Ep#116 Healing Anxiety, Depression and Chronic Pain – Trauma Informed Care With Energy Healer Greg Wieting

0 (1s):
Welcome to the Soul Science Nutrition Podcast, where you’ll discover that when it comes to your health, you are so much more powerful than you’ve been led to believe. And now your host, she’s a Holistic Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach, Chef Author, and Yogi, Christine Okezie.

Christine Okezie (23s):
Hello, and welcome to the Soul Science Nutrition Podcast. I’m Christine Okezie, thanks so much for being here. A key component of a genuinely holistic approach to our health challenges is something called a trauma informed care framework, which basically says that we have a broad understanding of the prevalence of trauma and the traumatic stress reactions and their very real impact on our physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing practitioners using a trauma informed approach, facilitate healing with a commitment to emotional safety choice and empowerment. Well today’s guest is Greg whitening and he knows all too well how unresolved trauma can be at the root of anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, his own experience going beyond conventional clinical approaches kicked off a lifelong journey of exploration to gather and piece together.

Christine Okezie (1m 17s):
The necessary tools and practices to actually heal. Greg is the founder of Prisma a step-by-step framework, overlaying trauma, neuroscience, and energy medicine with somatic and mindfulness-based practices for two decades. Greg has helped thousands of people struggling with chronic stress overwhelm and anxiety to heal their underlying trauma. With this integrative roadmap. Greg has spoken at the Institute of no attic sciences about energy medicine, the California Institute of integral studies about trauma informed touch the California academy of sciences on neuroplasticity and brain health and hive global leaders on the intersection of healing, spirituality, and entrepreneurship.

Christine Okezie (2m 4s):
He’s been featured on the shift network in elephant journal, gay in America, and has appeared in mantra magazine and 24 life Greg’s passion and expertise is giving people real tools to turn their pain into purpose. Come back home to their true self, with a renewed sense of aliveness freedom and power. You can learn more about his program prisma@wwdotprismamethod.com and as a special gift for listening, you can sign up and receive a special 10% coupon code. Just enter the word, my name Christine C H R I S T I N E plus Greg will donate 10% to LGBT to youth suicide prevention.

Christine Okezie (2m 45s):
Greg is also accepting unlimited number of private one-to-one clients. So please reach out to him. He’s at WW dot Greg whiting.com. So thanks so much for listen, everybody to this inspiring and empowering conversation. And if you do like it, I’d be grateful if you’d head over to apple podcast and leave a rating and review. And if you haven’t already subscribed, I’d be grateful. So you don’t miss an episode. Thanks s again for listening my friends and enjoy the episode. Hello, Greg. It’s so good to meet you. Thanks for being on the podcast.

Greg Wieting (3m 18s):
Hi Christine. Thanks for having me.

Christine Okezie (3m 20s):
Awesome. So, you know, Greg, I love the work that you do. I think we’re gonna have a really fascinating, insightful conversation and all these really important topics around trauma and somatic energy medicine healing. I’d love if we could start at the beginning, you know, so in your journey, going back over 20 years ago now with your own health struggles, with anxiety and depression, what were the key insights you had into your challenges that, you know, made you go beyond the traditional healing methods and ultimately put you on the path to explore and be open to energy healing?

Greg Wieting (3m 54s):
Yeah, you know, I don’t think I had insights that led me to healing so much as serendipity. Okay. You know, I was, I was struggling with so much chronic pain, anxiety and depression and, you know, throughout my youth and, you know, my early, early adulthood was just kind of self-medicating and was pretty close to kind of taking that route of, you know, pain meds and antidepressants. And, you know, I had just met a, a dear friend who was a massage therapist at the time and she offered me a massage, physical touch was painful. So I did not want a massage at the time.

Greg Wieting (4m 35s):
Okay. And she offered me energy medicine and Reiki, which I had never heard of, but I had already such established trust and respect for her that, you know, I was completely open to it. And she said, you know, we can work energetically, we can work hands off or just, you know, very light touch. And I just immediately realized I had found something. I didn’t even know I was looking for, you know, there was just a, a complete exhale and a release, you know, my, this tension that was just completely part of me, you know, I didn’t know how to be separate from this tension or this pain just started to soften and unravel.

Greg Wieting (5m 17s):
So yeah, over that next year, I continued to work with her. And then within about a year and a half, I started to study Reiki. I was like, all right, there’s something to this. And, you know, once, once I’m onto something, then it’s like, I, I have to dig deep and I have to fully consume it. So then I found a teacher and, you know, immerse myself with her work for about four and a half, five years, which then kind of then had a domino effect, you know? So the energy medicine led me to meditation, which then led me to more energy medicine, which then led me to more of the somatic work. And then I was teaching and a dear colleague of mine who was actually first, a student of mine realized, you know, I think what you’re teaching is trauma-informed healing, trauma-informed touch.

