Building the Best You

How to Heal from Within: Nervous System Healing and Holistic Wellness

• Jeanne Collins • Season 2 • Episode 75

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This week we sit down with Christine Ruch, a holistic transformation guide who’s navigated two decades of MS without pharmaceutical intervention, to explore how inner safety, emotional capacity, and co-regulation can reshape the body’s story. She pivoted from celebrated chef and restaurateur to transformation guide after a series of life changing pivots - intentional business closures, a divorce, and a year and a half in Costa Rica working closely with healers. That journey revealed that external protocols matter, but real change roots in the nervous system.

We break down MS in plain language and examine why inflammation is only part of the picture. Christine explains the nervous system as a full‑body interface—felt through fascia, sensation, and energy—rather than a thought in the head. She shares how to build safety from within, stop turning emotions into identity, and use co-regulation and limbic resonance to return to your natural baseline. The difference between change and transformation becomes clear: change is linear and reversible; transformation follows the pace of nature. Her nine-month process mirrors gestation, allowing the body to lead while the mind learns to trust.

You’ll get simple, field-tested practices: a quiet morning ritual that precedes screens, an evening pause to release the day, and five-minute micro resets for busy lives. We also talk seasons of life—why freedom and rootedness can both be true, and how to recognize when it’s time to pivot. If you’re navigating MS, chronic stress, or just the weight of modern life, this conversation offers grounded hope and practical steps to reclaim calm without perfectionism.

Christine's Book recommendation: 

The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope


More about Christine:

Christine Ruch holds the space for you to walk your path to more authentic health. After spending 20 years healing her own MS naturally through whole food nutrition, nervous system restoration, spiritual practice, plant medicine, deep self-inquiry and many other Eastern and Western modalities, Christine now guides others on their own transformative healing path. Her work bridges science and soul—offering tools to move beyond symptom management and into lasting inner healing. She’s here to share insight, hope, and grounded practices for listeners ready to reclaim their health from the inside out.

https://www.christineruch.com/

https://www.instagram.com/christineruch.ms?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

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Read Jeanne's Book: Two Feet In: Lessons From an All-In Life
WELCOME TO OUR HOUSE!

SPEAKER_00:

I'd always known I wanted to help other people heal because a lot of people would say, like, think that I had like some special sauce, like how I could treat this naturally for so many years successfully. And I think I just always had this truth that it was absolutely infinitely possible. Like our bodies are incredible and incredibly intelligent. And everything that we need to heal is within us. And I just believed that so, so deeply. And I just now I'm just super passionate about helping other people like reclaim their sovereignty and reclaim their truth and take back their own power and connect with like how truly divine the healing process is, and that it is all within them and within their power to take control of their lives and affect change in all sorts of amazing ways that lead to better health.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the House of Germar podcast, where wellness starts within. The House of Germar is a lifestyle brand empowering women to live all in through interior design and personal wellness. We are a destination for women ready to reimagine what is possible in their homes and lives and then create it. We are honored to have you join us on our mission to empower one million women to live all in. I am your host, Gene Collins, and I invite you to become inspired by this week's guest. Welcome everybody. I'm your host, Gene Collins, and today's guest is Christine Rook. I am really excited to talk to her. And I know I say that all the time for all my guests because you know what? I only bring you guys people that I'm excited to talk to. But Christine is she's a holistic transformation guide. Whoa. We're gonna talk a lot about the nervous system. We're gonna talk about her background, how she got to do what she does. She specializes right now in clients with MS, but don't stop listening because a lot of what we're going to talk about about your nervous system can apply to anyone and everyone. So I am so excited to dig into a subject that I think is really, really cool, which is nervous system. So, Christine, welcome. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you for inviting me on your show. So, first of all, you are in Boulder, Colorado. It's pretty early on a Monday morning in Connecticut. So thank you for getting up. But you also live in Costa Rica. I do, yeah. Okay. As we start to uncover who you are, what you do, how you got to this journey, I really want to know how you are living in multiple places because I think you do actually spend time in multiple places. And that for many of us who are either empty nesters or have never had children, kind of think that's like the dream life to be able to build a business where you can live in multiple places. So let's make sure we cover off on that one too. Yeah, for sure. Okay, so to get started, give the listeners a little bit of background about yourself.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So yeah, where do I even begin? I'm a holistic transformation guide, and I specialize in helping women with multiple sclerosis because I've had multiple sclerosis for 20 years. And it started as um, you know, my own healing journey and this deep belief from the very beginning that I could solve my health issues naturally. And I did it, I mean, 20 years ago, there's been a lot that's changed and it's been quite a journey, you know, and and health is a journey. And then especially when you are have a diagnosis, then if you view that as well as a journey unto itself, then that becomes a powerful path to healing. But at the same time, that was my personal life and then my professional life. I have a degree in holistic nutrition and I'm a holistic natural chef. And I was a holistic instructor for a long time and a natural chef instructor at a culinary school. And then from there, I went and I opened a whole bunch of food businesses. And I had like food brands, and I had a really, really successful restaurant in Boulder and some other food establishments for about a decade and really fed everybody in Boulder just like the healthiest, cleanest, badass food. And I just had like the time of my life, and it was an absolute dream country. I'd always wanted to have a restaurant that was a true community gathering place. But it was really interesting because then a lot of it wasn't working anymore. And, you know, there was COVID and there was all kinds of things, and it was almost like the universe colluded with all of the forces that everything, everything like crumbled all at once. And then I blew up my life in the most spectacular way. And it was really traumatic, actually. And I'm laughing about it now just because I'm on the other side. But that's actually what prompted me to look really deeply inside and start to recognize that while all of these external modalities for healing are incredibly valuable and important, I was missing some crucial core elements of healing from the inside and not fully in alignment and living in my truth and recognizing that a lot of the life that I was living wasn't actually serving me. And so then, yeah, I embarked on this deep, deep path of like inner exploration, almost like you know, dark night of the soul, which is real. And I did, I sold everything. I got a divorce, I blew up all my businesses and put everything in storage that I had left. And um, I took a suitcase and I went to Costa Rica and I buried myself in the jungle for a year and a half, and I started working with these two healers, and it was incredibly magical. And that's where I really started focusing on like the deep value of this inner work and really the nervous system. And then coming into my own truth and alignment and just all of that, like it started as a path to figure out like, what did I just do to my life, you know, and how did this happen to me and what the hell am I doing, you know? And then it suddenly turned into this super sacred path of like inner truth and and reconciliation. And and in that process alone of coming into alignment, then my health just magically shifted all by itself. And it just was an incredible aha moment to bring all of the work I'd been doing for my health into for 20 years and crystallize it and bring it into like full alignment. And then I'd always known I wanted to help other people heal. Like, think that I had like some special sauce, like how I could treat this naturally for so many years successfully. And I think I just always had this truth that it was absolutely infinitely possible. Like our bodies are incredible and incredibly intelligent, and everything that we need to heal is within us. And I just believed that so deeply. And I just now I'm just super passionate about helping other people like reclaim their sovereignty and reclaim their truth and take back their own power and connect with like how truly divine the healing process is, and that it is all within them and within their power to to take control of their lives and and affect change in all sorts of amazing ways that lead to better health. That was a long answer to your story question.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, but like, oh my goodness, okay. So there's so much in that story. Like, whoa. All right. The first thing I want to know, because I think a lot of people get to the point where you said you were, where like things just weren't working, right? And so it's like, okay, you get to the point where things just aren't working. How long did it take you before you were like, okay, I'm just gonna blow, I need to do all these things. How long did that process take just to put it into perspective for people?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I mean, I guess that's a really personal question. I mean, I'm happy to answer it, but I think this is where you need to know your own self. From my own personal path, I do have a long history of doing really radical things in a really fast way. I do too. So it's not, yeah, right. So, like where other people can like sit on decisions for a long, long time and really struggle with that. That's not really one of my personal challenges. But actually, it was happening in like 2022. And it was like, I think I was having a lot of frustration that whole entire year. And and then in September, like I was just super frustrated. I had just opened another business in like May of that year. It was like that was a whole, like, we don't even need to get into that necessarily because that's a waste of time. But there was all these little tiny drips in my life that started like exposing these cracks, you know, in the foundation.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And I was busy trying to like put like spackle on every crack in my life and and absolutely not really seeing them or really like fully receiving the magnitude of what was really happening, you know, is just really in a denial because I didn't want to lose everything I built, you know?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. It's hard.

SPEAKER_00:

I know it's super hard. But yeah, then the truth is though, then I did I did a plant medicine ceremony in September of 2022. I'd always been really called to that. And I always felt like it would come to me when I needed to know the answers.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And so I did. I reached out and I had, you know, we can talk about that if that's necessary. But I did, I had a plant medicine experience with Wachuma, which is sacred cactus. And I'm from Arizona, so it felt like a perfect thing for me to visit, like and sit with a sacred plant cacti. And then I went on a trip around the world. Well, I went to Europe and and for a month by myself to really like sit with like what was happening in my life, like six days after I had that journey. And then I came back after a month, and then within three months, then I just it was it. I just closed my restaurant in like four days. I just closed it. I just stopped, which by the way is a really bad idea. You don't do that. Um, the ramifications are real. Um, but that was what I did. I just knew I had to just absolutely stop. And then once I did that, though, it's kind of like, you know, like you think you're gonna get a new couch, you're super excited about the couch, you buy the new couch, and then all of a sudden you're like, oh my God, the rug doesn't work, and the and like the you know, the lamps suck, you know? And so then you have to get new lamps and a new rug, and then you're like, oh now I need to paint. So it's like it was all exactly that happened where I just thought, oh my God, I just need to close this one business. And then it was like, oh no, you got to close mom. You need to do all of the above. Oh my God. And then I started to see once I had all that out of my way, all of the other places that my like wasn't working for me either, because it was all right there in front of me.

