November 20, 2025 • 56 mins
This week we sit down with Christine Ruch, a holistic transformation guide who’s navigated two decades of MS without pharmaceutical intervention, to explore how inner safety, emotional capacity, and co-regulation can reshape the body’s story. She pivoted from celebrated chef and restaurateur to transformation guide after a series of life changing pivots - intentional business closures, a divorce, and a year and a half in Costa Rica working closely with healers. That journey revealed that external protocols matter, but real change roots in the nervous system.
We break down MS in plain language and examine why inflammation is only part of the picture. Christine explains the nervous system as a full‑body interface—felt through fascia, sensation, and energy—rather than a thought in the head. She shares how to build safety from within, stop turning emotions into identity, and use co-regulation and limbic resonance to return to your natural baseline. The difference between change and transformation becomes clear: change is linear and reversible; transformation follows the pace of nature. Her nine-month process mirrors gestation, allowing the body to lead while the mind learns to trust.
You’ll get simple, field-tested practices: a quiet morning ritual that precedes screens, an evening pause to release the day, and five-minute micro resets for busy lives. We also talk seasons of life—why freedom and rootedness can both be true, and how to recognize when it’s time to pivot. If you’re navigating MS, chronic stress, or just the weight of modern life, this conversation offers grounded hope and practical steps to reclaim calm without perfectionism.
Christine's Book recommendation:
The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope
More about Christine:
Christine Ruch holds the space for you to walk your path to more authentic health. After spending 20 years healing her own MS naturally through whole food nutrition, nervous system restoration, spiritual practice, plant medicine, deep self-inquiry and many other Eastern and Western modalities, Christine now guides others on their own transformative healing path. Her work bridges science and soul—offering tools to move beyond symptom management and into lasting inner healing. She’s here to share insight, hope, and grounded practices for listeners ready to reclaim their health from the inside out.
https://www.christineruch.com/
https://www.instagram.com/christineruch.ms?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
🎓 Empowerment Fundamentals Course: Use Code PODCAST15 for a 15% discount
https://members.houseofjermar.com/empowerment-course
📖 Read Jeanne's Book: Two Feet In: Lessons From an All-In Life
https://a.co/d/7Hyrc8m
🔗 Follow Jeanne!
https://houseofjermar.com
https://instagram.com/houseofjermar/
https://youtube.com/@Houseofjermar
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
I'd always known I wanted to help other people heal
because a lot of people wouldsay, like, think that I had like
some special sauce, like how Icould treat this naturally for
so many years successfully.
And I think I just always hadthis truth that it was
absolutely infinitely possible.
Like our bodies are incredibleand incredibly intelligent.
(00:21):
And everything that we need toheal is within us.
And I just believed that so, sodeeply.
And I just now I'm just superpassionate about helping other
people like reclaim theirsovereignty and reclaim their
truth and take back their ownpower and connect with like how
(00:41):
truly divine the healing processis, and that it is all within
them and within their power totake control of their lives and
affect change in all sorts ofamazing ways that lead to better
health.
SPEAKER_01 (00:54):
Welcome to the House of Germar podcast, where
wellness starts within.
The House of Germar is alifestyle brand empowering women
to live all in through interiordesign and personal wellness.
We are a destination for womenready to reimagine what is
possible in their homes andlives and then create it.
(01:15):
We are honored to have you joinus on our mission to empower one
million women to live all in.
I am your host, Gene Collins,and I invite you to become
inspired by this week's guest.
Welcome everybody.
I'm your host, Gene Collins, andtoday's guest is Christine Rook.
I am really excited to talk toher.
And I know I say that all thetime for all my guests because
(01:37):
you know what?
I only bring you guys peoplethat I'm excited to talk to.
But Christine is she's aholistic transformation guide.
Whoa.
We're gonna talk a lot about thenervous system.
We're gonna talk about herbackground, how she got to do
what she does.
She specializes right now inclients with MS, but don't stop
listening because a lot of whatwe're going to talk about about
(01:57):
your nervous system can apply toanyone and everyone.
So I am so excited to dig into asubject that I think is really,
really cool, which is nervoussystem.
So, Christine, welcome.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Thank you for inviting me onyour show.
So, first of all, you are inBoulder, Colorado.
It's pretty early on a Mondaymorning in Connecticut.
So thank you for getting up.
(02:18):
But you also live in Costa Rica.
I do, yeah.
Okay.
As we start to uncover who youare, what you do, how you got to
this journey, I really want toknow how you are living in
multiple places because I thinkyou do actually spend time in
multiple places.
And that for many of us who areeither empty nesters or have
never had children, kind ofthink that's like the dream life
(02:39):
to be able to build a businesswhere you can live in multiple
places.
So let's make sure we cover offon that one too.
Yeah, for sure.
Okay, so to get started, givethe listeners a little bit of
background about yourself.
SPEAKER_00 (02:52):
Okay.
So yeah, where do I even begin?
I'm a holistic transformationguide, and I specialize in
helping women with multiplesclerosis because I've had
multiple sclerosis for 20 years.
And it started as um, you know,my own healing journey and this
deep belief from the verybeginning that I could solve my
(03:16):
health issues naturally.
And I did it, I mean, 20 yearsago, there's been a lot that's
changed and it's been quite ajourney, you know, and and
health is a journey.
And then especially when you arehave a diagnosis, then if you
view that as well as a journeyunto itself, then that becomes a
powerful path to healing.
(03:38):
But at the same time, that wasmy personal life and then my
professional life.
I have a degree in holisticnutrition and I'm a holistic
natural chef.
And I was a holistic instructorfor a long time and a natural
chef instructor at a culinaryschool.
And then from there, I went andI opened a whole bunch of food
businesses.
And I had like food brands, andI had a really, really
(04:01):
successful restaurant in Boulderand some other food
establishments for about adecade and really fed everybody
in Boulder just like thehealthiest, cleanest, badass
food.
And I just had like the time ofmy life, and it was an absolute
dream country.
I'd always wanted to have arestaurant that was a true
community gathering place.
But it was really interestingbecause then a lot of it wasn't
(04:25):
working anymore.
And, you know, there was COVIDand there was all kinds of
things, and it was almost likethe universe colluded with all
of the forces that everything,everything like crumbled all at
once.
And then I blew up my life inthe most spectacular way.
And it was really traumatic,actually.
(04:46):
And I'm laughing about it nowjust because I'm on the other
side.
But that's actually whatprompted me to look really
deeply inside and start torecognize that while all of
these external modalities forhealing are incredibly valuable
and important, I was missingsome crucial core elements of
healing from the inside and notfully in alignment and living in
(05:09):
my truth and recognizing that alot of the life that I was
living wasn't actually servingme.
And so then, yeah, I embarked onthis deep, deep path of like
inner exploration, almost likeyou know, dark night of the
soul, which is real.
And I did, I sold everything.
I got a divorce, I blew up allmy businesses and put everything
(05:35):
in storage that I had left.
And um, I took a suitcase and Iwent to Costa Rica and I buried
myself in the jungle for a yearand a half, and I started
working with these two healers,and it was incredibly magical.
And that's where I reallystarted focusing on like the
deep value of this inner workand really the nervous system.
(05:57):
And then coming into my owntruth and alignment and just all
of that, like it started as apath to figure out like, what
did I just do to my life, youknow, and how did this happen to
me and what the hell am I doing,you know?
And then it suddenly turned intothis super sacred path of like
inner truth and andreconciliation.
(06:18):
And and in that process alone ofcoming into alignment, then my
health just magically shiftedall by itself.
And it just was an incredibleaha moment to bring all of the
work I'd been doing for myhealth into for 20 years and
crystallize it and bring it intolike full alignment.
(06:38):
And then I'd always known Iwanted to help other people
heal.
Like, think that I had like somespecial sauce, like how I could
treat this naturally for so manyyears successfully.
And I think I just always hadthis truth that it was
absolutely infinitely possible.
Like our bodies are incredibleand incredibly intelligent, and
(07:00):
everything that we need to healis within us.
And I just believed that sodeeply.
And I just now I'm just superpassionate about helping other
people like reclaim theirsovereignty and reclaim their
truth and take back their ownpower and connect with like how
(07:21):
truly divine the healing processis, and that it is all within
them and within their power toto take control of their lives
and and affect change in allsorts of amazing ways that lead
to better health.
That was a long answer to yourstory question.
SPEAKER_01 (07:34):
Oh, but like, oh my goodness, okay.
So there's so much in thatstory.
Like, whoa.
All right.
The first thing I want to know,because I think a lot of people
get to the point where you saidyou were, where like things just
weren't working, right?
And so it's like, okay, you getto the point where things just
aren't working.
How long did it take you beforeyou were like, okay, I'm just
(07:58):
gonna blow, I need to do allthese things.
How long did that process takejust to put it into perspective
for people?
SPEAKER_00 (08:04):
Well, I mean, I guess that's a really personal
question.
I mean, I'm happy to answer it,but I think this is where you
need to know your own self.
From my own personal path, I dohave a long history of doing
really radical things in areally fast way.
I do too.
So it's not, yeah, right.
So, like where other people canlike sit on decisions for a
long, long time and reallystruggle with that.
(08:27):
That's not really one of mypersonal challenges.
But actually, it was happeningin like 2022.
And it was like, I think I washaving a lot of frustration that
whole entire year.
And and then in September, likeI was just super frustrated.
I had just opened anotherbusiness in like May of that
year.
It was like that was a whole,like, we don't even need to get
(08:48):
into that necessarily becausethat's a waste of time.
But there was all these littletiny drips in my life that
started like exposing thesecracks, you know, in the
foundation.
SPEAKER_01 (08:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:59):
And I was busy trying to like put like spackle
on every crack in my life andand absolutely not really seeing
them or really like fullyreceiving the magnitude of what
was really happening, you know,is just really in a denial
because I didn't want to loseeverything I built, you know?
SPEAKER_01 (09:16):
Yeah, yeah.
It's hard.
SPEAKER_00 (09:18):
I know it's super hard.
But yeah, then the truth isthough, then I did I did a plant
medicine ceremony in Septemberof 2022.
I'd always been really called tothat.
And I always felt like it wouldcome to me when I needed to know
the answers.
SPEAKER_01 (09:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (09:33):
And so I did.
I reached out and I had, youknow, we can talk about that if
that's necessary.
But I did, I had a plantmedicine experience with
Wachuma, which is sacred cactus.
And I'm from Arizona, so it feltlike a perfect thing for me to
visit, like and sit with asacred plant cacti.
And then I went on a trip aroundthe world.
Well, I went to Europe and andfor a month by myself to really
(09:58):
like sit with like what washappening in my life, like six
days after I had that journey.
And then I came back after amonth, and then within three
months, then I just it was it.
I just closed my restaurant inlike four days.
I just closed it.
I just stopped, which by the wayis a really bad idea.
You don't do that.
(10:18):
Um, the ramifications are real.
Um, but that was what I did.
I just knew I had to justabsolutely stop.
And then once I did that,though, it's kind of like, you
know, like you think you'regonna get a new couch, you're
super excited about the couch,you buy the new couch, and then
all of a sudden you're like, ohmy God, the rug doesn't work,
and the and like the you know,the lamps suck, you know?
(10:41):
And so then you have to get newlamps and a new rug, and then
you're like, oh now I need topaint.
