October 30, 2024 • 53 mins
Melissa Bologna's journey from struggling with chronic digestive issues in her childhood to founding a successful bone broth company is nothing short of inspiring. She shares her compelling life story, marked by resilience and determination, as she navigated the tumultuous waters of health challenges and entrepreneurship. Growing up between New Jersey and Peru, Melissa faced early health struggles that led her on a path of lifelong healing, teaching her the power of positivity and persistence in the face of adversity.
As Melissa embarked on the entrepreneurial journey with her company, Beauty in the Broth, she encountered unexpected health challenges, including weight gain and a hypothyroidism diagnosis. Her story is a testament to the trials and triumphs of balancing personal health with business pursuits. Faced with the limitations of conventional medicine, she turned to functional medicine, finding hope and new insights. Her experiences with mold toxicity and the importance of environmental factors in health add another layer to her story, illustrating the intricate dance between health and entrepreneurship.
The episode also delves into Melissa's exploration of trauma healing methods, emphasizing the importance of a comprehensive approach to wellness. From somatic practices to the transformative potential of psilocybin journeys, Melissa shares how addressing stored trauma has played a crucial role in her healing process. With a focus on gut health and emotional well-being, her narrative underlines the interconnectedness of physical and emotional health. Listeners are invited to connect with Melissa and learn more about her innovative approach to wellness at The Beauty and The Broth, where bone broth serves as a gateway to healing and personal growth.
Keywords
healing journey, bone broth, autoimmune, entrepreneurship, somatic practices, psilocybin, gut health, health insights, functional medicine, emotional release
Takeaways
- Healing journeys are unique and non-linear.
- Childhood experiences can impact adult health.
- Bone broth can significantly improve gut health.
- Entrepreneurship can be intertwined with personal health journeys.
- Autoimmunity requires a holistic approach to treatment.
- Somatic practices are essential for emotional healing.
- Psilocybin can facilitate deep emotional releases.
- Nutrition plays a critical role in overall health.
- Creating a health-conscious brand can stem from personal experiences.
- The connection between mind and body is crucial for healing.
Chapters
00:00- Introduction to Healing Journeys
03:02- Melissa's Early Health Struggles
06:33- The Shift to Bone Broth and Health
10:22- Entrepreneurial Journey and Health Insights
18:46- Navigating Autoimmunity and Medication
25:31- The Role of Somatic Practices in Healing
30:02- Exploring Psilocybin and Emotional Release
39:35- Creating a Health-Conscious Brand
Connect With Melissa:
-
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Connect with Dr. Jade Teta
Website: ww
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, welcome to the show everybody.
This is the Next Level HumanPodcast.
I'm your host, dr JA Tita.
I have with me a new friend,someone I just met online on
Instagram, as you all know.
Typically, we're all doing ourthing.
It is the social media worldnow and Melissa and I got
together we're chatting a littlebit about her story and we
(00:22):
agreed that she should come onand tell her story and tell
about some of the tools thatshe's discovered, and this is
Melissa Bologna.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, yes, Melissa Bologna.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, so, and are you Italian?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm actually South American, okay.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Interesting Because I'm like is that an Italian name
?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, Whenever I'm in a rush to spell my last name,
I'm like Bologna, no G, and it'sthat no G that makes it not
Italian.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Okay, it's that.
No G, that makes it not Italian.
Yeah, so I am Italian, so I waslooking for a fellow Italian,
but South America is perfect.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Does it make you feel better that my favorite food is
chicken parmesan?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Much better, although you want to know, melissa, you
want to know it's interestingthat food.
You probably know this, but youknow a lot of people don't know
this that chicken Parmesan youcannot find in Italy.
It's actually an American food.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I did know that.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, that's funny.
So it's like it's funny.
I go to you.
Try to order those of you whohaven't been to Italy.
You try to order chicken Parmyou're not going to get it.
You might get eggplant Par, butyou're not going to get chicken
farm.
Same with fettuccine Alfredothey don't have that either.
(01:32):
Listen, I feel like people arealready learning a lot.
Yeah, they're already learninga lot.
All right, so here's the thingI wanted to have Melissa on
everyone, because she's beenthrough her own healing journey
and here's the thing that me andher were talking about just
before.
We popped on One of the thingsthat I think is very important
as we all sort of go on ourhealth and healing journeys and,
by the way, this is the firsttime Melissa and I have met in
person, so you're kind ofgetting us, you know, sort of
meeting each other.
(01:52):
We've never had a conversationbefore.
We're just going to dialogueabout this story, but so I'm
educating her a little bit onsort of my philosophy.
She's going to be educating allof us on her philosophy.
But one of the things about me,melissa, that is, I think, core
to the next level humanphilosophy is that one of my pet
peeves in this world offunctional medicine and health
(02:13):
is that we do tend to get inthis sort of protocol, cookbook,
recipe type of medicine.
And what I love is hearingpeople's individual journeys.
Now, obviously, when you gothrough your individual journey,
you find certain tools andcertain things that work for you
, because you went through sometough stuff which we're going to
(02:34):
get into and those toolscertainly can also work for many
other people who are goingthrough similar things.
And so I want to really hearI'm most interested about you
know, sort of Melissa's healer'sjourney or hero's journey.
How did you get to where yougot?
To Tell us about what you wentthrough.
This idea of your pain is yourpath to purpose kind of thing,
(02:58):
and I'm just, you know,interested in your story and
what you're all about.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Damn.
Well, you're interviewing me ata day where I know the most
I've ever known, which I guessmakes sense because today I'm
the oldest I've ever been.
But, um, if you interviewed mea year ago I would have you know
.
I just feel like every year Ijust have so much more to say
because I'm discovering so muchmore, because healing is not
linear and there's discoveriesand we're all forever healing.
(03:25):
So let's take it back to littleMelissa, growing up in Rumson,
new Jersey.
I wouldn't say I had the easiestchildhood, but I was always a
happy kid.
So there you go.
So when I was little I wouldhave these chronic digestive
issues and no one knew what waswrong with me.
(03:46):
And actually chronic digestiveissues as a kid is actually
linked to, you know, a littlebit turbulent childhood, like my
dad wasn't always around andthere was drama with him and my
mom, the whole shebang.
And I, you know I've onlyrecognized this as an adult,
which was probably a hugecomponent to my digestive issues
.
(04:09):
From New Jersey we moved to Lima, peru, from 9 to 11 years old,
moved back to New Jersey.
When I moved back is when myhealth journey really began and
was maximized, because I waschronically ill.
I was in and out of thehospital.
They couldn't figure out whatwas wrong with me.
I had pains in my heart.
I had this awful, awful painsin my stomach.
(04:30):
My mom took me to acardiologist.
She's fine, it's just stress.
My mom was like a little bit indenial like stress.
My daughter's, 11 years old andfinally, after multiple doctors
, multiple days of school miss.
I actually almost got held backfrom school because I missed so
many days.
A doctor took an x-ray of mystomach and found good
(04:52):
old-fashioned stool backed uplike the 405.
405 is a freeway in LA.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I lived in Santa Monica for six years, so I'm
very familiar with the 405.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So you know just how much trouble my stomach was in,
and so that's kind of where myhealth journey began.
And then I remember that I wasso young, right, and I was
always a happy kid.
I got crow's feet quite earlyfrom being very smiley.
You know, at the end of the daythat's all you got in life.
You just got to smile and laugh.
(05:25):
So I remember the doctor put meon medication I was just a kid,
I just did it as I was told andI just remember.
And he put me also on naturallaxatives.
I just remember losing so muchweight Like I was like real thin
.
And then I remember one daylike I found out what medicine I
was on and it was like somesort of antidepressant and at
(05:47):
the time I was quite pissed offbecause I'm like I'm not a
depressed kid, what the hell.
I feel like hoodwinked.
But I didn't know until Ibecame adult, an adult, that
there's a reason why thesedoctors will prescribe that for
this and you know it's somethingwith it, you know de-stressing
your gut and yada, yada, yada.
(06:08):
But nonetheless I was pissed.
Cut it out, cold turkey I.
It's funny that I did that,because it's really become who I
am today, um, cut to, moved onwith my life, realized I had
digestive issues, realized I wasa constipated kid, all that
stuff.
Then, through trials andtribulations, I went to school
in New York, internationalmarketing business.
(06:29):
While I was in school I said Iwant to be an actress and just
thought it was a pipe dream.
Studied abroad, in Paris.
When I was there, a lot of mypeers were taking a year or two
off to travel because it wasjust very European way, and I
was like, huh, I should take ayear or two off but go to LA and
try to act, why not?
(06:49):
So that's exactly what I didand I said you know, if it
doesn't work out, I'll use myinternational marketing and
business degree, not realizingthat I actually was using my
degree in that industry.
I was just the product.
And so while I was acting, youknow you would work these crazy
hours, you would go to work at6pm and you would wrap at 6am,
(07:10):
like it would throw off yourbody's clock completely and I
just, you know, became I wasalways, quote, unquote thin.
So at that time, early 20s, I'mlike, oh great, I'm thin, so
that means I'm healthy.
I didn't have a profoundunderstanding of what true
health was.
And then, you know, as I becamein my mid 20s, I just started
(07:33):
to feel like this massive brainfog and bloated and just didn't
understand what was wrong withme.
And my sister, who I talked toyou about offline, is always
ahead of the curve, that girl tothis day.
And she was like you got to trybone broth, you've got to try
bone.
Offline, it's always ahead ofthe curve, that girl to this day
.
And she was like you got to trybone broth, you've got to try
bone broth.
And I'm like no, that's weirdand disgusting.
It sounds like witchcraft.
(07:53):
I will not be trying bone broth.
So then I just like was reallydesperate.
She hit me again with it.
I was like, fine, give me thisbone broth.
So I was in New York City withher at the time.
We did a workout.
I was kind of like even likenew, to like working out.
Then like I once again justthought, great, I'm skinny, I'm
healthy, um.
So we did this workout and wewent there was about 17 pop-up
(08:15):
shops at the time of bone broth.
We went and got bone broth.
