The Transformative Power of Doing Less: How Slowing Down Propels You Forward (with Karianne Michelle)

[MUSIC PLAYING] Tap into the power of possibility with the potentialist podcast. I'm Dr. Lee Coles, whether you're chasing a dream, leading a team, or simply looking for fulfillment, you just found your one-stop shot. Each episode is packed with science-backed strategy, practical tools, and the inspiration you need to achieve remarkable things. The world wants what you have, and your next step starts now. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hello, everyone. Welcome to the potentialist podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Lee Coles. I'm an industrial organizational psychologist, Gallup Lift and Strengths coach, and certified life coach. And I am so excited to be here with you today, because your potential is my passion. You're listening to this podcast because you want to unlock your potential and achieve remarkable things. You're also listening because you want to evolve into someone who is greater, maybe happier, more fulfilled, stronger than you are now. You want to be a more amplified version of yourself. And my guest today is an incredible person who is here to give you exactly what you didn't even know you needed. She has opened up my mind, and by the end of this episode, she will have opened up yours, too. I am so excited to introduce you to the magnificent Karian Michelle. Hello. Hi, Karian. Karian has spent two decades supporting sea level leaders in their teams. As a brand strategist for global companies, such as State Farm, GE, Abbott, Procter and Gamble, and Hewlett-Hackard, as well as being an expert helping some of the fastest growing startups and fortune level organizations across the globe as they unlock greater self-awareness. As a Qi Gong and I rest, yoga, knee-drameditation instructor, a raky master, a classically trained vocalist and sound bath recording artist, Karian has crafted and conducted wellness programming for leading employer teams, including Google, Amazon, Boston Consulting Group, and Lulu Lemon. Karian's innovative approach to integrating work and well-being is paving the way for a new era of corporate culture, one that values not only the bottom line, but also the holistic wellness of its people, improving employee morale and productivity. So welcome to the podcast, Karian. I'm so excited to have you here. Thank you. I'm so excited to chat with you today. I have to tell everybody, when we hopped on Zoom together, she said that she was a little tired because she's been hanging out in Oprah's studios the last couple days. I am so thrilled for you. Hang with all of Oprah's people. Thank you. I was in New York this week at the Oprah Daily Studio and was invited to help produce some mini well-being content moments for their insider network. So little sound baths and meditations and Qi Gong that you can do at home. And it's all going to come out very soon. Oh my gosh. OK, so if all of you are saying, what is Qi Gong? What's Karian doing giving people baths of sound? You are not alone because when I first met Karian, we were at a leadership conference. And she told me that she was going to do these things. And I had no idea what that is. So we're going to dive into that, into this goodness. But Karian, first of all, can you tell us what exactly do you mean when you say well-being? And what is happening with this corporate culture that is now evolving that actually is paying attention to well-being? Well, I like to think of well-being exactly at a fundamental level as the word is. We're well as a being. And so that means any form of activity that helps you to feel well, that helps you to feel balanced and feel like your whole self. And as we think about our work lives, no matter what type of job you have, whether you're working remotely, you are in an office, you're in a place where you're traveling a lot, whether your job is at home, taking care of the home. It's creating space and time for you, even if it's just a few moments here and there. Imagine that creating space and time for you, for us. I mean, how many of us actually do that? We live in a go-go culture. In the case of when I first met you, we're at this leadership conference. And it was everybody stop. We're going to lie down on mats. And we're just going to listen to sounds. Can you tell us about that? Yeah. So I love leading soundbaths. And I went to school for music. So I went to college and studied voice. So I'm a classically trained vocalist. And continue that as a side hustle while I was in the corporate world myself for about 15 years. And found these crystal alchemy sound bowls about 10 years ago. They came into my life. And I bought my first set of four bowls, which a lot of people are familiar with the cousin to these, like a Tibetan metal bowl. So if I say that, a lot of people say, oh, a singing bowl. I know what that is. See, look, we has one. I'm holding one up right now. I do have-- I do have a Tibetan metal bowl. I do. I love that. That's wonderful. And so these are sort of like a cousin. The differences, these