Mindfulness, Neuroplasticity & Body Fullness with Coloma Muro | ANEW Ep 93

In this transformative episode of the ANEW Insight Podcast, Dr. Supatra Tovar sits down with internationally recognized author, researcher, psychotherapist, and women’s empowerment coach Coloma Muro for a deep dive into the neuroscience of healing. In Part 1 of this powerful two-part conversation, Coloma shares how trauma impacts brain function, breath patterns, and our ability to stay connected to the body and how true recovery begins with mindfulness, body awareness, and the conscious decision to reconnect with our inner truth.

With over 12 years of experience and advanced degrees in psychology, neuroscience, and primatology, Coloma brings a unique perspective that blends science, spirituality, and somatic intelligence. She reveals how our early life experiences—encoded through the nervous system can shape emotional patterns for decades, and how the process of rewiring the brain through neuroplasticity is available to everyone, at any age. Through mindfulness, gratitude, and intentional awareness, Coloma teaches how we can reprogram limiting beliefs, restore emotional balance, and live with deeper purpose.

Listeners will learn:

• How breath and body disconnection show up as symptoms of trauma
• Why mindfulness and “body fullness” are essential for emotional regulation
• The science behind neuroplasticity and how to harness it for personal transformation
• How early trauma imprints shape our worldview and how to update them with conscious awareness
• The meaning of Intimacy Within, and why reconnecting with your own emotional truth is the foundation of authentic relationships
  
  

This episode also explores how energetic frequency influences healing outcomes and how cultivating compassion, boundaries, and present-moment awareness can help us move from survival mode to thriving. Coloma’s personal story including a life-changing injury that led her to rediscover the true power of mindfulness offers compelling insight into what it means to surrender, slow down, and listen deeply to the wisdom of the body.

Whether you’re navigating emotional overwhelm, recovering from trauma, or simply ready to shift your mental and emotional patterns, this conversation offers tools, inspiration, and the neuroscience-backed framework to begin.

For those looking to go even deeper in reconnecting with their bodies and healing their relationship with food, explore Dr. Tovar’s award-winning course Deprogram Diet Culture at anew-insight.com.

Listen now to begin your own transformation. Link in bio.

 #mindfulness #traumahealing #neuroplasticity  #colomamuro #anewinsight #anewinsightpodcast #drsupatratovar #nutritionalpsychology #bodyawareness #breathwork #somatichealing #selfregulation #womensempowerment #nervoussystemhealing #subconsciousreprogramming #emotionalresilience #energyhealing #mindfulliving #traumarecovery 

Thank you for joining us on this journey to wellness. Remember, the insights and advice shared on the ANEW Body Insight Podcast are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making any changes to your health routine. To learn more about the podcast and stay updated on new episodes, visit ANEW Body Insight Podcast at anew-insight.com. To watch this episode on YouTube, visit @my.anew.insight. Follow us on social media at @my.anew.insight on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Threads for more updates and insights. Thank you for tuning in! Stay connected with us for more empowering stories and expert guidance. Until next time, stay well and keep evolving with ANEW Body Insight!

Transcript

Dr.Supatra Tovar: 0:00

Hello, and welcome to the ANEW Insight podcast. I am Dr. Supatra Tovar, and I am so excited to have author, psychotherapist, researcher, and women's empowerment coach Coloma Muro with us today, Coloma welcome. masters in research in neuroscience and primatology. Her holistic approach integrates psychology, neuroscience, mindfulness, and spirituality to promote sustainable inner healing. Coloma emphasizes brain health and neuroplasticity guiding clients to rewire mental patterns for emotional regulation and personal fulfillment. Well, you're an amazing woman and you really caught my eye and I find you to be inspirational. So help our, audience be inspired by you. What led you to pursue your academic studies? They are vast, they are varied. And how do you combine your background in neuroscience with mindfulness practices in your coaching methods?

