Celebrity Nutritionist Mona Sharma: Stop Stress Before It Becomes Disease! (Do THIS Before Every Meal)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Food is information that helps every single one of the
trillion cells in our body thrive. So ask yourself if
what you're eating is nourishing you and helping you become
the version of yourself that you want to become, or
is the food that you're eating depleting you and taking
you away from the health that you want.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
The number one health and wellness podcast, Jay Sheetdy Jay
Shetty Want Only Jay Shetty. Hey everyone, welcome back to
On Purpose, the place you come to listen, learn and grow.
Today's guest is someone I know personally and someone I'm
so excited to introduce you to. Mona Sharma is a

(00:37):
globally recognized nutritionist, entrepreneur, and corporate wellness strategist whose work
has transformed the lives of high performing individuals. Mona blends
iratic wisdom with cutting head science to create personalized health
blueprints that drive lasting vitality. Mona's approach is rooted in
the belief that you are the healer, guiding clients to

(01:00):
reconnect with their bodies, inateability to heal through nutrition, stress, resilience,
and holistic practices. Please welcome to On Purpose. Mona Sharma. Mona,
It's great to have you here.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
I'm so honored to be here with you.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
I was really looking forward to this because we met
a few years ago now and you are helping me
with my health journey, and since then you've gone on
to launch a podcast. I mean, you've been helping incredible people.
I first got introduced to you through Will Smith, who's
a client of yours as well. And when Will introduced us,
I remember you were working with like his team and
everyone else, and so I'm really glad that we finally

(01:34):
get to do this on the show.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Is that thanks for j Yeah, it's special because we
have that connection and just watching your journey too, and
so honored.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Thank you. Well. I want to start off because I
want people to get a sense of you and your
journey and your background. And the first question I want
to ask is like, what is the number one or
what are the top three reasons that your clients come
to you? What are they saying to you when they
approach you.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, I think that you know, my stories were resonates
with people the most, and I think that when clients
come to see me, they're ready to unlearn a way
of what it takes to be healthy in this world.
And ready to actually step into that And what does
that mean. It means breaking up with die culture, worker culture,
and really understanding that the health goals that they're craving

(02:18):
go so much deeper. And for my own healing journey,
which we can absolutely talk to, it's really about getting
to the root cause. And right now, I feel like
there's so much disconnection dissociation between what's happening in the
world of medicine, that people are treating symptoms in its
own instead of looking at the body like a whole.
So when people work with me, they really know that

(02:39):
they're working with their mind, their body, and their spirits.
So finally they take this holistic approach to feel better
while they heal their bodies.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
I think that approach seems to be common sense, but
it's not. It feels like it's counterintuitive right now, where
we're speaking about one organ or one part of the
brain or one part of the body. Why do you
think that's happened, that we've created this fragmented view of
who we are.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well, this is conventional medicine, right We go to our doctors,
we talk about a symptom, and they are trained to
treat the symptom. Without looking at the body in its hole,
without uncovering where the symptom comes from. And we know
that our bodies are so resilient, there's intelligence within the body.
So if someone comes to me and they say, oh,
you want, I have a headache that I get every day,

(03:26):
I can easily put that person on some advil, you know,
on a program to kind of help them dissipate their
headache or can uncover where it actually comes from. So
the way that I work with my clients kind of
like I did with you, there's two parts. There's one
the amazing world that we have with Western medicine and science.
So we run your blood labs. I do a full
panel blood lab on every single system in your body.

(03:47):
Sometimes we look at your stress level through cortisol test.
We do genetic tests the way that we did with you.
Sometimes there's an MRI that's involved or a Dutch test also.
But then there's also the other side of things. So
the first thing that I ask my client is, you know,
if I could take away three things, what would be
And they typically list the symptoms that they're suffering from,

(04:10):
and they want to know mona just like, give me
the protocol, give me the workout the supplement protocol, the
food protocol, and I'm going to go do it. And
I think that most people by now know that that's dieting.
That's that cycle that you've probably tried one or one
hundred times that just doesn't work at all. So from
there we dig a little bit deeper. And after we
dig a little bit deeper, often my clients are they're

(04:32):
met with tears thinking about, you know, the last time
I really felt good in my body was when I
was little, and we uncover things like what their limiting
beliefs are. I know, with you, we did your core
value elicitation to really understand what's your core value around healing,
how do you really want to feel. It's not just
about getting to a number on a scale or a
pant size. It's understanding how do you really want to feel?
And then what steps can we take every single day

(04:55):
in order for you to align with that right And
that's kind of a strategy that came to me from
the Ashram. When I healed from my heart surgeries, it
wasn't about the protocol. It was actually on a hard
core protocol that didn't work. It took me really doing
deeper work, getting to the root cause of my own
suffering in order for my physical symptoms to go away.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, let's talk about that. I want to dive into
a personal experience because I believe that's why you do
what you do. And so tell us about your journey
before you were helping other people with the health. What
was the stay of your health.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Well, it's funny how your story really paves the path
for your destiny. And I can tell you from my story,
nothing matters when your health is gone. So prior to
working in nutrition, I worked in the corporate cosmetic world.
On paper, it sounds like a really really fun job
that I had working for these great luxury cosmetic brands.
But I was working out of alignment. I wasn't on

(05:46):
purpose with my calling. It was a sales job. I
ended up getting to that typical corporate burnout. I suffered
from digestive issues. I ended up getting PCOS, which is
polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is so bad that doctors told
me I would never have kids. And then I started
getting heart palpitations. These heart palpitations would beat so fast
I thought that I would black out and I would

(06:07):
just bend down to pick something off the ground. And
it got to a point where if I tried to
exercise or go for a run, I would almost hit
the deck. But at that point in my life, this
is in my twenties, I wasn't interested in getting to
the root cause at all. I wanted quick fix, just
tell me how to take care of it. I'm too
busy living this amazing fashion lifestyle, waking up hotel rooms

(06:27):
not knowing what city I was in. And I went
to see cardiologists and they figured out that I had
something called atrial tachycardia, just like these extra electrical valves
beating in my atrial center of my heart. And the
quick fix was going on a beta blocker prescription medication.
That beta blocker medication ended up causing me to gain
about forty five pounds. So forty five pounds later went

(06:48):
back to the doctor. I'm like, this is not working.
I'm completely lethargic. I felt like like any excitement to
live was really gone. People on the outside probably wouldn't
know that I was suffering, that was really suffering. There
was a lot of sadness that was happening in my
life at that time also, and at that point they said, well,
let's go in for surgery. So I went in for

(07:09):
my first heart surgery at twenty three years old. You're
awake for the whole thing. It's a catheter ablation, awake
for the whole thing, so it's not open heart. They
send one catheter up through your groin, another one through
your neck, and they start pumping you full of adrenaline
and caffeine to try to induce these palpitations that I
kind of knew would only happen if I was moving

(07:30):
my body, and so here I am on the table.
They're pumping me with all these things. Finally, you know,
an hour or so into it, they figure out where
they can do an ablation. Oblation feels like this explosion
going off in your chest because they burn off this
electrical valve. And the next morning I woke up and
same thing. Palpitations were still there, and I was like,
this is ridiculous. I'm young, you know, I grew up

(07:53):
with a really really healthy background, which we should talk
about it. Also, why is this happening to me? They said, well,
let's go back in. We went back in for a
second heart surgery again, heart massive screen. I see the
wires going everywhere there's a log keeping my leg in
place that I can't move. And honestly, Jay, it was
one of those moments where, like you know, your life

(08:15):
flashes before your eyes. I'm sure you've heard this from
other guests. It was that moment. Doctors did another ablation,
felt that bomb go off, but there was still more
attach ofcardia, and they said, well, you know what, Mona,
we found where we can do another ablation, but it's
too close to your essay note. So if we burn
that off, there's a chance that you might have to
wear a pacemaker for the rest of your life. And
that's when what am I doing? How is this my life?