are fired in a kiln. And they're made with an alchemy of different gemstones and minerals and quartz. And then they come out of the kiln, the very fragile. They're like pottery, but they're size and shape and colors. And alchemy give them different pitches. And then when you take, basically, a mallet and draw it around the outside, like a string to a bow or a little gentle chime, these instruments produce a vibration. And when you have those vibrations moving around you, it's pretty fantastic in person, but you still get a lot of benefits virtually. I do a lot of these virtually for teams nowadays. Just that act one of slowing down, two of breathing, three of letting your body relax is sort of the first piece. And then you combine that with these healing vibrations from these instruments that are moving through your body. And I always tell people, they're moving at an anatomical level. So I have filled my bowls up with water and I have captured that with a videographer, a friend of mine. And you actually see textures. And there's a lot of videos out there that'll show you with water when sound is introduced. You'll see these different textures. And so that's what's happening in your body. And all you have to do is lay down, that's called the sound bath, you're being bathed in the sound. And research shows that after just about 20 minutes of that, we start to see some interesting things happen in the brain and in the blood cell turnover where we're moving much more into that rest and digest place, which is where our body heals. Wow. Yeah, and I got to say I did this with Karean. Everybody was blown away. It was wonderful, it was soothing. Leading up to that conference, I certainly, it was not my list of things to do. So yes, I have my little bowl. I do use it every little swirl it around every once in a while. They hear the sound before I get on with the client, kind of self-center. But I have definitely not just lay down for 20 minutes on the floor. What do you say to people who say, Karean, yeah, that's great, like if you come, sure, I'll let you bathe me in sound. But I mean, really, for my busy life, what do I do? So think of it as the analogy of a battery, right? Our battery drains down on our phone. We're used to that analogy because we'd look at our phones all day. And we have to juice it up from time to time to keep it charged. And sometimes the battery is almost all drained all the way down and you're going to plug it in and leave it alone for a while, right? And so that's my wish is that you didn't wait till your battery got drained all the way down and you just kept it full. The time I imagine that if you were able to do that, but to your point, I recommend that people take micro breaks. So little doses in their day of whatever is going to help, going back to the idea of well-being, help you to feel well. So that can look like, you know, between meetings for a lot of the teams I work with saying, hey, did you notice? Oh, I've two minutes before my meeting. And I'm hydrated and I'm all my bioberex are taking care of my body's good. Instead of trying to go through a bunch of emails really quick, you know, what if I just simply turned my chair away from my computer and closed my eyes and took in six to eight cycles of breath? You know, what if I got up and stretched my arms overhead, sort of stretch side to side, just let myself have a little movement and sat back down. And so, and/or what if at my lunch time, I gave myself permission for 15 to 20 minutes to move away from my desk and eat without my phone and to just be quiet. So if I'm able to do that throughout the day, then I'm keeping my battery charged. And I'm going to be in a place where I'm able to think more creatively. I'm going to be a better colleague, a better spouse, partner, you know, parents, all the different roles we play and kinder to myself because I've created these little moments of recharge. I love the way you just broke that down to something that anybody can do because all of us do have those extra moments. I mean, I do this all the time, you know. What can I cram in for this next appointment or this next phone call or before I have this meal? I think I could send that one text. I think like, let's check the email and can I reply to one thing? And just even the thought of taking a micro break, it sounds kind of scandalous almost just like because I think we're so programmed to just go, go, go, do all that we can do. Like you said, in terms of those soundbass, it's all about step one, slowing down, step two, breathing and step three, letting your body relax. And even having permission to take a micro break, which you said, you said that's just a little dose, maybe six or eight breaths in and out. We can, we really can all do that. We can all truly afford to do that. What happens if we do that just once, you know, just one micro break with six to eight cycles of breath. What happens physiologically? Oh, yeah. I mean, several things. So one, you start to help your vagus nerve, which is, you know, sort of like one of the biggest sensory parts of the body. So like 