807. How Sensitive Women Can Heal Their Relationship With Their Bodies

0:13Hello and welcome to Almost 30 Podcast. My name is Krista Williams, and I am so glad you're here. My sisters, my family, the crew, my cosmic loves, my sisters in Christ, if you like that, if that's okay with you, my little doves. I'm really excited about this episode. We're going to be talking about a concept that I've never talked about before in one of the pillars of my teaching in the Metamorphosis Method. So the Metamorphosis Method is my body transformation program that I'm going to be teaching in January. It's a psycho-spiritual, energetic, but also tactical guide to transforming your body, but also accepting and liberating yourself from body hate and shame.

0:56So yes, you can both transform your body and love your body. It is my entire process of transforming my body literally in the craziest way in the past two years into something I love and feel liberated and free in and sexy in and all those good things. So it's actually possible. And we teach this in metamorphosis. So that's launching again in January. We have the psycho-spiritual teachings that I do with you and community. And then we also have the tactical support from Joy Wellness. So they're going to be doing blood work and peptides and all of that cool stuff. So you have both of those aspects.

1:27So first, let's say the hellos for the Almost 30 family. So OG, Almost 30, I love you guys so much. Thank you for rocking with us on the book tour and the book. The book is now out if you do not have it. I would get the audio book. It's read by Lindsay and I, and it was my favorite thing to do was read the audio book. I was fully locked and loaded. I was like, I was like in my actor era. I was like, yeah. And this is, and then I met Lindsay. And when I was doing the reading, I was fully turned on, fully in my actress era. And so was Lindsay. And we just had the best time. So get the audio book if you haven't already.

2:02I would love for you guys to read the book. It's just been so well received. I'm so proud of it. I'm really hard on myself. And I freaking love the book. And we have 800 plus episodes. We've been doing this for a while. We're OGs in the space. I do it with my best friend, Lindsay, who lives in Brooklyn. I live in LA. She'll record in Brooklyn. I'll record in LA. We'll come together to record quite often, but I love to do solo episodes. So solo episodes are just my teachings, my methodologies, things that have impacted me, things that I've gone through, whether it's divorce, dating, body, friendships, spirituality.

2:33Like I just kind of like to bring through what's going on with me, what I'm working through, what I'm growing through in hopes to teach and support you in your process. Because what I've known and found is that we're all sort of in this collective consciousness together and this experience in life. So today's episode is around body and weight and especially relates to people that are empaths or highly sensitive. If you guys join Almost 30 regularly, you know that I talk quite a bit about being an empath and someone that's highly sensitive and someone that sort of has this unique experience in the world.

3:05I know there's a lot of judgment and criticism about the word empath, and I totally get it. I think for me for a long time, I was in denial about being an empath. And then I would kind of clock myself. I'd be like, she's crying, so I'm crying. I'm stressed out because they're stressed out. I'm feeling the lights in this room deeply in my soul. I can't have music playing in the background. It was almost like just the sensory experience of life was so much and the emotional experience of life was so much. And I was always sort of in the energetic experience versus like the physical reality experience.

3:39And once I actually claimed and understood that being an empath was actually a part of the gifts I could bring to the world, everything changed. And a lot of what I teach is really helping people have better energetic hygiene, have better relationships with their own energy and their own selves, capital S self from the IFS perspective or the Jungian perspective, and really get into clear relationship with their own energetic experience, their own spiritual experience so that they can be in better relationship to the world. And I do that at my retreats all over the world or my coaching one-on-one.

4:11And it's just such an important part of our process, especially as women, because so many women that I work with are deep feelers and are people that take on for the world and are people that are healers or teachers or facilitators. And that means you are going to be having a unique experience where you are using your gifts for service. You are using your love for service. You are using your tenderness for service, your compassion for service. These beautiful elements of you that make you you are now a part of how you serve the world. So I wanted to do an episode talking about one of the pillars of the metamorphosis method, which is being an empath and being someone that's highly sensitive because I feel like so many of you resonate with the empath content.

4:52And even if you don't, I think as a human being on earth, you can relate to some of these things that I'm going to be talking about. So to first define highly sensitive people and empaths in just more accessible language, HSPs have a heightened nervous system reactivity and process sensory input more deeply. Empaths absorb the energetic and emotional states around them. Again, these are just what happens. And when we kind of figure out how to be in our power with it. That's not our goal, but that's what's happening. There's physical consequences to this experience. So they're more prone to nervous system overload.

