Episode 143: The Self Healing Series - The Mind Body Connection & Healing Back Pain with Michael Galinsky - Part 1
Happy #๐ก๐ฒ๐๐๐ฝ๐ถ๐๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ช๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ in our Self-Healing series, improve it! peeps! We canโt wait to share this one with you, featuring special guest Michael Galinsky.
An instrumental part of Erin's self-healing journey, Michael Galinsky has so many tricks up his sleeve that we decided to make this into two episodes. Today you'll listen to part one, and next week youโll listen toโyou guessed itโpart two!
Today, Erin and Michael discuss his film ALL THE RAGE, his โwhyโ behind the film, Dr. Sarno's work, and the mind body connection.
ICYMI โ Your Post-Episode Homework: Check out the link to the film below as well as the link to the book Healing Back Pain.
Share todayโs episode with a friend who you think could benefit, and get ready for a conversation that doesnโt skimp on aha moments.
About Michael Galinsky:
Michael is a filmmaker, photographer, and musician. Along with his wife Suki, heโs produced six award-winning feature films and dozens of shorts. His latest book of photos is called Malls Across America, published by Steidl-Miles. Michael is a contributing editor for International Documentary Magazine, where he writes articles about filmmaking and distribution. Raised in Chapel Hill, Michael graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Religious Studies from New York University. He previously played bass for Sleepyhead.
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Connect with Erin Diehl:
Email Erin: info@learntoimproveit.com
Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief โYes, Andโ officer of improve it! and host of the improve it! Podcast. Sheโs a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, โget comfortable with the uncomfortable.โ Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We canโt wait to connect with you online!
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Episode 143 Transcription
Erin (00:01):
Improve it! Peeps. Welcome back to the Self-Healing Series. I have got such an amazing guest for you today. Now today's interview with Michael Galinsky, who I'll tell you about in just a minute, was so phenomenal that I decided to make this into two episodes. So today you're going to hear part one. Please come back next week for part two. Let me tell you all about today's guest because Michael Galinsky was an instrumental part on my self-healing journey. And I will tell you all about him and his incredible work here in just a moment. But Michael himself is a filmmaker. He's a photographer and a musician. And along with his wife Suki, he's produced six award-winning feature films and dozens of shorts. His latest book of photos is called Malls Across America. And Michael is a contributing editor for International Documentary Magazine writing articles about filmmaking and distribution.
Erin (01:00):
He was raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which is near me here in Charleston. And he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in religious studies from New York University. He previously played the bass for sleepyhead, which is so cool. Now, why is Michael a part of this self-healing series? While he is the filmmaker behind the amazing film, all The Rage, which you can find on iTunes and Amazon Prime, as you've heard going through the series, there were many books that helped on my own personal self-healing journey. And one of those was Healing Back Pain, the Mind Body Connection by Dr. John e Sarno. Now he, Michael is the head and co-creator, co-director of Rumor, which is an award-winning independent film studio. And rumor collaborates with high profile clients like H B O A N E E S P N M S N B C, DirecTV, pbs. And he does all this to create critically acclaimed documentary films.
Erin (02:07):
Now, their work has been shortlisted for the Academy Awards and screened at the top of film festivals around the world. And again, this series is made in part on my own personal journey. So know I am taking you through my own healing in hopes that this can help you. But as I mentioned, Michael was a student and a patient of Dr. Sarno, the book that I'm talking about, healing Back Pain, the Mind Body Connection. And it is the book that helped me realize that my mind has the power to heal my body. And now here is this mantra that keeps coming up for me. Heal your mind, heal your body, and then you can help others heal, heal your mind, heal your body, and you can help others heal. So this book was instrumental in the life of Michael and the life of Michael's father, which you'll hear about at the beginning of this episode.
