Welcome And Why Breath Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Hello, hello everyone, and happy beauty of reading with Katri saying hello to everybody. She's very excited that we're going live and she started decided to start barking. Capri, come here. How are you doing today, Megan? Doing excellent, honey. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much for being here. So I'm gonna go ahead and introduce you and then I'll talk about the topic and we'll start. So today we're excited to welcome Megan McKenzie, a transformational coach, breath work facilitator, and speaker who helps women move beyond survival and intentionally create a life that they love. After experiencing profound personal loss, postpartum depression, and reaching what she describes as her own rock bottom, Megan discovered the transformative power of breath, the nervous system, and post-traumatic growth. Today, through her work with a connected woman, she combines coaching, mindset work, and hypno-breath work to help women release old patterns, reconnect with what they truly want, and create a future guided by purpose rather than their past. Today we're going to explore the connection between breath, the nervous system, and our ability to move through difficult experiences, not simply to survive them, but to grow from them. Megan, welcome to the beauty of breathing. Today's topic is turning pain into wisdom, the role of breath in post-traumatic growth. How are you? I'm so good.

Megan’s Losses And Early Healing

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I'm happy to be here and to connect with you. Can you talk to us a little bit about your story first and what got you to opening the connected woman? Yes. I've feel like I've lived many lives, I as I'm sure a lot of us can relate. But my story really started back when I was 12, my when my father first passed away as suicide. And that was a really pinnacle point in my life where I went through something really tragic, but simultaneously, I had two huge influences that just like changed my life completely. I had a woman step in at that time who was teaching me a healing modality at like at that time was so unknown that it was um considered witchcraft. Today we call it Reiki. Just like give some time here. And then my cousin also came in and he was talking to me and teaching me things like black holes and like Shakespeare and Leonardo da Vinci and the power of like asking really good questions. So at 12 years old, I was like my my world opened. Is that how old you are? Yeah, I was 12. So I had these all these influences. I had like this cocktail that taught me like, oh yes, there is tragedy and misery and heartbreak. And there's also great healing and growth available to us too. So then I just started to consume like as much self-help as I possibly could. Wow. At that age, that's insane. That age, yeah. And we didn't have like like TikTok and yeah, wherever we find things now. Like I was grabbing books and finding seminars and whatever I could find, right? And then my mother passed away a suicide. How long after? Yeah, I was 21 and pregnant. Wow. Yeah. And that's when I realized I slowed down and I realized I can't just consume self-help information. I have to, I have to actually embody it. And then, you know, I had my son um seven years ago, and I had postpartum. And then probably five years ago, I was standing in my kitchen, and this is where like things really took off for me. I was standing in my kitchen and I was so what I call soul hungry. I was like, I I need something. Like there's got to be more for me in this life. Like I know there's more. Like, what is there? And then up popped on my up popped up on my phone, like as I was just like really in it and asking for more, was this event out in Austin, Texas called Fit Service. Oh, when you ask, when you ask with all of your heart, that's when God hears. It yeah, it delivered. And I was and it took a lot like for me to like come up with the finances. Like it was a big stretch. It wasn't like this convenient thing. It never is like when you change your life. It was like I had to like figure out how to get there. It felt right, right? And it felt risky, but I took the risk, right? I took the jump, the leap of faith, and I showed up. And

Finding Breathwork And Taking The Leap

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that's when I was introduced to breath work. And that's when I realized like I was in the right place. Like me and Breathwork like belonged together. People, I was in a room full of like 50 plus people, or not it, and they were like screaming, crying, and roaring, and they were all having like they were just letting all of this out. And I realized like the mask was off, like you could no longer hide, right? People were letting out all of the things that were inside of them that they've been carrying around, or like even laughter, all of it, it was just able to come out in a safe place, safe in your safe place, yeah. So that was a really profound experience for me. And when I came home, when I came home, I told all my friends about breath work. I was like, have you back in at the time? This was only what five years ago. I feel like breath work took off really fast. So nobody at the time was like really knew about breath work or had done it. And I was telling all my friends about it, and they're like, I want whatever you had, and like, yeah, you do. And it's crazy because it's just normal breathing. We are just so dysfunctionally breathing right now that we have really lost ourselves. And if people realized how simple this is, and how everything in the environment today, with social media, with our lifestyles, with our caffeine intake, with our lack of sleep is really affecting, negatively affecting uh the way that we breathe. And whenever we come together and just rest and sit with ourselves and know where we are in space and slow down, all of a sudden we can't.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Oh, you froze. There you are.

