Ep. 74 The Connection Between Your Nervous System and Digestion with Dr. Meg Mill

What if better digestion starts with your nervous system? In this episode, Dr. Meg Mill introduces her concept of neurodigestion and explains how stress, thought patterns, and the way we eat can influence digestion, hormone health, and nutrient absorption.

We explore the cephalic phase of digestion, the importance of slowing down at meals, and Dr. Meg's simple "7-Second Switch" practice for shifting your mindset and supporting your body's natural healing processes.

In this episode:

- What neurodigestion is and why it matters
- The connection between the nervous system and digestion
- How stress impacts nutrient absorption and hormone health
- The cephalic phase of digestion explained
- Why slowing down and chewing your food matters
- The 7-Second Switch and changing your inner dialogue
- Detoxification and supporting the body's natural processes
- Practical tools Dr. Meg teaches her coaches and clients

Connect with Dr. Meg Mill & check out her podcast:

https://megmill.com/

https://megmill.com/podcasts/

Join our upcoming Reiki Circle Sunday June 14th @ 10 a.m. CST

https://reikiwithmanda.as.me/schedule/775d158e/?appointmentTypeIds%5B%5D=74910348&utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAdGRleASYRE9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAacjmZ7oIf1rcP29RzLZRNHmpwVxBO75znK3nby-UorPbrW6JdXVIQG1cjziwA_aem_fCQDJtA4OlGtHVmts9e0PQ

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Hey, it's Christy and Amanda, two girls from Saskatchewan, Canada, living the Reiki life while working the nine to five. Hello, hello. Uh, welcome in. This is episode 73. And uh, you know, I really wanted to start off our podcast today with a little bit uh something different. So I really thought in light of our guests today, uh we would all start with just sitting where we are, putting our feet on the ground, and just taking a few deep breaths in together. I think that would just be really beneficial just to bring us into the present and relax. So let's do that now, taking a big breath in. And then letting that out. And then just do that one more time in your own way here. So again. Good. I just found that I'm reading this really good book. It's called Floor, and it is uh about really like paying attention and relaxing your body, and it really goes into our episode today. So if this is your first time here, you are here with myself, Amanda, and my co-host Christy. And uh, we have a really good episode coming up for you with Dr. Meg Mill. But first, Christy and I like to share a little bit of updates and what is going on. So thanks for being here. And Christy, how are things?

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Yeah, hey everyone. It's been a while, and you know, I can't believe it's June already, like halfway through the year. It's just so wild. Um, but yeah, I was trying to think all day, like, what can my update be? And I was just like, I I don't know. And you know, what's funny is I had a new client um the other day, and she's like, you know, I really or I was gonna, I had a couple breaky practitioners I was gonna try out, but she's like, I feel like I know you because of the updates you share. She's like, I feel like I I know who you are. And I was like, Oh, that's so sweet. Because I always think, like, do people fast forward through these updates, or like, do people care, or like, is this something we should continue? And I feel like that was like a message that hey, we should keep going with these things. Because I think you know, when you're invested in a podcast and and you do really enjoy the people, you do care about their life and like what's going on. Because yeah, yeah, I thought that was amazing too.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

And um I yes, I love this. I'm so glad you mentioned that. I think I think the same thing. How many people are just like, oh, get to the episode on that?

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Yeah, get to and like fair, like yeah, and I I know I've done that before with other podcasts, but it was like a 20-30 minute intro of them just you know going back and forth, and like sometimes it was like, you know, I'm not that invested, I'm just really here to listen to the guest that's on this podcast. So yeah, I just it just really depends. So if you want to hear the update, we're here, and if you want to hit fast forward, you can do that too, whatever, whatever you like. But yeah, life has been um has been busy. I started a new job in the corporate world, so I'm actually really enjoying it. Um, but it's really like mentally draining, you know, when you start something new, it's like you have to be on your game and you're learning and all of that. And it's funny, like, you know, I'm I'm not 40 yet, but I feel like I don't catch on, like I catch on to things, but I feel like I don't retain them as well as I did when I was younger, which is kind of funny, but it's like, oh whatever. But um, yeah, and I'm still doing my homeopathy study, so I've been uh busy with my nose in the books, and just you know, really learning that modality and the magic behind it, and just you know, watching people heal before my eyes, it's just it's really incredible. And I've I feel like you know, I found something that I want to dedicate my time and my life to because I I know I've mentioned this before, and you know, people that um don't have kids and we're not bringing life into the world, what do we want to birth into this world and what do we want to share with the world? Because you know, when you become a mom, you're sharing that child with the world, and that's something that you brought in through your womb. So it's like, what can I bring in through my womb and what can I share? And I just feel like homeopathy is really um, really that creation and like my baby right now, and um yeah, I I just find it it just lights me up, like I'll be tired laying in bed, but I want to um, you know, keep studying and keep diving in and keep learning so you know you've hit the nail on the head when it's just like you can't put a book down, and yeah, so that's where I'm at. And of course, I'm still doing um Reiki um sessions with clients uh distantly, and uh had a really amazing session last night, and I'm just so amazed by when guides come through and what spirit guides share with us and the metaphors and the things that happen around me that tie into the session. And I actually had a mediumship um experience last night, and it was like it was wild because soon as I put my connected with my client and put my hands over her eyes in that first position, it was um sorry, the spirit came through like right then and there, and I was like, okay, now here we go. But then at that moment, I was like, this is when I wish I did the live session so I could sit with her and be like, okay, this is what I'm seeing, this is what I'm feeling. Who is this to you? You know, so you're kind of on the fly. And yeah, so that was uh that was interesting. So I was like, well, I'm not too rusty in my medium ship, it's always good to you know practice that here and there. But um, but yeah, okay, I rambled on enough here. And sorry, Ren's been shaking like crazy. And her I just took her collar off. So sorry if anyone heard her.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

It's funny when I go to edit, I did it's funny how you can pick up Ren, but like you can't really pick up Callie. Oh jeez. Like for me, I don't know. Our microphones are totally different, even though they're the exact same. But whatever. I'm sure people love Ren, anyways. If you come to the Reiki Circle, you can meet Ren in live live action. That's right. Um, I love me a good Reiki session, and it is it's very true about what you said about birthing, and you're full in, like we're we're both full into our babies right now, but just in different ways, right? And it is a lot of work, and it's very tiring, but it's it's definitely rewarding, it's gonna pay off. So that's all good stuff to hear about your course, and I'm glad you found that for yourself. It's really important.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

It is like that purpose that lights you up. You had a Reiki session lately, eh?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Yeah, so things are getting fired back up here now that it's June. And uh when I do uh Reiki sessions now, I have to get obviously child care because I do them during the day when my spouse is at work. So my parents or my in-laws are really good for like helping out. And this last session I did, uh, my dad actually jumped in and assisted during my Reiki sessions. So my dad has his uh levels one and two, of course. I attuned him. And my dad has always been working with energy from oh ever. He was meditating back in you know 1995 when I don't know if it was that big of a thing. Like he was always into martial arts growing up and energy in your chi. And uh, it was really awesome to have like father and daughter working together and holding me holding space for him as he was working, and seeing him wield the energy was unreal. And he actually had some experiences that I had never encountered, even like being with students. So when he was uh holding the energy at one point, he had his hands on, and then he had to bring his hands back, and then he his hands started to really shake. And I don't know if anyone else has ever experienced this before, but the energy was getting so uh fast and furious, and just so much of it that I had to tell him to continually ground himself, to ground his energy in so he could almost like hold the space for all the energy that was wielding through his hands. It was quite interesting. Like I had never seen anything like that before. So I thought that'd be pretty cool if anyone else has ever experienced that, or if you feel like there's so much energy flow because the client is sucking it in, like just continue to ground yourself so it helps with that improper flow of energy if you have too much going on. Um, but yeah, it was really fun. And then, of course, right, when you have two practitioners working on you, you're getting it actually the session took the same amount of time. I actually thought it was gonna be faster, right? Because you had two people, but it still took the hour. But it was really interesting just to be back and forth and seeing what he would get and what I would get, and just it'd be the same, and then little different things, extra things. It was honestly the best. So if anybody really wants a father and daughter duo, let me know. Um, my dad, yeah, definitely went through all the emotions too in holding that space, and it was it was really beautiful to see. So um, yeah, let me know if that's something you want. If anyone wants a Reiki session from me and Dennis, it'll be the same price, you'll just get extra. I can't wait to touch in with this client after and just see how she's feeling. But uh yeah, so that was my update. Really, really, really fun for both of us.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

