The Mind-Body Connection: Unlocking Healing Through Energy Work

Ready to explore the fascinating intersection of mental health and physical well-being? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Ryan Shroyer of Holisticare Bodyworks, a massage therapist with a passion for energy work. Ryan shares his journey from feeling lost and depressed to discovering the power of healing through modalities like Reiki and CranioSacral Therapy.

• [01:25] Discover how trauma, grief, and emotions can become trapped in the body, leading to physical pain and tension.
• [06:39] Ryan reveals the science behind energy work, highlighting the interconnectedness of our physical, emotional, and spiritual selves.
• [13:11] Gain practical insights into how you can tap into your own energy centers, unlock healing, and experience greater balance in your life.
• [20:04] This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking to understand the profound impact of energy work on mental health.

Key Takeaways:

• The profound influence of the mind-body connection on overall well-being
• How trauma and emotions can manifest as physical pain and tension
• Understanding the science behind energy work and its impact on healing
• Practical tips for tapping into your own energy centers and unlocking healing
• The importance of finding support and resources on your mental health journey

Don't miss this opportunity to learn from an expert in energy work and gain a deeper understanding of the mind-body connection. Subscribe now and share this episode with anyone seeking a holistic approach to mental health.

Transcript

0:42

I am so in uh excited to introduce Ryan he is my personal massage therapist but we are gonna talk about mental health as it relates to the physical body not just in in typical massage but in all of the energy work around massage and how the body is this you know emotional spiritual energetic being so I'm so excited to interview you today tell us introduce yourself professionally like your credentials and kind of who you are as a professional fantastic well thank you for having me Cristi I'm so happy to be here thank you thank you and yeah you know my story goes back to college days I thought it was gonna be a pharmacist actually okay I was going to the almost made to the college of pharmacy and this is in Wyoming and Wyoming just kind of went against the grain of who I was as a person you know I'm all about the hippie like you know like yeah rainbows and butterflies and like hey what's this cowboy boots and like dancing and Rodeo nonsense I don't know anything about this so it was a culture shift going in there like a culture shock um and then going into that I did find my own group that I could connect with and that group I actually ended up trying out psychedelic medicine in this case it was the form psilocybin so my journey began actually with a mushroom trip okay and was there mental health concern like were you depressed anxious just kind of a a midlife or early life kind of adjustment like trying to figure out who you are yeah you know it's funny you said that cause I've never actually been asked that or reflected it in that manner but in that case I was like I was lost in life I did have some depression my grades were down in school um I didn't know where I was going and what direction and um I was trying to find my people and I couldn't so my lack of connection and my environment and my surroundings wasn't there and so you know I would say I did come from that place going into that journey so looking for some type of healing some type of connection some type of greater higher guidance yeah and did you do prep work prior to or was it kind of a impulsive decision this is more of a impulsive decision in a college setting as you can imagine yeah exactly so there was no like ritual or ceremony or let's let's let's do some prep work into this this was just a we're gonna go to Vieta Vu Park and we're gonna see we're gonna take some mushrooms and we're gonna see what happens I'll just stop right there just for the audience um it is all about embracing the journey and I think this is a great story there's just some contraindications if you're on antidepressants or any other psychotropic medications that's medications that go into your brain um you need to speak to a doctor before um doing any kind of psychedelic medicine absolutely well now that that you know boring stuff is tell us about just the experience overall hmm so the experience was great it was beautiful day if you guys haven't been to Vieta View it's a beautiful park um it was a great way to connect with nature and so anytime going forward after that um I always found nature to be my sanctuary nature is the place where I can relax rejuvenate rejuvenate let go and if I do any sort of psychedelic journeying I will I will do it in nature um and so this experience particularly pointed to me in my life path and it was I basically just heard a voice and I couldn't identify who it was where it came from it just said you're on the wrong path I was like oh okay and I didn't like this one anyway thank you for proving what I already know yeah now what do I do right so basically at that time I had some friends growing up even since kindergarten this particular friend he uh had a interest in a YouTube channel called Spirit Science and this guy does a really good job of honing in on how on the animation style around what is astral projection what is chakras what is your astral field what is anything that's like spiritual related he breaks it down with an animation and very fun YouTube animations okay so I have to follow that hundred percent yeah I so recommend him and I still recommend him for people starting out in their spiritual journey because he just does a really good job breaking it down with visuals yeah um so at that time just after that he introduced me to him I watched