Running Toward the Fire: The Many Lives of Kristianne Schultz

What kind of person runs toward the fire — not away? Kristianne Schultz has lived many lifetimes in one: firefighter, EMT, surgical tech, acupuncturist, healer. But behind every role is one relentless search — for healing, for wholeness, for a self-reclaimed from childhood pain and trauma.

In this episode, Kristianne opens up about surviving Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, learning to control pain through mind-body practices, and forging a life of fierce compassion. She shares what crisis has taught her about presence, what illness has taught her about love, and why healing always begins within.

This is a conversation about the raw honesty of living fully, the courage to face what breaks us, and the quiet power of someone who refuses to play it safe. Kristianne doesn’t just mend bodies- she helps people reclaim a sense of wholeness.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Fill to Capacity
• 3:49 Childhood Medical Mystery Uncovered
• 7:29 Mind-Body Connection: Finding Control
• 14:46 Running Toward the Fire: Firefighting Lessons
• 25:43 Living Truthfully: The Path to Freedom
• 33:17 The Soul as Driver: Mind-Body-Spirit
• 41:21 What People Need in Crisis
• 47:22 Message to Her Younger Self

Transcript

Pat:

Fill To Capacity where heart grit and irreverent humor collide. A podcast for people too stubborn to quit and too creative not to make a difference.

Pat:

Hi, I'm Pat Benincasa and welcome to Fill To Capacity, episode number 104, "Running Toward The Fire, The Many Lives of Kristianne Schultz. Today's guest is someone who hasn't just lived one life, she's lived many. Kristianne Schultz is a board-certified acupuncturist with a doctorate in traditional Chinese medicine. She's been practicing since 2009 in hospitals and clinics treating everything from chronic pain to complex syndromes. She teaches at Northwestern Health Sciences University and studied stroke protocols in Tianjin China. But here's what sets her apart before all this. Okay, listeners, Kristianne was a firefighter, a certified emergency medicine tech, a surgical tech, a nursing assistant, a character performer, a customer service rep, even a procurement tech, foreign organ bank. She's done the kind of work that puts you in close contact with life, death, and everything in between. And behind it all is her own story, one that began with childhood trauma, a rare pain syndrome, and a lifelong search for healing that eventually brought her to this work. Now she says she only does 20% of the healing. The rest, that's the patient's body. Remembering what it already knows, Christian doesn't just treat illness, she listens for the story behind it. Her life's work is about helping people reconnect, mind, body, and spirit. Not just to feel better, but to feel whole. So welcome Kristianne. It's so nice to have you here.

Kristianne:

It's such a treat to be here. Thank you so much for just reaching out and asking me. So thank you so much Pat, and I'm just so delighted.

Pat:

Well, we have lots to talk about. So, Kristianne, in your bio, you mentioned spending time at the age of 11 in a pediatric neurology unit on Chicago's south side, a place for medical mysteries in children. Why were you there and what do you remember most from that time?

Kristianne:

I was undiagnosed at that moment and that is why my parents took me to this neurologist. And his name was Dr. Swisher, who's no longer on the planet, but he had a group of residents that were willing to figure out what was happening with my body. And as a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, I understand it more now as an adult, but as a child it was really a medical mystery. My leg was swollen, my leg was purple. There was no circulation in my leg. It was extremely hypersensitive and painful constantly. But as I review my life and I see all of the traumas that I had experienced as a child, my body was crying for help. So the connection of my body, my mind, my spirit, all three were essentially disconnected. And rightfully so at that age, I didn't know what was happening, but I knew that something was telling me to pay attention.

Kristianne:

So Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy is what they diagnosed me with. They didn't know what to do for that specifically. They were going to sever my sciatic nerve and that was their solution at the time. And I was at that hospital. I was in different hospitals actually prior to that stay and tested and given medications. I was on prednisone for a year and I had osteoporosis as a side effect. My spine didn't grow correctly. It, I had severe kyphosis and scoliosis to the point where they were going to fuse my, where vertebrae, my thoracic vertebrae, which now I'm so grateful because I would've had multiple surgeries from age 11 on as time goes on. The other vertebraes that are not fused most likely would have to be fused. So probably would've ended up in a wheelchair without the feeling of the sciatic nerve on my left leg. So I can only imagine my life have been changed from that point on.

