Maria De Los Angeles | Somatic Breathwork for Nervous System Regulation & Anxiety Relief

In this episode of Native Yoga Toddcast, licensed clinical social worker and somatic breathwork practitioner Maria de Los Angeles explores powerful body-based tools for nervous system regulation, emotional healing, and holistic wellness.

Maria blends her clinical expertise in mental health with somatic breathwork and yoga practices that go beyond traditional talk therapy. Drawing from CBT, DBT, and years of dedicated study, she shares practical guidance on how to release stored tension, reduce anxiety, and cultivate deeper balance through breathwork, mindful movement, and somatic awareness.

Whether you're new to yoga or a seasoned practitioner, this episode offers accessible techniques to support your mental health, process emotions, and reconnect with your body. Discover how somatic breathwork and yoga can become essential tools for lasting inner peace and resilience.

Topics covered:
• Nervous system healing
• Somatic breathwork techniques
• Yoga for mental health and anxiety relief
• Integrative approaches combining CBT, DBT & body-based practices

Perfect for anyone seeking mindfulness, stress relief, trauma-informed yoga, or embodied wellness practices.

Visit Maria at her website: https://smwellnessco.com/

on IG here: https://www.instagram.com/somaticandmentalwellnessco/

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Thank you Bryce Allyn for the show tunes. Check out Bryce’s website: bryceallynband.comand sign up on his newsletter to stay in touch. Listen here to his original music from his bands Boxelder, B-Liminal and Bryce Allyn Band on Spotify.

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Transcript

Todd McLaughlin: 0:33

Welcome to Native Yoga ToddCast. So happy you are here. My goal with this channel is to bring inspirational speakers to the mic in the field of yoga, massage, body work, and beyond. Follow us at @NativeYoga, and check us out at NativeYogacenter.com All right, let's begin. Hello and welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast. My name is Todd McLaughlin. For you, first time listener, thank you so much for tuning in. And for you, my long term listener, thank you so much. I really appreciate your long term support today. My special guest is Maria de Los Angeles, and she's the founder of Somatic and Mental Wellness Company, and she's a certified somatic breath work practitioner and a licensed clinical social worker. She's offering a workshop here at Native Yoga Center on Sunday, June 7 at 2pm called Shift into Embodiment. It's an introduction to reconnecting within and experiencing life through safety and connection. So, I wanted to bring Maria onto the show today, so that you could hear firsthand what her line of work entails, how she relates to breath work, how she coaches breath work. If you are local, we'd love to have you. If you want to join in for the event. For those of you that are further away, you can look more into what she has to offer via her website, which is www.smwellnessco.com and her Instagram handle is@SomaticandMentalWellnessCo. I'll have both those links in the description. Click and check it out. Share with your friends, we greatly appreciate. Send us a message, and on that note, let's begin. So happy to be here with Maria de los Angeles. Maria, thanks so much for joining me today. Can you tell me how your day is going so far?

Maria De Los Angeles: 2:33

Hi, Todd. Now that I'm here, it's even better. I'm very happy. Thank you with you.

Todd McLaughlin: 2:38

Well, thank you. I really appreciate that. I'm super excited to have this chance to speak with you, and for our listeners to get a chance to know you, and I'm quite pleased because you and I have organized for you to come and offer a workshop at our studio titled Shift into Embodiment on Sunday, June 7 at 2pm and you are a licensed mental health care provider. What's the more proper way for me to say that?

Unknown: 3:10

Yeah, I'm a licensed clinical social worker, so I am allowed to practice mental health modalities in the state of Florida. More importantly, though, my private practice and my business is based on somatic breath work.

Todd McLaughlin: 3:27

Very cool. Can you, if I pretend I've never heard of somatic breath work, how can you educate me as to what that actually means?

Unknown: 3:36

Absolutely, this is a body-based intervention. It's very different than a traditional talk therapy, very different from cognitive dialectical behavioral therapy, because it focuses directly on the nervous system. CBT and DBT work on, hey, what are my thoughts, what are my actions, how am I acting, how am I in relation to other people? It's working from a top down process, and we actually call this the bottom up process, because we want to start with the body. We want to reconnect with the body, and the technique that we use, which is the diaphragmatic 360 breathing, is meant to reinforce bringing awareness and connection back into the body rather than into the mind, where our mind is clouded by emotions, family members, the systems we grew up in, the social world, anything, honestly, any interaction that you have on a day-to-day basis, it gets into the mind, but this works directly with the body, so that there is an opportunity for connection, and everybody's experience with that at the beginning is extremely different, depending on how open they are to practicing the technique, fully immersing themselves in the moment and. Also, their familiarity with even themselves, because if we're so consumed with the social world, are we truly being who we are? Are we being who other people want us to be? So that's why I truly enjoy learning and practicing and using this body-based intervention.