I tried it and I was like, wow,this stuff's actually pretty
good and I liked it.
It didn't taste how I thought Iwould, how I thought it did,
(08:36):
wow.
So then you know, from then itbecame habitual.
I was in New York for a fewweeks and I could not believe
the results I was getting fromit.
It was what my sister said,plus, like those lines I talked
about from being a smiley kidwere disappearing.
I had a damaged knee fromsports that was all of a sudden
much better.
It was making my hair thick andI quite literally didn't
understand.
I'm like maybe I was right,this is witchcraft, because I
(08:58):
had no understanding what it wasabout bone growth.
I had no understanding aboutthe gut microbiome and what it
means to have a healed gut, socut to, I just became this
passionate bone broth gal and Iwent back to LA and I'm like,
okay, I'm going to continue thisroutine here, I'm going to work
out, I'm going to go get bonebroth.
And then I went to go get bonebroth and I was like, huh, what
(09:18):
the hell?
There's no place to go grabbone broth.
This is crazy.
How does New York have 17places and Los Angeles, the city
of health and wellness, hasnone?
So that's what I'm like, that'swhat I was thinking.
Oh, I should have a bone brothshop in LA.
And then my entrepreneurjourney.
(09:38):
I probably, once or twice ayear, wake up in a cold sweat
with some, in my opinion,brilliant idea, and I don't.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
The life of an entrepreneur.
That's how it works.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, and most of the time I don't execute on it
because I just know it's not mywheelhouse.
It's a great idea for someoneand I share my ideas and hope
someone does it.
And it's funny because a lot ofthose ideas came to fruition in
life.
Six, seven, eight years laterSomeone else has done it, not
because they heard me say it,but because they came up with
the idea later on.
Anyways, this idea I felt likeI could wrangle and I was like
(10:16):
so then my entrepreneur journeystarted and during the
entrepreneur journey it's justbeen so interesting.
So my health journey has reallylike weaved in with it.
So what started off asdigestive issues, then building
a company, was extremelyinteresting.
I learned so much about thefood systems.
I become beyond passionateabout the food systems Through
my health journey.
(10:37):
I become very passionate aboutbig pharma Not I wouldn't say
about big pharma, but whateverthat con about disagreeing not
about big pharma, the anti bigpharma.
And you know, I started to see ahuge correlation between the
two from starting this company,from my own health journey.
(10:57):
So, while I was starting andlaunching beauty in the broth,
about I don't know, a year intoit, I started gaining weight and
I'm like, okay, time to dietand work out a bunch, like my
body's always really receptiveat losing weight quickly.
But no matter what I did, itwasn't coming off.
(11:19):
And I just remember being likeso much shame.
I'm like, oh my gosh, like Irun this bone broth company.
I'm a frog.
People are gonna think likethis is the person.
So the bone broth company,she's gaining weight, like, like
.
And I just felt so much shameand imposter syndrome.
And my good girlfriend, um,she's like I'm also.
I'm telling you, you have whatI have, which is, um,
(11:40):
hypothyroidism, which is anautoimmunity, so, so I was
desperate.
I went to her endocrinologist soyou'll like this part was not a
functional endocrinologist.
He took a bunch of tests.
He saw that I indeed hadhypothyroidism.
He told me I was pre-diabetic.
So what did this man do?
(12:01):
He put me on Synthroid, he putme on Metformin, he put me on
Dexamethalazone which people usefor chemo, by the way and he
put me on Ozempic and, by theway, this is before Ozempic was
Ozempic this time.
I'm 34 now, so I was on fourmeds and the doctor, who should
(12:27):
respectfully probably not have alicense, would scare the crap
out of me.
He'd be like Melissa, if youdon't, because I got all these
symptoms from the medicine.
Speaking of constipation, themetformin beyond constipated me.
It was very painful gettingadjusted to it.
The Ozempic made me sick ashell.
And then it was really scarythe thought of being on a
(12:48):
steroid dexamethasone becauseI'm just, wow, 30 years old.
So you know I would just keepkind of like push-pull with him,
like what if I get off thedexamethasone?
No, melissa, you can't yourlevels of testosterone and
you'll get cancer if you go offthem.
Melissa.
No, no, you're pre-diabetic.
(13:11):
You have to stay on this.
You inherited this from yourparents.
There's nothing you could doBlaming my parents.
So I just drank the Kool-Aidbecause at that time my sole
focus was getting what I thoughtlooked good back, which was
being trim and not having theseissues, and I just wanted to
solve it and put these band-aidson it, cause I had a lot of
(13:31):
shame with having this healthand wellness company Cut to.
I'm big New Year's resolutiongirl the next year.
I'm like this is crazy.
I'm on these four heavy meds.
I look way too skinny againfrom the Ozempic and it's just
like my friends would be at,like a party.
I would just have to go outsideand throw up from the ozempic.
It was violently ill.
(13:51):
I don't know why anyone does it.
Just look into health andnutrition that look, I
understand if you're 300 poundstoo or very overweight.
I understand there's a purpose,but let's keep it for the
purpose of that, not people whoare not, who are hardly
overweight.
That's very manageable, butthat's another stick to the
(14:12):
topic.
So then my new year's resolutionwas to get off all the meds,
and I'm a pretty intenseindividual.
I go from zero to 100 on thesethings.
So I started to go, for thefirst time in my life, the
functional medicine route, andthat too was an interesting
journey.
So it was a little bit likelike the, you know, you had to
kiss a few frogs, see whatworked for you, and on my third
(14:35):
frog that turned into a prince.
I worked with a functionalmedicine doctor.
That it was kind of funny.
I don't even know why I wasfilling this out with pen and
paper, pencil and paper.
By sheer irony.
Normally I just fill stuff outonline, but he asked me if I had
any exposure to mold and Iquite literally put yes and then
(14:57):
I erased it and put no.
So then I submit.
The forms are like why did youdo that?
And I was like well, like youknow, last year I had an
apartment in New York city.
I was living by coastal Uh, itwas a duplex.
Emergency leak in the basementGot the email, um, I sent.
I didn't go there for a fewmonths and my maid had me to
(15:18):
clean.
She's like Melissa, I don'tknow what you want me to do.
The place is completely coveredin mold.
I never even stayed a nightthere.
I was advised not to.
My boyfriend at the time toldme you know, the place is going
to be overrun with mold, it'sgoing to be in the walls
everywhere and they let me breakthe lease.
It was a six month remediation.
It was so bad that the woman,the property manager, couldn't
(15:39):
even be in there.
Her throat was closing up and Ihad to get all my clothing and
everything dry clean.
I had furniture, I had shoes.
I did what I could.
I shipped some furniture withme to LA.
I shipped all my clothes andshoes to LA.
Nine months later, likeclockwork, is when these
symptoms of gaining weight andeverything started happening.
(16:00):
Like freaking clockwork.
So when he tested me for moldmold, not only were my levels
off the charts with threedifferent strains of mold,
including citrinin, which islinked to cancer and wrath,
which actually scared mestraight and and it also came up
in my blood tests and it showedup on another test um, I
(16:23):
believe I forget if the testyou'd probably know better than
I saliva or stool.
I should probably know becauseI test once a year now but
anyways, it showed up on threedifferent tests.
Overwhelming levels,overwhelming.
I went on a protocol which wasgluten-free, dairy-free,
nightshade-free, sugar-free,alcohol-free for four months.
(16:45):
Probably should have done six,but within four or this was also
crazy because I tell you itweaves into my entrepreneur
journey.
The largest part of mythird-party protocol was bone
broth.
I had to start with a two tofive-day bone broth fast and
then move to bone broth-basedsoups and then incorporate
protein in the soups and regulareating of you know that diet I
(17:08):
mentioned so this is interesting.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
So your doctor, who didn't know that you were into
bone broth and running anentrepreneur yeah, entrepreneur,
who started a bone brothcompany actually prescribed you
bone broth yeah, and I happen toknow a girl where I had free
access yeah, you happen to knowsomeone who knew a lot about
bone broth.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah.
So I couldn't believe it andyou know, you can imagine,
during this time I was sick andthrough the entrepreneurial
journey, it's like this whereI'm like extremely gassed and
motivated to burnout, motivatedburnout.
So this was.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
I know the feeling.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah.
So this was incrediblyinspiring inspiring it was kind
of like an aha moment that mademe laugh a little bit where it's
like bone broth came the firstpart of my health journey.
Here it is again, and it wasdefinitely an aha moment where I
couldn't believe that this isthe largest part of my protocol
within four months.
Within four months, of thisdiet and I obviously wasn't just
(18:03):
bone broth, it was all thosethings I named basically a clean
, holistic diet that alsoinvolved a bunch of supplements
and sweating in a sauna andbinders.
I put my autoimmunity intocomplete remission.
Complete remission and and, bythe way, once I started the
protocol, I just dropped all mymeds except Synthroid, cold
(18:25):
turkey.
So I was just all in and I justhad this inner knowing that it
would work out.
I had this inner knowing that Iwas on the right path and that
something, everything in my gut,told me this does not make
sense.
A 30-year-old to be on allthese four heavy meds told I'd
be on it the rest of my life.
So that's where my healthjourney led.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
And actually, melissa , let me stop you there and, if
I can, like sort of fill in somegaps and I want to just give
the listener sort of some of mytake on this and you jump in and
correct me wherever you thinkI'm wrong or jump in and, you
know, ask me some questions.
I got my clinical hat on nowand I want to go back to yeah, I
(19:07):
want to go back to you as achild, right?
So this child who's chronicallyconstipated and in pain as a
result of that One of the thingsjust for you listeners here and
Melissa may have you know addto this as well One of the
things that we talk about a lot,especially in the work that I'm
doing now.
You know, obviously my, mybackground is in mainly female
(19:27):
endocrinology, as most of youlisteners know, but also I'm
working on my PhD intranspersonal psychology.
So I do a lot in the realm ofadverse childhood events, ptsd,
misguided, unconscious decisions, and so when I hear this right,
so when I hear for youdecisions.
And so when I hear this, rightso, when I hear Melissa's sort
of story, what I go is I go okay.
