Unlocking Inner Peace: Breathwork, EMDR, and Cold Plunges with Crystal Little

Calvin and Brooke Masters: You've counted every calorie, tried every diet, spent hours in the gym, and still something's missing. You want more than just weight loss. You want your energy back. You want your confidence restored. You want a way of living that doesn't feel like punishment. Welcome to Master Your Metabolism, where we cut through the noise, ditch the fads, and give you a real plan to become the healthiest, strongest version of you. hosted by our team of expert coaches with proven strategies, science-based tips, and real life encouragement, not just to help you lose fat, but actually create that lifestyle that you love. You've tried everything. Now, let's try what actually works. This is your turning point. Let's go. Brooke Masters: Hey there, everybody. Welcome, welcome to Master Your Metabolism. I am here today with Crystal Little. She is someone I actually connected with from our mindset coach, Amanda. And we have been chatting and planning for our event. And she is also going to be hosting her own retreat in Colombia. Like when I grow up, that's where my next event is going to be. But When I connected with her, the thing that was so interesting is she is so well versed in a lot of the things that I work on with the women that I coach, right? A lot of nervous system regulation, understanding how important that is on not just your mental health, but actually your physical health. And there are different modalities that she works with that I wanted to be able to share because there were a lot of things that I was not aware of and not. understanding and I just really always want to bring value and different things to people that they may not have even known existed. So thank you, thank you, Crystal, for joining us. she has an amazing story. She is not just into the whole breath work and all of this world, but she is also a chief of in Palm Beach County in the fire department. And the way that she has merged and developed her path Given her background and experiences she's had, I thought was fascinating. So I wanted you to start off today, Crystal, if you can share a little bit about your journey. And then I figured we can kind of move and just naturally flow into ways that people we can share different modalities that you do and you can share with people. I think that would be cool. Crystal Little: You thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. Brooke Masters: Yeah. Right. Crystal Little: every time I try to like tell my story of my journey, I try to condense it, but I speak in tangents. So I yeah, I speak in tangents and I like Brooke Masters: Yes. I speak the same language, so that's good. I get transferred. Crystal Little: I go different directions. So I really try to keep it concise because I feel like I really worked I didn't know what I was doing when I was doing it. And it wasn't until way later in my journey that I looked back and said, man, these things are happening. But I wrote an article for an EMS magazine in 2023 because when I was having a conversation with who who's now my boyfriend, but we weren't at the time and we've known each other for 20 years. And I we had a casual relationship way back when and we were just kind of have a conversation at work. Obviously, way later. And he's like, What are you doing now? And I'm like, Well, besides this, I'm like, I you know, I work with the nervous system. And it was the first time I had said it. And he was like, What does that even mean? And I started talking about these different things that I do. And the more I talked about my story, I realized what had happened. And in 2019 was kind of my come to Jesus moment. I don't necessarily think that it's the fire department that put me here. It's just it was a lifestyle I was living. Yes, I was in the fire department, in business. Houses, running calls, fight or flights, or like your go, go, go. But on top of that, I've always been a competitive athlete. So I was racing bikes at the time and I was competing in CrossFit. And then I got a full have fun. So I would party hard. And it was just years and years and decades on decades of this life that compounded with a very traumatic and unsafe relationship. That basically at the end of 2019, I had a gun to my head. And I had you know divine intervention come in I was stopped, which great. And then I was like, man, I really and I had been in an in and out of therapy trying to find someone to help me work through my stuff because I it wasn't just this lifestyle. I had stuff. We all carry stuff from our childhood. And I Brooke Masters: Right. Yeah. Crystal Little: knew that I had a complicated relationship with my father and this and single mom stuff. And I had all these things. And so we don't get out of childhood unscathed. I don't care how beautiful and perfect it is. You got stuff because your child brain just creates it. Brooke Masters: Your perception. Yeah. Crystal Little: It just you can't you can't escape it. But it's our it's our job as humans to to learn it, to understand it, and then evolve with it and then take the wisdom with you. It's not your story, it doesn't define you. Things happened, and then you learn and you evolve. So I had been on the hunt to find somebody to help me. It just so happened that right at that 2019, 2020 COVID shutdown thing, I have found someone after like trying seven or eight doctors over the course of 15 years or so telling the same story didn't work. So she was very helpful, got into some EMDR. We can talk more about that. But Brooke Masters: Yes. Crystal Little: also I had this little voice in my head and I was I didn't listen to music other than in my workouts for years because all that was in my head was podcasts and books and like just trying to evolve and learn. And then I'd hear these podcasts and I would hear about breath work. And I'm like, Breath work. I had an idea of breath work in my head of what I wanted, but I didn't I couldn't I didn't know a name for it and I hadn't really heard it. I just I knew it and I didn't know I was on the hunt for it. So that's out there. Cold plunging and sauna and then mindfulness. I was already doing yoga. And 2019 happened to be when I decided to do yoga teacher training because I needed to explore myself, had nothing to do with the physical practice of learning how to set up a flow. It was all about the internal exploration of self because I was on a mission to fix. What was going on in my brain. And fast forward all these years. So little by little, I was introducing different things into my daily life. Float tanks. my gosh, float tanks. Like these things help me just get to them, but I couldn't do that initially. So 2019 happens. I start introducing these things between cold and more mindfulness practice and grounding and breath. And then I find the breath work and these things. And then when I finally felt like I, and I was also very Isolated at that time in my life. I was doing it to myself. Like I said, unsafe relationship. I was just isolating Brooke Masters: Yeah. Crystal Little: from family, friends. I mean, we've heard the story, it's the same. And so I started then doing these things. And I when I finally got to a place healthy enough to extricate myself from that and then start to create an actual community around these modalities. That's when I started to bloom. And that's when I looked back behind me and was like, wow. Brooke Masters: Look what I