Episode #66 Dr. Keira Barr - Boost Your Energy and Thrive With Embodiment Practices

Episode 66:

Boost Your Energy and Thrive With Embodiment Practice with Dr. Keira Barr and Evan

H. Hirsch, MD

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 00:07

Hey everybody, welcome back to the energy MD podcast, where we're on a mission to

help a million people increase their energy naturally by finding and fixing all their root

causes so they can have more fun and success in every aspect of their lives. So today

I'm really excited because we're going to be talking about embodiment, how you can feel

better in your skin with the skin expert, Doctor Keira Barr, so let's learn a little bit about

Dr. Keira. So, she blends science with soul as a mind body coach, menopause mentor

and dual board certified integrative dermatologist empowering women around the world

with the tools needed to give them the control, clarity, calm and confidence they crave

during their midlife experience. As the author of the best seller, the skin whisperer host

of the skinny dipping RX podcast and creator of the skinny dipping method. She's

redefining midlife through no BS conversations, straight up truths, and tangible

actionable advice to teach you how to heal your relationship with yourself by reclaiming

a sense of safety, trust and pleasure through your body. Her work has been featured in

mind body green, Better Homes and Gardens, Reader's Digest, Glamour, self, Oprah

Magazine, and now the energy MD podcast.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 01:29

Keira, thanks so much for joining me today.

Dr. Keira Barr 01:31

Thank you so much for having me.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 01:35

So I'm really excited about talking about embodiment, you know, and how embodiment

relates to energy. So maybe we should start there at that definition.

Dr. Keira Barr 01:45

Yeah, I think it's an important topic, that one that we don't often talk we don't even

oftentimes think about, but embodiment, essentially, like, we have a body. And it's like,

practices of how to feel more comfortable in our body touch sensation, movement.

breathwork. So it's not just one thing, it's all of the different modalities, meditation,

visualization, they all would fall under embodiment practices, all things that help us feel

more ease more calm, more at home, in the bodies that we live in,

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 02:19

more at home in our own skin. That's right, one might say. So and why is that important?

Dr. Keira Barr 02:27

I think it's incredibly important, because it's not something we often are taught. Or think

about, we often just feel really anxious and overwhelmed. And we look for things to

distract us, like social media, or over drinking or overeating. And yet, part of all of that is

because there's this uncomfortable sensation or uncomfortable feeling in our bodies

that we're trying to distract and avoid from. So embodiment, allows us to learn to attune

to all those signals all those feelings, and kind of understand what those messages

maybe are trying to send us and how to better manage them without having to kind of

distract ourselves from being with ourselves, if that makes sense.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 03:24

Absolutely, yeah. It reminds me of the row, you know, it's kind of like, what is I never met

a companion is companionable is solitude. It's kind of like, Can you can you just sit and

be with yourself?

Dr. Keira Barr 03:38

Exactly. Yeah, I think that's a great analogy. You know, the practices and vitamin

practices breathwork visualization meditation, they really allow us more access, and

give us information about the ways that we hold on to experiences in our body. And they

also provide ways to release tension to boost our energy and to find greater comfort in

our skin.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 04:05

Now, this is hard. This is hard for humans to do in general. But I would imagine that it's

probably harder for people who've experienced trauma.

Dr. Keira Barr 04:16

Absolutely, because what do we all crave a sense of safety. And oftentimes, our bodies

don't feel like a safe place, especially if there has been your body has been something

that has been violated or abused in some way. So it may not feel safe to go inside. And

so it's much easier to look outside ourselves. So it can be very difficult, especially for

individuals who've experienced physical trauma, sexual trauma. But there are practices

that are very simple and easy to learn. That can create a greater sense So safety inside

of ourselves, but it takes time. And it oftentimes takes working with someone who is

trauma informed. To know, because often, if we're not careful, we can re traumatize

somebody with the actions that we take are the words that we use?

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 05:21

Yeah, can you guess? Can you give us an example of a practice? And how Potentially, it

could be triggering for somebody?

