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EPISODE 233: Pleasure in Movement with Mark Testa

[Fun, Empowering Music] 

Amanda Testa: Hello, and welcome to the Find Your Feminine Fire podcast. I am your host, Amanda Testa. I am a sex, love, and relationship coach, and in this podcast, my guests and I talk sex, love, and relationships, and everything that lights you up from the inside out. Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to the podcast. If you are curious to find more ways to have more energy and even feel like you're in the mood, feel desire, today, I want to talk about finding pleasure in movement because I truly believe that pleasure is foundational in so many ways, and when we are looking at our overall holistic wellbeing, there are a lot of things that come into play when it comes to feeling good and having desire and feeling empowered in our sexuality. I love how we can actually cultivate energy from within. I love doing this with sexual energy but also just the importance of movement in general.

0:01:01

My husband and I were actually riding back from a trip away this weekend, and we were talking about this because when it comes to feeling good in our bodies, there are so many things that we can do, and a lot of the time it’s easy to do and easy not to do, right?

So, actually, I’m bringing my lovely husband, Mark Testa, on the podcast again today. Welcome, Mark.

Mark Testa: Hi, Amanda, nice to see you again.

Amanda Testa: [Laughs]

Mark Testa: [Laughs]

Amanda Testa: I’m gonna be talking about finding pleasure in movement because we were talking about this yesterday and just how much better you can feel with minimal -- it doesn't have to be things that are overwhelming, but let’s just chat for a minute about this, Mark, because I know we had such a good discussion in the car yesterday, and I was like this would make such a good episode.

So tell me. Why are you passionate about this topic?

Mark Testa: Well, really, I mean, we have this vessel (our body) that, you know, we want to get pleasure out of, but if it’s not healthy, if you're sick, if you can’t move, if you have aches and pains, there’s not much pleasure associated with that.

0:02:08

There are ways to get our vessel (our body) healthier. We were talking about this yesterday. I think the number one thing that most people don't want to do, and (you know, I’ve taken care of patients for 30 years) most people don't do that is the main needle that will move everything else is exercise. Like you said, it’s easy to do, it’s easy not to do, and I’m not talking about doing a triathlon or a marathon or spending hours a day in the gym. I’m just talking about very simple, basic things. I don't want to sound like the profit of doom, but I think it’s important to talk about why this is so important for our physical health, our vessel, for it to be healthy. I’m gonna start with some stats.

0:03:06

I know we talk a lot about nutrition and supplements and which diet’s right for us, but this exercise reduces all-cause mortality by 50%. Anything that can kill you, short of a trauma, this will reduce by 50%. No diet has ever shown that. No supplement has ever shown that. So, to me, if you're gonna start somewhere, we just start by moving our body.

Amanda Testa: Mm-hmm, and I think what’s so interesting, too, is ‘cause I feel like so often people just want an easy button. They want a pill or something that’s easy, and, honestly, there are ways to do things that can add up to be a lot of things in easy ways, but there is no magic pill, right? There’s no magical way to get your desire back or there’s no -- even Viagra. That serves a purpose, but there’s also downsides to it. I’m just saying because we have to look at our whole selves.

0:04:04

The reason why I want to talk about movement is because, not only is it so powerful in just keeping you healthy, but also as we look at being overwhelmed, one of the main issues I see with clients and a lot of the research out there around why women have so much trouble around desire and sexuality, there are numerous parts to it, but one is overwhelm. One is just being burned out, and I love how, actually, Emily Nagoski and her sister address this in their book, Burnout. But the beautiful thing about even just 20 minutes of exercise is it gives your body that feeling of completing a stress cycle because it’s like you're trying to escape from the lion. Granted, we aren’t in a world where we’re being chased by lions, but our biology still thinks that we are, often, and so, when we have a lot of stress, we can feel like that, right? And so, when you give your body an experience like it has survived, it outran the lion, that can really help reduce your overall stress. There are numerous ways to do that (which I’ll talk about in a minute) that can be really easy.

0:05:07

But I’m curious, Mark, when it comes to some of those other health benefits, what were you going to share around that?

Mark Testa: Well, I was gonna start somewhere else, but let me just start where you talked about stress. So exercise definitely has been studied to reduce stress through the autonomic nervous system and improve the vagal tone (the vagus nerve) which a lot of people talk about. You can do it with breathing exercises and maybe exercise, because it stimulates breath, stimulates and improves vagal tone, and if you wear an Apple watch or you wear an Ōura ring or you wear a WHOOP, you can measure that through your heart rate variability. I mean, it’s a measurable metric.

