She is Redefined
Welcome to She Is Redefined, the podcast that feels like a chat with your best friend over coffee. I’m Katie Smith, and I’m here to help you break free from all those outdated societal expectations and embrace the amazing woman you’re meant to be!
Each week, we dive into real, relatable conversations about everything from self-discovery and confidence to living life on your own terms. I’ll share inspiring stories, sprinkle in some practical tips, and just have a blast exploring what it means to be unapologetically YOU.
So, if you’re ready to rewrite your story and make bold moves toward a life that feels authentically yours, you’re in the right place. Grab your favorite drink, get comfy, and let’s redefine the rules of success together—while having a blast along the way!
She is Redefined
Season 2 Ep 17: Awakening Your Inner Healer with Mary Kate Smith
This episode leads listeners through a rich conversation about functional medicine and the significance of amplifying one's intuition in health choices. Mary Kate emphasizes the interconnected nature of physical and emotional well-being, providing insights on nurturing a balanced and authentic path to wellness.
• Highlighting the journey into functional medicine
• Distinguishing between traditional medicine and functional medicine
• Importance of developing intuitive eating habits
• The role of food quality in emotional and physical wellness
• Connecting emotional health to physical symptoms
• Encouraging steps toward personal empowerment in health decisions
• Highlighting the value of supportive mentorship in health journeys
Here’s the thing: When you know how to negotiate, everything changes. You create overflow in your life and business—and that’s exactly what we’re doing inside The Overflow Empire Mastermind.
Apply now to join The Overflow Empire Mastermind. Together, we’ll scale your business, amplify your results, and help you step into the powerful CEO who gets exactly what she wants—every time. Click here to apply today!
Welcome to She Is Redefined, the podcast that feels like a chat with your best friend over coffee. I’m Katie Smith, and I’m here to help you break free from all those outdated societal expectations and embrace the amazing woman you’re meant to be!
Each week, we dive into real, relatable conversations about everything from self-discovery and confidence to living life on your own terms. I’ll share inspiring stories, sprinkle in some practical tips, and just have a blast exploring what it means to be unapologetically YOU.
So, if you’re ready to rewrite your story and make bold moves toward a life that feels authentically yours, you’re in the right place. Grab your favorite drink, get comfy, and let’s redefine the rules of success together—while having a blast along the way!
Don't forget to hit that subscribe button, rate, and leave a review!
Audio production, sound editing, and post-production is handled by Hey Guys Media Group LLC. Want to start a podcast? Need help with editing? Check out our friends at Hey Guys
Welcome to she is Redefined, the podcast where we break free from societal expectations, redefine our identities and step fully into the woman we were always meant to be. I'm Katie Smith, your host and guide on this journey of transformation. Here, we're all about embracing change, cultivating confidence and living life on our own terms. Each week, we'll dive into topics that inspire, challenge and empower you to redefine what it means to be you. Dive into topics that inspire, challenge and empower you to redefine what it means to be you. So, if you're ready to rewrite your story and live life that's bold, authentic and unapologetically yours, let's dive in. Okay, this is such an exciting day and I feel like this has been in the works and in motion for so long, but y'all, I have such a special guest. My sister-in-law, the badass, the amazing clinic nutritionist, functional medicine guru, owner of her own nutrition like functional medicine business, is on the show with me today.
Speaker 2:Mary Kate Hi Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1:I'm so fired up, so fired up. Okay, so this is how I start with everyone. I just want to get everybody up to speed, so could you start by telling us a little bit about you, who you are, what you do, how long you've been doing it? That would be awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I got my undergrad and my master's in nutrition and I have always kind of been on more of the holistic route, though my mom actually found a functional medicine practitioner for me when I was about 16, because I had been struggling with a lot of just symptoms that no doctors could kind of help me with, and I'm so grateful and thankful for my mom because they always want to put me on like antidepressants and things for all the symptoms I was having and she was like, no, we're not going to do that. And so she had been like reading this functional medicine practitioners like newspaper clippets for years and love the way he talked about the body and everything. So she actually took me to see him and that was the the fire that got lit underneath me for sure, because he was the first person to actually run labs on me that were very detailed, and he sat with me and instead of saying nothing's wrong with you, he was like there's a lot wrong with you, but I can help you, and that was such an amazing time in my life.
