When Wellness Becomes a Weight: Dr. Laura Ricci on Letting Go and Gaining Real Strength

Anyone who’s faced surgery or complex health issues knows the stress, pain, and long recovery. But what happens when you endure 18 surgeries and multiple health challenges over 10 years? When you find yourself crying on the bathroom floor, asking, “Why me?”

Dr. Laura Ricci has faced these trials, diving deep into the emotional and spiritual lessons hidden in her struggles. Trained in healthcare, she once saw the body only as physical—but through chronic pain, body issues, and cancer, she uncovered profound soul-level lessons.

She's gone from "why me" to "why not me?" ... and is a beautiful of example of how she helps others do the same.

Now, she mentors others on their healing journeys, reaching the top of an essential oils company and empowering women through strength training. She also shares the power of self-compassion and forgiveness in her relationships.

So grab your swimsuit, snorkel, and goggles—let’s dive deep with Dr. Laura Ricci.

07:03 The Unexpected Gift of Transforming Pain into Purpose

13:05 Neuroplastic Pain: Sinking Deep to Reveal a Way Out through Deconstruction & Reconstruction

38:32 Reclaiming Space and Power as a Woman in Strength Training

43:28 The Hidden Meaning in a Tube of Lipstick

46:40 From Reluctant to Empowered: Laura's Unexpected Career Journey with Essential Oils

57:06 The Power of Forgiveness, Self-Compassion and Growth in Friendships and Relationships

01:03:43 Embracing Joy and Play in Work and in Life 

Keep up with Laura on Instagram @drlauraricci 

(and don't miss her glorious dance reels with her husband, Mark!)

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Transcript

Julie Granger (00:00)
Welcome to Sink and Swim,

podcast that invites you to sink deeply into your

the stories you were born to tell about yourself,

swim and shine unapologetically into your soul's

I'm your host, Julie

this is the space where we celebrate the powerful, raw, and transformative stories of

have discovered that life isn't sink or

It's sink and swim.

These are the people who have gone from paddling furiously to rise, succeed, and stay on top in life,

and their relationships,

to instead sinking into the deepest and most hidden stories of the soul

discovering there the power to rise to even higher heights.

My guest and I will share our untamed, unfiltered truths and

and illuminate how to live in love with more purpose, wholeheartedness, freedom, and

So take a deep breath, settle in,

on your swimsuit, goggles, and

and get ready to sink into the deep end with us.

Julie Granger (00:59)
I am so excited to introduce our next podcast guest on the Sink and Swim podcast. Anyone who's ever been through surgery knows the stress, the pain, and the long recovery that can come with surgery. But what happens when you have 18 surgeries over the course of roughly 10 years? What happens when you continuously find yourself crying on the bathroom floor asking, why me, again and again?

Our next guest, Dr. Laura Ricci is the epitome of someone who is able to face such trials and tribulations over and over again and sink into the deep, hidden spiritual and emotional parts of each and every one of these surgical stories, each and every one of the body problems she's faced, each and every one of the emotional crisis she's encountered, and go from saying, why me, to instead, why not me?

This is incredibly poignant for someone who is traditionally trained in healthcare like Dr. Laura, like me, who was taught to look at the body as a body, as a physical being. But what she's learned over the course of so many health issues are the deep hidden parts of our stories that are hiding beneath chronic pain, body problems, and all the things, including cancer, that she went through.

There when she sank deep, she learned the soul level lessons and discovered the alchemy and the gifts that were hidden there. Now she uses her process of going through that to lead and help others in a place that she never thought she would work. A place that often gets a bad rap. She has reached the tippy top of a multi-level marketing company selling essential oils, but more than anything leading and mentoring others.

She also leads as a woman in strength training, helping other women feel the inspiration and power of both inner and outer strength. And lastly, she talks with me about the beauty of self-compassion and forgiveness she has discovered not only for herself, but also in her relationships as she's gone through this journey. So grab your swimsuit, grab your snorkel, grab your goggles and get ready to sink into the deep end with us with Dr. Laura Ricci.

Julie Granger (03:25)
Welcome to our next episode of the Sink and Swim podcast. I am overjoyed to introduce our guest today, Dr. Laura Ricci a women's health coach, a doTERRA diamond leader, an intuitive guide, and a survivor who turned her pain into purpose, which we'll be talking about a lot today. She's also a self-declared unicorn sister of mine. We have both declared it. Thank you, Laura, for being here. It's so good to see you and chat with you and just...

have you here, because you're such a great inspiration for so many. And I can't wait to share your story.

Laura (04:01)
It's a pleasure. It is so fun. It's always fun to get to chat with you, Julie. It's like a fun soul sister chat.

Julie Granger (04:07)
I know, and

this is such an example of a like, we needed to catch up anyway. And I'm like, great, let's just catch up and record it and let the world see. part of the premise of this podcast, for me at least, was I just like want people to hear the things that we talk about, you know, not necessarily our most private conversations, but like when we get to chatting and we get to these deep moments and it's just like, we should be recording this.

Laura (04:34)
Yes, this is good stuff. This might help somebody.

Julie Granger (04:37)
We need to bottle

this up. Like, dang, I need to put that on a t-shirt and a billboard and like share it with the world. Cause whatever I just said off the cuff was like so good or what you said was so good.

Laura (04:49)
Yeah, this is so funny.

Julie Granger (04:50)
Hmm.

Okay, so we are self-declared Unicorn Sisters. And how we met for the people listening and watching was in a very...

What's the word I'm looking for? Unexpected way where both like women's health background physical therapists, which neither of us are doing that anymore. So you would think that's like the thing that connected us. But actually the thing that connected us was I somehow got referred to reach out to you when I was diagnosed with cancer. But it was actually even after my diagnosis, it was months after and I found out it was time for me to have.

surgery. And I remember, I think it was Jessica Drummond who was like, you should really talk to Laura because she's had like umpteen surgeries at this point and it's kind of an expert at surgery. I don't know why anyone would want to be an expert at surgery, but here we are. You didn't really sign up for that, but you've made it work for yourself. and we had the best chat. was in March. It was almost, honestly, I think it was

exactly nine years ago, maybe today. I'd have to look up the date or something like that. But today's March 13th when we're recording this, and it was right around then that I reached out to you. So, whoa, that's Happy ninth anniversary of being Unicorn Sisters. This is our world premiere of celebrating that.

Laura (06:15)
That's super wild. Got the chills. Woo, okay.

Woo!

Julie Granger (06:28)
And you had the best, just beautiful guidance. I still remember two things you told me that have stuck with me and I still use, like, in my regular life now. The first one was more of a, logistical take-care-of-yourself little trick, hack, and it was to make smoothies and freeze them in those, what are those things called? Like the rubbery silicone.

Holder cupcake holders, still do that. Love that one. And then the other thing you told me was to write a letter to my cancer. And I remember at the time being like, what is she saying? This is getting weird. I thought we were just talking about like what to eat and what to wear at the hospital. But now I'm writing a letter to my tumor. Cool. Cool story.

Laura (07:09)
This is getting really woo woo.

Julie Granger (07:22)
but it was such a transformative little, like subtle but profound little exercise to do. And now I write letters to lots of inanimate objects and spirits and things all the time. And I let them write a letter back, which is always an interesting thing. So thank you for those nuggets.

Laura (07:41)
Mmm.

That's so cool. That's so profound.

Julie Granger (07:48)
Yeah, thank you for

being a beautiful light on that path of my own. That was a really, really difficult time. And on that note, so speaking of having umpteen surgeries, you yourself have overcome so much cancer. I think it's 18 surgeries now, not umpteen, 18.

Laura (08:09)
I think

it's 18. I think so. It's crazy.

Julie Granger (08:12)
I love that you've like lost count at this point. Chronic

pain. So seeing like, definitely understand the alchemy in such difficult times and how it really turned into a gift. And I'm curious about you, how or when, when in along those 18 experiences plus chronic pain, you...

realize that your experiences were shaping you, not breaking you.

