Before You Burn Out: A Healing Conversation with Mona Sharma

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cancer just doesn't show up overnight. It's the result of
this stress on the body. And when our body no
longer has the meats the resilience to deal with the
stress within, the red alert is going to go on.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Today we have Mona Sharma, a nutritionists that works with
high performing entrepreneurs and celebrities as well as a wellness
advisor and coach. She blends iovating wisdom with modern science
to optimize.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Health for somebody who suffers from something like stress or anxiety,
Is it stress or anxiety or does it come from
a deeper cause. We live in a world where we
need to be busy all the time. We think it's
a weakness to stop because it makes us vulnerable. What
are the practices that you have every single day that
are training your nervous system to be in this hypervigilant,
busy state. We need to decipher the foods that are
causing us to be sick and imbalanced. We know that

(00:41):
these ultra processed foods are linked to diseases amongst adults
and children. Things like metabolic dysfunction, diabetes and obesity, and
even cancer rates are going up. So control with your
dollar and make better decisions I'm Radie w.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Kia and on my podcast A Really Good Cry, we
embrace the messy and the beauty, providing a space for raw,
unfiltered conversations that celebrate vulnerability and allow you to tune
in to learn, connect and find comfort together. Hey everyone,
welcome back to this week's episode of A Really Good Cry.
Today we have a nutritionist that works with high performing
entrepreneurs and celebrities as well as a wellness advisor and coach.

(01:18):
She blends iravatic wisdom with modern science to optimize health.
She is my go to person whenever I have any
health questions or issues, and she always shares solutions with
love and compassion.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
So Mona Sharma, thank you so much for being here.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
So good to be here. I'm so excited to connect
with you me too.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
I have to tell people that when I say she
is my go to I mean like every single thing
that I possibly think of, you get a text message.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Of I love it. Yeah, I love being the go
to person.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
I know you really are and you have such a
magnetic energy and I mean that in the sense of
the things that you share you feel like when you
meet you.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
So I don't know whether that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
But your energy is so representative of the wisdom and
the nourishment that you give to other people. As soon
as you walk into our room, I feel like my
whole pattern of voice changes. I feel calm, and I
think that that's just your presence that allows people to
feel that way. So I'm so excited to share you
with everybody that's listening.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
The highest compliment for me, Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
I wanted to start off by just asking you one
how you got to where you are today and how
you have created a world where you're able to share
iobating wisdom which is so old with Western medicine and
make it relevant and applicable to people.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Now. This is literally what drives me today. If the
future of medicine can really merge the wisdom of all
of our ancestors, no matter where we come from. Abada
is one of those incredible sciences with the amazing, incredible
science that Western medicine is giving us. Yeah, merge the
two door together for true integration. I think that the
world would be in such a better place. I think

(02:53):
that disease prevention would be the primary source of healthcare
instead of symptom management. And I can say that, yeah,
because I lived through all of it. So prior to
becoming a holistic nutritionist and yogi and meditation teacher and
reiki practitioner and NLP practitioner, I list them all because
I probably should have just become a doctor instead of
doing all of these modalities.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
No, I love it.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
But prior to that, I actually come from the world
of fashion. So I worked out of sales for massive
beauty brands, so Christian Dior and tom Ford Beauty and
Estate Lauder companies and say that about you. Yeah, So
my twenties was full of this like high paced fashion,
fun lifestyle, traveling the world doing makeup for fashion shows,
training people at big retailers. And I say it out loud,

(03:38):
I'm like, yeah, that sounds kind of fun. Like it
was a really cool job to have. And as you know,
being Indian, having an Indian father, I didn't become a
doctor or a lawyer or a judge like my dad
or like my brother. When I got into the corporate world,
I hustled like this, A type hypervigilance that I had
was like literally get to the top, get security, you know,

(03:59):
do as much as you can to get a high
paying job that was going to get me respect, and
you know it came with a big, big, big priced egg.
So I used to say all the time that anxiety
was my blueprint, like it's just it's who I identified at.
I hit it very well, very very well. I would
almost say that the calmness that you so pleasantly gave me,
that compliment, that was almost a coping mechanism for me.

(04:23):
If people perceive me as calm on the outside, they
won't know about the internal suffering anxiety that I'm feeling
that I think I've had since I was a little kid.
So here I am anxiety, fast paced life, waking up
a hotel rooms, not knowing what city I was in,
chasing this high corporate salary. It was a corporate job, right.
Burnout is what I got to. During that time, I

(04:43):
started getting heart palpitations. These heart palputations got so fast
that I would bend down to pick something up and
nearly hit the deck. I would want to pass out,
and things got really bad. I ended up getting pcos.
I'll never forget a doctor told me that it was
so bad that I would probably have a really hard
time having children. Having children is the only thing I've
ever known that I really really wanted, and I do

(05:04):
have two kids today, beautiful children. Beautiful children. And the
heart palpitations. I was like, look, this isn't working for me.
This is now impacting my life. What's the solution. At
that point in my life, I wasn't interested in getting
to the root cause of healing. Give me quick fix.
So doctors wrote me a prescription medication for beta blocker medication.
Beta blocker medication. They did slow everything down. I still

(05:24):
to get my heart palpitations, but they weren't as bad,
but they also caused me to gain forty five pounds.
Forty five pounds later, I was like, hey, this isn't
working for me, Like I feel completely lethargic. Everything, my tone,
my energy just like drained. It dropped. And so they said, well, hey,
we can go in for surgery, and I said, okay,
let's do it. So I went in from my first
heart surgery. I was twenty three years old.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
They go through in ablation, so through your groin and
through your neck, you're awake for the whole thing. Your
heart's on this massive monitor and they induce you with
you know, adrenaline and caffeine and all these uppers to
try to induce these palpitations that I knew what only
happened if I was moving my body right. And so
they found a place where they could do an ablation,

(06:08):
where they burn off a portion of your heart on
this electrical note. They say they ended up doing two
oblations in that surgery. But the next morning I woke
up in the hospital and my heart was still pounding. Oh,
bawling my eyes out, What the hell is going on?
They said, well, let's go back in. So now I'm
twenty four, go back in for my second heart surgery,

(06:30):
and I'll never forget. Doctors asked me why I was crying.
I was like, oh, I'm looking at my heart on
a massive screen. I identify now as somebody who's on medication
and somebody who has a heart condition. I'm young, I
have this great life, but I'm not happy. I feel
depressed most of the time. At this point, I feel sad,
But doctors never asked me about that. Doctors wanted to know,

(06:50):
like how much she's smoking, how much are you drinking?
Are you parting? From the outside, you look really good.
And I really want to call out to listeners who
like so many people reach out to me about heart palpitations,
and I think we all suffer from them for different reasons.
But for me, like I literally had a broken heart,
I was really sad. There was a lot of like
turmoil happening in my life. My parents were getting a divorce,
I was going through massive changes, and they just didn't

(07:14):
ask about that big part of me. Right, So I
passed all the tests on paper, and they said, well,
you know, at the moment, we can do this oblation again,
but if we go through with it, it's right next
to your sinus node, your essay node, and so if
we do that, you might have to wear a pacemaker
for the rest of your life. In that moment, it
was like one of those situations when your life flashes
before your eyes, and I was like, what the hell

(07:35):
is happening. I know that there's a better way to heal.
I don't want to identify as somebody who's sick, who
has a heart conditions. Makes no sense. And the irony
of this entire story is that I knew that there
was a better way. So I said. My dad was Indian,
my mom is Danish. I've only ever known my mom
to suffer from debilitating autoimmune disease, so rheumatoid arthritis. So
I've only ever known my mom to have deformity, so