(08:38):
How have I burnt out? I'm only in my twenties.
How am I out of alignment? And the irony of
all of it is that I knew that there was
a better way. So growing up, my father is East Indian,
my mom is Danish. I've only ever known my mom
to suffer from debilitating rheumatoid arthritis, so her hands are
completely deformed. My dad being Indian, especially my mom that

(08:59):
found the Ashrmond Ashram in Valmoran and Quebec. Growing up,
we would go and spend summers at this ashram, we
would practice yoga and meditation every day. Some kids got
to go to fund summer camp. I had to go
to yoga camp as a kid. We vegetarian food. We
sat and set saying we were in nature, about community,
and I noticed the difference of my parents' health and

(09:19):
happiness when we were there. The motto in my house
growing up was eat it, it's good for you. My
mom tried anything in everything to get rid of this
autoimmune disease. But in my twenties, again I didn't want
any of this, and so I went for the quick fix.
The last ergrew was not going to be the solution.
I decided in that moment I had to go back
to my roots to heal. And that's exactly what I did.

(09:40):
I said no to the oblation. I went back to
the shivanandashram. I became a yoga teacher, a meditation teacher.
Eventually I became a raiki master, a holistic nutritionist. I
ended up going into NLP. I probably could have got
my PhD at this time, but I was just studying
all of these aspects of human healing for my own
health to heal. But the crazy thing that people need

(10:02):
to understand is that when I went from my heart
palpitations in my busy life in the corporate world, I
was already like hardcore. I was exercising hardcore. I was
dieting hardcore. My apartment was called the House of free,
sugar free, fat, free, carb free, this free, whatever it was, right,
I was really hardcore. And when I went to the Ashram,

(10:23):
I wasn't hardcore anymore. I started relaxing. I started listening
to all of the open running tabs that we all
have in our brain, but I had a lot of them.
I started dealing with the actual heartache inside me that
doctors never asked about. And I started to heal through
those practices that I mentioned at the Ashram, and I
never looked back. The heart palpitations almost completely went away.

(10:46):
The forty five pounds melted off of my body. I
started eating more carbs than I'd probably eaten in a
year from all the vegetarian food, and yet I felt
my best. I needed less sleep, I felt more energized,
I felt calm, clear happy. I felt like I was
going to be happy again. And from there on I
knew that if I was going to do this, professionally,

(11:07):
it was no longer about a diet an exercise protocol.
Those things are very important, but we have to uncover
the deeper route of what's preventing you from making the
choices from yourself that are optimized health to begin with, Like,
what is that one thing that happens that's stopping you
from fulfilling your optimal health and happiness.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
I think it's really challenging for us to almost look
at the root when the symptom causes so much pain,
and I think that's what kind of makes us all
want to go. I just want this pain to go.
And so when someone says to you, hey, I want
you to focus on finding the root, your brain automatically
goes to the path of least resistance and it goes, yeah,

(11:48):
maybe later. I just want to get rid of my headache.
And I think that's why generics in this country have
taken off and why we pop a pill to solve
every problem we have, because we'd rather solve the symptom
than folks on the route as well. If someone's listening
right now and they're listening to you, going, actually, Mona,
I get what you're saying, because I'm trying a lot

(12:08):
of stuff, Like maybe someone's listening right now and they're saying,
I tried that workout, I tried the DYA, I tried this,
but I can't lose weight, I can't get healthier, I
can't build a muscle, I can't solve my gut issues.
Whatever it is, How does someone start to understand what
the root of the problem is.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
I would say the instigation of everything, And we know
the instigation of all disease in the body is stress.
We need to talk about stress. Stress is happening to
all of us at this like epidemic level, and it's
the precursor to all disease. So I think it really
is important for you to do some deeper investigation, like
when did your symptoms first start, What was happening in

(12:47):
your life at that time. Doctors asked me if I
was drinking too much alcohol, eating out at McDonald's. I
passed the stress test, but they didn't ask about what
was happening in my personal life, the fact that my
parents for going through divorce, there was a major move
that was involved. They also didn't ask about the state
of my nervous system. So I love that nervous system

(13:09):
regulation is really really becoming more aware for so many people.
But we need to address the state of our nervous
system because I think that for me, what doctors didn't
understand is that I lived most of my life in
this nervous system disregulated state.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Explain to me what regulated and disregulated nervous system is.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So think about our nervous system, right.
It basically has three stages according to Polypagel theory. The
first one is the feeling of safety, safety, rest, digest
life is good. I feel calm in my body. I
eat when I'm hungry, I stop when I'm full, I
sleep really well. I feel for the most part happy.

(13:49):
And then the next one is activation. Activation is fight
flight freeze. We shift into that when we've got big projects,
when there's a big events that are happening, maybe at
work throughout the day, but a lot of us will
get stuck there. I was stuck there. And then the
last one is overwhelm or shut down, where at the
end of the day, let's just say you've been living

(14:10):
in fight or flight all day. When you go home,
you go straight for a bottle of wine and the Netflix.
You're shutting down, and that might mimic that first safety phase,
that parasympathetic phase, because you're not doing anything, but all
you've done is put your stressors or your fears up
onto a shelf. You know that you have to deal
with them the next day. So when we think about
this fight flight freeze response, think about the things that

(14:33):
we are bombarded with every single day, from our environment,
from our stressors, our obligations, having to make money, from
world events, from social media, from the news. If you're
a sensitive person, you might be feeling that just like
really in your body, right. I know, especially over the
past few years, we see things on social media and
it's like they're happening right in front of us. Our

(14:54):
brain can't discern the difference. So if you don't catch
yourself getting stuck in that fight flight free stage, this
is hypervigilance. For me, hypervigilance felt really really good. If
there was something hard to do, amazing, If it was
harder great, if I could accomplish it awesome. If there
was a challenge that I could go for that would really,
you know, pop my adrenaline. I wanted to have it

(15:16):
because that was the happy state that I was in.
The longer I could stay in that state means that
I could be stuck in my head just not think
about what was happening in my body. But meanwhile, for
years I was stuffing sadness, emotion, fear, worry, anxiety into
my body so that I didn't have to deal with it.
And for listeners, you know, maybe even stuffing these emotions

(15:38):
down since you were a little kid. I think where
there's a misunderstanding is that when we talk about the
nervous system or trauma for example, trauma is simply how
your nervous system metabolizes an experience. And we think of
trauma obviously as the big things if there's abuse or
neglect or something terrible that happened, But trauma for you

(15:59):
can also be something that really impacted you but no
one else really noticed. So maybe you were humiliated as
a little kid, or you were teased or made fun of,
or your grandmother said something to you and it really
made you become shy or not want to shine your
true colors or your vibrant light right now moving forward,
if you don't process that emotion, that feeling, every time

(16:21):
there's a resonance of that feeling coming up again, the humiliation,
the fear, the worry, the excitement, the stressors. It's like
reliving that tone again, the frequency within your body. So
throughout the day you might shift into fight flight freeze
pretty consistently and you're not even noticing that you're there
because you're not deregulating, you're not adopting that resilience within

(16:42):
the body to regulate your nervous system. And I would
say this is probably one of the biggest pillars that
I spend with my clients one helping them even become
aware that they're living in that hypervigilant state and that
they don't have to wear it as a badge of
honor anymore. They don't have to be busy because we
celebrate busyness in our world. We see busy as a
sign of success, when that's the opposite case. And I

(17:04):
get them back into their parasympathetic nervous system where they
can rest and digest. And we now know with a
nervous system, if you can live as your parasympathetic nervous
system being the kind of dominant preferred state, or you
have a healthy system that can bounce from fight flight
freeze back into a parasympathetic state, this is where healing happens.

(17:26):
This is your rest and digest and restore. This is
when your immune system is prime, your digestion functions at
its best. So I think it's important for people to
really recognize that as the first stage of healing in
order for the diet and the exercise and all the
other modalities to work. What is your state of being?