Todd McLaughlin: 5:25

Nice. If I don't think I have any issues, and I come to a class with you, will I realize I have issues?

Unknown: 5:40

The body has its own agenda, and that's why I be.. I am very mindful of how I name myself, because I am a guide. I am not telling you what to do. I am giving you the key, if you so wish to use it to see what it unlocks, or if it even unlocks that door, because what your body might experience in that moment is actually hand you a different key, and in that session, depending where you are, you may not even get to the lock of the door that that key is meant for, which is why we always say number one, meet the person where they're at, and number two, we can set an intention and your body is going to do what it wants to and what it needs to in that moment,

Todd McLaughlin: 6:37

that makes sense, so like I guess when I hear you say that. I think that I would want to reserve having any preconceived notions about what's going to happen, and maybe even lower my expectations. So, like, if I'm coming and thinking, oh, wow, I'm going to have this really huge breakthrough, and I'll, you know, really get to the root cause of all my issues, but it sounds more like you're saying we have to be a little more patient than than having high expectations like that,

Unknown: 7:06

absolutely, and that's why I enjoy not only what we're doing right now, because it's an opportunity for connection for those who will watch, it's also an opportunity for connection, because people do like to know what am I possibly going to step into, and the truth is, I can't give you that answer, because it depends the day, the time, the week you've had, the morning you've had, it's going to be a 2pm workshop, and even from the moment you walk through the door until we get ready to sit, lie down, close your eyes, and connect within. You're going.. I'm going to give an opportunity for individuals to learn a little bit more about the nervous system, learn a little bit more about what soma means, right? Somatic, the stem of the word is soma, and that means body. So, what is my connection to my body? How aware am I to the connection I have with my body? How aligned I am, and how attuned I am to the world and the people around me. So many different points of connection there.

Todd McLaughlin: 8:14

Yes, how did you come to appreciate this technique in relation to your own trajectory of entering the field that you work within, and then maybe being exposed. I just, I'm kind of guessing that probably you were taught and exposed to, like, CBT or different behavioral therapy methodologies or modules, and then was it something that you then took a somatic style breathing workshop that then it really opened up and connected for you, or is it out of not feeling like the talk process really got to the issues that you felt would help people to really make breakthroughs? What was your unfolding of coming into this?

Unknown: 8:59

Yeah, even from the beginning I knew that my bachelor's degree wasn't going to get me very far. You need to spend a couple more on even being a state intern, let alone a licensed clinical social worker, which then takes another 18 months before you can even sit for the exam itself. I know that I know, and I knew that I'm going to be a lifelong learner. This is not the beginning, the end, or even the middle. I am always learning, and I will always learn, and I'll be open to any opportunity that will allow me to access how somebody else can walk into their wellness if they're willing to right now. The reason I found myself in somatic breath work to begin with was an invitation, right, human connection. Hey, would you like to take this training with me? And I was like, you know, what, I'm already traveling for the summer, my caseloads a little light, absolutely jumped right in. Well, I did not know what I was jumping right into, but I learned immediately what I jumped into, because the curriculum looks very much like connection and awareness. These are all things that I already practice, and because I do like to learn, it was also a process that put me again on the other side of the couch or on the other side of the chair, which even that process I enjoyed. I think that therapy could be beneficial, even to people who think that they don't need it. You never know what's going to come up, and sometimes people just need space to be. It's not always about talking or even breathing, just existing in that connection.

Todd McLaughlin: 10:56

It sounds like maybe you had a profound experience, though. What sort of highlights or things came up for you when you, when you went through the training, and or experienced it for the first time.

Unknown: 11:07

Yeah, so there was in the world that we live in, I, I knew that I was extremely vulnerable to truly anybody's idea of me being pushed onto me, and that is as a female, for one, number two, being an elite athlete, those expectations are set onto you from a very young age, and I knew that while I was in those athletic sports that I was having a good time, and I also knew that there were some not good times, but because of what you see around you, you do your best to assimilate. Same thing with my childhood, and my parents are angels, to be completely honest, like we were definitely meant always to be in each other's lives, because even to this day I can still pick up the phone, and we've evolved as humans too in our relationship, but growing up as a young Hispanic woman in a predominantly white community, right there, there was already a disconnection, and you know everybody does their best to keep appearances to make sure that they're quote unquote blending in, and when I came down here to FAU, I was like, oh, I get to be anybody, and along the way, you know, you kind of take a little step away from the norm of what you grew up in, and I realized that that wasn't really me, and I was never meant to be that girl, and slowly but surely I was a preschool aid, COVID hit. That was the year I graduated from college. Found myself working as a behavioral technician with children on the spectrum and similar disorders, and they had my heart, but I was like, I know I can do more, I know I can do more. Led me to grad school. Grad school led me to this world of mental health and therapy, which was always the goal. I just didn't really know how to get there, but I have had wonderful mentors, very patient mentors who have created a different voice in my head that really connected and bridged who I was, who I am, and who I want to be. The process itself wasn't, I was already in therapy before, but it kind of felt like the gates opened about things that I knew, things that I didn't know, and things that I was actively keeping at bay that I had under control, and because we're talking about directly working with the nervous system, that's what this this modality became, began to spark.

