August 24, 2021 • 54 mins
In this episode Dr Melissa is going to discuss the core areas that you can focus on today to turn back your biological clock by years!!
Learn how to achieve greater states of thriving to a ripe old age. Its time to discover your true limitless potential.
Dr. Melissa Petersen is a sought out expert in thriving! For over 20
years as a best selling author, speaker and thought leader in the
wellness industry, specializing in epigenetics and longevity, she's
been delivering precision lifestyle solutions to help people live
longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris Barnes (00:12):
Hey guys, and welcome to Amplified wellness
podcast, Chris Barnes here. I amabsolutely thrilled with my
guest today she's coming to youall the way from Asheville in
Carolina over in the States. Sheis a lady with over 20 years
experience in the health andwellness industry, a
transformational coach, a bestselling author of the incredible
(00:35):
book codes of longevity. I'mhalfway through that book at the
moment. So yeah, I've got somesome interesting questions to
ask. Also, Chief limitlessofficer at appear on Academy of
epigenetics, which is a reallyinteresting field that I can't
wait to discuss as well. Sograteful to welcome Dr. Melissa
(00:58):
grill Peterson on to Amplifiedwellness.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (01:00):
So it was really interesting, I'll
never forget when I finally leftfor college, and then, you know,
there's kind of like, you couldhave access to therapists and
counsellors and all thesethings. And I thought, Hey, I am
really feeling stuck. I feelless than I grew up with a
certain way of perceivingmyself, and I'm gonna go talk to
a therapist. And I'll neverforget the moment I went to this
(01:22):
particular therapist, I'm notmaking a judgement about all
therapists, because I knowthere's amazing ones out there.
But at this time, in my life,the one I went to, was exactly
what I needed. Because she'stold me all the things, she
wasn't listening, I didn't feelheard. She was like, Well, you
know what your problem is? Andshe's like, this is all about
(01:44):
money. I'm like, No, this isn'tabout money. This is this is
about my identity and how I'vegrown up and my point of sharing
this is that very moment, Irealised, I'm beans, I felt like
I was listening. And somebody isseeing me even less than I saw
myself, and they're notunderstanding. So I've got to go
figure this out. And when I hadto go figure it out for myself,
(02:06):
figure out my own well beingtake accountability for myself
that had to start with myselffirst, I became my first client.
And I think that happens formany of us, right in our own
kind of personal growth anddevelopment, our own health and
wellness journeys, whether it'sstarting with a physical
ailment, you know, there is thatthat moment, the hero's journey,
where we are called into thestory. Well, that's really my
(02:28):
moment, I had already beenstruggling, I was already
dealing with issues and thingsand perception of self. But I
innately knew that there wasmore than I'm so glad right for
people in their limiting beliefsabout how they viewed my own
potential. I knew something morewas possible. And, and I've
never looked back, Chris andwhat I gained at such an early
(02:49):
age in my early 20s Was thisknowing even though I didn't
have the words, I didn't havethe science I didn't have the
research back then. I just hadthis knowing like, wait a
minute, too many people aretrying to put us in boxes, too
many people are trying to imposetheir view their limitations,
and there's something muchbigger going on here. And that's
when I fell in love withuncovering, unlocking and truly
(03:13):
igniting a limitless potentialwithin
Chris Barnes (03:17):
Beautiful beautiful. Was this pre or post
nitro dancing? For those notaware Dr. Mel was spice spice in
the WWE is the Nitro girlsdancing.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (03:37):
Yes, this was pre and yet it's what
actually led me there. And sointerestingly enough, the one
thing like I told you, I hadthat poster. And so I started
dancing when I was about two anda half years old. Dance was my
first love and dance to me wasthrough all the trauma and drama
of life as a young child,adolescent teen, it was the
(03:59):
thing that gave me my place ofempowerment, my place of where I
was able to just find myself andfind my creativity and express
and and so it was interesting. Iactually on this kind of path to
more I thought I was gonna go tolaw school now I was dancing, I
was in fitness, I was doing allthat kind of stuff and and I had
(04:21):
moved to Atlanta with my thenboyfriend who was going to
become a doctor of chiropracticand went to this to the
university. And, and Shortland Iwas gonna go to law school and
then I had kind of this identitycrisis going I'm in my I'm like
22 And I don't know who the heckI want to be like, I don't I
love dancing. I love fitness. Ilove wellness. I love nutrition.
(04:43):
I was a personal trainer, likedoing all of it. But I thought I
had to be you know, some type ofa degree. And he's just like, we
know they have a dance dividendsteam. He's like, Yeah, and you
get paid. Like you didn't getpaid to be on a dance team. I
was like so I went I audition.
And it was interesting. Iactually part of what led me on
my journey into getting mydoctorate in chiropractic. And
(05:06):
then, you know, natural healthwas dance. And it was there that
I was on. I was on this dancetroupe, and I actually was a
choreographer. And we got intothe 1996 Olympics. I'm totally
dating myself, but but it wasthrough this journey that I
found my way to wrestling. Sohere I am in the 1996, Olympics
(05:26):
Xanthine, a piece that I hadhelped to choreograph in front
of like all the, you know,people of the world. And I was
nine months away from graduatingwith my doctorate, to go out and
be this doctor. And I thought,I've only got a little bit of
time left, I want to go do asmuch dance as possible. I want
to do every audition that I canI want to go out and just, you
(05:49):
know, be told a gazillion timesand be told yes, as many times
as possible. Like, I just wantto go do it and have that. Yeah.
And it was in that window. Whenwrestling found me, actually
because I was at where I lived,where it's just so happened. I
live in Atlanta, Georgia at thetime, I trained and I was a
fitness instructor and apersonal trainer at the gym.
(06:11):
Were all of the professionalwrestlers. Were Yeah, wow. And I
had actually choreographed I wasthe choreographer for Ben
Diamond Dallas Page, his wife,Kimberly, for her fitness
competitions. And so she waslike, Oh my gosh, And so long
story short, it kind of was justthrough this whole fitness
(06:31):
connection that we met, and mymy ability, my love of dance,
and then being a choreographer,and helping her that all of a
sudden, the crazy wild world ofwrestling found me and, and
there was a whole otherdimension of going, Wow, there's
so much more to life, like, youknow, we each kind of show up.
(06:52):
We're in our normal, everydayworld, and then you get a new
exposure, and you're like,everything, I thought I knew I
was totally wrong.
Chris Barnes (07:00):
So much more.. So True, what an incredible Yeah,
story there. I, I love your workat the moment you're dealing
with helping people thrive andflourish, I often have a
(07:23):
conversation with friends aroundjust the meaning of great
health, extraordinary health, inyour own words. How would you
best describe a thriving ,limitless individual?
Melissa Grill-Petersen (07:37):
That is a great question. It's, it's
personal, it's personal, rightfor each of us. But if I were to
just give my opinion and myperception on it, to me, my wish
that I have for each person inexpressing their greatest
thriving state, is expression anexpression of physical, mental,
emotional, and spiritualcapacity. So the words that I
(08:01):
would say is, it's the momentswhere you touch those spaces in
places that energise you, thatfill you, that lift you up that
call you forward, and expandyou. And to me, it's not just
about certain blood markers, orbiometrics or trying to fit to
the norms. As you know, I thinkthat this thriving life is so
(08:22):
deeply, intimately personal foreach of us. And what we're not
often invited to do, is to trulydream, our biggest dream 10 exit
100 exit, if I had the courage,if I had the energy, if I had
the capacity, if I had thevitality, if I had the will if I
had the desire, if I had justthe the notion that it could be
(08:43):
possible. What would I desirefor myself? And I believe that a
thriving life at our fullest hasto start with asking ourselves,
some bigger questions, someheart opening, life filling,
Soul giving type of questions.
And that's, that's where westart to get really curious. And
we start to feel the pulsationand go and realise that a
(09:06):
thriving life is the impulsethat calls us forward into the
next into the next. It is whatis literally embedded in our
genetic code. It is thatevolutionary drive to know more
of our truth, more of ourcapacity, more of who we are,
(09:27):
and you're here to be
Chris Barnes (09:32):
beautiful, absolutely beautiful. gives me
chills in in your book, codes oflongevity, there's a little
excerpt in there that I wasreading, and it was super
interesting talking aboutlifespan, and I'll just read it
(09:53):
here. So basically, it says theidea of living longer is at zero
interest if it means weexperienced a decline in the
quality of our health. That'ssuch an interesting one. Because
like, you could speak to anybodyand most people want to live as
long as they physically can. Butlifespan isn't the only piece of
(10:15):
the puzzle, isn't it? Becauseoften we're finding that people
are living longer and longerthese days due to improvements
in quality of health, medicalfields, but they're not
necessarily thriving longer inage are they, and we're seeing
this, this increased lifespanbut a declining, later years in
(10:36):
life. How important the conceptsthat you referenced in your book
about healthspan and WellSpan.
Can we can we talk about those alittle?
Unknown (10:46):
Yes, they are everything. And I'm so glad you
asked this, because please put ahand up, interrupt me if I go
too long. Because this is likemy sweets. So here's the thing,
we can absolutely look and wesee unequivocally lifespan has
been increasing year over yearfor the past 100 years. And yes,
(11:08):
much of it is modern, you know,it's sanitation is modern
medicine. It's just some ofthese like simple advancements,
really in hygiene and kind ofhow we're protecting ourselves
in our environment. And yet,we're living longer. But the big
question is, are we livingbetter, because, you know, I'm
getting ready next week, mysecond season of my longevity
(11:29):
summit airs. So this is a verytimely conversation, we can look
and see, especially in the US,which is where I'm living right
now is at 45%. And these arepretty standard numbers, we're
now seeing unfortunately,globally, than about 45% of our
population has a chronicdisease. And what we know, as we
(11:49):
age chronologically, is thatfrom 30, on decade, over a
decade, that risk of chronicdisease increases. And by time
we hit our 60s decade, itradically, it really amplifies
us. So it's kind of a little bitof slow crawl is graduated a
couple of percent each year. Andonce we hit that, you know that
60 And by the time we hit 65,there's this really big shift of
(12:12):
going like you're in that kindof danger zone. And so but
here's where it gets thatthere's so many interesting
pieces to this, Chris, becauseso we can look and say, Okay,
well, we're not necessarilyliving better, lots of chronic
disease. And we're seeing thatit's really starting to have the
most major effect when starting30s and a slow drip over time
(12:33):
and really amplifying in our60s. And yet we're living
longer. So that means we're notnecessarily like who wants to go
from 60 to 80 or 90, miserable,right symptomatic, like
struggling with disease livingon medications, that's not
exciting for anyone. And, andwith this, there's something
else really interestinghappening simultaneously. So
(12:57):
what the research has beenshowing us since about 2018,
that we're living in a timewhere population is slipping. So
while many people are like we'reoverpopulated, oh my gosh, this
pandemic, they're trying to killeverybody. And we can actually
decrease. And by 2030, there'sgoing to be more 65 year olds
(13:20):
than 18 year olds, in manypockets around the world,
there's going to be one, one outof every five people will be 65
and older. And, and part of thatis just because many of us I
mean, I know I've only got onekid, you know, my parents had
two of us. Well, actually, mydad and stepmother had another
two steps, four of us in total.
