Nicola Harris (00:02.968)
to another episode of the Economy of Soul. I am so excited to be joined today by Rebecca Vigalias. She is a capacity coach and advisor with a set of very impressive credentials, such as a Neurosomatic Intelligence Practitioner, Certified Sleep and Stress Coach, and a Behavior Change Specialist. As soon as I met Rebecca, I feel like we were like,
somatic besties right from the moment that we met each other. There's not too often that you actually meet someone who has a background in somatics and does this work very actively. But I was so thrilled, obviously, to connect with you and just learn a little bit more about the angle that you take with your clients through your somatic work. And I'm so excited to have you on the show today.
Rebecca Vigelius (00:32.046)
Thanks.
Rebecca Vigelius (00:53.464)
Thank you for having me, Nicola. I'm stoked to be here, too. It's like I said before we got started talking, I'm like, what are we talking about today? We could literally talk for like two or three hours about a million different things. So I'm excited to have this conversation and narrow it in.
Nicola Harris (01:07.736)
Yeah, and I think that is one of my most favorite things, A, that there was just like never any like, well, you do somatics and I do somatics. And like, it was never like that. It's like, let's just share our secrets. Tell me all of the things that you do. I'm gonna tell you all of the things that I do and the perspective that you walk your clients through and how I, and it was just so beautiful. And I'm just so grateful to have women like that in my life, but also just women like that who do similar work because it's very,
I believe still new in terms of women's understanding of how we use somatics in our life and really what is impacting us by paying attention to our nervous system. So I'm so excited for this conversation. So before we dive into somatics, why don't you actually tell us a little bit about your background because you have a really fascinating career history, really. So why don't you tell us a little bit about that?
Rebecca Vigelius (02:00.205)
Yeah, you know, I do when I think about it. I've had some fun careers, jobs in my life. I started out in journalism. I was a TV news producer for close to a decade. So pretty much my entire 20s spent as a TV news producer producing live television, everything from the morning show that started at 530 in the morning and went for three and a half hours live down to the six o'clock news. then
At some point during that, just decided, you know what, there is a ceiling here in the newsroom. And I had gotten pretty close to it. And I wanted to try something new. So from there, went out and got into what I don't know if it's so much still now, but at that time was like the obvious next step going into public relations, communications out of journalism. I know a lot of people still do do that. So I did that.
I joined an agency, I was at an agency for about six and a half years and was a VP of corporate comms by the time I left there, corporate communications, did a million different things and got so much cool experience working with organizations across North America, even internationally, doing a lot of crisis communications as well. And then from where there went in house, worked at a company for about
four years as a VP of marketing and communications. And that experience is part of why I do what I do now. was a very toxic workplace. And I thankfully got laid off from there just before my four-year anniversary of working there. And from there, of went into like, OK, what the heck am I going to do now?
At the time, was already, this is like pre-COVID, I was working from home four days a week at that point. I had met my husband and moved out to the burbs from the city. And so was working from home about four days a week and needed to kind of look at what my options were. And at that time I decided, you know what? I'm going to start my own business. Yay.
Nicola Harris (04:15.8)
sense? Why not?
Rebecca Vigelius (04:18.588)
Why not? This woman who has no experience as an entrepreneur whatsoever just decided, OK, yeah, you know what? I'm to start my own business. I don't want to go work for anybody anymore. I've had some bad experiences working in the workplaces I was in. And so I just kind of followed the obvious path. So I started a business in copywriting and messaging strategy, kind playing off my talents as a writer.
as a communications expert. And the fun part in that business is that I got to start working with a lot of companies I really enjoyed working with. So a lot of organizations in the wellness space, some of the bigger kind of coaching companies that are known internationally. And I was doing work behind the scenes, doing copywriting and messaging strategy inside different coaching certifications and that kind of thing. I did that for about
two years before kind of everything hit the fan. And I realized that becoming a business owner and also at the same time on the personal side, I had become a stepmom to three little kids. My life had changed significantly over the course of just a few years. And I burnt myself out. And I discovered burnout.
Nicola Harris (05:40.772)
Mmm.
Rebecca Vigelius (05:44.3)
And I discovered chronic stress and all of those fun things. And that is what my own kind of, I'll call it healing journey, if you will. There was like a transformation journey kind of coming back to myself is what propelled me into what I do now. Yeah.
Nicola Harris (06:01.316)
Isn't that so beautiful that so often, like some of our lowest moments are really the launch pad of us really stepping into what it is that we're meant to do. And I think that that's so incredibly beautiful that you could take something and you're like, wait a minute, I can see what's happening here for me. I need to make some shifts.