Laura (08:44)
Hmm. This is such a good question because when you're in the dark night of the soul, like when you're in that really deep place, I remember telling myself that I was not going to go through all this for nothing. Like was not going to experience all this in vain, that I was going to take what I was learning through these really hard experiences to help others. And it really didn't come full circle until people started finding me for some of the things

that I went through that they were going to like at the beginning of their journey. And when I could be the person for them that I wish I would have had for myself or when I hear people say, okay, I'm no longer afraid because I saw you go through this or thank you for telling me that because I needed to hear it. That's when I realized, there's purpose.

Julie Granger (09:15)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Laura (09:38)
from the pain, there's purpose to the suffering. And if I can help to lessen the load of somebody else's journey, even by just a little bit, then it was worth it. So I kind of went through it with the understanding, because I think sometimes we go through tough stuff, maybe for us, but maybe not. Like maybe it's other people along the way too. And so it was something that like hindsight.

Julie Granger (09:57)
Yeah.

Laura (10:04)
I could kind of look back, but I just made this agreement with myself when you're in the trenches, when you're on your knees, when you're, you know, sitting on the bathroom floor crying that something good was going to come out of this. And it's been cool to kind of see that happen even years and years later.

Julie Granger (10:23)
And it's not like you signed up to be like a martyr, you know, like, well, I'm gonna go through all this sacrifice and be an inspiration for everybody else. That's what I love about your story is you just, you lead by example, you know, and I think that's such a slippery slope for some people because then they end up like, well, I guess I went through this other thing and now I'm gonna share my story about it because everybody else needs to hear it. think it's such a, you do it so eloquently and humbly.

And it does. I mean, I'm such a great example. I'm like, well, that was helpful. What you went through, I got to learn from it and be inspired by it and feel less afraid. And I think you're so right, too, about when you're on the bathroom floor or in the doctor's office frozen or whatever it is, you're not thinking, wow, this will be a really inspiring story for someone one day.

Laura (11:20)
No, you're thinking, okay, it feels like my whole life is falling apart. I remember thinking, why is this happening to me? Why now? Why is this happening to me? And I read something that said, why not you? And it really was like, ooh. Like it hit me in the gut of like, and when I just kind of accept it, like we think that these challenges shouldn't be happening to us. Like we think we shouldn't be having this problem and that's the problem. And...

Julie Granger (11:28)
Yeah.

Laura (11:48)
when I was just finally able to go like, yeah, why not you? Like, I think we all go through challenges with this. And if we think we shouldn't have them, then we're in this like state of resistance. But if we're like, okay, this is where we are now. Can we just accept that this is where we are now? But it was a lot of mindset work. It took me a while to kind of even be, because I was so resistant and was like, this shouldn't be happening. This shouldn't be happening right now. Like, yeah.

Julie Granger (11:54)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Why not you?

Laura (12:19)
Why not you?

Julie Granger (12:20)
I mean, let me take this mic and just drop it, cause...

Laura (12:23)
I'm stuck.

And it just, it hit me and I thought, okay, like why not you? And that was the first like state of acceptance. This is happening and you're right. It's almost the stages of grief as you like process getting information.

Julie Granger (12:34)
Yeah.

Isn't it though? Like you're

grieving the life you thought was supposed to happen. And then something comes in, it's like the record scratch, the er, er, and it's like, wait, hold on. This isn't how it was supposed to go. I feel like there's always a grief in that. And we resist because we don't want to feel the grief. We don't want to be crying on the bathroom floor. I mean, I wouldn't wish that on anyone, but it's like in those dark moments where

Laura (13:05)
Yeah.

Julie Granger (13:12)
The choice is continue to resist and suffer or accept. Well, we're in it now. What are we gonna do with this? And I love that you like made those promises to yourself, like those faithful, gritty promises of this isn't gonna be a worthless fight. This isn't gonna be a worthless experience. This is going to lead to something. I have no idea what, but.

Laura (13:17)
Hmm.

Good.

Mm-hmm.

Julie Granger (13:42)
it is going to shape me and bring something good on the other side.

Laura (13:46)
and turned out to be one of the biggest teachers of my life. Yeah.

Julie Granger (13:49)
Yeah,

yeah. It's like your karmic journey. This is what you were meant to go through in order to receive that beautiful gift on the other side.

Laura (13:57)
and

100%. And I had to kind of surrender to that and go, these things that are coming into my life right now, these experiences, I had to look at it almost as my soul signed up for this because it's happening. And I'm going to trust that it's going to teach me something and help my soul evolve and learn and, and be an experience that will ultimately work out for my greater good.

Julie Granger (14:19)
Yeah.

Laura (14:31)
and helped me to become a stronger person, a more empathetic person. And yeah, but this was like deep stuff that happened several years later. I don't think it just hit me all at once. was, oh no. No, no. Yeah.

Julie Granger (14:43)
We didn't click on the first surgery.

Yeah, that's

insane. I know that you also have experienced chronic pain and I know would love to hear way more about that and your role on that because that's not just a one and done surgery. We're doing the thing and now we're healing. It's a constant, why is this here? What is happening?

It's like literally the low hum and or loud hum in the background at all times. So I wonder how that approach, that mindset that my soul signed up for this, I wonder how that has evolved with chronic pain as well.

Laura (15:32)
It's interesting with the chronic pain piece. I, so my very first surgery was when I was two and I had an emergency appendectomy because my appendix had ruptured three days before they figured it out. And looking back, I was so young to even verbalize what was happening to me. It was in the hospital for a week. I was on IV antibiotics. I had drains coming out of me. It was, was a whole thing. And I think that was that little two year old girl was feeling very unsafe.

Julie Granger (15:41)
Yeah.

Laura (16:01)
in her body, in the environment and like all of these things. And it's funny how I even came across like learning about neuroplastic pain and some of these things, because as a doctor or PT, like we both are, I was never taught about neuroplastic pain in PT school or TMS tension, myositis syndrome, or things we were taught that pain is perceived in the brain. Yes. And

Julie Granger (16:02)
Sure, absolutely. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Laura (16:29)
We were taught about some of these different things, but not really that you could retrain the brain, maybe a little bit of neuroplasticity, but it was very much based on treat the physical body. find the things, do the things, treat the physical body. You know, maybe a little touch here and there about like the biopsychosocial model, but it was kind of brushed over and that.

Julie Granger (16:53)
Well,

you're a physical therapist. It's not in your scope. It's not your lane. Like you can know about these things, biopsychosocial, those all contribute to pain and pain contributes to those. But it's not your lane to really dip into that because now you're out of scope. You're doing psychotherapy when you're not supposed to. So like I get it. And also thankfully the profession has evolved a little bit. But yeah, but you and I, when we were practicing too, that wasn't really like the thing.

Laura (16:58)
Yes.

Yes.

No,

that was not the thing. And I can look back in my life and even through childhood having stomach pain and stomach issues that nobody could explain. I was taking tums after every meal because like my stomach just always hurt. then fast forward, I'm having periods like extremely painful periods. It was really, really rough. And I was just like, and then dealing with daily headaches, daily headaches started popping up.

Julie Granger (17:32)
Yeah.

Laura (17:49)
And then pelvic pain started popping up, SI pain. And then I was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. We had hip issues and chronic Lyme and high Epstein-Barr virus and food sensitivities and all of these things. And it just seemed like, what the heck, know, autoimmune stuff, Hashimoto's, like you start to, it got really heavy. And I was like, in the world? so I really...

went the Western medicine approach for a long time, wasn't getting anywhere, went the functional medicine approach. Then I dove real, real deep into that and food sensitivities and went in gluten dairy and sugar-free for 10 years and all of these things. And it was actually a functional medicine doc who told me to download the curable app.

Julie Granger (18:36)
Hmm.

Laura (18:36)
And I

started listening to it. I started listening to these things. And I was kind of like, OK, that's nice. Sure. And it kept mentioning this book, The Way Out by Alan Gordon. It was like, if you want to learn more, read The Way Out. And it kept popping up enough times that I thought, OK, I'll just read this book. So I got it on Audible and listened to it. And it changed the way that I look at chronic pain, even just learning about neuroplastic pain, how it

refers to pain that originates from the brain and your nervous system rather than a direct physical injury or tissue injury. But your brain kind of makes this mistake. It's like a little glitch. It's interpreting it as this learned neural pathway from, and it could be related to past injuries or chronic stress or trauma or emotional factors, like all of these things. basically the brain's kind of on overdrive and making this glitch and still sending out this pain signal, even though

Julie Granger (19:10)
Yeah.

