Connecting our body and mind

If you are a busy mum or career women, you can certainly relate to this scenario. It is almost 3 pm, your stomach is making noise, your back is sore and your mind is super tired. You just realised you haven’t had lunch because you have been sitting in front of your computer for hours stressing about one thing or another.

Your mind goes: “Oh dear, I really need to take better care of myself“

Then, you got a phone call or SMS or email or someone knocks on the door.

Once again, the idea of self-care went out of the window. We forget about it almost as soon as we remember it.

When we don’t have a good work-life balance or we let a project or person take over our lives for a time, our body will start to “talk to us” or “warn” us. We get headaches, backache, mood swing, insomnia just to name a few of the common symptoms. As our body and mind are connected, there is a lot we can learn from our body wisdom.

In my interview with Camila Sunshine, we talked about her journey from working as an IT professional in Brazil to becoming a diverse bodywork therapist and mentor for women. We explored what it means to have freedom in life, and feminine body wisdom. I love the part we talked about our hips, how it holds so much information and emotion for us. You can listen to our podcast, or watch our video interview. You can find the highlights of our interview and transcripts below.

Camila Sunshine is s fully accredited Remedial Massage Therapist and Holistic Kinesiologist. Her extensive skills also include NLP, Reiki, Coaching, Chinese acupuncture system, acupressure and Access Bars. Camila helps introverted conscious women in business to become unconventional leaders and create the impact they envisioned. You can connect with Camila by visiting her website or her FB page.

Interview Highlights:

Camila’s journey of leaving her corporate job in IT in Brazil to discovering body wisdom in Australia. Now she works with conscious women with their business to become more integrated and conventional leaders.

What does freedom mean to you? Freedom to choose what you want to doo. What is stopping you to pursue your heart desire?

How do we discern impulses vs. true heart calling or our life purpose?

We cannot figure out certain things with only our mind, we need to actually explore it and have personal experience in order to know.

How do we know if our desire comes from our ego or from our soul? Is the idea come from the mind or from our intuition?

Our body holds a lot of wisdom for us. Many pains or aches or diseases come from imbalances in our life. Our physical body informs our metaphysical well-being. It is important to connect our mind to our body.

On a physical level, our hips are connected to our digestion and part of our support system. If the hips are weak, the muscles of our core aren’t working or our glute is not turned on, then our spine won’t be as supported and we may experience back pain. Also, when we are stressed, we tighten our butt cheeks!

On an emotional level, our hips hold our creativity. They hold our old stories, stress and stagnation. It is like a bowl, holding all things at the bottom. In a way, they also represent our flexibility.

Feminine wisdom: You have to know your needs, wants and desires. You need to be able to ask yourself these hard questions!

Movement is highly important for our body, it reconnects us and they are expressions of our mind.