That brings me back to when you and I used to practice um with each other, and it was so much fun because we could bounce things off of each other and be like, hey, I'm feeling this, this is new. What is this? And it's just such a beautiful learning experience, too. And and to do that with your dad, that's just so special. And yeah, yeah, you know what's funny, Kate.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

So I've been watching this show called The Pit, it's on like the fire stick or whichever, and it's a medical show. I've told Christy about it, she's like, no, thanks. But, anyways, it was like I was his I was the attending doctor, and he was like the third-year doctor.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Yes, and I met it so funny.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

I was like, Oh, yes, you know, like I'm the primary, and he's the helping but still taking lead. Oh, it was so great.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

But it that's right, that's a good way to put it, yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Yeah, the two doctors at work, energy doctors, energy doctor.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

That's right. And and I love that he was had to ground himself. You know, I that's something that I don't focus on to like I ground at the beginning, I ground my client in at the beginning, um, but like throughout, I think that's a good thing to you know tune into yourself in the middle of the session. Am I still grounded? Is my client still grounded? I think that's that's great because some people are naturally just grounded, and then you have someone like me where I can float away easily.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

So yeah, it's just so good to have that mindfulness about that, especially right, like you're doing a session like you did, and all of a sudden you're starting to do mediumship. Yeah, so it's like you can really get carried away, and that would be good, or if the energy gets like really, really wild ground in for sure.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Yep, big time.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Right on. All right, should we end for the episode? Yeah, yeah, let's get into it. Oh my gosh. So, you guys, today on the episode, we have Dr. Meg Mill. She was phenomenal. We found her podcast. Uh, she's the host of A Little Bit Healthier, so definitely go and check that out on all wherever you listen to your podcast. Uh, she is a uh medical practitioner. She's still taking clients as well, Christy Aster at the end, and she really uh goes into the foundation of like women's health, and she's is the founder of Women's Functional Health Institute. She's been featured on Forbes, um, women's health magazine, everywhere. Uh, she also has a book coming out in January called The Seven Second Switch Method, and really talks about like the body and mind connection. So, right, getting to the root of what's actually causing the issue in the body. And so, me and Christy as Reiki practitioners, like that's what we really like to do as well. And uh, let's get to the actual purpose of what's happening in your body so everything can be cleared out and goes into hormones and everything like that. So, you'll have to make sure you check out her book when it comes out in January. And we just really enjoyed talking with uh Dr. Meg Mill because she is such a great speaker, and uh really go and check out her podcast as well. Very empowering, and she really met me where I'm at right now, especially after having a baby and just women's health and all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Yeah, yeah, she I really like genuinely enjoyed sitting down with her. And speaking of grounded, she's very grounded, she knows her stuff, and you know, it's so funny is like she talked about chewing your food, I think I forget how many times, but like a crazy amount of time, and then you know, taking a couple deep breaths before you eat your um meal. And you know, I went to um a reflexologist and he was talking about my digestion, and he was like, Oh, it's kind of you know, in trouble. He's like, Do you Reiki your food? Do you take deep breaths before you eat? And do you chew your food until it turns to liquid? And I was like, Oh my god, I just had this conversation the night before, so it was like definitely a message for me. So it was just so wild that that lined up within like 24 hours. But I know everyone's gonna learn so much from her, and her podcast is amazing. We will link that below, and I really hope you enjoy this episode today.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Yes, you will enjoy.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Okay, so welcome, Dr. Meg Mill, to the podcast. Uh, we're super excited to sit down with you today and talk about your upcoming book. And you know, I dove into your podcast um before we hopped on here, and you have so many amazing topics. I just really enjoyed listening to them because it's like you're debunking a lot of that, like the influencer um stuff going on on social media, and they're just there's so much misinformation out there that I really appreciate that you're going in and you're telling people like, no, this is what is going on, and it was just such a like a great eye opener, and so much amazing free information that you share. So we will definitely link um your podcast in our show notes for other people to um to check out. So we wanted to start with what is neurodigestion? I've never heard that word before.

SPEAKER_04 15:35

Yeah, so it's a I coined that term myself, so that's probably why. But it's you know, because I've really there it's I found over years of working with women um that we often are doing, so I'm I have a virtual functional medicine practice where I see people from all over the world. I've worked with close to a thousand women, and what I was seeing when I was doing the traditional functional medicine thing. So, you know, we're working on healing the gut and balancing the hormones and and testing and supplements and all the things, but and people were making progress, but there's some people that just were getting stuck, and it's like, okay, what's going on here that they're doing right? Even people would come to me from other places and they would say, like, you know, I can't get better, I haven't made progress. I get people who have had seen a lot of other practitioners that before they landed me, and maybe they get a little better and then they'd step back. And and it it was like, I really am a researcher, and I started to want to really research well, what is it behind the fact that they're not getting better? They're not necessarily making progress. Maybe we made a little progress, we'll take a step back. And for so many of us, we are stuck in this fight or flight nervous system for for so much of the time. And so I'm gonna talk about a couple, I'm gonna explain it kind of in different parts of your body and then kind of bring it around and put it all together. So what we have what we call in part of our nervous system, what it is the autonomic nervous system. And the autonomic nervous system controls the parts of your body that you don't actually consciously think about. So things like your heart rate, your um digestion, your breath, things like that. And so in that nervous system has different branches. So we have the parasympathetic, which is your rest and digest, and then we have the sympathetic, which is your fight or flight. So we want to spend most of our time in the parasympathetic. So we're resting and digesting. And when we're doing that, it's at we're actually giving our body the signals it needs so to digest your food. So it your stomach will produce acid, your body, your pancreas will release enzymes, your gallbladder will re release bile. You have what we call a migrating motor complex that actually pushes the food through. So we have all of these things that are set up perfectly for our body to digest. Well, the problem is that a lot of us are spending a good amount of time in the sympathetic nervous system, and that's our fight and flight. And so when we're in that nervous system, your body can't tell the difference between I'm being chased by a bear and I haven't finished my to-do list, or you know, I have a million, my kids need to be run around to, you know, a ton of places, or what is going on that you're actually thinking about that we're spinning all day long. So we have all of these negative thoughts or stress thoughts going in our head, and it's actually giving our body instructions to say, okay, stop making stomacid. We want to stop releasing enzymes, we want to stop releasing bio, we want to slow down motility, we want to actually divert blood away from your digestive organs. So we're actually starting our digestive process in our brain. And it was a little fun fact is that you everyone's heard of Pavlov's dogs, right? Ivan Pavlov and the condition response, the bell that they ring. So it's like, you know, the dog, you ring a bell and the dog does uh a trick, like a condition response behavior. But he actually won the Nobel Prize for the physiology of digestion. So he wasn't actually studying condition response, he was studying digestion, which not many people know about. And um, but when he was studying this, he found that digestion begins in the brain. And we call that now the cephalic phase of digestion. But our body, before we even take a bite of food, is sending messages to our digestive organs through what we call through our vagus nerve. So our vagus nerve runs from the base of our skull basically the whole way down through the digestive system, and we're getting nerve, we're getting messages sent down when we're thinking these thoughts. So the neurodigestion is bringing those concepts together. So it's, you know, our thoughts are controlling the way that our body is actually digesting and processing our food. And I think a lot of times we're we we separate them. So we look at it from a perspective of, okay, we're looking at mindfulness or thought reframing or different, you know, different meditation, different tools here in one category. And then we're taking another category and we're saying, okay, we're gonna look at functional medicine and we're gonna look at gut health and hormones and nutrition and supplements and things like that. But what I have seen over years and years of practice is that people do better when you combine them, when you actually get them to work on, which we can talk about how to do, reframing your thoughts and giving your body the right signals to make the other things that we're doing actually work better.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