all these animations and I'm like wow there's a whole other world to explore like I'm more than just my physical body all these things I was feeling on my psychedelic journey like these are all things that I can start to name now like I know what it is that I'm feeling and he kind of gave me verbage to help me identify what I was feeling inside um and so after diving in there and finding out that nobody else around me there identified with that spiritual path I looked around and sure enough UCCS actually had the program I was looking for long story short okay so I ended up going to UCCS and getting a hell science degree okay and so um and were you able to learn in an academic setting some of the science behind energy work cause I think I probably have a lot of followers that are just like energy work is just spiritual and they don't realize that there's a lot of actual science of of the atoms and how you know they produce energy and how this field is is you know has some distance from your physical body yes um we able to learn some of those things yes in a college setting in a college setting no okay did not teach you those things it did not I'm very grateful for that education but they didn't teach the esoteric the quantum physics aspects of our quantum self right yeah absolutely so that was more of a this is how you do exercises and stretches and nutrition and like the third dimensional physical aspects of our being is very important right we do have to eat we have to know what we're eating what we're putting in our body and all the stretches and exercises that is important we have to move our body that's so important so connecting with my body it like the education to help me connect with my body on the physical level was very well firmed from I'm grateful for that for ECCS he got then fast forwarding that's when I did massage school and so cause to massage therapy I holler at them yes yes that's where I met you okay yes and yeah just education there is just phenomenal and it gives you a license to touch which is it which is the big thing in kind of energy practitioners if you don't have a license to touch then it you know kind of gets complicated correct yeah exactly yeah the license to touch is actually the one of the main reasons why I took on massage therapy cause it's a broad hands on body work uh huh uh and then any type of body work you can branch out to different directions granny you say girl time massage reki all the things that you would like to do hands on work at least I have a foundation and a license yeah yeah so that's exactly you hit it on the head um so yeah it's 11 month program it was fantastic and then from there uh Reiki was my first energy modality okay yeah talk to us about Reiki I think most people have heard the word maybe not experienced it but that's kind of a word that a lot of people associate with oh that's energy work so tell us just a little bit about the science of Reiki yes absolutely so Ray so Reiki is broken down in Japanese from re is heaven key is energy so heaven energy what we're doing is we are conduits we are channels we are in a neutral space bringing down this heaven energy and we call that specific frequency of energy Reiki this particular uh energy was brought to us um by um so the hold on a second yeah the details of names are not yeah important as um just like what and and I love what you just said and I didn't even know the actual breakdown of the definition of the name Reiki but we don't talk about this of this spiritual connection with something else and in our culture we've tried to really separate that um even in more traditional modalities of a church they it's more academic or learning like this you know these are the history of it and this is what you should believe without the the actual that there's actual energy between us and this entity we're 99% energy and we don't even talk about it we're 1% matter and 99% energy and like haha quantum physics says so and it's like you know what and that's why I love body work and it focuses uh there's lots of things that come up in a session right even when I think I'm just working on the three dimensional human body there's also other things at play even in the background in the clients processing I'm not even aware of as the practitioner yeah so you know you I just be working on a rhomboid and then all of a sudden an emotional release happens and you're like oh I wasn't planning on it but I'm just gonna hold space we're gonna let this go through and the rhomboid releases now explain that I don't know what rhomboid yeah so rhomboid is the muscle yeah rhomboid the muscle okay the muscle rhomboid yes do people typically hold energy there or trauma there yeah I so um think not necessarily in the rhomboid itself okay but let's think about the organ that's in front of the rhomboid which would be the heart so what I find is that you know the heart in the chakra sense is actually three dimensional when we look at a chakra it's expands in a three dimensional circle around us people think of it as just all put my hand here it's just a vortex coming out this way but it's a vortex of energy that comes from the back to the front and comes out both directions and comes in a field yeah and um and we called that a torroidial field so there's a whole torridial field around your body and then a field around each chakra and so if that chakra gets blocked a good example would be grief actually and so you know I was gonna say yeah most of my work has been because of this like I'm unconsciously protecting my heart the Sarpa is in pain and I have to do a lot of like opening work car openers yeah yes exactly we have the the forward shoulder posture which we think of as desk jobs but then also consider the emotional aspect there are people that are covering and you know uh they're trying to protect like you said and so that I noticed that in their