From Stress to Miracles

In this episode, Dr. Ash teams up with Your Year of Miracles coach, Cari Garcia, to celebrate the launch of The Boiling Frog Workbook, a practical guide to cultivating self-awareness and personal growth. Together, they dive into the power of balancing the brain’s creative and analytical sides for stress management and explore how gratitude, creativity, and connection fuel resilience. Drawing on themes of self-love and transformation, they share insights on shifting from the “stressed-out zone” to the empowering “miracle zone.” 

Tune in for an inspiring conversation packed with actionable tools and a fresh perspective on embracing your growth journey.

In this episode you will learn about:

• Balancing the Right and Left Brain
• The Power of Self-Love
• The Miracle Zone vs. The Stressed-Out Zone
• The Role of Community
• The Transformative Power of Gratitude
• Breaking Through Conditioning

Tune in to gain valuable insights that could help you not just survive but thrive in today’s demanding work environment.

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You can get The Boiling Frog Workbook by Dr. Ashish Kumar here.

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Ready to transform stress into strength? The journey starts here. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello friends, and a very warm welcome to Transforming Stress with Dr. Ash. Are you ready to turn stress into your comfort? For over 30 years now, Dr. Ash has worked and gained education across three continents: India, United Kingdom, and the United States in healthcare. He's witnessed firsthand how stress can impact our health and cause our happiness. But here's the exciting part. He's here to help you transform your stress into a powerful tool for growth and resilience. Each week, he'll share practical tools and life-changing insights from his books, including The Boiling Frog, to help you manage your stress, find balance, and live a life of purpose. Please join us every Friday at 5 p.m. and let's start turning stress into strength together. Now let's dive into today's episode.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Welcome to the Transforming Stress with Dr. Ash podcast. Thank you for being here. We are here to not only share our launch of the Boiling Frog Workbook, but also to share the journey we've had the entire year with the Year of Miracles. And we have created miracles, and I'm really grateful for the work we have done together. So welcome to the podcast. Please introduce yourself to the listeners. You are a fantastic coach with the Year of Miracles, but I you have a diverse variety of entrepreneurial and business experience. So I would love to hear from you.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Oh, fantastic. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be with you as always. So yes, I'm Carrie Garcia, and I've been with Year of Miracles for my goodness, 10 years now. And, you know, and my year of Miracles coach, as well as, you know, I do have other businesses and I run dance studios and travel around the world. I coach and and teach, you know, not just in love for life, but in dancing and business. But it's been fantastic. And I want to congratulate you on your workbook and your future book that is coming out. It's really a wonderful, wonderful handbook to guide you have the call.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Do you have the copy of the book with you?

SPEAKER_02 2:19

I have the book. It is right here. It's already been like folded and manipulated around to, you know, to be with me. And it has such wonderful illustrations, which taps into like that childlikeness that creates more um openness for learning, to be quite honest with you, in a fun way that allows the body and the brain to work cohesively to map together what you need, meaning that your brain can be more creative, more open and susceptible to change, as well as allowing the nervous system to be calm because you're in a more open and creative atmosphere, as opposed to just working the left brain, you know, checking the boxes and making sure that you know exactly what to do, how to do, when to do. And also in those times of when you're working through things that are challenging and that in that left brain, you can find all these myriad of ways of things that are wrong. And then you're searching for like the solution, the solution, but in only that left brain way, it's challenge. It's harder. You're kind of pushing, you know, that boulder uphill and it doesn't work as easily. So when you're able to work the both, you know, you've masterfully worked that right brain into them to the equation to make life easier and more fun in a behind the scenes kind of way until you recognize really what's happening. Then you start to go with the flow, and then you're excited to answer the questions. You're excited to be in that jacuzzi effect atmosphere and allow life to work for you and with you, um, even when you're working through challenge. So I think you've done a masterful job, and I can't wait for the book to come out. Thank you. So share with me then your biggest like aha in how you why you have created this wonderful workbook for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