Erin (03:07):
And so Michael took his own healing journey and the healing journey he knew of many others to create the film, all the rage. Now, just to set you up, according to the Institute of Medicine, over 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. And the current cost of treating chronic pain has skyrocketed to close to a trillion dollars a year. And this number dwarfs the cost of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes combined. So what if I told you today that you had the power to heal your own pain, that you didn't have to spend the hard earned money that you make working on chiropractors and physical therapy? So enter this book and interject John Sarno. Now again, Dr. Sarno is the author of the book that I read, healing Back Pain. But he changed sh Shock Jock Howard Stern's Life. He changed veteran Senator Tom Harkins and he, Tom Harkins was inspired to campaign for his cause.
Erin (04:18):
And Sarno gave comedian Larry David the closest thing to a religious experience that he's ever had. So this bestselling book, healing Back Pain was first published in the 1980s. And when our guest Michael Lansky's father read it, it was his cure for Chronic Whiplash. The book which talks about connecting pain with emotions rather than structural causes, put sarno at blunt odds with a medical system, which shunned his unorthodox approach. Now, many years later, when Michael, who you'll hear from in just a minute, was immobilized by excruciating back pain, he met with Dr. Sarno and was put on the mend, thus began a 12 year odyssey to chronicle his personal journey of healing with the story of Dr. Sarno and his work. Now, this artful and personal film, all the Rage braids, Michael's universal story of Pain and Emotion, together with the story of Dr. Sarno's work, connecting the audience to both the issues and the emotions at play.
Erin (05:25):
You'll see interviews in this film from Howard Stern to Larry David, to Dr. Andrew Wheel, senators Bernie Sanders and Tom Harkin and All The Rage is a film that offers a profound rethink of healthcare. Now telling you all of this to set you up because unfortunately, Dr. Sarno passed away at the age of 94, and Michael and many of his patients continue on the legacy with this insightful film. And I am thrilled to share with you part one of this story today. You'll hear about the film, you'll hear about Sarno's work, and you'll hear why Michael was so moved to create this film and how it can help you in part one of the Self-Healing series, all about the Mind body connection with Michael Galinsky. Let's get to improving it. Are you a leader searching for new and innovative ways to drive employee engagement and team morale through the roof?
Erin (06:33):
Do you wanna create a company culture where everyone feels seen, heard and valued? Hi, I'm Erin Diehl, business Improv Edutainer, Failfluencer and Professional Zoombie who is ready to help you improve your it, your it being the thing that makes you, you think of me as your keeping it real professional development bestie who is here to help you learn from your failures, stand tall in your power and improve yourself so you can improve the lives of others. Oh, and did I mention that we are improving your IT through play? That's right. I am an improvisational comedy expert who uses experiential learning to help you have your aha ha haha moments. Those are the moments when the light bulb goes off and you're laughing at the same time. So grab your chicken hat, your notebook, and your inner child because I'm gonna take you on a journey that is both fun and transformative. Welcome to the Improve It podcast. Thrilled, thrilled to have you on the show. We already, we were already chatted up. We were just rolling, we were going And I need, I we have to repeat this because I'm just truly honored to have you here. Let's do this. Before we start, let's set an intention. What's something you wanna give our audience today? What's one word you wanna give them? Improve it! Peeps.
Michael (08:08):
Healing.
Erin (08:08):
Yeah.
Michael (08:09):
Self healing and, and actually I would say's uncomfortable term called trauma awareness. And the, this whole movie I'm, I'm really launching right in to to center what this is, but Dr. Sarno was completely ignored by the system of medicine during his entire career and, and really reviled in many ways because he was going against the understanding of truth and what the expectation of medicine was. And what had become, even in the time that he started practicing medicine was a very biotechnical approach. And so in that case, the biotechnical approach, it was all about biology and like figuring out the science and all of that is like if you imagine that if you're a mechanical on cars and all you focus on is the mechanical engine systems and you say, well, we don't really understand this whole fluid system and I know it's involved, but we're gonna leave that to theologist.
