Heidi Kristoffer | Connecting Your Mind and Body Through Yoga
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Whether you're a postpartum mom, recovering from an injury, wanting a stronger body, or deepening the connection to your mind, yoga is a great option for you. In this episode, Heidi Kristoffer shares how yoga helped her recover from a spinal injury, and the additional benefits she experienced in the process.
Key Takeaways From This Episode
The power of a mother's intuition
Benefits of practicing yoga
Are headstands good or bad?
What’s this special new yoga class for moms?
Postpartum pelvic floor restoration
How does Kundalini Yoga work?
Why yoga is considered “moving meditation”
Disclaimer: All of the information and views shared on the Live Greatly podcast are purely the opinions of the authors, and they are not medical advice or treatment recommendations. The contents of this podcast are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Always seek the guidance of your physician or qualified health professional for any recommendations specific to you or for any questions regarding your specific health, your sleep patterns, changes to diet and exercise, or any medical conditions.
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
About Heidi Kristoffer
Heidi Kristoffer is: mom to three tiny humans, her CrossFlow yoga app, and CrossFlowX™, co-host of new hit “Off The Gram” podcast, creator and producer of Microsoft Bing Fitness Yoga & MSN Yoga, and wellness expert for, and contributor to, multiple publications and platforms. Her goal is to make yoga, inversions, health, strength, and whole, happy living accessible to everyone. Rated one of the: Hottest Trainers in America by Shape Magazine, most inspiring yoga teachers in the world by DoYouYoga, and most popular instructors in NYC by RateYourBurn and ClassPass, Heidi can often be seen featured as an expert on television and in magazines worldwide.
A former award-winning actress of stage, film and television, and graduate of Cornell University, Heidi makes it her mission to bring happiness to everyone through every medium. Heidi is a true believer in the powers of Yogic Healing, and wants to share that with the world, and aims to in the therapeutic section of her brand new CrossFlow yoga app.
Connect with Heidi
Website: www.heidiyoga.com
Facebook: Heidi Kristoffer
Instagram: @heidikristoffer
First time users of CrossFlow Yoga / listeners of this podcast can get a FREE MONTH of all access to the program by going to digitalstudio.heidiyoga.com and using the code LGCFY.
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Episode Transcript
Heidi (Teaser)
Well, people really need to do with low back pain is strengthen their core. That's the answer that is the panacea. Your core will heal everything else because once your center is fixed and strong and stable, everything else can heal from there.
Kristel (Guest Intro)
If you're looking to support optimal health in your mind and body, you're going to gain a ton of value from today's episode with Heidi Kristoffer.
Heidi is a yoga teacher and she's the creator of Cross flow yoga and Cross flow X. We're going to be talking about how to practice yoga safely. The unique challenges that women face after they have babies and how you can strengthen your core and get better alignment. She's also going to share how yoga has helped her heal after an incredibly intense car accident.
And please, before you ever try a headstand or before you ever do another headstand, listen to this episode so that you can hear Heidi’s wisdom on how to do these things safely. I'm so excited to share this with you. Let's go ahead and welcome Heidi Kristoffer to the Show.
Heidi, I'm so excited that you're here today. We're going to talk about so many fun things and to get started. Let's just hear a little bit about you. I would love to hear a little bit about your background and what you're currently into.
Heidi:
Awesome. Thanks. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited for this. I love getting to chat with you and I always love getting to chat with fellow moms.
That's like how you do it? How do you work it? Super fun. So thank you. A little bit about me. Whew. All right. I'm from the east coast. I was born and raised here. I live in New York City now in Manhattan, downtown. I have three children. My twins just turned six and my son is three and a half. And I love them more than anything in the world.
And I didn't actually want to be a mom for the longest. So it's like so interesting that there is nothing that makes me happier, more fulfilled, nothing that I love more than being a mom to those children. So that's been really fun. Yeah. And I'm a yoga expert. I have. My Cross flow yoga app, which has five different categories right now we’re building even more so it’s everything from my standard cross flow X, which is the class I created that's power yoga, high intensity interval training, fuses Kundalini Kriyas into there. So it's a real workout. All the way to what I call cross low RX, which is your yoga prescription for all that LSU, because yoga saved my life on every level.