Todd McLaughlin: 14:20

Yeah, that's cool, amazing. Well, that sounds great. What sort of, you know, you've been able to facilitate groups, you facilitate groups, or facilitate people? What sort of feedback and or experiences have you witnessed in relation to the the outcome, and or what are you hearing from people that are practicing it with you and, and others that are practicing with other practitioners? Are saying,

Unknown: 14:49

I think the key thing here is human connection. People need people. Sometimes we don't want to believe it, but the truth is, without each other, what would we be? And I think that no matter whether you are receiving a breath work session or you are hosting a breath work session as a guide, watching the process is in itself a beautiful thing, because our body has an intelligence that I feel like we're barely scraping the surface of knowledge about and seeing people move, create movement, that's what this is doing, create movement in the nervous system from all the things that you may have experienced in your life, is it's a blessing, it really is, and then receiving the session itself was extremely exploratory, eye opening, and pushed the becoming the being. I always knew that I was capable of being who I am today, but I didn't believe it until I realized number one, we're kind of on a floating rock in space, and number two, if I'm not living this life for me, then who am I living it for?

Todd McLaughlin: 16:14

Because

Unknown: 16:14

I'm the person that I have to go to bed with at the end of the night, and how do I feel about myself?

Todd McLaughlin: 16:19

Great point. Great point. Do you feel like it can be overwhelming for us to acknowledge that sort of sense of, like, who am I, and, and, and, like, who am I living for? Is that, is that a difficult thing to reintegrate, or to, like, build up into, like, if I have a realization, like, wow, my whole life has been like something that you know, because you can have that realization of, like, wow, what have I been doing all these years? What's going on, which is a really great place to come to, but what do you find in terms of that rebuilding process from there? What are some of the critical things that you recommend people do if they do have that sort of realization, like, wow, I haven't been living my true self, and now I feel like I want to. What steps can I make forward now to really embody that?

Unknown: 17:08

Yeah, the number one thing, because my focus is to be an integrative somatic breath work coach and guide, is to have that resource of a therapist. You never know what is going to show up on that mat, and I do have coaching calls, and I do offer coaching calls, and depending on commitment, scheduling, et cetera, you get busy, my schedule fills up. Having a therapist that you can take this to and process with is something that I strongly recommend, and the second thing is be extremely kind to yourself. Everyone is living life for the first time. I say that to everyone, and I say one of my mentors in the process was really big on being kind with yourself, means having those strong boundaries with the outside world, with the social world, with the noise that happens around us. When you minimize that noise, you can hear yourself, because you're connected to yourself, which allows you to be connected to the people around you. I'm not saying that you'll see more clearly, or you'll feel this or that, because everybody will experience a different experience, even if we're all sharing the same room.

Todd McLaughlin: 18:35

Yeah, great point. If I'm a little bit nervous, like say I know I've had a traumatic past. I, and when I step into a group, sometimes I get a little nervous about actually, personally, I do. I have had, I have had a traumatic past, and sometimes when I go into a group, I get a little nervous. What if something opens up and I'm in public and this, I start to unravel, you know, and I, and I sometimes I have that thought, what sort of advice, and or how could you assure me that I'm going to be okay?