Laura (19:33)
the tissues have healed and that we can rewire and change this. And that was huge to just learn about that. And at first it pissed me off. I was like, you're saying it's not right. And I, know, the truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off. And then it said, no, your pain is real. We can do a functional MRI of your brain and people in chronic pain, their brain lights up like a Christmas tree in a very different way than other people.

Julie Granger (19:44)
No kidding.

on.

Laura (20:03)
But it made sense that I was treating the physical body for years and it only got me so far. And then when I started doing this work with the nervous system and working to calm it down, it helped. And there was a profound moment when it was talking about characteristic traits of people who have neuroplastic pain. And it's like perfectionism and people pleasing and high anxiety or you're just hypervigilant. We're the people that leave our phone number.

twice on the voice message, because we want to make sure that you... You know, there's suppressed emotions that can happen. We're very self-critical. We have a very strong sense of responsibility. We have a tendency towards over-achieving or high achiever. We want to be thought as good people. And I read this list of traits and went, my gosh. And it's not that these traits cause pain, but they can create an overactive nervous system.

Julie Granger (20:36)
Hey!

Exactly.

Laura (21:03)
And the good news is like we can learn some self-compassion. We can start setting some boundaries. We can start to process these emotional things. We can start to rewire. But it was so profound because it flipped everything on its head for me of like, what if this isn't chronic Lyme disease? What if this is neuroplastic pain? What if I can eat gluten and my body doesn't freak out? And I started like testing these things.

You know, I had told myself the story that every time I travel I'm gonna get a migraine every time there are changes and when learning about this and it was like no It's just neuroplastic pain. I had to retrain all my beliefs around that but it was so profound and as my chronic pain started going down now I will say this I had to get to the end of my rope and the end of my rope was Doing everything I could functional medicine wise seeing multiple multiple doctors supplements all the things

Julie Granger (21:33)
Right.

Laura (21:56)
Western medicine, going to a headache clinic for almost three years, trying every medication, everything. And they were like, you need a migraine surgery. And then getting a consult for that and being told insurance isn't going to cover it. And I was at the end of my rope and was finally open to even introducing this or playing with this and going, okay, what do I have to lose? And what was so fascinating was once the chronic pain, which initially was migraines,

Julie Granger (22:11)
Mm-hmm.

Laura (22:26)
as you start to do this work, and I just prepare people for it because I didn't know, that calms down and then old things start to pop up and move around. It's called the symptom imperative. So like a really, really old like knee discomfort is popping up and I'm like, what the heck is this? And it's moving around. What's actually a really good thing is you've got the pain on the run. So you just like go with it. And then I started to notice, I think I have anxiety.

When the chronic pain stuff calmed down, emotional stuff surfaced. It was like, ooh, and I was like, I think I have depression. I think I have, like you start to feel things deeply. It's almost like this emotional big thing. And that's when you know you're like in the center. You're just pulling back layers and it continues to get better. But it's been such a transformative thing and something that I don't think.

Julie Granger (22:59)
Yeah,

Laura (23:21)
Western medicine, even functional medicine is talking about a lot. So I want to tell people like, maybe just read up on it. Maybe see if this resonates. The book is so good because he has a funny sense of humor to it too. I think you have to keep some like chronic pain gets really heavy. So we have to take conversation a little bit lighter. But I've had chronic anxiety for a long time, insomnia. All of these things are healing. All of these things are improving.

Julie Granger (23:36)
Absolutely, yes.

Hmm

Laura (23:50)
And it was just like, whoa. Like for years of not remembering my dreams, I'm finally starting to dream again. I'm finally starting to remember my dreams. Like amazing things happen when we can calm down our nervous system and retrain the brain a little bit. It's kind of crazy.

Julie Granger (24:08)
You basically just stated the premise of this podcast without me asking you to. Thank you for that. Didn't pay her to say all that. But what I hear is, we have all these layers and they get piled and piled and piled and piled. And it was on the surface presenting as chronic pain, like physical pain. Your brain is telling you, my back hurts, my hips hurts, my knee hurts, my whatever, my head hurts.

Laura (24:14)
Hahaha

Julie Granger (24:36)
and it's real, like it's very real. And that's the experience you're having. as you, instead of like piling on supplement and this and diet and things to make the pain go away, it sounds like instead you're sinking deeply into it.

Laura (24:56)
Hmm.

Julie Granger (24:58)
and asking what it's here to teach you, much like your surgeries. Wait, what is the, why not me? What is this here to teach me? And actually letting the pain speak for itself and tell you, it's like it's almost painted this map of all the way back to that two-year-old version of you who was terrified and no doubt probably developed, was probably wired to be more anxious.

like neuro spicy, like just that depth of human experience and feeling. And then it was a ripe circumstance that like set off that boulder rolling down the hill and that boulder eventually got buried beneath smile and be happy. And you're supposed to be kind. Every piece of conditioning we all get work hard, and eventually it just starts to year at the end of your train track.

Laura (25:42)
It's pretty exciting.

Julie Granger (25:55)
And it's like, wait, I have tried everything and you did. mean, literally, you're the poster child for like, how to do it right. If you're just listening to the audio, we're doing air quotes when I say how to do it right. And like, it wasn't right for you. Maybe it's right for someone else, but it wasn't right for you. And by, you know, the grace of all that is divine, you kept hearing.

about this book and it just, was sort of the portal to open you to the truth, which pissed you off and now is setting you free. And it's like the premise of the podcast is we sink deep and it's in those deep, dark moments that we find usually in unexpected places, the power and the like support, the actual support to rise and swim. So instead of sink or swim,

Laura (26:48)
Hmm.

Julie Granger (26:50)
like, I have to avoid sinking, I have to avoid failing, have to avoid whatever, losing my identity, like all those things we were talking about, trying to avoid the grieving so that I can keep swimming. You actually sink, you actually voluntarily sink, which is what you did, which is so brave, because it's not like it's easy work.

Laura (27:11)
Mm-mm. No. It's facing your dragons. Have you ever seen the movie, How to Train a Dragon, like the first one? I feel like that's such a spiritual movie, there are everybody saying, like, we need to kill these dragons, they're bad. And he was like, no. And he was kind of afraid of them, but...

Julie Granger (27:14)
Not the easy way out.

Yeah.

Yes.

really is.

Laura (27:36)
He was like, when I looked into his eyes, like I saw myself and that's how I see like fear or chronic pain or these things. And there's this moment where he like turns away, but he kind of like reaches his hand out and the dragon kind of like just touches his hand. And it's like so cool and so profound. And I was thinking, this is the...

This is like the chronic pain journey because we really have to like lean into the pain and look at it and just sit with it and not judge it and make it our friend. Like your symptoms are not your enemy, even though that's what it feels like. And we're because we're thinking we have pain, something's wrong. And we go down the thing of like figure it out, figure it out. Did I eat something that I lift funny? Did I do? And it's just like actually just leaning in and just letting it have a seat at the table.

And the more that we can just, instead of just trying to keep running away or pushing it away, it's like, okay, maybe I'll reach out and kind of touch it. Maybe I'll be brave. And that's what so much of this is, but it's, it's hard. It's challenging work.

Julie Granger (28:43)
It's hard and it's woo bringing it back. mean, it's like you, when we had that conversation nine years ago, it's before you stumbled on neuroplastic pain. You were still very much in the, you know, let's eliminate the gluten and the things, right? And what's interesting is it's like you were almost ahead of your time in the whole write your tumor a letter. And then, you know, I figured out, let it write back. It's like, it's...

Laura (28:58)
Mm-hmm.

Julie Granger (29:12)
like having a conversation with the pain and really listening to what it's here to teach you, but also writing a letter to it as if it is a person, as if it has a soul, as if it's the dragon that you can see yourself in. It's a little foreshadowing for your neuroplastic pain journey. I love that.

Laura (29:29)
Yeah,

it really is. That's a cool insight.

Julie Granger (29:34)
I love this part

of storytelling because sometimes it's like, were there. Isn't that the truth though? We're always like right there and it's like right in front of us. I think I remember reading the pathway between the head and the heart is like seven millimeters or something like that. The distance between the head and the heart is seven millimeters. I can't remember where I read that, but it's like we're right there and it's right in front of us for a lot of times we don't see it until we were meant to see it.