(07:55):
for all of her limbs. Right, my mom is such
a fighter, you know. The model owner houserowing up was
eat it it's good for you, Drink it, it's good
for you. She tried every single Eastern modality to heal
her body. And my dad with his inside in Nayraveda.
My mom found this ashram in Valmaran and Quebec. It's
the Shivananda Ashram where we would go and spend summers.
So my summers as a kid, I didn't get to

(08:16):
go to fun summer camp. I literally had to go
to yoga camp.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yah.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
My dad would tap me on the shoulder at five
o'clock in the morning to go and meditate. But that
was my blueprint, and I would see my mom's symptoms subside.
I would see the energy of my parents shift here.
I would even feel better going to this place, right,
And so in that moment on the surgery table, I
knew that I had to go back to my roots,
and that's exactly what I did. So I called it
quits on the corporate world. Craig, my amazing husband, was

(08:41):
so supportive. I went and I lived at the ashram
for two months, and that's when I became a yoga teacher,
just for my own personal healing, and rathery at the Ashram,
returning to all of those ancient healing principles. My heart
palpitation subsided, the weight fell off my body. I stopped dieting,
I stopped being hardcore hardcore exercise, hardcore dieting, and my

(09:02):
body came into balance. And we can talk about this more,
but the structure at the ashram, literally the schedule is
set so that you were forced to be present. So
maybe for the first time in decades, I became present
to my thoughts, the quality of my thoughts, which God,
nobody in this world should have ever hurt, my feelings,
my emotions, the things that I was stuffing into my body,

(09:25):
and like you know, he stuffings into your body, and
I'm focus on doing, doing, doing, doing doing, I just
ignored everything. And so looking back, when I think about
my poor heart, was like, I can't do this anymore.
We can't take it. Like You've been ignoring all of
these symptoms for so long. Here's what's going on, and
I think that, you know, did I need the heart surgeries?

(09:46):
Probably not, Like I really think that had. I have
done just a lot of this introspection work, you know,
work with different coaches and guides, work on my frequency
and my vibration words that I use with my clients
all the time. But back then was completely woo woo.
I think that now today there's a different approach to
healing because the structure of my heart was actually healthy.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Oh my god, so many questions come to mind, but
thank you so much for sharing that. What beautiful insight
into why you are the person you are today. At
the time, what were they naming your condition out of interest?

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah? So I get it was given the label of
atrial tachycardia.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Right wow.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
And so when people go to the doctors, I mean,
what feels so good is to finally get a diagnosis. Right,
we all want a diagnosis. Great, we've got a diagnosis.
Now we're going to treat the diagnoses. But without getting
to the root. And as you and I were talking about,
we live in this symptom approach based healing methodology without
considering the body as its whole. So if we know

(10:43):
that the heart communicates to the rest of the body.
The rest of the body communicates to the heart. Why
wasn't there ever any other introspection to this?

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Right, so interesting how we always try and treat a
physical problem with the physical solution. But the thing is
so like we've now learned and we still talk about it,
but I don't think it's put into action where oh, actually,
what your mind is feeling, your body feels the emotions
that are being suppressed, Your body is showing you what
they are. So the physical is just the depiction of

(11:12):
what's happening everywhere else, in your subconscious, in your mind,
in your heart. But when it's a heart problem, you
end up trying to fix the heart as a physical
body part rather than thinking about, wait, but what is
the heart feeling? And we forget that the heart as
a muscle feels something. It's more like it's a muscle
and we have to try and fix it physically. But

(11:33):
it's so interesting that they try to fix it physically,
and it was actually something mentally and emotional that you
actually did that helped heal it.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
And what was so much worse for you know, I
started to identify as somebody who is sick. I'll never forget.
My brother asked me to do this triathlon with him.
My brother's ten years older. He's the athlete, he's the
end all of those things. And he asked me to
do it one year and I was like, well, no,
I can't. I've got a her condition. And thank God
for him. He's just looked at me one day and
this is close, like twenty eight, twenty nine, and he said,

(12:02):
how's that working for you? And I was just like,
my life stop. Because although the disease had passed, the
weight had come off. I started my healing journey. There's
obviously some part of my belief system that still identified
as somebody who had a heart condition. So because of
that I went. I found a cardiologist who was in
tune with healing. I found a reiki practitioner. I made

(12:24):
it kind of like my non negotiable to go back
to the Ashram consistently as my source of healing, because
it meant that I was moving myself to the number
one position of my priority list to heal, so that
I would never go back to that old version of
myself that identified with sickness and illness.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
And what was the routine that you had at the aushtrum. So,
for example, if people are trying to implement, you know,
I'm sure many people listening to this are like, oh
my gosh, I've I get help palpitations. Well, I feel
like I'm sad in my life right now. You know,
if they don't have access to the ostrum. What is
a simple routine that you were doing there that you
recommend people implement into their life now to create mimic

(13:00):
that same effects.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
I love this question, So I really I have this
protocol with my clients, and it's really about building your
ashram at home. I would love for every single listener
to be able to go and experience an ashram. I
know that you have many many times and the magic
that comes with that, but it also means that if
I'm looking to go somewhere to feel a certain way,
that I'm putting that power outside of myself, when true

(13:22):
healing and consciousness is within. So I need to learn
how to replicate that at home wherever I am. So
maybe let's first describe the rituals at the ashram and
then we'll describe the second half. So, like I said before,
the structure the schedule at the ashram is pretty strict, honestly,
so strict and repetitive and consistent to the point where
it kind of feels like torture where they're like, oh

(13:43):
my god, this again yoga, you know. So first of all,
we wake up early in the morning, We rise with
the sun every single day. We hydrate with warm, nourishing
liquids to support our digestion and talx and elimination. From there,
we move into about thirty minutes of meditation and about
an hour of set saying so set syng sitting in
community gathering, chanting together, which activates your vagus nerve, which

(14:06):
is like the spiritual calling and attunement of your own frequency,
followed by some sort of a lecture from whether it's
a swami at the ashtram or a spiritual teacher that's there.
It's the education around like, hey, there's this wisdom and
intelligence within your body, let's learn how to awaken it.
So we're already anchoring that belief. From there, we moved
to our yoga practice. And yoga practice isn't like this

(14:28):
crazy hardcore, you know, hot yoga. It's thirty minutes of
breath work, breath work again, attuning to our vegus nerve.
We can talk about that in a bit, turning into
heart rate variability, calming down to the heart rate, coming
into the present moment, balancing the left and right meridians
of the body in or energetic centers right before we
move into the asiner practice. The asiner practice is the

(14:51):
actual yoga poses that most people in the West are
familiar with. But the really cool thing about this lineage
of yoga that I grew up with at the Shavvenandashram
was after every single pose that you hold, you're holding it,
you move into shavasna. So hold the pose, move into shavasna.
Hole the pose, move into the shavasna, and it's training
your mind and your body to move through these periods

(15:13):
of stress where it's like, Okay, I want to get
out of this the mental resistance that comes with us.
So we all experience off the mat and then we
go into relaxation. So we're ultimately retraining our nervous system
on how to build that resilience of moving into fight
or flight right or something stressful, then back into relaxation.
It's retraining and we take that back into the world.

(15:34):
From there, we go into beautiful sethfig high vibrational brunch,
which is like so colorful. I said, I started eating
more carbs than ever before, and that's carbs from the earth,
like really trusting in nature to heal the body, reds, purples, blues, greens,
like all of these beautiful colors, more fiber than I
was definitely eating. Back home, and the afternoon's open for

(15:54):
either devotional practices, some karma yoca, maybe some study, and
then we repeat that whole thing at noight we go
back into our breath, work, back into our yoga at
four o'clock. Six o'clock is an early dinner. Seven thirty
is back into set saying, and then lights out by
about nine thirty or ten every single night. So imagine
doing that for two months straight. Yes, talk about retraining

(16:14):
for this, like really stressed out, high intensity, plugged in
nervous system, you know, behavior that I had into now
feeling a sense of rest and digest I put the
wisdom back into my body to heal, so it could
really just start to activate instead of worrying about stress
and worrying and anxiety and fear. It can now operate
and do the things that it needed to do every

(16:35):
single day. To heal.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
You know, I remember when I when we go back
to the actual room every year that we go to
to do our practices. My first few days, my body
is like what are you doing? Like high alert, and
I'm like, so, what's next?

