Holistic Life Navigation

Today Luis chats with Dick Schwartz, developer of Internal Family Systems (I.F.S.). Dick started his career as a family therapist. Upon asking the question, "why isn't family therapy working?" he began to develop what has become I.F.S. He learned from being in the field, and from making mistakes, how to tend to the parts of us that are usually frozen in the past. Dick found that when we talk to the inner critic with ...

On today's episode, Luis discusses navigating conflict through a somatic lens. As he speaks about conflict, he does not mean abuse or threat, but disagreement, disappoint and frustration.

Luis teaches about his "Tending To Rupture" method, and how he's been able to apply it to his client work, as well as his personal life. He discusses how the physiology of trauma response creates the conditions that ma...

On today's episode, Luis speaks with Will Harris, a farmer, cattleman, and owner of White Oak Pastures. Will shares his personal story of how he inherited his family farm, and how he transitioned the farm from an industrial model to a regenerative one.

When taking an industrial approach to farming, Will had caused desertification on parts of his land from the use of chemicals and monocultural farming. His cattle were ...

Trevor is back for a second podcast episode with Luis to discuss parenting in the age of social media and screen prevalence.  The hard first question is, what social media and screen patterns do the parents model?  Do parents use their own free time to disassociate and isolate with the screen? Do parents use the screen as a babysitter for their child/ren, so that they have time to resource themselves? When parents live an authentic...

Trevor Spring joins Luis for a tender discussion about masculinity, and how to tend our boys. Many boys and men have grown up, or are growing up, in isolation around their emotions and sexuality, with little to no physical or emotional attunement from caregivers and mentors. Porn becomes the de facto teacher prompting a chemistry shift in a frozen, dissociated body. Sexuality is learned with and from a screen, not body to body in a...

In this episode, Luis continues the short series on male puberty by exploring parallel co-regulation, which is similar to parallel play -- meaning they're playing near or next to each other -- and how important it is for teenage boys. 

During puberty, many boys lose access to their feelings while stuck in a body overwhelmed by testosterone and transformation at every level. An increase in sensation added to a decrease in capaci...

In this episode, Luis dives into the developmental trauma of boys -- a continuation of Episode 279: This Is Why I Think P*rnography Is Traumatizing For Developing Boys -- and how they are generally unsupported through puberty.

There's a lot of discourse around "toxic males" and problematic men in our society, but not a lot of somatic discussion around how to support young boys in a new way so they can walk a different...

Join Luis as he riffs about gender-affirming surgery, hormone therapy, and puberty blockers for minors. He looks to Marci Bowers, the first transgender female gynecologist and surgeon, who makes the case for not giving minors puberty blockers and hormone therapy.  

Children can safely explore who they are through temporary means, such as: make-up, fashion, roles, gender and stereotypes. The teenage years are inherently dysphoric, le...

On today's episode, Luis begins a conversation about male puberty that will continue into another two videos to explore what they face when testosterone begins to transform their bodies, minds, and chemistry. 

Because of this sudden biological change, p*rnography can be a developmental traumatizing experience for boys that leaves them further isolated from their bodies and emotions.

For parental support and m...

On today's episode, Luis discusses how our skin health is affected by our hormones, and by our liver health. Everything from acne, rashes, eczema, and psoriasis can be caused by impurities coming out through your skin when your liver is overtaxed.

The focus is usually on sex hormones, but stress hormones can also tax your liver, which then can trigger flare ups.

We can work with chronic stress externally, as ...

On today's episode, Luis discusses the connection between movement and glucose.

Movement and modern, industrialized food now lack a reciprocity. Movement is required for gathering and processing food; movement that many of us no longer need to perform in order to access calorically dense food.

Refined foods can often cause a glucose spike, which is followed by an insulin response, and then an adrenal response. When mus...

On today's episode, Luis discusses protein: how it affects mood, the nervous system, and the brain, and why it's so important to understand.

Proteins are a combination of amino acids, and dopamine and serotonin rely on them. Refined foods can temporarily fill the dopamine need caused by low amino acid intake, but ensuring you have enough protein is necessary for sustained balance. And sometimes the body's need for pro...

On today's episode, Luis teaches how our processed food cravings can be a compass towards whole food options.

Luis gives clear step-by-step conversion choices which can help support our unmet nutrition needs, and discusses how to relate to our unmet relational and emotional needs that may arise when we stop repressing them with food.

You can register for the FREE Food Therapy session here: https://www.holisticlife...

On today's episode, Luis and Camille welcome back Grey Doolin to discuss marginalization and victim mentality. Join them for an open-hearted conversation, with a bit of throwing shade.

They explore: 

· seeking safety from outside
· the way counterculture and mainstream culture interact
· honoring the knowledge of community elders
· separating others' judgements from internal self-worth
· building r...

On today's episode, Luis teaches one of his favorite practices, called "Interrupting Your Cravings."

Cravings aren't about having impulse issues: they're deep unmet needs in the body that we seek to get met through eating. One of those needs is nutritional, and the other is emotional.

Luis guides us through a practice to help put a pause in our cravings to help uncover what information the...

On today's episode, Luis explores the way that the body stores fat, rather than the identity that can arise from it. Even though there are negative health impacts from too much fat being stored, the process is a natural, biological, animal instinct for survival, is a healthy response to the ingestion of refined carbs and sugars.

Learning which foods affect insulin can help to shift the body from fat storage to fat usa...

Hello sunshine! How do you enter a new day? Do you slowly stretch into it, or do you immediately plug in to dopamine via technology and screens? Join Camille and Luis as they discuss how living seasonally and cyclically can be supportive and resourcing to our bodies. 

At one time everyone lived in tandem with the seasons.  Caffeine and electricity allowed our ancestors to break their own boundaries and nature's boundaries (of s...

On today's episode Luis teaches 3 simple, free things that can help your body better manage stress and trauma recovery. Watch to learn the suggestions, and how they can support you.

You can also watch the video he mentions here: https://youtu.be/7xglDqF52mg

You can register for the FREE Food Therapy session here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/food-therapy-supporting-adhd-with-nutrition

Sign up...

On today's episode Luis takes us through a brief self-inquiry practice to help us get in touch with the ways we use food to modulate our emotions and sensations.

He reviews the way he organizes kinds of foods, and the way these food categories affect our nervous system and adrenals. Take moment to notice what foods you consume and crave, and you may find what your underlying state is.

You can register for the...