5:26There's a lot of research that talks about this. If you are an HSP or someone that's considered an empath, you will have a more sensitive nervous system. And now there's so much research coming out about the nervous system where we know and can understand that the nervous system deeply impacts our weight and deeply impacts our body composition and how we relate to our body. So if you are someone that is more sensitive or can be more sensitive to nervous system overload, you are going to have to be even more mindful and you will be even more impacted by things because of the fact you're a highly sensitive person and an empath.

5:59So you're more likely to experience stress hormone spikes because of this, like cortisol, which can impact weight retention. If you've been around the weight loss, the dieting game, like me, a veteran of the space, let me tell you, I've been on a diet since I knew what a diet was. You guys know about cortisol. I never forget. I think I was in college when I started taking this diet pill called Cordy Cut. It was C-O-R-T-I, Cordy Cut. I think I want to just take a half hour of my life to keep saying the word Cordy Cut. Cordy Cut. Cordy Cut. Cordy Cut. It's good because it's almost like Corgi, you know, like a Corgi dog.

6:38Cordy Cut. Say Cordy Cut three times. Cordy Cut, Cordy Cut, Cordy Cut. So this CortiCut supplement was cutting my cortisol down, which I didn't really understand how hormones interact with one another. I was just like, I got to get rid of my cortisol. I don't want my cortisol to be in existence. So I started taking this pill. But if you don't know, cortisol is directly related and correlated to abdominal fat. The higher the cortisol or the more irregular or off the cortisol is, the more weight we can tend to hold. So being mindful of our cortisol directly relates to weight in our body. So being mindful of our cortisol is very important if we want to have good body composition and feel good in our body.

7:21Couching all of this conversation in the goal for all of us to feel good in our bodies, to feel sovereign in our bodies, to feel free in our bodies, to feel beautiful in our bodies, and to feel liberated in our bodies as well. And my goal is to give you information and help you understand how your body uniquely engages with weight as someone that's an empath, as someone that's sensitive, so that you can be better equipped to be in right relationship with your body and so that you can liberate yourself from feeling like you need to blame your body, shame your body, change your body, do all this stuff because your body as a sensitive tuning fork to the world is just trying to do right by you.

7:59When you can really use your sensitivity and the energy experience in your body for your greatest good for pleasure, for intimacy, for heightened experiences in life, for enjoying food more, for enjoying life more. Everything's amazing. But until then, we're kind of using our body in a way that's sort of fighting with it. So there's a few reasons why being someone that's highly sensitive can lead to holding on to extra weight. And the first is the body as protection. So our body is essentially a protective mechanism. So extra weight can be an unconscious shield to buffer between a highly sensitive person and the overwhelming world.

8:42So an example of this is after a heartbreak or a job burnout or a major life shift, the body pads itself to feel safe. This was 100 % my experience in a previous relationship where I did not feel safe. I did not feel protected. I did not feel okay. And so my body, you know, I was subconsciously telling myself, I'm not safe. This is not okay. I'm not safe. This is not okay. So my body so sweetly responded to me and said, I know how to make us safe. We will pad and hold on to extra weight.

9:24You know how in your twenties, your body starts slowing down in ways you don't notice at first. Definitely started for me in like my late twenties, maybe early thirties. Your joints feel a little stiffer, skin less plump, energy dips. Yeah. Okay. That's when I started paying attention to collagen. Paleo Valley's bone broth protein is made from 100 % grass fed, grass finished beef bones, slow simmered from small scale regenerative farms. They do it right. I am obsessed. I'm like kind of holding myself back because I am so obsessed for their bone broth protein. I actually have it in my little cup over there.

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10:46Again, my favorite it is the chocolate bone broth protein. I will make sure to put this with hot water. Sometimes I'll add like a little dash of milk, even though you don't really need it. They have like a really clean coconut powder in there that gives it that creaminess, but it is so delicious. I'm telling everyone about it. Again, that's paleovalley.com slash almost 30. The code is A30, A30 at checkout for 15 % off your purchase. Lately, I've been paying way more attention to fiber and protein and realizing how hard it can be to hit those without giving up the foods that I actually love, like bagels and toast and tacos and all the bready things.

