Welcome to the Brilliant Fertility Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Katie Rose, and this podcast exists to help illuminate the path ahead of you. With expert interviews, clinical pearls, and real client success stories, my intention is to bring you hope for when possible on this journey. And to give you tools and resources to navigate the ups and downs on the road before you. If you find this podcast helpful, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite listening platform. And I have a big request. If you have a minute, can you leave us a five-star review? And let us know what did you learn? What did you come away with? Did you leave with that spark of hope? This helps more people like you find the podcast. My mission is to support as many humans as possible on their path to become parents. And by you sharing and subscribing, you're part of that mission too. And I'm so grateful for you for being here. We are in the new office. And we have plants. We have some cutie plants. I have one of my favorite wild Gina prints from Dina Gina Danza. And I'm just super grateful. But what I want to share about in this episode is my all-time favorite tool for lifing. And that's EFT tapping, emotional freedom technique. And why I say lifing is like I have used EFT since 2009. I I remember my mom actually introduced me to it after I'd been diagnosed with interstitial cystitis, which is a chronic pain condition. Basically feels like you have a UTI all the time. It's not fun. And I would notice for myself, like I would start to feel pain. I would start to go into the anxiety spiral. And then the pain would get worse and it would keep me up at night. It was so distracting. Like I was in my first year of medical school, and I mean, I was just struggling. And my mom was in acupuncture school at the time. I think she would have been in her second or third year by that point, and taught me how to use EFT. So EFT stands for emotional freedom technique, also known as tapping. And it is essentially literally physically tapping on acupressure points as you talk through something that's going on in life. Maybe something emotional, it may be something that is physically symptomatic, it may be something you feel stuck about. I mean, I use it for a lot of things. And the benefits of VFT are that it's free, it's simple, it can be used for so many things. And we now have scientific evidence accumulating, proving that it is actually supporting how the brain is processing information, which is so cool because you know, as humans, it's like we we often rely on logic and needing to have evidence and data for something. And even if you have a really positive result anecdotally, that's not always enough to say like this is actually doing something. Like, what if it's just placebo? At a certain point, it's like, I don't really often care if it's placebo if tapping for 10 minutes makes my headache go away. That's good enough for me. But obviously, we have enough of the world, and and even I like I love to see when science actually backs up what we've been experiencing. So one of the most recent books about tapping, uh, written by Donna Eden and David Feinstein, is literally just called Tapping. And it reviews some of those scientific studies using functional MRIs and you know, objective scales on people's experience with depression and anxiety. And it's just so cool to see how transformational this tool can be. And I would even argue that this tool has been like one of the missing pieces in some of my clients' fertility journeys because they were doing everything like physically so perfectly, right? Eating well and taking their supplements and their labs empirically looked good, and they were exercising and but they were just like feeling so frustrated, feeling so overwhelmed, having you know, years of accumulation of this emotional experience of infertility that they couldn't just talk their way through. And tapping was a key to help them truly move through that emotional experience, release it from their body and feel different, feel better. At the end of the day, I think a lot of us are just trying to feel better, no matter what's going on, whether it's you know, a pregnancy loss or it's getting pregnant after a loss, which if you've been through, you know how challenging that is to uh navigate this experience of like being simultaneously scared and excited and grieving the timeline of the pregnancy that didn't work out, the the baby that you had dreamed about and the pregnancies that didn't work out, like it is such an experience. So tapping as a tool can be so helpful to move through that and give yourself just one more resource to be in this human experience. Because being human is wild, it is hard. And I have had so many patients and friends and acquaintances just going through some really big stuff recently, whether it's you know their house flooding. Um, so many people I know in my age group are having parents go through some pretty big scary health stuff. Some people are facing job changes, financial changes, uh, just a lot of challenging stuff happening in the world right now. And when we are letting it all pile on because we're not resourced in processing the emotion or releasing that, then like it can feel like we just have the entire weight of the world on our shoulders or on our chest, or like everyone will have their own unique way of experiencing the challenges, right? Like we can often, if you do actually spend a moment to sit in it, you can say, like, whoa, like I've I feel that heaviness, right? And that's so wild because it's like, well, it's that technically stress isn't heavy. It's not