Speaker 2:I remember and it's so funny I remember like sitting in his office and I was like I'm going to work here one day and I did so. I got to work for him and he mentored me for about five years and that was an incredible experience because that's really what gave me the foundation of functional medicine. It taught me who to study under, who's really like ahead in this kind of world, because I don't know how much you know, some of your listeners know, but like functional medicine it's kind of world, because I don't know how much you know, some of your listeners know, but like functional medicine it's kind of interesting. Now, like I don't love using the name, just because it's kind of got distorted a little bit oh yeah, yeah. So I would say like there's definitely some amazing functional medicine practitioners out there that really know what they're doing, and then some others that you know just hopped on the bandwagon hopped on the bandwagon, kind of doing it for money.
Speaker 2:It's very cookie cutter where it's like the lab teaches them how to order the lab and then this is the like supplements you give them without any real understanding of what's really going on.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, oh my gosh, I didn't know half of that, because I knew you when you were 16, which is so crazy 16.
Speaker 2:You knew me that young. That's crazy. I think I did, yeah, I mean it was either sophomore and junior year.
Speaker 1:I remember meeting you and your boyfriend at the time and like it's just so, what crazy. But uh, that god bless, signy, that's my mother-in-law, that's mary kate's mom, for doing that. Like that is so cool. And, by the way, I did not know that that you like manifested that you wanted to then work under that chiropractor, cause I know so much about that from you working underneath him. What a cool full circle moment.
Speaker 2:I've had a lot of little of those moments in my life like where it's just a moment in time where I'm like this is happening and there's like there's nothing that doubts my mind about it. Like even just getting my car the other day, like I saw one car, I sat in one car and I was like look at that and I got it.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh girl. We could talk about so much on manifestation and all that I like could go blue in the face, and I actually do want to touch on that in this conversation too.
Speaker 1:I feel like this is going to be an hour long, folks, so like, buckle up. But let's move into the functional medicine, because this podcast is called. She is redefined and it's all about redefining everything in your life redefining success, redefining your relationship with money, redefining parenting and redefining health. And I really want to touch on the functional medicine because I feel like I hear that term all the time and I'm like I hate to judge and I'm not judging, but I just feel like all of a sudden it's everywhere. So I love that.
Speaker 1:You said that the term has almost been mentioned too much. I can't remember the exact word you said, but like I could you touch more about that and how you are different, because you've opened my eyes a lot to medicine and how you work with your clients. Actually, that spurred this conversation. We were talking about one of your clients and you were like, yeah, you know, she had two surgeries for her spine and the headaches and all the other things. And all of a sudden you're like, hey, have we ever looked at this and that? And then you like saved her life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like I'm trying to remember that exact conversation, but I mean, there's been so many instances like that in my life that I've worked alongside and you know it's really interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, like we said, I think that there is a duty that I feel like I have to make sure that, like I do things fully, wholeheartedly. I'm always like redefining myself, and so I love that I'm on this podcast, because there's been so many times where I'm like I literally just sit there and be like, am I a good person? And I'll, like I've asked my partner, do you think I'm a good person? Like I feel like I'm always trying to work on those kinds of things. So I definitely like do that in my business. Like why am I doing this? Why do I want to help people? What is it really about? And you know, I continue to refine it and making sure that it's not something that's it's really about helping people deeply. So I think that that's really important.
Speaker 2:I think the background in nutrition that I have because I've studied like anatomy and physiology and like metabolomics and like looking into your metabolism I feel like some people who get into functional medicine don't have that understanding, so they don't really understand how the body and the metabolism works to begin with. So I think that that's another layer that's been really important in my life. I think I got to work under some incredible mentors where I saw that they were really in this for the right reasons and they worked on having balance in their life too. So that was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to go on my own in my own business was because I could not have a work-life balance. Working for somebody else Cause you just honestly, you just can't make enough in this world. And at the time because again, I was doing this like 10 years ago when medicine, like everybody, was like what, what's functional medicine? I've never heard of that term before yeah, I think that those things have put me in a really good position.
Speaker 2:And then also, having so many of my own experiences, I'm such a sensitive Sally. It's so there's so many pros and cons to that. It's fricking, annoying sometimes, but I love you. It's been incredibly helpful because, well, I would say in the very beginning of my career, I was so boundaryless to a fault, didn't know, had no idea about energetic boundaries and things like that, and I'm still learning, please. You know like I Absolutely Well and I love that. I don't think I'll ever be a hundred percent. You know, like boundaryless, to stop being human but um, or having boundaries, but yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think that in the beginning of my career was like I would have a patient who was like coming in for, let's say, like a yeast infection or let's say, you know, I don't even know, just some some type of thing that they were dealing with. That was like literally a symptom. I would walk out of there and then I would have it and I would have to be like okay, and so that taught me how to really heal things and look into, like what's happening in the body, because I was going through it too and so. And then it was crazy because I would work on healing something and then the next week I would have like five people with that same issue and I'm like I've got you, wow.
