The Botox Party Invite We Declined

In this episode of The Nearly Enlightened Podcast, I'm joined by Kat Parks, face yoga teacher and creator of Find Your Face Freedom, for a conversation about aging, beauty standards, self-acceptance, and what it means to feel at home in your own skin.

We explore the messages women receive about aging and appearance, and how social media, filters, influencer culture, and the rise of "preventative" cosmetic procedures can shape the way we see ourselves. Kat shares her perspective on informed consent, discussing questions surrounding injectables, long-term effects, and why understanding all of your options matters before making decisions about your body.

More importantly, this conversation is an invitation to reconnect with yourself. We talk about face yoga as a mindfulness practice—one that helps build awareness, release tension, support circulation, and deepen your connection to your body. Rather than chasing perfection, Kat encourages a more intentional relationship with aging and beauty, rooted in self-awareness and choice.

If you've ever found yourself navigating the space between self-acceptance and the pressure to look a certain way, this episode offers a thoughtful perspective on finding your own path.

✨ Connect with Kat:
Face Yoga: https://findyourfacefreedom.com/

NoTox Movement: https://beeasy.life/notox

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who could benefit from hearing it. Every share helps us continue bringing these conversations and tools for healing, growth, and self-discovery to more people.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Aging Hits Hard

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Nearly Enlightened Podcast, a high vibe toolbox designed to help you connect to your body, mind, and spirit. I'm your host, Gianna Geruso, and I'm here to share tools, conversations, and insights to help you on your journey of self-discovery. This podcast is all about exploring what it means to live a conscious, connected, and nearly enlightened life because the truth is the answers aren't outside of us. They already lie within. Today I am joined by Nearly Enlightened Podcast Bet Kat Parks. And we have something like so exciting to talk about. I think the last time you were on, we talked about, I think it was your first round or second round of base yoga freedom. And today we kind of want to dive deeper into that topic. So if you haven't listened to an episode with Kat before, go back, listen to some of our past episodes, and then come back and listen to this. So we live in a culture that tells women aging is something to fix. Botox parties have become normal. Preventative Botox is marketed to younger and younger women than ever before. And many women feel pressure to preserve a vision of themselves that may no longer exist. Today we're exploring a different conversation, one about natural beauty, informed consent, identity, and what it means to age while staying connected to our vitality and femininity. And I think this is such a perfect episode at the like tail end of my 34th year coming to my 35th. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

And happy early birthday. The last time that we talked was also right before your birthday, and we were talking about celebrating birthdays, celebrating aging and embracing ourselves for who we are, because that's that's what we talk about.

Yoga And Botox Parties Clash

SPEAKER_00 1:45

That is what we talk about. And like one thing that we wanted to talk about was something that we came across recently from somebody that is like adjacent to us, and they were doing yoga and botox parties, and I sent it to you, and I was kind of like, oh my god, like this is where we're at. Like I thought we reached a crescendo when we were mixing yoga and booze to get people to come in, like the yoga and wine thing. I mean, I taught yoga out of veneer, so I can't really say, but like mixing these things seems so counterintuitive.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Yeah, they are absolutely two ends, two opposite ends of a spectrum. You know, one of these things, yoga, is bringing us more awareness, blood flow, movement of our muscles, consciousness, confidence. And the other of these Botox is paralyzing our muscles, decreasing blood flow, decreasing lymphatic drainage, and trying to force us to be something that we're not. And I don't have a problem with people who want to do both yoga and botox, but a leader who is in the yoga sphere shouldn't be saying that these two things go together or naturally complement each other or, you know, are the perfect pairing. And that was what really got me about that post that you shared with me. Definitely got me jazzed up, definitely jazzed up the comments with some of my Instagram acquaintances who went hard talking about how like really these things don't align. It bothers me that we live in this state of the world where we can say that these things go together when they absolutely do not.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Yeah, I know,

Filters, Filler, And Distorted Self Image

SPEAKER_00 3:34

I agree. And that's like something that like my chance, my stance has changed on. I think I've mentioned this on a podcast before, but when I was young, I did like the classic lip flip and did Botox in my upper lip to make it look like this was like before fillers were a thing. But had fillers been a thing, like maybe I would have even dabbled in that. But I was young. I was like, I like if I was 21, that's like shocking to me. I was like very young and I did that a few times and then kind of like took more of like the yogic path and like started to look at the things that I was doing. And even now I see it, there's like different layers of it. I I have talked about this before where I was big into filters, and then I was realizing, and I think we've talked about this before. I was realizing that I like completely distorted my the view of my face to the point where I was looking in the mirror and I was like, that's not what I look like because like these filters just make you look so symmetrical and so beautiful and so plumped. And like I think I was getting like addicted to that that book. So I really try very hard now not to put any filters or do anything crazy to any of my content.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

I love that. And yeah, we've we've chatted about this before, that concept of looking back at an old photo of yourself and being like, oh my God, I was so pretty and so young and my skin was so smooth. And then I find that original picture on my camera roll, and I'm like, oh, I actually had like a giant zit on my face, or you know, my eyebrows are going crazy, or that's not how thick my hair is, or whatever the case may be. And it, you're so right, it is distorting our views of ourselves. And that can happen also when we get too much cosmetic work, is that if you constantly think that, like, oh, my forehead is perfectly glassy, smooth, and you know, my lips are this big, then we we see ourselves that way. Then we keep asking our esthetician for one more vial of lip filler, one more vial of Botox, one more, one more, one more. And then you don't look anything like you used to anymore. And that honestly to me is tragic because I think that we should feel confident in embracing our natural beauty. We're all uniquely different. And I think that that's such a beautiful thing to embrace.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Yes, it's just like one of these industries where it makes money, and so now it's being kind of like pushed down throats.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Yeah, it's literally everywhere. And I feel like I've been seeing also lately some more influencers sharing their injection stories or not even stories, just trying to get you to buy shit. And it comes down to the fact that they're being paid by the pharmaceutical company. And hey, we'll give you free Botox if you talk about it on your page. And what makes me sad is that people then aren't getting that proper informed consent to say that, like, hey, some bad stuff can happen if you're doing this. They're just saying, like, oh my god, whoever is so pretty, I just want to look like her. So let me go do all the things that she's doing.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

