Emotional roots of physical symptoms with Rachel Reimer

In this episode of the Heallist Podcast, we engage in a deep conversation with Rachel Reimer, a symptoms support coach, about the often-overlooked connection between emotions, beliefs, and physical health.  We explore how unresolved emotional issues can manifest as chronic symptoms and the importance of addressing these emotional components in healing. Rachel shares her unique approach to uncovering emotional patterns, discusses case studies, and emphasizes the need for collaboration between emotional healing and traditional medicine. The conversation also touches on misconceptions about emotional healing, practical tools for self-awareness, and the significance of maintaining emotional health as part of overall wellness.

Takeaways

• Emotions and beliefs significantly influence physical health.
• Unresolved emotional issues can manifest as chronic symptoms.
• The healing process involves identifying specific emotional stressors.
• Collaboration between emotional healing and traditional medicine is essential.
• Emotional awareness can lead to significant improvements in health.
• Practical tools can help individuals manage their emotional health.
• It's important to address emotional issues before they escalate.
• Healing is a personal journey that requires self-reflection.
• Maintaining emotional health is crucial for overall wellness.
• Emotional healing can provide freedom from physical symptoms.
  
  
  Find out more of Rachel's practice in her website: https://www.myraeofhope.com/

Visit Heallist.com - your portal to holistic healing, connecting seekers and thousands of practitioners across the globe.

Follow @heal_list on Instagram.

Watch video episodes on Spotify & Youtube.

Chapters

• 3:35 The Detective Method Explained
• 6:12 Freeze States And Science Basics
• 9:53 Case Study: Syncope And Fear
• 12:23 Severe Case: Cancer And Willingness
• 24:05 Reframing, Forgiveness, Relief

Transcript

Yuli: 0:00

Welcome to the Healist Podcast, where we unpack the many layers of holistic health. I'm Yuli, founder of Healist, your portal to holistic healers worldwide. Now let's go deep. Hello, dear friends, and welcome to the Healist Podcast. We have a thought-provoking conversation for you today. And if this resonates, please hit subscribe, follow, or rate, review, wherever you're listening, a small and simple way to support this type of independent and free content. I would absolutely love that. And today's episode dives into one of the most overlooked pieces of healing: how emotions, beliefs, and unprocessed stress shape what shows up in the body. And I'm joined by Rachel Raymer, a symptom support coach who helps people uncover emotional patterns behind their chronic symptoms and pain, bridging the gap between traditional medicine and emotional healing. I'm just so excited about this conversation. And she's using a unique blend of intuitive insight and straightforward emotional work. And she helps clients understand why they aren't feeling well and what their bodies might be trying to communicate to them. So I cannot wait for this conversation. Thank you, Rachel, for joining us today. Thank you for having me here.

Rachel: 1:21

I am always happy to jump on a call and talk about this stuff. It is so important to me. I think it's such an under looked thing in someone's healing plan, and I'm really happy to talk about it.

Yuli: 1:33

Amazing. I I love that because I think, you know, someone as of this podcast and our entire platform covering all aspects of holistic healing, I think um it's often so overlooked. The root cause everyone talks about like finding now. Finally, we're talking about finding the root cause of a lot of our diseases. And it's just such a still uncharted territory, especially when it comes to traditional medicine, that it's often not the goal, right? So it's amazing to have people like you. So I would love to just set the tone and let people understand what is it exactly what you do, because I think it's still so unconventional. So if you can describe what you do, that would be amazing.

