Whole Body Health

WSC Intro/Outro: 00:00:04

This is When Spirit Calls and you on your journey are in the right place. This show is about magic miracles and meaning shared through stories, interviews and channeled messages. We have so much to share about who you are and your divine mission here on the earth. Let's get to it when Spirit calls is right now.

: 00:00:33

I'm delighted to introduce you to today's guest Cortney Whitebay. Cortney Whitebay is an exercise physiologist currently living and working in the beautiful Hudson Valley of New York, USA. Her areas of focus are virtual personal training in home retreats and somatic business coaching. As an exercise physiologist, she started her career in health care before creating her company Hudson Valley Peak performance, where she offers her one of a kind somatic business coaching program, a blend of personal training and strategic business coaching. Cortney's passion is being present and available for her clients as they walk through their journey. She focuses on meeting her clients where they are with compassion and safety. Helping people heal from and prevent major injury or illness is the major tenant of Hudson Valley Peak Performances mission when she isn't working with clients from nine to 96 years of age. Cortney is a mother of three and loves going on adventures with her friends and family. Please welcome Cortney.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:01:37

Hello, and welcome back, everyone. It's so good to be with you here today. And as you heard, I've got a really cool guest on today. Welcome, Courtney. It's so good to have you here.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:01:50

Hi, thanks so much for having me.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:01:52

Yay. So listen, we're gonna get into things pretty quick here. And I want to just give our listeners a chance to get to know you a little bit. can you start us off with just sharing a little bit more about your backstory? And you know, what kind of what led you to doing the work you're doing now?

Cortney Whitebay: 00:02:10

Yeah, so I started out in the early days as a pre med student in college. And I figured out I think my senior year that I learned the opposite way to everybody else. So I knew I loved science. But I didn't really learn it very well, from the bottom up, I learned better from the top down. So macro to micro. And when I took an exercise physiology class, I'd always been an athlete as well. So I took this exercise class, and the math and the biology and the chemistry and the microbiology, all of it just clicked. Oh my god, this is the coolest thing ever. And so I decided to actually go get my master's degree in that instead of going into actual medicine, medicine. And that did lead me back into clinicals. So I did some cardiac stress testing pulmonary stress testing cardiac rehab for a while. And while I found that to be really, really valuable, I think that's something that we should all have access to for sure. It it was honestly, for me, it was a little bit boring. I loved the patients. But there wasn't very much creativity in that at all. This guy was a little bit bored, which I could have gotten around. But I think what happened was that I was really frustrated, I wasn't influencing very much change. I saw my patients going through big struggle. And I was giving them tests, but not so many tools. I really wanted to be more involved with their aftercare and working in the healthcare system. That just wasn't possible. I mean, even even things like we were a cardiac rehab program and some of my my positions and people needed pulmonary rehab, which wasn't available. So sometimes doctors would actually try to fudge it so that they could get the cardiac rehab because they are very similar. Yeah, and when there's not a pulmonary program, you know, slide into the cardiac one, it'll still give you those benefits. And we actually had to screen that paperwork and kind of kick those people out not let them in if they snuck in sometimes occasionally.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:04:18

Wow.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:04:20

Yeah, it kind of just broke my heart. And then I had a baby. And on top of just feeling really, ah, I don't know just really challenge tried and upset just that. I don't know things that system wasn't working the way it could and the way I wanted it to for the people that I saw and then my paycheck didn't cover childcare.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:04:44

Well, that's a game changer right there. Yeah, I think I think a lot of people can relate to that too. And I just want to I know that you have more in your story but I just I do want to go back to this idea that you know, we do have you know, compared to others are pretty good. Health System, you know, at least in Canada, where we are. But even in the States, you know, there's some challenges around privatization as it relates to health care as well. And I just want to take a minute to, you know, talk about that, because I think a lot of people feel disheartened. I think a lot of people feel disappointed when they get into the system, and then the system will it fails them, I'm just going to be honest, you know, I think in some ways, we're very blessed to have what we have. But I absolutely have seen this happen being in health care system for a really long time, have watched it over and over again, people that, you know, that go in they, they try and get the help that they need, and then they leave, they're feeling pretty helpless. And I think that you yourself, probably even as a practitioner, as a provider of care felt a bit helpless.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:05:55