Pat:

Well, Yeah,

Kristianne:

Not very easily.

Pat:

I gotta say, as a little kid, ideally children like to think that their parents and adults have answers, and they know what's going on. That must have been terribly frightening for you.

Kristianne:

It was, yeah. And it was, I believe, stemming from a couple traumas in my childhood and my body didn't know how to deal with it. Yeah. My mind didn't know how to deal with it. My soul didn't know how to deal with it. And so it was a way for me to, to get that attention and have slow down and be stopped. And that was at a very, very early age. So when I think about it, it certainly planted the seed for me to understand what chronic pain syndrome is. At a very early age. And now to be able to work with it with adults and children alike is an honor to do that work. Yeah. Have that inside scoop.

Pat:

In reading your bio, you had a moment of reckoning. What did that physical therapist awakening you that no one else had until then? Can you tell us a story?

Kristianne:

So, the moment of reckoning, I would say that I could control my body with my mind, my breath, and my whole being. I was like too young to understand spirit. I was, I didn't understand that connection quite yet. But I did understand my mind and my body connection. I was able to go through what was called biofeedback at age 11.

Pat:

Will you tell the listeners what's biofeedback?

Kristianne:

That's a good question, Pat. Biofeedback is a technique where a person learns to control physiological responses. And so for me, I had a little ring that I wore that was, uh, had a dial on it. I still have that ring and it behaves like a mood ring. So as my body heated up, my heart rate went down, and my muscle tension relaxed. I was able to control the pain 'cause I was able to control the circulation in my body. So I had visual feedback that I could look at and see, oh, my body's relaxing. It was just a little line at that time. Now they have fancier equipment. There's just a little line that said, okay, we're going into relaxation state. The therapist would say, how do you feel now? And I felt better. So I retrained my body to relax at that point.

Pat:

So that must have been quite a revelation.

Kristianne:

Yeah, it was. It was that, and it was the physical therapist being able to put my foot on the ground. Yeah. So, the story there is the day before I was scheduled to have this sympathetic nerve severed, the physical therapist wanted to see me one last time and she just set me straight. She said, Kristianne, you don't want that surgery. I'll tell you why. Because you will not be able to feel your lower leg. You will not ever be able to feel that lower leg. And I know you can put weight on this, you have to put weight on this. And I hadn't put weight on it for years 'cause it was so, so painful. And I just remember that feeling of being able to do it right. That somebody believed in me, that this person knew at the core I was able to do this.

Kristianne:

It wasn't out of fear. I think my parents were very fearful. This was very scary for them, that their daughter had this syndrome when they could see visually that something was wrong with my leg and there was nothing that was being able to help it at that point. So this physical therapist really, I feel like, saved my life. And then the biofeedback therapist also continued that. 'cause then I had hope and I knew that I had to do something different than what I was doing. But I believe it was the individuals that could sit with me and say, I understand that you're in this pain and we are here to help you not have this type of pain. We are here to help. So

Pat:

What's so remarkable in your story is that I imagine that was the first time that in all this medicine and all this medical situation, someone gave you back the control on your body. They basically said, you have control over this. It must have felt like quite a power to have.

Kristianne:

Just to have somebody acknowledge that my body was in pain. Yeah. And, and to see it for what it was and to say, I believe that you are in pain. And that is something that I like to bring into the practice that I have in traditional Chinese medicine, is that piece of hope and that understanding that 80% is the patient. Yeah. Mind, body, spirit. And 20% is what I bring in the knowledge. But just to say, I understand what you're feeling is pain. Because for me it was physical. It had, there was a physicality about it. But then there was also this spiritual mind piece too that the traumatic piece Yeah. That I really believe was unaddressed at a very early age. It just wasn't cared for. That piece of we can't be in people's bodies. We don't know what they're feeling. Yeah. Because medically we can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It exists. And it can exist on many different levels. And for me, I knew that it, it stemmed from trauma.

Pat:

You know, in sharing your story, you've spoken honestly about the disconnection you once felt from your own body as you're talking about now, that it wasn't a place you wanted to live in. What was the turning point that made you begin the long journey back to yourself?

Kristianne:

I believe it was realizing that my body belonged to me and it belonged to no one else but me.