Michael (09:11):
And we, when we work on cars, we're just focusing on the mechanical systems, that car's gonna break down and it's gonna fall apart and nobody's gonna understand it. And so if you do all of your science, your, your science of medicine is all based on the randomized control trial and the randomized control trial decides that emotions are really messy and everybody's emotions are different. So that's too messy to get data from. So if we include the emotions, the data we get will be meaningless for our goal. But if we ignore them, medicine falls apart. And Dr. Sarno came of age in an era when Freud was still understood to have some relevance, but as he practiced, it all became randomized control trials and this biotechnical approach. And he was further and further pushed to the side. So anything that had to do with the emotions was shunted off to the psychologist. Anything that was had to do with the emotions that we thought maybe we can throw a pill at. It was went to the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist and the psychologist went in different wells. So the psychiatrist is now medicine and the psychologist is woo
Erin (10:22):
Yes.
Michael (10:23):
You know, and so not really seen, but so what Dr. Sarno then came back around in the seventies and realized that's messed up. And in fact, what's the cause of all of this pain that we're having? Trauma from childhood?
Erin (10:36):
Yes. So
Michael (10:36):
Essentially he was trauma informed before that was a concept and now it's a buzzword. Right? But no one's making that reconnection back to Dr. Cerner, that, oh man, he was right like SEMA Weiss who discovered germ theory but didn't know how to completely illuminate exactly what was going on, ended up in an insane asylum and didn't get credit for his work. Right. Pastor was given credit for you know, coming up with the idea of germs, but it was really Simil Weiss who wrote about it, understood hand washing was important, didn't understand why, but he knew it was important and, and they put him in an insane asylum cause they said he was crazy. Right. And that's happened to Dr. Sarno.
Erin (11:16):
And that is insane. Welcome to the 2020 pandemic. Okay, we need a That was a hu We need his name and lights. Okay. From all the hand washing we had to do <laugh>. Thank you for that. Thank you for that overview cuz I was even that, I'm so glad you launched right into that. That was so frustrating for me to watch just as a person who empathized with your story. That was, that was really frustrating. And I have actually a ton of friends in the medical field and family and I was like, if you don't read this book, if you don't watch this film, we can't have a conversation at the dinner table anymore because I, I need you to understand this importance. And I mentioned this to you, but this is what this whole series is about. The self-healing series that I went on. The best doctor I ever had in the world was this chiropractor I just went to for all my own back pain. First question was, what's going on with your mental health?
Michael (12:10):
That should be the first question Any doctor asks.
Erin (12:13):
Any doctor. Any doctor, yes. So then it led me to, it just led me to you through all of this, this, this led us here. And all the rage was, I mean I literally launched like my phone at my iPad while I was watching it. I threw things across the room. I had feelings, I had emotions, I was sobbing. I have fake eyelashes. 800 of them fell off. I was just so moved. And so I wanna know for you, why was it so important to recognize his work and make this film now? Or when you made it, I know it had, was it like very recent, but why was it so important to share this story now?
Michael (12:57):
Well, I'll say this, that the whole experience has been wildly surreal and illuminating. Even in the sense that, so when when I was a kid, my father when I was in, it's in the movie, but when I was in second grade, I think I woke up one morning and my dad was literally dying of a bleeding ulcer in, you know, the dining room, which is, you know, it was just like, cause he had had a little too much to drink the night before and my mom was mad at him and made him sleep on the couch because he was sick, but he was really sick because he was bleeding out, you know. And so there he is and it's a very uncomfortable vision, but bloody underwear like moaning, standing up. And my mom's like, you guys go get the bus. I've called an ambulance for your dad
Erin (13:42):
<Laugh>,
Michael (13:42):
Which is also completely insane. Like she,
Erin (13:45):
Yeah.