11:29So that's why I started swapping in Hero Bread. Y 'all, Hero Bread has changed my life, Krista's life. I just went to LA and she was all over Hero Bread. She was having the bagels every day with her lunch. She normally has a little soup. She had the bagels. It was amazing. It makes it so easy to upgrade everyday meals. So my avocado toast, the bagel sandwiches, the wraps for lunch without feeling restrictive. The texture surprised me the most. I think it is soft, fluffy, and tastes like traditional bread. It doesn't taste like something you're like, this is like a really bad copy of bread. It's so, so good.

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12:49That's A30POD at checkout at hero.co, H-E-R-O dot C-O. I feel like for a long time money felt way more stressful than it needed to be. I stress so hard about money especially when it came to banking and all the random fees you don't even realize you're paying. I feel like one day I woke up I was like wait how was I charged$40 like eight times what is happening? That's why I've really been into Chime. It's a smarter fee-free way to bank that actually feels like it's built for real life not old school banks charging overdraft and monthly fees just for existing. With Chime, you get paid up to two days early with direct deposit, and their MyPay feature lets you access up to$500 of your paycheck when you choose.

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14:10I use this and honestly, my younger self would have benefited so much from it. Chime is not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free today. It just takes a few minutes to sign up. Head to chime.com slash almost 30. That is chime.com slash almost 30. Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services, a secured Chime Visa credit card, and MyPay line of credit provided by the Bancor Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. MyPay eligibility requirements apply, and credit limit ranges$20 to$500. Optional services and products may have fees or charges.

14:39See chime.com slash fees info. Advertised annual percentage yield with Chime Plus status only. Otherwise, 1.00 % APY applies. No min balance required. Chime card on-time payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score. Results may vary. See chime.com for details and applicable terms. I remember when I first, you know, started working at the corporate world, you know, as a highly sensitive person, you're going into a place and space, you don't really feel safe. You don't really feel comfortable. All the lights, all the sounds, all the textures, all the blah, blah. My body was like, I'm going to hold on to extra weight because I don't really feel safe in this place.

15:09So if you were going through an experience where you don't feel safe in the world and you don't feel like you're protected and you don't feel like you have this like ability to choose for yourself or have boundaries, your body will create a protective shield with the weight. And I see this happening with so many women, you know, all the time when I work with women, especially when I see them in retreats, they'll have this experience where they don't feel safe. They don't feel like they can say no. They don't feel like they have boundaries and their body is trying to create safety, a saying of no, and a boundary with the extra weight.

15:45And when you can come into true safety with yourself, a relaxed feeling and an ability to say energetically, spiritually, physically, emotionally, no, your body will no longer feel like it needs to protect itself. And that was, this has been so much of my process of coming into my true liberation with my body is like, hey, body, you actually don't need to keep weight to feel safe. You actually are safe in this now moment in whatever size you are, and the extra protection is no longer needed. I do not need to subconsciously or physically protect myself because I say no, I am clear, I am aware, I am conscious, I am in choice.

16:26When you come into your energetic and spiritual sovereignty, you no longer need the body to unconsciously try and create sovereignty. so the second reason why sensitivity can lead to holding on to weight i mentioned this before but the cortisol connection so highly sensitive people and empaths and lots of women in general are really easily stressed so this means more frequent activation of the fight flight or freeze and this elevated cortisol over time can encourage fat storage particularly around the belly so when you become more easily added shaded in stress and if you've been around highly sensitive people or empaths.

17:03I love you guys so much, but I have a friend as an example. You walk into a room. She's like, oh my God, is there perfume in here? Can you turn down the lights? Is there any way we could turn this music off? Oh, what is that smell? I mean, my sister, it is like sensory warfare for her everywhere we go because she's so sensitive. And that fear of things on the outside determining how she is creates this experience of being stressed. I'm going to walk into a room. Oh my God, I'm stressed. The sounds, the lights, the textures, you know, the people, dah, dah, dah, dah. Even if you're a highly sensitive person or an empath and you go to a party, you go to work, you go to meet new people, you go to a coffee shop, you have an easily activated nervous system.

17:46You're also picking up on energy. And so that would create you to be more stressed, especially if you're around people that are stressed. If you're around people that are unconscious, you are going to then be more stressed. If you're an empath that absorbs the emotional and energetic states of people around you, your body is absorbing the emotional and energetic states of people that you probably don't want to. There's very few people in the world that I want to absorb their energetic states, and all of them are my friends. But you don't want to be going out into the world absorbing people's stress, their emotions, their anxiety, because then your body is going to be creating cortisol and creating a fight or flight sensation in your body because you're absorbing everyone else's experience.

