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Further Forward
Honest conversations on the art of becoming.
Through solo reflections and conversations with soulful, sharp, and courageous guests, Ashley creates room for the stories that don’t always get told—the pivots, the struggles, the magic, and the mess. Part spiritual, part practical, always human—Further Forward is a space for women invested in their becoming, who know growth is both messy and worth embracing.
Further Forward
You Don’t Need Another Hack— You Need the Basics with Nicole Pichette
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The health advice nobody wants to hear…
Ashley sits down with Nicole Pichette, founder of Live Well Collaborative, to unpack what actually moves the needle when it comes to health— and why so many of us avoid it.
From the frustration of traditional medicine to the rise of “quick fixes,” they explore the gap between what we know and what we actually do. Nicole shares her journey from primary care to integrative medicine, and breaks down the six foundational pillars of health that most people overlook: fueling your body, movement, sleep, stress, substances, and community.
But this conversation goes deeper than habits.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by wellness, stuck between doing “everything right” and still not feeling right, or unsure where to start, this episode will meet you there.
About Nicole:
Nicole Pichette is a board‑certified primary care nurse practitioner since 2013 who now focuses on integrative and holistic lifestyle medicine. Her approach weaves the best of conventional science with targeted habit shifts, so you get practical, evidence‑based guidance that honors your physical, mental, emotional, and energetic health. Through her personalized, comprehensive programs at Live Well Collaborative, she helps motivated adults cut through conflicting health advice, streamline treatments, and build sustainable routines that improve chronic concerns, calm the mind, and boost energy using integrative and lifestyle approaches. Nicole's focus is on the core foundations of health (nutrition, movement, sleep, stress/nervous system, and energetics) to reduce symptoms and prevent chronic disease, as well as support hormones, a resilient metabolism, and sustainable energy for the long term. Additionally, she is a Menopause Society Certified Provider, Diplomat of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Yoga Alliance RYT‑200 teacher and Usui Level II Reiki practitioner. Nicole is the clinician for someone who wants one trusted person managing their whole health picture: hormones, metabolism, fatigue, gut health, nervous system, lifestyle, energy work, and beyond.
Further Forward: Honest Conversations on the Art of Becoming, is hosted by Ashley Mitchell.
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Nicole of Live Well Collaborative, welcome to the Further Forward Podcast. Thank you. So happy to be here. I'm happy to have you. I have been watching your journey online literally since the COVID days. And I'm really excited to talk about your evolution and what you've built because we went from, or I went from, watching your story to now watching how you've used everything that you've been doing and learning into a business and now helping others. So this will be a very cool podcast for people. I'm excited for them to hear it. But I start every podcast the same way. How are you? And who are you?
SPEAKER_01I, you know, I've been thinking about this because I've listened to all the episodes. And thank you. I've been thinking about this all week. And I'm sure everybody says this, uh, but every day it's something different, right? Um today my energy is a little like this. I'm okay, but you know, we're doing it. And who am I? Um I'm Nicole Pichette, owner of Live Well Collaborative. I am, oh gosh, so many things. Um, I'm an investigator, I'm a puzzle solver, I'm a deep thinker, I'm a deep feeler, I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I'm a sister, I'm a healer, I'm intuitive, I'm a wanderluster, I love nature, I'm a little witchy. Um I yeah, that's me in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_00That's awesome. I you should own all of your all of your parts and your interests, and you've invested in yourself enough to be able to say who you are with your full chest. Now let's start with what you do so that that will inform the rest of the conversation so people aren't just like, well, how is she qualified to talk about all these things? So in terms of in terms of your career, what do you do and how have you parlayed the last, I don't know, however many years into Live Well Collaborative?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I'm a board-certified internal medicine family nurse practitioner. I've been practicing in primary care for just about 13 years. Um, last year I was certified by the Menopause Society as well as the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Um I have I'm also a yoga teacher. I got certified in uh yoga. I have my RYT200. I don't even think people talk about that anymore. That was put back in 2003. Um and then in 2024, no, 2023, I started my Reiki certification. So I'm a level two Reiki practitioner as well.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01And we'll get into this, but I've had a slew of my own health journeys throughout my life. And I've taken everything that I've learned, both personally and professionally, and I've created Live Well Collaborative, which is an integrative medicine practice. And a lot of people don't really know what that means. Yeah. So it's a blend. I integrate pieces from every facet, really, and into one really comprehensive, holy, holistic perspective. So I'm using science, first and foremost. I'm using evidence-based medicine, both from a traditional standpoint, but also lifestyle medicine. I've been practicing lifestyle medicine. My people that I went to school with when we started in 2010. Like I was the hippie crunchy one talking about yoga and movement as medicine when everybody was learning about medications and everything. So this is something I've been doing forever. And I finally made it official last year. And that is also evidence-based. Um, I also have a functional medicine background. I started training. I went through a full year of it a little over a decade ago. And I started training through the IFM, and then I ended up not completing that. But I do have an intense passion for, and I hate this term, finding the root cause. Uh, but I feel like people resonate with that. And it's not medicine, traditional medicine these days is so piecemeal. And we are a full, complex body. Everything is connected. And so at the end of the day, that's what these functional medicine providers and the integrated medicine providers are doing is we're looking at the whole complete picture and tying everything together. Um so yeah, that's, you know, professionally, that's that's what I've done. And again, I've had a lot of personal history. And I created this practice as so many of us in this seat do. It's because it's the medicine I needed. I needed it in my 20s, I needed it in my 30s. If I wasn't already practicing this on myself, I would definitely be needing it in my 40s. But I'm thankful that to have already had the foundation by the time I hit this point.
SPEAKER_00So if someone's listening in there, like, oh my gosh, do I need to ditch my PCP and get a functional medicine doctor or lean more into integrative medicine? Do you think that's true? Should someone be running from the hills, running for the hills, or is it individualized? Are there certain problems that might be presenting that we should consider seeing someone else for? Really great question.