And then one of the tropes that I love is like, oh, well, I need it for my TMJ or I need it for my chronic migraines. And it's like, no, no, you have been sold a band-aid at best. Yeah. A band-aid that's probably doing more harm than good.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah. You didn't, you can't see my eye roll since we're not on a video podcast. But as soon as you said that, I had a really big eye roll because that was something that one of the people in the comments on this yoga and botox parties like came at me, like, oh, but I love Botox for my massaders and my migraines. It's like, okay, well, and and again, okay, first of all, huge disclaimer: no shade at anyone. We're talking, we're being real, we're being nearly enlightened. I'm a face yoga teacher. I'm here to help people embrace their natural beauty without the filters, the fixes, or forcing themselves into someone else's standard of beauty. But we need to be able to figure out why you're getting so many migraines. Girl, there's a reason. Are you eating the wrong things, drinking the wrong things? Do you need to like take a supplement? Do you need to just like calm the fuck down? You work 12 hours a day under fluorescent lighting. Oh my God, I get migraines. You know, literally. So, like, let's look deeper than that than just trying to paralyze our face and say that this is helping us. And like you were saying, this concept of maybe more damage is being created.

Botox Risks And Informed Consent Gap

SPEAKER_01 8:09

I encourage anyone who has not heard of these potential side effects of Botox to you can very easily Google bone loss after Botox, and you'll find an NIH study that talks about mandibular bone loss. So our mandible, our jawbone, can get degraded after a period of time because if we are constantly killing those nerves, paralyzing those muscles, that area is not getting blood flow. And if that area is not getting blood flow, well, then the bone starts to degrade also. And I don't want to think about a degraded jawbone, right? That sounds terrible. You could lose your teeth from that, like yeah. Then at that point, TMJ pain is like the least of your worries.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

So this is what I started to say before we started to record. So there's this movie with Demi Moore called The Substance, and I have never seen it, but I know enough about it. And I know, like I saw the trailer. So basically, Demi Moore is like this fitness influencer, and she's older, like in her 50s, and she's getting phased out, like maybe gets fired or something like that because they replace her with somebody younger. And she finds this black market drug, and every time she injects it, she gets like young and beautiful again. But every time it wears off, you're like uglier and more decrepit until the end of the movie when she's like totally fucking deformed when she was like a fine 50-something year old.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Oh my god, I have got to watch that. I've never heard of it, but now I'm like, I'm putting that on my movie list.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Yeah, it was, I want to say it was even like maybe an Oscar nominated movie like a couple years ago. Like it was it was a big thing, but it's like it goes to show like is that kind of predictive programming where it's like, yeah, you keep injecting these things and like you look great now, and you're like maybe preserving whatever. Like, in my opinion, like I don't think you look any younger, you just look like you have work done. Yeah. And that's what I used to work for an injector in in Arizona. I worked at a med spa, and like that's one of the things that the injector would say, like, this you're not gonna look younger, you're just gonna look better with work. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

And that's the thing is that it's this long-term use. I I encountered a gal, I went to some women's networking event last year, and you know, I'm going out, schmoozing everybody. Ah, teach face yoga, and they're all like, what the fuck is face yoga? So I've got my little spiel. But this one girl practically did the eye roll at me, and she was like, I don't need that. I've been doing Botox for the last 15 years. And this woman looked ill, like her skin was dull and almost like transparent.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Don't you find it gets like thin? Like people's foreheads look like I don't know how to describe it, but it looks thin. Like the skin looks thin.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

It it is, and I don't know the exact scientific mechanism of that, but it does start to thin your skin. And you know, we we use these cute little words like neuromodulators, and we say that it wears off. It's not wearing off, it's that your body is growing metabolizing it. Your body has to grow new nerves every single time that you do it, you're killing your nerves. And so it's like tuning into this fact that we might not know the the long-term damage that these things are doing. Sorry, I've got a gardener right outside, and I hope you're not gonna be. You cannot hear at all. Nope. Okay, great. I was about to move. Sorry if you can if you can still hear that on the recording later. Apartment life. I can't control the gardener right outside my window.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

It's you know what? It's it it it you have to noise, it's part of life. Like I talk about this in my yoga classes a lot because I'm right on a main road at the studio that I co-own. And like when we're in Shavasana, people are like, Oh, it's great, but I can hear the cars. It's like, great, you're alive. Like, learn to tune that shit out. What are you gonna do? Can you stop the cars while we're in Shavasana? Like, literally, if unless the car pulls through the studio, like inside the building, like I don't care.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Yeah. Well, and this honestly, it's a great little opportunity to just bring it back to this concept of, you know what, girl, there's gonna be things outside in your world and things will happen and you'll look a different way, and life keeps on lifing. And you can either be like, oh my God, the gardeners are outside, what a horrible part of my day. The same way that you can say, Oh my god, I have a new wrinkle, what a horrible part of my life. Or we can say, you know what, this was a great opportunity for us to turn this into a teaching moment and say, you know what, even if you can hear the gardeners outside, they'll be gone in just a second. It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Yeah, yeah. I love that reframe.

