January 22, 2025 • 61 mins
SHOW #74! Season 3, Episode 5: Welcome to the disSOLViNG fear podcast! Find coaching, free resources, our monthly newsletter community and more at missalissa.com.
IN THIS EPISODE I talk with naturopathic physician Dr. Nicola, who lives in the pristine San Juan Mountains of Colorado, and helps her patients achieve optimal health in a variety of ways.
Share this episode with anyone in your life who is interested in learning more about nutrition, good sleep, hormones, digestion, auto-immune issues, Hashimoto's disease, anxiety, mental health, and even recovering from injuries.
If you want to learn more about living your best life despite illness, injury, and emotional ups and downs, tune in!
Dr. Nicola will be offering a 6 week online anxiety program called “Making Peace - Reclaiming your Inner Calm” starting Feb 6, 2025. Here’s the link if you’re interested!
https://puravidahealthcare.com/product/making-peace-2025/
Here is Dr. Nicola's general website for you to explore!
https://puravidahealthcare.com/services/
If you love this episode, you'll really enjoy these past episodes. They're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. I've included the Apple Podcast links below!
You might enjoy:
Legs Up the Wall Guided Relaxation
Starting Over with Champion Ultra Runner Katie Arnold
This TEDx Speaker is Fearless with MS (Multiple Sclerosis)
Thank you for being HERE at disSOLViNG fear.
Fear doesn't run the show, YOU do!
Much Love, Alissa
Visit missalissa.com to join the free newsletter community, book a 1:1 coaching call, and explore awesome ways to create your best life!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the podcast if you have big dreams and plans, but
you get distracted by fear and doubt.
TuneIn, because we can all live a more fearless and free life
starting today. Fear doesn't run the show you
do, and fear doesn't run this show.
I'm your host, Alyssa, and the mission here is a world where
fear doesn't control us. Follow this podcast, You'll love
(00:23):
the results. Loving life is what we're all
about here on the podcast and atmissalyssa.com.
Enjoy the show. So, Doctor Nicola, welcome to
the podcast. Hi, thanks so much for having
me. I'm excited to be here.
You're a naturopathic physician,a thought leader in the field of
mind body medicine, and everyonelistening If you want to learn
(00:46):
more about chronic illness or just your own emotions and how
to live better. TuneIn Doctor Nicola empowers
people to heal themselves and she's the founder of Pura Vida
Healthcare in Durango, Co Welcome to the podcast.
Thanks so much. So tell us a little bit about
yourself. How did you decide on the name
(01:08):
Pura Vida Healthcare? Is that because you love Costa
Rica? It's there's layers to it.
Yeah. I mean, I think the first time I
was introduced to that phrase absolutely was in in Costa Rica.
And I love it because it's it's the answer for everything.
It's like, hey, how's it going? Put a Vita like it's all.
It's, there's this energy of it's all all good, like
(01:29):
everything is OK. And that's really what I want to
embody in my practice with myself and with my clients is
like everything is OK, Everything that's here.
Even the symptoms that feel intense are overwhelming or we
don't know what to do with like put a Vida like it's, it's OK.
And I also, I do speak Spanish And so I did want to have a nod
(01:49):
to the Spanish speaking community and let them know that
they do have an ally here. And then I really like the
direct translation too, which isyour life, which is really what
we're trying to do when we're healing right, is get back to
this place where we can live ourfullest life and optimal
vitality, you know, from this place of our, our, our true
(02:10):
essence. I love that.
So I thought we would run through some of your areas of
expertise like daily habits, sleep and insomnia, diet and
nutrition. I'm mentioning these because if
you're a listener, tune and we're going to try to cover a
lot of things, the mind, body connection, hormone balance and
(02:32):
self regulation, regulating the nervous system.
I do a lot of episodes on different tools and practices to
regulate the nervous system. So I'm excited to hear what your
take is on that. And then of course, like
digestion, moving the body, physical health and mental
health and inflammation. And so let's start with
(02:53):
listening to your body. When you talk to your patients
about the importance of listening to their body, what do
you guys usually discuss? I think, you know, that's a
phrase that I think we hear a lot now, right, is listen to
your body, listen to your body. And really, I think the
invitation I'm trying to offer is that when we have a symptom,
(03:14):
it's the body's way of trying toget our attention.
It's the body's way of trying tosay that something isn't quite
right here. So I have a headache or I have
digestive upset or I have some anxiety coming on board.
And so, but you know, we live inthis culture of anti
anti-inflammatory antidepressants, an anti
(03:34):
hypertensive, you know, all of these things.
So we're the, our, our western allopathic medical approach is
always to move away from what's happening.
And so when I say listen to yourbody, it's like, let's get
closer to what's happening. And for a lot of my patients,
especially initially, they're like, if you lived in this body
and felt how I feel, you wouldn't want me to get closer
(03:57):
to it because it's uncomfortable.
But really, there's so much wisdom in what's happening in
the body on every level, physical, mental, emotional and
spiritual, that this there's andthat's the wisdom.
And so when I say listen to yourbody, it's because there's this
knowing that's coming through that we in our culture are quick
(04:19):
to suppress. We're quick to move away from or
numb out or distract from. And that keeps us caught in
patterns that keep us in a stateof dis ease.
Yeah. I agree that's.
Easy. Yeah.
(04:41):
And when I think of our emotions, you know, like anxiety
tells us sometimes that something's off in the room,
something's off with the person we're with.
Yes. And resentment tells us that we
didn't honor a boundary and thensomebody, you let somebody
encroach on a boundary. So I think when we listen to our
(05:01):
emotions, it tells us how do we want to navigate life better the
next time. Yes, absolutely, yeah.
And then with physical injuries,when you see somebody with pain
and inflammation, how does that usually go?
Do you feel like usually people do connect more to their body
when they have an injury or do you help them with that process?
(05:27):
I think that people become more aware of their body because
they're having the signal of pain and it's it's, but I also
think people become very fixatedon making that pain signal go
away. And so it's so there's a lot of
pressure put on the body to havea different experience.
I'm going to do this medicine, I'm going to do this PT, I'm
(05:50):
going to do this acupuncture. It doesn't matter what we're
choosing, but I'm going to do that so that this goes away.
And if it doesn't, that relationship of trust that we
have with our body starts to crumble and we start, and I see
a lot of resentment against the body and patients dismay, anger,
(06:11):
hatred. You know, it can really move
into some deep places if the body isn't responding the way
the mind says we're supposed to respond.
Like, OK, I've had this knee pain for two weeks now.
It should be gone by now. Or I did 6 sessions of PT.
It should be resolved by now. And it's like, we'll hang on a
second. So there's that mind body
connection piece of it around. What comes up for you when you
(06:34):
have pain? What comes up for you when you
have to move more slowly in the world?
And then it gets into the stories that we tell ourselves
around. Well, then you're not
productive, you're not valuable.We go deeper than that.
I'm not going to be loved. I'm not going to be accepted.
What's my worth if I can't be, you know, do all the things at
(06:55):
maximum speed? Am I going to have a place in
the world anymore? What's my identity if I'm not
doing 100 things a day all the time?
And when our body gets sick or gets injured, then we it starts
to kind of shift some of those foundational pieces that we put
(07:15):
in to feel OK every day. So that's where we get to slow
down and say, well, what would it mean if you didn't do all
these things in a day or you didjust do one or two things that
really brought you pleasure? And then the other thing is
bringing in the Physiology, which is helping people to
understand that the nervous system has a lot to do with
(07:37):
inflammation, as does the immunesystem.
You know, the inflammation is a,is a branch of the immune
system. But as far as a nervous system
goes, you know, we have that stress hormone, cortisol.
And we all know, Oh yeah, cortisol is a stress hormone.
What we forget is that cortisol is also the hormone that manages
inflammation. So if we think about
(07:59):
medications, we have hydrocortisone, we have
corticosteroids, right. These are these are heavy duty
anti inflammatories, but they all have this kind of basis in
cortisol. So if we are stressed out all
the time, evolutionarily we're going to favor that fight or
flight pathway so that we survive.
Because if we've been eaten by the tiger, it doesn't really
(08:21):
matter that we have a an inflamed painful knee, we're
dead. So evolutionarily we're going to
push that cortisol down that fight or flight pathway.
So we're going to have less cortisol to manage and balance
inflammation. And so then we'll see more pain,
more digestive upset, more mental health issues, more blood
(08:42):
pressure, you know, all the all the things that have their root
in inflammation, which is prettymuch anything that you can
possibly imagine. I never thought of it that way,
I just had an aha moment. You only have so much cortisol,
and if you're using an extensiveamount of it to deal with your
anxiety and the fight or flight,then there's less cortisol left
(09:05):
to deal with the inflammation. Exactly.
Oh my gosh. Yep, exactly.
And this is the beauty of like blending medicine with the mind.
Body piece is like, there's both.
But to think that this is all like, oh, it'd be so nicey nice
if I could relax, but I can't relax.
I've got too much to do. Or wouldn't it be awesome if I
(09:26):
could meditate or get a massage,but I don't have time for that
on my schedule. I'm like, no, no, no, no.
This is the foundational piece because no matter what treatment
options you're choosing, if they're allopathic or
alternative natural, it doesn't,doesn't matter.
They're all going to have a limited positive impact on your
body if the foundation is, you know, inflammation and stress.
(09:51):
Because we just don't have the raw materials that we need for
the body to write itself, which PS is what the body will do if
we get out of the way. Yes, because I looked at your
website and I did notice that you have coaching and and
counseling expertise in IFS therapy, internal family systems
and in various mind body connection pieces.
(10:13):
And when I looked at your website, I thought about the
body because you're in Durango, Co.
This is like the headquarters you guys for mountain biking.
Yup, long distance running like extreme sports all over the
place. Yes, we live in the San Juan
Mountains, ski areas galore. And so I was thinking, yes,
(10:33):
Doctor Nicola is seeing a bunch of people who have mountain bike
injuries and ski injuries. And now we're heading into our
fifties, 60s and 70s, a lot of us, and we're noticing pain and
maybe injuries as well. So when we hit our middle age
and and older, there's a cumulative impact from this
(10:53):
repetitive strain physically, physically, mentally or
emotionally that is now showing up.
It's kind of like the tip of theiceberg.
Now we're seeing the tip of the iceberg, but the iceberg has
been there the whole time. It's just been building and we
it's been what we call subclinical or we haven't
necessarily felt the effects of it.
So we said there weren't effects, but that's actually not
(11:14):
what's been going on. Yeah.
So a more natural approach to avoiding surgery and things like
this might be seeing you becauseyou're a naturopathic physician.
Yeah. And starting to understand how
do we unwind these patterns or even if you do choose to get the
surgery or do the steroid injection or whatever, how are
(11:37):
we going to maximize the positive impact of those
interventions? Well, we can't do that while
with maintaining that same foundation.
We've got to make some fundamental shifts and, and a
big part of that is that my bodylevel, but then there's also
these simple things like water and nutrition and moving the
(11:57):
body and rest sleep, you know, so many of us aren't sleeping
well or enough in my opinion. And so if we don't have these
foundational pieces covered, then we're going to find
ourselves in another situation, probably not too far down the
road. So just as a case study to bring
(12:18):
the science into an actual situation, I just thought of
this. I've had a couple cortisone
shots into my SI joint because Ihave a torn hip labrum.
And so the next shot they're going to put it into my hip and
I'm avoiding surgery by doing physical therapy.
And so that's why when you were talking about cortisol, it was
(12:41):
so interesting, like we only have so much and we don't use it
all up on anxiety and stress because then we'll have less to
temper the inflammation and reduce the inflammation in our
body. I don't know much about the
cortisone shots I've been getting, but I do know they're
supposed to like really negatively impact your immune
system. And that's another thing we were
(13:04):
going to talk about was autoimmune issues, immune system
in general. And I feel like I'm learning so
much. I hope that everyone out there
listening, you guys are as well because this is so interesting
to me. Autoimmune issues, are they
hereditary? Is does stress trigger them?
(13:26):
Yeah, these are great questions.I, I think that more than
hereditary, when I think of hereditary, I think of like a
genetic component. And I and I kind of like to
think in terms of epigenetics. And what that means is what
turns the genes on or off. So yes, we might have a, a
tendency in our family or a, or a certain gene expression, but
(13:50):
those genes can be turned on or off.
And, and what does that stress is the primary thing that turns
those genes on or off, You know,feeling support.
There's all sorts of cool research, especially around
breast cancer and PTSD and jointpain.
And there was a really cool study done where they were
(14:11):
looking at the Cox 2 inhibitors,which is like Celebrex and, and
medications like that. I think it might have been
around when Celebrex got taken off the market because it's a
little bit, you know, the side effects are more than the FDA
was willing to put us through, which is great.