So it's like it was all exactlythat happened where I just
thought, oh my God, I just needto close this one business.
And then it was like, oh no, yougot to close mom.
You need to do all of the above.
Oh my God.
And then I started to see once Ihad all that out of my way, all
of the other places that my likewasn't working for me either,
(11:02):
because it was all right therein front of me.
SPEAKER_01 (11:04):
So I love what you said about how you just realized
that doing one thing wasn'treally enough.
You had to kind of like breakties with all these different
things and really dive in theplant ceremonial work.
I can totally relate.
I know people who've done that.
We've had a podcast guest onabout that, and that's really
powerful.
And I do think when people getto the right place in time, it
(11:24):
can be really helpful.
I want to take one step backthough.
And this is gonna sound reallysimple, but I guarantee you some
of the listeners don't evenunderstand.
Can you help me understand whatexactly MS is and the impact it
had on your body, even though, Imean, clearly you can cook
holistic medicine, nutrition,like you you know how to take
(11:45):
care of your body.
Can you share a little bit aboutwhat was actually happening to
your body as a result of havingthat?
So, what is it and what was theresult it was having on your
body before you made this bigtransition?
SPEAKER_00 (12:43):
Yeah, so multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune
disease and of your nervoussystem, and you know, it affects
the myelin sheath in your brainand your spinal cord.
And there's a lot of symptomsthat uh range from like
numbness, tingling, loss offeeling and sensation in your
legs, a lot of optic neuritis.
You can go blind.
(13:03):
And the trajectory of thedisease, untreated and
unchecked, is is likedebilitation, like you could be
blinded in a wheelchair.
You don't actually die of thedisease specifically, but you
die of, well, all of the otherthings.
Like, you know, nobody wants tobe bad ridden and blind.
Right.
So the modern techniques arepharmaceutical techniques, are a
(13:24):
lot of drugs that target, youknow, your immune system, immune
modulation, and your myelinsheath and, you know, things of
that nature.
And I feel like I started withdiet because you start with
things that really affect yournervous system.
Although in the modern world, wedon't really think about it like
(13:45):
as a specifically a way in whichyou can actually self-modulate
your nervous system.
SPEAKER_01 (13:50):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (13:51):
That was like kind of came later, but but we look
at all of the things that impactinflammation, right?
Because it's a it's a disease ofthe inflammation process.
And so we, you know, look atdiet, we looked at environment
and other types of healingmodalities that really lower the
inflammation.
But stress comes into it, but Idon't know that it's actually a
(14:15):
big part of the conversation.
But zooming way out, I think mypersonal belief, especially
after 20 years, is yeah, it'sdefinitely a disease that is um,
I don't even want to say it's adisease.
I think it's a manageablecondition that is an indication
of a deep dysregulation of yournervous system and your body
(14:36):
talking to you.
And as soon as you learn how tolisten to that, then your body
responds.
So I had before, I had a lot ofsuccess because I'd only treated
naturally and I've never donepharmaceutical intervention.
But I had a very tight life.
You know, I had a very tightdiet, I had a very tight
(14:57):
lifestyle.
I had like the perfect sleephygiene and perfect mattress and
like the perfect water and theperfect diet.
And but I wasn't actuallyconnected with the fact that I
worked a hundred hours a weekand had three businesses and 75
employees.
And I thought I went to yoga andI like did all of this stuff.
And I thought that was like Iwas crushing it.
SPEAKER_02 (15:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:21):
And then I really started to look at the other
ways in which my nervous systemwas absolutely shot, you know,
and I wasn't paying attention tothat huge aspect of things.
Like I could do all I could tolike lower my inflammatory
markers.
Yeah.
But until I looked at what wasactually causing my inflammation
(15:42):
to begin with, then um, outsideof my diet, things changed
really rapidly and reallyprofoundly.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:50):
I personally just think it's fascinating.
I think nervous systemregulation is fascinating, but I
also think it's incrediblyoverwhelming because it feels
like it's very grounded in likeyour mind and using your mind to
control your body.
And how did you deal with that?
(16:10):
Like, how did you learn to dothat?
SPEAKER_00 (16:14):
Well, I love what you just said because actually,
well, I want to validate whatyou said because a lot of
people, you know, like you canfix your gut, let's say, but
it's hard to believe that youcan fix your nervous system
because like you can find yourgut, you know what to do for
your gut.
But nervous system feels alittle nebulous, right?
You can't go and cut into yourbody and be like, oh yes,
(16:35):
there's the nervous system.
Yes.
But I would like to say that thenervous system doesn't exist in
our mind, it's our body.
And we think it's in our mind,but actually it's our entire
body, it's in our fascia, it'sin every cell of our body.
It is the interface.
It's actually in you and outsideof you.
You know, it's the energeticsense of the world and what's
(16:56):
safe and what's not safe.
And so it's a sensing feelingthing more than it is a mental
construct.
And now, currently, there'sdefinitely modalities that are
like a nervous system reset or avagus nerve reset.
And all of those things are asomatic experiencing, and those
are all incredibly importantpart of the process.
(17:18):
And like traumatic release, andall of these are really
important nervous systemtechniques, but you're not
necessarily going andrecognizing you can befriend
your nervous system, you cancontrol your nervous system, you
can do your own nervous systemregulation.
All of those things arefoundational to letting go of
the past.
(17:40):
But if you're not connected tothe ways in which you live your
life every single day in serviceof keeping your own nervous
system perpetually dysregulated,it doesn't, it doesn't really
matter, you know?
I mean, it does, but you justare going to continue to
dysregulate yourself every day.
SPEAKER_01 (17:55):
Yeah.
Was there anything specific thatyou started doing when you were
in Costa Rica and having thisjourney that you were like, oh
wow, I start to feel a shift?
Was there like an aha of somesort?
SPEAKER_00 (18:08):
Yeah.
And I think that I thank you forasking that.
For sure, the work that I dowith people is a reflection of
the work for myself as well.
And that is really learning awhole bunch of different things.
It's like creating safety withinand like you help yourself feel
safe.
I mean, at right now, it's verypopular to say, oh, you're
(18:29):
triggering me or I don't feelsafe.
And it's like, okay, well, Imean, that's true for sure, but
like that is all within you.
You create your own safetywithin.
And so I work with clients tobuild the container so that you
can actually begin the processof building that self-trust.
And then another part of it isthis idea of emotional
(18:52):
regulation and capacity.
And, you know, a lot of us willcreate stories from emotions.
And then from the story thatthey create from the emotions,
then they make decisions.
And actually the decisions arebased on stories that are not
true, that are based on emotionsthat will pass.
Sure.
(19:12):
And then they create an identityfrom those stories, and that
continues to keep your nervoussystem dysregulated.
And it's all also not true.
And so if you can learn, right?
And so if you can learn to buildcapacity to handle your
emotions, a lot of us have noreal connection with that.
(19:33):
I certainly didn't.
I mean, for heaven's sakes, it'slike I had three food businesses
and 75 employees and customersout the door all the time.
It's like I had no emotionalregulation.
Like I never learned that in mylife.
I came from a very traumaticchildhood.
And I built a life in service ofkeeping my own nervous system
dysregulated, which by the wayfelt perfectly normal.
(19:55):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (19:55):
Of course.
It's all you know.
It's all your nervous systemknows, too.
It was all I knew.
Right.
It feels very comfortable.
SPEAKER_00 (20:01):
And so once I learned to like be able to hold
my emotions, build emotionalcapacity, like the capacity to
hold all that is that youprocess and comes in every day
and goes out.
Everything that you feel is noteverything that you are.
And you don't need to create anidentity around everything that
you feel, but actually have thecapacity to recognize is
(20:25):
emotions are energy in motion.
It's just an energetic frequencythat comes in and it goes out.
And we attach to that and belike, I'm depressed, like I'm a
really depressed person.
And then you create a story anddecisions, and it's just a whole
rabbit hole.
SPEAKER_02 (20:40):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (20:40):
And then learning to deal with like the sensations
within your body that come andarise from feeling the energy of
all of these emotions.
And it does, it's dysregulatingin your body, it's
uncomfortable, it's agitating.
And learning how to feel thosesensations, hold those
sensations and recognize that,well, number one, that they will
(21:04):
pass.
And number two, that you havethe capacity to hold all that.
That's why we're built, that'show we're designed.
Yeah.
And number three, that you canactually modulate that and
create that's part of thatsafety.
And you can self-soothe and allof those kind of things.
And then what happens when youstart begin to learn how to do
(21:26):
all that is number one, yourbody starts to trust you because
you're trusting it.
You're trusting your body isactually sharing something with
you, and then you're listening,and then you're taking aligned
action.
And then when you take alignedaction, your body, it's like a
positive feedback.
It continues to want to likeshare more with you.
(21:47):
And then you're like, oh mygosh, there's more I can do.
Yeah.
And more within your body startsto trust you.
You start to trust your body.
And then from there, all of asudden your health starts to
shift without you actually goingin and trying to do anything and
fix that.
So it's just a really beautiful,organic, natural process.
SPEAKER_01 (22:05):
That sounds amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (22:07):
Yeah, it's actually it's it's everybody should have
more emotional regulation.
They should.
SPEAKER_01 (22:13):
Yeah.
And I'm wondering if like peoplefind you and they just feel so
out of control.
And one of the gifts you'regiving them is a way to gain
that control back by building adifferent relationship with
their body.
SPEAKER_00 (22:28):
Yeah.
That's a really insightfulquestion because one of the
things that happens, and youknow that this is true too, is
we have co-regulation and limbicresonance.
So that is a real scientificthing that happens.
And it's this is like when youwalk into a really chaotic
space, and your body, yournervous system recognizes it
(22:52):
immediately, and you immediatelyfeel like, oh, this is charged.
SPEAKER_02 (22:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (22:57):
Likewise, when you walk into like, let's say, a spa
environment or something likethat, and everything is so zen
and so relaxed, you're justlike, oh, you just immediately
want to sink in with likerelief.
The same thing happens whenwe're working with people.
And so my job is to have thecalmest, most centered nervous
(23:19):
system.
SPEAKER_01 (23:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:20):
And your nervous system actually gravitates to
co-regulate with mine.
Regardless of what you think isgoing on, your nervous system is
already in resonance with mine.
Interesting.
unknown (23:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:34):
Uh-huh.
And this is just how it works.
And this is scientificallyproven.
And so your nervous system, soover time, your nervous system
will learn to relax and rest andrelax and rest.
Every time you and I are inco-creation, and every time you
and I are talking, your nervoussystem is mirroring mine.
(23:54):
And you're starting to feelcalmer all the time.
And then your nervous systemwants to be like that because
that's our nerve natural stateof being.
SPEAKER_01 (24:03):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (24:04):
And so once we can sink into what our natural, true
natural state of being is in ourown natural resonance, then, and
a lot of this happens sonaturally, like you don't have
to go in and tinker with it.
Like your nervous system knowswhat to do.
And in fact, your nervous systemwants to do this.
You know, it doesn't want to beregulated all the time, which is
(24:24):
the reason why it creates all ofthese other problems in your
body.
It wants to be at rest and itwants to be at peace.
And you know, so it wants to becalm.
It wants to be calm.
SPEAKER_01 (24:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I am guessing based on howyou describe that.
By the way, I have to say I feelso calm.
Like, yikes.