Why Women Lose Their Power

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Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

I heard slow down is where what do you think women are mo most disconnected from today?

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Their power.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

To me, that's clear as day. Is their power? So many women are incredibly capable of taking care of everyone else, but have lost touch with what they actually want. Why do you think that happens? I think there's a couple of layers to it. I feel like it's what we've been taught and sold on how to be, how to do, how to act. And then just what we've picked up along the way, what we've accumulated as in our personal lives as we've grown, right? The belief system, like we're not good enough, we're not worthy, I'm not capable, right? And then that's what we live out. But if we only knew just how capable and powerful we are, like I get a front row seat to women, to people waking up to that and stepping into it, and it's the most remarkable thing. Um, so many women. Uh, or you talk about moving women from survival mode mode to intentional

Spotting Survival Mode And How To Stop

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living. What does survival mode actually look like in everyday life and how might someone recognize that they're living there? Yeah, that's a really good question. When you survival mode is short-sighted, like you're only like day to day, like you're just trying to get through the day. And when you have a dream and you're thinking a dream is a luxury, that's when you know when you're when you're in survival mode. When you're in survival mode, like you you can't dare to dream because the dream seems impossible. You're just trying to get through the day. Oh my goodness. And so many of us are dealing through that right now. Um, what is the first thing that you would recommend to women who find themselves in S-Pot right now? The best thing that I've seen personally and professionally is to just stop. Stop all of the doing, all of the trying. It starts when you're able to just sit with yourself. Not just sit on, like, obviously, not sit on the couch and meditate. Not it's not even, I mean, sorry, sit and scroll, not even meditation. Like, I'm talking about just like sitting with yourself and just feeling what comes up first. Like acknowledging all of the things that you've been trying to not feel and distract yourself from or numb yourself from, sitting with it, allow it to come up and then get curious. Like, why am I like this? Why am I feeling like that? And start to ask those deeper questions. That curiosity is then going to lead you to someplace really profound and beautiful. Um, when you look back now, what do you understand about that version of yourself that you couldn't see at the time?

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I wish that I knew that there was more available to me.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Like I I only, I mean, obviously, I must say, like, I only knew what I knew. I only knew my current reality. I only knew my own belief system. I didn't know that I had wiggle room in what I believed. I didn't know I had wiggle room and what I was able to create beyond what I thought I could only create. So it's creating a life based on what I think I could have, not what I really deeply truly wanted. And that's what I want to help women tap into, not what they think they can have, which is much smaller than what lives in their heart, you know. If it lives in your heart, it's there for a reason. God put it there. He's calling you.

Faith Calling And She's Called

SPEAKER_01 11:44

I actually have uh another group that is called She Is Called. And it was something that got put in my heart when I was in um Israel last year. I went to Jerusalem and we were in the bus, the whole group, there was 250 of us. Uh, and actually it was during the war, so we couldn't even go in to Israel. So we went, it was a 10-day retreat, uh Christian retreat, and we did um Egypt first, and for the whole point of us leaving Egypt and leaving everything behind, it was so powerful. And then since we couldn't go into Israel yet, we went to Jordan for a day. And but the whole time we kept saying, We know we're gonna be able to go in, we know we're gonna be able to go in, and then they opened the doors, the door the war stopped and they opened the doors. We were the first tourists to go in into Israel, which was magical. Um, because usually those, of course, those sites are always very crowded, and you have literally five minutes to walk through. So, since we were the only ones there, um they would open the sites for us and we would sit and worship for like an hour, two hours. We just sit in these places, and it was just, it was just so incredible, such a beautiful experience. But whenever I was in Jerusalem, God put in my heart to start this group that is called She's Called. And it's really just a place for women who feel called by the Holy Spirit, called to be um something bigger and to be able to serve other women because of everything that they've been through. You know, God gives us all of these trials in life, and the whole purpose is for us to learn through them. So now we have the remedy. Now we know how to get through them and we can help other people. Everything that God puts in our heart is for to serve others. So if anybody's interested in that, I have an Instagram. Not its own, yes, I do have an Instagram. It's called She's Called Official. You can look us up. And then I also have a WhatsApp group that we put prayers, we kind of help each other, we fast together. We're doing a 21 Daniels fast right now, which is extremely powerful. Uh, and in the middle of each fast, there's meditation on the words, so there's there's breath work that it goes with it, which goes right in hand with myofunctional