Rachel: 2:15

I think a short and sweet summary is that anytime you go to the doctor and there's not any clear-cut, straightforward method or reason why you're having something going on, there's probably an emotional component. My job is to be a detective and go in and try to figure out what is the specific emotional stress. So for example, if you were going through something really large in your life, like a move or divorce or something like that, that might come up during like your primary care visit, and they're like, oh, it's stress. And it's like, but what out of all the different pieces in that big stressor, what's the part that's actually contributing to this physical symptom that I'm experiencing? That's what I like to laser focus in and figure out and try to resolve with somebody, or at least pinpoint what it is, and then they can work on that with their therapist. I think that is an extremely transformational process of just the clarity and the vision of getting as clear as possible of what is it exactly that bothers me. Not it's this big general thing. Of course, that makes sense, and it does, but it's what part isn't resolved yet. Very similar to when you hear people say that I don't want to die with unfinished business. It's the same thing with the body and emotions of if you're having a physical symptom, there's likely some kind of unfinished business emotionally, of you have popped the door open and you haven't completely shut it. So go back and try to figure out what door is open and what do I actually need to take out of it and resolve and then shut it again.

Yuli: 3:43

So interesting. So can you just double click on the process exactly? Because some of those things that you're describing, people might say, well, it sounds like traditional therapy. Like that's what I'm doing with my therapist every week, but I'm sure it's different.

Rachel: 3:56

Yes. So just kind of a walkthrough of normally what my 30-minute phone call with someone is, they will present to me whatever they're struggling with. They have a diagnosis that's great. If not, that's workable too. And I let them tell me anything that they think is relevant because I think that that's a large issue with any provider that you see, whether it's Western or Eastern. We just want to skip to the meat and potatoes. Like you really tell me anything that you think is necessary, big or small, doesn't matter. I sit with that information from an intellectual standpoint. Normally, if someone has X condition, it's probably this general emotional belief. So I'm going through some of that in my head as I'm listening to a case history. But then I'm also just taking a minute or two to just pause, connect with my higher power that I call God, and just let information come in of God, how can I help this person right now? What information can you give me that I can pass on that would be helpful? And how can I do that in a tactful way that they can process it and receive it well? Because that's half the battle, too, is identifying it, but also being able to give the message in a productive form. I like to mention like this Paul Revere, the British are coming, of that messenger. The messenger is very important. You don't want Snoop Dogg going back in history and going, the British are coming. Like that's it's a weird way of receiving it. So after getting their case history, having a general intellectual understanding of probably what's going on, just sitting with my version of my higher power and getting information, I go in and I present the information to someone in a very clear, concise way of, you know what, based off of what you've told me, it's likely related to X, Y, and Z. Can you help me out and fill in the blanks of what this may be? I'm thinking it's around this year or around this time frame, based off of what you told me and what I'm getting on my end, what comes up for you? And it's just this very collaborative process until both of us go, ah, that's it. It's this dual light bulb moment where we go, that's the unresolved stressor. That's that door that was popped open and never shut. And we double check that by asking on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the most severe and zero being not at all. How much does this still emotionally bother you when you're thinking about it now that we've identified it? And it's normally a seven, eight, nine, ten. And someone's like, I thought I was over this. And I tell them, you're over it intellectually, but not emotionally. That's a really important piece with this work, is you can try to talk yourself out of feeling a feeling all day every day. That doesn't mean it's gone away. There's something to resolve under the surface. And I think the body's really good for that. I think it's a ride or die best friend. It'll let you know no matter what, whether you want to know or not, that there's something going on that you need to make right with yourself.

Yuli: 6:47

So it sounds like an incredible process, but do you have any scientific explanation to what is actually happening, that process of uncovering or discovery?