posture I'm like okay this is this could be a sign here and sure enough that that when that energy gets stuck in the heart that can manifest in the front of the body or the back and so what I'll notice is that you know someone will come in for a session I work on their back the next session that same spot I already worked out is already tight again and I'm like what happened here is there a pattern in your movement is it an emotional issue and um I almost everything is an emotional issue or and so this is why I wanted to talk to you about how this relates to mental health right and if you I think oftentimes people are kind of grasping like what can I do to help myself and they might go to an energy practitioner or go to massage but if you don't go in with some sort of insight and intention yes and then having some awareness of what just happened like oh I release that um I I've done enough self work I know what's happening and then I can able to process that for a long period of time um but I think a lot of times you know people going and well I did a few sessions and they didn't fix it I'm still depressed or I'm still anxious and it could be 20 years of micro trauma or you know 20 years of of the stressors that you can only release a little bit at a time um and so my goal and and having these conversations is like that insight into yes energy work can be great um it it's going to maximize if you go in with some insight and tension and be working through those things so that you're not back at the same place the next time you go right exactly exactly it's so important and you know it's something that I would even it's something that I should talk about more in a self care program like do you do any meditations I'm talking about stretches and exercises so you can strengthen these muscles and stretch these muscles to get posture back but it's like at the end of the day if it's an emotional thing tap into that center and it's like you know there have been many times where people come in with back pain but it's not the pain that I can as a practitioner help alleviate because it is an internal processing right it's something that the client themselves has to go through and I can hold space for that process um to unfold and um for example uh Reiki is good for that Reiki I am just you know sending energy and allowing whatever needs to happen with that energy in the person's body to unfold naturally and that's great and then another uh it's it's uh so cranio sacral work is the next one and I'm careful in the way I say it because some people brush cranio sacral off as woo woo just like Reiki right woo woo yeah we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna stay in this woo woo space for a minute because like you said we're 99% energy and there you go um your emotions and your grief and your trauma gets stuck in this energy and it will manifest I was talking about if you don't process your grief process your trauma it will manifest in physical symptoms absolutely I see it all the time and so with cranio sacral work this is more very gentle work we use around 5 grams of pressure and that's just the weight of a nickel and what we're doing is we're just you know tuning into that space allowing the fascia to naturally release and what we find is that the fascia tends to hold a lot of our emotions a lot of our um memory you know the body keeps the score right so the body will hold on to that pattern that happened in that previous event and we're holding space for allow to allow that an event to unravel itself the way it's supposed to to heal yeah right and so uh kind of cycles another tool I my toolbox to hold space for the emotions to release and amazing things have happened yeah yeah absolutely and have you been trained in the quantum there's I know there's different techniques within that I have personally seen a practitioner where he can tell me like I can give the physical symptom and we and I can say I think this is related to you know my husband but I don't know and then we can kind of like he can test that energy and kind of really get to the root of what that emotional block is yes and that was part of when I was gonna say the craniosic rules there's something called uh therapeutic imagery and dialogue okay and so dialogue I can be that neutral perspective from a higher neutral perspective on okay you're experiencing grief what is it you're feeling oh my dad's coming up my husband's coming okay um what does he have to say to you you know those types of dialogue and things it's like you know maybe fill in the blank on whatever traumatic experience happened in your life and I can dot help verbally you know reconcile what it is that you're feeling within yourself and to allow that to unfold naturally in your body and it's like you know if there's grief then what would be the opposite to grief what would be the opposite emotion to grief love connection right things like that and so it's like how can I bring that love and connection into the healing and be that neutral space for that to start to yeah I was gonna answer gratitude a gratitude absolutely you know and for me and losing children I'm not grateful that I lost my children right but I would not even if I was told prior to having children you're going to have them for a short period of time and you are going to lose them I would not give up the time that I had to not have the pain right like so the gratitude for the time that I had was a huge you know it was a huge spiritual journey obviously and just um and in the word gratitude can sometimes be a trigger like you know um when they when you have so much pain in your life you're like no I'm not gonna be grateful for that but like reframing what are you grateful for not not minimizing the pain because the pain is still there um but all of that is energy and this is what people you know mental health is energy I mean