Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Woowooville, the next stop on your spiritual journey, hosted by two fellow travelers who found a soul connection on the path to higher consciousness.
Our goal is to help you navigate the choppy waters you're likely to encounter on the spiritual path by sharing our experiences with you each week.
Join us as we spill the tea on what it's like to wake up to your authentic self. Hello, everyone. My name is Emeril and I'm here with.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: I am Lola Singer.
And speaking about sharing your experiences each week, I want to share my experiences with you right now. We always said when we started this podcast that we'd be very transparent about where we are in the process on the spiritual journey ourselves. And I had a huge emotional release over the weekend and as a result, I have been feeling heavy and dense and brain foggy as an aftermath, which is actually healthy.
It's part of the process.
But sometimes we forget on the spiritual path that we are connected to this body.
And when we go through a big emotional shift or spiritual or mental new concept fast.
That's quick. You can change your mind quickly, have an epiphany, but do a big emotional release of something you didn't even know you were holding on to still, it is going to affect the chemistry of your body. And that's what we wanted to talk to you about. Because the body is part of the spiritual journey.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Yes. So the title for our episode today is after the release what your body is actually doing.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: So this is where Woo Woo meets biology. And neither of us are biologists. We don't know a lot about anatomy. So if there's anything we talk about, about physically that you need to find out more about.
That's why you have a computer.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Exactly. But we do bring the experience with our experiences of doing heavy shedding and what it felt like to us. So.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
One of the things that Lola brought up. It's like I don't really think that people talk about this subject because, like, I never heard it grow, like being on the spiritual journey. And I've been. I mean, I haven't been as many years as you, but I. I never heard about all of the stuff that happens after. So I think this would be a great one for our listeners to really understand.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: It will help normalize the process, you know, because we always encourage people to do shadow work. But what happens after the shadow work?
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Right. Okay. So I want to predicate this by letting you know why I feel this way. Right now I have a Monthly drum circle, and we talk about how we're feeling, and we set intentions for releasing. And then we start drumming. And I'll sing in light language to augment the energy.
And partway through the last drum circle, it was you. You asked for a song about enthusiasm or joy or something, and I said, I honestly can't sing that right now, but I'll drum it with you.
And I think that shocked everyone, because usually I'm like, yep, let's go with whatever everybody says. But literally, I'd hit a wall. Yeah, I had hit a wall. And so what I love about our drum circle, I mean, because it's filled with intuitive and perceptive people and empathic people, is one of the members said, may we put you in the middle of the drum circle and drum around you? And I was like, yes, yes. Thank you. Because it's very healing.
And while I was drumming, the reason this was such a big emotional release I had, and I only teared up a little bit at the drum circle, but I could. It was a big emotional release, is because I had a vision while they were drumming around me. And it was of one of our members who attended regularly, who. About a Look. Oh, gosh, I think it was a year ago. Yeah, she died in a violent way. And we had a memorial for her the next month in honor of her at the drum circle. And people came who had. Well, she was. Let me just rephrase this. She was a mental health counselor.
And what happened was one of her clients locked the door, shot her, and then he committed suicide himself. So it was. So not only did the people from the drum circle come to this memorial, but her clients came to honor her. And because I run the drum circle, I was holding space for all of them. I was getting calls before the drum circle from the people who had been her clients. They had questions. I was holding space for not only my normal people, but an expanded group as a result.
And I took that seriously.
I knew I was taking on their emotions.
But what I didn't know until I was sitting in the middle of the drum circle this last week was that I was still holding space for all those people.
And so what happened was, in a vision, I won't use her name for her privacy, but this person who had been a counselor showed up in my vision, and she gave me a hug. She held my hand, and then she walked me to a vista, and she was showing me and pointing me the vista.
And so I think what she was trying to tell me is, like, you've helped all these people.
So now it's my time to be thanked and let it go. And I didn't know I'd been holding onto it that long.
And the tears came. And ever since that day, and this has been a couple days now, I've been heavy, I've been foggy, I've been a little bit, not quite in sync with life. And that is perfectly normal after a big release. So I'm sharing this with you.
So even with a milder release, you understand that what I'm going through right now is normal. And we're going to go through why it would be, even if it's something that isn't quite as traumatic as what I was holding onto.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Okay. So we're gonna go through some things one by one. But what I wanted to inquire about was, like, what are 10 ways you can tell you're recovering after an emotional release?
So would you like to start with number one?
[00:06:36] Speaker A: Yes. So number one is you feel heavy, slow, or low energy after a big discharge, the system downshifts. This is not depression. It's metabolic and emotional recalibration.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Yes. So that. That's the perfect word, recalibration. All of this, what we're going to talk about, is recalibration.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: So another hint of that process is it's like your body just ran a marathon.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: It feels that way.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: And this is so true. And, you know, the thing about it is because I did so much, like, I, I. When I started, I really did breath work so much and all this stuff, and it would feel like that I would feel the next day, like it's almost like a pause, and it's almost like you're numb, but you're not numb. You're just processing and you're wondering, what happened?