Coloma Muro: 0:03

Well, I was always fascinated by nature as a child, from an animals to astronomy. I was inclined to study general medicine to understand how the human body worked, but my interest in the brain and how humans make decisions pulled me towards psychology. And I was very passionate about the biology of the brain and understanding the physiology behind our behaviors. And at some point, uh, during my studies, I started learning about mindfulness and that led me to study or to pursue neuroscience. And the more I learned about consciousness, the more intrigued I became. And my brain though, was very, was too immature to integrate everything I was studying though. And part of what I learned through my own experience actually, is that we need. have the capacity to, to receive that information. And back then, , I was too busy. I had never stopped. I was this high achiever. I was, my curiosity was moving faster than my cognition or than the capacity that I had to integrate the information that I was studying. In any case, I, I did work in amazing places from, uh, hospitals to research centers, to rehab centers, and those were deeply gratifying. But I still had a, a surge or like a desire to expand my knowledge in ways that the way I was living was not, I was not finding, if that makes sense, and to the point that I felt called to relocate to Bali. So Well, I was always fascinated by nature as a child, from an animals to astronomy. I was inclined to study general medicine to understand how the human body worked, but my interest in the brain and how humans make decisions pulled me towards psychology. And I was very passionate about the biology of the brain and understanding the physiology behind our behaviors. And at some point, uh, during my studies, I started learning about mindfulness and that led me to study or to pursue neuroscience. And the more I learned about consciousness, the more intrigued I became. And my brain though, was very, was too immature to integrate everything I was studying though. And part of what I learned through my own experience actually, is that we need. have the capacity to, to receive that information. And back then, , I was too busy. I had never stopped. I was this high achiever. I was, my curiosity was moving faster than my cognition or than the capacity that I had to integrate the information that I was studying. In any case, I, I did work in amazing places from, uh, hospitals to research centers, to rehab centers, and those were deeply gratifying. But I still had a, a surge or like a desire to expand my knowledge in ways that the way I was living was not, I was not finding, if that makes sense, and to the point that I felt called to relocate to Bali. So And I got this lesson from an accident that I had in Bali. I got my foot injured and I was told that I would never be able to walk again and obviously forget about yoga or any physical activities at all. But I'm bringing this up because that was part of my teaching. The universe gave me the opportunity to, to stay in bed for three months in a foreign country where nobody would speak English. And this is where after years of studying mindfulness, I got to understand what that practice actually truly meant. And I had the space to integrate what the information that I had been receiving prior to my travel. The message of the accident was to slow down, which is a part of like what mindful living is. And I could connect deeper, I could see with more clarity, and I could enjoy more regardless of the circumstances. What I teach my clients when I teach them to heal from the inside out, part of it comes from my own personal journey. I help people understand the neuroscience behind their tendencies so they can look at themselves with more compassion, and then I guide them to create a life that aligns with who they want to be. But for us to do so, we must take a step back uh, slow down and take intentional and committed actions. Those require mindfulness. We must be aware of our internal processes, not attaching to them or ignoring them in a, in a, in a way, we must be proactive in the process of being passive. So in other words, consciously being with ourselves without letting our thoughts or emotions dictate our behaviors. We can rather them and show up in an aligned way. And this way of living includes mindfulness, as I said, and also body fullness, which is a practice that I'm sure we can dive deeper into that later. But it's feeling the space within ourselves and between us and the rest of the world. And that's why I mentioned that I didn't have the capacity to receive the information when I was studying so many different modalities of healing and neuroscience and, and psychology. In this space is where magic happens is where we can create resonance, where we feel connected one another without emmeshing. With the other. So if you want me to going, but. There is a new level of connection when you live mindfulness, rightfully, there is freedom in the connection. This is related to the non-attachment, one of the principles of mindfulness. The same way we don't identify with our own thoughts, we are not responsible for others people's, uh, emotions or behaviors. When we cultivate mindfulness and body fullness, we take responsibility for, our energetic frequency for our own thoughts, behaviors, where we invest our energy in, what we pay attention to. We are attentive to the electromagnetic field that, uh, around us We attract as we vibrate, we attract. So maybe to clarify what I'm saying we can connect to our truth from a more clear raw space, and access deeper levels of consciousness and connect with others from this, uh, more pure space. And I, this is, uh, at the core of the healing journey. To be truthful, to be honest, to accept ourselves fully so we can yeah, we can make choices that are in alignment with who we wanna be, how we wanna show up as,

Dr.Supatra Tovar: 0:11

Like there's a story of a man who had a terminal cancer diagnosis, and what he did was he put himself in a room and all he did for weeks on end was watch comedy movies. That's all he did, And so I think that there is so much power in our mindset, and that's why I wanted you to be on today. And I really want to have you illuminate to our audience a little bit more about neuroplasticity. How can you explain, how neuroplasticity can empower individuals to change their mental patterns