(19:55):
So I hear, when I hearconstipation or any gut related
things, I first go dysregulatednervous system.
And then I go in my head I gookay, and eventually, if this
isn't addressed, immune issues.
Right, because nervous system,gut, immune function.
And then one of the things thatI ask about in this regard,
just for the listener to sort ofunderstand, is I want to
understand what are what I wouldcall the misguided unconscious
(20:15):
decisions or psychological mudis the acronym misguided
unconscious decisions that livein the unconscious, that drive
some of the biological processes, right, so what was going on
stress-wise in little Melissa,right?
So that's part of the story,right?
And then I hear, okay, melissasort of gets into this thing
(20:36):
where she goes out to LosAngeles chasing her dreams, runs
in with her sister, getsintroduced to this.
Really potent for you, right?
For your system, this bone brothsituation that starts making
you feel really good For thelistener.
I want them to understand.
So, all of a sudden, if we werelistening to Melissa's story,
(20:59):
did you hear the part aboutwhere, all of a sudden, her skin
started looking better, herhair started looking better,
obviously, her energy.
She is sort of stumbling acrossthis thing of like oh my God,
what's this doing now?
So here's the thing thatMelissa may like or not like
about me, but I want to justbasically yeah, so I'll hit you
with this.
So the bone broth is amazing.
(21:19):
One of the things that I thinkabout, though, is that when we
start to do something, whenwe're eating regular foods right
.
One of my most memorable caseswas a woman with Crohn's disease
that we had to basically put onan all liquid diet, and that
was the thing that, out of allthe things she tried, that was
the thing that helped her, andbone broth was a big piece of
(21:40):
that.
But what happens when you arein a chronic stress?
Physiology is your gut is notable to process a lot of these
foods.
So two things.
One, bone broth is amazing inits nutrient profile.
Two, it is incredibly easy todigest for someone who's got a
nervous system, who is gut,who's caused the gut not to
(22:01):
function?
Speaker 2 (22:02):
well.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
And all of a sudden I start hearing oh so she starts
to assimilate and digest andabsorb nutrition perhaps better
than ever before in a very longtime, and starts to see very
real world effects in some ofthe organ systems that turn over
very fast.
This would be skin, hair nailsand this would be gut, gut stuff
(22:26):
, right, me and Melissa alreadytalked about the fact that her
dogs were going to get crazy atsome point, but you know.
so now I'm hearing this wholeidea of stress mitigation, right
, and then digestive functionmitigation with this tool.
But then I want to talk to youabout this idea of the
entrepreneurship, which isincredibly stressful.
(22:47):
So now, all of a sudden, youstart this company.
Plus you have this mold issueand to me I go, the old problem
is going to perhaps be comingback.
Plus, you've got this newproblem on top of it that is
compromising the immune system,yeah, and then all of a sudden
you start seeing.
By the way, I have my listenersknow as well, but I suffer from
Hashimoto's, thyroiditis as wellautoimmune condition of the
(23:11):
thyroid gland, hypothyroid whichI can manage largely without
medications, Although nowadays Ipretty much stay on the
medications because, given thestress of my entrepreneur
journey, I just know I do betterwith it.
But what's really interestingis this idea of going through
these three major parts hereEarly life perhaps we all have
(23:34):
it this misguided, unconsciousmud that drives us, strives us.
And little Melissa pushing andpushing and pushing
Entrepreneurship journey,Finding this, this primary tool
that helps her get better, whichthen she makes part of her
purpose Pain is a path topurpose.
And then this idea of repairingyourself through this stressful
entrepreneur journey and thissort of mold journey.
(23:57):
So I just wanted to point outto the listener that there's a
whole lot of other things inhere too.
By the way, One other thing I'llsay before I want you to jump
back in, Melissa is that if youlisten to Melissa, she was doing
a couple other things that Ithink are key for most people.
Now we're all different.
Everyone's healing journey isgoing to be different.
But also this idea of saunatherapies and sweat-based
(24:19):
therapies are absolutely huge inautoimmune conditions,
especially when you're dealingwith mold issues and heavy metal
toxicities and other thingslike that to get this stuff out
of the system.
And now you know you're back toa place.
So I mean, who knows how fullcircle this has been.
But now I want you to get us andhelp us understand what now are
(24:42):
you doing?
Where are you?
Are you still dealing with someof these things?
Are you completely healed?
Where are you on this journey?
And, of course, we know thatthere's always the next thing
that you deal with.
It's always sort of a journeyin process.
But your story is reallyillustrative for a lot of us in
terms of many different factorsthat set us up for autoimmune
(25:07):
and immune dysfunction, and youfound some of the primary tools
that any good functionalmedicine practitioner would use
in a liquid-based diet, a veryhigh nutrient diet, the bone
broth does that stressmanagement and some of these
protocols.
So get us caught up now.
Based on just hearing my takeon the story, what are your
(25:28):
thoughts on that and what elsedo you want to add?
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, you're a hundred percent right.
What I've learned about bonebroth.
When people are like what arethe benefits, I love to say that
it's two things.
One, it's a bone broth itselffilled with natural current
collagen, amino acids, like yousaid, gives your gut a break.
But then it's also what occurswhen you physically have a
healed gut microbiome, andthat's where the real magic
(25:53):
happens, because your gut is soresponsible for crazy things
like your personality, anxiety,depression.
They call it your second brainand that's for a reason.
Sometimes I go back and forthand wonder what's more important
, because your brain is actuallyreceiving all the messages from
your gut.
So I just wanted to chime in onthat because it's very true.
(26:15):
It's what I like to call agateway drug, because it's what
got me into health and wellnessand to me it creates a state of
mind, it curbs cravings, allthose things.
And where I'm currently at, likeI said, health is a journey.
So when I went on that protocol, I was able to get rid of 70%
(26:36):
of the mold.
I'm very happy to report two ofthe strains, including the
citrine and strain, arecompletely gone.
I now still have theaspergillus strain.
And to touch upon what you saidabout the saunas.
Yes, saunas.
Whether you have mycotoxins ornot, it just creates extreme
longevity for your life.
(26:56):
And something that reallyworked for me, especially with
mold, was binders that attach onto the mold and rip it out of
you when you sweat in the sauna,so just wanted to touch upon
that.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
And what binders were you using, like what were the
ones you were mostly using?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I was mostly using a charcoal one, but it depends on
the strains of mold which onesyou should use.
But for what I was doing?
Three different strains.
I think it was like QuicksilverScientifics, which I like them.
They're not paying me, I justlike them.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah, fantastic company, by the way.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Yeah, yeah, nod to them.
And then, as far as my currenthealth journey, it's so funny I
talk about this with people.
I still do not have perfect guthealth and in a way I sickly
love it because I know that'spart of the reason why I was put
here.
I know it's part of my journey,I know it's part of my pain, I
know it's part of my purpose.
And it's funny how you bring upthe nervous system, because I
(27:56):
for a long time didn'tunderstand that my childhood
would have an effect on my gutmicrobiome.
So it's funny because I toldyou I'm big on these New Year's
resolutions.
So my resolution this year wasto really wrangle in and get a
full hold on my gut health.
(28:17):
So how do I do that?
I started to explore parts ofmyself that I did not realize.
I started to realize about ayear and a half ago, two years
ago, that part of my healthjourney is somatic practices,
that it is these traumas storedin your body, my body, anyone's
(28:38):
body, we all have it.
So where I'm at latest andgreatest five Melissa, 5.0, I
realized that you could have thebest diet in the world, you
could drink all the bone brothmoney could buy, but if you're
not releasing these traumas andsorting through who you are as a
person and where these thingscome up from, and getting rid of
(29:01):
those stressors, you're notgoing to heal.
And it was interesting becausewhen I was on this protocol, I
just remember, you know, wewould have like a weekly support
group, like the mold people onwith the naturopathic doctor and
he would put some people onthis primal trust organization
and what did they do Withsomatic practices that healed
(29:22):
the nervous system?
And I remember asking him and Iwas like you know, I'm just
curious, like why do they dowith somatic practices that heal
the nervous system?
And I remember asking him and Iwas like you know, I'm just
curious, like why do you do that?
And he's like well, melissa,like people can't kick mold if
their nervous system isn'thealed and calm.
Like your body's in fight orflight, it's just trying to keep
you safe and alive.
It's not trying to help youdetox these foreign invaders in
your body.
So this year, year I you know,and once again, partial help
(29:47):
thanks to my sister, becauseshe's just always 12 steps ahead
in these practices.
So I told you she's been doinga lot of, you know, helping
people release traumas and stuckemotion in their body.
So, you know, I look at whatshe does and I'm and I listened
to a lot of podcasts and I reada lot of studies and I say, okay
, that's the next step, that'swhat I have to do.
(30:09):
So this year I did my first andsecond psilocybin journey.
So it was very interesting andmaybe you could speak more to
this.
This because the first time Idid it, you know, you create an
intention.
My intention was to help clearanything that was blocking me
physically, emotionally,mentally, yada, yada, yada.
(30:32):
Hence the resolution.
So I did it and I quiteliterally felt nothing Like.
I felt like I was in a waitingroom and I was so freaking
disappointed that after, duringthe integration session, the guy
I did it with was like, okay,melissa, like what'd you see?
And I was just like trying tohold it together and I was like
I didn't see anything Like.
(30:53):
I just felt like I was in awaiting room.
And then I just burst outcrying and I was like I'm so
disappointed.
And then he hits me with I'mgoing to laugh.
He hits me with.
What else in your life hasdisappointed you, melissa?
Bam, bam.
You've never.
This was crazy.
I felt my gut, quite literallywhat I asked for.
(31:15):
It gave me untangling like agarden hose, and all these
emotions without faces justspewing out of my body, and I
felt anger, I felt despair, Ifelt happiness, like all these
crazy big emotions, like I feltlike a cuckoo person.
And after that, for like amonth or two, after people kept
(31:40):
telling me Melissa, you looktaller, melissa, your eyes look
whiter like, and I I have, likethis body worker that does lymph
massage it's also great formolds, by the way, um, because,
just to touch back on that, I'msomeone who doesn't really
methylate well, if at all.
