HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Tips on how to be in optimal health for optimal performance by Erin Burch
- When you give up your power (when it comes to being healthy) to somebody that’s outside of you, you’ve just lost the game.
- What if you could set the radar for other kinds of sensations, and this becomes a skill set?
- In terms of getting your body to be in an optimal state, being in partnership (with your body) and having that communication and learning the language is really key.
- If tension is living where it doesn’t belong, it’s actually quite corrosive to the design, and that’s what we call aging.
- The more you’re able to move, you’re moving your parts and actually taking the glue out of where it doesn’t belong and putting it where it does belong, and you actually have bought yourself an unbelievable amount of time in terms of quality of life, not just quantity.
- Posture is huge and I define posture as the way you set up your body to do a certain task.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SHARE THIS EPISODE: HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
In terms of getting your body to be in an optimal state, being in partnership (with your body) and having that communication and learning the language is really key.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Doug: Well, welcome back listeners to another episode of Real Marketing, Real Fast. Today, we’re going to talk about a topic that often doesn’t get discussed in the boardroom, or you don’t hear many of the well-known entrepreneurs on YouTube and social media platforms talking about, and that’s operating at your optimal peak performance, but doing that because you’ve looked after your health. In 2011, I was fat, I was out of shape, I was on six medications for hypertension, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and using a CPAP machine while I slept. Diabetes ran in my family, and my internal medicine doctor said that if I get diabetes, I was a walking dead man.
Well, in September 2011, I came down with double pneumonia, I was put on medications, steroids, and confined to bed by my doctor. Three months later, I slept 20 hours a day and I didn’t have the lung capacity to walk up and down a set of stairs from our bedroom without having a long rest followed by another rest once I got to the top or the bottom. It nearly killed me, and my doctor later admitted that it was the worst case she had seen and I should’ve been hospitalized. So, there you go. Three months off sick, and my attitude was, when I was running my business at that point, was I can sleep when I get old, I can sleep when I’m dead. I just simply didn’t look after my health.
Well, that’s not the case today. So, today, I am medication free. I am in the best shape of my life as I’m coming into my 55th year. I feel good, I’m more productive, I have much more clarity, and I’m operating at a much higher level than I was 10, 15, or even 20 years ago. So, to share with us today about health and wellness, and being in line with your body, and making sure that your body’s working well, and what the fountain of youth truly is, I’ve got joining us in studio Erin Burch.
Now, I met Erin at the New Media Summit in San Diego earlier this year, and she is a physiotherapist or a physical therapist. She is known by her clients as the body whisperer. She moved to San Francisco three years ago and she pioneered The Burch Method, which is a new bodywork method, which considers the actual design of the body and effectively acts as a fountain of youth. The Burch Method faces many of the signs and symptoms associated with physical aging, and she’s made some very bold claims in that Erin has helped many of her clients get off the table feeling and looking 10 years younger. So, if you’re looking to feel and look 10 years younger, wanting to be healthier, and get enough physical and mental shape to continue running your entrepreneurial business or working at that high level, C level job, I would really recommend that you stay tuned, tune in, and listen to Erin. So, I’d like to welcome Erin to the studio today.
Erin Burch: Thank you, Doug. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Doug: So, we met a long time ago, and my memory’s not that great, but I think it was at Seattle.
Erin Burch: It was at the New Media Summit in San Francis … I mean, San Diego.
Doug: But we had met before that.
Erin Burch: Had we?
Doug: I thought we had connected once before at a Laurel Lagenaur event.
Erin Burch: Oh, possibly.
Doug: Okay, anyhow, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about today. We’re here to talk about how we as business owners and entrepreneurs, and marketing people how we can be better, and you got some secret ways of helping people to be better, more effective, and live happier lives. You want to share a little bit about what you do and how you do that?
Erin Burch: Sure, so I started off in physical therapy and that was nearly 40 years ago, and I kind of got booted out of the profession pretty early in a way, and had some pretty severe negative experiences, and then I went into yoga for four years, and started to really delve deep into other paradigms other than what I knew as physical therapy. It’s come a long way since then, but back then it was a pretty story in terms of its openness to things like yoga. Yeah, you want to say something?
Doug: Yeah, I was going to say it’s interesting that looking at the kind of health and wellness around the world how North America has been so resistant to anything that’s not traditional medicine.
Erin Burch: Yeah, well that’s probably the AMA. There’s been a pretty strong hold on how things are done. There are laws around physical therapy. So, it’s been a real uphill battle to really embrace so much of the healing secrets and modalities from around the world, you’re right. So, then after I had left the [oshom 00:04:37] I was in a car accident, and the car accident seeded an abscess in my abdomen. I ended up having two life-saving surgeries.