But I had one right. And so I'vealready have two what my parents
(13:41):
did. And that's kind of thetrend is that many families
today are having instead of fiveand eight children, they're
having 123, you know, and sojust even that change over the
past 2030 years, is what'sadding to a lot of this. And so
so now this is where it getsreally interesting. And why does
healthspan and WellSpan actuallybecome really important is we're
(14:05):
living longer are we livingbetter? Have we really thought
that we could live longer? Andnow that we know that we can,
the real question becomes, well,maybe we haven't been living
longer because we haven't reallydefined a life worth living.
This is kind of a big idea. Andwhat I mean by this is you're
(14:26):
like, well, Melissa, we want tolive as long as possible. We do
of course, but think about howmany of us get up and get out
every day. And it's more of thesame more the same. And even if
we're intentional, we take thetime to journal. You know, we do
a little meditation in themorning. The moment we get into
the routine of the day, so muchof it is on autopilot, right and
so much of it becomes even if westart very intentional. It
(14:50):
becomes reactionary. And so formost of us we're going through
the motions and life is we'rereacting Responding to the next
and the next and the next. Andwe are not often enough, invited
into a conversation withinourselves, within our families
within our communities, withinour politics, our governance, to
(15:13):
say, hold up. Like this istoday, and it's feeling kind of
crazy. But let's get out aheadof this like, like, who's really
there are some governing bodieslike it was really sitting back
right now go, Whoa, let's getout ahead of let's get out ahead
of the pandemic. Let's look outfive years, let's look at 10
years, let's look out 100 years,what is the type of world we
(15:35):
want to be living in? You know,like, This is no fun for
anybody, right? Being in lockdowns, and all the kinds of
things so we clearly know whatwe don't want. So now this gives
rise to us going okay, so wedon't want that. What do we want
and, and so, longevity, lifespanin and of itself is about life
extension. But what's happening?
(15:56):
And Chris, here's a really bigthing. This is like this, just
it's been blowing my mind aswell, because although I've
known this, and I've beentalking about this for years, I
teach a tonne of continuingeducation or certification
courses to my fellow IntegrativeHealth and Wellness clinicians.
And I've been saying, we are inthe precipice of a shift. Well,
this July this past July. So alittle over a month ago, there
(16:20):
was a huge new research studythat came out, it was published
in Nature. And David Sinclair,one of the you know, holy grails
of longevity, you have topublish this paper, which what
they really looked at was that,hey, let's look at the economics
of ageing. So we typically thinkof the economics of sick care of
(16:41):
disease, and there's a cost toit. The 45% of the population
here in the US is 3.7 trillion,that that costs us every year.
But what this is, it's a it's ait's a mess, right? Like not
just billions, huge, real, Yeah,huge to true. And so this study
said, Okay, let's look at thecost of IP of ageing, the
(17:03):
economic value within it, couldthere be a value to ageing was
the kind of hypothesis and theylooked at several different
examples after we just want tocompress it like they went
through ml save kind of all thevariables of the study. But
here's the big thing that'sreally important. Is it where
they landed in this was wreckingrealising, through running these
algorithms in these programmesand these scenarios and these
(17:26):
models is that by slowing downthe rate at which we age, and
and in so doing, extending lifespan, the quote, the length of
life and the quality of life byone year, we put $38 trillion
into the economy. Now what thatmeans is that wipes out the US
(17:50):
national debt, like that one.
Wow. And so so this so here'swhy this is really powerful.
Like, what I don't know what Idon't think many people grasp
yet is this, this this study isthe paradigm shifter. And here's
why. We have for so long createdmodels and and consumer and
financial and revenue modelsbased around sick care. And that
(18:12):
looks at lifespan that looks asif the body in a traditional
model is mechanisticreductionistic a piece and apart
in Oregon, a system, a cell in apetri dish in an isolated
environment, in a research lab.
But we're so much more thanthat. We're complex, dynamic
(18:34):
systems, right? We're not justliving in a lab, we're not
isolated, we're not just asingle pathway. There are and
this is where my passion, ofcourse, for epigenetics comes in
this dynamic interplay betweenthe outer world and the inner
world constantly unfolding. Andso here's why this study is
huge. It's about to turn thetraditional model on his ear.
(18:57):
And the reason why is becauseall we're really looking at,
through our research lens is thebiology and we still need to do
that, like the body does needsupport, there's no doubt about
that. We want to understandpathways we want. We want to
understand biology, we want tounderstand how we can slow down
and reverse a so we can havemore years, but but they're
(19:19):
saying if this isn't just aboutlife extension, we need to look
at how we increase the qualityof life. So that now raises a
much different question. Andthis is where healthspan how
healthy we feel, and WellSpanwhich is our well being our
purpose, our joy, what are whywhat gets us out of bed, what
(19:41):
makes life worth living. Now,these factors, more than ever
come into the equation, and themoney and the research dollars
that are going into all this.
These are not from government,these in pharmaceuticals, these
are from private sector. Theseare billionaires As and you
know, investment funds that arelooking to say, how can we
(20:03):
democratise and bring solutionsdirect to consumer? Because we
can't wait on, you know, thesethese outdated paradigms to kind
of catch up with where we'reactually. Yeah. So I know I just
talked for a really long time.
And I That's why I kind of said,Hey, like, please wait.
No need a timeout on me becausethere's a couple of really big
(20:25):
points in there, right? Likethis is this is some big stuff.
We are truly at this gamechanging point. Where lifespan
Yes, but more importantly, wehave to look at and really
contemplate for ourselvesindividually. But then
collectively, what does thismean for us, and then all of a
sudden, we are consideringhealthspan and WellSpan also.
Chris Barnes (20:49):
Huge points, based on your experience and the
research. I know that you youhost the longevity summit with
some absolutely incredible mindsin this field of human optimum
optimization, longevity? Whatare some of the core areas that
people can focus on to increasetheir health span? And WellSpan?
(21:12):
Understand, you could probablyspeak for hours on this. But I
guess just from your ownviewpoint, what are the key
ones?
Melissa Grill-Petersen (21:18):
I'll keep it short? Because I know
there's
Chris Barnes (21:22):
there's a lot of it's complex
Unknown (21:24):
to remember, I love all this, but everybody else may not
geek out about as much as somebullet points. So yeah, no, and
I think I think really, I'mgonna follow, I'm gonna follow
Sergey Jung on this. And I thinkhe has really divided it in a
great way, as a doctor, I thinkof it from a triage standpoint,
immediate, short term, longterm, he calls it now near and
(21:47):
far horizon, so is the same kindof concept. But it's, it's what
is what is within our graspright now today, that you and I
can do for ourselves thatabsolutely will move the needle
and help us to reverse age. I'lltalk about that in a moment. The
next part is, okay, short term,what's coming in the next five
(22:07):
to 10 years, that, that we canleverage that will add to
enhancing the expression of ourhealth and, and really enhancing
our capacity to thrive in morefacets of our life. And then the
long term in the far horizon isSergey calls, it is really more
as we're looking out towardsthat 15 to 25 year marker. And
(22:31):
and so so when we break thisdown, if I'm going to talk about
longevity, step one, you know,there's really I'm going to take
a moment and say, we have to saywhy do we age, right? What what
is really going on, if I have togive it one name, I gotta call
it inflammaging. This is an allthe research and the documents,
but all the different inputs tothe system, when there's too
(22:52):
much for too long, or foot is onthe gas for too long. And let's
just call that chronic stress inthe form of physical, mental,
emotional, chemical,environmental, too much for too
long, without time to rest, toreset. to rejuvenate to
regenerate, the body is going tobe in a constant breakdown
(23:13):
state. And the longer we are inthis chronic distress, then the
byproduct of this Metabolicchaos is inflammation is
inflammation, which has beentermed inflammaging. And when
you look at the nine hallmarksof ageing, which is what science
has said, hey, here are the ninemain reasons of why the body's
(23:33):
going to age why it's going tobreak down why it's ultimately
going to, you know, stopworking. And so of course, what
research does is that well,here's the mind Hallmark. So
let's find the solutions to to,you know, mitigate those paths,
like to support to stop it toslow it down to reverse it. So.
So from this standpoint, when wethink okay, inflammation, and we
(23:57):
if we were just given thatsimple name, and go, well,
stress. So what are the thingsthat we can do right now, today,
that cost us nothing, that weknow in the research, absolutely
slow down the rate of ageing,helped to reduce the
inflammatory response in ourbody, which will ultimately
increase our energy, our memory,our focus, our concentration,
(24:19):
our performance, the things thatwe need right now just to show
up today. And so the easythings, our lifestyle, and I
will be even more specific herein just a moment. What we know
through the research is that 75%of what drives this inflammation
process are lifestyle factors.
And while I'm sure you talkabout this, a tonne on the show,
(24:42):
I really want to invite yourlisteners right now to just just
have a you know, let's just havea truth moment. Because we all
get what we tolerate. Whether welike to hear that or not. Like
if we really turn the mirror onourselves. We get what we
tolerate. And if we truly wantLet a different outcome, we have
to be willing to just withoutjudgement and blame and shame to
(25:04):
ourselves, we have to becompassionate to ourselves and
go, Okay, I know more today thanI did yesterday. So cool as I
know that I can do better. Sowhat is it that I want today?
And the moment that we kind ofturn that mirror? And we just
say, what have I beentolerating? And what have I been
enabling? What have I beenallowing? And what do I keep
saying, I'm going to dotomorrow? Tomorrow? Tomorrow,
tomorrow? And how many moretimes? Do I need to hear that
(25:26):
lifestyle alone? 75% of thesolution. I keep hoping there's
going to be a new pill, or a newpeptide, or a new treatment, or
a new laser or a new piece ofbiotech, like game. Come on.
Like if we really think aboutit, Chris. I mean, you and I
know we've both been to paleo.
(25:47):
It's fun to go geek out. Andlike unhackable. Yeah, but what
is all that really trying to do?
It's trying to hack and make upfor what we are out of balance
within our own body.
Chris Barnes (26:01):
Yeah. Right. Such a such a good point.
Unknown (26:05):
here's what the research says. So here's
something really cool. This is apretty new one, peer reviewed, .
It was an eight week study, theylooked at four lifestyle
factors. They looked at in eightweeks, this group, there was 49.
participants in this study, thatwhat they did is they looked at
(26:27):
sleep seven to nine hours anight. Sleep gang, you want to
know how to age and reverse. Youwant to know how to be healthy
how to live a long life well andactually thrive. You have to
give your body sleep. No videogame is worth staying up too
late. No. Like all that stuff iscompromising the very thing.
(26:48):
Right? So let's just be honestwith ourselves, what and what
kind of stuff are we watchingbefore bed is keeping our system
amped up? How many drinks arewe? There's plenty too much
sugar right into thebloodstream. So it's okay, I'm
not judging. I could get it.