Laura (29:50)
Hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Julie Granger (30:06)
All in perfect timing. Amazing. Okay, the other thing that you've done, which I think is so cool, it's so cool. Especially for someone who's had 18 surgeries, so many of which are like musculoskeletal and having to do with like your core, your belly. And there's so much chatter out there about like certain types of exercise that...

Laura (30:06)
It's good.

Julie Granger (30:33)
will make that worse, especially in the PT world, that's a very controversial topic. I love watching your strength training journey.

Laura (30:46)
Hmm.

Julie Granger (30:47)
Tell us about that and like, how's it going?

Laura (30:51)
man, it's been one of the biggest healing things besides learning about neuroplastic pain. They kind of go hand in hand in my book because I didn't realize how much I needed to start feeling strong in my body again. After feeling broken, after multiple surgeries and being told all the things, right, I was told, you'll never do sit up.

You'll never do a crush and you'll never do like all of these things, right? And it helped me feeling strong in my body physically helped me to feel strong in my body mentally. And it built a confidence within me in so many ways to face fears to one, just show up at the gym where I think a lot of women were not.

Julie Granger (31:17)
Yeah.

Laura (31:44)
taught we're not brought to the gym at a young age. really like we feel a little bit like a fish out of water or we feel like I just need to hang out on the cardio equipment because that's where all the women are and we don't see a lot of women in the weightlifting section doing stuff like that and just learning how to take up space in the gym and feel powerful again. And I was not an athlete. I was a band nerd. I was super

Julie Granger (31:46)
Mm-hmm.

You

Laura (32:13)
Like I was not, you know, I was, I had, was chosen last for all the, you know, little elementary school. I have trauma from, you know, PE and all of these things. And it was powerful for me to start lifting. And you can see the whole journey on Instagram if you want. have highlights called Stronger Scenzy day one of me walking into the gym and not knowing what the hell I was doing and gradually getting stronger to doing my first pull-up.

Julie Granger (32:19)
Right?

Mm-hmm.

Laura (32:43)
to now being able to deadlift 210 pounds. My goal was always to be able to deadlift my husband. I just thought that was fun. Like, ooh, it'd be really cool. And he's like 180 pounds. And so then when we hit that, I was like, well, I want to deadlift a big man. You know, like, I want to, let's keep going. And there's just something so profound about it, besides all of the health benefits. Like, I really feel like women.

Julie Granger (32:58)
Yeah, right.

Laura (33:09)
just for our overall health, your mental health, your hormones, your bone health, like getting more muscle mass on your body. And there's something really rebellious about it because women were taught to be small and be quiet and shrink down. And there's something really cool about like working on getting big and being seen and taking up space.

Julie Granger (33:18)
Mm-hmm.

Gosh, okay. Three things you said that I love and want to reflect back. The first one being you felt like in order to like regain your strength, you needed to feel strength in your body to also feel safe in your body. I don't know if those were your exact words, but that's what I heard. And what I love about it is we were just talking about the sinking phase where it's almost the deconstructing phase like.

Laura (33:50)
with you.

Julie Granger (33:59)
pulling apart the layers and putting all the layers out on the table. And when you clear out one, here comes another one, you know, that's that's sort of the destruction part of the phase. then the construction, the reconstruction part of the phase, you're doing both physically in the gym, but you're also doing it mentally, emotionally, spiritually. And it reminds me from the book, The Alchemist. Have you read The Alchemist?

Laura (34:27)
Yes, it's been a while, but yes.

Julie Granger (34:28)
for listeners who haven't read it, there's a scene where, well, the whole book is the shepherd boy is going on a very similar spiritual journey, ups, downs, ups, downs, up, downs, up, downs. And he stumbles upon this crystal shop in, I think it was Tangier in Africa. And he has no money, he needs work, he needs food, he's desperate for love, all the types of things.

And he walks in and volunteers to clean the glasses of the crystal shop in exchange for food. The merchant who ran the crystal shop said, yes, of course, you can clean the glasses. And he gives him food. And later, he said, I would have given you food anyway, because the Quran, his religion, commanded him to help someone in need. And the shepherd boy was like,

Well, then why did you let me clean the glasses? And he said, by cleansing the glasses, you were cleansing your soul. And I feel like your story of by strengthening, you know, my outer shell, it's the alchemy of also strengthening my inner shell. Like there's so many routes to strength. mean, you are doing all of them because that's who you are. And sometimes, you know, we really underestimate the power of

Laura (35:34)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Julie Granger (35:57)
healing on the physical and that actually heals on the soul and emotional level and the vice versa of that healing on the soul and emotional level and that also heals the physical. And I think that you've really struck a really beautiful like ebb and flow of that and like alchemy of that. Beautiful.

Laura (36:14)
I

love that. That's such a beautiful way of stating that. Yeah.

Julie Granger (36:20)
And like the whole thread about being women and taking up space, yes, because I feel like...

Laura (36:28)
Yes.

Julie Granger (36:31)
I mean, yes, women do resist strength training because we don't want to look bulky. We don't want look manly. It's not feminine. But it actually reminds me of your question, why not you? Like, why not look bulky? And why does it have to be manly? Why can't we just say strong?

Laura (36:50)
Yes, and that toned look that everybody gets is lifting heavy. women, we don't make as much testosterone as men. You're not gonna get bulky. Believe me, I've been working really, really hard for over three years to try to put muscle mass on my body and nobody's thinking that I'm the Hulk. I definitely don't look like the Hulk. So when people say that to me, I'm like, don't worry, we're good.

Julie Granger (37:18)
going to be OK. When I was in Hawaii, I went to this gym, it's like a year and a half ago while I was visiting because I wanted to keep my lifting routine going. And I just remember looking around, like your picture was perfect. All the women were on the weight machines. They're like kind of, nothing wrong with weight machines, by the way, for anyone who's listening. They're great. They get a lot of beautiful benefits for your body.

But it was sort of like, it's set up for you. You get to kind of hide behind the machine. Like, I was looking at it on a more energetic level. Not one woman. I was the only woman standing in the free weights area. It was all big dudes hanging out, staring at me. And I just remember like putting my AirPods in, playing some Taylor Swift and being like, this is actually really intimidating. Like, I can actually feel all the eyes on me.

Laura (37:57)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Julie Granger (38:14)
And thank goodness I do have an athletic background. I do know what I'm doing. And thank goodness I grew up in a sport that actually had me weightlifting around guys. And it doesn't actually faze me, but I can still feel everyone looking at me. I can feel the women looking at me. And I just kind of hung out with Shake It Off playing in my ears and was like, wow, this is actually so telling to why so many women don't lift weights.

Laura (38:44)
Yes, it's uncomfortable. You can feel it. And can I give a tip for anybody who's watching? This has been so profound for me, like when you go into the gym. Here's how to find a safe person or not a safe person. It's really easy. If you watch the guys in the gym, they do the gym bro nod. It's this chin tuck down, chin tilt down. And if we see somebody that we know, if you watch guys do this and they know the guy, they go chin up. What's up?

Julie Granger (38:46)
can feel it.

the Jimbronaut.

Laura (39:14)
Hey, bro, like head up, head up. And if they don't know somebody, but they see them and they just want to acknowledge them, they do the tuck down. And that's kind of a respect thing. They'll look at them in the eye and go tuck down. So this is what I do with everybody, guys and girls. But it's fascinating to just kind of be able to see. If I see somebody and I walk by them, I'll look them in the eye and I'll do the chin tuck down. And if they near me and they do it back to me, I know, OK, like that's a respect nod. I feel like this is somebody who gets it. Like if you needed help, if you needed to ask questions.

Julie Granger (39:34)
huh.

Laura (39:43)
something like that, could ask that person. But if they ignore me or look away, I know I'm not my person.

Julie Granger (39:50)
or like the flirtatious smile almost like.

Laura (39:54)
Mmm, yeah.

Julie Granger (39:55)
Like, I don't know how to describe it except for I feel minimized when I get it.