So can you talk a little bit about what some of those shifts were that you were like, OK, I recognize the burnout. can see how I'm not really thriving right now. So how did that sort of come to be? Because I think sometimes, high achieving women especially, we're like, isn't this just how life is supposed to be? Don't we just come out of the womb completely burnt out and on this path, this trajectory?
So what was it for you that really made you go, wait a minute, actually, I need to pay attention to this.
Rebecca Vigelius (07:05.281)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and it was a series of things as it usually is. I didn't have that massive breakdown moment. I had so many different moments of realization and almost like little light bulb moments after I got out of that toxic work environment. You know, things started to kind of come back online. And I remember when I was working inside of a certification, specifically sleep and stress management certification.
Nicola Harris (07:09.412)
There
Rebecca Vigelius (07:34.574)
for an organization and I was doing some research for, was writing an email series and I was doing some research for it. And I came across this graphic that they use and it was this graphic, its title was Stress Bod and it listed, it was a graphic of an image of a body and then all of these different like symptoms, if you will, that come from.
having chronic stress. And I basically at that moment had this like stomach dropped, heart started beating faster moment, and reading those, what I now understand to be nervous system outputs, but reading those symptoms and going, holy crap, I have been experiencing all of those things or, you know, nine out of 10 of them, 80, 90 % of them, I had no idea. I thought I was just, you know,
losing my mind, getting older. And at that time, I was not even in my 40s yet. And I just was like, OK, now I have a name for this. Something needs to change. And so for me, that first thing was actually sleep. I knew that I was really struggling with my sleep. Didn't understand all the nuances around it. I had some sleep hygiene in my back.
I'm like, this is not working. I'm doing the things I'm supposed to do. My bedroom is dark and cool and da da da da da. Why is this not working? And I know sleep is important. So it was like one of the first things I started learning about sleep and kind of going down a rabbit hole on the importance of that. And then I realized, there's actually a direct correlation or like sleep and stress are bidirectional. And so, OK, I need to look at my stress. And then I realized what the impact
was the impact that all the things that were going on in my life were having on me, and that, wow, OK, all of these external things can be affecting my body, not just how I'm thinking about things. And honestly, woman, I went through so many. I tried so many things. I spent thousands of dollars on supplements. I got.
Nicola Harris (09:52.15)
Yeah.
Rebecca Vigelius (09:54.126)
all the different workout things. went to therapy. I still go to therapy, I love therapy. But like all the things I do, I did some psychedelic therapy. I joined a women's group where I was trying to learn more. All of the things because I was like, I need to fix this. I need to fix this. And my big, big kind of realization came like you all, we talk about like, I love your micro moves.
Nicola Harris (10:11.108)
Bye!
Rebecca Vigelius (10:23.189)
move mountains, think is what I've heard you say before. And I say a similar type thing. And it's like, yeah, I had to go through all these like little micro moments and then realizations of, okay, there's nothing here that needs to be fixed. When I look outside, I can see the external stressors, but okay, actually I have so much more control than I have been led to believe. And that's when it actually shifted. And I started kind of playing with that a little bit more.
Nicola Harris (10:49.73)
Mmm.
Nicola Harris (10:54.628)
I mean, it's so juicy because when you have that realization, I feel like it is both very freeing and also very activating because as soon as you understand that, all of a sudden you go, so it is up to me. I actually do have choice and
Rebecca Vigelius (11:08.075)
Yeah, totally.
Nicola Harris (11:23.264)
I'm responsible for making the right one for myself. And it's funny because I was writing something the other day. I don't even know. I was driving, I think, and it just came to me. And it's like, I think that we so often are afraid to know our truth because then we have to take responsibility for everywhere where we have settled.
Rebecca Vigelius (11:42.975)
Absolutely, absolutely, yep.
Nicola Harris (11:44.504)
Right? And yeah, and so I love that. And one of your things that you wrote, you wrote to me was about that choice is an inside job. And I, I love that. So why don't you expand a little bit more on that? Because I'm all about radical responsibility over here, especially with behave coming out, because that's what it's really about. But I would love your take on that and how you work that in with your clients around how being in choice is actually when we are really truly in our own power.
Rebecca Vigelius (12:14.273)
Yeah, absolutely. mean, well, my work centers around creating nervous system capacity and nervous system capacity, meaning all of the different types of capacity that we can tap into. So emotional capacity, mental capacity, physiological, even time capacity, right? And so I use this analogy quite often in my work of the threat pocket. And so you can picture like,
bucket it your nervous system and brain or a bucket and all day long There are all of your stressors are going into this bucket and it's filling up like water going into a bucket some things drip in some things go in like there's a Faucet on it's been running all day, right and it's everything from the food we eat to the deadlines we have at work to you know stuff from our our
developmental experiences, everything is filtering into this bucket all day long. And the water level is continuing to rise. And that is our capacity. Once that water level gets to a certain threshold, our brain is like, I don't want this to overflow. If we overflow, we're going to die. We both know our brain's number one job is to keep us alive, right? So your brain anticipates if that's going to overflow.