18:31Your nervous system being overloaded too also increases your cortisol, which tells your body to hold onto weight. So how do we support ourselves in this? This is done by nervous system regulation. This is done by breath work. This is done by grounding on the earth. This is done by slowing things down. This is done by emotional mastery. This is done by attunement to self and God, not others. And conscious awareness of the patterns that you're in. I'll share more about that later. So the third of six reasons why your sensitivity could cause you to hold on to weight. The third is nervous system burnout.

19:12If you have chronic overstimulation, if you're chronically overstimulated by your phone, by media, by your relationships, by your environment, by the city that you live in. This will create chronic fatigue. This is the burnout feeling that so many people have. So many women are burnt out because of chronic overstimulation and they're burnt out. They're exhausted. They're tired. They have to try and motivate themselves to do the simplest of things. And this actually creates less energy for movement and healthy regulation. The body goes into conservation mode and it holds on to wait for survival.

19:47You being burnt out at a tilt, you know, rushing around, stressed all the time. Oh my God, I got to get this done. I got to do this for this person. I got to answer this email. I've got to work all the time. Da-da-da-da. Leads to you being fatigued and tired. Means that you actually are using all of that energy for the fluttering and the craze and the overstimulation and not for healthy regulation, not for healthy movement, not for healthy flow of energy throughout your day. And so this conservation mode is the survival mode that your body holds onto fat. I'm stressed. I'm in fight or flight. I don't know when I'm going to get my next meal.

20:22I don't know what's going on. We're running from the bear. We're running from the tiger. We're running from all these things that I got hold onto weight. And this happens with normal people. But when you're very sensitive and you're especially a feminine being, this is going to be so, so much more intense. Number four is observing people's energy. So because empaths are taking on others' emotions without realizing it, this unprocessed emotional energy can manifest physically. So the body becomes a container for what we don't release. Oh my gosh, you guys. The body becomes a container for what we don't release.

21:00I was a container for so many people. That sounds really gross, you know, like, I don't, that's what she said vibes, but I just was holding on to other people's energy, stress, emotions, thought, feelings. I was psychically attuning to them and then holding onto it, processing it myself unconsciously. A lot of empaths are unconsciously processing other people's emotions. The way I got safety and loved in my household was by processing unconsciously everyone else's emotions, by trying to be there for them, by trying to be happy for them, by tried to perform for them. And I was holding onto other people's feelings.

21:38And that can manifest physically in the body. That will manifest physically in the body. If you have this thought all the time of like, I'm stressed, I'm, you know, sad, I'm anxious, your body is listening and your body is going to manifest all of that physically. And you need to be in the process of thought, feeling, emotion, release. I just made that up. Thought, feeling, emotion, release. You need to be in the cyclical energy. We do not want things to be thought, feeling, emotion stuck in the body. That means energy, just if we think from an energetic perspective, energy is stuck in the body.

22:12We don't want energy to be stuck in the body. Fat is essentially energy stuck in the body. It's just cells holding onto energy, stuck energy. So the more we can be in relationship to release, the healthier and the better things are. So number five, self-soothing and grounding through food. Oh my God. Let me just put my notes down. Let me just fix my hair. Let me just sit up straight for this one. So this is, I think, one of the most important and something that I've seen in myself throughout my life and my process. So this happens so much with people that are sensitive and empaths and people that are codependent or have insecure attachment.

22:53From a young age, my experience, because I did not have secure attachment, because I did not have attunement or regulation, I needed to find it somewhere. And a beautiful place to find it is food. Food is an amazing regulation tool, gives me that dopamine, gives me that hit. Food is always there for me. Food is my friend. Food is my comfort. Food gives me all the mind drugs that I need, gives me all the support that I need, is always there for me, which is crazy because now that's chat GPT for people, but that's a whole different fucking side story. But food is a beautiful space that people use for comfort.

23:31So especially when I'm an empath that's feeling more than other people, experiencing life deeply, more deeply than other people, I need food to cope, man. I'm like, dude, life is overwhelming. I'm stressed. I'm sad. I don't know if I'm sad or they're sad or she's sad or he's sad. I don't know if he's mad or she's sad or I'm sad. I don't know what's going on, but I need food to cope. I need food to regulate. Sensitive people unconsciously use food to regulate, to cope, and to numb.

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