But first physically, I was in a horrible accident when I was 18. I was supposed to be paralyzed and yoga has healed me again and again and again. So I work with doctors and surgeons and create flows around moves that they approve for each condition. So it's been really fun to have a program where I can have that dammit and everything in between, which is just really fun and special and getting to connect with people around the world rather than just the people who can come to my New York City yoga class has been amazing.
Kristel:
So incredible. So you have, do you have a studio too where you're teaching in person? Or are you right now in transition where you're doing it everything through your app and did the different programs that you have.
Heidi:
Yeah. So I see private clients, which is obviously a very finite amount of people, but I thought that COVID was a really nice break from teaching in real life group fitness. And I actually found when I became a mom, that group fitness became really stressful because, so for instance, my twins were preemie.
That's pretty standard but with preemies comes a lot of health issues in their younger years. Like the GI tract is the last thing to develop. So preemies almost all have reflux. So you have to go to the specialist, the specialist and the specialist, and you can't set out your class because if you do people stop coming because they stopped being able to rely on you because they don't' see schedule to see that there's a SAB, which is unfortunate, but that's just the way it is.
And people like to be able to depend on you. And so I just found it unbelievably stressful to have to show up for them. I was teaching 25 group classes a week at one point before children. Yeah. So, and it's just, and also like peak class times are bedtime and weekends.
It's when you want to be with your children. And I made a very conscious, well thought out decision that these are the years that I want to spend with my children. And I'm going to find a way to still connect with people, to still teach events, teach online, teach virtually, do all the things. And feel in my heart that I can be a good mom to these kids.
I don't want to miss their bedtime. I don't. So that's when I stopped at COVID was such a nice, like I had like a couple, I was struggling holding onto a couple and when COVID hit, I was like, I am retiring from teaching group fitness which won’t last forever.
Kristel:
But, but you were like listening to that inner guide telling you what you need.
But I remember for me, I was a stay-at-home mom for six years. I was working and I was home with my kids. And then when I went back, I did three long days. I was like, I'll do three long days and then I'll have two days off and it'll be the perfect balance is what I was thinking in my mind. Ha ha ha not so much because then those long days I really missed them and I missed like the dinners and just all of those little moments throughout the day.
So it took, I remember my daughter being like, mom, she got so upset one time when I had to go away for a wedding over the weekend. She's like, but that's our time together. So upset. And that was my kind of wake up call like, huh, I need to make this work for me and for my family. And so that's when I changed a lot of stuff changed, but my schedule, so I think it's so important as a mother to really do what works for you and for your family.
So kudos to you for listening to that.
Heidi:
Thanks. Yeah, no, I, I totally agree with you. And one of the lessons that I've learned time and time and time again, since my twins were born. Cause they're the oldest is that there is nothing more powerful than a mother's intuition and you have to follow it. I mean, I asked my son's pediatrician twice in his infancy and the newborn stage if he had hip dysplasia, because I knew all about it.
Cause the twins were all the risk factors and like it's very common in newborns and that's why every doctor does those little circles on their knees. They're listening for the clicks and feeling for them. And It's super, super common, but if you fix it prior to six months old, when their bones start to harden, it's nothing.
And I asked my pediatrician twice and she blew me off both times, fast forward to my son being eight months old at a PT. And she was like, oh, he needs to go to an orthopedic surgeon. And I was like, why for that? Cause like I take it into the PT. Cause you know, there's that thing called torticollis when their neck from the wound positioning and all of the like feeding him this way and doing all the things that didn't work.
So we went at eight months and it was fixed really quick. But in the evaluation that PT was like, oh no, he has dysplasia. And that was the last time I ignored my mother's intuition.
Kristel:
Let me tell you that for sure. I think it's like a work in progress for all working moms to find that and navigate that like work-life integration so that you feel fulfilled and it changes as you grow and as your kids' needs change.
And I think something that is just so important that you stay like tuned into so that you can make sure that you're listening to that tap on the shoulder and making the adjustments that really serve you and your family. But this is I think, a good kind of segue into talking about self-care which yoga definitely is part of my self-care routine.