But I think, equally as important, exercise addresses the leading cause of death in America which is cardiovascular disease. Again, better than diet, better than supplements, and women catch up to men in cardiovascular disease after menopause, and so, it is the leading cause of death.

0:06:09

So if we can start to exercise (again, 20 minutes a day) it really makes an impact on that. We’re starting to see arrhythmias like A-fib or ventricular fibrillations start to increase, too, in America. This has a really bad downstream effect of causing strokes. And so, exercise can really address the strength of the heart through getting it to work. It is a muscle.

Then, when you talk about Viagra or you talk about -- what’s the female libido?

Amanda Testa: Well, it’s called Addyi, but actually it’s not -- I had a Urogynecologist on talking about that drug, and it actually has not had a lot of positive reviews. Mostly, it has a lot of bad side effects and there’s a lot of contraindications. So it’s something to be very wary of. Again, if you want an easy pill, that might be a placebo which if that helps, great, but there are also a lot of downsides to that so I don't recommend that medication at all.

0:07:09

Mark Testa: But exercise, then, will increase nitric oxide flow which is what Viagra does. You cannot short-circuit the brain to get the result. There is no easy button, whether it’s male genitals or female genitals, you want blood flow.

Amanda Testa: Right, or non-binary, gender-expansive humans, however you want to refer to your genitals, I want to respect and name that too. But, honestly, there are so many things at play, often, with these kind of sexual, quote unquote, “dysfunctions,” and there are things -- sometimes you do have a medical need for something, and that is understandable, but oftentimes, there’s a lot of emotional things behind it, there are a lot of layers to it, and so, that’s why when we approach anything we’ve got to look at the whole body. I think one of the reasons I want to talk about exercise as foundation is because even just, like I was saying, making it easy, I would like to talk a little bit about finding pleasure in movement because, I know for myself, I was an athlete for many years.

0:08:06

I did triathlons. I ran long distances. I did a lot of things that I really enjoyed at the time, and, honestly, I feel like there is a fine line there, right? I also struggled with eating disorders and so many body image issues for so many years, and I feel like one of the things that got me over that was to have a different mindset around how I viewed what I take in, what I do, and it’s from a place of being aware and noticing what feels good versus berating myself and beating myself up. I want to name this because I think a lot of time with exercise, I know for myself, I used to be someone who would be like, “Oh, well, I ate a bag of chips, so now I’m bad, and I’m just gonna eat crappy all day, and I’m just gonna go down this rabbit hole, and, oh, I better work out and beat myself up,” and I did it as a punishment versus as something that felt good. I just want to name that because I feel like it’s one of those things where if we approach it from a pleasure-based mindset, it can be so much different.

0:09:10

Like, what are the ways that you enjoy moving? What are the ways that feel good? How can you bring in pleasure to your whole experience? I’ll talk more about that in a minute, but I know Mark has got something to say because he’s over here excited to share.

Mark Testa: [Laughs] No, you know, again, back to some of the physical things, too. I mean, I say these to help incentivize, mostly, people’s health, right? Diabetes is another thing that can easily be addressed. It’s not gonna reverse it, but, you know, when we exercise, it redistributes our body composition, right? You may lose weight. You may lose belly fat. These are things that are involved in diabetes and fatty liver (which is now almost an epidemic in America), and so, again, just more reasons to start moving.

0:10:01

Again, easy things which we’ll talk about here in a second. As we all age, we lose muscle. It happens after 40 years old. People start to lose muscle, and what does it get converted to? It doesn't even get converted. It gets replaced by fat.

And so, for men, fat breaks down into estrogen, and so, if there’s a loss of libido after midlife in males, it could be related to excess fat (belly fat, in particular). Fat is inflammatory. Inflammation, we know, feeds diabetes, dementia, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis. So if there’s pain in the body, it could be overstimulated in ways that are modifiable by our behavior, but also the last point about losing muscle, if we fall (especially after 65) and break a limb (usually it’s the hip or the femur), there’s a 50% mortality in the first year.

0:11:12

So that means the chances of someone dying after a hip fracture in the first year is 50%. Not to mention, how poor the quality of life will become, generally, for the people who survive that first year.