You know, it's so wild how the our thoughts really control and our mind controls what happens in our whole way of our body. My sister actually just sent me something on Instagram about how like somebody spilled coffee on a shirt, and then he kind of said, Well, like at least I had another clean shirt, and at least I'm at home, and at least it didn't go on my pants, too. So he was like trying to like say, like, if you say three positive thoughts after, you're kind of trying to rewire your brain to kind of focus on positivity as opposed to and like rewire those negative thoughts that sometimes we automatically think. And I really tried to really focus on that because I really think it can shift absolutely everything else that kind of goes on, and our body will respond to whether we're positive or negative.

SPEAKER_04 21:48

It does. And it, you know, I think one of the most fascinating things is neuroplasticity. So that's exactly what you know is happening in your brain. So your brain is constantly reshaping itself. Based on the thoughts that we're thinking. And we actually have the ability to change our neuropathways, which is so interesting that we have control. We just get stuck in the patterns. So once you're firing in those patterns for so long, people get kind of stuck on that. It becomes almost like a highway of like thinking that way. And we have to just change it. And it takes, it does take practice, but with practice, you can change the pathways.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Yeah. So what what do you recommend? How to change those pathways?

SPEAKER_04 22:34

Yeah. So one of the things in the book, so we're talking about, I have a book coming out called The Seven Second Switch. And we get really deep into all of this in that book. But the seven-second switch, it came from a process of using this, these techniques with so many women, because what I found is that people would do like a meditation, and they would say, Okay, I feel good while I'm meditating, but then I come back into my life and I feel like overwhelmed again. So we could get to a place like if I'm doing my breath work, or if I'm doing my meditation, or if I'm doing these things, I'm feeling good at that time, but then I have so much stress all around me. You know, I have issues with my family members, or I have other, you know, financial issues, or all these things that are stressing me out. I don't know how to function in my regular life. And so I actually would do this with myself. And I, you know, it's funny how you do it over years and you don't even know what you're doing internally until you kind of are teaching other people, and then you're like, oh, okay. So when I started working with people and started seeing this big change, I created into a process that they can actually use. And and you can use this all day long. So with practice, it it only takes about seven seconds. Do you want to walk through um the seven-second switch?

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Yeah, yeah. I'd love to love that.

SPEAKER_04 23:57

So what we do is first we take the a thought and and we want to go to the meanest thing that you say to yourself. So, like, what comes up at 3 a.m.? What's what's the thought underneath the thought? So I'm just gonna give you like a little example here. So you're gonna say potentially, like, I'm always late. Like, oh, I'm always late for everything. I can never be on time. Okay, why do you care about being late? Okay, I let people down because I'm not there to show up for them. Okay, why do you even care about that? Well, because I'm not good enough for love. Like, I'm not good the good, you know. So usually it comes back to some of those cores, like, I'm not good enough, I'm broken, I'm never gonna get better, like some of these. So you want to go to that and you want to think of like what are what's a core thing that kind of comes up for you. And then you're gonna then I so I want so you say it to yourself, and then you want to feel where that feels in your body because we hold a lot of that in our body when you know we don't even think like we're saying the physiological changes that happen in your body. So then you think, okay, do you feel like you might feel a pit and you we're talking through this, but if you're doing it and it's like quiet and you're really feeling it, you'll you could feel like a you know, pit in your stomach, or maybe your shoulders feel heavy, or you feel tightness in in your head, and you kind of think of where that's where you're settling in. Then you want to ask yourself, is this true? Do I let 100% know that this is true? Can I prove it? And and you can't because 99.99999% of our thoughts are just things that we've been thinking for so long that they're beliefs to us now, but they're not actually true. They're just how we're perceiving things or how our mind is going. And and so you when you question the truth, you realize, like, okay, I can't prove that this is this is 100% true. And so then you then you remove the thought. So you take it and you pull like you've you know, physically you can pull it out of your body, you can like swipe it out of your mind. Now, if you're with people, you know, you just think about like removing it, but you can even sometimes the somatic work of like actually physically like removing it and getting it away, um, pull it out, and so you're pulling that thought out. And then after that part, so you should feel as you're you know, when you're doing it and you're feeling the shift of removing the thought, then we're gonna replace it with a new thought. So we're and we don't want to go with something that's like oh, I'm gonna run a marathon or something. You know, it's like uh, you know, if you're going from I'm never gonna get better to I'm gonna be great and run a marathon, you're you're not gonna really believe that. So we want to just shift to something that you can believe. It can be a positive thought, it can be a neutral, like like you were just saying, Amanda, like it could be a neutral, like I didn't spill it on my shirt, you know, or like I'm okay now, or I can make it through today, or you know, like um, so it's just what can we do that's a better thought? Um, so we're gonna replace the thought, and then we're going to actually reset the nervous system by taking a deep belly breath and you breathe in and then you breathe out, you you know, breathe in through your belly, hold it, and then breathe out longer than you in, exhale longer than you inhale so that we activate the vagus nerve. So we're resetting our nervous system. So you you pull the thought out, you feel it in your body, you question is it a hundred percent true? Then we then we remove the thought, replace it, and then do the the deep breath um nervous system reset. And so you should feel when you're you know, when you're really introspectively doing it, a shift. The the thing that will might happen though is that in about a minute, you go right back to like your mind's gonna say, like, oh, okay, I'm okay right now. And then it's like, but wait, and it's gonna go right back to like, oh yeah, but that thing, you know, because it your body's so you you know, you already have a highway that's built on this thought. And so your your neuropathways are already saying, okay, nope, I'm I'm attached here. Like this, yes, but this is wrong with me. I know, you know, I know it is. Um, and so you have to just keep doing it and doing it and doing it. So once you practice over and over and over, you start the the the pathways will change. So that strong pathway will become weaker and you'll create this new pathway that starts to feel like so. You know, I kind of say it's like a walking through tall grass and then it becomes a path and then a road and then a highway, and then you have a new highway of like, oh, okay, I can, you know, think this way now. And and it's very interesting because I've been doing this for so long that I will now feel, I can actually tell in my body before, like sometimes before it even is aware. Like, I'll, you know, I'll feel like, oh, I I can just notice a shift in the way I feel. And it's like, wait, okay, what just happened? And I can go back to like maybe I got like, oh, I got that email I didn't like, or oh, this, and you can just say, okay, I'm gonna get that thought right now. Like, that's not whatever something I started thinking negative about me or about something because of something that happened, and then we can just shift it and move on. So it's always, you know, it's always you just have this all the time that once you get good at it, you can just like clear your thoughts. Um, and so that you're not being bombarded with negative thoughts all day. And you know, one, we don't want that for our mood, but really I don't think people even understand what they're actually giving the messages that they're actually giving their body by these thoughts that are going on all day.