Chris Barnes (27:02):
We're all guilty.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (27:04):
that's all these moments ago, cool. 79
hours, okay, I can do that. Ican do that. I can do it. And
then the next piece wasnutrition. Well, you know,
there's always fun things aroundnutrition. But guess what, this
was pretty simple nutrition.
This wasn't any crazy diet. Itwas really just looking at a
more Mediterranean when I'm justgoing to call it clean. So it
(27:25):
had lean protein, healthy fats,you know, non processed foods,
just fruits and veggies. That'sit. That's all they did. And
they they ate normal calories.
There was no calorierestriction. It was just more
whole food based. Sleep, wholefood. Movement. Not even a
(27:47):
specific type. I'm not gonna saydo CrossFit. I'm not gonna go
tell you to go freakin you know,like, just move. mild to
moderate intensity 20 to 30minutes a day. And mindfulness
now mindfulness, we can callthat stress, resilience
capacity. But what I love aboutmindfulness is it's so simple,
(28:07):
right? It's all it is, is justcoming into a single minded
focus in this moment. We can allbe mindful right now. And I'm
gonna give you I'm gonna giveyou a way to be mindful right
now, Chris. Chris, I want you toreally notice what your right
foot your right big toe what'shappening with your right big
toe right now?
Chris Barnes (28:26):
raised up to the sky.
Unknown (28:28):
But what does your brain do? And to the right big
toe and it knows it? Raise it.
Right? Yeah. Mindful, all youdid was you bought your mind to
that point to one fixeddirective. And you everything
else went away. And that's allmindfulness is getting like it
doesn't have to be complex,right? It's just gone. Oh,
what's one thing I can focus on?
So the 20 things of multitaskingin this moment? So these four
(28:50):
elements for eight weeks,nothing extreme. They aged in
reverse by three years,biologically, your Wow logical
age reversal in by three yearsin eight weeks. And that's just
lifestyle. I will tell youfundamentally, Chris, from the
research movement, if I had totell you just one thing, I mean,
(29:11):
there's a couple of big things.
But in the right now what youcan do and you can make a non
negotiable for yourself is tomove your body and to in nature.
So move outside in naturalsunlight get reconnected to your
natural environment andcircadian rhythms. If you can go
move, you know, in the morningand you can break it up. It
(29:32):
doesn't have to be constant. Canyou go move for 10 minutes in
the morning, early in themorning and get some natural
sunlight coming in. Get that sungazing that's going to prime you
that's going to prime that thatthose natural clocks within your
body. It's going to already setyou up for a good night's sleep.
So you want you're not sleeping?
Well. Let's get some morningsunlight. Let's get a little bit
(29:54):
of morning movement. You know,so if you can get out and move
in nature, that's going to helpeverything else to really fall
into place. Because when you getthat sunlight exposure, it sets
your clocks eating is on aclock. Like if we get really
whether we're doing a 12 hourtime restricted window, we're
eating every four hours, we'reeating every eight hours, like
(30:17):
whatever. It's about findingthat rhythm and that rhythm,
because life is cycle. So theimmediate is lifestyle, move,
nourish, rest. Best thing I cantell you for yourself. Those are
the immediate, immediate placesI can go into you want to get
Chris Barnes (30:37):
that? No, no.
Honestly, they're the lowesthanging fruit for people.
They're attainable, manageable.
Yeah, just to habits, right,just developing those habits.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (30:50):
And Chris, you know, it's
fascinating to me. And look, Igo through times, myself, you
guys, I teach this I live in abreathe it, I love it. And there
are days that I am in front ofthis computer from 9am until
7pm. Because I'm doinginterviews back to back I'm
working with my patients and myclients and telemedicine. And,
and as much as I want to be outplane moving, relaxing, resting
(31:13):
and resetting, it doesn'thappen. So I may not be able to
get even 10 minutes. But guesswhat I do, when I come up from
my home office and I go up inhis time for lunch, while I'm
preparing my lunch, I go out andI stand on my desk. And I just
take even 60 seconds to get somesunlight 60 seconds to just
(31:33):
close my eyes. And slow down mybreath. I may not get 30 minutes
that day, I may not even get togo out for a walk that day. So
sometimes I'll sit here at mydesk. And in between meetings,
like I will literally do, youknow isometric contractions,
I'll be like are gonna squeezeI'm gonna like do a little bit.
Sometimes I have to justvisualise and give some feedback
(31:56):
to my body and let it know, it'sas if we're moving. So that I'm
still not being I'm not beingsedentary per se, I'm still
being really life giving. So Ithink that the best thing we
could all do is have a littlegrace and courtesy with
ourselves a little kindness andgo it's not, it's not this
regimented thing, it's not 20minutes on and 12 hours off, and
(32:17):
we get too rigid, and many of usjust want the answer. Yep. The
biggest breakthrough in one ofthe biggest breakthroughs in
longevity, and health andwellness, in this shift of the
paradigm is that it's we'recompletely moving away from the
pieces and the parts and the onesize fits all approach. We truly
(32:44):
are in the land of precision andguess what precision and
personalised medicine actuallymeans. Guess what, you know,
just wearable technology givesus is the ability to all of a
sudden be participatory, in ourhealth and to go, you know what,
actually was telling the storyearlier. When I first got my
(33:05):
Garmin. It was, you know, thiswas a couple of years ago. And
it was it was the end of theyear, I had been doing so many
conferences I like so much wasgoing I was travelling all the
time. And it was Christmas.
You're trying to make everythingright, good for kids. I get my
watch and my stress level waselevated at a 79. And I smoke
Yeah, well, right. And my son islike, Yo, I'm like, yeah. Like
(33:28):
not said, let me show you this,let's do this together. I said,
I'm gonna do a little coherencefor 60 seconds, and go slow down
my breathing, and bring mybreath and my intention to my
heart. I'm just gonna let somefeelings of gratitude and
(33:51):
appreciation flow in and out ofmy heart with each breath. And
I'm going to do it for 60seconds. And I did that for 60
seconds. And my stress scorewent from 79 down to 23. In 60
seconds. Yeah, wow. So we forgetthat these little moments add
(34:13):
up. It's the little moments thatwe may not have 10 minutes, we
may not have 30 minutes, we maynot have a week to get away. And
so I think if I could reallyimpart anything to your audience
right now, Chris has the powerin the toggle switch the power
in the micro moments. Andinstead of feeling like we have
to do it like everybody else, toreally dial in to our own
(34:36):
biometrics to our ownphysiology, to our own response,
and just realise like, Oh, I'mreally powerful in 60 seconds, I
completely changed the state.
And I went from a state of fightor flight, chronic sympathetic,
dominant stress distress into astate of parasympathetic rest
(35:00):
and digest, the two systemscannot be on simultaneously,
right? So I toggled out of theoverdrive into the ease. And
even if it's 60 seconds, thatcan be enough to give your body
just that little. We got to getout ahead of all this stuff
gang, right? Like, just like wehaven't gotten far enough ahead
to really stop and pause andlook back and say what kind of
(35:23):
world and life is worth livingto 120 150 and 200. That reality
is here. So let's not bereactionary anymore. Let's start
to pause and realise that theselittle micro moments can give us
get us out ahead and get us outahead. And we want to keep
stacking these micro moments tokeep getting out further and
further ahead. So we can go whenwe look back and be intentional,
(35:47):
hmm, yeah, makes sense.
Chris Barnes (35:50):
Melissa, I think that's probably one of the most
powerful messages that ouraudience can take away today,
just those micro moments. It'slike, I'm so guilty of that as
well, just with the dad hat onthe business owner hat and
everything else. Sometimes we'rejust so frantic, going from A to
B, that we just don't take amoment just to dial in, breathe
(36:13):
deeply. I've actually startedleaving the phone away from me
when I'm eating meals now justso I can actually sit and be
present and ate and becauseyeah, just like me so many
others are checking emails whilethey're eating food. And yeah,
just not truly resting anddigesting and assimilating all
that nutrition. So I think thebiggest takeaway goes, micro
(36:38):
moments, you do have time to goout and get some sunlight for a
moment, you can check in you canbe mindful for a second. Take a
deep breath. Yeah, hug somebody.
Yeah. Huge,
Melissa Grill-Petersen (36:51):
huge help to gang we can still, you
know, obviously just realisegetting, we have set the bar so
high for ourselves. And thehigher we set it, the more we
disappoint ourselves every day.
And what's happening at an UNK,I've chills thinking about this,
and I've gone through thisawareness myself. So I'm like,
holy crap, I'm letting myselfdown every single day because
(37:13):
I'm not keeping my word tomyself. Because I can get a lot
done. I'm a high achiever, I doa lot for myself. And for those
that I'm here to serve, yet,it's like, oh, I can do more, I
could do more, I could do moreto realise like, crap, I'm
letting balls drop. And even ifI'm getting all to dues done, am
I really honouring what I needfirst, because I cannot show up
(37:36):
and serve, given love and servethem the most fully, for
everything that I love. Andevery one I love in my life, if
I do not begin within myselffirst, right. And so we do have
to recognise the power. And themicro moment the power in
saying, instead of trying tooverload myself, let me
underload myself, let me do onething really well, and like
(38:00):
crush it. And when I do that,then if I've got more bandwidth
and more capacity, then I cansay, Great, now let me do this
next. But then everythingbecomes a win. Because I think
we're all drowning Chris in thisfeeling of not enoughness and
not there yet. Because we keepputting too much on ourselves.
(38:21):
And we don't say whoa, and wethen we break the promises to
ourselves left and right andlisten, unconsciously. You know,
trauma is a big conversationright now globally. And then the
biggest trauma that so many ofus have gone through is the
trauma that we have, and wedon't want to hear this. I mean,
this was one of my big aha isthis year is the trauma that we
(38:43):
have imparted on ourselves. Andwhat I mean, is on an
unconscious level, many of ushave a split within ourselves.
There's a part of us that who wedon't trust, who we're
protecting ourselves from, isourselves. Because I'm the one
consciously going come on,there's more, there's more. And
(39:05):
let me show you let me do this.
Let me do that. I'm gonna dothat. And we keep going and
going, Oh, my God, we got to dothis. And we're gonna do that
this is expected of us and, andthis is what this person is to
us. That means I have to do ittoo. And we keep going and
going. And there's part of usgoing do you just don't get it.
You're not listening to me.
You're not honouring me. You areYou are just like, who are you?
Like, I don't want anything todo with you. And so this very
(39:27):
part of us that is our mostpowerful part starts to close
down. While the other part of usis trying to go no, come on,
it's gonna be great. Like we'rejust gonna go 10 exit. One more
thing when there's one morething is in it, and we feel like
we're one step away from eithergreatness or crashing and
burning. Right. And like so manyof us it to a greater or lesser
(39:50):
extent. It's like, oh, and it'sjust gone. Yeah, just simplify
one thing, one thing today, onething in this moment Take a
micro moment. And and letyourself really appreciate how
you are showing up and quitmeeting it to be more and more
and more like, go full in onthis thing now savour it, get
(40:12):
your power from that, that'sgoing to expand your capacity.