What they don’t tell is you that scar tissue is a beast, and there are three sorts of assumptions that people make about scar tissue. One is that it’s fairly benign. Two is that it’s local, and three is that it’s finite, and none of those things are true. So, scar tissue actually started to attach to every structure in my pelvis, low back, and hips, and corkscrew my pelvis so that I was literally so far out of alignment that I was old at 35, which was not a pleasant thing, and had it happened when I was 80, I just probably would have thought, “Well, I’m getting old,” but it happened at 35, and I knew it was abnormal.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SHARE THIS EPISODE: HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
In terms of getting your body to be in an optimal state, being in partnership (with your body) and having that communication and learning the language is really key.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
When I saw it helped to undo what was going on in the scar tissue, nobody seemed to be able to move the needle at all, and I was going to be damned if I was going to live the next, what 40 years, being crippled? I was not down for that, at all. So, I had a Scarlett O’Hara as God as my witness moment, and I said, “I am going to fix this or die trying,” and when you put the stake in the ground, stuff happens.
Doug: I like that. I like that approach. It took me a long time to figure it out, and I guess my aha moment was that we, let’s be fergent, forget the we, I advocated control of my health to my physician and while she was way better trained in medicine than I was, I wasn’t getting the results I wanted until, as you said, I put the stake in the ground, and I said, “I’m going to get healthy. I’m going to take control of everything around my health and wellness, and that’s going to be looking at all options, and then making my own decisions whether or not it was approved by her or not.
Erin Burch: Absolutely. I mean, I was just reading some stuff that I had written before our interview, and I had written about when there’s, let’s say there’s a fire in the body. Let’s say, and our first response is to go running, when actually we’re in the perfect position to be first responders, and there is nothing wrong with accessing resources, but when you advocate, or you actually give up your power to somebody that’s outside of you, you’ve just lost the game.
And I don’t mean it in terms of like the outcome, necessarily, because people get good outcomes sometimes when they do that, but it’s really, it’s short-circuiting your ability to heal on a profound and fundamental level.
Doug: Yeah, and I guess it’s true whether it’s in the health or wellness or business or whatever it is.
Erin Burch: Totally.
Doug: So, I’m not saying that those professionals aren’t good at what they do, but I’m saying don’t, like you said, don’t advocate control. So, you need to take responsibility, and I guess as we’re growing up we look at people in certain professions and think, “Well, we must follow everything they do, because they’re trained and they’re highly respected in their industry, but at the end of the day, what you’re saying is, you’re listening to your body. You’re saying, “This doesn’t feel right, and it’s not acceptable.”
Erin Burch: Yeah, we actually, we occupy the front row seats.
Doug: I love that.
Erin Burch: When it comes to any event in our body as we do.
Doug: Why aren’t we listening? I like that, we are the first responders. We’re already there, don’t run.
Erin Burch: Yeah, yeah. So, why aren’t we listening? That’s a really, really good question, and first of all, we’re cultured in our society to sort deify our minds, like our minds is where the rubber meets the road, kind of in our cultural paradigm, and what that does is it sort of sets up a sort of master-slave or master-servant relationship with the body.
Like the mind is where the ideas happen and where there brilliance is, and then the body lives them out, and that’s a flawed paradigm, because, it’s based on a kind of using your body for its resources, and I’ve worked in nursing homes. I’ve worked in hospitals, and I know what happens when people outlive their body, and it is heartbreaking. I just can’t even describe the feeling of walking in and seeing somebody just at the mercy of their body have broken down because they didn’t actually nurture it through their whole life.
Doug: Yeah, and that was my story, to you, before we started recording, and it took a crisis to wake me up too. I mean I used to tell people I was actually … the ego side of me was proud to say, “Hey, I can sleep when I get old.”
Erin Burch: Yeah, I hear that, too.
Doug: Right. I get up at 4:30. That’s right. I can sleep when I’m older or when I get dead, and then one day you wake up and you’re sick, and you’re going, “I can’t get out of bed. Hope this isn’t the day.”
Erin Burch: Yeah. So, here’s what happens. In situations when there’s a health crisis, or when we actually do wait until we’re old is there’s a reversal, because it’s about using up the resources, that paradigm, then what you’ve got is the master becomes the slave and the slave becomes the master, and then like you said, you can’t get out of bed. Then, you’re at the mercy of whatever your body is dictating at that moment, and it’s preferential to not live that way, honestly.
Doug: Oh, that’s good to hear.
Erin Burch: That’s an understatement, I know.
Doug: We need to get that message out. We could live that way.
Erin Burch: Yeah. So, listening to your body becomes a skill set that we were not taught, and it’s like listening, what it means to me is taking that master-servant relationship and transmuting that into a partnership. Now, when you’re in partnership with somebody, you have to care about their input, whether it’s your business partner, or your life partner, or whatever.
