want my weeks or days to look like? Not like, what am I gonna do with my life? It's like, what am I gonna do on Tuesday morning? It's like one foot in front of the other. And actually, that's been a pattern of mine. And I sense myself doing this like in those really busy seasons, which is kind of like all the time for me right now. But I'm doing like, okay, so next Thursday, I have this, that, and this. And what am I gonna make for dinner? And I have these like 17 like checklists, like I'm doing mental gymnastics in my head. And what I notice is that really creates tension because my body's going, like, I can't handle all this. We're like, we're here right now doing one thing, and you're like, you know, thinking of 17 other things, and it might not even be like that stressful. It might not even be something that's bad. It's just that I'm up here in my brain, like hamster wheeling about the next and the next and the next thing. And so, you know, I love that. I love that the name of your company is still point, first of all, because when you adjusted me, I told you I was like, I feel high, not like like drugs and alcohol high, because that hasn't been for years, but like yoga high. Like I feel high on life right now. I felt so calm. And I was not expecting that at all. Like I have had chiropractic care and not felt like that after. So can you speak to that almost like euphoria and that that I guess still point that I was feeling after you adjusted me?
Dr. Kristi : 09:53
Yeah, that feeling is the goal of the adjustment. I mean, it's you know, I heard someone say recently the adjustment truly begins when you get off the table. So not every person I adjust is gonna feel that in that moment. But I love hearing that you say that you felt that. You know, not everybody is as perceptive as well. So they might have that sensation, but they don't really know yet how to tap into that. What I'm looking to do with each person is help them and help their body learn safety, which is what you're saying. And sometimes it takes a little bit longer for others than it might for you, because you've done a lot of body work, you've done meditation, you've done yoga. Um, all of those things help you learn how to reorganize on your own, basically, to help peel back the layers of stress and overwhelm. So if I'm seeing somebody that's never done that work before, it can take a little bit longer. But that's that feeling that you're talking about is it is the still point. It is that moment of ease that you want to be able to access. Um, and like I said earlier, it's that it's from there that you can start to really, you know, start shifting in your life, whether that's like making decisions or whether that's relating to your family members in a more positive, constructive way, whether that's performing better in athletics or, you know, communicating and teaching in your job. You know, it can, it can manifest in so many different ways, but it's impossible to heal and thrive when you're in the fight or flight phase of your nervous system, like when you're in that overwhelmed state. It's impossible for your body to, you know, expand and access the abundance that we're inherently designed to be able to access when you're in that stressed out state. So yeah, bottom line is my goal is to is to help your body access that feeling on its own. Absolutely.
Ryann : 11:47
So what I'm hearing you say is like that's the baseline. Like that feeling of like complete ease, complete calm, like that is actually the baseline. Yeah. Okay. That's so cool. And it might be shocking to some people, including myself, because we do kind of run on autopilot, many of us. And so when we slow down enough to feel or perceive that, that sense of calmness or stillness, it's like, oh my God, this is it. This is what's available to me. This morning I left yoga, and so we had, you know, this amazing class, and then we did this amazing meditation, and everybody, there's like 10 people in the class, and we all just feel like, oh, you know, there's like angels singing, and we were at that place. And our yoga teacher said, the real work is now to go out, and you know, we're in like Christmas and Hanukkah season here, and like when you're in Walmart in two hours from now, like stay in that place. Like that's the work. And do you think we can train our bodies with, you know, gentle chiropractic care and yoga or meditate meditation or different modalities to be able to see what's available to us and then choose that more? Do you think then it comes down to like a choice in a day-to-day situation?