Dr. Keira Barr 05:29

Yeah. So oftentimes, we look, you know, we're focusing on an awareness of breath and

tuning into the sensations in the body. And what do you notice, you know, when you feet

on the ground, grounding exercises, for instance. And for many of us, just attuning to

our breath, noticing the sensations in our body is just, Oh, I'm just noticing, right? But

there may be aches, or there may be pains and it's, your body's essentially telling you, it's

too much too soon, too fast. And it it just doesn't feel comfortable. So you might try and

distract your mind may wander, you may not be able to focus and may feel like you need

to squirm in your seat, you know, it's just not very comfortable. So that may be kind of an

example where many people will be like, Oh, sure, I can just sit here and attune try

breath. And for other people that doesn't feel available, or even closing your eyes when

you're meditating. You know, a lot of meditations are offered as an invitation, you know,

close your eyes. And for some people closing their eyes feels like Well, that is doesn't

feel safe, because I don't know, if I close my eyes, what's going to happen? What's

coming at me what's coming behind me. So I think it's a matter of understanding what

your own triggers are, and making space for them, and adjustments and modifications

that work for you.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 07:00

And so then when you guide somebody through a process, you just have to give a lot of

leeway, and give a lot of suggestions for Hey, If this doesn't feel right, then do this, or

how does that work?

Dr. Keira Barr 07:10

Absolutely. I think we think of everything is an invitation. And it's a matter of really,

oftentimes when there's been trauma agency and authority has been stripped away. So

our ability to choose our ability to assert ourselves that was lost in a moment. Or for

some, it's ongoing. So in order is so being able to offer that, right. There's always choice,

you always get to, you're in charge. Essentially, if something doesn't feel right, you say

yes, everything is an invitation. So I think it's really important to make space for that.

And to also, when you're with someone to pay attention, to attune to our own energy

when we're with somebody who, so that can be a very, what's the word I'm looking for?

neutral space, right? Clean, a clean exchange of energy.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 08:20

That word attune comes up in my relationship with my wife quite a bit where she says

that I'm not attuning to her the way that I need to. So do you have any tips for me for

how to attune better?

Dr. Keira Barr 08:34

I think it's a matter of, you know, for those of us who are sighted, right, you can use our

all of our senses. So looking at someone's countenance and and the facial expressions,

their body language, looking at how they're breathing, right? Breath is such a powerful

tool that we can use to help calm us down, as well as increase our energy. There are

certain breathwork techniques, but looking when you're trying to attune to someone in

front of you, are they even breathing? are they holding their breath? Like are they really

pissed and they're just holding their breath? Can you see that? They shrugging their

shoulders and and how is their posture? Right body language can say a lot about kind of

the the thoughts and sensations that someone may be experiencing. And then of

course, you ask questions, open ended questions and allow them to share. But I think a

lot of especially in the work that I do in Cymatics it's, it's it's looking at how the body

moves. Because oftentimes our body says what are what our brains aren't ready to, or

don't have the words to, but our body will be able to express that right if you're feeling

tense, your shoulders may be up to your ears, your your for your brow may be furrowed

In talking about skin, right, if there's someone who's angry or anxious, they may be

flushed. They may not say a word to you, but you're but you are, your power of

observation will tell you that something may be a little bit off that maybe you should be

curious about, like, Hey, let's go.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 10:19

Yeah, I think I had an insight as you were talking about that, I think, you know, for me

developmentally and my family, cracking jokes, kind of relieved tension. And so, when

there was when I felt that there was tension in the room, or whatever, I would crack a

joke or whatever, make people smile, that that served me then. But it doesn't necessarily

serve me now. Because that doesn't necessarily work with my wife.

Dr. Keira Barr 10:44

Yeah, I, I, my family was the exact same way. Sarcasm was like, the love language, right.

And I remember even teaching my son that but as I've gotten older, I realized, I mean,

laughter is incredible medicine. There's science behind this in terms of the release of

dopamine and serotonin and, and their laughter and sarcasm can can provoke laughter.