You have to, the situation breaks down when you stop caring about what they have to say about their [inaudible 00:10:34].
Doug: Absolutely.
Erin Burch: Yeah. So, in your body, we’ve got our radar set for kind of extreme pain or health crisis or when you’re interrupted from what your mind’s agenda is, and only then do you stop, but what if you could set the radar for other kinds of sensations, and this becomes a skill set. It becomes a learning opportunity, a learning, and growing opportunity when you can actually, listen to the sensations in your body.
Let’s say tension, or let’s say, pressure, or let’s say twinges or those kinds of information coming across. It’s intel. All right? I mean our body literally is, our nerves go practically everywhere, and so we’re literally bugged. We could eavesdrop on any conversation in our body.
Doug: I’ve told people and relating it to cars. I said, “If you had,” pick your favorite car. I don’t know what your favorite high-end car might be but pick your car. If you had a Ferrari or Lamborghini, or whatever it may be, an old MG, would you pour dirt in the gas tank? Well, no. Then why are you eating fast food five days a week, and then wondering why you’re not feeling well.
Erin Burch: Right, exactly.
Doug: So, listeners, you may be wondering, why are we talking about health, and the reason we’re talking about health is, if you look in the mirror, what you’re seeing is the machine that is going to produce the output that’s going to keep your business running, and keep your job with your employer, and if you want, Erin and I talked about it. If you want to be optimal, that’s what I want to do. I want to find how I can operate as close to 100% performance as I can, which means, like you said, listening to my body, resting, eating, being physical and making some life choices to be able to do that.
Erin Burch: Yeah, yeah, because whatever dreams you have, so there’s an old proverb that says, “He or she who has health has a thousand dreams. He or she who has no health has only one.”
Doug: Wow.
Erin Burch: Yeah.
Doug: Yeah.
Erin Burch: Yeah. So, your body is really where life happens. Regardless of what’s happening from the neck up, we’re truly incarnated beings, so we have to actually live. The more you live within the design of your body and live within the design of this physical universe, but not necessarily be completely tethered by it. The more you know the language of anything, let’s say you go to a foreign country, and you have a phrase book, and that’s kind of where we all are with our body.
We kind of have a functional phrasebook. When I’m tired I know it. When I’m thirsty I know it. When I’m hungry I know it. When I’m sick I know it. That is kind of our phrase book, but there’s so much more nuance in our body happening all the time, and if you went to a foreign country and you had a need that the phrase book didn’t cover, then you would have to learn more nuanced part of the language so that you can negotiate your needs, and in the body it’s the same thing.
In terms of getting your body to be in an optimal state, being in partnership and having that communication and learning the language is really key because I will tell you, this may come as a surprise, but tension is not tension. Tension is actually pre-pain and pre-aging. So, if you’re paying attention to pain, you’re going to miss the tension.
Doug: Wow, okay. Now, I’m afraid. Thanks for that.
Erin Burch: Well, it turns out there is a way to deal with it.
Doug: Oh, well, that’s good, and the thing is too, if we kind of look at society, I mean the way that we kind of grew up was, it’s a 40-year plan. You’re going to work really hard, get a job, work for 40 years, and then you’re going to retire, and then you’re going to do all the things that retired people do. You’re going to travel and go do all the things you want.
The only thing we’re forgetting is, that if we haven’t behaved in terms of listening to our bodies and our health during those 40 years, retirement is not going to be glamorous, and jet-setting, and traveling around. It’s going to be doctor’s appointments and medication.
Erin Burch: Yeah, or just … what happens is, people stop moving, and movement is life. Movement is life, and this is what I know from being old at 35. I stopped moving because it didn’t feel good and it wasn’t rewarding, and that was the most frightening thing. I used to think the pain was the worse thing, getting old. Getting old really is the worst thing, but it happened so … in many cases so slowly, it’s that frog in the boiling water metaphor.
When it just heats up just enough for you to just barely noticeable, and then you adapt, we’re such magnificent adapters, and that’s a blessing, but it’s also a curse, because when the walls are closing in, and you’re not taking the steps, because it’s only a little bit, and it’s a really big deal. So, what I said was, “There actually is a design for tension.”
Doug: Yep.
Erin Burch: Yeah. So, if tension is living where it doesn’t belong, it’s actually quite corrosive to the design, and that’s what we call aging, but if you can take then tension and redistribute it into what I call the core container, which is a fabulous system for holding the tension, but it holds it in different ways, and the gripping in the other areas of the body, and so it’s more like taking that tension and drawing it into the center part of the body. It’s my concept of the core container is a bit different from the core, from several aspects.