Rachel: 7:00

If you think about it from a fight, flight or freeze perspective, those emotions are normally in that freeze state. And it's trying to go back in time and help the person understand that they're still stuck in that freeze state. And what do I need to know to get unstuck to actually move forward? I don't think it needs to be much more complex than that, that every human being has emotions. We all know something, we can all think about something that we're not okay with still. And it's just having a dedication to that awareness and actually working through it rather than stuffing it because it's so much easier to stuff it. I would so much rather, me personally, I would so much rather take a drug or pop a pill than have to deal with this big scary, ooey gooey, gross thing where I'm like, no thanks. So much rather do that. And I think that's the general consensus among most people. Oh, if I could take a pill, if I could do this, and I don't have to do that, great, I'll do it. So I I have a high empathy level for people when we really get into that nitty-gritty, and I'm like, hey, I think this is it. And they're like, that's I don't want to touch that. I'm like, okay, here's your choice and really present it in a practical way. Continue doing what you're doing or deal with it. That's it. Because we like to get in denial and go, well, there's a third option here. And if I just find another provider or I just find this specific treatment, I'm like, that could help. And I advocate for physical treatments. I think they're very helpful. I always want someone to have physical stability and to be able to function in their life, but that doesn't get rid of it. Just because it gets rid of your symptom doesn't mean it solves it emotionally. It's going to show up somewhere else in your life if it's not in your body. It could be in your financial situation, your marriage, whatever it is. For your own good, for your best benefit, I would highly recommend that you deal with this. I don't have to be the messenger for you dealing with it, but I would really recommend you do.

Yuli: 8:43

I fully agree. Can you give us some examples of some of the maybe extreme cases of people that they came to you with certain issues? And what did you find out? How did you uncover it? What was the outcome?

Rachel: 8:57

I'll do a mild example first and then I'll do an extreme version to just kind of transition into that. So, for example, I had a phone call the other day with a woman that she was in her mid-30s, and out of nowhere, she was eating lunch and she just had this like huge pass out. She has no history of blood sugar issues. She takes very good care of herself. She had like this neurological heart palpitation thing. So she went through like all the MRI imaging. She's an acupuncturist too. So she was doing her thing on that level. And she's like, I can't figure out what's going on. I can still feel a little piece of it there after the big episode, but I don't know what's happened. I've tried journaling. I can't, I can't figure out what it is. And we we just went back in time and we landed on this general thing, and then we were able to get to a conversation. And the thing that really made the difference for her, it wasn't even that this other person said something to her that bothered her. This person dropped their mask. They revealed their internal dragon that every single human being has, that icky yucky part of us, where we're like, ooh, that's not good. She saw that for the first time and that terrified her. And since that moment, she's been in that freeze state because her body doesn't know how to process that. And about two weeks later, because it was stuck so much in that freeze state, it almost tried to reset itself from that passing out sensation, from my perspective, on that emotional lens. So we just went in and we talked about it. At the end of the session, she could feel that residuals start to soften of like, I don't feel that after effect anymore. And I said, the minute that you start to feel that sensation, come back, if you do, go back to that conversation, remind yourself of what we talked about. You're not in that free state anymore. You're safe right here, right now, you're here, not in there anymore. And it just kind of re-grounds you and re-orients you back to present moment. That I love things like that because from a practical financial standpoint, MRIs are expensive. That's a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of effort. I would so much rather suss it out with me first. If I think, you know what, I think this is a physical thing, fine. And if it's like an ER thing or like a really scary thing, like what you thought it was, obviously go to your physician and do that too. But some of these things are just emotional. It doesn't need a physical component involved. But it's it's nice to have that conversation with someone to figure out that difference of is this a physical thing or is this an emotional thing? And that's a very common occurrence that I get. On a more severe level, years and years and years ago, I had a woman with stage four breast cancer approach me and just ask what my opinion was on her case. And I think there is this strong emotional component in your case. Do not think I would be able to help slow down the progression since you're at such a severe stage, but at least symptom-wise, I think I can help you manage some of your chronic pain that you're experiencing with your metastases everywhere. And I think it's related to this very specific thing about your divorce. And she just point blank told me, I'm not going there. I'm like, you know what? I don't blame you. If I had stage four cancer, I had mets all over my body, and you want me to deal with one of the hardest pain points of my life versus me just making the decision of like, I'm just gonna go have fun for however much time I have, no problem. Like, and it's very much a willingness conversation. It's based off of your goals, your quality of life. What do you want to work on? Some people that have chronic and complex illness don't want to take any prescriptions. They just want to feel free in their body and they'll really dive in heavily to the emotional work. Other people are really okay with being on their prescription meds. They just want to stop the roller coaster of symptoms. They just want to have some kind of stability. So I really just like to get a feel for the person on that first visit and try to figure out what exactly are your goals and where can I meet you where you're at.