SPEAKER_01And it's it's yes and no in all of the things, right? I do truly feel this is the medicine of the future. Um, you know, in my 13 years as a PCP, they have two buckets of people. The people who want the band-aids, the quick fixes, they they don't want to hear anything about my movement or sleep recommendations, right? Just give me a pill and fix it for me. That's one bucket. Then I've got the people who are suffering. They've been shuttled from this person, that person. They've done all the medications and they still feel like crap and they still know that there's something going on and nobody's figuring it out for them. So two very ends of the spectrum. But in the last, I want to say, call it four years. Time is such a warp since COVID, but call it four years. Yeah, I've got these people in a third bucket where they're they don't want the band-aids. They're not quite at the at the place where they're really, really struggling, but they're like, well, I've seen that and I don't want to get there. So they're trying to come up with ways to improve their situation now, kind of maximize again, optimizing health is a big cushion that's thrown out there these days. But again, people resonate with it, so it can be useful in this situation. They want to do things now, they want to get ahead of their health before things get ahead of them. So, does everybody need this style of medicine? Um, it depends. What kind of life are they living? Um you know, it's interesting. The body's talking to us all day long. And not everybody can hear it. A lot of people can't hear it until it's too late. So I like having the discussions with everybody, but unless you're ready to hear it, you don't need it, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that makes total sense. Um, it makes me think of my every time I go into see my primary care, who's a DO and he's a white man in his 40s, and how I've ended up connected to this person, like I think, because if you know me, you'd be like, really? Like, she's okay. Um, but when I moved to New England from New Jersey, he was a guy who took my insurance and I that I could get in with. And so I'm just like, okay, whatever. And I ended up really loving him, and I've been seeing him since 2014. And he knows that I'm a fitness instructor. He knows that I take my health really seriously. And so he's talking to me about people just wanting band-aids and wanting quick fixes. Not everybody wants to listen to their body. Like people are just like, I have enough going on, just fix it. Exactly. Well, first of all, it's it's mind blowing. But second of all, do you even bother with the people who like as you are creating your content, specifically online? Are you ever talking to those people? Are you ever trying to convince people of the power that they hold themselves? Or is that just not even your clientele?
SPEAKER_01Um, that's a really good question. And a lot of my mentors have told me, you know, like you need to find a way to reach the people who need you because they don't see it. They don't understand why, they don't understand the benefit. Um, I feel like the people that I'm speaking to, they're already in the universe of something's not quite right. I want to do something to help, but I'm so freaking overwhelmed. I don't know where to start. So I try to make things simplified. And one of my catchphrases is these things are simple, but they sure should aren't easy. No. Right? It is not easy, but it's simple. It's not complicated. It's not hard, but I'm not hard in a sense of like complicated, but it's not easy to incorporate. And another thing I talked about, I talked about with a lot of my clients is choosing are hard. It is hard to meal prep. It is hard to carve out two hours of my Sunday every single weekend to meal prep. It is hard to get out of bed and move my body. And, you know, of course there are extremes and and not every day is like this, but I know that if I don't get up and move my body, I'm gonna be cranky. I'm gonna be in pain. That's gonna impact my mental health. It may impact how I'm gonna feel myself. Well, then it's just gonna make me feel even worse. So it's this cascading effect.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01But that took me 10 years to learn. So it's a matter of choosing your hard. Do you, okay, I'm gonna learn that this is what's gonna be most beneficial to me, or my heart is I'm gonna continue to put band-aids on it. And then, you know, in clinic and my primary care clinic, I've got 30-year-olds who have the health of a 70-year-old. And God, I'm really afraid for them that they're going to have a heart attack before they hit 40. And that's terrifying. And there are the reality is there are so many people living like this. And it's just, it's so tricky. And, you know, it's very frustrating working in the traditional sense because we're so limited by insurance and we're so limited by the broken system that we have.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01And you pull in any healthcare provider from any domain and you're hearing the same story, right? Whether we're talking about PT, whether we're talking about dermatology, like it doesn't matter who you're talking to. Everybody is limited and frustrated and strapped. And so we have a lot of providers who they don't even bother talking about diet or exercise because it's like my patients aren't gonna listen to me. I don't have any time. I'm gonna get dinged because we can't bill for this. So it's just so many things piling on top. And that's why, you know, people get so frustrated with traditional medicine. And I get it. I get it. It's really, really hard on all ends. And there are some of us who are still fighting the good fight, or at least trying to. Um, and you know, I got to a point where it's like, I can't do what I want to do with patients in this setting. And that's why I've got to branch out and and do a private practice. So that's really where that momentum came. And the benefits that I've seen in people have just been so remarkable. You know, I have people who they're doing really comprehensive programs involving medications and a lot of other things. But I have a whole host of people who they do one consult, one, I do a really in-depth consultation. They do one, I give them strategies, they go away for a few months, and I get messages three, six months later, like my life is completely changed by these three things you told me to do.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01And it's just, it's wild. And it's just takes it takes somebody who can hear the story, put the pieces together, and suggest something that they themselves never would have even thought of. And I'm not suggesting crazy things, right? I'm not suggesting this like wild thing. It's like, I'm hearing this. What if we tweak this a little bit? And it's also like, we've got to meet people where they're at. You know, I can tell you 17 things to do, but if you have capacity to do 0.75, well, let's start there.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01And, you know, there's a lot of mismatch there too that people get into with certain providers. So it's that's it's such a it's such a I can swear in here. It's a mind. It's it's wild. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I bet it is. I mean, this is also why I think in in light of the Epstein files and you know, Peter Atia being in them, I'm seeing online, and this is a part of why I just spend less time on Instagram because I'm like, just shut up. Everyone's an expert after the fact, right? And now people are being like, well, this is why you don't listen to these guys and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, but if people don't have insurance or have shitty insurance, or if they can't go pay, you know, extra money for more in-depth blood work or whatever, of course they're gonna turn to the free resources. Of course they're gonna turn to people who seem like experts, who seem like they're, you know, giving us information that will help us to live longer and live better. And something that like stuck out for me was how some of the diseases that manifest as we get older start when we're younger. Some things take sometimes decades to present themselves. And that that's kind of like fucking terrifying to me because you might not know that you're doing something bad to your body until you're sick and it's too late. So we can't go back, we can't change the past, but we can move forward, starting from literally this moment. So, what are some of the foundational pillars of health, the simple but not easy things that we should be paying attention to that can make a huge impact now and 20 years from now?
SPEAKER_01Um, it's the boring stuff. It's the boring stuff that no one wants to spend time on. It's not flashy, it's not fancy, it's not trendy, it's the boring stuff. And I just immediately go to in lifestyle medicine, we call them the six pillars of lifestyle medicine. One, how are we fueling ourselves? Um, there have been so many ways of fueling ourselves that have been studied over the years. And hands down, the Mediterranean diet, it's not a diet, it's just a way of eating, is the most recommended and most studied and the most effective for helping to prevent or reverse cardiovascular disease, cardiometabolic disease. It's showing to help with dementia. So Mediterranean style diets. So that's um fruits, vegetables, lean protein, nuts, legumes. Um, two, moving your body.
