Ep #162: Your Relationship to Rest with Dr. Kathleen Berg

Kathleen: Right now, the more we can build yin, that is our container. So, that is our container for everything that happens the rest of the year, all of the ideas and the wisdom and the growing that happens in the spring, all of that fire and transformation and creativity that happens in the summer, all that beautiful harvest that happens from that in the fall, you know, really right now is the most powerful time to feed that whole cycle.

And as we talked about before this recording, really how we sleep this time of the year can help how we sleep next year and that cycle just keeps fortifying itself.

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That was a clip from a recent conversation I had with Dr. Kathleen Berg. Dr. Berg is the founder of Vitam Organic Integrative Medicines, an integrative consultant, and a doctor of physical therapy, oftentimes referred to as a unicorn, she is passionate about challenging the status quo around the way we approach and do healthcare in the US.

Dr. Berg, being the brilliant genius unicorn that she is, has also been a member of our Art School and our Art School Mastermind. She is one of our illustrious alum, and in this next round of the mastermind going forward. And when Dr. Berg recently posted on her company’s Instagram page – which we’ll have links for – something so powerful about rest this time of year, I knew I wanted to have her on. It fits in beautifully to this collection of episodes as we approach the winter solstice, the holidays, the new year.

As you will hear her speak so eloquently to, this is a powerful and sacred time of year. As we move into what is the darkest part of the year, the winter solstice in this part of the world, this is the time to leverage what Dr. Berg refers to as our hidden superpower in order to create the container and energize and fuel our creativity, not only for the coming year, but you’re going to hear Dr. Berg talk about how rest this time of year can help you build creativity, health, vitality, and wealth for the rest of your life.

And if that weren’t compelling enough, she also shares so many practical, immediately implementable tips and advice for how to leverage your own superpower.

You are listening to The Art School Podcast; a show for artists and creatives who want to become the next greatest version of themselves. Learn how to cultivate an extraordinary way of being and take the mystery out of making money, and the struggle out of making art. Here is your host, master certified life coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Art School Podcast. Do I ever have a beautiful episode for you today? For some reason, some of you will totally get this because this is out there off the wall and I’m like, they’re my people, they get things like this. I hear from you and you say so.

It feels to me, this episode has the color – it’s like the dark green color of evergreen trees in a white forest. It is verdant, even in a time of cold and dark and winter. It is lush. It’s rich. It’s sacred. And it’s also practical magic. And it just came together like magic to offer this episode, this conversation with Dr. Kathleen Berg in the midst of this other collection of episodes, this theme that I’ve been running, as we move from November and we are in the holiday season, moving towards the new year, moving towards the winter solstice in this hemisphere.

And so, I’m really delighted to be able to share this with you. As you hear me mention in this conversation, the Art School philosophy, the creative functional philosophy of the Art School and the keystone of my work is that it’s by cultivating an extraordinary way of being in mind, body, and spirit that help make our extraordinary results, those extraordinary, beautiful, bold goals and dreams a reality and inevitable.

And today’s episode is precisely on point for this time of year, how tuning into the cycles and rhythms of our own nature, but also the nature of which we are all part, can help us cultivate that extraordinary way of being.

As I mentioned in the episode, too often when people hear me talk about cultivating an extraordinary way of being and making your dreams inevitable, it’s like the mind immediately goes to revving up, “I’m going to have to exhaust myself. It’s going to be tons of massive action.”

I have nothing against action. I’m also just all about offering an elevated conversation, a nuanced conversation, a rich conversation, I think a new paradigm that infuses so much more of the wisdom that is available to us as humans about what actually will help us nurture the divine seed of creativity, our divine visions within us so that they flow inevitably from us.

We are built for that, and so it’s becoming more in touch with how we are built and approaching it from the standpoint not of that we have to extract something impossible from ourselves, but realigning with our divine and sacred nature, which is to flow Creativity with a capital C.

And Dr. Kathleen Berg is such a wonderful person to speak to this, to speak to this holistic approach. And as you heard me mention in the intro, we are also so lucky to have her as one of our beloved Art School alum and Art School Mastermind members for this upcoming round.

The women in this group are all about achieving their extraordinary big and beautiful dreams. I mean, we have people building seven-figure businesses. We have people building great bodies of work, taking their work as an artist to the next level, defining themselves in their careers outside the bounds of permission culture and limitation.

And they are also deeply committed to doing this on their own terms. and so, if this kind of group, magical, brilliant, powerful group sounds amazing to you, one thing that you can plant a seed for already and then rest, build on the wisdom that Dr. Berg offers here and gather our rest up through the rest of the new year is you can apply for the Art School Mastermind.

And we kick off towards the end of January, January 22^nd. But this allows you to steep in the deep nourishment that this yin time of year offers while also knowing that you have already planted the seed for one of the most incredible years ever of your life in 2022 by being a part of this container.

So, if you want to grow, to evolve your work in the world, our creative work, your business, your wealth, your relationships and you want to do this from the inside out, if it’s important to you that every aspect of your work be every bit as soulful and fulfilling but also savvy and sophisticated and effective, then this is the room that you want to be in. If you know you need to be in the room this next year with people thinking big, with people who are ready and willing and so excited to give you permission to not only think big, but to own it and step into your greatness and maybe will also mirror back to you that there is something even bigger for you than you are currently letting yourself realize, than maybe you currently think you are ready for, if that sounds like what you need in 2022, then this is the room and this is the mastermind to be in.

If you’ve been considering learning more and applying and joining us, visit www.leahcb.com/theartschoolmastermind. You can also just go to www.leahcb.com and search underneath, “Work with me.” Go to the mastermind tab and within that page you will find a link to the application. There will also be links to all of this in our show notes. And if you have any other questions, please reach out to us at support@leahcb.com.

So, now, turning into this episode, which again I am so excited to offer. I always love visiting with, having conversations with my Art School alum, masterminders, clients, and I feel that there’s so much that flows organically from these conversations. I try to create a dynamic when doing these interviews that allows that ease, that helps people to tap into their natural brilliance to flow.