Nicola Harris (13:31.876)
Yeah.
Rebecca Vigelius (13:38.584)
then we're going into a full blown fight flight freeze. And your brain's really smart, doesn't want that to happen. And so we continually have to be looking for ways to lower the water level in the threat bucket. Here's where I'm going with this. When that water level is super high, we're tapped for capacity. And when we are tapped for capacity, we are tapped for choice. When capacity drops, clarity disappears.
When clarity disappears, choice disappears, right? And that's really what it comes down to. Our range becomes really narrow internally when our capacity is tapped. And when that range is super narrowed, our ability to choose totally shrinks, like diminishes. And we go into this survival response believing that we have no choice, that we are stuck where we are.
Nicola Harris (14:09.86)
I'm
Rebecca Vigelius (14:36.149)
Right? so yeah, so that's when I say choice is an inside job, it's up to us. Here's our radical responsibility again to look and go, OK, so my water level is rising and continuing to rise in my threat bucket. What can I do to lower that water level to expand my capacity to not just be able to deal with the crap? I want to be really clear. This isn't like expanding your.
to be able to just handle more stress, handle more of the, you know, know what, hitting the fan. It's really like, we have to have capacity in order to have choice, in order to feel joy, in order to like reach our desires. All of those things are, they all come from the same place. So that's what I mean when I say choice is an inside job, is working with that internal capacity or inner operating system to be able to have that choice.
Nicola Harris (15:07.267)
Reverend.
Nicola Harris (15:12.899)
Yes.
Nicola Harris (15:34.98)
Oh, I love that perspective. And I think that capacity is often a conversation that's just missing out of the world entirely. Like how many times, and I'm sure you've experienced this too, that I'm like, OK, let's chat about capacity. And they're like, what do you mean? Like how much I can juggle in a day? I'm like, well.
Rebecca Vigelius (15:53.484)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Nicola Harris (15:58.22)
Yes and no, but it's like we have to actually build that out. So how do you work with your clients in terms of really expanding their capacity? Because I think when I say that, sometimes my clients are like, I don't want to take on more. That's not the goal, right? And I'm like, well, no, we're going to shift what it is that you take on and how that looks. But I would love to hear how you lead your clients through that journey, because
I believe so deeply that if women can expand their capacity and understand what puts them into that fight, flight, freeze, fawn, whatever, that we can begin to then find more freedom, right, in our lives and in our work.
Rebecca Vigelius (16:42.765)
totally. I mean, that's what it comes down to. I mean, that's really the ultimate, right? Like I always say, capacity equals choice. Choice equals freedom. Like really, when you get down to it, what do we all want? We want freedom. We want freedom to live the way we want to live, to do what we want to do, to make the, know, all the, like, yeah. It's always about freedom, right?
Nicola Harris (17:07.33)
all the best.
Rebecca Vigelius (17:10.367)
So yeah, so how do I help my clients get there? Well, I mean, you know, because of the work that you do, that there's multiple ways that we can expand our capacity, right? For me, I work with the system under the system. I always look at, so often what we do is we look at, we're trained to work with insights and language and behavior, right?
Nicola Harris (17:21.444)
Mm-hmm.
Rebecca Vigelius (17:39.426)
But I always look at behaviors downstream from brain activation patterns and nervous system modulation. So for me, one of the things that, as a neurosomatic intelligence practitioner, I bring into the mix is something called applied neurology, where we're actually working with areas of the brain and teaching rewiring through areas of the brain. So if you think about like,
all of those stressors coming into the threat bucket. We talked about that, right? And that can be things that are really obvious. But a lot of the times, it is things that are less obvious. It is the information that's coming in through your senses, through your eyes, through your vestibular or balance system, through your brain's ability to understand where your body is in space.
Nicola Harris (18:13.006)
Mmm.
Rebecca Vigelius (18:32.243)
your body mapping. It's really working with sensory inputs. And so often, we have these, I'll call them deficits in our sensory inputs. So for me, I know after doing this work that I actually have a deficit in my left eye. I don't know exactly why, but I'm going to go back to when I was 24 and I was in a car accident and I got hit on the left side, so on my driver's side.