Is this normal? What is going on with me? So all those questions arise and it is normal, like, to be low energy, to feel like just it's. When your body's doing every liberation, especially of this, all these emotional things you shipped off, it's gonna take a while for you to feel more like yourself.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, if you feel like you ran a marathon, of course you're gonna need downtime. Yeah.
Okay. And this is definitely what I'm feeling today. Your mind feels foggy or blank.
Insight happens during the release, and it did. I had insights.
Integration happens in, in silence. I'm going to repeat that because that's so good. Integration happens in silence.
So you're not losing clarity. You're digesting.
So that's probably One of the main feelings I think most people get is the foggy brain feeling.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: And to me, this is also a time where it's about going inward instead of trying to really jump the gun. And it's like, oh, my gosh, freaking out or trying to do all these things.
It's time for you to just sit with yourself, to just relax, obviously hydrate or whatever your body is asking for. It's how far as you need to rest.
But more importantly, like, there'll be a lot of thoughts. So I would definitely, like. I remember doing journaling, and that feels really soothing during this time.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: Yeah. But for me, when I've got that brain fog, even that feels hard. It's hard for me to even read a book, let alone journalism. So sometimes I just have to sit back and just like. Like, it's. We're talking about right now. Be calm and in the quiet.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: And number three is you don't want to process anymore.
This is healthy. It means this. The psyche is saying, enough excavation now. We stabilized.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So is the time to try to psychoanalyze yourself and go, you know, why am I feeling this way? You know, well, we're letting you know that's a hard word, physiologically, why you're feeling that way. But it's not the time for you to start trying to figure out, you know, where did that trauma come from? How long ago was it? Who was involved at the time? This is the time to just sit and allow.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Okay. Number four, you feel emotionally neutral or oddly flat.
Big emotions burn through, and the pendulum rests in the middle before joy comes back online.
That's a good way to phrase it. You know, it feels like a limbo.
Yeah. But it really is a pendulum swing, because where there's a great release, there's going to be a great counteracting of.
Well, they're using the word joy, but of authenticity, I think would be a better word.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: You know, I have something that just came up to me, and I want to share this because for the outside world, Right. Especially those that are very much in judgment of spirituality, they're going to be able to tell that you're quieter. They're going to be able to tell that you're not, like, active as much as you were before.
And I had someone literally come to me that's close to me that said, well, I don't really see what you're benefiting from spirituality. It seems like you're more down now and things like that. And it was using those things against me, and I was and it took me a moment to pause, but realize also that you have absolutely no understanding or no knowing of where I'm at internally.
So, like, you can judge it all you want, but it still doesn't mean that you're going to be able to even go in with your feelings and just kind of be. Have that moment of just processing.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think people just at a glance, they think they. They equate being happy with being boisterous. Exactly. Yeah.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: I'm wanting to go out and all that.
Okay, so we're on number five now, aren't we?
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: Okay, your turn.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: So your body feels achy, tired, or dense stored emotional charge.
Move through tissue.
Muscle, fascia and nerves are reorganizing.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Isn't that interesting? Let's, let's say that again. Muscles, fascia, and nerves are reorganizing. There is something absolutely happening physically.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: And I feel achy right now. Right in the small of my back. I can feel it. It's almost like a fist in there.
So. Yes. So something is happening at a, at a physical level.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: And sometimes you even feel really sore. Like it's weird because it's just you're processing so much energy that it does make you feel sore, too.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: Yep. That's what we're talking about here.
Okay, so number six, you question whether anything actually changed.
Now that's classic. The ego wants fireworks. Right. Always healing usually feels like, wait, was that all there is?
Yes, that's it. The storm passed. Now comes the quiet.
Isn't it interesting that so much of this is about the quiet? Isn't it?
[00:12:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: So, yes.
You think you're going to have some huge epiphany, or all of a sudden you're going to have a big surge of positive energy and you're going to leap out of bed and just spread love to everybody. And it's like, no, it's probably just going to naturally move forward and you might not even.
One day you wake up, you go, oh, I feel better.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: But I do want to point out this, that part of that part is a progress. But a lot of people, because I find that a lot in spirituality, that they confuse that with being depressed, which is totally not. And the differences is between you're just like emotionally blank and you're kind of more in a neutral. You're kind of an idle pilot.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: Well, doesn't it make sense when you're neutral, you can process better?
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: There's no charge, negative or positive to it.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Yep. And when you're more depressed, there's definitely more of a negative charge.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Oh yeah. And I'm guessing that's what your friend was or family member was thinking when they said you're not.
I don't see the benefits of it. They assume because you're withdrawn that you're depressed, but you aren't.
[00:13:51] Speaker A: Well, it was actually a direct attack from a religious person trying to compare it to spirituality. But nonetheless, what I. All I was trying to imply is that time was a moment of me processing things after a big release.
They had no understanding of what had happened, so I get them that. But nonetheless, it shouldn't be weaponized against me.
So you will want to stay away from people, I can assure you.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Yeah, you do when you're processing. That's why they keep talking about the quiet and the long time and that. Yeah, yeah. I'm a very good hermit at times.