Yuli: 12:55

Wow. Both incredible stories. Thank you for sharing. I'm still digesting. Wow. So powerful. And it makes me also wonder about your relationship with, you know, the other side of this industry, the medical field. And you mentioned that people come to you during medical treatments, like as severe as cancer. And you mentioned to me in our earlier chat that you actually work a lot with physicians and doctors. So I'm really curious about how do you fit into that process and also how this, I would say, unconventional modality is perceived by the outside world and by more traditional industry. Yeah.

Rachel: 13:37

So I have a few functional medicine contacts and homeopaths of just kind of this referral network that I work with. And we really just refer back and forth as needed when appropriate for each individual person. And especially when someone's having chronic pain or complex issues from like a naturopathic perspective, they have that ongoing hamster wheel of stress. It's really hard to make any progress. So I get referrals from a few naturopaths and functional medicine doctors in that capacity of like, just help me stabilize this person so that I can really go in and do my thing. And that's something that I really love and that I really adore. And Western medicine, I think they're very aware that there's that gap of this is a stress thing and I don't know how to help them. But to be fair, I don't think there's a lot of people that do what I do. But I think over time, I would love to see it a traditional counseling lens that there is specialties more with chronic and complex issues and diseases, that this is an actual specific field. I think that that would be so cool to do. And there's a little bit of that, I think, in the hospital system, from my understanding, but not in a long-term context. Like I even think of during COVID when you had all the scary stuff on the news and you'd have people in the ICU, and you're literally in the ICU watching the news, watching people die in the ICU, you're gonna have a lot of stress and a lot of fear. And you're not regularly talking with someone one-on-one to help lower that. That's really to me the bread and butter right there is that there's no emotional stability during those points of high stress. It's gonna be really hard for your medicine to go in and do its thing. And it makes me so sad because it seems like such an obvious thing. And we're we're not able to figure out some kind of system for that. And it it blows my mind and it breaks my heart at the same time.

Yuli: 15:25

What are some of the misconceptions that you encountered about what you do? And maybe um, even how do you talk to people about like, let's say a holiday party or a family gathering? How do you even describe to people we do? Do you have any advice for people who might be in a similar line of work? I know we have a lot of holistic practitioners and healers who listen to us. How to make it more mainstream and accessible.

Rachel: 15:52

My primary point is to always focus on making it not scary or weird, making it as palatable as possible. And I tell people on my first visit when we're talking, I want it to feel like it's a conversation at Venera. There doesn't have to be any weird things going on behind the surface. I am just sitting here listening to you as a human being, and I'm really dialed in and laser focused on what exactly is your pain point that you're talking about. And we just hash it back and forth. It doesn't need to be anything beyond anyone's understanding of I think that's even just a normal occurrence that people get when they are out to coffee is sometimes they'll just kind of get this information and then, like, you know what? I think my friend is really sad today about something. I'm gonna mention something. It doesn't have to be a big hub. And I tell that to people that aren't in any kind of natural healing, and I think that's pretty easy to receive. It's like you have low back pain, you've been stressed out with work for six weeks. Duh, that makes sense. Like you noticed that, right? Like your back pain started two days after you got laid off. Yeah, that makes sense. It doesn't need to be more than that, in my opinion. I mean, it definitely can be. I could get into the nitty-gritty and all the cool details about how to just let prayers or imaginative prayer come in and how to interpret that information. Most people don't care about that that I work with. They're like, I'm sick, help me feel better. That's it. I don't care about the extra fluff, Rachel. But it's it's always hard to just acknowledging that people aren't going to be receptive sometime as well. But I think that's the case with any profession. I mean, there's always gonna be a Debbie Downer or someone that's like, well, I think you should be doing this or this or this. And it's like, that's fine. But to me, it's just going back to my calling of like, I feel very called to do this right now, come hell or high water. And you're not gonna stop me from doing it. I might have to figure out a different method or a different system or whatever it is, but I I feel very drawn to it. And I think having that feeling and that sensation is really important in whatever work that you're doing because you're always gonna have that opposition that comes in.