Take even five minutes, youknow, like to go ahead and let's
rest, reset, do nothing for fiveminutes. Go daydream. And then
let's go into our next chunk andstart again.
Chris Barnes (40:32):
Awesome, awesome.
Melissa, I'm really interestedto learn, from your experience,
how you because you're your mom,you've got a son, how you
approach parenting through thelens of epigenetics.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (40:49):
Chris, if you and I spoke two years
ago, at paleo is much different.
Now I have a high schooler
Chris Barnes (40:59):
High School. Wow.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (41:02):
You know what, but I will say this, I
love it. It's so fascinating.
And I only have one. So it's alittle different. I think when
you only have one, you know,like, good, bad and ugly, they
get all of you. And sometimesit's all of them until you until
they become a teenager, and thenyou're cut off
(41:25):
you know, but my son, like it ornot, he's he's grown up with him
this and so part of it islaughable to him. Part of it's
cool. I think in I thinkintuitively he's a shaman at
heart. And he's like, we do,he'll come into that zone in
some time. You know, but sincehe was old enough to
(41:46):
communicate, verbally, when whenthey're super little, and they
don't quite have their wordsyet. They're there. They're
experiencing something but theydon't know how to emote haven't
given a name, what that emotionis. And so that's why the
terrible twos are so terrible,and threes, because they just
don't know. Yeah, this is rightnow and they seem like, but
(42:07):
they're just that they'relearning. And so to age, from an
epigenetic standpoint, we reallystarted with giving him the
capacity to exercise emotionalintelligence, and to give him
permission to know it was okayto to actually feel whatever he
was feeling, even if he didn'tknow what to call it. And so I
(42:29):
do a lot within neuro linguisticpsychology. So NLP and so you
know, one of the things that itteaches you this is all the
science of linguistics, butthere's a whole science of, of
words, beyond words, like wordsare so primal, they do not
really express the capacity ofemotions, right, but we try, we
(42:51):
try to label what love is we tryto label with passion, joy,
like, but it doesn't ever giveit enough. And so at a so one of
the techniques in NLP is to kindof go abstract. And when you
just don't know what somethingis, or how to wrap your head
around it, you can do thingslike give it a shape or a
(43:13):
colour. So the very young age, Istarted to use this technique
with my son when there weren'tquite words yet. So we would, we
would give these feelings thesethings that he didn't know a
shape and a colour. And then wecould talk in the colour. So it
gave a little bit of dimension,and a little separation. So it
didn't feel like it was him oron him or in him or he was doing
(43:34):
something wrong or failing. Soit gave some preparation, which
then gives us perspective, themoment we have here versus right
up here, we can see more, we canaccess more information. So my
point of this is that we starteda lot of this when he was really
young, you know, helping him tounderstand and feel really
(43:55):
confident about his choices,although now as a teenager. It's
interesting, because there aretimes like he's like, Yeah, I
want macaroni and cheese. I'mlike,
Chris Barnes (44:08):
No, he was out there like having a slushie no
like
Melissa Grill-Petersen (44:22):
it's really, it's a stress for me,
it's not for him, right? He'sjust like, mom, like, for him.
It's not like he's doing itevery day all the time. Right.
And he's like I said, he's 14.
And you have to give themautonomy. So what it comes down
to from an epigeneticstandpoint, this, one of the
most important Levers is ourpower of perception, and our
(44:45):
cultural perceptions, what we'vebeen raised with what we know,
and my son is incrediblyintelligent. He has so much
emotional capacity and it's inthere and when I just stepped
back, and I watched from afar,he handles things like a boss
You know, when there's too muchmom around, then it's a little
different. And so it's aboutgoing, alright, let's help them
(45:07):
to understand the why. And let'sgive them some tools to
experience and practice it forthemselves. And know that
there's going to come a timethat they're going to use it
other times that they're not.
But that's how we all learn,right? We have to go through the
contrast. And so it's reallyquite fascinating that the more
(45:27):
I try to control, so perception,if I'm telling him something's
bad, I'm informing his verybiology. So I, you know, so this
epigenetic phenomena is thefoods we're eating the air,
we're breathing, theenvironments, we're in the
thoughts we're thinking, and howwe are thinking of something
stressful. Is it good for us orbad for us? And so I don't have
(45:52):
it right at all, Chris, I mean,I mess it up every day is
inherent. We all do. We all do.
But they teach us as much as weteach them. And I think that's
the biggest lesson my husbandand I have had to learn like,
Wait, we are not my parents, youknow, our parents all do our
best when we're parents. But wedon't want to parent the way our
parents did, because it wasbecause I said so. And from an
(46:13):
surgery genetic standpoint,that's a constriction, right?
That's, that is a lockdown onthose that that is creating a
distress in the system was whichis going to increase the
potential for more methylationmarks, inflammation ageing. So
I'd rather even around alongevity principle is this
(46:33):
mindset of resiliency offlexibility of anti fragility.
So I think what I've had to cometo and like I said, I have some
days, this is really easier toembrace than others, is to say,
if I can create a container, andprovide as a parent, the knowing
and the resources and the accessto buoyancy, to choice and
(46:57):
resiliency, to let him fall andto let him know it's safe. And
it's essential to get back up.
And it's okay to like he's goingthrough high school is brand new
in high school. And today, weliterally have this talk, it's
like, for me says, A hormeticstressor. There's certain kids
in this class is he's not he'skind of like, a mom or some
(47:18):
kids. And I was like, okay, youknow, and he had a challenge the
other day, and today, he didn't,you know, I'm like, Hey, each
day you face it each day, you,you let yourself just feel those
uncomfortable emotions or thosegreat emotions. You experience
it, and you move through it, andyou know that you did it. And
it's okay. It's, it's, for me,it's, it's like we're exposing
(47:38):
ourselves to a challenge, thenyou come home, and you rest, and
you reset. And guess what thatis, that's you stress, that's
the good stress for the system,that then allows us to actually
grow. And so epigenetically, Iam just trying to create the
container where he can feel whathe needs to feel, have his
(47:58):
experiences, move throughchallenges with success, have
success, with joy, to celebrateit all the good, the bad, and
the ugly, and to come home andrest. And sleep is a non
negotiable. Because when wesleep and we rest and we unplug,
then we can reset and get outand, and keep that genetic code
(48:22):
as optimised as possible.
Chris Barnes (48:27):
Now, it's really, really good point that you make
there because I'm a, I'm a dadof three as well. And my eldest
little boys just started prep.
So he's six and a half thisyear. And it's a natural
tendency for mothers and fathersto want to just wrap them up and
protect them from from the bigbad world out there. But you
(48:47):
make a really, really validpoint that this eustress, the
little moments that challengethem in vulnerable environments,
going to a new class, new newstudents, actually is creating
resiliency within them as well.
If we just protect them anddon't put them into these
environments, then it's going toimpact on their resilience, and
(49:10):
I guess those epigeneticchanges, as well. Yeah. Yeah.
Powerful. We've been talking fora while and I could honestly
talk for another hour, but Idon't think our listeners
probably have that. I can't waitto I can't wait to share some of
(49:31):
those blooper blooper reels aswell from earlier. But I would I
would like to finish with yourlongevity Summit, which is next
week, I believe. Can you tellour listeners a little bit about
that one? The longevity looks itlooks phenomenal.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (49:49):
Thank you, Chris. It is it's airing.
So it's a free event for dayswith some of the top leading
longevity, integrative healthAnd biohacking human performance
optimising experts on theplanet. We're having
conversations that, to me, it'sreally important to tell to
(50:10):
share and show the ways where weblend the latest in science,
cutting edge technology, andreally showing that in
conjunction with ancientwisdoms, ancient technologies,
ancient therapies, to then havethe perspective say, great when
we look at modern and we look atfuture and we look at ancient
(50:31):
and past, then that starts toreveal a bit of what it means to
really be human and what'savailable to us. So that we can
now have greater understandingsof what is possible in the
hearing now for better modernliving solutions. So the event
you know, there's there's sometalks that are a little bit more
clinical, we've got a lot ofdoctors on there. But I think
(50:52):
what's really exciting for thefor the participant, is you're
really hearing just authenticconversations with these
practitioners and providersabout how they're how they're
approaching patient care, thethings that become really
important, you know, if we'rethinking longevity, the what I
the story I wanted to tell theseason was not just how do we
live longer and better. Butbecause there is already this
(51:14):
population that is sick, let'snot leave them out. So how do we
heal? Because healing, it's notlike you're sick, and you're
done. And that's it, you'restuck with it, you have to live
on a medication that isabsolutely false and incorrect.
You are completely innatelydesigned to heal. So how do we
feel so we can thrive, to trulylive life optimise to 121 5200,
(51:38):
all of these numbers are now wesee it in the literature, we
know how to do it. age reversalis a real thing. It's happening,
we're tracking it more and moreis coming to market. So the four
day event is free. It's kind ofon demand. So it's free on the
date of and people can upgradewe're doing a really cool VIP
experience, that after thesummit, I'm actually going to be
(51:59):
running a 12 weeks to 120masterclass series with myself
and 22 of our top featuredspeaker. So each week, they're
gonna get to be in a reallyprivate kind of, you know,
immersive experience. We'regoing to walk them through their
own longevity blueprint. So I'mso excited about the season. i
It's funny, it's like, I itfirst is kind of like yeah, I
(52:20):
just want to get a few moreinterviews. And I'm like, Oh, my
gosh, some of the biggest yearyet like this is gonna be Oh,
yeah. So the longevitysummit.com is where people can
find out about that. And youknow, I invite people to always
come find out, you know, you canalways find out what's happening
with the longevity stuff.
Because this event, we willprobably be releasing at least
twice a year a version of it,because it's just a really
(52:43):
awesome Bewdley advancing arena.
So Doc melissa.com is wherepeople can find IDOC Melissa,
Doc melissa.com is where I'llalways have stuff about the
summits and about our humanlongevity Institute, you know,
so for both clients andclinicians, like we have one
side of what we do certifyclinicians, and then the other
(53:04):
side of what they do, which is,you know, working with clients
in a precision longevity model.
So, so much going on.
Chris Barnes (53:12):
Awesome. And those dates for the summit of the 25th
to the 29th of August.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (53:17):
Yeah, yeah. And if you go to
longevity, the longevity Summit,let me get that right.com You'll
see everything there. And youguys can get a free ticket,
you'll immediately unlock likeeight bonus gifts and three
early sessions, depending onwhen you hear this and watch
this. So yeah, and we'll, wewill probably keep some of those
free gifts up even after thesummit. So if you miss it, if
(53:39):
you're hearing this after thefact, you know, we'll probably
keep a few of those interviewsup so that you can get it get on
the kind of early bird list forthe next round of when we do it.
Chris Barnes (53:49):
Amazing, Doc Melissa, it's been an absolute
pleasure chatting with you overthe last hour I thank you so
much for sharing that invaluableinformation for the amp wellness
audience.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (54:01):
Thank you, Chris. This was my honour
and pleasure. Thank you so much.