Okay, number seven, your turn.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Old habits temporarily feel louder. Not because you're regressing, but because the system hasn't fully installed the upgrade yet. The old wiring flickers before it goes offline.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Oh, I like that phrase, the old wiring flickers.
You know, I'm not going to say I'm. This is a particularly a habit of mine because I'm not very domestic and I'm not a good housekeeper. But this week my place looks worse, I think, than it's looked in months. And that's because I have no energy to wash the dishes or vacuum or it's just not in me right now. So that would be an example of, you know, somebody who probably has better old habits about that than I do. You might not feel the urge to clean or even do things that you normally like to do.
It's just that everything feels a little bit vanilla for a while.
And that's interesting. It says feels louder. It does feel louder. It almost feels like it takes effort to do certain things that normally would be easy.
When you're going through this. Do you want to add anything to that?
[00:15:39] Speaker A: No, I think it's pretty self explanatory. But I do feel that because you are going through and you're shedding off old habits, they probably do feel louder because they're surfacing up because you're letting them go. So that would be the part where just know that it's not like you're at all going back to them. It's just their final kind of like it's coming up so that you can see it and let it go.
[00:16:06] Speaker B: That would be the habits that need to go. But I think there's also the Even the routines that it's hard to do.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Yeah, well, yeah, without energy, anything would be hard to do.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: True.
Okay, number eight, you crave grounding food, naps, or simple tasks.
This is the nervous system saying, we just did deep emotional surgery. Please return to Earth.
Yes. Now, I'm actually having a little trouble grounding today, but I do feel the need for it. And food, for sure. I want dense, heavy food. All of a sudden, napping, you know about that. That's one of your strategies for dealing with this sort of thing.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: Yep.
But also with this one, even then, even though we crave foods and stuff, like, we all kind of want those comfort foods. But just be on the lookout, because if you choose really bad options, like extremely greasy food, you're probably not going to feel that great afterwards. You'll feel great eating it, however, not when you're processing it.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: I think when you're on the spot spiritual path, you naturally kind of weaning out certain foods. So I don't. I think even when you're in this phase, you'll second guess what you do. I really want that.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: You know, like. Like right now I don't want, like a bowl of, you know, Cheetos or something that's just all chemicals, but I sure could go for some mashed potatoes.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that's definitely a comfort food, too.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
Okay, number nine,
[00:17:37] Speaker A: you feel less reactive, but also less excited. The emotional range narrows while the system stabilizes.
Big highs and low drops out for a bit.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: Big highs and lows drop out for a bit. So nothing extreme.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: Yeah. That's that vanilla I talked about earlier.
Okay. Number 10. A quiet sense of something shifted lives underneath the heaviness.
This is the most important thing to know. Even if you feel tired or flat, there is a subtle knowing I am not where I once was. And that's the integration, being seated.
So, yeah, even though it feels heavy, there's that scintilla of light going. Yeah, I know I did this. This is for good reason. So I know this will pass. I'll endure, but I know this is definitely for the better.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: So the main thing we wanted to let you know is that the release is dramatic like it was for me. And I could have done ugly crying, I think, but I didn't. But sometimes I've done ugly crying. Right.
Recovery is not glamorous, and integration is where the real change takes root.
So, you know, people need clarity, motivation, and lightness, you know, when they're going through this. So we wanted to let you know that this Is very, very normal.
So we promised you we were going to talk about how this affects your nervous system and your biology too, because it does.
So I did a little searching and we've got a list of that and we're going to take turns and read that too. Does that sound good?
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: Okay, so during the emotional release, your body treats it like it's intense emotionally and processing like a stress. It's process it like a stress event, and then it completes the cycle instead of getting stuck. So if you. If you think of it, it's a spiritually related stress event.
So do you want to tell us the first thing that how it affects your body after an emotional release?
[00:19:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
Stress hormones spike, then discharge.
When you access stored emotion, your system often reactivates the original stress pattern. Adrenaline, alertness, intensity, shaking, cortisol, mobilizing energy.
But here's the key difference. In trauma, these stay elevated in a healthy release. They rise and then they fall.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: That is very important to know, isn't it?
So this isn't trauma. It's healthy release.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: And that drop afterwards.
That's what you're feeling now.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: That's what I'm feeling now.
Okay, so another number two. The limbic system is activated.
The amygdala, which is the emotional memory center, lights up while old emotional memory is processed. Like what happened with Devra, right?
Oh, I used her name. Whoops.
When release happens, the brain updates the file and it says that this memory is no longer a current threat. That update takes a lot of metabolic energy.
So your emotional memory center gets lit up and the old memories get processed. And it does affect your metabolism.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: So think about it as when you take your car to. Like if you were a car that you were taken to a mechanic and the problem was fixed, but the only thing left to do is to turn off that light, that one signal that there was a problem.
Number three.
Vagus nerve engagement.
Crying, deep breathing, trembling, sighing.
Desimulate. Stimulate the vagus nerve, which shifts you from flight, fight and flight to rest, despair.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: No, no, not despair.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Repair. Rest and repair. I'm so sorry.