Laura (39:59)
Yes, if you feel and trust your gut, right? You just said it was so beautifully like, I feel minimized and you're like, like, yeah, just so those are people that we just step away from. We just leave them alone. Yeah. And it's, it's been so powerful to just kind of play with that and use that as a marker. Um, and I think so much of it is like reclaiming our space and creating a safe space for us in the gym.

Julie Granger (40:03)
Yeah.

That's not what I was doing.

Laura (40:26)
And so I love that she just went over there and took up her space and was like, okay, and we can do hard things and you can do it when we're feeling uncomfortable. And that's how we retrain the brain that we deserve to be here.

Julie Granger (40:38)
Yeah. All right. Laura Ricci, revolutionizing the gym for women everywhere with the gym bro nod. Can we call it the gym girl nod? Can we rephrase that? just the gym nod? Take the gender out of it. The gym nod. Gym pal.

Laura (40:44)
you

Yeah, yeah. It's a nice little test. It's just a, yeah,

it's like a little barometer test. You know, can kind of test the waters a little bit.

Julie Granger (40:59)
So good. Okay. All right. So on this topic of like strengthening the spirit and strengthening the body and all of those types of things, I think one thing that's really, really interesting about you that I know about you and people may not know about you, although we have alluded to it in talking about the woo, are your exceptional traits, we'll call them.

which maybe are or are not on that list of people with neuroplastic pain traits, just very beautiful, intuitive and empathic abilities. And before I even get into that, what reminded me to ask you about that and to bring this up, I was putting on my lipstick before I was recording this today. And as I was putting it on, of course, I was thinking of you because I was interviewing you, but I was thinking of you because...

I know that you have a lipstick ritual that connects to someone who's no longer living. And part of that ritual is really beautiful. And part of that ritual, I think, really conveys your beautiful spiritual intuitive and empathic gifts. So tell us about the ritual and tell us a little bit about those gifts.

Laura (42:16)
Yes, so growing up my grandmother would always put lipstick on before she left the house. It was a thing and she keeps lipstick in her purse but has it there and if we were getting ready to leave she would put a lip on.

put a lip on and then we could leave the house. And it just always reminds me of her, makes me smile. And my grandmother who has since passed, I've kind of continued with that tradition. And so before I leave the house, even if I'm just going to the gym, people will laugh at me and say, why are you lipstick to the gym? I'm like, why not lipstick and lifting? It's fine. Like we can go and get strong and you can be a beauty and a beast by the way, with that.

but there's just something about it. And so I put it on, I'm just like, hey, grandma, like, hi. It's like kind of our moment to connect. And I also think there's just something about putting a lip on too that just, I don't know, kind of brightens your day, kind of peps you up a little bit. Even after surgery, when you're not feeling well, there was something about being able to just take a shower or even just put a little lipstick on that just kind of changed my mood a little bit. And so it's been a powerful.

A powerful tool, if you will,

Julie Granger (43:28)
first of all, I love this story about your grandma and I love that you feel such an intuitive and like spiritual connection to her. Again, through like this, like seemingly small physical lipstick thing, but it's so much deeper than that, right?

Laura (43:47)
Yeah.

Julie Granger (43:48)
I'm curious with like your spirituality and your intuition, which is incredibly keen and strong and ripe for just picking up on things around you, how you stay grounded with that, especially like picking up on other people's energy and how you use that to mentor and lead other people.

Laura (44:06)
Hmm. I often ask myself, is this mine or someone else's? Like at first I just have to get clear. Like if I'm feeling something, I'm like, okay, is this me or is this not me? And that's kind of helpful too for being able to just kind of understand boundaries with things. And I think it's really important that we don't carry around other people's stuff with this. So.

Julie Granger (44:26)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Laura (44:35)
bringing that up regularly, asking that. Movement is huge to help me ground. So walking, especially walking outside, weightlifting, it just helps me to kind of clear the energy, like clear kind of that day. I really am a big fan of music to kind of clear energy as well as essential oils. And I just, yeah, hashtag movement, dancing, all the things, because it anchors in and it just can kind of help to calm.

Julie Granger (44:55)
Hashtag move it Monday.

Laura (45:04)
nervous system. There's two oils in particular that I'll go to if I'm just feeling like stressed or overwhelmed or I want to decrease my cortisol levels. One is Shinren Yoku. It's the Japanese forest blend. It smells like walking around in a magical forest. And Adaptive, which is specifically designed to kind of help with stress and overwhelm. If you feel like you're picking up on other people's energy, tea tree. And put a little bit kind of the base of the skull, top of the head.

Julie Granger (45:19)
Hmm.

Laura (45:33)
over your pulse points and that'll just kind of clear it. I really like that, especially for practitioners who are working one-on-one with people throughout the day, just put a little tea tree on to kind of in between patients and people that you're working with or your clients. But I love diffusing oils. I think the more that I can pull in my senses, so diffusing something yummy, having some calming music, making a cup of tea, a warm blanket, fuzzy slippers.

The more things that I can do that bring joy and fun into my life. I love a Epson salt bath. I think salt baths really, really important, especially for sensitive people. Throw some essential oils into the salts and then throw them into the bath water. Can be really relaxing and just good for the soul. And I've had to set boundaries around technology, getting off social media, setting limits. I set my phone up to where at 8 PM, whoop.

Julie Granger (46:10)
same.

Laura (46:28)
Like I can't access social media or email or any of those things until 8 a.m. the next day. So it just blocks me off to protect me from myself. And it's been such a good thing. Setting boundaries around even my work, having working office hours and not responding to messages after office hours and waiting until the next day has been really, really powerful. Also doing rest breaks throughout the day.

whether that's just taking a couple deep breaths or applying an oil or doing a short little meditation. I find that I need to have pauses throughout the day to just reset and regulate my nervous system. And I love somatic exercises. So something as simple as just tapping the chest. Like that's really powerful. I love a good ear massage, especially within essential oil, like lovely shaking. If I just need to shake it off, like yeah.

Julie Granger (47:06)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Shaking is a big one for me.

Laura (47:23)
And journaling. I resisted journaling for a very long time and then finally became more open to it and have found it's super helpful and therapy. Like I'm a huge believer of therapy.

Julie Granger (47:36)
Yeah. Yep.

It's so like, beautiful that these, you know, things that at one point were the thing you thought you had to do, you know, to heal yourself. And now it's fun and joyful. it just brings fun and joy. Speaking of alchemy, like it's just kind of like, wow. It just feels good and it's grounding to put some oils on the base of my neck. And it's obviously

Laura (47:55)
Hmm.

Julie Granger (48:12)
energetically supportive too, especially when you work with other people or you're picking up on other people's energy. But it doesn't sound like it's this prescriptive list of things that you do. You just intuit it you're like, I just know that's what I need right now. It probably doesn't look the same from day to day. And that's such a beautiful thing. Now, you mentioned essential oils.

as I sit here with my beautiful roller, which was gifted to me by a mentor of mine. Tell me about, I know that you are way up the leadership ladder with doTERRA, a central oil company, and you've been doing that for a long time now. Tell me about that journey for you. What has that been like? And I have some follow up questions to that, but I'll get to those in a second.

So what has it been like?

Laura (49:09)
The funny thing about all of this to me is I didn't seek out this work. This work found me. In fact, when I started with essential oils, I was super skeptical as a doctor of physical therapy. This was over 10 years ago when I found the oils and really thought, well, just try it and cross it off my list and then move on. And I started with two oils and it's funny because right, they're not going to work. So I'll just try it.

Julie Granger (49:18)
Mmm.

Right.

Laura (49:37)
And one is Serenity, which is kind of a very calming oil. And one is Wintergreen, which has a similar chemical constituent methyl salicylate to Advil. So it's one of those oils that we can use for like nerve pain or discomfort or things. But emotionally, it's the oil of surrender. And I started playing with these two oils, very, very skeptical and went, huh, I feel different.

Julie Granger (49:50)
Mm-hmm.

Laura (50:06)
when I use these and thought that is placebo. That's placebo effect, great. Okay, but it was enough that got me diving into PubMed, the nerdy researcher in me to start researching the validity of essential oils and finding thousands of research articles and going, huh, there's something to this. And then going as a physical therapist, we see so many patients that are addicted to pain meds and opioids and dealing with the side effects of all of that. And I thought if there's something safe that we can use as a tool.