Speaker 2 (17:44):
I think we all know stress is bad, and too
much stress can be really, really bad. And I think
we've seen over time that people have been more vulnerable
about burnout, about shutting down, about you know, having major
health issues, and we almost wait till something goes really bad,
till we address something. The other side of it, though,
we also see, is that laziness, a lack of motivation,

(18:06):
the ability to not create or take on any stress
doesn't make us happy or healthy as humans either, because
we almost end up at the other end of the
spectrum when you're trying to balance it out and figure
it out, how much stress can we take on in
seven days? And how should we be thinking about that?
Because I think the challenge is, you're right, we're living

(18:28):
at one end of the spectrum, but we also know
lots of people struggling at the other end of the spectrum.
So it's almost like, how do we invite the right
amount of stress? How do we take on a healthy
amount of stress so it pushes us forward, but not
so much that it breaks us? So how do you
balance that out?

Speaker 1 (18:42):
I think there's a couple of ways to approach this.
So the first is how stressful is your stress? So
my version of stress, if we were to imagine that
the way that I interpret stress is like wearing glasses
with a yellow lens, everything is going to have a
yellow tint to it because I'm wearing these glasses of
stress with a yellow tinge. Now does it mean that

(19:03):
my day is stressful? No, but I have these glasses on,
I'm living in a stress state, so I can interpret
everything as being stressful. So often it takes kind of
breaking that cycle, taking that lens off to really understand,
like I don't really have to be stressed out right now?
Where did I learn being this way? I don't want
to be this way anymore. This is where working with
a coach can be really really supportive and to your point, Yeah,

(19:26):
you know stress, we demonize it, but can I just
be really good for us? Right? Like having a cortisol
spike and a healthy way first thing in the morning.
It's actually our drive, our ambition, our motivation. But the
problem is is that when we live in the sympathetic
state for too long, often the way that our cortisol
is signal it's spiking at the wrong times throughout the day.
Sometimes for people who've experienced this, they're waking up between

(19:49):
two and four o'clock in the morning just thinking about
the world crashing around them. Right, this is not a
healthy stress response. And then on the opposite end of
the spectrum, people perhaps like you mentioned, are stuck in
that well, I'm not going to do anything. I don't
like feeling stressed. I don't like what it does to
my body, So I'm just going to stay over here.
I'm going to stay comfortable. We know that that could
backfire in the future also, and this is where some

(20:11):
deeper investigating is really really helpful. How do you want
to feel? Are you happy in your day to day life?
Do you feel like you're being productive? Because we know
that having sense of purpose and service is so important
to our health and our fulfillment, and of course activity,
like if you're not in motion with your life, then
you're stuck in a way of being, and God, if

(20:34):
you're not here to live, then what's the point. Right?
But you know, it really does take a leap of
faith and so much courage for people to address these
things because it's almost like, well, I don't want anyone
else to see that I'm blazy. I don't want people
to call me out of my hypervigilance because gosh, it
just means that I've been busy for all these years
and for what I've been suffering. Right, But it really

(20:54):
does take a leap of faith to do the deeper
dive again to come back into that state of resilience
where you can shift into you know what, today's a
stressful day, but I'm going to really master my relaxation
like you're so good at doing tomorrow. And that way,
there's that balance so that you learn how to live
in both worlds.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
Let's say someone answers those questions and they say, Mona,
I'm definitely exhausted. I'm over work, Like I just feel
like I'm just constantly chasing everything. My weekends are just
full of like social events and maybe there's a couple
of work things, and I just feel like I've been
on that treadmill, and I'm sure you hear this a lot.
I don't think this is a picture that's abnormal. Where

(21:34):
do they start? What should they do first? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (21:36):
I work with a lot of high performers and people
who are on the go all the time, and it's
a norm, and they don't really want to think about
feeling that way because they know that they're overwork, they're overtired,
they don't have time to relax and restore. And I
think the first stage really is about just the awareness,
like I'm here, I don't think I can sustain this

(21:56):
for a long time. And now we have experts, you know,
saying it's not a good idea to sustain it. Right.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
How long should you sustain it for if you were
to sustain it, I think it depends.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
On the resiliency of your body and what you're actually
doing to repair. So, for example, someone like you, who
I know is prioritizing their morning, who is doing meditation,
who has grounding practices throughout the day. You can live
in that world of stress and really go hard for
some time, but I know that you will take time
to come back and recover. Other people and this is

(22:26):
like so common today. I'm thinking of a group of
men that I work with, and they're about do more,
go harder, dream bigger, do a harder race next time,
do one hundred mile er next time, and they see
it as a badge of honor because society has really
entrained them to believe that that's a success motivator, right,
makes them a better person, mind over matter, right, when

(22:49):
that's just not the case. So I think maybe a
good opportunity would be to ask what symptoms are you
suffering from? So I love doing this exercise when I'm
in a group of people, and I just asked, how
many people your suffer from anxiety? From worry, and they're
putting their hands up, from tension, from digestive issues, from heartburn,
from gas, from bloating, from poor sleep, from muscle pain

(23:13):
and aches, from low sex drive, low energy, brain fog,
lack of mental focus, brittle hair breakouts. Right by the
end of all this, every hand in the audience is up.
So if you're the person who's living in that stress
state for too long, and you've said yes to one, two,
three of those symptoms, then it's time for you to
do something to course correct. Don't ignore the symptoms the

(23:35):
way that I did, because these symptoms are whispers from
your body. Again, it's that intelligence of your body which
is communicating with you during every second of every day.
It's not about waiting until Monday to course correct, or
next month or January first to course correct. We can
course correct at any point of every day and the
body will respond, but it takes some time. So step

(23:57):
number one the awareness acknowledging those symptoms. But STEC Number
two is learning what the modalities are to really help
you shift. And I know you know so many of these.
So wine is just take a breath, like right now,
everybody listening to long, deep breath in Like if I
had to cue you how to do that, then chances
are you're probably not breathing like that throughout the day.

(24:18):
Breath is number one. Meditation is a great option, getting
out and going for a walk, doing some yoga, journaling,
scribble exercises to really like get the thoughts out of
your brain and onto paper, breaking the cycle of stress.
But again that's not making the problem go away, So
you have to come back to and understand, well, what again,

(24:40):
where is this coming from? What do I need to do?
So coaching is really great for people who need some
additional support, like I just can't shake this feeling. What
do I need? Coaching is great and one of those
modalities in coaching, it's called a best self snapshot. Other
people call it a circle of excellence. So visualization is
such a power modality to help us change our states.

(25:03):
And if we're living in that stressful state for too long,
but we don't want to break there, we have to
break the cycle through visualization. If I were to ask you, Jay, like,
how do you want to feel in your body? If
you were to think about yourself in the most optimal
health and happiness and waking up feeling joyful, knowing that
your digestion is working, your body is primed, everything is
just in tune. Your body is working so hard to

(25:26):
help you heal, and it knows that you're busy, but
it's just it's taken care of things. Has got you right.
By visualizing that so clearly to the point that you
can make it feel real, that's a physiological shift to
shift you out of that sympathetic state into a pair
of sympathetic state, which I think is so powerful. Breath
work is another really great way to do this. Box

(25:46):
breathing is a really great way to do this. But
I would say that visualization, especially from an NLP front,
when I'm coaching my clients, if I can get my
clients in touch with their higher self, like, really understand
what am I working so hard to achieve? You know,
I'm doing so much work around living a great, strong,
happy life and dieting and exercising, But how do I

(26:08):
want to feel in my body? If you can take
a few moments every single day and get so clear
on how that feels, then your body doesn't know the
difference between it being the reality or not. It doesn't
know that it's going to be in the future, but
it means that you have to practice that muscle.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
Is there a particular time of day that that's more prominent, And.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
I would say first thing in the morning. If you
can make your mornings your magic healing mornings. This is
like prime time because our thoughts tend to be a
little bit more quiet and still, first thing in the morning,
you know, medality that I use with my clients is
to get up, go to the bathroom, and immediately come
into meditation. Now, I'm always cautious talking about these because