So movement like this is far-reaching into our health, but when we talk about it around pleasure, it’s, again, our body. We want to be able to use our body for pleasurable things, whether that’s in relationship with our partners or enjoying our environment or enjoying the people who we love being around (children, grandchildren) or traveling. You know, in my career, I saw so many people who were gonna wait until they retire to do something and then couldn't do it because they had pain, and so, their life went from work to the ability to excess zero pleasure after they retired. We want to access things now because we don't ever know what we’re gonna have later.

0:12:16

Amanda Testa: Right. I mean, and the reason, again, why I am talking about this is because I feel like it’s such -- when I think about the foundations that we need for thriving, right, there are a lot of base-level things. A lot of times I work with women who are so overwhelmed and tired that they really have a hard time finding what feels good, finding ways to find pleasure, and so little things that we can tweak into our daily routines -- I love talking about the groundskeeper archetype. You know I talk about this a lot with weeding and watering, adding in what is good, and taking away what’s not, and I think by just adding in more pleasurable movement in a day, that can feel good. And so, what are some ways you can do that?

Honestly, I love making things easy so when I think about making moving my body feel pleasurable, what are the things that feel good to me, and listening and turning into what that is day by day.

0:13:07

I think I learned this a lot through my own self-pleasure practice, honestly, because it’s like listening and tuning into what you need each day, in all the ways, right? So when I broke my ankle last year (it’s been like a year now, and I’m finally feeling better) I couldn't do a lot of movement, and so, that was really hard, I noticed, because, for me, I kind of went into a depression after that. Finding new ways to move -- obviously, based on your ability there are modifications that you can make. And so, I still modify, but what I like is ease, right? That’s one of the things I like is ease. So I just workout at home. I used to be a personal trainer so I’ve got all of the accoutrements. Even just like an inexpensive resistance band you can get a lot out of.

And so, I love just getting up and rolling downstairs in my PJs and working out. Half the time, Mark will poke in laughing ‘cause I’m in my nightgown, like, I don't even have a jogger on, whatever. I just do it.

0:14:02

The zero barrier to entry for me is enjoyable. I know some people love going to the gym or have a workout class or whatever it is that they love - the community aspect of that. I used to love when I used to run and (again, that’s one of the things is listening to your body) my body doesn't like that anymore. I love to run but my body does not. It hurts, and, at this age, I just have to honor what my body’s telling me, and so, even then just finding that community. I used to meet up with these running groups and all this and that, and it was so fun because I feel like that’s one of the things that we often -- I think a lot of the mindset I see out there is punishment, right? It’s a punishing thing. Even when we go to certain workout classes, and they’re yelling, and they're like, “Come on! You can do this!” and yelling at you, “It hurts! Feel the pain!” I hate that so much because that, to me, is the antithesis of what I’m going for. I used to be all about that, right? I used to be an endurance athlete, so I know what it’s like to feel pain and push through it, but there’s a difference between doing it in a way that’s punishing and doing it in a way that’s loving and encouraging. So I want to talk about that for a moment, and I’m curious, Mark, your thoughts there.

0:15:09

Mark Testa: Yeah, I agree, right? Low barriers to entry so we can move our body. You know, if you're not used to exercising, get a decent pair of shoes on and you could go for a walk. Walking is definitely very beneficial for cardiovascular health, respiratory health, movement-of-your-joints health. Thirty minutes or twenty minutes if it’s too much. I have an exercise bike in the house so I get my cardio on that, generally. While I’m doing that, I am reading a blog, I am listening to a podcast,  I am catching up on some other things. So maybe it’s not the best way, but for me, that’s what I need to do. I multitask, and I find that pleasurable because people always ask me, “How do you listen to so many books?” It’s when I exercise or when I’m walking the dog when I do that, and so, that’s an easy way.

0:16:07

Then like Amanda with her ankle, we all have aches and pains. I’ve got mine, and so, I want to continue to build muscle. I don't want to lose muscle ‘cause I am over 40, and so, I still lift heavy weights, but instead of just going to the gym and lifting heavy barbells, I’ve had to modify a lot of those things and use dumbbells now, and I use a lot of machines that guide the motion so that I can restrict or limit the painful ranges that I do have but still get the benefits out of it. Again, I’m usually getting something additional out of it that is pleasurable to me like listening to a book or a podcast and doing other things while I’m working out. Then, we walk together. We walk the dog a lot. We get out into our neighborhood. We walk up to the square together and get coffee. That’s always a great thing. That’s a mile-round trip, and it serves a lot of purposes.