But they did a, they did a studyand they took a large group of
people and half meditated and did like active mindfulness
(14:34):
practices for the day. And the other half was kind of
on the same ground, but they were just kind of hanging out.
And they, they measured their, the Cox 2 genes that were turned
on in each person at the beginning of the day and at the
end of the day. And they found that the people
who had been engaged in mindfulness practices had more
Cox 2 genes turned on at the endof an 8 hour day than those who
(14:55):
didn't. And so I'm like this, we have
the power, even if we have a genetic predisposition, we have
the power to shift and change and mold our biology and how we
express that. And you know, for me,
autoimmunity is, is pretty complex, but at the, at the crux
of it, it's us attacking ourselves, right?
(15:16):
Our thyroid, our joint, our gut,our brain, our blood cells.
It's you know what? However, however, that
autoimmune is presenting and in US, but it's us attacking
ourselves. And so again, if we have that
foundation where we are critical, where we will not be
with things as they are, where we want to be, where we are, you
(15:38):
know, showing up in a perfectionistic sort of way.
And it's we kind of can never quote UN quote get there
wherever there might be. We always find ourselves
deficient or lacking or bad in some way.
This is going to be the biggest hindrance of of healing an
autoimmune. So shortly after I had my son in
(15:59):
2010, I developed Hashimoto's which is autoimmune of the
thyroid. And so in the in the
naturopathic world, there is no shortage of interventions to
deal with with Hashimoto's. And one of the most common is a
gluten free diet, you know, and that sort of thing.
And so I did everything you could possibly imagine.
(16:20):
I did supplements, I did herbs, I did, you know, the all sorts
of dietary interventions with and didn't really shift
anything. And a few years in, maybe five
years into this process, I was on a retreat and I was out for a
hike by myself and I was listening to myself talk.
And I'm like, you know what? It doesn't matter if I eat the
(16:42):
most pristine diet and have the most carefully curated set of
supplements to intervene here. If I keep talking to myself this
way, I'm still attacking myself.And so it's not going to make a
difference. And so I actually in that moment
started a what's now been a 10 year journey of really
fundamentally shifting my relationship to myself.
(17:05):
And, and this idea of self love.It's, you know, it's, it's
pretty overplayed in my opinion at this point, like hashtag self
love, but like really like what it means to be willing to be
your own ride or die. You know, your own, your person
that shows up and says, no matter what I got you, no matter
how scary or icky or nasty that that thought or action or
(17:29):
behavior was, I'm going to show up and I'm going to love you
anyway. I'm going to, I'm going to see
you in all of who you are. And so I started this process
and I actually let go of the diet and the supplements and
that sort of stuff. And I don't have antibodies
anymore. And you're not supposed to be
able to heal from autoimmune. Once you get it, you're stuck
with it for life. And most people will say now and
(17:51):
now you're going to get your susceptible to multiple
autoimmune conditions. And I'm here to tell you that
does not have to be your path. Yeah, that's so interesting
because when we have anxiety, because I have anxiety, I feel
like we can't tend to be very productive people.
The anxiety is driving it, but we also we we're hyper vigilant.
(18:13):
We don't want something bad to happen.
So then when something bad happens like Hashimoto's like
you had or I tore my hip labrum,I think sometimes we can tend to
be critical of ourselves, like, oh, I shouldn't, I shouldn't be
having Hashimoto's. I take good care of myself or
you know, I shouldn't have torn my hip labrum.
That was so silly, whatever the case may be.
(18:34):
And that is when we turn on ourselves and we are attacking
ourselves mentally and then our body kind of lets loose and
attacks us more physically as well.
And I love how you were talking about we can heal ourselves when
the study about the people who meditated, just with the
relaxation and meditation, they were turning on their good
(18:58):
genes, the beneficial genes, thegenes of the health, and if you
even want to say like health andwealth and abundance, like we're
all programmed to some degree tothrive no matter who our parents
were, no matter our genetic makeup.
And I love that message. Yeah.
And it's really about, well, first of all, acknowledging that
(19:20):
everything that you need to be with whatever it is that you're
facing, be it a torn labrum or an autoimmune or anxiety or
grief loss, you know, whatever it might be, you already have in
this moment, whoever you are, whoever is listening, you
already have what you need to move through this in an easeful,
(19:40):
graceful, expansive way. And so I think that's Step 1 is
stop looking outside of ourselves for well, oh, if I
read this book or I take this supplement or I eat this food or
I listen to this person or, and not to say that all of those
options aren't beautiful and might, they might genuinely be
supportive, but could we could we invite those in from a place
(20:04):
of like, oh, this feels fun in my body?
Or, oh, I wonder what it would create to do this thing rather
than I'm going to do this thing and I'm not going to have hip
pain anymore. And if I have hip pain anymore?
So I didn't do the right thing or I didn't do it good enough,
or I didn't. I skipped those Tuesdays when I
had other things going on, right?
We again, like you said, we get so hard on ourselves and it's
(20:26):
like, well, that was stupid. And and then we start this
cascade rather than like, hey, buddy, what have I been doing or
not doing that would be more supportive?
Have I been drinking enough water to support the fluidity in
the joint or enough good fats? I might eat it, you know, do I
eat a diet that has enough lubricant for a healthy joint
(20:48):
tissue? You know, do I move my body in
such a way that there's it's stretching and the joints are
mobile and fluid? Or have I blown that off because
I prioritize the To Do List, which many of us do too.
And then so the so a labrum tearignore hip pain can be this
beautiful invitation to re evaluate what we've been
(21:11):
devoting ourselves to. And so many of us in this
culture are devoted to busyness.You know, it's like the ultimate
success is how much can you craminto a day?
But what if that wasn't the be on end all?
What is it like to reflect that that being on that hamster wheel
isn't bringing you closer to where you actually want to be?
(21:34):
And in some ways, it can be deflating and hard to be with
and sit with, like, oh, I've been moving so swiftly in this
direction. You mean it's not going to get
me there. But in other ways, you know,
once we move through that grief or that doubt, it can also be
really freeing. Like oh OK, if I don't have to
show up like this, what else could I create?
(21:57):
Yeah, I feel like everyone diagnosed with an injury or even
chronic illness, they need a doctor, Nikola, like insurance
to assign them a doctor, Nikola,because you know, you're going
to focus on, well, what can we do?
There's always something we can do.
Let's look at how to improve your sleep, your diet, your
(22:18):
hormones, digestion, and the wayyou move your body.
And I feel like when you do havean injury or a chronic
condition, it's very easy in theage of Google to Google your
condition and then Google the medical interventions you've
tried. And then go down this rabbit
hole of research when really like, we're in our minds so
(22:40):
much. And if we could just like get
more into our bodies and findingsome serenity and some love for
our bodies. Like it's not just all fluff, it
will help us heal. Yeah, this is not woo woo.
This is based in just like Physiology, like basic
Physiology. You know, in Physiology there's
(23:00):
an energetic shift and that causes a cellular shift and that
causes a physiological shift. And in our in our Western
medical society, we're really looking at the physiological
shifts. We're not taking the time to go
back a step or even 2 to what was the energy that shifted in
the body that caused this chain reaction that manifested in our
(23:21):
Physiology. You know, we think that
Physiology and you know, capitalS science is like over here all
the way on the right side of theroom.
And then anything alternative ormindfulness based or heart
centered is like over on the left side of the room and has
nothing to do with with what's over here in the capital S
science category. And what's cool about where
(23:43):
we're going in our science now is that we're really seeing the
melding of these two things, which in my opinion have never
actually been separated. They were only artificially
separated by some of our philosophers, you know, like
Descartes, like I think therefore I am like that really
shifted people's mindset into the mind is the most important
thing. And then from there in medicine,
(24:06):
the brain became the center of everything.
And from my world view, I'm likethe brain has is not not a lot
more than a processing center. When we now know that our heart
is a sensory organ and our gut is a sensory organ.
We have a huge secondary nervoussystem that's entirely in the
gut. The gut is, you know, we have
our tonsils and that lymph tissue.
(24:27):
The gut has a whole curtain of lymph tissue and immune tissue
that's covers the entirety of our gut.
And so if we start looking at the body as a whole divine
miraculous unit where everythingis playing in harmony with
everything else, all of a suddenwe can start to see the links
(24:48):
around like, oh, I went through that breakup and then I started
having, you know, blood pressureissues or a fib or I see that
all the time. Or I've, I am, I have a lot of
anxiety and I have some digestive issues or my hormones.
You know, I went through a shiftof, you know, a change of life
hormonally, be it menopause or pregnancy or whatever.
(25:12):
And then all of a sudden my mental health shifted or my
sleep shifted. These are, these are
interrelated things that, that the body is calling us to slow
down and get closer to. Hey, what's really going on here
and how can I connect these dots?
So let's talk about mental health.
I know that's a big part of yourpractice.
(25:33):
Yeah, I mean, typically if I have someone coming in for more
physical health stuff, we end upexploring the the mental health
component, even though I might not call it that depending on
how open someone is, because there still is very much a
stigma around mental health. So I'll use maybe the term
stress, you know, like how do you manage stress?
(25:54):
What's your mood typically? You know, so we'll have those
kind of conversations, you know,any, any big stressors going on?
And, and typically, I mean, it'slife, right?
We've all have things that are that we're moving through.
And so usually that timeline lines up like that.
There was a stressor and within a year, 18 months of that, and
sometimes much sooner, it was a physical manifestation.
(26:17):
And so when we put that timelinetogether, and that's part of why
my initial it takes an hour and a half, because it's like we
have to really hear the story inorder to really see me a clear
picture of what's been going on.And I don't want to use natural
medicine to make the symptom go away instead of a pharmaceutical
(26:38):
or an over the counter. That's that's, you know, what we
call greenwashing. It's not really naturopathic
philosophy. So a core of naturopathic
philosophy is treating the wholeperson and treating the cause.
And so really getting to the cause of it, you know, the cause
of inflammation isn't a lack of turmeric or a lack of fish oil
(26:58):
or a lack of steroid injections.Doesn't mean to say they won't
help to get the inflammation under control, but what's the,
what's the ideology of how did this come to be?
And so that's really what we're exploring.
And so there's, there's usually a mental health component that I
bring in, even if someone's coming in simply for physical
health. And then, but a lot of times
(27:20):
people, I think if they're drawnto work with me, they have a
sense that their mental state ofbeing, whether there's a quote
UN quote, mental health diagnosis or not, they know they
have this sense, whether they'reconsciously aware of it or not,
that their mental emotional bodyis, is playing a role and that
the way they've been approachingtheir life is, isn't
(27:43):
sustainable. And so we really talk a lot
about the wisdom of the body andsymptoms as divine messengers.
And it doesn't matter which realm of the body those symptoms
are showing up. So say you have a patient who's
very anxious, maybe they're anxious about their physical
issue, maybe they're just anxious in general and that's
how they've been rolling throughlife.
(28:05):
That's how I roll. So when you have somebody who's
anxious and you do the intake, do you have a little toolbox of
a few like breathing practices or practices that you can
actually introduce to them and run them through?
Because I feel like it's one thing to talk about it, but it
(28:27):
is another to experience the relief of, let's say, a
meditation or a breath work and experience like the connection
to yourself. I remember when I was 16, I went
to my first yoga class and I waslike, Oh my gosh, is this what
it feels like to feel normal andnot anxious?
(28:49):
It was like a whole new level. I didn't realize my baseline was
hyper vigilance. I didn't realize it was amazing.
Do you have something that you would recommend for my listeners
to try at home? You know, we've, I've done
episodes about box breathing, non sleep, deep rest, yoga,
Nidra. Is there anything that you find
(29:10):
is easy for people to learn and very effective with finding that
place where, Oh my gosh, you canactually relax?
Yeah, everything you just mentioned is awesome.
You know, yoga, nidra, the box breathing, all of that.
I tend to start people, it's just breathing into the belly
and, you know, and the guidance and I'll walk you through, which
(29:32):
is, you know, especially when somebody's telling their story,
there's usually a point in the story where there's emotions
that come up, right? It's frustrating or it's sad or
it's scary or it's, you know, especially when we're talking
about our health. And so when I noticed that shift
and we can notice that in ourselves, right?
Like, you know, when you're morecalm and then you're shifting
into kind of like a uptick of anxiety or mental thoughts or
(29:55):
whatever. And typically there's somebody
sensations that come with that energy shift of, oh, I'm
starting to really chew on something.
And so it's, and it's going to be different in everybody.