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Where do we go?

Speaker 2 (16:51):
What's happening? Why were you sitting around? Why are we
not doing this? And it really takes i'd say good
few days, if not a week, oh yeah, to settle
in to the space of space, like to set it
into the idea that we have time, set into the
idea that we don't have to go from thing to
thing to thing, and that the busyness is sometimes a

(17:12):
way to hide or step away from what you actually
have to come to terms with.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah, there's an article written about that too, like what's
the new emotion that we all have? How are you busy? Right?
How are you busy?

Speaker 3 (17:25):
It's so true? Are you trying to get out of
saying that?

Speaker 1 (17:28):
I know it's so true?

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Right?

Speaker 1 (17:30):
And we're giving each other permission to just be busy. Well,
busy to me, my shoulders are up at my ears,
everything's contracted, my digestion shut down, everything's kind of sore.
I'm not sleeping well. I'm not, you know, I'm eating
all the time, so it's really addressing that. Maybe that's
a good question for your audience is what are the
practices that you have every single day that are training

(17:51):
your nervous system to be in this hypervigilant, busy state
and the retraining with your question about what can we do,
like what practice is from the Ashram? Can we rebuild?
You can obviously do every single one of those things
that I had mentioned from the Ashram back home, but
if you want to start with one or two, your
morning is magic. It has to be able to set
the tone for the day that you want ahead. So

(18:13):
one of my favorite meditation teachers, he came up with
this analogy RPM rise P meditate. Every day I say
add on a G RPMG rise P meditate, and then gratitude.
So every morning, before I even get out of bed,
my hands are over my heart. I'm literally like, thank
you for waking up today. Thank you to this heartbeat

(18:33):
who's been beating for me since before I even arrived
on this planet. Thank you for detoxing overnight, for replenishing
and restoring my body. Thank you for the ability to
wake up in the morning with a sense of common peace.
Help me carry this with me throughout the day. And
it's like we now know, through incredible practitioners and doctors
and science that is now validating that the power of

(18:56):
gratitude can change the frequency of your heart. Right, So
you mentioned before the power of your heart having this
electromagnetic frequency. We now know that through gratitude practices, you
can expand your own electromagnetic frequency beyond the radius of
your own body. So if you start off in gratitude
or throughout the day practice gratitude, you're radiating that energy

(19:19):
to people around you. You're going to be impacting their field,
impacting the way that they feel. You're going to notice
that people are going to want to come talk to
you and maybe smile at you or say good morning.
It's like, it's pretty incredible the power of our energy
when we tune into it. It so is.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
And you know, the busy thing that we were talking about,
it's almost like now it's not it is an emotion,
but it's also almost like an award that we think
we're giving ourselves that like, oh, yeah, I'm just so busy, right,
And I think like, if I reflect on it, I
definitely had that mindset of it, because I was like, oh,
it proves that I'm doing something, and it proves that
I like doing such important things because I'm busy all

(19:55):
the time. But actually, in the moments that I have
felt that way and I have actually been very busy,
it has depleted my mental energy, my physical energy, my
emotional energy, my ability to interact with people in a
way that's present, to be able to interact with the
people that I love with presents and with mindfulness.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
And with love.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
And it almost like it depletes you of all the
things that you actually want to be. It depletes you
of all the emotions that you want to have. It
depletes you of like the ability to actually have meaningful
interactions with the people you want to have meaningful interactions with.
So it strips actually, it actually takes things away from
you more than it gives to you.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Right, And I think, like the intention behind the busy aspect,
let's focus on the positive with it, right, So we
treat cortisol as like we demonize it. Cortisol. Oh, stress,
you're gonna gain way, You're gonna hold onto fad, You're
gonna do all these things too much. Cortisol. Cortisol is
actually a beautiful thing. It's our motivation in the morning,
it's our get up and go, it's our drive. But
living in the state of constantly feeling like we're wearing

(20:55):
busy with a badge of honor. Yeah, right, and like
no one else is noticing. It's just you that's putting
self impose limitation and belief upon yourself. Over time, without
practice coming into kind of that RESTful state, we've become
addicted to living there. That's what that was my mo
The busier than I could be if I was sitting down,
resting or watching a movie, I need to be doing something.
I can't just tell I have to be doing something.

(21:17):
If I was in a car, it's like I had
to be listening to something educational. I couldn't waste time
in the car. Right, it's constantly busy in doing and
if you get stuck in that kind of hypervigilant state too.
To your point, it's that analogy of like you know
animals running in the wild from a predator, right, they're
running constantly there. You know, their processes and their bodies

(21:38):
shut down, digestion stops, and yet we operate at that
pace for as long as we can. Then we go
out and we try to biohack our way to try
to feel better, do things that are really really hard, right,
to kind of shift us back and because we think
that it's good and it's strong. But I would say
the most challenging practices for any of the people that
I work with is really just like stop exactly breathe

(21:59):
and learn how to be in their bodies. Like if
a lot of my men, specifically that I work with,
if I guide them to an embodiment practice to come
into their bodies within fifteen seconds, their eyes are closed,
but they can't keep them closed. They need to open
them to see. Yeah, so much discomfront. I don't want
to be and there need to be doing something keep
my eyes open? Right, and women too, right. We live
in a world where we need to be busy all

(22:20):
the time. We try to wear these accolades of being
moms and entrepreneurs and doing it all, and we think
that we need to show up to everybody else by
doing it all. We think it's a weakness to stop
because it makes us vulnerable, yes, right, it makes us
be it as though we're going to be perceived as
not successful.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
Yeah, it's so much I always think about this.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
I know I'm in that state when certain workouts that
are really intense feel more attractive than the ones that
are calm. And I have to like sit into the
pose and you have to like go through each thing slowly.
And I always, for a long time, I've chosen the
hard the ones that I perceive as being harder. But actually,
if I think about it, sitting in the arseness or

(22:59):
like the slow movements of yoga, the reason I avoid
it is because I don't want to go through the
slow pace. I'm so used to the fast pace. This weekend,
actually I took a nap a day, nap for like
a couple of hours. And I since me and Jay
have been married, I've probably napped in the day maybe twice.
He's seen me do that because I just don't. I'm
never and when that was when I was unwell and

(23:21):
had COVID, those are probably the only two times. And
it was so interesting because I was reflecting back on
it and I woke up from the nap and I
was like, oh my God, like what just happened? As
I said to Jane, and I was like, when was
the last time you saw me nap? And he was like, yeah,
I don't think I've really seen you nap. And I
think for the whole day, I was kind of going
on about it, saying, I can't believe I napped, Like

(23:42):
I don't even know what happened to me, Like why
I told my mom about it, I told my dad
about it.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
I was like really in shock that I actually needed
to nap. And Jay was like, God, I feel like
this nap really affected you.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
And I was like, and I think it was the
idea that one why am I tired? One why am
I acting on it? And two why am I acting
on it? Why did my body need that much rest?
I never need that much rest, So it was almost
like my body was telling me you should have been
doing something else, or my mind was telling me, but
my body was so exhausted and I really needed that nap.
And it's so funny how the rest feels more uncomfortable.