Unknown: 19:14

Yeah, no, listen, that's exactly why the first portion of the workshop is going to be what it is, so that we can number one, identify what those symptoms look like for ourselves and within ourselves. Number two, I'm not doing a breath work session and saying see ya, the complete opposite. I want you to name it, label it, feel it, and connect not just with yourself but with me, with your other resources with your community. The reason some people love groups, and the reason some people are like, I don't know about this group experience, is because of the feeling that you just labeled. We do feel nervous because a lot of us have experienced people hurt, and if we've experienced. Persistent people hurt. Why would we feel safe in that group setting? But my number one priority, and I'll say it on the day of the workshop, and I'll probably say it multiple times, is safety. Do you feel safe? Do you feel safe with me? Do you feel safe with the people around you? If the answer is no. Then what can we do about it, and we'll navigate it moment to moment, because in that process the thing that you can get out of it most is you got more oxygen in your body, right? And the second thing is that I'm right there, I see all the people that are with me now. I may not have four hands, but the reason that the cues and the guides are there is to help bring you back into that connection. It's not about doing it fast, it's about connecting deeper with your breath and with your body, and allowing your body to move through that process, and you're not alone. I'll be right there with you, and because I preach safety first, I'll make sure that we understand that number one, there is sound cues, because you're going to be able to hear my little feet walking around, checking in, seeing how people are doing. You're going to be able to feel something that we call a sense, right? It's like you know the person standing there, but they're not touching you or talking to you, but you can feel that energy that connection without speaking, that is also a part of this, and then the third one is, or the third one is verbal, and the fourth one is touch. If I am asking a question of who feels safe or okay with me offering touch guidance, right? Everybody has an opportunity to say yes or an opportunity to signal a no. I'll be able to provide note cards with a yes or no on top of it, so that I know exactly who I'm working with and where they're at in that moment.

Todd McLaughlin: 22:17

Amazing, very cool. It's so great. I know you asked me beforehand if I could hear your dog, and I can hear him drinking right now, and it's really cute. So, I just want to let people know if they're listening and they're not watching, or they're watching and they're listening, and, and we're, and I'm paying so close attention to how you're speaking, and you have such a, like, a calm, calm, calm voice. I feel so relaxed, and so I just can't help but crack up, because, because I can hear him chewing away on his little bone in there, and then he just starts, like, it's okay, it's okay, but I wanted to say it out loud, because maybe someone's listening, going, what is she doing over there, like, what is going on, so, so it's a, it's a nine month old little doggy, just

Unknown: 23:00

having fun, he's

Todd McLaughlin: 23:01

happy in there, and

Unknown: 23:03

baby ball in his mouth, definitely, definitely, definitely self-soothing.

Todd McLaughlin: 23:12

Oh my

Unknown: 23:12

god, this is Malachi, he's

Todd McLaughlin: 23:15

so cute. Check

Unknown: 23:16

him out, and he is the sweetest boy, he really is

Todd McLaughlin: 23:19

awesome. He

Unknown: 23:20

knows exactly what's going on all the time.

Todd McLaughlin: 23:23

Oh my

Unknown: 23:23

god, I didn't know dogs could be that smart.

Todd McLaughlin: 23:25

Isn't it great? My daughter wanted a dog so bad, and I was like, no, no, no, and now I'm like, so dog crazy. It's the best thing ever. Well, that's cool. I really appreciate you sharing all that. I feel super relaxed, actually, listening to you, so I'm excited to take part personally, I haven't really been able to. I mean, I love doing breath work. I love pranayama, and I love sampling all the different styles of ways that people utilize the breath work skill, and so it's something I really love. So, I'm personally excited to experience the way that you're mentioning leading it and being attentive and you know really paying attention to what's going on, and so that's really nice to hear. I like, I really appreciate the way that you're the type of feeling that you're bringing to it. Can you explain a little bit about, like, actual technique? I understand if maybe you don't want to talk about that now, because maybe it's better to have it be something that I don't think about a whole lot beforehand, and just come in and experience, you know, like it's almost like if I want to read a book and I watch the movie first, then I'm like, I don't know if I want to read the book now, but so I try to read the book first and then go watch the movie, so maybe it'd be better not to tell me how, how it's all going to go down, but in relation to that question, can you give me a little idea of like some of the style of breathing? One time I went to, like, a more.. I don't even know, because sometimes you go to breath work things and you don't know if people are coming in from like the holotropic breathing world, where they're trying to get you to hallucinate through the breath. I don't know if it's coming in from a. Like a different type of breathing, where you're just like hyperventilating, basically, and your whole body will curl up and tingle, and like it's a little interesting and wild. So, I'm, I'm just curious, if this, if this is something that's more like activating, or is it something that's more soothing? I just would love to know, like a little bit.