One is that people imagine that when they strengthen something, they’ll use it functionally, and I have found that to not necessarily to be true, and so if you’re functionally engaging your core container and your securing your pelvis, securing your ribcage, securing your shoulder girdle in such a way that the tension is gone from the extremities, because tension is glue.
Tension holds us together. So, if you’re concentrating that tension in the core of your body, then it frees up the extremities to move. Now, I will tell you that one of the differences between a young body, like a kid’s body, and an older body, adult body, and then a really old body, if you think about a family of three generations walking down the beach, the kids are just like moving every place.
They’ve got crazy separate moving parts all through their body. Everything moves, right?
Doug: Yes, yeah. That’s right.
Erin Burch: And their parents, they walk down the beach and way fewer moving parts. Way more constrained, way more tension, holding things together in a very different way, and then their parents, the third generation, they’re hardly moving at all compared to the movement of the child.
Doug: That’s true, and I’m thinking through my family. That’s a pretty good description, but I mean walking down the beach because it might be too far.
Erin Burch: Yeah, exactly. I mean I was on the beach in Hawaii, and this family, these three generations were in front of me, and the woman had, had total hip replacements, I think. She was on the beach. It took everybody in the whole party to get her up off the sand.
Doug: Wow.
Erin Burch: It was incredible, and finally I went over there and I said, “Would you like to know how to get up?”
Doug: I can show you a way.
Erin Burch: It was like she was so surprised by the ease of it because it’s just like. Okay, follow the design. That will feel better.
Doug: Yeah.
Erin Burch: Yeah.
Doug: And as I shared with you, I’m learning some of that with some of the new stuff that we’re doing at the gym, and it’s like, what are you really supposed to do and how are they designed and how are they supposed to move, and like you said, it’s a lot easier to move and move stuff. It’s no different than having a tool, and you put it in your shop or your kitchen if you know how to use it, it will work better.
Erin Burch: Exactly. So again, another misconception about the movement is that people move for muscles, right? I mean everybody would say “yes” if you had a multiple choice, they would say “muscles.” It’s not the muscles that actually do the movement, and I’ll tell you why, because the joints are moving places. That’s where the movement actually occurs. The muscles facilitate the joints. It’s not the other way around.
So, if you think about, let’s say the ball of your shoulder. The shoulder is a ball and socket, which means a ball above all else loves to roll. Am I right?
Doug: Yes, that’s right.
Erin Burch: Okay, so if you put your fingertips on the ball of your shoulder and you move from ball by rolling it, then first of you’re going to get top grade movement, because that’s the design, and second of all it’s going to be lighter, freer, easier, yummier all the way around.
Doug: That’s cool. So, I just want to change direction, just slightly.
Erin Burch: Sure.
Doug: So, we talked before we started recording the episode today, and we talked about performance, and I don’t want to put you on the spot, but I’m going to anyhow and just ask you about performance.
In today’s society, we’re still working long hours, and now we have poor posture because we’re spending more time in front of computer screens and more time in front of phones and you listen to guys like Gary Vaynerchuk, and I like some of his stuff, and one of the talks that I heard that I really was he said, “For those of you who are in your 50’s or are getting to close to your 50s. I’ve got some great news. The advancement in medical and science and the way that people are living, there’s a really good chance you can live to 100.
Erin Burch: Exactly.
Doug: So, if you’ve got a dream to start a business or change careers or do something. Do it. You’ve got another 30 years of productive life.
Erin Burch: Totally.
Doug: So, that’s what I wanted to do. That’s where I wanted to go to and say. So, I’m excited. I’ve never seen anyone so excited about turning 55. I’m going, “Well, it’s kind of cool. I don’t know if I will be quite this excited at 60.” I said, “But 55 just sounds like a cool number and I’m in good shape, and I feel good.”
So, thinking of that, so I’ve got another 30 years of productive life. I’m blessed and I love what I do for work. So, share some tips with us for listeners that are kind of in the 40s and 50s that are thinking, “Hey, I like what I’m doing, and I’m not planning on being,” they say retirement is putting cows to pasture, sitting and watching the news for 24 hours a day. How they can start taking some steps today.
Erin Burch: Oh my God. That’s a great question, Doug, and I’m really excited about answering it, because what I do is reverse aging, and what makes people old.
Doug: Oh, nobody wants to know about that.
Erin Burch: Very unpopular.
Doug: Nobody wants a fountain of youth.
Erin Burch: Massively unpopular.
Doug: The whole health and wellness, and beauty cream. That just doesn’t exist.
Erin Burch: Well, when you look at aging, it’s really most defined by creams and skincare and that kind of thing, which is again, use resources, that’s what they’re for, but there’s way more to it. I mean, tension in the body shows up in the face without question, and so when I work with people, and I work with the tension in their body, they get up off the table, and they look 10 years younger. It’s pretty astounding, actually.