Yuli: 17:55

Well, what I find incredible about what you've done is that you found a way to translate it into more acceptable, more mainstream language, and really connect the beautiful, like spiritual and deep work that you do to something that it makes people comfortable and easy to understand and grasp. They don't need any extra skills to understand that, like you said, it's as easy as I have the symptom, help me figure out, help me feel better. And I think it's really a refreshing approach because I also see from the work I do with a lot of wonderful holistic practitioners, I see some stubbornness around like bringing things down to more mainstream language and this like stuckness in in the world that they understand, but the lack of ability to connect with the average person and get to their level of understanding so they can really provide more benefit. And I think a lot of them seeing challenge in getting new clients, being understood, being fully booked is because they stay on that level that they understand, but they don't work hard enough to translate it to the everyday problems that we do know people need to get solved. And I think what's brilliant about what you've done is figure out that piece. How can I focus on the real problem I'm solving, but make it and phrase it in a way that is very friendly and allows every person who needs this to access it without feeling any fear or discomfort around some of those maybe unknown elements of what you do. Yeah.

Rachel: 19:42

And the approach that I have is really from a service perspective with my relationship with God of how can I help this person? This isn't about me right now. For the next 30 minutes, it's about them. Maybe I wouldn't present something like this in a way, or maybe I'm like, ah, but I would prefer to do this, or maybe. This isn't my normal cup of tea, but this person came to me for a reason around my schedule for some for some purpose. And I'm gonna try to figure out what that is. And this is also just fun, especially there's a lot of business owners on here. I have found the phenomena that when I have back-to-back clients, they normally struggle with the exact same thing, or it's a slightly different flavor of it. It's more of like, what is the theme for today? And I think that's divinely guided and something that I can't ignore. I've had my business since 2017. We're recording this in 2025. Years and years and years of that over and over and over again. And I think acknowledging that is a huge benefit in practice too.

Yuli: 20:42

So beautiful. Well, after all those stories, uh, it made me curious to put it into test, a little test if you're okay with it. And yeah, I love doing sometimes like little live healings on those um episodes. And I feel like this could be fun. And you told me before that you're open to it. I don't want to listen to those things that I'm putting it on the spot. So uh we're gonna keep it light, but let's just maybe give people a taste. And I'm always willing to be a guinea pig of any holistic modalities, but I would love to get an idea of what the session might look like. Sure.

Rachel: 21:16

So a majority of my practice is actually people that are on maintenance. Of we've worked through all the physical symptoms and they feel good, they feel stable. Then they just come back in and check in with me about every four to six weeks just to kind of go, hey, I'm aware of these stressors. Maybe I'm not aware of some other stressors. These are things that I could work on. I'm also open to your discretion. Rachel, can you just sit here, listen to what comes up for a minute or two, and then just go from there? So I think that would be a good way to approach our conversation. Yes.

Yuli: 21:46

We're not gonna dig into my uh medical history.

Rachel: 21:50

Right.

Yuli: 21:51

We we don't need to go there. I'm also pretty fortunate to be in good health. So really, um, like you said, for I think most people, a lot of my issues, they do come from stressors, from you know, running a company, raising two young kids, and all of that.