Video

https://youtu.be/MrvsfXn5GiQ

Transcript

Sze Wing:	Hi, everyone. Today I have my guest Camila Sunshine with me. So I’m really happy to talk to Camila. We met years ago and then we bumped into each other again on the internet if that’s the place to bump into, right? So I was intrigued because she offers a lot of different modalities, and as we caught up, obviously, she’s also on a different journey. So a little introduction, so Camila, in terms of, I guess now, we call it embodiment mentor, but I know we have a very diverse background. I know that at the moment, you’re helping introverted conscious women in business to create impact, to become unconventional leaders. So you’re mentoring women, you’re helping them become a better version of themselves, which I’m going to ask you a lot more about your journey and how you help your clients. But I also wanted to add that she has a very diverse background for instance in bodywork. She’s accredited the medium massage therapist, wholistic ideologist, and she also used NLP, coaching, Chinese acupuncture system and acupressure. So you definitely do a lot of work with people, not just on a spiritual, mental level, but also body system. It seems like a very integrated approach. So a lot of people that come for you because they know you have such a diverse background and depends where they are and what the client needs. So I think it’s probably easy if I ask you questions than just tell people your bio. So anyway, Camila, welcome to my podcast.
Camila:	Thank you. So good to be here. Such a long time and I know that we’ve connected. I’m happy to be here.
Sze Wing:	Your name Camila Sunshine is so great, because we need a bit of sunshine. We’re stepping into winter and we’re in the middle of all this virus going on, and I think keeping a positive mindset and having sunshine in our life is super important. My husband actually is sun tanning himself outside [laughter], because people–
Camila:	That’s good.
Sze Wing:	–said it’s really important to have a dose of sunshine. So I say I’m doing this till you get out of the house. So yeah. So welcome, and I’m so excited to talk to you today. So I think, first of all, tell us a little bit about what you’re doing at the moment because I know you mentioned that you’re helping people, conscious women, work on their business to become more integrated and conventional leaders. So what was your journey to do what you do now? And because you incorporated a lot of different modalities. So tell us a little bit about your journey, and what do you do, and how do you help people now?
Camila:	Sure. Yeah. My journey was an interesting journey. Up to 10 years ago, I had no idea what was coming. I worked in a corporate world for 14 years, and well, that’s what I knew. My mom used to work in a corporate world and I was interested in getting to know what– I was in IT, and I was just curious about how actually their world works. And so going through that, I realized that that’s not it. 14 years later, I realized that– I listened to myself and I asked myself the uncomfortable questions if that was it, that was what I should do with my life, and the answer was no, there was something else. That’s when I came from Brazil to Australia, and I knew I needed to learn things to– and now I know that I actually needed to reconnect with this wisdom, the ancient wisdom and the wisdom that we carry in our bodies. So it’s been in this past 10 years, then, I decided that, no, that’s not what I’m doing anymore. I’m not doing IT anymore. It’s been my own journey of self-embodiment, embodiment of my leadership, and I say it’s unconventional because now we are in a time where we are creating so many new things. so many coaches, coaches that help people to do things. We didn’t have this 10, 20 years ago. So we’re creating new professions, we’re creating new possibilities, especially with the internet. Things are going so fast and now it’s time to go with them. We have created so many things outside that now it’s time to, okay, let’s access this wisdom and see where we want to go as humanity, really. That’s been my journey.
Camila:	So I felt disconnected from my wisdom during that period of 14 years in IT because I was too much in my head, and that’s all I knew, so my vision just was within that. I just wanted to make money. I just wanted to climb the ladder, right, the corporate ladder, and that’s all I wanted. That was my ambition then. And when I got there, I was managing teams and doing product management, and I’m just like, “Is that it?” And I realized, no, it’s not what I want. And so now, I just help people to recognize that in themselves. So what is their spark? What is their piece of the puzzle? And if here’s a choice that they want to make to explore that, so I help them to go through their journey.
Sze Wing:	So I know that on Facebook I saw you talking about mapping, for helping people to map their purpose and freedom. So what does freedom means to you personally? And for all the women that you helped, what does freedom mean to them? Or what truly freedom encompasses because I think, often it can mean a lot of different things to different people. Some, maybe financial independence. Some, maybe just do what they really want to do. Maybe corporate work is no longer something they feel fulfilled. So tell us about your take on freedom.