80% of our bodies and its senses are happening through the vagus nerve. So the vagus nerve runs from the base of our brain stem all the way down through the center of our body, through our heart and into our intestines. So it's collecting data. It sounds important. It's important. It's collecting data and sending it to the brain between all of these important organs of the body. And so when we have slow, steady breathing, as an example, we're starting to tell the vagus nerve, hey, it's okay. We're in a safe, calm place. And when we do that, our blood pressure comes down, our heartbeat is more regulated. We're bringing more oxygen to places in the body that need it. And it also integrates with, I said, I think I said this earlier about the sound bath. What's called our parasympathetic nervous system? Maybe I didn't. I don't tell us about that. So our parasympathetic nervous system is where we use the words rest and digest. So our sympathetic nervous system is what we're in all day. It's our kind of state of being in the way our world is today. All of our responsibilities at home and work and then technology comes in and moving here and there in, you know, our prehistoric human life that was hunting and running from bears and all of that, right? So parasympathetic is the opposite. That's where we calm down. And that's where the body resets. That's where the brain is able to take in everything that's happened in the day and process it. And so that parasympathetic nervous system is very closely aligned to the vagus nerve. So when we're calming down, we're taking our breaths, not only are we supporting that major part of our body, but we're also helping our overall system to relax, to decompress. And that's where healing also happens. Healing of any kind that the body needs, that idea that, you know, people will say, oh, we can heal ourselves. Well, I think that there's still, I'm sorry, my dog is barking. It's no problem. It has to be a part of the sound. He's giving us his own sound back. Yes. So there's still, you know, of course, a lot of things in Western science and Western medicine that help us to heal. These more sort of Eastern focused practices can come together with our Western medicine. And that's where we can see that these practices help us to calm and help us to nourish the system and to heal. What are some of your other very popular wellness rituals? So I love, you mentioned Qi Gong in my bio. So when it comes to more of like moving meditation, because a lot of people will say, well, I've tried meditating. It's just not for me. I'm a person who likes to move. I can't slow down. What I would say to you is maybe not yet. I would say everyone has the capacity for meditation. And there's different forms that we all like, just like we like to eat different foods. And if we have a physical kind of workout, there's different activities that we like to do. Some people like to bike, some like to walk, some like to do yoga, some like really hard core, you know, crossfit. And there's benefits to all of those things. And so when it comes to meditation, I think there's lots of different forms that you can try. I always invite people to be open. So Qi Gong is a sister to Tai Chi. And it is an ancient medical martial art that helps us to blend breath and movement. And it's a very in practice. So, you know, when we're doing weight lifting or we're running or going on a hike or bicycling, we're in our yawn. We're in that kind of movement based. And when we're practicing something like Tai Chi or Qi Gong, we're moving into that more in state of being. And I like it quite a bit for reducing anxiety. That's how I got into Qi Gong. Gosh, over 10 years ago, I, you know, I've been practicing yoga since college and I teach yoga, but I was looking for something a little bit different. And I reached out. I was in Chicago to a studio, this amazing teacher. And he said, I think you're looking for Qi Gong, which I also teach. And I was like, I have no idea what that means. What means energy practice? Qi is energy. Once I say that, people are like, oh, yeah, Qi. And then Gong means practice, right? So think of it as focusing on more of the meditative part first and feeling the energy and then the choreography second, where Tai Chi is more like what you see people doing in a park where it's just these flowy choreography motions, which are cool. Qi Gong's the opposite. It's just, it's a little, can be a little slower. One of the things that I will teach people is how to hold a Qi ball, which is a way of just moving Qi with your hands, right? And that's a way to have a meditative movement. There's also forms where you can do a walking meditation where you really slow down the way you step and you can do this in a city or in nature. I mean, nature is wonderful for this, but I used to live in Chicago and I still would have meditative walks. And I would put on music that felt good to me. And then as I walked, I might pick like a color that I was feeling like I wanted to see. And I would just see how many times I could see that color. And I would just bring my mind