So, what happened in this episode was there were times before I thought we were going to start recording and after I thought we were finished recording where Kathy just had things to say and a way of saying them that I thought, “I want everyone to hear this too,” despite it being outside the quote unquote formal beginning and end of the interview. So, I hope you enjoy this very rich conversation and, I mean, Kathy – let me first share with you Kathy’s bio and then talk a little bit about why she is such a magical unicorn.

Dr. Katheen Berg, known to us as Kathy in the Art School, is the founder of Vitam Organic Integrative Medicines, and integrative consultant, and a doctor of physical therapy. She’s oftentimes referred to as a unicorn and she’s passionate about changing the status quo about the way we approach and do healthcare in the US.

So, a little bit about her company Vitam, they are an integrative medicine group. They curate integrative and holistic healing and wellness plans using modern medicines as well as ancient wisdom. They help people become in tune with their own inner nature, energetically and physically, so they can heal and add life to their years.

Their organic integrative medicines include holistic physical therapy and occupational therapy, naturopathic medicine, Chinese medicine and acupuncture, ayurvedic medicine, as well as the powerful medicines of rest, bodywork, and fitness. They serve clients virtually and also have a clinic located in Boise, Idaho.

And let me just add to that, they have an outstandingly gorgeous brand-new clinic located in Boise, Idaho. And I know this because we got an up-close first-row seat seeing Kathy bring this vision of a clinic to life and have seen her share pictures and the evolution. And it is every bit as stunning as their medicine is healing and beautiful and profound.

We will also share links to information that Vitam and Dr. Berg offer as well as all social media links. And I will say, we were joking not joking in the Art School, after experiencing Kathy and having her in the Art School Mastermind, several of our members were joking not joking about how they needed that as a destination.

And that really is the kind of healing practitioner that Kathy is, which is another reason I’m so excited to share her with you. I love all matter of healing arts and I also know that when you find someone who has that X-factor, that is gold. That is gold. And then they get passed around and passed around and they become the best-kept secret and the secret weapon. Well, she’s like the best-kept secret healing practitioner at the Art School and also not so secret now because you know about her.

So, we’ve been talking too, joking not joking about how her clinic is going to become – it is – a destination for healing. But today, you don’t even have to go anywhere. You get to experience Kathy’s healing and her wisdom and her magic through the airwaves, through this podcast episode.

In this conversation, you’ll hear Kathy talk about so many fascinating things that I know will enrich your life in mind, body, and spirit, truly helping you build that extraordinary way of being, truly helping support you in a way that helps to make your dreams and your great creativity inevitable.

She’s talking about the importance not only of rest this time of year, but she also talks about – we touch on the upper limit and how relevant this is to transcending your upper limit, how relevant this is to building wealth in particular, to transcending limitations around income.

I mean, it is a little breathtaking, the information she can access, the expertise, the wisdom that she has and how naturally and fluently and generously she’s able to speak on these topics. So, this is just a taste of what she has to offer. But it, again, is a very enriching, nourishing one and fits in beautifully to our theme in this collection of episodes.

So, before we begin, I’m going to share with you actually a poem that she sent to me in advance of our conversation. And it will set the tone. The poem is by Mary Oliver and it is entitled Sleeping in the Forest.

“I thought the earth remembered me. She took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets, full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the riverbed. Nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts. And they floated light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees. All night, I heard the small kingdoms beathing around me, the insects and the birds who do their work in the darkness. All night, I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling with the luminous doom. By morning, I had vanished at least a dozen times into something better.”

And now, without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with Dr. Kathleen Berg.

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Leah: I have goosebumps. This is going to be so beautiful. It feels like I’m so grateful you sent that poem too because, to me, it just feels like the texture of a forest or something, like that nourishing, it just fits perfectly.

Kathleen: Yeah, I think too, when we pause in the darkness this time of the year, there’s so much magic. I feel that in that poem, kind of like, if you were to imagine the sun has set, you just lie down and watch and listen. There’s just really so much magic in the stillness.

So, to really stop, especially outside on a dark quiet night and just feel it and pull that inward too, like we talked about the fall colors, to really pull in that water element, that darkness, the mist in the air, it is pulling in so much magic too and syncing up with that.

Leah: That is devastatingly gorgeous. And too, I want to highlight the pulling in as not just a metaphor, but you’re speaking, literally thinking of those energies being the mist, like the essence of those, the fall, we’re talking about colors, playing in the essence of those things to feed you. Well, I feel like that was a beautiful place to start recording.

So, I have with me today the wonderful, the radiant Dr. Kathleen Berg, known as Kathy to us in the Art School. I’m so delighted to have you join me.

Kathleen: It’s so nice to talk to you always, thank you.

Leah: Well, so Kathy, I will have on again. She is a wealth of knowledge and I want to have her on as well for an Art School spotlight. But for today’s episode, I have something very special because I recently, just a few days ago, was on Instagram and noticed – I follow Kathy’s company, Vitam, and I noticed some beautiful posts that she had about rest and just sharing her expertise on the importance of rest this time of year.

So, I reached out and asked if she would be up for an interview, a rather impromptu interview having her as a guest expert to talk about rest from her perspective. You’ve heard her bio and so, I will let Kathy take it away from here. We’ve been having a rich conversation before we started recording and I’m really happy to get to share it with you now.

Kathleen: Yes, thank you. So, this time of the year is really a powerful time of the year and a really sacred time of the year in more ways than we might think. So, part of what I do with our clinic is study a lot of different medicines. Some of them more modern and current conventional ones, as well as some of the ancient wisdom.

In the United States, and western culture really, health and wellness and habits, those things don’t change throughout the year. It’s always like, “Get your eight hours of sleep,” you know, they’re pretty consistent. If we look towards some of the more ancient medicines that have been around for much longer and are much more common on the eastern side of the planet, for example Chinese medicine and ayurvedic medicine, right now, how we change our habits throughout the season is integral and how we change what we’re doing, foods, all kinds of things.

