The Real Reason Wellness Programs Fail: Healing, Burnout & Human Potential with Dr. Jonathan Locust

In the very first episode of *Morning Tea with Coach Kennedy*, I chat with Dr. Jonathan Locust about the reasons many wellness programs fall short and what genuine healing truly entails. 

We dive into important topics such as burnout, emotional healing, forgiveness, and the connection between spirituality and personal transformation. The conversation highlights how challenges can spur personal growth and emphasizes the significance of self-awareness in the healing process. 

If you’re dealing with stress, looking for a deeper purpose, or interested in holistic wellness, this episode is packed with insightful thoughts to help you live a healthier, more connected life. So, pour yourself a cup of morning tea and join us for this uplifting discussion! 🫖

https://www.conscirise.com/

https://www.instagram.com/guidingpathways2025/?hl=en

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the first holistic health episode of morning tea. Today is Wednesday, June 24th, 2026. And this is your morning tea with Coach Kennedy. And we're going to be discussing the real reason wellness programs fail and what to do instead. Hi, Dr. J. How are you today?

SPEAKER_00 0:41

I'm good. How are you feeling this morning?

SPEAKER_01 0:43

I am good, thanks. Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself and how you found the studies about the wellness and how to what to do instead of normal practices?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Absolutely, yeah, yeah. So just a little bit about me. I'm currently located in Tampa, Florida. I'm originally from Cleveland, Ohio. And my career had really been in higher education. I was on the path of being a university president. I was a vice president in the Minnesota system, living in Wisconsin, and I had a health issue. And when I went through like the process that most of us do, we go through kind of traditional medicine. And I was told that I would not only have to be on medicine for the rest of my life, but there would be other things that I would have to, that I would have to kind of have to do that just wasn't as convenient. And I really went on a search to understand how I can go about healing myself, how other cultures have kind of taken on these things. And from there went on a 24-day water fast along with meditation and have healed myself. And that was really kind of the uh the start of a more kind of spiritual perspective path for me by going through the process of healing myself. So that's just a little bit about me, and then because of that, was able to fortunately connect with you and be able to be on your show this morning.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Amazing. How did the 24-hour water fast transformation not only help your body but understand the purpose of the human potential?

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Yeah, so so so I'll I'll just I'll clarify, not not 24 hours, 24 days. Oh 24 hours. So I did it, yeah, so it was 24 days. And for me, I would say if you have fasted, done a water fast, you you know pretty much after day three, you you're not, you don't really get hungry, right? You you may be in the you may see people eating and things like that, which may have you think about food. But as far as the hunger, the hunger starts to to to to kind of cease. So one of the things that I learned firstly for me, which I was on the process of healing myself, is you know, when you fast and you're not eating, the the body starts to consume itself. And it consumes what is not needed. And if you're doing that intentionally, so you're doing intentional fasting, you could really kind of direct where that energy and that consumption is going. And for me, it was consuming the things that were no longer needed. That way I could not only become healthy, but I could also understand more of who I was. And that was something else I started to understand. I'll just just just just mention and just be a little vulnerable here. But one of the things that I discovered during my fast was the reason that I had my health issue. And it took me back to me being a child, and bad things happened in me when I was a child that I had blacked off that kind of put me on that path. And and I'm being careful, I don't know the language of your show, so I want to be be careful, but but I ended up, I ended up understanding why I had had it. I had to forgive people who did that to me, I had to forgive myself. And this was all during that fast. So I started to it started to uncover things that I would say were were buried that had a direct correlation to what I was experiencing. And the last thing that I found out about that fast was the greater connection. I mean, during that fast, I don't think I've ever experienced like a greater connection to the universe, to plant life, uh, to animals. I mean, I would like I was still working out while I was fasting. And I would like, and this sometimes still happens, but I would be running, and whenever I would get tired, butterflies, birds, I mean, would literally run past me, and I would like sense that energy of kind of keep going. And I know it may sound crazy, but that there was a real connectedness there amongst, like I said, plants, animals, and just a greater sense of connection to people and all things. So those are like, I would say, the three major things that that fast brought out for me.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

It sounds like the butterflies and the birds were like your spirit animals encouraging you to keep going.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

When life tests us through illness, failure, or loss, what inner principles help us turn that pain into power and purpose?

