Alison Zeidler: Practical Tools for Finding Peace and Calm in Everyday Life
00:00Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now.Hi, everyone. This is Dr. Tammy Patser, and today we have a very special guest, Alison Ziedler.Allison is an expert in reducing and eliminating the effects of chronic stress, worry, anxiety, and overwhelm.I feel it.She uses a variety of modalities, including quantum touch, energy, healing, touch for health, and heart map.And she empowers her clients to move from surviving to thriving.Allison has an incredible story of personal transformation, and today she'll share her insights andpractical tools for managing stress and improving overall well-being. Welcome, Allison.
01:07Thank you for having me. This is going to be fun today.Yes, I think so. I want you to tell us a little bit about your background and what actuallyled you to help people manage their stress, their worry, and their anxiety.Okay, well, I'll try and keep it somewhat brief.I grew up in a fairly dysfunctional home, and now most people tend to grow up in fairlydysfunctional homes.I don't know anyone who had a wonderfully perfect growing up, but we all have varyingdegrees of stressors from our childhood.
01:49My mother was married five times by the time I was 15.She was an alcoholic and didn't have a lot of tools to manage her life.Of course, that impacted our life, my brother, my sister, and myself.And I grew up very angry and was not able to express myself, my emotions.I didn't even know I had emotions underneath anger.Anger was my go-to.And as children, growing up in dysfunctional homes, we learn coping mechanisms.And they keep us safe, and we carry those coping mechanisms into adulthood.
02:40And then for most of us, at least for a lot of women in particular, when you hit into your30s, a lot of those coping mechanisms stopped working. And I could not understand why I was so insanelyangry almost all the time. And I felt like murder. And it was, life was really hard. I made my lifemiserable. I made other people's lives miserable. And I remember sitting at my kitchen table once,I just lost it.And luckily, I worked for a company that had a good employee assistance program,and I was able to reach out, and I started this journey of figuring out who I was,who I wanted to be, who I didn't want to be, and to learn new tools.
03:38And a lot of those tools, they included, you know, some therapies, some counseling, anger management,cognitive behavior, started going to Al-Anon, which was incredibly useful.And at the same time, I started looking around me for things that I could do that would help mefeel better. And that turned out to be helping others.And I've always been nuts about animals.and I found this course for pet reflexology.And I thought, oh, that sounds really cool.Let's do that.
04:24And that started me on my journey into the wellness field.And that led to people reflexology and the quantum touch energy healing and all of the modalities.And I just kept building and building.And over the last few years, I've sort of redirected mymy wellness practice into looking more at worry and anxiety and stress and why we get to those placesand what we can do to get out of them.We cannot go see our therapist every day.We can't go for a massage every day.
05:10We can't do those things every single day from other people.We have to learn tools that we have to learn tools that we're.work for us that are quick and easy. And so that's sort of my focus these days, both for people,and I still do a lot of work with animals. That's really interesting that I think for a lot ofpeople, their love of animals leads them on a path, and then, of course, it has to come backto humans. So you talk about quantum touch.energy healing, heart math.I thought that was interesting.
05:51And then what was the other one?Touch for health.So can you expand on each one of those and how each one works just so that we kind of get an idea about what you're working with,with what you're doing related to stress and health issues?For sure. Let's start with the touch for health. In North America, in the States in particular, it's sometimes referred to a specialized kinesiology, which is muscle testing for health. So it's different from muscle testing that a physio does.In Canada, it's touch for health or bioenergetic wellness. And it's really cool.All the modalities I do are really cool.And touch for health works on a system that the body, the mind, the spirit, it's all connected.
06:59And we want to balance.We want to balance the muscles and the organs and the emotions.Some of Touch for Health is based on traditional Chinese medicine.So we work with the meridian system.and specific muscles are related to specific meridians and organs and emotions and times of year.And when we find a stressor, whether that's physical or mental or emotional,and we use a muscle test with a very, very light pressure,we can tell that the body is stressed somehow.
07:37And then we apply various correcting techniques,which could be rubbing certain points or holdingvery lightly holding other points that all will rebalance those muscles and organs and meridians and emotions.So that's sort of a really very brief explanation.But I'll give you a little story.So in touch for health, we can muscle test up to 42.muscles and that's just looking for stress on the system.Okay.