And so it's, it's great for you and, and all the listeners to
notice. Oh, yeah, I do know what that
sensation is of, you know, my, my head gets tight or I feel my
(30:18):
chest, you know, gets a little bit heavy or my stomach starts
being flippy or I get that, you know, muscle twitch in my
shoulder. I mean, it's whatever, whatever
it is, right? Do you know what yours is?
Well, I just put my hand on my heart because I was just
thinking, you know, a lot of experts that I've interviewed
have said this, like, where do you feel the anxiety in your
(30:39):
body? And then just send compassion to
it and breathe into wherever theanxiety is.
I think it's like usually in my throat because it's amazing that
I have a podcast and I do inspirational speaking Doctor
Nicola and my, I, my throat was like an issue.
You know, I'd never spoke up formyself as a child, and I've
always been timid. And so I think when we open up
(31:03):
in these areas where we're holding anxiety and fear, like
we really feel more powerful andconfidence.
I mean, we can totally change our lives if we tune into where
we're holding the anxiety. Absolutely.
Yeah. And so, yeah, it was just so,
you know, if something comes up,I just invite, you know, the
person to start and like, hey, just breathe into the belly.
(31:23):
And we're going to use the inhale to just create more space
for whatever it is that's here. And some people want to name it,
and some people do not want to name it.
And so, you know, if you want toname it, that's fine.
But just notice. What do you feel in your body?
OK, You notice something in yourthroat.
There's a sensation in your throat.
We're not going to try to make it go away.
We're just going to let the body, body, no, hey, body, I
(31:44):
noticed that sensation in the throat, whatever that is, right?
And then we're going to breathe and notice what happens when you
tell the body. Yes, I know that's here and it's
OK that it's here. And all of a sudden that's the
typically that body sensation shifts.
It may be intensifies or it lessens or moves somewhere else
in the body or it goes away. It doesn't matter.
(32:05):
But we just start practicing andnow we're going to observe.
What do you notice now in your body?
We're going to keep on using thebreath.
We're going to keep on making space with that inhale,
breathing into the belly. A lot of times when I cue people
to breathe into the belly, I'll see the shoulders come up and
down and I'm like, that's not your belly.
Those are your shoulders. You know, you want to imagine
like trying to fill your pelvis with air, like breathing all the
(32:28):
way down. And so when we do that, I'm
like, OK, now there's more space.
And it's like, well, how are youfeeling?
It's like, oh, I don't want to speak up.
I'm I'm, I'm nervous to be heard.
And it's like, OK, just letting that part know that you're
nervous about speaking up and that's OK too.
And honestly, it's this practiceof, of just noticing and let and
(32:49):
having your higher self let these parts know, Hey, it's OK,
that this is here, that that actually starts to regulate the
system. And it's a direct experience of,
oh, I can be with this because the mind has created all these
strategies, right? Anxiety is a perfect example.
(33:10):
If I start thinking about a solution or if I start super
analyzing the situation, it it brings all the energy out of the
body and the heart, you know, and the emotions.
I don't have to feel into the fear of this.
I'm just going to figure out howto fix it from the mind level.
It's a layer of protection. And so we can acknowledge, oh,
there's my there's that anxious thought, there's that, you know,
(33:33):
there's that hyper analysis, There's that bulldog of a
thought that won't let go. It's OK that you're here too.
I see that you're here. Tell me about it.
And it's like, I'm really concerned that this hip is never
going to, I'm going to be in pain forever.
Yeah, I get that. It makes sense that you'll be
worried that this pain is going to be here.
That's OK. And so that's really the first
(33:56):
practice is just use the breath,make some more space, notice the
sensations in the body, and thentouch in what's the emotion
underneath, All the while givingyour body and your thoughts this
feedback that it's actually OK that you feel this way.
I'm going to stay with you because most of us are like is
(34:16):
that is not OK. I need to make this stop.
I need to get away from this. And that's our tendency is, is
what we and what we've been trained to do, right?
Like we're, we're a culture of problem solvers and the
intellect rules all. And, and again, we don't want to
get rid of that strong intellect.
There's a lot of beauty there too, but we don't want it to be
the only tool, especially when we're talking about fear or
(34:40):
grief or anger or, you know, anyof these bigger emotions.
It's like 2 ships in the night. You know, the, the intellect is
never going to meet an emotionalneed.
But when we have an anxious mindespecially, but I think it's
true for most of us humans that we are convinced that we can, if
we can figure it out and we can make it stop, then we won't have
(35:02):
to have the emotion anymore, andthen we never have to feel
uncomfortable again. Yeah, it's like we have an
opportunity to parent ourselves.We have an opportunity to put
our hands on our hearts and say,I got you.
It is OK to feel a little anxious in your throat right
now. It is OK.
And I think I used to teach at an elementary school.
And that's so epic when a child can start parenting themselves
(35:27):
and tell themselves like, you can handle this because then
their little anxiety or whateverit is or their anger, it doesn't
turn into throwing a fit. It turns into self regulation
when they're with themselves andthey're with their fear or their
anger and they're just able to like feel it, you know, feeling
is healing, feel it to heal it. And so we're all like running
(35:50):
around like children in adult bodies.
A lot of us, now that we're in adulthood, we still have these
emotions and they can flood us and take over, but they do not
have to run the show. Yeah, that's exactly right.
And if you think about how much energy it takes to not feel what
we're feeling and then how much it takes to run the anxiety
(36:13):
program, it's like, Oh my gosh, that's a, that's a lot of work.
It's a lot of pressure. It's it's, it's just a lot of
energy that we're expending as opposed to like releasing all
that and going. It's OK that this hip pain is
here. It's it's OK that the worry
about the hip pain is here. It makes sense.
It hurts. You know, it's OK that there's a
(36:35):
wondering what, what do I need to do?
Right? And so, but now we're just kind
of ratcheting down the, the nervous system and now we're
actually in a place of more healing and we're in a clear
mind space as well to go, OK, I've got six treatment options
in front of me for this hip. Which one feels right to me?
(36:55):
Which one feels like it's going to bring me closer?
And what happens if I just go check it out just to see what
it'll happen rather than this has to be the thing that changes
the pain. I can't do this anymore.
And now, and so now we have anxiety about having anxiety,
right? That's, and then the, and then
this judgement, the self judgement and criticism.
(37:16):
And it's, it's just snowballs. And so this, this practice of
breathing, making more space andnoticing what's here and calling
ourselves it's OK is a game changer.
And it sounds so simple, but if you weren't fighting yourself
all day long, how much more resources would you have
available to you to actually navigate where you want to go
(37:38):
next? Yeah, we have a lot of options.
I picture like, you know, picking up a prescription at the
pharmacy and being like holding the bottle and being like, you
better change my life, you little prescription, you know,
like and I think, you know, I don't know, this is just my
opinion, but there's so many things we can do now, like
(37:59):
marijuana is legal. You can go to Costa Rica and eat
frog poison or have a trip or, you know, and so if we get too
attached to like, you know, the IV vitamins or whatever it is
we're doing, there's so many healthy things, but a lot of it
is like an inside job like you're talking about.
(38:21):
So I feel like if I were going to do anything after this
interview, I'll probably just like, meditate and breathe into
my body and then all the things will come up, you know, like,
how am I going to solve my hip? What's going to happen?
Am I going to be able to walk onthe beach?
You know, what if it snows, can I walk on the ice?
And I'm just going to watch those thoughts come and go,
(38:44):
'cause they are not 100, you know, 99 problems to solve, like
100 problems to solve. I'm going to try to just be with
my body. Yeah, in this moment, well,
right now I'm not at the beach and I don't know about you, but
there's no snow on the ground here.
So in this moment, I don't need to worry about walking on the
(39:04):
beach or walking in the snow. You know what?
What do I feel in my body when Iwalk around the block right now?
Oh, I mean, it's a little discomfort.
There's some discomfort there, but I can walk as far as I want
to walk or I can walk for about half a mile and then I feel like
I'm all done. OK.
What happens when I honor that and be all done and, you know,
(39:26):
go home and, and rest or get into a bath instead of having a
lot of movement? You know, maybe this is, you
know, pain or illness is really a call to deep rest.
You know, which a lot of us havenot been heeding the call for a
very long time, usually years. Yes, I interviewed a Ted Talk
(39:47):
speaker who has multiple sclerosis Ms. and she was saying
that Ms. is just a mindset shift.
It's just a call to rest, connect, and so we can think of
injury in this way and then moving the body.
I feel like this can be meditative.
I know that. You're an expert when it comes
(40:07):
to different therapies like IFS,internal family systems.
Also, I realized a few years agothat just taking a walk is a
form of EMDR. Those of you listening, you can
Google EMDR, but you know, some people think of it as looking at
lights going left and right, left and right, or listening to
music. And it basically alternates left
(40:30):
and right and it balances both hemispheres of your brain.
And it helps you process memories, emotions.
And I just realized maybe, I don't know, 3-4, five years ago,
that walking has the same effect.
It helps us process things. And so I used to take my little
students on a walk when they were feeling angry or upset, and
(40:52):
I felt like that helped. And the science behind, it's
amazing. But talk to us more about the
science behind just moving your body.
And I mean, obviously we know this is good for us, but what do
you usually talk to your clientsand patients about?
Couple of different things. The first one is moving your
body in a way that you enjoy. You know, I think there's a lot
(41:13):
of have TOS and shoulds when it comes to I have to do yoga and
stretch and be super noodly and I have to lift weights,
especially as a perimenopausal woman.
And that becomes like double important to lift weights and,
or I've, I've always been a runner.
So I have to keep running. And what I have noticed,
especially over the past decade for myself is that I don't
(41:35):
always want the same kind of movement.
And you know, I used to, I've, I've been an athlete my whole
life and I was really comfortable in the gym.
And then it came to a point where I'm like, this actually
doesn't feel good in my body, but it's supposed to feel good.
So I keep on doing it. But my body was like not having
it. It was really, there was an
exhaustion that was happening. It was very, very physiological.
(41:59):
And I'm like, what happens if I let it go?
And I picked up more dance and which is not something I have in
my history. And I just more walking and some
more yoga. And I'm like, Oh, I really like
that. And then about a year ago I was
like, Oh, I think I want something a little bit more
intensive. And so I'm, I'm back lifting
weights a couple days a week, but I'm also doing some dance
(42:21):
and I'm not doing very much yoganow.
And so I want you all to know that we have seasons of our life
and, and they can be larger seasons, you know, like
adolescents, young adult, middle-aged, older age, but it
can also be winter, spring, summer, or it could be this week
when I'm recovering from a head cold is different than last week
(42:44):
when I had the head cold. And hopefully is different than
next week when I hopefully won'thave this head cold anymore.
And you know, so we can, we can be fluid and flexible.
And I think really when it comesto movement or, or nutrition, we
want to be rigid. Like there's one right way.
And I'm like, no, like, like, listen to your body.
Like, are you my weight lifting coat?
(43:06):
She's like, are you a red light,yellow light or green light
today? You know, are you tired today?
Are you dragging? It's so take it to leave the
easy. Are you yellow light?
Are you kind of somewhere in between or are you green light
to do sleep well, to do eat well?
Are you like 100% charged and fully vital?
And really listening to that, even in the context of a
(43:26):
weightlifting class where we're all doing the same thing, but
I'm like, Oh yeah, I can move differently.
I went back to my dance class this morning and I danced at
maybe 50% of what I might have normally danced at.
And so even if I'm showing up for the same thing that I've
done for 12 years, I can do it in a different way.
I can, I can be smaller, I can be bigger, I can be more
(43:48):
intense, I could be more gentle.And so this that's really an
invitation to listen, but to really make sure that we are
moving this body every day in a way that feels good to us and
avoiding what other people say that we should do and really
listening. A friend of mine is a long
distance runner and you know, myhusband used to do like exercise
(44:12):
Physiology and rehab. And she was, she had a hitch in
her hip and she was asking aboutit.
And he was like, the only thing to do for that is stop running
at least for a period of time, you know, because it's running
is exacerbating what's happening.
And he explained her gait and what was happening and blah,
blah, blah. And she was like, well, I don't
want to stop running. And he's like, then you're going
(44:33):
to continue to have pain. And and sure enough, she did end
up having hip surgery a few years later because she was
like, I'm not, I'm not going to change this in response to my
body because my mind has decidedthat this is what I do.
And I think that's what gets us into trouble across the board.
Yeah, sounds like when it comes to moving your body, like don't
(44:54):
get stuck on, I should like I should lift heavier weights.
I should run five times a day. Like listen to your body and
modify And yoga. I'm all about modifying.