And I need nervous systemregulation, like trying to
figure that out in my ownpersonal life with my own
personal health.
But so you call yourself atransformation guide on your
website.
So this feels like this might bewhere we're going, which is why
(24:57):
I'm gonna ask the question.
So, what exactly does that mean?
And how do you put that topractice with your clients?
SPEAKER_00 (25:03):
Yeah, that's such a great question.
So I think it's important totalk about the difference
between change andtransformation and the
difference between a coach and aguide.
SPEAKER_02 (25:15):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (25:16):
Because a coach will coach you on change.
Change is linear in trajectory.
And change is not permanent.
We can change the color of ourhair, we can change our clothes,
we can change our mind, we canchange our diet, and we can
change back, right?
We can regain that weight.
We can change the color of ourhair whenever we want, we can
(25:36):
change our mind, change ourpolitical affiliation, we can
change anything.
And change is not permanent,transformation is.
(28:16):
Right.
Yes.
It's something that unfolds inits own natural, beautiful
timing at the timing and thepace of nature.
Um, because we are nature andour nervous system, we heal in a
completely different way.
You know, in the modern world,we like to force healing into a
timeline.
Yes.
And it doesn't work like that.
(28:38):
It's like you can't you can'tforce spring to come early.
You can't force the flowers tobloom, you can't force that baby
to come before you're ready togive birth.
Right.
Yeah.
And you can't force anything inthe natural world.
And so true deep healing is theexact same way.
It's a matter of holding spaceand building trust for the
(29:00):
actual process of healing itselfand being in the now and just
being with what is and learningto trust the wisdom of that.
Yeah.
And that kind of stuff.
So that's how transformation isdifferent.
That I hold the space for youand your process and the beauty
(29:21):
of you.
And then get you in touch withyour own beauty, your own
wisdom, your own ability toaffect change within your own
life.
And then that's just anincredible, it's an honor for
me.
But it's an honor as wellbecause to be in a container
where you're always witnessed, alot of times we're not always
(29:43):
witnessed.
And you're witnessed in yourentirety, in the beauty of
everything that you are rightnow.
And there's nothing that I'mwitnessing your entire process.
And there's something reallypowerful about the witnessing
and observing thing, kind ofgoes into a little bit of
quantum theory.
Yeah.
But that right there, theobserver effect creates a
(30:05):
tremendous amount of change allby itself.
So I don't know if I answeredthat question, but you did.
SPEAKER_01 (30:10):
You did.
So I have a couple of questions.
So I think most people work withyou for many months, right?
Six months, nine months, maybeeven longer, right?
Nine months.
Okay.
Yep.
So how do you help people staypatient?
Because I feel like our societythat we live in, we just
innately are not patient humanbeings at all.
(30:32):
Myself included, I am notpatient at all.
And it also feels like it's notlike, oh, I'm gonna do this this
week, and next week I'm gonnalike see, just like you said,
with the diet.
Like, I'm gonna do this, andthen next week I'm gonna weigh a
pound less, and then I'm gonnakeep doing it, and then the
following week I'm
SPEAKER_00 (30:47):
weigh a pound less and it's like it feels I don't
want to say it feels woo-woo butit feels abstract and so how do
you help your clients becomfortable with the
abstractness of this processyeah it is abstract but do you
(31:07):
know the nervous system in andof itself feels abstract right
yes and I think that that's sucha beautiful question and it just
starts really really slow andand it is it's something for
sure when I first started I feelthe same way I I like to say
that I'm like in type A recoveryyou know I I had this totally
(31:28):
different life and you just haveto it's just one day at a time
it's just it is really slow andit is maybe frustrating at first
but you know what's reallyinteresting is while your mind
is running a rat race trying tofigure it all out your body is
responding kind of like how doyou have children I do I do I
have a 19 year old who doesn'tlive at home anymore but yeah I
(31:50):
have a 19 year old okay so youremember when you're pregnant
and you're gonna go into laborand have this baby and you have
this whole mindset around howyour birth is going to go?
Yeah and like can you controlwhen this birthing is going to
happen and what it's gonna looklike.
Right.
(32:10):
And did you ever have any sortof like all these mental things
going on like how this processwas going to unfold the way you
think it's going to be it'snever the way you think but also
for me anyway I think uh I wassuper profound because when I
was in labor it was like yourbody knew what to do.
(32:32):
And it didn't matter what youwere thinking about it.
SPEAKER_02 (32:35):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (32:35):
You could think anything you wanted but your
body in all of its wisdom andall these beautiful feminine
codes of birthing like wasalways within you.
And it didn't really matter whatyou wanted to put into it like a
birthing plan or well it didn'tmatter.
It could look it doesn't matteryour body knew exactly what to
do no matter what your mind wasthinking.
(32:58):
And so back to your questionthis is the exact same way
because once your body oncewe're in this we build a
container and once we build thecontainer then I'm the one who
holds the space for thecontainer and your brain will do
a whole bunch of somersaults andprotest the process and do all
(33:21):
the things the brain does whileyour body will actually
immediately start to respond.
Because your body knows yourbody automatically recognizes
it.
And so yeah there will be thesemoments of like dichotomy where
you're just like mentally likewhat and then but your body's
(33:41):
like oh no we're doing this.
SPEAKER_02 (33:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (33:43):
And just like you're giving that birth you know where
your brain is like oh no andyour body's like no we're doing
this you know it's it's actuallythe exact same way.
It feels a little bit differentbut you are you're burning a new
you so that's why it's a ninemonth process.
Yes, right.
Yes.
Yeah it's a birthing process.
So it starts slow and small andlike the beginning of your
(34:04):
pregnancy and then it culminateswith um the end and you're a
transformed healthy person.
SPEAKER_01 (34:11):
That's so fascinating.
Do the people who come to youare most of them coming to you
truly from a health perspectiveor are they coming to you from
like you said like all of asudden your life you were like I
need a new life.
SPEAKER_00 (34:25):
I think in a lot of our healing path altogether, you
know, it takes some time.
It's this particular type ofperson who is really ready and
willing to really understandthat true change just comes from
within and they're ready to goon that journey.
Because they've tried enoughother things and and in a lot of
(34:45):
times in our healing path we cantry certain things and they work
for a minute and then they kindof lose their steam.
SPEAKER_02 (34:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (34:55):
And you can become frustrated or you could try a
different thing or a differentdiet or a different path or a
different doctor.
Or even if you're on atraditional trajectory you start
to recognize other ways in yourlife where you're disempowered
and you have given up your ownpower and you start to recognize
that wait a minute like I thisis not how I wanted to live my
(35:16):
life you know I thought I wantedto be healthier and happier and
I wanted I didn't want to bedebilitated or or whatever that
process is.
But at some point everybody hasto come to it within themselves
that they're ready for the deepchange and for the work and
they're ready to surrender to aprocess that's bigger than they
(35:37):
can mentally imagine.
And and they want it forthemselves.
And so I think it's it's reallyall around that you have to
authentically believe thatyou're capable of it and you
have to authenticallyenergetically be ready for the
process and to commit to it.
(35:57):
And then once once you areauthentically ready and
energetically connected to thetruth of that like within
yourself like this is somethingthat I am empowered to do and I
know that I am capable of ityeah then then that's where we
begin.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (36:13):
Wow how do you stay in like in all of this positive
balance like you feel so calmhow do you personally how do you
stay there?
SPEAKER_00 (36:25):
Because life is still life you know like to
think that everything can besunshine and roses even when you
get to spend part of the yearliving in Costa Rica life is
life is still happening so howdo you stay in this space
personally yeah thank you well Ido I have a number of different
practices you know like I usedto get right out of bed and jump
(36:47):
on my computer and jump onInstagram make my coffee and
make my to-do list and no Idon't do that anymore we all
want your life right there rightnow all of us are like sign me
up because that just gets yournervous system dysregulated
right away and instead I comeinto myself every morning I have
(37:10):
a sacred time which is about anhour to an hour and a half every
morning I meditate right I wakeup I pee it's dark still
wherever it is I am and I justsit for 30 minutes and and
sometimes it's an affirmationsometimes it looks a little bit
different but it's a 30 minutemeditation.
And then I make my coffee or youcan make your tea or whatever
(37:32):
you do for your morning beverageand I sit outside in nature and
I sit I don't open my computer Idon't look checking my phone I
don't do a single thing.
And I sit in nature for at leastanother 30 minutes in silence
and just align myself with theenergy and vibration of nature
because we are nature we arefrom nature we are part of
(37:54):
nature and like that's our truevibration our true essence and I
just watch nature I watch thesun I watch the clouds I watch
the birds I watch whatever ishappening and unfolding and I
just sit in silence with myselfand just really center myself
for the day.
And then I just put myself firstat all times, which sounds
(38:18):
selfish but you know when youlearn to choose yourself first
all the time like choose whatserves you only always in the
process you make everybody elsehappy and you serve everybody
else.
Yeah.
A lot of times we serveeverybody else first and we give
ourselves what's left and therenever is anything left at the
(38:38):
end of the day.
And so when you start your dayby only serving yourself first,
then you have a lot more to giveto the world after that.
SPEAKER_02 (38:47):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (38:48):
Oh and I always say if you don't take like if you
don't take care of you, no oneelse is going to and that's not
a new phrase.
We all know that but you knowit's like you really you need to
be able to fill your cup andenergetically balance yourself
if you ever think you're goingto be able to get anyone else to
do anything or be your best selfto help anybody else either.
SPEAKER_00 (39:09):
Yeah.
And I do the same practice atnight in um kind of a reverse
and I spend at least 30 minutessometimes only 15 but in just in
silence and just let the energyof the day just sort of leave my
body.
Your system wants to release allthat sometimes we just don't
have any sort of likedemarcation between the end of
(39:32):
our day and the beginning ofnight and you have all these
people who have dysregulatedsleep and all of these other
things.
And if we're not givingourselves a little pause at the
end of the day to release all ofthe day and the energy of all
the things that we did and thepeople that we were with and all
of that stuff.
And then that can dysregulateour sleep.
And so I give myself a space atthe end of the day to just have
(39:55):
silence and it doesn'tnecessarily need to be
meditation but it just issilence and rest to just allow
the everything to just sort ofleave my body so that I can have
a a better night's rest.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (40:10):
Yeah which sounds heavenly all right and I am sure
there's some people that arelistening that are like okay
that sounds really great for youthat you get to spend an hour
and a half every morning in thiscalm state and you know all of
this like it sounds heavenly andlovely but that just doesn't fit
into a lot of people'srealities.
(40:30):
Totally.
So what would you suggest tosomeone who's listening in terms
of what they could do on asmaller scale to help themselves
be calm, tap into their nervoussystem a little bit, like dabble
in this concept of regulatingthe nervous system when you know
they might have like three youngkids and like that's nice.
(40:50):
There just isn't an hour and ahalf left in the morning.
Right.
So I yeah yeah what suggestionwould you give for the people
that are in that stage of life?
SPEAKER_00 (40:58):
Yeah, for sure, because I think that wouldn't
have been available to me at aprevious chapter of my life for
sure.
But I think it's a couple ofdifferent things first starting
with your belief system that youcome first and that you deserve
you deserve to put yourselffirst and that this is your only
one life and putting yourselffirst in this mindset.