SPEAKER_00What if you lean protein like not a burger? That's a burger. No, so you can have a burger, Carol. Maybe not maybe not four nights a week. Right. Okay, so lean protein, but like kind of vary it up between your fish, your chicken, your if you're doing beef, some people don't do beef. Exactly. Is I'm sorry to like get into the weeds a tiny bit, but like I know I only have this time with you. So I'm like, I have to. Uh, in terms of alternative proteins, like tofu and and stuff like that, some of the meat alternatives have lots of like fillers and like all kinds of shit. The ingredient list is huge. And then versus like tofu, it's you know, soybeans or whatever. So is we pay attention to that too, right? Um how many ingredients are in the alternative stuff?
SPEAKER_01It's it's helpful. And this is where it can be such a slippery slope and it can turn so restrictive. And speaking as a woman, we've already had restriction nailed into our brains from the moment we were conceived, basically. And so it's a really slippery slope. And as with a burger, I would say if you are a vegan or a vegetarian and you're doing plant-based meals, you want to have a beyond burger. Okay, once a week. You know, it's it's we work with what we've got. Tofu is better. Again, there's lots of beans. Um, a lot of the courses I've taken, and I've taken a lot of nutrition courses, but I never pretend to be a dietitian. Um, so you know, I always that's my spiel, and I always suggest people actually seek out a professional. But um, you know, these beans can be really, really fantastic sources of protein for those who uh want to avoid animal proteins.
SPEAKER_00Okay. All right. Got it. Thank you for clearing that up. So we have, I'm even writing these down. So the number one, we have fuel. You were about to go into movement before I interrupted you.
SPEAKER_01Movement, I feel like, is I don't want to say underrated, but I feel like it's the thing that people lose as they get older. And I'm thinking as they get into their 60s and 70s, if we're talking longevity, longevity medicine, big term. Um, but as people get older, if you are not moving your body, that is so detrimental to everything. It's detrimental to your obviously your physical health, your mobility, your ability to stay balanced, your ability to stay upright, your ability to be functional, moving about in your everyday life. Um and so movement is so important for physical and mental and metabolic health. I feel like a lot of people put fueling ahead of movement. And that's probably true, right? Because if we're thinking about a car, like if we're not filling it with gas and oil, it's just not gonna run, period. Right. Right. Um, but I find movement is really important. And I myself just I can't live without movement. I move every single day. And um, I know we've talked about that too. Uh, but it's it's just so important. And I find that with my older folks, when that falls off, their health declines much more quickly. Um, and so, and obviously our movement ability and goals and um how it's gonna look different every single decade of life.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01Or it usually does. Um, you know, I see I see plenty of 70-year-olds running marathons and 80-year-olds in a CrossFit gym, but that's not everybody. Um, but you know, it's gonna change, but at the end of the day, we've got to keep moving our bodies, we've got to stay strong, we've got to keep our bones and our muscles and our brain strong.
SPEAKER_00Do you think, do you sometimes see that there's a line where we're going too far, where we're doing too much, going too hard? Sometimes there's issues around, or I've like heard we're spiking our cortisol too much, we are creating too much stress in our bodies. Do you think that that's true? That there is a balance in terms of how much like heavy, hard, fast that we should be marrying with slower mobility, yoga, breath, whatever.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And, you know, most of my practice, uh, most of my patients are females. Um, so I'm speaking more from that perspective. I I don't have a good pulse point on how this impacts men. Um, but for us, you know, what we know is that too much can impact fertility. Um, you know, I'm thinking um my women who run and run and run for hours and they don't take any days off. And like that can really impact hormones in terms of family planning and trying to become pregnant. And then I also see it in my perimenopausal women, they are weight is shifting because of the hormonal shift, and now they've got this belly pooch that they've never seen and they don't want and they want to get rid of. And so they go harder. And that can be too much on the body.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because, you know, cortisol is a big thing. We need cortisol, right? We uh cortisol is critical, we need it. However, when we're putting too much stress on the body from any avenue, the body goes into a state of fight or flight. And this is, of course, on a big spectrum. And part of that is holding on to the weight. You know, part of us, we're still living in cave people days where it's like, okay, you're putting me through this big stress. I must be preparing for something. So I've got to hold on to this. So that I do see. And it's very, very challenging for me to tell somebody, you've got to back off your heavy. They don't believe you. I know, I know, but I feel like you do a really good job, like for you specifically, I feel like you do a good job of balancing it. I'm speaking to the people who are at, say, Orange Theory or a CrossFit, you know, six days a week, and their rest day is going for a 60-mile run. Excuse me, a 60 minute run. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not building in true rest days, that your body is just on go, go, go. You've got to have time to rest and repair both nervous system and for tissue repair. Uh right. I mean, you know, that's about recovery. We can't, we often can't make gains in the way that we want to, whether we're working on speed in a race, whether we're working on how much we can lift in the gym if you're not giving your tissues adequate time to recover first.
SPEAKER_00Totally. It's hard to trust that though. You know, it really is. I I had to I don't know if I would have gotten there if if I didn't get pregnant because I only had to stop torturing myself because my body didn't do what I wanted it to do after I had Zion. And I was like watching, you know, everybody else seemingly bounce back. You know, and I like in air quotes bounce back. And I assumed that because I was so strong that I would be able to return to activity in the way I had been much sooner. And my reality was that I actually never went like he's going to be five in a couple of months and I've I can never again do to my body what I did to it before I got pregnant. It just like will not work. It will obliterate me but I needed the space in order to be like oh my God, I think I might have been creating more harm than good. But you would never know because I was jacked and skinny and I had this body type that people were always chasing. So I couldn't hear my own body. I couldn't make the connection between all of my injuries and all of my acne and all of my like you know my poor energy, my poor sleep I didn't think it was because I was overtraining because I just associated training with good health.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And you know it's so hard I feel like as much as we talk about it, it's still not talked enough about what our bodies went through whether we've had one baby or five or more. It's our bodies went through an absolute miracle to grow and sustain and then birth another human being like saying that out loud is crazy, right? But we do it every single day.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Billions of people and it's just it's wild and to think that we are expected to go back I know you also said it in quotes it's like it's impossible go back to what? To what? I just transformed myself in another human being. How can I possibly go back to that? And even if physically the outward appearance for some people does that that doesn't change what's happened inside right there's still something massive happened inside and we just we don't talk about that enough.
SPEAKER_00No, we don't we don't give people permission to let the journey be what it is. Partly that that's that's part of the reason why I'm building something new and focusing on strength in different ways because I know that there are other women who need the permission that I've given myself and then truth be told because of how I move my body now I'm lifting the heaviest I've ever lifted I get on the the the little like the self-propelling treadmill and I sprint at 12 fucking miles an hour like without injury without hurting myself and I'm like you go bitch like you you did it right like you thought you were getting weaker but you were listening and making yourself stronger just in a different way and you know similar to you I'm like well now I have to take what I learned and now I have to help other people get there if that's where they want to go. Right. Right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. If if they don't want to hear it, they're not going to do it. No, they're not and that's fine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah like I don't want to I don't want to coach anybody who doesn't want want to be coached.