So, right now, the really neat thing about right now is we’re going into the winter solstice. That happens on December 21^st. So, we know it’s the darkest day of the year. But it is also the day where there is the most yin. So, yin continues to build from now into December 21^st. When December 21^st comes, yang starts to come back in.

We all know that yin and yang symbol that you see with Chinese medicine. So, I’ll describe what that means a little bit more. But when yang starts to come back in, that’s more the activity and doing. So, as we build yin right now, it’s the most powerful time of the year to rest, to sleep, and to draw our energy not only in but down. So, down is like from the head and in the mind and into the body. In is from projecting and doing to really pulling your energy inward and looking inward. So, instead of looking outward, looking inward. Instead of listening outward, listening inward. Kind of really connecting with the soul.

So, the neat thing about Chinese medicine is it’s really cyclical in nature, where what you’re doing now is feeding the next chapter. So, if we look at this cycle for the year, right now, the more we can build yin, that is our container. So, that is our container for everything that happens the rest of the year, all of the ideas and the wisdom and the growing that happens in the spring, all of that fire and transformation and creativity that happens in the summer, all that beautiful harvest that happens from that in the fall, you know, really right now is the most powerful time to feed that whole cycle.

And as we talked about before this recording, really how we sleep this time of the year can help how we sleep next year and that cycle just keeps fortifying itself.

Leah: That’s what, as I shared with you, I had never heard that before and was also fascinated and excited when I read your post too about these days leading up to the solstice being the most integral or it’s so important that you get the rest you can get and that it does then feed you going into the rest of the year.

It is an idea that challenge sour western mind, way of doing things, which is that we should always be going all the time, more of like an eternal summer approach. And because the work that we do in the Art School is about cultivating that extraordinary way of being, and I don’t know how many times I have conversations though where I realize that someone is not familiar with my work, they assume what I mean by extraordinary way of being is that they are going, productive all the time.

And I am all about being productive and being creative and completely stepping into living your dreams in a way that is healthy and is also a holistic approach. And so, that’s one of the reasons I was so excited to have you on, was to introduce this other way of nurturing incredible, extraordinary ways of being and creativity, that it’s not about burning the fire full blast year-round, but that there are these ancient wisdom traditions that spoke to alignment, being aligned with nature and understanding the rhythms.

Because a lot of times, so much burnout we experience, or even frustration, even before the burnout can happen because we just don’t have the energy, the resources within us to take our idea, we don’t have the yang then, or we never were receptive enough to receive the idea, and then therefore we don’t have anything new or original or we don’t have the energy at our disposal to make it happen.

And I find your philosophy and your approach to be so important and this message around rest too to be so important. Because people can get scared about resting, that somehow they are not going to be as creative as they want to be, or they won’t then be able to fulfill their goals and their dreams. Can you speak to that fear at all, or what you’ve seen in your experience?

Kathleen: Yeah, I think we see, in terms of productivity and success in this western culture, we see that more is better. We see getting up at 5Am or whatever it is, there’s so many shoulds. But I really think we have this hidden superpower where this fall, when the energy is the harvest, so we think about, what did we make happen this spring and summer? How was life? What actions did we take?

So, as we harvest all of that in the fall or around Thanksgiving, that’s kind of the transition, like you can really come within, think about the year, journal about that, different things, and then not really force ideas to come for the next year, but know that they’re going to come, and then kind of get – can I swear a little bit?

Leah: Yes. Don’t filter.

Kathleen: You know, a different approach is, “I have ideas for next year. Shit’s about to get real. I am going to rest like a badass. And this is the time of year to do it.”

So, you can really feel like you’re being super successful and strategic and you have a hidden superpower because, when you feel tired at eight, you actually went to bed. Or even if you felt tired at seven, you actually just were like, “Yeah, I hear that. And that’s medicine, and I’m going to take it.

Leah: I love that. And it’s medicine. You don’t need a disease that has happened. I love how you framed it as a superpower and a strategy too, actually setting yourself up for success. And I love the long term connected view too and the care for the future self, that what you are doing now, how you are resting now is so integral to supporting what you want to be able to ideate or give birth to in the spring and summer and then harvest I the fall. But also, as you were saying earlier, the rest this year that is cumulative, then it allows you to rest more. Would you say more effectively or more in a way that nourishes you? How would you phrase that?

Kathleen: I think, as the cycle works its way through, each year can build upon the year before. So, we might think about the transformation of creating art. That’s more like the fire element, taking an idea and catalyzing it into form. So, we can think about each year, as we practice that, it feeds the next year.

So, on the flipside of fire is water. And each year, as we really feed the yin and the rest and the darkness and the coolness and going within, some of that is our container. We just really fill our container. That whole cycle leads to a bigger harvest, which leads to better rest really when it’s required the next year.

You can also think of it as a crop. We can really learn from the farmers. You know, they really till the soil so that everything under it gets to the surface and then it rests. It rests for the winter. But the more fertile the ground, the better harvest next year.

Leah: Right, and rest is part of allowing that. Well, I mean, being a farm kid, the word fallow is such a beautiful word poetically to me. But you have to let the ground lay fallow for a while, which is essentially rest, so that those nutrients have a while to steep in the soil, that you’re not always just extracting the energy and the life force from the soil, but giving it a chance to rest and replenish so that you can have a harvest eventually.

Kathleen: Yeah, absolutely. And the interesting thing about this time of the year being a really full yin time of the year is, if you think about yang, that’s that projective action, doing, and it has to be balanced. It has to be balanced with the yin.

So, yin is receiving. So, oftentimes, in this yin time of the year, it’s really switching that direction to pulling inward and receiving, receiving, receiving, rest being one of the things, but also ideas and nourishment and touch and beautiful sounds and beautiful scenes, all of those things beyond just rest and sleep can really fill our container, just really optimize our yin, which does optimize our health. In Chinese medicine, this is associated with health of different organs. So it goes much more in depth.

