The Practice of Therapy

Megan Swan
Okay. Hi, my name is Megan swan. I'm an integrated wellness and business coach. I specialize in helping well printers show up with magnetic energy confidence and really just walk the talk in the health and wellness industry. I'm thrilled to be here today with Gordon on the practice therapy podcast. Thanks for having me.

Gordon Brewer
Well, hello, everyone, and welcome again to the podcasts. And I'm so glad for you all to get to know Megan swan. Megan, welcome.

Megan Swan
Thank you. I appreciate the offer to share my ideas in this realm.

Gordon Brewer
Yes. And when Megan reached out for me, I thought, you know, this was just been a, you know, it's interesting would in doing this podcast, I kind of hit seems like I go through periods where I'm on different themes of different, different ideas. And I know, just self care has been, I think, on everybody's radar over the last two years. But I think now that we're just kind of coming out of post COVID. Or hopefully I can say that without too much reservation, but people are really paying more and more attention to that, and really how we can balance life and work and all of that sort of thing. So Megan, as I start with everyone, why don't you tell folks a little more about yourself and how you've landed where you've landed?

Megan Swan
Sure, well, I'll touch the highlights because it's kind of a long story. But I am Canadian. And I basically left Toronto when I was 30, which was 13 years ago now. On my own Eat, Pray Love little journey, if you will, my plan was to go to Mexico and teach English and yoga for a year. And then to go to Bali. And then I didn't know where I would go. But long story short, 13 years later, I'm still in my first stop here in the south of Mexico. And I married my husband who I met pretty much a couple months into arriving. So we've been together for 12 years. And we have two beautiful boys. And really it was post pregnancy, I, you know, I kind of had dipped my toe in the wellness industry with becoming a yoga teacher. But I was still living a double life, if you will, I was still doing a lot of things that really weren't that healthy. Outside of that. And it wasn't until I got pregnant, which I think is a really common time for most women to become hyper focused on what they're putting into their bodies, right. So that and then birthing my two boys and I basically needed to hire for myself a health coach, after my second child, I just I just didn't feel like I was bouncing back in terms of feeling motivated just about life in general. Like I just felt like I was getting through my days kind of thing. And so this is how I ended up in the health and wellness industry. I had a health coach then I within a few months of working with her, I thought no, this is what I want to do. So I became certified as a health coach through i n which is the you know, sort of major certification place there out of New York. And from there, I did a bunch of other sort of certification. You know, most most of it, some of us go through this sort of certification. Well, before we really throw ourselves into, you know, finding a lot of experience and feeling confident enough to launch ourselves in a new career. So I, you know, I'm an expert in detox as well, and a plant based chef, and I still incorporate movement and yoga into a lot of what I do with clients, at least the philosophy behind it. And yeah, full circle, I had many wellness and mindset clients for several years, mostly women, although I do work with men too. And I saw that, you know, when they started taking radical responsibility for their own self care, you know, when I refer to wellness, I'm referring to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellness and I IX pillar system that I walk my clients through and you know, I really just meet them where they are. But long story short, when you get to a point of optimal wellness, you're really in a much more empowered place to make decisions and take action differently than you might have when you were just kind of you know, getting by kind of thing and yeah, a lot of these these women have decided they want to go into a similar business like I so that's another aspect of my business now is supporting well printers in their wellness as as they build their business because oftentimes I'm so those of us in the health and wellness industry, you know, it's it's hard to walk the talk, you know, and really keep that at the forefront. And so I teach mostly women again, but how to build optimal wellness into their systems, the structure and their their business.

Gordon Brewer
Right. Right. And it's such an important thing, because I know, at least in in the niche, which this podcast is in, particularly mental health, it is it at least over the last two years, and again, it's, it's, it's interesting how everything's in the context of COVID. Now, so I mean, it's just a whole new new phenomenon that we're dealing with. But one of the things about it is, is that we are the, you know, in general, people that are mental health providers are getting kind of overwhelmed with the number of clients that they're, they're getting, and it's, most people I talked to here lately, their practices are full. And, you know, being able to set those limits for yourself, I think, goes much farther than just a schedule. And so I love what you're doing, as far as just thinking about the whole, whole big picture of it. I know, not to get too far off on a tangent, but I know, over this last year, I've really been much more intentional about my health, which is in and I'm glad to have been because I think I was headed down a road where it was going to be harder, harder and harder to recover from that.

Megan Swan
Yeah, well, I think you know, really prioritizing any one aspect of your health and wellness is like, the really important place to start and works as a buffer to stress at the end of the day. And one thing that is essential in our industry is having boundaries. And that be like you say something like the structure of a schedule, and maybe you know, cutting back on the number of clients that you are capable of maybe taking, you know, carving out an hour or a half day a week, to really focus on yourself knowing that, you know, if you are in your own business, you know, that's an investment in your business, do that, because otherwise, it's not going to be sustainable, the pace that you're maintaining, and is energetic boundaries, you know, it's really important to have, you know, I love working with clients, but I really get involved, you know, like I'm holding massive, compassionate space for them. And in order to do that, you know, I'm in, in their lives, but that can't carry with me throughout my day and throughout my week. And so I have practices, you know, it could be something really simple, cold water, it's very grounding can just wash your hands with cold water and just intentionally kind of like shake off that last session. You can light a candle burn incense, those kinds of things, clear the air and the energy and resets your your mind in terms of, you know, giving it an intentional closure of that energy that you've shared with that person and then allowing you to move on to the next or you know, whatever else.