did. Crystal Little: All and that's when I realized I was lure I was training my nervous system. It had been fried for so long. It took years. There's no silver bullet. And then I've been wearing an aura ring for since I I mean I pre-ordered it a year before it came out. So I've had it since the beginning. And I had this epiphany. I'm like, HRV. I learned about heart rate variability. We could talk more about that. And I immediately went to my phone, looked at my app and looked at the trends and was like mind-blown because in 20 18, 2019, I was in the single digits with my HRV. And in 2023, when I decided to write this article, I was in the triple digits. I was in the sometimes even in the 200s, which is insanely high. But that's Brooke Masters: Insane. Crystal Little: the only data point that we have that to determine the resiliency of your nervous system. You know, the how regulated are you? Is your heart rate variability? When I learned about that, I quickly went to the data that I've been tracking. for no other reason, other than Brooke Masters: Right. Crystal Little: I knew sleep was important for mental health and I was doing everything I could, but I didn't know what HRV was. I went back and my mind was like because Brooke Masters: Yep. Crystal Little: I could see my trend and then I and you could see it inch up every time I kinda, every year I would add something because I didn't learn all these things all at once. Brooke Masters: Right, right. Crystal Little: And now now I do these things. Now when I learn something and it works for me and I do it, I wanna learn it and then I wanna share it. It's just how I work. I this is good for me, it's gonna be good for other people. Let me go and share. So that's how that's how I found you. Brooke Masters: That's amazing, amazing. And just for those of you that like understand, HRV, like single digits, not good. Crystal Little: Not good. Brooke Masters: And because it impacts your your health, right? So you want to be in a certain point, and that heart rate variability tells your how you are able to be resilient and how resilient your body is. Most people are probably in the 20s, 30s. like a good average is like What would you say, like fifty, sixty? Crystal Little: Yeah, well they say it's there is no range. It's not like your normal heart rate is sixty to a hundred. That's normal. So it is extremely individualized. So I don't even really like telling the numbers because people get w we get zoned in on that. Brooke Masters: Yeah. Hyper focused. Crystal Little: It's really for you. And as we age, it also changes. hormonal shifts, like everything affects it. So Brooke Masters: It's going to go down. Yes. Yep. Crystal Little: I I mean, when you track yours long enough, then you'll know when you're trending in the right direction. But yes, I would say most people are probably below 50. And if you're like between 50 and 100, that's great. You know, that means you're really doubled into Brooke Masters: Right. So the fact that you were Crystal Little: recovery. Brooke Masters: Yeah. And the fact that you were able to go from single digits to triple, just so everybody is aware, that is a significant shift in her health. So over four years, a significant but you think of Crystal Little: Over four years. Over four it it it didn't happen overnight. That was over the course of four years it took me to get there. Brooke Masters: Right. But you think of that four years and the ripple effect it will have on the rest of your life. Because it's not something that you'll get started and be able to do that and just say, Well, I'm good. I met my goal. It's kind of like you start training in the gym and you start to see that change. You feel stronger, you feel more energy, you love going there. Then it's like you're never gonna get back to that point that you're like, meh, I'm good now. I'm just gonna stop. Crystal Little: Yeah. Brooke Masters: Because once you do and you see it, it's like that's where you just you'll feel the effects of it. You'll see Yep. Crystal Little: And there's no coasting, right? It's like in any business, any corporation, when you are a status quo, like let's just try not to mess up what we got, you're going backwards. And Brooke Masters: Yep. Crystal Little: if I if that was a message I could I could tell people, like you don't get anywhere, you don't have the the climb, and then you're like, All right, we're gonna coast. If you're coasting, you're sliding back. There's I mean, Brooke Masters: Your slide for sure. For sure. Crystal Little: it's just constant, yeah. I mean, it's discipline, it's the constant drive to always be better. and to maintain your habits, your habits that got you there or what's gonna keep you there. Brooke Masters: Yep. And then building on those habits and saying, well, if I was able to do this, what else can I do? Yeah, Crystal Little: Correct. Well let's add one more th one more thing. Brooke Masters: yeah. So, you know, modalities. Let's shift over to some of those that you mentioned because I find it fascinating. you know, what were some of the first, like you had mentioned, the EMDR? So for people that don't know what that is, if you can explain what that is, what Crystal Little: Yes. Brooke Masters: the application. Crystal Little: so I am not a psychologist. I I I am getting my degree in psychology because I find it fascinating, but I am by no means a doctor of any of this. But what my doctor did say, because I I came in there telling her all of these stories and these things, and she and she didn't I had been with doctors before that wanted me to relive some of these awful moments and like talk and and she's like, Stop right there. She goes, We don't need to do that, which also made me feel safe because sometimes articulating even your worst. behavior is not fun. Even though you you've come to make amends with it, we don't necessarily want to relive it and then have to verbally say that I did this thing and it was not my best moment. Brooke Masters: Yep. Crystal Little: so it's eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. So if you think about REM sleep, we all well, some of us know, right? When you're in REM sleep, your eyes go back and forth, right? They and that's when your brain is kind of we have our lymphatic system in the body that detoxes the body, and we have the lymphatic in the brain. And when we're sleeping during REM sleep, that's when it's all kind of get getting like cleaned out in there, the gunk. And then your memories are being filed on the appropriate memory line. And when you have a traumatic event, no matter big T, little T, doesn't matter, your you kind of your mind kind of goes offline and things get misfiled. They're they're the wrong things. And that's when you start to we call we get triggered. And then you might relive the past or you create these patterns. I would think we all sh it's a human thing. We all have patterns. We all ways we react when we feel a certain way or we feel challenged or whatever it is. And you keep repeating your same patterns and you're like, I need to break out of the cycle. So you hold a memory. And you hold either buzzers or lights, and then we recreate red sleep. So you think of your memory and how you felt, and then it's like a slow buzzer, a slow alternating of a buzzer or a light. And then as you're processing it, I'm a physical processor. Some people see colors, some people think thoughts. I feel like sensation in my body, my elbow, my