SPEAKER_01Like you know I often I'm sure you you've heard this in your yoga training as well but when the student is ready the teacher will come and when the teacher is ready the student will come and I think about that often in my role.
SPEAKER_00Yeah that's so that's such a good way to like put a pin in that these six pillars are going to be like the whole podcast. I'd have to I'm sorry but I like I love it so much. I love it. Okay so we have fuel and we have movement. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01What do we have third sleep sleep sleep sleep yes yes yeah it's the most who has time who who has time yeah it's the most underrated and probably most powerful thing that we have at our disposal and it's free and it's there's so many excuses why we can't do it. And at the end of the day you just have to prioritize it. And it's it's just it's really hard and I have so many people who like pride themselves oh I get by on five hours of sleep I'm like at some point I don't know when I don't have a magic ball at some point that is going to catch up to you. Yeah yeah um and so sleep is a big one and you know I've got my my tips I've heard it as the three two one uh you know three hours before bed try not to eat anything just to allow your body to get into that disgusting state who's living in that universe like I'm okay so scenarios right no but like Jesus so okay all right go three two one let me shut the fuck up three two one go three again ideal scenario like universe scenario three hours before bed is when you stop eating really two but the ideal situation is three.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um two hours before bed like your last hydration of course you can have sips and stuff beforehand but don't go guzzling a huge glass of water within two hours of bed because then you're just asking to wake up in the middle of the night. Yeah and then the last hour is screens which again which one of us is is avoiding screens for a full hour before bed I hate everything about that.
SPEAKER_00And I don't live this just full disclosure I do okay well thank you because I was feeling like damn she's doing it all. Yeah I don't live any of these like 100% there's no way that's just impossible.
SPEAKER_01No I do actually I do live the the meal one. So we eat very early with our kids and I used to also have a second little mini meal yeah um before bed and that I found was not serving me. Yeah um I was waking up in the middle of the night I'm assuming because of some blood sugar dysregulation coffee my digestion was off my energy I felt like trash in the morning and so I've I've cut that out and my body I don't even want it. And my trick is we eat like grandparents with the kids super early and then when we put the kids to bed I brush my teeth and I'm just done.
SPEAKER_00And that's okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That's that's what works for me. My husband started doing it as well and he's starting he's feeling better too. And it's yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01But again like everybody has crazy schedules. I have so many friends who they've got kids who are involved in sports they didn't get home until 9 30. That's like well what are we supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00It's like we have to eat yeah yeah but it's also like it doesn't have to every phase of life isn't forever. Exactly. Right. So you do what you got to do to get through that's what I'm thinking of like you know when I teach at night I'm not getting home until 8 30 and I'm starving because I just gave people everything I had and and yeah and I'm trying to like shove something into my mouth and and get to bed and get ready for the next day. So yeah I I I would love that I would love to think about like my brain automatically goes to okay so what can I do then? Well maybe it maybe the nights that I teach I do what I have to do to fuel my body but the nights that I don't teach, what's stopping me? Just because I can't do it seven days a week doesn't mean I couldn't do it five or four or whatever, right? I think that's another problem in this world of health and wellness in general is that if we can't do it all, then we shouldn't even try.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And that's that's that's a huge part of what I do with people one on one. Just do what you can. Yep. Yeah my whole entire thing small consistent changes over time lead to massive change.
SPEAKER_00Yeah that's I got like chills. I'm like that's what I needed to hear. Okay so sleep.
SPEAKER_01Yeah and then number four four is um substances okay coffee alcohol drugs what mostly um smoking alcohol and drugs okay yeah even weed a lot of people do the weed thing a lot of people are doing weed and you know that hasn't been studied as much but we and and that's it's I hate to say it but I really I think and I I'm just talking out of nothing but I think that's person specific.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01I think that they're I'm as a at the end of the day it's a substance it's impacting the brain somehow it's impacting the body somehow. But some people I don't know that they get any impact but I have others who I'm thinking of um you know the folks that I see for anxiety depression and they smoke every night because they tell me that it helps their mood and I challenge every single one of them just take a break. See if you can take a break and it takes that I had one person come back to me I think like eight months later maybe a year it was a long time after I suggested it and she says oh my gosh I did not want to listen to you. I thought you were just speaking horseshit but I got rid of it and can I tell you I came off my anxiety medication and it was just wild how it it just takes a little while. But yeah I mean weed, alcohol, tobacco I don't know many people who are still smoking tobacco these days, but um and I know there's a big movement now of people reducing alcohol or going sober. And it's great because you know it's linked to cardiovascular disease and um what is it directly linked to seven different cancers now. I mean again a big part of my space is um middle aged women so it really impacts our hormones during the transition can make menopausal symptoms so much worse. And now you know the mocktail game is very very strong. So if you like I I enjoy the taste of alcohol and it's nice to have that as an alternative but even though some days I'm like my own taste for it changed so dramatically after I had my second kid. I mean I was the I don't know where I put it um I used to drink people under the table and so would Mark and I like and then after I had my second it just didn't taste right to me. Yeah it tasted different I was like this is this sucks like I love wine but I don't even want this anymore. It doesn't taste good and then it started to hit me and completely trash my sleep and so I didn't want that anymore. And I mean I can probably count on one hand the number of drinks I have in a year now. It's it's yeah yeah it just doesn't do it for me.
SPEAKER_00I'm the kind of person that like I want one like$24 beautiful premium I want like people using like eyedroppers and stirring shit like it's gotta be the best fucking cocktail that I can get make it worth it and I'm going to enjoy one it's gotta be special. It's like a cookie I don't want a cookie from the gas station I want a cookie that someone poured their heart and soul into and I want to enjoy every crumb you know yeah okay substances we're up to four we're moving fast now yeah these these last ones I think might go a little faster.
