Episode 334: SOLOCAST Building a Healthy Relationship with Your Body

In this episode, Tara explores how treating your body as a loyal partner—through gratitude, inner listening, and nervous‑system attunement—leads to better health, gentler behavior change, and more intelligent training and nutrition choices.

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CHAPTERS:

00:00 – Solo episode intro: why your body relationship matters

00:55 – Sponsor message: Peluva barefoot shoes and toe socks

02:42 – Teenagers, parenting and how control ruins relationships

04:05 – Parallel: how this applies to your relationship with your body

04:45 – Psychedelic journey story that changed how she saw the body

07:37 – Seeing your body as trillions of loyal sentient beings

10:09 – No one actually knows how the body fully works (and why that’s humbling)

12:07 – Injury, illness and symptoms as your body trying to communicate

16:05 – Nervous-system level connection and unspoken energy in relationships

17:41 – Introducing the Higher Meditation Method: body-connection practice

18:04 – Guided scan of brain, face and organs with awe and gratitude

21:43 – Noticing cell membranes and thanking every part of your body

22:51 – Two key questions to ask your body (“What do you need?”)

23:24 – “Disneyland” trust analogy: why you must act on what body tells you

25:15 – How daily body check-ins change health outcomes and reduce force

28:42 – Higher Coaching promo: 1:1 coaching, labs, app and retreats

31:25 – App features: programs, mindset journeys and live Q&A

32:11 – 2027 Pacific Northwest retreat at Salish Lodge & Spa

33:39 – Healing after years of body-abuse: apology and repair

35:34 – Rethinking body fat as a life‑saving adaptation, not an enemy

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: 