08:23I had done a very, very short 20-minute balance session with a client who wanted to workon her eating.She had lots of cravings for candy and chocolates and cookies.And every time she'd go to the grocery store, that's the aisle she would head down.So she wanted to kind of rebalance that, those cravings that she had.So the process was we tested the 14 muscles, we found stressors, we rebalanced them.So we're balancing the entire system to a goal that she wanted to heat healthier.And when we are able to balance our entire system, and that's emotions and that's thoughts and that's physically, it's easier to reach that goal.
09:23It's not just a thought process.Oh, I should eat healthier, right?Or I shouldn't have that chocolate, right?It's a whole body balance to that goal.And interestingly enough, for almost three months after that, she had no cravings.So it was really cool.And there's so many applications from Touch for Health that help with stress, that help reduce anxiety.And one of them that I'm just going to explain is if you check the range of motion in your neck and you look to the left and you look to the right and then you just notice where your tension is in your neck.
10:10and then you start massaging your ears and you really massage them for about 30 seconds.You want to pull them away from your head.You want to work the whole ear, the top, bottom, middle, everything.Do that for about 30 seconds and then recheck that range of motion in your neck.Look left and look right.About 90, 95% of people will notice that their neck tension has reduced,that their pain level has reduced,that they can look farther.
10:44And that's one really quick technique that can help us reduce some of the physical tension that we feel.And that's from the touch for health world.So practice that.Try it for yourself.I just muted myself.So basically, in less than a minute, you can experience.the fact that when you look to the left and look to the right and then massage your ears,fully massage your ears,
11:21that you can actually notice that your range of motion is better and that it builds better.I think that's important that people can experience that for themselves.So that's touch for health.What does quantum touch energy healing?That sounds pretty interesting, the quantum touch energy healing.Some people might not know what energy healing is.Some people might, but if you can kind of do an overview of that, that would be great too.Certainly.
11:59Quantum touch energy healing is a specific modality in the energy healing world.And there are lots and lots of different modalities.Reiki is one, and it tends to be more commonly known.So they each have their own techniques that they use.I like Quantum Touch.It's super easy.Kids can learn it.And it's based on the premise that, first of all, everyone can learn it.
12:39You do not have to be like a woo-hoo type of person.it can be explained from a more scientific perspective on a quantum level or from a more spiritualperspective.So how I like to present it is what we do is we bring in the energy, the life force energythat is all around us.and we direct it, we offer it up to our clients, to plants, to animals, to ourselves.And it's based on the premise also that everything has a vibration, everything has an energy.And that's, I mean, the tables have an energy and a vibration.
13:37the air, the plants, the earth, rocks, the water.And two similar things, I'm going to say people, you and I, we want to vibrate at the same level.Because it's easy.From an energetic perspective, from an energy perspective, it's easy.I don't have to struggle to keep my vibration up or have it drop down.So similar things want to vibrate at a similar rate frequency.When we are in pain, when we're stressed, when we're ill, our natural vibration drops.And as a quantum touch energy practitioner, what I do is I raise my vibration up really high.
14:39Do that through breathing, through visualization techniques.And then that allows your system to raise its vibration up as high as it can to try and match mine.When your vibration is higher, your system, your body, your being can start to function better.It can start to heal itself.that your hormonal system works a little bit better.Your digestive system works a little bit better.Your whole system can become more balanced.And, you know, it's absolutely fascinating to me how just with our intention,
15:36with our love, with raising our vibration,what an impact we can make on others.I have so many stories about quantum touch stories and how it's helped,people and animals,and it's even really cool because I don't have to be in the same room with you.We can work by distance.So you can do that by distance.That's interesting.
16:05Yes.Yes.Everything's connected.And everything has a,an energy field.And that's, that's been scientifically proven.That's, that's definitely not woo-hoo.So here's a question that people, does the person who's receiving this have to believe it,
16:30especially if it is distance?Do they have to really believe that this is something that is working?Or is it something?and do you have to have permission from them also to do this work?Those are awesome questions.So in my experience, 99% of people do not need to believe in it.There are some people who sort of, again, from my perspective,almost actively block the energy.
17:12Okay.No one thing works on every person all the time.Okay.But in the 15 years I've been doing Quantum Touch,I've run across, I believe, four peoplewho have not noticed a shift of some kind.So those are pretty good odds.And belief does not really play into
17:38it. I have clients who are like ultra-religious, who one might expect would have absolutelynothing to do with the concept of energy healing. And one person in particular, 30 secondsworth of work, and she's fine. She's good to go. So, right, your religious spiritual backgrounddoesn't play a part in it.Belief doesn't really play a part in it.Again, we're working on vibration and frequencies.And now I'm sorry, I forgot your second question.Permission to work on someone because sometimes people,
18:32that they worry about people getting into their energy fields.Yes.You know, so I was just curious on if there is a protocol that you follow with these people.Yes, generally I do.Someone asks me for help.Yes, I have permission.Okay.Well, that makes a lot of sense.
