Latest / The Reverse Aging Club with Meredith Oke / 157: Starts with the Sun: Why Circadian Basics Matter More Than You Think with Shannon Kates

Transcript

157: Starts with the Sun: Why Circadian Basics Matter More Than You Think with Shannon Kates · The Reverse Aging Club with Meredith Oke

6:12
Shannon Kate, welcome to the QVC podcast.
6:16
Thank you. Happy to be here. Yeah. I'm so excited to do
6:19
this. So I want to dive into your story,
6:23
um, because as we were just chatting about, I love, I love
6:27
the stories of people especially who have, like, a very strong
6:31
business background or from what we would consider like a very sort of
6:35
traditional way of doing things in the world. And
6:38
then they find their way into. The wellness lane because. Right. You know, we
6:42
can talk about, you know, people are like, oh, you know,
6:46
I don't do that. That's not my deal. Like, let's go to the doctor and
6:50
get into all this other nonsense. So walk us through. Walk
6:53
us through your story. You're an investment banker, you're doing all
6:57
the things, and now here you are,
7:01
right, Creating a media company for light. So tell us
7:05
what happened. Yes. So, yes, I am the I'm pearl wearing
7:08
hippie dippy now. But anyway, so I
7:12
did. I worked for an investment bank. I lived in Los Angeles.
7:16
And, you know, I was. I was doing all
7:20
the right things and. But I wasn't feeling my best and
7:24
I knew something was off and I took the
7:27
traditional route. I went to my functional doctor.
7:32
By that time, you know, I was in my 40s, my hormones were
7:36
crashing, and I actually, I went to the doctor and
7:41
she, this is a true story. She said, I'm sorry, Shannon, I think
7:44
your ovaries have just fallen asleep. This is just a short
7:48
period of time. And I said, well, can you wake them?
7:52
Can you wake them up? And
7:56
so I was having all these experiences and I wasn't getting, you know, I was.
8:00
The people that I was expecting to have the answers didn't have them.
8:03
So I did what everybody else did. And I think my story is no
8:07
different than anyone else's, which is I searched for answers,
8:11
and once I didn't get them from the people that I thought should have them,
8:15
I. I took it upon myself. And when I first took it upon
8:19
myself, I became, you know,
8:22
what a marketer's dream. Right? I read every
8:26
email, I signed up for every
8:29
influencer's, you know, thoughts on health. And I mean, even
8:33
this morning when I look in my email, I have to share this with you
8:36
because my. My struggle with health was
8:39
that. Not that I didn't have solutions, but. But I was
8:43
overwhelmed with solutions. There were so many solutions
8:47
in the health marketplace, and I was completely overwhelmed by
8:50
them. And so if there was, you know, someone would
8:54
say, oh, I've got something for that. Oh, text me that, oh, I have someone
8:57
for that. Oh, I'll do that. So I was just chasing
9:01
solutions, but still really feeling miserable and
9:04
not figuring out why I couldn't get my
9:08
body to a place where I wanted it to be. And so even this
9:12
morning, I have to share this with you because we are in this chaos of
9:16
health. It says, okay, so, one. These are all.
9:19
Okay, so these are all. Because what I love that you did
9:23
was, okay, so you're. You're having health
9:27
issues that are affecting your quality of life. Yes. Go to your doctor, everyone.
9:31
Which we all do. And they're like, yeah, your labs are okay. Don't
9:34
worry about it. Or whatever. No, you're just, you know, know, getting older. Oh, you
9:38
have young kids. This is normal. Basically, a
9:41
million different ways of saying, like, I got nothing. I got
9:45
nothing. I got nothing. Yeah. So some people slink away and are like,
9:49
oh, I guess. I guess this is just life now. That's. And
9:52
then some people, like, you are like, no, I don't accept
9:56
that. Nope, that was me too. I'm like, this can't be right.
10:00
Nope. And then the journey begins.
10:04
It's like, where to go? There's so much.
10:08
And yeah, you sign up and so you're still. So you are just going to
10:11
share with us some. Yeah. And then you start to get. Problem isn't like, oh,
10:15
I got nothing. The problem is I got so much and I don't know exactly
10:19
thing exactly. And I had everything. So, you
10:22
know, I wasn't methylating my B vitamins. So I went on, you
10:26
know, the big chase for methylcobalamin. And I thought if I could get my
10:30
supplements right, then everything would be fine, you
10:34
know. And then I, you know, and then I had heavy metals.
10:38
And so what I didn't know at the time was that my best chelator
10:41
for heavy metals was actually melanin, was actually the sun.
10:45
But there were so many things about light that I didn't understand at that time.
10:49
And I didn't understand that light was actually what moved
10:52
the needle on so many of the com. So every complaint
10:56
that I had, whether it was. Whether it was, you know, gut issues,
11:00
I was having bloating, I was having hormone issues, I was having sleep
11:04
issues, I was having thyroid issues. I was, you know,
11:08
I had anxiety out of nowhere. I just didn't know I wasn't
11:11
operating optimally. And I couldn't figure it out. And I was
11:15
given small little tidbits and I chased down there, I chased
11:19
this, I chased that. And then I'm still
11:23
noticing. And I mean, no one can even have a conversation
11:26
anymore with a group of women or a group of men. All
11:30
people are talking about is, you know, carbs and
11:33
protein and fat and what should I be doing? And what I know
11:37
now is that it comes back to
11:41
energy over inflammation, right? And that one third of the
11:44
story is food, but two thirds is
11:48
light and grounding. And our bodies as
11:52
electromagnetic beings, we are not this kind of,
11:56
you know, we aren't just a function of these diets. And
12:00
this, you know, this morning in my email, you know all the
12:04
headlines and I every morning you open up your email.
12:07
So one common, one common fruit turns sleep
12:11
into a fat burning machine. And that was the email that I
12:14
responded to. What is that common fruit? I need to find out what that
12:18
common fruit was. And I was a very intelligent person, but boy,
12:22
they had me because I was searching. I didn't feel well.