Today's episode is a solo cast. I'm gonna talk to you guys about building a healthy relationship with your body. And whether or not you think this is an issue, I, I, I hate to say it this way, it sounds kinda cocky, but I, I'm, well, I can boldly say I think that this episode will really impact you.
I have found that this is a hallmark of higher coaching. This is a hallmark of how I relate to my body and what I teach my clients, and I realized I've never made a podcast episode about it before. And so I wanna bring this to you guys, and I have found in my experience that hardly anyone thinks about their body this way.
And quite frankly, what I have seen over many years of teaching this, is that what most people think are frustrations with their body or their health are actually a relationship issue. So buckle up, get ready, and join me for what is probably gonna be a little bit of a ride.
Okay, before we get into the episode, I wanna take a moment to tell you guys about Peluva Shoes. So here's what happened. So Mark Sisson, if you don't know Mark Sisson, you should know Mark Sisson, okay? Go look him up and start following Mark Sisson. Uh, Mark Sisson and also Brad Kearns, who have been on the...
He's been on the podcast, uh, a few times now, and Mark has also. They are, like, legendary OGs in the health and wellness industry. And, um, Mark, who also started Primal Kitchen, if you're familiar with that brand, um, has started Peluva Shoes. So Peluva means foot glove in Portuguese, and these are minimalist zero-drop barefoot shoes, and they have that five-toe articulation.
I resisted trying these out for a long time 'cause I thought they looked nerdy. I'm just being so real.
Um, but after many times of Brad being like, "Dude, just try them, just try them," I was like, "Okay, okay, I promise I'm gonna be honest with you." Yeah, I wear them all the time. I absolutely love them. I didn't think that the five-toe articulation was really that important, 'cause I've been a longtime fan of Vivos and barefoot shoes, and still love Vivos too.
Um, but wow, like, major difference. Like, I was like, "Okay, now I'm, like, really actually using my foot the way I was supposed to." So they are awesome. Um, I told Brad, I was like, "You're right, dude. I love them so much." They're awesome. Um, and then they offered to sponsor the podcast, so thank you to Peluva, and they also offered to give you guys 10% off if you would like to try them out, which I highly recommend.
Um, you can go to Peluva, that's P-E-L-U-V-A.com/coachterra, or you can just use the code coachterra at checkout and get 10% off of your order. And I highly, highly recommend getting some of their toe socks while you're there, because you're gonna need toe socks. All right, let's go ahead and get into the episode.
All right, if any of you are parents out there listening especially if you have teenagers or if you don't have kids, um, I want you to think about when you were a teenager. But parents,
if you have issues with teenagers, you may notice that it is a bit of a relationship issue, and I like to parallel these two things. I've been through this experience myself in which when my kids were younger, I was trying to be a good mom, a perfect parent or whatever, which led to a lot of control.
Even though I thought I was being very supportive and all these things, I had an idea in my mind of how they should be and how they shouldn't be, and it was my job to make sure that they were how they should be and weren't how they shouldn't be, and that created a lot of issues in our relationship.
And as... Relationships. And as I went through my own growth journey and I stopped being like that and I started to actually build healthier relationships with my kids, things got a lot easier. And if any of you have been on a growth journey and you've experienced that, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
It doesn't have to be so hard all the time. When there is respect and communication and, and love that actually feels like love, that's like, "I'm with you in this" compassion, "I've got you, I'm here supporting you. I'm communicating my needs, I'm listening to your needs," and that relationship is established, things become easier.
And so I wanna parallel this today to our relationship with our bodies, and I'm gonna kick it off with a story that is maybe a little bit risky on my end, because it does have to do with psychedelics, but we have had a lot of psychedelic episodes, so I don't Recently.
So I don't think it's any surprise that, uh, these have been a foundational part of my transformation journey. Um, but this, this journey, I shared this with my clients actually in hire recently, and I was a little scared to do so. Um, but many of them reported to me that it, like, really made a huge impact on them, and so I'm gonna share it with you. I was in, uh, doing a journey with, uh, I was in a relationship at the time, and so it was the guy I was in a relationship with, and one of our friends, and a guy that we were, I guess, a friend, but kind of doing a professional endeavor with.
So we're, there were four of us. And we were in this Airbnb, and there was this big, huge movie room, and there was a couch way in the back. I was on that couch, and the guys were kind of off in their own space. One guy was on a couch on one side of the room, and the other two were just, like, on the floor with blankets and pillows or whatever, kind of all in our own space. And as the, as the journey started to really kick in, I experienced something that I will never, ever forget.
So what happened was it started with the guy on the couch. This is the guy we were doing our professional endeavor with. Um, I'm gonna change names, 'cause I kinda need to say names, and I, I don't really wanna say names. So we'll say his name was, we'll just say Kyle.
That's my son's name. This, his name was not Kyle, but we'll call him Kyle.