Julie Granger (50:20)
Mm-hmm.

Laura (50:36)
Why is nobody talking about this? Why wasn't I taught about this in PT school? What? This is really interesting. And so I was the very reluctant person, in fact, who swore I would never ever do this. I would never sell essential oils. I felt like selling something was very like, like use car salesman ish. Like that's not me. And it just kind of came in where people started asking me questions and I slowly started teaching more about it. And it started growing and evolving. And it was also at a time in my life where

I couldn't work for a year as a physical therapist because I had a very large reconstructive abdominal surgery after the tumor. And I went through my own identity crisis of who am I if I'm not Dr. Laura Ricci? Who am I if I'm not a physical therapist? I went to school and paid so much money, worked really, really hard for all of this. And I couldn't let go of that identity. But what I found was working from home was transformative for me to make my own schedule.

Julie Granger (51:10)
Mm-hmm.

Laura (51:33)
to have complete control of my schedule for the first time in my life. And I love educating. I love connecting with people. What I didn't like was the insurance telling me that I could only do this or that, or they were decreasing my treatment times with patients or this or that. And I kind of found, it felt home. It felt good to be able to serve people well and support, and I do it on social media. So I felt like I could support more people than what I could see time-wise in the clinic without burning out.

Julie Granger (51:51)
Hmm.

Laura (52:02)
without sacrificing my health at the same time. And I liked that I was a guide for people and people were finding me. You sometimes people are kind of forced into physical therapy and they don't really want to be there and they don't want to see you and they don't want to take any responsibility. You know, they're kind of like, look, you get me better seeing you twice a week and I'm doing nothing. I don't want to do exercise. I don't want to do anything at home. And I'm kind of like, this isn't gonna go well.

Julie Granger (52:28)
No.

Laura (52:29)
But people were seeking me out as a guide and it was like I could connect them with oils and tools and things. And it was like connecting with a soul sister, it was like finding a friend. was really cool, just the community and all of that. And I came to the world of essential oils for physical pain, because my chronic pain journey. But what I found was they became my favorite tool to help process emotional stuff.

And so whereas before I would be grabbing an oil for like physical, and we have some like tools for that, but now I'm like, hmm, but what is that? Is it maybe you need to process some anger? Like maybe you need to process this thing. And so I could use a tool like an oil to kind of help emotionally with anger versus like put some deep blue on or do both. Like you can just, it's a tool. So.

The way that I used it kind of evolved and I just have to laugh because if you would have told me 10 years ago that you're gonna sell essential oils and be a leader in the company and all this, would have been like, you're crazy. That's never ever going to happen. But what I found was doing this work, as you help other people heal, you heal. Like when you give, you always receive. And...

Julie Granger (53:34)
You

Laura (53:51)
I've made the deepest connections, deepest friendships, have the most beautiful oil clients and customers, but it pushed me out of my comfort zone in a lot of ways. In public speaking, I hated, hated, hated speaking. And that kind of forced me into that travel. I was very terrified of travel, even international travel. I've been to, because of where doTERRA sources their oils all over the world. I've been to Kenya, I've been to Prague, I've been to Bulgaria. New opportunities opened.

Julie Granger (54:03)
Mm-hmm

Laura (54:21)
And now I feel at home on the stage, but I didn't start there. So it's, it's kind of been this, I'm just very humbled for the work, for the people that I get to do for the company. love the heart of the company of, of there's a lot of humanitarian work. There's a lot of giving back. There's a lot of connecting with, the farmers and the people. And I believe that what you do is an energetic ripple. And so I like.

Julie Granger (54:25)
Mm-hmm.

Laura (54:50)
being a part of something that not only helps people and I get to help my clients, but has a ripple effect around the world with that too. And that's powerful. Yeah. So it's funny how it evolves because I never ever thought that this would be where we are.

Julie Granger (54:57)
really cool. Yeah.

totally

unexpected. mean, I'm totally with you in that it's how we met was in a very unexpected way. It's how you found this beautiful pathway for yourself. I love that the way you got into the pathway was with the oils for like calm and surrender.

And I love that your initial response was, it's the placebo effect. Like that right there is such a beautiful picture of what we were talking about at the very beginning of like resist, resist, resist, resist and sink. And now we're sinking and letting go. And like, it's such a beautiful thing. And I totally get you. I mean, there's so many stigmas around.

essential oils and that kind of company and this and that. And I think you're such a beautiful example of, but it's not always what you think it is. It's not what you think it is. Like you're not the face of that type of person that most people think are the type of person like sliding into your DMs and being like, hey girl, you know, haven't talked to you since elementary school, but

Laura (56:10)
Mm-hmm.

Julie Granger (56:27)
I was just like eyeing your profile and thought you should, you you would really benefit from this thing I'm selling like gross, right? Like that's not, that's not it. I've experienced that, you know, a side of, or the not that side of doTERRA with you. And it's been wonderful. Nothing short of wonderful, you know? And how cool that it also brought you out of your comfort zone in so many ways that you never would have done perhaps without it.

Laura (56:34)
Super.

Yeah.

It's made me a better person. I've evolved and grown in a lot of ways that I don't think would have happened if I would have stayed in the career of physical therapy. Not that there's anything wrong with being a physical therapist, but for me, it felt like I was dying. And I think my body was literally like, out. Okay, you're not listening. Here's a cancerous tumor. Boop. Like.

Julie Granger (57:19)
That was my way out as well. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Laura (57:21)
Like,

so you can just kind of tell if the work that you're doing is spilling your soul or if it's crushing it. And I wasn't at the place where I could even acknowledge, because my identity was so far wrapped up into it. was cleaning so hard to it that I think my body was just like, okay, she's not listening. So let's just knock her over the head with this thing.

Julie Granger (57:27)
Mm.

And this lights you up and it fuels you. And isn't that what we all want? Isn't that what we're all designed to do? So who are you not to? There it is again. Who are you not to do this? There's another part of your story that speaking of like forgiveness and letting go and surrender, I think that, I think it's so beautiful on that thread with like,

Laura (57:47)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Julie Granger (58:13)
as you've been healing the chronic pain and growing in your professional world, a completely different professional world that you ever intended to be in, of forgiveness and of really learning about...

how that you've had invitations for that in places you might have never expected. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Laura (58:41)
Hmm, it's another thing that I resisted for a really, really, really long time. And I had heard a quote on Instagram that said, forgiveness is giving up your demand for a better past. And that stuck with me deeply of and it kind of set me off on this journey of

Julie Granger (58:56)
Hmm.

Laura (59:06)
learning about forgiveness not from a religious perspective, but more kind of from a spiritual healing perspective. And again, letting go of the idea that the past should have unfolded this way, it should have looked this way, or having pain or having regret and just being hyper fixated on that. Because realizing that holding on to that demand is just keeping me stuck.

Julie Granger (59:10)
Yeah.

Laura (59:33)
and holding onto the anger of the people that I felt like had wronged me was exhausting me. I was just tired to carry that around all the time. And I'm still connected to them energetically if I'm holding all of that. Yeah. So I think it's really important that we talk about forgiveness doesn't mean excusing the harm that was done or for like, in fact, forgiving somebody almost validates

Julie Granger (59:37)
Mm-hmm.

Still giving them power. Yeah.

Laura (1:00:00)
what happened and that you were wronged because we don't just forgive people who didn't do anything to us. So just the act that you're even open to for a long time, I wasn't. So I just started saying, I'm open to forgiveness or I'm willing to forgive. Like I didn't even feel like I could actually do the thing, but I would just say that for a while. But I realized it, it frees the emotional weight that the past is holding on to us and allowing us to move forward without being trapped.

in that heavy energy and old wounds. And it's a process. It's like grief. It's I think people think that one day they're going to wake up and have this magical transformational moment and they're going to forgive everything and everything's great. Forgiveness is a choice. And it's a choice you make every single day. And it's a choice you make for yourself, for no one else. And I really feel like a lot of health issues, a lot of autoimmune issues.

stem back to releasing deep anger or trauma or rage and forgiving. And maybe not always like, yeah, maybe there's somebody else that we need to forgive, but like, I find that the hardest person to forgive is ourselves for allowing that to come in, for putting up with that garbage for so long, for like a lot of that. So there was like a deep, the more that I see in healing is that self-compassion is the way through.