SPEAKER_01:

So I love what you said about how you just realized that doing one thing wasn't really enough. You had to kind of like break ties with all these different things and really dive in the plant ceremonial work. I can totally relate. I know people who've done that. We've had a podcast guest on about that, and that's really powerful. And I do think when people get to the right place in time, it can be really helpful. I want to take one step back though. And this is gonna sound really simple, but I guarantee you some of the listeners don't even understand. Can you help me understand what exactly MS is and the impact it had on your body, even though, I mean, clearly you can cook holistic medicine, nutrition, like you you know how to take care of your body. Can you share a little bit about what was actually happening to your body as a result of having that? So, what is it and what was the result it was having on your body before you made this big transition?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease and of your nervous system, and you know, it affects the myelin sheath in your brain and your spinal cord. And there's a lot of symptoms that uh range from like numbness, tingling, loss of feeling and sensation in your legs, a lot of optic neuritis. You can go blind. And the trajectory of the disease, untreated and unchecked, is is like debilitation, like you could be blinded in a wheelchair. You don't actually die of the disease specifically, but you die of, well, all of the other things. Like, you know, nobody wants to be bad ridden and blind. Right. So the modern techniques are pharmaceutical techniques, are a lot of drugs that target, you know, your immune system, immune modulation, and your myelin sheath and, you know, things of that nature. And I feel like I started with diet because you start with things that really affect your nervous system. Although in the modern world, we don't really think about it like as a specifically a way in which you can actually self-modulate your nervous system.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

That was like kind of came later, but but we look at all of the things that impact inflammation, right? Because it's a it's a disease of the inflammation process. And so we, you know, look at diet, we looked at environment and other types of healing modalities that really lower the inflammation. But stress comes into it, but I don't know that it's actually a big part of the conversation. But zooming way out, I think my personal belief, especially after 20 years, is yeah, it's definitely a disease that is um, I don't even want to say it's a disease. I think it's a manageable condition that is an indication of a deep dysregulation of your nervous system and your body talking to you. And as soon as you learn how to listen to that, then your body responds. So I had before, I had a lot of success because I'd only treated naturally and I've never done pharmaceutical intervention. But I had a very tight life. You know, I had a very tight diet, I had a very tight lifestyle. I had like the perfect sleep hygiene and perfect mattress and like the perfect water and the perfect diet. And but I wasn't actually connected with the fact that I worked a hundred hours a week and had three businesses and 75 employees. And I thought I went to yoga and I like did all of this stuff. And I thought that was like I was crushing it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And then I really started to look at the other ways in which my nervous system was absolutely shot, you know, and I wasn't paying attention to that huge aspect of things. Like I could do all I could to like lower my inflammatory markers. Yeah. But until I looked at what was actually causing my inflammation to begin with, then um, outside of my diet, things changed really rapidly and really profoundly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I personally just think it's fascinating. I think nervous system regulation is fascinating, but I also think it's incredibly overwhelming because it feels like it's very grounded in like your mind and using your mind to control your body. And how did you deal with that? Like, how did you learn to do that?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I love what you just said because actually, well, I want to validate what you said because a lot of people, you know, like you can fix your gut, let's say, but it's hard to believe that you can fix your nervous system because like you can find your gut, you know what to do for your gut. But nervous system feels a little nebulous, right? You can't go and cut into your body and be like, oh yes, there's the nervous system. Yes. But I would like to say that the nervous system doesn't exist in our mind, it's our body. And we think it's in our mind, but actually it's our entire body, it's in our fascia, it's in every cell of our body. It is the interface. It's actually in you and outside of you. You know, it's the energetic sense of the world and what's safe and what's not safe. And so it's a sensing feeling thing more than it is a mental construct. And now, currently, there's definitely modalities that are like a nervous system reset or a vagus nerve reset. And all of those things are a somatic experiencing, and those are all incredibly important part of the process. And like traumatic release, and all of these are really important nervous system techniques, but you're not necessarily going and recognizing you can befriend your nervous system, you can control your nervous system, you can do your own nervous system regulation. All of those things are foundational to letting go of the past. But if you're not connected to the ways in which you live your life every single day in service of keeping your own nervous system perpetually dysregulated, it doesn't, it doesn't really matter, you know? I mean, it does, but you just are going to continue to dysregulate yourself every day.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Was there anything specific that you started doing when you were in Costa Rica and having this journey that you were like, oh wow, I start to feel a shift? Was there like an aha of some sort?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And I think that I thank you for asking that. For sure, the work that I do with people is a reflection of the work for myself as well. And that is really learning a whole bunch of different things. It's like creating safety within and like you help yourself feel safe. I mean, at right now, it's very popular to say, oh, you're triggering me or I don't feel safe. And it's like, okay, well, I mean, that's true for sure, but like that is all within you. You create your own safety within. And so I work with clients to build the container so that you can actually begin the process of building that self-trust. And then another part of it is this idea of emotional regulation and capacity. And, you know, a lot of us will create stories from emotions. And then from the story that they create from the emotions, then they make decisions. And actually the decisions are based on stories that are not true, that are based on emotions that will pass. Sure. And then they create an identity from those stories, and that continues to keep your nervous system dysregulated. And it's all also not true. And so if you can learn, right? And so if you can learn to build capacity to handle your emotions, a lot of us have no real connection with that. I certainly didn't. I mean, for heaven's sakes, it's like I had three food businesses and 75 employees and customers out the door all the time. It's like I had no emotional regulation. Like I never learned that in my life. I came from a very traumatic childhood. And I built a life in service of keeping my own nervous system dysregulated, which by the way felt perfectly normal. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Of course. It's all you know. It's all your nervous system knows, too. It was all I knew. Right. It feels very comfortable.