And I wonder if it's from that. Not really sure. It doesn't really matter. But here's what's cool about this and bringing applied neuro into the mix is that once I understand I have that deficit in my visual system, two things become really important. My brain really values the information coming in through my eyes, through my visual system. It's at the top of the neural hierarchy. So if that information is not super clear and accurate,
Guess what it's doing? It's adding water to the threat bucket all day long without us even knowing it. So the same can be true for things like your brain's understanding of where your body is in space. I share a regulation tool, an applied neuro tool with my clients where we actually do some sensory stimulation for the feet.
Nicola Harris (19:29.614)
Hmm.
Rebecca Vigelius (19:54.446)
Because so often, especially as women who have worn high heels for many years, I am anti-high heel for the most part now. our feet, our brain loses connection with where our feet are in space because we stuff them into shoes that are too tight for us, like multiple different reasons. So if we can bring some greater awareness, some more clarity and accuracy to where our feet are in space, our brain
Nicola Harris (20:13.849)
Mm-hmm.
Rebecca Vigelius (20:22.475)
will then be able to perceive that more clear and more accurately. That, again, is lowering the water level in the threat bucket. And so these are things that we don't think about. We don't know they're even happening because they're so below the surface, right? But as you know, the nervous system doesn't speak in words. The nervous system speaks in inputs. And then it interprets what's going on. Am I safe or unsafe? And then it produces an output.
Nicola Harris (20:34.276)
you
Nicola Harris (20:39.012)
Okay.
Nicola Harris (20:43.972)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Rebecca Vigelius (20:51.797)
And so one of the most accessible ways to create some nervous system modulation, to create some capacity in the threat bucket when we can't change the circumstances of our life is to start working with our sensory input system and provide more clarity and accuracy to the brain. So that's one of the kind of, I'm going to use the word fun because I nerd out on this stuff. That's one of the fun ways.
Nicola Harris (21:19.096)
Yeah, I feel like I absolutely and it's so fascinating because somatics is so vast and I feel like we're barely scratching the surface right now as it is. But like certainly I don't work with that in terms of my clients at all and more obviously in the expansion side of it with business. But what I love and what I noticed so much actually because of my son.
Rebecca Vigelius (21:22.007)
Yeah.
Rebecca Vigelius (21:26.485)
Yeah. Yeah.
Nicola Harris (21:46.21)
was that when I started going through sensory stuff with him, how much my threat bucket is activated when I'm in fluorescent lighting a lot, when I have too much noise going on, and things I never would have thought of, never would have thought of without him having gone through that, clothes that are too tight or uncomfortable, that don't feel loose.
Rebecca Vigelius (21:51.629)
Mm.
Nicola Harris (22:14.722)
those things just increase that threat level that, you know, in the threat bucket automatically without us even understanding them. you know, I laugh because my kids are like, why is it always so dark in the house? And I'm like, because I love it when it's calm in here, when the lighting is dimmer, when everything is super bright. like, So it's just I love that you work with this piece because I feel like this is something that is underutilized.
so much in the industry, but also just information that we have not been given really as part of our wellness, our overall wellness and the way in which we navigate the world. And so I love that you're speaking about this because I think it, you know, understanding it in my own life has really made me recognize how much of that input is really coming at all times of the day.
And we, if you haven't yet learned how to resource yourself, that threat bucket just keeps going up and up and up, right? So I love that you do this work, A, because I think it's so imperative. I don't do this work. So I feel like I love that you do this and that you offer this. So if someone is coming to you,
Rebecca Vigelius (23:22.529)
Yeah.
Nicola Harris (23:36.918)
Or do they? Is that sort of your ideal client that come to you in active burnout or that are feeling super overwhelmed, like their threat bucket is constantly hitting the top or even overflowing? Is your work really in helping them bring that threat bucket back down so that it's minimal?
Rebecca Vigelius (23:56.076)
Yeah, I mean, and that's where the capacity creation comes in, right? So you touched on an important word there that I just want to bring to light, which is resourced. So it's really about creating that initial regulation in your system so that we can have that better modulation so I'm not way over reactive and then crashing. So we work on regulation and then
Nicola Harris (24:06.371)
Mmm.
Rebecca Vigelius (24:25.173)
Resourcing is so important too. Things like another input is your respiration. So many of us live breathing in our upper chest, right? Because of chronic stress or even just stress over time, we end up breathing in our chest. And it becomes a really big stressor. And these things can lead to underlying anxiety and feelings of panic. And we're like, why? don't know. And urgency.
All of these kind of are part and parcel. So to answer your question is like, that's typically when my clients come to work with me is because they don't quite know the threat bucket analogy yet until we start working together. But for them, it's like everything feels urgent. I never feel present. I always use the example of the mom who's sitting at the dinner table with her kids and she's been sitting there.