Yes, yeah, absolutely. I'm like so grateful that I
never have insomnia. I never have a hard time getting
(45:17):
to sleep, I never wake up, but Iknow that that can be a problem,
especially in times of stress. The only time I ever woke up in
the middle of the night was likeI was getting a divorce back in
2017. During the divorce I would just
like wake up in a panic so we could talk about insomnia and
sleep a little bit. I know I always try to have like
(45:40):
the room cooled down a little bit and nice blinds up to block
out any light. What do you recommend when it
comes to sleep habits? And of course, avoid your phone
before bed. Look at me.
I'm like trying to think of ideas.
I'm out of the out of the sky. I'll let you talk about it.
(46:01):
Yeah, I mean, I think, I think insomnia's a bigger and bigger
issue for people, and there's different types of insomnia.
You know, that's kind of insomnia where you can't fall
asleep. What I'm seeing more often than
not is people waking in the night and having a hard time
getting back to sleep or being up for a couple of hours.
And there's a couple of different things I have to say
about that and you've already mentioned a few of them.
The most important thing is getting off the screens at least
(46:24):
half an hour, ideally an hour ortwo before bedtime.
The blue light and it's, it's nomatter what screen you're
looking at, be it a computer or an iPad or ATV or whatever,
there's a shaky light to it and the blue light from it
stimulates the pineal gland. The pineal gland is what, what
produces melatonin, which is our, one of our sleep hormones.
(46:46):
And so we want to, we don't wantthe pineal gland to be
stimulated at that time of nightbecause we want it to be in
night time mode. And so if you are someone who
absolutely has to watch screens or use screens, use blue light
blocking glasses, or you can getlittle sheets, blue light
blocking sheets that go over your screen.
(47:07):
But really the best is to kind of really let your body know
that you're winding down, that this is the end of the day.
So like you said, it's cooling the room, you know, not
necessarily exercising. Some people take baths before
bed and do that really, really well.
And some people, I have a hard time falling asleep right after
a bath. So I might take a bath maybe a
couple of hours before bedtime, but typically not right at
(47:30):
bedtime for me and my system. I've noticed that and we want to
make sure that we've, we've fueled well.
And so we want to eat dinner andwe want to make sure that we at
least have a couple of hours between dinner and sleep so that
we can digest. And that can often cause some
insomnia is the need to digest at the same time that we're
(47:50):
supposed to be sleeping. But especially now with people
doing this intermittent fasting or keto, I really recommend some
sort of complex carbohydrate with dinner because
carbohydrates are going to be what fuels good sleep.
And if if we're not in ketosis, that's kind of a totally
separate thing, but a lot of people are kind of just doing a
(48:11):
low carb piece or they're doing the intermittent fasting.
And for women, we really shouldn't be fasting more than
12 to 14 hours. And a lot of people that I
talked to were fasting like 18 to 20 hours.
And it's simply just too long for the body.
And so really making sure that you've eaten well, you've had
some fat, some protein and some complex carb at dinnertime to
(48:34):
fuel that good sleep and to, andto make sure that your, your
body know that this is bedtime, that we're not doing a bunch of
last minute errands or chores inthe how.
I mean, maybe we're doing dishesor that sort of thing.
But a lot of times I hear, especially for people with
children, that this is their sacred time and they can do
their online ordering and get back to a bunch of emails and,
(48:56):
and, but that's all very, or do the news and it's, it's all very
stimulating. And so really just remembering
that your nervous system is wanting to wind down and what
are the practices that you can incorporate?
Can you incorporate 20 minutes or even 10 minutes where you're
in your bedroom? It's nice and cool.
You put your legs up the wall ormaybe do child's pose where your
(49:19):
head is below your heart. That's a really good cue for
your nervous system to calm downand slow down.
Can you listen to music or meditation or some binaural
beats on Spotify or YouTube or wherever you listen to stuff so
it. But again, it's just, it's like
a break. Like, OK, this is my day.
(49:39):
I'm stopping this and I'm prepping myself for bed rather
than harried, harried, harried. OK, I'm in bed and now I can't
sleep. I love legs up the wall.
You can do that in bed because if you have a little headboard,
you can just lie in bed, but instead of lying there, you have
your legs up the wall, up the headboard and it's awesome for
(50:01):
your circulation. Yes, I have a little routine
like I usually make dinner, feedthe kids, and then I take a
bath, put the legs up the wall, chill and kind of move into more
like tidying up. I cannot imagine doing the news
before bed. Oh my gosh.
I think that would be one thing that maybe you could tell your
(50:21):
clients to avoid doing. Who wants to do the news before?
Yeah, Yep, yeah. And I think, you know, if it is
a time where you're like, oh, everybody's asleep and this is
just me time, that's awesome. What do you want to do for you?
What would feel really nourishing for you?
And then if you ask that question, that might inform your
(50:43):
decisions a little differently. I just have Netflix.
I don't have the news, but sometimes my phone will show me
the news and I'm like, Oh my gosh, stop and show me the news.
And then when it comes to like good digestion, do you, do you
often suggest like rest and digest?
If you want to digest your food better don't eat and then go out
(51:07):
on a big hike? Or does movement actually help
you digest your food? Some gentle movement after
eating actually helps digest. So like a really gentle walk
after a meal actually can't helpus digest.
We don't necessarily want to do a big workout.
It just depends on our body type.
So, you know, my husband eats a huge amount of food before he
(51:27):
works out. So, you know, everybody again,
but so we get to like hear theseisms and then we get to check it
out in our system. Like is that true for me, You
know, and my body has changed. I used to not be able to work
out with any food in my, in my body.
And now it's pretty unusual. I like to typically I like to
work out on an empty stomach now.
So my body has just shifted as I'm approaching 50 and you know,
(51:50):
things are just different. And honoring that, that
breakfast used to be this like really important part for me in
my 20s and 30s and in my 40s, I just, it, it takes me longer to
want to eat now and I just, I just honor that.
Yeah, again, like you said, likedon't should all over yourself.
Like stop telling yourself I should eat now and then drink my
(52:13):
coffee later. But like, if you're not hungry,
it's weird doing stuff that you don't really feel like doing.
Yes, yeah, yeah. Quit doing anything you don't
feel like doing. That is.
That is not the direction of health.
I promise you. I don't even know what it is,
but just don't stop. Stop doing it and see what
happens. See what else?
Doctor's orders. Write it on a prescription pad.
Quit doing stuff you don't want to do.
(52:35):
Period. The end.
Try this and call me in a week and see how it's going.
Honestly, really let me know, like, stop doing what you don't
want to do for a week and see what that creates and, and
notice what what stories the mind creates around that and the
anxieties or worries that can come up around that and practice
(52:57):
being with that. Yeah, I hear you.
Yeah. This is different.
Yeah. That could happen.
Everything could fall apart. And that's not what's happening
now. So.
Yeah. Right now you're just sitting in
your office with all those gorgeous plants everywhere.
I love your plants. One more thing, hormone balance.
(53:17):
So I'm actually drinking Raspberry leaf tea as we speak
and it's so interesting. I drink it like as a teenager
and I was having like breakouts and then I started drinking it
just recently and I just love it.
It's supposed to balance your hormones.
There are so many ways we can balance our hormones.
Honestly, I don't know any of the ways, so if you want to like
(53:39):
discuss a few ways that are bestpractices.
Sure, Absolutely. The, you know, water and fiber
are like the foundation, right? Because our kidneys and our
liver and all of our hormones are processed through the liver,
and the kidneys in the liver aregiant filters.
And so if we remember that theseorgans are filters, then it can
(54:01):
be inspiring to have more water because the more water that
there is on board, the easier itis for the filter to do it its
job. So that's number one.
And then fiber. Fiber is the broom of the colon.
So it helps to pick up all thesetoxins or or excess hormones
that we don't need in the body and it helps sweep them on out
of the colon and eliminate them as waste.
(54:23):
And we want to do that. So that's like no matter what
stage of your life you're in, nomatter what gender you are, you
know, water and fiber as these two basic platforms.
And then for women, you know, with a cruciferous veggies.
So that's broccoli, cauliflower,kale, Brussels sprouts, those
sort of things. Those have very specific
(54:46):
phytochemicals in them that helpto metabolize estrogens.
And so getting a good dose of cruciferous veggies most days is
is awesome limiting, I would sayso.
So soy has some really good isoflavones and some really good
things to it, but we don't want to overdo it.
And So what I would recommend with regarding soy is just like
(55:09):
anything. I wouldn't have it every single
day. I wouldn't have it at every
single meal, but throw it in themix, you know, have it there and
have it in its whole form. So edamame beans or in its
traditionally made form, which is more like a miso or a tempeh
because they are fermented. And when we ferment soy, we know
that we can absorb and absorb itbetter and it just works with
(55:34):
our body better. When people ask me about like
basic nutrition things, I alwaysinvite them to look at how that
a more ancient culture approached that food, be it
dairy or soy or carbs or whatever.
If we look back to how traditional peoples are
(55:54):
utilizing these foods and we geta lot of information from there.
The hormones, it's like adding salt to a soup.
It doesn't just salt the carrotsin the soup, it salts the whole
soup. And so hormones are the same.
It doesn't just impact our reproductive area, it impacts
everywhere in our body. And so just really understanding
more more in depth around that. Yeah, I've been taking
(56:18):
probiotics in the morning, like a little bit before I start
drinking my drinks or eating anything.
I don't know if it helps but I've been I've been doing it.
Yeah, it's nothing. My kids are so cute.
They're 9 and 13 and I give themchewable probiotics and they're
so cute. Like they just eat whatever I
give them. It's so cute.
(56:38):
I'm like good morning, have a chewable probiotic.
They're like, OK, I have no ideawhat that is.
Yeah, but I mean, but again, there's an internal knowing that
you have as an individual and asa Mama, like, oh, you know what,
we're going to do probiotics right now.
And then you'll maybe forget or you'll kind of not buy more when
you run out of the bottle or whatever.
And then you'll cycle through these things or you'll have
(56:59):
Raspberry tea, you know, leaf tea tea.
And maybe that's a daily thing forever.
Or maybe that's just like, Oh, I, I, this is what I want this
morning. And so we again, we get to
listen and not get so stuck thatlike every morning I have my
Raspberry leaf tea. It's like, well, maybe this
morning you want turmeric gingertea, or maybe you want a coffee,
or maybe you want water or you know, like, so we get to be
(57:20):
really more, a lot more flexiblewith that.
Yeah, and like you were saying with soy, maybe avoid.
Like, you know, I make protein smoothies.
I do it with whey protein. But if you don't feel good doing
whey protein, don't keep drinking them.
And if you don't feel good doingsoy protein, don't keep doing
that either. Like, listen to your body.
I was on a date six months ago with somebody because I'm a
(57:43):
single mom, and he was telling me like that he is having some
digestive issues. And then he was also kind of
like a weight lifter. So he was like advising me on
different proteins. And then I just said to him, I'm
like, do you think maybe some ofyour digestive issues are from
like this one you keep using like the one protein and from,
(58:03):
you know, like ingesting like this one, maybe you should
switch it up. He's like, I never thought of
that. I was like, I want to try it,
you know? Absolutely.
That's what that's what I would have recommended too.
Listen to your body and listen to your random girls you go on
dates with. OK, so the last question for
you, Doctor Nicola, it's been such a pleasure as a
(58:26):
naturopathic physician and such an expert in this field of mind
body medicine, what is your favorite daily habit?
I had a note on here to talk about like daily habits.
And I know we were talking aboutdon't be so strict about it.
Don't don't tell yourself you should do a zillion, you know,
things in your morning routine and a zillion habits.
(58:48):
But what's one of your favorite ones do you think?
I think I've got 21 is sleep andand getting to bed at A at a
similar time every night. I think that's one thing that we
don't necessarily honor is the need to have.
It doesn't have to be 9:15 everysingle night, but I go to I go
(59:09):
to sleep somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00.
Like it's somewhere in there. So having having that sleep,
regular sleep cycle has really balanced so much in my world.
And then the other one is takinga few breaths to pause and just
connect to my heart and kind of letting the snow globe of
thoughts kind of calm down and just remember like I have
(59:30):
everything I need, all is well, and I'm connected to my heart.
I love that Trevor Hall song, Everything I need.
Do you like to play? I do, yeah.
I think he's awesome. Yeah, and everyone out there
just know, like while you're moving through your life, Doctor
Nicola and I are here in Colorado in the San Juan
Mountains, in our little snow globe of thoughts, early snowing
(59:54):
here most of winter, but not so much this winter.
But when you have this flurry ofthoughts and overthinking and
anxiety, take a few breaths and let them settle just like a snow
globe. It will work wonders.
All these tips that we talked about, like the snow globe, it
hits the nail on the head. It will work wonders.
(01:00:16):
It'll cover everything. Maybe I'll have to do a snow
globe meditation episode after this.