Oh, yeah, I felt totally helpless. I mean, I had this one that I could cry actually just talking about it. I had this one woman that was right after I had come back, because I did go back to work for a little little bit of time. And it was right after maternity leave, and the woman who had filled in for my maternity leave, ultimately got my job. So that worked out well. But, um, she and I kind of were tag teaming work, because they, the company didn't really know what to do with both of us. And we had this patient come in. And I mean, what I was probably 26 or 27, at the time, still all say very young. Yeah. Especially in terms of taking care of other people. And being really, really mindful, I didn't have nearly as many skills as I do in that mindful spiritual, what have you kind of way that I do now. And actually, there's two things, but this woman man, she just, she did not want to do it, the tests are a little bit scary. pulmonary function tests, you need to have your mouth and your nose both covered and clipped, and all this sort of stuff. And same thing with the exercise, but she really did not want to do it. And, you know, in that kind of time, like, you know, in the service industry, you often will feel really frustrated at the person for not accommodating you, and you're trying to draw them, bring them through something. And then you kind of the easy way out for your nervous system is to either just like not fair, or just let go. And I think that was one of the first times and I was like, Okay, well, this is a letting go.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:07:32

Yeah.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:07:33

And I thought we were gonna get into much trouble. Because in the end, this woman refused to actually do the test refused. And she walked out, and she wouldn't do it. And I was like, Oh, my God, you know, because we get paid for tech. Well, the company anyway, some of the people involved in this get paid for tests, not us. But she, she wouldn't take it. And I was at the point where I was kind of frustrated. And I was just like, okay, whatever, I don't even care. Before that before that growth happened. And then, I guess we had done something right, though, there was enough of that, like actual compassion coming through these two frustrated young girls who don't know how to deal with their own emotions, right? Yes, and are just frustrated. And she came back, like an hour later. And she took the test. She did come back about an hour later. And she did take the test. And then we got a call from our boss. And at this point, we still thought we were just really up the creek, we thought we were really in trouble. And the call was actually just complete gratitude and amazement, this woman had actually called our hospital or whatever, our bosses or managers or doctors or whoever, and said how much that she appreciated what we had gone through with her because she knew she had had a difficult time. And it went up and down the chain. And we ended up getting this call, think we

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:09:08

Could you imagine here your perception is that oh my gosh, we really push this woman and she's going to be upset and it's going to be bad, and we're going to be in trouble. And the opposite happened.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:09:19

Yeah. It was like 45 minutes of sheer torture, in terms of trying to convince an immovable object to do something. Yes. Right. And, you know, like Keilor only its full grown human being power, right. Yeah. So obviously, you can only do so much in that respect. And we thought that she was angry at Austin. We thought all of these things and I mean, some of it was like PTSD from earlier years for me. I had one patient who literally I'm not even kidding you for an hour and a half every single time she could get that mouthpiece out of her mouth. She told me she hated me. Every single time. I hate you. I don't want to do this. I hate this. I hate you. I can't believe you're making me do this. And it was just really, really awful. Yeah. And it took a long time to realize that, you know, that she's just expressing herself. These people are just expressing themselves. And this is scary to them. And this is pain. This is this is traumatic. Yeah. And yeah, it was hard. It was a hard place to be hard place to work. It was hard for me, it was hard for them. I felt helpless. They felt helpless. We all felt like we were failing. And I can't tell you how many times I told people, there's no such thing as failing in this test. literally impossible. It's not a pass fail. It's, it's the you do the best you can and then we tell you where your health is at. And that's all that is.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:10:46

Yeah. Wow. So you know, obviously, you had some really touching moments through that career. But in the end, you really just got bored?

Cortney Whitebay: 00:10:57

Well, it was, it was sort of boring, I probably would have stuck through it. If it wasn't in so many different toxic environments, there was a lot of toxicity in the workplace. Honestly, the most insulted I've ever been as a human being and certainly as a professional was when I was essentially like giving the power to the physician, which is rightly there. So I said, Hey, I can't do this test unless you approve it. And she actually even though she was a physician, she wasn't a cardiologist in the practice. And she didn't know what to do. So she had to call her husband who wants the cardiologist, okay. And I said, I can't do this, unless you allow me to do this. I'm going to say I my opinion doing this every single day is that this should this test should not be done at this time for his this person safety and for your liability, essentially. And she kind of kept going around in circles. And then I was like, Well, I can't do it. Unless you tell me I can. So just let me know after you see the patient and look at the file and whatever, and let me know what you want to do. And she goes, she walks away from me and she goes, I know you can't only I can.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:12:05

