Bracha's back! In the previous episode with Bracha, titled Searching for God in the Garbage (episode 69) we talked about her book.
In this episode we dive into her story and how she personally overcame food addictions and health problems through her understanding of spirituality and discovering meaning that helped her rise above her challenges.
Bracha covers this difficult topic with insight, wisdom and experience.
Bracha Goetz is a Harvard grad and author of 37 children books.
See all episode artwork, links and notes at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Bracha's back! In the previous episode with Bracha, titled Searching for God in the Garbage (episode 69) we talked about her book.
In this episode we dive into her story and how she personally overcame food addictions and health problems through her understanding of spirituality and discovering meaning that helped her rise above her challenges.
Bracha covers this difficult topic with insight, wisdom and experience.
Bracha Goetz is a Harvard grad and author of 37 children books.
See all episode artwork, links and notes at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
[inaudible].
Speaker 2:Hello everybody. Welcome to the day Robbie health show. I'm excited to have Baraka gets back on the show. She did an episode earlier, uh, called searching for God and the garbage, which was one of our most popular episodes. People just loved it. She was phenomenal. And is again in this interview where she's going to talk about the spiritual basis for food addictions. One quick thing I want to throw out before we jump into the episode is that we want to tackle are different health challenges from a variety of ways, right? We know that we're kind of a multifaceted being as, as as human beings, a spiritual, mental, physical, and of course being in the Soman supplement industry, uh, and on this podcast we focus on supplements and fitness and nutrition to three biggies of health and, and supplements is kind of one of the easier ones because a, you don't have to develop new habits and you don't have to do anything very hard. He just slapped down your money and buy yourself some supplements and you just take them. And so it's easier than going to the gym and quicker than a quicker results and a lot of things. And so this is why having a sane and smart supplements strategy just make sense for most people. One of the ones I want to talk about very quickly as chromium GTF, in episode 59 I interviewed the patent holder for chromium GTF net Jensen. And that's worth a lesson if you're not familiar with this cool little supplement. And in that episode he told us about the clinical studies, it showed that it helped with weight loss with blood sugar management and with lowering cholesterol, three big things a lot of people are concerned about. And did you know that we have that product in the clinical dose that was used in the studies in both our pounds and inches drops for rapid weight loss and in our Mimi's miracle multi. So for those of you wanting to lose a little weight, you ought to check out our pounds and inches drops with chromium GTF and then you can transition over to the mimis miracle multi and continue to have all those great benefits going on for you all the time working in your system to help you keep your weight managed and under control and your cholesterol down and manage your blood sugar. Tremendous benefits from one little tiny, really awesome ingredient. And of course we have more ingredients than that in both of those products. So that's my pitch for today is checkout pounds and inches drops for weight loss and Mimi's miracle multi to fill in those nutritional deficiencies. And without further ado, now we'll jump into this excellent interview with Brocka gets hello, welcome to the dye Roby health show. Today I've got a guest back, a repeat offender, so to speak, Rocca gets, she was on episode 69 of this podcast to searching for God and the garbage, which we gathered a lot of tremendous feedback on and I was so excited that Brock would come back for more. And if you haven't listened to that episode yet, I highly recommend that you do. And for those of you who have not yet heard of Brock Brocka, she's a Harvard Grad, a successful children's book author, and a person who is personally overcome serious health addictions and she's got some new work she's going to talk to us about, about the spiritual basis for addiction. Brocket thank you for coming back on the show. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm so happy you had come back. Like I said, I have yes,
Speaker 3:a lot of great feedback on your last episode. I think it was really meaningful to people. You got a lot of great nuggets and wisdom and so thanks for coming back. But for those who did not listen to that other episode, could you give us a short bio and a little background on yourself?