Well, Doctor Nikola, thanks for joining me.
It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much, I really
enjoyed our time. So y'all, that was an amazing
interview. I put all of Doctor Nicholas
(01:00:37):
contact information in this episode description so that all
you need to do is click the links to explore more about
Doctor Nicola and all the thingsthat she is sharing and
offering. And that completes our episode.
If this podcast content felt true for you, go ahead and leave
a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
(01:00:59):
Follow the podcast today and keep exploring your favorite
ways to dissolve fear and make some room for your best life to
unfold in fun and miraculous ways.
Visit missalyssa.com for coaching and free resources like
my newsletter, MISSAL issa.com. Believe in yourself, take care
(01:01:21):
of yourself, and thank you for being here.
Welcome to the podcast if you have big dreams and plans, but
you get distracted by fear and doubt.
TuneIn, because we can all live a more fearless and free life
starting today. Fear doesn't run the show you
do, and fear doesn't run this show.
I'm your host, Alyssa, and the mission here is a world where
fear doesn't control us. Follow this podcast, You'll love
(00:23):
the results. Loving life is what we're all
about here on the podcast and atmissalyssa.com.
Enjoy the show. So, Doctor Nicola, welcome to
the podcast. Hi, thanks so much for having
me. I'm excited to be here.
You're a naturopathic physician,a thought leader in the field of
mind body medicine, and everyonelistening If you want to learn
(00:46):
more about chronic illness or just your own emotions and how
to live better. TuneIn Doctor Nicola empowers
people to heal themselves and she's the founder of Pura Vida
Healthcare in Durango, Co Welcome to the podcast.
Thanks so much. So tell us a little bit about
yourself. How did you decide on the name
(01:08):
Pura Vida Healthcare? Is that because you love Costa
Rica? It's there's layers to it.
Yeah. I mean, I think the first time I
was introduced to that phrase absolutely was in in Costa Rica.
And I love it because it's it's the answer for everything.
It's like, hey, how's it going? Put a Vita like it's all.
It's, there's this energy of it's all all good, like
(01:29):
everything is OK. And that's really what I want to
embody in my practice with myself and with my clients is
like everything is OK, Everything that's here.
Even the symptoms that feel intense are overwhelming or we
don't know what to do with like put a Vida like it's, it's OK.
And I also, I do speak Spanish And so I did want to have a nod
(01:49):
to the Spanish speaking community and let them know that
they do have an ally here. And then I really like the
direct translation too, which isyour life, which is really what
we're trying to do when we're healing right, is get back to
this place where we can live ourfullest life and optimal
vitality, you know, from this place of our, our, our true
(02:10):
essence. I love that.
So I thought we would run through some of your areas of
expertise like daily habits, sleep and insomnia, diet and
nutrition. I'm mentioning these because if
you're a listener, tune and we're going to try to cover a
lot of things, the mind, body connection, hormone balance and
(02:32):
self regulation, regulating the nervous system.
I do a lot of episodes on different tools and practices to
regulate the nervous system. So I'm excited to hear what your
take is on that. And then of course, like
digestion, moving the body, physical health and mental
health and inflammation. And so let's start with
(02:53):
listening to your body. When you talk to your patients
about the importance of listening to their body, what do
you guys usually discuss? I think, you know, that's a
phrase that I think we hear a lot now, right, is listen to
your body, listen to your body. And really, I think the
invitation I'm trying to offer is that when we have a symptom,
(03:14):
it's the body's way of trying toget our attention.
It's the body's way of trying tosay that something isn't quite
right here. So I have a headache or I have
digestive upset or I have some anxiety coming on board.
And so, but you know, we live inthis culture of anti
anti-inflammatory antidepressants, an anti
(03:34):
hypertensive, you know, all of these things.
So we're the, our, our western allopathic medical approach is
always to move away from what's happening.
And so when I say listen to yourbody, it's like, let's get
closer to what's happening. And for a lot of my patients,
especially initially, they're like, if you lived in this body
and felt how I feel, you wouldn't want me to get closer
(03:57):
to it because it's uncomfortable.
But really, there's so much wisdom in what's happening in
the body on every level, physical, mental, emotional and
spiritual, that this there's andthat's the wisdom.
And so when I say listen to yourbody, it's because there's this
knowing that's coming through that we in our culture are quick
(04:19):
to suppress. We're quick to move away from or
numb out or distract from. And that keeps us caught in
patterns that keep us in a stateof dis ease.
Yeah. I agree that's.
Easy. Yeah.
(04:41):
And when I think of our emotions, you know, like anxiety
tells us sometimes that something's off in the room,
something's off with the person we're with.
Yes. And resentment tells us that we
didn't honor a boundary and thensomebody, you let somebody
encroach on a boundary. So I think when we listen to our
(05:01):
emotions, it tells us how do we want to navigate life better the
next time. Yes, absolutely, yeah.
And then with physical injuries,when you see somebody with pain
and inflammation, how does that usually go?
Do you feel like usually people do connect more to their body
when they have an injury or do you help them with that process?
(05:27):
I think that people become more aware of their body because
they're having the signal of pain and it's it's, but I also
think people become very fixatedon making that pain signal go
away. And so it's so there's a lot of
pressure put on the body to havea different experience.
I'm going to do this medicine, I'm going to do this PT, I'm
(05:50):
going to do this acupuncture. It doesn't matter what we're
choosing, but I'm going to do that so that this goes away.
And if it doesn't, that relationship of trust that we
have with our body starts to crumble and we start, and I see
a lot of resentment against the body and patients dismay, anger,
(06:11):
hatred. You know, it can really move
into some deep places if the body isn't responding the way
the mind says we're supposed to respond.
Like, OK, I've had this knee pain for two weeks now.
It should be gone by now. Or I did 6 sessions of PT.
It should be resolved by now. And it's like, we'll hang on a
second. So there's that mind body
connection piece of it around. What comes up for you when you
(06:34):
have pain? What comes up for you when you
have to move more slowly in the world?
And then it gets into the stories that we tell ourselves
around. Well, then you're not
productive, you're not valuable.We go deeper than that.
I'm not going to be loved. I'm not going to be accepted.
What's my worth if I can't be, you know, do all the things at
(06:55):
maximum speed? Am I going to have a place in
the world anymore? What's my identity if I'm not
doing 100 things a day all the time?
And when our body gets sick or gets injured, then we it starts
to kind of shift some of those foundational pieces that we put
(07:15):
in to feel OK every day. So that's where we get to slow
down and say, well, what would it mean if you didn't do all
these things in a day or you didjust do one or two things that
really brought you pleasure? And then the other thing is
bringing in the Physiology, which is helping people to
understand that the nervous system has a lot to do with
(07:37):
inflammation, as does the immunesystem.
You know, the inflammation is a,is a branch of the immune
system. But as far as a nervous system
goes, you know, we have that stress hormone, cortisol.
And we all know, Oh yeah, cortisol is a stress hormone.
What we forget is that cortisol is also the hormone that manages
inflammation. So if we think about
(07:59):
medications, we have hydrocortisone, we have
corticosteroids, right. These are these are heavy duty
anti inflammatories, but they all have this kind of basis in
cortisol. So if we are stressed out all
the time, evolutionarily we're going to favor that fight or
flight pathway so that we survive.
Because if we've been eaten by the tiger, it doesn't really
(08:21):
matter that we have a an inflamed painful knee, we're
dead. So evolutionarily we're going to
push that cortisol down that fight or flight pathway.
So we're going to have less cortisol to manage and balance
inflammation. And so then we'll see more pain,
more digestive upset, more mental health issues, more blood
(08:42):
pressure, you know, all the all the things that have their root
in inflammation, which is prettymuch anything that you can
possibly imagine. I never thought of it that way,
I just had an aha moment. You only have so much cortisol,
and if you're using an extensiveamount of it to deal with your
anxiety and the fight or flight,then there's less cortisol left
(09:05):
to deal with the inflammation. Exactly.
Oh my gosh. Yep, exactly.
And this is the beauty of like blending medicine with the mind.
Body piece is like, there's both.
But to think that this is all like, oh, it'd be so nicey nice
if I could relax, but I can't relax.
I've got too much to do. Or wouldn't it be awesome if I
(09:26):
could meditate or get a massage,but I don't have time for that
on my schedule. I'm like, no, no, no, no.
This is the foundational piece because no matter what treatment
options you're choosing, if they're allopathic or
alternative natural, it doesn't,doesn't matter.
They're all going to have a limited positive impact on your
body if the foundation is, you know, inflammation and stress.
(09:51):
Because we just don't have the raw materials that we need for
the body to write itself, which PS is what the body will do if
we get out of the way. Yes, because I looked at your
website and I did notice that you have coaching and and
counseling expertise in IFS therapy, internal family systems
and in various mind body connection pieces.
(10:13):
And when I looked at your website, I thought about the
body because you're in Durango, Co.
This is like the headquarters you guys for mountain biking.
Yup, long distance running like extreme sports all over the
place. Yes, we live in the San Juan
Mountains, ski areas galore. And so I was thinking, yes,
(10:33):
Doctor Nicola is seeing a bunch of people who have mountain bike
injuries and ski injuries. And now we're heading into our
fifties, 60s and 70s, a lot of us, and we're noticing pain and
maybe injuries as well. So when we hit our middle age
and and older, there's a cumulative impact from this
(10:53):
repetitive strain physically, physically, mentally or
emotionally that is now showing up.
It's kind of like the tip of theiceberg.
Now we're seeing the tip of the iceberg, but the iceberg has
been there the whole time. It's just been building and we
it's been what we call subclinical or we haven't
necessarily felt the effects of it.
So we said there weren't effects, but that's actually not
(11:14):
what's been going on. Yeah.
So a more natural approach to avoiding surgery and things like
this might be seeing you becauseyou're a naturopathic physician.
Yeah. And starting to understand how
do we unwind these patterns or even if you do choose to get the
surgery or do the steroid injection or whatever, how are
(11:37):
we going to maximize the positive impact of those
interventions? Well, we can't do that while
with maintaining that same foundation.
We've got to make some fundamental shifts and, and a
big part of that is that my bodylevel, but then there's also
these simple things like water and nutrition and moving the
(11:57):
body and rest sleep, you know, so many of us aren't sleeping
well or enough in my opinion. And so if we don't have these
foundational pieces covered, then we're going to find
ourselves in another situation, probably not too far down the
road. So just as a case study to bring
(12:18):
the science into an actual situation, I just thought of
this. I've had a couple cortisone
shots into my SI joint because Ihave a torn hip labrum.
And so the next shot they're going to put it into my hip and
I'm avoiding surgery by doing physical therapy.
And so that's why when you were talking about cortisol, it was
(12:41):
so interesting, like we only have so much and we don't use it
all up on anxiety and stress because then we'll have less to
temper the inflammation and reduce the inflammation in our
body. I don't know much about the
cortisone shots I've been getting, but I do know they're
supposed to like really negatively impact your immune
system. And that's another thing we were
(13:04):
going to talk about was autoimmune issues, immune system
in general. And I feel like I'm learning so
much. I hope that everyone out there
listening, you guys are as well because this is so interesting
to me. Autoimmune issues, are they
hereditary? Is does stress trigger them?
(13:26):
Yeah, these are great questions.I, I think that more than
hereditary, when I think of hereditary, I think of like a
genetic component. And I and I kind of like to
think in terms of epigenetics. And what that means is what
turns the genes on or off. So yes, we might have a, a
tendency in our family or a, or a certain gene expression, but
(13:50):
those genes can be turned on or off.
And, and what does that stress is the primary thing that turns
those genes on or off, You know,feeling support.
There's all sorts of cool research, especially around
breast cancer and PTSD and jointpain.
And there was a really cool study done where they were
(14:11):
looking at the Cox 2 inhibitors,which is like Celebrex and, and
medications like that. I think it might have been
around when Celebrex got taken off the market because it's a
little bit, you know, the side effects are more than the FDA
was willing to put us through, which is great.
But they did a, they did a studyand they took a large group of
people and half meditated and did like active mindfulness
(14:34):
practices for the day. And the other half was kind of
on the same ground, but they were just kind of hanging out.
And they, they measured their, the Cox 2 genes that were turned
on in each person at the beginning of the day and at the
end of the day. And they found that the people
who had been engaged in mindfulness practices had more
Cox 2 genes turned on at the endof an 8 hour day than those who
(14:55):
didn't. And so I'm like this, we have
the power, even if we have a genetic predisposition, we have
the power to shift and change and mold our biology and how we
express that. And you know, for me,
autoimmunity is, is pretty complex, but at the, at the crux
of it, it's us attacking ourselves, right?