unknown 29:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

You know, I took uh a manifestation class that touched on a little bit of what you were saying about um like is this the ultimate truth, the negative thought that we think, right? And a lot of it is really being aware because I think a lot of it is just subconscious thinking that is happening to our body. But then um, we are a Reiki podcast. I would sit with that, and like you said, like pulling that out, that is absolutely a fantastic way to remove that from your body, or even sitting your hands, putting your hands on your um wherever it is on the body, whether it's your heart, your stomach, it's an ego thing, or um a confidence thing, and just allowing that to dissipate or get removing it by Reikiing it out, like and moving that energy out of your body. And then too, you're practicing moving that energy, and then you're practicing rewiring your thoughts. And it's amazing how Reiki can help with the with the brain balancing as well of those things, too. It's a really good complement to your practice. It's it's such a great thing. And if we continually practice this, it does become second nature. And how long would you say it takes people to kind of like kind of make this their default, which is where I'm sure everybody wants to be?

SPEAKER_04 30:59

Yeah, I think I just say stay consistent, like give it a couple weeks where if it's it starts to feel like more, like at more and more normal. So I mean, I have explained it sometimes, like sometimes it feels like at first, like writing with your non-dominant hand where you're like, okay, this is kind of awkward. I don't know, you know, people in in it, we're not trying to say, okay, just think positive. Because I think some people say, like, I just can't think, you know, I just can't do like oh positive thinking. It's like, okay, we're thinking better, we're thinking more neutral, we're thinking we're remove, you know, removing that negative thought. We're not just saying, okay, put positive thoughts in and that, you know, will be change everything. It's like, okay, we're we're actually, like you said, with the Reiki, we're moving that energy out and we're you understanding that that's actually not your reality. And so once you kind of consistently do that, and even, I mean, honestly, even the first step of catching the thought, I think when you even start to pay attention to how many things we say to ourselves all day long that are that are negative. I mean, the j I feel like a lot of us are, and I am guilty of this myself, I'm not a judgmental person to other people. So I, you know, I'm not someone who, but I do, but then I think, okay, how often am I judging myself? You know, where it's like, okay, we're all holding on to these like um self-judgment things of oh, I have to do this, or I have to be this, or I have to, you know, am I doing all the things I need to do? And am I good enough? And so it just even catching yourself even at the start and then building and building and building, um, you know, you you really do start to see the shift. And you and you can do it anytime, anywhere. I think that's the other part is we we don't like some people are like, I don't have time to do things, and you're like, there's really no like you have the time, you can do it at any time.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

Yes, that's so true. And you know, making the time to do that is so important. I I shared on the podcast on our podcast before that when I worked with a natural path um for that specialized in acne, because I was dealing with acne for like 15 years, and first thing she said, we're not gonna do anything until we calm that nervous system down. And I was all gung-ho to do the tests, the supplements, and I was like, Well, that's a bummer. So I didn't really listen to her at first, but then I was like, you know what, what do I have to lose? And she had um a meditation that you listen to twice a day, and it's all about self-love because when you're dealing with acne, your self-worth is just in the gutter, so I had to rebuild that back up and like feel safe in my body and learn that I am worthy of healing. Like it's just so wild that like the healing starts in the mind, like for that deep healing. I was doing all the supplements, cleanses, like I've spent thousands of dollars, but until that one woman told me I need to calm my nervous system and rewire my thoughts, that's when change happens. So yeah, it's that's incredible. I really love this message, and I love that we're sharing this with so many people too.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

I actually, when I was listening to your podcast too, you made a really good analogy about how we can mop up the floor if the pipe bursts, but unless we're fixing the pipe that bursts, like mopping up the floor is great, but it's not gonna obviously fix the problem. And I thought that was, I was thinking of just about your thing there, Christy. But you know, I think a lot of us think we're handling stuff just fine. You know, like even for me as a new mom, I'm like, you know, I'm up in the night and I know that's really bad for stress and our nervous system, and I know my cortisol is probably higher, but like overall, I'm very lucky that I feel pretty good. But I do know at night my grinding my teeth, right? So obviously my body is not completely relaxed, but how can we like know if we aren't handling maybe stress and if we're living in that uh sympathetic nervous system state? Like, are there little tells? I know you talked about moon face, I don't know if that was the same podcast or a different one.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

Yeah, yeah. The core does that.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

I was like, that is so interesting. I hadn't even heard that expression. You guys need to listen to our podcast. It is such good information. I sent it to my sister immediately right now because like she's going through like kind of that perimenopause. I was like, this is your podcast. You're talking about hormones and everything. Yeah. But like, so like, what are the kind of some of the tells that people are like, oh, I'm fine. But meanwhile, maybe their hair is falling out. Like, I hopefully not that bad, but well, and that's the thing.

SPEAKER_04 35:28

So many things do come back. We'll we'll do a little hormone side thing here, where so many things actually do come back to the nervous system. So when you have a your hormone access, it's called your HPA access. So it goes your hypothalamus, your pituitary, your adrenals, then we have your thyroids and your go, and then your gonads, which your gonads are your like estrogen, your progesterone, your testosterone. And so a lot of people, when they're coming in, you know, they want to say, like, oh, my it's my hormones. It's all my hormones. Well, if you have all these messages going down the wrong way, again, we're talking about you're giving your hormones the wrong message, and they're they're at the bottom. So, yeah, your progesterone might be low because you're having high cortisol, which shares different pathways, and and so cortisol is a high is higher on the hierarchy, and it's always going to take precedent because, again, we need to survive. So the these affect all of us in so many different ways. And I I'm gonna get to that part in a second, but I love that you're saying that you know, you saw the change because I also do see so many people who are like, I want the supplement, or or have seen so many people and felt let down because we never got to these connections and roots. Um, so you know, one of the things there's different patterns of cortisol, like we're we'll go with cortisol dysregulation because when you're in the sympathetic cortisol is our stress hormone. And when you're in the sympathetic nervous system, a lot of the time you're gonna have high levels of cortisol first, generally, and then often after so long of a period of stress, you'll actually drop low. So um, the simplified term, it's not a medical term, but a lot of people call it adrenal fatigue, um, where your adrenals just kind of they, you know, kind of in a in a way give up the cortisol becomes low. And so at first, often we feel sort of tired and wired. So you feel kind of amped up. So do you feel like, okay, I get stress easy, maybe I have anxiety, maybe I'm, you know, and there'll be people who are like, I'm not stressed, I'm just a doer. I just do everything all the time. I just don't even like to sit. So I just go, go, go. Well, okay, are do you have, you know, are you? Or are you just like pushing yourself and you have high cortisol and you're go, go, go. Um, and so like you're saying, you might not think you feel bad, but you're just always busy and you don't sit down. And, you know, so those kind of things where we either have a lot of stress, we might have anxiety, we might be wired, we might be tired and wired at the same time. Um, so those are just some things that that start to happen. And then generally after a period there you've you've been living in this, you know, you've been keeping up, you're doing everything, and and you you got it. A lot of people will start to get the low cortisol. And that is when you just feel flat. So where everything becomes like, I am so tired, maybe I slept, but I still feel exhausted. You know, maybe we're seeing like, you know, we've you mentioned hair loss, that can be a lot of different things, but you know, that could be something you're you're feeling just depleted. And in interestingly enough, some people, when they feel that state, will actually only feel good when they're working out because the adrenaline will kick in when you're exercising. So exercise will feel like, oh, I feel normal when I exercise, but then I'm just depleted, you know, all the rest of the time because your body's responding to the exercise. So, you know, it kind of depends on where you are in this state, but yeah, there is definitely like a progression. Um, but some of those things are our tips to to think like, okay, you know what, am I off balance here?