So my body needs extra supportwith the lymphs to, you know,
process toxins in my body.
Um, but we, we could come backto that, uh.
(32:04):
So so this body worker I'vebeen working with, he's like
Melissa, I feel like like I'mtouching a different person,
like you physically feel like 10years younger.
So, that was crazy.
And then the second time I didit, I, I did it, I think, about
a month ago, a month and a halfago.
At this point it was reallycrazy.
My body was just releasingthese sounds and these noises
(32:27):
and really grieving.
So I just think that this isthe phase where I'm taking into
consideration the effects ofchildhood and not getting out
Emotions and all these thingsthat keep us stuck and stagnant
in the healing process and fromhaving the most optimal health
(32:47):
that we want.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah, and those of you who follow Next Level Human,
you know that this is the workthat I primarily am doing now
and primarily not even.
Obviously, I've had all myjourneys.
These things can be incrediblypowerful, but some of the work
that Next Level Human is doingnow is right in this.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
I mean, this podcast is destiny.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Yeah, so this stuff to me also.
After doing this work, Ibasically started in this
industry, now what I graduatedfrom medical school back in 2004
.
So I've been doing this a longtime and from my perspective,
it's not to say the other stuffdoesn't work.
It's necessary.
So, as you all hear Melissa'ssort of story.
It's not.
It's not to say that you knowyou don't need to worry about
(33:31):
diet.
It is important.
The idea, though, is we're nowstarting to understand that the
biofield is really the energeticscaffolding by which the
biochemistry lives, on top ofwhich, you know, sort of, is a
scaffolding for the physiologyand anatomy and everything else,
and that we are not aware, andhave not been fully aware, of
(33:52):
how these energetic, misguided,unconscious decisions, these
stories, get stored in ourunconscious and essentially
drive us.
Carl Jung has a quote that saysyou cannot make the unconscious
conscious.
It will follow you around andyou will call it faith.
And this is what a lot of usare dealing with.
(34:12):
And, of course, if you wantoptimal health, this is another
piece.
So your journey, melissa, isreally interesting, how you
stumbled across all these piecesand you will see, there is a
group of people you and I bothknow them because we're kind of
in this world where, you know,call them biohackers or whatever
.
But there's this, there's thisidea of you know people are at
least starting to move forwardinto, which is one of the
(34:33):
reasons that I'm, you know,doing the transpersonal
psychology work, because theidea is that full healing is not
just at the physiological level.
It really comes down to thismental, emotional body that we
are dealing with.
That is largely unconscious andtherefore you have to deal with
the unconscious.
For example, just briefly andthen I'll get off this topic,
(34:55):
but just briefly for thelistener to understand, and,
melissa, you probably know this,but when we are children,
primarily in adolescence, we'renot operating in beta brainwave
states, our current folks, we'remore in theta and alpha states.
This is where a lot of ourinitial ideas.
Traumas and dramas, trials,tribulations sort of come in.
They're misguided, unconsciousdecisions because we didn't have
(35:16):
the knowledge, the know-how,the wisdom, the experience, the
skills to deal with these things, and so they essentially get
stored in our body.
Now, to address them in thenervous system, you can't
approach them through simpletalk therapy.
You need to get the body intothese more unconscious states.
Now there's several differentways to do this.
You can do this withoutpsychedelics.
(35:37):
Breath work will do it, certainforms of journaling can do it,
certain forms of hypnosis can doit.
But the idea is, this isanother angle for those of you
who are dealing with and there'smany of you I know, who are
dealing with unremitting signsand symptoms and conditions that
, no matter what you have donesupplement-wise, drug-wise, diet
(35:58):
, exercise-wise, lifestyle-wiseyou're not able to touch it.
This is where this work becomesan add-on.
And again, I'm not saying it'sthe end all be all because we
don't know enough.
The fact of the matter is wedon't know nearly enough.
We know this much tiny fractionof what we need to know about
metabolism and all the otherstuff, but this is an area that
(36:20):
I'm really glad you brought up,melissa.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yes, and you said that so beautifully and I swear
I'm going to save that snippetand keep replaying it, because
that was really so spot on.
And to your point, yes, beforeI did all this somatic work,
think about it I put inautoimmunity into remission.
So, yes, diet is a massive partof it, but I just think, like
you said, if there's people thatare being blocked from their
(36:45):
optimal goals, they do all thethings.
And, yes, there's ways to do itwithout psilocybin.
And, to your point, breathwork.
I did a couple of breathworkclasses this year and last year
and I'll tell you what.
What I, like the instructorsays it's like it shakes out
cobwebs in you, and it's true.
During those breathwork classesI've had huge emotional
(37:06):
releases and I have friends thatjust swear by journaling and
I'm just like, how does onejournal?
And you know, just pen to paper, pen to paper and you just see
what comes out.
So I think those practices arereally powerful.
I don't think there's a cheatcode in life to anything.
However, I will say that I feltlike psilocybin was a little
(37:28):
bit of a cheat code it getspretty close.
It gets pretty close yeah it's alittle bit of it saves you a
lot of time.
You know, I'm someone who youknow I did therapy at 16.
I did in my early 20s and I'mjust like holy crap, if I just
did this twice a year, I'm good.
It's a little bit of a cheatcode, but everyone's unique and
(37:49):
different and everyone hasthings that work for them, and
that just happens to besomething that really worked for
me.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah, and let me just give the listeners just briefly
so you can understand wherethese things fall in.
From my perspective, whenyou're dealing with some of the
mental, emotional stuck stories,there's really three phases
that you need to work.
One is rewriting those stories,the other one is rewiring the
emotional sort of highways inthe body and the next one is
retraining the nervous system,slash brain and so one of the
things that, like you know, someof these I think there's pieces
(38:23):
of it in many different places,but very few places have tied
all three together If a goodtherapy is going to be the
rewrite, rewire and retrain.
Now what things like psilocybin, ayahuasca, psychedelics do is
they're really good at touchinga little bit of the rewire and
some of the rewrite.
(38:43):
When you add in some of thejournaling techniques, the
rewriting is much more.
And then of course, you need theintegration phase, which I
would argue most people doingthis work are inadequate just
because they're not well-trained.
If you could take a reallywell-trained therapist who's
also really well-trained in someof these psychedelics works,
(39:04):
who's also really well trainedin some of the breath work, some
of the ACE, ptsd type work, youkind of are getting close.
But that's what Next LevelHuman, by the way, is really
trying to do is trying to putthese things together along with
the advanced understanding ofmetabolism, mainly because I
(39:24):
have seen that metabolism workonly gets you so far.
So I'm really, really, uh, itwasn't expecting, uh, you to
touch on these aspects, but it'sgood.
Yeah, and it's.
It's just good that we, that weuh were able to touch on that a
little bit.
So why don't you wrap us upwith any any other things that
you want to tell us before we goand also tell us a little bit
(39:48):
about your company, for thosewho do want to use some of the
tools that you've used?
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah.
So just to touch upon what youjust said, I am someone who, if
you told me some of these thingsfive years ago, I'd look at you
and be like you're a cuckoocrazy, me some of these things
five years ago.
I'd look at you and be likeyou're a cuckoo crazy.
And I'm someone who only willreceive data if I feel it's
scientifically proven.
So this concept of psilocybinand mindset work it all, like
(40:19):
what you said, it comes down tothe brain.
You will have the ability tobreak old neural pathways and
create new ones.
And then that's wheremeditation, that's where mindset
, that's where quote unquotemanifestation, manifestation
sounds like a fluffy word.
It's not.
It's quite literally science.
So I'm glad you touched uponthat.
And you know I really do creditbone broth for my gateway into
(40:40):
health and wellness, because itwas the first thing that, and
wellness because it was thefirst thing that healed me.
It was the first thing thathelped my mind, like curb
cravings, just want to makebetter decisions for myself.
So when I switched careers Isaid, okay, if I'm going to do
this, I'm going to make the bestbone broth money could buy.
(41:00):
So what does that constitute of?
It constitutes of the bestsourcing possible because
speaking of woo-woo this, thatthe other you are what you eat.
There is no way around it.
So if you are getting, youshould only get benefit from the
best animals, because if youget benefit from a sickly animal
you're going to get sicklybenefit.
(41:21):
So we are grass-fed, finishedantibiotic, hormone free.
We source our chicken fromMary's Organic Chicken, which is
actually restaurant grade andanimal GAP welfare rated three,
which is a very high standard.
It means they're completelyfree range till the day they die
.
They just eat off the land, allthe things On top of it.
(41:42):
We're shelf stable, with nopreservatives, and we are
concentrated format.
So when someone's cooking asoup on the stove and they keep
reducing it down for it to bestronger, more potent, that's
exactly what we are.
So bone broth is measured inbricks B-R-I-X, which is the
measure of solid components andnutrients.
A regular bone broth that yougo buy at a store in a jar is
(42:05):
three to five bricks.
In my little cute adorablepouches it's 25 bricks.
So the customer adds hot water.
So even after they add hotwater it's still five times
stronger than a regular broth.
And if you read all theingredients on the packaging you
recognize every single one ofthem.
There's not a single ingredientthat you don't recognize, which
I think is so.
(42:26):
Especially if you go into thesupermarket today, you just it
blows my mind You'll see sugaras an ingredient in bone broth.
So we have very cleaningredients, very clean sourcing
, very potent product.
That I think the key word withbone broth is routine and the
fact that we're three ouncesshelf stable.
You could quite literally bringit anywhere in your routine,
(42:48):
including plane, trains,automobiles.
So it's something that I wasreally glad I was able to make
convenient for people,customizable and really easy to
integrate in their routine.
Because I know when I was on,my dog found a toy so cute.
I know that when I was on myprotocol, like I had enough to
worry about, I had a wholesupplement schedule.
(43:10):
My cooking was like I had todouble check the ingredients.
That it was actually reallynice having a brand I could
trust was my brand, and if Ican't trust it, we've got some
issues.
So yeah, I am very proud of theproduct I have made.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Yeah, and let me tell you something.