Camila:	Yeah. It’s a very interesting question that I’ve been asking and discussing with so, so, so, so many people. Actually, when I meet someone, actually instead of asking their name, I started asking, “What does freedom mean to you?” So I’ve done extensive research on this and it’s interesting. Yes. Each person answers something particular, as you said, financial. But the most common answer that I get, that I got, is that I just want to do what I want when I want it. So basically, I see this as people being able to access the impulses of their inner– and I know and I feel that that’s the impulse of their heart and their soul, and they just want to do it. Right? And so freedom is to be able to choose, to be able to listen to those impulses and be able to act on it, not having anything really stopping them from the action. So for example, someone who, “Yes, I love exercising, but I need to be stuck in a job 40 hours a week, sitting on a chair.” So in that way, the impulse is to move, but the person believes that she can’t move, that she needs to work because of money. But then the person may not have thought that, actually, she can make money by moving their bodies, by actually doing what she loves. Right? And this just goes so much into conditioning and what their parents said is– it’s okay to make money with this but you can’t make money with that, and in my work, that’s what we delve into, to find out what is actually stopping you because what your heart says, that’s actually the truth.
Sze Wing:	So I have another question related to that. I know that because you talked about purpose and freedom, and then you now talk about impulses as well, so– but how do we draw the line where maybe our impulse is to, “Oh, I really like to take up a different profession because I’m so sick and tired of my corporate environment. It’s so toxic.” But how do we know this is just– maybe we are avoiding a different issue or it is only an impulse? But what about the purpose piece? Isn’t purpose supposed to be something more, as in we are supposed to do something to service another or make a bigger contribution? So how do we discern it’s maybe our life purpose or calling to do something for the betterment of not just us but the world versus some of the impulses that could be from ego or from other ways just to avoid a deeper calling or issues around us? So how do we balance and draw the line between impulses and real purpose?
Camila:	Yes. That’s a very interesting question. And what comes to me– there is just differentiation of the impulse of the ego and impulse of the soul. And then there are impulses that can be, oh, this is a hobby or this is what I really want to pursue. And the thing is, we will only be able to know, distinguish if it’s a hobby or if it’s ego, if you actually allow yourself to start exploring it, and pursuing it, and really giving yourself the chance to know. Maybe starting a course. Maybe getting into a group where they explore the things or start talking with people who are already doing those things. But we can’t really figure things out with the mind. If there is an impulse, we need to know what that impulse actually is, and we only get to know when we go through the journey and experience. It may take three months, it may take a year, and the more that we– and that’s another thing that I teach as well, which is connected with the intuition. You’ll be able to know to listen if that’s actually– it’s coming from the ego or if it’s coming from the desire of the soul. And that’s why I teach, as well, to connect with the body, because that’s where the answer comes from as opposed to the mind and the ego that’s actually telling things to be able to distinguish when something comes from the mind and when it comes from the intuition, comes from the intuition when it comes from the– it feels good. And even though we may not have the full idea, the full clarity of what it is, we just allow ourselves to follow and trust and follow and trust. So does that make sense?
Sze Wing:	I like that because I know definitely you cannot use thinking alone to get to the answer. Because I definitely liked the fact that you got to maybe take a course with a book and then you tap into it, you do something and then it leads you to the next step. And then it can turn out to be just an impulse, or just an excuse, or delay tactics. Or they could turns out into something bigger. But you only find out after you’ve done some exploration and no effort wasted. I definitely liked that. You got to get your hands dirty, so to speak, to get into it. And I’m curious about your work with– because you talked a lot about– what we’ve been talking about, it’s quiet in the intellectual or spiritual and the mind. But your qualifications have a lot to do with the bodywork . And I also resonate with what you said about the body. Our body can tell us all the things. And I think our body doesn’t lie. Because I think that’s partly kinesiology and a lot of things that you suppress the emotion or whatever that is, your body will act out eventually to tell you something isn’t right. So how does it work when [inaudible] tend to come to you through a, they want to do some bodywork or whatever channel they came through, but then often it became an integrated practice that you do something in the body and then discover something the mind. Or maybe would that be another way around that you’re talking about something like a mentoring scenario and then you check with the body and see, “How does it feel? Is it expensive or contracting?” How does it work when your clients came to you?