So there is benefit there. But to your point, it was a strategy that we may have needed, in

difficult situations to distract us from the uncomfortable emotions that we were trying

to avoid, whether it was shame, whether it was frustration, or disappointment, or

sadness. But now, it may not work in the same way. I personally, you know, I talk to my

therapist about this all the time, like playfulness, and humor, for me, are strategies that I

use. But in the past, I might have used sarcasm and humor to distract from the

uncomfortable emotion. And now I use it to turn towards it. Like I can laugh at the fact

that just sitting here and trying to process, like, why I'm still stuck on this one thing, and

I'm struggling, and it's so painful, and I can I can laugh about the pain, and still,

simultaneously allow myself to experience it, right. So we can use humor and laughter.

Not to distract ourselves from but to help us deal with the discomfort. Right? So maybe,

you know, using sarcasm, may not be your wife's cup of tea, but certainly helping her in

a moment of discomfort, a little humor that directly maybe addresses whatever she's

struggling with or wants to talk about. Right? So it's supportive, rather than a distraction

from.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 12:48

That's good. Yeah, you're talking about mindfulness, you're talking about paying

attention to those sensations, you know, and being able to sit in that discomfort, right to

sit in the rain. Right? I can't remember the quote, but it you know, it's not about running

for the sunshine when you got the rain, you know, it's about sitting in there and watching

him being like, Whoa, look at that. That's really interesting.

Dr. Keira Barr 13:11

Yeah. And that isn't easy stuff. And it's not again, it's not something that most of us were

taught. Certainly, I mean, going through medical training. You just, like, you just push

through it. And I think I've learned so much in the last decade. Especially because my

own health fell apart, someone you know, is someone who's supposed to know better,

who's has all this, like medical knowledge. And I didn't know a fraction of actually how

my body worked. Because I wasn't connecting my mind with my body and treating them'

as like a unified front versus like cutting off my head from my body. You know, and so

yeah, paying attention with intention and being really curious about all the things that

come up versus blasting yourself and beating yourself up for it. It's like, night and day to

game changer.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 14:08

Right. So let's talk a little bit more about skin. Well, how did you get to this point? You

know, you started off in medical training and take us through that.

Dr. Keira Barr 14:21

Yeah. So that expression of you know, we teach bass what we need to learn the most.

And I definitely had a huge lesson to learn. So about 10 years ago, I was in academic

medicine, I was practicing dermatology, dramatic pathology, very traditional in my

approach, and I was running ultra marathons at the time thinking I'm doing I'm doing it

all like on I'm exercising and I'm working and I'm juggling the kids and and I literally just

ran myself into the ground. I didn't understand the impact that stress Send all its forms

physical stress, emotional stress, mental stress, because I really did not like my job at

the time, I had no flexibility at all. As a working mom, it was supposed to be part time,

but it wasn't, it wasn't at all. And then I was I was scrutinized and ostracized for making

requests to accommodate my family. So it's just terrible situation. So it created a lot of

stress. And the ultimate outcome was, I had to diagnose myself with early melanoma,

which, as a dermatologist, who the focus of my practice at the time was skin cancer,

melanoma was incredibly humbling. And it was also a very powerful wake up call for me

that like, okay, all the things you think you're doing right, are not right for you. And that

was the beginning of a snowball of my health. So then it was like hormonal imbalances,

and having a hysterectomy, and going into early menopause, and there was gut issues.

And just like, the mental and emotional strain of all of that went off the doctors, all our

colleagues, they're like, here's a pill, here's the decision at that. And I'm like, That's not

helping. And that really led me down a path of, you know, looking for alternatives, and

discovering mind body medicine, and realizing, oh my gosh, all that stress was throwing

my entire system out of out of balance. And it really got me curious. And I started diving

into Cymatics, and mindfulness and meditation, all all the modalities sound healing, I

mean, talk about a perpetual student, I was just like skill stacking, I was like, This is so

awesome. Let's just keep learning. And it's so it's so fascinating, because I realized after

all of this, I mean, I kind of knew it. Going in to dermatology why I was so fascinated

with the field, is because our skin is our largest and most visible Oregon. And it's not, it's

what shows up on it, the diseases and all the things. And that's what people pay

attention to, but they lose sight of the person who's living in that skin and how they feel.