Let me tell you and tell thelisteners, a reason why I think
this conversation is mostimportant From my perspective.
We are here and the listenerknows this because they hear me
say this every time they listento the intro to this podcast.
They hear this, but to me,we're here on this planet to
learn, to teach and to love, andthat last part, that love part
(43:47):
is really people think that'sabout romance or parental stuff.
It's really about creation.
It's about the idea that I gothrough some hard stuff, I learn
some lessons.
I then want to give back, Iwant to teach and then create,
and so what you have done to me,this is a next level human
company, because through yoursuffering, through your pain,
you have actually foundsomething to help people who are
(44:07):
going through similar issues,and so, from my perspective,
that's why this is so powerful.
So thank you so much, melissa,for your work, thank you for it,
thank you for your time.
Tell everyone so this is, tellthem where they can find your
company, your website, and wherethey can find you online.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Okay.
So at Melissa Bologna, Bologna,no G, it's come full circle.
At the beauty and the broth,and the beauty and the broth,
Okay perfect, melissa.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Thank you so much.
Do me a favor, hang on the line.
I just want to make sure allthis uploads.
But for all of you, I hope youenjoyed this conversation with
Melissa.
I certainly did, and we willsee you at the next podcast.
Thank you so much.
Okay, welcome to the show everybody.
This is the Next Level HumanPodcast.
I'm your host, dr JA Tita.
I have with me a new friend,someone I just met online on
Instagram, as you all know.
Typically, we're all doing ourthing.
It is the social media worldnow and Melissa and I got
together we're chatting a littlebit about her story and we
(00:22):
agreed that she should come onand tell her story and tell
about some of the tools thatshe's discovered, and this is
Melissa Bologna.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, yes, Melissa Bologna.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, so, and are you Italian?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm actually South American, okay.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Interesting Because I'm like is that an Italian name
?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, Whenever I'm in a rush to spell my last name,
I'm like Bologna, no G, and it'sthat no G that makes it not
Italian.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Okay, it's that.
No G, that makes it not Italian.
Yeah, so I am Italian, so I waslooking for a fellow Italian,
but South America is perfect.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Does it make you feel better that my favorite food is
chicken parmesan?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Much better, although you want to know, melissa, you
want to know it's interestingthat food.
You probably know this, but youknow a lot of people don't know
this that chicken Parmesan youcannot find in Italy.
It's actually an American food.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I did know that.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, that's funny.
So it's like it's funny.
I go to you.
Try to order those of you whohaven't been to Italy.
You try to order chicken Parmyou're not going to get it.
You might get eggplant Par, butyou're not going to get chicken
farm.
Same with fettuccine Alfredothey don't have that either.
(01:32):
Listen, I feel like people arealready learning a lot.
Yeah, they're already learninga lot.
All right, so here's the thingI wanted to have Melissa on
everyone, because she's beenthrough her own healing journey
and here's the thing that me andher were talking about just
before.
We popped on One of the thingsthat I think is very important
as we all sort of go on ourhealth and healing journeys and,
by the way, this is the firsttime Melissa and I have met in
person, so you're kind ofgetting us, you know, sort of
meeting each other.
(01:52):
We've never had a conversationbefore.
We're just going to dialogueabout this story, but so I'm
educating her a little bit onsort of my philosophy.
She's going to be educating allof us on her philosophy.
But one of the things about me,melissa, that is, I think, core
to the next level humanphilosophy is that one of my pet
peeves in this world offunctional medicine and health
(02:13):
is that we do tend to get inthis sort of protocol, cookbook,
recipe type of medicine.
And what I love is hearingpeople's individual journeys.
Now, obviously, when you gothrough your individual journey,
you find certain tools andcertain things that work for you
, because you went through sometough stuff which we're going to
(02:34):
get into and those toolscertainly can also work for many
other people who are goingthrough similar things.
And so I want to really hearI'm most interested about you
know, sort of Melissa's healer'sjourney or hero's journey.
How did you get to where yougot?
To Tell us about what you wentthrough.
This idea of your pain is yourpath to purpose kind of thing,
(02:58):
and I'm just, you know,interested in your story and
what you're all about.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Damn.
Well, you're interviewing me ata day where I know the most
I've ever known, which I guessmakes sense because today I'm
the oldest I've ever been.
But, um, if you interviewed mea year ago I would have you know
.
I just feel like every year Ijust have so much more to say
because I'm discovering so muchmore, because healing is not
linear and there's discoveriesand we're all forever healing.
(03:25):
So let's take it back to littleMelissa, growing up in Rumson,
new Jersey.
I wouldn't say I had the easiestchildhood, but I was always a
happy kid.
So there you go.
So when I was little I wouldhave these chronic digestive
issues and no one knew what waswrong with me.
(03:46):
And actually chronic digestiveissues as a kid is actually
linked to, you know, a littlebit turbulent childhood, like my
dad wasn't always around andthere was drama with him and my
mom, the whole shebang.
And I, you know I've onlyrecognized this as an adult,
which was probably a hugecomponent to my digestive issues
.
(04:09):
From New Jersey we moved to Lima, peru, from 9 to 11 years old,
moved back to New Jersey.
When I moved back is when myhealth journey really began and
was maximized, because I waschronically ill.
I was in and out of thehospital.
They couldn't figure out whatwas wrong with me.
I had pains in my heart.
I had this awful, awful painsin my stomach.
(04:30):
My mom took me to acardiologist.
She's fine, it's just stress.
My mom was like a little bit indenial like stress.
My daughter's, 11 years old andfinally, after multiple doctors
, multiple days of school miss.
I actually almost got held backfrom school because I missed so
many days.
A doctor took an x-ray of mystomach and found good
(04:52):
old-fashioned stool backed uplike the 405.
405 is a freeway in LA.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I lived in Santa Monica for six years, so I'm
very familiar with the 405.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So you know just how much trouble my stomach was in,
and so that's kind of where myhealth journey began.
And then I remember that I wasso young, right, and I was
always a happy kid.
I got crow's feet quite earlyfrom being very smiley.
You know, at the end of the daythat's all you got in life.
You just got to smile and laugh.
(05:25):
So I remember the doctor put meon medication I was just a kid,
I just did it as I was told andI just remember.
And he put me also on naturallaxatives.
I just remember losing so muchweight Like I was like real thin
.
And then I remember one daylike I found out what medicine I
was on and it was like somesort of antidepressant and at
(05:47):
the time I was quite pissed offbecause I'm like I'm not a
depressed kid, what the hell.
I feel like hoodwinked.
But I didn't know until Ibecame adult, an adult, that
there's a reason why thesedoctors will prescribe that for
this and you know it's somethingwith it, you know de-stressing
your gut and yada, yada, yada.
(06:08):
But nonetheless I was pissed.
Cut it out, cold turkey I.
It's funny that I did that,because it's really become who I
am today, um, cut to, moved onwith my life, realized I had
digestive issues, realized I wasa constipated kid, all that
stuff.
Then, through trials andtribulations, I went to school
in New York, internationalmarketing business.
(06:29):
While I was in school I said Iwant to be an actress and just
thought it was a pipe dream.
Studied abroad, in Paris.
When I was there, a lot of mypeers were taking a year or two
off to travel because it wasjust very European way, and I
was like, huh, I should take ayear or two off but go to LA and
try to act, why not?
(06:49):
So that's exactly what I didand I said you know, if it
doesn't work out, I'll use myinternational marketing and
business degree, not realizingthat I actually was using my
degree in that industry.
I was just the product.
And so while I was acting, youknow you would work these crazy
hours, you would go to work at6pm and you would wrap at 6am,
(07:10):
like it would throw off yourbody's clock completely and I
just, you know, became I wasalways, quote, unquote thin.
So at that time, early 20s, I'mlike, oh great, I'm thin, so
that means I'm healthy.
I didn't have a profoundunderstanding of what true
health was.
And then, you know, as I becamein my mid 20s, I just started
(07:33):
to feel like this massive brainfog and bloated and just didn't
understand what was wrong withme.
And my sister, who I talked toyou about offline, is always
ahead of the curve, that girl tothis day.
And she was like you got to trybone broth, you've got to try
bone.
Offline, it's always ahead ofthe curve, that girl to this day
.
And she was like you got to trybone broth, you've got to try
bone broth.
And I'm like no, that's weirdand disgusting.
It sounds like witchcraft.
(07:53):
I will not be trying bone broth.
So then I just like was reallydesperate.
She hit me again with it.
I was like, fine, give me thisbone broth.
So I was in New York City withher at the time.
We did a workout.
I was kind of like even likenew, to like working out.
Then like I once again justthought, great, I'm skinny, I'm
healthy, um.
So we did this workout and wewent there was about 17 pop-up
(08:15):
shops at the time of bone broth.
We went and got bone broth.
I tried it and I was like, wow,this stuff's actually pretty
good and I liked it.
It didn't taste how I thought Iwould, how I thought it did,
(08:36):
wow.
So then you know, from then itbecame habitual.
I was in New York for a fewweeks and I could not believe
the results I was getting fromit.
It was what my sister said,plus, like those lines I talked
about from being a smiley kidwere disappearing.
I had a damaged knee fromsports that was all of a sudden
much better.
It was making my hair thick andI quite literally didn't
understand.
I'm like maybe I was right,this is witchcraft, because I
(08:58):
had no understanding what it wasabout bone growth.
I had no understanding aboutthe gut microbiome and what it
means to have a healed gut, socut to, I just became this
passionate bone broth gal and Iwent back to LA and I'm like,
okay, I'm going to continue thisroutine here, I'm going to work
out, I'm going to go get bonebroth.
And then I went to go get bonebroth and I was like, huh, what
(09:18):
the hell?
There's no place to go grabbone broth.
This is crazy.
How does New York have 17places and Los Angeles, the city
of health and wellness, hasnone?
So that's what I'm like, that'swhat I was thinking.
Oh, I should have a bone brothshop in LA.
And then my entrepreneurjourney.
(09:38):
I probably, once or twice ayear, wake up in a cold sweat
with some, in my opinion,brilliant idea, and I don't.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
The life of an entrepreneur.