Camila:	Yeah. I love this question because this summarizes as well, a lot of what I do. Okay. So yes, I do have actually clients coming in just because they have back pain. And then from that back pain, we are just going to slowly just go over, like, “Okay, what’s the cause of this back pain? It’s because there’s really a muscle that’s being weakened. And why it has been weakened. And what’s actually happening in your day today? What’s going on in your mind? Do you sleep well?” So we can just delve from the physical into the metaphysical and into what’s actually going on emotionally, what’s distressing this person . What’s stressing them out? And another way as well, some people come to me to sleep better or increase their vitality. And sometimes they have anxiety and they need some help to navigate that in a way– the way, for example, I see anxiety is that it’s just too many informations. No, I don’t see this as a disease. You know anything, I don’t see things as diseases. There is imbalances in the body. And, of course, the further we go, the further we are from bringing that back. So people can come through all this strain, but what we culminate in and what we had towards is that embodiment. Because the embodiment will bring– okay, so there’s the physical awareness of what’s going on. If it’s an imbalance, that’s the first thing that we need to bring. It’s visceral. If our body is not functioning well, our body actually lose the trust in ourselves. And so we started getting things like lack of focus and procrastinating or feeling unmotivated or depressed, but this comes from the body. From the body losing the trust in our own decisions. It’s crazy but it does happen. So there’s this minimal, very intimate relationships happening between us in our bodies and the decisions that we make, the food that we put in our body, the body needs to trust ourselves, and that we are able to look after it. It’s a relationship. It’s the most intimate relationship that we can have. So in the way, it’s all of this journey to reconnect to be able to listen to develop that relationship with the body. So then we can get to the embodiment piece. The embodiment piece is when you bring everything together that there’s the spiritual aspect. And there’s the emotional aspect if I am able to– okay. So just an example. So I am stressed out. I’m being bullied at work, for example, and I don’t know how to move through this situation feeling anxious. I’m getting panic attacks. But okay. So let’s figure out what’s going on the physical level. You’re getting this palpitation and you getting at an emotional level, you’re getting– yeah, anxious and you’re actually getting angry and you’re getting frustrated and if acted on, you’re going to be feeling– I’ll probably be feeling depressed. And I don’t know. I’m feeling stuck. I can’t move on. So the embodiment piece is bringing all these pieces together to find a solution really to get to find a way out. And there’s usually an entry point for– and the way I see it is– usually, the entry point is the point where– okay. So if we tackle this, if you tackle this 20% that’s out of imbalance or you don’t have awareness about, if you tackle this 20%, we’re just going to bring you 80% of results. So, yeah. So it’s big. It’s holistic and it is the ability to see and to read what’s happening in all the systems at once. Yeah. That’s what I–
Sze Wing:	So you mentioned the back pain. And I know a lot of people talk about the back is about your support. And I’m interested because I remember you wrote something about hips. And I think hips is something quite important for women. So what emotions are stored in the hips? I mean, also because you worked with people a lot through bodywork, so– and even though it’s an integrated piece, often they give us some clues, right? If you know about a hip. So can you tell us a bit more about hips? And what does this body part hope for us and why it’s so important for us to focus on having movement or look after our hips?