And I realized, for most of my life, I had felt very uncomfortable in my skin. And I hadn't

put my finger on until my health kind of went through the crapper. And I realized, there it

is. This, this is, you know, the slap in the face, like the hit over the head like, this is why

there's so much. This is why, you know, upwards of 90% of all doctor's visits are for

stress related issues. And skin issues are among the number one reasons behind back

pain that people go to the doctor. So if we are not paying attention to the connection

between stress and skin, we are missing a huge way to be able to support people. And

most dermatologists are missing that, by the way, not throw my colleagues under the

bus. But we don't pay enough attention to that. And so that really became why I feel so

strongly that we need to normalize this, we need to talk about it, like your brain and your

skin are derived from the same embryologic layer of tissue there is a bidirectional

communication between your brain and your skin all the time they are talking to each

other. So what kind of conversation do we want them to be having? Most of the time, it's

a really nasty conversation. The brain is just like, negative, negative, negative, but with a

mindfulness with some of these practices, we can compassion, right? We can change

the tone, we can change the prosody, we can change the content and the context of

those conversations to be much more loving, compassionate kind. And all of a sudden,

there's an energy shift, there's an energy boost, there's calm, there's, you know, comfort

in this skin of ours, right? But it's an ongoing dialogue.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 19:03

So when you say you're talking about negative self talk, it's the way the brain is looking

at the skin and it's judging the skin

Dr. Keira Barr 19:11

in many ways, so there's one part of it but so when we talk about like, especially in the

context of stress, we talk about what the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis right that

system within our body that when there is a stress or mental, emotional or physical, it

activates that system in our body and releases inflammatory chemicals and hormones

and such and those flow throughout the body. And inflammation may arise. But our skin

many people may or may not appreciate our skin has the exact same mechanism. Our

skin has its own HPA axis. So when there is a stressor, the say it's like so so yes, there's

negative self talk, but then there's actual like chemical reactions. There's an actual bio

physiological communication as well.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 20:03

So what yeah, what is so it's so? Is it the same neurotransmitters? Is it the same

hormones? What does that look like?

Dr. Keira Barr 20:12

Yeah, so the skin has the capacity to produce adrenaline and cortisol, it also has, it has

hormone receptors or skin, you know, is one of the great the source of hormones like

vitamin D, but it also has the capacity to create other hormones as well. So is it your

skin, your adrenals your brain like? Most people think of the skin is just this inanimate

object that's a glorified clothes hanger or something you adore and makeup and jewelry

on right? But is this living breathing Oregon that is responsible for keeping you safe from

your external environment for regulating your temperature for producing hormones for

keeping you alive? Basically, because it keeps you hydrated. It seals in your poster

prevents you from becoming like a dried out skeleton zombie. Yeah, their skin does a lot

more than just look good.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 21:10

So we should all say thank you skin.

Dr. Keira Barr 21:13

That's exactly right. I think most of us, you know, we live in a culture and society that

glorifies aesthetics. And I'm not saying listen, I'd be a complete hypocrite and aihole. If I

was like, I don't want to look good. I do. But this this emphasis on, like anti aging, for

instance, the worst term ever. But it's perpetuating I mean, I don't know about you, but

I'm aging on a daily basis. I am not Benjamin Button. And the anti anything about myself

feels terrible. I already beat myself up enough. I already have enough of a negative

dialogue in here, partly because of how I've been socialized from, you know, Media and

Culture and all of this. But it's that kind of like, we should say, thank you. Most of us are

looking in the mirror and beating ourselves up because we see wrinkles, or dark circles

or gray hair or cellulite. And then there's procedures to help you say, Yes, of course you

have that. That's all. So you want to get rid of that. Here's the laser. Here's the filler.

Here's the thing. It's like, let's get rid of it. And instead, it's like, yeah, I earned those laugh

lines, because I've been laughing my ass off for 50 years. How amazing. Is that? Right?