(41:23):
And so even if you only havefive minutes at the beginning of
the day and maybe it doesn'tlook like meditation but maybe
while you're brewing your coffeeor before the kids and before
all the things you have fiveminutes.
SPEAKER_02 (41:35):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (41:35):
And even five minutes to just come into your
center like I own I deserve thisI am worth this and coming into
like sitting with yourself andjust really taking some deep
breaths and centering yourselfbecause what happens is it just
builds on itself all by all onits own.
(42:04):
Social media for heaven's sakeswe do we do give away our time
and you know what you willalways find time for the things
that are important to you.
You always do yes you always do.
And so as soon as you come intothat truth of I am worth this
and I deserve this and I want toput myself first I believe that
(42:25):
that is true.
Then you start in small waysfive minutes here five minutes
sitting in your car before yourkids race out of the school to
jump in the car and you get rushoff to after school activities.
But if you just commit to fiveminutes a couple times a day to
just coming into that like Ideserve this, I am doing this
for me, you can begin justthere, just owning and just
(42:46):
believing that you deserve it.
And maybe even looking at otherways in your day in which you
give away your day to otherthings that don't serve you.
SPEAKER_01 (42:54):
Yeah I love that concept of really looking at
your time and think of all theways that you give away your
time and I think yeah you knowpersonally we give a ton of time
to social media but we also givea lot of time to being really
frustrated and annoyed andanxious and angry with things
that happen and we often spend alot of time like rehashing those
(43:16):
situations.
Like especially in work right orin corporate America like you're
rehashing the situation thathappened and that was bad and
you're then giving thatnegativity even more time.
So I think it's a reallypractical and very cool concept
to get people to think about howtheir time is being used.
And wouldn't it be cool ifinstead of rehashing or saying
(43:38):
that negative thing thathappened again to the fifth
person and explaining it againto and complaining to the fifth
person like let that go.
Give yourself that those 10minutes and do something else
with that time.
Oh I love that exciting that isreally powerful.
All right before we run out oftime I want to talk about a
couple things what is nervoussystem restoration that you talk
(43:59):
about on your website and how isthat different from some other
healing modalities that might beout there?
Well we've been talking aboutnervous system restoration this
whole last hour okay I wasn'tsure I wanted to make sure
because it's on your website soI want to make sure it's like
really clear to everybody ifthey go and follow you and go
look you up like that is what wetalked about.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (44:19):
Yeah this entire conversation is all of the
layers of nervous systemrestoration and that is building
this container meeting you whereyou're at you coming into this
truth and alignment you trustingthat your body is going to do
this building co-regulation inlimbic resonance learning to
build emotional capacitylearning to um befriend your
(44:42):
nervous system and all of theseare very a lot of layers also
looking at a lot of traumaticrelease will actually happen in
this process because we bury alot of our past traumas that
were never met and seen and allof those things yeah in our body
and in our nervous system.
That's where it lives and itwants to come out.
(45:04):
Yeah and it's trying desperatelyto come out and so um and it
does it starts to come outnaturally in this process
because it feels safe and itfeels held and so things will
traumatic things will come upthat you're not even mentally
it'll just come into your lifeit'll just come up and you'll be
like oh my God Christine I thinkI want to talk about this thing.
(45:26):
And I'm just like yeah let's doit because yeah second it comes
into your mind and you're readythen I hold the space for that
to be seen and felt and movedthrough right so that it can
leave your body and leave yournervous system and leave that
distortion leaves your yourenergy field.
And so it's a multi-layeredprocess and then you start to
realize like oh my God then youstart to see your relationship
(45:49):
with your nervous system and howyou create your own stress.
Yes.
Sure and and how you are incontrol of like remodeling what
that looks like and that is allwithin you of the power to do
that.
And so it's esoteric but it'salso very specific.
It's all of these micro layersthat all get built into the
(46:12):
container in our work togetherevery day all the time through a
nine month process.
SPEAKER_01 (46:17):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (46:18):
And your body is what actually leads the charge
and informed by and then itcomes into your mind as a great
idea and then that's where Imeet you.
SPEAKER_02 (46:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (46:26):
Um but then through that process yeah so you have
all of these things like somaticexperiencing and restoration and
all of those micro things leadto the restoration of your
nervous system which then leadsto transformation.
SPEAKER_01 (46:43):
Yeah sure right makes perfect sense to me I get
it I get it.
Okay so I want to make sure wetalk about this because I talked
about it in the beginning youlive in I don't know what the
right words are you spent timein Costa Rica you spent time in
Colorado I think you might evenspend time somewhere else can
you talk to her about how didyou build that lifestyle?
SPEAKER_00 (47:02):
Well it was definitely always a dream of
mine to well you know I left uhrestaurants and so it was a very
dense like energy of like beingrooted in one place.
You don't get to do that whenyou have restaurants and you
don't get to leave for verylong.
And I just really wanted tobuild a life of expansion and
freedom and that's one of mycore values is is expansion and
(47:22):
freedom.
And so that was really reallyimportant to me when I was like
liberated from my very 3D heavylife of restaurants and storage
units and all that stuff.
And so I think it's I've beenreally blessed to just design my
life in this work.
It all happens online and thenon WhatsApp and it's just the
(47:43):
way in which I built thiscontainer and so yeah I've been
able to create this life but Idon't you know I think that it's
worked for me for the time to Imean I will always have a life
of expansion and freedom becausethat's the life that I want.
SPEAKER_01 (47:56):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (47:57):
But I am in the process of moving back to
Boulder and I feel like I'm aready for a more rooted life and
to be reunited with my storageunit.
SPEAKER_01 (48:09):
But that's good.
That demonstrates it's likeeverything is sometimes right
for a time or a season and beingokay flowing with that and doing
what was the right thing for youat that time for you to be
living your best life and thenrecognizing that a pivot is okay
whether that's where you livewho your spouse is who you're
(48:30):
partnered with what your job islike recognizing and giving
yourself the permission to havethat ebb and flow in life as you
start us saying like that's partof transformation.
It's not linear it's up and downand up and down and that's part
of the whole journey.
It's just a beautifulrepresentation of it.
SPEAKER_00 (48:48):
Yeah thank you for noticing that and and it really
is it's a different chapter youknow change is changes change
like everything is alwayschanging all the time.
Yeah and a lot of us want to notchange and that's not how nature
works that's not how the worldworks.
We're always changing.
Yes and so if you can ride thechanges of life and embrace
(49:12):
where you are I think thateverything would be would flow a
lot easier for sure.
There'd be a little bit lessstress in everybody's lives.
SPEAKER_01 (49:19):
Yeah there sure would be all right so for our
friends out there who have MS,right?
And they are looking for help,whether it be with you or
someone else and they feelreally overwhelmed, what would
you suggest to them as a placeto start to give them some hope?
SPEAKER_00 (49:36):
The most important question that you can ask
yourself is are you living yourbest and only life that you have
and are you living a bestversion of the only life you are
living back here, right?
Yeah.
And are you living that life ordo you feel like there's more do
you believe that it's possibledo you authentically believe
(50:00):
that it is possible for you tolive a better life than what
you're living now yeah and notonly do you believe it but do
you believe it's within you toactually be the one to effect
change within your own lifebecause all healing is
self-healing yes and we all areborn with this intrinsic ability
(50:20):
to heal.
This is how this is how we'rewe're designed I think yeah you
just really have to sit and lookat yourself and sit in that five
minutes and be like what how howam I not living the best life I
can possibly live and a lot oftimes we're disempowered
especially in the diseaseprocess by doctors scare you and
(50:42):
believe that you're you knowespecially young children my
daughter was three and my sonwas six when I was diagnosed
with MS.
So I fully understand the fearand uncertainty you know but I
did know without question of adoubt that the vision I had for
my future was that I would bedancing at my children's
wedding.
Oh I love that.
(51:03):
Yeah.
And so like what vision do youhave for your future that you
authentically believe that iswithin your power and how do you
want to live this only life inthe fullest most amazing way
possible.
SPEAKER_01 (51:15):
That is so beautiful.
That's so beautiful that's liketotally actionable and something
that people can really do.
And it they're really powerfulquestions.
And I think you need to reallysit with those questions and be
really honest with yourselfbecause that is where so much of
it starts is brutal honesty.
I know I got here by having tobe brutally honest with myself
and that's tough.
(51:36):
Yeah it's it is it's not easyand it's very scary.
But I thank you for coming onand sharing your journey because
you can demonstrate to peoplethat it is possible.
You can it is deal with thefears of that you can have
massive change you can getbetter you can live a healthier
life and you can have somecontrol over some of these
(51:57):
medical diagnoses that can feelvery scary in many ways.
Yeah.
So that is so beautiful I loveit.
Okay so before we run out oftime two things for you one I
always love to ask people torecommend a book that has
impacted or books that hasimpacted themselves personally
and professionally because I'm atrue believer that books can
change lives.
So I would love to know whatbook you recommend people should
(52:19):
read.
SPEAKER_00 (52:20):
Well the book that's been my Bible for the last
number of years is called TheGreat Work of Your Life by
Stephen Cope.
SPEAKER_01 (52:27):
I haven't read that one okay I love that because I
do try to read all the books.
SPEAKER_00 (52:31):
So yes I love that book so much and that's really
was really great because youknow I love being a chef and I
love cooking.
I'm a really good cook.
Yeah um and I love buildingcommunity and all of those
things and when I lost all thatI was super despairing because I
was just like does this meanlike I was doing the wrong thing
and and when I was going throughall these changes and there was
(52:54):
so much I didn't understandabout what was happening to me
because the transformation beganwithout me even really knowing
it.
You know in my head I was tryingto like grasp onto all these
things in my life that weren'tserving me.
But I was already changing fromwithin and that book really was
a beautiful way for me torecognize the true work of my
(53:16):
life.
Yeah and I think a lot of us aredoing a job and we're not really
living in service of what ourtrue soul's path is supposed to
be and how we're supposed toshow up in this world and be of
service.
And so yeah I I think that thatbook was really transformative
for me.
I'm gonna get that and readthat.
SPEAKER_01 (53:35):
So thank you very much.
Is there anything that I didn'task you that you want to make
sure you communicate or talkabout did I miss anything?
I'll put in the show notes howeverybody can find you your bio
all of the things so people canfollow, find you, email, reach
out.
SPEAKER_00 (53:49):
No, this is such a wonderful conversation I thought
I think it was just beautiful.
SPEAKER_01 (53:54):
Oh well thank you so much Christine everything that
you stand for is something thatI am so passionate and just so
curious about nervous systemregulation I think is really
powerful.
And even just the thought thatwe can heal ourselves from
within is something that isreally high on my list of things
that I'm trying to tune inpersonally to.
So I'm excited to get to sharethis with all the listeners
(54:15):
because I think all of us needmore of this and we need
examples of people who are doingit to help us have faith that we
can do it too.
So I thank you so much.
I thank you for coming forsharing your journey we will
stay connected I will follow youI encourage everybody to follow
you and reach out if you havequestions whether you have MS or
(54:36):
not you know Christine's a valueshe's a super valuable resource
and maybe one day in the futureshe will help more than just
people with MS.
You never know.