Greg Wieting (6m 5s):
And I knew I was healing my own trauma, but I didn’t hadn’t studied trauma at the time. So then she was a professor at the California Institute of integral studies and invited me to become her teacher’s assistant to help her students kind of synthesize the course material with more of the mindfulness based practices. So then that’s when I got my education and trauma, which I was kind of already working with on an energetic level, just through my own lived experience. But then that was really where I was able to more deeply integrate it into, you know, my body of work.

Christine Okezie (6m 38s):
That’s incredible, you know, what they what’s that saying? You know, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. Right. And so it really unfolded. I always find that, you know, lived experience, especially when it comes to finding modalities that really resonate, you know, and then ultimately being able to share that with others in, in, in a body of work, in a profession it’s that lived experience that makes all the difference, you know, and then we get to compliment that, of course, with other folks who get put on our path to deepen our wisdom, deepen our knowledge. So it’s, it’s serendipity. Yes. But always like, I think it’s, we’re when you’re ready. You’re ready. You know, so what were the, I guess, shortcomings that you came to realize then as you deepen into your own healing experience and got on the path to learning more about these healing systems, what, what did you see as the kind of obstacles or the limitations of the current healthcare and, and mental health world?

Greg Wieting (7m 37s):
Yeah, that’s a good question. You know, I, I found that this path of healing was really helping to kind of address the entire body mind and spirit as one. And so instead of treating, you know, parts, you know, my physical pain as separate from my emotional wounding, you know, seeing them as one and the same and how do we hold them in relationship to each other. And so I just find that we’re very conditioned to kind of treat symptoms, you know, looking at the tip of the iceberg and, you know, that’s for the mindfulness piece comes in play where I look at the subconscious and the unconscious mind are stored and living in our body and our tissues and in our cells.

Greg Wieting (8m 30s):
And so then that’s, you know, impacting our physiology, you know, so stagnant emotion, you know, we store trauma in our tissues, in the connective tissue and the fascia, and then that stagnation, you know, becomes our inflammation and that then compromises our immune function. And, you know, that’s gonna just have a continuing cascading effect on all parts of our health. And so, yeah, I, I had found, I find that we’re really stuck in a hamster wheel of chasing suppressing and treating symptoms, which is not really looking at the, the fabric of causative factors that are really beneath the surface.

Christine Okezie (9m 10s):
Thank you. I couldn’t agree more. And, and, you know, before we get into I’d love, if you could help us, how would you define trauma or unresolved trauma? You know, it’s thankfully we’re living in a time and we’re, everything is becoming more and more trauma informed. It’s really beautiful to see the consciousness around it. But I think it’s important, you know, for us to, because sometimes we hear trauma and we think, oh, I was in a car accident or I was a victim of domestic abuse and something I, and that that’s all included, but to make it, to cast a wider net, to help people understand how trauma is unresolved trauma running in our everyday life.

Christine Okezie (9m 52s):
If you could please just share, you know, how do you teach your students and clients about that?

Greg Wieting (9m 57s):
Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of folks don’t identify with trauma because yeah, they’ve never been abused or they’ve never been in, you know, a really, you know, intense situation that’s left a, a severe impact on them. But, you know, any lived experience where we feel isolated alone, unsupported, where we’re not able to kind of shake off, you know, a stress response, a fear response is going to imprint upon us as trauma. Right. And those patterns of isolation or alienation start to kind of, yeah. Short circuit, the nervous system where we start to feel fragmented. Right. And so then there’s like a split that starts to happen inside of us.

Greg Wieting (10m 41s):
And, you know, a lot of these imprints are happening in early development. You know, the, if there’s been a lack of consistent care and emotional attunement and support, so yeah. I’ve had lots of students and clients over the years that don’t identify with having trauma and then they start to uncover that, that lack of consistent care. Yes. So, you know how that maybe shows up as neglect or then care taking for the parent and then having to take care of everyone else. And so then how we kind of put our own needs on the back burner. So yeah, just that sense of hypervigilance, you know, where we’re not able to shake off the stress response, you know, the imagery of a gazelle being chased by a cheetah of this on one of, you know, a nature show, you know, the moment the gazelle realizes it’s no longer in danger, it just does this ritual, shaking, you know?

Christine Okezie (11m 34s):
Yeah, yeah. Dogs do it. Right.