Nervous System Stress And Breathing Patterns

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therapy. Um, let's talk a little bit about the nervous system. What actually happens in our bodies when we've been living in stress or survival mode for a long time? I mean, you've got the chemical cocktail, and you're also running off the leaf systems, too, where you're create you're creating the the that fear that like that's all you're able to see. Like we our brain takes in so much information, but it filters out like 0.0001. Like that's what we consciously are able to pick up. So when you are in fear, when you're in a lot of stress, like you're just gonna pick up more of that and create more of that. And then on the flip side, too, like when you're able to calm the nervous system down, then you're able to start pick up um, you're able to start to see or grab those opportunities or make those connections that are able to then expand and heal your life. I love that. How does chronic stress change the way that we breathe? And can our breathing patterns then reinforce that state? Yeah, you're in a much shallow state of breathing. So the mind, so I'm really working with both the mind and the body together. So when the the breath is shallow, right? The mind is in stress, or if the mind is stressed, then the breath is shallow. So we can override those two by deepening the breath. I learned something recently too. And like if you look at the nose without just the skull, like we have no nose. We just have like the hull, right? So when we breathe naturally, we just kind of breathe up. But if you breathe back, you activate the diaphragm more. I've never heard it explained that way. I like it. Really interesting. It's a very, it's a slight experience, different experience. And it's just gonna drop you. Like I feel a little bit more. Yeah. Just from like the power of one breath. It's really phenomenal. Wow. Can you um can our breath actually communicate safety to our nervous system? 100%. Like that's uh you can, yeah, you have that ability to override, right? So I just took one breath, right? We can override our current state. I was on stage one time. So public speaking is something that is very difficult for me or has been, but I always have to grab a hold of my breath. And then in real time, like on stages or when I'm speaking, even podcasts, like I'm able to like watch people like like watch me just settle down by easing breath in real time. That's amazing. And we I teach all of my patients before we start any myofunctional therapy exercise to do a deep breath in. In through your nose, and this time out of your nose. That is the the right way for you to get nitric oxide. It goes in, comes from your perinasal sinuses and it goes into uh, you know, it's antiviral, antibacteria, antifungal, it's a vasodilator, it's so beneficial, anti-inflammatory, so beneficial for your body, but it only happens when you exhale through your nose. So very important for those listening, in through your nose and out of your nose whenever you're meditating or practicing your breath work. Uh, and actually, you just, if you're at rest, it should be breathing in and out of your nose. Um and the reason why I ask them to do that is to just center themselves, to kind of calm themselves. Uh, in our world, we usually explain if you look at a dog and a dog is mad, what is it gonna look like? You know, like it's gonna be the the back is gonna be tall and it's gonna be, you know, super tense. Now, what would it look like if this dog was super scared? You know, it would be crunched over. So think about also those positions of our our own bodies. What do we communicate when our shoulders are rolled forward and we are sitting in a slouched position? You know, you can be as happy as you can be, but you're not gonna look happy. Um, and what does a happy dog look like? Their tails wagging and they're, you know, perked up. And um the same thing if our shoulders are back and we're breathing correctly, we're not hyperventilating because we can't breathe well.