a literal box sitting on our shoulders, but it's like we feel it, right? Like we feel dragged down, we feel our energy suffer, we feel our mood suffer. It comes out in our you know, lack of focus or inability to, you know, finish a project or my my and I'm sorry if any of you are listening and realizing that I haven't emailed you back in like a month. Um, like when I get really overwhelmed, it manifests as me just like totally shutting down in some areas and overfunctioning in others. And so it's like, we're just we're all human, we all have our ways. But I am also sorry if you emailed me last month and I never emailed you back because I was triaging life and uh really trying to take care of myself while all of it was happening. But right now I am running a 30-day free EFT tapping challenge. And this really just came out spontaneously. I mean, if I'm really honest, like for the last few months as we've been wrapping up this building project, I was sitting in a little bit of like a question mark of like, what am I doing? Like, yes, I still have a really full um patient case load, and that's great in terms of like I'm grateful that I have a booked out schedule. I'm grateful this building's almost done. But there was just this feeling of like I'm there's something, something brewing, I don't know what it is, or something missing, there's something that like I need to be doing. And I I was feeling kind of like I was um floating around and stuck all at the same time. And I I tap frequently, like at least three times a week, I will go for a tapping walk, which is an interesting experience if you are someone who is uh used to being self-conscious. Um, so I literally like I have to take my dog for a walk. I take her for a walk every day, but um at least three days a week, sometimes every single day, I will do EFT tapping while I'm walking. And if I don't even know, like again, because I've been in this kind of like I don't even know place, then I would just go to YouTube, tap in, tapping for overwhelm, or tapping for miracles, or tapping to find more joy. Like I would just land on something. I was like, hey, this is a starting point. Like we're just here to move some energy and like gonna always find more joy. So it's not gonna hurt to do that one, even though like I'm not really sure like what my thing is. So I would just tap. And at some point recently, I shared in my Instagram stories that I was going for tapping walks, and like I got so much response from it. And one of my BFP clients actually reached out and told me like what she had what had been uncovered for her and her experience with doing a tapping walk um that week as well. And I was just like, this is a thing, this feels good. Like I feel a full body yes to the idea of just sharing this resource on a much bigger level because I truly believe that if everyone on this planet learned how to do EFT, how to do it well, we'd be living in a much different place. And, you know, maybe I can't share it with 8 billion people, but in the last 24 hours since I shared this challenge, only on Instagram, and only I think with you know, the people who are already pretty engaged with my work, we got 36 people in this challenge, and that's so cool. And I hope by the time this episode is out and you're listening to it, that we've doubled, tripled that. Like I really want to get this tool into more hands so that we can create a better world, so that we can have the opportunity to, you know, release all of our shame and judgment and stuck emotions so that our children and our future children aren't dealing with the consequences of that, which is ultimately, I think, what's a lot of playing out in the world right now, right? We have the ego of a few people just running shit into the ground. And what we need to remember is that like we as humanity, as a collective, like we are in this together. And I really believe as a part of the fertility journey, we have to remember that. We have to remember that like we are not just an individual on an island dealing with our own challenges. Like we're part of a collective. And no, that doesn't mean you have to do more. It means just remembering who we are as creatures who were not designed to be in isolation, we were designed to be in community, we were designed to thrive with co-regulation. So as I open up this idea to this 30-day tapping challenge, it was like for me, as I've you know, navigated through having an understanding of like what really lights me up and where people in my world get the best results, is like when I feel this full body yes and I deny that, that hurts me and it also prevents other people from reaping the benefits of that. So, this idea of like, you know what, I'm just gonna share this. And I am used to looking ridiculous when I walk around my neighborhood doing tapping, but now we're just we're gonna open it up publicly and just look ridiculous on the internet because you know, some of these tapping moves where you're like tapping one under your arm, and then I kind of just rest my hand on my head as I'm doing this. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll see what I'm talking about. But you kind of look like a monkey. And at a certain point, you just gotta be able to say, like, I don't really give a shit that I look crazy because this is good for me. And when I'm regulated, that helps everyone around me. It helps my patients, it helps my children, it helps my uh coworkers. It just like the ripple effects from that are too good to keep to myself. And uh if we can have more people who are willing to look a little ridiculous for the benefit of humanity, then we're gonna go real far, you guys. We're gonna go real far. And I feel good about that. Um, but last week in in my private practice, I had the opportunity to tapping one-on-one with several of my patients. And you know, it's funny because you've you've probably had this experience before where maybe you show up in your doctor's office and it's like you think you're gonna talk about one thing, but you totally go somewhere else, or maybe with your therapist. And because like I much prefer to have longer appointments, visits, longer appointments scheduled. That came out weird. I like to have a full hour with someone. And I think there may sometimes be an assumption of like, I just like I do that so that I can bill more. But the reality is I do that because it gives us space for the real thing to come out. So for example, I had um several people last week who we were reviewing labs and their labs actually looked pretty good. So we got through those within just a few minutes and you know, followed up on their plan of care of like, all right, well, so here's what we're doing as far as your supplements, as far as your nutrition goes. And then we just have all this space afterwards, and I'm pretty comfortable with just like sitting in silence with someone and allowing whatever is meant to bubble up to the surface to bubble up. And in all three of these situations, the people were able to express like some pretty big stuff that was going on that they clearly hadn't had the opportunity or the safe space to bring up before. And being able to give them that space and say, Hey, is this something that you want to process with me today? And really have the time to do that with them, felt like such a gift. And and you know, sometimes it's a big T trauma that comes up, and you absolutely want to make sure that we have kind of a safe, soft place to land after working through that. But I just felt so grateful that we had the time and that we had a tool that could be used in that moment to support the big emotional stuff that felt ready to come out and to see the difference in how someone was carrying themselves before to like the relief and the release that happens in the body. It's like you can see someone sitting up straighter, you can almost like see the power like coming back into their body, and it's like they can breathe better and their eyes light up and they just go, Wow, I feel so much better. And it not only makes you realize how much you were carrying, but it also makes you realize how powerful you are and how in just a few minutes, you know, one of these cases literally, we did this for like seven minutes. And she was like, I just like I it's not even there anymore. It's like I where I don't where did it go? It's it's amazing, it's gone. And the others, it took a little longer. We maybe tapped for 20 to 30 minutes, but to see that, gosh, this was something I had been really getting to them for in one case 20 years, and in the others, you know, anywhere from months to at least weeks to be able to move through something relatively quickly to find some relief in that is good for our physical body as well. Because as we talked about in our episode about stress and that nervous system ovary connection, like when we are highly activated, when we're in that fight or flight sympathetic mode is on and running 24-7, we see a physiologic change. We see the blood flow redirected from the reproductive system and the digestive system. Uh, we know that there is long-term, you know, a down regulation and how readily we are able to absorb and assimilate our nutrients. So when we have a tool like tapping that helps to activate the parasympathetic state, downregulate the amygdala, that fear center of the brain, and allow the prefrontal cortex to become more activated. It's like, oh, we have so much more space, we have more clarity, we have more resilience for stress. So it's not about just avoiding stress, right? Like we can't control things. My patient whose house flooded, like she had no control over that. And people whose parents are going through major health issues, like we can't control that. We have very little influence over it. But we can influence how we respond to that stress. So if you're watching people out in the world and you've been comparing yourself, like, I don't understand how that person is doing it all. I don't understand how they're seemingly going through this with all this grace. Like, well, number one, stop comparing yourself to other people. It's like we have no idea what's going on behind the scenes. If you're just watching someone on social media, it's like we're seeing the highlight reels. Like there are very few creators out there who are just like giving you the real nitty-gritty behind the scenes, like life be lifing stuff. But number two, if there is someone who does truly, genuinely seem to be navigating life's challenges with grace, it may be worth asking, what are they doing? And this came up uh for me recently. Not that I'm guys like, please, I'm not perfect. Uh, but someone asked me as I was describing like some of what was going on with uh our building and the contractors, and I'm still like I can't go into it fully because we're like not fully done. But they were like, oh my God, like if I if I was having to navigate all of that, like I would be non-functional. And I was like, Yeah, I I mean there have been moments and like my house is pretty messy right now. I've really like trimmed back how uh how many like extracurricular things our kids are doing because I was just like, you know what, I'm gonna really mind my bandwidth, but I'm also using tools. I'm I am tapping really regularly, and I'm not honestly doing