Aging As A Privilege Not A Problem

SPEAKER_00 13:03

I love that reframe because I am like turning 35 is like a big thing. Yeah. And I do go through these moments of I was saying on the beginning of the before we started recording, like this manic Gemini spiral. And yeah, so it's a practice, it's like learning to sit with this and not just shove these feelings down, but kind of like, yeah, let's let's talk about it. Let's talk about these beauty standards that are being imparted on us. Like this Bratz doll look didn't become popular by accident. No, they're selling this look, so they have to sell it to you. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

And the more people who look like it, the more that people who don't look like it think that there's something wrong with them. And I think that that whole concept also comes back to that concept of aging, you know, yeah, you're turning 35. That is a big deal. And I'm not gonna say that that's not a big deal. Girl, I turn 40 next year, and it's not till like the very end of the year. So I've got like a good year and seven months. I'm not trying to push myself, but it is happening in the year of our Lord, 2027. I'll be 40. And that, like, yeah, even as a face yoga teacher, even as someone who I embrace aging and I want to be that natural aging role model for not only people in our millennial generation who have been constantly told that we're not good enough, but for all of our younger sisters and the younger generations who are being told that, like, oh, if you need to start getting Botox at 18 so that you can look 18 forever. And first of all, that's disgusting. And second of all, it's not real. You're about to be 35. I will be 40 in a year and seven months. And it's like, that's not something that we can change. You can't change the year that you were born. And all we can do is it, you got two options, accept it or don't. And if you don't, then you're gonna spend all the rest of the years of your life in a panic spiral, thinking like, oh, I'm not good enough, I don't look good enough, I don't look like this person, J-Lo, I don't look like a Bratz doll. Or we can learn how to accept it. And that might be like, okay, yeah, you know what? I have a few more crow's feet than I did 10 years ago. Because literally, as we're sitting here talking, we're losing some collagen. And that's a part of life. Listener, as you're sitting here listening, you are losing some collagen. And that needs to be okay because it's not gonna stop happening.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

And like that's so it's a it is a privilege. Like I have always had like great older role models in my life, and they always they they all always say basically the same thing. And it's like, what's the alternative? Yeah, like not being here. Like it's a privilege to get to wake up every day and be one day older.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Honestly, I'm I know some people who passed away before they were 30. And, you know, if if they had the moment to come back in life as a 55-year-old and just be like, wow, I'm wrinkly, I'm sure that they would have loved that. And, you know, again, like we need to just like learn to embrace ourselves. I just was back in Washington State celebrating my mom's 75th birthday. And this lady, she's like, she's got her natural face, she's got her natural joie de vive. She's fun, she's expressive, and she loves herself for who she is, and she's unapologetic about that. And I'm like, I want to be like that when I'm 75. She's like tearing up the dance floor, she's got a whole room full of people who are there to celebrate her. That is more important than being 75 and having the forehead of a 30-year-old. A frozen face. Yes, honestly, that's like really gross. And and we see that. I feel like we've all probably encountered, you know, I guess maybe it depends on what kind of city you live in, some like clearly old woman who has this like weirdly young looking face. It's off-putting. Right? You know who I'm talking about, right? It's just like it's like a weirdly frozen in time woman.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Oh, that's so funny. I mean, it is kind of like, you know, we I think in our generation, we went from seeing it to like only rich people or like famous people get that kind of work done to now pretty much anyone has accessibility to those kind of procedures. And I just I think it's interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

They're just touted as the only answer and safe and effective, quote unquote, giant air quotes. We heard that about something else, yeah. We've heard that about a lot a lot of things that are safe and effective. But, you know, that being touted as the only answer, you know, it that feels like something that I'm so passionate about sharing with, you know, not only women, but it's mostly women, the fact that we have other options.

Face Yoga And Finding Face Freedom

SPEAKER_01 18:21

And it's not just aging or Botox, you know, what I teach through my program, Find Your Face Freedom, is really embracing who we are and where we are and when we are, discovering deeper awareness of our facial habits and our whole lives that we've lived up to this point. And then practicing face yoga where we can increase blood flow, increase that collagen that we're losing right now, find some more power in our own faces. And that's the thing. Like, I've had some gals come through my program who thought that, like, oh, my face is just like this. This is just aging, my mouth corners are turning down, my face is falling, blah, blah, blah. They started practicing with me. And now it's like they almost look like completely different people. And they're not completely different people. You know, you can still tell that Jamie is Jamie, Carrie is Carrie, but they look brighter and fresher. And you have options. We have all of these options, and they're literally at our fingertips because you can use your fingertips to practice these, some of these practices, yes, release some tension.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Most of us are have like a multi-step skincare routine. So it's like you're already doing these things. So yeah, why not add intentional lymphatic massage instead of just slapping on your nighttime face cream?

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Exactly. And even in that, that vein, you know, are we literally slapping on our nighttime face cream and like rubbing it in super hard? Or can we take that moment, 30 seconds more, to like really gently put on that face cream and like rub it up and rub it out, and be nice and gentle with your fingertips on your one beautiful face that you've got for the rest of your life. Like even that, even not doing face yoga, but you're just like being more gentle with the way you apply your night cream is gonna change the way that you feel about yourself. You're it's like giving your face a little hug.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Yes. And I love that it's not like, oh, this extra thing that I have to do so that I don't get Botox. It's like just adding these extra 30 seconds to something you already do.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Exactly. And I think that just the less that we can become obsessed with it, the better. And that's why the program's called Find Your Face Freedom. And I say that to folks, you know, it's it's more about the freedom than it is about your face. Yes, it's about your face. Yes, we're here. Yes, we want to look pretty. There's nothing wrong with wanting to look pretty, wanting to be beautiful, wanting to look like the best version of yourself. There's nothing wrong with that. But it's about the freedom. It's about feeling like I don't have to tape up my whole entire face at night. It's not saying that I have to walk around my house for four hours with a red light mask on. It's not saying that I have to go get this microneedling procedure or this IPL procedure, this blah, blah, blah. It's it's just gotten to this point where it's obsessive.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Yes, and it's more and more and more. And I think I I've been starting to talk about this slowly, but in the last podcast, Danielle and I touched upon it, is like now this use of peptides and like all of these compounds that are still synthetically made that we're injecting to mimic what our body already does to quote unquote optimize it. Like I'm sorry, I you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to call bullshit on this. And I'm in the minority on this, you know, somebody that was on this podcast is somebody who's pushing peptides through like a physical.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