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yeah, that's a that's a really that's a phenomenal question. And I would say that one of the things that have been been helpful for for me is to know that we are all on, we're all on a path of learning, right? We have a purpose here, and our purpose here is to learn, our purpose here is to experience, and our purpose here is to grow. And we know that learning may not always be the most comfortable, growing may not always be the most comfortable, but on the other side of that is is knowledge, and it's that knowledge then allows us to be able to help and and to be of service to other people by way of the things that we have experienced. So I would say, really being able to understand as we go through these hard times that it's a part of our spiritual development, and we're learning lessons from these. And I would say when it comes to loss, I ended up I ended up losing my my mother right after I graduated from undergraduate. And it was a really, really, really hard time for me that uh during that time of really trying to kind of have an understanding of well, my mother was healthy, she went to church when I was still more religious. Like, why did this happen? There's people who are doing hard drugs, not to say they deserve to die, but if you look at a scale, like my mother should not be, shouldn't be number one on that list. And this was kind of my my thinking. But and I started to understand when you ask kind of about loss that we're all on our individual learning plans as we're growing and experiencing. And just like with with any test that we take, most teachers, once you finish your test and you've learned what you needed, you get to leave class. You don't gotta stay around the other class or everybody else finish their test. You leave and you progress on. And that has kind of been the mindset that I've taken when I have lost people who are very, very, very close to me, is they're on a different learning path, they're on a different trajectory, and but we're all still growing and learning and force the same direction.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Perfectly said. I really, really like that analogy because for me, loss doesn't have to mean death necessarily, it can mean like a friendship ending relationship, maybe you change jobs, so then you your life goes in another way and you lose those connections that you had at like a job or something. So yeah, we're all on the same path, just different roads.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

When someone is going through personal or professional burnout, what are their first steps to turning that crisis into a catalyst for growth?

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Oh, ooh, yeah, yeah. I would say, like, whether it's it's it's it's personal, I'll start with, I'll start with the per the personal first because I believe like the the personal will impact the professional, even though you can be as great and as kind as you want. If you're not necessarily all the way right, that's kind of that's gonna show up either through your interactions with people and through your work. So I would say with when you're dealing with burnout, a lot of times that we forget that we're not human doings, we're human beings. And we're here to be, we're here to to be, and we're here to experience. And some of the things that I just do throughout throughout the day, and this is available, like being able to take in breaths at any point of time to just breathe in and release is available to everyone. And so some of the things that if you're kind of experiencing, experiencing, experiencing uh burnout personally, I would see how you can maybe adjust your schedule to see when you can have some time that's devoted for you. And whether that is walking in the park, whether that's just connecting with nature, whether that's meditation, uh, any of those different things that is is is is you time. And I would say if to then maybe intensify that you time, I would say um uh meditation is a way to be able to do that, that progresses. And there's a number of different ways to meditate. And I don't necessarily think there's really a wrong way to meditate, as long as the intention is there to be able to have a greater connection with yourself. I would also say, you know, if we're going through burnout, there's other times in which our unconscious is trying to communicate with us. So we may be having dreams. And we may not be paying attention to what our what our dreams are happening, but our dreams is a communication mechanism between our unconscious self. And they're trying to share things with us that can help maybe alleviate stress, alleviate anxiety, that could then change a perspective that could then be helpful. So one thing I would also recommend if you are going through stresses to maybe try to analyze your dreams. And then that could be a mechanism that could that could also be of help. And I would the last thing I would say is visualizations. Visualizations have been something that's been hugely helpful for me. So even and I do this consistently, I I I told my my children to do this. If you are feeling stressed, just think about connecting to the earth. Just visualize connecting to the earth, and whatever it is that you don't need that you feel no longer serves you, just give it to the earth. Because just like we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, well, we know that's the plant's food, right? And then the plants, their waste, oxygen is our food, the way our life source. So there is a mechanism of the earth being able to take things that no longer serve us and recycle it to something or some someone or somebody that can. So feel free at any point in time, you can do that. You can breathe in high vibrational light and breathe it out. You can connect to the earth to release what you don't need. And you can do that, you can do this anytime. You can do this anytime. You uh so these are the things that I think people can do that's free, that you can implement at any point in time of your life.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Perfect. I I really, really like that, and that is very true. I never really thought about breathing in oxygen and out carbon dioxide and giving things to the earth. And you know, they always say to give things to the universe or you know, just brush it off your shoulder. But the earth is like uh more tangible for me to picture that recycling energy. That's perfect. I I also like for me, I like to listen to high vibrational sounds like I don't know, something like 817 or 400. Yeah, yeah. That I don't know what it is, but it it just makes me go, oh, that's so soothing. You have a background in psychometric research and behavioral modeling. How do science and spirituality actually complement each other in human transformation?