knee, my ankle, like and it's weird. It doesn't like travel up. It'll be like knee, shoulder, ankle, back. Like it just moves around and she and you process it until it becomes less. And then we want to think about how we want to view this memory. If it was a memory of being unsafe, I want to feel safe. Usually it's kind of the opposite, at least that's how it worked for me. And then we would hold that and there was a a process that she would do until I could no longer feel a sensation and I my body was calm. It's a very mentally exhausting process. It's like a meditation, but I would leave the office feeling so tired. I wouldn't necessarily take a nap. If I could have, but usually I'd have to go right back into life. But I did it for years because we had so many memories to do, even though I didn't have a whole lot of them. But that was like the first, the first thing I think I really started doing. I had already been doing yoga, but I was doing yoga for exercise. I wasn't doing it for the mindful breath, movement, body sensation, connection, how you treat yourself on the mat is how you treat yourself off. It wasn't none of that yet. I wasn't there yet. Brooke Masters: Right, right, right. Crystal Little: But with the EMDR, that was probably the first understanding I had of my nervous system looking back. Didn't know it in the moment, but looking back, now I know I was training my nervous system there to be in an uncomfortable space. remind myself I'm I'm safe, but be able to shift it. And it took maybe six to eight months before I had a situation come up and I caught myself in the moment of wanting to react in the same way I've always reacted. And I stopped and said, Nope, not gonna do that. And I paused and then I responded in a completely new way, which the other person was didn't know how to act to me. So I was like and I was so proud of myself. And that's how I knew it was working. It because you don't feel any different. You don't like there's no aha moment. You're just a little tired afterward and you're like, All right, I hope this works and you just keep going. Like I'm one of those people that if you just tell me, I'm like, keep stick with it, I'm like, okay, I'll stick with it. And it took about six or eight months till I started seeing changes. And You know, not every session obviously was an EMDR session. Sometimes it was just talk therapy, but it took a few years and that was my first to me, it's a game changer. It really helped me like refile these memories and then allowed me to respond. We always say the powers and the pause, you know, the ability Brooke Masters: Mm-hmm. Crystal Little: to respond rather than react. And it's kind of contradictory to my job because when I need to make a decision, I need to make a decision like right now. There's no like, let me think about this. Let me pop you know, sometimes we have the time, but it it was just it allowed me to touch the other side of the spectrum. I spent my spectrum over here in the red, and it allowed me to go into the yellow, go into the green, and and know that it was safe to be there, that I didn't have to react immediately. telling it I'm having a realization in this moment actually. That's probably why I ended up in this job. Like, because Brooke Masters: Yeah, yeah. Crystal Little: I've been in my red my whole life, even before the fire service, and so it was comfortable. And now I'm finding more comfort in the yellow and in the green, where I've I historically haven't spent a whole lot of time. Brooke Masters: And sometimes it's just spending that time to make it more familiar. Because I find that a lot of the women that I work with and myself included is just you're always in that sense that someone will say, Are you stressed? No, I'm not stressed. Like everything's fine. I'm like, Yeah. Because Crystal Little: This is life. What are you talking about? Normal. Brooke Masters: it's like when you don't have other moments like that, or those moments are so infrequent that it's almost like Crystal Little: Becomes the norm. Brooke Masters: that feels not right. This is my Crystal Little: Mm-hmm. Brooke Masters: norm. So getting people to almost recognize like, Hey girl, like this, this inability to like stop and breathe and do it, like this is what we need more practice with. So I love that you said that. And and it's it's very interesting to me because I think a lot of people do expect like, well, I can't do that. I can't meditate. I can't do this. Like this is just who I am. Crystal Little: Mm-hmm. I've heard that a thousand times. I was one of by Brooke Masters: So yep. And this is just like how I Crystal Little: the way. Brooke Masters: yeah. And how I was brought up and this is what how my family was. And you know, it's just not gonna change. But I always, you know, think about it like, well, if you want to stay the same and you want to remain where you are, that's a choice. But if you truly want to do something better and do something different and to improve who you, you know, or just to become something a better Crystal Little: Mm-hmm. Brooke Masters: a version of yourself that you want to be that you don't feel you are now, then there has to be some type of shit. There has to be something that you recognize in yourself and say, Yep. And it's Crystal Little: And it's gonna be uncomfortable. You know, change is not comfortable. You have to get comfortable getting uncomfortable. I was the person who for I've been doing yoga now like 20 years. And probably for like the first, I don't know, five, eight, ten years, I don't even know. I used to leave before the shavasana, before the meditation, because I didn't have time for that. And what is it, two minutes, three minutes? Cause like and really now I'm one of those teachers that I'm like five, seven, ten minutes even because they need it. Brooke Masters: Yep. Crystal Little: I would sneak out because I didn't have time for it. And then one day I was just so tired from class, it was a power class, and I just didn't have the energy to pack up and like sneak out. I laid there and that was the day I was like, this is Brooke Masters: Now I see. This is pretty nice. Crystal Little: it. I get the yoga high now. Like I have no Brooke Masters: Yeah. Crystal Little: and then so now I would I would never miss it now. Brooke Masters: Yeah. Crystal Little: it's just interesting. And when people are like, Well, I can't meditate, I'm like, you don't shut your mind off. You just pay attention to something, your breath, count sheep, count whatever. And then when Brooke Masters: Yeah. Crystal Little: you find yourself doing your to-do list or what you have to do later or what you could have done better earlier in the day, you're like, there I go thinking again. You come back to the breath. That Brooke Masters: Yes. Crystal Little: that's that's it. That is meditation. The and the and it's an attention muscle. We are so hyperlinked into everything. Everything is a click and a and you can't stand and I'm Brooke Masters: Emails, phone, yep. Crystal Little: We're all guilty of it. You can't stay on subject. We're scrolling or this. It's a 30-second loop for the next thing. And meditating is the attention muscle. So when people say, Well, I'm ADD, yeah, everybody's ADD. I am too. But when Brooke Masters: Right. Crystal Little: you work the attention muscle and you practice just counting the breath, in for four, out for eight, in, and then you lose your train of thought and you're somewhere