Pat:

Say more about that. Especially as women go into medical situations and they have to like prove that what they're saying is true or it's a different kind of dynamic at times. Not always, but at times. So will you say more about that?

Kristianne:

Yeah. The abuse that I had made me feel like I gave up my body or that it was taken from me and only I could feel pain and only I could feel peace in my body. And the pain didn't own me and I was taking it back. Right? So it was very powerful for me to, to take that back. To say, I'm going to feel better. I'm not going to allow this to continue. And I think as women, we are designed to give birth so we can appear to not have pain when we have extreme amounts of pain. Yeah. So I think that can be very confusing in the medical field, in medical professions for diagnostics. And it's complicated, right? But I can say that taking that piece back is so powerful. And to this day, I will have flareups. My flareups occur when I am stressed, and it feels as if my leg is broken.

Kristianne:

It feels extremely painful. And I have to stop, and I have to breathe. And I have to tell myself it's not, and you're okay. This is due to stress. Right. This is something else. And it's very interesting. I'm, I'm also very grateful for my leg. And I say sometimes when we don't feel well right. Or our bodies don't feel well, I'll speak for myself. I might say, oh, my leg. This, this is my bad leg. This is my good leg. No, no, no. My leg is not bad. Right. Did nothing wrong to me. Actually, it's very brave for stepping forward and saying, I need help. I thank my body for that message. 'cause then I know that I need to do something different than what I'm doing. Right. So,

Pat:

Well, that brings me, you kind of segued into my next question is that you've carried pain since childhood. Physical pain and emotional pain in a sense. What did that pain teach you? That nothing else could,

Kristianne:

That I was my whole self. My whole self was me. My pain was a part of me. And my pain was a messenger for me.

Pat:

As opposed to reacting and getting more stressed and acting out. You began to see your pain as an indicator, a barometer. A messenger.

Kristianne:

Messenger. Yeah. It's a messenger for sure. Yeah. And a very early age. It was a messenger. It continues to be a messenger today. And it's, it's up to me whether or not I'm paying attention. It it'll be like a child, Hey, hey, hey, you know, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom. It's like, hold on a minute. And then eventually my body will have complete meltdown tantrum. So if I don't pay attention and address the situation and it doesn't get fed well, I'm not sleeping right. I'm not exercising, you know, I'm not eating healthy foods that nourish me. My body will definitely throw a tantrum.

Pat:

What I like about this comment, I think it's safe to say that right now people are very stressed in this country. There's a lot of stress, a lot of unknowns, things happening. And I just like that the message here is that you gotta pay attention when your body's telling you something. So for me, if I start scrolling news, man, I start breathing hard. I, I'm looking at things, my anxiety goes through the roof. I gotta pay attention to that and say, you know what? I'm not looking at the news. I I I'm not gonna do that. But it's like saying message received body. I get you. I hear you. And I like the fact that you, you reinforce that, that like a, like a toddler. If I don't pay attention to my body, my body's gonna act out like a toddler in the grocery store having a tantrum. And we don't wanna get to that stage, do we?

Kristianne:

We don't wanna get there. I love, in traditional Chinese medicine, we talk about the different parts of our body as far as our senses. And they belong to different pathways, different organ systems. So we talk about the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth, our skin. Right? So I say, what is it that we're seeing? What is it that we're hearing? What am I smelling? What am I tasting? What am I feeling? Who's around me will all affect chemically what happens in our brain? And our body responds to that. That's physiological. Right? Our body knows how to respond to stimuli. So it's so important to take that and understand that what we're doing in our day-to-day, sometimes we are feeling soul. By looking at the news, by watching exciting things on tv or scary shows or whatnot. You know, sometimes that's healthy, but little amounts, right?

Kristianne:

Not long durations. Yeah. But little bits can be helpful. Again, it's that, it's a balance. So, um, and that is traditional choice medicine. It's all about the balance. The yin and the yang, the hot, the cold, the day, the night, right? We have balance right outside the window where I'm looking right, it's sunny, and tonight it will be dark, and the moon will be out. So we have the sun and the moon. We have those balances. And then it's about reminding myself that I'm in this space. I can go outside, I can go inside. I love the thought of organic foods, that organic foods, they have to fight all the elements out there. And they have to fight bugs. So they are a little bit stronger. So I'm a little bit stronger when I go outside and have to duke out all those elements and just be in the rain, be in the cold.