Chris Barnes (54:07):
All the best with the longevity Summit. I'll
definitely be tuning in. I can'twait. And yeah, you take care.
All
Melissa Grill-Petersen (54:14):
right, you as well, my friend. Thank
you all so much. Cheers.
Hey guys, and welcome to Amplified wellness
podcast, Chris Barnes here. I amabsolutely thrilled with my
guest today she's coming to youall the way from Asheville in
Carolina over in the States. Sheis a lady with over 20 years
experience in the health andwellness industry, a
transformational coach, a bestselling author of the incredible
(00:35):
book codes of longevity. I'mhalfway through that book at the
moment. So yeah, I've got somesome interesting questions to
ask. Also, Chief limitlessofficer at appear on Academy of
epigenetics, which is a reallyinteresting field that I can't
wait to discuss as well. Sograteful to welcome Dr. Melissa
(00:58):
grill Peterson on to Amplifiedwellness.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (01:00):
So it was really interesting, I'll
never forget when I finally leftfor college, and then, you know,
there's kind of like, you couldhave access to therapists and
counsellors and all thesethings. And I thought, Hey, I am
really feeling stuck. I feelless than I grew up with a
certain way of perceivingmyself, and I'm gonna go talk to
a therapist. And I'll neverforget the moment I went to this
(01:22):
particular therapist, I'm notmaking a judgement about all
therapists, because I knowthere's amazing ones out there.
But at this time, in my life,the one I went to, was exactly
what I needed. Because she'stold me all the things, she
wasn't listening, I didn't feelheard. She was like, Well, you
know what your problem is? Andshe's like, this is all about
(01:44):
money. I'm like, No, this isn'tabout money. This is this is
about my identity and how I'vegrown up and my point of sharing
this is that very moment, Irealised, I'm beans, I felt like
I was listening. And somebody isseeing me even less than I saw
myself, and they're notunderstanding. So I've got to go
figure this out. And when I hadto go figure it out for myself,
(02:06):
figure out my own well beingtake accountability for myself
that had to start with myselffirst, I became my first client.
And I think that happens formany of us, right in our own
kind of personal growth anddevelopment, our own health and
wellness journeys, whether it'sstarting with a physical
ailment, you know, there is thatthat moment, the hero's journey,
where we are called into thestory. Well, that's really my
(02:28):
moment, I had already beenstruggling, I was already
dealing with issues and thingsand perception of self. But I
innately knew that there wasmore than I'm so glad right for
people in their limiting beliefsabout how they viewed my own
potential. I knew something morewas possible. And, and I've
never looked back, Chris andwhat I gained at such an early
(02:49):
age in my early 20s Was thisknowing even though I didn't
have the words, I didn't havethe science I didn't have the
research back then. I just hadthis knowing like, wait a
minute, too many people aretrying to put us in boxes, too
many people are trying to imposetheir view their limitations,
and there's something muchbigger going on here. And that's
when I fell in love withuncovering, unlocking and truly
(03:13):
igniting a limitless potentialwithin
Chris Barnes (03:17):
Beautiful beautiful. Was this pre or post
nitro dancing? For those notaware Dr. Mel was spice spice in
the WWE is the Nitro girlsdancing.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (03:37):
Yes, this was pre and yet it's what
actually led me there. And sointerestingly enough, the one
thing like I told you, I hadthat poster. And so I started
dancing when I was about two anda half years old. Dance was my
first love and dance to me wasthrough all the trauma and drama
of life as a young child,adolescent teen, it was the
(03:59):
thing that gave me my place ofempowerment, my place of where I
was able to just find myself andfind my creativity and express
and and so it was interesting. Iactually on this kind of path to
more I thought I was gonna go tolaw school now I was dancing, I
was in fitness, I was doing allthat kind of stuff and and I had
(04:21):
moved to Atlanta with my thenboyfriend who was going to
become a doctor of chiropracticand went to this to the
university. And, and Shortland Iwas gonna go to law school and
then I had kind of this identitycrisis going I'm in my I'm like
22 And I don't know who the heckI want to be like, I don't I
love dancing. I love fitness. Ilove wellness. I love nutrition.
(04:43):
I was a personal trainer, likedoing all of it. But I thought I
had to be you know, some type ofa degree. And he's just like, we
know they have a dance dividendsteam. He's like, Yeah, and you
get paid. Like you didn't getpaid to be on a dance team. I
was like so I went I audition.
And it was interesting. Iactually part of what led me on
my journey into getting mydoctorate in chiropractic. And
(05:06):
then, you know, natural healthwas dance. And it was there that
I was on. I was on this dancetroupe, and I actually was a
choreographer. And we got intothe 1996 Olympics. I'm totally
dating myself, but but it wasthrough this journey that I
found my way to wrestling. Sohere I am in the 1996, Olympics
(05:26):
Xanthine, a piece that I hadhelped to choreograph in front
of like all the, you know,people of the world. And I was
nine months away from graduatingwith my doctorate, to go out and
be this doctor. And I thought,I've only got a little bit of
time left, I want to go do asmuch dance as possible. I want
to do every audition that I canI want to go out and just, you
(05:49):
know, be told a gazillion timesand be told yes, as many times
as possible. Like, I just wantto go do it and have that. Yeah.
And it was in that window. Whenwrestling found me, actually
because I was at where I lived,where it's just so happened. I
live in Atlanta, Georgia at thetime, I trained and I was a
fitness instructor and apersonal trainer at the gym.
(06:11):
Were all of the professionalwrestlers. Were Yeah, wow. And I
had actually choreographed I wasthe choreographer for Ben
Diamond Dallas Page, his wife,Kimberly, for her fitness
competitions. And so she waslike, Oh my gosh, And so long
story short, it kind of was justthrough this whole fitness
(06:31):
connection that we met, and mymy ability, my love of dance,
and then being a choreographer,and helping her that all of a
sudden, the crazy wild world ofwrestling found me and, and
there was a whole otherdimension of going, Wow, there's
so much more to life, like, youknow, we each kind of show up.
(06:52):
We're in our normal, everydayworld, and then you get a new
exposure, and you're like,everything, I thought I knew I
was totally wrong.
Chris Barnes (07:00):
So much more.. So True, what an incredible Yeah,
story there. I, I love your workat the moment you're dealing
with helping people thrive andflourish, I often have a
(07:23):
conversation with friends aroundjust the meaning of great
health, extraordinary health, inyour own words. How would you
best describe a thriving ,limitless individual?
Melissa Grill-Petersen (07:37):
That is a great question. It's, it's
personal, it's personal, rightfor each of us. But if I were to
just give my opinion and myperception on it, to me, my wish
that I have for each person inexpressing their greatest
thriving state, is expression anexpression of physical, mental,
emotional, and spiritualcapacity. So the words that I
(08:01):
would say is, it's the momentswhere you touch those spaces in
places that energise you, thatfill you, that lift you up that
call you forward, and expandyou. And to me, it's not just
about certain blood markers, orbiometrics or trying to fit to
the norms. As you know, I thinkthat this thriving life is so
(08:22):
deeply, intimately personal foreach of us. And what we're not
often invited to do, is to trulydream, our biggest dream 10 exit
100 exit, if I had the courage,if I had the energy, if I had
the capacity, if I had thevitality, if I had the will if I
had the desire, if I had justthe the notion that it could be
(08:43):
possible. What would I desirefor myself? And I believe that a
thriving life at our fullest hasto start with asking ourselves,
some bigger questions, someheart opening, life filling,
Soul giving type of questions.
And that's, that's where westart to get really curious. And
we start to feel the pulsationand go and realise that a
(09:06):
thriving life is the impulsethat calls us forward into the
next into the next. It is whatis literally embedded in our
genetic code. It is thatevolutionary drive to know more
of our truth, more of ourcapacity, more of who we are,
(09:27):
and you're here to be
Chris Barnes (09:32):
beautiful, absolutely beautiful. gives me
chills in in your book, codes oflongevity, there's a little
excerpt in there that I wasreading, and it was super
interesting talking aboutlifespan, and I'll just read it
(09:53):
here. So basically, it says theidea of living longer is at zero
interest if it means weexperienced a decline in the
quality of our health. That'ssuch an interesting one. Because
like, you could speak to anybodyand most people want to live as
long as they physically can. Butlifespan isn't the only piece of
(10:15):
the puzzle, isn't it? Becauseoften we're finding that people
are living longer and longerthese days due to improvements
in quality of health, medicalfields, but they're not
necessarily thriving longer inage are they, and we're seeing
this, this increased lifespanbut a declining, later years in
(10:36):
life. How important the conceptsthat you referenced in your book
about healthspan and WellSpan.
Can we can we talk about those alittle?
Unknown (10:46):
Yes, they are everything. And I'm so glad you
asked this, because please put ahand up, interrupt me if I go
too long. Because this is likemy sweets. So here's the thing,
we can absolutely look and wesee unequivocally lifespan has
been increasing year over yearfor the past 100 years. And yes,
(11:08):
much of it is modern, you know,it's sanitation is modern
medicine. It's just some ofthese like simple advancements,
really in hygiene and kind ofhow we're protecting ourselves
in our environment. And yet,we're living longer. But the big
question is, are we livingbetter, because, you know, I'm
getting ready next week, mysecond season of my longevity
(11:29):
summit airs. So this is a verytimely conversation, we can look
and see, especially in the US,which is where I'm living right
now is at 45%. And these arepretty standard numbers, we're
now seeing unfortunately,globally, than about 45% of our
population has a chronicdisease. And what we know, as we
(11:49):
age chronologically, is thatfrom 30, on decade, over a
decade, that risk of chronicdisease increases. And by time
we hit our 60s decade, itradically, it really amplifies
us. So it's kind of a little bitof slow crawl is graduated a
couple of percent each year. Andonce we hit that, you know that
60 And by the time we hit 65,there's this really big shift of
(12:12):
going like you're in that kindof danger zone. And so but
here's where it gets thatthere's so many interesting
pieces to this, Chris, becauseso we can look and say, Okay,
well, we're not necessarilyliving better, lots of chronic
disease. And we're seeing thatit's really starting to have the
most major effect when starting30s and a slow drip over time
(12:33):
and really amplifying in our60s. And yet we're living
longer. So that means we're notnecessarily like who wants to go
from 60 to 80 or 90, miserable,right symptomatic, like
struggling with disease livingon medications, that's not
exciting for anyone. And, andwith this, there's something
else really interestinghappening simultaneously. So
(12:57):
what the research has beenshowing us since about 2018,
that we're living in a timewhere population is slipping. So
while many people are like we'reoverpopulated, oh my gosh, this
pandemic, they're trying to killeverybody. And we can actually
decrease. And by 2030, there'sgoing to be more 65 year olds
(13:20):
than 18 year olds, in manypockets around the world,
there's going to be one, one outof every five people will be 65
and older. And, and part of thatis just because many of us I
mean, I know I've only got onekid, you know, my parents had
two of us. Well, actually, mydad and stepmother had another
two steps, four of us in total.