and you're like, wait, in for four, out for eight. And before you know it, you'll go longer and longer before your mind wanders. Brooke Masters: Yep. Yep. Yep. Noticing. Crystal Little: But that's meditating. That's it. It's there's no shutting the mind off. It's gonna want to go. You just have to and when you catch it, you'll catch it sooner and sooner and sooner. And that's Brooke Masters: Right. Crystal Little: that's it. That's it. There's no secret. Brooke Masters: Yeah. I I was in one of the classes and they're like, the thoughts are going to come, but notice the thoughts. Question the thoughts. Crystal Little: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Brooke Masters: Like be interested in the thoughts rather than getting hyper focused on the thought itself. which that was something for me. It was like, I can't shut this brain off. Like it's just not happening. I got 600 tab, just like this computer right here. There are a lot of tabs Crystal Little: Mm-hmm. Brooke Masters: open. and I know we all are, and everyone's like, well, you know, my They'll tell me my mom didn't have you know any issues with perimenopause or menopause. Look and see what our society is now compared to how it was even 20 years ago. Like Crystal Little: yeah. Brooke Masters: the amount of you have to get this done, you have to take care of this, check the emails, make sure you make the appointments, you know, make sure you're you know doing all the things for work. There are so many places that and plus social media and all of the things, there's not a chance. It is I feel like it's working the opposite direction that it is working that like inattentive muscle. Crystal Little: I don't think. Brooke Masters: and you have to recognize because I was trying to set up for myself, even, okay, it's seven o'clock at night, we're powering down. There is no more computer, there is no more screens, there is no more anything. It was the hardest thing for me because there would always be a thought in my head that was like, wait, but I just have to check this. And then I would go to check this. Crystal Little: Yeah. Let me do this one thing real quick. Brooke Masters: Yep. And then it just would spiral up. you know what? While I'm here, like I might as well do this. And then somebody will send me a message and then I get in a conversation. And it just spirals like that. So it is something that I feel I'm not alone in it. I hear a lot of clients like that. And the problem is, Crystal Little: we're all doing it. Brooke Masters: is that the central nervous system, I don't think people realize the connection between your central nervous system and your health and how much. That dysregulation can impact your ability, it physical self, that. Crystal Little: It's not psychological, it is physiological. We are not one mind. We are not a like the way the medical system is set up with the cardiologist and the polynologists and the endocrinologists, and and nobody knows what they're doing, what the other one's doing. We are all an entire universe. And your mental health, your nervous system, your physical health, it is all connected. They all influence each other incredibly. You cannot have a you know, HRV of four and think your immune system is strong. Like you're gonna be that person that's running themselves into the ground all the time and you're gonna get sick all the time. You're that's just what now if you are very resilient and you're optimizing everything, when you come into contact with like I don't worry about sick people. I hardly ever get sick. Hardly ever. But I spend a lot of time regulating myself. So where there's other people I know that, man, the moment they hear somebody is sick in another state, they're like, man, I'm coming down with something. Like, you know? Brooke Masters: It is true. It is true. You know, but again, it's I feel like it takes work. And like you said, it it's not an overnight thing. It's really hard. And everybody is going to have the challenge because of everything that we're dealing with. And like you said, it it doesn't Crystal Little: Absolutely. Brooke Masters: even have to be a traumatic childhood. It is Crystal Little: So Brooke Masters: the perception that you have of your childhood. Crystal Little: So I always tell this story because this paints a picture I think really well. I told you I had a single mom, I have two brothers. So there's a period of time where life is crazy. You've got one in gymnastics, one in football, one in band, one in volley like and you're dropping one off, you're picking one up and y you don't get to stay and watch any of them. You know, she was on her own. And I was pretty good at d gymnastics, but I was the middle time slot. So my mom had maybe 10 minutes, but I just remember what I was probably seven, eight, maybe, and I really wanted her to watch me do the floor because that's what I was good at. I was not good at the bars, but I was good at the floor. And I wanted her to watch me, but she couldn't. She had to run because there was more pickups and drop-offs to do. And in that moment, my little seven-year-old brain just didn't feel very important. And I don't have very many core memories. I just I'm a disassociator. I've my flight is to go to outer Brooke Masters: Same. Same. Crystal Little: space. So when I I did my homework for my EMDR, write down your mount your childhood memories. I had like 15. Like that's all I got. And that Brooke Masters: Yeah. Yeah. Crystal Little: was one of them. And it's a very benign thing. And I had to EMDR that because I am important. And my mother I know I know this. I even knew it then. But it's just a thing. Your little seven your your perception is like, they're more important. And it was something I had the EMDR and I was living my life and making myself unimportant in so many realms of life. And it was just a core belief that I had. It's a very benign memory. It doesn't have to be this, you know, crazy abuse that will run your subconscious. Brooke Masters: Yep. Yep. I mean, I tell people like the the even though when you were in like the first grade and somebody, you know, like I'm Crystal Little: Yeah. Brooke Masters: only five feet tall, so I got called short all the time. I got, you know, so you just constantly have Crystal Little: Yoody. Brooke Masters: this version of yourself and you're like, you know, and Crystal Little: Yeah. Brooke Masters: and it sticks with you, and then you'll always have that in the back of your mind. And people don't realize that their behaviors throughout the rest of their years are all stemming from what happened then. Without you even realizing it is just something like you said, somewhere in the files that was there, and you are just Crystal Little: Yeah. To the wrong style. Brooke Masters: and and that's what you're, you know, being able to move through. So I love that. And EMDR was something that I learned about recently, and I find it fascinating. yep, Crystal Little: it's a game leader. Brooke Masters: yep. So from there, let's move to another modality that you feel is something. Crystal Little: So I got into cold plunging. And yeah, I know. And I know there's schools of thought on it that like, especially like I'm in perimenopause and and like in menopause, like there's sometimes the cold is too cold, and most Brooke Masters: Mm-hmm. Crystal Little: of these studies have been done on men. I'm aware of all of these things. The way I was taught to cold plunge was by a veteran. She