Greg Wieting (11m 36s):
Yeah. And they literally shake it off. And then instantaneously, you know, they, a moment ago, they, their life was literally in danger. Yeah. And then they’re able to shake it off and instantaneously shift back to just like eating grass and, you know, shifting to that parasympathetic rest and digest. You know, we, we don’t do that so well, we maybe had an intense experience during the day and now we are in the safety of our own home, but we’re reliving it. Right. We haven’t shake, we haven’t, we haven’t, you know, brushed it off. So we’re, you know, tweet texting about it, tweeting about it, you know, we’re, we’re just replaying it. And so it’s, and all of that starts to leave an imprint and leave a residue.

Greg Wieting (12m 21s):
Right. And we start to carry that within, you know, the costing of our body. So then how, you know, our very, our posture and our identity starts to become organized.

Christine Okezie (12m 32s):
Absolutely. And you bring up a really good point. So making it, you know, seeing the, how, how we can relate to this, that we’ve all, if you’re in the human body, you know, you’ve had some trauma, I mean, just by definition of having those impactful experiences that maybe we don’t deal with, you know, so they get somehow, like you said, just sort of in the, in, I like to say the issues in the tissues, I’ve heard that, you know, a number of times, but it’s important, you know, that the population that you work with is even in the corporate world. And I think this is really, again, just the expansion of the consciousness around this approach. You talk about how, if you’re living in chronic overwhelm, if you’re living that pedal to the metal living, right.

Christine Okezie (13m 15s):
If you’re living with perfectionism, all these things that we could all relate to to some degree, cuz you know, that’s how life happens sometimes, right? How trauma can be at the root of those unwanted states of being or unwanted habits and patterns in our lives, you know, how do you help people unravel that? You know? And maybe this is a good time to talk about prism PRI I’m sorry. Prisma. Right. Am I saying that right? Prisma. Prisma. Yeah. Yeah. You know, talk to us about your signature healing system Prisma and how it helps people with, you know, this entry point into energy medicine through everyday life challenges.

Greg Wieting (13m 52s):
Yeah, absolutely. Well kind of to touch on what, you know, where you started with that question, you know, even without trauma, you know, we, part of just the, the phase of development in early development, we are learning how to get our needs met and it often gets kind of codified in our system that in order to get our needs met, we may perhaps either need to hide a part of ourselves or perform a part of ourselves. Right. So for our own survival, we all become master manipulators to some degree. And again, this is early development pre-verbal, you know, we’re gonna cry to get attention. We’re gonna cry to get the bottle.

Greg Wieting (14m 32s):
We’re gonna cry to get the diaper changed, you know? Yes. And then on and on to get the attention, to get the love, to get the, the meal, whatever it may be. Right. So how, how do we carry that through in adulthood? Right. So then we’re in a leadership role, you know, so what parts of ourselves are we hiding? What parts of ourselves are we? Mm. So yeah, I find a lot of folks find me when they’ve developed a lot of success, very, you know, folks who are made of purpose, but they’re lacking the fulfillment because that, that trauma response that has been the drive that has built their success.

Christine Okezie (15m 9s):
Interesting.

Greg Wieting (15m 10s):
There’s been a great payoff, but now they’re starting to feel the cost. Right. Okay. So it’s maybe helped put every, you know, brick in its place, but now, you know, it can maybe all come tumbling down. And so yeah. You know, so I think healing, a lot of folks find me when they’re kind of in this cost payoff analysis, but I’m thinking of one client where it’s like, well, if I’m not continuing to, you know, move forward with that drive, well, how am I gonna continue to keep my business afloat? Right. And so it, it can be a, you know, there’s a phase of healing that I think could be rather tenuous where it’s like, can, can I continue to thrive or at this base level, just even survive without these strategies and starting to help the system locate more safety, locate, more presence, you know, broadening the window of tolerance.

Greg Wieting (16m 3s):
So we have more capacity to be with what historically has been too overwhelming or too much, you know, and that’s kind of another, you know, orientation to trauma trauma is historically what’s been too much too fast. So we haven’t been able to fully metabolize and process that experience.

Christine Okezie (16m 21s):
Right.

Greg Wieting (16m 22s):
So a lot of healing is slowing down and building the capacity to then be with and make sense of what was, was not, we were not able to make sense of historically. And as we do that, then we start to realize that, wow, maybe I can let my foot off the gas and you know, maybe there can be a phase of cruise control where things can be okay. And, you know, I, the repair experience happens when we, we take the risk to let our, let our foot off the gas and realize that, wow, you know, I’m, I’m still able to kind of navigate life and responsibility and things aren’t falling apart.