SPEAKER_01 39:02

Yeah, that really makes sense too. And I was thinking of um someone else who has started to develop like a rash around their mouth too, and how that stress can really start, yeah, even showing up, of course, physically, like even Christy had mentioned. Yeah, it's good to definitely tune in and be sit in that silence. I know we think if we're doing more, we're handling more and we're fine, but it's just I know it can really get away from us.

SPEAKER_04 39:29

Yes. Well, yeah, I mean, it is, and we have a lot, we wear a lot of hats. So there's a we're trying to do it all. I feel like it's a world where we are trying to do everything and people are making a lot of efforts. And and that is part of it too. I think there's um what what you're saying about on the podcast, and this and what I'm trying to share is there is like you know, with the podcast, I'm trying to share things that you can do every day to be healthier, but also when I'm talking about some of the things, there's no lack of information right now. There's just information all the time, everywhere. But it's like, what is the right information for you? And just because it worked for someone else and they're like, this is the most amazing thing, it doesn't mean that it's the right thing for you right now. And I think we all just now are like, I have to do this, I have to have this, oh this, you know, this thing and that thing. And you look at it once, and then it's coming to you 10 times on social media because you looked at it once. And so we all I get met questions all the time, should I be on this? Should I be on this? And it's like, well, think about the purpose. Like, why? Why should you, why would you? And is that actually the right thing? So when we put intention behind what we're doing, and we're doing things with intention in the right order, it's so much more effective. So I think it's just like that, oh, I gotta do everything. It's almost like wellness became another chore.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Yeah, I I've gone down that route where it's like overwhelming. It's like, you know, you're taught to do one thing, and then a month later it's like, no, that's not right, do this, do that, and then I just give up and don't do anything. So I love your approach with like the simplicity of things. And as we're talking, you know, this this one woman is coming to mind that I used to sit in the lunchroom with, and you know, I'd watch everyone, they'd have they'd be on their phone watching TV, scrolling as they're eating. But this one woman would sit there and just be there with her food and just eat her food in silence. So I was wondering, like, is it okay to watch TV while you eat? Because I I do it a lot of times, like some like when I'm working from home, I can't wait to eat lunch in front of the TV and like watch a good show. But I was thinking, is that not good to do?

SPEAKER_04 41:45

Yeah, and that's a great question. So, you know, yes and no. I'm gonna there it's nuanced because if you feel like that is just relaxing for you, like you're saying the way I hear you saying it is like, oh, I'm just going to sit here and I I'm relaxed while I'm doing it, I'm enjoying it, I you know, I can sit here and savor my food, but you're you're feeling like that's a relaxing routine, that then I think that that's okay. What a lot of people are doing is eating like at you like that, like at their desk or doing something else, or and that we don't want to do because again, we're giving our body signals of how to digest. So if you're reading an email that you got from your boss that's stressing you out, or you're like, I have to do this project well, you know, while I'm doing it, or I, you know, I'm checking things, or I'm gonna get caught up while I eat, then your body's in more of that sympathetic dominant place, and you're not giving your body the right instructions. So we want to make sure that we slow down, that we, you know, pay attention to the fact that we are eating, that we're chewing our food, that we're eating in the right way in order to optimize digestion. Because the thing about it is if we can't, like it's it's about digestion, but it's about also beyond that, if we can't digest and absorb what we eat, then it doesn't matter what we, and I'm not saying it doesn't matter what you put on your plate, but it kind of like if you're not digesting and absorbing the nutrients that you're getting, are you really getting the full value of your food? Because we need that to be able to build hormones and support our thyroid and you know, metabolism and everything else. But a lot of us don't eat, you know, give our bodies the right signals when we're eating. I used to, I mean, I was like a big culprit of this. I would sit, I would actually feed make dinner for my kids when they were little and they had a lot of practices, and I would stand there at the kitchen island and like basically like eat their leftovers or like just eat, you know, whatever was left because like I'd fed all them and then I'm just gonna eat, and then I would drive them around to practice and think like, um, I feel so like my stomach hurts. I don't know why, and I feel so bad. And it's like, well, I ate in the worst way, you know, busy rush, doing different things, standing there. It was like eating literally the awesome. Opposite way that you should, and then I would feel like an upset stomach. And so I wasn't di, you know, I wasn't digesting and absorbing the food that I was eating. And even some like that's where it doesn't have to be complicated. Some simple shifts like that, like just slowing down, chewing your food, pay paying attention, like cooking it. Cause when we talk about the cephalic phase of digestion, like even like looking at it, smelling it. I know those sound simple and sort of silly, but it actually starts our body in the digestive process. So those kind of intentions can go a long way when we're just just simple things.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

And there's studies that show um, like if we're thinking positive thoughts while we're eating, it's actually digested better into our body, isn't it? Like if we're thinking this is a healthy meal and it's good for me and I'm so happy that I'm eating this, like that plays a part too, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_04 44:58

Well, it's again sending the right, you know, again, we're sending the right signals to like, okay, I, you know, I'm enjoying this. This is good for me. I'm calm, I'm nourishing, like all of those things are optimizing the way your body, your your actual thoughts optimize your physiology and the way your body processes things. And so I think that people we're just we're just disconnected from it a lot of the time.

SPEAKER_01 45:23

Yeah, I agree with that.

SPEAKER_02 45:25

Yeah, it almost seems like you know, sometimes like eating is like, oh, I don't have time to eat, but I have to eat, like just with our modern day society. And I've been cooking a lot at home and even like cooking my breakfast and being really intentional about it and sitting down and having that meal time instead of grabbing my smoothie and running out the door. And I just, yeah, I just really like it. And I've noticed I am less bloated, which I yeah, I'm just kind of well, it's only been like a week that I've really been focused.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

You're doing good.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

Yeah, yeah, because I was just yeah, and there's just something about cooking your own food, like and back to that, how do you say that cephalic phase?

SPEAKER_04 46:07

Yeah, the cephalic phase of digestion. Mm-hmm. That's what starts in the brain.

SPEAKER_02 46:12

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:13

So that actually, so you you start in the brain, and then you so that you know, the part it's interesting because we talk a lot about the stomach and the intestines and all of that, we know, in the functional medicine world, but the parts that you actually have control of digestion are the stuff the brain and the mouth. And so even like chewing your food 20 times, you know, getting the right amount of saliva in your mouth, and those all are actually things that affect the way it goes in the rest of your digestion because you're actually breaking it down more appropriately. So, you know, even just that, like you're saying, sitting, being more intentional, chewing, count how many times, you know, I'm gonna give you a takeaway, count how many times you chew. Most of us don't, you know, we want to chew 20 to 30 times. Like, how are we are you? Yeah, a lot of us aren't doing that. So, even like a simple thing, how many times do you actually chew? I was working with someone who's like, I'm starting to get stressed because we were talking, you know, she was having digestive issues and we were talking about some of these, and then she was saying, you know, now I'm getting stressed about chewing. I'm like, oh no, we're not trying to, we're not trying to give that signal. So, you know, it's a bad balance. You don't want to get to a point where you're like, now I'm stressed about chewing. But just be aware of how well you chew your, you know, are you how what environment are you eating in? What's going on around you? Are you being intentional? Are you sitting down, even preparing, like in the cephalic phase of digestion, even that you're preparing food actually because you're smelling it and you're looking at it and you're getting ready for it. Those things actually also prepare your body to digest. They're, you know, just a part of the process. So that's even another like added benefit. So it's just getting these intentions like right and then thinking about some of them. And every step helps. So it's it's not like okay, the one thing, but it's like building all the steps in place. And and so many of them are simple, and we just have to be intentional and think about what we're actually doing.

unknown 48:15

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

I wanted to ask about um that new method of thinking that you developed, and it's called can't remember now. Cellar. Yeah, I was gonna say cellular, and I was like, that's not correct.