Kristianne:

Be in the sunshine than if I were inside in this environment and never going outside again. That's another balance. A piece of balance. Sometimes it feels all nice and cozy in here, but you know, my body needs to be out. It needs to have movement just as much as it needs nourishment. And it needs to be in a peaceful place, not in a place where I feel frightened or scared all the time, or uncertain or not loved, right? So those are all very important things for me to keep in mind so that I stay balanced and healthy. Yeah.

Pat:

You know, one day we had a conversation about your firefighting days and you said something that really stuck with me. You said, "we were taught to run towards the fire." Now what is that mindset of running towards the crisis taught you about healing, about pain, and about how we show up for others when it matters most?

Kristianne:

It's really, really, really good question. So, first of all, we weren't taught, we just do it. So there are people out there like me that are built to run towards the danger. They never had to teach me. I was just that person. And it's funny, when I was onboarded, we had four hours of psychological testing. And I know we laugh about it. The department, like, what did that look like? Was like, wow, these people are really, really like imbalanced. Right? that's what they do. But there's a certain type, I would say, working in crisis, I felt, how do I describe it? So pain doesn't own me. And, um, working with crisis, I felt, I felt the fire, right? I've felt the pain, I felt the fear. I knew how to be in it. And, and in it with others who were willing to help others in crisis, just like me.

Kristianne:

Those people are part of me. Like we are one family. So again, they didn't have to teach any one of us to do it. We just innately have it within ourselves. And perhaps many lifetimes as well for some of those individuals that have lived and understand that peace of, yeah, there was a bit of just deep calm when I was in crisis mode, just calm. I could see everything around me. I felt secure, I felt happy. I felt alive in that fire. That's how I felt. And then when you're in it with others that have your back, that are also seeing things at, you know, 360 degrees in that same way. It's, it's very inspiring. And the pieces that we learn each ti each call we went on, right? So every single call, whether it was a fire call or a medical call, crisis call, those were all calls that were just eye-opening and experiences that we were able to step into other people's crises at an acute moment. So I, I miss that. Not doing that today because of, of all of that. Right. It was just, it was just inspiring for life. Yeah. But there also has to be time and space for family too. So learning to carve out,

Pat:

It strikes me that basically as an EMT or a firefighter, you're seeing people at their worst, they're frightened, they're scared. It's a life-threatening situation. They're just at their worst. And then you come in and your colleagues come in, you're calm. You are attending and listening to what they're saying. And so that whole dynamic you were talking about the Ying and the yang, this balance. So all hell's breaking loose. And then firefighters come in, EMTs come in and they're calm and they know what they're doing. They take care of the person. They listen to the person talk about balance in action. That's it.

Kristianne:

Yeah. I like that "balance and action." Exactly. We're bringing the yin to the yang, right? Basically bringing the Ying to the yang. Yeah. You gotta put the water on the fire. "Put the wet stuff on the red stuff." That's what they used to say.

Pat:

I like that. You know, you've described your life as many lifetimes in one. With that said, which of those lifetimes taught you the hardest truth? And what was it?

Kristianne:

Yeah. So hard to say. Which one taught me the hardest truth. 'cause there's a hard truth in many. But, uh, trusting my deepest self, trusting my inner knowing, and humans, including myself, understanding that we are all imperfect. So that trusting of my inner self and that inner knowing is, is vital.

Pat:

That's pretty remarkable. When you think about it, it sounds like you began understanding this self of yours, that inner voice at a very young age. Would that be fair to say that, you know, you kind of cultivated it early on.

Kristianne:

Yes. I was taught that cultivation early on. I like to, I like to look at it as this was my soul's journey. And I, I'm grateful that I had all those teachers. As difficult as some of the teachers have been, I have been able to learn so much and so much about myself. And so that's, that's where I, what I would say about that. Yeah.

Pat:

And also the idea that when we face adversity, when things happen, 'cause life is always changing and flux and things happen. And when bad things happen, there's something in there. First of all, we have to survive the bad thing, okay? But there's also a point when we kick into listening to ourselves, we kick into, this is dangerous. I gotta get outta here. Or, you know, whatever it may be. But that idea of I've gotta listen to myself, I gotta trust. It is just imperative.