(24:14):
And I was like, oh, I could have organized this,
and I could have done this, and I probably should
have read this book for work, but it reminded me
of that because I felt so uncomfortable and I had
to explain why I took that nap to so many people.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
You had to justify it app to other people, right,
And let's have around that for a second, because you know,
I can hear a lot of your listeners probably empathizing.
You know, we have to rationalize it afterwards, right, instead
of just owning it. But here's what like again, science
is proving at the astrom they rest in between those
yoga poses. They rest because they know that your productivity
can actually go up. Your motivation goes up, your creativity

(24:50):
goes up, the way that your body functions goes up.
Your digestion is able to turn, you know, go up.
So you know, when we think about the things that
your body is communicating every single day, I think, as women,
especially because we do have that intuition, we've almost mastered
ignoring the symptoms. Yes, right, So one of the practices
that I have whenever I'm speaking to larger audiences is,

(25:11):
you know, how many people here, by rays showing their hands,
how many people here suffer from digestive issues, heartburn, gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea,
actne on their skin, ezema, low sex drive, lack of concentration,
inability to sleep, inability to rest, hypervigilants, worry. You know,

(25:31):
every single hand.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
Yeah, yeah, by the INDs already have.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
So these are symptoms. These are modern day symptoms that
we're all suffering from, and we're identifying with them. They
become us over time, especially if we're not doing anything
to change them, and then we're normalizing them in society
and the work that you and I do with our clients.
It's like recognizing those symptoms are so common, but they're
certainly not normal. And so if you can just honor hey, okay,

(25:57):
I'm getting this, you know, irritability every single day, getting
these digestive issues every single day, instead of ignoring them,
tuning in understanding where they come from, talking with a practitioner,
and then working with your body, which is unlike any
other body on this planet with a different background and
genetic code and obligations and expectations and everything, working on

(26:17):
a protocol that's so unique for you to subside those symptoms,
because if we do have a symptom, it's simply our
body's way of communicating with us so that we can
resolve it. And instead we see the accumulation over time
that leads to further imbalances for the diseases that eventually
lead to disease disease just doesn't show up overnight. Cancer

(26:37):
just doesn't show up overnight. It's the result of this
stress on the body. And when our body no longer
has the means or resilience to deal with the stress within,
the red alert is going to go on.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, I feel like we've normalized it because the only
time anything spoken about is when it's.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
It's chronic state.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
So you don't hear doctors going on about if you've
got a bit of bloating, should be get if you
have eczema, you know, just put this cream on it.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
It's so interesting.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
I keep seeing these ads whenever I'm watching something, when
an advert comes on, it's all a lot of them
are health things, like a cream for XMA or this,
And it's so interesting to me that they will say
this can help take your XMA away with them two days,
and then at the end it's like, can cause cancer,
can cause multi disorders, can cause all these things. And

(27:27):
I think about how we've normalized the fact that you
can take away these daily symptoms by putting a band
aid on it, and like you're not really taking them away,
you're just allowing You're not allowing your body to show
it and I think there's a difference. You're not taking
it away. Your body just isn't showing the symptom because
you're suppressing that, and so it still exists in you.
But all of these little things, they're trying to take

(27:49):
them away so easily by pretending like they don't exist,
but they're still developing in our body. And so I
think it's normalized because the only time you then hear
about a health issue is when it's it's chronics, when
it's a cancer or heart disease or diabetes, and so
we get used to thinking, oh, well, the doctors don't
saying this is a big deal. So if I have
bad digestion for three years, four years, five years, my

(28:10):
whole life, it's a normal thing.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Oh my gosh. Yeah. And that goes from like all
these imbalances that you're talking about that are seemingly quite simple,
to even bigger things like miscarriages. Doctors are like, I'm
so sorry, it's it's normal. Ya. It's like, well, no,
it's not normal for me, right, And so I think
that you know, the wisdom, it's time for the wisdom
to come back into our bodies. And I think that
deep down a lot of women understand this concept of

(28:33):
consciousness within us or intelligence, like we see it all
the time. If we break our bone, our body knows
what to do to heal it, repairs it. If we
have a wound or a cut, our body heals it.
But we were never taught that we could become our
own healers. And so I still think, like right now,
it's still a little bit of a foreign concept. But
as this world of like quantum healing is now waking

(28:54):
up or understanding. Okay, you know what kind of done
with the system of diagnoses and diagnosing. Ye, if we
understand that we have a physical body, but there's also
an energetic body that stands behind it. And now we
understand through science that every single cell has its own frequency. Okay,
And if you think about an orchestra, if there's one
instrument in the orchestra, call it a violin that's off tune.

(29:17):
Now that's a cell in your body. The whole orchestra
is going to go off. But we have to understand
what's the source of the imbalance and the frequency. And
this is where I think, you know, not only ancient
healing modalities, things like aire beta and traditional Chinese medicine
and so many other ancient cultures, but also sound healing
and frequency healing and PEMF and vibrational tables and acupuncture

(29:41):
and all these modalities that I think need to be
needs to go viral, and it needs to go mainstream, right.
I'm amazed at how many people still haven't experienced something
like acupuncture when it balances the meridians in your body,
like I've seen so many people yield through acupuncture and
through sound healing.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
It's just it's incredible, it is, And I think we
get skeed of, you know, whenever I talk about anything
to do with natural means of healing. And I find
it really interesting because people's a lot of people's automatic
reaction is stop telling people misinformation, and you know, doctors,
like you can't tell people people that doctors aren't wrong.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
I'm not saying doctors are wrong, but.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
I think people are so scared to believe that they
can heal themselves because it feels like such a heavy responsibility.
It's like, wait, how are you telling me that I
can heal myself and I don't need to go to
a doctor. And I'm not saying you don't need to,
but what I am saying is I truly believe that
how the person that knows how to heal your self
best is because you are living in your body day

(30:39):
and day out. You are observing your if you choose to,
you can observe your body every single day, in every
single moment, so you have the ability to get to
know your body in the best way possible, more than
any diagnostic tool possibly can. And the more that you
connect to your body and your heart and your mind,
the more your body starts speaking to you. And so
it's not saying that you're worried about something you don't

(31:01):
speak to a professional about it. But in the day
to day life where little things are going wrong, you
should be able to self correct by having the education
to do so. And I know you know it does
feel heavy like to think that you can heal yourself
after being told that just for a coffin of cold
you should go to the doctor and get antibiotics. Of course,
you're going to be scared to take that responsibility onto

(31:22):
yourself because you've forever been told that it is not
in your control and that you do not have the
power to do it. But again, just because something is
normalized does not mean it's the right way or the
right thing to do. And so I think people's fear
is very justified. But I think as soon as you
start taking it back into your own hands. Like I
share this not.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
Very often, actually I don't even know whether I've shared
on this.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
Podcast, but I have chosen for the past ten years
not to take medication, like conventional medication. And at first,
I swear people thought I was psychotic. I was like,
I had a headache, everyone take just take an advil.
I was like, I don't want to take an advil.
I'm like, And now my friend's come over and they're like,
do you have advain? I'm like, can I give you
peppermint oil on your head?

Speaker 3 (32:03):
Yeah, for ten minutes.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
If it doesn't work, ask me for the advil and
I will happily give it. Actually I don't have advalin
in the house, but I will order it for you.
But try this, or if you have a cough, let
me make you some udgewayhing water and if it stops
the irritation, great.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
If it doesn't, I will order you some cough serrup.
And what I've.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Realized is, in those ten years, touch with it. Even
when I had a tooth infection, which I think I
had messaged you about at some point years ago. I
got tooth infection and the passor was I take antibiotics,
and my body was telling me you don't take antibiotics, like,
don't do it. And I put clove wall and I
was chip. My mom was like, chew on cloth. It
will help with the pain, it will help the inflammation.