Unknown: 25:19

Yeah, absolutely. So, actually, both things that you just said will I will open the opportunity for that, like I said, the body, the nervous system is going to do what it's going to do the day of, but it is structured in the manner that I will guide you to activate through mouth breathing, and the diaphragmatic breathing specifically works on deep belly breathing in and out of the mouth, and because there will be music complementing the guided breath work we're activating through the mouth in and out as deep as you possibly can into your belly, and I say the word deep because the people who do the will drive themselves into a panic attack, so that's actually what we're trying to avoid. We want an opportunity for expression, not a panic attack, but if that does happen on the day of, I'm right there, I'm right there, and there are some people who respond extremely well to verbal cues all in itself, and there are some people who are going to respond to that felt sense, just having me sit right next to them while they listen to my verbal cues, and other individuals may appreciate that physical touch of, hey, you're doing the best that you can. Let's really focus on deeper, not faster. And that will be the first half of it. And in between the first half, you, I will guide you into what we call breath holds, and those are opportunities for your body to share information, whatever information you experience there, just keep it and let it, let it be, because we're going to go back into that breathing again, which will lead us into our second half, which will target nasal breathing, same idea that 360 using that diaphragm really into your belly, so that we can start to signal to the brain that nasal breathing means deactivation, because you can't run away from a tiger breathing through your nose. I mean, you probably could try, but extremely hard, because your body needs that oxygen in order to stay alive and do its very best to survive, but nasal breathing signals to the brain and the nervous system, deactivation, rest, and digest, and again, some may have an easier time getting there than others. That is still why I am there, so that I can meet you where you are at, and help get you to a place where we can walk out of this, and we're not extremely heightened or aroused or triggered, that is not the purpose of this, although individuals experience different things, and they gather different information. It's the information itself that oftentimes becomes activating, not that you finished a breath work session. We deactivated to our very best, we grounded, we brought our awareness back to the moment. It's in that. Okay, what did I notice? What was that experience like for me? How do I feel, and how can I take care of myself immediately after this? Some people get ready to go, they're like, 'Hey, let's go hang out at the beach. Other people are like, 'Hey, I need to go lay down on my couch, and I need some water, and I need some dinner. That's exactly where your body, that's what your body wanted from you.

Todd McLaughlin: 29:12

Very cool. I'm really curious, Maria, if as you get more in touch with really feeling and sensing the nervous system and getting a deeper, like personal connection with the ability to down regulate, up regulate, speed it up, slow it down. How have you noticed your connection to other movement practices that you're involved in either become more enhanced, different. You made mention that you were active, as in the athletic world, when you were younger, so that just would make me lend me to believe that you enjoy doing physical things. So I'm curious, like. Are you noticing now that you're kind of working along these lines that it's changed the way you operate?

Unknown: 30:09

Absolutely, the first thing that I reinforce, I tell everyone I work with, I will not teach you something that I don't practice myself. The first thing I do when I wake up is not the 4045 50 minute session that I'll be offering after the workshop. It's usually like a 10 to 15 minute practice, so that my body has an opportunity to come into today, not anticipate what may happen or bring into today what happened prior to today. The most important thing is the right here, right now, because that is all that we have. And based on my athletic experience, I think that's why I love this even more, is because of how much our body we use as athletes, and you even today I was discussing anxiety and functional anxiety and dysfunctional anxiety, and depending what you practice and how you practice it, the terminology can be synonymous with other words, but there's anxiety that keeps us functional, alive, and performative, and then there's the anxiety that keeps us bed-bound, house-bound, almost frozen, avoidant, or completely disconnected, not just from self but from others as well, or actually extremely connection-seeking, but not connected to self. So, in this practice, and what I've enjoyed most is watching people fall deeper, and even myself, like that last 30 to 40 minutes of like a 90 minute breath work session is my favorite part, because I can feel myself fall deeper into my body, and also the exploration part of I know what I'm going to do after this, and then I have to remind myself, oh, we're in the breathing process. Let's come back to the moment, and also seeing people as well. You see their shoulders sink deeper, you see their breath change. The dynamic goes from that shallow chest at least into their mid rib cage and diaphragm area, and then you see others as they continue with the practice, if they're not used to it, that belly breathing, where you start to see the expansion within that has an impact on the expansion on a physical level, emotional level, interpersonal level, and you know, not just athletes, but people who identify as high performing have such interesting shares at the end of these activities, because they're so accustomed to the go-go-go culture that the second half of it is such a different experience, that that's one of my favorite parts, as well as hearing what was your experience like for you, and some people are like, I just breathed, and I was like, dude, that's cool, like you got more oxygen in your brain, there's still benefits to that.

Todd McLaughlin: 33:43

Yeah, yes, very cool. You made mention that you posted or during Covid, around that time, were working with children, and so I'm curious, what would be age appropriate for this particular workshop? Do you prefer only 18 and older, or would a someone that has a 12, 1314, year old child, would it be an appropriate setting for them to experience breath work? Now, personally, to try to get a 13 year old to come with me to go to yoga things, like have to pull tea sometimes, so I'm not saying that would be easy, but if someone could rile their kid up to come with them, would that, would it be appropriate, or do you feel like it's different?