18:58And again, sometimes the words, like you said, sometimes like quantum or energy,it might freak people out a little bit.But I mean, most, what I've noticed in the last, I don't know, 20 years, 10 years,a lot of people are actually coming around to energy is everything.And I even know a lot of doctors who talk about energy.And I know they do Reiki in different medical fields and at universities.So obviously there's been a lot of research involved.I'm really curious about heart math.
19:43Tell me more about heart math.Heart math is awesome.I love heart math.It is an organization that's been around for over 30 years.It's science-based, peer-based research.And they talk about coherence.And what they do is they use what is called heart rate variability.And they teach techniques that help us build resilience and bring our physical,
20:22mental, emotional, or mind-body heart into a better alignment.So when we're angry or frustrated or worried, anxious,what happens is the heart rate rhythm patterns of our heart are very, very chaotic.When we are experiencing emotions, love, appreciation, gratitude, that heart rhythm pattern becomes much more in like a wave pattern.It becomes coherent.So our emotions impact our being far more than our thoughts do.And very simply, heart math has combined some breathing with some emotional techniquesto bring our parasympathetic and our sympathetic and our sympathetic nervous systems back into
21:32balance. When we experience chronic worry, anxiety, frustration, anger, it impacts our health to such ahuge degree. Even doctors are saying that stress, and just sort of as a global term,stress, is probably 60, 70, 80 percent of doctor visits.and most of those people who go into their doctor with various symptoms that are stress-relatedmay not get much help because our doctors are trained to say, well, you've got digestive issues,here's a pill, here's what you do, try this, try that.And that's awesome, we need doctors.But it's awesome that doctors are now starting to understand that our thoughts, our emotions are
22:32our energy, it's all connected. And we need more than just a pill. And so HeartMath teaches usto really bring up positive emotions or renewing emotions and focus on those. And we're always going to gettriggered. We're always going to get angry. We're always going to get frustrated. Those are humanemotions, then we need those emotions, but we don't want to live in them. It causes heart issues,digestive issues, it depresses our immune system. It impacts our sleep. It makes us age faster.And they've even found that it can shrink our brain. We can't function. We can't think properly.We can't make good decisions. When we're in that state of chronic anxiety stress, we're overwhelmed.stress because you can't think straight.
23:33I know whenever I get stressed, I can't think straight.And that's a definite thing.And the interesting thing I think about the heart map is I was just talking to someoneearlier today about relaxation and stress.And he actually had a story about a woman who she had to monitor herherself with some kind of an app related to diabetes.And after being relaxed and doing something,I guess you could see that her levels were even,
24:16you know, from after relaxing.And so I'm thinking that heart map and all the heart math especially is somethingthat you literally could see if you were monitoring your,biofeedback, I guess.You'd be able to really see, hey, look, here I am at this level, and now I'm calm andrelaxed.So I want to ask you about some of the tools that people can use to manage their stress.Can you share a couple ideas with our listeners?
25:01Yes.So let's do what is called a quick coherence technique from heart math.And heart math, because it is science-based, they have some wonderful apps.They have a little monitor that you can put on your ear that will measure that heart rate variability.Lots and lots of cool stuff.and they also have a free set of videos called the Heart Math Experience that talks about some of these techniques and why they're important.So let's do one, and I'm just going to talk you through it.Okay. So when you are experiencing some anxiety and some stress, soon as you can, and ideally in the moment, or very shortly after,
25:54you've experienced a stressor of some kind, you can do these techniques and it helps bring backthat coherence between your mind, body.Okay.So I'd like you to focus your attention in the area of your heart.And just imagine that your breath is flowing in and out of your heart area and you want tobreathe a little slower and a little deeper than usual.but just find an easy rhythm that's comfortable.And as you continue to breathe this way,
26:38make a sincere attempt to re-experience a renewing feeling,appreciation or gratitude,think of something that makes you laugh or a beloved pet,and really feel that feeling.as you continue to breathe in an out of your heart area.And that's it.Well, I imagine I have a really soft cat.And so I immediately went to what it feels like to pet the cat.
27:35Because she always will come and visit me at night.You know, I guess it's her little ritual, you know, before she goes to sleep.And I'll pet her for a little while.And that's very calming.Definitely. Yes.It's a pet a cat.Exactly.And then when they purr and the feeling of the purring, it's awesome.
27:54You can think of a beautiful place in nature you've been to.Any sort of uplifting emotion.And so you combine that uplifting emotion with the breathing and practice that for a couple of minutes, two or three times a day even.Yeah.I can see how that can help.I know that it's funny because a lot of people don't breathe.And I have to admit, I'm guilty of that because when I do breathe, it's like, you know, you can feel that.And I think a lot of people when they smoke, you know, I'm a former smoker.
28:37And I remember I think that's part when why people smoke is because they are taking those real deep inhales.and then they exhale, but of course, you're getting the chemicals.And so if you just learn how to breathe like you used to when you were smoking,but without the cigarette, you'll know, because if you think about, you know,if you were ever a smoker, you know that you take really, you know, you're all stressed out.And so what did you do?You would smoke a cigarette and you're, you know, inhaling really deeply and then exhaling,but you're doing it like, you know, I used to be a chain smoker, you know, literally lighting the cigarette off the old cigarette because of stress.
29:23And thank God I don't do that anymore.But that I can see when I look back at it that I really was using that as an attempt to, you know, get oxygen.But I was really cutting it, cutting it off.So when you work, you say you've worked with animals.of course you've worked with people.So of this work that you're doing,what do you find the most motivational or satisfying about it?What really gets you up in the morning to get going and to help people?
30:02What is it?That's an awesome question.Being able to help others live.their life on their own terms, live their life with some peace and ease and calm.We all experience crap in our lives, right? We all experience stuff that can be like devastatinglybad. But if we learn to be more resilient to where we can bounce back from that crap in life,then we're better people.We're better employees.
30:51We're better employers.We're better parents.We're better spouses.We become more in tune with who we are.We're more connected to our own hearts,to our own intuition.We have that ability to really just be the best,that we can be.
31:16And if I can help with that, then that that's my goal in life.That makes my heart sing.Well, I mean, it sounds to me like you've really found your purpose in all of this.You know, if you're thinking back to where you started in life and that little, you know, think about it.if your mom was married five times,and an alcoholic,you were living in extreme chaoswould be probably an understatement
31:53and to move forwardand to find this great purpose.That is, you know, think about it.It's a miracle that you are using this great purpose,you know, out of that diversity.So what is the best way for people to get,in touch with you so that they can experience working with you.Probably through my website, Allison Zeidler.com.
32:27Okay.And yeah, I would love to chat.I've got on my booking calendar 30-minute free connecting call.So people are free to meet me, chat, see if.were a good match to work together.And always up for chatting about your pets, too.Well, I love to talk about my pets, yeah, because they really, I just lost two recently.We have a run of coyotes that I think just wiped out a lot of people's pets.
33:08but I had a cat named Clarity and a cat named Cashflow.And of course, I used that because that was what I was seeking, you know.But Clarity was a Calico cat, and she was like a guardian, what I would call a guardian cat,because she would always sleep with me and watch the door.And Cashflow was more of a big old fluffy, just, you know, he wanted to just hang outand a big fluff ball.But I noticedthose two cats, if I was
33:44stressed, sometimes bothof them would sleep with meor they took turns.Now I thought that was interesting. Like,maybe I was just too much.And they had to like take turnsof taking care of mebecause I noticed that
33:59sometimes they'd both hang out and then othertimes it would be like one would be thereone night and the other the next night.Like they were like, I can't take it more thanwhen I did it on.You know, but animals, again, we could have a whole conversation about the power of animals.So I'll let you go, but before I do, do you have anything that you'd like to add to the conversation?I would like people to remember to be kind to themselves.
34:34You know, it's something that so many of us struggle with.that, you know, we beat ourselves up, you know, all those shoulds.I should have done that or shouldn't have done it.I should be better.I should do better.And we wouldn't treat our best friend that way.Why do we treat ourselves that way?So have some compassion and kindness for yourself.
35:00That's a really good message.Everyone, we've been speaking with Alison Zydler.You can go check out Alison Ziedler.website and of course I'll have the information in the show notes so everyone be kind to yourselfgo make it a beautiful day thanks for listening to business innovators radio to hear all episodesfeaturing leading industry influencers and trendsetters visit us online at business innovatorsdot com today.
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