Leah: I’m going to skip ahead just a little bit and then come back to a few things. But when you were talking about pulling the energy inward, it reminded me of some tips you were going to share. And maybe if you could speak a little bit more, I just love hearing you say it over and over. So, I know other people will too. But also, for someone who has never heard of this possibility or this concept before of pulling the essence or energy inward, I think oftentimes we’re told to stop and be present and appreciate things. But the way that you are offering it, it’s so beautiful and magical about you’re stopping to be present, and then what’s actually available to us is to draw things in and down.

So, can you speak to maybe what some of those things might be specifically? Because I know you shared a wealth of information when you did the workshop for the Art School. And I have been doing all those things, got my spices all set up. But can you share with the audience a few tips of what things they could draw inward, what might be scenes or scenarios?

Kathleen: Sure. So, like I mentioned to you before, this time of the year, there is so much magic in the air, in the stillness and in the darkness and in the coolness. So, we know regular things of drawing energy in, like yoga is really good for this, especially restorative. Lying on the ground and just having pressure on your body if you don’t know yoga is also great.

So, just getting that pressure on the body, doing a little spinal twist on the ground, doing some stretching, that is really good. But anyway, we know that meditation is a great way. You’re just sitting on the mat or sitting in a chair and meditating is really helpful to draw energy in.

But beyond that, I think the magic, just stepping outside into a dark, cool, misty night where it’s quiet, I think we often feel this around the holidays, like little moments of it. And that’s what makes it so magical, walking to the car after the gathering or something like that. You’re like, “What is it?”

And if you stop to really not only notice that, but welcome it and breathe it in, breathe it into your belly, breathe it into your whole body and into your heart, it’s just like the fall colors in the autumn. You breathe that in and you’re kind of storing warmth, that gift of warmth that’s out there.

And you breathe in this magic at this time of the year, and the darkness and the stillness, and you’re really breathing in that gift of hope and peace and contentment that’s really quite primal if you think about it. This used to be a pretty scary time of the year, like, “Here we go. Are we going to make it to the spring?” Like we have our food stored, whatever it is.

So, there is that really strong and beautiful essence of magic that we can take in that gives our soul, in our knowing, that it’s going to be okay, and there’s stillness and there’s peace and there’s contentment. It’s really beautiful to take all of that in.

Leah: I love that. And I love being able to just have this conversation and acknowledge that for what it is, for being sacred and for being a real energy that can nourish you and that you can draw in.

I think one of my favorite memories of this time of year as a child is it’s always dark so early, but as you said, leaving gatherings, whether it was a school band concert or something, and then driving home in the car with my family and we lived in, you know, the middle of nowhere Northern Iowa where it’s flat, but there are so many stars at night.

And I was just telling my kids about this the other night, that I loved, like when it snowed and everything would be blue, like dark blue, the sky was dark blue, the snow would be blue, and there were stars out, there was a particular energy. And I can feel it right now even thinking about it. So, I love to – usually, the person who had to go shut up the chickens at night at our house, usually that’s the short end of the straw. But in the winter, I don’t actually mind because it does feel primal.

There is something about a deep – maybe it is peace. There is something deep to be had, being out in the cold and the quiet of the night and looking up and seeing stars. It’s a unique experience.

Kathleen: Yes, absolutely. You know, if you want me to speak on more tips, like knowing that one of the most powerful medicines we have this time of the year to fuel the year ahead is sleep and rest and stillness and drawing energy in, I can give a few more tangibles if you’d like.

So, if we think about foods like more warming and moist foods are better. You know, similarly with spices, wherever we can add in the warming spices. So, cinnamon, cardamum, ginger, clove, we innately do that with some of our recipes this time of the year. And then the opposite, maybe taking out any cool foods or cool fluids, you know, really keeping everything warm is good.

To help with sleep, this is the season, in ayurvedic medicine, where we really want to nourish the Vata senses, which is our sense of touch, and our sense of sound. Sleep hygiene can be really important, wearing earplugs, having a pitch-black room, so dark curtains, that becomes really important.

Getting nourishing sense of touch, you know, scheduling a massage or some bodywork can be super helpful. So, there’s a lot of different kinds of body work that can really help draw the energy in and soothe that, treat and nourish that sensation need. And then acupuncture too has different herbs that can really help and treatments that can help pull.

So, scheduling a session with somebody you know can be really helpful. And then, there’s different things like chamomile tea can be really helpful at night, even up to two hours before somebody’s worried about, “Well, I’m not going to wake up and have to pee, but put two chamomile bags in a little bit of water right before bed or an hour before or so, so you have time to let the water part of that go through with that medicine. That plant medicine will stay in the body longer.

So, really creating that yin, that container, sanctuary for yourself, that’s really helpful. And then things get busy throughout the day. And I think we can even just shift where our energy is going, like while we’re in the car. So, if we’re in the car and our energy’s going out, we’re like, “What’s over there?” What’s over that? What’s over there?” you really switch that to taking in the beauty and the lighting.

If you see the clouds while you’re driving, if you pull over because the sun is shining on your face and your chest and it feels so good and you sip a coffee and you listen to a beautiful song, or just listen to the peace in the car, even give minutes of deep breathing and pulling in that moment can really feed that yin.

Leah: If someone is not familiar with yin or yang, do you have some touchpoints or things you can share with them about how to become more familiar with that in their own experience, in their own body?

Kathleen: Yes, so most of us are familiar with the yin and the yang sign. So yin, they balance each other and feed each other. And ideal health is a balance of the two within all of us. Yang, we give an analogy of a cell. Dr. [inaudible] who works here gave me this analogy. But we think of a cell, like the container of the cell, like the cytoplasm, the cell wall, that’s the yin. It really holds all of the organelles, the mitochondria, that’s the yang, all of the things that do the work within the cell. But they have to have that container, otherwise there’s nowhere to do the work.

So, within the body, yin is darkness, coolness, the sacred feminine. It’s receiving, it’s the moon. It’s coming within and resting. It’s our container, really the form that holds space for life.

Yang is projection. It’s work. It’s transformation. It’s light. It’s warmth. It’s the sacred masculine. It’s the sun. It’s that activity and doing. So, certainly throughout our days and our nights, we can notice being in – we’re talking about this big yearly cycle. But even there’s a cycle within a 24-hour day where we can really optimize yin and feel it transitioning into yang.