Speaker 1:What a trip. I love that you're now bringing in the energetic side of this and it's like, yes, without boundaries. I actually just recently recorded an episode it hasn't gone live yet about conversations, the energy of a conversation, and then taking that with you throughout your day instead of leaving the conversation there, and it sounds like that kind of is what you're talking about with the boundaries and how important it is in those situations. But again, we're humans, so we're not going to be completely boundary life locked in. I think only like monks are like that or something. But I think there's so much importance to then recognizing that and not just like going with the victim mindset or victimhood or whatever it's like.
Speaker 1:Why is this happening again? Am I cut out for this? How I love that you self-evaluate. You do a little audit, a little check-in how can I be better here? Where's the leaks right? And I absolutely love that and I love how what you do is you really blend in your intuition and y'all. She is incredibly gifted on like intuition and energetics. You got to follow her, you got to listen to her podcast, all the things Like her, and I geek out every family event where I can like talk to her about this stuff and I think that's what makes you, with your nutrition background, such a rising star in what you do, because it's a blend of so many things and you have such a big heart. Like you're not in it for for, like the ego stuff, the materialistic stuff, I truly feel you just really want to serve people and help people thrive, feeling alive.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, it's a big, big goal of mine, for sure. Yeah, yeah, I will say and yeah, I'm a definitely a big internalizers, like you know a situation I internalize and I like think about it and I, you know, feel it. So, yeah, I've had to start kind of, where I've actually worked with like an incredible therapist. That's been very helpful to kind of redefining how I show up in certain situations, Like when I go through something, why I'm internalizing something to begin with, why I started doing that when I was a kid, like you know, it's kind of like a safety mechanism that we learn and yeah, so it's all about like I'm just totally in the space of checking in and, you know, continuing to shift things that just aren't serving me anymore and aren't making me feel good anymore. I'm sure you can testify to that and doing that in your life in so many ways.
Speaker 1:I constantly. I love how you're talking about evolving and like looking at what's going on. Ryan like calls me like the masterful researcher, because that's that's just how I live my life now, where I'm like I want to figure it out because I want to feel like a million bucks. That's like my new thing that I keep talking to clients about, that I keep talking on my social media is about like, I just want to feel like a million bucks. So I'm not going to wait for my husband to make me feel that way, or for my kids or from from money.
Speaker 1:I used to chase money heavily and it was to feed my ego because my inner child was so wounded and so I stopped that shit. I don't talk about money. I talk about the growth I've had, because I think people need context, but I don't even need the growth to be feeling like a million bucks, and that's a lot of. What I think you're saying is having that self-awareness, becoming self-aware, where are those wounds, love on that inner, that inner child and all of that Now shifting back into health and medicine. So like, like, what is one thing that you would have people start with if they were like hey, like I really want to feel my best in 2025. And this is outside of the affirmations and the mindset work Like what would you coach someone to do as step one?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if I'm not like working with them and I don't know their story, it's a little bit harder because, you know, I have to be a little bit more general. But I do know one of the most important things is to stop listening to all the bullshit that you see on Instagram of what you need to be doing, what morning your morning routine looks like. You know, I think that getting more in touch with your inner self, your intuition, and trying to like basically gain that skill, so that when you see something and you're like, oh, should I be doing that, instead of trying to think of it logically and like you know, not basically stepping more into your body and being able to ask your body does this feel good to me, should I actually be doing this? And then you'll get more of a yes or a no and then you'll know is this something that you know I need to be doing? So I think just having that inner knowing is really really helpful in this world, because we have everything at our fingertips. That's why I think my intuition and my practice helps me a lot, because there's a million different paths I can go down and I have to.
Speaker 2:Someone's energy I have to assess. You know, like when I say something and I can like see it on their body or the face or energy of, like, oh, that didn't hit well, like okay, and then I ask him like oh, can you actually see yourself doing something like that? And then they might tell me, like actually, no, I can't. And it's like that's really important to me because I can give somebody, you know, a blueprint of what the human body needs. Is everybody going to do that? Is everybody going to thrive?