(15:16):
Our thyroid, our joint, our gut,our brain, our blood cells.
It's you know what? However, however, that
autoimmune is presenting and in US, but it's us attacking
ourselves. And so again, if we have that
foundation where we are critical, where we will not be
with things as they are, where we want to be, where we are, you
(15:38):
know, showing up in a perfectionistic sort of way.
And it's we kind of can never quote UN quote get there
wherever there might be. We always find ourselves
deficient or lacking or bad in some way.
This is going to be the biggest hindrance of of healing an
autoimmune. So shortly after I had my son in
(15:59):
2010, I developed Hashimoto's which is autoimmune of the
thyroid. And so in the in the
naturopathic world, there is no shortage of interventions to
deal with with Hashimoto's. And one of the most common is a
gluten free diet, you know, and that sort of thing.
And so I did everything you could possibly imagine.
(16:20):
I did supplements, I did herbs, I did, you know, the all sorts
of dietary interventions with and didn't really shift
anything. And a few years in, maybe five
years into this process, I was on a retreat and I was out for a
hike by myself and I was listening to myself talk.
And I'm like, you know what? It doesn't matter if I eat the
(16:42):
most pristine diet and have the most carefully curated set of
supplements to intervene here. If I keep talking to myself this
way, I'm still attacking myself.And so it's not going to make a
difference. And so I actually in that moment
started a what's now been a 10 year journey of really
fundamentally shifting my relationship to myself.
(17:05):
And, and this idea of self love.It's, you know, it's, it's
pretty overplayed in my opinion at this point, like hashtag self
love, but like really like what it means to be willing to be
your own ride or die. You know, your own, your person
that shows up and says, no matter what I got you, no matter
how scary or icky or nasty that that thought or action or
(17:29):
behavior was, I'm going to show up and I'm going to love you
anyway. I'm going to, I'm going to see
you in all of who you are. And so I started this process
and I actually let go of the diet and the supplements and
that sort of stuff. And I don't have antibodies
anymore. And you're not supposed to be
able to heal from autoimmune. Once you get it, you're stuck
with it for life. And most people will say now and
(17:51):
now you're going to get your susceptible to multiple
autoimmune conditions. And I'm here to tell you that
does not have to be your path. Yeah, that's so interesting
because when we have anxiety, because I have anxiety, I feel
like we can't tend to be very productive people.
The anxiety is driving it, but we also we we're hyper vigilant.
(18:13):
We don't want something bad to happen.
So then when something bad happens like Hashimoto's like
you had or I tore my hip labrum,I think sometimes we can tend to
be critical of ourselves, like, oh, I shouldn't, I shouldn't be
having Hashimoto's. I take good care of myself or
you know, I shouldn't have torn my hip labrum.
That was so silly, whatever the case may be.
(18:34):
And that is when we turn on ourselves and we are attacking
ourselves mentally and then our body kind of lets loose and
attacks us more physically as well.
And I love how you were talking about we can heal ourselves when
the study about the people who meditated, just with the
relaxation and meditation, they were turning on their good
(18:58):
genes, the beneficial genes, thegenes of the health, and if you
even want to say like health andwealth and abundance, like we're
all programmed to some degree tothrive no matter who our parents
were, no matter our genetic makeup.
And I love that message. Yeah.
And it's really about, well, first of all, acknowledging that
(19:20):
everything that you need to be with whatever it is that you're
facing, be it a torn labrum or an autoimmune or anxiety or
grief loss, you know, whatever it might be, you already have in
this moment, whoever you are, whoever is listening, you
already have what you need to move through this in an easeful,
(19:40):
graceful, expansive way. And so I think that's Step 1 is
stop looking outside of ourselves for well, oh, if I
read this book or I take this supplement or I eat this food or
I listen to this person or, and not to say that all of those
options aren't beautiful and might, they might genuinely be
supportive, but could we could we invite those in from a place
(20:04):
of like, oh, this feels fun in my body?
Or, oh, I wonder what it would create to do this thing rather
than I'm going to do this thing and I'm not going to have hip
pain anymore. And if I have hip pain anymore?
So I didn't do the right thing or I didn't do it good enough,
or I didn't. I skipped those Tuesdays when I
had other things going on, right?
We again, like you said, we get so hard on ourselves and it's
(20:26):
like, well, that was stupid. And and then we start this
cascade rather than like, hey, buddy, what have I been doing or
not doing that would be more supportive?
Have I been drinking enough water to support the fluidity in
the joint or enough good fats? I might eat it, you know, do I
eat a diet that has enough lubricant for a healthy joint
(20:48):
tissue? You know, do I move my body in
such a way that there's it's stretching and the joints are
mobile and fluid? Or have I blown that off because
I prioritize the To Do List, which many of us do too.
And then so the so a labrum tearignore hip pain can be this
beautiful invitation to re evaluate what we've been
(21:11):
devoting ourselves to. And so many of us in this
culture are devoted to busyness.You know, it's like the ultimate
success is how much can you craminto a day?
But what if that wasn't the be on end all?
What is it like to reflect that that being on that hamster wheel
isn't bringing you closer to where you actually want to be?
(21:34):
And in some ways, it can be deflating and hard to be with
and sit with, like, oh, I've been moving so swiftly in this
direction. You mean it's not going to get
me there. But in other ways, you know,
once we move through that grief or that doubt, it can also be
really freeing. Like oh OK, if I don't have to
show up like this, what else could I create?
(21:57):
Yeah, I feel like everyone diagnosed with an injury or even
chronic illness, they need a doctor, Nikola, like insurance
to assign them a doctor, Nikola,because you know, you're going
to focus on, well, what can we do?
There's always something we can do.
Let's look at how to improve your sleep, your diet, your
(22:18):
hormones, digestion, and the wayyou move your body.
And I feel like when you do havean injury or a chronic
condition, it's very easy in theage of Google to Google your
condition and then Google the medical interventions you've
tried. And then go down this rabbit
hole of research when really like, we're in our minds so
(22:40):
much. And if we could just like get
more into our bodies and findingsome serenity and some love for
our bodies. Like it's not just all fluff, it
will help us heal. Yeah, this is not woo woo.
This is based in just like Physiology, like basic
Physiology. You know, in Physiology there's
(23:00):
an energetic shift and that causes a cellular shift and that
causes a physiological shift. And in our in our Western
medical society, we're really looking at the physiological
shifts. We're not taking the time to go
back a step or even 2 to what was the energy that shifted in
the body that caused this chain reaction that manifested in our
(23:21):
Physiology. You know, we think that
Physiology and you know, capitalS science is like over here all
the way on the right side of theroom.
And then anything alternative ormindfulness based or heart
centered is like over on the left side of the room and has
nothing to do with with what's over here in the capital S
science category. And what's cool about where
(23:43):
we're going in our science now is that we're really seeing the
melding of these two things, which in my opinion have never
actually been separated. They were only artificially
separated by some of our philosophers, you know, like
Descartes, like I think therefore I am like that really
shifted people's mindset into the mind is the most important
thing. And then from there in medicine,
(24:06):
the brain became the center of everything.
And from my world view, I'm likethe brain has is not not a lot
more than a processing center. When we now know that our heart
is a sensory organ and our gut is a sensory organ.
We have a huge secondary nervoussystem that's entirely in the
gut. The gut is, you know, we have
our tonsils and that lymph tissue.
(24:27):
The gut has a whole curtain of lymph tissue and immune tissue
that's covers the entirety of our gut.
And so if we start looking at the body as a whole divine
miraculous unit where everythingis playing in harmony with
everything else, all of a suddenwe can start to see the links
(24:48):
around like, oh, I went through that breakup and then I started
having, you know, blood pressureissues or a fib or I see that
all the time. Or I've, I am, I have a lot of
anxiety and I have some digestive issues or my hormones.
You know, I went through a shiftof, you know, a change of life
hormonally, be it menopause or pregnancy or whatever.
(25:12):
And then all of a sudden my mental health shifted or my
sleep shifted. These are, these are
interrelated things that, that the body is calling us to slow
down and get closer to. Hey, what's really going on here
and how can I connect these dots?
So let's talk about mental health.
I know that's a big part of yourpractice.
(25:33):
Yeah, I mean, typically if I have someone coming in for more
physical health stuff, we end upexploring the the mental health
component, even though I might not call it that depending on
how open someone is, because there still is very much a
stigma around mental health. So I'll use maybe the term
stress, you know, like how do you manage stress?
(25:54):
What's your mood typically? You know, so we'll have those
kind of conversations, you know,any, any big stressors going on?
And, and typically, I mean, it'slife, right?
We've all have things that are that we're moving through.
And so usually that timeline lines up like that.
There was a stressor and within a year, 18 months of that, and
sometimes much sooner, it was a physical manifestation.
(26:17):
And so when we put that timelinetogether, and that's part of why
my initial it takes an hour and a half, because it's like we
have to really hear the story inorder to really see me a clear
picture of what's been going on.And I don't want to use natural
medicine to make the symptom go away instead of a pharmaceutical
(26:38):
or an over the counter. That's that's, you know, what we
call greenwashing. It's not really naturopathic
philosophy. So a core of naturopathic
philosophy is treating the wholeperson and treating the cause.
And so really getting to the cause of it, you know, the cause
of inflammation isn't a lack of turmeric or a lack of fish oil
(26:58):
or a lack of steroid injections.Doesn't mean to say they won't
help to get the inflammation under control, but what's the,
what's the ideology of how did this come to be?
And so that's really what we're exploring.
And so there's, there's usually a mental health component that I
bring in, even if someone's coming in simply for physical
health. And then, but a lot of times
(27:20):
people, I think if they're drawnto work with me, they have a
sense that their mental state ofbeing, whether there's a quote
UN quote, mental health diagnosis or not, they know they
have this sense, whether they'reconsciously aware of it or not,
that their mental emotional bodyis, is playing a role and that
the way they've been approachingtheir life is, isn't
(27:43):
sustainable. And so we really talk a lot
about the wisdom of the body andsymptoms as divine messengers.
And it doesn't matter which realm of the body those symptoms
are showing up. So say you have a patient who's
very anxious, maybe they're anxious about their physical
issue, maybe they're just anxious in general and that's
how they've been rolling throughlife.
(28:05):
That's how I roll. So when you have somebody who's
anxious and you do the intake, do you have a little toolbox of
a few like breathing practices or practices that you can
actually introduce to them and run them through?
Because I feel like it's one thing to talk about it, but it
(28:27):
is another to experience the relief of, let's say, a
meditation or a breath work and experience like the connection
to yourself. I remember when I was 16, I went
to my first yoga class and I waslike, Oh my gosh, is this what
it feels like to feel normal andnot anxious?
(28:49):
It was like a whole new level. I didn't realize my baseline was
hyper vigilance. I didn't realize it was amazing.
Do you have something that you would recommend for my listeners
to try at home? You know, we've, I've done
episodes about box breathing, non sleep, deep rest, yoga,
Nidra. Is there anything that you find
(29:10):
is easy for people to learn and very effective with finding that
place where, Oh my gosh, you canactually relax?
Yeah, everything you just mentioned is awesome.
You know, yoga, nidra, the box breathing, all of that.
I tend to start people, it's just breathing into the belly
and, you know, and the guidance and I'll walk you through, which
(29:32):
is, you know, especially when somebody's telling their story,
there's usually a point in the story where there's emotions
that come up, right? It's frustrating or it's sad or
it's scary or it's, you know, especially when we're talking
about our health. And so when I noticed that shift
and we can notice that in ourselves, right?
Like, you know, when you're morecalm and then you're shifting
into kind of like a uptick of anxiety or mental thoughts or
(29:55):
whatever. And typically there's somebody
sensations that come with that energy shift of, oh, I'm
starting to really chew on something.
And so it's, and it's going to be different in everybody.
And so it's, it's great for you and, and all the listeners to
notice. Oh, yeah, I do know what that
sensation is of, you know, my, my head gets tight or I feel my
(30:18):
chest, you know, gets a little bit heavy or my stomach starts
being flippy or I get that, you know, muscle twitch in my
shoulder. I mean, it's whatever, whatever
it is, right? Do you know what yours is?
Well, I just put my hand on my heart because I was just
thinking, you know, a lot of experts that I've interviewed
have said this, like, where do you feel the anxiety in your
(30:39):
body? And then just send compassion to
it and breathe into wherever theanxiety is.
I think it's like usually in my throat because it's amazing that
I have a podcast and I do inspirational speaking Doctor
Nicola and my, I, my throat was like an issue.
You know, I'd never spoke up formyself as a child, and I've
always been timid. And so I think when we open up
(31:03):
in these areas where we're holding anxiety and fear, like
we really feel more powerful andconfidence.