was from the Northeast, and when she got back from Iraq, The only way she was able to kind of feel alive was to go do these like polar plunges there. And she created a bit and she does body work now and she created a whole business out of it. And I met her at like a random like workshop at a gym, because I go to all the gyms. Well Brooke Masters: Yeah. Crystal Little: So I met her there and she was telling me about her idea. It was being built and I was like, man. So I was like, this is it. I'd been looking for cold plunging for years. And I had done it a couple of times in my tub, but like that's not that's not feasible. Plus I had no idea what I was doing. I was just in there and I was kind of grinning bearing it. I Brooke Masters: Really? Crystal Little: was like, I was surviving the cold. Well Brooke Masters: That's what I do. Crystal Little: Yeah, I survive it. But that my whole life, the survival. Our whole lives are survival. That's Brooke Masters: Right. Crystal Little: not for me, that is not the purpose. Now, now there are athletes. Yeah, I want to do it for the inflammation, the recovery, because I'm an athlete too, but I'm gonna get that. when I do it the other way too. And the other way, the way Danny taught me was when sh when I finally was able to go here, you know, you get in slow. So we did box breathing, four in, hold for four, exhale Brooke Masters: Yeah. Crystal Little: for four, hold for four. So we would do and she would kind of get me just kind of dropping into my body, tuning into sensation. And then when you get in the water It was not like jumping in and like suffering through it. She's like, you're gonna get in slow, you're gonna get into the base of your neck, so you get the vagus nerve, right? That's gonna control your entire parasympathetic nervous system. And then and still to this day, I cold I have I have a cold plunge in my bathroom and and I still to this day I hear her voice saying, You are safe. This is what cold feels like. All you have to do is breathe. And it was all I had to do was work on the exhale. Now could I have done that on my own? No way. Not I can now, but it's still not the same as having like a guide. But she taught me that getting in the cold and stressing your body, but reminding yourself that you are safe. It's just cold. It will it it gave me another level of resilience. And where I really noticed the difference was when I got promoted to my last rank, I not very long after I was promoted had a two alarm church fire and I was the one in charge of it. And the chief was still twenty minutes away. I was the one in charge of it. I was we have an EMS captain which is a command officer. But I hadn't I mean I hadn't run one of those yet. And I remember feeling like, you know, the what is it, the analogy of the duck, right? Going crazy underwater, but like on top. And I felt Brooke Masters: Right. Yep, yep. Crystal Little: like because inside I was like, I hope I'm doing and I was making decisions on the fly, putting people on roofs, having all these guys go in. I had, you know, there was a lot happening. And I can't tell you how many of the guys came up to me and said, Man, you re you were so smooth. You were cool. You were and I was thinking in my head, like, cause I felt like I was going nuts, but the ability to remember. Remain calm under stress because your body doesn't know if it's physical, mental, emotional. Stress is stress. The stress it's stress. Brooke Masters: Yep. The response is the same. Crystal Little: The it the resp the physiological response is the same, heart rate elevated, like all these things are still happening, but when you can train your body to remain calm, so the cold is just a stressor, and I work the ability to downregulate my system under stress. So that's just another tool for me when life gets hectic because it will. Brooke Masters: Yep. Crystal Little: It's just another thing. So, and where I really noticed it was a couple years ago, I had a very busy like December. And I stayed with my boyfriend, not really making time for myself. I was teaching yoga, not practicing yoga. I wasn't in my tub. And I started my the the little menace in my brain, my little anxiety voice telling me that, you know. just all the terrible things, all the wonderful things in my life were not real. I was gonna live like I have this little menace that goes off every once in a while. And when I went to my therapist, she's like, well, what's different? And I'm like telling her, she's like, have you been in your tub? And I said, no, I haven't had time. We were a vacation for a long time, then we this and it's holidays and, you know, just life. And she's like, maybe you should get back in it. And when I got back in it, it was like the first time all over again. Like Brooke Masters: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Crystal Little: Can't can't breathe. And for the first late and and it took me about three days to get regulated again. But it's about the day four, my mind. And so for me, not only is it another ability to remind myself to to that I am safe, even under stress, I can I can manage this. All I have to do is breathe. It also helps quiet that anxious anxious part of my mind. It is and and when I'm away from it too long, I can feel the anxiety leave my body in the water. And it just keeps my mind quiet. It it is for me, so how cold is too cold and how long is too long and All of these things I do two to three minutes. It and for me I do it for my anxiety. I do it because I as I got older, I got a little bit more anxious and it helps me just keep it 39 degrees. Brooke Masters: Yeah? How cold is your water? my goodness gracious! Crystal Little: But that's why I only do two or three minutes because I did kind of like my little my inner I call her my inner bitch, right? Like I was like, well, maybe it is too cold because it's still hard. I don't care if I do this. I've been doing it every day for four years and or mostly, right? I was like, maybe it is too cold because I'm listening to all the voices out there. And so I raised the temperature, but I didn't get that same and I raised it to like 47. And I was like, maybe, but it just wasn't the same. So I've knocked it back down in two minutes is all it takes for me. As soon as my breath begins to calm, I do another minute and then I'm good. So two to three minutes is all it takes. And and I don't I don't need to sit in there longer because the temperature's higher to get that same, you know, reaction. But yeah. Brooke Masters: Right. Right. Right. So so funny story is we had a I had a friend that took me recently. There was a facility in degree wellness over here in Wellington. And she's like, come do cold plunge. I'm like, okay. I have one here. we keep it at like 55. which apparently is like a hot tub. so Crystal Little: Yeah. Brooke Masters: I was able to do that for like seven minutes. So I went there and I'm looking at the number. I'm like, is that really 47? And my love, like lit I was in survival mode. Like I a minute and I started like losing feeling in my feet and my hands. Crystal Little: Okay. Mm-hmm. Brooke Masters: And I said, no, because I'm not gonna be able to climb up out of this tub and I maybe not make it. so you know, I would be interested to see how to like guide people through that because I was in survival mode. Like I did, I did the thing of getting up to here. I was in that 47 and I was like. no, my I can't feel my feet. Crystal Little: You can