Michael (13:45):
And so get school bus, she said, you get yourself breakfast, we're in second grade. And so we're going up the hill and I see this ambulance and it's pulling into the wrong house and I have to tell it, no, the house is down the hill. Anyway, my dad got over that ulcer. But three weeks later we had a small, like a fender bender. And then he got incredible whiplash for years. And I, he'd come up from work and have a, and sit and you know, always be having back pain and neck pain. And finally someone in this is like now six or seven years later, someone gives him Dr. Son's book. When it finally comes out, the first one, like the mind body prescription in probably 81, 82 weeks later, he's all better. And my dad is the cheapest person you ever met. You know, talked about trauma. He grew up very poor and never was able to overcome that. Even, you know, that he became a college professor and had plenty of resources. You know, we were never allowed to get a soda at a restaurant. You know, why are you gonna spend a dollar for something that costs him 10 cents? There's no way I'm gonna let them rip me off like that. You know, it wasn't the sugar, it was the cost.
Erin (14:48):
Yeah, right. Yeah.
Michael (14:50):
But he bought, bought a case of the books and gave them to anybody he saw, like that's like, that would cross that generosity threshold. Cause he understood how important it was as a psychologist. It made absolute sense to him. And, and he was always someone who was really, really upset by injustice. And so he just was always wanting to help people. And so he would, he would do that. So I, that was early eighties and then, you know, flash four, 10 years later. So we knew about Sarno, but it didn't really make sense. Then my brother had to almost drop out of graduate school because he couldn't use his hands. I mean they were just, they were just locked frozen shut with rsi. He was told, he was told by a surgeon he had to have collarbone carved away to free the nerves in his neck by literally the top RSA guy in the country.
Michael (15:39):
And my dad was like, listen, ill not talk to you again if you don't go see Dr. Sarno. But, you know, my brother was in graduate school for psychology as well, but it was very sci it becoming more science, science-oriented, data oriented. And he was like, I just, there's no data. I don't believe it. I don't. So he finally went to see him and three weeks later he took his car back from me. Cause he was all better. Wow. At that point, I read the book and made sense to me and I banished my recurrent like once or twice a year my back would go out, stuck in bed for days. And then I understood it, understood that there was something I wasn't dealing with and I was able to banish myself for my own back pain for 10 years until I had a house.
Michael (16:18):
A very stressful career. A kid slammed to the floor and as it was happening, I'm rereading the book and, and you know, this gets into issues of like self-worth or self-trust or I, I was like, I couldn't somehow, it didn't even conceptualize that I could actually, I lived in New York that could call him and go see him in the office, didn't have any insurance or anything. And so when I was finally stuck on the floor and, and you know, I'd even gone to get an MRI at great expense and they were like, you have these crazy herniations. I finally went to see him and it wasn't miraculous, but it put me on the path and I slowly began to heal. And that's when I said to him, Hey, can we make a movie about you? And he was like, yeah, let's do this. Cause he'd seen the previous movie we made that had stressed me out so much and he liked it.
Michael (17:08):
And then we couldn't figure out how to do it because couldn't get any grants. He was such a pariah. I couldn't get anyone to go see him cuz it wasn't cheap. And I, and I, and he wouldn't actually introduce us to any patients because he thought that was unethical. So I didn't, I just, there was no way to make it. And then I was like, oh, we'll make it, when he puts out his book, the Divided Mine, we'll follow that process. So I checked back in with him, he goes, oh, oh, that came out four months ago. Right? Like, they didn't do any press. He didn't, I was like, so we were just stuck. And it, it looked, took six years and we made another movie that almost the, the one that kinda had crushed me at the beginning of the process. When we finished it, it crushed me again. And that's when I was like, I have to really go on this healing journey. I can't just do it halfway and I have to be in this movie. Cause that's the only way to make it. And what was interesting was in that timeframe, those six years, the world had already begun to change.
Erin (18:03):
Yeah. Like
Michael (18:04):
Russell Vander's book had come out, gay Matt's book the Body says No had
Erin (18:08):
Come out. We just talked about that on this show. Yep.
