 My name is Melanie. I'm from East Meadow, New York. I am a Center Manager for Body and Brain. I took classes at the local center in my town. My mom introduced me to the practice, and so I began taking classes there and learned about the different principles of brain education through those classes. I really liked how I had a space to really focus on my body and really focus on myself, which I was not in the habit of doing before that. I had a lot of anxiety. I used to get panic attacks pretty frequently. I could not sleep. I had a lot of back pain and issues with my sciatic nerve. I felt, I was very depressed as well, so I didn't know really how to manage my emotional condition at all. And so it was very hard for me to function on a day-to-day basis. My father died of a heart attack suddenly when I was 20, when I was still in college. And I had had anxiety most of my life, but it kind of became exacerbated at that point in time. And so I didn't know how to deal with his death. I didn't know how to cope with any of it, and I just kept going on and finishing my degree. And I just finished the last two years of college in like a blur. I don't really remember a lot actually. And then I moved back home and I was, my degree was in education, so I tried to find a teaching job and I wasn't able to. And I had to like move back to the house where my dad no longer existed. And so that was really challenging for me to deal with. And so I really felt like I hit like the worst of my anxiety and depression in that year after graduating college. And I really had no idea how to like really like function. I tried, but there were days where I couldn't leave my room and I would either have a migraine or a panic attack that would like keep me in my bed. And then of course physically, then my condition deteriorated. And it was, I became really sick. I felt like I was much older than I really was. And I was on medication for anxiety, depression and I didn't want to be. And then my mom had started taking classes to help her cope with my father's passing before I did. And then finally she convinced me to come to a class. And that's when I didn't want to tell her that I liked it so much. So, but then I really did. I really loved it a lot. And then I could really feel like a reconnection to myself how to really bring, how to get to know myself better and see all the things that I hadn't really been dealing with not just around my father's passing, but like most of my life also. I started taking classes about six years ago and then I became a full-time instructor about three years ago. I first experienced brain education at a local body and brain center in my town. So you can go online and see if there is a center near you at bodyandbrain.com. I still have anxiety now. It's not like the anxiety went away completely, but I know now how to manage it much differently. So often when we have anxiety, our mind is like a mile ahead of where our body actually is. Our thoughts run very quickly and years into the future or anywhere but here. I would suggest moving your body, finding some sort of exercise that you enjoy, that you really like and then let your focus come back into what you feel in your body. Move your body and stimulate your body in a way that will help you to feel actually focusing on sensation then that gap between your mind and your body will become decreased and then that will help you to feel more calm and more centered and really help you be more grounded. Part of brain education I felt that helped the most was really that connection between my mind and body that I was able to establish. So part of the reason that I had such terrible anxiety and such issues managing my emotional state was that I had a big disconnect between where my mind was and then where my body was. So through the mind-body practices that I learned taking classes, I was able to really bring my mind and body closer together and to start to minimize that gap which helped me then to manage my anxiety and manage my depression and really understand myself deeper on a deeper level. Now I know how to move my body in a more focused and mindful way. So rather than just doing an exercise very mindlessly, I really focus on the sensation I have. So by practicing and bringing my energy back in and down and more centered into my body, then I can manage my anxiety. I create kind of a separation between my anxiety that I'm feeling and then between where I am. And then it's like that separation that can really help to manage the anxiety that I feel rather than becoming overwhelmed or like submerged by it. I think the aspect of the class that helped me the most was learning how to breathe properly. My breath has always been very shallow and very high in my chest. And so especially when you have a panic attack, you feel like you're being kind of choked or smothered. So actually learning how to breathe more deeply and then much slower and allowing the breath to move further into my body that was really helpful to me. And I could also see how busy my mind was, how much my anxiety would try to take my mind out. And so being able to connect to the feeling of my breath like in my body itself was really very beneficial. I could feel much calmer and much more relaxed after practicing that way. I would recommend really asking yourself like how well do you really know yourself? I felt that a lot of my issues actually stemmed from not really understanding who I was. And then as a result of that not knowing that's where a lot of my anxiety was really rooted in. So if you are experiencing anxiety, if you're experiencing depression, if you have any sort of emotional issue really check in with yourself actually and then let you focus on you and not don't feel burdened, don't feel stressed by trying to please others or focus outside or try to put your energy out but really let your energy move back in. And that's the easiest and most hopeful part about this whole process is really getting to know you on a much deeper and more loving level actually. You can do it! Woo-hoo!