Julie Granger (1:01:01)
Yeah, I agree.

Laura (1:01:24)
deep compassion for ourselves and our process and our journey. And it took me a long, long time to even be open to this, but it's been very freeing in a lot of ways.

Julie Granger (1:01:39)
I love what you said about

forgiveness, well, first of all, the Instagram quote, like letting go of the need for the past to be different. That's totally what it is. I mean, there's totally this replaying of the situation or the experience with someone or something or some disease or whatever it is. And it's you on the other side of it now. Like you've gone from crying in the bathroom to now on the other side of the story, again, taking a look at the situation.

writing a letter to it, letting it write a letter back and moving from needing it to have been different to accepting it for what it was and accepting you for who you were in that process with it. That's so beautiful.

Laura (1:02:30)
Yeah, and having so much compassion for yourself because you were doing the best you could with the information that you had in that moment. That's all we can do.

Julie Granger (1:02:35)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think one of the most toxic things we can do to ourselves without meaning to it's a well-meaning thing is to use our wisdom from today to describe, judge, or rank how we acted in the past. It's like being the quarterback, the quarterback from the future to try and change or morph or

shape who we were in the past and you just can't do that. You can only learn.

Laura (1:03:12)
And I would almost argue that it's because of who you were in the past, like because of that person's bravery, because of their failing forward, because of the hard stuff that they had to face. You are who you are now. So can you, I always kind of look back to my past self with like so much compassion and so much grace and be like, man, because of your bravery, I'm here. Thank you. And look at us now.

Wow, because you did that big scary thing, because you went through one of the hardest seasons of your life, look where we are now.

Julie Granger (1:03:47)
of like looking back at your fourth grade self who was learning, I don't know, long division or something. And now here in the future, you know calculus. And you look back at your fourth grade self and you're like, how dare you make that mistake in math class because you should have known because we know calculus now. And now you're saying, well, I could only have learned calculus.

Laura (1:04:12)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Julie Granger (1:04:16)
if I knew long division. I don't actually remember if you need long division in calculus. Do you? I don't know. That was a long time ago in my life. Sure. Let's just go with the metaphor. But I think that for a lot of us, sometimes we do need these little bit more tangible metaphors on human nature, on when we look back at ourselves and

Laura (1:04:23)
Don't you know that? It sounds beautiful to me, yes.

Julie Granger (1:04:44)
shame ourselves or blame ourselves for getting stuck in a situation with someone or a toxic job or whatever it is. And it's like, well, you, I love what you said. It's like, well, you wouldn't be here with the wisdom to shame yourself if you hadn't have been in it in the first place.

Laura (1:05:00)
Mm-hmm. And there's some things we can only learn by experiencing them. Yeah. You can read about it. You can watch somebody else all day long. But until you actually go through that journey, it's different.

Julie Granger (1:05:02)
So.

Yeah, I feel like...

I feel like both of our past selves are sitting there singing the song from Moana. What can I say except you're welcome.

Laura (1:05:23)
you

Julie Granger (1:05:26)
Like we should be thanking them. Thank you. But that's a really humbling, like you said, self compassionate practice. And sometimes you resist it and you resist it by putting the anger or the blame on someone else or yourself until finally it's, okay, let's let go of needing the past to be different. And let's just be here in the present and love ourselves for doing the very best we could.

Laura (1:05:48)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Julie Granger (1:05:55)
and be thankful

for the wisdom gained from it.

Laura (1:05:58)
Mmm, yeah.

Julie Granger (1:05:59)
Do it again. so good. All right. Shifting from...

forgiveness in these deeper topics. What do you do for fun?

Laura (1:06:16)
Haha!

I love this so much. I love to sing. I love to dance. I love spending time in nature and being outside. Um, lately I'm playing with, so there was something that I learned that regarding chronic pain that we need to play for four to five hours a week, something fun, something nonproductive, learn a new habit, learn a new craft or something. So lately I've been playing with leather working, uh, which is really fun and kind of, and you get to hit.

like a hammer, like a mallet. And so that's really good for like processing emotions and things. And you get to make something fun, like a little coaster, a little key chain or something. that's kind of my new fun, just for joy, just to create something, just to play a little bit.

Julie Granger (1:06:52)
Brilliant.

Hahaha

Leatherworking sounds very Texas. I never would have thought of that, but it seems like a very Texan thing to do. Yeah.

Laura (1:07:12)
Yeah, there's smelling the leather reminds

me of my grandmother, but also my dad. My dad did a lot of leatherworking when we were kids. So there's just something about it that just kind of, I don't know, it speaks to me.

Julie Granger (1:07:28)
And I mentioned this already, hashtag move it Monday, Laura and her husband do the most amazing, hilarious, inspiring dance routines on Instagram. go follow Dr. Laura Ricci and see both Laura and Mark doing their thing. Bustin' a groove.

Laura (1:07:41)
Thank you.

It's fun.

Julie Granger (1:07:49)
If you're having a rough day, that is the thing to go watch for sure. Even if you're not having a rough day. Yeah, you will, absolutely. Okay, let's move into the lightning round. These are questions that don't necessarily have anything to do with anything we're talking about, but they're fun. Speaking of having fun. All right, number one, are you ready? You gotta go with your gut on this one.

Laura (1:07:57)
We'll make you smile.

Whoa.

I'm ready.

Okay.

Julie Granger (1:08:18)
If you could be any animal other than a human, what would it be and why?

Laura (1:08:22)
A rhino. And part of that is I pet a rhino in Kenya, Africa on a sourcing trip. it was, we got to pet him and feed him. And it was just one of those wild moments where you're just touching this really powerful animal. Plus they kind of look like a strong unicorn. And so you're kind of here for it. Like they're just, I don't know, there's something about them that's like strength, resilience, determination that I think, I think they're pretty cool.

Julie Granger (1:08:36)
third party.

Yeah!

A rhino is our living, breathing unicorn here on this earth. Another...

Laura (1:08:58)
It's like a unicorn

that just deadlifts. I don't know, it just looks cool.

Julie Granger (1:09:02)
The unicorn that deadlifts. Seriously? mean, that's you right there. my gosh. Another reason to save the rhinos. That's what this segment is about. Okay, number two. If you could get a drink with two people dead or alive, who are they? And what would you say or ask them?

Laura (1:09:14)
Yes.

Hmm. I think one would be my grandmother. Just even though I feel her and I feel connected to it be fun to sit down and have some deep conversations now, now that I'm older and in my forties and on this journey. And I think the other one might be Louise Hay. I really like her books and I found a lot of her books to be very helpful. And she speaks a lot about this mind body connection and I'd love to pick her brain.

Julie Granger (1:09:29)
Yeah.

Laura (1:09:53)
little bit. She's passed, but I think she would be a really fun one to connect with and have some soul chats about this.

Julie Granger (1:10:02)
Your grandma and Louise Hay, what if the three of you were in a room together?

Laura (1:10:06)
That would be cool.

Julie Granger (1:10:09)
I feel like, you know how we say the internet might explode? I feel like there might be a slight explosion going on wherever you are in the world with them in the best way. Amazing. Okay. Question three, does pineapple belong on pizza?

Laura (1:10:18)
It would be powerful.

Absolutely, yes.

Julie Granger (1:10:31)
This is a girl who knows her pizza.

Laura (1:10:33)
Put it on my pizza. I'm here for it. Actually, I think it's hard to mess up pizza. I like all kinds, but yeah.

Julie Granger (1:10:37)
It is hard to mess up pizza. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

It's true. We were just in the Canary Islands, the Spanish, like, it's a Spanish territory, I guess. I don't even know what we call it. And the place we were staying didn't have the best, like, walkability to restaurants. And we went to this restaurant that was an Italian restaurant, and it didn't have the best, like, Google rating on it, but they had pizza. And I was like,

I'm getting pizza because it's really difficult to mess up pizza. Like you just, mean, if they fail at their pizza, then they deserve their low Google rating. But it was delicious. It was amazing. So pizza it is. Pineapple on pizza. We're doing it. All right. Number four. I'm a fly on the wall on an average Friday night at your house. Keeping it clean. What do I see you doing?