Greg Wieting (17m 7s):
And that repair then continues to signal to the brain and the body and the nervous system that, oh, I can settle. I can settle. I, I don’t have to perform as much. I don’t have to hide as much. There’s just more space to be myself.

Christine Okezie (17m 22s):
Yeah. Yeah. It’s interesting. The way that you describe it, it’s, it’s a sense of shedding, a lot of layers so that, you know, the things that we’ve, you know, varied for a very good reason, you know, can come up into our awareness into the light if you will, to, to resolve, to express and, and to reframe, I guess, really. So, so how walk us through, you know, how you develop prism, it’s got some interesting components and different kind of it weaves in some different traditions of healing, which I find really, really powerful.

Greg Wieting (17m 56s):
Yeah. You know, I was not looking to create PRISMA I’d say I just found the tools that were really useful for me on my path and, you know, started to piece them together and over the last few years, and then just was kind of just sharing what worked for me along the way. Yeah. And seeing how that had value for my clients and my students. And then over the last several years started to kinda reverse engineer that and kind of zoom out and just see how all those pieces fit together. So, so yeah, I have basically a trauma and neuroscience roadmap, which, you know, I found that, you know, in the early phases of my healing, I was doing lots of healing, lots of therapy, but not really knowing where I was at or where I was going.

Greg Wieting (18m 48s):
And so this roadmap kind of the, the seven pillars of my system are kind of the drop pins on that roadmap, which help people kinda locate where they are, where they’re headed and just, you know, the mile markers along the way. And just so we can have an orientation to kind of this journey, which is really a journey into the unknown or into just parts of ourself, but helping people get their bearings straight and not, you know, traverse that path blindfolded. Yeah. And then, you know, I also offer a slack community, which is kind of a curated community cuz you know, we can’t heal trauma in isolation. Right. Trauma is kind of what imprints upon us, which then makes us feel isolated and alone.

Greg Wieting (19m 30s):
Yes, yes. And a lot of us will continue to try to heal in isolation because we’ve taught that that’s what we’ve got to do or that’s the only way we can do it. So, you know, having a, a community where people can be witnessed, ask questions and then I’m offering prompts just to help people kind of yeah. Look into a new possibility. And within the, each of the pillars of my system, it’s like, how do we embody this new quality? Like who are we, if we are not this fixed patterning organized around pain. Right. Hmm. And so then I have kind of somatic and mindfulness based practices that are at the heart of the course that I look at as kind of the GPS and, you know, help us really kind of yeah.

Greg Wieting (20m 14s):
Get clear on how to navigate this journey. And you know, I look at the mind training of meditation and mindfulness is really reorienting our mind from pain to possibility and really dissolving our identity with, you know, the behaviors and the beliefs organized around pain. That’s not really the truth of who we are, but we will often clinging to that as if it is so helping to drop that identity, that attachment to then open up to, you know, what is more true for us. Okay. And then the energy medicine component I look at as the vehicle. Right. And so the energy medicine is really helping us kind of cut through the noise.

Greg Wieting (20m 56s):
Yeah. You know, there’s a lot of our pain that we can’t think or talk our way through. Yes. And so that medicine just helps us kind of address the subconscious and unconscious that’s stored in the tissues, as you say, that’s stored in the cells, that’s impacting our physiology and our immune system. And you know, how we’ve, you know, how we’ve organized around something that is finite our pain and kind of dissolve that, that identification to come into something that’s far more expansive and true to who we are.

Christine Okezie (21m 32s):
Yeah. Yeah. It’s the shift in how we relate to ourselves and how we relate to our story. Right. And so can you share some examples of conditions or particular health challenges that you know you’ve worked with or you enjoy working with with your system?

Greg Wieting (21m 49s):
Yeah. You know, most folks are coming to PRISMA to address anxiety, depression, trauma, more in my one-on-one practice, I’m working with chronic pain and autoimmune disease. But you know, working with learning the energy medicine component in my school is gonna start to equip people with, you know, a healing practice that can, you know, support them with their own pain and helping to kinda start to unravel the, the emotional component of chronic illness and autoimmune disease. But yeah, it’s often folks that are starting to come to an awareness that the, the trauma is a key component to the anxiety and the depression and who are really committed to kind of starting to unearth and unravel that piece and really be held and supported.

Greg Wieting (22m 40s):
Right. The whole trauma informed lens is there’s nothing broken that needs to be fixed. There’s just parts of our lived experience that need to be held and supported to be brought into kind of a new understanding and to be put into perspective. And, and that helps our body, our brain and our nervous system kinda just reorganized into, you know, a more of an expression of wholeness.