Speaker 1:No, oh my gosh, I can relate to that in my own business. I can give you a blueprint of how to scale your business, but without me looking under the hood and working with you and seeing what the actual roadblocks are, you're only going to get so far. I love that you just said that and I can relate you know health to like me with business. Yes, that's the power of working closely with someone in proximity and I think that's like the best investment one could make. And I do think there might be a paradigm shift on that, where I feel like people were kind of afraid to spend money on themselves. Or at least in my world, I'm seeing more and more people. They're like that is the best investment I can make, so I'm going to put my money there.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to like play around anymore with buying this like off the shelf, greens juice or something. No, I'm going to work with someone that like understands my gut or whatever, or like in my world, I'm going to stop buying all the courses and enough is enough. And I want close proximity because I want to go somewhere and I want to go there fast. I feel like I'm seeing that a lot and it just jazzes me up because we got one. We got this lifetime right. Like I wasn't going to say we got this one life. It's still like freaking how I used to think. I mean, that's a conversation for a different day, but we have this lifetime, so like, let's make the most out of it, yeah, especially as we start a new year, you know, and so tell us more about the topics that you like to talk about on your podcast and so people can like check it out if they're interested.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my podcast is called Are you Awake Yet? And I started it because I started noticing a lot of people were waking up to just how sick and money-driven our society was. I mean, just so many things right, like there's just so much beneath the surface so it really can cover anything Like, for example it's so interesting to think about this kind of stuff because I've always been on like a weird train. It's so funny because when I was younger, people would kind of not like make fun of me. I was never, like, you know, bullied, but like people would just kind of, you know, say certain things or like, oh, you're interesting. And it's so funny because now so many people are like doing exactly what I was doing, you know, 10, 15 years ago.
Speaker 2:But I will never forget like having a conversation with some girlfriends that I had in college about like birth control, and you know I was the only one not on birth control, literally the only person like I never met anybody else that was like not on birth control. And it was just again another intuition that I had like, oh, I don't think that this is right. I didn't necessarily understand why, but I just felt that. And I remember talking to some of my roommates at the time and saying like, oh, I think birth control is probably not good for us. And one of the girls got really upset and she was like why would my doctor give me something that's bad for me? And-.
Speaker 1:Million dollar question.
Speaker 2:And I, like didn't know how to answer it, but I was just like I just had these feelings, you know. So, anyways, and now I honestly, like almost every single friend I have is not on birth control Like and I'm not saying that birth control is the all evil like, please do what you need to do.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I always just feel like I need to say that because I never want to seem like I'm. I'm really in the middle of most things and will support any person on any journey of their life. But it's just so fascinating now that, like so much research has come out now and so many women are like wait, what am I doing? You know? So, and maybe it's the age group. Obviously, like, a lot of people in my age group are thinking about kids now, so I'm sure that plays a role, but it's just so fascinating to me to see that shift. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely, and it's just so cool. Your natural intuition has led you to all these things and then becoming influential, but also keeping an open mind. It's like you weren't telling people what to do. You were just like speaking your truth and being authentic, which is like amazing. And then, and then now look at the shift in that. It's crazy how birth control I I was not on it very long, but I actually stopped taking it when I started dating your brother, ryan, when I was like this thing keeps messing me up, like I'm done with it. So I've been off of it for like 14, 15 years.
Speaker 1:And yeah, but it's so crazy reading about things A girlfriend I went to high school with actually had a gnarly blood clot situation happen from birth control and then she stopped it. And it's just like it's scary when people prescribe these things and you want to trust them. And then you're like how, like your friend just asked, like why would my doctor have prescribed this to me if it could like hinder something or hurt me? And like I feel like that needs to be the conversation more, like can you awaken yourself enough to get more in tune to your body? Is it a yes, is it a no? What do you feel in your gut? What do you feel in emotion?
Speaker 1:And if you don't know anything about human design we have talked about that, listeners, you know tap into what your authority is and then, if you're not finding it with a provider, like yeah, it might take more time to find a more holistic doctor who could help you, but what is your life worth? What's that worth? Do you know what I mean? It's like I think that's more important rather than just like everyone always says, they don't have enough time, like they're rushing through life to get somewhere, to feel something, all of these things, and I'm trying to help shift that paradigm because it drives me nuts. I have so many clients who are always telling me Katie, time is my issue, time is my issue, and I'm literally like we all have the same amount of hours in the day. Some of us might have more help than others, but we all still have the same amount of time, and time can bend to your reality. It's just your mindset around it, and so it's like why don't you just go the extra step to maybe look at something holistic or functional to help you if you are struggling with something like this is just a blanket statement. I don't know if whoever's listening is thinking about this, but it's always good to get a second opinion on things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's your health, like. One of my favorite sayings is oh gosh, I've been saying it for years and now I can't remember it, but um, it's uh. If you don't take care of yourself, where are you going to live? You know, like you know.