(32:42):
And I had those antibiotics that were given to me
and I didn't touch them. And all that to say,
there are I'm not saying everything will be healed by that,
but trusting in my body's ability to actually do what
it's supposed to do by me fueling it in the
way I know I should. So I think it's two things.
It's like, yes, your body can do the work, but
are you giving it the things to allow it to

(33:02):
do the work in the best way possible. Are you
feeding it, nourishing it, listening to the right things, learning
the right things to know what to do in those situations.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
So it goes in two ways.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Your body has the ability, but not if you're not
treating it in the right way to actually fight the
way that it needs to.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, don't be silly. I know the people that you're
talking about who say it's irresponsible in all the things,
but we're also waking up to the fact that Western
medicine is also a very antiquated form of training. Right
the fact that we now you know, this past year
was shining light on the fact that doctors really have
no nutrition training when nutrition and hydration is a pillar
of survival keeping a human body alive, it makes no sense.

(33:40):
And the fact that we just know that there's so
many things that we can be doing. So I think
that if you can become your own greatest investigator to
understand what's causing your symptoms or if you're noticing that
you do get things like head of headaches pretty consistently,
something's caught it causing the headache your body communicating like hey,
figure this out for me, right, and like you don't
pop TITLENL and advil when I needed. I just really

(34:03):
understand what I can be doing and all these other
incredible modalities that we can be doing.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
Also, and even with breath work what you mentioned, like,
I emphasized this so much because I'm seen not even
just mentally and emotionally, but physically, what difference it made
I from a young age was told I was asthmatic.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
So I was on in halo's when I was younger,
when I would work out, when I was, you know,
doing any kind of exercise, or I was at school
and I did pee, and I was like getting a
bit out of breath. In my mind, I was told,
take you in haler before you even do that. Take
you in haler before you even go into an exercise,
just in case, so that your lungs can handle it.
And so I grew up taking an inhaler before I
started running, before I played with my friends. As soon

(34:41):
as I felt a little bit out of breath, when
I had allergies for cats or dogs or whatever it was,
it was like minehala was the way to go. I
made a decision that I did not want to use
minehala when I got into I think my teens, and
then when I got to my twenties, I decide and
I was use it here and there. As soon as
I felt my chest go tight, it was scary for me.
So I'd be like, okay, I need to take my inhaler.
I made a decision not too. And that was after

(35:03):
learning breathwork and what I realized was, I would say
every single time I felt it, all I did was
take deep breaths, And all I did was sit there
with my breath and go deeper and deeper into it.
Whether it was at night when I was feeling wheezy,
whether I'd just been around a cat and I was
having an allergy for it.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
You know, there was so.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Many times where I've been through it where I was
about to take reach for something and I didn't, and
breathwork was the thing that got me through it. Even
the most recent time, I haven't had an allergy for
such a long time. But I went to a house
and I had a shoot where they had obviously had
a cat in the house, and I was literally in
this photo shoot and my team was seeing me getting
more and more breathless through it, and I actually got

(35:45):
a wheeze, which I hadn't had for a long time.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
My face was tingling from it. Everything.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
I got home and I was like, I have to
have a shower. I need to put eucalyptus oil in
the shower, and then I need to get out and
for half an hour I need to.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
Deep breathe, let the oxypen back in.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Yeah, an hour, maybe too later, I felt like nothing
had happened to me.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
Yeah, and it was just so interesting for me to observe.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
And again I'm not saying this is going to heal everyone,
but I am saying it was so interesting for me
after not having experienced it for a long time, actually
putting it into practice and being like wow, I would
have normally, yeah, taken something for this, done something for this,
but my body knew what I needed, and because I
listened to it, I didn't go straight into trying to
work or do anything else. I took two hours where

(36:29):
I was trying to listen to what's happening, and I
took action in that way. And breath is just so
powerful it's unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
So what did you do? You took your body from
a stressful state, yes, where your mind wanted to take
over and say, oh my god, it's happening again, start
to freak out more anxiety and instead of going to
pop the pill or whatever your trained response is for
when that anxiety comes up, which is a rightly deserved
anxiety response. Like, I'm not dismissing that, but there's so
few people because of your background and where you came
from knew. Oh, hang on a second, my body's stressed.

(36:57):
I need to come back into balance again. What are
their modalities that got and help me? And it's retraining
And I think that people need to understand, like you
can train your body, you can retrain your nervous system whatever,
this state of comfort that you're used to being in.
I know for me growing up, I was on antibiotics
every single year from the age of three until about
fifteen when my mom found a functional medicine.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Doctor and we'll be you on antibiotics, fool.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
I tonsilitus every year, tonsilitis every single year. It was wild.
And back then it was just like, oh antibiotics, Sure,
two weeks later again, Sure, give it to it again,
over and over. Right, Now we know the gut microbiomes
completely wiped out, and the vagus nerve moves from our
gut through our heart and up to our brain. Right,
this constant state of stress that's moving back and forth

(37:42):
through my heart right, and the bacteria that are also
involved in our immune system and stuff like that. And
after stopping that those antibiotics, I've never looked back like
I really haven't. So again, I think it's just about
asking questions and being curious. Just be curious if there's
another way that you can heal your body.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Yeah, I just don't change the plan. Just have a
plan A. Yeah, that's a little bit different. And if
Plan A doesn't work within an hour, within two hours,
go back to the plan B can. I think it's
just giving yourself that grace of space to think and
create a new pathway. And if that new pathway doesn't work,
go back to the old pathway.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Yeah. And I love that you brought up breath work too,
So breathwork I think is also like the future of medicine. Yeah,
I really do so. If you can imagine going to
your doctor's office, sitting in the waiting room and being
prompted through a screen on how to breathe deeply, I
wonder how many people would go into the appointment like, oh,
you know what, I don't know if I need to
be here anymore, or if it was something that was

(38:37):
more acute, or if it was related to an illness
then leaving the doctor's office. But the first thing that
they recommended was breathwork every single day, right, or even meditation, right. Like,
I think that there's so many people out there who
say that they can't meditate. Yes, And it's like, well,
if I told you that there was this one thing
that science is now proving that can lower your anxiety,

(38:58):
improve your happiness, give you great your creativity and mental focus,
optimize your digestion, literally lower inflammation in your joints, help
you sleep better, help you have better relationships, all proven, Right,
would you do it? Yeah, we would do it, right,
But when we lived in a pill, but it was
a pill, that's easier, right, So I don't have a
five or ten minutes in the morning.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
Yeah, you spoke about energy, you know, we would talk
about energy and frequencies, and I think sometimes, you know,
back in the day you said it was woo woo.
I still think people have that narrative of it, that.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
It is a little bit woo woo.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
I would love to hear one when you're speaking about energy,
When people are talking about energy, what does it mean,
what does it look like, how can people experience it?

Speaker 3 (39:35):
And frequencies?

Speaker 2 (39:37):
Discuss that a little bit so people can understand where
in their day they're experiencing frequencies and how it affects them.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, if you think about your current state of energy,
I want you to consider when you wake up in
the morning, what's the most important feeling that you want,
what's the most important emotion that you want? And I
bring this up with my clients on our first call.
You know, the first call is always want to tell
me what to eat, what's the supplier protocol, what's the diet?
And I'm like, okay, I've been brace a little bit. Yeah,

(40:04):
I don't want to know what to do. I want
to know what to do also, right, But when we
peel back the layers, when I'm understanding my clients, so
that other branch that I'm working with my clients on
is understanding what is your core value system? What do
you believe to be true about healing and health? How
are you describing yourself every day? I've said a few
times on this podcast, my blueprint was anxiety. How would

(40:24):
my body function if my blueprint was anxiety? How do
you identify? And typically within the first sixty minutes on
this initial call, I met with tears by like ninety
percent of the callers because they identify with a memory
that they had. You know, last time, I felt like
really happy and like peaceful in my body, with like
no worries in the world. I was like five or
six years old, Like, I remember a version of myself

(40:47):
that felt peace, but I don't feel it anymore.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
I think I cried in my first cool you did, Yeah,
I remember now that you mentioned. I was like, I
think I'm one of those clients.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
But it's so normal way because we peel back the
layers of what do I think I need to be doing.
What's the next thing that I can try, what's the
next protocol I'm going to try something new? What's the
next magic pill? There's no magic pill. Let's peel back
the layers to figure out, like, when's the last time
that you actually felt good in your body? What are
the emotions that we can waken from that point? Right?
Have you ever read any of David Hawkins? No? But

(41:20):
I washed his stuff. It's like incredible, Right. So he
has actually a chart of vibrations that people can look
at where we can actually measure the vibrational frequency of
specific emotions. When somebody's feeling anxiety or shame or stress
or worry or tension or fear within their body, like
that energy comes in, it's a lower vibrational frequency. When

(41:43):
someone can shift into feeling a sense of happiness or
peace or even joy, all of a sudden that expansion
opens up. We can measure this, and we now know
through doctors like doctor jo Despenza, right, whether you can
visualize the feeling and make it feel really real in
the moment, your mind and your body doesn't know the
difference between it happening in the past versus happening right now.