Flight, flight and fight.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: Here I'll say it. It moves you from fight and flight to rest and repair.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: Geez, I'm having troubles reading too. But the body does. Doesn't just switch instantly moves through a recovery slope.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: You know, whenever you. I do this is one of the things I do see a lot on the spiritual path. A lot of people do talk about the vagus nerve because that keeps you steady and calm and stimulating it by crying and breathing. And humming things like that is actually very, very, very helpful. So I actually do see people talk about that on the spiritual path.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: I do see that. And you know what I've actually found? So last night, while going through things, I saw this, like, Vegas for nerve calming frequency music on YouTube. And I put it on, and it was only an hour long. And I felt so much better afterwards. It really does help.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's probably the number one thing you can do proactively, is it's to help keep your vagus nerve calm.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: Okay. Now, after a release, which is where I'm at right now, a lot of people misinterpret what's going on, because my system just burned through a lot of stress and my chemistry is now affected. It's the parasympathetic dominance, the repair model.
So what happens when parasympathetic dominance is happening?
Number one, cortisol drops.
When you lower cortisol, you have less mental sharpness, there's less sense of urgency, and you're more tired. And then you get that, why can't I think fog?
So this isn't dysfunction. It's your body saying, I am no longer in survival mode.
So there's a very, very real, tangible, biological thing that happens that explains all the things we talked about earlier, like the fuzzy brain and the everything seems bland and you don't feel like doing things.
Here's one of the main reasons your cortisol has dropped.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: Yep. The next thing is neurotransmitters rebalance. Big emotional processing alters dopamine, which is motivation and drive. Serotonin, mood stability and GABA calming signal.
After a release, dopamine often dips temporarily, which can feel like, I don't care about anything right now.
It's not apathy. It's your brain pausing before establishing a new baseline.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: I like that last line. It's your brain pausing before establishing a new baseline. So it's kind of like that moment between breaths. Feel.
[00:24:54] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: So give your brain a break.
Yeah.
Okay. So another thing that happens at a physical level is oxytocin and endorphins rise.
So if your release involves support, connection, or safety, oxytocin, which is a bonding hormone, increases.
Endorphins, which are natural opioids, increase, and these help soothe, but they can also create a post catharsis lull when they taper. So we're talking about, once again, that feeling of flatness, you know, with a lull.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:25:35] Speaker B: And catharsis is when you have that release. Right. That. That was the me crying. That could. Yeah. Mm.
Okay, what's something else that can happen at a biological level?
[00:25:46] Speaker A: Glucose depletion.
Deep emotional work burns serious energy. Your brain alone uses 20% of your body's fuel after processing. Blood sugar dips, muscle feels heavy, you crave carbs or naps.
This is literally brain recovery.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: You know, I almost wonder if my blood sugar dipped when I was doing the drum circle. I mean, as an observer, I don't know if you noticed, but all of a sudden, I just lost that vim. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but look, let's read those again. Because blood sugar dips, muscles feel heavy, and you crave carbs or naps. That would explain my potatoes.
But it's because your brain.
Your brain needs restoration.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Yep, that is true.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Okay, so also inflammation while you're repairing is something that could happen. Emotional stress affects the immune system. I think we all know that, don't we?
After release, the body may enter a mild repair inflammatory phase to rebalance. And that can feel like aches, fatigue.
The feeling like you just got hit by a truck.
That's your system reorganizing too.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:09] Speaker B: So this is something I study Western hermetic philosophy. And this is something that's related to a concept called salve e coagula. In Latin.
And in alchemy, salve means it would be the solution, the water, and that's the emotional discharge. Makes sense, right? Water and emotions.
Coagula is the rebuilding of the physical.
So it's rebuilding. And in this case, we're talking about the brain. We're talking about rebuilding the new neural and nervous system patterns.
So right now I'm in a phase where the old stress chemistry is cleared, but the new baseline chemistry is not fully installed yet. So my system sitting in that low energy neutral zone, and I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not broken. I'm repatterning. And it's something that can be learned about when you study ancient texts about alchemy. This has been something that's been studied for millennia.
Okay, so after an emotional release, just to kind of recap what's going on with the body, brain recalibration, hormone rebalancing, nervous system reset and energy recovery, which feels like being tired, foggy, unmotivated, and slower. And that is biological integration.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: Who.
So, yes. You know, when you're on the spiritual journey, I think a lot of people don't realize there's going to be consequences to the body. Good consequences, ultimately, because it's ultimately raising your. Your vibration and helping you out. But you do go through that lull.
So I wanted to know more about how we process in the body after a big release like I had. And I asked, what do the tears actually do?
So let's go through this together. Do you want to read the first thing that tears do to help when you're having a spiritual release?
[00:29:19] Speaker A: Yes.
So the first thing that tears do is they help remove stress chemistry.
Emotional tears contain higher concentration of stress related substances than other tears, including, I'm gonna say acth, which is adrenorco.
[00:29:45] Speaker B: I'll try it. Adrenocorticotropic hormone.