Camila:	Yeah. The hips are so interesting. Part of our bodies, right? And I can just put into four different buckets about the hips. We can look at the hips at the physical level, what’s going on, what’s happening at the emotional level and the hips, and what’s happening with the mental and spiritual level’s true, right? So it’s starting with the physical level, the hips, it connects with our digestion. It’s our support as you say, but physically it’s a support. If our hips are weak, if the muscles of our core are not working, or if our glutes are not switching on, physically, then the whole spine will not feel supported. So then it can start getting– yeah, back pain. And if the back is not supported, we will affect what is above, which is– yeah, our ability. It can even cause headaches. Okay. So this is the physical level. And then when we go into the emotional level like our hips, because it holds our– it does hold our creativity, but we also hold actually a lot of emotion in there. Yeah. What happens when we are stressed, when we are on the situation of fight or flight, our butt cheeks may tighten up and you’re not noticing it. And working with clients when they come for back pain, for example, the first thing I look is their hips, because if they go to all the like the massage therapist, most of them. And I’m surprised that they don’t work in the hips. And there’s a lot of things on there, a lot of old stories, old stresses, and stagnation because if you look at the hips, it’s like this bowl, right? If you have this bowl and you sprinkle salt from the top– and let’s say if that’s a salt that is– I put salt, but let’s put sand, okay? So the sand’s a little bit toxic, let’s put it this way, and excessive. If I sprinkle that, what will happen with them? You go towards the bottom of it. And what happens with releasing so many hormones in the body that we are not– that our liver is not able to deal with, and it can be through– it can be through food. And it can be through excess stress hormones. Our hip starts to hold that. And because it’s the bottom of our digestion, and so it just sinks down gravity, right? So a lot of stagnation gets stuck in there. And that’s why we need to move. That’s why we need to get this, whatever’s in the hips, which is in the bottom of our visceral organs, so we can, yeah, release through the bloodstream, through the kidneys, and even through the bowel and the guts. Yeah.
Camila:	And then when we’re tapping to the more metaphysical, spiritual, energetic is our seat of creativity. And so much – there is a support, there is the ability to be flexible – that we can explore through the hips often. And I see clients who feel, “Oh, I don’t have a choice. Yeah, I experience anxiety, depression. I don’t have a choice,” and they may have some addictions or smoking. Their hips feel stuck, the same way that they feel in life. So this is a representation. Okay. So if we start to move what has been stuck in the body, we will start to get the same effects in life. So they start to have some openings in their way of thinking, thinking about things that they didn’t think before. They give themselves more permission to think differently, to making decisions, and be more flexible with the things that they haven’t. Or some people may be too flexible. They need to create boundaries. So it’s another thing that we can explore through the hips as well through being aware. And being aware is about– okay. So if we close our eyes and imagine that there is this point in the centre of our heads in between the eyebrows and we follow that point down through the throat, through the chest, through the belly, and all the way down to the pelvic bone, this is what I mean by awareness is, “Okay, I’m connected,” and I can kind of read and listen if there is a sensation there or how it feels. And yeah, that’s their starting point to explore. So there’s so much in the hips.
Sze Wing:	Yeah. I definitely believe body wisdom, especially feminine body wisdom, feminine wisdom. And I write about goddesses. I write about how to help women to become more inspired and empowered. And I think our body tells us a lot of things. There’s a lot of feminine wisdom to be explored. Some things that we– in Chinese culture– I don’t know about in your culture, in Brazilian culture, I think there’s a lot of women wisdom that passed on from generation to generation about– like mom and grandma would tell you things, how to keep yourself youthful or healthy as a woman. And I think there’s a lot of feminine wisdom yet we need to tap into. So I’m curious with, particular, the sense, the notion of feminine wisdom or health for us. Since you work with lots of people and through a bodywork experience, what will be the top two or three things that you think, for us, more than women that tend to balance career and family relationship and everything on the go– well, like the top things that you think we need to be mindful to keep our feminine body healthy and well and glorious.
Camila:	Only three [laughter]?
Sze Wing:	If you can keep them under five.
Camila:	That’s true. Let’s start with one. I think that what I see a lot is, especially when women become mothers and professionals and all these external rules, they forget to know what their needs really are, their wants and desires. So this would be the first thing, to really connect with their needs, wants, and desires. Oh, that could be three things already but I have something else to share. So, and by connecting, I mean, we need to be able to ask ourselves those difficult questions. Because if we are not getting what we want and need, do you actually know what we want and need in whatever relationship or from a profession, from work, and etc.? And another thing is their ability to really reconnect with the fun and pleasure. I think women with all this, Rose, got so serious, and therefore, getting the simple act of having fun, allowing themselves to have fun, to have pleasure, to go for a massage – some people are open to receive – or to go and have acts of self-care , some others — what’s the word even to say? – it’s challenging, right? It’s challenging. It’s confronting, even to–