Just like flip the conversation. I'm not saying that I might not get a little Jewish. But the

reasons for doing that will be very different not because I think that I'm not worthy. If I

have these wrinkles, it's like, no, I am not, you know, there are days where I'm like, I love

how I look. And then there are other days, I'm going to be perfectly honest, I have no bad

hair days and such. But in general, the intention is I'm doing I may do the aesthetic

procedures because I want to feel even more of who I am, like I want to celebrate and

appreciate. And so I might adorn my features, or amplify my features. Because I already

have such an appreciation, I'm already so grateful. Versus I'll only feel good if I do these

things very different. And I feel like we really have a lot of work to do to kind of change

that that narrative because there's so many people and I think especially those

socializes women. If you look at the statistics, I'll stop babbling in just a second. But

these statistics are mind blowing that the average American woman is spending

upwards of a quarter of a million dollars on her appearance in her lifetime. And yet,

other studies will show that only 4% of women think they're beautiful. There's a huge

disconnect there. We're missing something. Right? Not to shame, anyone for spending

money on trying to look good and feel good. But don't you want to get a return on your

investment. And the only way that we're going to do that is if we learn how to find peace

and find ways to feel more at home in this body. So that we can say thank you that we

can appreciate that we can, you know increase that percentage that finds themselves

beautiful.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 24:39

So do you think there's a place for cosmetics in society?

Dr. Keira Barr 24:49

I Do. Do. I think especially I think about individuals who may have been, you know, their

cancer survivors. You In terms of reconstruction, or if they've had accidents and such

right I don't I'm not saying those are the only individuals but I think of those individuals

in particular who may want to look more like themselves after they have healed right so

there's a place and I also do think that you know, do aging is a privilege and it's a gift and

wanting to age healthfully age you know, with some style I think, you know, I think there's

there's nothing wrong with aesthetics from from that angle. I just think that the

emphasis and how we market to people and how we kind of needle their pain points and

say You look like shit like you need some Botox. Like that's kind of the problem that anti

aging it's the length its words matter. So it's that anti of what you are that I think is

causing more of the problem rather than maybe the products themselves.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 26:20

So it's good and so if there were a recipe for taking care of your skin if there was like a

mind body spirit emotions recipe I don't really know what I'm asking here but go

wherever you want to go with it. But what do you think that would look like?

Dr. Keira Barr 26:42

Yeah

Dr. Keira Barr 26:47

I do think we go back to the basics, right? Eating well moving well sleeping well loving

Well, all of those are going to help your skin glow. I mean, we talked about sleep right

beauty sleep, if you want to call it it's a real thing. I mean, our skin repairs itself and

rejuvenate and regenerates while we sleep. So I think sleep cannot be underestimated

like number one sleeping is amazing. nourishing our bodies with whole nutrient dense

foods is really important. moving our body in a way that actually feels good right don't

do what I did like overdoing it and pushing past the point like pain it's a Pain is pain like

that saying like no pain no gain is BS Pain is pain it's a signal from your body saying I

need you I need to stop what you're doing. Just take a break and let me heal so I think

that it would be I call it you know the fight is the tapping into your senses right so sleep

your environment looking at everything that's in your environment, your personal care

products or household products, so minimizing your toxins but also your physical

environment and your your visual environment. What are you feeding your brain What

are you looking at every day that may make you feel badly about yourself. So make sure

that your environment is your your your bookshelves, the websites your social media

feeds are filled with things that actually light you up and spark joy. So So did I say sleep

was the first one environment is the second nutrition is the third right so and then the s

the next s is stress, stress in all its different forms. So especially for your skin ultraviolet

light is a big stressor right so we know that upwards of you know 80 90% of visible

signs of aging or photo damage, sun damage, so protecting yourself from the sun. And

also blue light blue light has been shown now more and more we know it breaks out in

your college in your last and so protecting yourself with that tinted moisturizer with SPF

even when you're indoors. So that's that's a little tip. And then E is for exercise or

movement. So those you know you're an SS. So the skincare that you use, so the the

products that you use, so tapping into your senses, kind of a mind body, all of that so

that's kind of a that's how I think about skincare is everything that you think feel and do

affects your skin either affects what shows up on it or how you feel in it. So if you use

your senses, you know sleep environment, nutrition, stress, exercise and your skincare

you got all your bases covered.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 29:37

And you got beautiful skin and you and you love yourself regardless of where your skin

looks like.