So, Carrie, the main reason is that we are living in an era of information overload. But if you see that transformation is not that apparent, people are still half of the population is suffering from burnout, nearly half. In healthcare, I would say even two-thirds. So if there is so much of information about wellness, then what is the issue? What happens in chronic stress? People tend to live on the lower brain. They have the limbic system, amygdala hijack. So, as you mentioned, the right brain approach for creativity, which is for the intuition, the imagery, like you see a picture from the book or from a chapter, and the penny drops for you. And once you get the concept, once you see something, then you cannot unsee it. And oh, you realize, oh, I am really facing cognitive overload at work, and it's making me feel like a donkey. That kind of makes you uncomfortable because that right brain approach has connected to your limbic system. Then you can bring the shift by taking the leap of action. So, in the with the book, I have created a cohesive, coherent right brain and then left brain simultaneous report. And the book which is going to be published next month, then we get from a similar right brain angle, we are storytelling. Storytelling, bringing short stories, people have got small smaller attention span these these days. So I'm not going to spend more than 400 words, illustrate illustrate a concept and a story. And then I talk about the scientific evidence behind it, which is followed by making the diagnosis of that skill. Then, how do you measure that particular skill? Because a lack of that skill will create stress. And then how do you develop the management toolkit? But the answering your question, writing, bringing the workbook was to get the right brain fired up, uh, because we don't want more information, we want more transformation in the world. And once the it once the penny drops, there can be uh there can be increased awareness, and then we can do the execution. Both have to go together, but we want the right, we want to go from the right side.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Wow. There is absolutely no coincidences, as you know, like as we've been working together with Year of Miracles, that your book here then of transformation and you know, growth of happiness, and is there's never a better time than right now. Like this is a time that we need this openness of imagination, creativity, and transformation for a better life. And with the times that we're going through, which you know, we're getting bombarded with so many things that are automatically stressful, that you're helping everyone to allow themselves to focus in a really um fun and interesting way to create that better life and to be their own transformation in their lives, in their families' lives. And you know, what a ripple effect that your work is going to have. Like it's so amazing.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Thank you. Thank you very much, Tari. And uh, we have worked together in the year of miracles. And as you've been speaking, that uh the year of the miracles, the miracles, the miracle zone means that living true to yourself, living your highest values, living, living your highest core values, which is I talk about in the section of uh value management. And if you are living life authentically, then you will feel that it's a flow-like state. You're living in the frequency of joy, abundant miracles. But for for that, the first thing is that one needs to have awareness of their strengths, of their weaknesses, of their values, of their blind spots, of their environment, of the environments which are supporting them, and the environments which would not be supporting them. So, who are the right people who help you get more energized? And who are the right people who are the wrong people who suck the energy who suck the energy out of you? Right. So it's just the heightened sense of that awareness.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Absolutely, that is so important. That is so important. How has Year of Miracles kind of helped you formulate or add to your jacuzzi effect?