Sze Wing:	To give something to themselves, as in reward themselves?
Camila:	Yeah, to receive, to have fun. They don’t allow themselves because we’re so used to all these giving, and receiving, is that something we’re reluctant to
Camila:	Yeah. Yes. And because, well, being a mother requires that, right, requires a lot of giving. For example, one of the archetypes that I explore– and I have this– there’s a program, was the second time around, it’s called 30 Days Of Body Magic, that encompasses all of that. So there is the archetype of, which would say I call it [all-embracing?] leader. But she has some elements of the mother, right? What she needs to learn is to be a mother to herself and to be able to hold herself to know her needs and to nurture and care for herself. And it is challenging when a woman is working 40 hours or even 20, 40 hours a week and she’s still having to get home and cook and to care and give their child a bath and all this sort of things. She doesn’t have time for herself. But she needs to reserve at least, at least. I don’t know. If it’s a minute, it would be a minute. If five minutes, it’d be five minutes or 10 minutes to tune in. But things are happening so fast that some clients come to me. The clients are now 7 or 10 or 15 and they’re like, “Oh, I need to reconnect with myself. I lost myself.” So that’s what I would say. So it’s the ability to reconnect with the needs, wants, desires, and to reconnect with fun. And what’s pleasurable. What is like, “Okay. So I’m going to do this for myself. I know I’ve given so much instead of giving 90%– instead of actually giving 100%. I’ll give 90%. I’ll keep 10 for myself. Thank you. I deserve it.” So yeah, that’s what I would say. And movement, it’s such powerful. And I saw that you interviewed someone talking about the voice, right? The voice is also so important. And voice and movement because they are expressions of our body, our mind, or so. And this integration is so important. Tribes used to dance to celebrate. Or when there was something bad happening there was dance. It’s actually our way to release stress and to be present and to– yeah. And to live. We need to reconnect with that.
Sze Wing:	I agree. I don’t think we are born to sit on a desk in front of a computer for hours. But that’s what we do. So exercising or being creative, having fun, move our body it’s so important and especially for women. And as you said, I love the analogy about our hips and it is like a bowl. And I think, definitely, moving our body, shaking it, it’s so important for women who are health and wellbeing. And they are also connected. I mean, if you’re physically well mentally, you’ll probably feel that. And a lot of people use exercise to help with mental health and vice versa. And when you feel happy and you tend to do more outside, I feel– I don’t know. But I think it’s really important to mention too for women. I noticed myself as a working mom, I do know that at the end of the day, you’re like, “I haven’t done anything except working at my desk. I didn’t wash my face.” Or you realize it’s 3:00 PM. You haven’t eaten anything and crazy stuff like that. So I think it’s super important to remind us what our needs, desire, and wants . So thank you so much for all your advice and tips and about your work today. And so to wrap this up, if people want to, whether connect with you for bodywork or more like a mentor type of work, what’s the best way for them to find you?
Camila:	The best way is on my Facebook page, which– yeah. I think you have the name there. You’re going to share the link.
Sze Wing:	I will share the link on the blog posts so it’s easier for people that can just click on it. So they connect you over Facebook. And also I’ll put down your website on your website when we release that. So again, people can take it from there.
Camila:	Yes. Yes. And I’m creating, actually, a new Facebook group. But I’ll share, as well, the link of that for people who want to– yeah. Learn more and see all the aspects of this happening. Yeah. It’s about leadership because there would be leadership. So for women who are here to create something and create impacts and want to be visible and be able to say, “That’s it. I want to create this impact.” So, yeah. So that’s for women who consider themselves as leaders but somehow they’re the ones who create something new and I help them through that journey. So that’s the group.
Sze Wing:	That’s beautiful. So we’re going to put more details on the page as well. And I will include the link by the time this goes out. So thank you so much, Camilla.
Camila:	Thank you.

74. Connecting Our Body and Mind: Interview with Camila Sunshine

Interview Highlights:

Video

Transcript