Rachel: 22:05

So, from a more neutral perspective, like from my perspective, there tends to be recurring sinus issues. It doesn't look like it's a serious recurring sinus issues, but I wouldn't be surprised if you get sinus infections or frequent cold and flus up here. The reason for that, from my perspective, is that when your patterns or your routines get heavily disrupted, that that really throws you off significantly. So the specific example that's coming up right now is yard work. I don't even know if you have a yard. I don't know what that looks like for your house, but it's something to the degree of I don't want to have to do this extra maintenance around my house that I'm not accustomed to or that's throwing off my normal routine. I want to go out and have fun and do X, Y, and Z. So let's start there. When I mention that information in the present moment, what's coming up with a pattern or routine that's getting disrupted?

Yuli: 22:53

So interesting. Well, you mentioned sinuses. I did have a little bit of a sinus, um, I don't know if it's an infection or um just blockage for the past like uh week or two. Um and uh yeah, my routine has been disrupted recently. It's been like a very busy time. Uh, I did have a few days that my slip was disrupted, whether it's like kids or like extra late work that I pick up. Uh it's fine that you mentioned the yard. We do have a pretty large yard and I never have time to take care of it. So right now it's fall season here in New York. It's probably in this worst condition. Yeah, so it's something I I never get to do.

Rachel: 23:29

So now that we have a little bit of conversation to work off of, then my next question is when you think of your yard as is right now, just picture it for a moment. Envision you're even outside just looking at it. How much does that bother you on a zero to ten scale? With zero being it doesn't bother me at all on an emotional level. Not like it shouldn't be a big deal, Rachel, but like when you've really sit with it, how much is it bothering you? Five. Okay. So it's great that we've identified how much it's bothering you right now, which would match also with your symptom intensity. You're not full-blown sinus infection right now, but you can feel there's something going on at the moment. So then we try to suss out what is the exact thought that's getting to that five out of 10. So it could be I don't have enough time, I'm overwhelmed, I don't get the help that I want, I don't know where to start, it's a never-ending project. Are any thoughts like that showing up as we're thinking about this?

Yuli: 24:26

It's pretty much a never-ending project. It's uh I mean I'm fortunate to have uh a place with a land that it was never my plan. It was something that was given to me by the universe, and I'm very grateful for, but it's definitely like more than I signed up for family and the level of busyness we have. But I also feel so I do feel a little bit torn between this responsibility for the land to take care of and and develop and redevelop. We live in a um very interesting area that had a lot of turmoil in the past, like Revolutionary War and other events. And I do feel like the connection to this and this almost um responsibility to like transmute some of the energy around this land and really help develop it. And and I haven't had a chance to do much of that. Like we do have hired help, but um, it's not me personally, like I haven't done yard work in a long, long time. So I I never thought about it actually. Like it bothers me when I drive by every day and I see this, but I never thought about it as an isolated issue that I should be working on.

Rachel: 25:34

Yeah. So now I'll even backpedal a little bit more. In general, sinus issues are an irritation to someone or something close. And that's a Louise Hay definition from You Can Heal Your Life. I think that's a great introductory basics book. I think she nails that definition of sinus infections. So I suspect when you go outside, there's this irritation with yourself of I wasn't aware of what I signed up for. And I'm really regretting it in this moment, not significantly out of five out of 10, but I'm really irritated with myself that I couldn't see how big of a project this would actually be. So then when we go and we explore that idea of I'm irritated that I didn't know what I signed up for, then we were look for that element of forgiveness of has anyone ever taught you the full extent of taking care of land that size or magnitude? No.

Yuli: 26:27

No. But I also feel like, you know, this land has been here without us taking care of it for ages. And it's also like my own perfectionism, right? That sees all the undone things as imperfections, but in fact, it's probably as whole as it should be. Yeah.

Rachel: 26:44

And we could even take this twist. When you sit with it emotionally, does the land care that you haven't been keeping up with it?

Yuli: 26:51

Probably doesn't because it's been here before me. Right.