SPEAKER_00 (54:46):
I'm hopeful I'm hopeful yeah I guess I want to
just say then I'm always happyto have an alignment call
because I talk to a lot ofpeople and I give freely of my
time I don't have any I don'tcharge at all you can contact me
on my website and even if youdon't have MS, but you're
curious about either the processfor yourself or you're curious
about where you should turn Imean even if you don't have a
(55:07):
disease but you want to be alive in more alignment I have a
lot of intuitive knowledge andI'm happy to share and give gift
of my time.
So don't hesitate to reach outto me.
SPEAKER_01 (55:20):
Thank you.
That is so beautiful.
All right great it was apleasure to meet you and we will
stay in touch.
Thank you for joining us foranother episode of the House of
Germar podcast where wellnessstarts within we appreciate you
being a part of our communityand hope you felt inspired and
motivated by our guest.
If you enjoyed this episodeplease write us a review and
(55:42):
share it with friends.
Building our reach on YouTubeand Apple Podcasts will help us
get closer to our mission toempower one million women to
live all in.
You can also follow us onInstagram at House of Germar and
sign up to be a part of ourmonthly inspiration newsletter
through our websitehouseofgermar.com If you or
(56:03):
someone you know would be a goodguest on the show, please reach
out to us at podcast athouseofgermar.com.
This has been House of GermarProduction with your host, Gene
Collins.
Thank you for joining our house
I'd always known I wanted to help other people heal
because a lot of people wouldsay, like, think that I had like
some special sauce, like how Icould treat this naturally for
so many years successfully.
And I think I just always hadthis truth that it was
absolutely infinitely possible.
Like our bodies are incredibleand incredibly intelligent.
(00:21):
And everything that we need toheal is within us.
And I just believed that so, sodeeply.
And I just now I'm just superpassionate about helping other
people like reclaim theirsovereignty and reclaim their
truth and take back their ownpower and connect with like how
(00:41):
truly divine the healing processis, and that it is all within
them and within their power totake control of their lives and
affect change in all sorts ofamazing ways that lead to better
health.
SPEAKER_01 (00:54):
Welcome to the House of Germar podcast, where
wellness starts within.
The House of Germar is alifestyle brand empowering women
to live all in through interiordesign and personal wellness.
We are a destination for womenready to reimagine what is
possible in their homes andlives and then create it.
(01:15):
We are honored to have you joinus on our mission to empower one
million women to live all in.
I am your host, Gene Collins,and I invite you to become
inspired by this week's guest.
Welcome everybody.
I'm your host, Gene Collins, andtoday's guest is Christine Rook.
I am really excited to talk toher.
And I know I say that all thetime for all my guests because
(01:37):
you know what?
I only bring you guys peoplethat I'm excited to talk to.
But Christine is she's aholistic transformation guide.
Whoa.
We're gonna talk a lot about thenervous system.
We're gonna talk about herbackground, how she got to do
what she does.
She specializes right now inclients with MS, but don't stop
listening because a lot of whatwe're going to talk about about
(01:57):
your nervous system can apply toanyone and everyone.
So I am so excited to dig into asubject that I think is really,
really cool, which is nervoussystem.
So, Christine, welcome.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Thank you for inviting me onyour show.
So, first of all, you are inBoulder, Colorado.
It's pretty early on a Mondaymorning in Connecticut.
So thank you for getting up.
(02:18):
But you also live in Costa Rica.
I do, yeah.
Okay.
As we start to uncover who youare, what you do, how you got to
this journey, I really want toknow how you are living in
multiple places because I thinkyou do actually spend time in
multiple places.
And that for many of us who areeither empty nesters or have
never had children, kind ofthink that's like the dream life
(02:39):
to be able to build a businesswhere you can live in multiple
places.
So let's make sure we cover offon that one too.
Yeah, for sure.
Okay, so to get started, givethe listeners a little bit of
background about yourself.
SPEAKER_00 (02:52):
Okay.
So yeah, where do I even begin?
I'm a holistic transformationguide, and I specialize in
helping women with multiplesclerosis because I've had
multiple sclerosis for 20 years.
And it started as um, you know,my own healing journey and this
deep belief from the verybeginning that I could solve my
(03:16):
health issues naturally.
And I did it, I mean, 20 yearsago, there's been a lot that's
changed and it's been quite ajourney, you know, and and
health is a journey.
And then especially when you arehave a diagnosis, then if you
view that as well as a journeyunto itself, then that becomes a
powerful path to healing.
(03:38):
But at the same time, that wasmy personal life and then my
professional life.
I have a degree in holisticnutrition and I'm a holistic
natural chef.
And I was a holistic instructorfor a long time and a natural
chef instructor at a culinaryschool.
And then from there, I went andI opened a whole bunch of food
businesses.
And I had like food brands, andI had a really, really
(04:01):
successful restaurant in Boulderand some other food
establishments for about adecade and really fed everybody
in Boulder just like thehealthiest, cleanest, badass
food.
And I just had like the time ofmy life, and it was an absolute
dream country.
I'd always wanted to have arestaurant that was a true
community gathering place.
But it was really interestingbecause then a lot of it wasn't
(04:25):
working anymore.
And, you know, there was COVIDand there was all kinds of
things, and it was almost likethe universe colluded with all
of the forces that everything,everything like crumbled all at
once.
And then I blew up my life inthe most spectacular way.
And it was really traumatic,actually.
(04:46):
And I'm laughing about it nowjust because I'm on the other
side.
But that's actually whatprompted me to look really
deeply inside and start torecognize that while all of
these external modalities forhealing are incredibly valuable
and important, I was missingsome crucial core elements of
healing from the inside and notfully in alignment and living in
(05:09):
my truth and recognizing that alot of the life that I was
living wasn't actually servingme.
And so then, yeah, I embarked onthis deep, deep path of like
inner exploration, almost likeyou know, dark night of the
soul, which is real.
And I did, I sold everything.
I got a divorce, I blew up allmy businesses and put everything
(05:35):
in storage that I had left.
And um, I took a suitcase and Iwent to Costa Rica and I buried
myself in the jungle for a yearand a half, and I started
working with these two healers,and it was incredibly magical.
And that's where I reallystarted focusing on like the
deep value of this inner workand really the nervous system.
(05:57):
And then coming into my owntruth and alignment and just all
of that, like it started as apath to figure out like, what
did I just do to my life, youknow, and how did this happen to
me and what the hell am I doing,you know?
And then it suddenly turned intothis super sacred path of like
inner truth and andreconciliation.
(06:18):
And and in that process alone ofcoming into alignment, then my
health just magically shiftedall by itself.
And it just was an incredibleaha moment to bring all of the
work I'd been doing for myhealth into for 20 years and
crystallize it and bring it intolike full alignment.
(06:38):
And then I'd always known Iwanted to help other people
heal.
Like, think that I had like somespecial sauce, like how I could
treat this naturally for so manyyears successfully.
And I think I just always hadthis truth that it was
absolutely infinitely possible.
Like our bodies are incredibleand incredibly intelligent, and
(07:00):
everything that we need to healis within us.
And I just believed that sodeeply.
And I just now I'm just superpassionate about helping other
people like reclaim theirsovereignty and reclaim their
truth and take back their ownpower and connect with like how
(07:21):
truly divine the healing processis, and that it is all within
them and within their power toto take control of their lives
and and affect change in allsorts of amazing ways that lead
to better health.
That was a long answer to yourstory question.
SPEAKER_01 (07:34):
Oh, but like, oh my goodness, okay.
So there's so much in thatstory.
Like, whoa.
All right.
The first thing I want to know,because I think a lot of people
get to the point where you saidyou were, where like things just
weren't working, right?
And so it's like, okay, you getto the point where things just
aren't working.
How long did it take you beforeyou were like, okay, I'm just
(07:58):
gonna blow, I need to do allthese things.
How long did that process takejust to put it into perspective
for people?
SPEAKER_00 (08:04):
Well, I mean, I guess that's a really personal
question.
I mean, I'm happy to answer it,but I think this is where you
need to know your own self.
From my own personal path, I dohave a long history of doing
really radical things in areally fast way.
I do too.
So it's not, yeah, right.
So, like where other people canlike sit on decisions for a
long, long time and reallystruggle with that.
(08:27):
That's not really one of mypersonal challenges.
But actually, it was happeningin like 2022.
And it was like, I think I washaving a lot of frustration that
whole entire year.
And and then in September, likeI was just super frustrated.
I had just opened anotherbusiness in like May of that
year.
It was like that was a whole,like, we don't even need to get
(08:48):
into that necessarily becausethat's a waste of time.
But there was all these littletiny drips in my life that
started like exposing thesecracks, you know, in the
foundation.
SPEAKER_01 (08:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:59):
And I was busy trying to like put like spackle
on every crack in my life andand absolutely not really seeing
them or really like fullyreceiving the magnitude of what
was really happening, you know,is just really in a denial
because I didn't want to loseeverything I built, you know?
SPEAKER_01 (09:16):
Yeah, yeah.
It's hard.
SPEAKER_00 (09:18):
I know it's super hard.
But yeah, then the truth isthough, then I did I did a plant
medicine ceremony in Septemberof 2022.
I'd always been really called tothat.
And I always felt like it wouldcome to me when I needed to know
the answers.
SPEAKER_01 (09:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (09:33):
And so I did.
I reached out and I had, youknow, we can talk about that if
that's necessary.
But I did, I had a plantmedicine experience with
Wachuma, which is sacred cactus.
And I'm from Arizona, so it feltlike a perfect thing for me to
visit, like and sit with asacred plant cacti.
And then I went on a trip aroundthe world.
Well, I went to Europe and andfor a month by myself to really
(09:58):
like sit with like what washappening in my life, like six
days after I had that journey.
And then I came back after amonth, and then within three
months, then I just it was it.
I just closed my restaurant inlike four days.
I just closed it.
I just stopped, which by the wayis a really bad idea.
You don't do that.
(10:18):
Um, the ramifications are real.
Um, but that was what I did.
I just knew I had to justabsolutely stop.
And then once I did that,though, it's kind of like, you
know, like you think you'regonna get a new couch, you're
super excited about the couch,you buy the new couch, and then
all of a sudden you're like, ohmy God, the rug doesn't work,
and the and like the you know,the lamps suck, you know?
(10:41):
And so then you have to get newlamps and a new rug, and then
you're like, oh now I need topaint.
So it's like it was all exactlythat happened where I just
thought, oh my God, I just needto close this one business.
And then it was like, oh no, yougot to close mom.
You need to do all of the above.
Oh my God.
And then I started to see once Ihad all that out of my way, all
of the other places that my likewasn't working for me either,
(11:02):
because it was all right therein front of me.
SPEAKER_01 (11:04):
So I love what you said about how you just realized
that doing one thing wasn'treally enough.
You had to kind of like breakties with all these different
things and really dive in theplant ceremonial work.
I can totally relate.
I know people who've done that.
We've had a podcast guest onabout that, and that's really
powerful.
And I do think when people getto the right place in time, it
(11:24):
can be really helpful.
I want to take one step backthough.
And this is gonna sound reallysimple, but I guarantee you some
of the listeners don't evenunderstand.
Can you help me understand whatexactly MS is and the impact it
had on your body, even though, Imean, clearly you can cook
holistic medicine, nutrition,like you you know how to take
(11:45):
care of your body.
Can you share a little bit aboutwhat was actually happening to
your body as a result of havingthat?
So, what is it and what was theresult it was having on your
body before you made this bigtransition?
