179. How do you find mini breaks? (f. Corissa Saint Laurent)
You care for your business, but who takes care of you? 🫶 This episode of Brand Therapy will inspire you to get away from your inbox to supercharge your creativity. Hosts Phil and Lauren meet with speaker and podcaster Corissa Saint Laurent to learn how spirituality can fuel entrepreneurship. We talk about mini breaks, meditations, lucid dreaming, and so much more.
Episode transcription
Lauren
Sick of the same old advice about time management?
Phil
Wishing you can carve out peace within your day?
Lauren
Wondering why you aren't having vivid dreams?
Phil
Oh, you're gonna get answers on that. I'm Phil.
Lauren
And I'm Lauren.
Phil
And on this episode of brand therapy, we speak with mystic and my friend Corissa St. Laurent, for an alternative perspective to wellness.
Lauren
Let's get started.
Phil
So today, we're here with a great friend of mine, someone that I've reconnected with digitally recently, Corissa, we need to meet each other in real life. That's going to happen. We're going to manifest that soon.
Corissa
Yeah, absolutely.
Phil
Until then we're going to have a fantastic conversation right now that we're sharing with our listeners. You’re a wealth of knowledge, you've got a new podcast coming, I find you fascinating. You're here on Brand Therapy with us to talk about a variety of topics to do with wellness, meditation. We want to talk about mindset and habits are talking about all of it with you, because I just feel like you're the right person to get into this discussion with so welcome.
Corissa
Thank you so much. It's my pleasure to be here.
Phil
Maybe we start with this topic of meditation and breaks. That's something everyone needs to do, isn't it?
Corissa
Oh, man, yes. And more frequently, you know, we just came out of a break for the holidays, a lot of people take time off at the holidays, and it's kind of like you gorge, the break. Right? It's just like, you work your ass off all the way up until and then you just take that time. And oftentimes people go a little bit off the rails, you know, they eat a ton, they drink a ton, they party and, and they're, they're just ready. It's like a Bacchanalia. And on the one hand, that can be a lot of fun, and I've certainly been there done that. But I feel like when your life is more imbalanced throughout the year, and you're taking more thoughtful breaks, not just throughout the year, but in every day, or at least within your week, you're not quite so bunged up, by the time a holiday period comes or a vacation comes. We have a lot going on mentally, for those of us who are entrepreneurs, professionals, or we're just adults, right? Adulting in this life, in this modern life is a lot of time, energy and stress that can land upon us. You know, before we started recording, you were talking about how your day is going and how it's just, you know, one thing after another, no breaks whatsoever.
And we can absolutely find ourselves in those places quite easily. So I like to institute and schedule them in meditation mini breaks, and those are very specific to taking time to go within. And now meditation can look differently to a lot of different people. I don't prescribe specific things for anybody. It's really about the meditation journey. The spiritual journey, in general, is about finding what works best for you. But what lights up your soul? What do you respond to as an individual? So for me, meditation, mini breaks can look like a lot of things. I took one right before we started this podcast, actually, and I went for a 30 minute walk in my neighborhood. The sun's out, although it's freezing, but the sun was shining, I just needed that sun on my skin. And I just went out and did a walk. And I breathed and I didn't take a podcast with me. I didn't take music with me, I just took myself in silence.
And so I would say that's one of the key factors of a meditation mini break is that trying not to fill it with outside content. Now nature, the environment itself can be yes, outside content that you might be taking in. But try to resist that urge of listening to your favorite podcasts, although it's like one of the most fun things to do on a little break. But really just try to spend that time going within. I also take meditation mini breaks where I will literally I take I don't wear shoes in the house in general, but I'll lay down no shoes, on my rug, I have some nice plush rugs in my house and I'll just lay down and close my eyes for maybe five minutes. Allow my body to calm, allow my breath to calm and just re regulate.
It's basically getting to a baseline where you are able to relax into whatever next action you're gonna take. Because we're gonna get up and we're gonna take all sorts of actions, answer emails, get on a call, go to a meeting, record a podcast, whatever it is, it's just a pause. It's a moment to not do a single damn thing. Now if you want to incorporate some breath work into that moment. Awesome if you want to incorporate some meditative music amazing. But you don't have to do any of those things. It's really whatever tools you best respond to. Maybe you drink some herbal tea, that's very relaxing before you do it, you know, whatever works for you.