And I miss it cause I haven't been doing it as much as I used to because for me personally, I would go to the classes and the classes, I felt more engaged. It's hard for me to have that same level of engagement at home. And it's not just for yoga. That's just working out in general. Like I like running outdoors and being outside of the house.
Cause when I'm here, I feel like I get distracted with other things that I should be doing, but I would love to just to hear your take on how yoga is a part of self care.
Heidi:
Well, I think yoga is the ultimate self-care. That's why I've made it my life. And again, like I mentioned, that yoga saved my life on every level, physical, just being the first one and my emotional and mental health.
It’s done miracles for me, quite honestly. And that's because yoga really helps you tune in. It helps you listen to your body. It helps you hear that intuition that most people quiet. It helps you understand the days that you feel amazing. Sorry about that. I'm like, that should have been on that. Yoga helps you really tune into that and it helps you.
I remember. So I was an actress for many years before I made the switch into yoga and I was a professional child actor. So it was just my life as I knew it. And it wasn't like something that I was like, I have to do this, and I'll never forget. I had a teacher once say, if there’s anything else you can do for a living, do that an acting teacher, because it's just such a hard, hard road and it's all about rejection.
And I was unbelievably lucky to be a working actress consistently. I was so lucky. However, it came at a really high price and that price was my health because I booked more work consistently the less I weighed it was the inverse and I was a walking skeleton. I'm five six, and I was 85 pounds fucking work left and right.
And when I started practicing yoga, I remember for the first time ever wanting to feel stronger and making the connection that the thing I needed was food to feed my body so that I could feel more strong and it was such a turning point for me. And it really. Something really clicked in my brain from that and connecting those two things is just one of so many things you connect in yoga, you know, the Sanskrit word yoga means union.
The whole goal of it is really to connect your body, your mind, your thoughts, your moves, everything. And that's really what it helps me do. And that's why I think it's the ultimate self-care because if you're listening to those little voices to your little, the body's little signals and cues, Get too far in any one direction to hurt yourself, right?
Because you have listening and what's better self care than actually listening to your body's wants needs desires. I can't imagine anything.
Kristel:
That's incredible. Okay. So you were an actress and then after that experience, you switched into yoga, but then you also had that injury, that car accident. So where did that fall in there?
And was that also what kind of led you to yoga?
Heidi:
It was something that made me more passionate about it. I would say like, like I needed it to feel good. So I did, I was 18. I was rear-ended at a red light, like an SUV behind me. Wasn't looking, I don't know what he was doing, but he didn't even put on his brakes.
And I was in a little car and he totaled the car and it was like, it was a whole thing. So I went into PT and the PT helped me like do the things, they never thought I was going to have any neck mobility, but like at that point, at least the paralysis was off the table and they were so concerned. All of the doctors were so concerned about my cervical spine, that they didn't take imaging of my lumbar.
They may have taken thoracic. I don't know, but they didn't take any imaging of my lumbar. And I kept saying my lower back hurts, my lower back, hurts my lower back hurts. And they were like, oh, it's referral pain. It's referral pain coming from your neck. It's coming from your neck. And I'm like, I really don't think so.
And nobody listened to me cause I was 18 years old and it's very easy to bite off a child and tell them they don't know what they're talking. And I was definitely someone who respected doctors and their authority, and really did think they knew what was best. And some of them do, but a lot of them don't, only you know you, you know, you the best again, circling back to your yoga practice like that's how you learn you.
It's how you get to know yourself is listening and connecting your breath to your movement and feeling. And so I was walking up Broadway when I was acting still, but I was really into yoga, but I was hurting myself in yoga because I was doing headstand. And I didn't know how horrible that stands are.
They're not taught properly if you're not doing the properly, or if there is anything wrong with your spine. They're not okay for you. Then the cervical spine was not meant to bear the weight of the body. Even at my 85 pounds. It wasn't meant to bear that weight. It's only meant to hold your skull up.