Obviously insulted you. But that was like a really rough thing for me to that. Here I am a professional in my field trying to uphold the safety aspects of it, the legal aspects of it protecting myself protecting the patient, protecting the practice, which I was contracted into the practices like that didn't had no bearing on me, but it was still you know, actively trying to protect the practices as well. And just being completely unappreciated, her husband at one point, actually, I told him, I had to leave on time one day to make it to a conference. And the rooms were really small, it was on the second or third floor. He walked into the room, shut the door, stood in front of it and said, Do you know how much I paid to have you there? And he was like a 250 pounds, six foot tall man. And there was no other way out of that room. And I was just like, Okay, I was like, I don't What do you want to do? But um, yeah, none of my business. It's not, you know, I'm not entitled to that information. And I have done everything that I possibly can for you. And unfortunately, if you don't schedule your patience, I'm not required to be here late every single day. You know, and I have a conference to go to I cleared it with my manager two weeks ago. I reminded you I reminded him I reminded the staff. Yeah, you did. leave on time today.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:13:31

Yeah. Yeah, that's it just on time. Which is, which is really you're right, you know, you'll have to listen to the podcast we did with Ruth fan weeks because she is an expert in workplace bullying and abuse. You guys need to have a conversation. So Mike, I got goosebumps. So spirits already kind of know. See, I love. There's a reason why you felt compelled to share that story. And I guarantee you that there's people listening, that are in positions or have been in positions in the workplace, where they have felt mistreated, where they have felt belittled, or degraded, or whatever that might be. So I think it's really important that you share that and I thank you for sharing that vulnerability with me as well. So ultimately, though, you left that career, you started a family, and now you're doing something that I think is really genius. Can you tell the listeners what you do now?

Cortney Whitebay: 00:14:29

Yes, so a couple bunny hops. I did. I left clinical care and I had my daughter she's now 10. And I got so stir crazy as a full time stay at home mom, I started my own business Hudson Valley peak performance because I live in the Hudson Valley of New York State, beautiful, beautiful place to live except for maybe in March. But I really wanted to still use my skills I really wanted to still work with people talk to people be an adult human being. So I started a personal training and health coaching business. And I did that because you know, then I get to work with people on their health, their fitness, my athletic side kind of comes out, my degree totally covered all of that. And I could help people who generally wouldn't be able to see a personal trainer, because personal trainers, you know, all you really need is a certification and a GED or high school diploma and bam, your personal trainer. But to me, I was like, Oh, my gosh, that's not safe for so many people. There's so many people who need just a deeper guidance, to make sure that they're moving properly, that they're just I don't know that they're taking their whole being into consideration.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:15:44