SPEAKER_01Next one is stress management and mindfulness. Oh come on I know but we're all living up here our buckets are overflowing and talk about impact on health uh it just it cascades into every every aspect of health and yeah the the healthiest people that I I see doing all the right things if I'm unable to identify you know some metabolic or hormonal or digestive imbalance that's the next and I'm incorporating it throughout I ask I take such detailed intakes on people I'm really asking about how does stress impact you where is it um how does it manifest in your body because it shows up for us in a myriad of different ways and everybody everybody's different. So I'm working with people on that throughout the whole process but if I've done all of the things and people are still struggling it's like okay we've got to we've got to dig deeper into your nervous system. So that's that's a really really big one and I mean COVID brought such a highlight into that um so many people mental I'm not even speaking everyone's mental health suffered so for a vast majority of people really struggled. There were some people they were living their best lives like yeah I'm an introvert my fellow introverts who don't like to leave the house they were loving it. Like I don't go anywhere I don't have to see anything amazing a lot of people really struggled because for obvious reasons. Yeah it just brought such light to the issue and the fact that and I and I'm so disappointed in our system because at the time people were really conscious of it and tending to their mental health and nervous system needs. But since I don't want to say like right after I'm talking maybe since 2023 2024 I feel like we're back before COVID and even way above in terms of the demands that people are putting on themselves and that the system and their employers are putting on them. It is wild the stories that I hear from patients and can you give me an example um I mean I have patients in my clinic they are working 80 hours a week they get up at six immediately on their phone checking emails they're going to bed at 1130 and getting interrupted with a phone call to get back on their computer. I was like don't you have a can't you turn that off yeah no I can't because the budgeting crisis and they fired four other people so now I'm doing everybody else's job and if I don't do this I'm gonna get fired or this big deal's gonna fall through or XY there's just so much like it's a such a pressure cooker right now. And I'm seeing it across basically every industry. It's it's crazy and I'm it's such a disappointment because something's gonna burst and it's not yeah I don't know what it is.
SPEAKER_00I mean you're also seeing on social too with you know just like all the ongoing violence and like political upheaval it's not only are we watching it which is stressful and constant but then we're also sort of policing how other people are experiencing you're not doing enough, you're not saying enough you're not you don't care you haven't donated if you've you know if you donated to Palestine but you didn't donate to Haiti like what the fuck you're racist right or whatever, whatever it is. It's always something that is sort of making people feel boxed in in this kind of like in the same ways that like they feel boxed in like if I don't do this work, I might lose my job and then there goes my livelihood. But then it's like if I don't respond to this crisis in this way, then I might lose my community or my belonging or people might think that I don't care. And I think that it's just constant stuff flying at us that in a lot of ways we can't do anything about because like you can't completely disengage. So it's like how do you manage your engagement and therefore manage the stress like it's just tough.
SPEAKER_01It's really hard and you know setting boundaries for you know I'm only on Instagram I'm not on any other platform because that's that's enough I my shit I my brain can't handle I can't handle anything like oh my gosh threads TikTok X no I can't I can't do it. But you know I've the amount of people I've unfollowed is so soul soothing because you know again I I need to be informed but in in I can't be taken down um and you know I don't know I can't remember if you know human design do you know human design? I know human design what uh what's the like outcome what are what is it called again like there's the generator generator yeah so I'm a reflector and there's less than one percent of the population is a reflector. So basically I have all of my channels wide open and I absorb everybody's energy. It's almost like an empath to the nth degree and I actually can feel and take on the energy of those around me whether they're sitting right in front of me or in a space like social media. So I've had to curate this little bubble around me because I can just like talk about going down rabbit holes and Doom scrolls. It's just and I mean it happens to all of us but um yeah it's just basically just curating boundaries and you know I use an app where I can't even log on to the to Instagram or social media at all like it blocks me out for a little bit which is really helpful on days when I'm already up here and I can't take one more thing. So it's it's really really challenging. And so finding something that works for you every single day just to ground you because there's so much that takes us off the ground every minute of every day it can happen. And so and there's so many ways to do this for yourself and you know what works for me doesn't work for you and vice versa. And so just again working with people to find like we've got so many options um whether it's journaling or meditation or breath work or yoga or um screaming into a pillow or you know boxing. You know there's so many different ways to get move the energy through it's not about blocking it um I'm a Gen Xer. I've worked really hard to move to get away from that it's not about blocking what you're feeling but it's a way of grounding yourself and moving it through in a healthy way or in a in a in a in a nourishing way. Yeah. Right. Yeah yeah thank you and number six last one six is community nobody talks about this social connections like actual social connection not through a three by however big my phone is um in-person social connection people are not doing it enough and studies show that like that piece makes or breaks who is living healthfully into their 90s into their 80s and 90s wow so finding your community finding your people cultivating that and nourishing that and spending time with friends and loved ones outside of your home and making that a priority does work count like I think that's very individualist individualistic right because some places of employment that I've been at I absolutely get those needs met where some it's the opposite.
SPEAKER_00Yeah yeah yeah yeah so I think it totally depends on the situation that you're in. Like if you feel fulfilled by your environment it probably counts. And if your environment is draining you then it probably doesn't count. Exactly like that can be the marker.
SPEAKER_01Yeah wow yeah but I mean I I've talked to people um I'm not one of these people but like they go and they have a really meaningful conversation with the person who's checking them out at the grocery store. Yeah it's like I'm not rude to people I'm very friendly but I I don't open up conversations it's just not my thing but I have other people and that lifts them up and that gives them that connection so it's you know there are so many different ways to do it.
SPEAKER_00So okay when you were a little girl this is a big pivot we're going left when you were a little girl did you want to be a person in healthcare? Did you want to help people?