Dr. Kristi : 13:09
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think the the best way to be able to do that is by utilizing the breath because breath is life. Your breath is the only human function that can be involuntary, which means it happens on its own, or also voluntary where you can direct it yourself. Um, it's a magical tool that we have available to us. And I would say that when you're in a situation where you're reactive or you could potentially be reactive or annoyed or frustrated, is to close your eyes and use your breath to direct it into all the different parts of your body, especially if there's an area of your body where you hold stress, direct the breath into that area and do I, you know, there's a bunch of different breathing techniques, but one of the easiest ones that's easy to visualize is box breathing, which I know you probably have heard of. So inhale for four, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. And you just visualize the square and you just do that when you're in in that position. If you're able to, I mean, obviously we have different situations, like you're in the middle of Walmart, it might be difficult to do that in that moment, but even doing it a couple cycles of that can help calm your nervous system down and help us not be so reactive. So I would say that the best tool we have when you're not with a practitioner or you're not in yoga is to use the tools that your body already has available and the breath is the best thing for that, in my opinion.
Ryann : 14:34
Yeah, I agree with you for sure. It was one of the first things I learned to do when I got into personal development. Actually, even before I got into personal development, I was like, it was like one of my first yoga classes. It was in my early 20s. I still had a lot of work to do. I would still be like on this personal growth journey for a long time. But it was one of the breadcrumbs. And I remember this yoga teacher sitting up there. She had this like, you know, halo around her. I just thought she was like this golden goddess. And she's like, you know, I never hit red lights. I never like she's talking about her life, and I'm like, oh my God, is this woman serious? But as I really like learned a little bit about the modality of just simply breathing, my life really did start to shift. It shifted slowly, but I agree with you on the breath. So let's get into the weeds. Like, what are some signs that somebody is carrying neural tension? You talk a lot about neural tension. How do we know if we have that? Or do we just assume, like because we're in 2025 slash 2026 society, that we do have it?
Dr. Kristi : 15:39
Yeah. You know, yes, you can pretty much just assume that you have it, but I'm gonna give you tangible ways to know because, you know, I don't like answers like everybody has it, you know, like I don't really like that. So I'm gonna bring up symptoms or scenarios that people have talked to me specifically about. Okay. So one of them that I'm hearing a lot right now is reactivity. So if you're with your family and you're getting easily frustrated, you're yelling at your family when you don't really want to. I mean, it's just that reactive state, you know, you're not, you're not operating from a place of like understanding and compassion, you're like done. You know, that's a that's like a hot clue that you are experiencing neural tension. Neural tension is at a deeper level, but that's a that's a good sign. Brain fog is another one where you're not able to think clearly. Attention issues where you're not able to focus on something for a long period of time, that kind of goes in with a little bit with brain fog as well. I mean, we can go down the line. Digestive issues, skin issues. There's so many that I feel like I'm not even. Um, your immune system is struggling. That can also be neural tension. Muscle tension is a very large clue. Muscle tension is interesting because what the body, so the body is extremely smart. It's highly intelligent. You are always working to release neural tension on your own. The body is extremely smart in that way. The problem is that because of our life right now that we're living, because we have a million things on our plate, you know, we've been through physical or excuse me, mental, emotional, and um, chemical traumas in our world that we get stuck, like that's that word coming up again. Our our nervous system has trouble releasing these things that it's um, it's almost like the um the vibe, it's not almo that what I actually speak about is that the vibration of the nervous system changes, and we can get into that later, but it gets stuck in this state where it's not able to release it on its own. And that's where tonal chiropractic comes in, is it helps your body kind of remember what it's like to work through certain issues.
Ryann : 17:47
When I think tension, I think physical tension. So, like, oh, like a sore shoulder or like my legs are sore, like whatever. But so when we say neural tension, if we literally broke it down to someone who's not a doctor, like me and some people listening, like are we talking tension in the central nervous system or like tension in our brain or all of the above?
Dr. Kristi : 18:11
One thing I'm I'm specifically looking for in the adjustment. Okay. So imagine your brain and your spinal cord just kind of floating in the air. Okay, no bones or anything like that. What do you think of? Do you think it's like liquidy gel? Or how do you what do you imagine when you think of that?
Ryann : 18:28
The actual physical brain and the actual little branches of the nervous system.
Dr. Kristi : 18:32
Like so I'm imagining like little nerves that come out.