affiliate marketing and I just I just don't know again like these long-term safety studies and yeah I just don't know I just don't know and I'm not anti-peptide I take a collagen peptide yeah um I don't inject it but I think yeah I feel you I actually had this conversation with my husband yesterday he's a natural health doc and I was like I just don't trust it and I just don't trust it there's something about it that just feels like icky to me it's coming from the same big pharmaceutical companies yeah that we already don't trust yeah so why are we all forgetting about that and like oh yeah give me these injections that I can literally go to CVS and inject myself. Oh God yeah that scares the crap out of me and then that's weird the concept of that the long-term studies like that's a big deal and like even something like Botox it was around for 20 years before it got the FDA black box warning on it. And for those of you who don't know what that is the FDA's black box warning is the most significant warning that they can put on drugs which is basically to warn of potential horrific side effects. The one on the Botox label says possibility of toxin spread which is botulism just throwing that out there the toxin spread of botulinum toxin is botulism but it took 20 years 20 years of people having seizures or you know this crossing the blood brain barrier or face paralysis. Yes even other kinds of paralysis bladder paralysis imagine feeling like you have to pee and you can't because your bladder is paralyzed like that shit happens to people and it happened to people for 20 years without it being told to the consumers and now still it's not being told to the consumers because you're saying come to my fucking yoga and botox party yeah yeah we that bitch made me really mad like such like it's become so normalized that we're not even thinking twice about it.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Yeah it's it's too easy. Yeah and I mean it goes back to like you know when these big pharmaceutical companies are making money doing this it's a multiple billion dollar industry.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Yeah oh yeah they're not just gonna stop yeah I think I saw something the other day that the beauty industry is like a hundred billion dollars that's probab that feels correct.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Yeah it's outrageous it is I mean I know the numbers that we used to do years ago at the at a small little med spa in a strip mall in Arizona so yeah I bet it's crazy shit this crazy world yeah I mean the black box warning is something to be to talk about especially when we're minimizing it so much that we're having like these big group parties.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Yeah and like what what would happen if something happened to one of those girls you know even even on that post some lady that I don't even know was gaslighting me in her stories and she was saying that my quote unquote years of research it equals opinion. And this is a woman who has studied outtox she is literally injecting people with botulinum toxin and she's saying that what I'm saying is an opinion she's gaslighting me without me being a patient. So if I were a patient and I were to come back to her and say hey I feel really weird she'd be like oh you just have anxiety oh it's just perimenopause you know oh that can't be the Botox. And we have to be able to trust these people that we're working with especially when we're working with something really dangerous or something that is you know as vulnerable as our face. And that's what I talk about with face yoga is that we should be working with people that we trust and we should be working with them either one-on-one or in a group setting because I can see quote unquote face yoga teachers on Instagram doing all kinds of crazy shit with their faces and it's not correct. That's not going to be right for everyone. And if you're trying to just do it based on something that you've seen on Instagram, chances are you're not going to be doing it properly and you might be affecting your face in a way that you are not intending. And we need to think about that not only with these things that we're injecting, but with all of what we're consuming on social media, whether that's you know learning face yoga or whether that's taking in a person's picture and wondering if that's their real face or if they're filtered.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Why do you think that these conversations around being fully educated on both the risks and benefits aren't happening money.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yeah that's that's the main thing y'all these people make so much money on injectables and whether it's the the sales reps who are going around the med spas and selling them the actual product whether it's the injectors who are injecting you for however many dollars per unit you know all of these people are making a ton of money. Allergan the the company the pharmaceutical company that creates Botox they are like a billions of dollar company and they're not gonna risk making that much money by telling you that oh by the way something really bad can happen to you.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Well it's like the same thing with implants which we have talked about on this podcast before as well not you and I but Amy and I and she actually had an explant surgery and it changed her health because yeah we didn't have proper informed consent when she was getting them.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Yeah well and you know how often do we get that informed consent? I think that especially in today's day and age it's kind of like a slimy day and age it's like a very like snake oil type of thing.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

We don't like to think that but it is and like even things like coaching programs or yoga teacher training oh my God's like going to the yoga studio like this is a conversation I'm starting to have as well is like most people don't realize that they give consent in the terms and conditions when they fill out their waiver for a yoga studio that they consent to their picture being taken.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

Yeah nobody knows that yeah nobody knows that how many people have read the terms and conditions on their iPhone it's like hey you need to sign a new one you're just like okay agree it's like just send them to my phone. Yes and we just don't have that proper informed consent. You're so right along all things and again it's there's a lot of slimy shit out there. I've taken a couple of courses with this lawyer for coaches and she's talked about like all of these actually illegal things that coaches will say and do and put on their websites and it's like if if you're promising a guaranteed transformation and you're saying this is a life changing program and I guarantee that you'll have these results that Sarah got you you actually can't do that. And I think that it's it's very easy to do that. It's very easy to use your very best before and afters it's very easy to say oh well this is my my best testimonial and then run it through chat GPT and have it turn into something even better than that. That's illegal. And so I think that also just coming back to that concept of trust, we need to be able to trust our injectors we need to be able to trust our estheticians. We need to be able to trust our face yoga teachers, our yoga teachers, our coaches. And if if we're living in this totally sensationalized place, whether that is you know my sensationalized picture what that I've run through six filters showing you that I've got J Lo's lips and Nicole Kidman's glassy forehead that's not real. You can't trust me then just like I can't trust the face yoga company that has the same woman saying in one reel that she's 25 and another reel that she's 47.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

You can't trust her so like don't give her your money give me your money just kidding if you want to I mean yeah it's a conversation that goes that goes way deeper and way way bigger than this but that's like something that came to my forefront about like yeah there's really not a whole lot of informed consent anymore it really is like a lot of sensationalized jargon to get the sale what like across the board whatever that may be.