SPEAKER_00:

And so once I learned to like be able to hold my emotions, build emotional capacity, like the capacity to hold all that is that you process and comes in every day and goes out. Everything that you feel is not everything that you are. And you don't need to create an identity around everything that you feel, but actually have the capacity to recognize is emotions are energy in motion. It's just an energetic frequency that comes in and it goes out. And we attach to that and be like, I'm depressed, like I'm a really depressed person. And then you create a story and decisions, and it's just a whole rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And then learning to deal with like the sensations within your body that come and arise from feeling the energy of all of these emotions. And it does, it's dysregulating in your body, it's uncomfortable, it's agitating. And learning how to feel those sensations, hold those sensations and recognize that, well, number one, that they will pass. And number two, that you have the capacity to hold all that. That's why we're built, that's how we're designed. Yeah. And number three, that you can actually modulate that and create that's part of that safety. And you can self-soothe and all of those kind of things. And then what happens when you start begin to learn how to do all that is number one, your body starts to trust you because you're trusting it. You're trusting your body is actually sharing something with you, and then you're listening, and then you're taking aligned action. And then when you take aligned action, your body, it's like a positive feedback. It continues to want to like share more with you. And then you're like, oh my gosh, there's more I can do. Yeah. And more within your body starts to trust you. You start to trust your body. And then from there, all of a sudden your health starts to shift without you actually going in and trying to do anything and fix that. So it's just a really beautiful, organic, natural process.

SPEAKER_01:

That sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's actually it's it's everybody should have more emotional regulation. They should.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And I'm wondering if like people find you and they just feel so out of control. And one of the gifts you're giving them is a way to gain that control back by building a different relationship with their body.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. That's a really insightful question because one of the things that happens, and you know that this is true too, is we have co-regulation and limbic resonance. So that is a real scientific thing that happens. And it's this is like when you walk into a really chaotic space, and your body, your nervous system recognizes it immediately, and you immediately feel like, oh, this is charged.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Likewise, when you walk into like, let's say, a spa environment or something like that, and everything is so zen and so relaxed, you're just like, oh, you just immediately want to sink in with like relief. The same thing happens when we're working with people. And so my job is to have the calmest, most centered nervous system.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And your nervous system actually gravitates to co-regulate with mine. Regardless of what you think is going on, your nervous system is already in resonance with mine. Interesting.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh-huh. And this is just how it works. And this is scientifically proven. And so your nervous system, so over time, your nervous system will learn to relax and rest and relax and rest. Every time you and I are in co-creation, and every time you and I are talking, your nervous system is mirroring mine. And you're starting to feel calmer all the time. And then your nervous system wants to be like that because that's our nerve natural state of being.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