That's how it works.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, and most of the time I don't execute on it
because I just know it's not mywheelhouse.
It's a great idea for someoneand I share my ideas and hope
someone does it.
And it's funny because a lot ofthose ideas came to fruition in
life.
Six, seven, eight years laterSomeone else has done it, not
because they heard me say it,but because they came up with
the idea later on.
Anyways, this idea I felt likeI could wrangle and I was like
(10:16):
so then my entrepreneur journeystarted and during the
entrepreneur journey it's justbeen so interesting.
So my health journey has reallylike weaved in with it.
So what started off asdigestive issues, then building
a company, was extremelyinteresting.
I learned so much about thefood systems.
I become beyond passionateabout the food systems Through
my health journey.
(10:37):
I become very passionate aboutbig pharma Not I wouldn't say
about big pharma, but whateverthat con about disagreeing not
about big pharma, the anti bigpharma.
And you know, I started to see ahuge correlation between the
two from starting this company,from my own health journey.
(10:57):
So, while I was starting andlaunching beauty in the broth,
about I don't know, a year intoit, I started gaining weight and
I'm like, okay, time to dietand work out a bunch, like my
body's always really receptiveat losing weight quickly.
But no matter what I did, itwasn't coming off.
(11:19):
And I just remember being likeso much shame.
I'm like, oh my gosh, like Irun this bone broth company.
I'm a frog.
People are gonna think likethis is the person.
So the bone broth company,she's gaining weight, like, like
.
And I just felt so much shameand imposter syndrome.
And my good girlfriend, um,she's like I'm also.
I'm telling you, you have whatI have, which is, um,
(11:40):
hypothyroidism, which is anautoimmunity, so, so I was
desperate.
I went to her endocrinologist soyou'll like this part was not a
functional endocrinologist.
He took a bunch of tests.
He saw that I indeed hadhypothyroidism.
He told me I was pre-diabetic.
So what did this man do?
(12:01):
He put me on Synthroid, he putme on Metformin, he put me on
Dexamethalazone which people usefor chemo, by the way and he
put me on Ozempic and, by theway, this is before Ozempic was
Ozempic this time.
I'm 34 now, so I was on fourmeds and the doctor, who should
(12:27):
respectfully probably not have alicense, would scare the crap
out of me.
He'd be like Melissa, if youdon't, because I got all these
symptoms from the medicine.
Speaking of constipation, themetformin beyond constipated me.
It was very painful gettingadjusted to it.
The Ozempic made me sick ashell.
And then it was really scarythe thought of being on a
(12:48):
steroid dexamethasone becauseI'm just, wow, 30 years old.
So you know I would just keepkind of like push-pull with him,
like what if I get off thedexamethasone?
No, melissa, you can't yourlevels of testosterone and
you'll get cancer if you go offthem.
Melissa.
No, no, you're pre-diabetic.
(13:11):
You have to stay on this.
You inherited this from yourparents.
There's nothing you could doBlaming my parents.
So I just drank the Kool-Aidbecause at that time my sole
focus was getting what I thoughtlooked good back, which was
being trim and not having theseissues, and I just wanted to
solve it and put these band-aidson it, cause I had a lot of
(13:31):
shame with having this healthand wellness company Cut to.
I'm big New Year's resolutiongirl the next year.
I'm like this is crazy.
I'm on these four heavy meds.
I look way too skinny againfrom the Ozempic and it's just
like my friends would be at,like a party.
I would just have to go outsideand throw up from the ozempic.
It was violently ill.
(13:51):
I don't know why anyone does it.
Just look into health andnutrition that look, I
understand if you're 300 poundstoo or very overweight.
I understand there's a purpose,but let's keep it for the
purpose of that, not people whoare not, who are hardly
overweight.
That's very manageable, butthat's another stick to the
(14:12):
topic.
So then my new year's resolutionwas to get off all the meds,
and I'm a pretty intenseindividual.
I go from zero to 100 on thesethings.
So I started to go, for thefirst time in my life, the
functional medicine route, andthat too was an interesting
journey.
So it was a little bit likelike the, you know, you had to
kiss a few frogs, see whatworked for you, and on my third
(14:35):
frog that turned into a prince.
I worked with a functionalmedicine doctor.
That it was kind of funny.
I don't even know why I wasfilling this out with pen and
paper, pencil and paper.
By sheer irony.
Normally I just fill stuff outonline, but he asked me if I had
any exposure to mold and Iquite literally put yes and then
(14:57):
I erased it and put no.
So then I submit.
The forms are like why did youdo that?
And I was like well, like youknow, last year I had an
apartment in New York city.
I was living by coastal Uh, itwas a duplex.
Emergency leak in the basementGot the email, um, I sent.
I didn't go there for a fewmonths and my maid had me to
(15:18):
clean.
She's like Melissa, I don'tknow what you want me to do.
The place is completely coveredin mold.
I never even stayed a nightthere.
I was advised not to.
My boyfriend at the time toldme you know, the place is going
to be overrun with mold, it'sgoing to be in the walls
everywhere and they let me breakthe lease.
It was a six month remediation.
It was so bad that the woman,the property manager, couldn't
(15:39):
even be in there.
Her throat was closing up and Ihad to get all my clothing and
everything dry clean.
I had furniture, I had shoes.
I did what I could.
I shipped some furniture withme to LA.
I shipped all my clothes andshoes to LA.
Nine months later, likeclockwork, is when these
symptoms of gaining weight andeverything started happening.
(16:00):
Like freaking clockwork.
So when he tested me for moldmold, not only were my levels
off the charts with threedifferent strains of mold,
including citrinin, which islinked to cancer and wrath,
which actually scared mestraight and and it also came up
in my blood tests and it showedup on another test um, I
(16:23):
believe I forget if the testyou'd probably know better than
I saliva or stool.
I should probably know becauseI test once a year now but
anyways, it showed up on threedifferent tests.
Overwhelming levels,overwhelming.
I went on a protocol which wasgluten-free, dairy-free,
nightshade-free, sugar-free,alcohol-free for four months.
(16:45):
Probably should have done six,but within four or this was also
crazy because I tell you itweaves into my entrepreneur
journey.
The largest part of mythird-party protocol was bone
broth.
I had to start with a two tofive-day bone broth fast and
then move to bone broth-basedsoups and then incorporate
protein in the soups and regulareating of you know that diet I
(17:08):
mentioned so this is interesting.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
So your doctor, who didn't know that you were into
bone broth and running anentrepreneur yeah, entrepreneur,
who started a bone brothcompany actually prescribed you
bone broth yeah, and I happen toknow a girl where I had free
access yeah, you happen to knowsomeone who knew a lot about
bone broth.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah.
So I couldn't believe it andyou know, you can imagine,
during this time I was sick andthrough the entrepreneurial
journey, it's like this whereI'm like extremely gassed and
motivated to burnout, motivatedburnout.
So this was.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
I know the feeling.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah.
So this was incrediblyinspiring inspiring it was kind
of like an aha moment that mademe laugh a little bit where it's
like bone broth came the firstpart of my health journey.
Here it is again, and it wasdefinitely an aha moment where I
couldn't believe that this isthe largest part of my protocol
within four months.
Within four months, of thisdiet and I obviously wasn't just
(18:03):
bone broth, it was all thosethings I named basically a clean
, holistic diet that alsoinvolved a bunch of supplements
and sweating in a sauna andbinders.
I put my autoimmunity intocomplete remission.
Complete remission and and, bythe way, once I started the
protocol, I just dropped all mymeds except Synthroid, cold
(18:25):
turkey.
So I was just all in and I justhad this inner knowing that it
would work out.
I had this inner knowing that Iwas on the right path and that
something, everything in my gut,told me this does not make
sense.
A 30-year-old to be on allthese four heavy meds told I'd
be on it the rest of my life.
So that's where my healthjourney led.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
And actually, melissa , let me stop you there and, if
I can, like sort of fill in somegaps and I want to just give
the listener sort of some of mytake on this and you jump in and
correct me wherever you thinkI'm wrong or jump in and, you
know, ask me some questions.
I got my clinical hat on nowand I want to go back to yeah, I
(19:07):
want to go back to you as achild, right?
So this child who's chronicallyconstipated and in pain as a
result of that One of the thingsjust for you listeners here and
Melissa may have you know addto this as well One of the
things that we talk about a lot,especially in the work that I'm
doing now.
You know, obviously my, mybackground is in mainly female
(19:27):
endocrinology, as most of youlisteners know, but also I'm
working on my PhD intranspersonal psychology.
So I do a lot in the realm ofadverse childhood events, ptsd,
misguided, unconscious decisions, and so when I hear this right,
so when I hear for youdecisions.
And so when I hear this, rightso, when I hear Melissa's sort
of story, what I go is I go okay.
(19:55):
So I hear, when I hearconstipation or any gut related
things, I first go dysregulatednervous system.
And then I go in my head I gookay, and eventually, if this
isn't addressed, immune issues.
Right, because nervous system,gut, immune function.
And then one of the things thatI ask about in this regard,
just for the listener to sort ofunderstand, is I want to
understand what are what I wouldcall the misguided unconscious
(20:15):
decisions or psychological mudis the acronym misguided
unconscious decisions that livein the unconscious, that drive
some of the biological processes, right, so what was going on
stress-wise in little Melissa,right?
So that's part of the story,right?
And then I hear, okay, melissasort of gets into this thing
(20:36):
where she goes out to LosAngeles chasing her dreams, runs
in with her sister, getsintroduced to this.
Really potent for you, right?
For your system, this bone brothsituation that starts making
you feel really good For thelistener.
I want them to understand.
So, all of a sudden, if we werelistening to Melissa's story,
(20:59):
did you hear the part aboutwhere, all of a sudden, her skin
started looking better, herhair started looking better,
obviously, her energy.
She is sort of stumbling acrossthis thing of like oh my God,
what's this doing now?
So here's the thing thatMelissa may like or not like
about me, but I want to justbasically yeah, so I'll hit you
with this.