Christine Okezie (23m 8s):
That’s beautiful. And again, you know, with the, what I love about the approach and the, and the way that you leave the physiology psychology and energetics into it is it comes from a place of full acceptance. Right. And it comes from a place of, I love all the parts of me that, that, you know, are here in some parts are, are really kind of have, haven’t been in the light. Some parts have been kind of shunned or disowned or, or perhaps, you know, too scary to look at, but it’s really that definition of wholeness that you, that you mentioned that coming into that wholeness really resonates.

Christine Okezie (23m 49s):
I think because, you know, we have a tendency to do that. Right. And even we have a tendency to make ourselves be problems to be solved or see ourselves as broken. And I always say, it’s less about self-improvement is more about, you know, sort of self-love and self-appreciation, you know, and, and that in of itself changes our nervous system, you know, we have that approach right.

Greg Wieting (24m 8s):
Hundred percent. Yeah. And I love the idea of this shift from becoming to just being right. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I find all these practices are just helping us locate the power of our own presence. Right. Because, you know, again, trauma is narrowing narrowing our window of tolerance. So we lose access to like our upper brain of logic and reason, and that we default to this like survival brain. Right. And as we grow in, excuse me, as we grow in presence, we have more of a capacity to be with what is, and that’s being with the parts of ourselves that, you know, and there are some traumatic imprints that, you know, are unfathomable that are like inconceivable for the mind to like wrap itself around.

Greg Wieting (24m 57s):
And so, yeah, as we broaden the window of tolerance and we work with these practices, it really helps us meet and make contact with these parts of ourselves and a hundred percent with that love. And that acceptance where I was having a conversation just a week ago with a client where, you know, their default is to fight and wrestle with this part of themselves, which I can completely relate. You know, when I was struggling with chronic pain, I, you know, I was completely at odds with myself and it felt like this holding pattern, which was really just, you know, this wounded part of myself, but it felt like a monster. And I was completely battling with that monster.

Greg Wieting (25m 38s):
And, you know, the ironic thing is what I was fighting against is what I needed to learn, how to love. Yeah. And so beautiful. That’s that’s the essence of these practices is how do we, you know, again, the mindfulness piece is how do we learn how to sit with what is not fight against it, not run from it. Yeah. And then eventually love it. Right. And that can feel very threatening at first. And so absolutely that takes time. It’s not, there’s no silver bullets and there’s no quick fixes to healing, right?

Christine Okezie (26m 11s):
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Greg Wieting (26m 14s):
I love the imagery of like the sea plane that lands on water and you know, it, it touches down, but then it bounces back up and it touches down, bounces back up. It takes a while for the, the sea plane play into finally settle. Right. And that’s kind of how we’re training the nervous system just, you know, learn because we haven’t the, the body mind and spirit still are getting signaling that it’s not safe to be down here. Right. So we bounce back out of the body because the body is still holding lived experience that has been too painful to, to be with and so grow in our capacity to all right.

Greg Wieting (26m 54s):
I can be with that for a moment, but now I’m gonna bounce back out of it. That was too much up. And now I’m gonna find enough support that I can be with it again and slowly and slowly, we can start to metabolize it, digest it, make sense of it, process it, and then we can finally land and yeah. And that landing is just coming back home to ourselves and more agency, more presence.

Christine Okezie (27m 16s):
Thank you. Beautiful. I, I love the metaphor. I love that. It’s, it’s so accurate. And so again, it it’s, it’s a process, right. And, and, and when we kind of shift into that model of inner, gentle, inner excavation process evolution, you know, expansion, even, you know, it feels so much more empowering, you know, as opposed to feeling it’s just broken, you know, I need to fix it and it’s, it’s gonna take a long time. It’s gonna be exactly what needs to be the process is the goal. I like to say, you know, especially around this type of work, so yeah. Thank you.

Christine Okezie (27m 57s):
And, you know, what are the most important things then when it comes to, you know, self-care and taking care of your emotional and, and, and mind health these days, what is really at the top of your list? Sort of that you’ve I like to say not negotiable. Right. But yeah.

Greg Wieting (28m 16s):
Yeah. I mean, I do talk about having non-negotiables, but I think for me, I find over time, it’s really good to have something small and consistent every day. Right. And that just helps to kind of carve a new baseline. And yet again, my trauma informed approach, I get that that might not feel available for some folks that might feel too overwhelming to commit to a daily practice, you know, at the get go. So then some is better than none.

Christine Okezie (28m 46s):
Right. Always,

Greg Wieting (28m 47s):
And then eventually some will beget more and then more can beget that consistency. So good. As much as I encourage my students, when I’m, you know, teaching them kind of an energy medicine practice to start to develop a daily consistent practice, I don’t wanna set up patterns of judgment or shame if that feels too much too soon, right?

Christine Okezie (29m 11s):
Yes, exactly.

Greg Wieting (29m 13s):
There’s wisdom with titration. Right. We get to decide, you know, how much we’re gonna lean into our healing practice. And sometimes the most healing thing we can do is take a step back and just take a walk, get some fresh air Netflix and chill. Right. Totally. And not just make a big project out of ourselves.

Christine Okezie (29m 31s):
Right. That is a fine line with that these days. Right. Especially if you’re really into this type of work, you know, healing and all of it it’s we can become a never ending self-improvement case, you know? Yeah.

Greg Wieting (29m 45s):
And so, yeah, coming back to just, you know, oh, what if my healing practice is just an opportunity for me to love myself, not fix myself. So continuing to keep that framework. Yes. And then I think that’s a reorient, a reframing around discipline too, is I think there could be a lot of rigidity and hardness around discipline where what if discipline is just a form of self love?

Christine Okezie (30m 9s):
Mm. That

Greg Wieting (30m 10s):
Is, and I’ve worked with clients over the years that have struggled with that because the tr the imprints of trauma would tell some of us that, well, I shouldn’t love myself in that way. Right. So, so there’s no right or wrong. I’m thinking of one student who came to, I always would ask, I always ask students, like, what has brought them to this work? And yeah. You know, one student said, she just felt like she was following some breadcrumbs that brought her to, you know, nice this healing path. So those breadcrumbs are gonna be different for each of us, you know, before I found Reiki and energy medicine, I didn’t really know. I, I didn’t know I was on a healing path, but if I really look back and how I was exploring music and nature, like those, that was my spiritual practice at the time, without knowing it, or having a, being able to call it a spiritual practice.

Greg Wieting (30m 60s):
So what, what are the, what are those breadcrumbs that are just inviting people to get more in touch with themselves, right. To yes. To help them tap into what’s more alive and real for them, that’s helping them get a taste of something yeah. Outside of, you know, the limitations of the mind. And so following those breadcrumbs and beautiful, I, some of I have some clients that their spiritual practice is, you know, they’re woodworking, you know, so it’s not a meditation practice, but it’s whatever brings them into full presence. Right. Just a total awareness and becoming absorbed in that.

Greg Wieting (31m 40s):
Right. So that’s great, really honoring what that is for each of us and not trying to have it fit into a certain yeah. A certain box.

Christine Okezie (31m 51s):
And it, I think it’s a very, you know, important paradigm. That’s rewriting the rules, even on, if I can say spirituality or, you know, transformational work is that it’s really so much more about that honoring individual self really. And, and the process. I think for me, I’ve noticed that, you know, the work, if I can say that is really having, taking the leap of, of believing that my body, my emotions know what I need, you know, and how do I just over time learn to listen to that and learn to trust that. And then that gives way, as you said, to whatever activity or practice, you know, naturally resonates, you know, but they have that, just the process of, like you said, cuz you know, when you’re working with people who are going a hundred miles an hour, for lots of reasons, you know, or just everyday navigation of 20, 22 even can be really distracting.

Christine Okezie (32m 48s):
It’s so much easier to focus on the external world. And it’s such a courageous thing to decide that you’re gonna pause and through the practices of mindfulness, you know, kind of be with what is, I mean, it’s a radical thing. You know, it probably goes, it goes against so much of our conditioning, but I found it’s really kind of, you mentioned the baby, you know, cries for, I got the image. I said, you know, that is the most authentic thing. You know, state of being actually when the baby cries, it’s listening to its body, it’s listening to its belly, it’s listening to its, you know, real true needs. So by definition, maybe we need to all treat ourselves as babies and toddlers, you know, and kind of go back, realize that that’s, you know, we have needs and we have a right to express and, and get those met, you know?

Christine Okezie (33m 37s):
So it’s interesting.

Greg Wieting (33m 39s):
Yeah. I, I think mapping that’s a big piece of the work is really mapping our needs, understanding our needs. Yeah. Grieving, grieving the loss of unmet needs in early development that perhaps signaled life or death. Right. If some of our needs didn’t get met in early development, that could be pretty, you know, detrimental, right. Yeah. Yeah. But that energetic charge continues to live in us. So then that need today that actually isn’t as consequential is still activating the brain and the nervous system as if it is right. Starting to zoom out and start to see that, you know, is a big part of the work. But yeah. Interesting, Interesting.