Leah: I love thinking about that too in terms of our creative process, as you said, it takes both the sacred feminine and the sacred masculine, it takes both of those parts together to optimize health. And I think that’s true too for a very healthy creative process and thinking about, I mean, not only metaphorically what that looks like, because I think you gave so many beautiful physical – I think that’s an important connection to make for this conversation too, that there’s metaphor.

But then there’s this body aspect. There’s this part that we are also like a creature, in this world we are of nature, we have a nature, and to honor that aspect of our creative process as well and nourish that and understand that. And I think that is a gamechanger for creativity, but life-changing for the whole human.

Kathleen: Absolutely, yeah.

Leah: I love another thing about your approach. You address how there can be a lot of shoulds and people can feel maybe overwhelmed or you start to feel – I mean, this is about being healthy, and you start to feel there are so many shoulds. Can you speak to that?

Kathleen: Yeah, I mean I’ve studied health and wellness and love it, you know, for many decades, many degrees, as we’ve talked about. And there’s so much accessible knowledge now that I think we always have to balance the tips and the wisdom we get with, you know – I love the saying, “Don’t should on yourself.” Like, I should be doing this and I should be doing that and I shouldn’t be doing this.

That, I think, we have to be really careful to be like, “Okay, here are some really good tips. And I’m going to balance that with my life and be really strategic. But I think, you know, if you’re told you should go to bed at eight every night, it’s really easy to feel like, “Well, I suck at this. Night one, I, for some reason, woke up five times when I decided I was going to sleep better.”

So, yeah, I think just being really careful with the shoulds and really kind of viewing it as investments you can try to make throughout a minute, an hour, a day, a night, sort of on your own terms and for your own fortification.

Leah: And so too, as you mentioned, you’ve been studying this area of health and wellness, many areas within it, for decades. And there’s also just a plethora of information now available to people who haven’t, that it can be overwhelming to try to decipher hat’s legitimate, “Where should I be looking?” Should… again. There’s just a lot out there to, like, have to filter through when you have a whole rest of your life going on. And so, it’s one of the many reasons I felt like we were so fortunate and lucky to have you in the Art School, and then share your wisdom with everyone so generously. Because Dr. Berg did a workshop for us on tending to the inner creative fire.

Kathleen: So fun.

Leah: It was so fun. And it’s also such a relief because it’s the whole, “Oh, the know, like, and trust, you’re already vetted?” And I know too, when looking for, whether it’s a traditional healthcare practitioner or whether it’s an integrative medicine or alternative approach, part of it is like connection with the practitioner too, whether they’re giving you resources or whether they’re giving you actually hands-on healing or care.

And so, that’s another reason I feel like we are so lucky to have you. And then, I’m also again grateful to share you with this audience because, like, we’ve already found her, she’s already vetted. And too, part of what you’re doing now with your work is addressing that that is something that people face, like a lot of information, not knowing where to start, and maybe they’re not as familiar with – maybe they’re familiar with western medicine, but want to see what else is available to them. Can you share a little bit about some of the resources that your clinic offers to help people in that area?

Kathleen: Yes, so, you know, I’m a doctor of physical therapy, and so I’m more trained, traditionally, in the western side. But I get to work with these amazing doctors and clinicians that are more trained in the eastern side, so ayurvedic medicine and Chinese medicine, like I spoke about, some different forms of healing and body work. And then we’re really holistic in our western perspective, naturopathic medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy, really powerful things you can take advantage of in a holistic way.

So, some resources that we have are more traditional. Like, if you’re in Boise, come into the clinic. If you’re not in Boise, there are some helpful – I’m starting to put blog posts up. So, every season, and then a special topic every month. So, this month is sleep and rest.

In the coming week, we’ll be releasing some – or next week, we’ll be releasing some videos that you can purchase. That’s me interviewing all of our practitioners. So, say a naturopathic physician, for example, if you want to optimize your sleep and your rest and you’re thinking about who can I see, you can watch a video of me interviewing them, save a ton of time and money, learn about what a visit with a naturopathic physician might look like that other modalities wouldn’t look at. What are some common things that they see all the time that affect people’s sleep?

You’ll get a lot of really solid tips in those videos too. And then certainly we’ll do virtual consultations as well. So, I do a lot of the consultations that help people just know, of all these alternative and complementary and even western medicines, which ones do I start with?

So, I’ll kind of help people know which ones to start with, and then we can do virtual consultations too if ayurvedic medicine seems to be a really solid start. I think we talked about, in the Art School, we talked more about ayurveda with the creative fire and, and now being the season of Vata, which is air, space, wind, and how if that gets too high, it’s really hard on the fire. It either blows it out, or it just flickers and it can barely stay going, or it flares up. So, anyway, we talked about that in the fall. But yes, people can certainly do an online consultation.

Leah: Something you said just a few seconds ago too reminded me, when you said, “Helping people decide what consultation they might need saves time and money.” But that was also a conversation you and I were having around the importance of rest.

I think more and more people are coming around to the idea that rest is important. And for anyone though that’s still like, “No, if I sleep it’s costing. Time’s wasting. I’m burning time and money while I sleep.” I tend to think differently.

I know that the more rested I am, the better I do. And always I’ve seen that bear out in my bottom line financially, but as well as energetically everywhere in life. But can you speak to that rest saving money and time?

Kathleen: Yes, you know, I think in the Art School and in some podcasts, you really talk about our upper limit and thinking big. And I think this is one of those places too where we really can step into thinking big and past our upper limit. Like, our upper limit might tell us, “Nope, nope, nope, you’re not there yet, keep doing, keep doing, keep doing.” And so, we’re kind of in this responsive mode, you know, if we’re staying under that barrier.