Kristianne:

It is. And it, it's imperative that I understand that I am, me and others, people are, are them. Right. We're not one, even though we are together as whole, we're all on our journeys. And that trusting in myself so much at an early age, I, I gave away and I realized, no, I have to reserve pieces of me. I have to reserve time for me and health for me. Um, no one else is gonna do it for me but me. So, and that was that taking that step. And that wasn't just it. I mean, we don't have enough time to go through all the traumas, but that's a visual. Right. And a physicality that I can talk about today is how that first step was hard, but also very symbolic. Of other times, that I had to persevere and in adversity and find myself in it. Yeah. And I am. You know, there are days I'm really good at it, and days I fail miserably and the days I'm failing are some of the days I learn the most. Yeah. Right. So, yeah.

Pat:

But when you talk about that in my own life, I remember at a young age looking in the mirror and saying to myself, when will I stop giving away chunks of my soul? It knocked the wind right outta me. I was in my twenties, and I was putting makeup on, but all of a sudden the makeup stopped. And that thought just shot right through me. And I think sometimes, like you say, if we listen to our bodies, and that was my body, my soul talking to me, it's a wakeup call.

Pat:

So you're talking, it is symbolic, it's physiological, it's spiritual, it's soulful. But to, I, I look at that as a gift. That was the cosmic alarm clock saying, pat, time to wake up. So I appreciate when you talk about the symbology of what you went through very much. Thank you. So you said, once: "my secrets we're keeping my disease inside." What does it feel like now, living more transparently, more truthfully,

Kristianne:

Simply freeing. Just so freeing. I feel lighter. I feel happier. I feel less painful sometimes. It's frightening. There are days I want to go back in into those dark spaces. And feed the disease in a not so healthy way. And that's okay for a day. And then it's like, I gotta get back. I gotta, I gotta get back to, to me, I can't let this take over me. I can't. I can, it just won't be healthy. It won't, it won't serve me or anyone else around me to stay in that disease state or even a mind state of disease.

Pat:

Whoa, Kristianne! What I love about that, the voice that you use with yourself is, "maybe it's time I stop doing this"- It's a loving voice. It's not like you're doing it again or shaming. It's not that. It's a gentle, almost like your inner self taking you by the hand saying, Kristianne, we can't stay here long. It's not good. And I really love the gentleness by which you do that. It's still firm, but it's loving.

Kristianne:

Every day is new beginning. Right. <laugh>, like I said, some days I'm really good at it. Other days I'm like, there's always tomorrow. Always tomorrow can be, I can get stuck in that space. And that's not healthy. I can give myself some grace for a day, but then I gotta get back up. 'cause that's my choice is to get back up. Sometimes I don't. But say most of the days I do. Yeah. Grace is important.

Pat:

Yes, it is.

Kristianne:

Living more transparently and truthfully is very important. Not being truthful is polluting. Polluting myself.

Pat:

You also said in a different conversation, "I had no tools to find self." What tools have you forged and how do you pass them on? And I think you're starting to talk about that now.

Kristianne:

So my tools of compassion, I think that is a big tool, but it's a compassion for myself. And then it becomes a compassion for others. So I had to learn a compassion for myself. I have to every day look at myself in the mirror as I change, as I age. No joke. Things are breaking down. That's part of the law of nature. And that acceptance of self and that compassion for self and others. Like I have to think about, again, we are imperfect. People are gonna make mistakes around us. They're going to fail themselves and others. And that place of compassion, it's not an easy place to be when things are breaking down. It's very scary. That is a big tool. That and love, love for self and others. So those two things I think are key tools that I forge and how I pass them on.

Kristianne:

I have to model it. I giggle because I was a mom at age 19. I was a single mom at age 19. Yeah. It's one of my lifetimes. I could talk a lot about it. Lovely, lovely human came into my world. My daughter. It was an eyeopener because I had to be a role model. Now I had to put an action at a very early age. Something I didn't know. I didn't know anything about me. I was, my prefrontal cortex wasn't developed like I had. This was just not working. It just wasn't working at full capacity. <laugh>. Yeah. My executive functioning, which was why I was a single mom. Right. So there you go. So I made some choices, but they ended up being in my favor. 'cause I have a beautiful daughter and I have a wonderful son and I have a wonderful, I call her my bonus daughter's, my stepdaughter.

