Episode 2 – Navigating Corona Times More Comfortably

#002 – Wellness: Navigating Corona Times More Comfortably with Michael Simmonds – Episode 002 – In The Loop Podcast

Andrew Travers /  Michael Simmonds

Andrew  0:06 

Welcome to in the loop with Andrew Travers. Hello, everybody and welcome to in the loop. And today we’re going to have a chat with Michael Simmons, who’s a coach and has been a long-time member of the Zürich Networking Group.

We’ll have a little chat also about his services, especially a new one that seems to be quite relevant during the current times. Hello, Michael, how you doing?

Michael  0:30 

I’m doing very well. Thanks, Andrew, how are you?

Andrew  0:33 

Not too bad and like all things looking forward to the sunshine of the summer. Hopefully we can all get out and do things and be a little bit more fun for life rather than currently being locked in and restricted with everything else going on.

Talking of that, obviously generates some issues and things. So, from your side of being a coach, what’s happening? Or what are you experiencing? Or what are you finding out that’s happening out there? Just to let us all know a little bit more.

Michael  1:02 

Yeah, so I think this, I call it the corona times are run, I think it’s triggering something in most of us here, you know, different things for different people. In general, I think it’s focusing our attention more on our health and well-being.

For some people, that means their physical health. You know, partly it’s about those people which have concerns about falling ill, you know, particularly those that have more frail immune systems.

For other people, it’s about productivity, you know, people in the working environment, for example, don’t want to fall ill because, you know, they want to maintain productivity. So you’ve got the physical issues, and then you’ve also got the emotional issues as well.

And with this social, physical distancing, I think loneliness is coming up anxiety, as well, with all the uncertainty around what’s going to happen to each of us in the future. When people don’t feel that they have, you know, full control over their life, it can lead to sometimes feelings of depression.

So yeah, I think there’s a lot of stuff coming up for us all at the at the moment. On top of all of that, you know, what we experienced in the present is actually being amplified by, you can call it scars, coming from our past, you know, from past challenges, which in some way remain trapped inside us. We’ll talk a little bit more about that in a moment.

Andrew  2:30 

It’s interesting, you mentioned the past and also the present, carrying some of this with us. From your side, how have you been helping people in a more sort of detailed way? With regards to these sorts of situations and this sort of feeling and everything else?

Michael  2:46 

Yeah, I think what we really want to be focused on is, you know, more inspiring priorities, like achieving our goals, or setting ourselves some new goals to work on as well. So that means, you know, not falling ill or reducing the possibility of falling ill and alleviating some of those negative emotions as well.

What I’ve been doing with people is working with a method, which is called the emotion code, which happens to be developed by an individual called Dr. Bradley Nelson, who’s based in the USA, and it’s basically getting to the underlying source of these emotional, physical issues.

I think one of the things that people appreciate about this particular method is that it can take place comfortably over the Internet, which means that people can stay in their home. It is more comfortable that way and they don’t have the concerns over the physical distancing, either.

Andrew  3:43 

That’s interesting, because obviously, that’s just once one source of anxiety on its own. So the emotion code, I’ll be honest, I haven’t really heard about it, possibly, because there’s hundreds of different therapies and other things that are out there. And also haven’t really heard about it.

So sorry about that, Michael. So in that respect, it’s good that you’re here so that you could tell us a little bit more about it and explain it a little bit more detail about how the emotion code helps someone.

Michael  4:09 

Yeah, sure.

So, the method is based on the idea that the sort of negative feelings that we have in the present are being affected by something called trapped emotions. These trapped emotions, you can think of them like residues of emotions from past experiences, which at the time, were a little bit too much for us to digest.

These residues remain inside us and what they do is that they cause us more easily fall into some of these negative emotions now and they can also amplify the feeling as well.

It just makes bad situations that are even worse. I found that a surprising statistic that the average adult has over 350 trapped emotions inside them by kinesiology testing.

I’ve actually tested that number on myself and some of my clients, and it turns out to be true. So, on the one side, these, these trapped emotions are affecting our emotional health, but they’re also affecting our physical health, because they interfere with the physical body.

The sort of way that that shows up is it can make us more susceptible to falling ill. It also creates, you know, common symptoms like aches and pains, intolerances to food, perhaps a sensitivity to pollen, particularly during the spring times, and a whole range of other things that we can talk about on another occasion perhaps.

Andrew  5:44 

That is interesting, and with regards to the fact that there’s 350 of them, which is rather a lot to the layman that’s hearing this for the first time.

What happens? Do you start with one and then go to 350? Or how does how does it all happen and accumulate? And what’s good and what’s bad? Or how to know if you got a problem?

Michael  6:04 

Yeah, yeah, it’s good, some good questions there.

So let’s unpack it and unpack it one by one. These accumulate over an extended period of time starting from, you know, when we’re born into to this world, you know, we naturally come across events, situations in our life, which are more challenging, a little bit too much for us to take at the time.

We end up you know, trapping these imbalances and it doesn’t need to be a huge life-threatening event. It can be a relatively benign event. But again, at that moment, in time, perhaps we were more tired, we were more vulnerable, we ended up trapping these imbalances.

So over a period of time, you know, the body starts to accumulate enough of these, then eventually it says, hang on a minute, you know, I’ve, I’ve had enough accumulating imbalances in this area.

I’m going to let you know this by creating something called a symptom and a symptom can be, you know, many different things. It can be the things that I talked about before, like the muscle aches and pains, like the intolerances to food, or the sensitivity to pollen, skin conditions etc.

It’s really the body’s mechanism to say something needs to be done. Thanks very much, you know, I can cope with a certain amount of this but something needs to be done, at least with this group of imbalances.

So, what’s really needed in this sort of situation is to be able to systematically identify what these imbalances are, and to release them. That is really what the emotion code technique is doing is it’s precisely identifying the imbalances or trapped emotions, which are associated with a particular condition and releasing them.

Andrew  7:59 

Okay, and what made you choose this method out of a number of them, which clearly must be out there?

Michael  8:04 

Well, at the time, I had an existing coaching practice, and what I was looking for was a method that would complement the sort of traditional coaching approach to moving people forward.

Something that was, I think, going a little bit deeper and closer to the root cause of some of these issues, for example, issues that may hold solopreneurs back from taking their next step in growing their business, but also physical issues as well, because, you know, they’re just a distraction for people as well.

You know, removing those distractions also helped people to move people forward in their work.

So I just happened one Saturday morning to be watching some YouTube videos for some advice on personal development, and I came across a video by Bradley Nelson that I mentioned earlier on.

He was actually doing a demonstration that took place in Switzerland, and he pulled a person out of the audience who had some significant pain, and within a space of something like 10 minutes, he’d reduced the level of pain significantly.

I thought, I’ve got to take, you know, a closer look at this. One thing led to another, and I ended up being certified in this method, and trying it on myself, of course, first of all. Eventually then I decided to offer it to the clients I work with.

Andrew  9:34 

That’s interesting and what sort of principles is it based on?

Michael  9:38 

Yes, so that there are probably multiple principles, but there are two that I would raise your attention to at the moment that seem very relevant.

One of them is kinesiology.

Kinesiology is about muscle response and in the context of the emotion code, kinesiology offers the possibility to identify the trapped emotions, which are contributing to a particular symptom or condition.

You’ve also got Chinese medicine coming into this as well, actually, probably in multiple ways. One of the ways is through the concept of meridians, which are basically sort of energy channels in the body that connect the different organs together.

What the meridian concept is doing in the emotion code, is it’s acting as a mechanism to release the trapped emotions.

So, you’ve got the kinesiology that’s identifying the trapped emotions, and the Chinese medicine coming in to help us release those trapped emotions.

Andrew  10:43 

Interesting and obviously, we’ve got the houseartz or local doctor here, or who could be just like me, clueless and not heard of the emotion code? Does this sit alongside traditional medicine? Or does it? How does it work together with medicine?

Michael  11:02 

That is a really important question. So basically, I definitely don’t see this as a replacement for traditional medicine, it’s very much complimentary, and to be used side by side.

If people have, you know, existing conditions, or they’re taking, you know, medication, definitely continue to go to a doctor about that.

If a new condition comes up, as well, also go along to see a medical practitioner about it. I think the value of the emotion code is, for example, in helping to accelerate the recovery of the body.

Sometimes people feel that they’ve tried a number of different things, including traditional medicine that hasn’t quite worked out the way they would like it to.

They’re looking for a different approach a different perspective on the problem.

Andrew  11:51 

okay, and people that are listening at the moment, they might be interested, and then obviously need to know how much is involved, what’s involved? How many sessions?

Do I need to go through to get some help or support, etc? Could you just give a quick overview of what would happen if I was to come along to you and say, I need a bit of help?

Michael  12:11 

Yes, certainly, so the way I work is, I offer a complimentary session, to people that are interested to work with me.

I think one of the things that does is it offers people the opportunity to start to get to know me, and I think that’s really important that the person is comfortable with the practitioner that they’re working with.

At the same time, of course, it also allows me the opportunity to start to get to know the individual and the kind of issue that they would like to work on.

Some people come with very specific ideas of what they want to work on. Other people are less clear.

There may be a series of things that they have in mind and in those cases, I’ll help them to basically prioritise what they want to work on.

The way I’ll do that is actually using kinesiology to communicate with their body, and to basically ask their body, you know, what the body would like to prioritise or what the body sees, you know, as best  for that individual.

That is one element of the way I work with people.

I think another aspect is, you know, after the imbalances for a particular condition have been removed, in some cases, people ask the question, well, am I going to recreate those balances at some point in the future.

In those cases, I offer the possibility to, you know, deepen the learning about themselves. so that people can self-manage to reduce the possibility of this taking place in the future.

Maybe as a third element for people to be aware of, is I think creating a safe space, creating an environment where people feel comfortable talking about some of these things, although this technique, or part of the beauty of it, is that you don’t have to go into a lot of detail to the background of what’s happened in the past.

A certain amount of discussion on that is necessary and I think people appreciate having a safe space where they can openly discuss this, you know, just makes people feel more comfortable.

Andrew  14:19 

I totally agree, obviously we’re going to be providing an overview of the emotion code with the show notes. More importantly, how do people get in touch with you, Michael, what’s the best way?

Michael  14:34 

Yes. So I think most people would like to have a personal discussion in the beginning.

I encourage people to give me a telephone call. I am resident in Switzerland just next to Zurich. My number is 0798211474 otherwise, reach out to me with email at Simmonds coaching@gmail.com. 

Andrew  15:29 

Yep, that’s absolutely fantastic. And obviously, I wish you the very best of luck with emotion code. Like I said, no doubt, have a chat another time in the future to learn what’s going on with it and get your feedback on other cases.

Really, Michael, from my side, I just want to say thank you very much for your time. I appreciate you talking about this. And I hope that we get to share a beer sort of downtown in a bar in the near future, you know,

Michael  16:05 

Yeah know, I’d love to love to come look to come back and share some updates with you love to have the beer with you. And thanks very much for giving me this possibility.

Andrew  16:15 

Brilliant and for everybody else. As I said, we’ll put some information in the show notes and all I`ve got to do now Michael is to thank you very much, take care.