SPEAKER_00 (12:43):
Yeah, so multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune
disease and of your nervoussystem, and you know, it affects
the myelin sheath in your brainand your spinal cord.
And there's a lot of symptomsthat uh range from like
numbness, tingling, loss offeeling and sensation in your
legs, a lot of optic neuritis.
You can go blind.
(13:03):
And the trajectory of thedisease, untreated and
unchecked, is is likedebilitation, like you could be
blinded in a wheelchair.
You don't actually die of thedisease specifically, but you
die of, well, all of the otherthings.
Like, you know, nobody wants tobe bad ridden and blind.
Right.
So the modern techniques arepharmaceutical techniques, are a
(13:24):
lot of drugs that target, youknow, your immune system, immune
modulation, and your myelinsheath and, you know, things of
that nature.
And I feel like I started withdiet because you start with
things that really affect yournervous system.
Although in the modern world, wedon't really think about it like
(13:45):
as a specifically a way in whichyou can actually self-modulate
your nervous system.
SPEAKER_01 (13:50):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (13:51):
That was like kind of came later, but but we look
at all of the things that impactinflammation, right?
Because it's a it's a disease ofthe inflammation process.
And so we, you know, look atdiet, we looked at environment
and other types of healingmodalities that really lower the
inflammation.
But stress comes into it, but Idon't know that it's actually a
(14:15):
big part of the conversation.
But zooming way out, I think mypersonal belief, especially
after 20 years, is yeah, it'sdefinitely a disease that is um,
I don't even want to say it's adisease.
I think it's a manageablecondition that is an indication
of a deep dysregulation of yournervous system and your body
(14:36):
talking to you.
And as soon as you learn how tolisten to that, then your body
responds.
So I had before, I had a lot ofsuccess because I'd only treated
naturally and I've never donepharmaceutical intervention.
But I had a very tight life.
You know, I had a very tightdiet, I had a very tight
(14:57):
lifestyle.
I had like the perfect sleephygiene and perfect mattress and
like the perfect water and theperfect diet.
And but I wasn't actuallyconnected with the fact that I
worked a hundred hours a weekand had three businesses and 75
employees.
And I thought I went to yoga andI like did all of this stuff.
And I thought that was like Iwas crushing it.
SPEAKER_02 (15:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:21):
And then I really started to look at the other
ways in which my nervous systemwas absolutely shot, you know,
and I wasn't paying attention tothat huge aspect of things.
Like I could do all I could tolike lower my inflammatory
markers.
Yeah.
But until I looked at what wasactually causing my inflammation
(15:42):
to begin with, then um, outsideof my diet, things changed
really rapidly and reallyprofoundly.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:50):
I personally just think it's fascinating.
I think nervous systemregulation is fascinating, but I
also think it's incrediblyoverwhelming because it feels
like it's very grounded in likeyour mind and using your mind to
control your body.
And how did you deal with that?
(16:10):
Like, how did you learn to dothat?
SPEAKER_00 (16:14):
Well, I love what you just said because actually,
well, I want to validate whatyou said because a lot of
people, you know, like you canfix your gut, let's say, but
it's hard to believe that youcan fix your nervous system
because like you can find yourgut, you know what to do for
your gut.
But nervous system feels alittle nebulous, right?
You can't go and cut into yourbody and be like, oh yes,
(16:35):
there's the nervous system.
Yes.
But I would like to say that thenervous system doesn't exist in
our mind, it's our body.
And we think it's in our mind,but actually it's our entire
body, it's in our fascia, it'sin every cell of our body.
It is the interface.
It's actually in you and outsideof you.
You know, it's the energeticsense of the world and what's
(16:56):
safe and what's not safe.
And so it's a sensing feelingthing more than it is a mental
construct.
And now, currently, there'sdefinitely modalities that are
like a nervous system reset or avagus nerve reset.
And all of those things are asomatic experiencing, and those
are all incredibly importantpart of the process.
(17:18):
And like traumatic release, andall of these are really
important nervous systemtechniques, but you're not
necessarily going andrecognizing you can befriend
your nervous system, you cancontrol your nervous system, you
can do your own nervous systemregulation.
All of those things arefoundational to letting go of
the past.
(17:40):
But if you're not connected tothe ways in which you live your
life every single day in serviceof keeping your own nervous
system perpetually dysregulated,it doesn't, it doesn't really
matter, you know?
I mean, it does, but you justare going to continue to
dysregulate yourself every day.
SPEAKER_01 (17:55):
Yeah.
Was there anything specific thatyou started doing when you were
in Costa Rica and having thisjourney that you were like, oh
wow, I start to feel a shift?
Was there like an aha of somesort?
SPEAKER_00 (18:08):
Yeah.
And I think that I thank you forasking that.
For sure, the work that I dowith people is a reflection of
the work for myself as well.
And that is really learning awhole bunch of different things.
It's like creating safety withinand like you help yourself feel
safe.
I mean, at right now, it's verypopular to say, oh, you're
(18:29):
triggering me or I don't feelsafe.
And it's like, okay, well, Imean, that's true for sure, but
like that is all within you.
You create your own safetywithin.
And so I work with clients tobuild the container so that you
can actually begin the processof building that self-trust.
And then another part of it isthis idea of emotional
(18:52):
regulation and capacity.
And, you know, a lot of us willcreate stories from emotions.
And then from the story thatthey create from the emotions,
then they make decisions.
And actually the decisions arebased on stories that are not
true, that are based on emotionsthat will pass.
Sure.
(19:12):
And then they create an identityfrom those stories, and that
continues to keep your nervoussystem dysregulated.
And it's all also not true.
And so if you can learn, right?
And so if you can learn to buildcapacity to handle your
emotions, a lot of us have noreal connection with that.
(19:33):
I certainly didn't.
I mean, for heaven's sakes, it'slike I had three food businesses
and 75 employees and customersout the door all the time.
It's like I had no emotionalregulation.
Like I never learned that in mylife.
I came from a very traumaticchildhood.
And I built a life in service ofkeeping my own nervous system
dysregulated, which by the wayfelt perfectly normal.
(19:55):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (19:55):
Of course.
It's all you know.
It's all your nervous systemknows, too.
It was all I knew.
Right.
It feels very comfortable.
SPEAKER_00 (20:01):
And so once I learned to like be able to hold
my emotions, build emotionalcapacity, like the capacity to
hold all that is that youprocess and comes in every day
and goes out.
Everything that you feel is noteverything that you are.
And you don't need to create anidentity around everything that
you feel, but actually have thecapacity to recognize is
(20:25):
emotions are energy in motion.
It's just an energetic frequencythat comes in and it goes out.
And we attach to that and belike, I'm depressed, like I'm a
really depressed person.
And then you create a story anddecisions, and it's just a whole
rabbit hole.
SPEAKER_02 (20:40):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (20:40):
And then learning to deal with like the sensations
within your body that come andarise from feeling the energy of
all of these emotions.
And it does, it's dysregulatingin your body, it's
uncomfortable, it's agitating.
And learning how to feel thosesensations, hold those
sensations and recognize that,well, number one, that they will
(21:04):
pass.
And number two, that you havethe capacity to hold all that.
That's why we're built, that'show we're designed.
Yeah.
And number three, that you canactually modulate that and
create that's part of thatsafety.
And you can self-soothe and allof those kind of things.
And then what happens when youstart begin to learn how to do
(21:26):
all that is number one, yourbody starts to trust you because
you're trusting it.
You're trusting your body isactually sharing something with
you, and then you're listening,and then you're taking aligned
action.
And then when you take alignedaction, your body, it's like a
positive feedback.
It continues to want to likeshare more with you.
(21:47):
And then you're like, oh mygosh, there's more I can do.
Yeah.
And more within your body startsto trust you.
You start to trust your body.
And then from there, all of asudden your health starts to
shift without you actually goingin and trying to do anything and
fix that.
So it's just a really beautiful,organic, natural process.
SPEAKER_01 (22:05):
That sounds amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (22:07):
Yeah, it's actually it's it's everybody should have
more emotional regulation.
They should.
SPEAKER_01 (22:13):
Yeah.
And I'm wondering if like peoplefind you and they just feel so
out of control.
And one of the gifts you'regiving them is a way to gain
that control back by building adifferent relationship with
their body.
SPEAKER_00 (22:28):
Yeah.
That's a really insightfulquestion because one of the
things that happens, and youknow that this is true too, is
we have co-regulation and limbicresonance.
So that is a real scientificthing that happens.
And it's this is like when youwalk into a really chaotic
space, and your body, yournervous system recognizes it
(22:52):
immediately, and you immediatelyfeel like, oh, this is charged.
SPEAKER_02 (22:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (22:57):
Likewise, when you walk into like, let's say, a spa
environment or something likethat, and everything is so zen
and so relaxed, you're justlike, oh, you just immediately
want to sink in with likerelief.
The same thing happens whenwe're working with people.
And so my job is to have thecalmest, most centered nervous
(23:19):
system.
SPEAKER_01 (23:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:20):
And your nervous system actually gravitates to
co-regulate with mine.
Regardless of what you think isgoing on, your nervous system is
already in resonance with mine.
Interesting.
unknown (23:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:34):
Uh-huh.
And this is just how it works.
And this is scientificallyproven.
And so your nervous system, soover time, your nervous system
will learn to relax and rest andrelax and rest.
Every time you and I are inco-creation, and every time you
and I are talking, your nervoussystem is mirroring mine.
(23:54):
And you're starting to feelcalmer all the time.
And then your nervous systemwants to be like that because
that's our nerve natural stateof being.
SPEAKER_01 (24:03):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (24:04):
And so once we can sink into what our natural, true
natural state of being is in ourown natural resonance, then, and
a lot of this happens sonaturally, like you don't have
to go in and tinker with it.
Like your nervous system knowswhat to do.
And in fact, your nervous systemwants to do this.
You know, it doesn't want to beregulated all the time, which is
(24:24):
the reason why it creates all ofthese other problems in your
body.
It wants to be at rest and itwants to be at peace.
And you know, so it wants to becalm.
It wants to be calm.
SPEAKER_01 (24:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I am guessing based on howyou describe that.
By the way, I have to say I feelso calm.
Like, yikes.
And I need nervous systemregulation, like trying to
figure that out in my ownpersonal life with my own
personal health.
But so you call yourself atransformation guide on your
website.
So this feels like this might bewhere we're going, which is why
(24:57):
I'm gonna ask the question.
So, what exactly does that mean?
And how do you put that topractice with your clients?
SPEAKER_00 (25:03):
Yeah, that's such a great question.
So I think it's important totalk about the difference
between change andtransformation and the
difference between a coach and aguide.
SPEAKER_02 (25:15):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (25:16):
Because a coach will coach you on change.
Change is linear in trajectory.
And change is not permanent.
We can change the color of ourhair, we can change our clothes,
we can change our mind, we canchange our diet, and we can
change back, right?
We can regain that weight.
We can change the color of ourhair whenever we want, we can
(25:36):
change our mind, change ourpolitical affiliation, we can
change anything.
And change is not permanent,transformation is.
(28:16):
Right.
Yes.
It's something that unfolds inits own natural, beautiful
timing at the timing and thepace of nature.
Um, because we are nature andour nervous system, we heal in a
completely different way.
You know, in the modern world,we like to force healing into a
timeline.
Yes.
And it doesn't work like that.