Speaker 1:I love that. Or then, like you, your body is a temple, like we are souls who have been put into a body. Take care of it, cause who else will? Who's going to give you the food, the smoothie, the whatever you know the fiber to eat? No one is. We're all adults so like, and I think that is what the biggest reason that why my business scaled is because I actually started looking within. I want to feel better. What can I do to feel better? I started silencing my mind. I started eating foods that made me feel better. There's a psychological thing with food. Can we touch on that at all? Like what is your experience? Or take on, like the foods that you feed your body?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, obviously, I see many different individuals, and food is a way for me to like connect with these people, to give them something tangible so that they can start to see how their body responds. I think that that's amazing because that's how it worked for me, whereas, like my the beginning of my journey, I was like in the physical world, but I didn't even know that that was just bringing me to my inner world, you know. So I think that that is so such a tangible thing that you can like utilize, and one thing that I often say is like and talk about is that you know, obviously food is life and it has life within it, and so the more we eat processed food, the more dead the food is, the more dead we're going to feel, and so the more food you source that's alive and fresh and freshly picked, the more alive you're going to feel.
Speaker 1:Mary Kate, we can end this program. What am I saying? Episode, or right now? You just blew my freaking mind with what you just said.
Speaker 1:Okay, let me repeat that again, y'all did you just hear this, the more processed food you eat. The processed food is not alive, it doesn't come from a living thing, it's dead. So then we internalize it, which makes you feel empty and dead inside, as opposed to eating plants, things that grow from the earth, live on the earth, meat plants, which is a living, breathing thing that then you put in your body to make yourself feel more alive. That was amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's really the first place that somebody could start if they wanted to have a better relationship with food. Where's my food coming from? How processed is my food? What changes can I make in my day to day that would help me get a little bit more fresh food? So, for example, here's a really simple thing you could do. Let's say you ate eggs in the morning. Can you chop up and put some fresh herbs on top of that, like that's already one step of just getting something that's alive, ready, and like going to give your body some more micronutrients.
Speaker 2:Because really, with food, it's definitely about density. You know how dense is the food and what we're saying when we're saying that is how much nutrition is actually in that food. You know you have a potato chip. It's carbohydrates, you know, and there's not much else to it. But if you eat, you know a steak, you're getting protein, you're getting B vitamins, you're getting collagen I mean the list goes on you're getting all these micronutrients, and so it's completely different. So that was another thing.
Speaker 2:In college I had a lot of friends that were weightlifters and things like that, and it was all about macros hit their macros and they didn't care how they got there, you know it was like eating um, okay, I have to get a thousand more calories. I'm going to eat Oreos, and you know they looked great because they were young, their bodies were adaptable, you know, but if they continued that for a really long time they would be very sick, and so I think that that's really critical is knowing that it's not all about just calories in, calories out. It's what's being brought alongside these calories, which is micronutrients. So how are these foods in terms of micronutrients, which is like vitamins, minerals, those kinds of things foods in terms of micronutrients, which is like vitamins, minerals, those kinds of things.
Speaker 1:Oh, I am so glad I brought this up and we talked about it. It was something I was already going to bring up, but I really something that I read on social media which then I was like, oh my gosh, you're right Like I should really focus on what I'm putting in my body, because this is the one I got so like and I'm 37. And I want to feel amazing when I'm 40, when I'm 45, when I'm 50. And recently I've started not recently, it's been six, seven months now I have a full blown morning routine, but I would say the last three months I started moving my body at the start of my morning routine and it started with stretching, because I do everything based in pleasure.
Speaker 1:I am not going to pressure myself, exhaust myself, suffer at all to move my body, but I think, being an athlete, as you were, I went to school on a soccer scholarship and so you know, working out there's always suffering involved and that's why I never really wanted to work out and I used to make a ton of excuses as to why I couldn't. I have a horse, I've got kids. If I have any free time I'm going to be with my horse or my kids. And instead I reframed that, redefined that and I started in the morning stretching. And then that moved into me doing some push-ups, and that moved into me doing some lunges and squats and it's more like Pilates type of stuff because I find pleasure in that. But it hit me where I was like am I going to start moving my body at 40? I doubt it, so I might as well start today. And then it was like am I going to start eating better at 45? You know what I mean. Like no, you have to start somewhere.
Speaker 1:And the beautiful ripple effect for the moms or dads out there is like my boys have seen me change what I eat and it's even influenced my husband, who wants to then eat better and there's something to say about that too where it's like yeah, we have a smoothie, this is what's in it I say things kind of funny because there are three like let's have some green ice which are peas, because peas have so much fiber and kids need more fiber. Like real talk. I had to have my oldest on these fiber gummies because this was back in California when the nanny was feeding him awful stuff. So he was constipated all the time and thank God he doesn't need that anymore because I got creative and I was showing him that I can eat these things.