Yeah.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:15:45

I started myself up with a sphygmomanometer, blood pressure cuff and stethoscope and all sorts of stuff like that. And I tried to kind of carry my clinical into my regular practice, which I have since let go of, not that I couldn't do it. But now I really just focus on trying to create whole body health, mind, body, family, all of that. And then, and then I started working with more and more entrepreneurs, and of course, mompreneurs, for sure, women in business. And what ended up coming up during that personal training sessions was all about business. But conversation, if you've ever worked with a trainer before you have conversation the whole way through otherwise, I don't even know what we would do with ourselves if we didn't talk. But the conversation was always turning towards where they were stuck in their business. And by this point, I'd already been in business for nearly a decade. And I realized, you know, I had other friends in business, and I just I loved troubleshooting with them. And throwing spaghetti at the wall, seeing what stuck. And kind of like all of the development that I've been going through for this whole entire process started to come out and manifest, it's a more coaching, consulting kind of a thing. And when you're exercising, all these ideas are coming off, a blood is flowing, you've got some great oxygen to your brain, you're not I don't know, you're somehow not confined in a way even though obviously, you are sort of like there's these walls that come down. And you can look at things in different light. And so they were they were coming to me and they were working out and they're doing their thing. And then they were like, and I just can't figure this problem out. And as the exercise session went by, I've noticed that it also kind of the exercise session framework and the conversational framework and problem solving sort of just like followed each other. So we have the warm up, which ended up being a warm up and a brain dump. And all the frustrations coming out all of the questions all of the oh gosh, I'm stuck in this place. And then the exercise would start like the actual intentional exercise beyond the warm up where you're more focused, you're working strategically on your body, and then the conversation turned to more strategy in your business. And then from there, you know, you start your cooldown or your core work or both and stretching. And then it's like, okay, so how now that we're like coming back together, we've done this hard work, right? We've done this strategy, how do we start to weave that all together as our bodies cooling down as we're, you know, stretching things out, creating more space in our bodies? What are the three to five takeaways that you can work on in your business as soon as you leave this session? And oftentimes, I'll be having this conversation with them throughout the whole thing. I'll be Googling stuff to answer questions that they have that I don't know the answer to. And sometimes that necessitates an email so I'll be Googling it and like copying it into an email so that the things that they had, they were thinking of the aha moments, the holy crap, I could do that yeah, they all end up in an email at the end of the session and all I have to do is just click send and they've got like their action points or their aha moments, whatever it is already just like lined up for them to start to take action on beautiful and then I like to call it somatic business coaching somatic being body. But also if you're familiar with like somatic breathwork, and others, somatic bodywork. I do love to bring some of that in at the end of the session and have a little meditation at the end of either gratitude meditation, or trying to really cement the feeling of that either A ha moment or that success or something that thrilled you or made you feel happy. And there was always a bodily sensation, right? There's like that has a sensation that lives in the body. So my hope and my goal for my clients is that not only do they get the flu, great workout in and the strategy in, but they stop and take that time at the end of the session to actually feel the emotion in their body. Yes, so that we start to rewire the nervous system and in the hard times they can start to come back to that feeling. And eventually though the hard times become less hard, yeah, see, ya get rewired. And that success mindset starts to come out and really just beef up and become your major.I don't know way of functioning.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:20:17

I love that you do this because I think that, you know, for me anyways, oftentimes, when I'm working out, I'm getting all Ha's, and I'm getting ideas, like, I'll be on my treadmill, or I'll be on my bike. And all of a sudden, I got these ideas coming. And so what you've done is you've married these two beautiful ideas of kind of like a mastermind, but also with your workout. So you're getting kind of a two for one deal here, you're getting. And you're getting your workout at the same time and coming from one busy mom to another, it is like, Oh, my God, where has this been? Exactly it, you know, and and I don't want to take away from, you know, the topic of multitasking and us saying we don't want to multitask. But I do believe that there is an opportunity, like you said, as you're working out some of that creativity just comes and you're, you know, you're just doing the workout. And so that intuition can come and speak to us a little bit more as well, which I really love. So I think you've done a really brilliant job of trying to marry these together and allow us to experience from you both sides of that. And then I love that you anchor into the body as well, because you really are teaching people to build a relationship to the body. And I want to speak to that, because I think that there's a lot of disconnection happening right now. And you probably see this all the time, Cortney. And I know for me, one of the things that was occurring for me for a really long time is I resented my body because I was very sick growing up. And so I was chronically ill, fibromyalgia, IBS, Raynaud's disease, like I had a long list of these issues. And so I really was frustrated. And I would express that frustration to my body, and I'd be mad at my body, geez, body, you're so weak. Come on, I got so much to get done. You know, it was kind of like, although that wasn't conscious, like, that's what was happening for me. And so guess what happened? I stayed sick, right. And so what you're doing is helping to shift people and really build a relationship with their physical body recognize that they can honor and hold space for their physical body, and therefore will receive other guidance and information once we start to tune into that. And the more I listen to my body, the more grateful my body is. And the more I you know, at 40 years old, I'm in probably the best shape of my life, I feel the healthiest I've ever been. And it's because I chose to build a deeper relationship with my body. And so I really want to kind of drive that home today. For all the people that are, you know, talking, it'll speak about their body. And another image comes to mind as I'm speaking about it, you know, you've seen the studies they did on water, right, I think is Dr. Fujimoto or yaqi Moto anyway. glass of water, something moto? Sure, yes. So three glasses of water and with one water, they said, I love you water, you're amazing. The middle water they left alone and the other water, they said, I hate you, you're ugly, all these negative things. And so of course, they studied the water over time. Well, the water that they spoke kindly to was, you know, there, the crystalline formation was still perfect, very little bacteria. Of course, the water they spoke poorly to covered in bacteria, the crystalline formation was all out of whack. And so then my question is for you listening today, how much of you is water? And how are you talking to yourself, because if you are speaking, oh, my butt's so big, or, you know, the negative self speak, which we're so good at, we're impacting the formation of our cells, our structure, the water that exists within us, and then it can't do the job it is meant to do. And so I wanted to just bring that to the surface for people to really make sure that it's very clear the importance of allowing ourselves to lean into a relationship with our physical being, because it is through our physical being in which we can express our divinity. So I wanted to just sidetrack our conversation a little bit there.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:24:36

