M from grandmothers who whispered in their baby girl in two fathers on dimly lit street corners, instructing young soldiers to always keep their eyes open. You be queen, you were fired. You will pass through centuries on the hands of your daughters. They called you wisdom. Proverbs on the backs of diamond eyed school children who growing into hymnals recited by amethyst holding urban philosophers who recited neighborhood commandments out of the windows of restored Alchemedo chariots to keep the warmth of their blood. Be wise, be smart, being black, opal Brown courts, bloodstone and prayer. Be every form of jim s. King told, scribe, scribe, told son, son, told wife, wife told her daughter, and daughter told asses. And the ancestors told me that you would come to give wisdoms thousands. They said you would come. Dropping Ja Rocking Gem. Welcome back to another episode of the Dropping Gems podcast. I'm your host de Wie Brown, and it's always my intention with this show, as you connect to my voice, as you connect to the things that we are discussing, is to be a soft place to land, to really explore yourself, to excavate the things that are ready to come to the surface and to fill yourself with a new kind of tenderness and a new kind of inner wisdom. So this episode is no different. Uh. And since I've last talked to everybody, there has been a lot unfolding in the world, specifically in America. UM. So I'm really excited to be able to share what I deeply believe our supportive practices that can help us in this exact moment, this exact moment where we may be plowing through our own experiences and experiencing the deep chaos and new traumas that are unfolding within humanity. It's a lot going on right now, everyone. It is a lot going on, And i just want to start off by saying I'm proud of every single person that happens to be listening to this show right now, because if in all the things that are going in so many directions in the greater world, you are finding time to pour into yourself by connecting to this show, connecting to spiritual practice, connecting to your own heart. It takes so much endurance and so much courage and so much curiosity to keep going, specifically to keep going while all so growing your consciousness. So everyone who is connecting to the sound of my voice right now, you are held, and you have a deep strength inside of you that is really growing and manifesting in new ways. You're going to be connected to joy, new ways. You're going to be connected to presents, to peace, to internal cultivation in so many new and expanded ways. And I do know and realize so deeply that it is hard to always have that top of mind, especially when it seems day after day we are assaulted with new information that makes absolutely no sense to a loving heart, to an expanded mind, and it is hard. It is so challenging. So thank you for being here, Thank you for continue you into raise the consciousness of the collective. Thank you for continuing to expand your community and take up space. We need all of us, every single one of you, to continue to do your internal work and your internal cultivation even amidst all of this. None of it is in vain. All of it will allow you to expand, allow you to move forward, allow you to continue to pour into the people in your life and the generations that will come for you in a healthy, mutually supportive way. So I just want to really anchor in that though I may not know all of you, though I may not physically see you in this moment, please know that I see you and I'm just so happy you're here. So I don't know if I introduce myself yet, but y'all know this is my show. I'm Debbie Brown, and my intention for this episode throughout that episode is to really share some practices that we can lock into right now. So I highly recommend, especially with this episode, that as you get connected to it, have a journal nearby, but also find a space where you can have some movement. So some of the practices that I'm going to walk you through will require you to have a little bit of space. UM. You can also listen to this in your car and revisit it later. Just kind of think about what you may want to do as your practice later. But think of expansion. So if you have a yoga mat, maybe sit on that. Um, if you have just some open space in your house, just consider right now, as you're listening to me, take the phone with you, take the speaker with you, and grab a blanket, grab a pillow, maybe grab a yoga block. If you have any massage tools like a trigger point tool, pick that up, grab it, bring it, and take a moment to just get comfortable and be in an area where you feel supported. UM, whether that has people there or it's something you send private and cocoon to just for you, you'll know it's best find that space and then we'll continue the show, so you can even still continue to kind of create a little area for yourself to just, um, be with you. Well, I talk about some things that I'm I'm pretty excited about, so I want to check in something that I realized that I do. For those that follow me on the Graham, you might have noticed this, I don't really remember to post my work. I don't know what that's all about. Um. But more than anything, it's just, you know, the work that I do in my life and in the world, it's the work of the soul. So it's not really work that is about announcements, requiring announcements UM or even that naturally feels like announcements are the things to do, and that's my own thing I'm I'm figuring out. But you know, I do want to really push myself to share more of the things that I work on with everyone in the community that connects to me because I'm very proud of this stuff, and I think that everyone will really enjoy it. So there's a couple of things that have happened recently that I kind of want to put on your radar. The first is I highly recommend this incredible book that is out right now by my brother, Resma Menicum. So many of you might have already heard this episode. It was a powerful episode that I did with him called Healing Black Bodies. Um wow, it was Yeah, it was a powerful episode. So Resuma Menicum is just an absolutely incredible, incredible soul on Earth and he does big, big work. He had his best selling book, My Grandmother's Hands that was released, and he just released his next book, which is called The Quaking of America. What I love so much about this book, and you know, this is someone who is not only so deeply studied and practiced and just so highly intellectual, just has such a zoomed out view of what's happening on the planet, but it's also a psychotherapist and a family therapist and a social worker and someone who has been a leader in the somatic space for decades before many have ever heard of some of these modalities. He had mastered them and was helping so many thousands of people heal, so Resumminican is just he's a national treasure. Highly recommend that everyone follows him and connects to his work. But with this new book, The Quaking of America, which is filled with tangible, somatic practices for you to really get deeply connected to your own body and really be in choice with how you'll move in the world. He had a book launch event that I was a part of inn l A recently and based in Los Angeles, and it was that this incredible space called Hilltop For any that are familiar, Hilltop is a creative of space, delicious food, delicious coffee, amazing environment to work out of uh and there are several locations in l A, but we did it at their first location that they opened in South l A. So this event was hosted by my sister Angela Rye, an incredibly powerful voice, someone that does such big work in the world on behalf of all of us and it's just an extraordinary soul, just an incredible woman. Hosted by Angela and Resma and I both have the opportunity to share some practices with the audience, to speak to his powerful new book and to speak to the things that are happening in the world right now. It was an amazing experience. Um and so I just want to really, you know, for those that are especially connected to right now building out their practices and that want to find ways to really hold on to peace while we seem to be having this never ending cycle of really challenging, sometimes deeply awful news. This book can change your life. It's