I mean, we can totally change our lives if we tune into where
we're holding the anxiety. Absolutely.
Yeah. And so, yeah, it was just so,
you know, if something comes up,I just invite, you know, the
person to start and like, hey, just breathe into the belly.
(31:23):
And we're going to use the inhale to just create more space
for whatever it is that's here. And some people want to name it,
and some people do not want to name it.
And so, you know, if you want toname it, that's fine.
But just notice. What do you feel in your body?
OK, You notice something in yourthroat.
There's a sensation in your throat.
We're not going to try to make it go away.
We're just going to let the body, body, no, hey, body, I
(31:44):
noticed that sensation in the throat, whatever that is, right?
And then we're going to breathe and notice what happens when you
tell the body. Yes, I know that's here and it's
OK that it's here. And all of a sudden that's the
typically that body sensation shifts.
It may be intensifies or it lessens or moves somewhere else
in the body or it goes away. It doesn't matter.
(32:05):
But we just start practicing andnow we're going to observe.
What do you notice now in your body?
We're going to keep on using thebreath.
We're going to keep on making space with that inhale,
breathing into the belly. A lot of times when I cue people
to breathe into the belly, I'll see the shoulders come up and
down and I'm like, that's not your belly.
Those are your shoulders. You know, you want to imagine
like trying to fill your pelvis with air, like breathing all the
(32:28):
way down. And so when we do that, I'm
like, OK, now there's more space.
And it's like, well, how are youfeeling?
It's like, oh, I don't want to speak up.
I'm I'm, I'm nervous to be heard.
And it's like, OK, just letting that part know that you're
nervous about speaking up and that's OK too.
And honestly, it's this practiceof, of just noticing and let and
(32:49):
having your higher self let these parts know, Hey, it's OK,
that this is here, that that actually starts to regulate the
system. And it's a direct experience of,
oh, I can be with this because the mind has created all these
strategies, right? Anxiety is a perfect example.
(33:10):
If I start thinking about a solution or if I start super
analyzing the situation, it it brings all the energy out of the
body and the heart, you know, and the emotions.
I don't have to feel into the fear of this.
I'm just going to figure out howto fix it from the mind level.
It's a layer of protection. And so we can acknowledge, oh,
there's my there's that anxious thought, there's that, you know,
(33:33):
there's that hyper analysis, There's that bulldog of a
thought that won't let go. It's OK that you're here too.
I see that you're here. Tell me about it.
And it's like, I'm really concerned that this hip is never
going to, I'm going to be in pain forever.
Yeah, I get that. It makes sense that you'll be
worried that this pain is going to be here.
That's OK. And so that's really the first
(33:56):
practice is just use the breath,make some more space, notice the
sensations in the body, and thentouch in what's the emotion
underneath, All the while givingyour body and your thoughts this
feedback that it's actually OK that you feel this way.
I'm going to stay with you because most of us are like is
(34:16):
that is not OK. I need to make this stop.
I need to get away from this. And that's our tendency is, is
what we and what we've been trained to do, right?
Like we're, we're a culture of problem solvers and the
intellect rules all. And, and again, we don't want to
get rid of that strong intellect.
There's a lot of beauty there too, but we don't want it to be
the only tool, especially when we're talking about fear or
(34:40):
grief or anger or, you know, anyof these bigger emotions.
It's like 2 ships in the night. You know, the, the intellect is
never going to meet an emotionalneed.
But when we have an anxious mindespecially, but I think it's
true for most of us humans that we are convinced that we can, if
we can figure it out and we can make it stop, then we won't have
(35:02):
to have the emotion anymore, andthen we never have to feel
uncomfortable again. Yeah, it's like we have an
opportunity to parent ourselves.We have an opportunity to put
our hands on our hearts and say,I got you.
It is OK to feel a little anxious in your throat right
now. It is OK.
And I think I used to teach at an elementary school.
And that's so epic when a child can start parenting themselves
(35:27):
and tell themselves like, you can handle this because then
their little anxiety or whateverit is or their anger, it doesn't
turn into throwing a fit. It turns into self regulation
when they're with themselves andthey're with their fear or their
anger and they're just able to like feel it, you know, feeling
is healing, feel it to heal it. And so we're all like running
(35:50):
around like children in adult bodies.
A lot of us, now that we're in adulthood, we still have these
emotions and they can flood us and take over, but they do not
have to run the show. Yeah, that's exactly right.
And if you think about how much energy it takes to not feel what
we're feeling and then how much it takes to run the anxiety
(36:13):
program, it's like, Oh my gosh, that's a, that's a lot of work.
It's a lot of pressure. It's it's, it's just a lot of
energy that we're expending as opposed to like releasing all
that and going. It's OK that this hip pain is
here. It's it's OK that the worry
about the hip pain is here. It makes sense.
It hurts. You know, it's OK that there's a
(36:35):
wondering what, what do I need to do?
Right? And so, but now we're just kind
of ratcheting down the, the nervous system and now we're
actually in a place of more healing and we're in a clear
mind space as well to go, OK, I've got six treatment options
in front of me for this hip. Which one feels right to me?
(36:55):
Which one feels like it's going to bring me closer?
And what happens if I just go check it out just to see what
it'll happen rather than this has to be the thing that changes
the pain. I can't do this anymore.
And now, and so now we have anxiety about having anxiety,
right? That's, and then the, and then
this judgement, the self judgement and criticism.
(37:16):
And it's, it's just snowballs. And so this, this practice of
breathing, making more space andnoticing what's here and calling
ourselves it's OK is a game changer.
And it sounds so simple, but if you weren't fighting yourself
all day long, how much more resources would you have
available to you to actually navigate where you want to go
(37:38):
next? Yeah, we have a lot of options.
I picture like, you know, picking up a prescription at the
pharmacy and being like holding the bottle and being like, you
better change my life, you little prescription, you know,
like and I think, you know, I don't know, this is just my
opinion, but there's so many things we can do now, like
(37:59):
marijuana is legal. You can go to Costa Rica and eat
frog poison or have a trip or, you know, and so if we get too
attached to like, you know, the IV vitamins or whatever it is
we're doing, there's so many healthy things, but a lot of it
is like an inside job like you're talking about.
(38:21):
So I feel like if I were going to do anything after this
interview, I'll probably just like, meditate and breathe into
my body and then all the things will come up, you know, like,
how am I going to solve my hip? What's going to happen?
Am I going to be able to walk onthe beach?
You know, what if it snows, can I walk on the ice?
And I'm just going to watch those thoughts come and go,
(38:44):
'cause they are not 100, you know, 99 problems to solve, like
100 problems to solve. I'm going to try to just be with
my body. Yeah, in this moment, well,
right now I'm not at the beach and I don't know about you, but
there's no snow on the ground here.
So in this moment, I don't need to worry about walking on the
(39:04):
beach or walking in the snow. You know what?
What do I feel in my body when Iwalk around the block right now?
Oh, I mean, it's a little discomfort.
There's some discomfort there, but I can walk as far as I want
to walk or I can walk for about half a mile and then I feel like
I'm all done. OK.
What happens when I honor that and be all done and, you know,
(39:26):
go home and, and rest or get into a bath instead of having a
lot of movement? You know, maybe this is, you
know, pain or illness is really a call to deep rest.
You know, which a lot of us havenot been heeding the call for a
very long time, usually years. Yes, I interviewed a Ted Talk
(39:47):
speaker who has multiple sclerosis Ms. and she was saying
that Ms. is just a mindset shift.
It's just a call to rest, connect, and so we can think of
injury in this way and then moving the body.
I feel like this can be meditative.
I know that. You're an expert when it comes
(40:07):
to different therapies like IFS,internal family systems.
Also, I realized a few years agothat just taking a walk is a
form of EMDR. Those of you listening, you can
Google EMDR, but you know, some people think of it as looking at
lights going left and right, left and right, or listening to
music. And it basically alternates left
(40:30):
and right and it balances both hemispheres of your brain.
And it helps you process memories, emotions.
And I just realized maybe, I don't know, 3-4, five years ago,
that walking has the same effect.
It helps us process things. And so I used to take my little
students on a walk when they were feeling angry or upset, and
(40:52):
I felt like that helped. And the science behind, it's
amazing. But talk to us more about the
science behind just moving your body.
And I mean, obviously we know this is good for us, but what do
you usually talk to your clientsand patients about?
Couple of different things. The first one is moving your
body in a way that you enjoy. You know, I think there's a lot
(41:13):
of have TOS and shoulds when it comes to I have to do yoga and
stretch and be super noodly and I have to lift weights,
especially as a perimenopausal woman.
And that becomes like double important to lift weights and,
or I've, I've always been a runner.
So I have to keep running. And what I have noticed,
especially over the past decade for myself is that I don't
(41:35):
always want the same kind of movement.
And you know, I used to, I've, I've been an athlete my whole
life and I was really comfortable in the gym.
And then it came to a point where I'm like, this actually
doesn't feel good in my body, but it's supposed to feel good.
So I keep on doing it. But my body was like not having
it. It was really, there was an
exhaustion that was happening. It was very, very physiological.
(41:59):
And I'm like, what happens if I let it go?
And I picked up more dance and which is not something I have in
my history. And I just more walking and some
more yoga. And I'm like, Oh, I really like
that. And then about a year ago I was
like, Oh, I think I want something a little bit more
intensive. And so I'm, I'm back lifting
weights a couple days a week, but I'm also doing some dance
(42:21):
and I'm not doing very much yoganow.
And so I want you all to know that we have seasons of our life
and, and they can be larger seasons, you know, like
adolescents, young adult, middle-aged, older age, but it
can also be winter, spring, summer, or it could be this week
when I'm recovering from a head cold is different than last week
(42:44):
when I had the head cold. And hopefully is different than
next week when I hopefully won'thave this head cold anymore.
And you know, so we can, we can be fluid and flexible.
And I think really when it comesto movement or, or nutrition, we
want to be rigid. Like there's one right way.
And I'm like, no, like, like, listen to your body.
Like, are you my weight lifting coat?
(43:06):
She's like, are you a red light,yellow light or green light
today? You know, are you tired today?
Are you dragging? It's so take it to leave the
easy. Are you yellow light?
Are you kind of somewhere in between or are you green light
to do sleep well, to do eat well?
Are you like 100% charged and fully vital?
And really listening to that, even in the context of a
(43:26):
weightlifting class where we're all doing the same thing, but
I'm like, Oh yeah, I can move differently.
I went back to my dance class this morning and I danced at
maybe 50% of what I might have normally danced at.
And so even if I'm showing up for the same thing that I've
done for 12 years, I can do it in a different way.
I can, I can be smaller, I can be bigger, I can be more
(43:48):
intense, I could be more gentle.And so this that's really an
invitation to listen, but to really make sure that we are
moving this body every day in a way that feels good to us and
avoiding what other people say that we should do and really
listening. A friend of mine is a long
distance runner and you know, myhusband used to do like exercise
(44:12):
Physiology and rehab. And she was, she had a hitch in
her hip and she was asking aboutit.
And he was like, the only thing to do for that is stop running
at least for a period of time, you know, because it's running
is exacerbating what's happening.
And he explained her gait and what was happening and blah,
blah, blah. And she was like, well, I don't
want to stop running. And he's like, then you're going
(44:33):
to continue to have pain. And and sure enough, she did end
up having hip surgery a few years later because she was
like, I'm not, I'm not going to change this in response to my
body because my mind has decidedthat this is what I do.
And I think that's what gets us into trouble across the board.
Yeah, sounds like when it comes to moving your body, like don't
(44:54):
get stuck on, I should like I should lift heavier weights.
I should run five times a day. Like listen to your body and
modify And yoga. I'm all about modifying.
Yes, yeah, absolutely. I'm like so grateful that I
never have insomnia. I never have a hard time getting
(45:17):
to sleep, I never wake up, but Iknow that that can be a problem,
especially in times of stress. The only time I ever woke up in
the middle of the night was likeI was getting a divorce back in
2017. During the divorce I would just
like wake up in a panic so we could talk about insomnia and
sleep a little bit. I know I always try to have like
(45:40):
the room cooled down a little bit and nice blinds up to block
out any light. What do you recommend when it
comes to sleep habits? And of course, avoid your phone
before bed. Look at me.
I'm like trying to think of ideas.
I'm out of the out of the sky. I'll let you talk about it.
(46:01):
Yeah, I mean, I think, I think insomnia's a bigger and bigger
issue for people, and there's different types of insomnia.
You know, that's kind of insomnia where you can't fall
asleep. What I'm seeing more often than
not is people waking in the night and having a hard time
getting back to sleep or being up for a couple of hours.