[00:29:49] Speaker A: Yes. Linked to cortisol production, stress related proteins.
Crying is literally part of the body's way of downshifting from stress activation. It's like venting pressure from a ball.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: Yes. So that's interesting.
Emotional tears contain higher concentrations of stress related substances than other tears.
I didn't know there were other tears.
[00:30:19] Speaker A: Well, there's happy tears.
[00:30:20] Speaker B: Oh, happy tears. I seldom have those apparently.
But boy, we can tell you stories about crying as a release as part of the spiritual journey.
You know, sometimes it's just like one teardrop that falls and sometimes you know, it's the ugly cry for half hour.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: Either way, they're both like serving a function. It's a release. Here's my thing, my take on tears.
I grew up as being the oldest out of like four in a Latin male, obviously culture male, like machismo being present.
So because of that I was my entire growing up, I was always told, oh, don't cry in front of people who like you're a guy, you don't supposed to be crying in front of people. So once I actually learn that they're a release. And now with breath work and everything, I encourage those tears because those tears make you feel so much better.
Literally like actually holding to those tears and not having those tears, it's not going to get you to a good spot, I can assure you of that.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: Well, we already found out that it releases stress and that stress hormone. So acth.
So crying also activates the parasympathetic nervous system and that's the rest and repair system.
So after crying you often feel softer, calmer, a bit tired and more grounded. And what's actually going on there? That's vagus nerve activation, helping your body move out of fight and flight light.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: So they always say the best naps and the best sleep will be after a long cry.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: It's true, it's true. And you know, I'm, I know everybody in the audience has Cried and can relate to that.
[00:32:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: Okay, what else is going on? Number three.
[00:32:18] Speaker A: Oxytocin and endorphins are released.
These are the soothing chemicals. Oxytocin connection, safety bonding, endorphins, natural pain relief, emotional easing.
That's why a good cry can leave you feeling relieved, lighter or emotionally clean.
Which is so true.
[00:32:42] Speaker B: Endorphins, natural pain relief and emotional easing. Yeah, that. That's. That's why. I mean, my goodness, Even if that was the only thing that would be like. Bingo. That's why. That's why you want to cry and not hold it in.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: Okay. Number four. Crying helps regulate breathing.
Deep sobbing will equal long exhalations.
A long exhale equals vagus nerve stimulation.
It's essentially.
Sorry. It's essentially automatic breath work. Your body initiates on its own.
And I want to. I stand correct. I think earlier I said to calm the vagus nerve. Apparently we want to stimulate the vagus nerve, which makes sense. Sense. By crying and laughing and things like that help with it.
Automatic breath work. It sure is.
You can't help but do breath work when you're crying. Especially if it's a big ugly kind.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: But isn't that. That's the magic part of it. Because it's like some people need to grasp for reasons on why to love their bodies and themselves. Think of all this miraculous functions that your body does for you without you even having to real like actually, I mean, now you're being explained what it's actually doing. But what I mean is it's such a perfect system that all works together and we don't even realize it.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: No. Because it feels so commonplace.
[00:34:08] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: So number five.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: It helps emotional memory integrate.
When you cry in a safe context, your brain updates.
This feeling is survivable.
That reduces future reactivity. Crying helps shift experiences from active emotional charge to integrated memory.
[00:34:32] Speaker B: That's interesting because the active emotional charge feels like it's jangly.
But an integrated memory feels soft, doesn't it?
[00:34:40] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:34:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. And it also lowers heart rate and blood pressure after you cry. So there's often a rise during the emotion and then a drop afterward. And that drop is the body returning to baseline.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: Yep.
Why you feel tired afterward. Crying is a full body event.
Hormones shift, muscles contract, breath changes, nervous system resets, it burns energy.
That post cry fatigue is not weakness. It's recovery after regulation.
[00:35:23] Speaker B: Oh, I want to repeat that. Okay, people. That post cry fatigue is not weakness. It is recovery after regulation.
So in short, crying is the body's way of releasing stress chemistry.
It Activates and calming systems. It restores emotional equilibrium. It signals safety to the nervous system.
So it's an emotional digestion process.
You don't cry because you're falling apart. You cry because your system is putting things back together after the release.
And that makes sense because when you release something, something needs to take its place, doesn't it?
[00:36:07] Speaker A: Exactly, yeah.
[00:36:10] Speaker B: So one of the things that I did at the drum circle is something that every Sunday when I lived in Seattle, I was religiously at something called laughing yoga.
And laughing yoga, well, I had a very stressful job, so it was just such a release to go. And really, there are benefits to laughing, whether you fake it like an actor, or if you're really feeling it. Either way, it works.
So I wanted to find out from research, what does laughter do?
Because guess what I did at the drum circle, almost toward the end, I did a laughing yoga exercise where I just laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh, and I'm laughing so hysterically, everybody just. They can't help, but they have to join in. Right. What's it like to be witnessing that when I do that?