If we go above that barrier, we can really step into our power as a wealthy investor. So, I am strategically investing and cultivating wealth. Which is a completely total flip on, “I’m a lazy, no fun, antisocial slob…”

Leah: Yeah, “I am a savvy, sophisticated, wealthy, wise investor and this is me being a steward and growing my investments exponentially.” I think deep rest does help move your system, shift your system into a state that is necessary to experience what it’s like to get out of fight or flight. And I think one symptom financially of being in fight or flight – I mean it does show up financially in things like never quite get ahead, paycheck to paycheck, always a little short or burning through money, all of those symptoms that we experience physically when we are exhausted or burning out our adrenals manifest financially versus the beautiful energy, the paradigm you just presented with, “I am a wealthy, strategic, wise investor, a steward of my gifts and energy.” And I think too, taking that long term, like what I am doing now is going to produce great abundance.

Kathleen: Absolutely. I think this has come up before, but the picture I’m getting into my head is that old Cinderella cartoon where the Fairy Godmother swings her magic wand in the darkness and there’s tars, and it’s kind of that, really stepping from within and being within and running around, like within the container of our life, to stepping outside of it and being the magician of it.

Leah: Ooh…

Kathleen: I don’t know, what’s the ball? A crystal ball…

Leah: Yeah.

Kathleen: Like the crystal ball of our life, stepping outside of that and putting ourself into that, like, really, really wise, a strategic state, yes. And then just a talk on wealth really quick, we talked more today on Chinese medicine, but in ayurvedic medicine, this is Vata time of the year, which means Vata can go out of balance easier. Vata is air and space. Air and space is windy, you know.

So, if Vata gets a little bit too high, everything in our mood, our body, even our finances gets windy. So, oftentimes, if we’re not really good at taming Vata with lots of stillness, you think about wind, it’s so dynamic. But the opposite of that is routine, stability, you know, stillness, drawing within. But we see with elevated – we say in ayurvedic medicine, one of the signs is money comes in and it goes right out. even our bank accounts will be windy.

Leah: Say no to that. I’ve got the image of those old westerns, you know, with the tumbleweeds blowing through…

Kathleen: Yeah, by unique constitution, I know Vata, so yes, that happens.

Leah: Gosh, even just that one word, constitution, that was like a word that you brought up during our workshop in the Art School. And that, I know, was revelatory for a lot of people to think about, “Oh, my constitution,” and like understanding your constitution, how empowering that is, and that it’s not like a good or bad, a right or wrong, a better or a worse. It’s just being in touch with your nature.

And there is such a great relief in that. Because part of it feels like a remembering, this sacred acknowledgment of, “Oh, this is how I am built,” And not as in, “Oh, well then that’s a life sentence.” But it’s like, “No, if you are attuned to how you are built, it is empowering. It does put you back into that perspective you were talking about of not being trapped in the crystal ball, but sitting outside of it and feeling like that you’re the magician, you’re the wizard, you hold the wand, rather than if you don’t know your constitution or that there is such a thing, even just a little flip like that, I feel like, can really change things for people.

Like, “Oh, I have a constitution…” and just being, again, curiosity is the companion to liberation and breakthrough and freedom. Curiosity is a companion to genius. But when you said that, it just reminded me of all of those a-ha epiphanies that people had.

Kathleen: Yeah, that’s another thing here that can be really confusing in our culture is we’re kind of taught like we’re a homo sapiens, like a human being, and all of our health recommendations should be the same. Whereas in eastern medicine, that’s very different. We all have a very unique constitution.

We know that. We could probably think of somebody who is that, like Kapha, that earth water element. Nothing really ruffles their feathers. They usually have fuller features, fuller bodies, really beautiful eyes and lips. They move a little bit slower through the day. But they might be more prone to much Kapha or going into depression or a lot of fatigue or just lowness. Whereas some people are fire. You’re just like, how do they do that? They’re constantly transforming, transforming.

Like, you tell them one thing, you know they’re going to have results back to you before you could have expected. How do they do that? They’re just on fire. Some people are fire. And their recommendations for medicine and health and life are really very different because their fire can go too high, which causes a hist of imbalances, which in eastern medicine are the root of discomfort or dis-ease of a lot of different kinds.

So, I think that being curious about our unique constitution and learning our unique medicines that we need with cell shifts that keep our energy optimal is so valuable.

Leah: I mean, I could talk to you for hours and days. Right now, I’m going to stop myself because there are other places that I want to go, talking about knowing your constitution and what that means for your creative process. And also, the conversation that I want to have sometime too about just the perspective of knowing your constitution and your constitution, there’s ways you can thrive.

When you said about, we’re kind of taught we’re all homo sapiens, like we all came off some conveyor belt line and eventually our parts break down. But that we’re actually built to thrive and built to be healthy and knowing just a little bit about, like, know thyself, understanding more about ourselves. And there’s this wealth of knowledge that you have too. I think that’s so empowering and it can change people’s health. It can change their wealth. It can change their ability to connect to and reignite love and joy for the work that they do. So, I’m going to have to have you back.

Kathleen: I would love to. Yeah, for sure.

Leah: And thank you so much Kathy. This has been delightful.

Kathleen: Yes, thank you. Thank you. My wish is that all of the energy comes within and down and there’s much magic in the sweetest dreams.

Leah: Thank you for that.

Kathleen: You’re welcome.

Leah: I feel like too, I mean, you share your knowledge of medicine and you are medicine. So, thank you, Kathy.

Kathleen: You’re welcome.

Leah: It’s sharing your energetic medicine over the airwaves. I’m so happy to be able to do that.

Kathleen: Yeah. I think you said this airs on Thursday…

Leah: Next Thursday, yeah.

Kathleen: So, in your intro, one thing I didn’t talk about was yin still stays really high. So, right now is so powerful because the nature is saying, “Go within, go within, go within, go within and power the solstice.” But that importance of rest goes far beyond. Rest is, and yin is, still really dominant until the equinox.

Leah: Well, excellent. So, that’s just going to be an outtake that I include right there, behind the scenes, unedited. Because it’s so much better coming from you, so thank you for the bonus.

Kathleen: You’re welcome.

