[Applause]
I’m starting a church yep
the secular Jew is starting a church let
me explain
there are nervous systems that need
saving I am a canary in the coal mine I
have early onset Parkinson’s disease
it’s a neurodegenerative disease a brain
killer currently there is no cure trust
me you don’t want this disease nor do
you want chronic fatigue multiple
sclerosis ALS or Alzheimer’s yet the
rate of these diseases is on the rise
and people in this room are guaranteed
to be impacted the rate of Parkinson’s
alone is such a double in the next 20
years and it’s not just those of us with
diagnosis something is amiss it’s as if
there’s this underlying neurological
unwellness
and we’re all suffering our brains are
inflamed and atrophy our
neurotransmitters are out of whack our
vagus nerves limp and wasted nervous
systems tight and arrested so ironically
I consider myself one of the lucky ones
the disease made me sit up and take
notice
and what I saw was startling I had been
ignoring early warning signs for nearly
15 years and when my thumb started to
twitch who and I suspected I was in some
deep dog Duty I still ignored it for
another year and lest you be thinking
well this chick does doesn’t take care
of herself this isn’t gonna happen to me
in 1988 I was
testing the recumbent bovine growth
hormone in the early 90s I gave up
processed foods and high fructose corn
syrup
I’ve been eating organic for nearly 25
years I’ve been a cyclist and I am an
avid hiker and a gym enthusiast for my
entire adult life folks I owned a yoga
studio in New York City and I grew kale
in my organic garden in Vermont yes so
I’m not buying it
I needed a map if I could get a systems
view of neurological illness things
might make more sense for me as good
fortune would have it I came across
beautiful brilliant maps that other
people had created and so I just strung
those together to see what I could learn
[Music]
reality is neurology and our neurology
is dynamic it’s adaptive it’s deeply
intelligent and wise did you know that
people who believe in God who have faith
have larger brains and less degeneration
than those of us who don’t and that
there’s a simple exercise that you can
do if you’re having a fight-or-flight
response to reset your entire nervous
system in under 30 seconds and it
involves yawning and the vagus nerve
have you ever even heard of her
I had it before I got sick translated
loosely from the Latin as the wanderer
this is what she does so elegant
beginning in our brainstem she touches
nearly every organ in our body she’s
indicated in gut motility reduction of
inflammation alleviation of depression
and general overall well-being naturally
I was very excited to get to work to
create some experiments and I’m going to
share those with you in a moment I just
want to pause here and say what this is
and what this isn’t this is not a
panacea these are complex disease
systems there’s no magic bullet this is
not a make lemonade out of lemons story
I hate this disease this is sort of a
parallel planes of reality story like
pulling into the slow lane on a mountain
pass or driving in the cars only lay on
the Jersey Turnpike this is about
devotion and attending to the care of
our neurological operating systems
I created a four-minute practice to test
out what I was learning and I do it
every morning and it’s really simple
it’s things like gargling with tap water
and taking a cold shower and deep
diaphragmatic breathing while smiling
all things to tone the vagus nerve one
of my favorites is vigorous head
scratching and I thought we’d try it
together briefly here
and y’all are at an advantage presumably
many of you have two working hands and I
got one so let’s see how we do here so
and don’t worry about how your hair
looks this is gonna make you feel good
okay so you’re gonna scratch your head
really vigorously you can open your
mouth and get your eyebrows really dig
in there
okay good get faster faster behave
nicely done so do this every morning for
[Applause]
within three weeks of starting this
experienced safety in ways that I didn’t
and there were moments of joy deep
limitless pools of joy vitality safety
joy friends these are our birthright
hence the church if you take away the
dogma the violence the cultural overlays
and certainly don’t look at a newspaper
these days Church was fundamentally a
place where we gathered together as
tribe as community to worship to
celebrate birth to grieve death to
memorialize rites of passage to eat
praise sing dance be together
essentially regulating our nervous
systems Church was church is Church will
always be neuroprotective for those of
us who no longer attend houses of
worship where do you have access to all
this under one roof certainly not at
reality is neurology and our neurology
is dynamic it’s adaptive it’s deeply
intelligent and wise it’s also malleable
it’s listening right now where the
stimuli folks as well as this
environment and it’s deep intelligence
and wisdom our neurological system is
responding and adapting in real time
thing is seems like these days some of
the adaptational less than optimal this
really can’t be overstated our
neurological systems are sending up red
flares and rockets we proceed at our own
there is a glimmer of hope here from my
experience with my practices I’ve been
learning it’s possible to experience
better outcomes I believe it’s possible
for all of us so if you’re not
experiencing vitality safety and joy on
a regular basis be very very suspicious
if you have no idea what I’m talking
about get curious but don’t believe me I
am just the wacky church lady
do your research experiment have faith
faith that by tending to our
neurological operating systems we can
reap the benefits of more optimal
what I am learning is that it’s possible
to be both chronically ill and deeply
vibrantly alive I’m so eager for all of you to join us in feeling this alive
I’m starting a church yep