Ryann : 18:35
Yeah, all those little like the tree roots almost, right? I'm imagining those, like the little fibers.
Dr. Kristi : 18:40
So the brain and the spinal cord, all these little roots, they're suspended in the bones of the spine by connective tissue. So it's basically the spinal cord is protected, the brain is protected by meningeal tissue. It's just that's a science word that I'm gonna use. But that is connected at the top and the bottom by dural attachments, which is that's the name of it. But it's basically the anchors at the top and the bottom of the spinal or the skull and the spinal cord or the ver vertebrae. When I'm looking at somebody, I'm looking for a window into the nervous system. Neural tension is specifically areas of the cord that are anchored in to the bones where you might have twisting of the connective tissue in these areas, and it happens when we experience too much stress in our life.
Ryann : 19:34
So it's actually presenting to you in a physical way. So when you're looking at or feeling like or both somebody's spinal column, you can actually see andor feel, which is this physical manifestation of something that is energetic or internal. Is that right?
Dr. Kristi : 19:56
Yeah. So okay. The it's an energetic change in the nervous system. But when that happens, it actually changes the physical structure of the tissue surrounding the spinal cord. Okay. Yeah. So that can, you know, traditionally in chiropractic, we look for a bone out of place and the bone gets adjusted, right? So when I'm looking at from a neurological perspective, I sometimes will check the bones in certain areas of the cord because it's an indicator for me. There's many indicators that I look for, but a bone shifting is an indicator that there's neural tension in that area causing the body to shift into different patterns. So yeah. And then neural tension manifests into the symptoms that we were talking about earlier, like brain frog, gut issues, reactivity, stuff like that.
Ryann : 20:46
So there's like a set of emotional symptoms, and then there's also a set of physical symptoms. So this is like kind of how you're feeling in your emotional experience, and then also like just how you're feeling like in your body, right? Definitely. Okay. And I would imagine that this would also help people with mental health issues. Like I would imagine that it would help people kind of get back to baseline. Have you seen any like research on mental health and chiropractic?
Dr. Kristi : 21:16
I have. Actually, the technique that I'm practicing is called torque release technique. And the developer of the technique has done a lot of research himself. He focuses primarily on addiction and compulsive disorders. But one of his research studies dealt with it's what's called the P300 wave. It's basically a measurement, it's like a tangible measurement of wellness, like health and human performance wellness. And the wave is an indicator of like how well we're able to access wellness, essentially. And he found that through getting these tonal adjustments, your ability to access human potential was what he's calling it, is more available to you when your system is more in a state of ease after getting the adjustment. I believe that.
Ryann : 22:05
I mean, after I got adjusted by you, by the way, we all need to get adjusted. I was like, I'll talk to Dr. Christy today. Paige asked yesterday. Can I get adjusted by Dr. Christie? Yeah. Oh, that's I know, so cute. But so I can actually like really speak to that. Like, yes, like feeling that, you know, euphoria, which was right after. Of course, I didn't walk around that like that for like a week, but I did feel really good that week. And I did notice like a bit of a shift. Like it, I think it's a great support tool for somebody who, you know, which is all of us, is overwhelmed with the daily responsibilities of life. Let's talk a little bit about survival mode. How do we know we're in it?
Dr. Kristi : 22:49
And how do we get out of it? If somebody's like, I'm so overwhelmed. Physical pain is another indicator for me. Like, I have quite a few patients right now that have sciatica for whatever reason, like low back pain that refers into their butt or their leg. Yep. That's an indicator. Any of the symptoms that I brought up, but the thing about being in survival mode, it doesn't always show up as a symptom. So one way that you can kind of check in with yourself and see if this is the case is that if you feel like you're in a state of creativity and you're able to, you know, use your imagination and you know create new things, that's an indicator that you're doing pretty good because that means that your frontal cortex is online. However, on the other hand of that, if you're in survival, what happens is that the front part of our brain shuts off a little bit and we're operating from our hind brain, which is the survival area. That's what we call the reptilian brain. So you're living like a reptile, basically. But it's it's basically like that's when you become reactive. That's when you are going through the motions. Maybe life feels boring. Like you're just going from one task to the next, and there's no really there's no creativity. I mean, that would be the best way for me to put it.