(26:47):
people think that my wellness routine is like what I'm
recommending to everybody. No, just like a healing protocol that
I'm customizing for all my clients. The way that you
start your morning that feels really great for you, and
mindfulness should be as unique. Your blueprint, right is your
thumb print. So maybe for you it's meditation or visualization
or journaling or walking or getting on the sun. But

(27:07):
figuring out what and where is a good place for
you to feel stillness, then I want you to go
ahead and start to answer some of those questions. How
do I want to feel? What does it look like?
I think an easy grounding practice would be to say,
if you were to go outside in your favorite place
in nature. You can do this right now if you're listening,
what is your favorite place in nature? I want you
to go outside, put your feet on the ground. I

(27:30):
want you to feel the sunlight on your skin. How
does the wind feel on your skin? What does it
look like? What are the sounds in the background or
the birds chirping? Like really doing the investigating to make
it feel real. Now, I want you to notice how
you feel in your body in this state. Notice that
you feel a sense of happiness, of peace, of calm.

(27:51):
Can you turn on the feeling of joy in your body?
What happens in your body when you feel the feeling
of joy? And then all of a sudden, it's like
down the noise on all of the distractions in life
that are causing you to feel stress, in illness and symptoms,
and you're coming into a space that allows you to
feel calm and joy. And if you can practice that

(28:13):
like a muscle throughout the day, then you're retraining your
nervous system to make that your core reality. There's all
of a sudden meaning behind everything that you do, despite
the stressors or not.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
I love that idea and for anyone who's never tried
it and wondering whether it works, it works, it works
and why does it work? Because I think a lot
of people if they're doubtful about practices like this, how
do you convince people that this works rather than it
just being some sort of placeiver.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
So ten years ago use the word vibration with my clients.
I helped shift my client's vibration from imbalance to balance.
And I remember like the eye roll back then, yeah, yeah, vibration.
But now these words vibration and frequency they're no longer
woo woo. They are being backed by science. Doctors like
doctor Bruce Lipton Jodah Spensa are validifying through biofeedback the

(29:03):
ability to change our state without doing anything. It's the feelings,
our thoughts, our emotions that literally have the power to
change our physiology. Right I'm actually doing my master's in
quantum healing right now because I believe that there's so
much more to healing. There's this interconnectedness between our thoughts,
our feelings, and our emotions. And so when people get

(29:26):
into that state and they can really feel or imagine,
even if they don't know what the feeling of joy
is like in their body, just try to imagine what
it feels like for a lot of my clients are
really great practices to go back to when you're a
little kid, what was your note? We all came into
this world with like a really beautiful note or frequency
to play in this world. We love wearing vibrant colors

(29:48):
and playing outside. What did you like playing? What colors
were you wearing? How did you like dressing? Did you
make a lot of noise and scream and dance?

Speaker 2 (29:55):
Like?

Speaker 1 (29:56):
What was your core essence? Back then and even asking
those question, I see my client's faces just light up
because they're going back to a memory of what their
core being is. It's a feeling of oneness within themselves
before all this stuff started happening in their lives, and
it's like stillness, quietness, and coming to center. And I

(30:16):
think that it really just takes practice for people to
feel that every single day. There's so many incredible guided
meditations online, guided visualizations online that people can practice to
really go back to that feeling of joy. And I
think that this is the future of medicine. The future
of medicine is really going to have to consider the
integration between these Western modalities but also Eastern medicine. The

(30:40):
things that we're talking about, our ancestors have known since
the beginning of time. Yoga has been practicing mindfulness and
guided meditations and breath work and visualizations for over five
thousand years, right, but now we're backing it with science.
Traditional Chinese medicine also just recognizes the energy of your body,
the systems within your body. When there's lack of coherence,

(31:03):
it means that there's stress and that the body simply
doesn't have the tools to deal with that stress. But
what happens when we can come back into coherence, the
body shifts. Another incredible company is heart Meth the Heart
Meth community. Gosh, just understanding the concept of the resilience
of the heart and heart coherence, so an amazing heart

(31:25):
coherence practice. To also deliver the same state is to
really just start to tune into gratitude. If I were
to ask you to think of something or someone that
you love so much right now, make it feel real.
Imagine hugging them, Imagine waking up with them first thing
in the morning, traveling with them. How good does it
feel to be in their presence. If you're a parent

(31:45):
thinking about being with your child, all of a sudden,
the problems from your nine to five, if you're present
with your child in that moment, because of the love
and gratitude that you feel, everything just dissipates. That frequency
of stress just turns down. And I think that we all,
I'll hold the superpower to change our frequency from imbalance
to balance. And it's a muscle that we have to

(32:05):
practice for optimal health.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
I mean, I can honestly say personally like there's so
much value in everything you're sharing and having practiced so
much of it with myself. I've found so much it
almost like gives you a breakthrough from the place you're at.
Like I think when you're trying to change the externals,
it can kind of feel a bit clunky, and almost
when you change it from the inside out, it's like,
oh wow, there is another side that there is that belief.

(32:46):
And I think that's what it comes to is do
you even have the belief that there is a healed, happier,
healthier version of you? And if you don't have that
belief and you don't have that in your vision, it's
not going to suddenly happen.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Where I was, there was not that vision. No doctors
had given me a label. You have a heart condition,
you are on medication, You're going to have heart surgery.
I identified as somebody who was sick. I had a
heart condition, and I gave so much of my power
away to the doctors. Right the doctors were doing their job.
They recognized the symptom that they wanted to heal within me,

(33:21):
and they tried to do that. God bless them for
trying to do that, but they weren't uncovering again the
root cause right. So at that time, I wasn't interested
in getting to the root cause I was sick. And
you know, you're making me think of a story. My brother,
my big brother, he was the marathon runner. He'd done,
you know, so many triathlons and everything, and he asked

(33:42):
me one year to do this triathlon with him and
I was like, no, mo, like I can't, my heart,
and he just looked at me and he's like, how's
that working for you? And it took someone that I
love just like bringing that up, like, oh my god,
kind of like shook me for a second. I really
identified as somebody who was sick. And unfortunately it takes
those moments sometimes from the people that we love in

(34:03):
our life. Or even listening to this conversation, just questioning
what are the thoughts that you've identified with the symptoms
that you've identified with, maybe you've suffered from something is
like digestive issues your entire life, that it's become you
when it's not you. It's simply your body communicating with
you that there's an opportunity to resolve something within.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
I want to talk about the physical changes as well,
because I think that that's what you're encouraging. You're encouraging
this visualized change, this internal change, as well as practical
external changes. And I wanted to ask you about the
connection between stress and the gut because I think what's
only happened very recently is we've started to you know,
at least in modern conversation. It's been around in Irada,

(34:45):
which you practice for thousands of years, but only very
recently have we started to understand that Wait a minute,
my emotional stress is related to my gut health, like
my mental stress is related to my physical pain. And
I wanted to ask you talk to me about how
stress is related to nutritional health, to your gut.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah. So we never really consider in the Western world
that stress could be the instigation of your bloating or
your gas, or your constipation or your diarrhea. And yet
now we understand that we have this incredible wisdom, this
intelligence of the vagus nerve in the body that runs
from your brain down through your heart into your gut microbiome.