Coloma Muro: 0:13

Okay. So neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to reorganize itself. By forming neo neural connections and understanding, neuroplasticity, as you said, empowers individuals to rewire their brains for greater resilience, emotional balance, and personal transformation. And before explaining in what ways we can harness neuroplasticity for positive change, I want that we all understand, the wisdom of our bodies, which you already kind of were talking about. Our physical body the home within which our brain resides. And as such, it provides an anchor to who we are and how we move about in the world. And the body is connected to the brain via nerve fibers, which allow efficient integration, uh, of sensation, emotion, cognition, and, and action. And our, an organism receives sensory input, contextualizes it emotional and cognitive information, and, uh, affects an appropriate response. That would be, uh, and body wisdom, uh, two concepts that that's important to understand for us to, to use it. To create positive impact or to create health. we come to this world with a somatic map that is developed way before birth. Uh, If the mother is stressed, we know that maternal anxiety I mean can shorten like, uh, the length of baby telomeres, are protective caps of on chromosomes and are involved in cancer development, for example. Or we know that when. mother's, uh, elevated cortisol, which is the stress hormone, can lead to neurodevelopmental disorders in the child. So this is transgenerational, meaning it passes from one generation, uh, to the next. And this map that we carry within our bodies contains the cues that we use even before our commission develops the function in our environment. Then after birth, we also receive information about who we need to be, uh, for the first, during the first years of our lives. To safe and loved. So prior to our birth and during the first years of our lives, our bodies contained instructions, so to speak, on how to move through life. Now, What happens is that when we leave paying attention to our map, uh, we are somewhat disconnected from the present, and I'm gonna come back to, to your question, but there is encoded information that served us in the past, but for us to fully connect to reality and create our life, we must understand that the map that was offered that, or that offered a sense of safety doesn't serve us anymore. And when we understand that our brains and bodies have stories that kept us safe and we choose to see them just as a stories, then we can choose how we wanna live our lives in the now. We access freedom when we choose to be with the territory. Instead of holding onto the conditioning or the map that is not serving us. And from, from this moment we not only do we create freedom, we're taking responsibility for our healing. And I don't know how, how deep you want that I go Or we know that when. mother's, uh, elevated cortisol, which is the stress hormone, can lead to neurodevelopmental disorders in the child. So this is transgenerational, meaning it passes from one generation, uh, to the next. And this map that we carry within our bodies contains the cues that we use even before our commission develops the function in our environment. Then after birth, we also receive information about who we need to be, uh, for the first, during the first years of our lives. To safe and loved. So prior to our birth and during the first years of our lives, our bodies contained instructions, so to speak, on how to move through life. Now, What happens is that when we leave paying attention to our map, uh, we are somewhat disconnected from the present, and I'm gonna come back to, to your question, but there is encoded information that served us in the past, but for us to fully connect to reality and create our life, we must understand that the map that was offered that, or that offered a sense of safety doesn't serve us anymore. And when we understand that our brains and bodies have stories that kept us safe and we choose to see them just as a stories, then we can choose how we wanna live our lives in the now. We access freedom when we choose to be with the territory. Instead of holding onto the conditioning or the map that is not serving us. And from, from this moment we not only do we create freedom, we're taking responsibility for our healing. And I don't know how, how deep you want that I go Uh, at, at the, at the end of the day it's all about learning. That one thing is our programming and one thing is who we want to be. And there's, there's is where we can get to choose who we wanna be. There's where that is, where healing happens in the present. And how we approach healing is the same as you would I, I'm gonna, hmm. use a metaphor if you, uh, if your child is crying and you are in a grounded space, showing love to that child would be to approach the child with curiosity to understand what they need rather than trying to keep them quiet. So if we are stressed, if our bodies and brains are wired in a way that are in hyper, hyper alert when we have pain or when we have thoughts or emotions that are uncomfortable, we wanna get rid of them because we don't have a space, we don't have capacity to deal with them. Whereas if if we approach our own thoughts, our own emotions, our own sensations, with love, with curiosity, the same way that we would approach a child that is crying, this is when we with compassion we can embrace the child, we can see our thoughts, our stories, uh, as they are just the stories that, you know, we carry from our past and we can choose to yeah, make space for them and choose how we wanna respond to them. And all of this is mindfulness, but it includes neuroplasticity and how to access personal freedom. Uh, at, at the, at the end of the day it's all about learning. That one thing is our programming and one thing is who we want to be. And there's, there's is where we can get to choose who we wanna be. There's where that is, where healing happens in the present. And how we approach healing is the same as you would I, I'm gonna, hmm. use a metaphor if you, uh, if your child is crying and you are in a grounded space, showing love to that child would be to approach the child with curiosity to understand what they need rather than trying to keep them quiet. So if we are stressed, if our bodies and brains are wired in a way that are in hyper, hyper alert when we have pain or when we have thoughts or emotions that are uncomfortable, we wanna get rid of them because we don't have a space, we don't have capacity to deal with them. Whereas if if we approach our own thoughts, our own emotions, our own sensations, with love, with curiosity, the same way that we would approach a child that is crying, this is when we with compassion we can embrace the child, we can see our thoughts, our stories, uh, as they are just the stories that, you know, we carry from our past and we can choose to yeah, make space for them and choose how we wanna respond to them. And all of this is mindfulness, but it includes neuroplasticity and how to access personal freedom. Uh, reducing overactivity in, in the amygdala, for example. And they also increase, prefrontal uh, cortex functions, improving emotional regulation and decision making. So we. We know that simple practices as I said, mindfulness are also gratitude, practicing gratitude, self-compassion, or positive affirmations, as you were saying,