There's only, and I've done a lot of work with spinal surgeons as a result of this. There's a lot of studies that have been done and there's only one culture. That has been able to strengthen their neck. And that's a culture of women who hold water on their necks and they have evolved. The vertebra has gotten bigger because our cervical spine vertebra so teeny and they get bigger at the base of the spine.
They just get progressively bigger. So I was walking up Broadway, super into yoga. I. Collapsed. And what happened was I had, and then I got MRIs. I had in fact broken two vertebrae in my lumbar spine in that accident. And because they weren't caught and because they weren't treated the scar tissue just kept growing and growing and growing and growing until it hit my sciatic nerve.
So at that point, I was super into yoga and I went to see a surgeon and I went to see a lot of surgeons until I found when they told me I didn't need surgery. And then I could actually work because I was fine. And I worked with a PT and I brought her all these yoga moves that I thought were similar to the ones that she was using.
And together we created a program that allowed me to make all of the muscles surrounding my spine. All of those stabilizing muscles get stronger and stronger and support it. So I didn't need a steel rod because my muscles are there. So, and listen, from the time I started this path of healing through yoga till like took years.
But I actually have MRIs of my cervical spine being completely straight and having herniations. And now I've regained the full curve and there are no herniations. And I actually have that imaging. So, yeah. And the spinal surgeons that I work with, I'll say like, yes, it can happen, but most people aren't willing to put in that kind of work.
So that's why it's not more widely known that you actually can reverse these problems. But again, years and years of consistent daily work, it's not like, oh, once a week, I'm going to do my PT moves. It's no, this is my everyday life, but that's as any spinal surgeon worth, their self will tell you a metal rod doesn't take away the back pain you're experiencing.
It takes away your flexibility, but it doesn't take away the pain almost all the time. It's what I've been told. I'm not a doctor, but that's what every surgeon that I've worked with has told me.
Kristel:
I have so many questions. Okay. So, okay. So this is so interesting. The first place to start, I think, is talking about headstands because anyone listening, who is into yoga, I think you probably know that like the headstand is like a badge of honor in most studios.
It's like, I can do the headstand. And I fell into that trap a little bit when I was doing yoga at the studio and I see all these people doing these headstands and I was like, I want to do that. It looks so cool.
And I was trying, and I was calm and I was doing these things. And then I went to my chiropractor and he's like, I was stiff. And I was like, well, I just doing yoga today was do my tripods and working on my headstand. He's like, that is awful for your neck. Don't do it. All right. And then I was like, well, maybe what about handstands?
And it was just, I'm curious, what are your thoughts on all of the different classes? Having people do this headstand.
Heidi:
I think it's the worst thing in the world. I think it's the reason that yoga gets a bad rap for injuries because people don't know what they're doing. Headstand is the most advanced version.
However, it is also the inversion that people can throw themselves up into because they have that whole surface area of the head and the forearms or the hands, if you're doing tripod. But like most people at the beginning throw themselves up into the basket one. Whether they’re on fours or on the ground and their head is on the ground in a room.
Properly done headstand. You could get a piece of paper between your head and your weight is supposed to be in the arms, not the head. And also you're supposed to be holding your whole body up with the core. And the problem with that is anyone who's even remotely beginner, intermediate in yoga is not doing that with their core.
All of your body weight is just getting completely shoved down into your neck. So damaging and it's so dangerous, but the problem is, is there's all these like studio, uh, factories sort of like print these teacher certifications because that's how studios make money. They don't make their money in group classes.
They make their money in teacher trainings because they can charge a bazillion dollars for it. And everybody wants to be a teacher. And years and years ago, there was not very many yoga teacher trainings. And to do one, you had to have letters of recommendation. You had to have two solid years of consistent yoga practice under your belt.
Be able to do certain things, to be able to apply to these programs. Now it's like you put down your credit card you're in and there's just no benchmark for, if you're going to be a yoga teacher, you should have a solid yoga practice. And so these teachers without practices are now teachers teaching other people and you're like, Ooh.