But I had one right. And so I'vealready have two what my parents
(13:41):
did. And that's kind of thetrend is that many families
today are having instead of fiveand eight children, they're
having 123, you know, and sojust even that change over the
past 2030 years, is what'sadding to a lot of this. And so
so now this is where it getsreally interesting. And why does
healthspan and WellSpan actuallybecome really important is we're
(14:05):
living longer are we livingbetter? Have we really thought
that we could live longer? Andnow that we know that we can,
the real question becomes, well,maybe we haven't been living
longer because we haven't reallydefined a life worth living.
This is kind of a big idea. Andwhat I mean by this is you're
(14:26):
like, well, Melissa, we want tolive as long as possible. We do
of course, but think about howmany of us get up and get out
every day. And it's more of thesame more the same. And even if
we're intentional, we take thetime to journal. You know, we do
a little meditation in themorning. The moment we get into
the routine of the day, so muchof it is on autopilot, right and
so much of it becomes even if westart very intentional. It
(14:50):
becomes reactionary. And so formost of us we're going through
the motions and life is we'rereacting Responding to the next
and the next and the next. Andwe are not often enough, invited
into a conversation withinourselves, within our families
within our communities, withinour politics, our governance, to
(15:13):
say, hold up. Like this istoday, and it's feeling kind of
crazy. But let's get out aheadof this like, like, who's really
there are some governing bodieslike it was really sitting back
right now go, Whoa, let's getout ahead of let's get out ahead
of the pandemic. Let's look outfive years, let's look at 10
years, let's look out 100 years,what is the type of world we
(15:35):
want to be living in? You know,like, This is no fun for
anybody, right? Being in lockdowns, and all the kinds of
things so we clearly know whatwe don't want. So now this gives
rise to us going okay, so wedon't want that. What do we want
and, and so, longevity, lifespanin and of itself is about life
extension. But what's happening?
(15:56):
And Chris, here's a really bigthing. This is like this, just
it's been blowing my mind aswell, because although I've
known this, and I've beentalking about this for years, I
teach a tonne of continuingeducation or certification
courses to my fellow IntegrativeHealth and Wellness clinicians.
And I've been saying, we are inthe precipice of a shift. Well,
this July this past July. So alittle over a month ago, there
(16:20):
was a huge new research studythat came out, it was published
in Nature. And David Sinclair,one of the you know, holy grails
of longevity, you have topublish this paper, which what
they really looked at was that,hey, let's look at the economics
of ageing. So we typically thinkof the economics of sick care of
(16:41):
disease, and there's a cost toit. The 45% of the population
here in the US is 3.7 trillion,that that costs us every year.
But what this is, it's a it's ait's a mess, right? Like not
just billions, huge, real, Yeah,huge to true. And so this study
said, Okay, let's look at thecost of IP of ageing, the
(17:03):
economic value within it, couldthere be a value to ageing was
the kind of hypothesis and theylooked at several different
examples after we just want tocompress it like they went
through ml save kind of all thevariables of the study. But
here's the big thing that'sreally important. Is it where
they landed in this was wreckingrealising, through running these
algorithms in these programmesand these scenarios and these
(17:26):
models is that by slowing downthe rate at which we age, and
and in so doing, extending lifespan, the quote, the length of
life and the quality of life byone year, we put $38 trillion
into the economy. Now what thatmeans is that wipes out the US
(17:50):
national debt, like that one.
Wow. And so so this so here'swhy this is really powerful.
Like, what I don't know what Idon't think many people grasp
yet is this, this this study isthe paradigm shifter. And here's
why. We have for so long createdmodels and and consumer and
financial and revenue modelsbased around sick care. And that
(18:12):
looks at lifespan that looks asif the body in a traditional
model is mechanisticreductionistic a piece and apart
in Oregon, a system, a cell in apetri dish in an isolated
environment, in a research lab.
But we're so much more thanthat. We're complex, dynamic
(18:34):
systems, right? We're not justliving in a lab, we're not
isolated, we're not just asingle pathway. There are and
this is where my passion, ofcourse, for epigenetics comes in
this dynamic interplay betweenthe outer world and the inner
world constantly unfolding. Andso here's why this study is
huge. It's about to turn thetraditional model on his ear.
(18:57):
And the reason why is becauseall we're really looking at,
through our research lens is thebiology and we still need to do
that, like the body does needsupport, there's no doubt about
that. We want to understandpathways we want. We want to
understand biology, we want tounderstand how we can slow down
and reverse a so we can havemore years, but but they're
(19:19):
saying if this isn't just aboutlife extension, we need to look
at how we increase the qualityof life. So that now raises a
much different question. Andthis is where healthspan how
healthy we feel, and WellSpanwhich is our well being our
purpose, our joy, what are whywhat gets us out of bed, what
(19:41):
makes life worth living. Now,these factors, more than ever
come into the equation, and themoney and the research dollars
that are going into all this.
These are not from government,these in pharmaceuticals, these
are from private sector. Theseare billionaires As and you
know, investment funds that arelooking to say, how can we
(20:03):
democratise and bring solutionsdirect to consumer? Because we
can't wait on, you know, thesethese outdated paradigms to kind
of catch up with where we'reactually. Yeah. So I know I just
talked for a really long time.
And I That's why I kind of said,Hey, like, please wait.
No need a timeout on me becausethere's a couple of really big
(20:25):
points in there, right? Likethis is this is some big stuff.
We are truly at this gamechanging point. Where lifespan
Yes, but more importantly, wehave to look at and really
contemplate for ourselvesindividually. But then
collectively, what does thismean for us, and then all of a
sudden, we are consideringhealthspan and WellSpan also.
Chris Barnes (20:49):
Huge points, based on your experience and the
research. I know that you youhost the longevity summit with
some absolutely incredible mindsin this field of human optimum
optimization, longevity? Whatare some of the core areas that
people can focus on to increasetheir health span? And WellSpan?
(21:12):
Understand, you could probablyspeak for hours on this. But I
guess just from your ownviewpoint, what are the key
ones?
Melissa Grill-Petersen (21:18):
I'll keep it short? Because I know
there's
Chris Barnes (21:22):
there's a lot of it's complex
Unknown (21:24):
to remember, I love all this, but everybody else may not
geek out about as much as somebullet points. So yeah, no, and
I think I think really, I'mgonna follow, I'm gonna follow
Sergey Jung on this. And I thinkhe has really divided it in a
great way, as a doctor, I thinkof it from a triage standpoint,
immediate, short term, longterm, he calls it now near and
(21:47):
far horizon, so is the same kindof concept. But it's, it's what
is what is within our graspright now today, that you and I
can do for ourselves thatabsolutely will move the needle
and help us to reverse age. I'lltalk about that in a moment. The
next part is, okay, short term,what's coming in the next five
(22:07):
to 10 years, that, that we canleverage that will add to
enhancing the expression of ourhealth and, and really enhancing
our capacity to thrive in morefacets of our life. And then the
long term in the far horizon isSergey calls, it is really more
as we're looking out towardsthat 15 to 25 year marker. And
(22:31):
and so so when we break thisdown, if I'm going to talk about
longevity, step one, you know,there's really I'm going to take
a moment and say, we have to saywhy do we age, right? What what
is really going on, if I have togive it one name, I gotta call
it inflammaging. This is an allthe research and the documents,
but all the different inputs tothe system, when there's too
(22:52):
much for too long, or foot is onthe gas for too long. And let's
just call that chronic stress inthe form of physical, mental,
emotional, chemical,environmental, too much for too
long, without time to rest, toreset. to rejuvenate to
regenerate, the body is going tobe in a constant breakdown
(23:13):
state. And the longer we are inthis chronic distress, then the
byproduct of this Metabolicchaos is inflammation is
inflammation, which has beentermed inflammaging. And when
you look at the nine hallmarksof ageing, which is what science
has said, hey, here are the ninemain reasons of why the body's
(23:33):
going to age why it's going tobreak down why it's ultimately
going to, you know, stopworking. And so of course, what
research does is that well,here's the mind Hallmark. So
let's find the solutions to to,you know, mitigate those paths,
like to support to stop it toslow it down to reverse it. So.
So from this standpoint, when wethink okay, inflammation, and we
(23:57):
if we were just given thatsimple name, and go, well,
stress. So what are the thingsthat we can do right now, today,
that cost us nothing, that weknow in the research, absolutely
slow down the rate of ageing,helped to reduce the
inflammatory response in ourbody, which will ultimately
increase our energy, our memory,our focus, our concentration,
(24:19):
our performance, the things thatwe need right now just to show
up today. And so the easythings, our lifestyle, and I
will be even more specific herein just a moment. What we know
through the research is that 75%of what drives this inflammation
process are lifestyle factors.
And while I'm sure you talkabout this, a tonne on the show,
(24:42):
I really want to invite yourlisteners right now to just just
have a you know, let's just havea truth moment. Because we all
get what we tolerate. Whether welike to hear that or not. Like
if we really turn the mirror onourselves. We get what we
tolerate. And if we truly wantLet a different outcome, we have
to be willing to just withoutjudgement and blame and shame to
(25:04):
ourselves, we have to becompassionate to ourselves and
go, Okay, I know more today thanI did yesterday. So cool as I
know that I can do better. Sowhat is it that I want today?
And the moment that we kind ofturn that mirror? And we just
say, what have I beentolerating? And what have I been
enabling? What have I beenallowing? And what do I keep
saying, I'm going to dotomorrow? Tomorrow? Tomorrow,
tomorrow? And how many moretimes? Do I need to hear that
(25:26):
lifestyle alone? 75% of thesolution. I keep hoping there's
going to be a new pill, or a newpeptide, or a new treatment, or
a new laser or a new piece ofbiotech, like game. Come on.
Like if we really think aboutit, Chris. I mean, you and I
know we've both been to paleo.
(25:47):
It's fun to go geek out. Andlike unhackable. Yeah, but what
is all that really trying to do?
It's trying to hack and make upfor what we are out of balance
within our own body.
Chris Barnes (26:01):
Yeah. Right. Such a such a good point.
Unknown (26:05):
here's what the research says. So here's
something really cool. This is apretty new one, peer reviewed, .
It was an eight week study, theylooked at four lifestyle
factors. They looked at in eightweeks, this group, there was 49.
participants in this study, thatwhat they did is they looked at
(26:27):
sleep seven to nine hours anight. Sleep gang, you want to
know how to age and reverse. Youwant to know how to be healthy
how to live a long life well andactually thrive. You have to
give your body sleep. No videogame is worth staying up too
late. No. Like all that stuff iscompromising the very thing.
(26:48):
Right? So let's just be honestwith ourselves, what and what
kind of stuff are we watchingbefore bed is keeping our system
amped up? How many drinks arewe? There's plenty too much
sugar right into thebloodstream. So it's okay, I'm
not judging. I could get it.
Chris Barnes (27:02):
We're all guilty.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (27:04):
that's all these moments ago, cool. 79
hours, okay, I can do that. Ican do that. I can do it. And
then the next piece wasnutrition. Well, you know,
there's always fun things aroundnutrition. But guess what, this
was pretty simple nutrition.