Ryann : 24:04
I love that you use that as an example because, as like a creative person, I mean, I think we're all creative, but I love that as an example because I know I've gone through certain seasons of my life where I'm like, I don't have any ideas. I don't know what I'm gonna talk about, I don't know what I'm gonna write about. And in those seasons, like I think that's a really good indicator for us to just be aware in our life. You know what's interesting? After I had Nash, this made me think of like when I was newly postpartum with Nash, for like almost an entire year, my feet hurt so bad when I would walk around the house. And yes, I was carrying like extra weight from being pregnant and from nursing and like hormonal stuff, but it was like it was more than that. It was so strange. And eventually, like energetically, it just kind of like worked out, and I don't really know how. But I wish I would have looked into chiropractic at that point. I think it would have been a really helpful thing. And for some reason, I feel like it had something to do with my fascia and my feed and like I don't know, but I just I look back to that and like I was most certainly in survival mode. I had like two little kids and then a baby. I was homeschooling, like all of these things. And I kind of just like let myself be there. I was just like, well, I know I'm in survival mode. I'm just gonna like be here anyway. You know, I I wasn't trying to change it.
Dr. Kristi : 25:28
Yes, 100%. You know, when when we're in the throes of motherhood, like being a being a mom in general to a newborn is extremely overwhelming because your attention is outside of yourself. You are focusing on helping this little dependent being survive and thrive. So literally all of your body's minerals, your attention, like every bit of you is getting poured into this little being, you know? So that is extremely overwhelming. I can't imagine doing it with other children because I only have one and it was a lot for me. Um, yeah, it's it's very overwhelming. But one thing that you brought up is the tension in the feet and the pain in the feet. Yes, of course, like structurally, we, you know, we gain weight when we're pregnant. It puts a lot of pressure on our joints of our lower body, you know, knees, hips, feet. Plantar fasciitis is a good example of what I'm about to bring up as well. You know how if you had plants har fasgitis before, or what they would call I think that might have been what it was.
Ryann : 26:30
I mean, I didn't like go to a doctor. I was just like, oh, this will work its way out eventually. Yeah. But I have a feeling it was very similar.
Dr. Kristi : 26:38
The yeah, the interesting thing about that is that it usually will resolve on its own. And I had it really bad a few years ago also, and it just went away. So really, it's a great example of how the body will work things out and it just needs time, you know. Um sometimes we don't have enough time to heal certain things, like certain illnesses, you know, our bodies don't have you know enough longevity to give it time to heal from certain things, and that's unfortunate. But with heel tension, like I mentioned earlier that I look for heel tension when I'm when I'm addressing somebody in the adjustment. The connective tissue and the fascia in the body, I'm just learning recently, honestly. You know, I've been a practitioner, I've been a chiropractor for 10 years, and I was a massage therapist before that, and nobody talks about how important the fascia is, how intelligent it is. Um, I focus on the nervous system, which controls everything in the body, but there's there's a connection between all of the atoms and cells inside the body, even if they don't directly touch each other, and it's magic. It is so incredible. So, speaking for the feet specifically, you know, the nervous system is like at the top half of the body. Your feet are the farthest point away from the nervous system. And when there's tension, like if I'm moving your ankles, like, you know, in and out, backwards and forward, and I feel like it gets stuck in certain positions or it doesn't want to move a certain way. For me, as a provider, that's an indicator for me of neural tension as well. And that can actually manifest with foot pain. So plantar fasciitis is a great example because it's the connective tissue, the fascia, at the the furthest point away from the central nervous system. And yeah, the like seeing that resolve on its own is so incredible because it's like how resilient is your body, you know?
Ryann : 28:32
So do you think that physical manifestations of pain or like dis-ease is actually our body like healing? Like, is that actually healing in motion?