Okay. So what happened was what I was experiencing in my vision, 'cause you have very strong visuals in these experiences, I was seeing the cells of his body. And, uh, because LSE was involved in this journey, these cells had faces. Like they... Yeah, they were kinda cartoonish, and there were tons of them, and they had these faces and, and for some reason they were, they were spinning, right?
They were spinning really fast, but their face kinda stayed in the same place, but I could tell they were spinning. And what was so interesting was, like, they had his personality. They had his vibe, and they were undyingly loyal to him. They were like, "Go, Kyle! Go!
Yes!" It was like if you think of a dog and you have a dog, and your dog is like loves you so much and is so excited to see you. It was like that kind of energy times a million, and they were just like, "Yes, anything for Kyle. Yes!" You know?
Crazy loyalty. And every once in a while, one of them would die. One of them would, like, slip under and disappear, and a new one would, like, regenerate and appear, and they... That... They didn't care about that at all. They were happy to do it, happy to die. Like, just anything for the success of Kyle.
And then my vision shifts, shifted to the friend of ours, and we'll say his name was Jared. Okay?
And again, they had Jared's energy. They, they reminded me of him. They had his whole personality, his whole kinda way of being. Same thing. Faces spinning, and just, "Go, Jared. Yes. Anything for Jared," right? And then it went to the guy that I was dating. Same thing. Changed his whole vibe.
Same exact thing.
And I share that with you because that experience forever changed
how I relate to my body. I already had been doing a lot of work on relationship with my body, but that was just an, a, a, a totally different level of just feeling the emotion behind how much these cells wanted the success of their human. And so that is where we will start.
Um, in terms of relationship with our body,
I personally relate to my body as trillions of sentient beings because, hear me out, the reason I see our cells this way, and, you know, also we got all these, all these microbes, right? Our fungi and bacteria and even viruses, right? There's all these things that are in our body, but all of our cells, they do operate on their own, right?
Like, we don't... We're not sitting there mechanically controlling what our cells are doing. So to me, it's, yeah, it just, it makes sense and it feels that way. It's like these are these, all of these little sentient beings that have their different roles and their, the, their capabilities and things that they do, and they are undyingly loyal to us.
And if we look at just basic physiology, there's plenty to back this way of thinking up because our bodies are constantly doing all of these workarounds, all of these adaptations, anything it can do for the success of us, and I find that to be a very, very critical way of relating to our body because what I see mostly is, first of all,
first of all, a lot of people don't even know that their body is, like, actually different than them, right? Like, we get so caught up in these, these egos, these earth suits. Like, I kinda think of it as, like, the movie Avatar, right? Like, it's like we really think that this avatar that we're in is actually us, yet I would say most of us believe that there is some sort of, some level of soul, right?
That continues on past this life. And so if that resonates with you, then it's like, okay, well, then you know that this thing, this, this really cool biotech organic suit that you're in is not actually you, right? It's something separate,
and I find that to be a very, very critical thing to really, truly understand because when we understand that these suits that we're in are not actually us, but they are highly intelligent, a community of sentient beings that are undyingly loyal to us and doing everything they possibly can for our success, unbelievable workarounds and adaptations, then once that's established, we can start to have gratitude, and we can start to have respect.
And let's hit on respect for a second.
One thing that I have... I, I love to say to my clients is, "I, I hate to tell you this, but I have no idea how your body works."
And the look on their faces is so priceless. They're like, "What the heck?" And then, and then I'll follow it up with this. I'm like, "No one does."
No one. There's not a person on the planet who completely understands how the body works. You guys know how I like to be a little in your face sometimes. It's like I'll be like, "Oh, you know how to make a how, how the body works? Okay, make one right now." Like,
not, not, not as a woman, you know, getting pregnant, but, like, just make one. Make a oh, you can't? Oh, then you don't know how it works. You see what I'm saying? I... And, you know, to just extend that a little bit, it's, like, think of, like, like the gut.
Even the gut itself, we... We're not even close. Even DNA, we're not even close. The gut immune connection, like we're not even remotely close to fully understanding so many things about how our body work.
And the reason I say that to clients and the reason I'm bringing that to you guys is because if you can build a relationship with your body where there's actual respect, appreciation,
communication, listening,
I believe that we can get To way higher health comes, uh, health outcomes that way than simply trying to cerebrally learn and control everything when we don't even fully understand how it works.
So
let's, let's talk a little bit of more, little bit more about healthy relationship dynamics.
I mean, so one of the things that I've noticed is that when people have maybe an injury or a sickness or some sort of condition, it's, it's understandable, and what often happens is people get very annoyed and frustrated and victimized and put out and angry and mad, and those are all really understandable emotions.
And I will say this, like our bodies only have so many ways that they can communicate with us,
and quite often when they're trying to communicate with us, instead of listening and saying, "Oh, thank you so much for letting me know that that's messed up or that that needs attention or that I need to actually take some sort of course of action here or whatever," instead we get mad, victimized, frustrated.