SPEAKER_00 13:28

That's a really good question. So I I would say there is a greater connection once people kind of go beyond material science, and you start to then really look at and and and if you're and I'm sure just for people who may not be familiar, like a lot of times material science will say that all what everything we see, everything we see, everything we can touch, also will pretty much produce everything that is unseen. So that's what material science is, right? And once you kind of get beyond that, it's a number of things, you start to really start to see things differently. So I think there is a greater connection than than we realize. I would say the first one being that's more tangible is you look at the University of Virginia, Virginia, their Department of Perpetual Studies. They've already proven reincarnation. They've done it with studies, they've done it with actually done it with birth with birthmark studies, and studying why different children have different birthmarks, why others don't, and the stories that the parents were able to report that the children were telling them about why they had those birthmarks that had nothing to do with the experiences that they've ever had. And you start to accumulate enough of this data, these, and you start to see a pattern. So they've been doing this for for years, where they've pretty much already proven uh reincarnation. So I think that is there. I think there's other avenues where you're starting to then be able to see the intersection of uh of science and the quantum physics, quantum mechanics, and how people are starting to see electron rotation and things like that. But but what I would say is kind of how I think about this, and I've I've I got this from the law of one. So this is not anything that that I've I've uh spent time in meditation, was like, ooh, this is the answer to all things. I read it and it made sense to me that everything is pretty much is pretty much love. And when love actually vibrates, it creates a photon. And you know, the photon is that is a basic particle of life. And with added vibrations and rotation, these these photons being condensed to not only what we experience, but the physical universe. And and so it really becomes a way that has allowed me to be able to see that everything that we do, everything we experience, even our physical matter, is just different vibrations of love. And and these different vibrations of uh of love, the entire gamut is is available to us at all times. It's just which ones we are choosing based on the situations that we're experiencing at that time.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah, I would I would agree with that. Some sometimes we're not always um what is the word I'm looking for? Aware that those vibrations are around, so maybe we don't know how to accept it or access it, but definitely vibrational of love, everything, absolutely. You've experienced high I the word hypnosis. Yeah, I it was it was there, it just wouldn't come out and regression work firsthand. How did those experiences reshape your understanding of identity and life purpose?