(28:38):
It's like you can't you can'tforce spring to come early.
You can't force the flowers tobloom, you can't force that baby
to come before you're ready togive birth.
Right.
Yeah.
And you can't force anything inthe natural world.
And so true deep healing is theexact same way.
It's a matter of holding spaceand building trust for the
(29:00):
actual process of healing itselfand being in the now and just
being with what is and learningto trust the wisdom of that.
Yeah.
And that kind of stuff.
So that's how transformation isdifferent.
That I hold the space for youand your process and the beauty
(29:21):
of you.
And then get you in touch withyour own beauty, your own
wisdom, your own ability toaffect change within your own
life.
And then that's just anincredible, it's an honor for
me.
But it's an honor as wellbecause to be in a container
where you're always witnessed, alot of times we're not always
(29:43):
witnessed.
And you're witnessed in yourentirety, in the beauty of
everything that you are rightnow.
And there's nothing that I'mwitnessing your entire process.
And there's something reallypowerful about the witnessing
and observing thing, kind ofgoes into a little bit of
quantum theory.
Yeah.
But that right there, theobserver effect creates a
(30:05):
tremendous amount of change allby itself.
So I don't know if I answeredthat question, but you did.
SPEAKER_01 (30:10):
You did.
So I have a couple of questions.
So I think most people work withyou for many months, right?
Six months, nine months, maybeeven longer, right?
Nine months.
Okay.
Yep.
So how do you help people staypatient?
Because I feel like our societythat we live in, we just
innately are not patient humanbeings at all.
(30:32):
Myself included, I am notpatient at all.
And it also feels like it's notlike, oh, I'm gonna do this this
week, and next week I'm gonnalike see, just like you said,
with the diet.
Like, I'm gonna do this, andthen next week I'm gonna weigh a
pound less, and then I'm gonnakeep doing it, and then the
following week I'm
SPEAKER_00 (30:47):
weigh a pound less and it's like it feels I don't
want to say it feels woo-woo butit feels abstract and so how do
you help your clients becomfortable with the
abstractness of this processyeah it is abstract but do you
(31:07):
know the nervous system in andof itself feels abstract right
yes and I think that that's sucha beautiful question and it just
starts really really slow andand it is it's something for
sure when I first started I feelthe same way I I like to say
that I'm like in type A recoveryyou know I I had this totally
(31:28):
different life and you just haveto it's just one day at a time
it's just it is really slow andit is maybe frustrating at first
but you know what's reallyinteresting is while your mind
is running a rat race trying tofigure it all out your body is
responding kind of like how doyou have children I do I do I
have a 19 year old who doesn'tlive at home anymore but yeah I
(31:50):
have a 19 year old okay so youremember when you're pregnant
and you're gonna go into laborand have this baby and you have
this whole mindset around howyour birth is going to go?
Yeah and like can you controlwhen this birthing is going to
happen and what it's gonna looklike.
Right.
(32:10):
And did you ever have any sortof like all these mental things
going on like how this processwas going to unfold the way you
think it's going to be it'snever the way you think but also
for me anyway I think uh I wassuper profound because when I
was in labor it was like yourbody knew what to do.
(32:32):
And it didn't matter what youwere thinking about it.
SPEAKER_02 (32:35):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (32:35):
You could think anything you wanted but your
body in all of its wisdom andall these beautiful feminine
codes of birthing like wasalways within you.
And it didn't really matter whatyou wanted to put into it like a
birthing plan or well it didn'tmatter.
It could look it doesn't matteryour body knew exactly what to
do no matter what your mind wasthinking.
(32:58):
And so back to your questionthis is the exact same way
because once your body oncewe're in this we build a
container and once we build thecontainer then I'm the one who
holds the space for thecontainer and your brain will do
a whole bunch of somersaults andprotest the process and do all
(33:21):
the things the brain does whileyour body will actually
immediately start to respond.
Because your body knows yourbody automatically recognizes
it.
And so yeah there will be thesemoments of like dichotomy where
you're just like mentally likewhat and then but your body's
(33:41):
like oh no we're doing this.
SPEAKER_02 (33:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (33:43):
And just like you're giving that birth you know where
your brain is like oh no andyour body's like no we're doing
this you know it's it's actuallythe exact same way.
It feels a little bit differentbut you are you're burning a new
you so that's why it's a ninemonth process.
Yes, right.
Yes.
Yeah it's a birthing process.
So it starts slow and small andlike the beginning of your
(34:04):
pregnancy and then it culminateswith um the end and you're a
transformed healthy person.
SPEAKER_01 (34:11):
That's so fascinating.
Do the people who come to youare most of them coming to you
truly from a health perspectiveor are they coming to you from
like you said like all of asudden your life you were like I
need a new life.
SPEAKER_00 (34:25):
I think in a lot of our healing path altogether, you
know, it takes some time.
It's this particular type ofperson who is really ready and
willing to really understandthat true change just comes from
within and they're ready to goon that journey.
Because they've tried enoughother things and and in a lot of
(34:45):
times in our healing path we cantry certain things and they work
for a minute and then they kindof lose their steam.
SPEAKER_02 (34:54):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (34:55):
And you can become frustrated or you could try a
different thing or a differentdiet or a different path or a
different doctor.
Or even if you're on atraditional trajectory you start
to recognize other ways in yourlife where you're disempowered
and you have given up your ownpower and you start to recognize
that wait a minute like I thisis not how I wanted to live my
(35:16):
life you know I thought I wantedto be healthier and happier and
I wanted I didn't want to bedebilitated or or whatever that
process is.
But at some point everybody hasto come to it within themselves
that they're ready for the deepchange and for the work and
they're ready to surrender to aprocess that's bigger than they
(35:37):
can mentally imagine.
And and they want it forthemselves.
And so I think it's it's reallyall around that you have to
authentically believe thatyou're capable of it and you
have to authenticallyenergetically be ready for the
process and to commit to it.
(35:57):
And then once once you areauthentically ready and
energetically connected to thetruth of that like within
yourself like this is somethingthat I am empowered to do and I
know that I am capable of ityeah then then that's where we
begin.
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (36:13):
Wow how do you stay in like in all of this positive
balance like you feel so calmhow do you personally how do you
stay there?
SPEAKER_00 (36:25):
Because life is still life you know like to
think that everything can besunshine and roses even when you
get to spend part of the yearliving in Costa Rica life is
life is still happening so howdo you stay in this space
personally yeah thank you well Ido I have a number of different
practices you know like I usedto get right out of bed and jump
(36:47):
on my computer and jump onInstagram make my coffee and
make my to-do list and no Idon't do that anymore we all
want your life right there rightnow all of us are like sign me
up because that just gets yournervous system dysregulated
right away and instead I comeinto myself every morning I have
(37:10):
a sacred time which is about anhour to an hour and a half every
morning I meditate right I wakeup I pee it's dark still
wherever it is I am and I justsit for 30 minutes and and
sometimes it's an affirmationsometimes it looks a little bit
different but it's a 30 minutemeditation.
And then I make my coffee or youcan make your tea or whatever
(37:32):
you do for your morning beverageand I sit outside in nature and
I sit I don't open my computer Idon't look checking my phone I
don't do a single thing.
And I sit in nature for at leastanother 30 minutes in silence
and just align myself with theenergy and vibration of nature
because we are nature we arefrom nature we are part of
(37:54):
nature and like that's our truevibration our true essence and I
just watch nature I watch thesun I watch the clouds I watch
the birds I watch whatever ishappening and unfolding and I
just sit in silence with myselfand just really center myself
for the day.
And then I just put myself firstat all times, which sounds
(38:18):
selfish but you know when youlearn to choose yourself first
all the time like choose whatserves you only always in the
process you make everybody elsehappy and you serve everybody
else.
Yeah.
A lot of times we serveeverybody else first and we give
ourselves what's left and therenever is anything left at the
(38:38):
end of the day.
And so when you start your dayby only serving yourself first,
then you have a lot more to giveto the world after that.
SPEAKER_02 (38:47):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (38:48):
Oh and I always say if you don't take like if you
don't take care of you, no oneelse is going to and that's not
a new phrase.
We all know that but you knowit's like you really you need to
be able to fill your cup andenergetically balance yourself
if you ever think you're goingto be able to get anyone else to
do anything or be your best selfto help anybody else either.
SPEAKER_00 (39:09):
Yeah.
And I do the same practice atnight in um kind of a reverse
and I spend at least 30 minutessometimes only 15 but in just in
silence and just let the energyof the day just sort of leave my
body.
Your system wants to release allthat sometimes we just don't
have any sort of likedemarcation between the end of
(39:32):
our day and the beginning ofnight and you have all these
people who have dysregulatedsleep and all of these other
things.
And if we're not givingourselves a little pause at the
end of the day to release all ofthe day and the energy of all
the things that we did and thepeople that we were with and all
of that stuff.
And then that can dysregulateour sleep.
And so I give myself a space atthe end of the day to just have
(39:55):
silence and it doesn'tnecessarily need to be
meditation but it just issilence and rest to just allow
the everything to just sort ofleave my body so that I can have
a a better night's rest.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (40:10):
Yeah which sounds heavenly all right and I am sure
there's some people that arelistening that are like okay
that sounds really great for youthat you get to spend an hour
and a half every morning in thiscalm state and you know all of
this like it sounds heavenly andlovely but that just doesn't fit
into a lot of people'srealities.
(40:30):
Totally.
So what would you suggest tosomeone who's listening in terms
of what they could do on asmaller scale to help themselves
be calm, tap into their nervoussystem a little bit, like dabble
in this concept of regulatingthe nervous system when you know
they might have like three youngkids and like that's nice.
(40:50):
There just isn't an hour and ahalf left in the morning.
Right.
So I yeah yeah what suggestionwould you give for the people
that are in that stage of life?
SPEAKER_00 (40:58):
Yeah, for sure, because I think that wouldn't
have been available to me at aprevious chapter of my life for
sure.
But I think it's a couple ofdifferent things first starting
with your belief system that youcome first and that you deserve
you deserve to put yourselffirst and that this is your only
one life and putting yourselffirst in this mindset.
(41:23):
And so even if you only havefive minutes at the beginning of
the day and maybe it doesn'tlook like meditation but maybe
while you're brewing your coffeeor before the kids and before
all the things you have fiveminutes.
SPEAKER_02 (41:35):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (41:35):
And even five minutes to just come into your
center like I own I deserve thisI am worth this and coming into
like sitting with yourself andjust really taking some deep
breaths and centering yourselfbecause what happens is it just
builds on itself all by all onits own.
(42:04):
Social media for heaven's sakeswe do we do give away our time
and you know what you willalways find time for the things
that are important to you.
You always do yes you always do.
And so as soon as you come intothat truth of I am worth this
and I deserve this and I want toput myself first I believe that
(42:25):
that is true.
Then you start in small waysfive minutes here five minutes
sitting in your car before yourkids race out of the school to
jump in the car and you get rushoff to after school activities.
But if you just commit to fiveminutes a couple times a day to
just coming into that like Ideserve this, I am doing this
for me, you can begin justthere, just owning and just
(42:46):
believing that you deserve it.
And maybe even looking at otherways in your day in which you
give away your day to otherthings that don't serve you.