So the bone broth is amazing.
(21:19):
One of the things that I thinkabout, though, is that when we
start to do something, whenwe're eating regular foods right
.
One of my most memorable caseswas a woman with Crohn's disease
that we had to basically put onan all liquid diet, and that
was the thing that, out of allthe things she tried, that was
the thing that helped her, andbone broth was a big piece of
(21:40):
that.
But what happens when you arein a chronic stress?
Physiology is your gut is notable to process a lot of these
foods.
So two things.
One, bone broth is amazing inits nutrient profile.
Two, it is incredibly easy todigest for someone who's got a
nervous system, who is gut,who's caused the gut not to
(22:01):
function?
Speaker 2 (22:02):
well.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
And all of a sudden I start hearing oh so she starts
to assimilate and digest andabsorb nutrition perhaps better
than ever before in a very longtime, and starts to see very
real world effects in some ofthe organ systems that turn over
very fast.
This would be skin, hair nailsand this would be gut, gut stuff
(22:26):
, right, me and Melissa alreadytalked about the fact that her
dogs were going to get crazy atsome point, but you know.
so now I'm hearing this wholeidea of stress mitigation, right
, and then digestive functionmitigation with this tool.
But then I want to talk to youabout this idea of the
entrepreneurship, which isincredibly stressful.
(22:47):
So now, all of a sudden, youstart this company.
Plus you have this mold issueand to me I go, the old problem
is going to perhaps be comingback.
Plus, you've got this newproblem on top of it that is
compromising the immune system,yeah, and then all of a sudden
you start seeing.
By the way, I have my listenersknow as well, but I suffer from
Hashimoto's, thyroiditis as wellautoimmune condition of the
(23:11):
thyroid gland, hypothyroid whichI can manage largely without
medications, Although nowadays Ipretty much stay on the
medications because, given thestress of my entrepreneur
journey, I just know I do betterwith it.
But what's really interestingis this idea of going through
these three major parts hereEarly life perhaps we all have
(23:34):
it this misguided, unconsciousmud that drives us, strives us.
And little Melissa pushing andpushing and pushing
Entrepreneurship journey,Finding this, this primary tool
that helps her get better, whichthen she makes part of her
purpose Pain is a path topurpose.
And then this idea of repairingyourself through this stressful
entrepreneur journey and thissort of mold journey.
(23:57):
So I just wanted to point outto the listener that there's a
whole lot of other things inhere too.
By the way, One other thing I'llsay before I want you to jump
back in, Melissa is that if youlisten to Melissa, she was doing
a couple other things that Ithink are key for most people.
Now we're all different.
Everyone's healing journey isgoing to be different.
But also this idea of saunatherapies and sweat-based
(24:19):
therapies are absolutely huge inautoimmune conditions,
especially when you're dealingwith mold issues and heavy metal
toxicities and other thingslike that to get this stuff out
of the system.
And now you know you're back toa place.
So I mean, who knows how fullcircle this has been.
But now I want you to get us andhelp us understand what now are
(24:42):
you doing?
Where are you?
Are you still dealing with someof these things?
Are you completely healed?
Where are you on this journey?
And, of course, we know thatthere's always the next thing
that you deal with.
It's always sort of a journeyin process.
But your story is reallyillustrative for a lot of us in
terms of many different factorsthat set us up for autoimmune
(25:07):
and immune dysfunction, and youfound some of the primary tools
that any good functionalmedicine practitioner would use
in a liquid-based diet, a veryhigh nutrient diet, the bone
broth does that stressmanagement and some of these
protocols.
So get us caught up now.
Based on just hearing my takeon the story, what are your
(25:28):
thoughts on that and what elsedo you want to add?
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, you're a hundred percent right.
What I've learned about bonebroth.
When people are like what arethe benefits, I love to say that
it's two things.
One, it's a bone broth itselffilled with natural current
collagen, amino acids, like yousaid, gives your gut a break.
But then it's also what occurswhen you physically have a
healed gut microbiome, andthat's where the real magic
(25:53):
happens, because your gut is soresponsible for crazy things
like your personality, anxiety,depression.
They call it your second brainand that's for a reason.
Sometimes I go back and forthand wonder what's more important
, because your brain is actuallyreceiving all the messages from
your gut.
So I just wanted to chime in onthat because it's very true.
(26:15):
It's what I like to call agateway drug, because it's what
got me into health and wellnessand to me it creates a state of
mind, it curbs cravings, allthose things.
And where I'm currently at, likeI said, health is a journey.
So when I went on that protocol, I was able to get rid of 70%
(26:36):
of the mold.
I'm very happy to report two ofthe strains, including the
citrine and strain, arecompletely gone.
I now still have theaspergillus strain.
And to touch upon what you saidabout the saunas.
Yes, saunas.
Whether you have mycotoxins ornot, it just creates extreme
longevity for your life.
(26:56):
And something that reallyworked for me, especially with
mold, was binders that attach onto the mold and rip it out of
you when you sweat in the sauna,so just wanted to touch upon
that.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
And what binders were you using, like what were the
ones you were mostly using?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I was mostly using a charcoal one, but it depends on
the strains of mold which onesyou should use.
But for what I was doing?
Three different strains.
I think it was like QuicksilverScientifics, which I like them.
They're not paying me, I justlike them.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah, fantastic company, by the way.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Yeah, yeah, nod to them.
And then, as far as my currenthealth journey, it's so funny I
talk about this with people.
I still do not have perfect guthealth and in a way I sickly
love it because I know that'spart of the reason why I was put
here.
I know it's part of my journey,I know it's part of my pain, I
know it's part of my purpose.
And it's funny how you bring upthe nervous system, because I
(27:56):
for a long time didn'tunderstand that my childhood
would have an effect on my gutmicrobiome.
So it's funny because I toldyou I'm big on these New Year's
resolutions.
So my resolution this year wasto really wrangle in and get a
full hold on my gut health.
(28:17):
So how do I do that?
I started to explore parts ofmyself that I did not realize.
I started to realize about ayear and a half ago, two years
ago, that part of my healthjourney is somatic practices,
that it is these traumas storedin your body, my body, anyone's
(28:38):
body, we all have it.
So where I'm at latest andgreatest five Melissa, 5.0, I
realized that you could have thebest diet in the world, you
could drink all the bone brothmoney could buy, but if you're
not releasing these traumas andsorting through who you are as a
person and where these thingscome up from, and getting rid of
(29:01):
those stressors, you're notgoing to heal.
And it was interesting becausewhen I was on this protocol, I
just remember, you know, wewould have like a weekly support
group, like the mold people onwith the naturopathic doctor and
he would put some people onthis primal trust organization
and what did they do Withsomatic practices that healed
(29:22):
the nervous system?
And I remember asking him and Iwas like you know, I'm just
curious, like why do they dowith somatic practices that heal
the nervous system?
And I remember asking him and Iwas like you know, I'm just
curious, like why do you do that?
And he's like well, melissa,like people can't kick mold if
their nervous system isn'thealed and calm.
Like your body's in fight orflight, it's just trying to keep
you safe and alive.
It's not trying to help youdetox these foreign invaders in
your body.
So this year, year I you know,and once again, partial help
(29:47):
thanks to my sister, becauseshe's just always 12 steps ahead
in these practices.
So I told you she's been doinga lot of, you know, helping
people release traumas and stuckemotion in their body.
So, you know, I look at whatshe does and I'm and I listened
to a lot of podcasts and I reada lot of studies and I say, okay
, that's the next step, that'swhat I have to do.
(30:09):
So this year I did my first andsecond psilocybin journey.
So it was very interesting andmaybe you could speak more to
this.
This because the first time Idid it, you know, you create an
intention.
My intention was to help clearanything that was blocking me
physically, emotionally,mentally, yada, yada, yada.
(30:32):
Hence the resolution.
So I did it and I quiteliterally felt nothing Like.
I felt like I was in a waitingroom and I was so freaking
disappointed that after, duringthe integration session, the guy
I did it with was like, okay,melissa, like what'd you see?
And I was just like trying tohold it together and I was like
I didn't see anything Like.
(30:53):
I just felt like I was in awaiting room.
And then I just burst outcrying and I was like I'm so
disappointed.
And then he hits me with I'mgoing to laugh.
He hits me with.
What else in your life hasdisappointed you, melissa?
Bam, bam.
You've never.
This was crazy.
I felt my gut, quite literallywhat I asked for.
(31:15):
It gave me untangling like agarden hose, and all these
emotions without faces justspewing out of my body, and I
felt anger, I felt despair, Ifelt happiness, like all these
crazy big emotions, like I feltlike a cuckoo person.
And after that, for like amonth or two, after people kept
(31:40):
telling me Melissa, you looktaller, melissa, your eyes look
whiter like, and I I have, likethis body worker that does lymph
massage it's also great formolds, by the way, um, because,
just to touch back on that, I'msomeone who doesn't really
methylate well, if at all.
So my body needs extra supportwith the lymphs to, you know,
process toxins in my body.
Um, but we, we could come backto that, uh.
(32:04):
So so this body worker I'vebeen working with, he's like
Melissa, I feel like like I'mtouching a different person,
like you physically feel like 10years younger.
So, that was crazy.
And then the second time I didit, I, I did it, I think, about
a month ago, a month and a halfago.
At this point it was reallycrazy.
My body was just releasingthese sounds and these noises
(32:27):
and really grieving.
So I just think that this isthe phase where I'm taking into
consideration the effects ofchildhood and not getting out
Emotions and all these thingsthat keep us stuck and stagnant
in the healing process and fromhaving the most optimal health
(32:47):
that we want.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah, and those of you who follow Next Level Human,
you know that this is the workthat I primarily am doing now
and primarily not even.
Obviously, I've had all myjourneys.
These things can be incrediblypowerful, but some of the work
that Next Level Human is doingnow is right in this.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
I mean, this podcast is destiny.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Yeah, so this stuff to me also.
After doing this work, Ibasically started in this
industry, now what I graduatedfrom medical school back in 2004
.
So I've been doing this a longtime and from my perspective,
it's not to say the other stuffdoesn't work.