(42:05):
This is true gratitude, right. So with my clients, I
help them really uncover, like what is your core value?
The sad part about all this is that I would
say a lot of people, how do you want to
feel when you wake up in the morning. I want
to feel successful. I want to feel motivated. I want
to feel wealthy, I want to feel admired, I want
to feel like you know, people want to connect with

(42:28):
me like, yeah, none of those are really emotions. Yeah,
the core emotion that you want to feel. And it
could take like honestly up to thirty minutes for some
people to really even come to the word happy.

Speaker 3 (42:39):
I know I was going to feel how do I
want to feel? And I was like content and satisfied?

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Did you come into this world to just feel content
and satisfied? What's bigger than content and satisfied? For you?

Speaker 3 (42:50):
What's bigger than content and satisfied?

Speaker 1 (42:52):
If you were to wake up tomorrow morning and you
wake up feeling content and satisfied, is there anything bigger
than feeling content and satisfied?

Speaker 3 (43:00):
I can think of lots of words, so I could
just shout them out, ye, shut them out? Devoted, useful,
not this?

Speaker 1 (43:08):
How do you feel when you're useful to others and
devoted and content and satisfied?

Speaker 3 (43:13):
Present whole?

Speaker 1 (43:14):
How do you feel when you're present and whole? You
can see how this exercise is kind of so good.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
It's actually good going through it. How do I feel
when I'm present in whole?

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Sometimes? And if listeners are doing this, do you close
your eyes just come into your body? How do you
feel in the morning when you wake up and you
feel content and whole and on purpose and pleasant and whole?
How do you feel what's that emotion within your body?

Speaker 3 (43:37):
Joy?

Speaker 1 (43:38):
There? It is?

Speaker 3 (43:38):
Yeah, it's always joy.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
I feel joy? Right, and we think about all these things. Yeah,
I want to be on purpose, I want to contribute,
I want to be able to support others. I want
to be in mission based right, But how do all
those things make me feel. That makes me feel like
joy for some other people makes them feel a sense
of peace and calm.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
So if I could work with you every single day
when you wake up every single morning and just visualize,
like that train thought that took you through all of
those things, the thoughts that came up, the activities that
you're doing, the people that you're meeting with, like, get
all that in, Like, how does that make you feel joy?
Your core value then that day is joy. So if
you are lining all of your decisions around what you eat,

(44:18):
is this going to take me close to joy or
deplete me from joy? I'm going to eat that. Is
watching this movie going to take me towards joy or
deplete me from joy? I'm going to watch that? Is
it doing this activity going to move me towards joy
or not? Right? And I'm hearing listeners say, yeah, but mohen,
I go to a job that you know I need
to make money, it doesn't bring me joy. Yeah, but
that's your ownership for your healing blueprint to seek more
joy in the opportunities when you can.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
Yes, right, my gosh.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Frequencies and energy people, and I feel like we spoke
about vegas nev as well. Could you just talk a
little bit more about that.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
Yeah, vegas nervous is like miracle wisdom. I call it
intelligence of the body that moves from our brain down
through our body, passes through our heart into our gut microbiome,
and it's by directionals, so it's communicating to the brain
commuting back to the gut through the heart. Right, So
we have more nerve endings also within the gut microbiome
than we do within the brain, but we don't have

(45:09):
any connection to what's happening in our gut. It's become
this trendy word. There's science behind it that we're trying
to validate. It's still evolving. We can't see your gut, right,
so we're so does connected. Get to know your gut?
Get to know your gut through things like your bowel
movements through you know, if you're somebody who gets nervous
all the time and your stomach kind of goes off, right,
just get to know your gut is your digestion optimal

(45:32):
because if it's not, you're suffering from any of those
digestive symptoms. It's sending a stressful state, a stressful feeling
up to the brain. So for somebody who suffers from
something like stress or anxiety, is it stress or anxiety
or does it come from a deeper cause? Right, and
we now know that we can do vague toning exercises,
and Western practitioners will often recommend a device that's you

(45:54):
know you can put up. It's like this electrical stimulation
for your vagus nerve that you hold up. I'm holding
my pulse points right now. They're great, they can be effective.
But again, ancient wisdom knew about this. They knew that
through humming, chanting, we can activate our vegas nerve. Right
when you're gargling, you activate your vegus nerve. When you're

(46:15):
speaking with some people, there's a way that you can
speak to activate the vegas nerve. Through breath work, you
activate your vegas nerve. Through yoga practice you activate your
vegas nerve. There's so many modalities that activate your vegus
nerve that we need to focus on because you're building
resilience back into the body. Interesting, So going back to
the resiliency training, you're retraining your vagal tone by shifting

(46:35):
your body. Knowing how to shift your body from fight
or flight into your parasympathetic, which is your rest and
digest So when you're in your rest and digest mode,
this is your This is when you're priming your vagel
tone to be optimal. Your digestion is on point, your
energy is on point. You eat when you're hungry, you
stop eating when you're full. Right, you can recognize anxious

(46:57):
th thoughts, and you can come back into the present moment.
It really is our body functions at its best. But
again you have to understand, like when am I living
out of alignment and too far over here for too long?
I'll stay there when it feels good. When I need
to be productive and on overdrive, maybe giving a presentation
then know how to calm back.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Yeah, when you said sound frequencies, it really reminded me
of I tried so many different meditations as I was
coming into the practice, and I found chanting and the
practice of montra meditation was the most encapsulating one like
the one that attracted me and took over my senses
more than anything else did. And I was thinking this

(47:35):
morning when I was doing my practice, I've started this
hibit every time I get distracted or my waivers anywhere
with the mantra I put my hand on my chest
and I feel the vibration and my body of the
of the mantra that I'm chanting.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
And it completely takes me back into my body.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
Like that feeling of the sound vibration where I feel
it in my heart and I feel it through my body.
It completely brings me back into the present moment. And
so that's why I always found montra meditation to be
a little bit more useful for me than silent, because one,
the mantra carries so much energy that has existed in
the world, as has been said over and over again,
like words carry so much weight and power. But at

(48:15):
the same time, the sound vibration that's going through me,
it's almost like a humming feeling. You're saying the mantra
over and over again, feeling that sound go through you
over and over again. I've even heard that the different
levels that you say it makes the difference. So when
I'm chancing it, I'll do a higher pitch, which I
feel up here, and then I'll do a lower pitch,
which I feel down and like your body, yeah exactly, yeah,

(48:36):
And so it's so beautiful to play with those sound
vibrations as you're doing your meditation because it kind of
takes you up to your mind and then down to
your feet.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
Yeah, and this is something you can do on your own.
You can do this with your kids. You can do
this anytime. You can, like gosh, just happy birthday every
single day, which is powerful. Yes, I'll never forget. After
I was giving my spiritual name, so you chant the
same mantra over and over and over and over and
over and over and over. And I got up to
stand up and I was walking, and in that moment,
I was like, I can't feel my feet. I cannot

(49:04):
feel my feet on the ground. This is so good.
Don't lose this, don't lose this. It was just like
this incredible light feeling. And again it was free. There
is no psychedelics, there is no plan, medicine or anything needed.
It's just something that we need to shed light on.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
What would you say?