—

And so, this brings me to the part of the podcast where I want you to do more than just listen. I want you to lean in really work with me, coach with me. So, where I want to begin with this work with me, this coach with me, is to invite you to reflect on your own relationship and rituals and habits and rhythms around rest. And to take into account this time of year, no matter where in the world that you find yourself, and consider what Kathy has shared about the cyclical nature of rest and rhythms, and also our creative process. And if maybe some things that you have always been really married to, that you’re ready to reevaluate that.

I know, you know, I still love the early, early morning. But in this season of my life, I have taken to sleeping – I used to love to get up at 4:00 or 4:30. And now that is pretty rare. Most days, it’s like 5:30 or 6:00. But even this morning, I woke up at 6:45 and that still gave me time to get the kids ready for school.

And part of the reason for that is just personally checking in. When I checked in with myself and things I was experiencing, the simple answer of rest more, sleep more was the message that I received. And so, I did have to reevaluate how married my mind was to, “No, I must get up early or else I’ll be behind.” And to really challenge that and to uncover what is true for me.

As Kathy said, this is not about shoulds, shoulding on yourself, looking to someone else’s miracle morning routine who rises at 3:30 as the way you need to do something, or even looking to someone else’s miracle morning routine.

I mean, I have a dear friend who is very successful and a magical human being who wakes up at 9:00 and kind of putters around, does her thing until about 12:00 or 1:00. And that’s usually when she starts to work, and it really works for her. She’s incredibly successful and on her own terms.

So, this really is an invitation for you to consider your relationship to rest and to consider those things that maybe those places where you’ve always been married to one idea of that it has to be like this all of the time, rather than giving yourself the space and the freedom to explore what actually works for you.

Because here’s the thing. I think when we become more in touch – not I think. I know – when we are more in touch with our own nature, we are more in touch with nature. And sometimes, many times, our mind can have been so conditioned to what should work that we have fallen out of touch with what does work, with what is actually best for us in cultivating that extraordinary way of being.

Whereas in nature, you know, that kind of conditioning don’t fly. Because there can be the greatest idea – you could tell someone in nature, you could tell a bear, “Hey eight hours of sleep should do it for you every night. Get a regular eight hours.” But to the bear, that would never work. They’re meant to hibernate all winter.

So, nature isn’t about some kind of concept or theory or ideas. And nature is about what actually works. Because if it doesn’t work, you don’t live for very long. And yet, what we have going on is a disassociation from nature, from our own nature. And I think this time of year is a beautiful invitation to reconnect with that and that rest is an amazing pathway in and also, as Kathy said, a medicine and a superpower.

Also, when considering this, rest is not only about sleep. So, thinking about the other ways in your life where you have a relationship or not with rest. I know that my own relationship has evolved so much in terms of I used to have to finish everything until it was done and then I would add on five or six more things because I had hours left in the day. Whereas now, I am a lot less scared and I’ve been doing this. So, again, because of nature, I know it works.

I know that if I tune in, I can sense where there is energy. I can sense where I have that string yin container and that I will have the yang to make it happen. But then, I can also sense when I go too far overboard into yang, and trust me, it’s taken many burnouts on physical, emotional, spiritual mental to figure this out, that I can feel it in my body. I do know where those lines are.

And then, it is really so much about trusting, about settling into this other wisdom available to us that is not just the intellectual, the ideas, the conditioning that says, “You must go or you’re never going to amount to anything, or you’re going to be left behind.” And instead, to realign yourself with your own deepest nature, and from that place, really experience a very natural strength running through you once again.

You know, and a word to those people who are afraid that this will make them weak or that this is some sort of resignation. Oh, my friends, it is not. There is a ferocity, an almost primal seemingly supernatural level of strength and creativity and I want to say make-it-happen, but it’s not so forced as that, that is available to you.

It takes a massive amount of badassery to settle into a way of being like this. And so, I really get and have a lot of compassion for stepping off the treadmill where you’re continually fueled by fear, by fear of failing, by fear of disappointing someone on the outside or disappointing yourself, and that you think that’s the only thing that gets you going and wakes you up in the morning and makes things happen and makes the money go in.

And if that’s where you are, that’s fine. And yet, you might also be hearing this episode for a reason and just tuck it in somewhere else. But if you are tired of that and literally and metaphorically, and you have a sense that achieving at that level is actually just a fraction of you expressing your potential, then I would strongly encourage you to explore, rest from a very extraordinary angle. Explore it as both a portal and a pathway, aligning you with a different level of consciousness and that steeping in the energy of that can help you create something far richer, something far more profound, far greater than what you have allowed yourself to be able to imagine from a place where you are just accustomed to tolerating fight, flight survival and exhaustion as your way of being.

I’d invite you to consider and contemplate and explore how taking a sacred approach to your relationship with rest is not only a good idea for cultivating an extraordinary way of being and making those results inevitable, but it is an integral, vital part for really extraordinary vitality, an extraordinary life, extraordinary creativity.

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of The Art School Podcast. If you have enjoyed these episodes and they’ve been useful to you, I am so grateful to have you listening. And I would also love to ask for your help. I’m going to ask you for a big favor.

If you could please help me reach my goal, my intention of a million downloads, I would love that. And here are some ways you can do that. You can subscribe. You can go to iTunes and leave a review. That is huge. You can also share this podcast, any episodes, with friends, and also on social media. And if you do share it on social media, I’d love to connect with you there.

I am @leahcb1 on Instagram and you can mention me in your posts. You can #theartschool, #theartschoolpodcast so I can find and connect with you and give you a shoutout and reshare and we can continue to network and connect with this larger Art School global audience.

If you want to connect with me on a personal level, if you want to take this work deeper and learn more about working with me, you can do so by going to my website, www.leahcb.com and, as I mentioned earlier in the episode, it is mid December 2021 as I am recording this. And we are currently accepting applications and already enrolling members for the Art School Mastermind 2022.

So, whatever it is that you are thinking of doing in the Art School Mastermind, it is going to happen. That’s how high the energy. That’s how powerful the coaching. That’s how next-level this community.