Dr. Kristi : 28:47
Yeah. I mean, I think if if you have something going on with your body and then it just kind of heals on its own, that is true healing. That is the body's innate intelligence taking care of it. There are limitations to matter. So sometimes that can't necessarily work its way out, which is which is why you know traditional Chinese medicine started existing thousands of years ago, right? Um, humans have had this human experience for thousands of years, and we've had different modalities placed in our experience to help us move through those things. The manifestation of dis-ease or, you know, certain types of ailments, it could be so many diff for so many different reasons, you know, like mental reasons, like the power of the mind is a really incredible topic to cover as well. Um, but again, that's that's your innate ability to heal using the power of your mind, the power of your breath, right? Yeah.
Ryann : 29:46
Was it you that I was talking to about the book The Power of Now, where animals like Eckhart Tolle uses an example of like if you see two like ducks fighting in a pond and they're like fighting, and then they swim away from each other, and then they like really like vigorously like shake their wings, and other animals do this too out in the wild, and they like shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, and then they like just move along like nothing ever happened. I don't know if I was having that conversation with you, but I was having that conversation with somebody recently, and that's what your work really makes me think of is that like we as humans don't shake it out when we have an issue, when we have a trauma, and all these things like build up over our entire lives, decade after decade, like sweeping stuff under the rug, whether advertently or not. Like, and we're like one of the beings who holds on to it mentally and emotionally, and then it just starts to kind of like build up in our bodies.
Dr. Kristi : 30:51
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's it's the whole like shut up and be quiet message that we're talking about in society. Yeah. One of my really good friends is doing a somatic healing course right now, actually. And she's telling me about it. And there's there was a strategy of breath work that I learned many years ago called somato-respiratory integration. It's body breath integration. You're integrating the body and the breath, right? It helps you connect to certain areas that may be shut off. Like, for example, if you're like you don't want to speak your truth or you're quiet or you're scared, breathing into the throat, for example, okay. But this somatic program that she's doing is teaching her to do exactly what you're saying. It's it's experiencing like paying attention to how your body wants to release energy. So, for example, for her, it would have been, you know, imagining when you're six to eight to nine years old and you experience some type of really frustrating situation, you put yourself in that state, and then you beat up a pillow or you scream or you shake it out, like you're saying. And she's like feeling that that euphoria and that sense of vibration, like even into her fingertips afterward. It's powerful. Movement is so powerful.
Ryann : 32:11
That's amazing. Actually, I watch my kids uh do this thing where they'll like stretch and they'll roll around on the ground and like just be like rolling around like little, I don't even know what kind of animals. Um and sometimes Nate and I are like, what are they doing? Especially like when the girls were very young when we still didn't know what we're doing. I mean, we don't know what we're doing still, but when we didn't know what we were doing, any of us know.
Dr. Kristi : 32:39
I don't know.
Ryann : 32:40
No, no, I don't think so. Spoiler alert new parents. Uh you never know. So um, yeah, but they still do it and they're you know, they're like getting older, but they roll around and like do this like stretching thing. And I'm like, yeah, they're resetting their nervous systems, right?
Dr. Kristi : 32:56
Yeah, like we should literally be doing that, you know. My daughter will do like weird dances and stuff. Like, I'm like, kids are so weird, but they're not, they're highly intuitive. Kids are so smart because they don't think up here with what they look like, oh my gosh, what are people gonna think about me? They react to what their body needs in that moment and they freaking do it, and it's amazing. Yeah.
Ryann : 33:19
Right. They dance, they scream, they scream, they run, they they're just free, right? Until until they're not, you know, until they start to realize, and I'm watching my oldest go through this. There's very much um a now, like, you know, other people are looking at me. This awareness of like how we're showing up in the world when we hit a certain age, whether that's like, you know, 11, 12, 13, we're trying to extend childhood in our house as long as we can. But even then, you know, we still we still see it happening, you know, like she went from like this little curly haired kid who didn't brush her hair to all of a sudden, like, oh, I need to brush my hair now. And I know it's just like life and a silly example. Um, but we do, we become self-aware and conditioned. And then we carry many of those like unhealthy manifestations of that, hopefully not too many, but on to adulthood. And then we just say, like, this is who I am, this is how I am. But I really believe that we have a tremendous capacity to change. And part of that is like, I watched myself do it, and I'm like walking that journey. So I think this is the perfect place to talk about the word resilience and what resilience means to you. And then if you would tell us about your, is it a 90-day reset?