you know it's spiritual it's um and then you know things get blocked exactly yeah yes and um you know I have a spiritual mentor and she would say you know if you release that energy that means there's a void there so let's think about ways we can fill that void so gratitude to be the best example right so I released all these trapped emotions the fear the anger the grief and now there's a void there where the fear grief and anger was so what do I fill that in with you know my teacher just say we'll just connect to light you know collect connect to source and then just allow that high energy to come into you you could connect to gratitude whatever it is that helps you um fill that void after it left you yeah yeah I like the way you say that I I often say like with with trauma you process and release with grief you process and cherish yeah um yeah but let's let's talk about trauma um and how energy we you know we talked about the book the body keeps the score this is like the great I mean there's science in it it's not it's not woo woo right it's very clearly this is science and the very difficult things that you have experienced um have imprinted have a uh imprint in your body um and so when you release trauma what do you fill that with like uh you know is there specific techniques around that or hmm so like what are you asking like what is the energy that I fill myself with after I release trauma and you know I think that's gonna vary for everybody right and it depends on the type of trauma which hot which Chakra was connected to it um you know um and so if there's maybe let's just say fear fear is connected to the root chakra so if my if I'm afraid and I don't feel safe in my environment like I'm getting beaten I'm getting you know um I don't feel safe where I'm at there's too many drugs whatever it is right and uh that means my root chakra my chakra of safety is gonna be blocked and so what I can do is say you know hopefully get out of that environment that's the first step right our environment does affect the way we go throughout our world so you know first things first but then once you're in that safe space you can allow that chakra to unwind and then from there what would be the opposite of fear would be safe or an energy similar to that right um there's there yeah there is like um like Jodispens it is a really good job do you know Jodispens yeah okay so I love referencing yeah he is I bet yeah he he really is the guru in the space so you know I read you know his book Becoming Supernatural and there's like you know a whole list of different frequencies the highest frequency being bliss gratitude love and then you go all the way down to fear which is the lowest and so what we're trying to do is fill in a frequency that is one of those higher frequencies that says okay I feel safe now nothing to worry about you know those things along that line and then that's an energy like that is what I would yeah it depends right well then I like what you said with um let's just go up the chakras right like cause that first piece is safety and we talk about that a lot in mental health you know people will come to us and they're in a an abusive relationship or they are unsafe and they're trying to seek treatment for anxiety and depression and um but when you're not safe it's hard to to even begin treatment for that so um we have to replace that with with safety that is it's true yeah and that's why most practitioners will work from root to crown because it starts with safety yeah and then we go to sacral and the energy there and then we go to solar plexus which is your will um you know that so cross to do with your sex drive and like the way you express yourself to the world and then you get to your heart and then you have the higher chakra so the throat being the way you express your third eye being you know how what do I see through the BS in life how do I see the illusion what they call Samaya haha I probably say like how you perceive the world but um yeah it's all an illusion it's all illusion haha up to this point I didn't realize you're 99% and it's like what total illusions total illusions well I'll tell you um one of the things that has happened to me spiritually as I've lost children yeah um is connecting with them in in in eternity hmm and one of the first things that my daughter said to me in in her communication after her death was time and space is not real and it feels so real right it feels like if I put my all into this life I'm not gonna see my kids for another 30 years plus right um but time space is not real like it's all we kind of joke it's all an illusion but uh it's it's a human limitation it is yeah yeah absolutely there it is and there's that's just the three dimensional view right cause there's multiple dimensions when you get to the fourth dimension there is no time time in space are actually one and there in unity you know um and things like the wormholes and black holes like the those phenomenon that we can actually see measure like those are just singularities where time and space don't exist anymore like it's a it's a rupture in the fabric and that's what we're in we're in a what they call the space time fabric right yeah and this is what we're floating in this is what we go in but when we connect within those higher realms we start in like I'll notice like when I really get into those higher realms like in a Reiki session for example like I can't believe an hour session felt like 10 minutes and I was like oh we're already done okay yeah yeah so it's true it's very true and how is this helped you and your personal journey like you know you had this experience you started how long ago was that that you yeah 2017 was college and then 2019 I graduated okay so yeah so from 2017 of where you're on this spiritual awakening journey how has that helped you one of the things and I can tell you one of the things