So yeah, they're teaching everyone headstand cause they certainly can't do a forearm stand and they certainly can't do a handstand. And that's how the chain of this headstand headstand headstand starts. And it's very damaging and it's horrible. You should be able to do a forearm stand comfortably in the middle of the room without a wall and be able to talk while you're in it before you even attempt to headstand,
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Kristel:
Okay. Well, that's so good to know. So everyone listening, listen to Heidi. Now talking, we talking about the cervical spine now going down to the lumbar spine, cause you obviously had injuries there and you've worked through it. And I bulged L four L five, when my daughter was two. And I was, I thought I was like, I don't know, wonder woman, like carrying the car seat in one hand and her and the other with my hip out and like over and over thinking that it wouldn't impact me.
And it did. And it was awful. And it took me a while to get back into yoga after that. Cause I was so afraid of hurting myself cause it would hurt every time I would do those forward folds. Over and over I'm like, oh, that's uncomfortable. And then it would, but I've learned now how to like adapt for my body and thankfully it's healed.
But for those listening, I'm hoping you can share some insights for people who have low back pain cause I know it's such a common problem.
Heidi:
So common it's so common and yeah. Well, people really need to do with low back pain is strengthen their core. And I sound like a broken record, but that's the answer that is the panacea.
Your core will heal everything else because once your center is fixed and strong and stable, everything else can heal from there, but you can't heal if you're not connected to your core because everything's just like wobbling moving parts at that point, you need to be one cohesive unit working together, not all these like random parts.
So you really need to start. It's interesting because for moms specifically, it has to start with the pelvic floor. And unfortunately, our country is the only developed country in the world, but doesn't mandate pelvic floor physical therapy postpartum. And not only do we not mandate, we actually like shy away from it and think it's weird.
Which is just, could you imagine tearing any other muscle in your body and not having physical therapy for it?
Kristel:
Right. You never thought about that. Right.
Heidi:
But Hey, it's a massive muscle. That's in charge of a lot of things and we just literally ignore it.
Kristel:
I think that too leads to women after babies. Like having issues with having to pee.
Yeah. Urgency and stuff. Yeah.
Heidi:
Yeah. It's all about the pelvic floor. And we just like, let it be like healing properly. Like don't address that there's an injury. Don't like, I don't really know anyone who has had a tear or a C-section or, and yet they're like, oh, just wait, six weeks and then you're good to go.
And you can do everything. And you're like, what do you mean? They sliced open my, every single layer of abdominal muscles. Right. Cause it's like, go back to normal. Like it's crazy. It's literally crazy. So yeah, moms specifically are at a severe disadvantage for lower back injuries because of that, the pelvic floor then activates your lower abdominals, which had been stretched out beyond recognition and they have to get re-engaged too.
So it feels really insignificant. But it's actually very significant to get those transverse abdominals working and engaged again, which are moves like, you know, lying on your back with your knees bent and your feet on the ground doing like heel slides, tiny little pelvic tilts. It's the smallest movements that get those muscles engaged, activated, and protecting your spine.
But they're the ones that matter. You can do crunches all day. It's not gonna help you.It's not gonna help your spine, may cause abdominal separation if you're a postpartum mom. Yeah. Not going to help. So it's really finding someone that knows about postpartum and self care. Like with moms, we always talk about the oxygen mask on the train, the plane thing, where like, If you don't take care of yourself, you're not going to be the best mom you can be for your children and you and I both know it feels impossible at times.
It really does to take care of yourself. You're like, but I don't have time. My kid make this, this and this, and you come less. And reality is, if you come less, that's bad modeling for your children. Number one is they're like, oh, moms have to be these martyrs who don't take care of themselves. And they're always upset, you know, that's terrible.
And I'm guilty of it. But when I catch myself, I do my best to do proper modeling. And I I'm really big on like, Nope. Even, listen before I had children, I could do yoga six hours a day. Like I was teaching, doing, taking yoga was my life. And now I am fine. And again, that's another part of cross flow class I created.
It really helps you get warm and a much more efficient yoga workout by putting the hits in the Kundalini kriyas in the flow. So your body's super warm to open.
Kristel:
So pause real quick, Kundalini Kriya. Can you just tell me what that is real quick?