Nicola Harris (25:14.734)
Mmm.
Rebecca Vigelius (25:23.757)
and realizes that her kid's been talking for the last five minutes telling her a story from her day, and she has no idea what the kid just said. Because your brain is three, four, five steps ahead all the time, right? And we want to be able to relax and have restorative time. But we do this, and we feel guilty about it. Our body is maybe starting to do funky things that we don't like. And we know maybe perimenopause is at play.
Nicola Harris (25:31.876)
Hmm.
Nicola Harris (25:45.252)
Thanks.
Rebecca Vigelius (25:53.42)
You know, what else could there be? This is often when women come to me is when it's like, I've tried so many different things and things stick for a little bit, but I can't seem to make things stick for the long term. You know, I have these changes that I want to make for myself to better myself, to be there for my family, my friends, my partner, my job, whatever it is, whatever is most important to you. But I can't quite close that gap between
Nicola Harris (26:09.154)
Hmm.
Rebecca Vigelius (26:23.231)
knowing what to do and making it happen for myself on a regular basis. And so those are kind of most often when people end up coming into my orbit, they work together.
Nicola Harris (26:36.408)
And isn't it wild because I think we so often take that on as we are doing something wrong, as maybe we're not disciplined enough or we don't have enough willpower or we're not a good enough mom or a good enough partner. And it's like, we wear that with a lot of shame. it's wild to me because it often is just the world that we're living in. It's conditioning, it is...
so much of our belief system that has existed long before we even knew we had a belief system. And yet we're packing around this idea that we are somehow at fault for ourselves.
Rebecca Vigelius (27:17.545)
I did a speaking engagement. This one was a few weeks ago. I was doing a private workshop for a group of women in media. And one of the women at the end asked me a question, and she was almost in tears. And she said, how on earth do I? She's like, I love my job so much, and I love my kids so much, but I can't. How do I be amazing at my job?
and be a great mom at the same time. And it just made me realize the pressure and that is just that thought loop on its own adds water to the threat bucket all day long. Yes. Yeah.
Nicola Harris (28:03.78)
Well, and it adds water to my eyes because I'm just like, this is where we've put ourselves, right? With these unrealistic expectations that it's like, oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah.
Rebecca Vigelius (28:09.717)
Yes. Yeah.
Rebecca Vigelius (28:18.711)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when you start to create that capacity, mean, as you know, this is where your work lies as well. Like when you start to create capacity and realize how much societal and cultural conditioning exists and also then realize like what's going on in your interoperating system and you create that capacity. This is where the choices and inside job piece comes in is like, then we start to realize and we can.
we gain more perspective and we can look at things with greater perspective and get that 30,000 foot view of things versus being like, my God, how am I ever gonna be amazing at my job and an amazing mom? We can actually see the possibilities around that when we do this work, which is so awesome. I mean, that's why I do this work, because I discovered that for myself. And yeah, yeah.
Nicola Harris (29:02.318)
Mm-hmm.
Nicola Harris (29:11.342)
Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I mean, obviously, I know both of us are in agreeance that we just wish every single woman would start doing this, resource themselves in this way. Because I mean, for myself, it's like once I noticed same thing, I've built this business. It's amazing. It's so successful on the outside. And I'm like dying on the inside.
Rebecca Vigelius (29:19.468)
haha
Rebecca Vigelius (29:39.148)
Yeah.
Nicola Harris (29:39.94)
Because I'm burnt out, I'm not present. I'm hustling 24-7 because I was for sure addicted to hustling and just constantly sourcing my worth from my productivity. Knowing now how I'm living and what that feels like in my body alone and how much spaciousness there is and how, of course, there are still moments of stress and there are still moments where I'm like, I got 45,000 things to do.
Rebecca Vigelius (29:47.797)
yeah.
Nicola Harris (30:10.456)
but I can return to a baseline of peace far more quickly than I don't think I was ever there before, to be honest. And it's wild to watch it in real life. And so it must be so rewarding to be able to see the trajectory for your clients as well, all of a sudden start going, okay, I'm seeing how this is now unfolding for me as well.
Rebecca Vigelius (30:37.783)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. mean, it's why I do this work. It's one of my absolute favorite things. And it ranges. It really ranges because I work with entrepreneurs and executives. And I see moms of young kids. I have a client who just came back from a week-long vacation. And she messaged me. And she's like, I left the laundry from vacation for two days.
without freaking out about it. And I think there's a lot of women out there who will relate to that, where it's like, what? Because this particular client would have been very stressed about getting that done and making sure it was perfect and coming back from vacation and getting right into. And so over time, we've been able to create some capacity in our system where then she goes,
Nicola Harris (31:07.832)
Yeah.