Michael (18:11):
And so then all of a sudden I'm like, oh, this awareness is rising. So it's not gonna be a biopic about Dr. Sarno. And while he's gonna be the hero, he can't be the only hero because hero also has to be human and be willing. And this is no, this is not an insult to Dr. Sarno or saying he wasn't willing. I'm just saying that didn't make it possible to tell the story that was gonna invest people emotionally. And that if there was no emotional content in it, it wasn't gonna heal you. So like even in healing back pain, Dr. Sarno's stories aren't the things that heal you. What heals you is everybody else's story. And even still, right. Some people can pro like this goes back to neuro divergence issues, right? Some people can read a book, process the information and have an emotional experience.
Michael (18:59):
Some people can read it, but they're reading it so much from a technical viewpoint or through that lens. They can't. And so they need to see it visually. Yeah. Right. They need to and they need to be able to connect with a different kind of story that uses more tools of sound and connecting and thinking about how are you gonna make people have this emotional journey. Right? And that is not exactly how that book is laid out. So some people need the movie, some people don't need the movie. Some people get angry at the movie because it doesn't make sense to them or it feels wrong. And, and part of it is, is how are people gonna process information and when are you ready to hear that information? And we're individuals, but we are also social creatures. So you look at something like Malcolm Gladwell's, the tipping point, it really has relevance because we are connected way more than we understand just like ants. We don't really think of ourselves like ants. We are community organisms that create shapes in communities. That doesn't mean that we're all following the same leadership sensibilities and we have hi hierarchies in ways that ants don't. But we all still understand something in the collective much more. And so when you understand something that the collective doesn't understand, it can be very frustrating.
Erin (20:15):
Yes.
Michael (20:16):
It can be izing, right?
Erin (20:18):
Yes. Okay. I wanna stay on that topic.
Erin (20:23):
Hey, improve it. Peep I wanted to interrupt your learning really quick to thank you for turning into this show. Now. Each week myself and the entire improvement team are working tirelessly to give you the content you deserve to help you use play to become your best self personally and professionally. Now if you wanted to return the thank you, that's okay. You don't have to, but, but if you did, would you leave us a five star review on iTunes? It takes two minutes to leave five stars and maybe a comment or two on how this show has impacted you. Just scroll to the bottom of this show on iTunes and you'll see the opportunity to leave five stars. Now once you do that, please send a screenshot. Take a screenshot from your phone and email it to info learn to improve it.com. That is info learn to improve it.com.
Erin (21:20):
This way we know it's from you. We will be drawing one name per month to send an Improve It podcast care package too. This care package is the bays maze. It will include branded goodies from the show, some of our favorite books and products from previous guests and a few more surprises. So thank you for the opportunity to tell you. Thank you. And if you want to thank me by leaving a review, then I will say thank you by potentially sending you a care package that shows our full appreciation. So thank you for thanking me and we thank you. Will really like the goodies in the care package. Okay. Back to improving it. Thanks.
Erin (22:07):
Okay. Several thoughts just from what you just said. So I teach improv, right? I'm an experiential learner. I'm an experiential teacher. I, that is why this film on top of re first I read the book, then I watched the film and that is when it all sunk in for me. The storytelling, the visuals. Like, I'll never forget you lying on the floor. <Laugh>, I'm sorry. I know it was painful, but it was so, it was such an experience and I was like, that was me. That is literally me. And then the emotions pouring out of you. That was me. And so I saw the film at the exact right time in my life where I needed it to help me process this book and to heal. So that was in itself exactly what you just said. That was my journey. That I am that experiential learner.