So these meditation members can look all sorts of different ways, and they can be different timeframes, five minutes, at the very, very least, and I'll do a few of those five minute breaks every day. And again, not just five minutes, where you're scrolling your phone for five minutes, where you just let go. And that might be you need to go shut yourself in a quiet dark room for five minutes. Or you can go take a little bit of a longer type of break, like the walk I described.
So these, to me are essential in resetting my nervous system for the day, whatever is on task for the day, but also getting into more alignment with my inner knowing, my intuition. The listening that I get to do that allows the answers to come easier, because oftentimes, when you're stressed, it's like, oh, I can't figure this out, or oh, why isn't this thing happening? Or my technology and my computer, whatever it might be? Often the answer to that stress, that problem is waiting for you out here. But when you get into that, that nervous system state where you're bunched up, you're not allowing that in. So it's about getting to a place where you can calm yourself enough. align yourself with your own intuition, your source of knowing outside of yourself, and just allow those answers to come in more easily. So it really just lends to a more useful life in general.
Phil
What about you, Lauren? Do you have ways that you like to take many breaks?
Lauren
I do. I do. Well, the first thing is, I actually like to start my day with a break. I know that sounds silly. But I used to have my email on my phone, as I've mentioned in other episodes, and I would basically start my day like lurching into panic mode, trying to get out up to date with all of like our clients in Europe and East Coast. And I instead now start my day very intentionally going for like a walk outside and just trying not to think about work, the second I wake up.
Phil
Because that actually gives you space to be creative, or think about things and actually get really good ideas. Yeah, that you can think of when you're panicking, I have a version of that I don't go on a walk. Although I do I walk to the gym. On the days when I work out really early, I don't check my email now until after the gym, and I use a little tool listeners, you might like this called inbox pause, I have it permanently on, which means anytime an email comes in my inbox, I do not receive a notification about it. I open my folder, that's what inbox pause does, it creates a folder in your inbox separate from your inbox, so just in a file folder, and it keeps your emails in that folder. So that gives me the control to go and open my emails when I feel like it not when there's a notification that comes in and I just went over my phone to see what the notification is. So this way, I'm getting about 10,20,30 emails all at once, instead of it segmenting or fragmenting my day.
Lauren
Yep, I do the same thing. My emails released at 7am 1pm 7pm 1am
Phil
Mine is never released. I just go into the folder when I feel the liberty to do so.
Lauren
So what is your advice for turning off your thoughts or at least not succumbing to your thoughts? When you do those mini breaks?
Corissa
For me not so much about turning them off? It's about recognizing them. And you kind of honor the thought and go okay, not now. And you just talk to yourself? Not now, you can even visualize putting that thought in a container and placing it over here. So it depends on who you are. Some people are very strongly visual, and they can visualize things you know. You can close your eyes, sometimes you see stuff, or you can absolutely close your eyes. Imagine seeing something and you see it in your mind's eye. It is. So if you're that type of person, I would suggest actually visualizing taking that thought putting it in something, a container, a box, a basket or whatever. And then just placing it over there and say, I thank you for being here. I'm gonna deal with you in five minutes or 15 minutes or later. And so you give that thought the recognition that it needs, so it's not just going Lauren Lauren, Phil Phil, Corissa Corrissa back here, it's actually been heard and then you can put it aside. Now if you're not visually inclined, then you can talk to yourself too and just tell yourself this and that might be better for those who are more auditory and you have a more auditory learning style you can say out loud is best might feel strange at first. But the more you do this woowoo stuff, the more normal it feels. So you can say out loud, not now, thank you for that thought, I'll deal with you in 5,10,15 minutes.
Lauren
Have you always been into meditation and many breaks?
Corissa
Not always. But I've always been into weird shit. I think, you know, to go back just a little bit into my childhood, I ended up, you know, I had a pretty traumatic childhood. And I went deeply into my imagination to escape the fear, the trauma, the pain that I was dealing with, and my childhood and that escape route, although not great for dealing with my trauma taught me or connected me to my imagination, and connected me to a place that I could connect to other sources of information.