0:17:06

Amanda Testa: Right. I think the other thing, too, that’s fun is what are the fun things that you enjoy, right? Dancing - it can be that simple. Can you put on a song and dance to it? Can you go outside and feel the sun on your skin or the elements, whatever they may be? I love when it’s snowing or if it’s raining and I’m out with the dog because no one’s out, and I love that so much. It’s like the quiet that comes with that, and so, for me, being in nature is a big resource for me. It’s something that rejuvenates me. So I love going hiking or just even walking in the woods or even if we have some kind of issue where we can’t, even just going and sitting in nature and letting that be good. Even just squeezing all the muscles in your body and holding it really tight for 20 seconds. Squeezing every muscle in your body, clenching hard, squeezing, and then [Sighs] relaxing. Even that is going to give you that effect of moving your body.

0:18:03

So there are ways that you can be creative in finding the movement, and so, I always feel like, yeah, what’s the pleasurable way? For tuning in again to what your body wants is, like, is it more gentle? Is it just yoga? Mark and I, we used to love to do Yoga with Adriene on YouTube. It’s free, and it was, like, 25 minutes, and it was such a great thing to do especially as I started moving again after I could walk after my ankle injury and just being able to do something gentle felt so good for my body. So even if it’s just gentle stretching, it’s like really just giving your body some love I feel like, at the end of the day, is what’s so important.

Mark Testa: In coming back to your ankle, I think there’s a lot to talk about there because, you know, it did hurt you, it did impact you physically, but it impacted us as a family and as a couple ‘cause we couldn't do things together. You were laid up, literally, non-weight-bearing for six weeks. That was difficult.

0:19:00

So if our partner, our significant other has got health things that are limiting them, that really does spill over into the ecosystem of your home and your relationship. And so, this idea of finding pleasure in movement goes beyond just you as the person and more into you as the couple, you as the ecosystem of your family and things like that.

Amanda Testa: I think that’s so true because, I mean, even as we’re talking now, I think I’ve shared with you before, Mark has had some issues, and he had to have another heart procedure last week, and, thankfully, he’s doing amazing, obviously, here as we’re talking about this, but how it is really challenging when you are at the age where people are injured or have health issues and how to navigate that as a couple. It can be very common for depression to set in if someone has an injury.

0:20:00

And so, being empathetic and understanding if that is the case and always knowing you can reach out for additional support if you need. Oftentimes, you can find resources through your doctor or if you want additional support in that area then, definitely, I urge reaching out because that’s very important.

Mark Testa: You know, let me just address, real quick, depression. It reminds me of a patient I saw in the late ‘90s who would come to me for acupuncture, and it helped her depression. But it was a cost for her every time to see me, and it wasn't really getting to any root causes. It reminded me of numerous articles between the ‘90s and today that show that exercise can relieve mild to moderate depression better than medications, really, without the side effects either. With mostly upside effects. And so, when it comes to mood, again, there’s just no shortcut to changing some of that because some of these medications come with really adverse side effects that people don't want, but exercise can be a really good solution to mild to moderate depression, among other things.

0:21:13

Amanda Testa: Right? Also, I think that mental health piece, that’s why when we’re looking at our sexual function and our pleasure and our ability to enjoy that connection, there are so many aspects to it, and even if you're just doing 150 minutes a week -- isn't that what you said?

Mark Testa: That’s about it, yeah.

Amanda Testa: A hundred and fifty minutes a week of some kind of exercise can be a huge change-maker. That’s why I do 20-minute workouts ‘cause I’m like 20 minutes? I can do that. It’s easy for me because 20 minutes I know I can do.

What’s the story you had about the minute?

Mark Testa: The minute?

Amanda Testa: With your music teacher?

Mark Testa: Oh, yeah. Right, when I started playing percussion, he would tell us, “Look, go home and practice. All I want you to do is one minute a day,” and we were all very puzzled by that.

0:22:02

Like, one minute a day? How am I gonna get better with one minute a day? But what that was, was a very simple, “Well, I can do that.” But then one minute turns into five, turns into fifteen, turns into twenty, and it was like the next thing you know, because you're enjoying yourself and you didn't have any preconceived notion of, “Oh, I’ve got to crank out 30 minutes of this,” which sounds like drudgery sometimes when you're starting ‘cause you're no good at it, one minute, you could do, and it turned more and more into more and more time which also kind of leads to the next analogy.