But, I reversed my own aging, and I’ve got some real solid things to say about it, and first of all, aging is often defined by movement, like getting back to the family on the beach. The more you’re able to move, you’re moving your parts and actually taking the glue out of where it doesn’t belong and putting it where it does belong, and you actually have bought yourself an unbelievable amount of time in terms of quality of life, not just quantity.
There are lots of studies where they correlate speed of walking the ability to get up off the floor with morbidity and mortality.
Doug: Wow, I didn’t know that.
Erin Burch: Yeah, yeah. So, quality of movement, like if you see somebody who is in their 40s and they don’t move well, they appear old to you.
Doug: Sure, that’s true.
Erin Burch: When you see somebody in their 60s and they’re moving really fluidly, you’re not cataloging them as an older person, not that 60 is old I’m 61.
Doug: I didn’t know you were 61.
Erin Burch: I am.
Doug: Wow. Okay. Whatever you’re doing is working well.
Erin Burch: Thank you. So, you mentioned posture. Posture is huge and I define posture as the way you set up your body to do a certain task. It’s not just standing, it’s whatever. So, whether you’re lifting a weight, or whether you’re sitting at a desk, or whether you’re sweeping the floor. In fact, when I lived in the northeast, you know, snowstorms, so people would come in and they would complain of being sore from shoveling snow.
I was like, “Show me how you’re shoveling snow,” and they would adopt the posture that they were doing, and they had to mime the movement, and then I was like, “Oh, okay. Well, how about if you do it this way?” And I redistributed the tension into their core container, had them mime it from there, and guess what happened? The soreness disappeared like that.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SHARE THIS EPISODE: HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
In terms of getting your body to be in an optimal state, being in partnership (with your body) and having that communication and learning the language is really key.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
It was crazy. When somebody comes in complaining, like the lactic acid buildup. I’m like, “okay. That’s an indicator that you are moving in a way that really wasn’t serving your design.
Doug: Well, okay. We’ll have that conversation one day.
Erin Burch: Okay.
Doug: I’m often … we have a river in our backyard, so I’m often, no, not often, every day after the gym, the river is a bit cold, I’m in there to try to cool the muscles.
Erin Burch: Cryotherapy, yes.
Doug: After I’m getting my good workout at the gym.
Erin Burch: Okay, so going back to posture. Posture is like, so alignment has a lot to do with the design. You can’t get better than alignment. You just can’t. It’s the highest that we can reach for, and alignment means stacking the parts so that they’re not working against the design.
Doug: Right.
Erin Burch: And a two-year-old, if you ask them to build you a tower with blocks, they’re going to stack the blocks, but look around at how people are stacking their body. They’re not using alignment as the overriding principle, and so they’re creating, they’re working against the design, which when you work against the design, whether you’re putting in the gas tank, or whatever you’re doing. You’re shortening the longevity of the design.
Doug: Okay, so you need to expand on what you mean by stacking the blocks. I mean, you said that and I’ve got a two-year-old grandson, and so the way that he stacks the blocks is different than I do. I would sit down or get on my knees and he would squat and put his button on the ground, which I can’t do anymore.
So, I’m assuming you’re talking about building the blocks correctly. So, what does that mean to people who are listening?
Erin Burch: Well, what it means is starting with one block, putting another block on top of it, and then another block on top of that, because alignment is the strongest configuration, so, if you start to move one block a little over to the side, then you got to offset that with another block over to the side on the other side, and then you’ve got to kind to create this thing that doesn’t quite work as well. It’s not as strong of a structure.
Doug: You’re talking about your physical body, your alignment of your joints, your body, your posture, your whole.
Erin Burch: Your bits. Yes, yes.
Doug: Your bits. Okay.
Erin Burch: All your moving bits.
Doug: All you’re moving bits okay.
Erin Burch: So, people, typically when they are standing, their weight is in their heels.
Doug: Okay.
Erin Burch: That’s really common. Another thing that they do is their toes often are pointing out in a different direction then they would be walking. So, I’m not sure why they do that, but alignment dictates that the feet are pointing in the same directions. That’s a very confusing message to the body. I’m walking in this direction, but my feet are actually pointing in another direction, and then they also have feet wider than hips.
Now, when I say put your hands on your hips, people put their hands on their pelvis, where are hips actually are, so our hips are if you put, you know that bone that sticks out in the pelvis in the front, and then your pubic bone, if you can feel where those two bones kind of are, at the halfway point, is where the hip joint actually lives.
So, if your feet are under there, they’re going to be way narrower, than if you had them pelvis width apart.
Doug: Okay.