Nicola Harris (31:12.952)
Yeah.
Rebecca Vigelius (31:33.313)
Like literally no one's going to die if that doesn't happen. That's what we have to teach our brains. Our brains go into this mode. I know it sounds so dramatic, but that's how your brain works. It does not know the difference, right?
Nicola Harris (31:37.538)
right? Yeah.
Nicola Harris (31:45.386)
one of the one of the first things I had to teach myself or one of the first things I guess I I challenged myself to do was to take a walk during workday. Like while my kids were at school, I was like, I'm going to go for a walk. This felt like like I was going to die. Literally. And actually that first walk, it was so incredibly noisy. I was so uncomfortable in my body because it was so far outside of my comfort zone. Like
I was just like, I don't even know. But I knew I had to start practicing the life that I really wanted to step into. And part of that was learning how to not work 24 seven. So I get that it's like we have to practice these things. And it sounds it sounds somewhat ridiculous to be like, just practice not doing the laundry. Go do right.
Rebecca Vigelius (32:33.485)
I Yeah, yeah, it does. Like I almost, as you were talking, I'm picturing like, you know, some six year old dude listening to this being like, what are you even talking about right now?
Nicola Harris (32:48.804)
What are you talking about? Go for a walk whenever you want. You're like, it doesn't work like that for us.
Rebecca Vigelius (32:55.721)
Seriously. But if you can't relate to that laundry analogy, great. I'm happy. Because there's a lot of women who actually, I have women in their 40s and 50s who are very high level C-suite executives who have someone who helps them with that. And so that's cool. But there's always something. Those types of clients, too, are the ones who
Nicola Harris (33:00.846)
Yeah.
Rebecca Vigelius (33:20.481)
go away for the weekend with girlfriends but are on their laptop for half the time. So that's all. It all comes from the same place. It all comes from
Nicola Harris (33:24.622)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Nicola Harris (33:30.83)
Well, and I feel like it's really hypervigilance. It doesn't matter what your version of the laundry is, right? It's just that you are hypervigilant about being stressed that it's sitting there, right? And so that then obviously increasing your threat bucket to a point where you're like, can't function until that is complete. I can't rest until that's done, right? And I feel like that is just where women
Rebecca Vigelius (33:34.507)
Yep. Yeah.
Rebecca Vigelius (33:39.169)
That's right.
Rebecca Vigelius (33:55.681)
Yeah, exactly.
Nicola Harris (33:59.16)
We carry so much every single day and that just takes that threat bucket up so incredibly much, right? So you have a program called the capacity room and I wanna talk about that because I again think that this is vital work and I don't just say that because I do this work. I think it's vital because of what I've experienced in my own life.
Rebecca Vigelius (34:08.013)
Yeah.
Nicola Harris (34:24.654)
So why don't you talk to us a little bit about what you do in that community, because it's a group program, and how that looks and why people should join.
Rebecca Vigelius (34:33.857)
Yeah, thanks for asking. I love the capacity room. The capacity room is my $27 a month membership. You can come in monthly or on an annual basis. And inside is where I drop really potent audio trainings twice a week, if not more, including a lot of the applied neural tools that I share with my clients to help you.
interrupt a stress response in the moment. Excuse me, kind of shift your stress state in a moment. You know you're going into something stressful. can tap into those parts of your brain, turn the alarm system off, right? And so this is just a beautiful place to come in and pop your earbuds in when you go for a walk in the morning and listen for 10, 12, 14 minutes and get that quick hit of capacity creation.
Nicola Harris (35:04.036)
Mmm.
Rebecca Vigelius (35:29.869)
So yeah, it's a beautiful community. It's hosted in Telegram. We've got some awesome women inside. We do a monthly integration call where we hang out live. I teach some applied neuro and somatics. And a really important piece, too, is that actual stress processing and emotional processing. We have to process that through the body. And a lot of us were never taught how to do that. So we do that inside the capacity room as well.
Nicola Harris (35:49.892)
them.
Rebecca Vigelius (35:58.818)
Yeah, it's a fabulous place to hang out if you're looking for those quick hits of capacity and want to learn more about your internal operating system and really start to feel like you have more choice in your life.