Gordon Brewer
Right. Right. What sort of themes have you seen emerging for folks in the wellness community as far as things that people typically struggle with that you help them are able to help them with?

Megan Swan
Yeah, well, I think one of our biggest challenges just in general across the board is compartmentalizing, you know, when everything is digital, everything, you know, basically we're all on call 24/7. Now, like doctors were 20 years ago, right? But it's, it's really giving ourselves permission to create digital boundaries, digital buffers, you know, for me that talk about digital wellness, and understanding that if you don't put those boundaries or those buffers in place, so what is that digital buffer for an example is, you know, having a very having structure about when you're on your phone, you know, not the first 30 minutes that you wake up in the day and not in the last 30 minutes of your day, kind of those bookmarks. You know, ideally it's longer but and if that seems overwhelming, like start with five minutes, and just allowing yourself to really be free of that constant interaction with information and everybody else's expectations of you, and just really be present in the body. And I think that's, those are some ways that you can really mitigate your own anxiety and overwhelm because what I'm seeing essentially is either people on the verge of burnout or, you know, trying to recover and and looking for tools for prevention moving forward, because, you know, COVID was intense for all of us in different ways.

Gordon Brewer
Right, right. You know, as you were saying that Megan, I was, I was just thinking about, you know, I love that term digital boundaries, because I think, you know, that's one of the things that I know, just in my own, in my own world, so to speak, you know, always feel like, Oh, I've got to check email, or, you know, what am I going to miss out on all of those kinds of things? And, you know, one practice that I've kind of informally adopted is that just, particularly on Sundays, I don't look at email at all. And, you know, I think setting setting up those, like you said, those digital boundaries, where you're really limiting that, because as everyone knows, it's constant. I mean, it's just constantly coming in and constantly, and I think we can easily get overwhelmed with oh, I need to do this, I need to do that. And, and it just can take a toll on us in the long run.

Megan Swan
Yeah, it's really important to give yourself permission, like when am I off line, you know, in terms of when am I actually unplugging? And, and then I mean, what also becomes important is, you know, what are you doing instead, so there's certain things you could be doing that are much more impactful, like, you know, physically being out in nature, getting sun on your face before nine in the morning. So it kind of resets your circadian rhythms and helps you get to bed and get to sleep, then the following night, having some sort of movement practice, you know, eating as healthy as you can, whatever that means for you. And, you know, having some sort of mindful practice, most of my clients, I've gotten into meditation, but it doesn't need to be that you can just make something you already have to do in your day more mindful, such as, wash the dishes, or you know, when you're, you're showering in the morning, you can like madly suds yourself up or you can, you know, just take a mindful moment, it's really a matter of adding 60 seconds to whatever you're doing. It's not doesn't even have to be more time, it's just the intention and the energy while you're doing it, like are you in a hurry mode, thinking about all the emails that you didn't answer? Or you just, you know, enjoying how the water feels? And maybe like taking the aroma of the soap? And you know, just being a little bit more there and everything you do,

Gordon Brewer
right, right? Yeah, and all of that, I think is so important. As I mentioned, you know, this last year, I've really being more intentional, for myself, just with all the is going on. And yet, and I've shared on this podcast, you know, one of the things that I've been contending with is just my wife is disabled, and she is in a wheelchair, and we have caregivers and all of that sort of thing. So being able to, like you said, have that base and that grounding of different daily rituals and different different practices. For me, I'd say, you know, I was kind of chuckling to myself, well, it's good to hear from Meghan and are doing doing things right, you know, most, most every morning on out, we have a green belt near my house, and I'm out walking or running on the Greenbelt. Most every morning before eight o'clock in the morning. And so, and that is just my, you know, that's just a sacred space, and it doesn't have to be that way for every one. But that's, that's what keeps me grounded. That's what keeps me you know, in the right place, mentally and physically and all of that sort of thing. So, yeah,

Megan Swan
yeah, I think that's so important, what you say that doesn't have to be for everyone because that's, you know, kind of what I talked about with my work, you know, that there's no one size fits all wellness, and there's so many health and wellness trends or routines that are that are presented to us that you know, if you don't do it this exact way, or this many days a week or at this time of the day, it's not worth doing. And also you know that you should be doing all these things at the same time. No, I'm, you know, I really work to give my clients the permission, they need, you know, mentally and energetically to, to select the few wellness tools, if you will, or practices or rituals that really speak to them. You know, like, for some people it works really well to you know, drink a tea then meditate then journal and like, you know, they want to try and get it all in and they do 10 minute bursts or whatever. And, and for others, you know, getting outside and doing a movement practice and, you know, there's so many benefits that go along with that. And then also not adding on a layer of guilt when for whatever reason that day it doesn't happen. Yeah, and I think that thing is we start to feel that a lot of self judgment comes in when we're not, quote unquote, keeping up with her wellness routine. And that's really counterproductive, you know, like, we just need to trust that we're doing enough.