do it. So when everyone started learning, because I'm actually a Morosco certified cold water guide. Like I took a whole course on it. Brooke Masters: Yeah. Crystal Little: because it really is like there's different ways to do it. But for me, it is about connecting breath, body, mindfulness, down regulation of the nervous system. So I do some sound bowls and but it's all about coaching the breathing, dropping in and then like tuning into what you feel like. When I was doing my rounds To my different stations to go see my different crews. I showed up at one station. This happens to be a very busy station. There's nine guys there, three trucks. They're all doing cold plunging, right? There and one of them lasted 13 seconds. And he got out and I No, no, no, no, no. I No, I can't do it. I said, Trust me. And I've got all these clowns behind me. And I said, just right here. I watch me, your eye to eye. And I'm like, You're gonna breathe with me. And I got him to four minutes. And not that he needed four minutes. Honestly, I was like, we're just gonna do two minutes. You could do anything for two minutes. You are a firefighter. You do these crazy things. Like you can do this. But he just needed someone and and he was like, I can't believe it. I was Are you good? He's like, We'll do another minute. Okay. Like we were 30 seconds, 30 seconds. And but Brooke Masters: Right, right. Crystal Little: it was just being able to breathe. He all he needed was because he was in there like so tense. I said, No, no, no. And you know, I'm like touch his shoulders. I'm like, see if you can relax your shoulders. Breathe. Exhale. We're just breathing. That's all we're doing is breathing. And I got him to, you know, a place where he could actually relax. And he I don't know if he's ever done it again. It was not his thing. But he did overcome that initial survival, which It was so powerful for me to be a part of because I thought I was like, You can do this. Like I know it's hard. Like this is a hard thing. I do I wanna do a hard thing every day. Something I don't wanna do. Like I Bulgarians, I do not ever want to do them. Ever. Brooke Masters: Yeah. Crystal Little: There is no nice way to do it, but I do them and when I and every time I do them, I'm like, I'll be like, I'll do ten, and I'll do it, all right, I'll do twelve. You know, like because I like Brooke Masters: Yeah. Crystal Little: I gotta do the hard thing because I do hard things. That is Brooke Masters: That's what makes it grow. Crystal Little: I den it's an identity for me. I hard th things and I never want to be someone who gives up on herself because I got too comfortable. Because what happens when you get too comfortable and you coast? You go back. Brooke Masters: Slide back. Yep. Yep. It's true. It's true. But it is. But I definitely think like everything else, it's a it is a safety thing. When you have somebody there, just like if I'm training with someone, I'm going to be able to go harder, do more because somebody is there to go, come on, girl, you got this. That I won't be able Crystal Little: Yeah. Yeah. And you're safe. Brooke Masters: to do myself. Crystal Little: Yeah. I'm right here with you. Like, you're safe. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. It's like having a spot. You're gonna go heavier on your squat because Brooke Masters: Yeah. Correct. Crystal Little: you've got that person there. When someone's there, like, hey, breathe with me. Well, just you are safe. This is it's just cold. It's just cold. So, yeah. Brooke Masters: Yep. And I'll pull you out of the water when you all your f your bodies and parts go numb. Crystal Little: So that that was very powerful man it and like I see these modalities coming to life in other areas of my life. Like I said, like running that fire. I just remember coming back and being like, Wow, I can't believe I was so cool on the surface. Meanwhile, like, yeah, there's still stress. This is not a you know, this is my first time doing this, but I was like, Man, I was able to keep it together. I was all I had to do was breathe and think and Brooke Masters: And then it builds that confidence. Crystal Little: And it yeah, it gave me kind of like this was a hard thing. But guess what? I do hard things. I do hard things every day. Brooke Masters: Right. And now you have evidence. It's o it's almost that thing that this was really hard. I didn't think I could do it and I did it. Cool. Crystal Little: Mm-hmm. Brooke Masters: So the next thing that will come up, well I can't. Well, I didn't think I could do that either. And now Crystal Little: Uh-huh. Brooke Masters: look, I already sh have evidence that I can do hard things and the things that I don't, and what's the worst that can happen? I mean, besides my feet falling asleep and not being able to get out of the tub. But Crystal Little: Yeah. Yeah. Well sometimes I will say I cheat. I sometimes will burn my hands and toes out because like I I need to be able to use them. So I do like I'll burn my toes out and my hands out so I can still use them. Brooke Masters: Yes, yes. All right, cool. Next one. Next favorite. Crystal Little: So I would I would have to say probably breath work. I definitely want to talk about a float tank. So I don't know what we're looking at on time here. But so Brooke Masters: Yeah, yeah. Crystal Little: breath work. I knew for me, I was holding a lot of stuff that I had never been able to express, right? We've all been told it's not appropriate or and and this goes for even joy. And people think like when when I do when I talk about somatic release, yeah, maybe there's anger that especially as women, right, we've swallowed. Because for whatever reason we couldn't express it or we would be crazy. And but for anger was always a tough one for me. I can go to tears because a lot of times the anger is the surface level to the sadness or the pain or the hurt or whatever else we're dealing with. But I knew, right, if you've ever heard of the book The Body Keeps the Score, the Body Keeps the Score. And Brooke Masters: Yeah. Crystal Little: you are storing your unexpressed energy. emotion, right? Just energy and motion. You're extoring that in your body somewhere. So I knew I was looking for that somatic release. And there's like Wim Hof and holotropic and all these things. But what they don't, they get you up and then they kind of like Then you're just like left hanging there. And so what I was looking for was something that would take me there, but then make me safe again, kind of break big me back hole. And I Brooke Masters: Yes. Yes. Crystal Little: didn't really, I had no idea what this was called. I just was looking for it. And I'm like, so I would try these different things, and most of them were weird, not what I was looking for. I couldn't get myself emotionally to where I knew I needed to go. Like I intuitively knew that. So when I finally found a friend of mine who had done this, she was she was practicing. So I was like, I gotta go do This and the first time I like I knew what I wanted, but I still couldn't get there. But once I had experienced it, once I was able to go. And what's so important is that you allow you give yourself permission to express, whether it's sobbing, whether it's yelling, whether it's movement. I see people do backbends and roll, and I I'm a mover and a shaker myself, and then joy. They're like, I mean, how many times have you wanted to laugh at something that was completely inappropriate and