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Oh, oh, okay, okay, yeah, that's uh I'll try to answer this as kind of succinct as possible. I would say for those experiences for me, it confirmed some things that I had read. If you're familiar with the book's Journey of Souls, so I met the person who did my hypnosis work who were trained through the The Journey of Souls, the Michael Newton Institute. So for me, it really becomes that from my experience, I've I can recount lives and experiences being a corn farmer. I was a white corn farmer, and also being indigenous and being what I believe was Eastern Iroquois at the time. So knowing that when you talk about identity, that we we get to a point to where I believe we take on these different perspectives, these different identities, whether that be race, that be gender, ethnicity, language, geography, location, right? We we take on these these different things to be able to help shape our identity. And this identity gives us a particular perspective that helps us really hone in on lessons that we need to learn during spiritual progression. So then as I think about how the lessons that I've learned when I was indigenous versus the lessons that I've learned as when I was a corn farmer versus the lessons that I'm I'm learning now, I I see a very strategic learning plan, a very sophisticated learning plan that that is is that is challenging me, but also I can also see people that have showed up multiple times that were supposed to teach me certain lessons that if I didn't learn them in one life, I repeated it and learned it in another life. And that also for me gives and shares that there's a an intelligence that we're connected to, that we're a part of, that is allowing us to be able to learn so many different lessons. And I will say the the last thing because there's just so many different different parts, because that hypnosis both combined was about seven and a half hours. So I'm trying to think about like how can I kind of condense that into experience. But I will say the the last thing I would say is we all have what they will call in the journey of souls as soul occupations. So when we're not in the physical body, we're not just sitting around just chilling, doing nothing. We're actually doing things, we're being of service to other beings. And during that, I found out what my soul occupation was, and I found out one of the reasons that that I'm here. And one of the things that I found that I that I do is I I found out what planet I'm from. I found out that I'm originally not from this planet, which which was which was a very interesting, interesting experience. So I would say, in one example they give, there was a woman who, and this is in the book Journey of Soul, I think it's the book number two, it was a woman who was very, very, very sick. I mean, she had a whole, a ton of different diseases, had been sick her whole life, and by the time she went to hypnosis work and get her like between life sessions, she was able to understand that she was a healer in the spirit world or in the non-physical world. And she would then take on bodies with different diseases, different types of problems, so she can understand pain at various levels of vibrations. That way, when beings were coming back from difficult lives, she would have the experiences to be able to then help them through those in the spirit world. So I just sure have to say that we're all connected, and then the things that we're experiencing that may be the hardest that we think is so hard, are helping us be able to do work far beyond our understanding and be of service to other people far beyond our understanding in this physical space.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Yes, I would agree with that. I can't tell you how many times I have felt like I myself am not really from this planet. I really don't know how to explain it, but I feel kind of like I was put here to help heal people and to show them that it's okay, that they don't have to be scared to. Do whatever they're taking on, whatever endeavor they're on, and that it's it's supposed to be peaceful, not stressful. And I find that I kind of well, for an example, for me, my partner that I've been with most recently, he had been sick, and I would just take my hands and just kind of like do this motion over, like if I was pulling it out of him, and then I noticed that I would get it without even doing any much anything with him except for that. And then it would take my body, and then I'd have to process it, and then we were both fine. Sometimes I wouldn't get it, it would just depend on how strong whatever he had how strong it was, it might affect me, might not. But that was the chance that I was willing to take because I knew that I could dispose of it. And I I don't even have to be in the same room now as someone. I can just send my energy and just like look at someone's picture and just kind of like do that same method and try to pull their sickness out of them. So I'm very glad that I found that talent.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Yeah, yeah, that's yeah, yeah, that you found that gift, you know, that that gift to heal. So no, that's that's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