Speaker 2 (49:17):
You know, I've actually not made it through any of
my questions because this has been such a great conversation.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
But I love it so much. I guess it.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
You know, for anybody hearing this and they're like, I
want to start this journey, but I don't even know
where to start. What are some of the tips that
you give to people to just start off with as
a baseline, Let's start with food, because I feel like
foods are places where people formally confuse in lost. Right now,
what are some of the things that you recommend people
incorporate into their life.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Yeah, So for listeners, I have an incredible program on
my website, So go to Monasharma dot com and it's
the Roots of Healing. So the things that you and
I've been talking about today kind of just recaps all
of that. Food is such an important piece because I
think we need to stop thinking of like just throwing
things down the hatch and expecting her bodies to deal
with that fast food. Where do we start with us? So,

(50:03):
food is information for every single cell in your body.
So how you fuel your body is everything. And we
live in a world where we've been taught to believe
that food that comes from boxed packages, you know, with
these fancy words on the front of the box, healthy, organic,
gluten free, keto, paleo. It's like, oh, it must be
good for me. But from the diabetic standpoint, it's a

(50:24):
boxed dead food. There's no information or life force energy there.
So I would say, do an audit. So if Ribby
and I were in your kitchen today, what would we
want to see? What would you know? Intuitively, like we
probably would just throw in the trash.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
Yeah, what you hiding? What you hiding? And you'll cover
that you don't want us to open.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
And always say your health, your kitchen is your primary
source of healthcare. Healthcare starts in your kitchen. So fuel
it like a medicine cabinet. Right when you go grocery
shopping shop the outer perimeter of the store where there
are more things from nature, the colorful red blue, purples,
greens that I was talking about that come from nature,
from the earth. Fuel it with that and become an

(51:04):
expert at reading labels. Right. Because of this, like you know,
revolution of fast processed foods, we need to decipher the
foods that are causing us to be sick and imbalanced.
We know that these ultra processed foods are linked to
diseases amongst adults and children, things like metabolic dysfunction, diabetes,
and obesity and even cancer rates are going up. So

(51:26):
control with your dollar and make better decisions right. And
it's not to say you've got to go full turkey,
but just opt for more real whole foods from nature
foods with no ingredient labels, and they know you're busy.
But now at the grocery store you can get things
that are pre chopped, pre washed to make things easy
and use your Sundays as a food prep day to

(51:48):
prepare for the week. So chop store them in glass
food containers so that they're just grab and go or
grab and saute throughout the week and take away the
ability to reach for the foods that you know intuitively
are making you sick.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Planning and prepping is so important, Like I've started doing
that whe whenever I'm making dinner or on the weekend,
if I have some extra time, one I make sure
things are chopped so that I know that I have
like veggies, even if I want to dip into a
hummus or something like. Instead of going to where there's
packaged foods, the first thing I know I can go
to is my fridge or my fruit bowl or something.
And I've noticed such a difference. I'd rather have food

(52:24):
that I've made the night before then I want from
a packet. I'd rather have chop up some fruit and
eat it instead of going to pick up a protein
bar or like something that is just you can open
up and it's literally been there for like a year
on a shelf. But I will say I think it
takes a second two or a month or more to

(52:44):
get your body used to having those foods, because if
you've been used to it for so long, it shocks you.
It is a lot more preparation than you're used to.
And so I think easing into it is one thing,
but also giving yourself grace of like, Okay, if right
now I am twenty percent whole foods and eighty percent
packaged foods, the aim is to switch that around.

Speaker 3 (53:04):
The aim is to be at.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
Twenty percent maybe package foods, eighty percent whole foods. And
I love what you said about things with no ingredient labels. Yeah,
I never thought of it in that way, but it's
so true. It's like you shouldn't need to read the
back of a packet to you know, you can eat.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
It Apple's spinach, just no ingrediently. Well, that's there, right.

Speaker 3 (53:21):
And eventually you become more attracted to it. And I
think that's the point.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
Like I always remember this, and it's in regards to
any part of your life.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
My teacher.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Rather than that, Sammy says a lot, and he says,
don't think about what you're taking away, think about what
you're adding in first. So when you start adding in
goodness into your life, in practices, in foods, in rituals,
whatever it is, naturally the lower frequency things or the
things that you actually don't shouldn't be having, will slowly
fall away and.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
You won't even be attracted to them anymore.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
You got it.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
And I remember that even when I was going through
phases of like going out and doing things that I
wasn't good for my body and I started meditating, it
was like they were clashing. There were two wells that
meant to be together. And so the more I did meditation,
the less I even had the taste or desire to
do those things. It was also when I became more
conscious about plant based eating and my body vibrationally. You know,

(54:12):
I was born vegetarian, but even having the food that
came from an animal that had been suffering felt uneasy
to meet in my body. When I had experienced a
path of more compassion and love and grace. And so
what I realized is, don't think about the things you're
going to cut out, just start introducing more good things

(54:32):
into your diet, and naturally it'll be like I actually
don't feel like having that super salty, super fried for
everything snack. I actually do want to have a crunchy
piece of ceedary. And it sounds so crazy if you
haven't experienced it, but I guarantee you, the more your
body experiences the nutrient value of food, the more it's
going to crave that food. It's because we're not used
to having that nutrient dense food in our life that

(54:54):
we end up going towards the fast fixes, and so
your body definitely gets used to it.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
It's food addic. Yeah, it's such a beautiful story to tell.
I'll never forget at the ashtrom once you go through
this period of just eliminating the foods that are processed
and highly addictive, which by the way, come from a
factory where a scientist was hired to make them hyper
palatable to you, like you literally cannot why do I
need to have it? Right? It's food addiction. It triggers

(55:19):
a reward center in your brain. If you simply eliminate
it and go through this process, I'll never forget when
I could actually taste like sweetness in spinach, Yes, which
makes no sense whatsoever, right, But to your point, you
retrain your taste buds and you start to crave those things.
And ultimately what you're doing is you're starting to eat
like you love yourself. Right, You're nourishing your body. And

(55:42):
this isn't to say that I don't have like the
chocolate cake and go out and the baggy chips here
and there. You know, I'm human, I'm normal, but I
know that through my own healing journey. When you bring
your body back into balance, when you're in balance and
you're optimized when you go have those kind of you know, fun.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
Foods, I guess it's done off that one time done.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
I hate you could like, okay, let's get back to
this again today, right, and you feel so much better.
So the elimination process could feel a little bit intense,
but start with that one category before anything else, and
with the other big things like if you are suffering
from digestive issues, looking at things that like are genetically modified.
So you and I we eat soy as an amazing
source of protein, right, but you have to look for

(56:20):
organic soy that's not genetically modified. I promise the way
that your body will digest it is completely different. Corn
is another one that tends to be a big trigger
for people, dairy, which ties into the whole dairy industry thing,
which could be a little bit overwhelming. To just make
sure you know where your food comes from exactly, because
the other thing from our spiritual teachers is that if

(56:41):
food has energy, think about all of the steps that
it's taken for that food to go from where it
was and for some people that's animal based products to
getting to the supermarket and then onto your plate, right,
like so many steps and different energy on the way,
and chemicals that are used as ripening agents on the way.
And if it's in protein, well, how is that animal treated?