Unknown: 35:12

Yeah, so I thought about this before too, because we've had this question, even in training mentors, and I also ethically have to stand by number one, parent permission is extremely important here, and number two, does the child understand what they're walking into, that's the second thing, if they don't, we kind of ask the parent, hey, what's the purpose. What's the purpose behind this, and they share, and it ends up being like a me thing, and we're like, let's start there. And then, if they seem to gain an interest on what it is that you're doing, we start with those meta skills.

Todd McLaughlin: 35:59

Yeah,

Unknown: 35:59

like, okay, cool. Why don't you practice telling me how many different pink objects are in the room. Okay, tell me, where on your body can you feel your shirt touching your skin? Right, and that starts to bring connection, not just to the present moment, but then that connection of your T-shirt to your skin. Oh, there's a body connection, and teaching them that awareness of self is also what helps build self-awareness, values of self, boundaries of self, and with the world around them, and also self-esteem, I don't think there could be negatives, because everything has a pro and a con. You don't really want to put someone into a space of activation where the breath work is meant to activate the nervous system, they don't have a true understanding of what they're walking into, but the active practice of noticing, of connecting to yourself, of maybe meditation or grounding, those are all things we call coping skills, and I stand by that all day, every day, because what I currently do for work is kind of what I like to call, like, a parenting guide. If I could pick one, is the DBT handouts and worksheets. I'm like, if you weren't taught this at a younger age, there's no wrong way to learn, there's no wrong time to learn it, but this is where I would start.

Todd McLaughlin: 37:44

Yeah, that's really cool. That's a great answer. So, curious, I remember the first time I heard someone say, you know, like with children, like, don't teach them body building because potentially their muscles haven't developed and the bones haven't developed enough, and it could mess with the bone growth, if you start actively, aggressively kind of training the muscle tissue, and so it's fascinating to think about the different ways that we develop, and then how appropriate is each of these sort of coaching tools for the stage of development that the child is in, but I love the way that you answered that, because you're right, I guess, what it could be a little overwhelming if you start having a child do something that causes their breathing to, I guess, you know what, you don't have enough experience yet to really know. I wonder, I don't know. That's that is fascinating that you said bring it back more into like awareness of where is your shirt touching your skin, like that sort of like feel what's going on, and maybe that's a more appropriate way to enter to go into this world of experiencing our own bodies and feeling it versus trying to shut it out. Can you talk a little bit more about, I mean, aren't we all kind of doing that all day long with all of the things that we have in the our world to some degree or another? Do you feel like there's so many distractions going on? Like, I yesterday I spoke with someone that was talking about how what he's noticing is like this loneliness epidemic, like how serious loneliness really is. So, you'd already brought a lot of attention to the fact of how important it is that we connect, that we have a human connection, or even just you and I, being even though we're staring at a camera, but I can see you there, I can see your facial expression. We're not sitting in the same room, but we kind of are, and so that human connection is so important. Can you? And then, so I guess my question, if I give out a little bit more, so you can answer. Okay, so I wake up, and then maybe the first thing I would do is look at my phone, and then I go through my emails, and then I get a little triggered because there's an email that's like, oh no, I have to do that today, no, I don't want to do that, and then so then automatic this thing starts kicking in, where I'm just like, boom, it's like an avalanche of like, then the next thing, then the next thing, so it's like, then okay, well, How do I turn that off? I gotta turn that off, that's too intense, so then either most of us go for like some sort of drug, or we go for some sort of like, like, we want a stimulant, or we want something that calms us down, or then we watch the TV, or so, like, I feel like we're using so many things to try to control our lack of self awareness, and therefore, by becoming self aware, wouldn't that lead to us potentially not necessarily grasping for something to self satisfy and self soothe so quickly, and we could potentially build our own self soothing mechanisms, or is this kind of what we're attempting to do with this?

Unknown: 40:37

Yeah, I, you said it at the very beginning, at the tail end of. Of what you had just shared about the bringing in kids into this practice, the experience of experiencing, if we're not experiencing life, what are we experiencing? We're experiencing life through the lens of what our boss wants us to do, experiencing life through the lens of what our friends are doing, and to some degree, yes, we're impacted by all of that, bringing that awareness to self, and these are like I said, the first part is being able to teach the skill of noticing, the skill of observing, but more importantly, when I just reference, like DBT, basically being like a parenting manual, is there is a whole section on what are emotions, what do emotions do for us, how do they function, and when you bring awareness to the body's experience, because the truth is we're feeling all the time because of all the input, just being in this room alone, and like you said, it's just the two of us. I have felt excited, I felt nervous, I've been content, I've felt at ease, and that's all happened in like 3440 minutes, maybe. So, the fact that I have noticed those things, it's important to build that self-awareness, so that when we do start the practice right, that's why I'm not going into that 90 minute session on the first one. Why don't we dip our toes into the water first? Let's, because I know that there may be some people who are extremely well practiced into yoga and grounding and meditation, so I won't always feel like I'm starting at ground zero with people and sometimes with the people who have expectation I do feel like I'm starting at ground zero because I'm actually