SPEAKER_01Um so I remembered very few things about my childhood I actually don't know I don't know what I wanted to do. My earliest memory of envisioning what I wanted to do, I wanted to be a neurosurgeon and that was when I was Okay Yeah I wanted to be a brain surgeon. I was fascinated with neurology and the brain and I was in a neurology class in high school and my stepdad actually coincidentally at the same time discovered he had a massive brain tumor and Had surgery and I remember him bringing home his like MRI films and I was able to look at it and see where the tumor was. And I was like, wow, this is what I want to do. Um he's he's fine. He's he okay, good, good surgery, he's he's still with us, he's good. Um, but it was fascinating. And then I went to undergrad for med school. I wanted to go to med school, and um undergrad just did a number on me and I was like, okay, I'm gonna not do that because I wasn't continuing to get all A's and everybody told me like there's no way we're getting into med school. It's like, okay. So I took a break and I majored in psychology, but I minored in neuro because I still had a really fast, I had a huge fascination for it. So I took a lot of neuro classes. And when I graduated, I knew I didn't want to be a therapist. Um I knew that I did not want to work in a lab. I was like, I cannot possibly work in a lab. And those were like my two options at the time. So I didn't do anything. I went and I worked as, you know, admin assistants in medical settings. I was, you know, a medical secretary for a little bit, and then I pivoted hard because I'm like, well, this job sucks. I hate this. And like it is so hard. Um, people are sick, they're cranky, they're angry at the doctor for being late. And I was like, this is not fulfilling for me. I like this is not for me. And I didn't know what the heck to do. So then I made a dramatic change and I went and I worked for a startup lighting company. And then I just needed to change. I'm like, let me see what corporate life is like. I don't know. Um, and then from there, I worked at a travel company. It's where I met my husband, it's where I met Tom. And I did that for a long time. I did that for seven years, and I loved it because I love to travel. I love to experience different cultures. I was so fortunate during my time there. I traveled to, I don't know, like six continents and 40-something countries. It was such a beauty to experience the world and like really fostered that passion in me. Um, but again, there I was like, I don't see where this is going. And and I don't, I was looking ahead, like, what is my vision? Where am I gonna be in 10, 20 years? And I always came back to medicine. Uh, and so that's when I actually went, I worked for children's for a little bit and I went back to the neurologist I worked for. And I said, you know, I don't know if you remember me, but I'm thinking about going back to med school. And he replied immediately, he's like, I remember you. Do not go to med school. He's like, I think you should go to NP school. So he was the one who raised it, and he connected me with some people. I was really grateful for that. And I went into NP school. And I knew going into it that I didn't want to pigeonhole myself into anything. A lot of my classmates, um, they went off into specialty, and and there are very few of us who are still in primary care still. They either went off into specialty or they just left clinic setting altogether. They're doing the business side of things or they're doing aesthetics. Um, but I didn't want to do that. I my my brain is all over the place and I like variety, and I didn't want to just go and work in GI. I mean, granted, I talk about poop every day with my patients. I didn't want to only talk about poop. I don't want to only do women's health. Um, you know, I like this big wide variety, and so family medicine seems like a good fit. Um, I discovered that I don't like working with the little population. I like working with adults. Um, and that's kind of how I landed here. Yeah.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_01And medicine has always been in me. You know, I've had my own medical story from literal time of birth. I've had a lot of when I was a baby. Yeah, I had seizures when I was born, like came out and had seizures. I had to go in the NICU for a little while, and they had no idea what was wrong with me. And um, it's a funny story. I was a very large baby. I was like nine, seven or something, and everyone else in the NICU was premi's. And so, you know, people would come and visit my mom. She's like, She's the fat one in the NICU. So it's like she's the big one. That's a great start to life. Um, so yeah, I had that when I was a baby, and then, you know, just I broke a bunch of bones when I was in childhood. I had migraines early. Um, I had a lot of musculoskeletal stuff when I was younger. And um in my 20s, I had, you know, a lot of the stuff that I see now, continued migraines, um, really bad anxiety. I had IBS, so I had a lot of digestive stuff. And here is where I got shuttled to all the different specialists and different medications. And let's try this and let's do this. And none of it felt right, none of it worked, half of it made me feel worse. Um, and I honestly don't even remember. I think I saw probably at least a half a dozen spine specialists. Um, because my I had a really bad lower back. And this one guy, he was the last one I saw, and he said, Everybody telling you to be sedentary is wrong because you're now four years into this and you're still sitting in my chair as the sixth opinion on how to get you better. He's like, So you need to live your life. You've got to figure out ways to move your body in the way that that helps you and like don't overdo it. And so I was like, okay. And that was kind of like a light that went off. It's like, okay, so I just need to do things differently. So that's when I started eating differently. Um, I moved my body differently. Um, I was already a yoga teacher, so I started doing more mindfulness. Um, I was still drinking like a fish, unfortunately. That was the one thing that I probably could have like fast-tracked my healing if I just gave that up a lot sooner. But that one took me a really long time. And yeah, that's just kind of how things happened. And then during COVID, um, I had two really big, scary neurologic things happen during COVID and more recently. And it's just so funny how it all ties into my passion for neurology in the brain and neuroscience. It's like there's a reason why I'm interested in it, and there's a reason why it continues to happen to me. It's it's just, it's wild how that works. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Beyond your now immediate family. Did you have a lot of support or did you have to fight through to become who you are right now?
SPEAKER_01Um I think it was a big difference undergrad and beyond, right? Um like many others in my time period, uh, a lot of pressure. You know, I'm a recovering perfectionist, a high achiever, and it was expected for me to do very well. So that's why an undergrad when I wasn't, and and it was suggested for me not to go forward with pre-med, it was devastating on all levels. Um, I don't know that they necessarily wanted me to be a doctor, but it was okay, well, now what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01And I immediately moved to Boston, which everybody was like, I've always been the different kid. Um, like I was the one who traveled out of the country and really enjoyed that. I like flew the nest earlier than they thought. Um so it's always a little bit different. And and, you know, supportive, yes, but not not to like the point of guiding real guidance. They kind of it was kind of like you're gonna do what you're gonna do. Like just go ahead and do it. And and now, you know, they're they're so supportive and they love to see me kind of branching out. And because for a while there, I just bounced from job to job to job right after college. And it's like, where the hell am I going? I don't know. Like I'm I'm making it, I'm making things work, but clearly there's something missing. So I think they're happy that I've I've established a base and and I've been here for a while.
SPEAKER_00Where when you say you went to Boston, where are you from?
SPEAKER_01So I'm from Connecticut. I'm from uh Waterbury, Connecticut, very large city. And uh yeah, I went to school at UConn and then moved to Boston like right after graduation.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Yeah. How how did you know everything that you experienced with your family, like what are some of the things that you that's important to you as you're raising two kids now? Like, what are things where you're like, okay, well, I'm not gonna do that, or I wanna lean more into this. Not that we'll get everything right, because we won't, what is right anyway, but like, what are your kind of tenets of raising your children?
SPEAKER_01Um, there are a lot of big ones. One is feel your damn feelings, right? I feel like I couldn't trust myself until I was well into my 30s. I didn't know. I've always felt, you know, I I don't have many memories of childhood, but I've always felt this deep intuition, but I didn't know what to do with it. And I didn't know where it was coming from, and I didn't know if I should listen to it or not. And because I didn't trust myself, I didn't know. Um, so we're very open feelings home here. Um, it's not always pleasant. I don't always love it. But like it's yeah, that's helpful work through this. We're not gonna shut it down. So that's one. The other thing is like perfect is is a four-letter word in this house. Like nothing is perfect, nobody is perfect. We need to make mistakes. Mistakes are beautiful, it's how we grow and it's how we learn. Um, those are probably two big ones. And and you know, I I was raised with very strong work ethic. Like I said, like high achiever, really trying to balance that out. And and both of our kids are like Tom and I were raised, you know, very similarly. And um our kids are also, you know, they thankfully love school. Hopefully that continues and they love learning and they have this thirst for knowledge like we do too. But it's like it's that balance of we love to see you doing well, and we also value and your kindness, like how are you helping people? How are you leading your friends? And so having those conversations as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's kind of like how you how if we go like all the way back to the beginning when you were talking about how integrative medicine like looks at the whole person, it's kind of almost the same approach you're taking to the body, right? Is the approach that you're taking to raising your children. We want you to, we want you to thrive, but thriving also like means so many different things, and there's different factors and you know, ways to do that.