Dr. Keira Barr 29:42

Exactly and I think the biggest thing too is like you said earlier that thank you that

appreciation for a lot of us you know it might feel hard if you're breaking out or if your

skin is irritated and raw and and it can feel hard to I have appreciation for it. But it's

doing the best that it can, with the circumstances that may be presenting itself right

now. But the great thing is, there's a lot of things that we can't control, but we can

control how we nourish our body, the food that we put in our mouth, we can control

most of the time. You know, your sleep environment, when you choose to go to sleep,

when you, you know, setting limits for your devices and such. So there, there are plenty

of things that we can do to help us you know, get this glowing skin I mean, sex is great

for your skin. Very good. So that that might be an incentive to go to bed early. Oxytocin,

nitric oxide and make your skin glow all the things

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 30:53

nice. Yeah, I was gonna ask you, what is it that actually does that? That's cool. Yeah.

And then what about the debate of sunlight of you need sunlight for vitamin D, versus

the UV toxicity or the insult that can

Dr. Keira Barr 31:11

anything it's a matter of, you know, pros and cons, and risks, rewards all of that. You

absolutely need sunlight, we need UVB rays to generate the vitamin D production. And

we know that UVB, unlike UVA rays, which are longer, they do not fluctuate throughout

the year UVB rays do so. And UVA rays also will penetrate window glass. So, for

instance, my desk is in front of a window, and I'm in front of a screen. So UVA rays are

your aging rays. So they penetrate. So so that's why wearing some protection, even

indoors is a good idea. But balancing the vitamin D production with the UVB rays, the

UVB rays, it's a matter of could you get out earlier in the day when the UV index isn't as

high and the damage may not be as significant early in the day later in the afternoon.

And so we need sunlight, right? You need it to help regulate your circadian rhythm. You

need it for those feel good endorphins, you need it for your hormone production. So

absolutely, getting outdoors is really important. It's a matter of how can you minimize

the damage. And that may be when you choose to go outdoors, the time of day, how

much of your skin are you getting exposed. So I'm always a big fan of some protective

clothing rather than having to put the chemical on my skin even though I only use zinc

based sunscreens because zinc is what the you know, has been found to be generally

recognized as safe and effective by the FDA. It is one that can be an ingredient that can

be used from babies to, you know, our older population tolerated by most people. So if

you're going to use sunscreen, I would always recommend zinc oxide based sunscreen.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 33:15

Thank you and do you do like skin deep? The Environmental Working Group site?

Dr. Keira Barr 33:21

Yep, I think it'd be really helpful. I do. You know, I use it myself. I know that there had

been some grumblings of like, well, how is it controversial or people, you know, giving

the information but I think it's a good resource. And also, I think we all have to be

discerning just because something is rated is good. We it's always helpful to do your do

your own research and, and also test products yourself. Sometimes it is trial and error.

Just because something is rated as the best doesn't mean it's the best for you.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 34:02

Yeah, and for those who aren't familiar with what we're talking about, if you go to

ewg.org/skin, deep D E P, they have a database of products that they've tested, and they

can tell you the toxicity of many products.

Dr. Keira Barr 34:19

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm blanking on Oh, there's another company that called Beauty heroes,

and the woman who started that is has a great database, and a lot of information about

products. That could be another good resource. If people are worried about certain

ingredients, she has a whole Glossary of ingredients as well.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 34:46