Oh, that's, I feel like that is not a sidetrack at all, that is so pertinent and I mean, even scrolling through Tik Tok and Instagram reels and all those sorts of things. I came across a mom whose teenager didn't experiment very similar to that except it was like grilled cheese or something. I don't know what it was was something weird. I was like why, but she did. She had like these two containers and it wasn't One was love speak and one was hate speak and you know one state basically holding the other one turned to mush. Wow, I always sort of like wonder about those things. But I've also seen the the tears, the different tears and the different shapes of the tears.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:25:19

Oh, mob and like, oh, like tears from our eyes,

Cortney Whitebay: 00:25:23

Like, tears of joy versus like they also apparently have

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:25:32

Different structure. Wow. I'll see. Isn't that interesting? I think

Cortney Whitebay: 00:25:36

So cool.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:25:37

It is so cool. And I think that we forget that everything's energy, right. Like, there's so much more than meets the eye. Right? Yeah. So coordinate, I'm going to I'm going to kind of steer us in a little different direction now. Because I want to hear a story when spirit called you. Do you have a story when spirit led you in a certain direction? And maybe it was really just you starting your own business? What happened in that time, when spirit led you?

Cortney Whitebay: 00:26:03

Well, I want to say another really defining moment in my life, which I suppose would I would fit this is I would say at the time, I didn't really have very much spirit. I was I feel like my spirit was pretty well demolished. Yeah, for one reason or another. And then I got lions disease to man, for a while. Yeah, I just kind of like lived with it. I had gotten partially cared for by my GP, who then sent me to a specialist who didn't have time for me to be in existence. So it seemed and told me I was fine when I was like, I'm still having all of these symptoms and thisother thing.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:26:57

And I mean, if I knew that, what I know now, I would have done things a lot differently. But they ended up on part like a little bit of antibiotics, and then no help and then no antibiotics. And then I ended up feeling so incredibly sick in the weirdest way that was like it just didn't understand it. Like it wasn't like, I don't know, strep throat, you know, strep throat. I think it's the sickest feeling I've ever been. But this was different. This was like, you know, you feel like you have a fever, but you don't, you've got the sweats. You've had the chills, but your body's temperature is totally normal, right? Um, you're in on one hand, you feel like you could get up and go make dinner. On the other hand, you literally can't even open your eyes to get out of bed. On one hand, you know that the world is okay. And it's a sunshine day. And it's beautiful. But you are just so devastated. You just want to drive your car into a wall. Wow. And it was at that point where I was just like, Oh my God, I've got my kids in the car. I can't, like I'm not okay. My thought is like just to drive my car into a into a building. So I can have restaurants so I can just not be hereanymore. And I know that's not me. I know. It's tough. And I didn't know what I just had no idea what to do at that point. And I was really into obviously modern medicine at that time. But I actually grew up a Waldorf kid. I don't know if you know Waldorf school, but I Yeah, kid playing in the dirt and thinking that nobody could see us when we were in the woods playing in somebody's junkyard scraps and having a great time foraging for treasures.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:28:32

Yes.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:28:33

And. I think that was a huge, huge turning point. For me. I was like, Well, I went to my doctor. And then I went to the specialist and then and then nothing, and then nothing. And then nothing happened. And I had a friend reached out to me and sent me some supplements and some essential oils samples. And I was like, yeah, yeah. And I put it in a drawer. I walked away for a couple months. And then I came back. I was like, You know what, I'll open this one this time. I'll just like open it and smell it. And it was wild orange oils, you know, the

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:29:08

Oh, yeah.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:29:09

of the oil of this. Yeah, orange, right.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:29:11