This wasn't any crazy diet. Itwas really just looking at a
more Mediterranean when I'm justgoing to call it clean. So it
(27:25):
had lean protein, healthy fats,you know, non processed foods,
just fruits and veggies. That'sit. That's all they did. And
they they ate normal calories.
There was no calorierestriction. It was just more
whole food based. Sleep, wholefood. Movement. Not even a
(27:47):
specific type. I'm not gonna saydo CrossFit. I'm not gonna go
tell you to go freakin you know,like, just move. mild to
moderate intensity 20 to 30minutes a day. And mindfulness
now mindfulness, we can callthat stress, resilience
capacity. But what I love aboutmindfulness is it's so simple,
(28:07):
right? It's all it is, is justcoming into a single minded
focus in this moment. We can allbe mindful right now. And I'm
gonna give you I'm gonna giveyou a way to be mindful right
now, Chris. Chris, I want you toreally notice what your right
foot your right big toe what'shappening with your right big
toe right now?
Chris Barnes (28:26):
raised up to the sky.
Unknown (28:28):
But what does your brain do? And to the right big
toe and it knows it? Raise it.
Right? Yeah. Mindful, all youdid was you bought your mind to
that point to one fixeddirective. And you everything
else went away. And that's allmindfulness is getting like it
doesn't have to be complex,right? It's just gone. Oh,
what's one thing I can focus on?
So the 20 things of multitaskingin this moment? So these four
(28:50):
elements for eight weeks,nothing extreme. They aged in
reverse by three years,biologically, your Wow logical
age reversal in by three yearsin eight weeks. And that's just
lifestyle. I will tell youfundamentally, Chris, from the
research movement, if I had totell you just one thing, I mean,
(29:11):
there's a couple of big things.
But in the right now what youcan do and you can make a non
negotiable for yourself is tomove your body and to in nature.
So move outside in naturalsunlight get reconnected to your
natural environment andcircadian rhythms. If you can go
move, you know, in the morningand you can break it up. It
(29:32):
doesn't have to be constant. Canyou go move for 10 minutes in
the morning, early in themorning and get some natural
sunlight coming in. Get that sungazing that's going to prime you
that's going to prime that thatthose natural clocks within your
body. It's going to already setyou up for a good night's sleep.
So you want you're not sleeping?
Well. Let's get some morningsunlight. Let's get a little bit
(29:54):
of morning movement. You know,so if you can get out and move
in nature, that's going to helpeverything else to really fall
into place. Because when you getthat sunlight exposure, it sets
your clocks eating is on aclock. Like if we get really
whether we're doing a 12 hourtime restricted window, we're
eating every four hours, we'reeating every eight hours, like
(30:17):
whatever. It's about findingthat rhythm and that rhythm,
because life is cycle. So theimmediate is lifestyle, move,
nourish, rest. Best thing I cantell you for yourself. Those are
the immediate, immediate placesI can go into you want to get
Chris Barnes (30:37):
that? No, no.
Honestly, they're the lowesthanging fruit for people.
They're attainable, manageable.
Yeah, just to habits, right,just developing those habits.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (30:50):
And Chris, you know, it's
fascinating to me. And look, Igo through times, myself, you
guys, I teach this I live in abreathe it, I love it. And there
are days that I am in front ofthis computer from 9am until
7pm. Because I'm doinginterviews back to back I'm
working with my patients and myclients and telemedicine. And,
and as much as I want to be outplane moving, relaxing, resting
(31:13):
and resetting, it doesn'thappen. So I may not be able to
get even 10 minutes. But guesswhat I do, when I come up from
my home office and I go up inhis time for lunch, while I'm
preparing my lunch, I go out andI stand on my desk. And I just
take even 60 seconds to get somesunlight 60 seconds to just
(31:33):
close my eyes. And slow down mybreath. I may not get 30 minutes
that day, I may not even get togo out for a walk that day. So
sometimes I'll sit here at mydesk. And in between meetings,
like I will literally do, youknow isometric contractions,
I'll be like are gonna squeezeI'm gonna like do a little bit.
Sometimes I have to justvisualise and give some feedback
(31:56):
to my body and let it know, it'sas if we're moving. So that I'm
still not being I'm not beingsedentary per se, I'm still
being really life giving. So Ithink that the best thing we
could all do is have a littlegrace and courtesy with
ourselves a little kindness andgo it's not, it's not this
regimented thing, it's not 20minutes on and 12 hours off, and
(32:17):
we get too rigid, and many of usjust want the answer. Yep. The
biggest breakthrough in one ofthe biggest breakthroughs in
longevity, and health andwellness, in this shift of the
paradigm is that it's we'recompletely moving away from the
pieces and the parts and the onesize fits all approach. We truly
(32:44):
are in the land of precision andguess what precision and
personalised medicine actuallymeans. Guess what, you know,
just wearable technology givesus is the ability to all of a
sudden be participatory, in ourhealth and to go, you know what,
actually was telling the storyearlier. When I first got my
(33:05):
Garmin. It was, you know, thiswas a couple of years ago. And
it was it was the end of theyear, I had been doing so many
conferences I like so much wasgoing I was travelling all the
time. And it was Christmas.
You're trying to make everythingright, good for kids. I get my
watch and my stress level waselevated at a 79. And I smoke
Yeah, well, right. And my son islike, Yo, I'm like, yeah. Like
(33:28):
not said, let me show you this,let's do this together. I said,
I'm gonna do a little coherencefor 60 seconds, and go slow down
my breathing, and bring mybreath and my intention to my
heart. I'm just gonna let somefeelings of gratitude and
(33:51):
appreciation flow in and out ofmy heart with each breath. And
I'm going to do it for 60seconds. And I did that for 60
seconds. And my stress scorewent from 79 down to 23. In 60
seconds. Yeah, wow. So we forgetthat these little moments add
(34:13):
up. It's the little moments thatwe may not have 10 minutes, we
may not have 30 minutes, we maynot have a week to get away. And
so I think if I could reallyimpart anything to your audience
right now, Chris has the powerin the toggle switch the power
in the micro moments. Andinstead of feeling like we have
to do it like everybody else, toreally dial in to our own
(34:36):
biometrics to our ownphysiology, to our own response,
and just realise like, Oh, I'mreally powerful in 60 seconds, I
completely changed the state.
And I went from a state of fightor flight, chronic sympathetic,
dominant stress distress into astate of parasympathetic rest
(35:00):
and digest, the two systemscannot be on simultaneously,
right? So I toggled out of theoverdrive into the ease. And
even if it's 60 seconds, thatcan be enough to give your body
just that little. We got to getout ahead of all this stuff
gang, right? Like, just like wehaven't gotten far enough ahead
to really stop and pause andlook back and say what kind of
(35:23):
world and life is worth livingto 120 150 and 200. That reality
is here. So let's not bereactionary anymore. Let's start
to pause and realise that theselittle micro moments can give us
get us out ahead and get us outahead. And we want to keep
stacking these micro moments tokeep getting out further and
further ahead. So we can go whenwe look back and be intentional,
(35:47):
hmm, yeah, makes sense.
Chris Barnes (35:50):
Melissa, I think that's probably one of the most
powerful messages that ouraudience can take away today,
just those micro moments. It'slike, I'm so guilty of that as
well, just with the dad hat onthe business owner hat and
everything else. Sometimes we'rejust so frantic, going from A to
B, that we just don't take amoment just to dial in, breathe
(36:13):
deeply. I've actually startedleaving the phone away from me
when I'm eating meals now justso I can actually sit and be
present and ate and becauseyeah, just like me so many
others are checking emails whilethey're eating food. And yeah,
just not truly resting anddigesting and assimilating all
that nutrition. So I think thebiggest takeaway goes, micro
(36:38):
moments, you do have time to goout and get some sunlight for a
moment, you can check in you canbe mindful for a second. Take a
deep breath. Yeah, hug somebody.
Yeah. Huge,
Melissa Grill-Petersen (36:51):
huge help to gang we can still, you
know, obviously just realisegetting, we have set the bar so
high for ourselves. And thehigher we set it, the more we
disappoint ourselves every day.
And what's happening at an UNK,I've chills thinking about this,
and I've gone through thisawareness myself. So I'm like,
holy crap, I'm letting myselfdown every single day because
(37:13):
I'm not keeping my word tomyself. Because I can get a lot
done. I'm a high achiever, I doa lot for myself. And for those
that I'm here to serve, yet,it's like, oh, I can do more, I
could do more, I could do moreto realise like, crap, I'm
letting balls drop. And even ifI'm getting all to dues done, am
I really honouring what I needfirst, because I cannot show up
(37:36):
and serve, given love and servethem the most fully, for
everything that I love. Andevery one I love in my life, if
I do not begin within myselffirst, right. And so we do have
to recognise the power. And themicro moment the power in
saying, instead of trying tooverload myself, let me
underload myself, let me do onething really well, and like
(38:00):
crush it. And when I do that,then if I've got more bandwidth
and more capacity, then I cansay, Great, now let me do this
next. But then everythingbecomes a win. Because I think
we're all drowning Chris in thisfeeling of not enoughness and
not there yet. Because we keepputting too much on ourselves.
(38:21):
And we don't say whoa, and wethen we break the promises to
ourselves left and right andlisten, unconsciously. You know,
trauma is a big conversationright now globally. And then the
biggest trauma that so many ofus have gone through is the
trauma that we have, and wedon't want to hear this. I mean,
this was one of my big aha isthis year is the trauma that we
(38:43):
have imparted on ourselves. Andwhat I mean, is on an
unconscious level, many of ushave a split within ourselves.
There's a part of us that who wedon't trust, who we're
protecting ourselves from, isourselves. Because I'm the one
consciously going come on,there's more, there's more. And
(39:05):
let me show you let me do this.
Let me do that. I'm gonna dothat. And we keep going and
going, Oh, my God, we got to dothis. And we're gonna do that
this is expected of us and, andthis is what this person is to
us. That means I have to do ittoo. And we keep going and
going. And there's part of usgoing do you just don't get it.
You're not listening to me.
You're not honouring me. You areYou are just like, who are you?
Like, I don't want anything todo with you. And so this very
(39:27):
part of us that is our mostpowerful part starts to close
down. While the other part of usis trying to go no, come on,
it's gonna be great. Like we'rejust gonna go 10 exit. One more
thing when there's one morething is in it, and we feel like
we're one step away from eithergreatness or crashing and
burning. Right. And like so manyof us it to a greater or lesser
(39:50):
extent. It's like, oh, and it'sjust gone. Yeah, just simplify
one thing, one thing today, onething in this moment Take a
micro moment. And and letyourself really appreciate how
you are showing up and quitmeeting it to be more and more
and more like, go full in onthis thing now savour it, get
(40:12):
your power from that, that'sgoing to expand your capacity.
Take even five minutes, youknow, like to go ahead and let's
rest, reset, do nothing for fiveminutes. Go daydream. And then
let's go into our next chunk andstart again.
Chris Barnes (40:32):
Awesome, awesome.