Speaker 4:Sure. Um, let's see. I, it seemed like my life was heading in a very successful direction when I was a student at Harvard and then I was studying in medical school and, um, but the truth was even though outwardly my life seemed successful, inwardly I was really becoming more and more miserable as I had eating disorders at the time, um, anorexic behaviors and also binge eating. It would like fluctuate between the two. I'm starving myself and then eating out of control. So, um, I, I was really becoming more and more miserable until I ended up actually I went to Israel, the summary up to my first year in medical school, I started studying about my heritage and it really, it filled something in my soul that was truly hungry. And what I found interesting was that my eating disorders just kind of very quickly evaporated at the time that my soul began to get the nourishment that it needed. Um, I didn't even understand why, why am I eating disorders were going away. Like I didn't get that. But later, I would say about 10 years later when I discovered my diaries that I had kept from, from age 12 on and I saw the, I read about the increasing desperation in my life, my search for meaning and my greater and greater feelings of meaninglessness and emptiness in my life. Then I began to see that there was, um, a thread stretching throughout my life and death. And the thread that was getting stronger and stronger was that I was really hungry for spiritual nourishment so that it made sense. And when I, when I put my memoir together, which is called searching for God and the garbage, it, we, it was a compilation of really all my diaries and journals that I kept with the years. And it, it's basically a case study and a psychological mystery that gets solved at the end when I discover that there was a spiritual basis to the eating disorders. And I extrapolate from that, that there is really a spiritual basis to all addictions. And this is something that I've devoted. I'm really devoting my life to this now spreading the word for all the people that can't seem to overcome addictions no matter what they do. Um, even recently, I, um, uh, one of my children's, my newest children's book that was published is, um, breaking bad habits for children where I kind of distill the 12 steps down to a level that children can understand about how to break bad habits because the, the basis, if we don't understand that there's a spiritual basis to addictions, um, people can, let's say stop over eating for a while and go on this diet or that diet. But the problem keeps returning because the underlying emptiness is still there. So I feel it's essential for people to recognize that they are souls, souls that are housed inside bodies. And once we recognize that our souls need nourishment as well as our bodies, then we're, when we're able to provide that nourishment for ourselves, then there's no longer a need for the addictions because the addictions are that desperation. They are a desperate cry from the soul that is searching for pleasure.
Speaker 3:Wow. It's such a great story and I'm sure people listening can relate on some level. I'm on Judson brewer's email lists, he's the guy who helps people with various addictions, cigarette smoking is one of them. He also helps soldiers with PTSD. He has got a great ted talk if you haven't heard of him. But anyways, I'm on his list. And the other day, one of the things in his new newsletter that caught my eye is a suggestion he made that we're all addicted to something. And that resonated with me. I think on some level, it doesn't have to be a major addiction like you've gone through, but we've all got our Achilles heel or our Kryptonite, I think. I know I do. Um, and probably just within the realm of eating. I mean this is a health show and one of the reasons why, uh, I invited you to be on the first place is because to me this is a really important health topic. And even a person without Anorexia or other, uh, you know, very difficult health challenges to overcome. We've all deal with something at some level. Do you agree with that?
Speaker 4:I think most people, I think that most people, I think that addictions are widespread now, tremendously widespread. I don't know if everybody has an addiction. I think there are some really balanced people in this world, really happy people that are enjoying life. But unfortunately it's, it's way too widespread. There's, there's a lot more misery than there needs to be. And I think that life is really supposed to be a pleasurable experience. And that's something that really gets forgotten often. We, we think that we're here to struggle and struggling is a really important part of life and we can get joy from our struggles as well. But the ultimate thing is that life is supposed to be a pleasure and, and we have the capacity to make our lives pleasurable. It's not dependent on other people. Like we, if a person's not in a relationship with a significant other, they don't have to be waiting around for that to bring them pleasure. They can always go out and bring pleasure into their lives. Because like for instance, people can always find others who are lonelier than they are. It's always possible. And when we reach out and help other people, that brings us spiritual joy. It brings us a lasting pleasure that lasts a lot longer than a bag of potato chips. You know? So I think that people, um, when, when we recognize that we're all spiritual beings in need of spiritual pleasure, um, then when we feel like over eating, which is a really common addiction, um, I, I feel like one of the main questions that person can ask even in the midst of overeating is this question, is it my body that's hungry or my soul? If they can, if a person can focus up question to the forefront of their minds, it becomes, it can become a habit with me. It's a habit so ingrained already that I just naturally think like that. It Doesn't happen often, but if I'm ever in a situation where I feel like overeating, I just think, oh wait, is it my soul that needs pleasure right now or is my body really hungry? Because it's, if your body isn't hungry then it's just overeating. It's unnecessary. And it's really your soul that is looking for pleasure at that time. Like maybe you're in a place where it's just you're feeling uncomfortable so a person just keeps eating, you know, but instead that means that's a sign to go up get up and do something different because your soul is seeking more pleasure, it's genuinely hungry and things you can do is just step outside and, and breathe in some nature or go some place, listen to music you love, start stretching, started dancing or visiting somebody in a nursing home, calling or texting someone that's lonely. In, just one moment, when a person recognizes that it's really their sould that's hungry and not their body, they can think of an infinite number of ways to bring more pleasure into their lives. Lasting pleasure. So that's, that's something that I'm recommending that I really think could help so many people.
Speaker 3:Excellent. So many good points in there. I do. I am still sticking to my guns, so on the, everyone's addicted to something. I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what I bet 60% of Americans are addicted to sugar and those who think they aren't, I challenged them to go without it for just one week and then come back and report. So yeah, totally agree with you. It's definitely, yeah, myself included. I'm not, I'm not on my high horse here saying that I have a co I have overcome all of my personal challenges. Uh, Broccoli, you would be, you'd be proud of me. Why? I went to my first meditation retreat a couple of weeks ago and it was called soul craft. It was specifically the whole point and purpose of it was to work on the soul. And I had never been to anything like that in my life, and I was a little bit nervous and no one from my family could go. I W I went alone. And so I just had no idea what to expect. But I gotta tell you, it was so excellent. I was so glad I went. I came home on a, on a real, I felt so happy. I just came home, come home on a whole new level. It was, it was so well done. The food was excellent. The attendees were great. I met a lot of great people there. We all, we are, we'll bet. We're all best friends by the time it's over, right. Uh, connecting on Facebook and the whole bed. Anyways, it was, it was so profound, uh, and uh, and, and meaningful. And I'm probably, you know, it's difficult to describe. It was so much experiential. We spent most of the first day in silence, uh, but we're listening to various training and asked to do various visualizations and various meditations, including, I'm getting out into a wilderness park where we all spent time alone and we're given different ideas to ponder on. And a Saturday night there was a campfire that was just a riot. There's actually professional musicians, they're playing their guitars and singing. And so it was a combination of just a really great time along with really meaningful, you know, time well spent in, in meditation and contemplation and you know, all phones and electronic devices are off and it was outstanding. So I will do that again. As a matter of fact. Yeah. If there was one of those every quarter, you know, every three months I could go to something like that, I would do that in a heartbeat.
Speaker 4:Yes. And you, you, you, you can infuse that into your life every day. I'm sure you do. I'm sure you're the kind of person that does because every day can be an awesome pleasure. It's awesome to go to these inspirational things because it helps us, it elevates us so much and it's important to take away from them too and just infuse it into our lives at daily lives because it changes us. It elevates everything. It makes us more conscious that we are spiritual beings. Cause that's, that's the essence of who we are. And it's easy to forget that because we live in a physical world. But that's the challenge that we have to keep remembering that we're spiritual beings housed in bodies that we need to take care of in order for the soul to be able to shine as well. It's essential. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Now, one of the things that's interesting about this topic is it is nondenominational. I mean, this event that I went to, there were atheists there. There were Christians, there were Buddhists, there were people who probably don't claim any particular belief or affiliation. Right. But it appealed to everybody. I have been intrigued brocket by, um, I like to listen to some of the current intellectuals, some of the podcasts I listened to or just, uh, those people who try to solve the problems of the world are exploring different points. You know, Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson and I, I like, uh, some of those podcasts are just exploring the world or contemplating the future. Uh, Yuval Noah Harari, uh, for example, and I've been quite surprised some of those people are absolutely committed atheists who used the word spirituality quite a bit. And I found that fascinating. It is. Yes. And, and this is your world, spirituality, nourishing the soul. And so I want you to just address that there's people listening have from all stripes, all backgrounds, all ethnicities, religions, you name it, but we're all human. We're all having a human experience. And so talk, talk to that. For those who may be skeptical or thinking, oh, this sounds like church. Uh, talk, talk to the, the universal application of the principles that you are espousing here.
Speaker 4:Okay. It's really interesting. And also the title of my memoir is kind of a shocking title, searching for God and the garbage. Um, it relates to, I'm not going to describe it, but the worst part of the book, I mean the most painful part, very royal details about what went on in my life when I was searching in the garbage. But it also is a metaphor for God being in the garbage in many ways now. And it's kind of almost a dirty word to talk about God in many circles now it's like you don't say that word I and so I try not to, I try to say things like, so us source the source or energy and I, I try to do that because I find that the word God actually alienates people. And um, if I don't want to alienate people, so I try to use different terms cause it's like God has kind of a word you can say. Lately I feel that's kind of how it is. But I think we're all talking about the same thing when we use the word God or source or energy with a capital a, you know, or the forest, any of these things were w many times when I think of God, I think about Einstein's e equals MC squared. That's, that's what I think about like the big energy source of everything that translates into matter. You know, at the at e equals MC squared, we can understand this. It's so beyond just, but yet there is a, there is, um, there is uh, you know, I don't know how to explain there is, um, it's, it's beyond our understanding and yet we know there is something bigger than us. We know that much. Um, what's interesting to me is who helped me become the person that helped me understand the purpose of life was a rabbi that I met in Jerusalem, in Israel. Um, and what he, he had a thing that he would, he would say to people, he say, I never met an atheist. And he'd say, what do you mean you never met an atheist? There are plenty of atheists. And he'd say, well, when I say two, I'd say ask people if they were eight years and I'd get really excited, I'd say, oh, are you an atheist? I never met somebody that could, that knows that there's no god in the world. Like they can prove to me that there's no god, I'm really excited to meet one. So that's the thing. I mean are people really atheist? Can people really prove and do they really know that there is no god or, or, or, or many people agnostic, which is that I don't know if there's a god or not. And that's really where I think most people are. Most people don't know if there is a god or not because God is not physical. We can see, we can see God, you know, so it's, it's understandable that we don't know and nobody can know for sure. And people that are considered themselves religious are people that have evidence that they rely on, that there is a god. People that I, I, I think are agnostic or people that are relying on more evidence that they think there is not a god. So, I mean nobody can say for sure if there is or there isn't and people are using the evidence that they have to believe one way or the other. So, um, that, that that's, I don't know if that was clear what I just said, but that's um, that that's what I think about it. Yeah. And like also one of the children's books that I wrote as club, um, I'm I forgetting the name of the book, no invisible, the invisible book because it's all about all the many things that we believe in that are in visible. There were many things that we accept as reality, like gravity, like time, like feelings. These are not things that you could see or touch. And yet we believe in them and there's a part of us that is aware that our brain is thinking, that's aware that our feelings are feeling. And yet that part of us that is aware of this is not our brain. It's not our heart, it's our essence. It's something. And I believe that's our soul. There's a part of us that is distinctly us and is even aware that we're thinking and what is that part of us? That's our soul. And when we die, that's it and finished and we're just, we just disintegrate into the ground. Um, I believe, to me, that's one of the biggest pieces of evidence in my life, that there's something more, something greater than all of us. And what I see, the best way that I can understand God is to understand God as all of our souls together. Um, really the differences between people are our physical differences. We look like we're separate, but really our souls are all connected. And that's my, that's the closest I can come to understanding what God or the source or the energy is. It's a spiritual entity that combines not just or people, it involves all the animals, all the vegetation, all the minerals, rocks, everything, everything natural, natural in the world that has a certain energy. It has a certain soul part to it. And, and we're all connected and um, of course it goes beyond our planet into the universe. So that's, that's what I come up with when I think about God and, and back to equals, Mc squared and all that. So that, I don't know if that's helpful, but that's my understanding.
Speaker 3:Okay. Let's get into the nitty gritty here. You talk about people nursing their souls as a way specifically of course, it's very deep too to nourish your, solar's all kinds of practical applications to that. I'm sure everyone listening can relate to it even if they relate to it differently than you do or I do. I think we all can recognize that human experience and the feelings of meaning that we all share. And you talked specifically about how to nurse at instead of over eating or as a way to overcome some of these, these bad habits, whether overeating. And I suppose it could apply to any bad habit or addiction that we have. So what are the methods that you teach?
Speaker 4:Right. Well, it applies to any addiction, just like you're saying, because the reason why people develop addictions is to put comfort over a pain that's deep within. So it provides a temporary comfort. It provides a temporary pleasure. So the only way to overcome that is to put greater pleasure into one's life t han the pleasure that the addiction is providing. So, and the only way to provide greater pleasure is to have it be a spiritual pleasure because that is greater, deeper, and more lasting than any other pleasure. So this to me is a very simple truth and it's part of the 12 steps. I mean, spirituality is a major part of the 12 steps. It's that recognition that there is no greater pleasure than spiritual pleasure. So the more we incorporate that into our lives, the more it fills our life, the less the addiction's our lives. And it just so simple. It just works like that. As we fill our lives with more and more spiritual pleasures, then there's less need for an addiction. And it just evaporates that easily and it evaporates through pleasure and there's no real struggle involved with that.As we add more joy into our lives, there's less need for the addiction.
Speaker 3:I do and I've gotten better and better at over over time is, is meditation. I mentioned, I went to a retreat. I also try to meditate every day. And uh, and recently we had a kind of a mini family reunion and my three year old granddaughter was here from Texas and I introduced her to meditation and I, I used the waking up app and Attica Harris has meditations for children and typically she introduces them in elementary school. So these are designed for children. I believe that the youngest about five years old and my is three. And I thought, well, I'm just going to try this. It's only four and a half minutes, you know? And so we took a focus object in this case I found a couple of rocks and I put a rock in front of her and hit play on this meditation. And it was just the cutest thing ever. You should said she, she sat cross legged like grandpa did, you know. And uh, she looked at the rock and then is Annika starts her thing and she talks like an elementary school teacher, right? And says a little bit about the present moment, how important the present moment is, how, how wonderful it is that we live right now. And we're right here and look at this rock. And then she guides the child's attention to the rock. And think about this rock that's right here in front of you. What color is it? How big is it? And you should have seen. So as she gets into this meditation, not only did my three old granddaughter pay attention, she actually leaned forward and she paid attention to this rock. She leaned forward till her, her eyes were like three interests in this rock. She was totally studying this and a it. Yeah, it was the cutest thing ever. She went through the whole thing. Four and a half minutes, didn't get antsy or anything, listen to it and it was really a cool thing to see, you know, just the, the small win of, of going into a quiet place and being a hundred percent present just for a few minutes. Yeah. I'm actually, I'm actually really intrigued with this whole concept of, of meditation at younger and younger ages. Our society is just working to distract our kids and adults constantly. Right. And so yeah, you, you want to talk about that?
Speaker 4:Addictions are kind of distractions from what people are suffering. It covers up the suffering a person may be going through. And so it's useful in that way, but then it makes life unbearable when the person gets more and more into their addiction. And so it's to do just what you're saying to focus and to simplify life and focus again on the pleasures. Addicts of all types, whether drug addicts, alcohol, pornography, whatever the addiction is, a person can bring, again, the lasting pleasures into their lives. The simple joys of life, the more and more they will life with that, they just won't have that need for those things that take them away and disconnect them from soul. As they strengthen their connection with their soul. and then these things that really bring a person down, they'll be taking up less time and energy in the person's life.
:So it again, it's just a way to just simply bring more of the wonders of nature back into lives, appreciation and gratitude. No matter how miserable a person's life is, they still have things that can be grateful for. And when a person is feeling gratitude in one moment, they're not feeling miserable or angry. They can't feel those two emotions at the same time. So the more time that a person spends being grateful, the less time they can spend with negative emotions. And one of the things people can do is practice gratitude. An exercise that people can do is just start imagining losing all the things that a person has in their life. You start with outward things and you move closer and closer inward.
Speaker 4:Like the person's job, their house, their family, their arms and legs, their eyes. And then you bring the back into your life and you get them again. Oh my gosh, I have eyes, I have a digestive system that works. You know, I have legs that move and a person gets filled with overwhelming gratitude for all these gifts returned to one's life that they have, you know? So everybody that's breathing right now has something... They're all breathing. You know, so everybody has things which they can be tremendously grateful for. So again, just the more time we spend focusing on joy and bringing joy into our lives and we have the ability to do it, it's not dependent on any other person. We have the control to let our souls shine. Yes, through meditation, through spending time in nature, to giving to other people through focusing on gratitude, there's infinite number of ways to do it. And that's really what we're here for, that's our purpose. That's what God or the source, that's what we were put here for, to experience pleasure in our lifetimes. And sometimes, you know, very serious things happen. People go through serious illnesses. People go through abuse. People had very difficult childhoods that doesn't look like we were put here for pleasure. But in the larger picture, yes, there are tremendous struggles that could happen in a person's life. But ultimately to go through those struggles, to go through the furnace and come out and, and refine ourselves into the diamonds that we really are, that's what we're here for.
:When you say pleasure, pleasure is a two edge sword. You know, we, we talk about for example, carnal pleasure. There are meaningful pleasures, there's pleasures that come from relationships and then there's pleasures in relationships that can be good or, or negative, right? So, yeah, I think you alluded to this before at different levels, but you're, you're talking not about, and I know this is obvious and people listening, you know, no, no how you meet it, but I still want you to just flush that out a little bit. The difference between transitory pleasure. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Great. Thank you so much because really that's a really important point because God, as I understand God, I'll say it again, where the source of energy, this world was created for pleasure, not only spiritual pleasures, but the physical pleasures. Everything in this world could have been gray. There was no need for color. All of this is done for our pleasure or the physical pleasures are done for our pleasure, like food, it didn't have to taste great. Everything could have been exactly the same bland, horrible taste, and we could have survived. But God made things to taste incredibly different. These are physical pleasures and are r eal and, and the pleasure between interactions, between people. These are all genuine pleasures. And um, the only thing is we, we can get stuck on that level because we can start to think that we're just physical beings. But really this was made for our pleasure to reach even higher levels. Once we experienced these physical pleasures, then we can move onto creative pleasures, intellectual pleasures, and then the highest is spiritual pleasures. These are the pleasures that last the longest. And all of the physical pleasures are stepping stones in helping us to reach states of joy. Those are all necessary and very much a part of life. It didn't have to be this way. This also can fill us with tremendous gratitude, how beautiful our natural world is. So the physical pleasures are real, but they do not last forever, but they're an outer layer of our soul. And as we get deeper in there are deeper levels that we could reach and it all brings us to a higher state, or brings us to have our unique souls shine in the most beautiful way, by taking on in all these different types of pleasures that exist in the world.
Speaker 3:Okay. Excellent. Now, I want you to get more specific for those people listening who like what you're saying and the whole concept sounds appealing and it makes sense. What are some practical takeaways? Some advice, maybe some daily habits or weekly habits. What are some of the ways that people could apply some new new habit or or activity into their life to accomplish what you're saying?
Speaker 4:I kind of said it but I, but it's an awareness. It's an awareness. Like whenever a person is involved in their addiction, let's say they're involved in their addiction all they have to do, is try to have an awareness that, oh, this is showing that I need more pleasure in my life. I need more lasting pleasure in my life. And when they develop that awareness, then it's again, is it my body that's hungry or myself? Even in that moment, this is the most amazing thing. They don't have to actually do the activity, the spiritual activity that brings more light to their thoughts. They can even just think about it and suddenly they are not as attracted and craving their addiction as before. Let's say a person is just sitting and mindlessly eating this big bag of potato chips and feeling anxiety or feeling lonely or feeling bored and suddenly they get this awareness in their head, wait a minute, why am I doing this? I mean like, I need more pressure in my life, obviously. Is it this next potato chip going to give it to me? So I need more pleasure in my life, so maybe I should just text this person I haven't texted in long time and reach out to them. Just thinking about it or even just think of doing it or just listening to music that will get them to feel like stretching. Or the funny thing is that they don't even have to do the action. Just the thought in the head is actually making a synapse going to a different part of their brain. It's kind of from the Amygdala in the back of the brain, which is feeling the anxiety or fear. It switches to the prefrontal cortex and it starts thinking on a higher level about different things that it could do. So suddenly a person is moving up into a higher consciousness and they start thinking of greater ways to achieve, to bring the pleasure into their life that the addiction is showing they actually need. And addiction is messaging us that we need more pleasure in our lives. Thats what it's doing. It's there to message us that we need more pleasure. It's genuine. We really do have a craving for more pleasure. But that craving is coming from the soul. It's not from our body. We're not really hungry. We don't need the bag of potato chips. We are hungry. We are really hungry, but it's for spiritual pleasures. So even just thinking about it, suddenly the bag of potato chips, I say it won't be calling the person's name as loudly as before, just by thinking those higher thoughts. So the more we can put this into people's consciousness, it becomes a habit after a while and a person isn't drawn to those things that are not healthy for them, they're no longer pulled in that direction.
Speaker 3:okay, that's excellent. Now, now you of course have been on your own personal health journey and the ups and downs and emotional turmoil that goes with going through what you went through. But now you're living a healthy lifestyle and this is a health show. It's, I want to ask you a couple questions about your own health habits. First of all, what is your favorite healthy breakfast?
Speaker 4:Okay, well my favorite thing is, I guess I call it shakes in the morning. I have like banana shake. Uh, what are you could smoothies. Smoothies. Yeah. Like bananas shakes with nuts thrown in some lemon juice, like flax seed and um, anything else like raisins, whatever. I feel like throwing into it, you know, I, and I have like two bananas and, and the nurse and all this stuff and owed everything. It's so delicious. That's my favorite breakfast.
Speaker 3:Okay. Excellent. How about a favorite healthy lunch?
Speaker 4:Okay. I like basically usually yogurts and salad. That's what I like for much.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Okay. And what do you do for yogurt?
Speaker 4:I like, um, Kaffir or, you know, what could fear is? I don't think
Speaker 3:you don't mean, is it key for k e f I. R I don't know how to pronounce it. Well, I don't know if I do either. I say keeper and I can't tell you if that's correct either, so I don't, I don't know. Yes.
Speaker 4:Keep[inaudible] Stonyfield yogurts. I love those too. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yup. Okay, great. Dinner
Speaker 4:dinner is like, uh, let's see what I have around. I love Salmon. Yeah. Usually salmon with whatever we else we have here. I eat less for dinner actually. Then for lunch and breakfast, like I just have like a light dinner. We have, um, something like some type of salad and vegetable with salmon or maybe many people here are vegetarians, but I also eat a piece of chicken sometimes. Things like that, you know.
Speaker 3:Okay. How about exercise? What do you do to keep fit?
Speaker 4:Oh, every day I do yoga. Yeah. Yoga exercises
Speaker 3:every day.
Speaker 4:Every day. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And do you do that at home or do you go to a studio?
Speaker 4:Oh, I go to the community center where they have classes.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Nice. And that seven days a week, five days a week.
Speaker 4:Oh, six days a week. And then on the weld that, on what we have, we have a sabbath. And on the Sabbath, the community center is closed, the Jewish community center, and my husband and I do it together. Um, Yoga at home? Yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay. And does he do that just once a week with you or does he come to the, some of the weekly weekday ones as well?
Speaker 4:Yeah, he goes also to weekly classes.
Speaker 3:Wow. You guys got the yoga thing going on. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, we love it. Yeah. We're seeing more and more men and yoga classes. They're starting to get the memo.
Speaker 4:Yeah. He might, my husband actually got the classes started at, at the community center. Yeah. So, um, yeah, we've been doing it now for 10 years.
Speaker 3:Wow. Well that is awesome. And Broccoli, you've, you've covered a lot of ground today. Is there anything we've we didn't talk about that you want to touch on before I let you go?
Speaker 4:Um, let's see. I'll just mention that. I, I dunno, I was just happy that my book was published, um, because it gives me a platform to be able to speak about this. And this is what I feel one of the reasons that I'm here in life to spread the word that we're, that we're essentially solved, that we're spiritual beings. I love spreading this message and I feel that the more people understand this, then addictions will decrease tremendously as we recognize this and, and, and my children's books as well. I try to write the books I wished I could have read as a child because I wasn't brought up like with the spiritual understanding. My parents were wonderful, loving parents, but they didn't have the spiritual understanding. And I would say my father was agnostic. You know, he didn't believe in God. He didn't know one way or the other. It's got exists or not, but, but that's where he was at. And um, I, I was brought up that way and I'm really thrilled to have a sense of meaningfulness in my life now and I, and I hope that I, I just want to share this fulfillment with other people in whatever way, um, that can enrich their lives, you know, and, and help their souls to shine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's excellent. And I love that phrase, help people's souls design. It's a beautiful concept and the book is on Amazon. We'll put a link to it for those of you listening in the show notes. So if you go to blog dot[inaudible] dot com we publish a piece about every episode there and you can learn more about Brocka. Her name is spelled B, r a. C h a gets is g, O e t, z. And you can find her book and her children's books on Amazon. And is there anywhere you'd you'd prefer for them to buy a, can they buy stuff from your website?
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, the best thing is my Amazon author page cause everything is in one spot. Yeah, that's great. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll put a link to that. If you go to blog dot[inaudible] dot com as mentioned, Bronca has episode 69 on the show. This episode, I'm not sure what number it will be, but in the hundreds like low hundred one one oh one one oh two something like that. And so if you want to find that end, the links to her books and more about her, you will find it. There has, thank you so much for coming on the show again,
Speaker 4:thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Okay, and to those of you listening, this is Dave Sherwin wishing you health and success. Well there you have it. Rocca gets version too. I hope you enjoyed that interview as much as I did. And as I mentioned, we've got some really cool products for you at[inaudible] dot com and you as a podcast listener, save 15% with coupon code insider, I. N. S. I, D, e. R, so head on over to[inaudible] dot com and use the code insider to buy whatever you want to help yourself become superhuman. This is Dave Sherwin. Thank you so much for listening. We'll talk to you again soon.