Really, a farmer doesn't plant a seed and expect to see it crop the next day, so, again, this also takes time to develop, but I bet most people will see a benefit to exercising within seven days (really quickly). You know, you’re not gonna see a change in your body composition, but you're gonna notice, “Hey, maybe I’m sleeping better. Maybe it’s easier for me to move my body. I’m getting up with less morning stiffness.”

0:23:08

And then there’s the whole idea (similar to the drumming) of momentum, right? So once you do it three times a week or four times a week, now, all of a sudden, you've got momentum behind it, that sort of flywheel approach where now it’s going, and it’s really easy to do. You’ve built it into your routine, and you just show up every day and the next thing you know you’ve enjoyed it, you feel good, you're seeing the benefits, and it’s easy to continue to do.

Amanda Testa: Yes, I think finding that momentum around feeling good, it does spread out. Like Mark said, even just after a couple weeks you’ll notice you feel better, and I notice for me, I can tell you I go through periods when I really, really have a good ritual and routine around moving my body and other times where it’s harder. And so, when I get back into the regular rhythm of moving my body in ways that feel good, I do notice I have more energy and I do notice I feel better, and, honestly, there’s a lot of benefit to how you show up in the bedroom, right?

0:24:17

Often, when we have better cardiovascular health and mood there’s a more positive body image. I’m not talking about trying to force yourself into some, as Audre Lorde says, the -- oh, my gosh, I’m having a mental block right now because we just spilled chocolate on the floor, and I’m like, “It’s staining the rug!” These are the things my mind thinks about. Side note.

Yes, so back to the topic at hand. Oh, yes, The Mythical Norm, and just how much pain and misery that causes people to try to look like some unrealistic norm. Thank goodness that’s changing a little bit where there’s more diversity in the images you see in magazines and here, that, and the other.

0:25:01

I, personally, really highly recommend diversifying your feed, diversifying what you take in, looking at lots of different bodies and sexual orientations, and ways people are together so that you can open your mind to what is normal because what we have been conditioned to be normal is not, right? it’s very not normal, and so, I see so many women that struggle with body image and, because of that, don't want to have sex or don't want to be seen naked and just how much it causes pain and suffering and how we can really change that. We can change that.

And so, when you feel better, then, you know, you want to be intimate, and also, it makes it more comfortable to move your body into different positions, right? Sex is a physical act, let’s be honest, and when you're in pain, you can always find ways to adjust things and modify things so, again, if you need help in those areas you can always reach out. But how fun it can be to have more energy and when you have more energy, it creates more energy. I know that cultivating your sexual energy is another thing I talk about a lot because it is part of our overall wellbeing, right? If we have a lot of stagnancy, a lot of things that aren’t moving, then it’s harder to connect to that energy in us.

0:26:16

Mark Testa: And so, not that I’m a physics wiz, I just remember this from physics class. One of the laws of thermodynamics is that energy can neither be created or destroyed. It just can be transferred, and so, you can transfer energy into your body with drugs and stimulants, but that has a short-lived life cycle. You can transfer energy from movement and food and, now, all of a sudden, you have more energy. So when it comes to what you just said, I think you can cultivate it by transferring it from one region to another.

0:27:00

Amanda Testa: That is true. I mean, and actually I was just looking at a study on physiological sexual arousal following acute exercise, and there’s some that it pointed out like it’s driven by increases in sympathetic nervous system activity and endocrine factors. Chronic exercise lightly enhances sexual satisfaction indirectly by preserving autonomic flexibility which benefits cardiovascular health and mood. Positive body image due to chronic exercise also increases sexual wellbeing. I think that’s interesting to note because, a lot of times, what happens with arousal is we have to also be able to hold, not only -- our nervous system needs to function in a way where we’re not constantly in either a sympathetic or a parasympathetic tone. It bounces back and forth all the time, and that’s normal, right? We want to be in that range of resilience which is where we can easily ride the waves of our lives without falling into extreme overwhelm or depression and shutdown, and so, when we exercise, too, it enhances our capacity for arousal which means, again, we can hold more of that good feeling, too.

0:28:12

Mark Testa: Which I’m snickering over here remembering my anatomy class. We always used little stories to remember things, but parasympathetic in the sacrum, right, which affects men and women, but we remembered is, “S234 keeps the dingdong off the floor.” [Laughs] We had all kinds of silly things like that.

Amanda Testa: Yes.