Melissa, I'm really interestedto learn, from your experience,
how you because you're your mom,you've got a son, how you
approach parenting through thelens of epigenetics.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (40:49):
Chris, if you and I spoke two years
ago, at paleo is much different.
Now I have a high schooler
Chris Barnes (40:59):
High School. Wow.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (41:02):
You know what, but I will say this, I
love it. It's so fascinating.
And I only have one. So it's alittle different. I think when
you only have one, you know,like, good, bad and ugly, they
get all of you. And sometimesit's all of them until you until
they become a teenager, and thenyou're cut off
(41:25):
you know, but my son, like it ornot, he's he's grown up with him
this and so part of it islaughable to him. Part of it's
cool. I think in I thinkintuitively he's a shaman at
heart. And he's like, we do,he'll come into that zone in
some time. You know, but sincehe was old enough to
(41:46):
communicate, verbally, when whenthey're super little, and they
don't quite have their wordsyet. They're there. They're
experiencing something but theydon't know how to emote haven't
given a name, what that emotionis. And so that's why the
terrible twos are so terrible,and threes, because they just
don't know. Yeah, this is rightnow and they seem like, but
(42:07):
they're just that they'relearning. And so to age, from an
epigenetic standpoint, we reallystarted with giving him the
capacity to exercise emotionalintelligence, and to give him
permission to know it was okayto to actually feel whatever he
was feeling, even if he didn'tknow what to call it. And so I
(42:29):
do a lot within neuro linguisticpsychology. So NLP and so you
know, one of the things that itteaches you this is all the
science of linguistics, butthere's a whole science of, of
words, beyond words, like wordsare so primal, they do not
really express the capacity ofemotions, right, but we try, we
(42:51):
try to label what love is we tryto label with passion, joy,
like, but it doesn't ever giveit enough. And so at a so one of
the techniques in NLP is to kindof go abstract. And when you
just don't know what somethingis, or how to wrap your head
around it, you can do thingslike give it a shape or a
(43:13):
colour. So the very young age, Istarted to use this technique
with my son when there weren'tquite words yet. So we would, we
would give these feelings thesethings that he didn't know a
shape and a colour. And then wecould talk in the colour. So it
gave a little bit of dimension,and a little separation. So it
didn't feel like it was him oron him or in him or he was doing
(43:34):
something wrong or failing. Soit gave some preparation, which
then gives us perspective, themoment we have here versus right
up here, we can see more, we canaccess more information. So my
point of this is that we starteda lot of this when he was really
young, you know, helping him tounderstand and feel really
(43:55):
confident about his choices,although now as a teenager. It's
interesting, because there aretimes like he's like, Yeah, I
want macaroni and cheese. I'mlike,
Chris Barnes (44:08):
No, he was out there like having a slushie no
like
Melissa Grill-Petersen (44:22):
it's really, it's a stress for me,
it's not for him, right? He'sjust like, mom, like, for him.
It's not like he's doing itevery day all the time. Right.
And he's like I said, he's 14.
And you have to give themautonomy. So what it comes down
to from an epigeneticstandpoint, this, one of the
most important Levers is ourpower of perception, and our
(44:45):
cultural perceptions, what we'vebeen raised with what we know,
and my son is incrediblyintelligent. He has so much
emotional capacity and it's inthere and when I just stepped
back, and I watched from afar,he handles things like a boss
You know, when there's too muchmom around, then it's a little
different. And so it's aboutgoing, alright, let's help them
(45:07):
to understand the why. And let'sgive them some tools to
experience and practice it forthemselves. And know that
there's going to come a timethat they're going to use it
other times that they're not.
But that's how we all learn,right? We have to go through the
contrast. And so it's reallyquite fascinating that the more
(45:27):
I try to control, so perception,if I'm telling him something's
bad, I'm informing his verybiology. So I, you know, so this
epigenetic phenomena is thefoods we're eating the air,
we're breathing, theenvironments, we're in the
thoughts we're thinking, and howwe are thinking of something
stressful. Is it good for us orbad for us? And so I don't have
(45:52):
it right at all, Chris, I mean,I mess it up every day is
inherent. We all do. We all do.
But they teach us as much as weteach them. And I think that's
the biggest lesson my husbandand I have had to learn like,
Wait, we are not my parents, youknow, our parents all do our
best when we're parents. But wedon't want to parent the way our
parents did, because it wasbecause I said so. And from an
(46:13):
surgery genetic standpoint,that's a constriction, right?
That's, that is a lockdown onthose that that is creating a
distress in the system was whichis going to increase the
potential for more methylationmarks, inflammation ageing. So
I'd rather even around alongevity principle is this
(46:33):
mindset of resiliency offlexibility of anti fragility.
So I think what I've had to cometo and like I said, I have some
days, this is really easier toembrace than others, is to say,
if I can create a container, andprovide as a parent, the knowing
and the resources and the accessto buoyancy, to choice and
(46:57):
resiliency, to let him fall andto let him know it's safe. And
it's essential to get back up.
And it's okay to like he's goingthrough high school is brand new
in high school. And today, weliterally have this talk, it's
like, for me says, A hormeticstressor. There's certain kids
in this class is he's not he'skind of like, a mom or some
(47:18):
kids. And I was like, okay, youknow, and he had a challenge the
other day, and today, he didn't,you know, I'm like, Hey, each
day you face it each day, you,you let yourself just feel those
uncomfortable emotions or thosegreat emotions. You experience
it, and you move through it, andyou know that you did it. And
it's okay. It's, it's, for me,it's, it's like we're exposing
(47:38):
ourselves to a challenge, thenyou come home, and you rest, and
you reset. And guess what thatis, that's you stress, that's
the good stress for the system,that then allows us to actually
grow. And so epigenetically, Iam just trying to create the
container where he can feel whathe needs to feel, have his
(47:58):
experiences, move throughchallenges with success, have
success, with joy, to celebrateit all the good, the bad, and
the ugly, and to come home andrest. And sleep is a non
negotiable. Because when wesleep and we rest and we unplug,
then we can reset and get outand, and keep that genetic code
(48:22):
as optimised as possible.
Chris Barnes (48:27):
Now, it's really, really good point that you make
there because I'm a, I'm a dadof three as well. And my eldest
little boys just started prep.
So he's six and a half thisyear. And it's a natural
tendency for mothers and fathersto want to just wrap them up and
protect them from from the bigbad world out there. But you
(48:47):
make a really, really validpoint that this eustress, the
little moments that challengethem in vulnerable environments,
going to a new class, new newstudents, actually is creating
resiliency within them as well.
If we just protect them anddon't put them into these
environments, then it's going toimpact on their resilience, and
(49:10):
I guess those epigeneticchanges, as well. Yeah. Yeah.
Powerful. We've been talking fora while and I could honestly
talk for another hour, but Idon't think our listeners
probably have that. I can't waitto I can't wait to share some of
(49:31):
those blooper blooper reels aswell from earlier. But I would I
would like to finish with yourlongevity Summit, which is next
week, I believe. Can you tellour listeners a little bit about
that one? The longevity looks itlooks phenomenal.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (49:49):
Thank you, Chris. It is it's airing.
So it's a free event for dayswith some of the top leading
longevity, integrative healthAnd biohacking human performance
optimising experts on theplanet. We're having
conversations that, to me, it'sreally important to tell to
(50:10):
share and show the ways where weblend the latest in science,
cutting edge technology, andreally showing that in
conjunction with ancientwisdoms, ancient technologies,
ancient therapies, to then havethe perspective say, great when
we look at modern and we look atfuture and we look at ancient
(50:31):
and past, then that starts toreveal a bit of what it means to
really be human and what'savailable to us. So that we can
now have greater understandingsof what is possible in the
hearing now for better modernliving solutions. So the event
you know, there's there's sometalks that are a little bit more
clinical, we've got a lot ofdoctors on there. But I think
(50:52):
what's really exciting for thefor the participant, is you're
really hearing just authenticconversations with these
practitioners and providersabout how they're how they're
approaching patient care, thethings that become really
important, you know, if we'rethinking longevity, the what I
the story I wanted to tell theseason was not just how do we
live longer and better. Butbecause there is already this
(51:14):
population that is sick, let'snot leave them out. So how do we
heal? Because healing, it's notlike you're sick, and you're
done. And that's it, you'restuck with it, you have to live
on a medication that isabsolutely false and incorrect.
You are completely innatelydesigned to heal. So how do we
feel so we can thrive, to trulylive life optimise to 121 5200,
(51:38):
all of these numbers are now wesee it in the literature, we
know how to do it. age reversalis a real thing. It's happening,
we're tracking it more and moreis coming to market. So the four
day event is free. It's kind ofon demand. So it's free on the
date of and people can upgradewe're doing a really cool VIP
experience, that after thesummit, I'm actually going to be
(51:59):
running a 12 weeks to 120masterclass series with myself
and 22 of our top featuredspeaker. So each week, they're
gonna get to be in a reallyprivate kind of, you know,
immersive experience. We'regoing to walk them through their
own longevity blueprint. So I'mso excited about the season. i
It's funny, it's like, I itfirst is kind of like yeah, I
(52:20):
just want to get a few moreinterviews. And I'm like, Oh, my
gosh, some of the biggest yearyet like this is gonna be Oh,
yeah. So the longevitysummit.com is where people can
find out about that. And youknow, I invite people to always
come find out, you know, you canalways find out what's happening
with the longevity stuff.
Because this event, we willprobably be releasing at least
twice a year a version of it,because it's just a really
(52:43):
awesome Bewdley advancing arena.
So Doc melissa.com is wherepeople can find IDOC Melissa,
Doc melissa.com is where I'llalways have stuff about the
summits and about our humanlongevity Institute, you know,
so for both clients andclinicians, like we have one
side of what we do certifyclinicians, and then the other
(53:04):
side of what they do, which is,you know, working with clients
in a precision longevity model.
So, so much going on.
Chris Barnes (53:12):
Awesome. And those dates for the summit of the 25th
to the 29th of August.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (53:17):
Yeah, yeah. And if you go to
longevity, the longevity Summit,let me get that right.com You'll
see everything there. And youguys can get a free ticket,
you'll immediately unlock likeeight bonus gifts and three
early sessions, depending onwhen you hear this and watch
this. So yeah, and we'll, wewill probably keep some of those
free gifts up even after thesummit. So if you miss it, if
(53:39):
you're hearing this after thefact, you know, we'll probably
keep a few of those interviewsup so that you can get it get on
the kind of early bird list forthe next round of when we do it.
Chris Barnes (53:49):
Amazing, Doc Melissa, it's been an absolute
pleasure chatting with you overthe last hour I thank you so
much for sharing that invaluableinformation for the amp wellness
audience.
Melissa Grill-Petersen (54:01):
Thank you, Chris. This was my honour
and pleasure. Thank you so much.
Chris Barnes (54:07):
All the best with the longevity Summit. I'll
definitely be tuning in. I can'twait. And yeah, you take care.
All
Melissa Grill-Petersen (54:14):
right, you as well, my friend. Thank
you all so much. Cheers.
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