called The Quaking of America by Resuma Manicum. Highly recommend that every go out and get it. Go out and check it out. The event was amazing. We had a really expansive conversation. I shared some of it on my Instagram for those that follow me at Debbie Brown, So make sure to check that out and also check out that episode that I did with Resuma, and also check out the previous podcast episode that I did with Angela Rye. So that's one and the second thing that I want to share with you guys that has premiered recently that I was working on over the course of this last year is an amazing documentary by Religion of Sports, created and directed by Gotham Chopra. Love the work that they do and I'm a proud um, proud member of that team. I do some work with them and we're working on some exciting stuff that I'll be sharing with you in the future. But this documentary is called The Sessions Draymond Green, and it currently lives on Amazon Prime. You can stream it on Amazon search The Sessions Draymond Green, and it is myself and Deepak Chopra, the Icon, the Legend, my dear friend Deepak, and we are facilitating and guiding NBA champion and Olympic gold medalist Draymond Green through some really powerful mental health exercises, spiritual health exercises, emotional health exercises, and we have this opportunity to shoot this documentary with him and be on this path with him as he was going into this past season, So right before he locked into training camp, we were doing a lot of deep work together and it was just it was really amazing to see how this season unfolded for him and unfolded for the Warriors. Coming into that championship, I was on the edge of my seat. I'm a lifelong Laker fan, so UM I'm always anti Celtics, so it was just so incredible to watch the team UM do what they did and continue to build out that legacy. So this was filmed right before the season locked in, and this powerful documentary really explores through the lens of Draymond, you know, his unique journey, and he learned how to meditate with Deepak and with myself, and something I'm really proud of as a healer is you know, later in this process, and we worked over several weeks together later in the process of this show, as we were exploring, you know, some of his really unique and also very purposeful rage and and and powerful expression that he possesses. We were able to explore that and kind of walk through that and come into a space where, you know, the the intention was to just share are more tools that can continue to support him as someone that has a very high platform and is doing big work in the world and is really just getting started on some of the grander work he does in the world. So one of the things that I was able to work on with Draymond was doing ritualistic practice. And I'm really proud of this. This has not been seen on television before, and you know, I know for the greater mainstream collective who watches this on Amazon, so much might go over everyone's head. But that's part of doing visionary work, and that's something that I am okay with at this point that you know, some of the things that I do, some of the things that I work on. Someone may not get it right now, the mainstream may not get it. But maybe when collective consciousness catches up in ten years, you might see this and be like, what um. But it's an incredible, incredibly powerfully well um beautiful, beautiful, deep and well Being Practices documentary that's available now on Amazon. And you know, as I was saying, one of the things that I'm really proud of this experience was in one of the sessions he and I had together, we explored energy work. And I'm an energy healer and I'm chained in multiple lineages and several different modalities of energy healing. It is one of the most incredible gifts that I'm able to serve with and it's something that I like, love doesn't even cut it, but I'll say that something I absolutely love to do, I am called to do, so proud to do, and I think energy work is something that can really change the world. So in one of our sessions with me and Draymond, I have the chance to on camera do Corona Raiky healing on him, and it was just it was an incredible experience. So this whole process, you know, I think if you get the opportunity to watch this documentary, you're gonna want to. You're gonna walk away with um, so many new tools, so many new shifts in perception, um, and especially for any men listening right now, you know, really being able to see such a strong elite masculine energy, really look to invest in themselves and pour into themselves in this way. UM, it just blows me away. So I am endlessly proud of this gorgeous documentary and you can check it out now, and when you watch it, post about it, tag me in it, shoot me a d M. I would love to hear from you. But again, so this is on Amazon. It premiered, uh just a few days ago, and it is available now to stream now the sessions Draymond Green on Amazon Prime, including myself and including the iconic deepoc Chobra. So I hope you enjoy that, and I hope that you share that with friends as you watch that. So where I want to go now with this episode is I want to talk about how important it is if you're on this journey, if you're connecting to the healing of your own spirit, the healing of your trauma, the expansion of your purpose and your mission here, it is non negotiably important that you build a supportive practice so that you have the endurance for your purpose and also so that you have supportive structure to help you navigate this human experience. There is real chaos in the world happening, and for many of us, you know, you may have already had experiences of trauma in your life, in your personal life and your interpersonal life, and your generational family structure, and then to also now being an experience where the world is chaos. And some of the way that I'm seeing this, you know, one of the things that I'm noticing about the way things are unfolding right now is that there are so many alive on this planet that are already kind of holding it together just by a thread, whatever that means. However that impacts each person. But the pandemic really brought a lot of people closer to themselves, and it really brought into focus, um some pretty big mental health concerns that are in our communities, that are in our households. So with that already happening, and now we're also having these compounded, relentless experiences of seeing dark behavior and a world that has no consequences. I don't quite know where this will take us, and it does sometimes feel scary to think about. You know, you have people, some people have only been not breaking havoc on the world because of perceived consequences. And now you see time and time again, things like January six happen and no one goes to jail, No one is punished for treason. You know, things that used to think we're, you know, back in the day, punishable by death or at bare minimum a life sentence. We're seeing these, these real experiences happen and absolutely no consequences. The greater effect that that has on the rest of the planet is something that I think we need to be in deep observation of and be really committed to our personal safety. Um that, mixed with the fact that everyone is already in a fragile state, we have to be very diligent. We have to keep our eyes open. You have to listen to your gut, you have to be really focused on connecting to your intuition for your own mental health, your own emotional health, and for your own safety. So with all of that going on, and I'm not going to deep dive too much into speaking to the specifics, because none of this is new news for any of us. I don't think it's necessary to have another hot take or to have another unpacking of everything that's wrong. That is very clear, and I'm certain it's very clear to at least everyone listening to this specific show. What I want to talk about is how it is extremely necessary in this moment for all of us to consider how we're showing up for ourselves. This is a lot, and we don't yet know the mental, physical, and emotional effects that living through this moment in time will have on us. So it is incredibly important that we do everything we can right now to sustain ourselves, to support this human experience, to build up our internal worlds, to