It's necessary.
So, as you all hear Melissa'ssort of story.
It's not.
It's not to say that you knowyou don't need to worry about
(33:31):
diet.
It is important.
The idea, though, is we're nowstarting to understand that the
biofield is really the energeticscaffolding by which the
biochemistry lives, on top ofwhich, you know, sort of, is a
scaffolding for the physiologyand anatomy and everything else,
and that we are not aware, andhave not been fully aware, of
(33:52):
how these energetic, misguided,unconscious decisions, these
stories, get stored in ourunconscious and essentially
drive us.
Carl Jung has a quote that saysyou cannot make the unconscious
conscious.
It will follow you around andyou will call it faith.
And this is what a lot of usare dealing with.
(34:12):
And, of course, if you wantoptimal health, this is another
piece.
So your journey, melissa, isreally interesting, how you
stumbled across all these piecesand you will see, there is a
group of people you and I bothknow them because we're kind of
in this world where, you know,call them biohackers or whatever
.
But there's this, there's thisidea of you know people are at
least starting to move forwardinto, which is one of the
(34:33):
reasons that I'm, you know,doing the transpersonal
psychology work, because theidea is that full healing is not
just at the physiological level.
It really comes down to thismental, emotional body that we
are dealing with.
That is largely unconscious andtherefore you have to deal with
the unconscious.
For example, just briefly andthen I'll get off this topic,
(34:55):
but just briefly for thelistener to understand, and,
melissa, you probably know this,but when we are children,
primarily in adolescence, we'renot operating in beta brainwave
states, our current folks, we'remore in theta and alpha states.
This is where a lot of ourinitial ideas.
Traumas and dramas, trials,tribulations sort of come in.
They're misguided, unconsciousdecisions because we didn't have
(35:16):
the knowledge, the know-how,the wisdom, the experience, the
skills to deal with these things, and so they essentially get
stored in our body.
Now, to address them in thenervous system, you can't
approach them through simpletalk therapy.
You need to get the body intothese more unconscious states.
Now there's several differentways to do this.
You can do this withoutpsychedelics.
(35:37):
Breath work will do it, certainforms of journaling can do it,
certain forms of hypnosis can doit.
But the idea is, this isanother angle for those of you
who are dealing with and there'smany of you I know, who are
dealing with unremitting signsand symptoms and conditions that
, no matter what you have donesupplement-wise, drug-wise, diet
(35:58):
, exercise-wise, lifestyle-wiseyou're not able to touch it.
This is where this work becomesan add-on.
And again, I'm not saying it'sthe end all be all because we
don't know enough.
The fact of the matter is wedon't know nearly enough.
We know this much tiny fractionof what we need to know about
metabolism and all the otherstuff, but this is an area that
(36:20):
I'm really glad you brought up,melissa.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yes, and you said that so beautifully and I swear
I'm going to save that snippetand keep replaying it, because
that was really so spot on.
And to your point, yes, beforeI did all this somatic work,
think about it I put inautoimmunity into remission.
So, yes, diet is a massive partof it, but I just think, like
you said, if there's people thatare being blocked from their
(36:45):
optimal goals, they do all thethings.
And, yes, there's ways to do itwithout psilocybin.
And, to your point, breathwork.
I did a couple of breathworkclasses this year and last year
and I'll tell you what.
What I, like the instructorsays it's like it shakes out
cobwebs in you, and it's true.
During those breathwork classesI've had huge emotional
(37:06):
releases and I have friends thatjust swear by journaling and
I'm just like, how does onejournal?
And you know, just pen to paper, pen to paper and you just see
what comes out.
So I think those practices arereally powerful.
I don't think there's a cheatcode in life to anything.
However, I will say that I feltlike psilocybin was a little
(37:28):
bit of a cheat code it getspretty close.
It gets pretty close yeah it's alittle bit of it saves you a
lot of time.
You know, I'm someone who youknow I did therapy at 16.
I did in my early 20s and I'mjust like holy crap, if I just
did this twice a year, I'm good.
It's a little bit of a cheatcode, but everyone's unique and
(37:49):
different and everyone hasthings that work for them, and
that just happens to besomething that really worked for
me.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah, and let me just give the listeners just briefly
so you can understand wherethese things fall in.
From my perspective, whenyou're dealing with some of the
mental, emotional stuck stories,there's really three phases
that you need to work.
One is rewriting those stories,the other one is rewiring the
emotional sort of highways inthe body and the next one is
retraining the nervous system,slash brain and so one of the
things that, like you know, someof these I think there's pieces
(38:23):
of it in many different places,but very few places have tied
all three together If a goodtherapy is going to be the
rewrite, rewire and retrain.
Now what things like psilocybin, ayahuasca, psychedelics do is
they're really good at touchinga little bit of the rewire and
some of the rewrite.
(38:43):
When you add in some of thejournaling techniques, the
rewriting is much more.
And then of course, you need theintegration phase, which I
would argue most people doingthis work are inadequate just
because they're not well-trained.
If you could take a reallywell-trained therapist who's
also really well-trained in someof these psychedelics works,
(39:04):
who's also really well trainedin some of the breath work, some
of the ACE, ptsd type work, youkind of are getting close.
But that's what Next LevelHuman, by the way, is really
trying to do is trying to putthese things together along with
the advanced understanding ofmetabolism, mainly because I
(39:24):
have seen that metabolism workonly gets you so far.
So I'm really, really, uh, itwasn't expecting, uh, you to
touch on these aspects, but it'sgood.
Yeah, and it's.
It's just good that we, that weuh were able to touch on that a
little bit.
So why don't you wrap us upwith any any other things that
you want to tell us before we goand also tell us a little bit
(39:48):
about your company, for thosewho do want to use some of the
tools that you've used?
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah.
So just to touch upon what youjust said, I am someone who, if
you told me some of these thingsfive years ago, I'd look at you
and be like you're a cuckoocrazy, me some of these things
five years ago.
I'd look at you and be likeyou're a cuckoo crazy.
And I'm someone who only willreceive data if I feel it's
scientifically proven.
So this concept of psilocybinand mindset work it all, like
(40:19):
what you said, it comes down tothe brain.
You will have the ability tobreak old neural pathways and
create new ones.
And then that's wheremeditation, that's where mindset
, that's where quote unquotemanifestation, manifestation
sounds like a fluffy word.
It's not.
It's quite literally science.
So I'm glad you touched uponthat.
And you know I really do creditbone broth for my gateway into
(40:40):
health and wellness, because itwas the first thing that, and
wellness because it was thefirst thing that healed me.
It was the first thing thathelped my mind, like curb
cravings, just want to makebetter decisions for myself.
So when I switched careers Isaid, okay, if I'm going to do
this, I'm going to make the bestbone broth money could buy.
(41:00):
So what does that constitute of?
It constitutes of the bestsourcing possible because
speaking of woo-woo this, thatthe other you are what you eat.
There is no way around it.
So if you are getting, youshould only get benefit from the
best animals, because if youget benefit from a sickly animal
you're going to get sicklybenefit.
(41:21):
So we are grass-fed, finishedantibiotic, hormone free.
We source our chicken fromMary's Organic Chicken, which is
actually restaurant grade andanimal GAP welfare rated three,
which is a very high standard.
It means they're completelyfree range till the day they die
.
They just eat off the land, allthe things On top of it.
(41:42):
We're shelf stable, with nopreservatives, and we are
concentrated format.
So when someone's cooking asoup on the stove and they keep
reducing it down for it to bestronger, more potent, that's
exactly what we are.
So bone broth is measured inbricks B-R-I-X, which is the
measure of solid components andnutrients.
A regular bone broth that yougo buy at a store in a jar is
(42:05):
three to five bricks.
In my little cute adorablepouches it's 25 bricks.
So the customer adds hot water.
So even after they add hotwater it's still five times
stronger than a regular broth.
And if you read all theingredients on the packaging you
recognize every single one ofthem.
There's not a single ingredientthat you don't recognize, which
I think is so.
(42:26):
Especially if you go into thesupermarket today, you just it
blows my mind You'll see sugaras an ingredient in bone broth.
So we have very cleaningredients, very clean sourcing
, very potent product.
That I think the key word withbone broth is routine and the
fact that we're three ouncesshelf stable.
You could quite literally bringit anywhere in your routine,
(42:48):
including plane, trains,automobiles.
So it's something that I wasreally glad I was able to make
convenient for people,customizable and really easy to
integrate in their routine.
Because I know when I was on,my dog found a toy so cute.
I know that when I was on myprotocol, like I had enough to
worry about, I had a wholesupplement schedule.
(43:10):
My cooking was like I had todouble check the ingredients.
That it was actually reallynice having a brand I could
trust was my brand, and if Ican't trust it, we've got some
issues.
So yeah, I am very proud of theproduct I have made.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Yeah, and let me tell you something.
Let me tell you and tell thelisteners, a reason why I think
this conversation is mostimportant From my perspective.
We are here and the listenerknows this because they hear me
say this every time they listento the intro to this podcast.
They hear this, but to me,we're here on this planet to
learn, to teach and to love, andthat last part, that love part
(43:47):
is really people think that'sabout romance or parental stuff.
It's really about creation.
It's about the idea that I gothrough some hard stuff, I learn
some lessons.
I then want to give back, Iwant to teach and then create,
and so what you have done to me,this is a next level human
company, because through yoursuffering, through your pain,
you have actually foundsomething to help people who are
(44:07):
going through similar issues,and so, from my perspective,
that's why this is so powerful.
So thank you so much, melissa,for your work, thank you for it,
thank you for your time.
Tell everyone so this is, tellthem where they can find your
company, your website, and wherethey can find you online.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Okay.
So at Melissa Bologna, Bologna,no G, it's come full circle.
At the beauty and the broth,and the beauty and the broth,
Okay perfect, melissa.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Thank you so much.
Do me a favor, hang on the line.
I just want to make sure allthis uploads.
But for all of you, I hope youenjoyed this conversation with
Melissa.
I certainly did, and we willsee you at the next podcast.
Thank you so much.
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