Todd McLaughlin: 42:52

like

Unknown: 42:54

thank you for sharing that and is that the experience your body is having though right so being able to teach, you know, what is this experience, and then how do I want to experience is the focus here. We don't focus on the why. Why is storytelling? It grabs from social systems, generational cycles, social media, you know, imposed beliefs by all the systems that we're a part of, whether it's work or school, mentors, friends, family, you know, walking through publics, even that those are thumbs up. See, it already caught on to the fact that there's so much connection going on that there is no just like one point of what is the starting point, what's the end point. The point is experience.

Todd McLaughlin: 44:00

Yeah, good answer. Agreed. Well said. Well said. Can you? I follow you on social media now, and it seems like you enjoy dancing. Dance, can you talk a little bit about so, like, one time my wife and I, when we lived in San Diego, we decided we were gonna go take a salsa dancing lesson, and I've never felt so uncoordinated before, because, like, I think the person was like trying to teach me these dance steps really fast, and I was just like, not, not, not, not there, not, not fully, you know, and if you know when you're kind of think you're good at some sort of physical thing, and you go into something that's completely different, and so humbling to try to move the body and have that sort of awareness, and but can you talk a little bit about how you, how dance affects your life, and how that might correlate to what we're speaking about.

Unknown: 44:59

Absolutely, this was in the last year, I would say since the beginning of 2025 You had asked earlier, too. You know, how did you get here? I was like, my life needs to change. I said, I have a job, I have a roof over my head, I have food in the fridge, I've got clothes on my back. Why am I not content? I am a female who is completely independent. I have an amazing family. I have a great support system. Why am I not content? So, upon that self-reflection, I was like. Like I need to find the connections that are truly meaningful to me, learning to be uncomfortable until uncomfortable, and then realizing, okay, great, where else can I learn? And my therapist may be like, aren't you chasing discomfort all the time, and I'm like, and dialectically I get to learn more, so that I can offer more, and maybe that's my purpose, and we could go back and forth on that all day, but the reality was, is that I wasn't content with my life, even though, like, my mother would say, I'd have every, I have every reason to be happy, and I wasn't, I wasn't experiencing that. I may have had a smile on my face in pictures, but you could pull up a picture of me a year and a half ago, and I know that there was not life behind those eyes. So I was like, you know what, what did I do when I was a kid that I really liked that I chose, and I was like, I may not have been an AB student, but I still passed, and I still got all my degrees and all my credentials, but I was still curious. I hopped into dance. I finally accepted that the only way my life was going to change was if I made changes, and my therapist was extremely patient with me in the last three years about that one, but that was the catalyst, was wow, why am I still not content? And then it just so happened that a colleague was like, hey, want to try this with me, and I was like, listen, let me What, what do I have to lose? Why not try everything else in my life I've said yes to, and you know it led me some to some really discontent mint, and also a lot of negative feelings, the intense depression, the intense anxiety, the, you know, vulnerable positions I was put in to experience what some would identify as trauma, and those trauma responses, and it just so happened to be that mine was, you know, a freeze response and flight, and also a little bit of fight in there too, but I think that that fight is what became functional, because once I started integrating not only my knowledge of practice, finally listened to my therapist a little bit, and also what I know from studying and working, dancing was no, there was just no escaping number one human connection, and the actual genuine touch of another human person that made me realize I don't like this, but deep down I crave it, so there was a disconnection right then and there. The somatic breath work is what opened my eyes to wow. The way that you're going to get through this is by feeling it, by sticking with that salsa partner work, because I was a Latin dancer for a studio up in Orlando, and I danced for like late middle school up until I was a senior in high school, actually maybe my end of freshman year, sophomore year, and I was on a performance team for about six years, except it was an all-girls performance team, and there was no couple or partner work, so I wasn't familiar with the touch part of dancing, and the minute that that happened, I was like, oh, I go, we have a lot of things to work on, and she goes, and let's get to work. This romantic breathwork brought knowledge to me that I could accept, that I could put to rest, that I could put the little girl that was fighting inside so hard to protect me from things that were no longer there, and say, "Hey, I got you, and I got this, and this is the life we want to live, like it's okay to let go, and it's okay to grieve that, and because of that 360 diaphragmatic breathing, activating and deactivating, I learned to control those things. I learned that

Todd McLaughlin: 50:19

nice

Unknown: 50:19

power was actually within me.