SPEAKER_01I want them to see me working hard and doing this and fighting for myself and fighting for this business. And I also need to be present. So it's like shutting that off is really hard. And, you know, my kids are older now, they're seven and nine, and they still are disappointed when like if I have a midweek client and I'm not back until late, or if I'm doing an event on a weekend, you know, they're still disappointed. And it's like, no, I get to do this for myself. I'm excited to do this, and this is really important to me. And when I get home, I'm all yours. So it's like that balance and talk about shutting off the brain. It's it's and like that switch. Um it's tricky. Yeah, it's really tricky.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't I don't think there's a I certainly haven't found it anything that satisfies all of all of the buckets, you know. Like if if I'm giving to one thing, then something by definition is just not getting, you know. And I guess like in some ways, like that is kind of the lesson for our kids, right? You actually cannot do it all. Right.
SPEAKER_01You know, these expectations are completely impossible.
SPEAKER_00Impossible.
SPEAKER_01And I mean we try to say that nothing is impossible in our house, but like this is impossible. That is, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like this will cause at one time. Yeah, but it's not easy. Simple but not easy. Simple but not easy. Um so okay, we have to talk about live well collaborative a little bit more before we leave. So someone feels like they're they're doing all the things right, quote unquote, but something is still off. So they're gonna seek you out and they're gonna make an appointment and you're gonna do this detailed intake and then fill in the gap for me. What happens after that?
SPEAKER_01So there's a lot that happens before I actually see the person, before I actually meet them. There's a lot that happens before. So I have many intakes that they're gonna fill out. And it it helps when they, when somebody requests an appointment, they give a little blurb, like what brings you in. And so I get a basic sense, you know, um, some examples. Um, you know, I'm feeling really stuck in my body, I don't feel like myself. Um uh, you know, I'm perimenopausal and none of my providers will prescribe me HRT, or I'm fatigued and everybody says my labs are normal, but I still feel like crap, or uh like I just don't know where to start. So these are things. And so that cues, I have several different intakes that I can send them. And um and I go deep into their history. Like I'm talking about previous health concerns, what medications they're on, any other diagnoses, what they've done in the past to address current concerns, um, all kinds of stuff that we go into. And then I have a questionnaire that addresses every single system in the body. And so I'm getting a sense of the story that they're telling me and the symptoms that they're having. And then from there, I curate a specific lab panel for them. Um, and this is all included in the price of that first visit. And so a lot of people will have already had, you know, I've already had labs done. Great. If they're within X time periods, share them with me. So I'm not, you know, I don't need to repeat. I mean, just, you know, whatever the word is, um, start from scratch. Um, I don't need to repeat things that were already done recently, but I'll add in others that I think would be really pertinent and helpful.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01So then I gather that data and then I kind of put a little summary together and what I call an insight report. I'm tying their concerns into what I'm seeing in the data because, you know, so many people are out there doing these self-ordering their labs, but it's not connecting to the person. So this mild abnormality that you're seeing on this lab, ordered by this wellness company, and they're suggesting their AI algorithm supplement for you to take, might really not be appropriate if you're not having any concerning symptoms associated with that data, right? So, like I'm matching data with the person. And obviously, there's gonna be some holes that I need to fill in, and that's what happens when we meet in person. So I get this kind of summary, then we meet in person. I review all of the lab data that I have, I review the snapshot that I have, we're filling in the gaps, and then I come up with initial steps, initial recommendations. And that's gonna be lifestyle stuff, some supplements, yes, for some people. And then from that point, it's nice to have that all included because it gives people data, which people really want data these days. They want to know, they want validation, like, oh, shh, my other person said that everything looked normal, but she checked something different or she's looking at this a different way. Um, I'm gonna use vitamin D as an example.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01Personally, I think everyone in this part of the world needs to be checked for vitamin D because we are all vitamin D deficient. And there's a spectrum. The lab spectrum at your regular like quest and lab core, the normal range is between 30 and 100. So that if your lab shows that you're 31, your provider's gonna say everything's fine, like totally normal, you don't need a supplement. But if your levels are 31, well, first of all, I'm gonna suggest boosting that anyway, because I think it, you know, my optimal range for folks is between 50 and 80. And again, I'm using that as an example. And, you know, especially if you're telling me that your energy is in the tank and you're really feeling some mood symptoms, like, okay, this vitamin D can really, really help you. So that's just an example of how I'm tying in symptoms to data that I see.
SPEAKER_00You know what another thing is too that just you just jaunt this for me. I I I maybe read or heard or something that as the population gets sicker, what's considered in the normal range also changes. You even said normal doesn't mean optimal. Okay. It's like in proximity to maybe disease or something really bad, right? But it doesn't mean really good either.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um, and that goes for for a lot of labs that we're checking on folks. Um, so it's nice because I'm I'm giving them data and information and education and initial steps. I'm always giving them some lifestyle tweaks to do, even if, like I'm thinking of my high performers that I've seen, um, people who are like doing all the right things, I'm still giving them something. I'm like, I'm pulling one or two things. I'm like, why don't you try this and see if this makes a difference in X, Y, Z area of your life? And then from there, like I said, I've got people who take that first visit, that first console, and run with it. And they do the lifestyle stuff. And some of them, I think half of them have come back to see me for a follow-up. And the other half are like, I'm good. I'll I'll check in with you when things change. And then I've got a whole other host of folks who they want to move into a more comprehensive program. From there, I have three different tiers of a three-month program that people can enroll in. Um, and that's basically it's it's what's involved and what the cost is just depends on what's included. Um, if you're looking for just continued lifestyle supplement guidance, um, you know, additional lab markers to be checked, that's going to be on the lower tier. Most people go into the middle tier whenever there's medications, because there are, you know, compliance factors. I want to see people more regularly if we're doing medications, that sort of thing. Then I have a really high ticket option where I'm including a lot of different things. Um, everybody who's in, you know, the middle or the high tier, they get an extra service included, whether it's, you know, I'm offering Reiki, um, you know, acupuncture, if they need to be connected with a personal trainer or a dietitian or physical therapy, you know, I'm helping arrange that. I've got my own little collection that I'm building of folks that uh we have aligned values and perspectives and approaches that I'm um helping introduce people. And it's hard for people who have never connected with a dietitian or who have never connected with a personal trainer to think about, gosh, do I really want to invest in that? So I will take care of that cost. It's like I'm gonna make the introduction, I'll take care of it. Um, it's gonna be already included in the package, so that's not an added burden for you. So you test it out. And if it's not a good fit, then we'll find somebody else that is. Um, so then that happens in the first three months and a like a lot changes in those first three months. But for folks who have been struggling for a while, um, and for folks who have come out on the other side, like a lot changes in 12 weeks, but we really need a like a year before we're making any like big health changes. And I'm thinking about the people who have been stuck and they've been shuttled to all these other folks. So we continue to work together. So after those three months, we move into a maintenance program. Um, and again, that's tiered. And you know, we can go from really simple follow-ups and KR with some uh labs thrown in the mix and other services to something really intense and involved.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00Is there anything in terms of Live Well Cooperative or any of the other things that we talked about that you want to make sure is said that I maybe haven't asked, or maybe we didn't go deep enough?