[00:37:10] Speaker A: Well, at first I thought I was like, well, I've definitely have never done this before. But then after I did it, because your body feels it and it feels so much better that you're like, why haven't I done this type thing? And also, one of the things that I don't know if I don't think Lola mentioned is laughing is the fastest way to raise your vibration.
Even if you fake laugh, like whenever you're feeling down to the core, like you're not feeling well and stuff, and you have that moment to yourself, if you want to really change your frequency, just fake laugh. You can fake laugh and just. You'll raise your frequency right away. So there's a cheat trick.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And the research I did is probably going to back up what you just said.
So when you're laughing, even if it's fake laughing, your body does not distinguish well between spontaneous joy and voluntary laughter. So the mechanics trigger the chemistry no matter what.
So guess what number one is.
It's a rapid way to stimulate your vagus nerve.
Because laughter involves rhythmic exhalations, long pulsed exhales that equals parasympathetic activation.
So what it says to your body is, we survived. No threat now. Yeah. Yes. So. So once again, that's the thing with the vagus nerve. It's always about something repetitive, like singing or laughing or breathing.
Okay. So what it also does, it lowers your stress hormone reduction. So laughter Lowers cortisol and adrenaline, and that helps stabilize the system after an emotional discharge. That's one of the things we talked about earlier. Right.
So it's almost as good as tears or maybe as good. Right?
[00:39:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: It releases endorphins. We talked about that earlier, too. Laughter triggers the brain's natural opiates.
This reduces physical tension. It softens emotional pain, it creates a sense of lightness, and it's nature's reset button.
So we always talk about endorphins, don't we? We want our endorphins to be released.
Okay.
And then another thing that laughter does.
We did it. We did it at the circle. It's social bonding. Chemically, even solo laughter. Laughter increases oxytocin, which signals I am safe enough to relax after a heavy emotional release. This helps the nervous system move from survival to connection mode. And then if you do it in a group, that talk about connection mode.
But even if you do it solo, you get that feeling, I'm safe. I can relax now.
Any comments about anything we've been talking about with laughter so far?
[00:40:11] Speaker A: No. I totally, 100% agree with them.
[00:40:14] Speaker B: Okay. So another thing that laughter does is it causes your muscle tension to discharge.
So laughter shakes the diaphragm. Right. The abdomen and the shoulders.
These are places where we hold emotions. And it's like a mini somatic tremor helping residual charge leave. I'm glad they talked about the shoulders, because that's one of the things that we often hear. Lower your shoulders, relax your shoulders. Move your shoulders.
And laughter does that automatically.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: I didn't even know that at all.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: Yeah. And then. Mm.
Okay.
So that's one of the things you can do to help yourself biologically.
After a big release would be laughter, crying. But then I wanted to go deeper because I've read a book called the Humming Effect by Jonathan Goldman. Jonathan Goldman is one of the preeminent sound healers of our day.
And so I inquired about humming and discovered that humming is an incredibly powerful way to do this integration.
But a lot of people don't know about it. Why? Well, we know why. Number one, it stimulates the vagus nerve.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: The vagus nerve runs from the throat.
Sorry. It runs through the throat and the vocal cords.
And vibration from humming tells your nervous system, we're safe. We can relax. We can stand down.
And that's why humming actually feels instantly soothing.
I don't think a lot of people have this in their weapon, this little weapon in their arsenal of tricks to use when they're feeling off humming.
[00:42:00] Speaker A: And you Know, humming is such a quiet, like, this noise that you can really do it. Like, as long as you just stay away from some people or even around people. You can just kind of be like, oh, I'm just doing it to relax. Or just do it. Like, pretend like you're relaxing with it.
[00:42:12] Speaker B: Like, I know my light language probably does all the things that we're talking about with the hummingbird because I can feel my body. But you can't do light language everywhere. But nobody could shock.
[00:42:20] Speaker A: Well, technically, you can do it anywhere. However, it might startle some people.
[00:42:25] Speaker B: Exactly. But we've seen every. We've seen the most innocuous people go by going.
You've seen people hum before. Yeah. So you're right about that.
Okay. Humming also increases nitric oxide.
Humming boosts nitric oxide production in the sinuses, and nitric oxide improves oxygen flow. It supports immune function, and it reduces inflammation. And that helps the body recover after stress.
And I remember reading about that in the humming effect book that they talked very much about nitric oxide.
What else does humming do?
It slows your breathing naturally, because humming lengthens the exhale.
And a long exhale means parasympathetic dominance.
Now, we talk about that a lot with breath work, don't we?
[00:43:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:23] Speaker B: So when you breathe in and then you breathe out longer, it's going to help your parasympathetic nervous system. And that's why humming does the same thing.
[00:43:32] Speaker A: Yep. You know what I just realized, too, is that I do a lot of humming without even realizing. Because a lot of the times when I'm like. When I'm just in my own little world, I'm like.
Like just the simple thing of, like, just humming. And I don't even think about it until, like, you just brought it off. Like, I actually do a lot more humming than I thought I did.
[00:43:54] Speaker B: Huh.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:43:55] Speaker B: Yeah. You've been naturally soothing yourself, and you didn't even know it.