(35:28):
And what's incredible about this nerve is that there's bi
directional communication. If the head is thinking stressful thoughts, I'm worried,
I'm scared, I'm fearful, that is going to the gut. Right,
how many of your listeners they feel stressed about giving
a presentation, all of a sudden, their stomach feels off right,
they have to run to the bathroom. But we also
know that the opposite is true. Right, So we now

(35:50):
note that we have more nerve endings in our gut
than we do in our brain. It's communication. So if
we've been living with years of imbalances, constantly commute like
there's stress happening down here. But we were never taught
to tune into that. We were never really taught to
tune into distension. And in fact, I would even say
that we live in a world where we're normalizing all

(36:11):
these symptoms, right. I know, as a woman going out
with my girlfriend's, oh I'm so bloated, getting bloated after dinner,
It's like, oh yeah, me too, me too. It's like
this new norm. But the symptoms are so common they
are not normal. Again, your body is communicating with you.
So with stress being in the instigation of disease, we
need to make sure that within the gut microbiome. If

(36:32):
the gut is the source of all health, we need
to take care of our digestion. In Areveda, digestion. The
quality of your digestion and your gut health is really
the root to all health and all disease prevention. So
digestion is everything. So this is why we need to
not ignore these symptoms. I know that with you together,

(36:52):
like we were really working towards healing your gut. And
I'm using you as an example because you're somebody who
is a high performer. I knew that you were doing
the mindfulness work. But I also work with so many
people like you who they don't even notice that they're
living in a stress state. But it's the same messages
that are being communicated to the guts. We've just become
masters at ignoring those symptoms. Right, So when it comes

(37:15):
to stress over time, if your digestion is compromised, what
does that mean. It means that you've got an imbalance
of good and bad bacteria, right. The good bacteria help
you thrive, they're associated with longevity, with your immune system,
with optimal health and energy and motivation. And it means
that you're also having probably a lot more food cravings
for bad foods, like even trying to eat really really well.

(37:37):
But you just don't understand why you're craving those foods.
So often you're craving lots of sugars and lots of carbs.
It's also impacting your anxiety, like why do I have anxiety?

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Can?

Speaker 1 (37:45):
It's that bi directional communication. And if we think about
that long term, if we're living with those stressful symptoms
and digestive imbalances long term, that's what leads to further
disease within the body. That could lead to things like
joint pain, to getting more headaches, to having really really
poor sleep, to having lack of sex drive, to not

(38:06):
being able to lose weight and just gaining weight because
of feeling too much stress and too much cortisol throughout
the day. So healing your digestion has to be pillar
when optimizing your health.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
If someone's really struggling with bloating, it's so common now,
where should they stop.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
There's a couple of things. So one, just having a
look at how you're starting your day. Two, what is
the state in which you're eating? Are you eating while
you're scrolling, while you're driving, while you're working. You know,
at the astronm we eat without any devices. We're eating
in nature, we're eating in community, we're eating in a really,
really calm state. Remember, your body has to be in

(38:41):
that rest and digest for your body to optimize digestion.
If you're eating in fight or flight, you cannot digest
your food. The analogy of running from a lion. If
you're running from a lion for your life, you never say, oh,
I'm hungry and decide to eat an apple when you're running, right,
But that's the equivalent of the type of stress that
we're living with today. The second thing is looking at
the foods that you're eating. So one of the first

(39:03):
things that I do with my clients is I get
them off of ultra processed foods. Eighty percent of the
diet in the US comes from ultra processed packaged foods.
It's insane, right, And we're kind of being deceived because
on the front of the labels of those packages and
boxes it might say healthy, gluten free, organic, keto, all natural,

(39:27):
and air quotes. The Astram belief is if it comes
from a box and it's dead food, there's no life
force energy to it, there's no prana to it. Food
is information that helps every single one of the trillion
cells in our body thrive. So ask yourself if what
you're eating is nourishing you and helping you become the

(39:48):
version of yourself that you want to become, or is
the food that you're eating depleting you and taking you
away from the health that you want. The second one
is inflammatory seed oils and vegetable oils. Oils are in everything.
These vegetable oils, swabey oils, safflower oil, canola oil are
in everything. If you look closely at the labels, even

(40:09):
on healthy foods, like I'm talking even in health food stores,
you will see those foods. And if you were a parent,
please read the labels of your children's snacks because they're
in everything. These we know are pro inflammatory omega six,
fatty acids that actually cause inflammation to our cells. They
cause free radical damage. And if you look at one
of these blood cells under a microscope, it literally looks

(40:32):
like it has these spikes around it, right. That leads
to systemic inflammation in the body. So taking out those
inflammatory seed oils is key. The last one is sugar.
A lot of my clients will say, I'm not even
that much sugar, you know, just a little bit here,
a little bit there. But by the time we add
it all up. It's like, you know, twenty thirty forty
grams of sugar in a day. It's too much. Even

(40:55):
simple things like a fruit, organic greek yogurt could have
grams of sugar in the morning. You're starting your day
off with that sugar boost, right, general population is starting
with a coffee or coffee cake or muffins or these bars, right,
these protein bars that have so much sugar and refined
oils and refined ingredients that aren't good for us. Taking

(41:17):
out an excess of caffeine is also a really big
deal because that's a stimulant that causes our body to
feel stress. Too much alcohol. Alcohol shuts down digestion. It
causes a further dyspiosis of that good and bad bacteria
within the gut microbiome. So those are definitely the key
pillars the state and which you're digesting, and then of
course the quality of the foods that you're digesting.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Also, what's the biggest problem with the sugary breakfast?

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Sugary breakfast, So you're starting your day with this spike
in glucose. Right, whatever goes up, it's got to come down.
That leads to a sugar crash. So for a lot
of people who start their day with a coffee, a donut,
a muffin a bar. They crash, so at ten o'clock
they need another coffee. They're looking for another hit of
sugar to get them back up, and then the cycle
is kind of going all day. This causes the cycle

(42:06):
of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance leads to metabolic dysfunction. When
I'm looking at my client's blood labs, I can see
over time this type of person they're fasting, glucose is rising,
it's leading them to diabetes. Like this is a big
area of concern. And again I want to just really
point out that a lot of those foods might seem

(42:26):
like they're healthy, but they're just laden with sugar. So
it's not really about the label of the front of
the product that you're eating, it's the label of the back.
Become a master at reading that label, looking at the sugar,
look at the ingredients. If you don't know what the
ingredient is, then neither will your body. So take ownership
of that. So over time, if we're on this cycle

(42:48):
of insulin instability, then we're going to continue to crave
more carbs and crave more sugar, the cortisol levels within
our body are going to continue to rise. We will
be more stress. It's just not how our body is
meant to function. So starting your day with a high
protein breakfast. You and I talked about a savory breakfast
as being so beneficial, But protein and fiber, I would say,

(43:12):
are like the two things that you really want to
optimize first thing in the morning or when you break
your fast. When you do that, you'll feel more satiated.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
Right.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
I think you know a lot of my clients will
work towards between thirty and forty grams of protein first
thing in the morning. This is going to keep your
blood glucose a lot more stable throughout the day. You
actually won't be craving as many carbs and starches and sugars.
You actually be craving just more sustenance or nourishment, which
means you'll make better choices for yourself and for people listening,

(43:43):
they're like, yeah, yeah, I've tried that, Maybe try it
for a little bit longer. Give me two weeks of
just focusing on a higher protein, higher nutrient density breakfast,
and you're going to notice that your taste beds are
going to change. Your glucose levels are going to change.
Your mood might prove right, less highs and lows. You
might be less reactive. You're sleep might improve, you might

(44:05):
have more creativity because you're no longer crashing throughout the day.
So just take the chance. Try it out. It's really
really worth it.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
It's fascinating to watch how quickly your taste buds change
and how much your body changes. I find myself having
less cravings, for sure. I'm someone who needed sugar every
single day and craved it so badly, and now that's
like almost you know, dissipated, where I'm not turning towards it.

(44:33):
And on top of all of that, I'm wanting to
make healthier choices simply by that savory breakfast, that protein,
that fiber. And I wanted to ask you how much
alcohol is too much alcohol?