SPEAKER_04 48:31

No, it's yes, because we want our cells to have our, we want our cell ultimately, we want all of our cells to be healthy and work together. And so what we what I have found um in working with like almost a thousand women is that again, people were coming to me with having been to a lot of other practices, like you were saying, Christy, like been to a lot of practitioners, maybe not made progress, maybe made a little and then took a step back. And it's like, why can't we just get the move the needle? And so um I actually I actually have the one I uh founded an institute, the Women's Functional Health Institute, and I certify women's functional health coaches. So I teach them, you know, how I like a fun, how to be a functional woman's functional health coach and how to what is the order that we need to heal. And so when we over years of working with people, this is the way I have found that when we do things and think about it in the right order, we actually start to see the things compound and move faster and get better results. So one, you know, first, like we were talking about, we calm the nervous system. So we want to make sure that we're giving our body the right signals. Now you can do some of these simultaneously too, like, but you want to start making sure that then you're you are having the right signals that you're giving your body the right messages and that your nervous system is you're working on your nervous system. And then we want to make sure that our we engage digestion, because as we said, if we don't engage digestion, then we can't digest our food and absorb the nutrients that we need in order to do all the other functions and build the hormones and things like that. So we want to make sure that that's in place, and then we have to load nutrients. So what does your plate look like? Are you getting enough protein? Are you getting enough healthy fats in your diet? Are you getting, you know, a lot of colors of different vegetables? Are we getting fiber? How are we feeding you? Because food is information to the body, so we have to make sure that we're giving it the correct information. And then we also have to, and this is where a lot of people get stuck, is make sure that we liberate elimination pathways. So you have to be going to the bathroom, you have to be able to move the waste from your body in different ways. And a lot of times, you know, one of the things that's become really popular is detox. And I can't tell you how many people I've had come to me after doing a detox where they felt worse because they weren't in a place they should detox. So you have to make sure that everything is open. If you're gonna detox it, it actually leaves your body and doesn't just load, you know, load toxins in your system. So I want to make sure that all of our elimination pathways are working. And then we want to yield metabolism and make sure that we, you know, that we're having good cellular metabolism, like in our mitochondria of our cells, that we're having good metabolism, that we're able to use energy, you know, the energy sources that we have glucose control and metabolic flexibility. And then after that, we actually look at the hormones. So I know people come in, they're like, I want the hormones, you know, look at the hormones, but we have to have these things all in place in order to make sure, like, are you able to actually make hormones and and have everything balanced? So we want to make sure that our hormones are balanced, that we have, you know, a balance of estrogen and progesterone, that everything, you know, that that our cortisol has the right circadian rhythm, that we have all the hormonal balance. And then after that, and only when everything is in the right order, do we amplify detoxification capacity? So we do want to make sure that we are able to probably, you know, we just do live in a world where we're surrounded by toxins in in a lot of ways. And we really can't help that. I don't really want, again, when we're talking about nervous system um calming, we don't want to live in fear of like, oh no, you know, fear about that. But we do want to make sure we call it the exposone sometimes that, you know, what's the seesaw really of what you're exposed to versus how your body can process it. So we want to make sure that we're giving your body the chance to process everything that it needs to, um, but but in a place of, you know, not like in a place of like a, you know, potentially a strong detox, but like that we're uh uh able to be detoxifying and removing things that we're exposed to.

SPEAKER_01 52:46

So um that was really interesting about how people are doing detoxes and their body shouldn't. So what about like taking um like I have I don't think it's an actual strict like detox tea, but it's like a detox morning kind of a tea by your I think it's my herbal medicine brand. And like taking supplements, like are those good aids to help, but or should we really be focusing the primarily on the root? Would be kind of the other things that you mentioned, like the de stressing and getting to the other roots first. Like, what do you what do you think here?

SPEAKER_04 53:18

I think a lot of times people are overusing detox when they're not really ready. So you have to ask yourself, you know, am I how much like how much am I staying hydrated? Like how much water do I drink? Am I sweating? Do I have at least one daily bowel movement every day? Like there's a so many people that are constipated that just feel like, oh, that's my norm. I go every two to three days. Well, you know what? That's not normal. So that might be your norm, but like if you're not going at least once a day, there you should not be detoxing because your waste is not actually being excreted from the body potentially when we don't excrete waste, it can just reabsorb. So we just have to be careful that we're not mo So toxins like to live in places that we like to store them in places that that they don't affect us as much. So a lot of toxins are stored in like adipose tissue, like fat tissue, um, sometimes bones, it's different places where they're like, okay, we're we're kind of storing it away from our vital organs as much as we can. And so when we mobilize things, it can you you sometimes aren't as affected when it's stored. And when you're mobilizing things, you can have more effect if you're not excreting them. And that's another reason why people have to be careful when you lose weight extremely fast. You have you know, people who have a high um like drop a lot of weight quickly can also be exposed to a lot more toxins, too, because if it's stored in the adipose tissue, you're shedding the adipose tissue fast, it can be mobilizing some of those toxins. So there's a lot of different factors that people aren't thinking about.

SPEAKER_02 54:57

That's so true. Like detox pathways, opening those up, supporting those in the in a gentle way is so important because yeah, I've I've done so many detoxes, and yeah, felt worse. Like the celery juice, like and that messed with my minerals, and yeah, it was it was interesting, but it's so important to work with somebody that knows what they're doing. Like when I worked with that natural past, she saved me 15 years of trial and error. So I think there's so much it, it's like it is an investment, but it was so worth every penny working with her, and it's like when I look back at my healing journey, it's this stuff doesn't happen overnight. Like, true healing is like layers, like it took me six months of like dedication and you know, doing the work until I actually started to feel better, and then of course, things are shifting inside, and then you don't see it on your your face, like your skin is the last to heal. Yes, yeah. So that was that was frustrating. So it's just like if anyone's on a healing journey, it's like just have that patience with yourself, it's like a big thing.

SPEAKER_04 56:03

I think it's hard because we live in a medical system that is geared towards medication, and so our mindset is that there's an answer. So, like, okay, you have that, you take the medication, it goes away, and we're not looking for the root and really bringing everything back into balance. So I think a lot of people then will move that over to supplements. So it's like, oh, I don't want maybe, you know, I don't want the medication, but now I'm just gonna supplement with everything and just switch it over to like what supplements can I take? And and really what exactly what you're saying, they can be tools, but it's really looking at bringing this your body back into the balance it needs where you're you don't have to, where you know your your skin looks beautiful to me. It's clear, you know, it's it just took you the time it to really get those pieces back into place, and people can do it, it just it's just doing it in the right way to serve you.