[00:43:58] Speaker A: I didn't know it.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: Okay. Humming is also good for brainwave regulation.
Vocal vibration helps shift brain waves toward alpha states, which would be calm alertness and theta states, which are integration.
And this supports emotional processes and helps you settle. Sorry, let me repeat that. This supports emotional processing setting into memory.
So when you're calm and you're integrating, then, of course, it's easier to process and. And go back to that memory state we talked about earlier. That feels more gentle. Right. Than the active part.
Humming also creates internal resonance.
After a release, the system can feel ungrounded. So humming creates internal sound vibration, which helps the body feel contained again.
That's true. Because when you're humming or singing, you feel it in your diaphragm. You feel it's like it's just filling up the cavities, you know?
So why do tears and humming help after an emotional release?
Release clears charge, but leaves the system in a sensitive and open state, which is exactly how I felt. And you guys could see that at the drum circle.
Laughter and humming tell the body the event is over.
It helps you rebuild safety signals.
It prevents the system from staying in depletion, and it helps install the new emotional baseline.
So it helps you to say, okay, we went deep. Now let's come back home. Yeah, yeah. So one way to look at this, and I just love this, because crying empties the emotional cup.
Laughter and humming refill the nervous system with safety.
[00:45:51] Speaker A: Hmm.
I like that.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: And that's what integration is.
So we still have time so we can go into this topic.
I also asked about breath work and why breathing is so helpful when you're going through the aftermath of an emotional release.
So breath is one of the only systems that is automatic and under voluntary control.
Right.
I don't think people understand how important that is, the voluntary control, because I've had.
I used to be a phone counselor to help people quit smoking.
And I would recommend breathing because a lot of people feel like they are helpless when it comes to quitting smoking.
But it reminds people that there's one thing they can't always control, and that is their breath.
It can be quite empowering.
So what does breath work actually do in the body? Well, we're gonna go through this, and you can anything that you've learned from your breathwork studies. Feel free to chime in. Okay.
It regulates the autonomic nervous system.
Breathing patterns tell the brain whether you're in either threat or. Or safety.
So slow. That was the cat. If you heard noises, slow, rhythmic breathing is related to the parasympathetic activation. And fast, erratic breathing is related to sympathetic activation.
And you can literally signal safety through your breath.
Mia's making noise. She's breathing, too.
Okay. That's my cat.
Okay. And once again, we're coming back to a famous topic we've talked about before.
Breathing stimulates the vagus nerve.
[00:47:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:49] Speaker B: Long exhalations activate the vagus nerve. And that leads to a slower heart rate, lower blood pressure, reduced stress hormone output, and emotional setting. And that's why sighing or deep exhales feel relieving.
What do people tell you about after they've been doing the breath work for a while because Amaral does a one every two weeks online breathwork session on Zoom for free.
And if you're curious about that, if you're Facebook friends with him, you can ask him about that.
But do you find people talk about that at all, that they're surprised that breathing out helps?
[00:48:35] Speaker A: So I find it that, like, they tell me a lot of different things. So when they're starting to. When they do breath work for the first time, they understand the power of breath and they realize that how much they've been taking for granted, just like the fact of breathing. Because breathing in different ways can help so much on different things.
Now when they continue to do breath work, um, they get a lot of benefits. As far as we had a person that had issues with their under respiratory system and they weren't sure about to do breath work. And obviously I'm not, I'm not a doctor. So I said to them, you know, kind of, I mean, if you would like to try it, go ahead and try it. And then if you don't feel comfortable or something feels off at any given point, like, just stop doing it. And that's totally fine. Well, he continued to do it, but he said that he started feeling better.
And when he went and got checked, the doctor asked him what he was doing because his condition had improved so drastically that they were like, whoa, what have you been doing? Type thing.
So one of the things that I've discovered about breath while doing breath work is that it not only heals you, but it also, it brings you back to present. And I think that people that have been doing breath work for a while, they understand their power of their breath. So a lot of the times when they're under stressful situations, they also learn how to breathe in ways where it calms them down.
[00:50:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:11] Speaker A: And it's interesting how, for example, when you get really stressed out, like, let's say you're really, like, you get really nervous or really scared, you start like breathing really fast. Right. But then someone that has had experience with breathing, they understand to calm themselves down, they have to breathe slower and count their breaths in. And so when they do that, they're able to regulate themselves and bring themselves back to no longer being in that state. So there's a lot of benefits.
I also realize that people that, including myself, and I'm speaking more for myself by doing breath work, often you tend to be more in the present because the more aware you are of your breath, the more present you are in
[00:50:58] Speaker B: your life, and that helps with emotions, too.
[00:51:01] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Because anytime we're in the past, we're gonna. Like, past brings a lot of depression and a lot of, like, just not feeling well. And then the future brings a lot of anxiety. But when you're in the present, that's when you stabilize your feelings too. So there's a lot of benefits just to breath work. And there's so many different ways to do breath work too.
[00:51:25] Speaker B: Yeah. So what you said just lines up to what I was about to share with people, that emotions change breathing unconsciously, which I think you just touched on. It's like, usually it gets shallow. Right.