"Stupid knee. Oh, my freaking back. Oh, my my neck." Like, "Oh, my, you know, autoimmune condition or my freaking thyroid," or whatever it is, right? Like, we get, we get mad. We feel victimized.
And I, I'll put it this way. If it, if your body was another person... Let's, let's use a child, 'cause I find this easier for people to connect to. If your child was sick, would you feel the same way? Would you be like, "Oh my gosh, freaking... Are you kidding me?
You're sick again? Ugh, you're tired. You need stuff. Great. Now I'm gonna have to take a day off work and help you. Ugh."
You see where I'm going?
So we can see if we juxtapose this to like a child, it's pretty mean, right? The child is saying like, "Something's wrong, and I need help, and I need support."
And so if we can start to look at our body that way,
even if they're little things like just being tired... I can't believe how many people... Like, I, think that we have created a society in which we think we should never be tired,
you know? And then on top of it, it's like, well, maybe you're tired because you, have chronic stress and you're staying up really late and you're scrolling your phone and your sleep hygiene sucks and you're, like, eating crappy food and you're not staying hydrated
and not exercising regularly. It goes on and on and on, right? And so instead of taking ownership and saying, "Oh, uh, maybe there's a reason I'm chronically tired, and how can I nurture and support my body instead of just being annoyed with it or feeling victimized by it"...
If we can get to that place where we're actually like, "Oh, thanks for letting me know. Let me take a look at that," we can get to where we wanna go faster, a much, in a much more easy and beautiful way, because now it's based in more of a healthy relationship.
Now,
let's talk about, uh
I wanna hit on a, a couple more aspects of, of healthy relationships, and I really wanna get into...
Um, I don't, I don't ever know exactly how to put this, but, uh, do, uh... Let me, let me throw this out there.
You've probably heard that the way birds fly together in the sky is that their nervous systems are connected, and I want you to think about a time that maybe you've just like... If you have a pet, that you've been really, really present with your dog or your cat, or if you have kids, where you've just been really present with them or your, you know, partner or somebody, and nobody's talking.
Nobody needs to talk. You're just... You're connecting on a nervous system level. It's like, "I'm here with you."
That is a critical part of, quote, unquote, communication.
the non-verbal communication that is more nervous system connection and presence, in my opinion, is even more important than words.
Energetic communication. You know, think about, like, the feeling between you and somebody else who... You know, maybe there hasn't been some big fight or something like that, but there's something up in the energy. Like, it does not feel good. That is your relationship. That is the main relationship. The non-verbal, unspoken energy between you and someone else is the basis of the relationship.
And so now I wanna parallel this to your body.
How often, if ever,
do you have moments where you're really just being with your body? Like, "I'm with you. I'm, I, I'm paying attention to you. I notice you."
And to illustrate this, I would love if you guys could humor me and go along with me in what... Um, I call this the higher meditation method. I gave it a name just to
encourage my clients to do it. Um, and this... And I would love if you guys would do it with me. This is something that I started doing with my body on my own as a way to kick off meditation. Um, it's not uncommon with meditation practices to start with, like, a body scan and become aware of your body.
Um, this is maybe just, like, uh, that on steroids a little bit, okay? You game to try it with me? All right. So if, I mean, if you're in a situation listening to this right now where you can close your eyes, that would be freaking awesome, but I realize most of you are probably, like, walking around or driving or something, okay?
So I want you to just take a second and just be with your body. Like,
just notice it. Notice everything.
Notice and, and go ahead, and you can do a kind of body scan style. Like, think about your brain. I'll just guide you guys through. Like, actually think about your brain,
what it looks like,
what it's doing,
and notice how you're like, "I have no freaking clue what it's doing." Yeah. And it's doing all sorts of stuff for you. Holy smokes, it's doing so much for you.
And you don't even know the half of it, and neither do I, and I'm pretty nerdy about the nervous system and the brain, but I'm not even remotely close to fully understanding it. And
go to, like, your, your nose and your nasal passages, and your ears, and your throat, and the muscles in your face, your eyes,
your lips, your teeth, your tongue. Like, just be with them. Like, "Oh yeah, there you guys are."
Go down into your heart area and just, just be with your heart for a second.
Like, "Oh, hey." Think about what it actually looks like
and what it's doing.
And think about how it's been doing that for you. Pssh, you didn't even have a body yet when it was doing that for you. You were just a little embryo.
It's been doing that for you all this time, every second of every day, no matter what,
and you hardly ever even think about it.
Think about your lungs,
your stomach, and all these little organs, your pancreas, and your spleen,
and your big giant liver. Your liver is so freaking huge.
So huge. You should check out a cadaver lab video every once in a while. It's really fascinating. Think of all your liver's doing for you. It's doing so much. It is such a big deal,
and you probably never even think about it that much. Hardly ever.
And your intestines, holy smokes,