Nicola Harris (36:13.08)
Yeah, I love that. And I just feel like who doesn't need more capacity? Like, I'm not sure I've ever met, even me. I'm like, I know how to do this in my own life and I still need more capacity. It's like, sometimes I'll look at my to-do list and be like, where can I build capacity in here? In many different ways, in my body, in my life, in my systems, like all of the things. I feel like capacity, you know, I often laugh because I'm like,
men I don't believe think about how much capacity they have because they have just a bigger runway and less of the often family responsibilities and home responsibilities. I think like, imagine where women would be or if we had the same amount of capacity and how many things would be shifted if we weren't the ones who carried.
the majority of that. And not to say that a lot of men don't because they certainly do carry a lot of that, but it often and certainly as a millennial, I feel like that has changed obviously over the years, but definitely we carry a lot as women and a lot of guilt also that comes along with that. So I think everyone really needs more capacity. So thank you for creating this. It sounds amazing.
It sounds amazing. So I would like to ask you what your favorite regulation tool is. Like if you are noticing, you know, your own threat bucket beginning to come to the surface, what is something that you love to do?
Rebecca Vigelius (37:37.377)
Rebecca Vigelius (37:49.195)
Yeah, I love that you asked this question. So one of the applied neuro tools that I tap into on a daily basis is something called tongue circles.
Nicola Harris (37:58.516)
Mmm. Okay, do tell.
Rebecca Vigelius (38:00.078)
Yes. So tongue circles work with your cranial nerves. Your cranial nerves are located in your brain stem are kind of like the most accessible way to your brain and the different parts of your brain. So I do tongue circles as a high payoff tool or rescue tool. So if I notice that I'm starting to maybe get a little pit in my stomach or my heart rate is getting a bit
Nicola Harris (38:19.044)
Thank
Rebecca Vigelius (38:28.877)
high, my hands are getting, if I'm getting a bit irritated or irritable, you know, basically going into like a mild stress response, I just quickly check it out. Okay. yeah. That's probably why. Okay. Let's, let's signal some safety to my system. And that's one way to do it. So do you want me to show you? Do you want me to like, okay.
Nicola Harris (38:50.372)
I mean, if you'd be willing or maybe also describe it in case people are obviously listening.
Rebecca Vigelius (38:53.901)
Exactly. all we're doing is we're taking our mouth is closed and we're running our tongue along the outsides of our teeth three times in one direction and three times in the other direction.
Nicola Harris (39:11.896)
Like the front of our teeth or the back?
Rebecca Vigelius (39:12.887)
Yeah, the front of your teeth. So starting at the back and then go all the way around the front of the top and then all the way around the front of the bottom, stretching as far back as you can on each side, doing three times in each direction. One of the things in applied neuro that's really important is making sure that all of these tools, any of these tools that we use are good for your system.
As we all know, everyone's nervous system is unique to you, right? It's like as unique as your own fingerprints. And so when I work with my clients, I have an assess, reassess process where we do a quick assessment. Usually range of motion is a really easy one to do. We do a quick assessment. Then we try a tool and then we reassess. And if we get some additional range of motion, that is basically our nervous system saying, heck yes. I really liked that. Thank you.
Nicola Harris (39:39.992)
Mm-hmm.
Nicola Harris (40:00.26)
you
Nicola Harris (40:04.929)
Mmm.
Rebecca Vigelius (40:08.077)
experiencing less threat, the water level in the threat bucket has gone down a little bit, now we know we've got a high payoff tool. And so, yeah, I would encourage anyone at home, you're listening and you want to try the tongue circles, which you probably did already while we were talking about them, and that's totally cool. Totally cool. We're not going to cause any major damage by doing that. But I would encourage you to give it a try. Just try touching your toes, something easy like that.
Nicola Harris (40:20.548)
Yep, 100%. Started right away.
Rebecca Vigelius (40:35.415)
Tons of ways to do it, but really easy. Try touching your toes. See how far down you get. Do the tongue circles like I just described. And then reassess and see if you've got some more range of motion. And that's basically your nervous system allowing for some unbracing. Because when we're stressed intent, we brace. We brace unknowingly, right? So if we get that unbracing, it's a global impact through our whole system. Everything that we think, feel, do,
Nicola Harris (40:53.518)
this. Yeah.
Rebecca Vigelius (41:04.365)
how we behave, it all comes from our nervous system. And when we get that additional range, that's our physical signal that our state is shifting internally as well. Super cool stuff. Yeah.
Nicola Harris (41:16.504)
I just love that and I've never heard of that. So I like, ooh, this is so fun. And it's simple. And that's the thing is that I think sometimes people are misguided thinking that somatics has got to be this like big long process of moving through things. And it really is not the case. It's like, obviously just exactly what you showed us, just being able to increase range of motion is like signaling.
that your body is moving back into safety, which I think is so beautiful that took like what? 15 seconds? Like it doesn't even take long, right? And can immediately begin to bring yourself down. And I think that that's really key because it doesn't take a lot. Often it can just take, you know, for me, I really like to shake a lot if I'm feeling like an increase in energy.