SPEAKER_02 56:57

Yeah, yeah, getting to that root cause. That's that's the biggest thing because you know it told so many things about why your skin is the way it is, and really it was like a combination of things. It was like staph and strep and H. pylori and parasites and nervous system out of control, like it was all these pieces. So yeah, it's just it's wild, but it's really or oh what's the word I'm trying to think of? Like looking back, it it is interesting to go through that journey, I guess is what I'm saying. So that's really amazing that you do you work like one-on-one with patients anymore? I do so. Oh, you do, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:35

Yeah, I do so work with one one-on-one with people, yes. And I do it all virtual, so for people all over the world, yes.

SPEAKER_00 57:42

Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 57:43

Yes, and it it's I feel like I'm going through that healing journey right now. So I'm three months postpartum, and my hormones, of course, have just been all over the place. I this might be too much information for the listeners, but I I even got my period back for the first time after having a baby, even though I'm exclusively breastfeeding. So I was kind of thinking, like, huh, I wonder what my hormones are doing now, right? With the shifting. And even I can tell, even with my brain, how it is almost cleared from when I was pregnant and how much that has changed my cravings, what my body wants, how I even take care of myself. It's just, it's like a weight's been lifted and I'm thinking clearly again, and I'm in the middle of that shift. But like Christy said, I'm like, it has been three months. Why hasn't everything gone back to normal? Why hasn't my pelvic floor gone right back up to where it should? But every night I'm just in this habit of talking so nice to myself because I made this mistake with my first pregnancy, and I was really discouraged at the beginning and being like, why isn't this like this? But now I'm like, I'm so grateful my body is healing so quickly. I am so strong, I've done amazing things. And then we have to think about the long-term game of like, okay, well, it took nine months for things to go like this, and I just need to wait for those hormone shifts and fueling my body and de-stressing, and just like even talking about your seven uh second message uh method to help with like the stress and the hormones and getting that in.

SPEAKER_04 59:17

Yes, yeah, yeah, and just being patient and and like nurture and like that. Sometimes I tell people that like just nurture yourself right now, especially after having the baby. It's like that is the time to just think, okay, I'm I'm nurturing, you're still, you know, feeding, like you said, you're breastfeeding and you're still, you know, nurturing the baby and giving nutrients that you know, she the baby's taking nutrients too, so it's a lot of yes shifts. And I will have people reach out, like, oh, I want, you know, like I need a hormone test right now. I just a postpart, you know, and I'm like, wait, actually, we don't, you know, wait till you're done breastfeeding, till everything settles back down, and then you're in, you know, more of like your regular cycles where we can, you know, not that they're I'm not saying there's things you can that you can do, but you know, as far as like even foods to support and you know, different lifestyle things, but sometimes it does take our bodies just a little bit to to shift back to to where we are. So yes, I hear you.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:17

Yes, definitely. Patience. Patience is hard. I know. Like, what can our listeners do like today to shift their nervous system before their next meal? Like, I know you touched on um the seven seconds and and that method, but is there something else that we can incorporate?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:38

Yeah, so I think if you, you know, this in the seven seconds, which is kind of just to use like all the time when when those thoughts come up. But I, you know, we'll when you're actually eating, so start to shift your intention. So, you know, one we we even talked about like starting to potentially, you know, pay attention when you're cooking your food, like see if you can even enjoy it, you know. And sometimes it's like, okay, I gotta get dinner for everyone, I just gotta, but like, okay, can you think, oh, I'm smelling my food, I see my food. Those are little tiny things that though can prepare your body for digestion. So as you're, you know, preparing, just even being mindful about the fact that like you have food and you're eating. And then really um one of the biggest things is shifting the environment. So I think you know, making sure that you're in a relaxed environment, that you're, you know, are you serving everyone and getting up and down from the table and you know, moving around? Are you eating in front of your computer, like I said, while you're checking your emails? Are you, you know, how are you actually eating your meals? So actually, you know, actually another thing you can do is just even before sometimes I'll have people even before you eat sit down and just take three deep belly breaths, like just get your body into the sympathetic nervous, I mean, excuse me, in the parasympathetic nervous system and before you eat. So just you can use your breath to do that. So take a few breaths to get your body ready and then you know, just don't distract, like you said, if you're, you know, do things, be in a calming environment. So don't do things that are distracting you, that are making you anxious, you know, that are making you stressed. So eat calmly and then make sure you're chewing your food. So count, you know, how many, you don't have to count each bite, but pay attention to like how how much do you chew your food and really make sure that you're intentional about that? You can also even do things like um eat and then put your fork down and see, like, okay, does it instead of like eat, eat, eat, eat, um, you know, see, okay, do I put my fork down and give myself a break? Do I pay attention to how full I am? And or do I just like eat and eat and eat and not pay attention, or do I like kind of eat slowly so I'm intentional about what I'm eating? And I'm also responding if I feel full. If you eat too fast, your body doesn't catch up and you know, signal you that you're done. So a lot of times we'll eat too much because we're just eating too fast, and we if we would slow that down, we'd think like, oh, do I, you know, do I still even want that? Or am I full now? And and even paying attention to something like that can help too.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:17

I love that. Because honestly, I'm thinking right now about times when I go out for lunch and I'm working, and then I get really anxious and nervous, like, hey, I gotta get going. It's like it's probably the worst time to be eating. I should just pack it up and eat at my desk, even would be better. Because at least I could take those deep breaths and eat slowly, even if I'm at my desk.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:37

Yes, you know, if you're there, if you're being intentional and you're eating in in that way, you can yes, you can do it, do it. So, yeah, look at your environment. You know, I did a podcast episode. Well, actually, I didn't release it yet, but I have it coming up that even who you eat with, like, do the people stress you out that you eat, like you're saying exactly. Like, does the people stress you out? Like, so it's it can be others too. Like, if you're in an environment where you're like, Yeah, I'm stressed by you and we're eating together.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:07

Like, how how can you navigate something like that too?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:11

Even oh my goodness. You think about some of those like family Christmas dinners, hey, where it's like you have this big family, and then it's like tensions maybe a little higher. It's probably and you're overeating, and you have the stress of company maybe you don't love. Oh, yeah, it can be quite the yeah, why?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:31

Yes. So all the things add up, you know, and that's why, like, like on my show, it's it's a little bit healthier. I think that that's one of the biggest messages here, too. You know, there's things you can do every day to be a little bit healthier, there's steps you can take. It's you know, we look at a sometimes when I work with people, you know, we're doing like deep dive, huge transformations, but you can take, we I think all should be the CEO of our own health. Like, we all need to take our health into our hands, not give that away to someone else to say, like, oh, okay, I'm giving you my, you know, a lot of us, especially like the older generation, they were kind of taught to like hand over, like, oh, the doctor tells me what to do, and I don't have any control. No, you actually have control and you can build all of these things in, and and they're sometimes just little habits that can make a big difference.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:22

Yes, that's so true. And it's like sometimes it's not like those big grand gestures that move the needle, so it's just that consistency with the little things over time, like that little meditation I did every day, like that really moved the needle. And I think that's like less overwhelming when it's like, oh, I need to change everything overnight, and then people are just like, ah, it's too hard, I won't do any of it. So it's just like picking one thing, like the three deep breaths before a meal. Like everybody can do that. And I think um, I remember when I took Reiki like a long time ago, like my first level was like Reikiing your food, and I was like, Well, who's got time for that? But even if you did like break your food and then do those deep breaths in that moment, I think that would be kind of a cool thing to incorporate. I want to try that now.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:10