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Uh so uh, first of all, uh let me tell you more about what is the jacuzzi effect, please, and then I will tell you how the year of miracles uh has helped me. So the jacuzzi effect is coming from actually from a scientific principle. It's a universal law of physics that in every environment, both positive and negative factors always are there. If there are challenging factors, stress, exhaustion, toxicity in the environment, then equally we have factors of in any like I'm working as a consultant in internal medicine. I work in a hospital, and every day you can find joy, meaning, connection, gratitude, kindness with your patients, with your colleagues, meaning, joy, compassion, gratitude, and learning contribution to your colleagues. Yesterday I spoke to around 50 50 of my colleagues in a grand round telling them about uh the journey through COVID. So, what we are saying that if we are if we put our focus on these positive factors in the environment, that becomes our reality, and that is converting the boiling frog environment into a jaccul. You might be familiar with the boiling frog analogy, uh so uh this is campering down the temperature by putting our focus on these positive factors, which are always there because they have to be there, it's a law of physics. They were present even in the environment of Holocaust, in the worst possible environment, as explained by Victor Frankel in his book Man's Search for Meaning. So if it was present in the Holocaust, we can all we can. I'm sure we people will agree that in the healthcare we have taking care of the sick, vulnerable, we will be able to find. And I'm sure in any kind of industry, uh Carrie, please share me, share your experiences, yes, then you can access kindness, compassion, courtesy everywhere. So that is uh uh that is what is meant to uh convert this toxic uh boiling frog environment into a jacquis. I've been working this on this over a decade. It also means shifting your mindset to a growth mindset and kind of try to find out what in the environment is positive. And similarly, uh, you might have read the chapter on micro stresses. You look for micro moments of these positive facts, micro moments of joy, micro moments of meaning, micro moments of connection. And if you are able to stack these, they also have an equally positive compounding effect. Now, coming to your first part of the question about how the year of miracles has held. First of all, it was great uh uh throughout the year, there was great talks about the understanding the concept of year of miracles and getting into that vibrational state. Secondly, the community factor was very important and the shared experiences, and then finally, and most importantly, it was our connection through and through which created some kind of uh fruction. Now, we would all agree that as human beings, we might be having habits that if the environment, environment is having challenges, might go back to our old habitual pattern. Right. So having that structure, having that connection uh gets you back into that zone. So you are like supposedly, you know, like when I'm driving my car, sometimes I'm getting distracted or something. And if I go out of the lane, the automatic the automatic feature of the car will bring you back into the zone. Right, right. Will bring you back into the into the lane. Similarly, having this structure of the year of miracles was helpful in getting back into that higher vibrational state where we could create this book, which I hope and my vision is that it serves millions of people in terms of leading a non-stress life. Because stress is going to be there. Yeah, there is stress, there is new stress, which is good stress, then bad stress, and there is toxic stress. Yes, there's toxic stress. It is the toxic stress, pervasive levels of continuous and toxic stress, which is harmful to the human body, both physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. And we are not meant to be like that. I mean, would you agree that nowhere in the scriptures, nowhere in the scriptures, nowhere in the religions, it says that we have to be burnt out. Even the right, right. Even you might have read in my introduction, it talks about the DSM criteria of WHO, which says that this burnout is an occupational phenomena. It doesn't say that burnout is an occupational illness, it says it's an occupational phenomena. Wow. Any person, if you put them through toxic levels of stress on a continuous basis, their physiology at some point of time will break down. So I'm very grateful to you for the work we have done together. And gratitude is also one of the emotions people are not, uh they have not trained their mind to focus on on a day-to-day basis, which I feel is so important, really important, because there is we have got so much, and still, if the limbic system uh takes us towards what is not there, the fear of what is not there, or fear of uncertainty, it will continuously take us to the lower vibration. Right. Can it have I have I answered your question?

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Absolutely. These these very much sound like some of the foundations that we live by in Year of Miracle, like choosing where you put your energy and attention. Like, are you continually putting energy and attention and focus on you know the bad things that are happening? Or are you able to put your energy and attention on, you know, what is working well and gratitude and you know, the things that are gonna continue to uplift you? Because whatever we put our energy and attention on is going to grow more in our life. So whatever it is that we're kind of putting that focus on, that's what we're watering. That's what's gonna grow, you know, continuously in our lives. And so you're guiding us to, you know, put our attention on gratitude, compassion, wellness, community, generosity instead of, you know, all the things that are not. And even with another foundation would be living with an open heart. And so, how are we open to experience our love and care and you know, devotion to our own lives, to people in our lives, to our situations, and what is there serving us as opposed to breaking us down? So, you know, it's it's very parallel in a lot of you know your life's work and where you've come to, and now like just marrying that with year of miracles and getting that confirmation to be able to, you know, be connected in with the boiling frog and the jacuzzi effect and you know the growth that it's gonna be. So I just it it's really quite uh amazing. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Kelly, in your experience as a year of miracles mentor and a coach, what are the challenges people face and they are not not able to live in the miracle zone? Rather, they are struggling all the time.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

That's a wonderful question. Often, as you know, when we meet with our clients or just people around the world, we're often getting in our own way, meaning that we're living in, you know, it kind of can go back to a little bit of what we're putting our energy and focus on, but we might be making excuses and, you know, um blaming or shaming whether it's ourselves, people in our lives for, you know, things that have happened to us, we'll say, right? So they don't have enough money, they don't have the right people, they don't have this, they don't have that, and kind of focusing on, you know, what they can't do as opposed to what can I do? What am I open to doing? And so they just have some like mental blocks or, you know, excuses of why they're not stepping up and showing up for themselves in the most powerful way. And it can go back to what are you putting value in? You know, is that for your highest good? Are you living the life of somebody else? You know, whatever that might be, but it's just kind of being in their own way, in little steps that can make huge differences in their lives, but not allowing themselves to, you know, be playful or to be open to new experiences or even focusing on something that is working in their life. They're so attached and drawn into what's not working, getting their focus to just turn their head and to be able to see this is beautiful. Life is glorious. Life, how is life happening for you? And that they just might need support in taking those steps to do something that you know they haven't had support in before. So I think, you know, when people are able to tap into their own glory of their own heart, of who they truly are as, you know, spiritual beings and loving beings and not attach it to what they're seeing necessarily. That's where power is, right? When we go within and we we can see our own beauty, we can see, you know, the strength. And when we're able to witness and hold space for people to step into that, that's when miracles happen, that's when growth happens, you know, even when it's, you know, it could be serious challenges that are around us. But like you said, what there's there is positive in everything. There is something that is that silver lining. It's that, um, how is this working for you? Life is here to inspire you and to uplift you. How can you learn from that? How can we grow from that? So, really, everyone is just they get stuck in a story in their mind that is not serving them. And it can be scary because we don't know what the unknown is, even if it's glory, even if it's love, even if it's, you know, light, the fear of taking those action steps is sometimes hard for people. So it's it's just wonderful to see people remove some of that and step forward.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