Yeah.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:29:12

And I don't know if you guys have ever appealed an orange or, I'm sure you have or like opened a bottle of orange oil. But I challenge you to do that and be angry.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:29:21

It's like impossible. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:29:25

So I opened this bottle and I was like, Oh, this feels better.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:29:33

And so I started diffusing it and I started patting my neck with him. I started putting into my water at any time that I sort of felt like I felt really angsty and upset and I don't really know why guzzle was putting my water out drinking it would put me with diffuse it, whatever I could do. And that was really a turning point for me. And then I was able to get my mind And to a place where I could actually start doing my research. And for the longest time, I really was very modern medicine based. And then I just felt that that wasn't right. That wasn't this. This is not. This doesn't make sense. I mean, I think thank goodness, we have it. It is such a beautiful, wonderful thing to have. I would never want to take away especially in emergency medicine Hotel.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:30:24

Yes.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:30:24

I'm just hustling. I was just an AHA time. And in a clarity time, in a in a time when I had absolutely no clarity whatsoever. Like I couldn't even honestly, I think I couldn't count past four without forgetting where I was. Having to restart again. wouldn't add couldn't subtract definitely wouldn't. Don't ask me to divide. Because that's I've only like recently, this is like seven years ago, I started dividing and multiplying in my head again, just like yourself. And I, I know this doesn't maybe sound very spiritual yet. But it led me to seeing the world in a completely different way to introducing or reintroducing plant medicine and food. And a completely different, more holistic way to the point where actually a lot of my family either get angry at me when we're together, because I don't feed my children or myself certain things that they think are totally normal, like microwave mashed potatoes, right? It's totally normal to them. And to me, it's, you know, if you invite me over to dinner, and you are making microwave, potatoes.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:31:39

I won't not eat them. But but, you know, so it did it sent me down this totally different path of healing. And that's when I started to realize, you know, even that story, I told earlier, that that anger and frustration without letting it go in a dismissive way you can hold space for people, yes. And separate your own emotion from it. So you can allow them to have a container where they can fall apart. Yes, but it doesn't soak into you.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:32:19

Yeah, yeah,

Cortney Whitebay: 00:32:21

Yeah. And I started very slowly to realize that, you know, Mind, Body Spirit, it really is connected, I started to see just so many more connections and see the energy in a different light and look at starting to look at physical ailments and intellectual ailments, I suppose you could say in a different way. Yeah. But it was like all of a sudden, this like veil was kind of come off. And I could see things in a way that most other people aren't seeing them right now. Yeah. an on and off client who is a young man. And he's very lucky that he has very many advantages in this world. But one of his disadvantages is that he had he suffered a concussion. A pretty bad one. Yeah, a few years ago. And even though his mother is a therapist, in my conversations with her keeps telling me directly that he's feeling he's suffering from post concussive syndrome still, and that he's going through these things and he's not just being lazy. He just really notices that something hurts his body or is stopping him. And her reaction and her private conversation to me is oh, well yeah, he's fine his doctors to he's fine. It's just psychosomatic. Hmm. And since it's like you know, veil had been lifted from you know, modern medicine versus like non traditional medicine. I was like, wait a minute, there's no such thing as just you right somatic, like, Ah, they're like, there's no separation between the mind the emotions, the intellect, the body, the physical, there's no separation. If one is sick, the other becomes sick. Yeah. can carry the other for a little bit of time. Yeah, but it's only a matter of time before the other crumbles. That's if you're chronically stressed, because you've got a really terrible commute and you road rage. It's only a matter of time I used to teach this. In clinical I used to teach the stress management classes where if you are stressing yourself out like that, you're gonna end up with a heart attack, you're gonna end up with all of these things. And so there's just there's no such thing as psychosomatic and I think that that that really sad unfortunate time in my life and then and then it was already not good. And then to get a lime on top of it and just like literally not be able to function for days, if not weeks. Yeah. It led me down some really beautiful paths and put some really beautiful people in front of me. which just really changed everything I remember, the first time I was actually able to go hiking again and like, up to the summit was kind of far away. I still haven't went like three times the same way. I still haven't made it. But within our time constraints, I made it up.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:35:15