Erin Burch: And that creates like it’s crazy. When I demonstrate this to people, it’s insane how much stronger their body gets in terms of my ability to push them over. Like with their feet wider than hip-width apart, it’s easier for me to push them over, and when they align their feet, it’s incredible how much stronger their body gets, how much more grounded. How much more, like just that little bit of alignment makes a huge difference. When you look down, you should be able to sort of put a fist between your feet.
Doug: Oh, wow, that’s interesting. Okay.
Erin Burch: That’s really, that’s much narrower. Yeah.
Doug: Than we think. Yeah.
Erin Burch: Yeah, but like I said when I test people, I don’t do this because I have a concept, I do it because I get results.
Doug: That’s what we’re interested in is results.
Erin Burch: Exactly. Results, and so when your feet are wider than hip width, then you have to have tension in your lower back. You have to have tension in your hips because again, our radar is not set for tension, so we don’t even notice it, and yet just by doing that, I’ve had people, their back pain disappear.
Doug: So, when you say one of the reasons that we’re not hearing our body, this is just my theory, I’m just asking, is because of the pace that the world, the turning of the world, the pace that we’re working at.
Erin Burch: Well, yeah, and I also think we come by it really honestly. I mean, we’re westerners, we’ve inherited a western way of looking at things, and historically when the western patriarchy has come into contact with something that it doesn’t understand or is threatened by, it tends to dominate it.
So, that happened with indigenous people, and it happened with nature, and it happens with animals, and often women and children, historically, and it happens with our bodies. So, we’ve turned this body, this aspect of nature, and I often will, like you, use the analogy of a car or a vehicle, or a machine, but the body is none of those things because it’s not inanimate.
It’s actually an aspect of nature. It’s an aspect of the divine. So, when we interact with it, giving it that honored position in the partnership is really important.
Doug: Yeah, that’s a really just way of looking at your body, because you’re right. The term that is machine, I told my son that when he was looking at his first career, and he was like, “Hey dad, I’ve been working this landscaping company to buy a franchise, and I really like it,” and then I said, “Talk to me in two months.” He came back and said, “Man, this is hard work.” So your body was not made to be a tractor. It’s not fun, is it? He goes, “No,” and I went, “Okay, then find something else.”
Erin Burch: Yeah, yeah. It’s true. I mean, so many people in sort of the craftsman kinds of things, or the construction, they literally use their body as one of their tools in their toolbox.
Doug: Sure, but I mean, even doing that, I’m sure having proper alignment and having proper movement and stretching and health and wellness will reduce the wear and tear on the body, because I think when you’re talking alignment, I’m thinking of Andy who is my weight lifting trainer for weight lifting, and he’s talking about alignment all the time.
About making sure how your joints are all aligned, so when you’re lifting the way you’re not stressing the body.
Erin Burch: Yes.
Doug: So, you’re lifting it properly, and when you’re out of alignment, that’s when you’re out of balance, that’s when you’re going to hurt yourself. That’s when you use the wrong muscles and on and on he goes. Yeah, that’s pretty cool.
Erin Burch: Yeah, and your two-year-old grandchild, he’s got the right idea. That squatting is our design. So, if you think about the joints like folding places, you want to fold the hips, fold the knees, fold the ankles when you squat down, and when you do it from that place and take the tension out of the other places, then, like you said you’re not able to do it anymore, and I would challenge you to. I could find that motion in your body, I’m pretty sure.
Doug: Well, okay. I said that, but I am working on it. I’m making a conscious decision to squat during the day to get that mobility back, and working with, I’ve done some functional testing to make sure that I’m stretching, and I’m trying to learn that so I can regain that mobility.
Erin Burch: Yeah.
Doug: Yeah, so I’m making strides. I know a lot like him, he goes running through the backyard and him just kind of like a puppy that runs out of energy, he just stops and squats and drops his diaper on the ground and just sits there and looks for a minute, and then stands up and goes roaring again. So, I’m definitely nowhere close to that, but working on getting my mobility.
Erin Burch: Yeah.
Doug: So, in terms of business and people that are sitting and working and have this out of life balance. I mean one of the things that I learned was, it took a long time, was in terms of listening to your body is that there is times during the day that I am not productive.
Erin Burch: Yes.
Doug: And that my body needs to move, and so the biggest secret for me was going, “Okay, I can sit here and fool myself, lie to myself, lie to my boss and everybody around me that I am working, but really my body has already, and my mind has already checked out.”
Erin Burch: They’ve left the table.
Doug: Yeah, I learned that I wasn’t in control. It was like, “I’m daydreaming. I’m surfing.” I’m doing all these things, but I really have this deadline, like why am I doing this, and I’m like, “Oh, my body is telling me it wants a rest.” So, I get up and go for a walk or sometimes I go for a hike for like an hour.