And so once we can sink into what our natural, true natural state of being is in our own natural resonance, then, and a lot of this happens so naturally, like you don't have to go in and tinker with it. Like your nervous system knows what to do. And in fact, your nervous system wants to do this. You know, it doesn't want to be regulated all the time, which is the reason why it creates all of these other problems in your body. It wants to be at rest and it wants to be at peace. And you know, so it wants to be calm. It wants to be calm.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. So I am guessing based on how you describe that. By the way, I have to say I feel so calm. Like, yikes. And I need nervous system regulation, like trying to figure that out in my own personal life with my own personal health. But so you call yourself a transformation guide on your website. So this feels like this might be where we're going, which is why I'm gonna ask the question. So, what exactly does that mean? And how do you put that to practice with your clients?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's such a great question. So I think it's important to talk about the difference between change and transformation and the difference between a coach and a guide.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Because a coach will coach you on change. Change is linear in trajectory. And change is not permanent. We can change the color of our hair, we can change our clothes, we can change our mind, we can change our diet, and we can change back, right? We can regain that weight. We can change the color of our hair whenever we want, we can change our mind, change our political affiliation, we can change anything. And change is not permanent, transformation is. Right. Yes. It's something that unfolds in its own natural, beautiful timing at the timing and the pace of nature. Um, because we are nature and our nervous system, we heal in a completely different way. You know, in the modern world, we like to force healing into a timeline. Yes. And it doesn't work like that. It's like you can't you can't force spring to come early. You can't force the flowers to bloom, you can't force that baby to come before you're ready to give birth. Right. Yeah. And you can't force anything in the natural world. And so true deep healing is the exact same way. It's a matter of holding space and building trust for the actual process of healing itself and being in the now and just being with what is and learning to trust the wisdom of that. Yeah. And that kind of stuff. So that's how transformation is different. That I hold the space for you and your process and the beauty of you. And then get you in touch with your own beauty, your own wisdom, your own ability to affect change within your own life. And then that's just an incredible, it's an honor for me. But it's an honor as well because to be in a container where you're always witnessed, a lot of times we're not always witnessed. And you're witnessed in your entirety, in the beauty of everything that you are right now. And there's nothing that I'm witnessing your entire process. And there's something really powerful about the witnessing and observing thing, kind of goes into a little bit of quantum theory. Yeah. But that right there, the observer effect creates a tremendous amount of change all by itself. So I don't know if I answered that question, but you did.

SPEAKER_01:

You did. So I have a couple of questions. So I think most people work with you for many months, right? Six months, nine months, maybe even longer, right? Nine months. Okay. Yep. So how do you help people stay patient? Because I feel like our society that we live in, we just innately are not patient human beings at all. Myself included, I am not patient at all. And it also feels like it's not like, oh, I'm gonna do this this week, and next week I'm gonna like see, just like you said, with the diet. Like, I'm gonna do this, and then next week I'm gonna weigh a pound less, and then I'm gonna keep doing it, and then the following week I'm

SPEAKER_00:

weigh a pound less and it's like it feels I don't want to say it feels woo-woo but it feels abstract and so how do you help your clients be comfortable with the abstractness of this process yeah it is abstract but do you know the nervous system in and of itself feels abstract right yes and I think that that's such a beautiful question and it just starts really really slow and and it is it's something for sure when I first started I feel the same way I I like to say that I'm like in type A recovery you know I I had this totally different life and you just have to it's just one day at a time it's just it is really slow and it is maybe frustrating at first but you know what's really interesting is while your mind is running a rat race trying to figure it all out your body is responding kind of like how do you have children I do I do I have a 19 year old who doesn't live at home anymore but yeah I have a 19 year old okay so you remember when you're pregnant and you're gonna go into labor and have this baby and you have this whole mindset around how your birth is going to go? Yeah and like can you control when this birthing is going to happen and what it's gonna look like. Right. And did you ever have any sort of like all these mental things going on like how this process was going to unfold the way you think it's going to be it's never the way you think but also for me anyway I think uh I was super profound because when I was in labor it was like your body knew what to do. And it didn't matter what you were thinking about it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You could think anything you wanted but your body in all of its wisdom and all these beautiful feminine codes of birthing like was always within you. And it didn't really matter what you wanted to put into it like a birthing plan or well it didn't matter. It could look it doesn't matter your body knew exactly what to do no matter what your mind was thinking. And so back to your question this is the exact same way because once your body once we're in this we build a container and once we build the container then I'm the one who holds the space for the container and your brain will do a whole bunch of somersaults and protest the process and do all the things the brain does while your body will actually immediately start to respond. Because your body knows your body automatically recognizes it. And so yeah there will be these moments of like dichotomy where you're just like mentally like what and then but your body's like oh no we're doing this.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And just like you're giving that birth you know where your brain is like oh no and your body's like no we're doing this you know it's it's actually the exact same way. It feels a little bit different but you are you're burning a new you so that's why it's a nine month process. Yes, right. Yes. Yeah it's a birthing process. So it starts slow and small and like the beginning of your pregnancy and then it culminates with um the end and you're a transformed healthy person.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so fascinating. Do the people who come to you are most of them coming to you truly from a health perspective or are they coming to you from like you said like all of a sudden your life you were like I need a new life.