Yeah, I know. That's a good one to try. Yeah. You're going to have to let me know how it goes. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:17

Well, thank you so much, uh, Dr. Meg Mill. Your podcast is absolutely fantastic. And I love that they're actually like usually 30-minute episodes. Because yeah, I I crushed a lot of them. And I was like, this is so good. Especially it's meeting me where I'm at at the perfect time, to be honest. So selfishly. But I'm sure you know everyone's always going through changes in their body and their mind and wanting to better themselves. And like you said, those little habits um to health is really important. So we're we're so honored to have you on our podcast. Thank you for coming.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:50

Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:52

Yeah, yeah, I really enjoyed that. That felt like a little masterclass on digestion. I really enjoyed that. Thank you. So good. And your book comes out um in October of this year.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:03

Yes. We uh we actually had to push it to January just because of the publishing, but it will come out in January 2027. Um it's called the Seven Second Switch. My website's megmill.com. It's just M-E-G-M-I-L-L. So we'll have information there about the release date and everything. And um yes, it's a it has it goes deep into all the things and actually gives you the the Solar method, and it actually gives you the ways you can go through. So I lay out you know the seven seconds, which all the science behind it, but then what you can actually do to put the steps in your life in an easy way. So I love that a how-to aspect there too.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:46

Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:48

Yes, great. We'll have all that linked, of course, in our show notes and where people can find you.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:54

Yes. Yeah, and I'm sure people will be crushing your your podcast. I I love when I find a good podcast and you just crush it like five episodes and what and that's like totally yours. So I know people are gonna crush that.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:06

Well, I did that, yeah, because I do feel like sometimes in like attention spans right now are so like okay, we're gonna just do the the shorter shows, and like you said, people can get through get through it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:19

Honestly, I really appreciated that. Like me as a mom, I'm like driving, you know, from maybe one end to the next. I'm like, yes, I can get a whole episode in. Like I'd love I really appreciated that.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:30

Yeah, I listen to podcasts a lot of times in the car too. And that's okay. It's like kind of like yeah, commute or taking kids around or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:38

Like, with it on, yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for having me tonight. I appreciate it. It was great, it's been great to get to know you guys. How did you meet each other?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:49

Uh, through work. Okay, like yeah, almost 20 years ago, I think. Yeah, well, 17, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:56

17? I know, so funny. And then we had so much in common, and she's moved out of a different office, but we still are such great friends.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:06

That's awesome. Yeah, it's fun to do it together, you know, together because then you're it's it's community, you know, you have each other, you're working together.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:14

Yes, I like that. Yeah, because it's it's a lot of work, but it like fun work, but a lot goes on in the background to get a podcast. I do agree. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:23

Now it's like we're like a marriage. Yeah, you know, one will pick up when the other one, you know, needs help, and we try to even things and share the load. Yeah, yeah, it's nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:33

I know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:34

Oh god, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:36

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:38

All right, and we are gonna end our episode today, of course, with a message that Christy is gonna channel. She's been doing really good with channeling without cards lately. So we are going to see what her message is for the listeners today. What do they need to know?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:53

Yeah, you know, it's so funny how I've been pulling cards lately and they just haven't resonated. Like at the I always pull them in Reiki sessions. I look at them, I was like, well, this doesn't make sense. And I'm not even gonna share this with like I'm not even gonna send them a picture like to my client of these cards because it didn't bring the session together like it usually does. And it's just so wild to think about because cards have been such a big part of my journey. But I do remember sharing that I do want to get to one point where I am the oracle and I don't need tools to channel messages, which um maybe is something you know, careful what you wish for, but um so yeah, let's just I'm just gonna tune in here and just see what okay, yes, okay. This is interesting. So today um I've been sitting outside and just being really intentional about watching nature and what nature has in store for us. And we recently cut the lawn, and the dandelions literally pop back up the next day, and the dandelion is something that is so misunderstood, and I believe we've talked about this many times before, and it's just something that is so prevalent that is always showing up at this time of the year. And what is crazy is like I have this picture on my phone, and it's a little dandelion that is like peeking around a tree, and it's just in that picture, it speaks a thousand words. I don't know if it's just me, but I I I will share that picture and just see if anybody else has any feeling about it. But it's just like it's like peeking around the tree, and it's just like I'm so misunderstood. If you guys would honor me and like what if they if people would honor and know what their message is, then maybe things wouldn't become such that we won't look at them as a pest because it when we look into nature, we can see how everything has a part, seasons, um, change, everything evolves around different cycles, and it is the cycle of the dandelion right now. And when the dandelion comes, it breaks up the soil. So you might have some really compact soil, but the roots on a dandelion will actually break that up. So it's like going to work doing all these different things for you, and what do we do? We spray chemicals on it, and that's another hill that I will die on is the chemicals that people use in their yard, and that's something that we breathe in. Our kids are playing on the yard, our pets, the birds, the insects. It's just it, it's just something that it just really bothers me when people spray their weeds, and it's just I feel like if we were able to just live one with nature and let nature do its thing, I there would be so much more, I feel like, like I want to say peace, you know, when you just look at nature and what it has to offer, and you just take those moments, you know. If you go to an abandoned house and you see that nature has engulfed it, there's weeds growing through the the floor, there's a tree growing through the window. It's because nature always wins, and it's just the message that you know, like what Meg Mill talked about is like listening to your body and tuning into your body, your body has its own rhythms and cycles, just like nature does, and we're we are a mirror to them, so or mirror to it. So it's just honoring where you're at and the cycle and the season that you are in, and just know that where you are in life right now, you're never stuck, you're in a season. So maybe if you're going through something hard or a change is coming, just know that that is the way that things unfold and just surrendering and trusting into the cycles of nature. And you know, if you do see a dandelion, maybe thank it for you know showing up and being bold. They can grow wherever the hell they want to. They are the most resilient weed. Well, there is, I don't even want to call it a weed, there is a lot of resilient plants out there, so they have something to teach us. So if you feel called to sit with one one day and just open up your spirit to them and just see what message comes through. I know that may sound crazy, but I feel like that is the message from my heart today. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:18

You know, when you were doing that little like intro there about your um not using cards, I actually heard like trust your intuition. Like really before that go. That is like I didn't want to interrupt, but I was like, Oh, you got this. Like I was like, this is a good reminder for me too.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:36

Yes, oh my god, and yeah, trust the intuition. Yeah, you're so right. And it's just cards are just I love cards, I love absolutely everything about them, but they just haven't been hidden, and I need to trust that. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:52

Yeah, you know, that could be the universe's gentle way of pushing you into, you know, you asked, and now let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:59

Yeah, yeah. Careful what you ask for some days, like shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:06

Yes, okay. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in and listening to us today. And you can find us, of course, on our personal pages. Mine is Reiki with Manda.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:16

And mine is The Birch Soul. So we both have bookings available um on our online um on our Instagram. The links are there, and you can find our podcast page at Livin' the Reiki Life uh on Instagram. So, yeah, check us out and you know, shoot us a message, or if you want to chat. We had a lovely voice note the other day. I love receiving voice notes because you can just feel and hear the energy of that person on the other end. So, yeah, all right. Well, I hope everybody has a lovely June and thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:52

Oh, one more quick thing. Uh, Reiki Circle June 14th. Come out and join us.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:59

Yes, how could I forget about our Reiki Circle? Come and join us June 14th. That's a Sunday at 10 a.m. Saskatchewan time. And yeah, come and learn from each other and join us for a Reiki meditation. Yes, we'll see you there. Bye. Bye.