Erin Burch: Yeah, then you come back refreshed.
Doug: Yeah, and you’re like, “Wow, look how much stuff I can get done now that my body has had a stretch and some fresh air and shut my mind away from what I was looking at.”
Erin Burch: Yeah, and that’s partnering with your body. That’s exactly what it is. Noticing that when your mind your mind is giving you signals, “I am no longer productive. I need a break,” and your body is the best partner to, like you said, take a hike or take a walk, or drink some water, or like there are lots of ways. Do some Burpees.
Doug: Come on. Nobody does those by choice.
Erin Burch: Oh, yes they do.
Doug: Okay. We do them at the gym, one of my least favorite things to do.
Erin Burch: Or jumping jacks, or jump rope. Just do a little five minute of cardio and you are back on your game.
Doug: Yeah, and as somebody who is aging like I am, drink more water. The upside of drinking more water is you have to walk to the water cooler to drink it, and then you have to walk to the bathroom five minutes later. So, you’re going to get two walks in, so drink more water. That will help your physical mobility.
Erin Burch: Exactly.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SHARE THIS EPISODE: HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
In terms of getting your body to be in an optimal state, being in partnership (with your body) and having that communication and learning the language is really key.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Doug: So, what are you most excited about in the next 6-12 months in what you’re doing and how you’re helping people.
Erin Burch: Oh, my God. Well, I’ve devised this course. It’s called the Luscious for Life Sister Mind. It’s for women in midlife who are really … you know, the first half of your life is kind of script for you, but the second half is like take the gloves off and let’s go. I want to work with women who are really excited about what they can create in the second half of their life, and it’s a year-long program, and we’re going to do some exotic immersive retreats in different places around the world.
It’s just, the stuff that I know about, reversing aging, and getting excited about your life. Like you said we often, most of us may live to 100 or beyond. So, you got to make sure that A your body is going to last, and B, that you’ve got enough juice to fuel this, and C, that you are really connected to your life’s sole purpose so that you can thrive, and that’s what we focus on.
Doug: Well, some people are going to have to work longer. I mean the reality is that because we’re living longer, and looking at, you’re in the Bay area, I’m in Vancouver. So we’ve got two real estate markets that are really hot. Things cost more. We’ve got aging parents that need our help and we’ve got young kids that are struggling, young families that are struggling to buy homes.
So, we need more financial resources. So, we’re going to need the body to stick around for a little bit longer and be productive.
Erin Burch: Yes, and that’s no joke. That is really no joke, because like I said, you don’t want to get into, the people who are in the nursing homes and the hospitals, they didn’t plan on being there, but they sure as hell didn’t plan to be there, and that is the key.
Doug: Yeah, and one of the things, and I heard, I heard a speaker speaking over London. We went to Chris Ducker’s event last year, and Matthew Kimberly whom I had heard speak before, and he’s got sales training, but one of the things he talked about that was really nothing but sales training, he was talking about having financial means.
He said, “You know, for a lot of people, a lot of entrepreneurs or business people, they get a lot of grief about having abundance,” and he said “It really hits home when you can help someone else,” and so I guess your health is really no different. It’s when you’ve got a family or a loved one, how terrible would that be to have to sit across the table and say, “I can’t help.”
Opposed to, “I would love to help,” and it’s the same thing physically, I mean if somebody needs help to not be able to get up and move, I mean, this is obviously way beyond functioning in your business, but just be able to continue to contribute and be, I don’t know about useful is not the right word but to be helpful.
Erin Burch: Engaged yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Doug: Well, that’s super cool. I mean, I hope, and changed` my goal actually, because I’m big, I’m a big, big, big fan of what you see is what you get and you really need to focus on the right stuff, and I’ve been telling everyone I’m going to live to 100, but now I’m afraid, because I might die at 100. So, I’m going to change my goal.
Erin Burch: That’s right.
Doug: I’m going to bump it up. You don’t know about 150, but I’m going to go up for sure.
Erin Burch: I think it’s living as long as you want to, and wanting to as long as you live, you know, making life juicy and engaging and productive and exciting, and just juicy, basically.
Doug: Yeah, I like the juicy part. People tell me or ask me, how come you go to the gym and how come you work out so hard? How come you do this, and how come you do that? I said, “Well, let’s just think about some basic science. So, as men, our growth hormone and testosterone levels start stopping at 35. So, if going to the gym and being physically fit increases those, and you have a strong core and strong quads and strong body, what is that good for?
So, if you’re in a good relationship, it’s a great thing. It makes juicy.