So throughout your life journey and your healing, it says that you have developed concess rice? And that it was born from both healing and betrayal. Did you want to speak on that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Yeah, yeah, so I would say, you know, I I referenced in the beginning of our dialogue about going through a health issue, and I I mentioned kind of that that part of, you know, kind of jump into fasting and things like that. But there was about 11 months there that I that I skipped over due to time to where I really sought out to try to find different practitioners, different people, kind of outside of traditional medicine. And I naively, and I think part of this was because of I was in a kind of I was hurt. I was really seeking and really looking and and going through some difficult times. So naively I was thinking that, you know, if people are, you know, offering these types of things, they're legit. And and I naively thought that also, you know, in higher education, there's there's accreditation, which I worked on accreditation, which every school has to go through accreditation to even be a college or university. Hospitals have to go through the joint commission. So I kind of knowing that these systems exist, I kind of naively thought that, well, something had to exist in this space to hold people kind of accountable in things. And as I started to reach out to these people, I started to just meet people that were just flat out scammers, that were just flat out non-service to others, and were just really trying to take on take advantage of people. So that that that stuck with me about like just wondering, like, well, has this been something that has happened to other people? And I found out just that just in the US alone, there's been over 8 million people scammed out of over a billion dollars in pursuit of kind of spiritual spiritual services. And and you only notice by some of the major lawsuits, there was just a recent $175 million lawsuit from people scamming people wanting spiritual type services. So knowing that this has happened to happen to me, people tried to scam me, and that people are currently being scammed, I thought about well, how can we make sure that as people are going through things when they're looking for practitioners, they know for sure that the person that they're dealing with is real. So that was one of the things, and to also know, or to be able to see, well, what are the different modalities that are that are available to healing, and how can I connect with the people and the practitioners that haven't. So we have a five-step vetting uh process with all of our practitioners. We verify their certifications, all of their credentials, they go through two interviews just to make sure they are who they're who they say are they are. And we have these modalities focused on hypnosis, holistic coaching, as well as meditation, breath work, uh, sound and music therapy. And so those have been our focuses, the ones that people can then be able to utilize if they have a flexible savings account or a health savings account. That way they can start to utilize these dollars towards the things that that really matters. So that was why we started Constantly Rises to really be able to be a beacon of light for people who are looking for practitioners. They know they can go to a trusted source, and and there's been uh a thorough process that each practitioner has been through before they're able to work with anyone on our platform.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Perfect. I I really enjoy the care and thought that you guys have put into making sure that everyone is verified because I myself have come across some scammers, and so I I know that people that are trying to do spiritual work, it's very hard for them to get clientele because people are so skeptical to see, and actually, it's it's not necessarily a practitioner that I've been scammed by, but I get scammed by like the people that want to give readings or want to read your energy, or hey, I see that you have this going on in your life, let me tell you more about it. You're like, no, thanks. I I'm pretty sure that I know what's going on in my life. Thank you anyway. So is there anything else that you would like the audience to know about you or Consi Rice?

SPEAKER_00 28:21

Yeah, so so for one again, I just I first we want to just give you a shout out and say thank you for doing the wonderful work that you're doing and providing spaces for high vibrational content to to exist and to live. So for one, thanks to you. I I would say, secondly, in regards to conscience, we would love for for you and your listeners to be able to join our community. We have uh free community events. Our communities are free from the conscious brotherhood, the conscious sisterhood. And that's one of the things that we want to do is ask people are if they're experiencing something, as well as they just want to be able to be around high vibrational people, we provide them. So we not only have ways in which people can join our community uh for free, if they want something that's more structured, we have some memberships. But most importantly, we care about high vibrational conversations, we care about connecting with people, and we care about being able to be of service uh to other folks. So if you're up if you're of that vibration and and you're on those same things, we would actually, we would love to have you as a part of our our community. Again, our community is free. You can join us at concierge.com, so it's c o n s-i r-i-se.com. Uh so that's the website. And you can follow me, Dr. Jonathan Locus. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Instagram, all the different things. Dr. Jonathan Locus, if you search me, I'll come up. So I look forward to engaging with you and your listeners in the future.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Perfect. Dr. J, thank you so much for your time today. I've enjoyed our conversation thoroughly, sir. And continue, thank you for doing what you do as well. Thank you for providing a safe space for people that want to find a true practitioner. And I hope that you have an amazing day, sir.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Thank you. Thank you. You as well. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

All right, take care. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

There you have it, folks. If you want to check out what Dr. J is doing with Conci Rise, feel free to check out his website. That again is Conci Rise C-O-N-S-T-I-R-I-S E dot com for more information about what he does. And if you want to work with me one on one or need any coaching tips and tricks, feel free to check me out at Guiding Pathways on Facebook or Instagram. And until next time, take care, everybody. Bye bye.