So that was, you know, I think a product of my early childhood. And then I started in my teen years tapping into this more as oh, okay, this is, this is kind of a thing. This is something that I can actually access and utilize for myself. I've had a few different spiritual awakenings that were very profound, very pronounced. And in those moments realized, there's so much more, there's so much more to life, this life my life than what I'm currently either embroiled in or that I'm currently experiencing. And so, after those moments, it was, you know, I'd have this opening, you can imagine like a aperture on a camera, right, opening into this whole thing that I didn't yet know was there and then systematically closing that down again, because of the humaneness that the traumas came back in. So I would say yes, I've had been inclined towards things like meditation, astral travel, lucid, dreaming, psychic knowing, but I've closed it down and shut down to these things for long periods of time out of those fears, those traumas or even just out of what I say not having had the guides.
Phil
Lauren, are you into this whoo, type stuff that Corissa is talking about?
Lauren
I think it's really fun.
Phil
I think it's fun. I mean, it's a different kind of episode for us. I'll be the first to admit proudly, that I think astrology is fascinating. That's my biggest whoo, characteristic.
Lauren
I know both of us get monthly astrology readings from an astrologer and have for years.
Phil
Oh my god, I gotta admit that to the listener, but I guess we're going there. Yeah. But your forecast is usually right, isn't it?
Lauren
Yeah. So weirdly, right. Weirdly, right. I'll give a little quick story. But Sarah, our astrologer said last year, like around October or whatever she was, you know, next month, you're going to be getting some pretty big news about your home where you live is really going to be called into question. I was thinking, what are you talking about? I'm such a happy body, homebody. I don't want to move I don't want to buy any place, Vancouver is so expensive. I'm staying put, that advice makes no sense. And then a few weeks later, our landlord let us know that he was selling our place and we had to move.
It was out of nowhere too because he had said he was always going to retire there eventually.
Phil
Can you imagine?
Lauren
Yes, I lived it.
Corissa
I have an aunt, one of my mom's sisters, who is my only woo woo relative. She's an artist. She is fascinating. She had a voodoo wedding ceremony. She's just you know, she's explored a lot of different traditions. And she gave me a book when I was 15, Culture Souls Purpose, I don't think that's the actual title. But it was something along those lines. And I took it in it was it was my first guidebook. It was my first like, oh, wow, someone else was one she sees me, that's amazing. And wow, there's information out there. There's actually other people who feel this way or want this thing or, or are looking for more in life. And that was the first book I ever received on the subject. But I didn't have these guides in my life. I didn't live near her at all. We saw each other maybe once or twice a year, once every other year. And so had I had some of those guides along the way I think those gifts or that understanding or that knowing I would have opened up more or would have been more consistent, let's say. But now that I'm in my mature years, going on almost 50 I feel like it's very solidly in my life. And I'm so grateful for that.
Lauren
I can't believe you're almost 50 the listener won't be able to see you but you do not look like you're even ever have a century. You said something a few minutes ago that I was not expecting to discuss in this episode, but I need to give some background on this first. So I have a theory that if you want to become a world renowned author, or creative or director, you need to be really good at having and documenting vivid dreams. Because history has shown us that you know, Frankenstein, the world's first sci fi novel was actually came to Mary Shelley in a dream. The culturally significant Twilight by Stephenie Meyer also came to her in a dream. I posted a tech talk yesterday about this theory, and it already has 100,000 views. And I want to know what the secret is to having those lucid dreams that you were talking about. Because for me personally, I know that some people have dreams that are these wonderful imaginative escapes that end up serving them as creatives in real life, whereas my dreams are just either non existent, or the same recurring nightmare of me forgetting about a final exam and high school. So let's just go there. Let's talk about how dreams can fuel creativity.
Corissa
Oh, I love this subject. I was, as a child, always a really vivid dreamer. And I was lucid dreaming before I even knew what it was. And lucid dreaming for anyone who doesn't know what it is, is when you wake up in your dream, and you realize you're dreaming, and you're like, Oh my god. Okay, I'm dreaming right now. And I'm aware of that I'm dreaming. But I'm also within the dream. And sometimes you can wake up within the dream and the dream. That gets pretty crazy. But I didn't know what it was then. And again, until I got to high school, my teen years, I ended up getting a book called I believe the title was just Lucid Dreaming, not anything real fancy. But it was written by a Stanford researcher who wrote and studied, so had a research lab studying lucid dreaming, and came up with methodology and ways for people to actually strengthen their ability to lucid dream, we all have this ability. Most kids do it and they just don't know what it is they just think it's normal, or they don't recognize that it's anything abnormal.