Breath work rebalances oxygen and carbon dioxide and physical words. Breath work rebalances oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, which affect alertness, calmness, and clarity.
Too much shallow breathing keeps the brain in alarm mode, so slowing down the breathing definitely helps.
It also helps discharge stored activation.
And that's because, like, certain breath patterns can bring suppressed emotions to the surface, help complete fight or flight cycles, release muscular tension. And that's why breath work sometimes leads to crying or shaking. It's completing unfinished stress responses.
And Yeah. I think you've even had people report that they've gotten shaky.
[00:52:30] Speaker A: Oh, yes.
[00:52:30] Speaker B: And we know for sure people have cried during the breathwork sessions. Yeah. But that all the release, all the good things that we talked about earlier, it changes brainwave patterns.
Slow breathing increases alpha and theta waves. Those are what we talked about earlier. Alpha is calm awareness. Theta is integration and emotional processing. And that helps move experiences from reaction to that gentle memory we talked about earlier.
It influences heart rate.
Heart rate variability is a key measure of resilience.
Breathwork improves that, and it gives you better emotional regulation, faster recovery from stress, and greater nervous system flexibility.
All very good after a big emotional release. Right?
[00:53:19] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:53:20] Speaker B: It also regulates hormones.
Yeah. So breathing practices can help normalize cortisol, which is the stress hormone. We about talk. Talked about that earlier.
Adrenaline and even melatonin, which is sleep regulation.
And that's why breath work helps you sleep after big emotional work.
[00:53:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:40] Speaker B: So basically, after an emotional release, breath work helps you to signal that the danger is over.
[00:53:49] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:53:50] Speaker B: And it helps prevent emotional whiplash.
It helps you move the body from discharge to rebuilding, and it helps anchor insight into the body, and that's how you go from release to integration.
[00:54:06] Speaker A: Also, I have a really good advice for you guys with breath, what I've learned, because so what I like to do in the morning is gratitude.
A gratitude affirmation kind of meditation. Right. And one of the things that they always like the first thing they start with is taking steps. Slow breaths through your nose and count to four and then hold and then breathe out through your mouth to six. What that does. And then dropping your shoulders and drop it. Like not tensing your jaw. Those are the two things where stress. Absolutely. When you're stressed out, you put it. It's on your shoulders and on your jaw. So that they said drop your jaw or make sure that you're not. Your jaw isn't like stiff. Drop your shoulders and do those. Those slow breathing. Do. At least do it three times before you start meditating or before you start any kind of thing where you want to focus on doing affirmations. And that is a game changer. For those of you that say that you cannot meditate or you can't seem to be able to bring yourself into relaxation.
Try that and try the breathing until you feel like, okay, now I'm very relaxed now I'm able to do this.
So, yes, that would be. That is a great advice that I would like to give to people. They're listening.
[00:55:26] Speaker B: I love mantras and tools like that too.
Yes. Anything you can do that might help you to feel more calm is good. These are just some things we wanted to bring to you about the physical reasons why this would feel better.
[00:55:42] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:55:43] Speaker B: So we have a way to encapsulate this.
Crying clears emotional charge.
Laughter restores lightness.
Humming brings containment and breathwork teaches the nervous system how to stay safe in the new state.
So it's not just calming, it's retraining your body's stress responses.
Which is why we wanted to bring you this particular episode.
[00:56:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:56:15] Speaker B: Because now we understand that the emotional release is extra important. We need to do that to clear the psyche. But also these emotions have been stored in our bodies, so our body needs that time to integrate. So having a basic understanding of how the body has been affected and how it is now being affected by the big shift, I think is a very important topic on the spiritual journey.
[00:56:45] Speaker A: Exactly. And one that's not talked about very often as well.
[00:56:49] Speaker B: And I like that we're talking about not only that, the things that do happen after a spiritual shift with the body, but also techniques you can use to help regulate it. So I think, I think we've done a good service today.
[00:57:04] Speaker A: Yes. I definitely. If I could go back and I would have seen or hear her, this information, I should say I would have so appreciated because it would have saved me so much. And understanding more of the process that I'm going through, instead of having me like freak out and thinking like, oh, now all of a sudden I feel like I must be doing something wrong. That's the first.
[00:57:27] Speaker B: I think so because when you, because when you've got the physical symptoms afterwards you think you did something wrong but really it's just your body saying, okay, something's changed, give me some time to reorganize. And then doing things like humming and breathing, for example, to help in the process, the body's gonna say thank you.
[00:57:45] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:57:45] Speaker B: Yeah. So speaking of thank you, thank you for listening to us. Thank you so much. And thank you to Mixed by Bruce who's fixing our audio problems. He makes our audio sound good now.
[00:57:56] Speaker A: Yes. Thank you, Bruce.
[00:57:58] Speaker B: And I'm Lola Singer. Please Visit my website lolasinger.com and see if you might want to work with me to get a spirit guide drawing or a reading.
[00:58:08] Speaker A: Don't forget to share.
[00:58:10] Speaker B: Bye.