Rachel: 26:55

So then you check in with yourself and you go back out to your deck or wherever, just envision you're back outside. When you see all the yard work that needs to be done, is it still a five out of ten? If it is, that's okay. We keep working with it. And I would say it went down to like two or three. Okay. And that's part of the process is we're sitting at Panera, we're sitting at a coffee shop, and we're just continuing to go back and forth. So it's still a three. When you go outside and look at that yard work that needs to be done, what's the next thought that comes up? Unfiltered.

Yuli: 27:26

It's also okay that I need to learn to live for the fact that it's okay. It doesn't need to be perfectly be taken care of all the time. It has its own life.

Rachel: 27:36

Absolutely. And what's the part that still bothers you when you go out and look at that yard work? Because I know it bothers you still because it's a three out of ten. So you go back out to it. Because we always want to jump to the solution, which is true of what you said, but I want to go back to the part that's still unfinished, unfinished business right there.

Yuli: 27:53

It's the the visual perfectionism that I have with everything. And, you know, especially when it relates to my environment. Like my house is for the most part is neat and perfected, but yard is always something that's kind of lower priority. So the only part that bothers me is the visual part that I have to see it every day and driving by.

Rachel: 28:15

Does it feel like a representation to you of you not taking care of yourself?

Yuli: 28:20

Maybe. Yeah. It's it's more of a yeah, exactly.

Rachel: 28:23

Yeah. So if that's true, that it's a representation of you not taking very good care of yourself, were you aware that you were that depleted until this very moment?

Yuli: 28:34

I mean, I know I I work more than what I should be.

Rachel: 28:37

So there's some awareness there, but that you're in a much deeper hole than you were like, I'm in a hole. I know I'm in a hole, but I think it's maybe teeny tiny versus like I'm kind of like sitting in the hole right now. Yeah. Yeah. And let's try that out. When you go back outside, you take a look at it. Did that move the needle at all? Is it still a three? And if it is, that's okay.

Yuli: 29:00

Well, I get it, I got to tell you, I'm already breathing better just during our conversation. Yes, and I definitely want to try to look at it with this new perspective.

Rachel: 29:09

When you go outside and look at that, is there anything that still bothers you about it? Is it still charge? Is it still a three?

Yuli: 29:16

No, I would say I feel um I feel good about it. I feel like it's doing what it should be doing, and I should stop controlling the nature.

Rachel: 29:26

And and that's what a zero looks like. It doesn't mean that it has to be this kumbaya butterflies and rainbows kind of thing. It's just like the yard work isn't done. And it's it's just more of a factual statement. Very similar to there's a tree outside, there's a rock outside. We don't have any emotionally charged feelings about it. It's just like that's where it's at at that moment. So anytime that you notice that something's bothering you and you're like, it's more than a one, there's something unresolved there. You're having unresolved, unfinished business to go back to and tend to and go, what exactly is really bothering me here? And sometimes, like in this example, it's like I didn't think the yard work was impacting me that much. And it's like, it's still stuck in the body. It's not a huge disease that's altering the course of your life by any means necessary, but there's a connection there. And when we have unresolved stuff, it gets stuck in there. And that's why it's important to do maintenance check-ins with me, a therapist, even just journaling of how am I actually feeling about several different elements of my life and having that awareness.

Yuli: 30:28

I love that exercise. I love that. It's so simple, but you're right. It's actually pretty profound because it's the things that we don't think about it. And I also love the maintenance mode message because I think it's something I hear from a lot of healers as well. Uh, this common thread of I wish people came to me for maintenance and not when major things happen, right? So much easier. Yeah. Thanks. So I love this idea. I started doing it myself with some of the practitioners I'm seeing, and I'm seeing like great benefits from that. Just avoiding the problem altogether versus waiting for it to happen.

Rachel: 31:06

And after doing that exercise, even during it, you mentioned that you could start to feel and breathe better. Can you notice even like an opening in the sinuses and like an opening in the back of the throat?

Yuli: 31:16

Yeah, yeah, totally. Like I can feel the air flowing.