Todd McLaughlin: 50:21

Nice. Wow, Maria, that's really well thought out and explained. That's like, you've really put some, you put some work into

Unknown: 50:32

it. I tell, I tell everybody, I was like, I do not want to teach you something that I don't practice. I don't like to be a hypocrite. I want to fully immerse myself. And tools and ways that I can offer you that whatever you take from it, you take from it, and if you come back, maybe it builds on that, and maybe your body's in a different place in space because you did the thing that your body may have been asking you to do for months, weeks, years, and your body might be in a different place there, but it just needs to let go of some

things: 51:08

safety, connection, expression, integration. That's the focus here.

Todd McLaughlin: 51:15

That's cool, Maria. You know, I'm so really grateful that I got a chance to meet you, because I feel that my wife, Tamara, and I are having run the studio here for the last 20 years, we're very selective about things that we offer here at the studio, because we want to make sure that the folks that are coming in, like that, you know, like they get a good experience, like pretty simple, pretty straightforward, that the people that are offering the workshops and the classes actually care about them, and that we can feel that that they're being taken care of, and the feedback always comes back, and usually they let us know, like they're an incredible feedback loop, for like, wow, that was amazing, or I don't know if I would go back to that, or that type of thing, so upon our first conversation I really got the sense that you do take this seriously, which got me excited to meet somebody that can offer something that I feel is very valuable for humanity right now, for our community right now, and then to now have this opportunity to really sit and talk with you for a while, I feel even more assured and more excited for you to offer this course or class or workshop at the studio, so I'm really grateful. I feel like I just like I like everything you have to say, so I can't wait. Long story short, I'm excited, I'm genuinely excited. I think that it's going to be amazing, so and I think the safety part is really huge. It really is. I mean, the breath work stuff is so powerful. I feel like I've always.. I kind of underestimated when I first started getting into breath work. Underestimated, because I've.. my one of my first thoughts was like, I'm just going to be breathing. What's the big deal? Like, I breathe all day, every day, anyway. So, like, how could breathing really like, make some sort of incredible, profound, and I heard people saying, like, wow, this really has been working great for me. I can't believe the sort of changes that I've experienced because of breath work. So, I guess I've always underestimated it, but then I've definitely learned not to overestimate it. It's actually quite powerful and transformative and amazing, so I'm, I feel like with that, the fact that it's powerful, and then to have a facilitator like you that's that's calm and focused is going to be pretty cool.

Unknown: 53:34

Thanks, Todd. I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity. The same way that you said you're extremely selective about who enters your space and community, I'm very similar. I, I'm happy to be where I am, and I believe whoever is meant to find me will find me, and you know, in doing the work, this is a business, but it's a business made from love and compassion and kindness, that is safety seeking, it, it was important that I made connections with people who really care about people, because at the end of the day, you know, dollar sign is $1 sign, but that's that's not the most important thing to me, the most important thing to me is, do you feel that what you just experience is going to help you step into yourself more and into the life that you want?

Todd McLaughlin: 54:36

Yes. Well said, Maria. Well, everyone listening, if you're local, you can come meet Maria and practice on Sunday, june 7, and then if you're not local and you want to connect to Maria, you can find her on Instagram, Somatic and Mental Wellness Co, and also your website, Maria S M Wellness co.com and I'll put those links in the description, so people can click and find you super easy. Is there anything else, Maria, that you feel like you would like to add? I feel like you know we covered a lot of bases here already, and you answered all my questions, but is there anything that I might have missed out on, or something you'd like to close with to just inspire or motivate

Unknown: 55:21

us? You know, I am a true believer in what is meant to be will be, and what is meant to happen will happen. So, for those that show up, I am already grateful for the opportunity that you trust me with your being for an hour and a half, and I look forward

Todd McLaughlin: 55:39

to it. Awesome, thanks, Maria, so much. Much, I look forward.

Unknown: 55:43

Absolutely, thanks. Todd

Todd McLaughlin: 55:55

Native Yoga Todd Cast is produced by myself. The theme music is Dreamed Up by Bryce Allen, if you like this show, let me know. If there's room for improvement, I want to hear that too. We are curious to know what you think and what you want more of. What I can improve, and if you have ideas for future guests or topics, please send us your thoughts to info at Native Yoga Center, you can find us at Native Yoga center.com And hey, if you did like this episode, share it with your friends, rate it, and review, and join us next time.