you held it in, and then eventually it like kind of goes. away but that's still there like you have to where have you not allowed yourself to feel joy where have you not allowed yourself to be your fullest expression so they're through coaching and prompts right we want to also get into the subconscious so the breath is the only thing that we can really control to activate our nervous system the nervous system is autonomic but the breath we can control so Brooke Masters: Yeah. Right. Crystal Little: when we can activate mouth breathing the first thing I start to feel are my ears get hot I know they get red Red and then I start my shoulders, my and I want to move around because I'm starting to activate my body and it the stored energy is becoming active. So we go through that. And then the second half of it is repatterning. It's it's closing up the cycle. It's now rebuilding who you want to be, what your purpose is. Like you clear out all the gunk you've been holding, and now you can, it's more meditative, it's more nasal breathing, exhaling. It's it's definitely calmer. And it brings you back to a safe place in your body. You feel lighter. Whatever you get, you get. Some people don't have even like a physical expression, but they have it's a very trippy experience. We do periodic breath holds and it's a very trippy experience. You have like your higher self, you you might get downloads or whatever people want to call it, but you have like these insights into like how silly we are as humans, truly, right? The things that we we hold on to. That it's like, man, you're not wasn't Brooke Masters: Was that even worth it? Crystal Little: like, why am I carrying this around? It's not mine. Like, get this. We've turned us under, give it back. Like, we're Brooke Masters: Right. Right. Yep. Yep. Crystal Little: carrying these things. So I found that, and that was huge. So I literally did one session and flew to Phoenix to get certified because I was like, this is it, I need to share it. And so then I've I do workshops, you know. In I haven't done any in Palm Beach, have I? Well, I've done some in Dan in Delray, but usually in Coconut Creek, Davy, Coral Spring. friends areas, I do workshops and it's funny, people love it. And and I'm like, you're never gonna get out of this without having the stuff. And as long as you're living, you're gonna incur more because it's just the culture we live in. And unless you're gonna create the space for yourself to like cry, I definitely cry a whole lot more now in my own private time than I ever did before. And I don't think it's a bad thing. I mean, it's like those ASPCA commercials, those look at me every time. And whether it's the animals or it's just triggering something in me, the energy is there. To be expressed. So I let it go. If it's a song, I let it go. Brooke Masters: Yeah. Yep. Yep. Crystal Little: but that's been really pivotal for me, and it's been really helpful for other people because that's when they realize how much they're holding or how much they're carrying around with them every day that they are allowed to let go. Like doing something like that prevents you from losing your shit, excuse my language, on somebody. Because Brooke Masters: Yeah. Yeah. Crystal Little: you're, you know, your cup, how full is your cup? It's time to empty it. Because Brooke Masters: Yep. Yep. Crystal Little: it's gonna get full again. Brooke Masters: It's almost like that balloon. Like if you keep going, it's it's gonna keep expanding, but eventually, you know, it's Crystal Little: It's gonna pop. Brooke Masters: gonna pop. And you and you have to look at what would be, you know, when it does, what is that gonna impact? Whereas if you learned how to let some of the air out, how to, you Crystal Little: good. Brooke Masters: know, allow it to expand because it will continue to expand, but as long Crystal Little: Boys. Brooke Masters: as you understand how to release, it never gets to that point that it will explode. And you almost can recognize, you know, and I had done breath work with someone, it was The whole reason actually that started our retreat and how we got connected, all of the things. it was just these thoughts and and recognizing these thoughts and then recognizing the feelings and and being really aware of what is going on, but it does allow you to kind of have a little bit more control and know when things are getting like, it's happening. Now I gotta learn how to let this go a little bit and why Crystal Little: Yeah. Brooke Masters: I am crying at the ASBCA commercials. Like Mine's always the ones with the kids. It's like, my gosh, like I can't Crystal Little: Yeah. I know those two. All of them. But it's like it's Brooke Masters: So Crystal Little: the and it's the fear of feeling too. People Brooke Masters: Yes. Crystal Little: have a fear and and I will also say on this journey, initially and I I didn't think about it because I you know, I had a very narrow range of emotions because I had kind of walled myself off from anything else. Now I have a very wide range of emotions because I'm allowing myself to feel them. But it I mean it it didn't just all of a sudden expand. It was, Brooke Masters: Mm mm. Crystal Little: you know, little bit by little bit unlocking certain memories. I have more memories now after EMDR than I ever had before. And it's exciting because they're positive too. And now I have more emotion, I have more feeling, more depth or more range. And It's more hu I feel like I'm more human. And not that I I mean, I'm not human. Like I felt like an alien attire too, but I definitely feel more human and I I have an ability to connect more because I feel more. Brooke Masters: Yeah. Yeah. And feelings aren't bad. I think a lot of times, like you said, it's just you're they're labeled as bad or like, she's weak and things like that and not feeling those feelings. But it's all part of it because when you feel the feelings and recognize that it's okay and you are safe, that's what allows you to feel more, be more and experience more and be present more and have a life. Crystal Little: I'm connecting more because I use these skills with these guys at work when they're struggle with things. My before I before I was a chief, my chief, he would always be like, Man, these guys spill their guts to you. And I'm like, they do. And I go, but I respect their their privacy. And I also just have real compassion for them. You know, I really can just listen and You know, I put myself with them. I want them to feel seen and heard and understood, but I couldn't I couldn't be this version of me without this craziness I had to go through. Like ten years ago, Brooke Masters: Right. Crystal Little: there's absolutely no way I'd have been like, suck it up, dude. Like, what do you think this is? You know, keep on trucking, rub some dirt on them and walk it off. Brooke Masters: Yep, yep, yeah. Yeah. But and then it's the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. But you think of the environment too. Because normally Crystal Little: Yeah. Brooke Masters: without you there, they wouldn't have had that outlet, especially probably more Crystal Little: Correct. Brooke Masters: for guys to be able to really let go of their feelings. Cause there is some restriction with women, like that are s the mostly other people that are like, Come on, like she's so emotional. But guys, like that's Crystal Little: Yeah. Brooke Masters: probably another area, you know, and a and a