Speaker 1:You can eat these things chia seeds, which I call, like literally, chocolate seeds. Like you got to get creative, but you know what I mean. I love that, yeah. So it just was like reframing that of like, when do you want to start feeling better and doing those things, and is it going to be a year from now? I highly doubt it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I will say, like these things are uncomfortable, just like you said. They're not like their habits, and these habits take time and so you do have to invest a little bit of time to make these changes, but they're so worth it. You know, I always get through to men when I talk about like investment accounts, because I'm like you know, if you expect, like, let's say, you put a thousand dollars in an account and you want this account to really grow, like you have to keep putting a little bit into it, a little bit into it in time. It's the same thing with your body and your health. You don't need a ton, you don't need to put $10,000 in right away, you need to put a little bit every single day. And then you look back 10 years from now and you're like, oh my goodness, my health is incredible and that's really how it's been for me.
Speaker 2:I love that 80-20 rule. It's not that I'm perfect all the time we keep junk food in the house. It's not like I never eat it. I love my treats and sweets. I do tend to make them a lot better quality with, like the ingredients I use and how I kind of adapt and reduce the sugar, but still it's like you know, I'm not super restrictive and I don't think we need to be, but it's really about that time and intention over that long period of time that makes a really big difference.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, absolutely, and y'all need to follow her. She shares some of the things that she bakes. She should be a professional baker. They're so dang cute and beautiful and I'm always like, can I have the recipe? And I have all the recipes and I've yet to even try, because I don't think I could even get.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's next time. If you ask me for the recipe, I'm going to say no until you make one of the old ones you have now.
Speaker 1:Deal, deal. That sounds good. That's so funny. Okay, can we shift gears into more spirituality, kind of woo woo chats and talks, because you side note for listeners, mary-kate has been a huge resource in my life as I have awakened, because you awoken, awoke, awakened much earlier than I did. You said it was like 2020?.
Speaker 2:I would say it was kind of like 2018 for me, but I would say, yeah, it's. I mean, it's been a journey for a long time for me, but I would say, really, really big kind of having these deeper, deeper awakenings was probably about 2018.
Speaker 1:Wow, so cool. And mine was in 2022 because I had Decker, and so my story my listeners know that if they listened for a while is I randomly had a download, thought to ask for a sign from the universe and I was like, oh my gosh, I think somebody once talked about this on social media. Where'd I hear that? And all of a sudden, Gabby Bernstein's name got brought to my brain. So another download. So I literally was being guided by my spirit guides to being like let's start this. And I got. I asked for two signs because I didn't know what the heck I was doing and there's really no rules, but I asked for two signs and when I got both those signs, I was hooked. Now can you kind of share with us how your even your, your start happened, If you, if you can remember?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm trying to to kind of look back and remember. I know I had some like interesting, like premonition time periods of my life where I would definitely say like for a lot of people, I think the periods of like deep depression and anxiety kind of spark a spiritual awakening for sure. I know that was for me like just having like a lot of uncertainties about who I am and you know, for your listeners, I came from a really big family, just having like a lot of uncertainties about who I am, and you know, for your listeners, I came from a really big family. You know, a lot of siblings.
Speaker 2:There was just so much noise growing up around me and I think I was always just an incredibly intuitive individual. But, like my parents, you know, like I just feel like everybody sees like living in the physical realm, like right, like where it's like my inner world was not living in the physical realm. I don't know if this is making sense, but no, yes, and so I think I had to shut that down at a really young age because it was like, oh, that's not going to get me like the care and like love that I need. You know, nobody's going to really understand this and, of course, like I wasn't thinking of that logically as a kid, but it was subconscious. So you just start to like shut down and shift, and I think there was a period of time, kind of maybe after college, that I was like oh, like these are like I think I have some, you know, deeper intuitions about things and I kind of want to explore that a little bit more.
Speaker 2:But yeah we had a pretty difficult experience. Actually, I don't know if I've talked about it much, but I had a very interesting experience with, like a patient I had been working with at the old practice that I was working at, and I ended up taking time off from this practice because I had started my master's program and it was like so, like just too much, like I couldn't do both. I was like in my head all day thinking about nutrition. I was just becoming unhealthy. So I was like, okay, I need to like step away from nutrition for work and just do it for school. So I had stepped away.