Gordon Brewer
Right, right. Yeah, it's, yeah, I love this, this way of thinking about things just because I think, again, we have this, I call it my theory of change, and that most of us do better when we make small changes, rather than great big ones. And really, if you say, if you think about it, I like to use the metaphor of, you know, if an airline pilots flying from point A to point B, they have to maintain a certain heading. And if they change that heading, just by one degree, which isn't much over time, it makes a huge difference from where you're, you're ending up. So I think, doing those those small changes those small daily routines and creating new habits, and that sort of thing makes a huge difference for people.

Megan Swan
Yes, it's so true. I mean, I think that sometimes we can get caught up in this sort of, you know, quick solution. Culture, we want results, and we want them now. And, you know, we have to appreciate that you probably took several years, if not, maybe even decades to get yourself into the position, you are now you know, and, and expecting and, you know, like a 21 day challenge, or a 10 day diet or something that everything's gonna change. I mean, I think those things, formative, so that people really see like how dramatically they could feel better if they just did XYZ a little bit more. But they often present you in these challenges, right? They often present you with a pace of change that is not sustainable, and therefore, very difficult for someone to integrate into their life, and more likely, it's gonna fall off and just go back to whatever they do their comfort zone wise. Right.

Gordon Brewer
Right. Right. Yeah, you're absolutely right. So Megan, tell, tell folks a little bit about your process, and, you know, kind of the trainings and, and things that you you do?

Megan Swan
Sure, well, I work one on one clients, and for six months at a time, and I think it's really important that for just what we were talking about, in order to feel really supported, and for us to have enough time to go through some trial and error, because that's what it's all about, when you're finding the exact wellness tools that work for you. It's not only learning what they are and implementing them, it is learning how to read and connect with your own body and mind a little bit better. So that, you know, hey, I think you know, this morning routine is just becoming more of a thing on my to do list, it's not really serving me anymore, I'm going to try doing something else. Or, you know, someone told me I need to meditate for 20 minutes a day, but I just am so stressed because I can't find 20 minutes a day. So we'll find another way to integrate mindfulness, or maybe another way to approach meditation, that doesn't seem so overwhelming that you just say it's not for me, right. So in the six pillars of wellness that I work with, we touch a lot, you know, I think sleep is number one priority is it's not only the quality, sorry, none of them the quantity, but the quality of our sleep cycle, I always talk about clean, intuitive eating. And, you know, it's a whole massive topic on itself. Some sort of mindful practice, talking about connections we have. So you know, community, the connection we have with ourselves, or major relationships in our lives or family. And what else I'm missing one movement. Yes. So, you know, finding a movement practice. And I was actually just sharing on social media. On Sunday, you know, lately, I'm a runner that I got into running when I got sober four years ago. And so I've run multiple half and one marathon and at the beginning of the year, I put this intention out there that I was going to run another marathon by the end of this year. And I don't think that's going to happen, I've what I've been doing on the treadmill lately is sort of some sort of mix of Pilates and stretching. And eventually, and I find like, you know, that's what I'm excited to do to get on the treadmill. So I'd rather do that for 2030 minutes, then, you know, have layers of self judgment that I'm not training for XYZ and, and just just be more in the moment and in the flow and make that okay, and you know, really just enjoying your life and what you're doing is so important in order to get that whole whole benefit out of it. So yeah, and so that's how I work with wellness clients. And then if you're interested in really starting a business in the wellness, space, you know, I work with, you know, the Health, Wellness, spiritual coaches and practitioners, then you're really at the beginning and you're not really sure how Gotta start or you've started and you, you need to accept that you've kind of thrown your own health and wellness out of the window a little bit to get your business started. You know, that's where I came in. And we kind of rework the structure and the framework of your business to really honor wellness to be like a wellness first perspective, throughout your your business.

Gordon Brewer
Yes, yes, that's great. I love that. And then some, I think it's important work for everyone to do along the way, because I think it's, again, it's what's gonna keep, you know, one of the things that people get overwhelmed with is just that whole work life balance. And I hear that from clients I consult with as well. And so then kept being intentional about getting some things in place as good is good. So what Megan, I want to be respectful of your time tell folks how they can be in touch with you in that sort of thing,

Megan Swan
sir, well, you can find me My website is Megan swan. wellness.com. I'm the same. That's my handle on Instagram at Megan Swan wellness. I also have a podcast called energetically you, I love to interview people that you know, all sorts of things around mindset, wellness, healthy habits, those kinds of things. And I always focus on energy. You know, for me, that was a huge transformation. When I started focusing on optimizing my wellness personally, I just had more motivation and energy and eventually confidence in ways that I hadn't imagined before. Just you know, doing better self more consistent, better and more consistent self care and in multiple things. So

Gordon Brewer
awesome. Awesome. And we'll have links here on the show notes in the show summary for people to access that easily. So well. Megan, I'm so glad you joined me on the podcast and hopefully we can have another conversation here soon.

Megan Swan
Definitely. Thank you, Gordon. I appreciate