Greg Wieting (34m 19s):
Something you just shared. I, I love the idea of our bodies innate wisdom, right? Yeah. Which was a term I believe, coined and chiropractic, but we use it, you know, I share that with my students in the world of energy medicine and that innate wisdom, you know, it’s, it’s the healing intelligence that will orchestrate the healing response when there’s a paper cut to send platelets and you know, white blood cells and orchestrate all these biochemical transmissions. Right. And so that absolutely paper cut heals without us having to think about it. It’s just this innate wisdom that is functioning despite us.

Christine Okezie (34m 55s):
Right.

Greg Wieting (34m 55s):
And although it can heal a paper cut, you know, as, as traumatic imprints continue to kind of compound, we lose more and more contact with that innate wisdom. Yeah. And it loses some of its efficacy. Right? Yeah. That’s why, you know, some of us, our immune systems are more robust than others. You know, some of us are gonna be more susceptible to, you know, environmental allergens and viruses than others. And so yeah. Healing is helping us become more attuned to that innate wisdom, which the more we’re in alignment with it, that’s really the organizational intelligence of who we are.

Christine Okezie (35m 35s):
Right.

Greg Wieting (35m 35s):
Right. And that having that connection then puts us that much more in touch with our needs. It helps us then get more of what we want. And cuz we’re finding more of a, an alignment with our wholeness and a, a deeper resonance with every part of ourselves that you know, is no longer functioning kind of in, excuse me, isolation.

Christine Okezie (36m 0s):
Yeah, exactly. And the tools and practices of somatic healing, mindfulness and energy medicine are, are just that. Right. They’re kind of the, they, they sort of give us that roadmap and they, they, I like to say they give us that, that toolbox, you know, to kind of go in and, and restore, you know, certain things that like you said are already were designed for, but maybe just need a little bit of a tune up. It’s a constant tuning. I think that’s the sense I get. Right. It’s not fixing, it’s just more like fine tuning. Like you would an instrument.

Greg Wieting (36m 34s):
I, I agree. A hundred percent. I like sometimes we need to like up refresh the page on a browser. Right?

Christine Okezie (36m 41s):
Yeah. Right.

Greg Wieting (36m 42s):
All the information updates. Right? Like sometimes the page get frozen to the old information. That’s right. We need to refresh the browser and then everything kind of updates and we’re like, all right, we’re all on the same page. That’s brilliant. Yes. We’re highly adaptable. So we learn how to navigate the world, even with these mal adaptations to trauma and stress that have us feeling really fragmented and split within ourselves. So yeah. Healing just continues to help us update and refresh to, to connect these disparate parts. So we’re, you know, functioning more as a symphony orchestra. Right? Yeah. And trauma starts to kind of create a lot of noise inside of us.

Greg Wieting (37m 23s):
So I look at the, the essence of healing is breaking up the noise.

Christine Okezie (37m 27s):
Mm love that. I love that. Thank you. What’s keeping you inspired these days. Like why are you so passionate about the work that you do?

Greg Wieting (37m 36s):
Yeah. Good question. Yeah. I mean, I feel, you know, I’ve been sharing this work for nearly two decades and it’s, it’s always been just passion. You know, I was working in the nonprofit world, so I’ve always had a bent for, you know, activism and just, you know, showing up in ways that I feel are, you know, paying it forward and just leaving a positive mark on the world. And so once I had kind of experienced my own transformation, you know, that chronic pain is no longer present, you know, it’s like, well, who am I to not share this work? Right. And especially today, I mean, you know, and the work I’m doing with leaders and entrepreneurs, I think that leaders and entrepreneurs are probably two to three times more likely to experience depression.

Greg Wieting (38m 29s):
Right. You know, so the, and beyond that, just the world, we’re living in a world of crisis right now, and we’re living in a world that is fueled off of division and fear and threats. Yes. And so, you know, that level of hyper vigilance it’s, it’s, it’s gonna make or break us. And I think healing provides us with the tools for it to really help us develop a, a deeper resilience, a deeper creative impulse to kind of find new solutions to, you know, some of the biggest problems on the planet. So while I’m here, I I’d, I’d like to be energizing that vibration of possibility.

Greg Wieting (39m 13s):
And so, yeah, I, I just, there’s no plan B, this is what I’m here to do.