Sometimes grounding if I'm feeling quite activated that that does not help me in the moment. So really offloading the energy. It often just takes me a few seconds of doing that and I can come back into regulation. And I think that people need more of those tools available to them. And yes, breath is amazing. Yes, coming back into that. But sometimes I don't find that that's enough. So I love these little these little just.
key takeaways of like, okay, how can I just begin to regulate myself more and more often? Like that's, you can do that in the car, you know, anywhere.
Rebecca Vigelius (42:44.578)
Yeah.
You can do it anywhere. can do it. And the beauty of it is it's what we call low cognitive load, right? Like we don't have to think about it. It's like so many of us are taught to fix stuff from up here, right? I'm pointing to my head right now. Like we're taught that it all has to get fixed from thinking about it. And that's absolutely not true. It's actually 100 % not true. 80 % of the communication within our nervous system is
Nicola Harris (42:54.507)
Yeah.
Rebecca Vigelius (43:15.297)
body to brain, only 20 % is brain to body. So we got to work the other direction from what we've been taught for so long. And so little tools like that where we can interrupt the stress response. And to be clear, the stress processing, the emotional processing, the working on the identity beliefs, that's all really important stuff. And part and parcel of getting to the change that you want.
But if you don't have the capacity, the regulation at the front door, you're not going to be able to do those things that we need to do to become what I call you 5.0. It's how I work with my clients. yeah, unless we have the capacity for that and we create that regulation right at the beginning with our tools, we can't get there or we struggle.
Nicola Harris (43:50.893)
and
Nicola Harris (44:02.936)
Well,
Yeah, and very rarely, very rarely are we inactivation, being like, let me unpack that belief I had from when I was six years old. It's not happening in that moment, right? And so it's like, while yes, all of that rewiring is key and important, it's like you unpack that with someone like yourself, you unpack that with me, you unpack that with your therapist, people in your life that can hold that level of space.
Rebecca Vigelius (44:12.084)
Exactly.
Rebecca Vigelius (44:16.557)
No!
Nicola Harris (44:31.65)
Like certainly in the moment when you're, you know, having a flare and activation, it's like having those key things that will allow you to become back into at least maybe not complete peace, but at least to be able to come back into a lesser state of activation then allows you again, because I think like as you described and I work a lot in the posture of clenching with clients because
We don't realize that we are walking around so much like this all day long. And what happens when we begin to open is that that's when possibility can start to come back in. That's when all the goodness, the joy, the love, like things that when you're walking around completely clenched all day long have a really hard time accessing you, right? And so I love simple tools like that. So thank you so much for sharing that because I think I've not heard of that one. So I'm gonna try her on and see how that feels.
Rebecca Vigelius (45:16.449)
Exactly.
Nicola Harris (45:27.12)
And I hope everyone listening does the same too. And Rebecca and I could literally talk for 8,000 years. I feel like I'm sure you're going to be back on here again because you are so smart and just have so much wisdom and knowledge about how to work with the body. And I'm just so grateful for you spending the last 45 minutes with me and sharing all of your wisdom with this community.
We will obviously link all of Rebecca's stuff in the show notes, but is there somewhere particular that you love hanging out that people can connect with you?
Rebecca Vigelius (45:58.261)
Yeah, I would love to connect with anyone who's interested inside a choice audit. So this is a 45 minute strategic audit for what I call highly capable women, because I know you are. But you're living in constant urgency and overdrive. And over that 45 minutes, it's a really strategic conversation. We're going to uncover where your energy is leaking. And we're going to identify the kind of first shift that you need to make.
to restore that choice capacity and feeling of control in your life. So yeah, I would love to hang out with you inside of a choice audit. yeah, you're going to give the links in the show notes. It's just rebeccavigalius.com forward slash choice.
Nicola Harris (46:44.276)
amazing. I love this idea. Everyone needs to take advantage. Well, maybe you don't want everyone, but I feel like it does not matter. You do this all virtually. Yes, as well. So it doesn't. Yeah.
Rebecca Vigelius (46:49.734)
Yes.
I do it all virtually, yep, and it's a complimentary session, so go get in there. I open a few spots every month and yeah, the monthly calendar is open right now.
Nicola Harris (46:58.786)
Amazing.
Nicola Harris (47:03.588)
So fantastic. Well, thank you so much again for sharing all of your insight and your wisdom with us today. Just I just adore you really truly could talk for hours. So thank you so much.
Rebecca Vigelius (47:14.347)
Right back at you. Yeah. Thanks, Nicholas.
Nicola Harris (47:17.538)
Alright everyone, we will see you all next week.