group full of guys and the fire station. That's what, you know, they all are kind of like that, like suck it up. So it definitely is having that outlet and having someone that they can feel safe with, feeling s you know, that can walk them through it is gonna make them a better person and probably better with the person they're Crystal Little: Yeah. Brooke Masters: involved with and anyone around them. Crystal Little: I think too in this process, I we've talked a little bit about inner child, like we were talking about Yoga wheel and having the ability to play. And when you're so serious because you're wound so tight because you have all the to-do lists and you're so adult. Like, I don't want to be an adult. No, I didn't sign up for this. Like, I want to go play. I want to be a kid. I want to experience that. And in this journey, kind of clearing out the cobwebs, the gunk, doing the breath work, doing more mindful movement, whether it's in the gym or on a yoga mat, doing the cold, like I've also gotten way more in touch with like. like the fun little girl inside that just wants to play and touch things. My boyfriend's always he's like, You're such a child. Like we go out places and I wanna touch. And I w like like a kid, you know, obviously I know how to stay in my lane, but I'm way more childlike than I ever was. I've always been silly, but I now really connect to that. Like I can lay out on my grass and watch the clouds and find the cartoon shape. Like I can do where like it had been years since I had done something like that. And now my Brooke Masters: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Crystal Little: imagination is it's like unlocked. And I can have these wild like imagery in my head. It's imagination that like you lose as an adult. And I was so grateful when that came back and I didn't even know I was missing it. Brooke Masters: Yeah. Well, it is. And I talk to women all the time. It's like, think about like, because when I tell them to do something they enjoy and go, I I don't know. But a lot of times because they have become from they were in their college years, then they become a mom or they become married. Crystal Little: Mm-hmm. Brooke Masters: They become a partner. Like they're no longer just them. And Crystal Little: Them, yeah. Brooke Masters: when you get to that point, you almost lose your identity of what do Crystal Little: Mm-hmm. Brooke Masters: I enjoy? Especially I find it more with, you know, the moms. Like I know myself, like there were so many years that I Focused on everybody else and what they needed and what they wanted that I didn't think of myself and what made me happy and what I wanted to do. So when I sat back and I was thinking about it because my nervous system was completely wrecked, it was what was it? I'm like, those word finds. And it was like Crystal Little: Yeah. Brooke Masters: the craziest thing. Like I remember like being in like elementary school and I just love those word searching. Crystal Little: Yeah, the word search closed. Brooke Masters: And I'm like, when I did it, it is so calming, relaxing. And I think about what were the things I liked doing. And when you get back to that, it's like, been so long since I like didn't have any responsibility that I could just play and like have fun and like do the things. It's Crystal Little: What else? I invited a friend over a couple of years ago. I was like, Hey, do you wanna come over and color with me? She's like, Color? And I go, Yeah, I have a mandala cook coloring book. I go, You wanna come over and color? And she was like, I think I do. She came over and we colored and it was like our eight year old selves coloring. And we were just sitting there talking and giggling, but coloring. And Brooke Masters: Yeah. Yeah. Amanda poppies out there. Yeah. Yep. Crystal Little: she was like, What a weird request. I think I like this. And I was like, Yeah, come over and color. Brooke Masters: A funny story. So my son is in his 20s. So I, my husband and I had gone out. he had friends over, and we went out for the night and came back, and my word finds were sitting on the table. There were because I have like three books Crystal Little: Mm-hmm. Brooke Masters: with pens that they were doing my word finds. I'm like, Crystal Little: Yeah. Brooke Masters: my gosh, that's hilarious. I'm like But it's so funny, it's like, were you guys sitting around like twenty year olds, you know, you expect them to be like sitting around drinking, Crystal Little: Yeah. Brooke Masters: doing their thing? Nope, they were sitting around doing my word fines and Crystal Little: It's so funny. With the guys at work, when we find like a a silly little game and we get dialed in, we are like Brooke Masters: Yeah. Crystal Little: we're playing this game. So everyone has that inner child. You just need the safe place to let it be expressed. Brooke Masters: Yes. Crystal Little: And and to know that it's okay. Like you don't have like play a game. Like it's not that serious. No one gets out alive. Have fun. Brooke Masters: Yep. It's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I love it. And you know, I I love that we're sharing all these modalities and just for people to understand the application and you know why it is so important to kind of have yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Crystal Little: And it doesn't have to be complicated. A word find, a coloring book, you know, it's and that is that is downregulating your system. That is allowing you to just be and do something that you enjoy. And it is so simple. It doesn't have to be expensive. It doesn't have Brooke Masters: Yep. Crystal Little: to be any above. Brooke Masters: Yep. Yep. And it's a start. I I tell people that, you know, sometimes I have them start because they're so wound up. Of I just want you to take like three times during the day that I just want you to notice where you're holding tension. Just pay attention to your body. Just Crystal Little: Mm-hmm. Brooke Masters: start and like, where's your jaw? Where's your tongue stuck up on the roof of your mouth or Crystal Little: Yeah. Yep. Brooke Masters: your shoulders up to your ears? Like just notice it and then just release it. And it's like almost that that start. And when they start noticing how wound they are. Then it's almost like that's the door to say, okay, maybe I do, maybe I don't Crystal Little: Okay. Brooke Masters: have those moments. So, you know, when they're so locked into that just Crystal Little: Mm-hmm. Brooke Masters: dysregulation. so we talked about the EMDR, we talked about the cold plunge, we talked about yoga, we Crystal Little: Breathwork. Brooke Masters: talked about breath work. Give me one more that we'll go into. Crystal Little: So all right. So the float tanks. So remember how I said I used to leave yoga before the Shavasana. And Brooke Masters: Yes. Crystal Little: so even still, so I was hearing about float tanks on my podcast. Cause remember, at this point in my life, I'm not listening to music other than in the gym. Brooke Masters: Yes. Crystal Little: And I'm like hearing about these float tanks. So I'm like, all right. Hell is a float tank? So I start Googling like there's no float tanks anywhere. Eventually they started popping up. So if you're unfamiliar, a float tank is like a pod. It's like a big white pod. It's got about thirteen inches, ten or thirteen inches of water with a thousand pounds of Epsom salts in it. It can float a bowling ball. S