Dr. Kristi : 34:45
Yes, yeah.
Ryann : 34:47
Awesome.
Dr. Kristi : 34:48
Resilience to me is adaptation. So it's you are able to adapt to whatever life throws at you, and that's resilience. You know, you're constantly shifting and changing and moving with life, you know. Obviously, you know, that can get hindered. Like our ability to access the resilience that we're designed to be able to access can get hindered. And the 90-day reset is something that I designed for people that, you know, maybe want to create a new habit in their life to help their body, help nourish their body, help their mindset, help their connection with their self. You know, it's just like a daily thing. It's, you know, you talked about habit stacking to me one time when we were having a conversation. And the 90-day reset is basically a daily guide to help you create better habits for yourself to where you can self-regulate and you can adapt better. You know, that's my goal. My goal with my patients specifically is I don't want, I don't want people to be 100% reliant on the care. You know, the care is amazing, but I feel that it's my job to help your body remember what it, what it's like to feel safe in yourself. And it's in that moment that you're able just to adapt better, you know, to gain that resilience on your own. So I want to teach people's bodies how to do that. It's not a conscious thing that we talk about really, but it's something that happens when you start to peel back those layers of stress and trauma and all of that. Yeah. So the the reset is um, there's recipes in it. There's some journaling, there's actually an example of movement. Like there's a week of exercises that you can't you can choose to follow or not. But it's just like an easy way where it's laid out for you and you don't have to consciously think about what am I gonna do today. It's just like a new habit that you're gonna implement into your life to help your body adapt.
Ryann : 36:48
Amazing. So, and I have a code for everybody listening who, if you want to go over and get the reset, I will put that in the show notes. So just pop down to the description and see what it is because I forget what it is now. Um, but I'll put it down there. So, what a gift. I love that. Uh, personally, for me in 2025, I know we talked about this. I did, I just hit 365 days of my three-minute meditation. And it's so interesting. I'm like kind of, you know, we have a tendency to be like all or nothing, right? And like three minutes, it's like three minutes, so what? But like three minutes is still three minutes. Three minutes is still me pausing in the morning, making a promise to myself. There's so many other things that go into it, like in addition to the benefits of sitting down and quieting, you know, whatever your mind for three minutes or whatever it is. And so I do believe like that 90 days is like, I mean, after I hit 90 days of mine, I was like, well, I guess I should keep going. I never set out to do a year. I wasn't like, I'm gonna do this for a year. It wasn't anything like that. It was like, I'm seeing and feeling the benefits of this in my life, and I'm gonna keep going because I know that it feels really good. Um, so if you're somebody who really wants to kind of get into that groove, creating a new neural pathway, becoming a person who, right? This is something we talk about a lot. Like it's not, you know, I'm going to meditate this morning. It's I am a person who meditates. I'm a meditator. I'm a person who keeps a promise to myself. I'm a person who puts my self-care on the forefront, right? And so that just to me, your reset seems like this full like identity shift. And 90 days is like the perfect amount of time to get there. So hop over there and get Dr. Christie's reset. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Absolutely. Amazing. Dr. Christy, thank you so much for this conversation and for the grounded reminder that healing does not have to be dramatic to be meaningful and lasting. Sometimes the most powerful ship shifts happen quietly. Friends, you can learn about Dr. Kristi and her work at stillpointcare.com. I'm going to put all those links in the show notes to her reset and everything else. And if this episode resonated with you, text it to a friend. Remember to leave a review. And until next time, go love someone well.