The next round begins January 18^th 2022. I think I misspoke before when I said the 22^nd. It’s actually the 18^th. And to sum up this experience, it will be pure and simple, you doing your best work ever and being more fulfilled, happier, healthier, and wealthier in the process.

I mentioned earlier in this podcast that this is a room, this is a mastermind of big thinkers who will give you permission to think big and also maybe help you see the places where you’re not yet thinking big enough and help you really step into those places so that it’s not just a pipe dream, it’s who you are.

And that is the energy, that’s the chemistry of the group, and it begins with my own intention and with the way that I live and approach my life, and then how I set up this creative ecosystem for other people to really soar and transcend upper limits.

So, this is not a group helping you wrestle with, “Can I do this? Should I do this?” This is a group for people who are not tentative, who are committed and are ready to step into their power and declare, “I am doing this.” Whether that this is taking their six-figure business to seven and beyond, whether that this is publishing with the publisher of their dreams, landing the book deal of their dreams for their amazing YA fantasy novels, whether their this is going to the premier for their own play on Broadway, that’s the kind of work we’re doing.

I’ve talked before about the PEGOT approach and legacy to this work, Pulitzer, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony. And it’s not only about the literal, although it also is, physical achievements that those kind of awards represent. But they are really reflections of how seriously we are taking ourselves as artists, how profoundly. And also, I will say, inviting us to a greater level of rest and play and joy in our lives in order to really be examples of what’s possible for achieving our dreams and doing it on our own terms.

So, again, if you would like to apply to learn more, you can do so by visiting my website. You will also find testimonials there and we’re always adding more. And I’d also like to share with you part of a testimonial I recently received from the incredible, the brilliant, the you-will-be-seeing-her-name-all-over-the-place-someday Shannon Horne, who was a member of the last round of the Art School and who has already been accepted to this next round of the Art School Mastermind.

Part of what she sent, which blew me away even though I know this is the work that I do, I was like, “Oh my gosh, can I read that aloud on the air?” Oh yes, I can because I will also be an example of owning and celebrating when you’ve got some epicness to own and celebrate.

Part of what she wrote, “So, the Art School Mastermind was the most magical experience I have ever had.” And then she goes on to say, “This lovely group of brilliant, warm-hearted, fun, funny, kind star lights fills me up like I’ve never been. Being part of this group, knowing I have worked on my own stuff enough to be part of this group was so miraculously validating again and again. And the friends I’ve made, priceless. Leah is magic personified with a heart of gold and a mind like a trap and the wizardry of knowing just the right thing to say or to just sit and listen with a knowingness that zings straight to your heart. I’ve never had so much fun. I have never learned so much about my mind and heart and the workings of my own creativity in such a short span of time. I am forever grateful and will forever be willing and wanting to work with and be a part of anything that Leah does from here forward. Leah’s magic is so powerful because she uses it to help you see and then wield your own magic. She’s Yoda personified, or Harry Potter. Love, love, love this group. Thank you for the opportunity of my lifetime.”

Thank you so many times over from all of me, Shannon, for that. Shannon also was such a wizard and a force of nature herself with the way she took this work and ran with it. She made some really epic changes to her life during this time, very profound. I will have her on someday to share her own story with you. And in the midst of all that too, she put final touch revisions on two incredible novels, the YA fantasy novels, so ironic that I’m talking about those in an episode about rest. Because I had a lot of nights that were 3AM before I had realized, because I had the great fortune of being able to read them. It would be 3AM and I’d be like, “Oh gosh, you really should go to bed. You really should go to bed. But I just did not want to stop reading.

And so, having those babies published and everywhere is some of the work that we are going to be diving into in the next round of the Art School Mastermind with Shannon. And that’s just a taste of the really delicious, enlivening, exciting projects that we have coming up this next round.

So, to close today, I again wanted to thank Dr. Kathleen Berg for such an amazing rich conversation. Also, if you want to find out more about her work in Vitam, I wanted to remind you that all of those links will be in our show notes.

I know on Kathy’s website that they talk about their mission being, “We curate a completely different holistic healthcare experience in a spa-like setting with a collaborative team of doctors and healers that our clients call life-changing.” And it was such a beautiful summary of the work that she is doing and that her colleagues are doing. And so, I would encourage you to check out the resources she has to offer.

She also sends out a newsletter, a free newsletter with, again, she is an encyclopedia of amazing resources and yet has the ability to distill it down into what you can actually process and use in your life so that it’s useful for you, so that it does change your life because you’re able to, from this sea of information, take in what’s most relevant and necessary and applicable to you. And so, I highly encourage you to join her newsletter list. And also, book a consult with them.

And to close, I wanted to share again, for a second time, that Mary Oliver poem that she shared. If you are like me and love poetry and did not write down the timestamp for when I read this the first time, I thought I would leave this here again at the end for a handy reference.

Sleeping In the Forest, “I thought the earth remembered me. She took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets, full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the riverbed. Nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts. And they floated light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees. All night, I heard the small kingdoms beathing around me, the insects and the birds who do their work in the darkness. All night, I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling with the luminous doom. By morning, I had vanished at least a dozen times into something better.”

Oh my, Mary Oliver, how she can set us up thinking we are just in this lovely nature poem about sleeping in the forest and sleeping on the earth that remembers us, and we’re kind of lulled in there. And then, she tells us, “Oh, but you’re grappling too with a luminous doom.” Oh my god. “And by morning, I had vanished at least a dozen times into something better.”

So, for all of you out there who need the reminder to lay down on the ground, give yourself, take it in, that feeling of the earth remembering you. And then, that amazing seeming contradiction but juxtaposition of sleeping as if never before a stone on the riverbed, and yet also rising and falling, grappling with the luminous doom. I think grappling with the luminous doom is something many of us can relate to and here she gives it this sacred context, I think, which can remind us of our own luminosity, and then going on to say vanishing at least a dozen times, which sounds so terrifying, but it is into something better,

May you all move with deep strength, being deeply restored into your own something better. I hope you have a beautiful week, everyone, and I look forward to talking with you next time.