Erin Burch: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we as humans were meant to be in turn on, and turn on is a very broad term, like it’s not necessarily sexual, although it certainly encompasses that, but it’s really about, it’s about being lit by life. I look out the window and I see the sun on the plants in my garden, and I’m like, “Awe, that’s beautiful.” You know? Or any little moment, the more engaged you are in life, the more alive and juicy life actually is. So, yeah.
Doug: I want that, listeners for you guys more than anything. It took me, well I wouldn’t say how many years, but over just about 50 years to figure it out, and I’m sure there’s a lot of people telling me for sure, and I was taking some steps which were good, but obviously not enough and life is just so much better feeling and being healthier and being clearer and so much more productive at work in all areas of my life.
Erin Burch: Absolutely, Doug. You got that right.
Doug: So, two questions. Now, this is my question, this is my stumper question for everyone. Who’s one guest I should have on my podcast?
Erin Burch: How about Jim Padilla?
Doug: Okay, there’s a great suggestion.
Erin Burch: He started his own podcast and it’s … he’s just a fascinating guy. I like the way he thinks.
Doug: Yeah, he is. Yeah, I really like him. We spent some time when we were down in San Diego, we actually had a couple of dinners with him. We dragged and roped him.
Erin Burch: That was good. Yep.
Doug: So, and where can people find you?
Erin Burch: WWW.TheBurchMethod.com and Burch are spelled with a B-U-R-C-H. TheBurchMethod.com.
Doug: And social media, what’s your favorite platform for people to track you down?
Erin Burch: Facebook. I do Facebook lives on Thursdays. Today is the day unless it’s Friday in your world.
Doug: It’s Friday in my world.
Erin Burch: It’s Thursday in mine and I do Facebook lives, usually Pacific sometime in the afternoon Pacific time, and I’ve given just a ton of amazing information away on that platform, so it’s really good.
Doug: Well, the other reason is like, Fridays, I remember … do you remember which speaker asked what gives you more energy after you’ve done it than before you started even if you were tired? When we were in San Diego?
Erin Burch: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Doug: And one of the things for me is, three things. Speaking, teaching, and my podcasting. So, I so look forward to Thursday, because I batch my podcasts on Thursday. So, for me, it’s like a Friday. So, it’s like, “Woohoo, I get to talk to really cool people and share some really cool stuff, like this is work,” and it’s good.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SHARE THIS EPISODE: HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
In terms of getting your body to be in an optimal state, being in partnership (with your body) and having that communication and learning the language is really key.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Erin Burch: Yeah, I totally get that, and I get that’s kind of like tattoos. You start with one and then … I know a number of people who have podcasts all up and down their arms.
Doug: I have been trying to resist the tattoo thing, I’m kind of one of those compulsive people. So, I’m going, “Nah, I’m not going to do that, because once I start, it can get ugly really quick.” Well hey, thank you for taking the time and sharing today.
Erin Burch: My pleasure, Doug. I’m really excited to have been here and sharing with your listeners.
Doug: And you are just so darned far away. I mean, you’re not. You’re really a two-hour plane ride, but that would make for a long trip every week, too, to have some work done so I could be at moving.
Erin Burch: Well, you know, I do something called a VIP day, and I actually do something, a year-long program of VIP days which is quarterly days with me and six hours with me is pretty amazing.
Doug: Okay, wow. I thought I was crazy just by going to an hour a week of massage, but a six-hour body treatment would be great.
Erin Burch: Well, it’s a lot of education. It’s a lot of postures. It’s a lot of getting down some real skills about being in the design of your body. It’s very powerful.
Doug: It sounds really cool. Now, is that information on your website as well?
Erin Burch: It is. Yeah.
Doug: Okay. Well, cool. So there you go. We’ve had Erin Burch talking to us about living well, living healthy, listening to your body, and learning how to be in alignment how you were created, using your body as it was designed and not as a tool. So, just again, a big thank you to Erin for sharing with us today. As per usual, we will transcribe all the notes, and I will make sure that the links to all of our social media and our website are there.
Feel free to engage, reach out to Erin. She has, as you’ve heard a great personality. She’s a really giving and caring person, and I would encourage you to invest in yourself. So, thanks again, Erin.
Erin Burch: Awesome. Thank you.
Doug: Thanks listeners for tuning in. I look forward to serving you in the next episode of Real Marketing Real Fast.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
SHARE THIS EPISODE: HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
In terms of getting your body to be in an optimal state, being in partnership (with your body) and having that communication and learning the language is really key.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Get in touch with Erin:
- Web – The Burch Method
- Erin on LinkedIn
Find out more about Erin:
Links to other related podcasts and or blog posts:
BUILT BY SOCIAL MEDIA – INT’L SPEAKER AND ENTREPRENEUR
BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND – WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE?
HOW TO BE IN OPTIMAL HEALTH FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE
Share your thoughts, comments
and post your questions below: