Nadeya Hassan: Unravel the Mind-Body Connection | Delve into Altered States and Healing Trauma for a Holistic Transformation

If you have been impacted by a traumatic event in your life, you are not alone. In a recent study that surveyed residents from more than a dozen countries, 70% of people reported having experienced some form of trauma. And when you consider how often we suppress traumatic experiences, often without being aware of it, the number is undoubtedly even higher than that. Here to help us unearth this topic is Nadeya Hassa, Founder and CEO of Zaya, a mindfulness platform that employs a science-backed therapeutic model to support the emotional and physical well-being of individuals with trauma and trauma-related symptoms. Their approach teaches the importance of the mind-body connection and uses mindfulness to activate personal transformation and healing. In this episode, we take a deep dive into the mind-body connection and unpack the complex and far-reaching impact that our thoughts have on our physiology. In our conversation, Nadeya shares how her father’s cancer diagnosis prompted a deeply introspective journey that led her all the way to a Costa Rican jungle, then to Nepal, and ultimately back home. We discuss the many ways that trauma is misunderstood in our society and how, given adequate support, trauma offers us the opportunity to deepen our compassion and create resilience. Nadeya shares how meditation and yoga have been integral to her mindfulness journey and why dissolution of ego is essential to letting go of fear and experiencing a feeling of oneness with the universe. Our conversation with Nadeya takes us on an incredible journey to a deeper understanding of the power of our thoughts, so make sure you tune into this expansive and impactful exploration of the mind-body connection!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Meet today’s guest, Nadeya Hassan, Founder and CEO of Zaya.
• The mind-body connection and how nurturing it promotes mindfulness.
• How Zaya uses an understanding of the mind-body connection to address trauma-related symptoms.
• The story of how Nadeya founded Zaya in the wake of her father’s cancer diagnosis.
• The roles that Buddhism, meditation, and yoga have played in Nadeya’s mindfulness journey.
• Western medicine and how it was informed by Renee Descartes’ assertion that the mind and body are separate.
• Trauma’s ability to deepen one’s compassion and create resilience.
• Insights into how trauma can be buried within our subconscious.
• How our bodies can hold traumatic memories that we may have cognitively suppressed.
• The importance of mind-body practices for accessing repressed trauma.
• Ecstatic dance, how it helps you enter a transcendental state, and how it supported Nadeya in her healing process.
• How Nadeya defines your ego and the practices that can facilitate the dissolution of the ego.
• How dissolution of ego can result in a feeling of oneness that dissolves self-limiting beliefs.
• The ‘What If’ exercise and how you can use it to gain awareness of what’s happening in the body.
• The power of the placebo effect and what it teaches us about the mind-body connection.
• Toxic ‘grind’ culture, how it feeds into egoism, and the consequences for our health.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Andrés Preschel

Know Your Physio Podcast

Nadeya Hassan on LinkedIn

Zaya

Body Encyclopedia: A Guide to the Psychological Functions of the Muscular System