Laura (1:11:20)
good pizza. We'll do it.

you

Julie Granger (1:11:36)
Or not, we can talk about anything here.

Laura (1:11:38)
Okay, so this is funny. A tradition in the Richie house is we do Chipotle night. Friday night is always Chipotle night. So we pick up Chipotle and we usually have a movie night too. Like there's guac, there's chips and guac, like it's a whole thing. It's quite fun. And it's our date night in and anything can happen. We may be playing like just dance on the Wii. We may like, anything can happen. So it's really fun, but we love a good.

Julie Granger (1:12:01)
Of course you are.

Laura (1:12:05)
Chipotle, we could be watching a Disney movie, it doesn't matter. But Chipotle and something fun is what goes down on Friday nights.

Julie Granger (1:12:11)
more fun at the Ricci house. Amazing. With the side of Chipotle. Chipotle didn't pay us to say this. No.

Laura (1:12:13)
Good.

No, they didn't, but man, I

would love for them to sponsor me. I do love the guacamole.

Julie Granger (1:12:23)
feel like you should be sponsored by Chipotle for sure. Also, we don't have a Chipotle in my little town, but I think I'll be having a burrito bowl for dinner tonight. Thank you for the inspiration. 100%. I'm flying solo tonight. My husband's gonna be out of town. I'm, that sounds perfect. All right, last question. What is a guilty pleasure or obsession of yours that people might find surprising, weird, quirky, or questionable?

Laura (1:12:25)
That would be, let's manifest that.

nice. Yeah. Bratoballs.

Okay, uh-huh. I probably have a few. I love a good chocolate croissant. That's like chocolate croissant. I seek them out. It's a thing. also recently on this great doing more joy, doing more fun on this journey, I started reading for fun and I got wrapped into, I kept seeing the Akitar books, the Accord of Thorn and Roses all over.

Julie Granger (1:13:02)
It's not weird.

Yeah.

Laura (1:13:22)
Instagram, people kept talking about that. like, I don't know. So I read the series. They're a little spicy. They're a little spicy, spicy. But it was so much fun to just read for enjoyment again. And now I'm reading all of the Throne of Glass series, less spicy than the Akitar series. it's just been fun to read for fun. And she has such powerful, strong.

Julie Granger (1:13:39)
Mm-hmm.

Laura (1:13:48)
female characters who eat chocolate cake and weight lift and do all these like fun things. Like they train, so I just feel connected to them. I'm like, you're basically eating a chocolate croissant and lifting like I am and you're a warrior and I'm here for it. My other, this is what my husband would answer for this question is I must have all the lights off. Like for it to be nighttime and sleep, the doors have to be closed.

The lights have to be off. There can't be anything flashing, nothing like that. If we're in a hotel room, I cover it up with KT tape. Like all the little lights in the hotel room so that it's dark. Mark is like, I didn't even see this. I'll have an eye mask on and be like, there's a light on over here. I'm getting the tape. I'm covering it up. And so it's gotta be pitch black. The doors need to be closed and the sheets have to be untucked. I don't know how people sleep. Like untuck the sheets. I don't wanna.

Julie Granger (1:14:38)
100%.

Laura (1:14:41)
Like, no, I need to be free. It's pretty weird, but I do it.

Julie Granger (1:14:47)
Okay, first of all, I feel like there is a direct correlation between how bright your light shines inside of you and how little or how much you can pick up on even the tiniest bit of light outside of you. You heard it here first. This is my working theory. Now I'm gonna go research it and prove it. Number two.

Laura (1:15:08)
I love that.

Julie Granger (1:15:14)
I'm going somewhere with this and I totally lost my train of thought. You said something about, shoot, I already forgot. The sheets. I'm adding that as a lightning round question. Sheets tucked in or sheets out? Which one? It's a big deal.

Laura (1:15:19)
the sheets, I'm talking the sheets.

It's a big deal. And people have strong opinions about

it.

Julie Granger (1:15:31)
Let's just say that in this conversation and corner of the internet, we are a sheets tucked out type of girl. No judgment to anyone who sleeps with your sheets tucked in, but I do want to know how your ankles feel.

Laura (1:15:39)
Yes. Yes.

Exactly. Yeah, you can still be our friends. We're here for it, but my feet need to be free.

Julie Granger (1:15:51)
Yeah, my feet need.

It's like the barefoot walking crowd, like no shoes. I'm all about shoes, but like when sleeping, free your feet.

Laura (1:15:58)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Julie Granger (1:16:05)
Hashtag free the feet. That's our next movement. Amazing. Well, I'm so glad we had some laughs and it has been so beautiful to go through the alchemy of your from pain to purpose journey and how you give back to so many people and like are the wounded healer like really just going first bravely, not on purpose, but.

Laura (1:16:07)
laughter

Julie Granger (1:16:34)
just modeling for us all of that kind of thing and how being in that process has helped you really embrace your intuition, your spiritual gifts and how you really lead others in a very unexpected career path for yourself and how you've tapped into joy and play as an essential ingredient to your wellbeing. So beautiful through such a, you know, sink and swim process, you know, just to bring it back to the theme of this podcast. Tell us.

What's next for you? How do we connect with you? All those kind of things.

Laura (1:17:07)
I'm in all the places at Dr. Laura Richie. It's just at D-R-L-A-U-R-A-R-I-C-C-I. I'm the most fun on Instagram, but I am fun on YouTube and on Facebook and all those places, or my website's drlauraritchie.com. And next up, I love to continue to educate, to support people, to kind of take people along the journey with us. So we are teaching a bunch of classes on different topics on essential oils, and we have an upcoming one.

Julie Granger (1:17:15)
She is the most fun. It's true.

Laura (1:17:36)
next week on the 21st, the 20th. So the replay will be on YouTube. Come and find it all about women's health, pelvic floor, and essential oils, which will be kind of cool. But if anybody wants to come and join us, we're also doing a 90-day reset using some doTERRA supplements and products to just kind of help.

Julie Granger (1:17:40)
We're going to air this after that.

perfect, even better.

Ooh.

Laura (1:18:03)
support you in your life. And that'll be going on for three months. You can jump in at any time. But if you've been feeling just a little, you know, like you need a little bit of support, maybe a little gut health support or just energy or the brain fog or, know, I'm in perimenopause now. I just turned 40 and I've do these about once or twice a year. And it's quite lovely. I do just notice

Julie Granger (1:18:25)
Mm-hmm.

Laura (1:18:28)
you may get an urge to declutter your house. That's what I started doing when I started this. Your hair may grow more, your fingernails may grow. Some fun things may happen, you just never know. But I find when we support and cleanse the body, it helps us emotionally, spiritually, in other ways too, which is fun. So that's coming up for us too. But really, I'm just here for the ride. I love to connect with people and support and provide some value.

Julie Granger (1:18:31)
Yeah.

Laura (1:18:56)
whether you purchase an essential oil from me or you never purchase an essential oil from me. My goal is that by coming to my little neck of the woods, my little corner on Instagram, that I provide value to your life in some way. So just come over and say hello. We'd to have you.

Julie Granger (1:19:12)
Love it.

Go say hello to Dr. Laura Ricci on Instagram. She is the most fun. mean, she's the most fun in person, actually. I can attest to that. If you're ever driving west or east through Texas, hit her up. But such a joy to be able to share your story here and also to know you. So thank you for being here.

Y'all go check her out and we'll have to have you back and hear what the next leg of the journey is for you. See what evolves next.

Laura (1:19:48)
my gosh.

Yeah, I love it. Always a pleasure, Julie. You are such a fun person to connect with and hang out and just, you're good for the soul.

Julie Granger (1:19:54)
Thank you.

Thank you.

Julie Granger (1:19:59)
Thanks for joining me on this episode of Sink and

hope today's story has inspired you to sink into your raw, unfiltered truths and illuminate the power to rise and swim into the most authentic soul story that's been waiting to be told and shared with the

As your host,

an honor and joy to share the story of luminaires who have done and continue to do exactly this.

I hope you enjoyed diving into today's topic.

If you're feeling the tug to discover more,

be sure to check out the show notes where you'll find links to resources, articles, and more.

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for listening, and until next time, keep sinking deep so you can swim into a life that aligns with the story your soul came here to tell.