SPEAKER_00:

I think in a lot of our healing path altogether, you know, it takes some time. It's this particular type of person who is really ready and willing to really understand that true change just comes from within and they're ready to go on that journey. Because they've tried enough other things and and in a lot of times in our healing path we can try certain things and they work for a minute and then they kind of lose their steam.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And you can become frustrated or you could try a different thing or a different diet or a different path or a different doctor. Or even if you're on a traditional trajectory you start to recognize other ways in your life where you're disempowered and you have given up your own power and you start to recognize that wait a minute like I this is not how I wanted to live my life you know I thought I wanted to be healthier and happier and I wanted I didn't want to be debilitated or or whatever that process is. But at some point everybody has to come to it within themselves that they're ready for the deep change and for the work and they're ready to surrender to a process that's bigger than they can mentally imagine. And and they want it for themselves. And so I think it's it's really all around that you have to authentically believe that you're capable of it and you have to authentically energetically be ready for the process and to commit to it. And then once once you are authentically ready and energetically connected to the truth of that like within yourself like this is something that I am empowered to do and I know that I am capable of it yeah then then that's where we begin. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow how do you stay in like in all of this positive balance like you feel so calm how do you personally how do you stay there?

SPEAKER_00:

Because life is still life you know like to think that everything can be sunshine and roses even when you get to spend part of the year living in Costa Rica life is life is still happening so how do you stay in this space personally yeah thank you well I do I have a number of different practices you know like I used to get right out of bed and jump on my computer and jump on Instagram make my coffee and make my to-do list and no I don't do that anymore we all want your life right there right now all of us are like sign me up because that just gets your nervous system dysregulated right away and instead I come into myself every morning I have a sacred time which is about an hour to an hour and a half every morning I meditate right I wake up I pee it's dark still wherever it is I am and I just sit for 30 minutes and and sometimes it's an affirmation sometimes it looks a little bit different but it's a 30 minute meditation. And then I make my coffee or you can make your tea or whatever you do for your morning beverage and I sit outside in nature and I sit I don't open my computer I don't look checking my phone I don't do a single thing. And I sit in nature for at least another 30 minutes in silence and just align myself with the energy and vibration of nature because we are nature we are from nature we are part of nature and like that's our true vibration our true essence and I just watch nature I watch the sun I watch the clouds I watch the birds I watch whatever is happening and unfolding and I just sit in silence with myself and just really center myself for the day. And then I just put myself first at all times, which sounds selfish but you know when you learn to choose yourself first all the time like choose what serves you only always in the process you make everybody else happy and you serve everybody else. Yeah. A lot of times we serve everybody else first and we give ourselves what's left and there never is anything left at the end of the day. And so when you start your day by only serving yourself first, then you have a lot more to give to the world after that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh and I always say if you don't take like if you don't take care of you, no one else is going to and that's not a new phrase. We all know that but you know it's like you really you need to be able to fill your cup and energetically balance yourself if you ever think you're going to be able to get anyone else to do anything or be your best self to help anybody else either.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And I do the same practice at night in um kind of a reverse and I spend at least 30 minutes sometimes only 15 but in just in silence and just let the energy of the day just sort of leave my body. Your system wants to release all that sometimes we just don't have any sort of like demarcation between the end of our day and the beginning of night and you have all these people who have dysregulated sleep and all of these other things. And if we're not giving ourselves a little pause at the end of the day to release all of the day and the energy of all the things that we did and the people that we were with and all of that stuff. And then that can dysregulate our sleep. And so I give myself a space at the end of the day to just have silence and it doesn't necessarily need to be meditation but it just is silence and rest to just allow the everything to just sort of leave my body so that I can have a a better night's rest. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah which sounds heavenly all right and I am sure there's some people that are listening that are like okay that sounds really great for you that you get to spend an hour and a half every morning in this calm state and you know all of this like it sounds heavenly and lovely but that just doesn't fit into a lot of people's realities. Totally. So what would you suggest to someone who's listening in terms of what they could do on a smaller scale to help themselves be calm, tap into their nervous system a little bit, like dabble in this concept of regulating the nervous system when you know they might have like three young kids and like that's nice. There just isn't an hour and a half left in the morning. Right. So I yeah yeah what suggestion would you give for the people that are in that stage of life?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, for sure, because I think that wouldn't have been available to me at a previous chapter of my life for sure. But I think it's a couple of different things first starting with your belief system that you come first and that you deserve you deserve to put yourself first and that this is your only one life and putting yourself first in this mindset. And so even if you only have five minutes at the beginning of the day and maybe it doesn't look like meditation but maybe while you're brewing your coffee or before the kids and before all the things you have five minutes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And even five minutes to just come into your center like I own I deserve this I am worth this and coming into like sitting with yourself and just really taking some deep breaths and centering yourself because what happens is it just builds on itself all by all on its own. Social media for heaven's sakes we do we do give away our time and you know what you will always find time for the things that are important to you. You always do yes you always do. And so as soon as you come into that truth of I am worth this and I deserve this and I want to put myself first I believe that that is true. Then you start in small ways five minutes here five minutes sitting in your car before your kids race out of the school to jump in the car and you get rush off to after school activities. But if you just commit to five minutes a couple times a day to just coming into that like I deserve this, I am doing this for me, you can begin just there, just owning and just believing that you deserve it. And maybe even looking at other ways in your day in which you give away your day to other things that don't serve you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah I love that concept of really looking at your time and think of all the ways that you give away your time and I think yeah you know personally we give a ton of time to social media but we also give a lot of time to being really frustrated and annoyed and anxious and angry with things that happen and we often spend a lot of time like rehashing those situations. Like especially in work right or in corporate America like you're rehashing the situation that happened and that was bad and you're then giving that negativity even more time. So I think it's a really practical and very cool concept to get people to think about how their time is being used. And wouldn't it be cool if instead of rehashing or saying that negative thing that happened again to the fifth person and explaining it again to and complaining to the fifth person like let that go. Give yourself that those 10 minutes and do something else with that time. Oh I love that exciting that is really powerful. All right before we run out of time I want to talk about a couple things what is nervous system restoration that you talk about on your website and how is that different from some other healing modalities that might be out there? Well we've been talking about nervous system restoration this whole last hour okay I wasn't sure I wanted to make sure because it's on your website so I want to make sure it's like really clear to everybody if they go and follow you and go look you up like that is what we talked about. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah this entire conversation is all of the layers of nervous system restoration and that is building this container meeting you where you're at you coming into this truth and alignment you trusting that your body is going to do this building co-regulation in limbic resonance learning to build emotional capacity learning to um befriend your nervous system and all of these are very a lot of layers also looking at a lot of traumatic release will actually happen in this process because we bury a lot of our past traumas that were never met and seen and all of those things yeah in our body and in our nervous system. That's where it lives and it wants to come out. Yeah and it's trying desperately to come out and so um and it does it starts to come out naturally in this process because it feels safe and it feels held and so things will traumatic things will come up that you're not even mentally it'll just come into your life it'll just come up and you'll be like oh my God Christine I think I want to talk about this thing. And I'm just like yeah let's do it because yeah second it comes into your mind and you're ready then I hold the space for that to be seen and felt and moved through right so that it can leave your body and leave your nervous system and leave that distortion leaves your your energy field. And so it's a multi-layered process and then you start to realize like oh my God then you start to see your relationship with your nervous system and how you create your own stress. Yes. Sure and and how you are in control of like remodeling what that looks like and that is all within you of the power to do that. And so it's esoteric but it's also very specific. It's all of these micro layers that all get built into the container in our work together every day all the time through a nine month process.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And your body is what actually leads the charge and informed by and then it comes into your mind as a great idea and then that's where I meet you.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um but then through that process yeah so you have all of these things like somatic experiencing and restoration and all of those micro things lead to the restoration of your nervous system which then leads to transformation.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah sure right makes perfect sense to me I get it I get it. Okay so I want to make sure we talk about this because I talked about it in the beginning you live in I don't know what the right words are you spent time in Costa Rica you spent time in Colorado I think you might even spend time somewhere else can you talk to her about how did you build that lifestyle?