especially that little area of your small intestine right where it comes down from your stomach, right at the start, the duodenum. Holy... That thing is like a master control ship. It is telling your body to do so many things. It is busting ass for you constantly. And all those little bacteria
in your, in your... Well, hopefully not in your small intestine,
but down in your, in your colon, in your large intestine, doing so much work.
So much work.
Go all the way to your, your reproductive organs. We don't,
we don't think about these in, like, a loving way enough. Like, think of everything they're doing for you. Women, your ovaries,
men, your testes. Like, they're doing so much, helping you make hormones.
Think about, you know, if you have kids, like
how they've helped with that.
Think about
your bones.
Bones are living tissue.
Think of your, your muscles and your blood vessels.
Think of your cell membranes.
Uh, your cell membranes are oof, like an entire universe. They're doing so much. They're so intelligent.
It's just, just taking all this time to notice, right? Like, I'm doing kind of the long, drawn-out version, but you can do this on your own in just, like, a, a simple practice of like, "Hey, I'm here with you guys. Thank you." And that's the next the next part of this, is thanking all these little areas, like all these organs and cells and
different aspects of your body. Like, "Man, thank you so much for everything you're doing for me so I can have this earth life experience. You're doing so much. I don't even know what you're doing, and you're doing it every second of every day. Thank you so much.
And I know you are trying as hard as you can for me to succeed.
And I know you have needs, and I know you need support, and I know you're dependent on me for a lot of that support."
And so first question... There's two questions here. First question, just ask your body, "Is there, is there anything you need?"
Just wait for a second for an answer.
Mm.
And when it lets you know, say, "Thank you for letting me know.
You got it." That's what I like to say. I'm like, "Oh,
thank you for letting me know. You got it."
And then the other question is just a general... Well, a little more general, but I want you to ask, "Is there anything you want me to know
apart from that?"
Mm.
I'm doing it myself right now, so I'm like, "Oh, okay."
And when it lets you know, say, "Thank you-"
Thank you so much.
And whatever it told you,
I know I kinda set you up for this 'cause I didn't tell you about this part.
You gotta follow through with whatever it just said.
And this is the example that I, I like to give on that. If, if you ask... That's why I'm like, sorry, I should've, I should've warned you.
But if you ask, like think of relationships like, you know, maybe a, a kid. If you ask a kid, maybe your kid or just some kid you know, a niece, nephew, whatever. You ask a kid like, "Hey, you wanna go to Disneyland with me?" And they're like, "Yeah. Yeah." And then you're like, "Okay, we're gonna go." And then you just don't go.
And then the next week you're like, "Hey, wanna go to Disneyland with me?" And they're like, "You said we were gonna go last weekend, and we didn't go." "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll go though. We'll go though. Wanna go?" And they're like, "Yes." And then you just don't go.
And then you ask again, "You wanna go to Disneyland with me?" How do you think that kid is gonna start reacting?
The trust is gonna be broken, right? It's like they're gonna be like, "I don't
I don't even trust you. Like, I... You, you keep asking, and you just keep not doing it." So,
so that's what I mean is like ask. Ask.
Ask your body to communicate with you, and then your part of maintaining and building that relationship is you gotta follow through.
All right? And I'm telling you, like the reason I walked you guys through that in this is if you start doing this in the mornings, like just taking a little moment to do this,
incredible health outcomes can come from this. And even more than that is like the way you start approaching your health really changes. Everything doesn't become... it becomes less force and less control. Lots and lots of control is a sign of poor relationship health, right? Think about interpersonally. If you're trying to control the crap out of somebody, it's not exactly a healthy relationship, right?
So if we find ourselves in this place where we're just constantly trying to control our body... Now, I'm not saying that, that we're gonna just completely, uh, what's the word? Like,
uh...
I can't think of the word. It's like when you like... When we're not gonna make our bodies out to be like soft or like incapable or something. You know? If we, if we need to make hard changes, and our body's craving sugar like crazy, and we're, you know, making some changes there, it doesn't mean we just, we just like do whatever our body wants.
I'm not suggesting that at all. But what I am saying is let, let's use sugar for example. Let's say that you have high blood sugar, and you are working on getting rid of that. And so you're reducing sugar intake, and you notice that your body is really, really craving sugar.
When you have established more of a relationship like this, that becomes a lot easier to navigate. That experience can be like, "Okay. Hey, body, I am noticing, I'm noticing that you really want sugar right now. Like, that's really interesting." And you could even do something like, "Can you let me know what else I can do right now that can help with that?" And you might get something like, "Go for a walk," or, "Drink a bunch of water and have some protein and go do some deep breaths." I don't know. But I'm telling you that like when you, instead of just resisting and ignoring and, or thinking that this means that you just do what everybody's saying, no. You can actually consult with your body on better solutions. And if you do this process, and you're like noticing you're craving sugar a lot, when you ask your body what it needs, it might say something like, "We need way more fiber, yo.
Way more fiber, way more vegetables. Like, we need real meals. You're not eating enough lunch." Like I'm telling you, it will tell you stuff like this. And if you'll follow through, you can get to way, way higher health outcomes with a lot more ease than just trying to brute force like, "No, don't eat it.
Don't eat it," which you're going to end up doing because now we're getting psychological with it. It's way past only physiological, and now we're dealing with inner bully, inner rebel stuff. And we do not like to be told what we can and can't do. And psychologically, you'll end up having a rebound.
And you'll think it was just physiological, but there was actually a quite a strong psychological component to that.
And so when we instead of doing this whole force and control thing actually consult with our bodies on, "I hear you, and I know that you can help me get the path out of this," oh, my gosh. Now psychologically you're in a self-connected place. And so making that decision to have the water and the protein and some deep breaths actually feels like a want to and not some sort of crazy restriction.
I wanna take a moment to tell you guys what I can actually do to support you in your journeys and tell you a little bit more about higher coaching, my app, and retreats. So just as a quick summary, higher coaching is my full tilt, full on customized health and life coaching.
So we are getting all into every aspect of your life in a very supportive way. So how that's delivered is completely customized training. You'll do my neurotyping test to kick things off, which is a whole thing in and of itself that's really cool. And then I will completely customize your training and also your nutrition.
I base a lot of my decisions on labs. You don't have to do labs, but we can do a lot of labs. You can also bring me labs that you've had done recently or, you know, whatever kinda health history that you have. Love to see it. And, you know, from the labs perspective, we do blood.
We do hair tissue mineral analysis, DNA. Um, I have a software that I run DNA through that I prefer where I can see different SNPs that have to do with health, um, that are more research backed and I actually trust. Um, we do stool testing, so gut microbiome. So if you got gut issues, bring 'em.
Let's go.
And also, um, hormones through saliva and urine, and those two methods of testing help us get, see a little bit more of a deeper insight into what's going on with your hormones, incorting, incorting, including cortisol, um, and your sex hormones.
So, um, there's that, and then we also have biohacking involved in various ways. That could be through an Oura Ring or Whoop strap or some sort of HRV and sleep tracking device or a continuous glucose monitor or, you know, lots of different interventions that we do depending on the person and what they need.
So there's all of that health approach, and then there's the full-on life coaching because I believe these are one. They are. I... It's not I believe. They are one okay? So it's like if there's a lotta dysfunction in terms of interpersonal relationships or professional life or just internal world in terms of boundaries and self-talk and identity and all of that kinda wounded stuff, like we get into that too, as much or as little as someone is willing to.
So higher is my full till we are going all in on you, baby, uh, one-on-one coaching, and I do have a coach that coaches with me, Coach Daria, who's been on the podcast a couple times. Um, so you do have some options there between working with either of us and the...
You know, obviously the cost is a little different too, so it's kind of a nice service for people because, yes, I charge more.
But yeah. So if you wanna learn more about that, go to tara garrison.com and you'll see one-on-one coaching and just click on that one and you can get a free consultation with my team. Next is my app. So my app is my solution for not everybody can afford or even wants full-on one-on-one coaching.
So if you want all my goods, like you want all my training counsel on form optimization and nutrition and, you know, the biohacking and the info, and we do have live Q&As once a month and community and all of that. That is, uh, obviously a lot more affordable and pretty awesome if I do say do say so myself.
And, uh, there's a whole mindset part in there that a lotta people like where I take you on these little 22-minute guided journeys. So check those out if you get the app, and there's a seven-day free trial, so you can see everything in there, make sure you like it before you actually pay anything.
So just go to app.taragarrison.com for that. And then I do have a retreat open right now. In 2027, we are going up to the Pacific Northwest. It'll be about 45 minutes outside of Seattle. Um, we are staying at the beautiful Salish Lodge and Spa. It sits on top of 168-foot waterfall, and it is owned by the tribe whose lands that those are.
That waterfall is very sacred to them, and that makes me happy that they are in control of that land again. So, um, it's gonna be incredible. We're gonna do lots of fun things like white water rafting, paddleboarding. you know, we're gonna do holotropic breathwork or, like, conscious connected breathwork, which is a healing type thing.
Um, we will have all sorts of amazing facilitation and, yeah, they're the coolest thing that I offer, straight up.
They're amazing. So if you want to check that out, just go to taragarrison.com and click on Retreats, and you can find out more and get all signed up. If that is speaking to you, I firmly believe that anybody that comes to anything, like whether it's working with me directly or in my app or coming to one of my retreats, uh...
My whole business is kind of a spiritual thing for me, so I take that very seriously and I fully believe that people who come my way are sent my way for a reason. So if that's pinging at you, um, please, please honor it. Like, uh, it's, it's more than just business for me here, you know?
So, um, yeah. I would love to hear from you if I can support you in any of those ways. Okay. Now, let's shift over to, uh, an aspect of, um, having a healthy relationship with our body that maybe not all of you, but probably a lot
uh, need to go through, and that is a, a process of healing the relationship, right? So let's say that you've been incredibly abusive with some little kid.
Well, you're not gonna just walk up to that kid and be like, "Hey, I'm with you now. I, I, I, I just wanna be present and I, I really appreciate you and, you know, tell me what you need." Like, that's not gonna just happen overnight, right? 'Cause there's gonna be a little bit of, like, weird vibe, obviously, and a lack of trust. And so for some of you, if you know that you've been historically pretty hard on your body, there may need to be some apologies,
right? And I don't think that our body needs a lotta that. I think, I honestly think it's more for us.
But having a moment of, like, really acknowledging what we've put our body through, if that's been a lot of intensity and, and too much, like having a moment of like, "I'm really sorry for everything that I have put you through, and I get it now and I see it, and thank you so much for supporting me anyway.
Like, I'm still here. Thank you so much.
And I, and, and I wanna show up differently now, and where can we start?" Like, having a little moment like that can be really critical versus just jumping straight into
what we just walked through, the higher meditation method, okay? And it, it is mainly for you.
Now, let's shift over to things that we don't like about our bodies, and of course I'm gonna start with one of the main, most popular ones, and that is body fat.
And, uh, I... This is how I just always like to say it. Like, your body fat exists Your body has saved your life so many times.
Yep.
If your body did not store that fat there, you would've gone so high in your blood sugar that you would've gone into a coma and died.
So it's not, um,
it's not that your body is gross. It's not that your body is ugly or not good enough or disgusting or whatever. Your body is actually really intelligent, and it has created these awesome workarounds so that you don't die,
right? And so in terms of... I wanna go a little deeper on this one 'cause it's such a big hitter for so many people. Let's say that you're in one of those situations where you're like, "It doesn't even make sense why I have this much body fat, like, genuinely, truly.
Like, I eat pretty well. I exercise. Like, I hardly actually eat very much." Like, you know, there are those people, and I have those people even currently as clients, so that is a thing. And in those cases, it can feel very tempting to be very frustrated and angry with your body, and I'm telling you that is going to get you nowhere because that is going to lead to wanting to control it more and most likely dig you deeper into the place that you're already at.
And I'm telling you that in those kind of cases where it, like, doesn't really make sense, there is something more deep going on, something more metabolic, something more physiologic than just your basic calories in, calories out type thing.
And you have a couple paths there. You can either go on a, the nerdiest journey of your life, or you can hire a coach or doctor, not... I would say, like, you know, functional medicine or, or a coach, right?
Because there's likely just something that you just have no idea is going on. And in those cases, that still requires love. That still requires compassion. It's like, "Okay, body, I, I, I'm paying attention. I notice, like, there's something going on with you that it... You're giving me the sign." It's like, oh, I'm storing a lot of body fat, and it doesn't make sense.
So you're like, "Yeah, you're showing me that something is going on that I need to, out of love, look into and find out more about." And I'm telling you, if that's, you know, that's just one of many examples I could give, but if that is the case for you, figuring that out will do more than just help you lose body fat.
It will change your reality because if that is happening, there are metabolic things going on that are causing you to feel way worse than you need to. Okay? So it can be a journey. It can be a journey, but it is a worthwhile one.
Now, um, in terms of,
like, pushing ourselves, okay? This is... I like to hit this one 'cause, again, I'm not trying to say we uh, babying was the word I was looking for earlier. I'm not just saying we just baby our bodies, right? Like, because love, again, I'll parallel this to a child, love is not just, you know, babying them and thinking they're not capable at all.
Love is actually seeing their capability and, and wanting for them and wishing for them like, "I want you to know your capabilities." So in terms of, like, how do we balance a loving relationship with our body with pushing ourselves and seeing what we're capable of,
this is where the, the, the relationship is critical. Critical. This is how you get the quote-unquote "balance." It's all relationship. So for example, um, you know, I'm, I'm speaking to you on this after I started doing this seven years ago. This is seven years of me doing this on the reg.
I used to do it every day. Now, it's probably, like, I don't know, half the time, right? But
yeah, something like that. But this... It's just, it's so ingrained by now. It's throughout the day. It's just, it's a regular way of being for me. And I will tell you, it gets so easy with the relationship because when I am feeling good and I'm energized, it's like, "Ooh, of course.
Let's go see what this baby can do. Let's go play, body. Let's go have some fun. Let's go push our limits." But if I wake up and I'm feeling tired and underrecovered, of course, I'm not going to do that. It would be just the same as if your kid was, you know, going to do, play some sport, and they woke up sick and exhausted.
I mean, for me, if my kid is sick, I'm not gonna make them go to practice, right? Like, that, that... No, that doesn't make any sense. Let the body recover, right? Now, if it's a chronic thing and my kid keeps staying up late on their phone scrolling or whatever, then it's like, okay, yeah, we're gonna need to fix that so that you can continue on in the way that you've agreed to, to continue on.