back to my breath and looking for that color. And just the movement, the slower movement, the focus on something for my mind would help me to have that moment of meditation. I love that idea. So I'm a runner. So I guess my focus has always been the Yan. Right. So and then you did Qi Gong with with a whole group of us, which I had never done before. You're talking about the Qi ball and just want all of you listeners to know it's an invisible ball. Okay. You just you hold your hands like you're holding a ball, but it is really relaxing. And I really, I enjoyed it because I like having something to do. You know, when I think about meditation, what most people think of is just sitting across the leg and still, you know, doing nothing. I love the practice of movement and then the breath. And just even aside from that, like you said, just purposeful thinking as you're walking about even counting the green that you see. It just it helps get you aware of your present. You know, where are you presently instead of eyes on your phone all the time, just out in the world taking it all in, seeing what it has to offer. Yes. The other thing I would say about that and this is true, I was at a retreat myself recently having an opportunity to relax and having other people lead me and the meditation practice that I was at that teacher, I think did a really good job of summing this up, which is that people will come to her class a lot and say, I don't think I know how to meditate and just breaking down what that really is and all meditation is is becoming aware of the thoughts and then it starts to get really like meta, but like you're aware of the thoughts and the thought of the thoughts, which sounds sort of, okay, Karen, but really, it's just like on that, so like on that walking example, you know, I'm trying to look for the color green, I'm feeling my feet on the earth, I'm breathing, you know, I hear this, you know, nice, quiet music, I have in my headphones, 'cause maybe it's loud, so I just, I need that. And then all of a sudden, my mind is going to what I should buy at the grocery store, and then I was thinking that I needed to buy this bread, and then I was thinking about the bread I had my friends house last weekend, that bread was really good, there were olives, and I love olives, remember that trip I went on? Gosh, was that eight years ago, and we had those olives, wait, what am I doing? Right, and that's literally like, oh, okay, stop, come back, I'm looking for the color green, I'm looking for the color green, I feel my feet, right? And that's what our brains do, our brains all do that, but over time, you can train it, that one at first it says something about like, I'm thinking about the grocery store back to the color green, right? Instead of going down that whole fought pattern. So it's just, it's like lifting weights, you know, your first time you do a bicep curl with too much weight, you have to put it down, it doesn't work, you have to start with smaller weights and build up, so it's sort of that same idea. Right, so this practice is, it's about learning how to focus when you want to focus. As well. So when you think about, you're trying to maximize your potential, what is the carry-in recipe for maximizing potential? I would say it is, and this can be fun, to figure out what are your routines, or I like the word ritual just because it makes it sound more like loving to myself, but your routines, your sort of way of being, that you take care of yourself. So that includes things like when you get up in the morning, how are you starting your day, and how can you create some habits for yourself so that you are helping to get your mind and body and your energy into a very supportive place as best you can? So does that mean, you know, I've had clients who've said, I have to get up, you know, earlier than maybe I'd like to because this before the household is in a flurry, and I have a lot of things to do in the household before I could even think about work in myself. So I get up 30 minutes earlier and maybe an hour earlier to have time for myself and whatever that form that is, a workout, I want to read a book, I want to sit and breathe, I want to have coffee or tea, just, you know, I need some quiet time. And so like that part of the recipe, so what are you doing in the morning that you can have just for you? Is it like for me, I get up and I have hot water with lemon, and I don't use my phone, I just sit, feed my dog, and then he and I have a little bit of time just being quiet together for probably like 10 minutes, and then I start to move on with my day. So that's like, and if I have more time, great, but a lot of days, that's about what I have. Then, you know, you think about during the day, where are these little moments? Well, you hopefully are going to eat lunch, you're going to nourish your body and your brain, your brain needs that. So if you want to have your greatest potential, you have to nourish your brain. So, you know, you want to eat something, you want to give it its best chance to go into the body and let that fuel help you with your potential. So again, that idea of, can I set aside even 15 minutes to eat and to be quiet? If that's possible, I've had to people who say like, well, I'm at this desk, I don't know if I can go anywhere. Okay, so just close your computer for a moment. And I've had people say, well, maybe I'll bring a book, you know, so I'm not on my phone. And yes, great, those are things you're just slowing down, right? And so then what are the things sort of before lunch after work in your day where you take those little six to eight breaths, you get up and you stretch, you get a hot tea, you, one of my tips when I, for me, when I was a tip I would have given myself, when I was in corporate America, I used to hydrate myself all day long because you know what, I hadn't used the bathroom, which meant I had to get up and I had to walk. And if I was in a meeting, my biology literally said you need to take care of yourself. So I had to excuse myself and was that the end of the world? No, I could be gone for five minutes, it's fine, you know? And then at the end of the day, what are you doing before you go to bed, right? So for me, I like to have tea. That helps to signal to my body because I've done that enough. We're getting ready for bed. And I don't use my phone, I read a book, and you know, I try to give myself time and bed just to rest before I have to sleep. So I know that can sound like a lot if you are not doing all of those, or any of those things yet, and you know, you could, it's like just start with one thing that's small and try it for two weeks, you know, and see how you feel. And if you don't like that, try something else. You know, we all have those options and choices, but ultimately that's sort of the recipe. It's like when you get up, when you go to bed, middle of the day, and then kind of the other two halves of the day, how can you have a couple things to support you? - Wow. So much to achieve here. - I know. (laughing) - But like you said, I mean, this is, yeah, people are probably not gonna go out do a 20 minute sound bath, and then Qi Gong, and Raky, you know, get some Raky in there and all that. It's new rituals, new habits to introduce to yourself. Just even the thought of, you know what, what if I don't try to cram in that one email, and I just turn my chair and take some deep breaths. Even that is changing your brain. And like you said, you said it's about putting your mind, body, and energy in a supportive place, and that is going to be what really sets you up for success, even these small moments. - Yes. - You know, I always want my friends to become friends. So, Karian, how can people connect with you and get to know more about you? - Yes, thank you. A couple of ways. KarianMeshL.com is where you'll find information about me and sound, and sort of more of me the person. And my Instagram is Karian.MeshL. So just look for KarianMeshL. And then my company is called Lofty. L-O-F-T-I, and that's get lofty.com. It's about elevating yourself. And that is where you'll find information about what I do in corporate teams and communities. - And then you've done work for Oprah. It just just this past couple of days, where can people go and see that? - Oh, thank you. So, opardaley.com has an insider network. It's a membership where you get all types of additional content from Oprah, from Gale, from other amazing doctors and experts on all types of topics, everything from the best books to menopause, to health and family and travel, kind of all the things Oprah's known for. And so I'm my new well-being series will be in there, but you get so much more in there too. So it just sort of opens up a whole additional amount of storytelling for you. - Very good. And if you could leave our friends with one takeaway from this discussion, what would it be? - Make time for yourself. We really can't make space for others until we make space for ourselves. And so especially as you're thinking about that potential in your life, usually achieving that potential involves other people, other communities, people you're surrounded with. And you have to take care of yourself first, in order to make things happen. - Wise words, thank you so much, Karen. I really appreciate you being here and just sharing all of your knowledge. I feel more zen just talking to you. Everybody, thank you for joining us on the Potentialist Podcast. I look forward to getting together again soon, but until then please be good to yourself and get set for all the amazing opportunities coming your way. - Thanks for joining me at the Potentialist Podcast. When I'm not behind the mic, I'm speaking on stages, leading transformative workshops and coaching clients to unlock their strengths and achieve remarkable results. Curious about working together or having me at your next event? Head over to drleacoles.com. That's L-E-E-K-O-L-E-S. If today's episode sparks something in you, I'd love to hear about it. And don't forget to follow, rate, and leave a review. It helps others discover the power of possibility too. Until next time, remember, the world wants what you have and your next step starts now.