Speaker 2:And then I had this really interesting dream one night that one of the patients that I remember working with had taken his own life. And when I woke up I was kind of like reflecting on the dream, because it was. It didn't feel like a dream, it had felt like it felt very real and I remember like kind of like seeing his body like floating up into the light, and it was like a very positive dream. It wasn't like dark, eerie, and that was like. I woke up feeling just like whoa, that was very weird and I texted one of my like old coworkers and I said hey, can you check in on this patient? I just want to like see how they're doing. And they like reached out to him and, long story short, we ended up finding out that he did take his own life, and that actually did happen.
Speaker 2:And it was right around the time that I had had that dream and it was horrendous. That was very, very difficult and dark for me. It like caused me to spiral deep into like anxiety, to the point where I was stuck in a kind of horrific anxiety panic attack for like three days straight where, like literally I'm sure, couldn't drink water, my mom had to take me to the hospital and I had to like get you know out of in and things that like just could kind of pull me out of it. So that's why I'm always like love and respect the traditional approach, because it's helped me at certain times in my life when I really needed it, and so I think that really sparked something inside of me to be like what's going on?
Speaker 2:There's something deeper here, and it kind of just propelled me into this deep and dark space of just kind of questioning all of reality, especially coming from a very, very like sacred Catholic background where it was like none of that stuff was ever like looked into for me. So it was an extremely painful experience because I got cracked open to the core of every belief that I had ever like had in my life. So I think that that was a really, really big propeller, that because, like I said, I think I've always been on this spiritual path and have had interesting situations when I was a kid, but I think I tried to put myself more in the physical world and they was like no, you're not going to do that and so kind of like cracked me open and and really brought me to the place I am today.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and you are so talented at what you do and like who you are today. But, man, wow, what a, what a journey. And it's, you know, just for people to understand. Like if you feel those nudges or something you know, follow it to get to where you feel most at peace. But I can relate to being cracked open to your core, because when I started awakening, it's hard because you can't really go back. And then you're like what is anything? What is this? What is anything? And like that's the scariest part.
Speaker 2:When you realize, oh crap, I'm not where I want to be and I want to go back.
Speaker 1:but I can't that absolutely, absolutely Like. I remember calling you, like in tears, like hysterical Cause. I was like, oh my gosh, how do I, who do I talk to about this and all these things? And so and I think that's like you put her beautifully on that call I remember you saying it's like your crown chakra has just been shattered, so you have to get ground yourself, like ground yourself and move through it and just like you're awakening more and you're learning more about stuff and like sorry for listeners who are like this is going way over my head, but I just had to bring this up because I was curious how your awakening started. And then it is hard in that moment but then it becomes a kind of a beautiful thing. But I don't think we're all done. It's being human, that's what life's all about evolving, learning, all that stuff. I will say it has. Once I got through all that, I never felt more empowered when I realized that I actually have a lot more say here than I ever realized.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think that that's the fascinating thing about being human is we're these souls that are deeply incredible and have endless energy and endless understanding of knowledge, but we're placed into these kind of bodies that have limitations and we have to respect it. I think one of the most spiritual things we can do is to be human and to be in our bodies and to ground ourselves. And I say that often to people because I've met people, because I've been brought a lot of different people from different walks of life. I have individuals who are very into spirituality and I think I have a very more grounded sense to spirituality than some other people that I've met before.
Speaker 2:They destroyed their bodies, unfortunately, because they didn't respect their bodies, because they were just trying to live out like however they they felt in their soul, like, you know, playing music for you know, hours straight and not nourishing their bodies, and like getting to the place where then their body has an autoimmune condition because they didn't respect their body's needs. We have to respect both needs. We need to do what our soul is calling us to do, but we also have to respect our bodies, and I think it's that beautiful dance in life that there's going to be times where your body needs a little bit more support and you've got to listen to that, and then sometimes where your body is like, okay, I can handle everything, let's go live out our soul mission, kind of thing. So I think that that's really important.
Speaker 1:That's a great tip of something I never really thought of. I always try to remind people that we're here to be human. That's what we're here on life to do and feel emotions and not reject emotions or try to shame emotions, and it's like I think that's one of the most spiritual things you can do too is like to actually feel the emotions, that motions mean nothing other than what they mean, and then let it move through you and then you're in more control and you actually feel better because you actually felt the damn thing, rather than hiding from the monster in the closet, cause you don't want to see what it is which is just making everything worse.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I love that and I shut down my emotions for 20 years, 25 years.
Speaker 1:Oh girl Same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I know how powerful it is. It was when I finally went to like a somatic retreat where we had this huge, like anger release with like a hundred other women, and it cracked me open to my core. I had like a Kundalini kind of awakening where I had all this surge of energy and I was so scared by it I didn't know what to do with it. It like made me like feel like I was going to throw up and it's because when you don't feel your energy and you suppress these emotions, they, yeah, they, you know, are deep inside you somewhere and then, yeah, they all kind of came out all at once.