When Everyone Starts Looking Alike

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Exactly so something else you've talked about that I would like to talk about here is like not only are we distorting ourselves but also we're like starting to no longer look like the people that we're related to and I that like actually wasn't something that I even thought about until until you brought it up and it's like yeah and if you're this is something that it kind of like expanded on for me it's like I'm a reality TV girly and of course from Rhode Island I've been watching Real Housewives of Rhode Island and something that I'm noticing is everyone says like the consensus nationally is that they all look alike like people can't tell them apart and they all look the same. Yeah they all look the same and I think it's interesting because they all go to the same injector. That's hilarious. And it's a very well-known person around here I think she's even like on the show and it's people who I know very peripherally I don't think they're anyone that's listening to this podcast but yeah they're all really open about going to this one injector. So it's interesting that people are saying that they look alike. It's like yeah well they look alike because they're getting the same work done.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

Yeah well and that's kind of the thing is that they're like you talked about like the bratstall look there's a look these days and you know it's it's for many years has been that like big giant lips where like I can see some some women like out in public where you can see their lips like from behind them. Yeah it's like a duckbill. Yes or they can't close their mouth which is honestly like really bad for your health also like lip fillers are not great for your health they block lymphatic drainage that filler sticks around in your body for over it's going back to something like I just saw somebody say like oh it's just hyaluronic acid like if it was just hyaluronic acid then like fuck I'd do it. Yeah sounds great sign me up but like you can you can find filler material on an MRI over 10 years later and it migrates it moves it blocks your lymphatic system so something to think about another little bit of informed consent for you but there's there's these looks so the big lips has been one the big eyes now is one where everyone seems to be getting that blephroplasty the upper eyelid surgery sometimes the lower as well but it's changing people's essence like there's some I think there's especially a lot of men who have hooded eyes that that's like what makes them sexy. And then they get that surgery and they don't look like them anymore. My main thought about this one is Bradley Cooper. He does not look like Bradley Cooper anymore and like his eyes made him like sexy and smoldering and now he looks like a feminine weird version of Bradley Cooper.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Yeah and like yeah yeah and women have always had this pressure but now it is starting to trickle over to the other side because it's lucrative yeah just like look at these people Chris Kardashian is a great example of this oh god the facelift that she got is like multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Yeah just to just to look a certain way and like as I mean she looks great. Hey she looks like a 70 year old who looks like a 30 year old it's creepy. But like this this kind of standard look that we've uh it's not even that we've all decided it's that I don't know society has decided this big doe-eyed lifted cheek big fat lip look is in vogue now or something but coming back to what you were saying about like people not looking like their family members anymore I came across the page of this girl that I met when I moved here six and a half years ago and she was already a beautiful woman and she's got two young daughters and I came across her profile the other day I haven't seen her in five years, five and a half years I couldn't recognize her. There was a group picture and I was like which one is she and then I was scrolling more on her page and she looks like this creepy rats dollified version of what she used to be and she did have some okay so hopefully my tech skills can be worked out and I can stitch together something but we got kicked off of our recording device and we had to reboot everything and come back on.

Tech Glitch And A Bigger Question

SPEAKER_00 35:49

So we will try and pick up the conversation where we left off but if this episode is a little wonky that's why hey we're a little wonky so that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

We're embracing our natural beauty I am scrappy as fuck like it is it is try shit fail and try again over here. Well hey you know what your business name is nearly enlightened and mine is be easy so like we're we're doing both of them we're like nearly there we're being easy this it's fine and we're it's enlightened enough to not have this be a day ruiner yes and I love it.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

I think I know a good place where we can jump in. I have a question for you. So like when we begin erasing these features that make us all unique like what are we really losing?

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Our humanity honestly I feel like some when I see some like influencers or celebrities they almost look like dead in the eyes soulless. I I feel like we're just losing our humanity as we try to make ourselves into either something that we're not or some version of something that we our society has determined is the best thing. And you know before we kind of got kicked off I was sharing that there was this gal that I met about six and a half years ago who was a beautiful woman. She has two young daughters and I came across her profile again the other day on Instagram I haven't seen her for probably five and a half years and I couldn't pick her out of a group picture. She looked like a completely different person. I started scrolling the rest of her page and she looked just like a bratz dollified version of herself. And she did have a couple pictures of her daughters they're like 10 and 13 or something like that. And it made me so sad to think about the fact that not only do these girls no longer look like their mom, like at all, but that they are getting this messaging that this is the only way to be that in order to love yourself, you need to paralyze your face. In order to love yourself you need to overfill your lips in order to love yourself you need to spend an hour a day on makeup and I think especially when we have children we need to be aware of this you know and neither of you or I have children. I'm specifically child free by choice. My cats aren't asking me why I'm putting on makeup today you know I'm not worrying if if they're like getting some weird messaging but especially if we have you know these younger folks living in our our houses what are you teaching the children that this is the only way to love yourself? Or are you constantly berating what you look like or your face or your body you know kids take these things in and I think especially these daughters like it it honestly breaks my heart because I I even think about the concept of like neither of them would ever be able to say like oh I've got my mom's eyes I've got my mom's lips like you don't even know what she looks like anymore. And they won't because she's gonna look different from now until the rest of forever because of what she's done already. So I I feel like and she's lost what makes her unique and I think that the more that we keep trying to fit ourselves into this box that society has deemed appropriate, we're losing what makes us us. And that could be something like our appearance or that could be something like our attitude or how we move through the world. Society says that this is okay so you can't do that. And I think that you and I are here to like shake that shit up because that's not what we're about.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Yes and one of the things that I love about you is you're very honest just like I am about being a student of this work first. Yes. And so that brings me to my next question is have there been moments in in your own life where you've struggled with these changes in your appearance?