Speaker 1 (44:44):
The question? Honestly, I think any alcohol is too much alcohol.
Like I've really gotten to that point. Doctor Amen has
really shed a lot of light on this. The fact
that alcohol can shrink your brain. Is somebody who's focused
on living a really long life full of vita. I
don't want to take anything and that's going to shrink
my brain. Right, and it's a drug, and we've normalized

(45:06):
it as a society and it feels so good because
it's a coping mechanism at the end of the day
to deal with the stressors that we're all enduring. We've
normalized it, and we really need to stop doing this
because it's impacting our health, gets us on that metabolic
instability again, it disrupts our sleep. I think over time,
it makes you more irritable, more anxious, and more stress

(45:29):
So taking alcohol out of your diet, I think, gosh,
do that for a month and you're gonna feel yourself.
How great you feel, how much more clarity that you
have first thing in the morning. And there's so many
better alternatives to you know, there's non alcoholic options that
are out there that are delicious and like you would
never even know. Whenever I go out to a social event,
I literally will get some sparkling water, I'll get some

(45:53):
lime juice, some lemon juice put into it. I'll put
it into a cocktail glass or everyone thinks it's a cocktail,
and I do not feel like I missed out. My
digestion is better, I'm digesting my food better, I'm more
present in the conversations that I'm having. Alcohol is a drug,
and when we think about the state of the world,
anxiety related disorders are on the rise. Over forty million

(46:16):
people are suffering from anxiety related disorders and depression, and
I think that it's something that we really need to
stop normalizing.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
I wanted to ask you because you spoke about alcohol,
you spoke about sugars, you spoke about fib M protein.
I was thinking, Yeah, what do we substitute coffee for,
because that seems to be such a big need for people.
What do you trade the coffee for in the morning.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Oh my gosh, Okay, so this is what I'm living
through right now. So I used to say that I
was the nutritionist that would never take you off of coffee.
I love the taste, I love the smell, I love
the aroma, I love the ritual. Even on days where
I couldn't meditate, I would wake up, put on my
coffee machine. I would do tree posts, I would set
an intention, make it a mindful moment. But then, speaking

(47:00):
about what we're speaking to today, I was that hypervigilant person.
I used to say that anxiety was my blueprint and
coffee was not doing me any favors right, it increases
our cortisol. It can put us into that fight or
flight state, and let's face it, it's something that we
really really abuse. I still love coffee, so these past

(47:21):
two weeks, I've just been really focused on removing it
from my diet altogether. And it's hard. This is a
full addiction for me, and for me also, I feel
like it was one of my only vices, so I like,
I wouldn't give it up. There's no way that I
wanted to give it up. So now I'm making chai
first thing in the morning. I'm using things like mudwater,
which I absolutely love, no caffeine, no stimulants, and I

(47:43):
would say by about day four, day five, headaches dissipated.
I wasn't running to the bathroom, you know, every so
often because it was stimulating my bladders so much. I'm
looking at my sleep to see if it's tracking for
better sleep. But I would say that if you're somebody
who exp eperiences any type of anxiety, if you are
more prone to being stressed, if you are more prone

(48:05):
to hypervigilance, I know you love that coffee first thing
in the morning, but do yourself a favor. Maybe switch
to decaf use a organic mold tested Swiss water decaffeinated
coffee first thing in the morning. Trick your brain. Still
go for the aroma, but get off of the drags
the addiction.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Yeah, these are really great solutions and really great options
to choose from, because I feel like we've just talked
about like the core aspects of what's kind of wiring
our day that way. Yeah, and it does take a beat,
It does take a second. Like I'm someone who I
crave a sugary breakfast, or used to crave a sugary breakfast.
It was my favorite thing in the world was to

(48:44):
have a sweet breakfast. And now that I've been eating
a savory breakfast five out seven days a week, it's
almost like I'm so used to that now. And so
much of this is habit breaking, habit formation, habit learning.
Why is it so hard in the beginning to break
these habits and staw a new one.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
I always say that habits come and go, but rituals
become you. And this is actually one of the greatest
lessons that come from the ashram. Every single day, the
schedule is the same, right. You know this from being
a monk the schedule is the same. We're up at
the same time every single day with the same activities
scheduled at the same time. While you're living there the

(49:24):
first few days, it feels like torture until you get
used to it. And what's so great about it is
that it teaches you how to become so like hyper
present and focus and you start to ritualize your behavior
so over time with practice and repetition and also associating
with a feeling like, oh, this feels really good. By

(49:44):
merging those two together, you ritualize your healthy habits. So,
you know, I think a lot of the things that
we're talking about, it can feel so overwhelming, like Okay,
she's saying to do this, cut out these foods, cut
out these stimulants. It feels like so much. Look at
the one, two or three things like could make the
most impact for your lifestyle and start there and then

(50:04):
maybe start habit stacking, so you would never leave the
house forgetting to brush your teeth or having a shower. Right. So,
a lot of my clients will habit stack. They will
you brush their teeth and do something like tongue scraping,
which is really really beneficial. They will make their morning
tea and you know, hold their loved one while the
tea is brewing. They'll go to the gym, but when

(50:27):
they go to the gym, they're spending five minutes in
mindfulness afterwards. So looking at where you can merge habit
that you're already doing something that you're already doing and
loving with something that would help you kind of step
into the higher version of yourself and make you feel
really really good. And that could be playing loud music
and dancing like that could be an amazing habit stack
because again, it's elevating your vibration to make better choices

(50:50):
for yourself throughout the day.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
Yeah, habit stacking is such a great, great skill, and
you're so right if you're going to go work out
five minutes of mindfulness even when you think about being great,
like while you're waiting for your tea in the morning
to just heat up or whatever it may be, to
practice gratitude at that time. I think people often think,
oh my gosh, I've got to find all this time
in my day now. Well, there are so many activities

(51:11):
that can allow us to be internal and by the
way we're thinking during those times anyway, So it's replacing
what we think about it with I was wondering, what

(51:36):
about someone who's dealing with brain fog, Like, what are
some of the tools that someone can have to sort
brain fog?

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Yeah, so big topic. There's a couple of things. So
I really become an investigator for these clients. One, is
there anything in your physical environment that could be causing
your brain fog. So we're looking for you know, chemical
air fresheners and perfumes and maybe noises in the background,
are things that are just constantly distracting you. We're looking

(52:04):
at the foods that you're eating. Having food sensitivities can
actually cause brain fog. You might not even know it. Yeah,
Like remember you and I both had some similar things,
Like we had coconut come up and almond come up,
like pineapple, like these things that are seemingly healthy, but
our bodies just were like, we don't have the enzymes
to digest those foods right now. That could be causing

(52:25):
brain fog as well. Nervous system dysregulation right again, living
in that state of hypervigilance could be causing your brain fog.
And then we look at sleep also. When I work
with my clients, sleep is actually one of the biggest
pillars of health. If you are not resting properly and
recovering and restoring, there is no way that you're going
to have the energy to proceed in your life and

(52:47):
to do all the things that you want to do
with energy and focus. So looking at your sleep, I
love data, so I'll use things like or a ring.
I know we looked at your or ring also, but
I had mold exposure a few years ago. That was
my environment that was causing stress to my body. And
it wasn't actually until I looked at my ordering my
heart rate variability continue to drop and drop. My REM

(53:11):
sleep started dropping as well. I got like twenty minutes
of REM sleep every single night. You wonder why I
have brain fog. So that caused me to do some
deeper investigations. So this is where, like again, if you're
suffering from those symptoms, any symptom at all, investigate to
see where they come from, because the sources could be
very different for all of.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
Us totally, and it's always so much simpler than we
think it is. And I think often we do get
caught in our heads and we just think there's something
in my head like I'm doing something wrong.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
It's just the way that I am, exactly.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
And so often it becomes, like you said earlier, it
becomes our identity. It's really interesting. So I'm someone who's generally,
thankfully never struggled with sleep. Knock on wood, And it's
so funny because I was talking about this recently, and
for the past couple of weeks, my sleep was getting
really wrong, and I was like, that's really weird. Like
I literally just spoke about this on a podcast, like