SPEAKER_01 (42:54):
Yeah I love that concept of really looking at
your time and think of all theways that you give away your
time and I think yeah you knowpersonally we give a ton of time
to social media but we also givea lot of time to being really
frustrated and annoyed andanxious and angry with things
that happen and we often spend alot of time like rehashing those
(43:16):
situations.
Like especially in work right orin corporate America like you're
rehashing the situation thathappened and that was bad and
you're then giving thatnegativity even more time.
So I think it's a reallypractical and very cool concept
to get people to think about howtheir time is being used.
And wouldn't it be cool ifinstead of rehashing or saying
(43:38):
that negative thing thathappened again to the fifth
person and explaining it againto and complaining to the fifth
person like let that go.
Give yourself that those 10minutes and do something else
with that time.
Oh I love that exciting that isreally powerful.
All right before we run out oftime I want to talk about a
couple things what is nervoussystem restoration that you talk
(43:59):
about on your website and how isthat different from some other
healing modalities that might beout there?
Well we've been talking aboutnervous system restoration this
whole last hour okay I wasn'tsure I wanted to make sure
because it's on your website soI want to make sure it's like
really clear to everybody ifthey go and follow you and go
look you up like that is what wetalked about.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (44:19):
Yeah this entire conversation is all of the
layers of nervous systemrestoration and that is building
this container meeting you whereyou're at you coming into this
truth and alignment you trustingthat your body is going to do
this building co-regulation inlimbic resonance learning to
build emotional capacitylearning to um befriend your
(44:42):
nervous system and all of theseare very a lot of layers also
looking at a lot of traumaticrelease will actually happen in
this process because we bury alot of our past traumas that
were never met and seen and allof those things yeah in our body
and in our nervous system.
That's where it lives and itwants to come out.
(45:04):
Yeah and it's trying desperatelyto come out and so um and it
does it starts to come outnaturally in this process
because it feels safe and itfeels held and so things will
traumatic things will come upthat you're not even mentally
it'll just come into your lifeit'll just come up and you'll be
like oh my God Christine I thinkI want to talk about this thing.
(45:26):
And I'm just like yeah let's doit because yeah second it comes
into your mind and you're readythen I hold the space for that
to be seen and felt and movedthrough right so that it can
leave your body and leave yournervous system and leave that
distortion leaves your yourenergy field.
And so it's a multi-layeredprocess and then you start to
realize like oh my God then youstart to see your relationship
(45:49):
with your nervous system and howyou create your own stress.
Yes.
Sure and and how you are incontrol of like remodeling what
that looks like and that is allwithin you of the power to do
that.
And so it's esoteric but it'salso very specific.
It's all of these micro layersthat all get built into the
(46:12):
container in our work togetherevery day all the time through a
nine month process.
SPEAKER_01 (46:17):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (46:18):
And your body is what actually leads the charge
and informed by and then itcomes into your mind as a great
idea and then that's where Imeet you.
SPEAKER_02 (46:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (46:26):
Um but then through that process yeah so you have
all of these things like somaticexperiencing and restoration and
all of those micro things leadto the restoration of your
nervous system which then leadsto transformation.
SPEAKER_01 (46:43):
Yeah sure right makes perfect sense to me I get
it I get it.
Okay so I want to make sure wetalk about this because I talked
about it in the beginning youlive in I don't know what the
right words are you spent timein Costa Rica you spent time in
Colorado I think you might evenspend time somewhere else can
you talk to her about how didyou build that lifestyle?
SPEAKER_00 (47:02):
Well it was definitely always a dream of
mine to well you know I left uhrestaurants and so it was a very
dense like energy of like beingrooted in one place.
You don't get to do that whenyou have restaurants and you
don't get to leave for verylong.
And I just really wanted tobuild a life of expansion and
freedom and that's one of mycore values is is expansion and
(47:22):
freedom.
And so that was really reallyimportant to me when I was like
liberated from my very 3D heavylife of restaurants and storage
units and all that stuff.
And so I think it's I've beenreally blessed to just design my
life in this work.
It all happens online and thenon WhatsApp and it's just the
(47:43):
way in which I built thiscontainer and so yeah I've been
able to create this life but Idon't you know I think that it's
worked for me for the time to Imean I will always have a life
of expansion and freedom becausethat's the life that I want.
SPEAKER_01 (47:56):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (47:57):
But I am in the process of moving back to
Boulder and I feel like I'm aready for a more rooted life and
to be reunited with my storageunit.
SPEAKER_01 (48:09):
But that's good.
That demonstrates it's likeeverything is sometimes right
for a time or a season and beingokay flowing with that and doing
what was the right thing for youat that time for you to be
living your best life and thenrecognizing that a pivot is okay
whether that's where you livewho your spouse is who you're
(48:30):
partnered with what your job islike recognizing and giving
yourself the permission to havethat ebb and flow in life as you
start us saying like that's partof transformation.
It's not linear it's up and downand up and down and that's part
of the whole journey.
It's just a beautifulrepresentation of it.
SPEAKER_00 (48:48):
Yeah thank you for noticing that and and it really
is it's a different chapter youknow change is changes change
like everything is alwayschanging all the time.
Yeah and a lot of us want to notchange and that's not how nature
works that's not how the worldworks.
We're always changing.
Yes and so if you can ride thechanges of life and embrace
(49:12):
where you are I think thateverything would be would flow a
lot easier for sure.
There'd be a little bit lessstress in everybody's lives.
SPEAKER_01 (49:19):
Yeah there sure would be all right so for our
friends out there who have MS,right?
And they are looking for help,whether it be with you or
someone else and they feelreally overwhelmed, what would
you suggest to them as a placeto start to give them some hope?
SPEAKER_00 (49:36):
The most important question that you can ask
yourself is are you living yourbest and only life that you have
and are you living a bestversion of the only life you are
living back here, right?
Yeah.
And are you living that life ordo you feel like there's more do
you believe that it's possibledo you authentically believe
(50:00):
that it is possible for you tolive a better life than what
you're living now yeah and notonly do you believe it but do
you believe it's within you toactually be the one to effect
change within your own lifebecause all healing is
self-healing yes and we all areborn with this intrinsic ability
(50:20):
to heal.
This is how this is how we'rewe're designed I think yeah you
just really have to sit and lookat yourself and sit in that five
minutes and be like what how howam I not living the best life I
can possibly live and a lot oftimes we're disempowered
especially in the diseaseprocess by doctors scare you and
(50:42):
believe that you're you knowespecially young children my
daughter was three and my sonwas six when I was diagnosed
with MS.
So I fully understand the fearand uncertainty you know but I
did know without question of adoubt that the vision I had for
my future was that I would bedancing at my children's
wedding.
Oh I love that.
(51:03):
Yeah.
And so like what vision do youhave for your future that you
authentically believe that iswithin your power and how do you
want to live this only life inthe fullest most amazing way
possible.
SPEAKER_01 (51:15):
That is so beautiful.
That's so beautiful that's liketotally actionable and something
that people can really do.
And it they're really powerfulquestions.
And I think you need to reallysit with those questions and be
really honest with yourselfbecause that is where so much of
it starts is brutal honesty.
I know I got here by having tobe brutally honest with myself
and that's tough.
(51:36):
Yeah it's it is it's not easyand it's very scary.
But I thank you for coming onand sharing your journey because
you can demonstrate to peoplethat it is possible.
You can it is deal with thefears of that you can have
massive change you can getbetter you can live a healthier
life and you can have somecontrol over some of these
(51:57):
medical diagnoses that can feelvery scary in many ways.
Yeah.
So that is so beautiful I loveit.
Okay so before we run out oftime two things for you one I
always love to ask people torecommend a book that has
impacted or books that hasimpacted themselves personally
and professionally because I'm atrue believer that books can
change lives.
So I would love to know whatbook you recommend people should
(52:19):
read.
SPEAKER_00 (52:20):
Well the book that's been my Bible for the last
number of years is called TheGreat Work of Your Life by
Stephen Cope.
SPEAKER_01 (52:27):
I haven't read that one okay I love that because I
do try to read all the books.
SPEAKER_00 (52:31):
So yes I love that book so much and that's really
was really great because youknow I love being a chef and I
love cooking.
I'm a really good cook.
Yeah um and I love buildingcommunity and all of those
things and when I lost all thatI was super despairing because I
was just like does this meanlike I was doing the wrong thing
and and when I was going throughall these changes and there was
(52:54):
so much I didn't understandabout what was happening to me
because the transformation beganwithout me even really knowing
it.
You know in my head I was tryingto like grasp onto all these
things in my life that weren'tserving me.
But I was already changing fromwithin and that book really was
a beautiful way for me torecognize the true work of my
(53:16):
life.
Yeah and I think a lot of us aredoing a job and we're not really
living in service of what ourtrue soul's path is supposed to
be and how we're supposed toshow up in this world and be of
service.
And so yeah I I think that thatbook was really transformative
for me.
I'm gonna get that and readthat.
SPEAKER_01 (53:35):
So thank you very much.
Is there anything that I didn'task you that you want to make
sure you communicate or talkabout did I miss anything?
I'll put in the show notes howeverybody can find you your bio
all of the things so people canfollow, find you, email, reach
out.
SPEAKER_00 (53:49):
No, this is such a wonderful conversation I thought
I think it was just beautiful.
SPEAKER_01 (53:54):
Oh well thank you so much Christine everything that
you stand for is something thatI am so passionate and just so
curious about nervous systemregulation I think is really
powerful.
And even just the thought thatwe can heal ourselves from
within is something that isreally high on my list of things
that I'm trying to tune inpersonally to.
So I'm excited to get to sharethis with all the listeners
(54:15):
because I think all of us needmore of this and we need
examples of people who are doingit to help us have faith that we
can do it too.
So I thank you so much.
I thank you for coming forsharing your journey we will
stay connected I will follow youI encourage everybody to follow
you and reach out if you havequestions whether you have MS or
(54:36):
not you know Christine's a valueshe's a super valuable resource
and maybe one day in the futureshe will help more than just
people with MS.
You never know.
SPEAKER_00 (54:46):
I'm hopeful I'm hopeful yeah I guess I want to
just say then I'm always happyto have an alignment call
because I talk to a lot ofpeople and I give freely of my
time I don't have any I don'tcharge at all you can contact me
on my website and even if youdon't have MS, but you're
curious about either the processfor yourself or you're curious
about where you should turn Imean even if you don't have a
(55:07):
disease but you want to be alive in more alignment I have a
lot of intuitive knowledge andI'm happy to share and give gift
of my time.
So don't hesitate to reach outto me.
SPEAKER_01 (55:20):
Thank you.
That is so beautiful.
All right great it was apleasure to meet you and we will
stay in touch.
Thank you for joining us foranother episode of the House of
Germar podcast where wellnessstarts within we appreciate you
being a part of our communityand hope you felt inspired and
motivated by our guest.
If you enjoyed this episodeplease write us a review and
(55:42):
share it with friends.
Building our reach on YouTubeand Apple Podcasts will help us
get closer to our mission toempower one million women to
live all in.
You can also follow us onInstagram at House of Germar and
sign up to be a part of ourmonthly inspiration newsletter
through our websitehouseofgermar.com If you or
(56:03):
someone you know would be a goodguest on the show, please reach
out to us at podcast athouseofgermar.com.
This has been House of GermarProduction with your host, Gene
Collins.
Thank you for joining our house
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.