Mark Testa: Right? A male cannot have an erection or stimulation in any general region (male, female, or nonbinary) without some sort of parasympathetic tone which we already learned earlier that exercise stimulates the vagus nerve in ways like that. And so, to get parasympathetic-tone healthy, there are beautiful effects on that.

0:29:03

Amanda Testa: Yes, and so, all this to say is I really feel like what are the foundations that you could look at to make some easy changes because there are easy things to do so maybe looking at what are the easy things if I’m going through my day and I’m thinking what needs to be weeded and watered? Where could I add in more movement that feels good? Where could I add in more care for myself in a loving way? Again, I think that’s the big key is looking at it in a way that can add more pleasure to your life versus this is something I have to do, this is something that’s annoying, this is something that’s painful, this is something that I don't enjoy. It’s finding a way to make it enjoyable and pleasurable because there are ways to do that. If you need help in that area, obviously, you know that we’re available and we’re here for you. But I would just encourage you to maybe look at those things. What are some ways that I can easily find some more movement? Maybe if it’s even just like I’m sitting all day (which we all are in this epidemic of sitting all day in this day and age) is how can I make little reminders to myself like I’m gonna do some full body squeezes.

0:30:04

I’m gonna squeeze my butt as hard as I can. Maybe I’m going to just have some things at my desk that I can just remind myself with. Maybe every hour I’m gonna stretch, I’m gonna get up. Maybe I’m gonna invest in a standing desk, all of these things. How can I be more loving to my vessel that is so important to enjoy pleasure in all the ways. Like Mark said, it’s not just sex in the bedroom; it’s how can I enjoy my life and be present to the things around me with less pain, with less overwhelm?

So that’s why I wanted to share that today, and thank you, Mark, for all your wisdom in this area.

Mark Testa: Thank you for having me on your show.

Amanda Testa: [Laughs]

Mark Testa: I always enjoy it, and if anyone would like to reach out to me, I’ll offer it as well. If you’d like some exercise ideas or feedback, reach out to Amanda, and I’d be glad to give you any support I can.

Amanda Testa: Mark’s been in healthcare for 25+ years so he knows a thing or two which is what I always love when we talk about these things ‘cause we both get very passionate and fired up.

0:31:04

I, around doing things in a trauma-informed way and doing things in a way that is realistic and pleasurable and he, too, right, because he treats patients all the time, and he’s like, you know, people don't implement. Oftentimes, it’s because of the mindset that we’ve learned around all-or-nothing thinking, right? It’s either all or nothing. I’m good or bad. I see that so much. I see it so much. We have to realize that we can have multiple things happening at the same time, right? You can eat a bag of cookies and still be a good person. You can eat a bag of cookies and still love yourself. You don't have to beat yourself up, and we do. We shame the shit out of ourselves, and there are ways that you can evolve beyond that. You know what, it’s because of, unfortunately, our conditioning, right? We are just in this culture that we’re in, and so, it’s understandable that we would treat this all ourselves the way that we do, but there are techniques and there are methods to move through that, and I do feel like a lot of times, when I’m working with people around their sexuality, body image is a big part of it.

0:32:09

So this is a lot of what I talk about. Oftentimes, too, I think I mentioned before I was a personal trainer and I taught Stroller Strides (workouts for moms) for a long time, and that’s kind of one of the things that got me into this work around sexuality is because I would hear all of the complaints and all the struggles that moms face, and so, I get it. I also, too, lived that myself, and so, I know what you can do to feel better, and so, that’s why I like to also look at all the different holistic ways we can have more pleasure as a foundation in our lives.

I appreciate you listening, and I would love to hear any nuggets that you’re taking away. Again, thinking about what can I do to make this experience a little more pleasurable, whatever that is. All right? Sending you lots of love, and we will see you next week.

[Fun, Empowering Music] 

Thank you so much for listening to the Find Your Feminine Fire podcast. This is your host, Amanda Testa, and if you have felt a calling while listening to this podcast to take this work to a deeper level, this is your golden invitation.

0:33:11

I invite you to reach out. You can contact me at amandatesta.com/activate, and we can have a heart-to-heart to discuss more about how this work can transform your life. You can also join us on Facebook in the Find Your Feminine Fire group, and if you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please share with your friends. Go to iTunes and give me a five-star rating and a raving review so I can connect with other amazing listeners like yourself.

Thank you so much for being a part of the community.

[Fun, Empowering Music]