the secular Jew is starting a church let
me explain
there are nervous systems that need
saving I am a canary in the coal mine I
have early onset Parkinson’s disease
it’s a neurodegenerative disease a brain
killer currently there is no cure trust
me you don’t want this disease nor do
you want chronic fatigue multiple
sclerosis ALS or Alzheimer’s yet the
rate of these diseases is on the rise
and people in this room are guaranteed
to be impacted the rate of Parkinson’s
alone is such a double in the next 20
years and it’s not just those of us with
diagnosis something is amiss it’s as if
there’s this underlying neurological
unwellness
and we’re all suffering our brains are
inflamed and atrophy our
neurotransmitters are out of whack our
vagus nerves limp and wasted nervous
systems tight and arrested so ironically
I consider myself one of the lucky ones
the disease made me sit up and take
notice
and what I saw was startling I had been
ignoring early warning signs for nearly
15 years and when my thumb started to
twitch who and I suspected I was in some
deep dog Duty I still ignored it for
another year and lest you be thinking
well this chick does doesn’t take care
of herself this isn’t gonna happen to me
in 1988 I was
testing the recumbent bovine growth
hormone in the early 90s I gave up
processed foods and high fructose corn
syrup
I’ve been eating organic for nearly 25
years I’ve been a cyclist and I am an
avid hiker and a gym enthusiast for my
entire adult life folks I owned a yoga
studio in New York City and I grew kale
in my organic garden in Vermont yes so
I’m not buying it
I needed a map if I could get a systems
view of neurological illness things
might make more sense for me as good
fortune would have it I came across
beautiful brilliant maps that other
people had created and so I just strung
those together to see what I could learn
[Music]
reality is neurology and our neurology
is dynamic it’s adaptive it’s deeply
intelligent and wise did you know that
people who believe in God who have faith
have larger brains and less degeneration
than those of us who don’t and that
there’s a simple exercise that you can
do if you’re having a fight-or-flight
response to reset your entire nervous
system in under 30 seconds and it
involves yawning and the vagus nerve
have you ever even heard of her
I had it before I got sick translated
loosely from the Latin as the wanderer
this is what she does so elegant
beginning in our brainstem she touches
nearly every organ in our body she’s
indicated in gut motility reduction of
inflammation alleviation of depression
and general overall well-being naturally
I was very excited to get to work to
create some experiments and I’m going to
share those with you in a moment I just
want to pause here and say what this is
and what this isn’t this is not a
panacea these are complex disease
systems there’s no magic bullet this is
not a make lemonade out of lemons story
I hate this disease this is sort of a
parallel planes of reality story like
pulling into the slow lane on a mountain
pass or driving in the cars only lay on
the Jersey Turnpike this is about
devotion and attending to the care of
our neurological operating systems
I created a four-minute practice to test
out what I was learning and I do it
every morning and it’s really simple
it’s things like gargling with tap water
and taking a cold shower and deep
diaphragmatic breathing while smiling
all things to tone the vagus nerve one
of my favorites is vigorous head
scratching and I thought we’d try it
together briefly here
and y’all are at an advantage presumably
many of you have two working hands and I
got one so let’s see how we do here so
and don’t worry about how your hair
looks this is gonna make you feel good
okay so you’re gonna scratch your head
really vigorously you can open your
mouth and get your eyebrows really dig
in there
okay good get faster faster behave
nicely done so do this every morning for
[Applause]
within three weeks of starting this
experienced safety in ways that I didn’t
and there were moments of joy deep
limitless pools of joy vitality safety
joy friends these are our birthright
hence the church if you take away the
dogma the violence the cultural overlays
and certainly don’t look at a newspaper
these days Church was fundamentally a
place where we gathered together as
tribe as community to worship to
celebrate birth to grieve death to
memorialize rites of passage to eat
praise sing dance be together
essentially regulating our nervous
systems Church was church is Church will
always be neuroprotective for those of
us who no longer attend houses of
worship where do you have access to all
this under one roof certainly not at
reality is neurology and our neurology
is dynamic it’s adaptive it’s deeply
intelligent and wise it’s also malleable
it’s listening right now where the
stimuli folks as well as this
environment and it’s deep intelligence
and wisdom our neurological system is
responding and adapting in real time
thing is seems like these days some of
the adaptational less than optimal this
really can’t be overstated our
neurological systems are sending up red
flares and rockets we proceed at our own
there is a glimmer of hope here from my
experience with my practices I’ve been
learning it’s possible to experience
better outcomes I believe it’s possible
for all of us so if you’re not
experiencing vitality safety and joy on
a regular basis be very very suspicious
if you have no idea what I’m talking
about get curious but don’t believe me I
am just the wacky church lady
do your research experiment have faith
faith that by tending to our
neurological operating systems we can
reap the benefits of more optimal
what I am learning is that it’s possible
to be both chronically ill and deeply
vibrantly alive I’m so eager for all of you to join us in feeling this alive
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