Kristianne:

She's a beautiful human being that came into my world. I have to remind myself that I am a teacher also, that they get to watch me mess up. And that's part of it. Like, don't do what I just did <laugh>. I did a lot of that. Yeah. Oh yeah. And that my son would be in the backseat, and go, mom, did you just say that? You know, that's not very nice. I'm like, you're absolutely right. You know, that was not, not nice. So my kids are great teachers, but my tools are important, but I can't pass 'em along if I'm not modeling it. So every day I get up and make those choices to, to try to be the best person I can be because I have others that are, that are watching even as adults. They're adults now. I'm gonna be a grandma at the end of June, and I have another little one that's that I get to pass hopefully some healthy things along. Hopefully I've learned enough that yes, I can like model the good things and not that don't do this.

Pat:

Exactly. So I'd like to segue back to traditional Chinese medicine. It sees imbalance as a disruption of mind, body, and spirit. In your experience, which of those is the hardest to bring back into alignment and why?

Kristianne:

It's such a great question. What I think is spirit, it's because it, it takes prayer and meditation. It takes connection. It takes a belief that it even exists. I know this because I've been with people while they were dying. I've heard people's stories of dying and coming back. Numerous stories which are wonderful and beautiful and rich and awe inspiring and leave me with a sense of awe and also peace. But I also have been with people that don't connect with the spiritual peace. And they have not been able to cope with their pain. They cannot connect. And then therefore there isn't a hope. And that it gets difficult because I, I respect everyone's belief that comes through the door. I do. And where they're at. But I have seen that those who practice the connection of the soul are more apt to connect with the body and the mind.

Kristianne:

And in Chinese medicine, we say the soul is the driver of the mind. So if the soul is not well, people are doing drugs, alcohol, they're escaping that connection of soul and that piece becomes disconnected. It's like offline. And then we say, it's as if you put a driver behind the wheel that is inebriated. So then the mind is not functioning well. And then the body, then it's like, look out. I mean, it's going. There's a driver and it's, it's reckless. So I love that vision of that. When we've talked about that with some of my professors is that's, there is a soul and it resides in the heart. So we have different diagnosis for people that are not well mentally or spiritually because of that disconnection. So I would say it's, that's the hardest to bring back into alignment because it takes a connection, requires time and requires a deeper understanding.

Kristianne:

And I, again, I don't mean that people that don't believe in soul don't have a deep understanding. They may in different ways. And again, that's a difficult thing to discuss with some of my patients because I have that discussion right off the bat that there's mind, body, spirit in all three. If one is off, the others are off. And that is my understanding and my practice. So again, if people don't agree, maybe that the practitioner or patient relationship needs to be maybe with someone else that has more of their understanding or belief, or maybe traditional Chinese medicine would not be the best suited for them. But there's always just a wealth of people in our area, right. Where I practice that are wonderful practitioners. So sometimes I'm not the right person for them because of my understanding. But that has been my experience. Yeah. And so I lean on that piece, that spiritual piece, uh, would be the difficult to get back into alignment and including myself. I need to carve out time to do that. But I would say too, where I find it is, is outside in nature. So a wise professor once told me, if you don't understand what's happening with your patients diagnosis and you have tried multiple different angles in treatment, I want you to go outside and walk in nature and pay attention because nature has the answer. And it does, it can teach you. So. And I believe that's where we can find the spirit at its most refined.

Pat:

You know, that brings me to, you've sat with people in crisis, in healing and in dying. What have you learned about what people most need in their hardest moments?

Kristianne:

They need another person to listen. They need someone to just be, not to talk to them or to answer questions, but just to sit with them and just to see them for who they are and that place of compassion, to accept where they are at that moment in time and space. Um, especially in crisis, all you have is time. All you have when you're doing CPR in someone who has collapsed and is not breathing and their heart is not beating, all you have is that those moments of time. Right? Counting out the compressions. But when they're conscious, all you have is that moment too. Recognizing the human, the person in them. The soul in them, this moment to moment. It's inevitable. Things will change. We all are changing Right this moment and just being in the moment of change. Probably what I see people need is just that time.