Heidi:
Absolutely. So Kundalini is actually the oldest form of yoga.
However, if you watch people doing it, you could A, think they were doing a hit class. Cause it's inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. And that's the move like up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down like, and that's how fast your moving. Or not labeled any differently. Kundalini class can be 90 minutes of meditation and you don't have the heads up before you go which one is.
Kundalini deals with the chakras and the idea that all of your energy is lying dormant at the base of your spine. And if you activate the seven chakras, then your energy is working at its highest potential and you can live at your highest potential. And they're very effective these Kriyas, but again, they can be advanced.
They can be not advanced you just so I weave in the Kriyas that are appropriate for whichever flow it is. And with cross relax, I get a full, amazing opening, relaxing, energizing workout in 30 minutes. I've taken a 90 minute yoga class. It's pretty awesome. So I literally, every day, if I'm not working on a new flow, cause I upload at least once a week for the first year and change, I did two a week and I was like, this is crazy. You have 160 plus videos. I think people are okay. You know, and that's, I'm getting requests right to kill myself for no reason. Our standards for ourselves are just so absurdly high sometimes I think. But so I'll just add any given day I'll turn on a 20 minute flow.
I only do 20 minutes, 25 30. If I have 40 minutes. Oh, my goodness. It feels like heaven as a mom and I'll do a 40 minute flow and that's great, but I am super, super consistent. That mommy needs her yoga time. And if the kids want to do it too, that's fine. And it's great. And it's fun, but I've never forced them to, I've just done it in front of them.
Kristel:
Which is wonderful. I love doing yoga with my kids too. And like, I love that yours are 30 minutes. Are they all 30 minutes or just.
Heidi:
There's everything like five to 60 minutes and you will be like, I have a 10 minute cardio flow that so by the time this is out, I will have launched on Dr. Ross's Oz tube, cross flow yoga, and Dr. Oz are doing a collaboration and it's very exciting and I'm very excited about it.
But so I guess it launched August 12th. I it's so cool, but we did, I did a 10 minute flow for him and like, with his team, like they want like the Sanskrit and the English up on the, and I'm like, but I don't want people reading the screen.
I want them listening. I don't want that. But so, you know, it's a whole process and I was redoing it and redoing it, redoing it to watch that the moves were happening at the right time up on the screen, even though, obviously I'm saying them at the right time with the video, but the graphics were in line and like that 10 minute workout is unbelievable Yoga workout.
Like you feel open, you feel energetic, moved. It was not easy. And you feel good. So the bulk of the cross flow is 30 minutes. And cause I find people can't really do more than 30 at home often.
Kristel:
Well, so that's what about what I was saying before? I can't, I couldn't get the 60 minute flow and that I would do it in class at home, but I can't do 30.
And so I would do 20 or 30 minutes. And then that was where my attention span was, but I had become, so that's very, very smart and I definitely going to try out some of your classes.
Heidi:
I mean like cross legs for sure is yoga for busy moms. Like no question. And I'm like also big on loop all the way back to the self care aspect of this.
I'm really big on turning my phone on airplane when I'm doing the flows, because there's nothing worse than your phone dinging and checking it in the middle of a yoga phone. Like it's just stops the whole thing. It's you have enough distractions with children. I'm really big on that like having my husband in charge of them for that 30 minutes.
Not that it works every time, but it's. And so I locked my door is what I'm saying. I come in, I'm like I have enough space, the bottom of the bed for a mat. I put my laptop down and I do my flow.
Kristel:
And I love that yoga too is also like a moving meditation because you're linking your breath to the movements.
So for me, it's like, I'm combining the two. Is that how you, is that your experience with it?
Heidi:
Hundred percent. Absolutely. And I never feel more clear in my brain as what I'm done with yoga. And it's the linking the breath to the movement, what it does specifically, which I know, you know, but you didn't like verbalize.
So just for anyone who's like, oh yeah, whatever. Yeah. Linking the breath and the movement brings you into the present because you have to, when you're thinking about more than one thing at a time, which breath to movement is actually thinking about more than one thing, it brings you into the here and now, which again is the purpose of yoga, but it's also meditation being in the here and now being in this moment, being in the present, you're not worrying about the future.