much else. I'm putting myself to sleep at a decent hour most nights. I'm eating pretty balanced, and I know without those things that I would be having, you know, more moments of dysregulation. I think I did an episode a while back on, you know, my my learning from my Costco episode. But far and away, tapping is the tool that I use most to navigate some of these big things. And I occasionally see my therapist and I occasionally journal, but the most consistent thing that I have used is EFT tapping. So I'm looking forward to sharing more about that in our 30-day challenge. I am gonna drop the link. I'm just using a Facebook or not a Facebook, an Instagram channel, uh, which I've never used before. And trying to keep it simple, trying to give the easiest resources possible for people to learn this in a sustainable way and get a result. So so far I'm loving people's intentions. I'm gonna read a few of these off to you guys because they just they feel warm and fuzzy to me. And I am really excited to see like the transformation of this. Like at the time of this recording, we are only in day one of this. So by the time you guys listen to this, I don't know, we might we'll be further into the challenge, but these intentions, like emotional regulation in my adult relationships, as well as as a parent, pausing before reacting and being able to respond in loving ways. Surrender my expectations and accept where I am, release tension from work, family, and this time of year with holidays, reduce stress and increase a healthy lifestyle, reduce stress and help bring peace to my nervous system. Healing from surgery and finding a peaceful headspace for me and baby. Release what I don't truly have control over. Reduce stress and resentment to allow me to be grateful for the present. Having intentional time to listen to what I need. Release the pressure I feel around not having enough time. Feel more ease when it comes to planning my workouts, meals, and time for rest. Release negative energy to make space for something better, but to have less internal stress. And simply someone has the intention to purchase a piece. Yes. So when we are tapping, when we start to find that it's almost I like the best you gotta just do it, you guys, because I'm like trying to find the words for it. But in the initial phase, so I typically have three phases of tapping. In the first phase, it's like the this is just what I'm experiencing. This is the emotion I'm feeling, this is how I'm feeling it, this is why I think I'm feeling it. It's like the dumping the bucket part of the tapping. And I find for myself, like I kind of start out really aggressively. I'm like tapping a little faster or a little more firmly. And that is almost like that's part of the emotionally releasing process is to be like physically moving. And you know, these are also acupressure points. So there's uh they're on meridians, so you're processing emotions on these meridians as well. And then as I start to feel like, oh, okay, like I've validated my feeling, and now I can start to move through it. I can start to see the benefit of releasing. Like I already noticed my whole body just shifting a bit, like, oh, I have some space to breathe. I feel like more relaxed. I feel more in my body. As someone who has spent so much time numbing and uh dissociating, like it's a tool for me to also be able to be in my body. And then once I have a little space in that second phase of it, where it's like, all right, I think I'm ready to release this. I'm ready to accept and surrender and move on, and you know, at least find a place of neutrality. And neutrality is so powerful. You don't give it enough credit, you don't have to go from being like completely pissed off or grieving to like a hundred percent loving and joyful. Like, no, it's a that's not the goal. The the goal is to like feel a shift in the body and to start to notice, like, hmm, okay, I might be just feeling not much of a charge around any of it at this moment. And maybe from there we can go into phase three and we find that space for the transformation. What is on the other side of that? How can I reframe this? What would it look like now that I've let this go and I have more space? That's really potent. So if you want to join, check the link in my uh show notes. We'll put the 30-day challenge Instagram channel there. And um yeah, this is a more the merrier situation. This is not just for those of you who are on a fertility journey. This would definitely be for like if you've got a sister who's been like super stressed at work and complaining to you every day about how horrible her work is, and you're like, I think you need more resourcing. Um, or a parent, like this is this is truly for everyone. So the more the merrier. Let's get this into the world so that we can live in a truly more peaceful planet. All right, you guys, sending you so much love. If you tap, let me know, send me a DM. I can't actually see everyone who's in the channel. That's an interesting part of this. It's like, I don't know, I can see there's a lot of people there. I don't know who they all are. So hopefully we're hopefully everyone is showing up and doing the work and committed to this. But I'm learning as I go with that piece as well. So sending you all so much love as usual. Um, if you are feeling generous and you have 30 seconds right now, and you can just Jump into wherever you're listening to the podcast and leave us a rating, leave us a review. It means so much to me. That helps get the podcast into more ears, more listeners, help more people, and uh it means the world to me to have you share that. So thank you, and until next time.