that I go back and forth with because I have to live in this time and space we all do absolutely um yeah and yeah that the real pressures of real life you own your own business like you have to like you know you can't just wake up and be energy right yes haha so how is that journey progressed in real world hmm yeah wow there's so many different directions I could go with that question I think you know the more modalities I've Learned so the more different ways I've Learned about my subtle body and the way I can use that not only in my sessions but in my day to day regular life meditation is a big one right so um learning about my how to feel my meridians and chakras and do I feel out of balance you know I can I can thank Reiki for that that gave me foundational training for that um and you know I would even mushrooms help me tap into the the subtle energies in my body um and by doing that I was also able to feel the subtle energies in other people and so it's interesting how we're all a reflection to each other and seeing like okay I see you through this lens that now I I also have been there and I've also you know like all in life is just a reflection of your inward self has been a big part of that journey um um you know there's so many ways haha I'm I'm in a mystery school right now and so there's so many other esoteric things I could get into but as far as it relates to mental health like um the chakras were a big one for me um yeah I meditation I don't have any you know formal training but yeah I have been able to learn but I have found like I often get stuck in the solar plexus and and then I can't do anything above that even when when I have a consciousness around it and I yeah so learning some of those the chakras is kind of the initial basic thing that I think that's the easiest to learn and understand in your own body and how your life is has impacted the energy flow of those those things is there a technique that you could teaching a group of people that um kind of gives that reset mean it wouldn't be a huge reset like you get with a psychedelic journey or a um you know extensive treatment but like is there I used to do like tapping emotional freedom technique or some things that I've done in the past um yeah is there something you teach with that you know um as far as the teaching aspect goes not too much um my favorite technique I do for myself is the like heart coherence meditations you might have heard of okay Doctor Jos Benzo teaches a lot about it but you know the way the foundation behind it is the heart knows the brain thinks and we're thinking our way through what what what makes sense in our reality but the heart already knows what's best for us if we just listen and tap in and just give it time and give it space um it will talk it will talk back and you know I use my heart as my navigator also so it's like um you could go to the grocery store for example be like two different brands of cereal which one let's see how does how does my heart feel about this one okay how's my heart oh this one feels good yeah yeah yeah and there's like you know muscle testing and things like that people do that too but like I love to I like to use Emma I tease my heart my heart centered person heart forward yeah um and I think that definitely needs to be trained I'm I'm yeah naturally intuitive but I and I do listen to my heart yeah but I also listen to everybody else and everybody else's expectations of me and so then I get this conflict right yes like my heart knows that this is what I wanna do but you know somebody says you know it when you own business you need to do blah blah blah blah blah or um different things like that so I I'm working on maturing that area of myself of like um you know kind of putting the the limits on expectations while still growing like you know I still have a plan and a purpose that I want to see happen um but like stopping and listening I just just yesterday we were super stressed about we got a new system for emailing and keeping up with people right and you know we're learning it um let me not lie Jade is learning it and it just seems like it's just too much risk gonna take us 100 hours to do this one thing like to get it going and we sat with our web designer this morning and he's like well no don't do the automation yet let's just do this and I was like oh I love you like I could just like uh relax and and be present and not feel the pressures yes um and so finding that that balance like I said of like we are spiritual beings but we are also living in this yes um time and space and so um yeah being present in both worlds is is the challenge that I'm currently you know moving through yes absolutely you you yes we can't just neglect our three dimensional bodies we are here we have jobs we have kids we have we have you know to eat we have to you know and you can't just go for those Cocoa Puffs because your heart felt like yeah I listen to my heart enough I don't got yeah yes and you know one of the things I Learned in the spiritual path is we are we so we are the bridge between heaven and earth and so we have access to all these higher angels guides reiki um archangels you know all these things the esoteric things you can think of that's all up here above your crown center and then you also have the root which is your connection to earth um and so when a lot of people I don't think a lot of people understand that cause they see the picture of the chakras and they think all of them are little circles in front of their body and so you know you were just talking about this at the root Chakra is going down the energy is pulling you grounding you yes where and the crown chakra is is up yes absolutely yeah and there's even higher chakras and lower but we don't get into that some people have 13 chakra systems but yes exactly so the root chakra think about it as your roots like and just like plants