(57:01):
Did it have a life? Was there fear in its body? Right?
You ingest all of that, The hormones that we need
to keep these cows lactating all the time, right, we
ingest that. So just be mindful of what you're ingesting.
And I wish that we could live in a world
where we could just like trust these big food companies,
but even things like eggs. I just got a dozen

(57:22):
people off of these eggs from this really reputable air
quote brand who just responded with pride, saying that they
feed their hens corn and soy. Right, So while you're
eating that corn and soy that's going into your eggs also,
and you're wondering why you have these inflammatory issues or
the eggzema or bloating and stuff like that. You have

(57:43):
to become an investigator. And I know for people just
getting started it's going to feel a little bit overwhelming,
but start with one, two or three categories. Do your research.
I always say you're like my role model because you
were so great in the kitchen. I'm the nutritionist that
throw I throw things together. Yeah, I just simplify everything.
Being healthy is actually really really quite simple when you

(58:03):
avoid over complicating it. And if you really want to,
just like increase the nutrient density of all of your
food no matter what you're eating. Look at your herbs
and your spices as nature's anti inflammatories. Your spice cabinet
should literally be your medicine cabinet. Yeah, and cook with
more of those every single day. Make it a priority.
Put them out on your counter every single day, grow

(58:25):
them yourself if you can even better.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
Yeah, And so basically what you've said is eat more
whole foods, strip things back and have more spices and herbs,
and I feel like those are very manageable things totally.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
Maybe a great analogy is, however, your great grandmother would
have eaten eat more like her exactly. It goes for
all of us.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
Yeah, my grandmother definitely eats like that, and you still
don't even know. She could probably count on her hands
how many times she's eaten out right at a restaurant
or anything like, she just doesn't. It also reminded me
I've really started thinking of my body. You know, I
think so many people go through extreme diets or you know,
all the things that you've spoken about. And the thing
that's changed it for me so much, the moment I'm

(59:07):
putting things into my body is thinking about my body
being a gift from God. And I think, oh, gift
from the universe or whatever you want to call it.
If you see your body as a gift, the way
that you interact with your body, you don't see as yours.
You see it as something that's been given to you
and that's borrowed. And I'm just like, every single time
I think about that, I'm like, oh, I've been given

(59:29):
two legs, two arms, two eyes that can see whatever
we've been given what a gift is. And the only
way I can repay that gift is by treating my
body with gratitude, treating my body as if it is
temporary and been given to me, and I'm so grateful
for it. And so every single thing that you do,
every single thing you put into your mouth, every single
person that you allow in the space of your body,

(59:51):
you think about so much more because you're like, is
this showing gratitude for the life I've been given? Is
this showing gratitude for the fact that I woke up
this morning and I'm able to walk, talk, and live life.
And so it really shifted my perspective on wanting to
see things externally on my body and the shifts and
changes that I want to see externally physically versus what
I'm actually giving to my body for nourishment, and sometimes

(01:00:13):
it can be two very different things. Wanting to see
things visually sometimes means you have to you know, so interesting,
I kept being told I have to have more protein
and more this and more that, and it was fundamentally
ruining my gut. Like I was so unhappy, my body
was unhappy in the way that I was feeding it,
and I was trying to not to listen because I
was like, oh, but I have to because I want

(01:00:34):
to see more muscle mass and I want to see
abs and I don't want this on my body and
I don't want this. And I made a decision, and
funnily enough, going to the usherment over the holidays gave
me the perspective that I needed. And I got back and
I was like, I'm not doing this. I'm not eating
a protein bar. I'm not eating this. I'm not doing this,
and my gut and my body not only did I
see actually more changes physically exactly my whole body shifted

(01:00:58):
in how happy I actually was and how I was
feeling it was actually doing I was actually listening to
what my body needed versus what other people were telling me.
And a's me who also someone knows the fundamentals of
I should be listening to my body.

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
And I still got swayed.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
And so it's such an interesting world that we live
in where we can get just shifted in mindset so easily.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
This is my constant work. I'm so tempted. I work
with so many incredible doctors who are doing these exciting,
incredible things, and these educators that are coming on my
podcast talking about these great things. Now I should try
this too, or should try it like oh this insane
protein amount every single day? But does it feel good
for you? Just because it's good for somebody else doesn't
mean it's really good for you. And I love what

(01:01:38):
you brought up because I think that if like the
biggest takeaway I could give any of my clients, If
you can make your healing journey your greatest spiritual journey ever,
a lot of your issues with will dissipate. The urges
that you have to go and be a certain way
because you want to get to a certain macro level
or number on the scale. Like it dissipates and you

(01:01:58):
shift from that feeling of like do do do doo
doo too? How do I want to be in my body?
And if I could just feel really good in my body,
my choices will align. I'm turning down the noise on
what everyone else thinks that I should be doing, and
I'm coming into my own wisdom of what I know
to be true and what I know to feel good. So, yeah,
is there a time and a place, you know? How

(01:02:19):
I work with people like once a year, twice a year,
go understand your physiology. Understand your biology, Go do a
full panel blood lab, find a doctor who is your
partner in healing. Hey, maybe you do a stress test,
Maybe do a Dutch test to understand your hormones. You know,
DNA test is really great. It helps us really understand
your constitution. Maybe you're doing a stool test, which is

(01:02:42):
like so informational because there's so much information for your healing.
And then on the other side, really do that inner work.
And I think ultimately what we're talking about is coming
into your own consciousness. Right if you're so conscious of
who you are and how you want to be in
this world and how you want to feel, with practice
and with coaching and some guidance, aligning key rituals in

(01:03:03):
your life every single day that are going to align that.
I really do think that, like habits come and go.
We always try these new things on and a new habit,
and they come, they go, they come, they go. But
when you find a ritual that feels really really good,
so you with your mantra meditation, me with my warning
visualization and meditation, it becomes me like I don't forget it.
That would be like forgetting to brush my teeth before

(01:03:24):
I leave the house. So for someone else, that could
be journaling, it could be walking outside, it could be
going for a run, It could be so many different things.
What's your thing that's going to align you with your
consciousness and stay on that spiritual path of like just
getting to know who you were? I think I don't
know about you, but growing up was always you know,

(01:03:45):
trying to fit in, trying to be better, be like
someone else, and even at the Ashram, the spiritual kind
of knowledge of like trying to become one with God
or become one with consciousness. And I'm lifting my hand
up outside of myself, like it's something outside of me
that I'm trying to get to instead of recognizing that
everything is within. And when you get to that point,
then you're like, oh, I get one shot at the

(01:04:07):
same called life. My dad would always say, your body
is just a vessel. Yeah, how are you going to
treat this vessel in this lifetime? And then it just
shifts our perspective from healing like being on a diet
or a protocol, into no, the diet is actually the
unhealthy process, highly addictive food, that's an unhealthy diet. There
is no diet, and just eating like you love yourself

(01:04:28):
and eating whole foods from nutrition. That's just wholesome, nourishing foods. Right,
there's no diet, it's just eating.

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
I honestly have so.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
Many more questions, but I actually think we might have
to have you on another time so that people can
really digest this information, because I think what we've already
covered has been so impactful, so simple, yet so needed
and necessary, and I think just letting people appreciate what
we've given them this far, I think will be formal
beneficial than me going into some detailed questions. So I

(01:04:57):
feel like we definitely have to have you on against.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
I can ask the other how many cars do I
have left? One, two, three, four? I basically made it
through the first card, so we definitely have to have
you on again.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
But I honestly think what we've covered has just been
so useful, and you've are so eloquent and just I
feel like your energy can not many people's energy can
be felt through a microphone, but I definitely feel yours can.

Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
So thank you so much. This has been phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
Honestly, one of my favorite episodes and we're definitely going
to schedule you to be back on very soon.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
I cannot wait. I adore you, which is probably why
this is so easy, so we'll definitely do it. Yeah. Thanks,
thank you, Van

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Host

Radhi Devlukia

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Before You Burn Out: A Healing Conversation with Mona Sharma