Thank you. And so that's beauty dash heroes.com. Yeah. Very cool. So we're coming up

on the end here. So a couple of last questions. So I want to give people some than

practical to take away with them that can help to boost their energy. What would you say

would be a favorite practice of yours to do that,

Dr. Keira Barr 35:11

I always come back to the breath. Breath is not anything that we have to add to our to

do list are always breathing, thank goodness, right it keeps us alive. So it's something

that is something we do subconsciously, but we can bring it under our conscious

control so we can attune to our breath, pay attention to our breathing to help calm us

down, which when we're spun up and anxious, we're expending a lot of energy out. When

we tune into our breath, even noticing, am I holding my breath, right, a lot of times when

we're amped up and stressed out, we don't even notice where breath holders. So just

even just letting the breath out. And just following the breath in through your nose out

through your mouth can be very relaxing, right? It stimulates that rest and relaxation

response that parasympathetic response. So it can be helped calm the energy down a

little bit and kind of reap recoup some of the energy that we're expending. We can also

use our breath, their different breathwork techniques to energize us. So there's a three

part breath in through your so it's all through your mouth, but its belly, chest, exhale.

Can't really do it while I'm talking. In inhaling into your belly, inhaling into your chest, and

exhaling. And you do it rhythmically. And you can do it to music, this is one of the

techniques that I teach, and it can be very energizing, it really moves, energy and

emotion through a lot of people will have, you know, their, their hands and their mouth

may may tense up and a lot of emotion may get stirred up and then it's released. And it's

really powerful. It's really cleansing. And you feel oftentimes, like weightless and light.

And like it's so yummy and energizing afterwards. So I always come back to the breath.

Because you can use it in so many different ways just from paying attention to how

you're breathing, just, you know, taking a nice inhale with a longer exhale, or breathing in

for a count of five and exhaling for a count of five or doing something like that three part

breath. Instant energy restoration.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 37:36

And I love that you said that it's you can. It's always with you. That's a wonderful tool

that you can use anytime you want.

Dr. Keira Barr 37:43

Yeah, I think so many of us feel overwhelmed and overburdened. And there's so much

on our to do list and like, yeah, taking care of my mind my body. Yeah, I'm gonna put it

on the list and it feels really stressful. Like one more thing you need to do. This is just

something that's a part of you, right? It's with you wherever you go. Nothing to add to

your list. It's just simply paying attention with intention, like, am I even breathing? How

am I breathing, my breathing fast my breathing, shallow breathing in my chest, or my

breathing in my belly, just stopping to pause and get curious, takes you out of worry. And

overwhelm right into the present moment. That in and of itself is a little jolt of energy.

Because it's like everything just stops for a moment. So love it, just just your breath is

with you all the time. Just use it lean into it.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 38:37

And I would say if you're driving right now, while you're listening to this, probably don't do

that three part, energize, don't close your eyes. But you can definitely do the mindfulness

part of it and noticing the breath and noticing your body. And absolutely. So then you

have a free gift for our listeners and watchers with three steps to boost your confidence,

have more energy and amplify your resistance. Anything else you want to say about

that? We'll drop that link below.

Dr. Keira Barr 39:05

Yeah, so that is you know, five is a five day experience really to help people feel more

calm, get more clarity, boost their energy, so simple practices and less than 10 minutes

a day that you can listen while you're in the car. You don't have to close your eyes. Or you

can take it anywhere. So I just they're just very simple, easy to do practices to help really

increase that energy. Anytime, anywhere.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 39:36

Wonderful. Thank you for that. And where can people find the the amazing work that

you're doing? You work one on one with people? Correct?

Dr. Keira Barr 39:44

I do I work one on one with people. I do have a group program that that is on its way

because I think you know so much of this is we can feel very isolated and alone. We

think we're the only ones and connecting. And being in community is really powerful and

important. So I do want to bring that group dynamic. I've done it before, and it's it's super

fun. So people can find me. drkeirabarr.com on Instagram @drkeirabarr I do I just

recently launched the skinny dipping prescription podcast. So I talk a lot about what we

were discussing today, you know, because it's uncomfortable to do all this work and the

skinny dipping prescription is all about stripping down all the myths, all the

misinformation that is keeping us stuck and feeling uncomfortable in our skin. And we

are just stripping all that down.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 40:46

Wonderful. Dr. Kara, thank you so much for joining me today.

Dr. Keira Barr 40:50

Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure...