The following episode is a guide practice meant to accompany the previous episode. For context, please refer to the previous episode.

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Diaphragmatic breathing is a powerful tool to connect to our deep core and pelvic floor during the prenatal and postpartum periods...and beyond! Not only does it help strengthen and relax our deep abdominal muscles, it is a simple practice for managing stress as well.

Follow along Dr Samantha Quezet's guided practice for diaphragmatic breathing.

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Dr. Samantha Quézet is a highly esteemed chiropractor known for her profound expertise and dedication to promoting holistic health. Alongside her husband, she founded a holistic health practice committed to supporting families in the East Auckland community in New Zealand. In the past five months, she has gained recognition for her expertise in postnatal care, particularly in integrating Eastern postpartum healing practices such as Chinese confinement. Her extensive qualifications and compassionate approach have made her a trusted source of knowledge and support for mothers seeking comprehensive pre- and postnatal training solutions, as well as pediatric chiropractic care.

Connect with Dr Samantha Quezet:

https://www.instagram.com/squezetlee/

There is a drastic difference in postpartum care between the Eastern and Western cultures, in which we explore in this episode with Dr Samantha Quezet. In the East, there is an emphasis on nurturing the mother during the month-long postpartum period, whereas in the West, it is more DIY. Dr. Samantha Quezet shares her insights on the significance of prenatal and postnatal care, and personal experiences with postpartum confinement. The discussion highlights the need for a cultural shift in how we view motherhood and self-care, advocating for a more supportive environment for mothers.

Key takeaways:

• Eastern postpartum confinement practices provide essential support for recovery
• As a society, we need to mother the mother as well by providing strong supportive networks
• Why prenatal care, and even pre-pre natal care sets up our bodies for smoother postpartum recovery and beyond

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Dr. Samantha Quézet is a highly esteemed chiropractor known for her profound expertise and dedication to promoting holistic health. Alongside her husband, she founded a holistic health practice committed to supporting families in the East Auckland community in New Zealand. In the past five months, she has gained recognition for her expertise in postnatal care, particularly in integrating Eastern postpartum healing practices such as Chinese confinement. Her extensive qualifications and compassionate approach have made her a trusted source of knowledge and support for mothers seeking comprehensive pre- and postnatal training solutions, as well as pediatric chiropractic care.

Connect with Dr Samantha Quezet:

https://www.instagram.com/squezetlee/

***

Elaine Oyang is an IAYT-certified yoga therapist and a self-nurture advocate. Throughout her 12+ year of teaching yoga in studios and private practice, she works to help others restore balance in their bodies from their over-busy lives. She's worked many years in private practice to help clients through their journeys of chronic pain, chronic illness, anxiety, insomnia, and loss of sense of self. With her podcast, Sacred Listening, Elaine shares with a wider audience on her personal experience, and that of her clients', on how to reclaim self-care and self-love.

Connect with Elaine:

https://www.elaineyoga.com

https://www.instagram.com/elaine_yogatherapy/

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This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Information contained in this episode is not to be replaced with medical advice.

They say that motherhood changes your life, and we had expected it to, but we weren't prepared to the extent that the changes brought our lives. As we celebrate our baby girl's 1st birthday, I am reflecting on this whirlwind of a year full of extreme emotions, of being able to love so unconditionally, and on the self-nurture lessons I learned along the way.

LISTEN IN:

• The unconventional way of me realizing that I want to become a mother
• How becoming a mother is healing my wound
• My struggle with my identity in the first few months postpartum
• The science behind nurture, and why acts of self-nurture extends beyond just nourishing oneself

This is Part 2 of my episodes on my personal journey of Matrescence. Matrescence is the process, changes, and transformations that a person goes through during pregnancy, birth, postpartum period, and beyond. In Part 1, I share some details about how our baby girl came Earth side. In Part 2, I share my personal experiences thus far 1 year into motherhood.

Elaine Oyang is an IAYT-certified yoga therapist and a self-nurture advocate. Throughout her 12+ year of teaching yoga in studios and private practice, she works to help others restore balance in their bodies from their over-busy lives. She's worked many years in private practice to help clients through their journeys of chronic pain, chronic illness, anxiety, insomnia, and loss of sense of self. With her podcast, Sacred Listening, Elaine shares with a wider audience on her personal experience, and that of her clients', on how to reclaim self-care and self-love.

Connect with Elaine:

Website

Instagram

Email newsletter

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Information contained in this episode is not to be replaced with medical advice.

Our baby girl is turning one! In celebration of her 1 year birthday, I am sharing a glimpse into my pregnancy journey and birth experience, what I learned about self-nurture (and what it is NOT!) in the process of becoming a mother. To be honest, I struggled with a lot of disappointment and guilt for myself with the outcome of the birth experience, and I did a lot of inner work to turn myself around from that.

LISTEN IN to this episode on:

• My experiences on pregnancy, labor, and having had to transition to unplanned C-section
• Grief over not having had the birth experience I had envisioned
• Reframing my definition of self-nurture towards myself to resolve the disappointment around the unplanned C-section
• The importance of accepting the imperfect nature of self-nurture, that it is always an evolving relationship with yourself

This is Part 1 of my episodes on my personal journey of Matrescence. Matrescence is the process, changes, and transformations that a person goes through during pregnancy, birth, postpartum period, and beyond. In Part 1, I share some details about how our baby girl came Earth side and the self-nurture lesson I learned. In Part 2, I share my personal experiences thus far 1 year into motherhood.

Elaine Oyang is an IAYT-certified yoga therapist and a self-nurture advocate. Throughout her 12+ year of teaching yoga in studios and private practice, she works to help others restore balance in their bodies from their over-busy lives. She's worked many years in private practice to help clients through their journeys of chronic pain, chronic illness, anxiety, insomnia, and loss of sense of self. With her podcast, Sacred Listening, Elaine shares with a wider audience on her personal experience, and that of her clients', on how to reclaim self-care and self-love.

Connect with Elaine:

Website

Instagram

Email newsletter

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Information contained in this episode is not to be replaced with medical advice.

The following episode is a guide practice meant to accompany the previous episode. For context, please refer to the previous episode.

In Episode 21, our guest Heather Grzych concluded that if there was one thing she wished everyone could do for their own self-nurture, it would be to spend a few minutes of quiet contemplation or meditation as we watch the sun rise. In this episode, I've included a simple guided contemplation that I learned 14 years ago, and still use till this day, to start my mornings. Listen and practice along with this recording the first few times, then take it with you in your quiet mornings.

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Elaine Oyang is an IAYT-certified yoga therapist and a self-nurture advocate. Throughout her 12+ year of teaching yoga in studios and private practice, she works to help others restore balance in their bodies from their over-busy lives. She's worked many years in private practice to help clients through their journeys of chronic pain, chronic illness, anxiety, insomnia, and loss of sense of self. With her podcast, Sacred Listening, Elaine shares with a wider audience on her personal experience, and that of her clients', on how to reclaim self-care and self-love.

Connect with Elaine:

Website

Instagram

Email newsletter

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Information contained in this episode is not to be replaced with medical advice.

Fertility is an issue that usually doesn't cross a birthing person's mind until they are thinking about getting pregnant or having trouble getting pregnant. But fertility actually starts with a good foundation of not only healthy tissues, but also a healthy connection with one's body and oneself. Even though becoming pregnant is a very natural occurrence, the way we live our lives today is anything but natural, which can affect the health of our reproductive tissues, our hormonal balances, and the levels of toxins within our bodies, just to name a few. Caring for our reproductive health is, after all, self-nurture.

Today, I'm speaking with a friend of mine, and also someone I look up to, Heather Grzych, on the topic of fertility through Ayurveda lens. If you're not familiar with Ayurveda, it's a sister science of yoga, and we will be discussing it briefly during the episode, though it doesn't do it justice to the complex system of art and science that it is.

Key takeaways:

• Fertility begins with a healthy connection to one's body
• What is Ayurveda and its vital role in reproductive health
• Toxins in the environment can significantly impact fertility
• Women often feel disconnected from their bodies, which can lead to fertility issues
• Heather's suggestion for simple daily self-nurture to enhance self-awareness and agency

Heather Grzych, AD is an American author and expert in traditional Ayurvedic medicine who was formerly the head of product development for a multi-billion-dollar health insurance company. She is a board-certified at the Ayurvedic Doctor level in in the United States, serving on the faculty at Mount Madonna Institute College of Ayurveda and on the Board of Directors for the National Ayurvedic Medical Association. Heather's first book, The Ayurvedic Guide to Fertility, has sold thousands of copies worldwide, and her writing has been featured in Sports Illustrated, Yoga Journal, and the Sunday Independent. Her podcast, Wisdom of the Body, holds an average rating of 5 stars on Apple Podcasts. She's is currently working on a novel about one man's attempt to control the new world order. Visit her online at http://heathergrzych.com. 