Hypno Breathwork And Releasing Old Beliefs

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Uh, that all it's a you know, a card and a communication, the entrance card for anybody looking at you before they even speak to you, you're communicating through your breath. Um, you talk about using hypno breath work to help women release inherited patterns and fears. What kinds of patterns are we carrying that we may not even realize that aren't ours? Yeah. I mean, there's we pick up a lot of things through, first, I mean, the you know, traumas and limiting beliefs and programmings, or you know, someone said something to you on the playground and you've stored it and you believed it, and then you're playing it out, right? So the breath is so intelligent, I like to say, at bringing you to exactly the thing that needs to be addressed and released. So even if a client or someone comes in to me and they're like really they're they're wanting to come in and discuss maybe something with their their personal or the relationship with like their spouse or something. But they just had like this big stressful thing with their boss. They come in, it doesn't matter where where I'm guiding them, if it's all like on the relationship, their breath is gonna go right to the boss, and it's going like that's what's gonna come up through those sessions, and that's what's gonna be released. Uh, it's the breath is so unsuspecting and how powerful it is. I love introducing people to breath work because they're like, we're just breathing, like what they deal. If they only knew. But what happens whenever in the moment and the breath work brings emotions and memories and sensations to the service? Yeah, how should someone work with those experiences rather than becoming uh overwhelmed by them?

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Because it can be intense.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Like you meant, and in the room, everybody crying and you know, screaming and and laughing. You're not going to like so the nervous system too is beautiful in the way it's not going to like override you into a stage it can be overwhelming, but you're still safe. Um, like the emotions are going to come up. And that's part of the point is to let them come up to they can be released so you don't have to carry it around anymore. Um, like in breath, like you're not you're not in a state of like hyperventilation, like where you're stressing out. Like you're working with the nervous system and the subconscious programmings and beliefs, and they're they're coming out to be released. Like the breath will guide you to what needs to be released. So it's it's just intelligent in that way. I trust the breath, I trust people's bodies and their nervous system, and they're trusting my guidance.

Turning Trauma Into Growth

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Can you talk to us a little bit about the post-traumatic growth and moving past what happened, or maybe developing completely a different relationship with what happened? How were you able to overcome losing both of your parents at such a young age?

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

Um my wife, um their passing was very tragic, right? And traumatic. But where I stand today is that I say that their tragedy is ultimately the greatest gift of my life. Or it went one of the greatest gifts because it gave me a second chance at life. So um I a lot of other professionals when I was younger told me that I was at great risk of doing this myself. And wow, yeah. So that was not like so. Then I yeah. Then I developed this fear that I was going to do that. I've never really had any sort of those kind of thoughts. Or yeah. I mean, a postpartum, it was like it started to get dark, but I wasn't there yet. Um, so I carried this belief that I was going to end up like them. So I did, so I did a lot of work. Um, instead of bypassing it, it was like I wanted to root so deeply into this life. I didn't want to leave it by my own hands. And breath work really helped me move just what was stored and stuck in the fear. It was able to finally move out of my system and things that were in like the back of my mind and my subconscious that I didn't even know was there. I didn't know that I had I wasn't conscious, fully conscious. I had a fear of passing like my parents. Yes. Not until like, but so I was like living out this like trying to prevent this thing from happening. Um, but working with it, like now I'm I feel more free. I feel more light, I feel more in love with life, more connected to myself. And I couldn't have gotten here without going through the hard stuff and then also going through the healing. Like I know I would not be who I am today without those two things, and I'm so grateful ultimately. Wow, that's beautiful. Thank you for sharing. I know that a lot of people have dealt with similar things, and that's really, really done touch their heart.