You're not regretting the past. It quiets the mind in a way that only meditation really can.
Kristel:
Right. That's awesome. Amazing. Okay. I'm going to put links to all these things in the episode details. So if you're interested, definitely check out all these amazing classes and Heidi, we're coming close to the end. We're going to do a quick wellness lightning round. I'm going to ask you a few questions, but before that, anything else that you want to share before we go into that?
Heidi:
Um, I mean, I just like, I want everyone to try cross flow acts. So the app and the online program. You can get it on your Android. You can get it there. There's so many different places you can access it. It's called crossflow yoga, crossflow is one word. And I imagine that a giant part of your audience is moms and there is a whole section on it made for moms. There's not one flow that's or there might be one flow longer than 30 minutes in the whole section.
And it's ones that like really target all of the mom problems, like opening the shoulder. Cause we're mostly hunched forward, whether we're feeding our kids in nursing, whatever phase you're in driving, you're hunched forward. So it really addresses and the lower back and addresses so much of the, and there's also cross Lopi, which is pre and postnatal, but I'm just talking about like moms, these flows were made for busy moms.
So like giving yourself the 30 minutes or the 20 or the 15, but give it to yourself because you will feel better just having dedicated 15 minutes to self-care of you. Have you fell first for a couple of minutes? Do it.
Kristel:
Amazing. Okay. Perfect.
Heidi:
Well, I'll definitely give a code for your listeners if they want like a free trial so I can get it.
Kristel:
Do you want to, you can message it to me and then it'll be. Yeah. Good. Okay. Perfect. All right, so let's go into the wellness lightning round. Are you ready? All right. So first question is what's a book that you've read recently that you would recommend.
Heidi:
Oh, that is a good one. And I just moved it off my desk.
Actually, this is radical alignment and it's by my friends, Alexandra Jamieson and Bob Gower. And they teach a whole radical, I guess it's about smart way of communicating. That's much more effective and much more, I mean efficient and effective, but it's, I think all of our relationship problems send from communication problems.
So just, I'm really trying my best to weave this into my life as often as I can. And it's really neat way to look at communicating. Like what's my intention. And then they have this checklist for this conversation at the end, it's like, what is my fantasy of how this is going to end? You know? And just having that intention really helps keep you focused.
Kristel:
Perfect. Amazing. Okay. Second question. I know that one of one part of this is going to be yoga, but other than yoga, what is something that's a non-negotiable for your self-care?
Heidi:
Cool. Jacuzzis. Ooh, huge jacuzzi girl. Like my third was a shock and we just bought an apartment and we weren't planning on having three kids in your city. It was the best shock of my life as far as my life, but we had to buy it. And as a result, we did it exactly for our family. And I've always had, because I do have a squished nerve in my cervical spine. That is enough. Yeah. And that level of crippling pain, if it's set off, you can't even have a conversation.
You truly, because you cannot focus on anything, but that pain it's so loud. So to have the jacuzzi to really just like, sit in and have those jets just go at it is non-negotiable for me, for sure.
Kristel:
Amazing. And then not the pain, but the fact that you, that you have the jacuzzi. And then last question, knowing what you know now, what advice would you give to yourself from 10 years ago?
Heidi:
Wow, 10 years ago. That is such a good question, but it's also a really hard one, but what advice I would give just really hard advice to take is just to relax. You're going to get where you're meant to be, working hard is important. It really is. And I'm a firm believer in hard work, but I guess with the relaxed, just to what I've been able to find now as a balance of effort and ease, which is what I was, I think I thought that there was too much effort needed.
That ease was ease was lazy in my mind, 10 years ago. And sometimes, the easy path is the path that's meant to be. That's it, it doesn't always have to be the hard path. The easy path is good. It doesn't have to be the hard path every time.
Kristel:
I love it. Yes. It's such incredible advice. And I think I can relate to that too.
So that was amazing. This has been so fun, Heidi, and thank you so much for taking time today to share all of your words of wisdom. Really appreciate.
Heidi:
Thank you. I appreciate you.