have roots connection to the earth we have roots connecting to the earth so uh we when you tap into that and you know people will give like visuals and a meditation just allow your roots to go down into the earth connect with Mother Gaia um and all the and think about you know one of my teachers the thing about the Spring Green energy coming into you um and fill yourself up with that energy and then you can go up above your crown fill fill that energy above your crown and you might notice during this process that it's hard to do one over the other um for example if you're stuck in the solar plexus it might be harder to go for the higher realms than it is for the grounding um and so that goes back to you know doing that inner work and finding time to unlock those energy centers yeah um yeah the inner work and it's a lifetime journey lifetime that's where people misunderstand they just oh I'll go to an energy practitioner cause I have high blood pressure they do four or five sessions and yeah may or may not you know help with the current system that they're going for but it's bigger than that it's about like opening yourself up to the reality of this having your own intentions your own intuition growing that gift that we all have to some degree yes you know I'm some people I do believe are more gifted but yes exactly yeah and yet we all find our gifts in our own way on our own path and a lot of what we're trying to do in our lifetimes is we all have our own blockages we all have our own patterns that we hold on to whether it's the social patterns that parents said I should do it this way therefore I still have that in my life right yeah and so a lot of it is unwinding those patterns that don't fulfill your purpose that don't serve you in this present moment and that's been a lot of my healing that I've been noticing in the lot very recently um and so you know whether it no matter where it comes from where the friends family social circles there it's up to you to decide how you feel about that information if you take it on and um notice those things that come up like why do I think about my say got in a car wreck like myself and the car is now this vehicle of death and so you go into the car thinking oh my God like I'm gonna get into another car wreck like I it's like take the time to heal that part within you your car because the car you are in control of the car you can that of course there's other people on the road so that's other things right but like um if you don't feel safe then it doesn't feel good and so that's just one example of see you what thoughts come up as you're in certain environments or with certain people and notice those and see yeah I like the way that feels or no I don't I should release that and say oh my car is as my space vehicle I can go anywhere and I'm gonna and I'm gonna be free and you know um the sense of freedom rather than stuckness so it's one example yeah yeah well tell us a little bit about your practice you know specifically how um you know you would work with someone with depression anxiety and they reveal that to you yeah of course um so if I do see it on a health history um I will sometimes bring up just you know is there anything you want to talk about around that and sometimes people will say no not really it's okay it is what it is I'm taking medication I'm seeing a I'm seeing a therapist and that's great they have some type of help outside of my clinic and that's what I'm trying to see is that they have support um and you know I'm only one person in a multitude of other options and other resources that they have so um so I I uh if I do mention the energetic things like you know if a lot of the postural stuff comes from emotions and I might mention that after a session like I think next time we could do a little bit of rachiracrania sacral work to kind of work through some of those stuck energies and then maybe we can see the body unwind a little bit more but I do offer many modalities I offer time massage deep tissue myofascial neuromuscular Swedish um I taught hot stone all those different types of cupping um and they also repurpose and what I do my practice is I charge by the hour and not the modality because I don't want to think about price in the terms of what I'm actually do it cause I wanna I wanna be able to use hot stones if I want to yeah cupping I wanna do craniosacral cause that's what feels right in the moment to do so right I will tend to mix and match a lot of my modalities in one session to yeah I noticed that so I came to you for time massage really love I I I hold um grief pain in my uh my muscles and my joints and just the way Thai massages like this active stretching piece um but I did notice that you did some energy work I'm not sure specifically what type um when you hit kind of barriers exactly so yeah you picked up on it I just kind of sent a little bit of regular area I just said okay sometimes you know in my energy work sessions is do I have to pull out any stuck energy first and then backfill it with Reiki or is it just the body just needs Reiki and support right now and so yeah exactly so just I'll be in the middle of a Thai session and sometimes I'll just cupping feels right this feel thereby hands aren't doing something that the cup feels but it could do better um there's feels like there's some emotional stuckness there's some stagnency here let's see if we can do raicular cranial yeah um so yeah I like to mix and match yeah and I like to tailor the session to each person's individual well yeah I I definitely recommend you are very um intuitive and good at um making it a healing practice not just the act of massage so thank you you can find his information down in the description and um anything else last words you'd like to share with the audience I just thank you for having me Cristi it's been such a pleasure and yeah perfect love this conversation