(54:05):
what's going on? And I was thinking about it and
I was trying to figure it out. I was like,
wait a minute, I'm not looking at my phone, I'm
not stressed, i'm not anxious, I've got a really good routine,
I'm working out, I'm eating, and I'm like, what is
going on? And I realized it sounds crazy, but it's
my mattress. And so my mattress was slowly getting worse
and my sleep was slowly getting worse. And it was

(54:26):
only until me and Raley had a conversation about it,
and I was like, Ralely, I just not been sleeping
well for the past couple of weeks, Like, how are
you doing? Because obviously we're sleeping in the same bed
next to each other. So it's like and she was like,
you know what, I've not been sleeping well either. I
was like, what do you think She goes, I think
it's the mattress. I was like, you're so right. I
keep waking up because my back hurts and I'm uncomfortable.
But I didn't. I just didn't like it sounds so ridiculous,

(54:47):
but I couldn't sense it because life's so busy. You
keep moving fast, and you're out of bed, you're in
your day, and your day's fine, and then only in
your bed are you're feeling that way. And so we
recently replaced our mattress, and again I sleeps back to normal.
Because I was thinking about it, I was like, wait a minute,
why am I sleeping well in hotels but not in
my own house? And it was the mattress. And I
was literally in a hotel for the last two nights,

(55:07):
slept amazing. And then we got back last night, slept
in a new mattress, slept amazing. But something as small
as that can have such a big impact.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Do you remember, I think we started working together, you
lived in a different house or something.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Oh, my gosh, I don't even get any started.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
Your sleep back then?

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Was that energy of that home. There was lots of
things wrong without home. The first thing is the main
generator was hidden behind the master bedroom in the house,
so then sounds, the frequency, the vibration of that was there.
It was also a home that was really old, so
you could hear animals in the floorboards and the walls.
I would wake up to that. And then the energy

(55:45):
of the home by day was beautiful and by night
was not good, like there was a there was some
kind of stuff going on there.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Well, how many people put up with that? Right like
they put up with maybe the partner that's snow snoring,
or the mattress that isn't so great, or too much
light coming in, or they just get used to it.
This is how I sleep. I'm a terrible sleeper. Right again,
You've got to like become an expert. You are the healer.
You have to take control of your life. And without
even working with me, pretend I was in your bedroom,

(56:13):
like I'm doing an audit of your bedroom. We're looking
at the quality of your mattress, the quality of your duvet,
your pillows, the temperature, the lighting, the sounds right. How
do you make your bedroom your rest and digest oasis.
I don't allow my clients to have any screens in
the bedrooms. Bedrooms are meant for rest, restoration, for sleep,

(56:35):
and for sex. That is it. And once you master
your sleep, like gosh, the joke is like, let that
cure ninety nine percent of your problems because your body
has the ability to heal itself. Our bodies are healing
in the second as you're listening to this. Your body
is so resilient. It is healing. But if we're not
giving it the proper rest and restoration that it needs,

(56:56):
it's not going to be able to do that. It's
putting out fires here and there to try to keep
up with your busy life.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
We have to change that identity. What you just said,
that this idea that I'm a terrible sleeper, That's what
needs to be solved at the root of it, because
if you keep saying that, and you keep repeating it
rather than what you said, do an audit of everything
from the pillow shape and size to your bed sheets,
everything that you just mentioned. That audit is so important
because you'll find it in that audit that there's something

(57:23):
else tripping you up, and it isn't this weakness you
have or the fact that you're just a bad sleeper
or and also sometimes I think we do overestimate the
anxiety in our life, like we do just make it
about oh my gosh, I'm just anxious. I'm just this,
and it's like no, no, no, that you've got a
TV on in your room, you're on your phone all
this time before you go to bed. Of course you're

(57:44):
not just going to switch off sleep.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
Anxiety is a real thing, and this is actually a
really important, you know, part of aer veda. In Aveda,
we talk about not only digesting the foods that we eat.
We metabolize everything in our life. It's not only what
we eat, it's what we're watching, it's what we're like
listening to, It's what we can smell, and it's what
we can feel. So look around you right now, or
look around in the rooms where you spend the most time,

(58:07):
and ask what you are digesting. You know, I always say,
clean up the cupboard or that drawer. That's just like
chaos for you, because a cluttered house clauses a cluttered mind. Right.
That was my dad's message growing up look at your
space and see is it a reflection of the version
of yourself that you want to become and how you

(58:27):
want to feel. Often with my clients, I'll help them
kind of build their ashroom as much as I want
everybody to go away and experience what ashroom like is
and all the gifts that come with it. Create your
ashroom at home. So what does that mean? We talked
about your bedroom, optimizing your sleep, going into your kitchen,
and I always say that self care starts in the kitchen.

(58:48):
Your kitchen is your first line of defense when it
comes to your healthcare. So if I were to come
over again, do an audit of your cabinets, your cupboard,
to your fridge, what would I see? What would you
have to hide from a new tritionist? Right, just get
rid of it. Why do you think it's okay to
feed yourself those foods if you know that they're inflammatory.
Why aren't you putting yourself into the position of wanting
to nourish yourself so much and heal and break that addiction?

(59:13):
I often say to people, you build an altar, whether
you are religious or spiritual or not, build an altar
in your home that reminds you of what it means
to go back to that core frequency of who you are?
Who are you? How do you want to feel? What
are you working towards. It could include a religious deity

(59:33):
or a god or something spiritual. It could be a
picture of yourself in nature and your happiest spot. It
could be a picture of your family. It could be
a vision board. It could be you know, some devotional
practice that you have there. I love putting some Palo
Santo and stuff like that there. But have a space
in your home where you go to that altar. It's
always something that's going to anchor you in the version

(59:53):
of yourself that you are becoming. And then I also
add in like have a space for mindfulnes. Yes, it's
funny you and I we talk a lot about meditation.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
If there was something that you could do that would
take away your stress, improve your digestion, help your memory,
your brain function, your mood, your motivation, your creativity, how
you show up in this world? Would you do it? Yeah?
Meditate right? If we don't do it, it's free. What
if doctors started to prescribe meditation. What if one day

(01:00:25):
we could go to our doctor's offices and before we
even stepped in to see them. We were guided into
meditation to surrender and just practice that muscle of feeling peace.
You would learn how to change your physiology. You become
the master of your own health. And because you remember
how good it feels, even if it's a split second

(01:00:46):
in the meditation that day, you're practicing that muscle. You're
building the fuel of what it feels like to feel good,
and you deserve to feel that way. So, yes, you
need to meditate, and gosh, if you haven't practiced yoga.
Yoga is something that I think that needs to be
recommended to everyone. A lot of my clients will say,
I can't do it. I can't stay still for that long.

(01:01:07):
That's why you need to be doing yoga right, That's
exactly why you should do it. But when we think
about the ancient wisdom behind it, Sudiya and namuscar right
sun salutations first thing in the morning. Right now, we're
talking about our circadian rhythm going out into the sun.
We know that this really supports us with our sleep
training at night. It helps to boost serotonin in our gut.