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Yeah definitely just the I think it was a round or two ago of my program Find Your Face Freedom I had this question where I asked folks who is your natural aging role model and I love that question so much. And it's also one of the hardest questions to answer because there's not many naturally there's not many. Someone has said like her mom and like oh that's so sweet. But it's like especially if we think about celebrities and stuff like that, there's hardly any and I I shared in in the group at that point that you know I feel like my most youthful beauty is behind me. I'm 38 and almost a half and I I think I'm beautiful but maybe I'm not as youthfully beautiful as I was at 27. And that just has to be something that again I either accept or I don't and I can't be 27 again. You literally can't turn back the clock so my only option is to accept myself and one of these days I'm gonna be 47 and I'll look back on this time and be like oh my God I was so youthfully beautiful. So it's like you're always gonna be young and beautiful to an older version of yourself. And that older version of yourself would fucking wish to have your skin at 38. And so what what can we start to embrace a little bit more and start to say that like you know what this is my woman face. This is my mature slightly older lady face. And I'm not saying that I'm an old lady and no one who's older than me don't come at me. I'm not saying that you're an old lady age is just a number but I was born in 1987 and I can't change that. And I've got some little wrinkles on my chest and I can't do a whole lot about that. I can sit in front of my red light. I can you know I don't know maybe get some micro needling or something but at what point is that going to be something that like just doesn't matter that's just a part of my maturing woman body and face let it just be okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

Yes and like we tie so much of our identity to things like youth and beauty but like that's not our identity.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

It's not just like our hair you know we we get obsessed with like oh my God but my hair has to be this way or this one's a big one for me. Yes well because you have like stunningly beautiful hair if I could like take it I would I don't think that you'd give it to me but we we tie our identity up in that you know I I sometimes do myself I've got curls and kind of obsessed with them. I had been blonde for the last seven years and I'm kind of obsessed with that. And say like not dyeing my hair for the last year has been really weird. I see pictures of myself when I was blonde and I'm like oh I miss that. But that's not my identity and I can just go shave my head right after this and that's not going to change that I am cat still. That might even make me more cat.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

I love that I have donated my hair before I haven't shaved my head I know you've done that a couple of times. Yeah but I've cut it real short I can see that but just like because it'll grow back.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

Yeah I would buy that wig I would buy a Gianna wig and I would just like whip it around all the time. Some people got like a head full of hair oh my God it's so beautiful she's just like shining it around right now.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

It's so dirty it's like my my Instagram joke reel that I had about like when you commit to being a full time yoga teacher you just commit to a life of dirty hair. Yeah it's pretty much it and hugging sweaty people when you're sweaty. Yeah yeah honestly it doesn't even phase me now so when people are like oh I'm sweaty it's like bam yeah I love that so going back to our conversation so I think as like women start to age I think it's deeper than like what they're really afraid of use of losing.

SPEAKER_01 43:59

Yeah. It's it's the ability to do certain things. You know, do I regret not going to that rave? Do I regret not running around topless on the beach when I was 23? You know, whatever the case may be, it's it's just being wistful of a certain time in our lives. But again, like some older version of you is going to be wistful about this time in your life. So instead of spending your life sitting in regret, what can you do today to honor that older lady that is going to come through?

SPEAKER_00 44:38

How can this become an invitation into deeper self-acceptance?

SPEAKER_01 44:45

I like that question. You know, I feel like again, it's it's just coming back to how can we continue to embrace ourselves for who we are? And whether that is again coming back to our beauty and aesthetics, how can we say, you know, okay, my skin is my skin, my eyes are my eyes, my lips are my lips, my teeth are my teeth, and accepting that or accepting ourselves for like who we are as humans, that like, okay, I know that you and I have talked about like being spicy. We're spicy people. And, you know, when I when I make a spicy post on Instagram, you're like, ooh, spicy. And I'm like, yeah, girl. So it was like the other day when I was like, Are we the mean girls? Yeah, oh yeah, kind of. But no, we're just standing up for who we are and what we believe in. And I don't think that there's anything wrong with that because that's what makes me me. And that's what makes you you. And we're not being mean when we're telling an injector that, like, hey, you should be giving more informed consent to the people that you're injecting, or saying, hey, these two things don't go together. That's just us being us. That's not us being mean. And I think that if we can continue every day to embrace ourselves in the things that make us unique, we will naturally feel better about ourselves, both physically and energetically. Because it's like no one, I mean, uh no one wants to see like a boring Gianna. That's ugly, no, she needs to be like spicy and fun and crazy, and like that's what we're here for. Hey, you're one of Gemini energy.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

Oh, beyond aesthetics, what benefits can people experience through face yoga?

Face Yoga Benefits Beyond Looks

SPEAKER_01 46:36

Love that question. So, my little sound bite for face yoga used to be more physically focused. I would say something like face yoga is learning how to intentionally move and relax the muscles of your face so that you can reduce and eliminate fine lines and wrinkles, create symmetry, and really adjust almost any issue that you have with your face, with a little disclaimer that the only person who has issues with your face is you. So try to let go of that. My new sound bite is somewhere along the lines of this practice not only can help us to look better, but this can really help us to feel better as we increase more awareness about our natural, beautiful faces. We learn more about ourselves. You know, instead of saying, like, okay, I've got this line between my eyebrows, I need to run to the med spa and get Botox. Maybe you take a moment to say, hmm, maybe I do squeeze my eyebrows together more than I realize. Maybe I am squeezing them together while I'm chopping vegetables or washing the dishes or typing on my computer. And maybe just having that one little moment of awareness can change how often we do that. And that is more empowering than running off to Dr. Smith to get one more vial of Botox. Beyond that awareness piece is the confidence. As we adjust our faces and feel more like ourselves, we move through the world in a different way. And again, we were feeling empowered to say, like, hey, this thing that I'm experiencing is not just aging, or this is not just something that I have to live with for the rest of my life, but this is actually something that I can affect change in. So the confidence and awareness pieces are huge to me. And then beyond that, physically, not even talking about aesthetically, but physically, we are increasing blood flow. We are moving our muscles, we are letting go of stuck tension. And that tension might be, you know, again, just physical. I'm squeezing my eyebrows together, or this might be energetic of, you know, oh, I've been dealing with this emotion for a long time. And utilizing some of these tension release techniques can allow us to let that shit go. We're boosting blood flow, moving our lymphatics, and all of these things are super important for us to even just be alive. You know, we talk about the benefits of yoga. We're moving our bodies, we're stretching our muscles, we're getting strength, we're tuning into the fact that we are strong, badass, confident people. Face yoga is doing the same thing, just slightly higher. Our face is still a part of our body. It's still a mindfulness practice. Exactly. Yeah. And just like I was saying before of like putting on moisturizer at night, what if you do that as soft as you've ever touched anything? What if you touched your face like you were touching your own baby's face, like yourself as a baby? How would you like definitely?

SPEAKER_00 49:35

It's funny, you always say that, but if you have a baby in your life, you know that they are, unless they're like brand new. And I don't know if this is just unique to us with Capri, but like we ain't gentle. Yeah. She ain't gentle.

SPEAKER_01 49:51

So it's more your own face as a baby. Yeah. How would you touch that? It'd be like so sweet and so precious. So like if we can be sweet and precious with ourselves, this is a mindfulness practice. If you can be aware of when you're squeezing your eyebrows together, that's a mindfulness practice. If you can wake up in the morning and say, you know what, I'm gonna start my day with some lymphatic drainage tapping, that's a mindfulness practice. So I think that thinking about face yoga beyond just looks is what I'm really here for. And people like to conflate it with, you know, all the other procedures that people do. I've literally had a woman say, face yoga, isn't that just doing the same thing as Botox? No, lady, it is not. And again, it's like two opposite sides of the spectrum. But besides the fact that the one commonality that they share is that this can maybe help us look better. But face yoga is going to help you also feel better and feel more empowered in aging and in your own natural beautiful self as well.

Anti Aging Myth And Pro Age Life

SPEAKER_00 50:53

What is one of the biggest myths about natural aging that you want to set the record straight? Ooh.

SPEAKER_01 51:02

Hmm. A part of me wants to say that it's a choice. Because, like, yeah, today I am one day older than I was yesterday. I am aging and so are you, and so are you, listener. And I think that we we talk about this concept of like anti-aging, which to me just says anti-life because you're aging. You're aging. And if we keep coming back to that anti-aging, this, anti-aging that, you're you're blocking your body's natural ability to be a human.

SPEAKER_00 51:38

And you also have to think about it on an energetic level.

SPEAKER_01 51:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 51:42

Like if you're constantly telling yourself that you're not aging, like maybe you won't live long enough to age. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 51:52

So I think that the anti-aging, just that word in general, I is probably the biggest myth. Yeah. It that because that's not real, you guys. You can you can embrace youthfulness in both your aesthetics and your energy. I feel like I embrace youthfulness in my energy. I love to like walk across the street to the park and swing on the swings. I am 38 fucking years old and no one's gonna stop me. I like to go to raves and dance around like a dinosaur. No one's gonna stop me. Let that be more important than anti-aging or being obsessed with all of these things that like we're we're forgetting to live our lives.

unknown 52:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:36

Like, let's just age well. Yeah, and and maybe we can start to change the narrative that maybe we can love ourselves more. You know, I do follow some like pro-age advocates on Instagram, and there's a couple of women who are mid-50s and they've shared, you know, photos of themselves, 20s, 30s, 40s, and they're like, I fucking love myself more now at 55 than I ever have before in my life. What if that can be the thing? What if being 45 is like the best thing ever? What if being 60 is like fucking awesome? And why are we getting caught up in this? Like, let's be 23 forever. Probably a lot of us didn't even like being 23 when we were 23.

SPEAKER_00 53:21

I didn't. 28 was my favorite age. Oh, I like that. You got a specific one. Oh, yeah. I do. It was the year I moved to Arizona. Oh, it was a very good one. I know. See, that's why it was so good. So good. People who say you can't meet friends later in life, lies. Yeah, I love that.

Free Guide Webinar And Program Invite

SPEAKER_00 53:41

Um, so if I you have a lot of offerings, and you have a lot of new offerings coming up. So talk to us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 53:50