SPEAKER_01Um, I mean, we hit on a lot of you know, the boring stuff is the important stuff. Your body is always talking to you, whether you can hear it or not. And so that's the other thing. Like, I help you listen to your body.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Like people don't, when I'm connecting the dots between the story that they're telling me, I'm like, do you realize that that over there is connected to this over here? Like, no, I never thought about that. It's like, okay, well, let's just try it. Let's try connecting them, let's try something to help work that out. So it's, it's, I want to help people learn what their body is telling them, be able to find strategies to work with that. Um, you know, nobody's broken, nothing needs fixing. We've got to work with the signals that our bodies are telling us. And and knowing that every season, whether it's postpartum or perimenopause or, you know, people transitioning, like my folks who are retiring, like that's a whole other conversation as to how that impacts people. It's wild. So for each season of life, our health is changing. And so what I'm recommending to you now can be totally different than what we're going to talk about in two years. And so that's the important part. A lot of people think like, oh, well, I did that and it didn't work for me. Or I did that and it worked for me then, but it's not working for me now. So something, I'm not doing something right. It's like, no, things just change. You know, the environment outside is changing, our internal environment is changing, our internal environment's response to the external environment is always changing too. So it's working with that. Um, so that's really important. And then I think the last thing, we sort of touched on it, but I feel like two big needles for health and wellness and how we're feeling. One, and I know it's a hot topic and whatever. Um, I can't think of words today. Um, you know, Canadian health. You know, trying to get our circadian health in order, meaning trying to get the light in our eyes from outside when we first wake up and working with our dietary patterns, trying to end our meals a little bit early to let our body get into rest and digest, and basically having some sort of nighttime routine to establish to the body it's time to wind down. Going back to like sleep is so important. Right. Um, so that's something. And then nervous system. We each have a different sensory blueprint with our forward-facing senses, you know, type sight, smell, touch, hear. Oh my God, I missed and taste. Um, you know, we could really crave high intensity, like the high spectrum of each of those, or we really want to shy away from some of those or somewhere in the middle. And then we've got proprioceptive and vestibular input. And everyone has, we have our own sensory blueprint. And if we can tie into what our nervous system is asking for, that can kind of help move the needle when it comes to managing our stress and overwhelm. And that's like a whole different conversation for another day. But interesting. Yeah, that's like that's something that I'm really getting into this year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, to me, that also like kind of goes back to listening to the body, right? Like a lot of times we'll say that we feel like something is off, or or it doesn't always have to be pain and suffering that the body is speaking to us. It could be, I'm overwhelmed. This is too loud. This is too fast, this is too much, whatever it is, or the energy that we're receiving from other people. Like the body is saying something. Yeah. So I'm starting to work with folks on it. It's really exciting. I love it. That's really cool. Yeah. I will definitely want to know more about that. That's really it's interesting to me as more and more people are talking about the nervous system one in general, but also I'm interested in capacity, like my actual capacity versus the story I'm telling myself about my capacity. And they're all related, right? Of course they are. Of course they are. Damn it. Maybe I should have been a doctor. Like, this is my, I'm like, I could talk about this all day. Like I just want to know.
SPEAKER_01Complex human beings, it's beautiful and frustrating and fascinating, and just it's amazing. I love it.
SPEAKER_00It is, it is amazing. I love it too. I love it too. Is there a quote or piece of advice that you live by?
SPEAKER_01Um so a number of years ago, um, I got a keychain, and I don't know why, but I had it stamped out in Braille. I think I didn't want it to be obvious, but I wanted to be able to feel it. Um, to know, because you know, the the dots are raised. Uh it says, be here now. And it's a constant reminder for me to ground myself and just be more present. Because so many of us are living in the past or anxious about the future, and we're missing so much of what is right in front of us. And so it's it's a physical reminder that I need probably every day, even though I've been, I've had this keychain for, I don't know, 20 years. But um, yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's wow. In the spirit of moving further forward, what is your next right step?
SPEAKER_01Um, I've learned just to go with my gut. The first thing that came into my head is to give more. So I've offered uh a variety of free offerings, you know, people who really like my style and resonate and and with my approach, um, but they they can't see me either because they don't live in Massachusetts and they can't travel here to see me one-on-one, or if it's just not a good fit right now financially or logistically, what have you, I want to still offer things that people can benefit from. And so, you know, I've put out a couple of free master classes. I just did a free 10-day healthy habits mini-series that kind of touched a little a lot about what we talked about today. And then we're in the midst of a three-week mental health series. And so I want to do more things like that because there's so much noise and overwhelm out there. And people, they're such what's the phrase that everyone gets, such a trust recession that I just I want people to be able to be comfortable and trust me. And so I want to be able to offer these things and say, like, this is how I can help you. And I'm not chasing you, and I want to be able to just offer this to you to see if this resonates with you.
SPEAKER_00I like that. I like that a lot. Thank you. Okay, the final, final, final thing is tell everyone where they can find you.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. So my website is live wellcollaborative.com and on Instagram it's live.well.collaborative. And again, I'm not on any other platforms. That's it. A website and an Instagram is plenty. Yeah. And I have a blog. I I put up a blog like twice a month. I send out newsletters uh one or more times a month. And I'm I'm trying to do uh a lot of local activities too, things that people can pop into in person. Um yeah, really excited about these.
SPEAKER_00Guys, wow, thank you so much for this conversation. Like it could have been another couple of hours, honestly, because there are so many things like that we couldn't even possibly touch on that are related to your work. But thank you for being so generous and giving as much as you did. I really appreciate it. For asking me, this was so fun, of course. Thank you. All right, everybody, head up, Nicole, and we'll see you next time.