(01:01:31):
Microbiome Yogis have known this forever we go outside, we
salute the sun. We're inhaling sunshine, allowing nature to really
calm and sue us. We're aligning with the rhythm of nature. Also,
we're moving our bodies in different ways to alleviate stillness,
working our lymphatic system or respiratory system. Ultimately letting go,

(01:01:51):
releasing things from the night before, stuff that's come up
from while we sleep. Do that first thing in the morning.
If it's one round of sun salutations, two rounds of
sun salutations, but just give it a go. Notice how
it's like an instant energy boost. You won't need coffee anymore.
Your body will feel primed for your day.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
When you talk about it, you make it sound so easy.
I'm like listening, just going mona, You're amazing, this is awesome.
This is like, it's so blissful to live this way.
And I think anyone who's listening right now, it's about
finding the time you have to start doing one of
these things and seeing how it changes your life, and

(01:02:30):
that will build your confidence. I think when I've looked
at my health journey, it's been changing a pillar at
a time. And when I've changed the pillar and built confidence,
then I can add another pillar and then I can
add another one rather than this, let me just destruct
my entire health regime and start a new one, and
it doesn't work that way. I feel like if you
solve your sleep all of a sudden, now you can

(01:02:51):
solve your food, then you can solve your workout. If
you try to do it all at the same time,
most people don't have the time, or can't find it,
or are not prioritized it. There's too many things going
wrong because each of these things is going to take
time to practice and prepare for and get right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
Oh yeah, and that's a good reflection too, because I
don't want people to look at me and think that
I've got it figured out. Mona's outside doing sun salutations
every single mornings just for blissful self. No, I'm a mom.
I've got two little kids. Life is stressful and it's
really busy. But I know that when I come back
to those core practices then I feel my best. And

(01:03:28):
for listeners, I want you to start thinking about what
are one, two or three things that you can start doing,
and maybe consider one thing in the nutrition category. What's
one thing like drinking water first thing in the morning
that could be so simple that could help you optimize.
What if it's removing one food ingredient. What if it's
deciding to eat dinner a little bit earlier because you

(01:03:48):
know that's going to help you sleep a little bit better.
Then from the movement category, you know, what's one type
of exercise that you actually love? Focus on doing something
that you love. Don't go do hit training because you
know social media is telling you to do that. Don't
go and lift heavy weights if it's something that you
just absolutely hate. Find something that you love doing, and

(01:04:09):
then do something for your spirit, what makes your spirit
feel really really great? And do one thing from each
of those buckets every day, acknowledging that it's that one percent.
It's the one percent every day that's really putting you
on the best training ground to have the most optimal
health span. And I wanted to point out too also

(01:04:30):
having a strong why everyone's talking about longevity, right, I
want to live longer, you know, but why why do
you want to live longer?

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
The way that we're looking at aging right now, aging
kind of sucks. We get to the last ten fifteen
years of our life and you know, we're put into
nursing homes, we're given a chronic disease or put on
prescription medication, like I don't want any of that. But
my visualization is to think about I want to live
to till I'm one hundred, so that I can throw
my grandkid on my back and hike Runyon Canyon and

(01:05:04):
have that strength and that posture, to have clarity of
my mind so I can be fully present, so with
a why. That is so powerful for me because I
really want to meet my grandkids one day and I
can visualize this. I can visualize hiking and make it
feel real. Now my actions throughout the day are going
to be aligned with the version of myself that I

(01:05:25):
am becoming. I love that so many of us listen
to social media, and I'm guilty of it too. We
hear about these things that we should be doing, you know,
the things that we need to be doing for longevity,
but we don't have a why backed behind them, and
it's like trial and error to see, like what works,
what will stick? Maybe stop looking for trial and error
and finally just get to the source of what's going

(01:05:46):
to make you feel your best and then follow those
nuggets and that's going to lead you to your perfect
healing protocol. Not somebody else's, yours own.

Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
That I love that. Man, what a beautiful reminder. And
I loved hearing about your visualization because you made it
so tangible and real for us, and I could vision
it for you as you were saying it. So imagine
if we were all doing that for ourselves. And I
think the why is so critical and so important, and
I think everything gets fueled from that deeper purpose that

(01:06:17):
we have of why we want to live long. I
always think about it. It's like, I want to be
able to do this for as long as I possibly can.
This is all I want to do is serve and give.
And when I came to seek your help, or when
I've gone to others to find their coaching or mentorship
in my health, it's purely being because I'm just like,
I want to do this forever. Like I'm not trying
to retire, I'm not trying to stop doing what I'm doing.

(01:06:39):
There's no endpoint for me. This is what I love doing,
but I want to be healthy while I do it,
and so Mona. We end every episode of On Purpose
with a final five, So these are your final five.
They be answered in one word to one sentence maximum
so Mona Sharma. These are your final five. Question number one,

(01:06:59):
what is the best health advice you've ever heard or
received or given?

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Eat like you love yourself?

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
Question number two, what is the worst health advice you've
ever heard received?

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
Carbs are your enemy?

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
Oh explain xpline carbohydrates.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
Our body needs carbs, But I want you to start
loving on carbohydrates that come from the earth. Vegetables that
are grown in the ground, squashes, yams, sweet potato. Those
type of carbhydrates are loaded with nutrients, with vitamins, with minerals,
with polyphenols that help our bodies thrive. They're antioxidants for
our bodies. So focus on those carbohydrates from the earth.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
Great answer. Question number three. What's something you used to
believe was true about health but you don't anymore?

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
That somebody else knows the answers to my body and
how to heal?

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
Tell me more.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
When you don't have your health, nothing matters. Time stops.
I had to get to that point to really take
initiative to learn what my body needed to get to
a place to heal, and ultimately that was embodiment. It
was coming into my body to learn what my body
needed and I think that if we start to talk

(01:08:08):
more and have conversations like this about the fact that
our bodies actually do have this intelligence, and maybe for
once and for all, we start teaching our kids on
the wisdom that our bodies have, then they're not going
to be in the same position when they grew up.
They will acknowledge that they are their own healers. That
we can merge Western medicine with these Eastern training modalities
that we've talked about today.

Speaker 2 (01:08:28):
Yeah, I love that you've been speaking about that so much.
That's what I'm so passionate about as well. I feel
like there's so many great strengths from both and it's
a missed opportunity to ignor either or.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
My dream is that the future of healthcare is really
the integration of modern science, which is so cool. There's
so many cool things that are happening with ancient wisdom,
and if the two would come together, I think that
the trajectory for the future of health how we age
the symptoms that we suffer from, will dissipate. They will

(01:08:59):
be more awareness and openness that we will be on
this like exciting journey to uncover the human body.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
Question number four what's the first thing you do every
morning and the last thing you do every night?

Speaker 1 (01:09:10):
Meditate and gratitude for my heart. Yeah, our hearts have
been veeding for us since before we even got here.
And to get into my heart, I come to the
feeling I just love. I'm so in love with my
kids and my husband and being a mom in my
life and coming into that hart coherence is everything beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
It comes across, It's very real. It just oozes from you, beautiful.
Fifth and final question, if you could create one law
that everyone in the world had to follow, what would
it be?

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Lead with empathy? You do not know you're at the
other person's story, and notice how often you are the
critic or the judge in your day to day life.
Maybe turn that around to empathy towards yourself. Once you
experience that, you will take that out into the world
and it will be contagious.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
It's amazing. Mona, thank you so much for your time today.
Everyone has been listening or watching. I want you to
tag me and Mona on Instagram, on TikTok, whatever platform
you use. Tell us what you're testing, what you're experimenting with,
what you're trying, because I want you to try and
put at least one piece of advice into practice. And
of course please go and follow Mona Sharma across all

(01:10:18):
of the social media platforms and you can check out
her podcast, Rooted in Wellness as well. Mona, thank you
so much again for your wealth, wisdom, your amazing energy
and aura that you have that you carry everywhere you go.
And I'm so grateful that we got to finally connect
on the show, and I'm excited for people to start
practicing these things.

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
So thank you so much, thank you for having.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
Me check If you love this episode, you love my
conversation with doctor Joe Dispenser on why stressing overthinking negatively
impacts your brain and heart and how to change your
habits that are on autopilot. Listen to it right now.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
How many times do we have to forget until we
stop forgetting and start remembering, that's the moment of change.
One cares how many times you fell off the bicycle?

Speaker 2 (01:11:02):
If you ride the bicycle, now you ride the bike

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Host

Jay Shetty

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Celebrity Nutritionist Mona Sharma: Stop Stress Before It Becomes Disease! (Do THIS Before Every Meal)