Speaker 2:And I think that was another level that cracked me open to being like oh, what's my relationship to my emotions? And then identifying how that actually deeply can affect your body. Like I see people who really suppress it can really affect their digestion, because then the digestive tract in Chinese medicine is what has to work on these emotions for you and then it can be very damaging to your digestive system. Yeah, of course, oh, of course. Yeah, there's other things like fear, you know, affects the kidneys, like. There's so many things like that.
Speaker 1:I love that you're saying this right now, and even though we'd go here but I love that we are because my sister, bless her heart, actually just beat cancer. She had lipocarcinoma, she had a 14-pound tumor in her stomach. And my sister, whom I love very much she's my older sister but she has openly admitted her life is not what she thought it would be and she's held on to a lot of resentment that manifests into something that has to go somewhere. I hate to say that, but when we hold on to something for decades and are just unhappy and we're not just choosing a different path, a different mindset or whatever, it's going to manifest into something and for her it did, but guess what? That has woken her up. She's clean now and she's good and she's like I'm never going through that shit again, like that was, and it sucks that it has to get that far. But I've I've heard this book, emotional anatomy.
Speaker 1:It is so freaking fascinating. Wherever you're having an ache in your body, it can be related to something and if you have the awareness to admit it and your ego and your conscious isn't getting involved and acting like no, no, no, there's just some man in the sky pointing down saying you're bad luck. You're bad luck.
Speaker 1:You can be very empowered to be like okay, I'm done, I'm gonna let this stuff go. Money stresses yeah right. Who cares? I'm alive? It could be anything Anxiety over what people think. Who cares? You're alive? Who cares? What do you think about you? There's so many things you could redefine. You can reframe and get your power back, and that's what I want for everyone in this life. Gosh, I feel like I could talk to you forever, so y'all need to listen to Mary-Kate's podcast. We will link that in the show notes, mary-kate. Where can people learn more about you? Where they can follow along with you?
Speaker 2:reach out if they want to work with you? Where can you direct people? Yeah, I know I would love to touch just a little quickly because I know one thing we want to talk about a little bit was like the difference between traditional and like functional medicine. And traditional is definitely all about like symptom management, suppressing your symptoms. But functional medicine especially the functional medicine I do is definitely a holistic approach of actually getting to the roots of your issue. So you know it's a very deep approach that I take with individuals.
Speaker 2:When you're first meeting me, you're filling out like a lot of deep, detailed intake work. You know, when we do blood work, the standard blood labs are a very deep approach. It's not just like a couple of things that your insurance will cover and you don't get really any answers. So that's typically. You know what I, what I do with individuals. So if you're kind of looking to go down that pathway, I do virtual sessions with individuals. I have people in, you know, many different States and holistichealingnutritionnet is my website so you can kind of take a look of what I've got on there. I have, you know, some details about my background and you know who I help, and so that would be kind of the place I would go and have you look into if you're considering that.
Speaker 1:Awesome. You can find that in the show notes as well. Anything else, you want to leave anybody with Any last things you want to say.
Speaker 2:I would definitely say that some really important things are just to stop listening to other people and really focus on getting into your body and asking yourself what you need to do. I think that that's really really critical. I think, and also knowing too, when you ask the question, when you ask your body, you're not going to get an old, like an instant answer all the time. You know you might need to wait a little bit of time, but those answers are there. I think we need to get a little bit better at trusting our inner, knowing and letting us it guide us, and then also knowing, too, that the greatest people you know that we might look up to or follow all have mentors, you know, and that's really, really important to remember, because they didn't get there alone. They got there from support, they got there from, you know, learning from others, from understanding other people's wisdom. It's really, really important.
Speaker 1:Amen. Oh, I love that. You just ended on that, absolutely. Oh, I just love you. Oh, my gosh, you're amazing. Thank you so much for being a guest on here sharing your wisdom. I know this is going to land with so many people.
Speaker 1:I cannot wait to hear how it lands with so many people, and I guess we'll just wrap it up from here. I hope everyone has a beautiful day. Thank you, mary Kate. Thank you so much, katie. Oh, my gosh, of course, loved it. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of she is Redefined. If today's chat resonated with you, don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss out. Remember, this is just the beginning of your journey and you've got everything you need to create the life that you want. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love for you to leave a review or share it with another woman who's ready to redefine herself too. Until next time, keep embracing who you are, because you're powerful, you're capable and you are redefined.