SPEAKER_00:

Well it was definitely always a dream of mine to well you know I left uh restaurants and so it was a very dense like energy of like being rooted in one place. You don't get to do that when you have restaurants and you don't get to leave for very long. And I just really wanted to build a life of expansion and freedom and that's one of my core values is is expansion and freedom. And so that was really really important to me when I was like liberated from my very 3D heavy life of restaurants and storage units and all that stuff. And so I think it's I've been really blessed to just design my life in this work. It all happens online and then on WhatsApp and it's just the way in which I built this container and so yeah I've been able to create this life but I don't you know I think that it's worked for me for the time to I mean I will always have a life of expansion and freedom because that's the life that I want.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

But I am in the process of moving back to Boulder and I feel like I'm a ready for a more rooted life and to be reunited with my storage unit.

SPEAKER_01:

But that's good. That demonstrates it's like everything is sometimes right for a time or a season and being okay flowing with that and doing what was the right thing for you at that time for you to be living your best life and then recognizing that a pivot is okay whether that's where you live who your spouse is who you're partnered with what your job is like recognizing and giving yourself the permission to have that ebb and flow in life as you start us saying like that's part of transformation. It's not linear it's up and down and up and down and that's part of the whole journey. It's just a beautiful representation of it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah thank you for noticing that and and it really is it's a different chapter you know change is changes change like everything is always changing all the time. Yeah and a lot of us want to not change and that's not how nature works that's not how the world works. We're always changing. Yes and so if you can ride the changes of life and embrace where you are I think that everything would be would flow a lot easier for sure. There'd be a little bit less stress in everybody's lives.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah there sure would be all right so for our friends out there who have MS, right? And they are looking for help, whether it be with you or someone else and they feel really overwhelmed, what would you suggest to them as a place to start to give them some hope?