And is it easy to like the years and decades of the conditioning they've had with social conditionings to break through those patterns and start living it? How easy is that?

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Um, that's a really interesting, you know, idea that in all honesty, there is a moment of transition that can be miraculously and instant. But there are layers that might have to be unveiled of acceptance of self, of approval of self, of allowing the self to experience that. And so it might take just, you know, whether it's journaling, going through your workbook, answering the questions, allowing the self to um to dream and to be imaginative and playful. But when that's able to happen, that's when like really quick, instantaneous changes can happen. So it might take, it seems like it might be a long time, but it's going to be then in an instant that everything shifts and people step into their, to their light and their glory. So it um it doesn't have to be hard if we can really allow ourselves, even going through the picture pages and allowing yourself to dive into, you know, the frogs and the pictures and feeling, right? Allowing emotions to be cleansed, allowing feelings to be expressed. And that's where clear clarity happens, that's where healing happens, that's where uh love of life happens. So absolutely, absolutely tell ourselves it can be really hard, or we can tell ourselves it can be really easy and fun. So, yes, there's years of conditioning, but if we understand it's conditioning, it's a story, it's something that we decided on long ago. And we might not remember the reason why we decided that, but it was for a necessity at the time and acknowledge that it was a necessity at the time, but now it's no longer needed. And how do I now move forward? How can I take that imagination and build the life of our dream?

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Yeah, that is very inspiring. Karen, it's been really beautiful to have this conversation with you, been an inspiring journey with you. If the readers want to connect with you uh to learn more about the work you do, is there any possibility that they can you have any social media tuning into?

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Well, you can definitely email me at carry at the madnessmethod.com. Um, if they want any other information, you know, read your year of miracles, carry at your yearofmiracles.com. Um, yeah, either one of those emails, I'm glad to you know send that out to you. I am on Instagram as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

But yes, so thank you very much for the beautiful, beautiful session we've had today. Beautiful uh podcast. Before we go, uh let us share one single takeaway point for both of us. For I would like to say to the listeners that be very careful where you focus your energy on, where you focus your thoughts, because that's what's going to become your reality. It's a practice which one has to develop. And as I said earlier, that always in the environment you can find the positive factors. It's the law of physics. Any final points you would like to say?

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Fantastic. Really, it's I would love for everyone to dive deep into the truth of them, which is divine love, divine light. We are all spirits having wonderful, you know, physical journeys here. And it is a playground for us to learn and grow, but always returning to the soul of who you are, and that is deep love of kindness and really honoring that. Everything, as you said, where we're focusing, where we're putting our attention on, if you can also be able to understand and harness your own love.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

That is the most uh most beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Yes, everyone is love, and I want them to under to feel loved and um number one from themselves and then know that they are love.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Yeah. Thank you, Kerry. And that is the most inspiring thing to do to stay in the miracle zone as compared to being in the stressed-out zone. So thank you for joining us in the Transforming Stress with Dr. Ash podcast, and we're really grateful to have you.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Thank you for tuning in to Transforming Stress with Dr. Ash. If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd greatly appreciate it. If you could leave a five-star review, a like, or subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast. Your support helps us reach more people looking to transform their stress into new comfort. We'd love to hear your thoughts, so don't forget to comment and share. For more tips and updates, please be sure to check out our social media links in the description box below. We can't wait to have you with us next time as we continue this journey towards turning stress into resilience. Remember, it's not the stress itself, but how we rise above it that defines our strength. So stay resilient and keep thriving, and we will see you next time.