Rachel: 31:20

Yeah. And that's what I've found to be true with the majority of symptoms. Occasionally, there's something that's just a physical thing, but especially if it's a chronic thing, there's probably an emotional component that you can get some pretty instantaneous relief if you're willing to really go there and challenge yourself with the exercise. So, like I like what we just did. That's a coffee conversation. That doesn't have to be this big, scary, overwhelming killing, slaying dragons kind of thing. It doesn't have to be weird. It's it's just a conversation. Your yard work's bothering you. It's stuck in your nose because it's bothering you.

Yuli: 31:55

That's fine. That's easy to work through. You can do it. That's so funny. I love the simple tools. And sometimes I find through my own healing journey, sometimes things that look most simple, they're actually most effective. So I I love this messaging and how you make it very accessible to people.

Rachel: 32:15

Yeah. And even at home for people, if you have a headache or a sore throat, put your hand over the area that's bothering you. Envision you're giving it a microphone and just write down verbatim what it's saying. It'll tell you what the emotional stressor is that's there. You don't need me for that. I'm more for like those weird random things where you're like, Rachel, I journaled for days and I still can't figure it out. I need some help trying to figure out what's going on. But my my goal really with my clients is that I will not be here for the rest of your life and you will. And I want to give you tools and resources that you can work through this stuff when it pops up. I think it's an invaluable skill. When you notice that you start to get nauseous on an airplane and you don't want to go throwing up for the next four hours, this is good to go. I'm nauseous. I understand that I'm rejecting an idea right now, and I'm really just trying to tune into what I'm rejecting and talking myself through that rather than just letting my body try to advocate for me and just go into this physical symptom spiral. It's a universal skill that I think is really helpful to have.

Yuli: 33:17

It's so incredible. If for people who are looking to dig deeper into this, um, is there any other like tools or books? Like I know we mentioned Louise Hay. Can you talk a little bit about where where did you learn those skills and how maybe people can continue with this discovery?

Rachel: 33:34

I learned a lot of what I know from my mentor several years ago, and I'm very grateful for her. So my education has been more in a one-on-one setting. I really don't think that there's a lot of books on this, unfortunately. I think Louise Hay has a really solid foundation for this work, and my job is to really pick up her torch that she's left and just keep going and getting it even more specific. So if you go to my website, I have a it's called My Creators on there. And I like to go into depth and detail over different diseases and conditions. Normally, when you have this diagnosis, from my perspective emotionally, this is typically the pattern that's going on. Here's some very specific journal prompts to get you started. Because once you have a general understanding of when I personally get low back pain, it's normally about this specific thought. Now that I have that reference point, I can really dial in my journal prompts and go, I know it's about this. It's something about this. I don't know what it is. I know it showed up three days ago, and you just kind of figure it out from there. But that's a lot of my work in the beginning is helping people identify those patterns. When you have this symptom, this is typically what it's related to, that we build your own personal Rolodex.

Yuli: 34:48

Well, I hope people take this opportunity to either investigate deeper or just go deeper in themselves and do the journaling, do the double clicking on some of the symptoms and issues. I think it's a wonderful exercise. Thank you for teaching all of us and doing it live for the most part. So I really love this conversation. Any last words of wisdom for our listeners?

Rachel: 35:14

I'm really hopeful that even if you have been given a prognosis that's not favorable or that there's no treatment for it, or the treatment options that are available aren't great. I think that there's really extra tools that are available on the emotional end to help you manage symptoms, if not help you start to feel better and function better in the long term. I wouldn't let your disease and the current treatments define the freedom that you can have in your body and how you can start to function and live in the years down the road.

Yuli: 35:43

That's a wonderful message. Thank you, Rachel, so much for sharing your gifts with us and being here and spreading this message. And I hope to stay connected. We're gonna put all your links in in uh in the notes and people can explore your work. And thank you so much again for being here with us. Thank you for being willing to just let me go in and do my thing. That's the best day.