Dr.Supatra Tovar: 0:20

Yes. I love that. And, and just to, to make it as simple as possible for people. Neuroplasticity is essentially a rewiring of the brain and old science used to purport that once we reached a certain age, there was no way to change the brain. And all new research is showing that that's not true. And you can see this just on a visceral level. I am actually gonna be stronger after I recover from this injury. So a lot of people, you know may argue that our mind does not determine our outcome or, or what happens with our, within our bodies. And I think it is absolute falsehood. Our minds are, are incredibly powerful and what we think, we create, and I think really fully understanding that in the audience out there is so

Coloma Muro: 0:22

It has to do with the thing that I am most fascinated by and committed to, which is through love. I believe this force is within all of us and throughout life we learn to block it. Our wounds become so deep that we disconnect from source, and then we, the more we operate from our wounds, the more we abandon our true selves, which translates into more layers of pain. And to be intimate with something is to share truth. It is to be exquisitely connected, to be devoted, to protect our truth. And romantic partnerships, for example, intimacy, is co-created when we share ourselves fully with one another, when we let love in, when we are open, honest, vulnerable. And so my work revolves around becoming intimate with self. When you realize that you are the source of your own, uh, pleasure, you just wanna share your truth, not to abandon it. It, it's, it's so pleasurable to be yourself that you generally wanna share yourself with others. And this. As I said earlier, uh, when you love your own pain, you can also love another person's pain, and this is how we create conscious relationships and heal through them. It has to do with the thing that I am most fascinated by and committed to, which is through love. I believe this force is within all of us and throughout life we learn to block it. Our wounds become so deep that we disconnect from source, and then we, the more we operate from our wounds, the more we abandon our true selves, which translates into more layers of pain. And to be intimate with something is to share truth. It is to be exquisitely connected, to be devoted, to protect our truth. And romantic partnerships, for example, intimacy, is co-created when we share ourselves fully with one another, when we let love in, when we are open, honest, vulnerable. And so my work revolves around becoming intimate with self. When you realize that you are the source of your own, uh, pleasure, you just wanna share your truth, not to abandon it. It, it's, it's so pleasurable to be yourself that you generally wanna share yourself with others. And this. As I said earlier, uh, when you love your own pain, you can also love another person's pain, and this is how we create conscious relationships and heal through them. We can do so for ourselves, and this also entails setting boundaries. We don't want our romantic partners to be. Verbally abusive or to disrespect us. So the developing intimacy within involves setting boundaries for ourselves, both cognitive, like no negative self-talk you were mentioning, and also somatic boundaries, for example, to be in environments that are conducive

Dr.Supatra Tovar: 0:25

others and care for others, it would be a very different environment that we're living in right now. So you guys, oh my gosh, you've gotta come back for the second half. Coloma's amazing and I really feel deeply connected to her even though this is the first time we are meeting. Her message is absolutely necessary in this time and her pathway to