Sisterhood Daily Breath Anchors And Hope

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Your work also emphasizes sisterhood and connection with other women. Why is being witnessed, supported, and understood by other women such a powerful part of growth? We all say the same thing. When women gather, it's there's one word that always comes up, and it's it's magic. There's something magical about women gathering. Like we've we we have this beautiful way of creating such a safe space and the playfulness and that just comes so quickly. Um, I was recently at a women's retreat, and we were on like a campground. So we had there was like some young men that were like tending to the land, and they were watching us like after 24 hours dancing together and singing. They're like, oh, so you guys all know each other for a while. And I'm like, yep, that right. So there's some we just when we're in a safe space, when women are in a safe space and we gather, there's just so much healing with that alone, right? We don't even have to do the the deep work. We just the healing comes just by gathering in a safe place and people women leave and they're just like, wow, I really needed that. Oh, I love it. Yes, 100%. There's a retreat happening in upstate New York, beginning of October. It's the breathe retreat. Um, with this incredible image on one of the speakers, but it's gonna be all airway and of course healing and going through all of the things ourselves. So I'm super excited for it. Um, for someone listening who feels overwhelmed, disconnected, or stuff today, what is one simple way they can use their breath to shift their state? So, this is a practice that I use and I have my clients use as well. I think what gets lost, like the big breath work sessions are really great at their heady lifters. I like to say they pack a punch and deliver on their promise. But it's the moment by moment throughout the day that we miss. Where like in the morning and you sit up, take a deep breath. When you get in the car, before you put that thing and drive, take a deep breath. When you step into the shower, right? All those moments, right? Have those markers. So I like any, I say anytime you touch a door handle, take a deep breath. I want right anytime there's like a transition, because like it's easier in those trans transition moments because you're not busy trying to like do something. Like you're just you're you've got a little bit of open space with the mind, and you just take a breath. So it's that compound effect. It's one moment after the other, one breath after the other, where you're then you're lessening the load. So then you don't have to take those big heavy hitters all the time with you know, those big healing things. You can just throughout the day, take one conscious breath, as many moments as you can remember throughout the day. I love it. So many people are thinking, well, this is just who I am. I can't change. What would you say to them? Is there hope? That belief feels real. I'm gonna acknowledge that, right? Like, that's a very real feeling, but it's not the truth. That's not the truth of who you are. Like, and that's part of my work and my message that like there is more for you available, even if you don't feel like it is. And when you work with the subconscious, when you work with belief systems and thought patterns, you can then start to create a little wiggle room where you're like, you know what? I now have proof that I changed, right? And if you don't believe you can look at other people that have grown exponentially, you are no different, you are just as capable, right? Um, how did becoming a mother change the way you understood your own nervous system and capacity? I was actually on a hike with my girlfriend yesterday, and we both have two kids. And they're this and we have we have uh younger kids and older kids, and of course, we're we're carrying a lot, and I'm like, this seems rather like you know, what is it? We're like um I'm drawing up blank on the word, but like we're we're carrying a big load. And I said to her, I'm like, you know, motherhood has really taught me how strong, capable I am, and we just laugh. So I mean, I don't know again, like we we we have these experiences that can teach us, and I don't think I would have gone after my career like I have without being becoming a mother. Like I didn't realize the depth of love I can have in me and how strong and capable I am. Because I had to be, right? There's you don't, even if you're burnt out, you're like, wow, I can still show up. I still made it happen. I may be tired, but I still showed up. 100%. Um, after everything you've experienced and everything you've learned, what does being a connected woman mean to you now? The connected woman is the woman who's connected to herself and her dream and the world at large. So showing up to what is in our hearts, showing up for life. Like I'm connected to myself, I'm connected to my dream, and I'm gonna do everything in my power to see it through. Oh, I love it.

Rapid Fire And Breath As Prayer

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Now we're gonna do a little fun rapid fire. I am going to start a sentence and you have to finish with the first thing that comes to your mind. Okay, all right. Your breath is the gateway to your power. Very good. When you feel overwhelmed, start by slowing down and taking one slow deep breath. I love that. Living in survival mode can look like only being able to live for the day and not tomorrow. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Healing doesn't mean it doesn't mean that it'll last forever.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Uh post-traumatic growth is growing exponentially because of the very thing that you went through. Oh my god, it goes pumps now. The biggest misconception about breath work is it doesn't work. If you want to reconnect with yourself, start with sitting down with no distractions and just listen and get curious. And to end this, somebody actually, a beautiful life 96, just posted on Instagram and she she said, Did you know that you uh Yahweh mimics the sound of human breathing? You know, in the Bible it says that God breathed life into us. That is the only way that we're able to breathe. And he did um um he did uh show me one time that there are so many people walking around dead and they have no idea that they have no more life in them. And of course, I believe that there's that there is one way that you can find that and and and and get that spark back. But this is so interesting if you say the sounds of Yahweh slowly. It's actually the sound of breath. So he's it's his name, it's life, and it's just beautiful. Thank you for sharing that uh with us today. Make sure we don't have

Where To Follow And Final Thanks

SPEAKER_01 32:26

any questions. Alrighty, everybody. That was so beautiful and so beneficial to all of our audience. Thank you so much. It's gonna be out next Tuesday, guys. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at MayaMoves. And what is your Instagram? How can they find you? You can find me at the connected woman. So the period connected period woman. Perfect. Well, thank you so much, Megan, for being with us today. That was beautiful. Thanks, everybody. Have a great day.