Pat:

Yeah. Most precious thing we can give someone is to see them and hear them. And friendships are forged that way. That a dear friend is someone who sees you and hears you and you see them and hear them. I mean, that is very, very precious. And I imagine in those moments when people are in crisis or passing that to have another human being hold them or see them and listen to them has to be a beautiful sendoff in a way.

Kristianne:

There is one image I have of this woman who was really struggling with her breathing. She was dying and her family came together, and they just didn't know what to do. But they were kind of gathered around and I was doing a little acupuncture on her, and this is in the hospital. And we were just as a circle around and they started talking. Right. They just each started talking about her life and, and the journey they had with her and some fun things or funny moments and just going around and each having something to say about this woman, whether she was a mother to them or an auntie or a grandma. And just going to their different memories and just watching her breathing. 'cause they, they're hooked up to machines in the hospital. That was the most wonderful thing, was to be able to practice in that setting where I could watch, you know, science. And also the traditional medicine at work, but also watch the science behind. Yeah. This is what happens when we connect, when we relax, when we have touch. Right? Touch is also extremely important in the work I do. And I notice it. That is so meaningful, especially as people age and they don't have their loved ones there to give touch. Right. Just the simple things can mean so much. Um, when people are dealing with their hardest moments, I think is just to, to sit with them.

Pat:

You know, I read in a novel once, there was a passage about when people are seriously ill, other people don't touch them and they miss it. If someone is going through a cancer or it could be anything, friends and family don't really touch them. And in a sense they see the illness, not the person.

Kristianne:

Yes.

Pat:

What you're talking about really comes full circle to whether someone has a cancer, whatever they have, look at them, look at the person, not the illness.

Kristianne:

Yes. I just had a, a patient yesterday that said, I am so tired of people asking me how I'm doing. Like, how are you? They're like, I just don't want even, like, I don't want them to a, I just don't wanna be sick. You know? I just, I don't care. They were kind of laughing about it because they were like, I'm more than my illness. How about just like, what's new today? What's the best thing that happened to you today? Or what funny thing did you listen to? Or did you watch on tv? Or what did you read that was really great? Or what was your favorite recent favorite book you read? Or anything like that? Did you go for a walk? What did you see on your walk? What nature did you see? Or what surprised you today? It's so humbling to me too, to be in those situations where I, I get to learn about that, right?

Kristianne:

I get to learn from my patients what really pisses them off. What really makes them happy? What really brings sorrow, and it really shapes me to wanna be a better person in this world and be a better person advocating for people's health and wellbeing and mind, body, spirit. I'm so grateful that they get to teach me this so that hopefully I'll have a better idea of how to talk with people, you know, as I Yeah. Navigate through my life. It's astonishing how many people like you were, you were saying that I can, I can almost envision people not wanting to touch someone that's sick because they're afraid that they're gonna like, hurt them even more or make them more sick, or that they're gonna get sick themselves. Right. I mean, it's just like, what do I do? It's very uncomfortable. I have to remember too, that I listen to people, you know, I listen to many, many, many people during a week's period of time.

Kristianne:

So I have that understanding. Many people don't, some people have never sat alongside someone who's been sick before. They haven't, they don't know what to do. They don't know what to say. I applaud them for being there too. Just going. And even if you fumble through and you don't know what to say or if you're afraid to touch somebody, that's okay. At least you're there. At least you're making the effort to be present for, for another person. But I feel so grateful that these wonderful patients of mine are teaching me more than I can ever teach them.

Pat:

Well, as we wind down the hour, I wanna go in the way-back machine. If you could go back to that 11-year-old girl in pain sitting in that hospital bed, what would the woman you are today, tell her?

Kristianne:

I would tell her that she is loved. I would tell her that she is capable. I would tell her that she is okay not being okay. I would give her a huge hug and I would tell her that I see her.

Pat:

That says it all. Well, Kristianne Schultz, it has been my honor to have you on and listening to these lifetime stories and all that you've done. That comes full circle really to come compassion, empathy, and a desire to, to heal. And I, I thank you for the wonderful work that you do. Thank you for coming on today.

Kristianne:

Oh, it's such a pleasure and honor to be here. Thank you so much. I I loved every moment of it. Good.

Pat:

And listeners, if you enjoyed today's podcast, please tell your friends or hit subscribe and take care. Bye.