Erin (22:56):
And some people could just read the book and, and that was be good for them. But the, I love that you what we call an improv. Yes. And did this book and this in Sonos work with the visual experience of it. Then I wanna talk to you about the second piece is like when you're a part of this community, right? You're a part, you're, we're all the ants. And some of the ants know some of the things that some of the other ants don't. Why? I'm sure there was reluctance from your, and maybe not, but I feel like the medical profession dismisses, psychosomatic pain
Michael (23:33):
Has traditionally done that. Yes. Yes. This is where I'm getting at that. We're getting tipping point part. Why are doctors like that too? Cause the patients, it wasn't, it wasn't, you can't just blame the medical community. The patient demands. I want you to heal me. Yes. Cause they're not willing. Cause I, if you even look at this kind of the story that we're telling, right? You have Freud, then you have World War I, then you have World War ii, and then you have the rise of science. The those three factors together, the amount of collective trauma that wasn't, that had no space to be dealt with, right? People came home with shelf shock. No one talked about it. No one gave them any space to heal. That wasn't acceptable. You're supposed to be a strong man and you're supposed to do better than your parents did. So we have these, these kinda trends that are going, right? Like in America, what's the, what's the story after world Wari, we're all gonna do better than our parents did.
Michael (24:35):
Right? And economically, there was this great engine of economy that made that possible. You run into the seventies and you have the hippie response and every, all, all the turmoil that we mirrors, what we're dealing with right now, this turmoil of change. Wait, you guys have demanded all this repression. We're not having it. And you know what? We're not mature enough and we don't have enough wisdom yet to properly process that. So, you know what? Instead of saying, wow, it seems like this repression wasn't very useful. We're like, I can't believe you repressed us. Right? And this is a really important point because it takes some time to get the wisdom to recognize what you were saying is like, you just want people to know this. You can't push over that midline into people's space and say, I have this thing that they're already really resistant to.
Michael (25:30):
This will heal you, goes right back across that line and punches you in the face. And that's what I was, I was just, when we started talking, I told you a guy recognized me from the film in a coffee shock just now. He's like, I, I give it to everybody and like people just don't wanna hear it. And I'm like, yeah. You know, it's really about the energy that you do it. You have to do it with the energy of non expectation and absolute acceptance. Hey you know what? I noticed that you have this back pain, your tongue about the doctor. This book really helped me, or this movie really helped me. It, it might be of interest.
Erin (26:02):
Done Leave it. Yeah.
Michael (26:04):
It's just a gift. Yeah. And if it's a gift with expectation, it's no longer a gift, right?
Erin (26:09):
Yeah. Yeah. It,
Michael (26:11):
It's actually a weight that you're, you're tossing at somebody interesting. And they don't want it. They, they throw the hot potato back at you. And this is, this is what it comes down to is, you know, we talk about energy as being woo from a scientific perspective. Cause we can't measure it. We can't see it, we can't smell it, we can't taste it. But we cannot deny that it affects us.
Erin (26:30):
Totally.
Michael (26:31):
But since we don't know how to handle it, we're just angry about it. Yep. Now, once you're aware of it, awareness, connotes responsibility. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, once you know something, you now hold that responsibility. Right. So once you know that if you are angry at somebody, that's about you. It sucks. Yeah. Because now you know it's all on you. Yeah. And it gets really bad if you're in a relationship and you come to realize this. And, and part of the problem in your relationship might be that you end up taking on too much responsibility. And so then you get angry and then you guys are fighting. You go, oh, I noticed this. And then the person won't be responsible. It's really hard to keep moving. But, so sometimes relationships fall apart if you learn, oh, this person makes me angry and they won't actually adjust to that.
Michael (27:23):
I, I don't know how to have this relationship anymore. Yeah. So some things fall away, you know, because you're like, actually I love you and I care about you, but your, your, your behavior. If you can't listen to how your behaviors affecting me, I'm not saying you are responsible for how it's, but we have to kinda come to some big point because inadvertently you're pushing across that line. You're, you're throwing an expectation onto me, which I could handle if you could listen to the fact that that's actually a weight. And we have to kinda negotiate how to deal with that. Yeah. And the reason I'm bringing this all up is because these different themes that I was talking about, so I'm gonna go back a little bit. I said World War II and all that trauma. And then we're gonna bury the hell outta that trauma.