Amazing. So, this is the first moment that I'm sharing this publicly or at all. I've got this brand new free guide that I've been working on for quite some time. It is officially called Top Five Things Cosmetic Injectors Don't Tell You. Oh. Or Loki, my No Talks Guide. This is a 37-page guide that goes into the top five things that cosmetic injectors don't tell you. It is not, it is not opinion. Big contrary to the belief of injectors, but this is a researched book of facts. I actually even have an index at the very back where you can even click on the specific studies if you want to read them. And no, they are not just like a people magazine article. Uh, these are NIH studies. This is like the actual FDA insert for Botox Cosmetic. We can tune into these things. Not only are these little facts, nuggets about Botox that probably a lot of people have not heard about before because we live in a world of not much informed consent, but there are also some techniques in there of what you can do instead. And this might be things like finding more awareness of your face. There might be a couple of face yoga techniques that we can practice together. And I've got a whole section of resources. If you dug the guide and you want to dive deeper, I've got some podcasts that other people have been on. I've got a book that someone wrote, a couple of Instagram accounts that you can follow, as well as, like I said, a whole references section if you like really want to dive deep in. But I'm crazy excited about that. You can find it at my website, beasy.lifeslash no talks. I'm like, yeah, crazy over the moon excited about that. Please go get that guide. It is free. You can download it and unsubscribe if you want to, or you know, keep on keeping on, hang out with me and keep learning more about this thing that is ubiquitous and not talked about rationally enough. The other thing that I've got coming up just in about three short weeks is a free webinar. Uh, this will be not so focused on Botox, but focused on face yoga, the importance of it, why we do it, what we can utilize it for. The title of this one is Face Freedom 101. And we're getting into reconnecting with our natural beauty, reclaiming our reflection, releasing tension, and how all of these things again can help us not only look better, but feel better. If you want to join me for that, that is again at my website, beasy.life slash June 2026 webinar. I'm excited for that. That is on June 24th at 9 a.m. Pacific. And if you can't make it live, that is A-OK. There will be a replay that gets sent to you, but you got to sign up for it first and also some free goodies and gifts. And then finally, but I would say most importantly, the fifth round of Find Your Face Freedom is coming up in August. I'm so excited about this. I've talked about it a couple of times here on the pod. Find Your Face Freedom is my 12-week signature program that really empowers women to feel confident in embracing their natural beauty and not feeling like they have to constantly fill, filter, fix their faces to fit some crazy standard of beauty because we all look different and we should be celebrating that fact rather than ignoring that or trying to erase ourselves. Uh, so if you want to learn more about my program, you can find that at findyourfacefreedom.com. Uh, Gianna's been a part of it a couple of times. How do you, how do you like it? I mean, you know.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

I love the little tools that I learn. I have not been consistent. So maybe the fifth round is the round that I finally fucking see it through. Yes, I would love that. I I am like that too.

SPEAKER_01 57:49

And here's the thing: we are constantly in progress. We are works in progress. And who you are now is not who you will be forever. And we can continually learn how to update our routines, incorporate some more healthy habits into our lives. We can always learn how to do new things. I've had a friend take the course with me. Now this is her third round, and she's on almost every single live call. And sometimes I'm like, oh my God, she's getting so bored. We've already done this thing. And she tells me that every time she learns something new. And she said it's basically like watching a movie with a bunch of subplots, and then you kind of tune into something different each time. And it might be something that is speaking to you today and not tomorrow, or vice versa. But this gives us an opportunity to again come back to the freedom. Because yeah, I want you to look pretty. And I think that that's okay to want to look pretty and want to be beautiful. But more importantly, I want everyone to find their freedom. Freedom from society's insane beauty standards and culture telling you or you telling yourself that you're not good enough. Because, listener, you are. You are beautiful, you are magical, you are unique, you are different than everyone else on the planet, even if you're an identical twin, you are different than that person. And I think that we should be embracing that, not destroying that.

SPEAKER_00 59:19

Yeah, I agree. I agree because that's a whole other conversation we can get into about like conspiracies and transhumanism, but that's for a different podcast. I love that. Uh thank you so much for sharing with us today. I really enjoyed this conversation. I think it's important to have because it has just become such a blind spot in culture where it's just so second nature that people aren't even questioning it. It's just it, it's almost like it's not if you're gonna do it, it's when you're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 59:54

Exactly. And I I feel really passionate about that piece of informed consent. And, you know, just to give y'all a look into me, I have never had Botox. I was on the fence about it. I was about to do it. And in that same week, face yoga came across my sphere. And so for me, even as someone who's not like been injured by it, I've never experienced it, I'm like weirdly passionate about it. And it's just because I care so much about you and I care that you have the knowledge that you need to be able to make the decisions for yourself. And if you decide, hey, I've got this knowledge, I'm gonna do it anyway, fine. But if you've never been told these things that are in my no talks guide, you need to know that before you do it. So, like if you're on the fence about going and getting injections, if you have gotten injections before, if you're like, I definitely don't want to do that, but I just want some other natural tools, like seriously go grab that guide.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:52

Or, like you said, there's no harm in changing your mind. I think like one of the rounds I think my person was Cameron Diaz because she's very vocal about how she was doing it. And then, you know, she became a mother later in life and decided like she wanted to embrace natural aging. And I think that like talking about those things is like we should be.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:16

Exactly. Oh, I completely agree. And and yeah, like you said, it's okay to change your mind. If you have been like going and getting Botox every few months for the last six years, and then today you listen to this podcast and you're like, I'm gonna go get that guide, and then you cancel your next appointment, amazing, that's fine. And if you've never done it before and you read my guide and you're like, whatever, I don't care. I'm gonna go make that appointment, that's fine. I can't control you, but like let us let us learn from each other, let us learn something that you know might be a little on the fringe or something that people aren't talking about. And again, it's free, y'all. Be easy.life slash no talks. Grab it. You want it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:58

Yes, I'll link it in the show notes for sure. Amazing. Thank you so much for being here with me today.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:05

Always. Oh my gosh, I love being on this pod. I love when we get spicy and we talk about I know I just needed this chit chat with my girl. Yes, it's it's so great. And we we talk about filters, we talk about tits out and we talk about astrology. It's the best.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:18

It's it's pretty on brand for all of our other episodes too. Yeah, I love it.

Closing Thoughts And Ways To Connect

SPEAKER_00 1:02:23

Well, thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of the Nearly Enlightened podcast. If this conversation resonated with you, I would love it if you shared it, left a review, or reached out to me and let me know your thoughts. And if you're looking for more ways to deepen your connection to body, mind, and spirit, check out my Meditate to Elevate Guided Meditation portal or visit nearlyenlightened.com for more resources. Until next time, stay curious, stay connected, and remember the answers already lie within.