Christine Okezie (39m 21s):
This is what I’m here. Yeah. No, you are, you are definitely aligned for sure. For sure. Yeah. I mean, it’s just interesting, you know, I, I, one of the, the gifts that I’ve feel so blessed when I interview folks like you, who are we, you know, we’re all living such an interesting time, right? It’s a very unique time. And so many more people so much more good than bad. And this, these types of conversations reinforce that, knowing that I have, you know, that the consciousness is expanding that our nervous system, they’re all getting upgraded. You know, people are really in service to that because they realize that’s where it is. That’s where the action is. You know, we all need to take care of our nervous systems better these days.

Christine Okezie (40m 4s):
So it’s very, very inspiring work. And so I’m gonna ask, given that we’re living in really interesting times, you know, what’s kind of the number one thing. I don’t know if you have like the number one thing that helps you navigate the stress, the uncertainty and, and that’s all going on around us.

Greg Wieting (40m 25s):
Yeah. I actually, yeah. Had a dinner with a bunch of other entrepreneurs last night and just a sense of community. Right. We’re all building, building something in the world and it can feel pretty isolating. Right. We’re all kinda behind zoom screens and we’re all in our little spaces. And so community, you know, we can’t heal in isolation and you know, we’re social creatures. We’re not meant to live in isolation either. Okay. And yeah, you know, if you look at cardiovascular disease and addiction, you know, these are really diseases of isolation and alienation, right. Not to mention anxiety and depression and you know, that trauma just compounds that.

Greg Wieting (41m 6s):
Right. So community, community, people got it. Right. Power and people. And you know, what, what gives me hope is as much as I’m seeing a world in crisis, you know, the pain it’s, it’s coming to the surface. Right. And we can’t heal it until we see it. And right now the writing’s on the wall. We see it, you know, so, and we’re seeing it on a mass scale, right. Not just a few of us, it’s like, that’s right. It’s you can’t ignore it. And as, as troubling as that may feel, it’s like, that’s, that’s the course of things.

Greg Wieting (41m 46s):
Right. We, we can’t, we can’t come into a greater recognition of our pain and resolve it without looking at it, head on. Right. I look at these times are stretching us. Right. And that’s stretching in my, my view is that broadening of our window of tolerance. So we can be with what historically we just, you know, kept in the shadows. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And having that happen on a collective level, it’s messy and there’s no guarantees on how we sort through it, you know? And I think that’s true in our individual healing and collective healing,

Christine Okezie (42m 22s):
But parallel process. Right.

Greg Wieting (42m 24s):
Yeah. But fortunately I feel the work I’ve done for myself and that I’ve witnessed and, you know, thousands of clients and hundreds of students is I see it’s possible. Right. Yeah. I’ve seen it in myself and I’ve seen it in others. So that helps me kind of hold a vision for what’s possible on a much larger scale.

Christine Okezie (42m 43s):
Thank you. Yeah, no, I get that. That’s beautiful. Wonderful. And is there anything Greg that you’d like to share, maybe a question I haven’t asked you, or maybe something that you’d like to let our listeners know so they can experience more of your work.

Greg Wieting (42m 57s):
Yeah, absolutely. So Prisma is available online, right? So wherever you are, Prisma is accessible. There’s the roadmap, there’s the community, the peers, there’s the GPS, the guided meditations, the somatic practices paired with the trauma in neuroscience and then the energy medicine. So, wow. You know, my goal, right? This has been 20 plus years of my, you know, me pulling together what was necessary for my own healing and reverse engineering it to just make it as practical and accessible as possible and to really create a foundational lens that is trauma informed.

Greg Wieting (43m 39s):
So this work can meet people where they’re at. Yeah. And so, yeah. Folks can, you know, tap into that Prisma method.com. I do have a little space for one on one work. And so folks really wanna commit to a deep dive and arc of transformation. Yeah. Just reach out, let’s have a conversation. It all starts just with a conversation. And as much as I have really powerful tools, I find that it’s really the relationship. So yeah. You know, so folks who are out there, it’s like, if you have found a healer or a therapist that isn’t the right fit, they’re just not the right fit. Right. Don’t give up on healing. Right.

Greg Wieting (44m 19s):
That’s brilliant. Yeah. That’s, I’m your own best advocate. Keep going and find the tools and the community and the teachers and the mentors and the healers that have a resonance for you, you know, and there’s a resonance out there. And so don’t give up, if you don’t find it, you know, your first, second, third track, keep going.

Christine Okezie (44m 38s):
Great message. Great invitation. Thank you so much, Greg. It’s been a pleasure to have you, and thank you so much for all the, the great work that you’re doing in the world.

Greg Wieting (44m 46s):
Thanks, Christine. It’s been a pleasure.