Michael (28:02):
And we're, and we're gonna do it in so many different ways. We're gonna focus on economy and money and success and growing. And we're gonna say the emotions are gonna stay in that closet. Cause they're messy. We don't wanna deal with them. But then they fall outta the closet and the adults don't have room to accept their children's emotions or their adult children's emotions. Right. And so you have all this division and at the same time the economy's crashing. So all of those children can't rise up. They can't do better than their parents and they have to rely on them or they live in poverty or there's a lot of disturbance. And now we're moving into a place where we're all as a collective recognizing that it's okay to say, Hey, you know, I had this traumatic experience. And the problem is we also have these narratives in our head. Right? For us, a traumatic experience means that you went to war and you saw people die. That's a type of traumatic experience that could give you, you know, post traumatic stress disorder, but so can not being listened to as a child.
Erin (29:03):
Yeah. Yeah.
Michael (29:06):
It's equally and profoundly as important. And if we devalue that and we diminish it because we don't wanna deal with that and we think it's silly. We've been taught it silly. It's also cause we don't wanna dive into it. It doesn't. So it's like recognizing the trauma doesn't mean you have to fall into it. Means like, oh, that's really me and how can that, and like you said, yeah. Telling that story, illuminating that story through journaling, it doesn't mean that you're making other people responsible. That's the next step. Like, oh God made my parents were so awful, it made me so mad. And then the next step is go, oh my God, that must have been so hard for them. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, you stop seeing your parents as someone who are supposed to be perfect and you give them some, some room to be imperfect and then guess what? Oh,
Erin (29:53):
I'm in on you.
Michael (29:54):
Yeah. I'm imperfect too. And I may be imperfect partly because they me up. Right? Yeah. But now that I know that blaming them has no value whatsoever and in fact just drives us apart. And once we open 'em and go, oh wow, you were like that because you were incredibly anxious and you're still really incredibly anxious and that's hard for me. But if I can give you this space to not resist that, all of a sudden your anxiety, that anxiety drops because now that relationship is less fr
Erin (30:25):
Yeah. Right?
Michael (30:27):
So it's all these complex dances of emotion. But even on the bigger societal level, this is what I'm saying is like, when we started to make this movie, it was almost impossible to make this movie. By the time we started it, it became more possible. But when we released it, there was so much resistance that we literally hired the four best publicist in documentary. Literally the four best ones. And none of them could get anybody to write about it. And what gets more interesting is three of those people had a direct experience with Dr. Sarna.
Erin (31:02):
Wow.
Michael (31:03):
And one was healed by it. The two were, one was healed by reading the book. One was healed by gonna see him. And the other had a husband who's had, you know, struggled, had gone to see as kid, but still was struggling with all this stuff. And they could not figure out a way to communicate to people to get anyone to write about of books. Yeah. Write about it. It was unreal.
Erin (31:25):
Because they don't want the backlash that comes with it from the science field. Or what would you say The reason behind that is
Michael (31:31):
They're just not even conscious of it For them. It's, it's so easily dismissible. They don't really know what to do with it. It's just, it's easier to reject it than it's to deal
Erin (31:43):
With it. Yes.
Erin (31:52):
Alright. Improve it! Peeps. That concludes part one of this Mind Body Connection episode with Michael Galinsky, the Documentarian of All the Rage. Come back next week for part two. If you haven't yet, check out the link to the film in the show notes as well as the link to the book Healing Back Pain. That is your homework for today. I can't wait to meet you back here for part two of this episode. We'll see you then. Hey friend, did you enjoy today's show? If so, head on over to iTunes to rate and subscribe. So you never miss an episode. Now, did I mention that when you leave a five star review of the Improve It podcast, an actual team of humans does a happy dance? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. That's right. So leave a review for us on iTunes, screenshot it, and send me an email at info learn to improve it.com. I'll send you a personalized video back as a thank you. Thanks so much for listening. Improve It Peeps. I'll see you next Wednesday.