The Broken Brain · Popped Collar Productions

Healing through Breathing, Feeling, and Crying, with MJ Renshaw

·49 min·4 clips

MJ Renshaw shares how breathwork helped her release trauma from childhood sexual abuse and infertility.

Dwight Hurst hosts "The Broken Brain" and welcomes MJ Renshaw, a breathwork facilitator and author of "How to Cry." This episode explores somatic healing practices that connect emotional health to the physical body. Renshaw shares her personal journey, which includes studying osteopathy and leaving that field after observing patients' issues extended beyond the physical. She describes experiencing significant personal trauma, including the loss of her brother and her father's suicide, and subsequent chronic health issues like endometriosis. Renshaw explains she tried various therapies, including EMDR, but found a breakthrough during her first breathwork session, which led to profound emotional release. She argues that many people with trauma are adept at narrating their stories while remaining disconnected from bodily sensations. Renshaw criticizes rigid, one-size-fits-all breathwork techniques, advocating instead for an individualized approach that respects a person's current nervous system state. She outlines basic breathwork principles, explaining how inhaling activates the sympathetic nervous system while exhaling engages the parasympathetic system. The discussion covers the concept of "healthy stress" or hormesis, distinguishing between pushing oneself from a place of self-hatred versus self-acceptance and curiosity. Renshaw emphasizes the importance of self-trust and listening to one's body, noting many people lack a sense of inner intuition. She cites research on emotional suppression, linking it to increased cortisol, chronic inflammation, and diseases like cancer and autoimmune conditions. Renshaw references studies on descendants of Auschwitz survivors showing higher rates of autoimmune and digestive issues. She discusses societal shaming around crying, noting that stifling tears can raise cortisol by an estimated 30%, while crying releases it. To help people access emotions, she recommends using art, music, or films for catharsis and mentions her free "Emotional Clearing" breathwork recording. Renshaw also touches on spirituality, defining it as a belief in something beyond oneself, which studies correlate with better mental health outcomes. The tone is conversational and educational, blending personal anecdote with references to research and therapeutic concepts. Listeners interested in holistic healing, somatic therapy, or overcoming emotional suppression would find this episode valuable. Those seeking strictly clinical, medication-focused approaches to mental health or who are uncomfortable with discussions linking trauma to physical illness might prefer to skip it.

As heard by us

A reflective conversation that treats shame as something to work with, not wield.

The Broken Brain opens with an International Overdose Awareness Day invitation and a live, call-in style broadcast, then settles into a conversation with MJ Renshaw about shame, self-acceptance, and why punishment is a thin way to push for change.

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Why you'd press play

For when shame-talk needs more honesty and less wellness varnish.

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