Elaine Oyang is an IAYT-certified yoga therapist and a self-nurture advocate. Throughout her 12+ year of teaching yoga in studios and private practice, she works to help others restore balance in their bodies from their over-busy lives. She's worked many years in private practice to help clients through their journeys of chronic pain, chronic illness, anxiety, insomnia, and loss of sense of self. With her podcast, Sacred Listening, Elaine shares with a wider audience on her personal experience, and that of her clients', on how to reclaim self-care and self-love.

Connect with Elaine:

Website

Instagram

Email newsletter

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Information contained in this episode is not to be replaced with medical advice.

Elena Velez, the Founder/Director of Community Restorative Training (CRT), brings 18 years of experience as a Certified Medical Interpreter (CHI) to create a bilingual stress reduction wellness program for essential workers.

Her insights from community behavioral practices, learned through interpretation, fuel CRT's mission of offering simple stress reduction techniques to prevent workplace injuries.

With a background in bilingual environmental education, Elena extends her workshops to the Latino community, aiming to build a multicultural support network emphasizing empathy and mutual respect.

CRT's approach, rooted in neuroscience and neuroplasticity, focuses on facilitating lasting mental, emotional, and physical balance for participants, promoting a healthy and active lifestyle in the short and long term.

Connect with Elena:

Website

Email

***

For more restorative movement, yoga, and meditation practices, visit our CRT videos in English and Español.

When we think about the term "self-care," images of pampering retreats, luxurious spas, expensive bedsheets, an exclusive gyms flash before our minds. Self-care has become a commodified term and activity, and oftentimes attainable by niched demographic and socioeconomic classes.

Because of this, I will be using the term "self-nurture" from here on out, to differentiate between commodified self-care and deep self-nurture that comes from within.

People of color and marginalized communities, who face a disproportionate amount of societal stress and burden, are often the ones who need self-nurture the most. But because of the economy around self-care, it is inaccessible to them, let alone enough time for themselves to think about how they can care for and nurture themselves.

That is why, today, I asked Elena Velez, founder and director of Community Restorative Training, to be here with us today to speak on this very important mission she is on — to educate and bring accessibility of self-nurture to marginalized communities.

Elena and I met almost 10 years ago when I used to teach a weekly chair yoga class at a pain clinic. Since the outpatients at this clinic is disproportionately Hispanic, Elena served as one of the medical interpreters. Since then, we have collaborated together to help Elena bring her vision to life.

***

Elena Velez, the Founder/Director of Community Restorative Training (CRT), brings 18 years of experience as a Certified Medical Interpreter (CHI) to create a bilingual stress reduction wellness program for essential workers.

Her insights from community behavioral practices, learned through interpretation, fuel CRT's mission of offering simple stress reduction techniques to prevent workplace injuries.

With a background in bilingual environmental education, Elena extends her workshops to the Latino community, aiming to build a multicultural support network emphasizing empathy and mutual respect.

CRT's approach, rooted in neuroscience and neuroplasticity, focuses on facilitating lasting mental, emotional, and physical balance for participants, promoting a healthy and active lifestyle in the short and long term.

Connect with Elena:

Website

Email

***

Elaine Oyang is an IAYT-certified yoga therapist and a self-nurture advocate. Throughout her 12+ year of teaching yoga in studios and private practice, she works to help others restore balance in their bodies from their over-busy lives. She's worked many years in private practice to help clients through their journeys of chronic pain, chronic illness, anxiety, insomnia, and loss of sense of self. With her podcast, Sacred Listening, Elaine shares with a wider audience on her personal experience, and that of her clients', on how to reclaim self-care and self-love.

Connect with Elaine:

Website

Instagram

Email newsletter

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Information contained in this episode is not to be replaced with medical advice.