continue to love ourselves and love our families, and to release these energies and dump our thoughts out on paper and our journals vocalize. We have to move the energy that is now really um culminating within us but getting very stagnant inside of us. We do not want to manifest this moment in time, as more trauma in our bodies that we're going to be trying to fix ten years from now, twenty years from now, thirty years from now. So you know, when we hear in these kind of well being conversations, the importance having a daily practice. The importance of having a daily practice is to sustain and support your human experience in real time. It is to help you clear and release the compounded stresses and traumas that we are each witnessing, observing, experiencing every single day, in addition to all the other stuff that you have been moving through that is happened to you while you've been here. So I just want to say, no, there are no days off, There are no days off, And I want to give everyone ease and grace and the sense that we do the most that we can, and we do the best that we can for everyone. That will be different. If five minutes a day is what you have the ability to do, that is enough, and thank you. If you have the ability to do an hour, to do two hours, to have many moments sprinkled throughout your day that you are supporting yourself, please do that, Please do that. There is nothing more important right now, So there are a couple of specific practices three to be exact, that I think could be really meaningful for every person listening to connect to. One of the first practices is cold therapy. Now, if you're someone who has experienced trauma to your physical body, this could be jarring. So I want you to really you know, if you have um supportive mental health community in your life, you know, run this by them, anyone that knows your unique journey. But cold therapy is an incredibly powerful tool. It helps us regulate our nervous systems. It helps your body repair itself, It helps you slow your heart rate and come into your body and the experience of even being in that deep, deep, deep, deep cold, it teaches us, in some ways ways to have more agency over our bodies, ways to be with your body even in duress, and still expand in what that moment feels like. So there's so much science behind it. Spend time with looking, you know, up all the things. There's many articles. But the way that it helps you regulate your vagus nerves, especially right in the back of your neck and the back of your skull, is where a lot of the power lies. So there's a couple of ways to connect to cult therapy. This is something I try to do at least three times a week, but if I'm in flow or if i feel myself to be really diminished, it's something that will do five times a week. This could be starting or ending your day with a cold shower. Doesn't sound ideal. It's actually not my favorite thing for me personally. The cold shower, the experience of using a shower head for this cold therapy um does not feel the most supportive for me personally. So I like to do cold therapy baths. So the way that you could do that is to fill your tub with cold water, or if it doesn't get too cold but it just stays a kind of like a lukewarm temperature, fill your tub with that, then let it cool completely, and then get an ice bag from the store and put a few ice bags in there. And that's kind of clocking in at a couple of dollars a bag. So if that's possible, go that route. It makes it easier. If that's not possible, use your freezer and pack it with ice. Try to get into a really cold temperature and then allow your body to submerge fully into the water and try to allow the water to rise all the way to the back of your skull. So make sure your faces above water so you can breathe. But imagine that the water as your head is extended backwards and you're laying in the tub, imagine that the water is kind of creating a trace outline around your chin, around your jaw, and all the way to the back of your hairline. So get just a little bit of the back of your hairline wet and hold yourself in that position. Try to do try to get fully submerged as quickly as you can. It gets a little harder if you try to do it slowly, but when you do that, practice as long as this is medically sound for you. So again, I want everyone to know that anything that I share with you on this show, it's from my personal expertise and from my life experience, but I don't necessarily know the mental, emotional, or physical health conditions that each person listening is in. So I want everyone to have agency over their own bodies, and I want everyone to be their own advocate as they explore if this is something that is a fit for them, and maybe it may not be, you are in full choice and sovereignty on making the decisions that are best for you. So if this feels aligned, and if it is possible for you based on your body and experiences, it could be really powerful. Submerge fully in the water as quickly as you can. It's gonna be a shock if you haven't done cold therapy before, if you haven't done cry out before. But focus on your breath and focus on potentially the warmth that may be available in the air and how that feels on your face and try to connect to that sensation. First, I would recommend putting on some meditation music or my favorite, which is selection, to be a companion for this experience, so that you're able to disconnect from the frigid temperature and connect to sound through your ears and how it feels in your body, and then you're able to con neck to with the skin on your face that is not submerged feels like get under the water now. If you can do two minutes, that is amazing. Do two minutes, get out of the bath if you have a bath, and then go get in a warm shower for about a minute, then get back in the bath and try to do a protocol cycle with yourself for three to five times now as someone who has now built up a lot of tolerance to this and my body is really familiar with this practice. I get in the cold water and I try to stay in there for twenty minutes. Sometimes I might stay in there for thirty minutes um and then I get out and I enjoy a warm shower, and I might do that again, or I might do a cycle of one to five minutes at a time, but I'll do it over the course of an hour. If you can do that practice with yourself, honestly, even once a week, but if you can build to a three time a week practice, it absolutely life changing. There. It teaches you so many crevices and spaces outside and inside your own body. It shows you how you can come into a really empowered state with yourself and connect to your breath, control your breath, and it does absolutely wonders for regulating your nervous system so that it's sustained to you through the course of the day, so that you're able to really be in your own choice making, in your own sovereignty as you move through the world, as you are taking in sometimes really challenging, difficult news that is assaulting nous in every moment, from every angle. So that's one practice that I think everybody should look to experience and if you have the means and if it is something that is accessible to you, consider checking out cryotherapy or consider going to a space depending on what city you live in, where they offer cold therapy and you can get into a cold plunge tub and kind of do that outside of the houses and experience. Um where I am in l A, there's many experiences like that, but throughout the country, I've noticed that many have been popping up. So it may take a little research and may take a little googling. And again, whatever facilitators you work with, please be in the power of your own choice and your own intuition to see if it's a right fit for you. Ask many questions, ask for referrals, um, see what's a fit. But that might be a really, really wonderful tool that you can use. So the next piece that I want to speak about, and you may have heard me kind of subtily speaking to this on the podcast. I speak to it on my Instagram quite a bit at Debbie Brown, but working with some deep stretching I try to set aside at least fifteen minutes. Um. I try to do it twice a day as I start my day and in my day. But if I can't do it in the morning as a mom and you know, just working, then this is the way that I in my day every single night getting into an abiyanga massage. Abiyanga is an ir Vedic term and it means self massage or deep stretching. Um. You can kind of look at it through that lens too. I like to do a little bit of both, but being able to really connect to the sensation of your own touch and begin to learn and grow in your body about what areas could use more of your attention and how can you individually meet those needs. How can you relieve tension and stress in your body without having to book a massage appointment or having to rely on a partner you know, Um, having a trigger point tool could be really amazing. And so if you were able at the start of this episode to find a comfortable space to sit in a position to get your body in, I want you to just take a little moment right now to close your eyes and connect to your breath. Maybe take a brief moment to get centered by placing your hand on the center of your chest, right where your heart is, and let's take three deep breaths here if you're joining along in this exercise, in and out through your nose, fully expressed breath. Take another inhale here, and let's do that once more m And now is your body is feeling a little calmer and just more present in this moment, See what it feels like if you reach up with that hand that was on your chest and just begin to really kind of need and massage your own shoulder and just let your body hang there for a moment. And now maybe move that hand from your shoulder down your arm, and just notice anywhere in your body that would like a little more attention, and see if you can meet that kneed yourself. Maybe your knees could use a nice firm pressure. Notice your fingertips and where they go and your body and how that feels, and you know, maybe you require more of a tender touch. Maybe you just want to gently kind of pat or stroke or hold yourself, or maybe you want to give that some pressure pressure and make it more of a massage technique and kind of move your fingers around in a few different directions. Or apply some pressure with the palm of your hand or use your knuckles to really get into a space that maybe you have a knot of tension in your body, and then maybe you allow yourself to stretch your legs out in front of you and to reach forward and to feel that sensation of pull in your calves and in the back of your thighs, stretching out those hands to your toes. And maybe you're lying flat on your back and you let one leg bend the knee bend up, while the other lies flat, and you put that foot over the lake and allow yourself to just kind of stretch your back a little, going in the opposite direction reaching, And if you're following along in this moment, I want you to just notice how that feels, especially if this is not part of your daily practice, if it feels unfamiliar, allow your eyes to stay closed or maybe have a soft gaze. Maybe you let your eyes focus on something in front of you or on the ceiling, and you're just noticing where you uniquely hold tension in your body. And then you're greeting that area of tension with your own hand and with any tenderness in that hand or any pressure that can be used in that hand to offer yourself release, to offer yourself relief. So just notice, see where your hands want to go, see where your attention wants to go. Spend a little time there. Maybe you already have a stretch practice of some kind, so you might even want to add in a couple of yoga postures. Maybe a downward dog could feel really good. Maybe the butterfly pose could feel really good, where you're sitting straight up with a straight spine, and you allow your feet to touch the bottom, the soles of your feet allow them to touch, and then you bring those feet inward and whatever degree that you're able, just notice your body flow with it. A deep stretch practice connecting to some pelvic movement. Maybe that's dance. Maybe that's just letting yourself kind of rock your hips back and forth with your legs spread apart slightly while you're standing that albiana. Your own touch another practice that can really change your life when done every day, and can monumentally change the way you feel in your own body as you go through your day, deepens your connection to yourself, to your spirit, to your dorma. So that's the second practice that I'm hoping everyone will adopt in this moment in time to really be able to support yourself and show up as we are flowing through um what feels like a never ending onslaught of new shocking news. And the third thing that I recommend, And for those that follow me on Instagram, you already know what I'm about to say, but taking a salt bath at least three times a week. This is a daily practice for me. Get a bag of Epps and salts. You can get them in the store. I also love to get them on Amazon really low price on Amazon um and you can get a subscription set up if you're a Prime member and get these bags delivered to you. And when you get the EPSOM salt bag, pour the entire thing in. Sometimes I do three bags of bath um. That's when I really need it. I have no idea what this is doing to my pipes, so listen. I take no responsibility for this, but have some Salt baths are powerful tools. A lot of athletes use that to help kind of heal their bodies um and really release tension and stress. You know, people that work out a lot use that. But it's also a technique that is used as a real spiritual tool within wisdom traditions and spiritual communities, and it's something that helps, you know, on a physical, biological, real world level. They're the salt does wonders for detoxification of your body. Might have a little magnesium in it that helps too, but it also really helps to release unserving energy. That process of the salt of the water, of steeping yourself in it, of being with your own thoughts as you're in it does wonders. It's something that I've done for many years, but especially the last I would say now going on three years. It's something that I do probably three to six times a week, depending on what's going on in life. And it's something I really credit as such a stabilizing force within my life. Um. And it's really kind of built up my ability to just be in my own company, to meet my own needs and to release heavy energy. Um. And I say that as someone that is a single mom that works all day long, and it's also just a human alive right now in all of this. But that's a practice that can change your life. And so you know, when you hear about having a self care practice, having a spiritual practice, it is not meant to be conveyed with some of the lightness or surface nous. I don't know if that's the word that it's connected to UM when it's talked about in the mainstream, it is. It's really something that holds reverence and has depth to it and is meant to help you be the highest version of you possible. So those three techniques are something that I think could be really powerful supportive practices for your humanity in this moment. That's could therapy and whatever way you're able to connect to it safely. That's deep stretching of a younga self massage, pelvic movement, and that's salt baths. So I hope you'll try those on. If you do, dm me let me know how it goes, UM and shout out to everybody that just left reviews. If you get some time today, I would definitely appreciate you going. If you're listening on Apple, give it a five star rating for the show and write a quick review. Takes just a few seconds. I appreciate you so much for taking the time to do that, and I will be back next week. So hit me on the Gram at Debbie Brown and please take care of yourself. Please be really intentional about the way you show up for your mind, for your heart, for your body. At this moment in time, there is nothing more important. You're your top priority. You have to be right now more than ever. All Right, I'm gonna stay. I love you, buy Hey, find me on social Let's connect at Debbie Brown. That's Twitter and Instagram, or go to my website Debbie Brown dot com. And if you're listening to the show on Apple Podcasts, please please please don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe and send this episode to a friend. Dropping Jams is the production of I Heart Radio and The Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jack Please and me Debbie Brown. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

M from grandmothers who whispered in their baby girl in two fathers on dimly lit street corners, instructing young soldiers to always keep their eyes open. You be queen, you were fired. You will pass through centuries on the hands of your daughters. They called you wisdom. Proverbs on the backs of diamond eyed school children who growing into hymnals recited by amethyst holding urban philosophers who recited neighborhood commandments out of the windows of restored Alchemedo chariots to keep the warmth of their blood. Be wise, be smart, being black, opal Brown courts, bloodstone and prayer. Be every form of jim s. King told, scribe, scribe, told son, son, told wife, wife told her daughter, and daughter told asses. And the ancestors told me that you would come to give wisdoms thousands. They said you would come. Dropping Ja Rocking Gem. Welcome back to another episode of the Dropping Gems podcast. I'm your host de Wie Brown, and it's always my intention with this show, as you connect to my voice, as you connect to the things that we are discussing, is to be a soft place to land, to really explore yourself, to excavate the things that are ready to come to the surface and to fill yourself with a new kind of tenderness and a new kind of inner wisdom. So this episode is no different. Uh. And since I've last talked to everybody, there has been a lot unfolding in the world, specifically in America. UM. So I'm really excited to be able to share what I deeply believe our supportive practices that can help us in this exact moment, this exact moment where we may be plowing through our own experiences and experiencing the deep chaos and new traumas that are unfolding within humanity. It's a lot going on right now, everyone. It is a lot going on, And i just want to start off by saying I'm proud of every single person that happens to be listening to this show right now, because if in all the things that are going in so many directions in the greater world, you are finding time to pour into yourself by connecting to this show, connecting to spiritual practice, connecting to your own heart. It takes so much endurance and so much courage and so much curiosity to keep going, specifically to keep going while all so growing your consciousness. So everyone who is connecting to the sound of my voice right now, you are held, and you have a deep strength inside of you that is really growing and manifesting in new ways. You're going to be connected to joy, new ways. You're going to be connected to presents, to peace, to internal cultivation in so many new and expanded ways. And I do know and realize so deeply that it is hard to always have that top of mind, especially when it seems day after day we are assaulted with new information that makes absolutely no sense to a loving heart, to an expanded mind, and it is hard. It is so challenging. So thank you for being here, Thank you for continue you into raise the consciousness of the collective. Thank you for continuing to expand your community and take up space. We need all of us, every single one of you, to continue to do your internal work and your internal cultivation even amidst all of this. None of it is in vain. All of it will allow you to expand, allow you to move forward, allow you to continue to pour into the people in your life and the generations that will come for you in a healthy, mutually supportive way. So I just want to really anchor in that though I may not know all of you, though I may not physically see you in this moment, please know that I see you and I'm just so happy you're here. So I don't know if I introduce myself yet, but y'all know this is my show. I'm Debbie Brown, and my intention for this episode throughout that episode is to really share some practices that we can lock into right now. So I highly recommend, especially with this episode, that as you get connected to it, have a journal nearby, but also find a space where you can have some movement. So some of the practices that I'm going to walk you through will require you to have a little bit of space. UM. You can also listen to this in your car and revisit it later. Just kind of think about what you may want to do as your practice later. But think of expansion. So if you have a yoga mat, maybe sit on that. Um, if you have just some open space in your house, just consider right now, as you're listening to me, take the phone with you, take the speaker with you, and grab a blanket, grab a pillow, maybe grab a yoga block. If you have any massage tools like a trigger point tool, pick that up, grab it, bring it, and take a moment to just get comfortable and be in an area where you feel supported. UM, whether that has people there or it's something you send private and cocoon to just for you, you'll know it's best find that space and then we'll continue the show, so you can even still continue to kind of create a little area for yourself to just, um, be with you. Well, I talk about some things that I'm I'm pretty excited about, so I want to check in something that I realized that I do. For those that follow me on the Graham, you might have noticed this, I don't really remember to post my work. I don't know what that's all about. Um. But more than anything, it's just, you know, the work that I do in my life and in the world, it's the work of the soul. So it's not really work that is about announcements, requiring announcements UM or even that naturally feels like announcements are the things to do, and that's my own thing I'm I'm figuring out. But you know, I do want to really push myself to share more of the things that I work on with everyone in the community that connects to me because I'm very proud of this stuff, and I think that everyone will really enjoy it. So there's a couple of things that have happened recently that I kind of want to put on your radar. The first is I highly recommend this incredible book that is out right now by my brother, Resma Menicum. So many of you might have already heard this episode. It was a powerful episode that I did with him called Healing Black Bodies. Um wow, it was Yeah, it was a powerful episode. So Resuma Menicum is just an absolutely incredible, incredible soul on Earth and he does big, big work. He had his best selling book, My Grandmother's Hands that was released, and he just released his next book, which is called The Quaking of America. What I love so much about this book, and you know, this is someone who is not only so deeply studied and practiced and just so highly intellectual, just has such a zoomed out view of what's happening on the planet, but it's also a psychotherapist and a family therapist and a social worker and someone who has been a leader in the somatic space for decades before many have ever heard of some of these modalities. He had mastered them and was helping so many thousands of people heal, so Resumminican is just he's a national treasure. Highly recommend that everyone follows him and connects to his work. But with this new book, The Quaking of America, which is filled with tangible, somatic practices for you to really get deeply connected to your own body and really be in choice with how you'll move in the world. He had a book launch event that I was a part of inn l A recently and based in Los Angeles, and it was that this incredible space called Hilltop For any that are familiar, Hilltop is a creative of space, delicious food, delicious coffee, amazing environment to work out of uh and there are several locations in l A, but we did it at their first location that they opened in South l A. So this event was hosted by my sister Angela Rye, an incredibly powerful voice, someone that does such big work in the world on behalf of all of us and it's just an extraordinary soul, just an incredible woman. Hosted by Angela and Resma and I both have the opportunity to share some practices with the audience, to speak to his powerful new book and to speak to the things that are happening in the world right now. It was an amazing experience. Um and so I just want to really, you know, for those that are especially connected to right now building out their practices and that want to find ways to really hold on to peace while we seem to be having this never ending cycle of really challenging, sometimes deeply awful news. This book can change your life. It's called The Quaking of America by Resuma Manicum. Highly recommend that every go out and get it. Go out and check it out. The event was amazing. We had a really expansive conversation. I shared some of it on my Instagram for those that follow me at Debbie Brown, So make sure to check that out and also check out that episode that I did with Resuma, and also check out the previous podcast episode that I did with Angela Rye. So that's one and the second thing that I want to share with you guys that has premiered recently that I was working on over the course of this last year is an amazing documentary by Religion of Sports, created and directed by Gotham Chopra. Love the work that they do and I'm a proud um, proud member of that team. I do some work with them and we're working on some exciting stuff that I'll be sharing with you in the future. But this documentary is called The Sessions Draymond Green, and it currently lives on Amazon Prime. You can stream it on Amazon search The Sessions Draymond Green, and it is myself and Deepak Chopra, the Icon, the Legend, my dear friend Deepak, and we are facilitating and guiding NBA champion and Olympic gold medalist Draymond Green through some really powerful mental health exercises, spiritual health exercises, emotional health exercises, and we have this opportunity to shoot this documentary with him and be on this path with him as he was going into this past season, So right before he locked into training camp, we were doing a lot of deep work together and it was just it was really amazing to see how this season unfolded for him and unfolded for the Warriors. Coming into that championship, I was on the edge of my seat. I'm a lifelong Laker fan, so UM I'm always anti Celtics, so it was just so incredible to watch the team UM do what they did and continue to build out that legacy. So this was filmed right before the season locked in, and this powerful documentary really explores through the lens of Draymond, you know, his unique journey, and he learned how to meditate with Deepak and with myself, and something I'm really proud of as a healer is you know, later in this process, and we worked over several weeks together later in the process of this show, as we were exploring, you know, some of his really unique and also very purposeful rage and and and powerful expression that he possesses. We were able to explore that and kind of walk through that and come into a space where, you know, the the intention was to just share are more tools that can continue to support him as someone that has a very high platform and is doing big work in the world and is really just getting started on some of the grander work he does in the world. So one of the things that I was able to work on with Draymond was doing ritualistic practice. And I'm really proud of this. This has not been seen on television before, and you know, I know for the greater mainstream collective who watches this on Amazon, so much might go over everyone's head. But that's part of doing visionary work, and that's something that I am okay with at this point that you know, some of the things that I do, some of the things that I work on. Someone may not get it right now, the mainstream may not get it. But maybe when collective consciousness catches up in ten years, you might see this and be like, what um. But it's an incredible, incredibly powerfully well um beautiful, beautiful, deep and well Being Practices documentary that's available now on Amazon. And you know, as I was saying, one of the things that I'm really proud of this experience was in one of the sessions he and I had together, we explored energy work. And I'm an energy healer and I'm chained in multiple lineages and several different modalities of energy healing. It is one of the most incredible gifts that I'm able to serve with and it's something that I like, love doesn't even cut it, but I'll say that something I absolutely love to do, I am called to do, so proud to do, and I think energy work is something that can really change the world. So in one of our sessions with me and Draymond, I have the chance to on camera do Corona Raiky healing on him, and it was just it was an incredible experience. So this whole process, you know, I think if you get the opportunity to watch this documentary, you're gonna want to. You're gonna walk away with um, so many new tools, so many new shifts in perception, um, and especially for any men listening right now, you know, really being able to see such a strong elite masculine energy, really look to invest in themselves and pour into themselves in this way. UM, it just blows me away. So I am endlessly proud of this gorgeous documentary and you can check it out now, and when you watch it, post about it, tag me in it, shoot me a d M. I would love to hear from you. But again, so this is on Amazon. It premiered, uh just a few days ago, and it is available now to stream now the sessions Draymond Green on Amazon Prime, including myself and including the iconic deepoc Chobra. So I hope you enjoy that, and I hope that you share that with friends as you watch that. So where I want to go now with this episode is I want to talk about how important it is if you're on this journey, if you're connecting to the healing of your own spirit, the healing of your trauma, the expansion of your purpose and your mission here, it is non negotiably important that you build a supportive practice so that you have the endurance for your purpose and also so that you have supportive structure to help you navigate this human experience. There is real chaos in the world happening, and for many of us, you know, you may have already had experiences of trauma in your life, in your personal life and your interpersonal life, and your generational family structure, and then to also now being an experience where the world is chaos. And some of the way that I'm seeing this, you know, one of the things that I'm noticing about the way things are unfolding right now is that there are so many alive on this planet that are already kind of holding it together just by a thread, whatever that means. However that impacts each person. But the pandemic really brought a lot of people closer to themselves, and it really brought into focus, um some pretty big mental health concerns that are in our communities, that are in our households. So with that already happening, and now we're also having these compounded, relentless experiences of seeing dark behavior and a world that has no consequences. I don't quite know where this will take us, and it does sometimes feel scary to think about. You know, you have people, some people have only been not breaking havoc on the world because of perceived consequences. And now you see time and time again, things like January six happen and no one goes to jail, No one is punished for treason. You know, things that used to think we're, you know, back in the day, punishable by death or at bare minimum a life sentence. We're seeing these, these real experiences happen and absolutely no consequences. The greater effect that that has on the rest of the planet is something that I think we need to be in deep observation of and be really committed to our personal safety. Um that, mixed with the fact that everyone is already in a fragile state, we have to be very diligent. We have to keep our eyes open. You have to listen to your gut, you have to be really focused on connecting to your intuition for your own mental health, your own emotional health, and for your own safety. So with all of that going on, and I'm not going to deep dive too much into speaking to the specifics, because none of this is new news for any of us. I don't think it's necessary to have another hot take or to have another unpacking of everything that's wrong. That is very clear, and I'm certain it's very clear to at least everyone listening to this specific show. What I want to talk about is how it is extremely necessary in this moment for all of us to consider how we're showing up for ourselves. This is a lot, and we don't yet know the mental, physical, and emotional effects that living through this moment in time will have on us. So it is incredibly important that we do everything we can right now to sustain ourselves, to support this human experience, to build up our internal worlds, to continue to love ourselves and love our families, and to release these energies and dump our thoughts out on paper and our journals vocalize. We have to move the energy that is now really um culminating within us but getting very stagnant inside of us. We do not want to manifest this moment in time, as more trauma in our bodies that we're going to be trying to fix ten years from now, twenty years from now, thirty years from now. So you know, when we hear in these kind of well being conversations, the importance having a daily practice. The importance of having a daily practice is to sustain and support your human experience in real time. It is to help you clear and release the compounded stresses and traumas that we are each witnessing, observing, experiencing every single day, in addition to all the other stuff that you have been moving through that is happened to you while you've been here. So I just want to say, no, there are no days off, There are no days off, And I want to give everyone ease and grace and the sense that we do the most that we can, and we do the best that we can for everyone. That will be different. If five minutes a day is what you have the ability to do, that is enough, and thank you. If you have the ability to do an hour, to do two hours, to have many moments sprinkled throughout your day that you are supporting yourself, please do that, Please do that. There is nothing more important right now, So there are a couple of specific practices three to be exact, that I think could be really meaningful for every person listening to connect to. One of the first practices is cold therapy. Now, if you're someone who has experienced trauma to your physical body, this could be jarring. So I want you to really you know, if you have um supportive mental health community in your life, you know, run this by them, anyone that knows your unique journey. But cold therapy is an incredibly powerful tool. It helps us regulate our nervous systems. It helps your body repair itself, It helps you slow your heart rate and come into your body and the experience of even being in that deep, deep, deep, deep cold, it teaches us, in some ways ways to have more agency over our bodies, ways to be with your body even in duress, and still expand in what that moment feels like. So there's so much science behind it. Spend time with looking, you know, up all the things. There's many articles. But the way that it helps you regulate your vagus nerves, especially right in the back of your neck and the back of your skull, is where a lot of the power lies. So there's a couple of ways to connect to cult therapy. This is something I try to do at least three times a week, but if I'm in flow or if i feel myself to be really diminished, it's something that will do five times a week. This could be starting or ending your day with a cold shower. Doesn't sound ideal. It's actually not my favorite thing for me personally. The cold shower, the experience of using a shower head for this cold therapy um does not feel the most supportive for me personally. So I like to do cold therapy baths. So the way that you could do that is to fill your tub with cold water, or if it doesn't get too cold but it just stays a kind of like a lukewarm temperature, fill your tub with that, then let it cool completely, and then get an ice bag from the store and put a few ice bags in there. And that's kind of clocking in at a couple of dollars a bag. So if that's possible, go that route. It makes it easier. If that's not possible, use your freezer and pack it with ice. Try to get into a really cold temperature and then allow your body to submerge fully into the water and try to allow the water to rise all the way to the back of your skull. So make sure your faces above water so you can breathe. But imagine that the water as your head is extended backwards and you're laying in the tub, imagine that the water is kind of creating a trace outline around your chin, around your jaw, and all the way to the back of your hairline. So get just a little bit of the back of your hairline wet and hold yourself in that position. Try to do try to get fully submerged as quickly as you can. It gets a little harder if you try to do it slowly, but when you do that, practice as long as this is medically sound for you. So again, I want everyone to know that anything that I share with you on this show, it's from my personal expertise and from my life experience, but I don't necessarily know the mental, emotional, or physical health conditions that each person listening is in. So I want everyone to have agency over their own bodies, and I want everyone to be their own advocate as they explore if this is something that is a fit for them, and maybe it may not be, you are in full choice and sovereignty on making the decisions that are best for you. So if this feels aligned, and if it is possible for you based on your body and experiences, it could be really powerful. Submerge fully in the water as quickly as you can. It's gonna be a shock if you haven't done cold therapy before, if you haven't done cry out before. But focus on your breath and focus on potentially the warmth that may be available in the air and how that feels on your face and try to connect to that sensation. First, I would recommend putting on some meditation music or my favorite, which is selection, to be a companion for this experience, so that you're able to disconnect from the frigid temperature and connect to sound through your ears and how it feels in your body, and then you're able to con neck to with the skin on your face that is not submerged feels like get under the water now. If you can do two minutes, that is amazing. Do two minutes, get out of the bath if you have a bath, and then go get in a warm shower for about a minute, then get back in the bath and try to do a protocol cycle with yourself for three to five times now as someone who has now built up a lot of tolerance to this and my body is really familiar with this practice. I get in the cold water and I try to stay in there for twenty minutes. Sometimes I might stay in there for thirty minutes um and then I get out and I enjoy a warm shower, and I might do that again, or I might do a cycle of one to five minutes at a time, but I'll do it over the course of an hour. If you can do that practice with yourself, honestly, even once a week, but if you can build to a three time a week practice, it absolutely life changing. There. It teaches you so many crevices and spaces outside and inside your own body. It shows you how you can come into a really empowered state with yourself and connect to your breath, control your breath, and it does absolutely wonders for regulating your nervous system so that it's sustained to you through the course of the day, so that you're able to really be in your own choice making, in your own sovereignty as you move through the world, as you are taking in sometimes really challenging, difficult news that is assaulting nous in every moment, from every angle. So that's one practice that I think everybody should look to experience and if you have the means and if it is something that is accessible to you, consider checking out cryotherapy or consider going to a space depending on what city you live in, where they offer cold therapy and you can get into a cold plunge tub and kind of do that outside of the houses and experience. Um where I am in l A, there's many experiences like that, but throughout the country, I've noticed that many have been popping up. So it may take a little research and may take a little googling. And again, whatever facilitators you work with, please be in the power of your own choice and your own intuition to see if it's a right fit for you. Ask many questions, ask for referrals, um, see what's a fit. But that might be a really, really wonderful tool that you can use. So the next piece that I want to speak about, and you may have heard me kind of subtily speaking to this on the podcast. I speak to it on my Instagram quite a bit at Debbie Brown, but working with some deep stretching I try to set aside at least fifteen minutes. Um. I try to do it twice a day as I start my day and in my day. But if I can't do it in the morning as a mom and you know, just working, then this is the way that I in my day every single night getting into an abiyanga massage. Abiyanga is an ir Vedic term and it means self massage or deep stretching. Um. You can kind of look at it through that lens too. I like to do a little bit of both, but being able to really connect to the sensation of your own touch and begin to learn and grow in your body about what areas could use more of your attention and how can you individually meet those needs. How can you relieve tension and stress in your body without having to book a massage appointment or having to rely on a partner you know, Um, having a trigger point tool could be really amazing. And so if you were able at the start of this episode to find a comfortable space to sit in a position to get your body in, I want you to just take a little moment right now to close your eyes and connect to your breath. Maybe take a brief moment to get centered by placing your hand on the center of your chest, right where your heart is, and let's take three deep breaths here if you're joining along in this exercise, in and out through your nose, fully expressed breath. Take another inhale here, and let's do that once more m And now is your body is feeling a little calmer and just more present in this moment, See what it feels like if you reach up with that hand that was on your chest and just begin to really kind of need and massage your own shoulder and just let your body hang there for a moment. And now maybe move that hand from your shoulder down your arm, and just notice anywhere in your body that would like a little more attention, and see if you can meet that kneed yourself. Maybe your knees could use a nice firm pressure. Notice your fingertips and where they go and your body and how that feels, and you know, maybe you require more of a tender touch. Maybe you just want to gently kind of pat or stroke or hold yourself, or maybe you want to give that some pressure pressure and make it more of a massage technique and kind of move your fingers around in a few different directions. Or apply some pressure with the palm of your hand or use your knuckles to really get into a space that maybe you have a knot of tension in your body, and then maybe you allow yourself to stretch your legs out in front of you and to reach forward and to feel that sensation of pull in your calves and in the back of your thighs, stretching out those hands to your toes. And maybe you're lying flat on your back and you let one leg bend the knee bend up, while the other lies flat, and you put that foot over the lake and allow yourself to just kind of stretch your back a little, going in the opposite direction reaching, And if you're following along in this moment, I want you to just notice how that feels, especially if this is not part of your daily practice, if it feels unfamiliar, allow your eyes to stay closed or maybe have a soft gaze. Maybe you let your eyes focus on something in front of you or on the ceiling, and you're just noticing where you uniquely hold tension in your body. And then you're greeting that area of tension with your own hand and with any tenderness in that hand or any pressure that can be used in that hand to offer yourself release, to offer yourself relief. So just notice, see where your hands want to go, see where your attention wants to go. Spend a little time there. Maybe you already have a stretch practice of some kind, so you might even want to add in a couple of yoga postures. Maybe a downward dog could feel really good. Maybe the butterfly pose could feel really good, where you're sitting straight up with a straight spine, and you allow your feet to touch the bottom, the soles of your feet allow them to touch, and then you bring those feet inward and whatever degree that you're able, just notice your body flow with it. A deep stretch practice connecting to some pelvic movement. Maybe that's dance. Maybe that's just letting yourself kind of rock your hips back and forth with your legs spread apart slightly while you're standing that albiana. Your own touch another practice that can really change your life when done every day, and can monumentally change the way you feel in your own body as you go through your day, deepens your connection to yourself, to your spirit, to your dorma. So that's the second practice that I'm hoping everyone will adopt in this moment in time to really be able to support yourself and show up as we are flowing through um what feels like a never ending onslaught of new shocking news. And the third thing that I recommend, And for those that follow me on Instagram, you already know what I'm about to say, but taking a salt bath at least three times a week. This is a daily practice for me. Get a bag of Epps and salts. You can get them in the store. I also love to get them on Amazon really low price on Amazon um and you can get a subscription set up if you're a Prime member and get these bags delivered to you. And when you get the EPSOM salt bag, pour the entire thing in. Sometimes I do three bags of bath um. That's when I really need it. I have no idea what this is doing to my pipes, so listen. I take no responsibility for this, but have some Salt baths are powerful tools. A lot of athletes use that to help kind of heal their bodies um and really release tension and stress. You know, people that work out a lot use that. But it's also a technique that is used as a real spiritual tool within wisdom traditions and spiritual communities, and it's something that helps, you know, on a physical, biological, real world level. They're the salt does wonders for detoxification of your body. Might have a little magnesium in it that helps too, but it also really helps to release unserving energy. That process of the salt of the water, of steeping yourself in it, of being with your own thoughts as you're in it does wonders. It's something that I've done for many years, but especially the last I would say now going on three years. It's something that I do probably three to six times a week, depending on what's going on in life. And it's something I really credit as such a stabilizing force within my life. Um. And it's really kind of built up my ability to just be in my own company, to meet my own needs and to release heavy energy. Um. And I say that as someone that is a single mom that works all day long, and it's also just a human alive right now in all of this. But that's a practice that can change your life. And so you know, when you hear about having a self care practice, having a spiritual practice, it is not meant to be conveyed with some of the lightness or surface nous. I don't know if that's the word that it's connected to UM when it's talked about in the mainstream, it is. It's really something that holds reverence and has depth to it and is meant to help you be the highest version of you possible. So those three techniques are something that I think could be really powerful supportive practices for your humanity in this moment. That's could therapy and whatever way you're able to connect to it safely. That's deep stretching of a younga self massage, pelvic movement, and that's salt baths. So I hope you'll try those on. If you do, dm me let me know how it goes, UM and shout out to everybody that just left reviews. If you get some time today, I would definitely appreciate you going. If you're listening on Apple, give it a five star rating for the show and write a quick review. Takes just a few seconds. I appreciate you so much for taking the time to do that, and I will be back next week. So hit me on the Gram at Debbie Brown and please take care of yourself. Please be really intentional about the way you show up for your mind, for your heart, for your body. At this moment in time, there is nothing more important. You're your top priority. You have to be right now more than ever. All Right, I'm gonna stay. I love you, buy Hey, find me on social Let's connect at Debbie Brown. That's Twitter and Instagram, or go to my website Debbie Brown dot com. And if you're listening to the show on Apple Podcasts, please please please don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe and send this episode to a friend. Dropping Jams is the production of I Heart Radio and The Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jack Please and me Debbie Brown. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.