SPEAKER_00:

The most important question that you can ask yourself is are you living your best and only life that you have and are you living a best version of the only life you are living back here, right? Yeah. And are you living that life or do you feel like there's more do you believe that it's possible do you authentically believe that it is possible for you to live a better life than what you're living now yeah and not only do you believe it but do you believe it's within you to actually be the one to effect change within your own life because all healing is self-healing yes and we all are born with this intrinsic ability to heal. This is how this is how we're we're designed I think yeah you just really have to sit and look at yourself and sit in that five minutes and be like what how how am I not living the best life I can possibly live and a lot of times we're disempowered especially in the disease process by doctors scare you and believe that you're you know especially young children my daughter was three and my son was six when I was diagnosed with MS. So I fully understand the fear and uncertainty you know but I did know without question of a doubt that the vision I had for my future was that I would be dancing at my children's wedding. Oh I love that. Yeah. And so like what vision do you have for your future that you authentically believe that is within your power and how do you want to live this only life in the fullest most amazing way possible.

SPEAKER_01:

That is so beautiful. That's so beautiful that's like totally actionable and something that people can really do. And it they're really powerful questions. And I think you need to really sit with those questions and be really honest with yourself because that is where so much of it starts is brutal honesty. I know I got here by having to be brutally honest with myself and that's tough. Yeah it's it is it's not easy and it's very scary. But I thank you for coming on and sharing your journey because you can demonstrate to people that it is possible. You can it is deal with the fears of that you can have massive change you can get better you can live a healthier life and you can have some control over some of these medical diagnoses that can feel very scary in many ways. Yeah. So that is so beautiful I love it. Okay so before we run out of time two things for you one I always love to ask people to recommend a book that has impacted or books that has impacted themselves personally and professionally because I'm a true believer that books can change lives. So I would love to know what book you recommend people should read.

SPEAKER_00:

Well the book that's been my Bible for the last number of years is called The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope.

SPEAKER_01:

I haven't read that one okay I love that because I do try to read all the books.

SPEAKER_00:

So yes I love that book so much and that's really was really great because you know I love being a chef and I love cooking. I'm a really good cook. Yeah um and I love building community and all of those things and when I lost all that I was super despairing because I was just like does this mean like I was doing the wrong thing and and when I was going through all these changes and there was so much I didn't understand about what was happening to me because the transformation began without me even really knowing it. You know in my head I was trying to like grasp onto all these things in my life that weren't serving me. But I was already changing from within and that book really was a beautiful way for me to recognize the true work of my life. Yeah and I think a lot of us are doing a job and we're not really living in service of what our true soul's path is supposed to be and how we're supposed to show up in this world and be of service. And so yeah I I think that that book was really transformative for me. I'm gonna get that and read that.

SPEAKER_01:

So thank you very much. Is there anything that I didn't ask you that you want to make sure you communicate or talk about did I miss anything? I'll put in the show notes how everybody can find you your bio all of the things so people can follow, find you, email, reach out.

SPEAKER_00:

No, this is such a wonderful conversation I thought I think it was just beautiful.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh well thank you so much Christine everything that you stand for is something that I am so passionate and just so curious about nervous system regulation I think is really powerful. And even just the thought that we can heal ourselves from within is something that is really high on my list of things that I'm trying to tune in personally to. So I'm excited to get to share this with all the listeners because I think all of us need more of this and we need examples of people who are doing it to help us have faith that we can do it too. So I thank you so much. I thank you for coming for sharing your journey we will stay connected I will follow you I encourage everybody to follow you and reach out if you have questions whether you have MS or not you know Christine's a value she's a super valuable resource and maybe one day in the future she will help more than just people with MS. You never know.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm hopeful I'm hopeful yeah I guess I want to just say then I'm always happy to have an alignment call because I talk to a lot of people and I give freely of my time I don't have any I don't charge at all you can contact me on my website and even if you don't have MS, but you're curious about either the process for yourself or you're curious about where you should turn I mean even if you don't have a disease but you want to be a live in more alignment I have a lot of intuitive knowledge and I'm happy to share and give gift of my time. So don't hesitate to reach out to me.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. That is so beautiful. All right great it was a pleasure to meet you and we will stay in touch. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the House of Germar podcast where wellness starts within we appreciate you being a part of our community and hope you felt inspired and motivated by our guest. If you enjoyed this episode please write us a review and share it with friends. Building our reach on YouTube and Apple Podcasts will help us get closer to our mission to empower one million women to live all in. You can also follow us on Instagram at House of Germar and sign up to be a part of our monthly inspiration newsletter through our website houseofgermar.com If you or someone you know would be a good guest on the show, please reach out to us at podcast at houseofgermar.com. This has been House of Germar Production with your host, Gene Collins. Thank you for joining our house