And there's a couple of different things I have to say
about that and you've already mentioned a few of them.
The most important thing is getting off the screens at least
(46:24):
half an hour, ideally an hour ortwo before bedtime.
The blue light and it's, it's nomatter what screen you're
looking at, be it a computer or an iPad or ATV or whatever,
there's a shaky light to it and the blue light from it
stimulates the pineal gland. The pineal gland is what, what
produces melatonin, which is our, one of our sleep hormones.
(46:46):
And so we want to, we don't wantthe pineal gland to be
stimulated at that time of nightbecause we want it to be in
night time mode. And so if you are someone who
absolutely has to watch screens or use screens, use blue light
blocking glasses, or you can getlittle sheets, blue light
blocking sheets that go over your screen.
(47:07):
But really the best is to kind of really let your body know
that you're winding down, that this is the end of the day.
So like you said, it's cooling the room, you know, not
necessarily exercising. Some people take baths before
bed and do that really, really well.
And some people, I have a hard time falling asleep right after
a bath. So I might take a bath maybe a
couple of hours before bedtime, but typically not right at
(47:30):
bedtime for me and my system. I've noticed that and we want to
make sure that we've, we've fueled well.
And so we want to eat dinner andwe want to make sure that we at
least have a couple of hours between dinner and sleep so that
we can digest. And that can often cause some
insomnia is the need to digest at the same time that we're
(47:50):
supposed to be sleeping. But especially now with people
doing this intermittent fasting or keto, I really recommend some
sort of complex carbohydrate with dinner because
carbohydrates are going to be what fuels good sleep.
And if if we're not in ketosis, that's kind of a totally
separate thing, but a lot of people are kind of just doing a
(48:11):
low carb piece or they're doing the intermittent fasting.
And for women, we really shouldn't be fasting more than
12 to 14 hours. And a lot of people that I
talked to were fasting like 18 to 20 hours.
And it's simply just too long for the body.
And so really making sure that you've eaten well, you've had
some fat, some protein and some complex carb at dinnertime to
(48:34):
fuel that good sleep and to, andto make sure that your, your
body know that this is bedtime, that we're not doing a bunch of
last minute errands or chores inthe how.
I mean, maybe we're doing dishesor that sort of thing.
But a lot of times I hear, especially for people with
children, that this is their sacred time and they can do
their online ordering and get back to a bunch of emails and,
(48:56):
and, but that's all very, or do the news and it's, it's all very
stimulating. And so really just remembering
that your nervous system is wanting to wind down and what
are the practices that you can incorporate?
Can you incorporate 20 minutes or even 10 minutes where you're
in your bedroom? It's nice and cool.
You put your legs up the wall ormaybe do child's pose where your
(49:19):
head is below your heart. That's a really good cue for
your nervous system to calm downand slow down.
Can you listen to music or meditation or some binaural
beats on Spotify or YouTube or wherever you listen to stuff so
it. But again, it's just, it's like
a break. Like, OK, this is my day.
(49:39):
I'm stopping this and I'm prepping myself for bed rather
than harried, harried, harried. OK, I'm in bed and now I can't
sleep. I love legs up the wall.
You can do that in bed because if you have a little headboard,
you can just lie in bed, but instead of lying there, you have
your legs up the wall, up the headboard and it's awesome for
(50:01):
your circulation. Yes, I have a little routine
like I usually make dinner, feedthe kids, and then I take a
bath, put the legs up the wall, chill and kind of move into more
like tidying up. I cannot imagine doing the news
before bed. Oh my gosh.
I think that would be one thing that maybe you could tell your
(50:21):
clients to avoid doing. Who wants to do the news before?
Yeah, Yep, yeah. And I think, you know, if it is
a time where you're like, oh, everybody's asleep and this is
just me time, that's awesome. What do you want to do for you?
What would feel really nourishing for you?
And then if you ask that question, that might inform your
(50:43):
decisions a little differently. I just have Netflix.
I don't have the news, but sometimes my phone will show me
the news and I'm like, Oh my gosh, stop and show me the news.
And then when it comes to like good digestion, do you, do you
often suggest like rest and digest?
If you want to digest your food better don't eat and then go out
(51:07):
on a big hike? Or does movement actually help
you digest your food? Some gentle movement after
eating actually helps digest. So like a really gentle walk
after a meal actually can't helpus digest.
We don't necessarily want to do a big workout.
It just depends on our body type.
So, you know, my husband eats a huge amount of food before he
(51:27):
works out. So, you know, everybody again,
but so we get to like hear theseisms and then we get to check it
out in our system. Like is that true for me, You
know, and my body has changed. I used to not be able to work
out with any food in my, in my body.
And now it's pretty unusual. I like to typically I like to
work out on an empty stomach now.
So my body has just shifted as I'm approaching 50 and you know,
(51:50):
things are just different. And honoring that, that
breakfast used to be this like really important part for me in
my 20s and 30s and in my 40s, I just, it, it takes me longer to
want to eat now and I just, I just honor that.
Yeah, again, like you said, likedon't should all over yourself.
Like stop telling yourself I should eat now and then drink my
(52:13):
coffee later. But like, if you're not hungry,
it's weird doing stuff that you don't really feel like doing.
Yes, yeah, yeah. Quit doing anything you don't
feel like doing. That is.
That is not the direction of health.
I promise you. I don't even know what it is,
but just don't stop. Stop doing it and see what
happens. See what else?
Doctor's orders. Write it on a prescription pad.
Quit doing stuff you don't want to do.
(52:35):
Period. The end.
Try this and call me in a week and see how it's going.
Honestly, really let me know, like, stop doing what you don't
want to do for a week and see what that creates and, and
notice what what stories the mind creates around that and the
anxieties or worries that can come up around that and practice
(52:57):
being with that. Yeah, I hear you.
Yeah. This is different.
Yeah. That could happen.
Everything could fall apart. And that's not what's happening
now. So.
Yeah. Right now you're just sitting in
your office with all those gorgeous plants everywhere.
I love your plants. One more thing, hormone balance.
(53:17):
So I'm actually drinking Raspberry leaf tea as we speak
and it's so interesting. I drink it like as a teenager
and I was having like breakouts and then I started drinking it
just recently and I just love it.
It's supposed to balance your hormones.
There are so many ways we can balance our hormones.
Honestly, I don't know any of the ways, so if you want to like
(53:39):
discuss a few ways that are bestpractices.
Sure, Absolutely. The, you know, water and fiber
are like the foundation, right? Because our kidneys and our
liver and all of our hormones are processed through the liver,
and the kidneys in the liver aregiant filters.
And so if we remember that theseorgans are filters, then it can
(54:01):
be inspiring to have more water because the more water that
there is on board, the easier itis for the filter to do it its
job. So that's number one.
And then fiber. Fiber is the broom of the colon.
So it helps to pick up all thesetoxins or or excess hormones
that we don't need in the body and it helps sweep them on out
of the colon and eliminate them as waste.
(54:23):
And we want to do that. So that's like no matter what
stage of your life you're in, nomatter what gender you are, you
know, water and fiber as these two basic platforms.
And then for women, you know, with a cruciferous veggies.
So that's broccoli, cauliflower,kale, Brussels sprouts, those
sort of things. Those have very specific
(54:46):
phytochemicals in them that helpto metabolize estrogens.
And so getting a good dose of cruciferous veggies most days is
is awesome limiting, I would sayso.
So soy has some really good isoflavones and some really good
things to it, but we don't want to overdo it.
And So what I would recommend with regarding soy is just like
(55:09):
anything. I wouldn't have it every single
day. I wouldn't have it at every
single meal, but throw it in themix, you know, have it there and
have it in its whole form. So edamame beans or in its
traditionally made form, which is more like a miso or a tempeh
because they are fermented. And when we ferment soy, we know
that we can absorb and absorb itbetter and it just works with
(55:34):
our body better. When people ask me about like
basic nutrition things, I alwaysinvite them to look at how that
a more ancient culture approached that food, be it
dairy or soy or carbs or whatever.
If we look back to how traditional peoples are
(55:54):
utilizing these foods and we geta lot of information from there.
The hormones, it's like adding salt to a soup.
It doesn't just salt the carrotsin the soup, it salts the whole
soup. And so hormones are the same.
It doesn't just impact our reproductive area, it impacts
everywhere in our body. And so just really understanding
more more in depth around that. Yeah, I've been taking
(56:18):
probiotics in the morning, like a little bit before I start
drinking my drinks or eating anything.
I don't know if it helps but I've been I've been doing it.
Yeah, it's nothing. My kids are so cute.
They're 9 and 13 and I give themchewable probiotics and they're
so cute. Like they just eat whatever I
give them. It's so cute.
(56:38):
I'm like good morning, have a chewable probiotic.
They're like, OK, I have no ideawhat that is.
Yeah, but I mean, but again, there's an internal knowing that
you have as an individual and asa Mama, like, oh, you know what,
we're going to do probiotics right now.
And then you'll maybe forget or you'll kind of not buy more when
you run out of the bottle or whatever.
And then you'll cycle through these things or you'll have
(56:59):
Raspberry tea, you know, leaf tea tea.
And maybe that's a daily thing forever.
Or maybe that's just like, Oh, I, I, this is what I want this
morning. And so we again, we get to
listen and not get so stuck thatlike every morning I have my
Raspberry leaf tea. It's like, well, maybe this
morning you want turmeric gingertea, or maybe you want a coffee,
or maybe you want water or you know, like, so we get to be
(57:20):
really more, a lot more flexiblewith that.
Yeah, and like you were saying with soy, maybe avoid.
Like, you know, I make protein smoothies.
I do it with whey protein. But if you don't feel good doing
whey protein, don't keep drinking them.
And if you don't feel good doingsoy protein, don't keep doing
that either. Like, listen to your body.
I was on a date six months ago with somebody because I'm a
(57:43):
single mom, and he was telling me like that he is having some
digestive issues. And then he was also kind of
like a weight lifter. So he was like advising me on
different proteins. And then I just said to him, I'm
like, do you think maybe some ofyour digestive issues are from
like this one you keep using like the one protein and from,
(58:03):
you know, like ingesting like this one, maybe you should
switch it up. He's like, I never thought of
that. I was like, I want to try it,
you know? Absolutely.
That's what that's what I would have recommended too.
Listen to your body and listen to your random girls you go on
dates with. OK, so the last question for
you, Doctor Nicola, it's been such a pleasure as a
(58:26):
naturopathic physician and such an expert in this field of mind
body medicine, what is your favorite daily habit?
I had a note on here to talk about like daily habits.
And I know we were talking aboutdon't be so strict about it.
Don't don't tell yourself you should do a zillion, you know,
things in your morning routine and a zillion habits.
(58:48):
But what's one of your favorite ones do you think?
I think I've got 21 is sleep andand getting to bed at A at a
similar time every night. I think that's one thing that we
don't necessarily honor is the need to have.
It doesn't have to be 9:15 everysingle night, but I go to I go
(59:09):
to sleep somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00.
Like it's somewhere in there. So having having that sleep,
regular sleep cycle has really balanced so much in my world.
And then the other one is takinga few breaths to pause and just
connect to my heart and kind of letting the snow globe of
thoughts kind of calm down and just remember like I have
(59:30):
everything I need, all is well, and I'm connected to my heart.
I love that Trevor Hall song, Everything I need.
Do you like to play? I do, yeah.
I think he's awesome. Yeah, and everyone out there
just know, like while you're moving through your life, Doctor
Nicola and I are here in Colorado in the San Juan
Mountains, in our little snow globe of thoughts, early snowing
(59:54):
here most of winter, but not so much this winter.
But when you have this flurry ofthoughts and overthinking and
anxiety, take a few breaths and let them settle just like a snow
globe. It will work wonders.
All these tips that we talked about, like the snow globe, it
hits the nail on the head. It will work wonders.
(01:00:16):
It'll cover everything. Maybe I'll have to do a snow
globe meditation episode after this.
Well, Doctor Nikola, thanks for joining me.
It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much, I really
enjoyed our time. So y'all, that was an amazing
interview. I put all of Doctor Nicholas
(01:00:37):
contact information in this episode description so that all
you need to do is click the links to explore more about
Doctor Nicola and all the thingsthat she is sharing and
offering. And that completes our episode.
If this podcast content felt true for you, go ahead and leave
a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
(01:00:59):
Follow the podcast today and keep exploring your favorite
ways to dissolve fear and make some room for your best life to
unfold in fun and miraculous ways.
Visit missalyssa.com for coaching and free resources like
my newsletter, MISSAL issa.com. Believe in yourself, take care
(01:01:21):
of yourself, and thank you for being here.
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.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.