So when I read that book, I learned that two of the things that you can do out of the book are to, when you're going to sleep, you set this intention about what you want to dream about. And you when you're going to sleep, say I'm going to wake up in my dream, and you just repeat this kind of mantra to yourself. And then you also before you go to sleep, and you have this already set in your mind, you have this thing that you do within the dream that you do right away, as soon as you realize you're dreaming. So then you can actually because sometimes you'll realize you're dreaming, you're like I'm dreaming. But then you just like you go back to sleep in the dream. So once you do this thing, you then it strengthens the fact that you know that you're dreaming and that you're aware of it and now amazing, you're gonna go do something cool with this time. And with this space. And also third thing, have a journal next to your bed. So when you wake up, you can write it all down, because the more you do dream recall, the more you remember your dreams.
Lauren
Amazing. Let's talk about habits. What's your advice for making habits that stick particularly related to these mini meditation breaks?
Corissa
I'm the poster child for the the person who needs this advice. So I can tell you from complete understanding that habits are hard to make happen. And that discipline is hard to instill especially on yourself. I in my studies of neuroscience, you know, the thing that really makes a habit stick is practice, repetition, and getting into a high vibe state when you're doing that thing and putting yourself into flow states. So now getting into those states, again, are going to be different for different people. We all you've probably all both felt this right when you're in flow. It's just going you it doesn't need your attention. It doesn't need your energy. It's just you’re fully in this state of it is happening. And I'm just going with the flow. It's why it's called flow state. I listen to a lot of Abraham Hicks, and they talk about the downstream effect they get downstream. So that's essentially saying the same thing you get into flow, it feels like you're just moving downstream.
Whereas the opposite right would be that you are fighting upstream, that you are like, I got this branch, the water is just pushing you down, it's rushing down, but you're holding on this branch and you're trying to climb back upstream. It is work, its effort, its energy that you don't need to expend. So the downstream effect, the flow effect is that you are doing things that are right for your soul, is the way I would put it there. So getting into that state is one way. Now once you're in that state, you practice the thing you want to practice. So I'm a professional speaker, like Phil, we go out there on stages, we present content, we oftentimes present content that's not ours. You know, we didn't write it, we didn't create it, we're just going out and, and speaking someone you're speaking for another company or another organization, and whatever presentation it may be, I'm going to practice that. And when I practice it, I probably spend more time practicing it in my mind than I do actually practicing like standing up on a stage with a microphone and with my slides. I honestly don't even do that. I'll create my slides and as I'm doing it, I'm kind of thinking about it. The practice comes in the visualization in the imagination, and this is what peak performers do as well. They will visualize it to everything, everything from the how things look, how things feel, the sounds in the room, even the smells in the room, what you see imagining how the audience is responding hands are going up smiles on their faces, you're, you're seeing people respond, you are as you're practicing, observing everything around you.
Phil
Sounds great. You've given us some practical tips. And we appreciate that I feel like I don't know you can get lost in this stuff and you've broken it down for us. Thanks for kicking off the year with us and encouraging us to create good habits to meditate, mini breaks. I love this idea that like you don't need a podcast along with the journey. You can just be on the journey yourself and not necessarily have content or programming for it, you know, Lauren, you're gonna go close your eyes and lay on the ground, aren't you?
Lauren
Well, I don't know about laying on the ground, but definitely, definitely a rug. Actually I have to roll out my new Ruggable rugs, and maybe that'll be like christening the new home. So, yeah, thank you so much. Corissa.
Corissa
It's been my pleasure. Thank you both.
Phil
Thanks for hanging out with us and Brand Therapy
Phil
A different kind of episode for us for sure. But one we really enjoyed recording a huge thanks to Corissa St. Laurent for joining us so much fun to have that conversation. And if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to leave us some feedback. Leave us a review in the iTunes Store five star, five star that helps other people discover this podcast that we work hard to create. You know the drill by now. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, thanks for hanging out with us on Brand Therapy. See you then.