So that, I'm passing that along to you guys too. Like,
when you are chronically tired, chronically exhausted, uh, it's not a matter of how often do I push through this chronic exhaustion and still push my limits and exercise. It's what do I need to look at outside of that that is causing me to be so chronically exhausted? Is it a really erratic sleep schedule?
Am I staying up too late? Am I waking up in the middle of the night? Okay, well, that is, like, a whole journey in and of itself. Like, that... It's not a matter of like, "Yep, I'm just always gonna be exhausted, and I just gotta push through it all the time." No. Love is, "I notice that you're exhausted all the time, and I will do whatever it takes to figure out what is going on so I can help and support you so that we can actually have energy more often and then we're not held back in pushing our limits as much."
Now, if you don't have something like chronic exhaustion or whatever, chronic inflammation, some sort of, some sort of chronic thing, it's very, very easy to navigate How much do I push myself and how much do I recover when you're actually connected with your own body?
It's it's, it's easy. It's simple. It's obvious. It's like, "I need more sleep," or, "I don't feel as good today. I'm just gonna go for a walk."
Right?
So it becomes incredibly easy. That's why sometimes these, uh, prescriptions that we have for things, it's like, I mean, honestly, when I'm with clients, like I'm constantly looking for feedback from their body. A much of my process with them is being informed by what their body is telling us.
It's like, "Okay, we're, you're gonna need an extra rest day." Like, your HRV's tanking, your sleep's going to crap, your, your, you know, you're waking up feeling exhausted. Like, that's not it. there's no use to you doing this extra training day when you're clearly under-recovered and pushing into these over-training type scenarios, getting sick a lot.
Like no, we don't do that. The, we're about intelligent training, and that intelligent training comes from listening to your body, noticing what it's telling you. It's giving you the path. It's giving you the clues of how to get to more optimal health.
And the last thing I wanna hit on, on this episode is applying this to food. Oh my gosh.
This is, uh, on a really simple way, I like to say if you are craving something healthy, you best be eating that. Okay? Period. Keeping it really simple. If you are craving something healthy, that is your body letting you know, yes. If you're like all of a sudden potatoes just sound delicious, or steak just sounds unbelievably good right now, or, "Man, I could really go for some raspberries," or whatever it is,
I... Honor that. Honor that, and then get a little weird with it. Like, when you're going to make your meals or you're going grocery shopping, try practicing a little quick mini version of that higher meditation method that we just did
and just say, "Hey, body, like, what do you need?
What's up? What, let me know. What do you need?" Oh my gosh. I mean, this is how I eat. This is the ultimate intuitive eating. It's, I mean, that is basically what intuitive eating is, is being connected enough with your body and trusting it enough that you are able to hear and, and notice what it's letting you know that it needs,
right? And same goes with hydration. Like, are you aware of how you feel when hydration starts getting lower? Can you tell when you need a little more salt? Right? Have you, have you practiced enough connection to your body that you can tell that? I'm at the point where I can tell what macros I need.
I'm like, "Damn, I need more carbs. I need more protein. I need some fats." Like I, you can just tell after a while, but there has to be a connection to your body in order to get there, and quite often it's years of neglect and abuse,
it's years of not having a healthy connection to your body
that are blocking that from happening. And so
if there are amends to be made,
I highly recommend making those amends. Those amends are for you. And then for every, for those of you that need to do that, and then just for everybody else, I can't recommend enough
practicing that higher meditation method, practicing connecting and actually building a real loving relationship with your body.
This is when control really
turns down.
you're not afraid every single time some little change happens in your body. When you get an injury, you don't feel put out by it or angry about it. You become loving and nurturing, and what do you need? You don't keep re-injuring yourself as often 'cause you're like, "Oh, okay, got you.
I, all right, I see where your limits are. I pushed you a little bit," and like, "You're not liking that. Okay, what else do you need?" And like, it just becomes a beautiful thing.
And to me, like, if you really want health for good, like you want actual health for the rest of your life, this is a critical part of it.
When we don't have healthy relationships, everything becomes super cerebral 'cause there's no heart connection.
I look at like when the heart is, the heart connection's off, our minds get really overactive. It's like a muscle. It's like a compensation.
So bringing more heart into our health and how we are interacting with our bodies is when things start to become more coherent and they start to flow with more ease.
All right. That's what I got for you guys today. Hopefully that helps. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Inside Out Health podcast. I hope it's been helpful to you in your journey. If you think that it might be helpful to someone you know, please share it with them.
Please share on social media. It really helps me grow the show and reach more people with these amazing messages. And if you could be so kind as to rate the show and, um, possibly even leave me a review, that really helps. So, uh, much thanks in advance if you do that.
And yeah, please subscribe if you wanna hear more of this type of content. I have lots of amazing expert guests on the way. All right. Thank you.