Yeah, well, there you go. And you did it, and you were able to do it, you know, and such gratitude, you know, I do believe that life happens for us. And you needed to go through that line experience in order for the veil to be lifted, like you said, and for you to see another path. And thank goodness for wild worms, you know how to not do that one little thing, you know that that was a stepping stone, it was a spiritual breadcrumb, if you will. And it led you now to being in a position where you can have a deep layer of compassion for people, and you can hold space for people so that they feel seen and heard, because if I haven't learned a thing, it is about being seen and heard, and a lot of people are wanting to be seen and heard, and oftentimes do not feel like that is the case. So Oh, yeah,

Cortney Whitebay: 00:36:05

I would actually say that. While yes, I am a personal trainer. Yes, I can help you with weight loss. If that's your thing. Yes, I can help you get stronger. So you feel like you would ever if you want to visually look a certain way within your body's availability to do that. People don't really come to me for that, though. People come to me basically, for two, maybe three reasons. One, I'm in pain, and nobody's been able to help me through that, too. I'm in pain, or I know, I need to get better. I'm not in a good place. I need to physically get better. But I'm scared. And I need a safe place. Yeah, I need somebody who's trauma, conscious, conscientious, and somebody who was going to keep me safe and not yes, the body? Uh, yes, I have an extensive knowledge of that. But emotionally, people come to me because they need to, they feel they need to be kept safe in that experience.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:37:04

Yeah. So pain safety. And I think there was a third

Cortney Whitebay: 00:37:09

Oh, pain, safety, and then you know, and then and then the ones you want to be able to kill two birds with one.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:37:16

Right? That would be me. Yeah.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:37:18

And to your point before, you were saying, you know, not to multitasking. And it's funny, because yes, I will talk about it in terms of multitasking, because it is, but if you really think about it, there's no way you can't do it. Right? The person who's actually multitasking is me.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:37:37

Right? Right,

Cortney Whitebay: 00:37:39

I get to multitask.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:37:40

You just tell me the one thing that I need to do, I love it. I love that

Cortney Whitebay: 00:37:45

You, you get to focus on you, you get to bubble up anything out of your mouth to come to write it down. And so

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:37:52

You're the one that has to do the hard work. Yeah. Oh, Courtney, if you could give one takeaway for our listeners today, what would that be? What do they need to know? Aside from building relationships with their body as I spoke to what's one thing that you would suggest to people who are maybe going through overwhelm or stress or maybe they have pain in their body? And maybe they don't feel safe? What's one thing you would want to say?

Cortney Whitebay: 00:38:18

I think the one thing I think the most important thing is, no matter where you feel like you are right now and no matter how you feel in this moment, and no matter what injury or illness you might be suffering from, this is not your forever place. Not your forever place. And for the most part does not matter where you're starting from. There is always a way to help you start from where you are to get out of whatever frustration or hardship you're in.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:38:55

I think that's powerful. You know, my mom used to always say, when I was feeling sick or struggling or suffering with some sort of heart ache or whatever it might have been, she would say this too shall pass this will pass and so oh my gosh, see their synchrony time right there. Yeah, my mom too. And so I think it's important for the audience to hear that message to remind them that if they are in a bad spot, it is temporary. And there are people that have a desire to hear you to see you to help you as you go through that process. So we are here for you. And if you are one of those people, and you want to reach out to Cortney, Cortney, how can they find you?

Cortney Whitebay: 00:39:37

Oh my gosh, she can find me so many places. You can email me if you want and get direct Hudsonvalleypeakperformance@gmail.com A little bit old school. Super easy. I'm also on Facebook, which is HV Peak Performance, but if you search me it's Hudson Valley you'll find me and on Instagram @Hudsonalleypeakperformance

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:39:57

Hudson Valley Okay, oh the place just Google HudsonValleypeakperformance.com.

DeeAnne Riendeau: 00:40:09

That's Wonderful Hudsonvalleypeakperformance.com is the website and you guys can have attr Cortney, it's been a joy, thank you for sharing your heart with with us today and, and speaking your truth around having those moments of feeling like you want to drive the car into the brick wall kind of thing. And I've been there. And I'm sure many of the listeners can relate to that. So I'm really, really glad that you shared that story, and shared with all of us a bit of your wisdom and some of your backstory to so thank you for being here. Thank you to everyone who's listening, and I can't wait to be with you again on When Spirit Calls.

Cortney Whitebay: 00:40:48

Thank you so much for having me.