12:25
I wanted answers and I really wanted to find them. And I was,
12:29
I tried everything. I tried everything under the sun except the sun.
12:33
And that was what I needed to do. And
12:37
even this, you know, memory loss linked to five common
12:40
additives. Are they in your pantry? So I would
12:44
fall into this kind of. Oh, so I would check my pantry.
12:48
I probably had, I read that email five years ago, I probably would have
12:51
undone my pantry, figured out if I had these five ingredients
12:55
and actually thought that those were contributing to
12:59
things like why I wasn't sleeping, why I didn't have energy,
13:03
why my hormones were dysregulated. And I didn't realize that
13:07
my relationship with light and my daily routines around
13:11
light were actually what were really going to move the needle on
13:14
all these issues that were bothering me most.
13:19
And so that was so,
13:23
so eye opening. But just in terms of results,
13:26
just changing how I felt. I mean, I literally
13:30
was so fatigued. I was so fatigued. I
13:34
mean, in the afternoon. And then of course, I go to my caffeine
13:37
and you know, I'm trying, oh, I'm going to load on more
13:41
supplements. I mean, I kept loading. Oh, it must be the collagen protein.
13:45
Oh, I didn't juice my celery this morning. Oh, I didn't count my
13:48
steps. Oh, I didn't do this. I didn't do this. And there's kind of this
13:52
cycle of disappointment in what I'm not keeping up with
13:55
because there's so many solutions. So there, it wasn't
13:59
possible for me to achieve health because I
14:02
couldn't, I couldn't really follow all these
14:06
solutions. There were so many when the real solution was
14:09
embarrassingly simple. It was embarrassingly simple,
14:13
which was reconnect with nature. And it was
14:17
starting my day without my phone, not sleeping with my phone
14:21
in my room. Starting my day with morning light as
14:24
early as possible. Sunrises are optimal, you know, know,
14:28
grounded in the earth, facing east, no
14:31
contacts, light in my eyes, light on my skin.
14:35
Connecting to nature and actually listening to nature. I mean, I
14:39
realized that I just had become so disconnected.
14:43
I didn't even hear birds anymore. I mean, I know that sounds crazy, but
14:46
I literally was so disconnected that I,
14:51
I had all these natural frequencies that I were, was just
14:54
completely disconnected from. So.
14:59
Wow. Yeah, it's amazing. And it's, you
15:03
know when you say like I didn't even hear the birds, I totally feel that.
15:06
And it's like the
15:09
way that, I mean there's so much in what you just said that we,
15:13
that we can unpack, but
15:17
the idea that so many of our health issues
15:21
have come about because of the artificial barriers that we put up
15:25
between ourselves and what really
15:28
drives our biology, which is nature.
15:32
And then on top of that, within those barriers, we've filled it up
15:36
with harmful frequencies that
15:40
are harming our biology and cut ourselves off. And
15:44
so we go to find solutions for that and we're
15:47
just inundated. And the,
15:52
the digital marketing sphere has so
15:56
completely taken over, which, you know, I, I think
15:59
it's great that people are able to, to run a business off the Internet and
16:03
work outside the system. I think that's amazing. I have no problem with it.
16:07
But in order to maintain your social
16:11
content, like we're just, just completely overwhelmed
16:15
with these tips, as you said. So
16:19
talk to me a little bit. So you were like navigating through like
16:23
pro tip after pro tip after pro tip,
16:28
which doesn't lead us to the
16:31
fundamentals. Right. So how'd you get there?
16:35
I did a lot of research, a ton of research, and I enjoyed it. And
16:39
the most shocking part of the research is that
16:43
it wasn't a deep dive, it was a very shallow dive because there is
16:47
so much research, there are thousands and thousands,
16:51
you know, over 80,000 PubMed articles about
16:54
circadian biology. And so what I learned is
16:58
that my health and wellness was all about
17:02
my relationship with light. And it was about this Nobel
17:06
Prize winning concept of circadian rhythm, which is
17:10
bright days and dark nights. And it felt so simple,
17:13
too simple. And I think because we're so marketed
17:17
with so many solutions, we don't believe it could be that simple.
17:21
We don't believe that it could be that basic. It must be Harder,
17:24
you know, we must have to pay for it. It's like, you know, there's, there's,
17:29
you know, economic theories about how you value things. And some
17:32
people will value, even if it's the same item, if
17:36
something's more expensive than the other, then they think that has more
17:40
value, which is so interesting to me because the best value, I mean,
17:44
they say the best things in life are, are free. And it's true for your
17:47
health, whether you want to believe it or not. And I wanted to pay.
17:51
I said, oh, if there's a detox, I can buy.
17:54
Oh, there's a juice cleanse. Oh, the collagen proteins. Sign me
17:58
up. It was this endless cycle of sign
18:02
me up. And I was signing up for indoor things and I
18:06
needed to sign up for nature. And interestingly enough,
18:10
you know, as I did the research and as I really, I love history
18:13
as well, you know, I looked at how we evolve
18:17
and where we evolved. You know, we evolved on the Eastern Rift
18:21
of Africa in the sun, you know, full spectrum
18:25
sun. And that is how our brains evolved.
18:28
And yes, you know, we all took these migration paths and we have
18:32
mitochondrial DNA that really inform, you
18:36
know, how our bodies work. And if you look at
18:39
the work of Doug Wallace, he's actually the chief of, I'm sure you know Doug,
18:43
he's the chief of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania.
18:47
He has done incred research on our
18:50
mitochondrial DNA and he's shown us that while
18:54
we continue to look at research on our nuclear
18:57
DNA, that our mitochondria are the one that are
19:01
informing us of whether we get sick or stay
19:04
well. And that 85 to 90% of
19:08
cancers and disease are attributable to
19:12
our mitochondrial dysfunction. And how do our mitochondria do
19:16
well or not do well? The light we provide them.
19:19
So the very mechanism in our cells
19:23
that determines whether we get well, stay well
19:27
or get sick is dependent on light. It's dependent on
19:30
frequencies, it's dependent on the daily
19:34
routines that we do around light. Our mitochondria
19:37
need full spectrum light, they need infrared light.
19:41
In fact, they can't produce ATP unless they have
19:45
infrared light, which is 43% of the
19:48
daily sun. So just getting outside, you're
19:52
providing your body energy that has nothing to do with food.
19:55
And our emails. My email this morning was all about food
19:59
and the ingredients in my pantry and the food that's going to help me
20:03
sleep and the food that's going to do that, and food nourishing food, local
20:07
grown food, very important. But I'm a numbers person. And if
20:10
you say I can focus on the 2/3 or the 1/3,
20:14
I'm going to focus on the 2/3 because that is the driver
20:18
for me. That's what moved the needle for me. Do you have to eat
20:21
healthy? Should you eat healthy? Of course. But what I'm saying and
20:25
what I learned for me is that how our bodies
20:29
operate was not just about food. It was about the
20:33
water in our body, the grounding, the energy that
20:37
we could create by connecting with the sun. And these are kind
20:40
of basic, you know, I'm dumbing down quantum biology, but it doesn't
20:44
have to be. It's very
20:48
simple. If you can't say it in a simple way,
20:52
I don't think. Yeah, I mean, it's. The sun's stupid. Like, that's
20:56
it. It's, it's about building
20:59
your day around light. And we can't always do that. Right? We're,
21:03
we're not, you know, our ancestors, we're not naked in the sun all
21:06
day hunting and gathering, but we can
21:11
create opportunities in our day and prioritize
21:15
light. And we prioritize light above everything else.
21:18
That means when you're looking at your day, I'm not just looking at,
21:22
oh, this is what I'm going to do today. I'm looking at my
21:26
day of, this is what I'm going to do today. And how
21:29
does light impact that? Am I going to have a meeting during UVA
21:33
rise when the sun is around 10 degrees? No, I'm actually going to allow
21:37
myself to build my day around the sun. I mean, we've
21:41
built our life and our harvest around the sun
21:45
for thousands of years. I mean, that's how we live. That is
21:48
so true. And we're like, oh, let's take this, take the light cycles
21:52
into account and people like, do you understand my schedule?
21:56
Right. Exactly. It's not a, this is not
21:59
a new thing. No, it's not a new thing. And we're about to, you
22:03
know, go through daylight savings again. I mean, we're constantly
22:07
toying with Mother Nature and, you know, you sound so
22:11
silly. Never fool with Mother Nature. Well, don't. It's true.
22:15
It's very true. We, the sun. The
22:18
sun is perfectly calibrated for us. Every single
22:22
wavelength of light is calibrated for a certain reason
22:26
for our body, to keep us healthy. Whether that is the
22:30
visible light spectrum that we can see, the red, orange, blue, green, all the
22:34
things we learned. Or is it infrared that we
22:38
can't see. Infrared is incredibly important. And it's available to us
22:41
all day. And uv. UV is incredibly important
22:45
to us. And so, you know, I got this email this morning. Add this
22:49
to coffee. 312% faster fat
22:53
burn. 312% faster fat burn. But what people
22:57
don't know is that beta oxidation is fat
23:00
burning. Beta oxidation happens to our body, in our body
23:04
to help us burn fat. What do we need for beta oxidation?
23:08
We need UV light. So we're getting all these
23:11
emails about how we need to burn fat, how
23:15
we burn fat, we burn fat outside. We burn
23:19
fat, we help our metabolism outside.
23:23
And I think it's so funny that, you know, these continuous glucose
23:26
monitors are all the rage. I was just in New York City, and all these
23:30
women, you know, slapping them on and saying, oh, my gosh,
23:34
I can't believe when I ate a hot fudge sundae,
23:37
it didn't increase my glucose as fast as my
23:41
quinoa salad. But they're missing controls
23:45
for light. They are chasing down all these
23:48
modalities, and they think they're digging deep because they're using a continuous
23:52
glucose monitor. And that's what doctors use. But the fact is,
23:56
is the. That light is much more powerful to
24:00
that equation than anything that they're learning from the continuous glucose
24:03
monitor. In fact, had they just got 15 minutes of red light,
24:07
they would have reduced those blood glucose spikes by
24:11
27% just by getting red light, just by being
24:15
outside. So they've. We're thinking of food
24:19
and we're thinking of health in the context of.
24:22
Of blood sugar. And blood sugar is very important. But how
24:26
is our blood sugar regulated? Our blood sugar is regulated
24:30
when our mitochondria are working properly, when we're getting red and
24:33
infrared light, when our cells are churning. When our cells are
24:37
churning, they can deal with a whole lot, but we're
24:41
not letting them work properly. And our mitochondria are
24:45
powerhouses from 10th grade. They're powering down. And
24:48
when they power down, we can't accomplish the basic
24:52
things that we want, like sleep, metabolism. All the
24:56
things that we're complaining about all come back to light.
25:00
So it's. Shannon, you're a powerhouse.
25:04
You're a powerhouse explainer. I love it. I love it. And
25:08
because, yeah, I mean, this is what's missing, and this is
25:12
sort of what we're all here for,
25:16
is to bring this piece back in. And
25:19
as you said, it's not about replacing anything. I
25:23
mean, it may end up replacing some things. It turns out you might not need
25:26
certain things once you get outside, but it's not about replacing modalities or
25:30
making everything about this. It's about understanding
25:34
that this is fundamental. So as you said, okay, so Doug Wallace
25:38
has showed us unless you have a rare genetic
25:42
disorder, everything, every chronic illness comes back to
25:46
mitochondria. Right. And all the research has shown us
25:50
that mitochondria are totally light dependent. Yes.
25:53
And yet your peers are all drowning in
25:57
glucose monitors and you know, 800 different email
26:01
tips every day about a whole array of things
26:05
without coming back to first
26:08
principles. Absolutely. And the sad part
26:12
to me is that you know, and I know you've had
26:15
some amazing people on your show when you're talking about nervous system
26:19
regulation. You know, all these solutions,
26:23
ironically are such a detriment to people's
26:27
nervous systems. And for our mitochondria to work,
26:30
we have to begin with our nervous system. We have to be in a
26:34
state where we can actually accept
26:38
information and relax into it and research and
26:42
be curious. But everyone is so
26:45
dysregulated. We have so much information. So that's
26:48
kind of number one. That's a big part of it
26:52
and we are so connected. Say a little bit more about that and
26:56
like what your personal experience is and what you found in the research.
27:00
So you know, we've talked a little bit about how light supports our
27:04
mitochondrial function. We need it to be healthy. And yes, every important
27:07
biological process. Talk to me
27:11
about that felt sense of safety because anxiety
27:15
is, I mean it is so pervasive.
27:19
It is from 4 year olds to
27:23
80 year old, you know, like everyone seems to
27:26
be struggling with that in
27:30
some capacity. And the way that we all went to food and supplements for
27:34
our health situations for anxiety, we're all going to a psychological
27:38
solution, right. Which again, very important.
27:42
Right. But if we don't look at also from this perspective, we're missing
27:46
something. So talk to me like what you've seen around that.
27:50
Well, I think it's, it's, there's two parts, right? There's,
27:53
there's the daytime light and then there's the avoidance of
27:57
blue light at night. And what I saw in my experience
28:01
was that, that second piece, my relationship with
28:04
artificial light at night was a huge driver
28:08
in anxiety and cortisol. And so
28:12
I kind of prided myself, oh, I'm a night owl. And you
28:16
know, at the time, you know, I had young kids and so I'd get them
28:19
to bed and then my night, that was, that was my jam. That
28:23
was when I was going to get stuff done, I was alone, I could,
28:27
I could think, I could accomplish and so
28:31
what I actually was doing was, was just the opposite.
28:35
So when my kids went down and I was, you know,
28:38
unknowingly helping them with their circadian rhythm, I was really
28:41
disrupting mine. And so the night for me
28:46
was a blue light moment. And what I've learned
28:50
in my study of light, and it's really fascinating, but
28:53
that as I said before, the sun is perfectly
28:57
calibrated and that the sun works as a team, which
29:00
is what I say, is that all these wavelengths work together. And
29:04
they never are solo, they're never rogue, they're never alone,
29:08
they're perfectly designed. And, and even studies on UV
29:12
light, I mean, when they, when they demonize UV light, they
29:15
studied UV light on its own. Well, of course it
29:19
doesn't work when it's on its own. It is always
29:22
accompanied by infrared and the other visible light
29:26
spectrum wavelengths. So we never experience
29:29
light solo, except for one thing on this
29:33
screen. And this is intense blue
29:36
light solo, and is not matched by red.
29:40
It's not matched by infrared or UV or any of the other colors of the
29:44
visible spectrum. And that's not natural. It's light we
29:47
created. And it's very useful so you and I can speak
29:51
to each other. But it's not how we were designed
29:55
to accept light. And so what I found personally,
29:59
and as I reflect back, I realized that,
30:03
boy, in the evening, I was ingesting a lot of
30:07
high intensity blue light that was unaccompanied by the other
30:10
wavelengths. And that was what was going in my eyes
30:14
and on my skin. And what I learned is
30:17
that we have non visual photoreceptors in our eyes called
30:21
melanopsin. And melanopsin is particular
30:25
to, particular to both our eyes and
30:29
our skin, but it's a blue light detector. So we're designed to
30:33
see blue light because we're designed to see blue light in
30:36
nature. And let me explain. So blue light is our
30:40
timekeeper. When we get up in the morning and we see blue light in the
30:44
morning, it tells our body to wake up. It's our blue light.
30:47
It's cortisol. It raises our cortisol. This is when raising cortisol is good
30:51
in the morning. And blue light allows you to do that. It's your wake
30:55
up and go wavelength, also accompanied by rain. It's
30:59
embedded in that spectrum. Embedded in that spectrum. We
31:02
go outside, there's blue light in there. Okay, there's blue light,
31:06
but it's not alone. There's blue and red and green
31:10
in the morning because we need all These wavelengths to start our day.
31:13
And yes, we need to put our melatonin away, bring our
31:17
cortisol up and start our day. That's how we do it. But
31:21
fast forward to the evening. I'm creating
31:24
an artificial environment on my screens when I'm doing
31:28
my shopping or whatever I'm doing at night that I need to get done.
31:32
I'm actually taking blue light that's unaccompanied by these
31:36
natural wave, other natural wavelengths. How it happens in nature.
31:40
I'm increasing my cortisol. I'm increasing my blood
31:44
glucose. I mean, if I was wearing a continuous glucose monitor
31:48
at 11pm at night while I'm doing my online shopping, it
31:51
doesn't matter what I'm eating, that monitor is going
31:55
to spike because of the blue light. It's not about
31:58
food. It's about light. Okay? So I just wanted to
32:02
say that again for everyone who may be new to
32:06
this arena. Blue light
32:10
at night, even if you're not eating anything,
32:14
will spike your blood sugar. So ladies with the
32:18
glucose monitors, put it on.
32:21
Actually, don't pop open your laptop and watch what happens.
32:25
Right, right. And that is, I find, like, this piece
32:29
really blows people's minds. It blows my mind. Every time I hear it, it blows
32:33
my mind. I'm like, what? Right? And everyone
32:36
says, oh, gosh, you know, it's late at night, and then they're walking over
32:40
to their cabinets, right? And they're having the midnight snack.
32:44
And then the next morning they're saying, oh, why did I do that? Well, I
32:48
can tell you why you did that. You did that because you were
32:51
bombarding yourself with blue light. And it's not. I mean,
32:55
it's not your fault. You don't know it, but it's increasing
32:59
your glucose, it's increasing your cortisol, and it's actually
33:03
reducing your insulin sensitivity for the following day.
33:07
So then you wake up and it's just this vicious cycle. And like, oh,
33:11
my gosh. So that blue light spiking me, it's going to start a
33:14
craving. I'm going to have a midnight spot snack, which then wrecks,
33:18
wrecks my sleep. And I've already wrecked my sleep with the blue light,
33:21
okay? And it crushes me. So it's increasing
33:25
your blood glucose, it's making you want more snacks, and
33:29
it's crushing your melatonin. So your melatonin is this
33:32
master antioxidant that you need for sleep.
33:36
And what we found and what the research is showing us
33:40
is that melatonin is more than just a sleep Hormone.
33:44
And we kind of treat it as a sleep hormone. Right? I mean, it's who
33:48
I can't tell you, even my own daughter. I mean, the melatonin gummies by
33:52
the bedside, that's what everyone's go to is. Oh, good. Okay,
33:56
I need to get to sleep. I'm gonna pop. Is it a 5 milligram night?
33:59
Is it a 10 milligram night? And this is kind of the
34:03
cycle of chaos that we're in because we don't understand
34:07
melatonin. And melatonin,
34:11
it's called the night hormone, but it's made all day. In fact, it's
34:15
only 5% of melatonin is made in your pineal gland.
34:18
95% is made in your mitochondria. It's made at a cellular
34:22
level. And how is it made? It's made from all this
34:25
infrared light, all this red light that you've been in the sun all
34:29
day, 43% of daytime light.
34:33
That's your melatonin gummy. That's where you're going to get your sleep.
34:37
By creating the circadian rhythm by
34:41
exposing yourself to bright light during the day and this darkness at
34:44
night. That is where sleep comes from. That's how you build
34:48
melatonin. And your melatonin is what is required
34:52
for you to do critical cell repair.
34:56
So during the night autophagy, this is self
35:00
cleaning. This is. And I just did a reel about this, I haven't
35:04
posted it yet, but I had two trash cans, you know, I had
35:07
the blue recycle and I had the black trash can. So
35:11
autophagy is what happens when you recycle and repair.
35:14
That's how you have restorative sleep. So it's not just about
35:18
sleep, it's about repair. Because if we didn't repair, if
35:22
we didn't run our dirty dishwasher every night, we're going to wake up with dirty
35:25
dishes. So we need to recycle and repair. We also have a
35:29
process called apoptosis, which is cell suicide. It sounds scary, but it's
35:33
necessary because if cells aren't working for us, if they're cancer cells,
35:36
we need to get rid of them. But all this is dependent on
35:40
the melatonin that we're making. This master antioxidant
35:44
that we think comes in a gummy, but it really comes in our
35:47
relationship around light.
35:54
It's just so powerful.
35:57
It is just so powerful.
36:01
Shannon, I'm so glad we're doing this. I love a good high level
36:05
overview. It's like my favorite. I mean, I know
36:08
the deep dives are very popular. But this is really like, it's because
36:12
it's just so important to like go up high and look
36:16
at all of it from a high level perspective. And what you were
36:20
saying, it's like, what is the thing that is going to move the needle
36:23
in one direction or the other on all of these things,
36:27
right? And it's light, slash darkness. Right.
36:31
And, and I mean when you look at the research, I mean, for anyone that
36:34
wants to take, I mean, deep dives are really helpful and I,
36:38
my most important piece of advice is be curious.
36:42
You know, just keep being curious. Notice the things you
36:46
know, read your emails, read all your wellness emails and just
36:50
observe them. Don't act upon them, just observe them
36:53
and see. I mean, that's a frequency in itself.
36:57
So you're taking in these frequencies, these marketing frequencies.
37:01
They all affect you, you know, whether they're positive or negative. You're taking
37:05
them all in. And so, you know, the research is
37:08
there. I mean, we can talk about the Swedish Cohort, I mean, 88,000
37:12
women, you know, is saying that, you know, that
37:16
your failure to get outside and your failure to get in the sun
37:19
has a bigger impact on, on your health and smoking. So
37:23
this is really powerful information. We
37:27
have to be outside, we have to reconnect with nature
37:31
and that's how our body works. So it's a light story.
37:35
But I mean if you look at, you know, if anyone wants to do a
37:38
deep dive, but I mean, if you look at equals MC squared and the
37:41
photoelectric effect, we absolutely
37:45
need electrons to use the photons of light. How do we
37:48
gather those electrons? Well, some of them come from food.
37:52
There's electromagnetic, you know, I always say, you know, food
37:55
is an electron, electron barcode. So we're gathering
37:59
electrons from food, but that's just part of it.
38:03
The other part is nature. So we're gathering these
38:06
electrons from the ground. We have this unlimited supply of
38:09
electrons and our body needs those electrons to gather
38:13
these photons. They all work together. They all work
38:17
together. And these are basic everyday tasks.
38:21
They're not even tasks, they're just your routine. So in
38:24
the morning, you absolutely need to see natural sunlight.
38:28
First thing, do not check your phone. Do not look at what happened last
38:32
night. Do not start the reels, start in sun,
38:36
start in light. It is perfectly calibrated. It is your
38:40
friend, it's outside and it wants to make you better.
38:43
It wants to make you better. It wants you to operate
38:47
at your best. You just have to allow it to. You
38:51
just have to get outside and you have to connect with nature.
38:55
Love that. And yeah, I mean, on the
38:59
topic of deep dives, I just wanted to, like,
39:03
park here for a minute for me. So as
39:07
a person in the world, right. Like, my interest in
39:11
health strategies is like, how much do I need to know and how much do
39:14
I need to do in order to live my. The rest of my life?
39:19
Now, somebody who works in the health space, those
39:22
health strategies and how they work may be their life.
39:27
That might be their. Their entire focus. But
39:30
for the client or the patient of those people, which is
39:34
where I put myself, I just need enough
39:38
information to be motivated to make the change.
39:42
And I'm good. So if you
39:45
feel like you need to deep dive into every paper that came out,
39:50
but it's not unless you're. Unless you really, really want to
39:54
go for it, but it's like, just give that
39:57
intellectual part of you enough to chew on to
40:01
be like, oh, this makes sense. Right? And
40:05
that's it. That's all we need. Exactly. Because that's what you're providing
40:08
here today. So thank you very much. Right. I did the deep dive,
40:12
but it just like, there's chaos in everything, right? And there
40:16
was time. I really, Yeah, I just really want to talk to that person who's
40:19
not the researcher, who has a busy life. And it's like, what are you
40:23
ladies talking about? Right? And I had to
40:27
look, yeah, I did the deep dive, and
40:30
that's why. But I had to stop. And I'm
40:34
always learning. I research every day, but I did a deep
40:37
dive and I developed a really good foundation. And what
40:41
I realized is that our body is incredibly
40:45
complex, but the solution is
40:48
embarrassingly simple, and that is getting
40:51
outside every day. And yes, I have
40:55
poured through research article after research
40:58
article, and that is really important.
41:02
And ironically, I think the best way to take the deep
41:06
dive is to focus on the everyday,
41:10
because then your mind will open and you will actually
41:13
be more ready for the deep dive. And the deep dive won't
41:16
overwhelm you as much. Interestingly enough, I think people
41:20
start deep dives in places where they
41:24
actually may still be sick and where
41:28
they're experiencing cognitive haze and they have brain fog,
41:31
and then they do these deep dives, and then it becomes more
41:35
overwhelming. So why I founded Squint was.
41:39
Well, number one, I wanted to teach my kids early what I learned
41:43
late because it was overwhelming. I. It was this aha moment, and
41:47
I thought, oh, my God, Gosh, I need to let them know,
41:50
let my family know, let my Friends know,
41:55
but it's really important to know that
41:59
your health really starts in cycles and
42:02
routines that are basic and every day. We are
42:05
circadian beings. We live by rhythms
42:09
and when. We can live by simple daily rhythms.
42:13
And just in the back of your mind, think of light.
42:17
When you're, you know, going to a restaurant and they say,
42:20
do you want to sit inside or outside? I want to sit outside.
42:24
Choose light. Whenever you have the choice, choose light.
42:28
When you can take your coffee outside, when you can
42:32
take a phone call outside, when you can take your shoes off and
42:36
be barefoot, and you don't have to be barefoot to ground.
42:39
You can connect to the earth in so many ways. You can go
42:43
swimming. That seems extreme to some people, actually, but just
42:47
go out with shoes on and hold a tree. This isn't about
42:51
being hippie dippy or being fashionable. You can wear your
42:55
Manalo's and go hug a tree. You know, you can be
42:58
all those people. You can. You can be everything, and you can be
43:02
healthy. It just has to include light in nature. You don't have
43:06
to, you know, wear, you know, a macrame
43:09
necklace and a hemp sack skirt
43:13
to understand nature. It is science. The research
43:16
is there. It is overwhelming that circadian biology
43:20
is the biggest driver to your energy and your strength.
43:24
And if you aren't living your life by light, if you
43:28
aren't using and being informed
43:31
by light to manage your day,
43:35
then you have so much room to be healthy. It's so
43:39
exciting because it's so simple. And once you start making these
43:43
changes, you will. You will really, really feel
43:46
it. And it's really incredible.
43:50
Yes. And I love that framing because
43:54
it is exciting. I've, you know, sometimes
43:57
broached this topic maybe with, like, a mom on the playground. And
44:01
I have been met with, like, what
44:05
another thing to worry about, like,
44:09
all right, like, oh, now I have to think about the light coming out of
44:13
their eye. Like, well, yeah,
44:18
sorry. But on
44:22
the flip side, it's like, if you come at it
44:26
through the portal of all of the. All of the health issues and all of
44:29
the mental health issues that everybody is
44:32
struggling with, and it's like. And you don't know anything about light, there's
44:36
so much room to grow. It's like, such exciting news. So
44:39
exciting. It's so exciting. And,
44:43
you know, I think part
44:47
of the journey of health
44:50
is that we are in this chaos, you know, and so the
44:54
irony is that, you know, there's a lot of us that are doing the research
44:57
and saying, oh, it's about light, it's about grounding, it's about sound
45:01
and frequencies. And so we don't want to contribute to
45:05
chaos. I don't want to contribute to chaos. We don't need any more
45:08
chaos. So what I offer and why I
45:12
started Squint Essentials was to create a
45:15
place for very basic daily routines that were
45:19
actionable and doable and not overwhelming
45:23
and that people could build slowly. But you have to
45:27
build. That's the non positive part. There is
45:31
an urgency to this and you have to start this now
45:34
because it's so important. Your mitochondria every day
45:38
are deciding what kind of environment are you providing them
45:42
and you need to give them a break. They're overwhelmed.
45:45
They're overwhelmed by non native
45:48
electromagnetic fields, they're overwhelmed by the blue light in
45:52
our screens, they're overwhelmed by storms, stress, they're
45:55
overwhelmed by our dysregulated nervous system. So
46:00
be nice to yourself, be kind to yourself. Start
46:04
easy. Just start with Morning Sun. Start
46:07
with Morning Sun. Make that a foundation of your
46:11
day every day. Don't do anything else, don't read the emails,
46:15
unsubscribe, unsubscribe to everything that doesn't have to do
46:19
with light. And start easy, start with Morning sun.
46:23
And don't beat yourself up. If you have a day where you're not doing
46:27
it as well as you know, just get out
46:30
there, get Morning sun and try it and, and make
46:34
it part of your day. Make it a routine. It's consistency over
46:38
perfection and just keep doing it.
46:43
I love, and I love that that you founded Squint
46:47
Essentials, which is like, would you say a media
46:51
company with a very, a very tight focus
46:54
to share this information or tell us how it
46:58
works. And you talk about sharing protocols like let's, let's hear some of the
47:02
top. Ones that people, you know,
47:06
it's light and grounding, you know, it's light
47:09
and grounding. And what I want Squint
47:13
to be is, you know, a launch pad to further
47:17
learning. But it's going to be a place where you're going to start.
47:21
You're going to start with the basics, you're going to start with Morning Sun.
47:24
And what I try not to do is create more chaos.
47:29
I am very boring in the sense that I say the same things
47:32
over and over. I try to say them in different ways because
47:36
what I learned through all this is that, you know, I,
47:41
someone said something about light five times and I didn't understand it and then the
47:44
sixth time, oh, it clicked and I Said, oh,
47:48
that makes sense. That makes sense that
47:52
we are, you know, that vitamin B is a
47:55
chromophore for light. Like that. All these things that I, all these
47:59
modalities that I had been trying and trying
48:03
were all just trying to capture light. I mean, that's what we're about.
48:06
We're about capturing light, using it, absorbing it,
48:10
emitting it. It's all about. We do that.
48:14
And it sounds so basic and a little bit hippie dippy,
48:19
but the science is showing us that that relationship
48:22
with light, bright, full spectrum sunlight
48:26
during the day and darkness at night is.
48:31
And it's. And the numbers show it, the research
48:34
shows it. So to the extent that you
48:38
can kind of move the chaos away, quiet
48:42
your mind, forget the emails, forget the
48:46
ingredients in your pantry that they're telling you to hide from,
48:49
forget, you know, the chocolate that's 37%
48:53
healthier than broccoli. All these things, you know,
48:56
we love. Oh, chocolate, red wine, I'm in. And it's not about
49:00
that. But we get inundated by the chaos of
49:04
those solutions when really the
49:08
best thing is to start your day with light,
49:11
take sun breaks throughout the day, ground as much as you
49:15
possibly can during the day, and block artificial light
49:19
at night. It's pretty simple.
49:23
It's pretty simple. And as you said, you know, as you were
49:27
saying earlier, almost the reason that,
49:31
that people reject it, like, oh, what? Like just that, like, you don't have to
49:35
be true. And there is
49:38
a certain amount of courage involved in following
49:43
the guidance that you're offering here, which is to simplify down
49:47
to the most essential thing and focus on it till it becomes an
49:50
ingrained part of your life. Right. I think that that
49:54
feeling of overwhelm underneath,
49:57
like the avalanche of pro tips that
50:01
we subscribe to and scroll through every day,
50:06
there's a certain kind of
50:09
safety in not having to make a decision, right?
50:13
Like if there's so much noise, there's so many things and it's like,
50:17
I'll do this and try this and la la la la la la. And even
50:19
mixed in there, there might be some light tips. But if they're just. If it's
50:23
just like this pro tip and that pro tip and this really.
50:27
Oh, blue blockers are just like a biohacking trend, right? Like, if it's just
50:30
all locked in there, we don't have
50:34
to make a decision because it's just so much noise. And it takes
50:38
courage to pick something and follow through.
50:43
And I think sometimes we consciously or
50:46
unconsciously hang out in the Noise, because we're not ready for
50:50
that commitment. It's very true. And it's not
50:53
to say that sun and grounding are the only modalities
50:57
that. I mean, obviously, hydration is a huge part of our health,
51:01
and I'm a big proponent of, you know, water
51:05
that's, you know, has minerals added to it. If you want a vortex, I mean,
51:09
there's a lot. But I guess what I'm saying is
51:12
part of protecting yourself from this chaos
51:16
is keeping it simple. Because as soon as
51:20
you start going down the road, then you're getting into, you know, and
51:24
all these things are important, fascia and lymph. And there's a lot
51:27
of things that you potentially could do
51:31
to improve your health. What I'm saying is
51:35
start here. This is the start here moment. Start with
51:39
light, start with grounding, and then you will be
51:43
in a physical and mental place where
51:47
you can actually start discerning what makes the
51:50
most sense. But for me, I was in such
51:54
a state of nervous system dysregulation, I just. And I'm
51:58
competitive. I was like, I'm gonna win. I'm gonna win. I'm gonna. I'm gonna
52:01
get that idea. I'm gonna get the latest hack, and I'm gonna get the hack
52:05
that everyone's going to, you know, everyone's going to do. And
52:09
it's insanity. It's so embarrassing. But it was. And
52:13
then I think, too, our health care,
52:17
instead of looking inward and
52:21
thinking about how our body works and how we're connected
52:24
to nature, we are all about health
52:28
as it relates to a cocktail party. We're all about health
52:32
as it relates to conversation and connection. So. So,
52:35
interestingly enough, I think that
52:39
we're finding ourselves connecting to other people by
52:42
speaking about health, because we're speaking about our challenges
52:46
and what we're trying and what we're doing. I'll send you this. Oh, you send
52:50
me that? You've got a guy for this. Oh, I've got a gal for that.
52:53
And so, ironically, we're making these connections
52:56
on health, but they aren't connecting us to nature. They
53:00
aren't connecting us to light. They aren't connecting us to the
53:04
actual solution. So I love the conversation.
53:08
I love that people are thinking about their health. I love that
53:11
people are searching for solutions. But I started
53:15
squint to save you a lot of time, because time is your most valuable
53:19
asset. And I've done the deep dive. Meredith's done the
53:22
deepest dive. There's a lot of people that are doing deep dives.
53:26
But every day, the deep dive
53:30
presents itself as very easy, actionable
53:33
daily routines around sun and around grounding
53:37
and around light. Yeah.
53:41
And again, just to reiterate, because this is,
53:45
you know, I really want this episode to be useful for the person who
53:48
is. Who is not going to take a certification
53:53
in applied quantum biology. Right. This is for the person. Person who just wants to
53:56
feel better. Yes. You know, share this with that person in your life.
54:00
And this is the fundamental. So we. You implement,
54:04
you know, we implement everything that you've been saying, Shannon. And it's
54:08
like, okay, then when I go for lymphatic
54:11
drainage, or then when I go, you know, my. At least I. My. I know
54:15
where my body is. Is. Yes,
54:19
I know where it is. Right. And I know what it. It can
54:23
do on its own. Exactly. Okay, then where do I
54:27
need help? Yes. And that's the point. That is the
54:30
ultimate point, knowing what your body can do on its
54:34
own. Because we never
54:38
trust our body, because our body gives us a
54:41
lot of signals. You know, we're hurting, we're aching, we're
54:45
sore, we're whatever. But those signals are just from
54:49
our body trying to help us, trying to give us a signal to say,
54:52
hey, maybe you need to change things up. And those
54:56
signals are, you need to change things up about light.
55:00
Because that's what I respond to. That's, you know, deep
55:04
down this cell in the middle of my body,
55:07
that's what they're responding to. You know, they don't real. They're not count. Your
55:11
mitochondria isn't counting calories. It's counting electrons. You
55:15
know, it's counting frequency. It's counting the environment that you're in.
55:18
It doesn't care whether you're a paleo or carnivore. It
55:22
cares about how you are interacting with your
55:25
environment. We were never intended to live
55:30
inside, especially in winter, with our thermostats to 80
55:34
degrees. Our mitochondria respond to both light
55:37
and temperature. And now that we're going into
55:41
winter, we need to live by nature.
55:45
And so what that means is that, you know, if
55:48
you're living in Minnesota, you know, go
55:52
out and go ice fishing. You know, go out and. And get
55:56
in snow, get in ice, be cold.
56:00
Tell your mitochondria where you are on Earth. Because if
56:03
you're in your house, in your snuggly loungewear and your
56:07
ugg boots, your mitochondria doesn't know where you are. They think you're down at the
56:11
equator, and you're not. And Your diet
56:15
is also a reflection on where you are too. So your mitochondria are
56:19
not expecting you to eat mangoes and bananas.
56:23
You know, they're sensing that you're in a cold environment and so
56:26
you need to adjust those electrons accordingly. That's a whole
56:30
different discussion. But the point is, is that our mitochondria,
56:34
they are our sixth sense. They are telling us, you know,
56:38
this is what's going on. They sense what's going on. They sense
56:42
everything, every frequency. They sense a fire engine
56:45
driving by. You know, they sense noise pollution and sound
56:49
pollution and, you know, the, the air we breathe,
56:52
everything, they're taking it all in. And I think we just need to do a
56:56
better job of allowing them to see what's around. And what's
57:00
around is the sun and the earth and the trees and
57:03
being outside. Yeah. And
57:07
that is a really, I think, like
57:11
a really, really good way to think about it. And that's what has always
57:15
stayed with me, is that I'm filled up with sensors
57:18
sensing my environment, sensing my light environment, sensing my
57:22
dark environment. And they're, they're instructing my body.
57:26
So if I cut myself off and then replace that
57:29
with, with this wi fi and
57:34
blue light, it's, it's really. We've created like a perfect
57:38
storm for mitochondrial destruction. Yes.
57:41
And if we start in that fundamental place,
57:45
then we can create a foundation that alleviates some of that.
57:49
That. Right. And it's taking the dog out for a walk on a winter's
57:53
day. You know, it's all. I'm glad you brought up winter.
57:57
Yeah. Because I always thought, oh, God, winter, I have to move somewhere warm. It's
58:00
like, no, I just have to. Like go for a walk every day. Exactly. And
58:03
maybe you don't bundle up. I mean, maybe you just,
58:07
you know, maybe you wear a short sleeve shirt. Obviously you don't want
58:10
hypothermia, but, you know, maybe you push yourself a little
58:14
bit, but just connect with nature. I think, you know, we have a
58:18
very, you know, everyone's, you know, trying to get the next answer, even on
58:22
modalities that are helpful. I mean, cold plunge,
58:25
great modality, but people are
58:29
reading into it. You know, oh, I'm doing 47 degrees. Oh, I'm at
58:32
50. Oh, you're only at 50. Oh, that's not. And it's just,
58:36
it's just like this cocktail conversation of
58:40
our health. And it's crazy to me. And the
58:44
part point is, is that our mitochondria are looking for signals
58:48
and anything below 98.7. That means,
58:51
you know, I, I mean, this isn't that complicated. You just
58:55
need to get cold. You don't need to perfectly perfect your
58:59
cold plunge temperature. You just need to
59:03
be more in sync with your environment and you need to,
59:07
if it's winter and you live in a cold place, you should be
59:10
cold. That's what your mitochondria are expecting, right?
59:14
If it's winter where you are, we, you should feel
59:18
cold on a regular basis because it's cold.
59:22
It is, it's cold. It's cold. We got our
59:25
little seat heaters in. The car and we're so
59:29
smart. We're, you know, they say, you know, we're, we're so smart,
59:33
we create all this technology, we create seat warmers,
59:37
you know, we create, you know, meta glasses. You know, we create
59:40
all these things, but yet are they
59:44
a reflection of how we evolved? No, we actually
59:48
evolved our brain in the sun. We didn't evolve it
59:52
inside. And if we want to continue evolving, if we want to
59:56
stay curious, if we want to not be
59:59
overwhelmed by mental health issues and mental health issues,
1:00:03
you know, in 2030, the numbers are off the charts.
1:00:08
And if we don't change our daily routines,
1:00:12
and that's why there is urgency to this, because
1:00:16
we're moving in the wrong direction. But the beauty is
1:00:20
that the solution is very
1:00:23
accessible every day and it's free.
1:00:27
Yes, yes.
1:00:31
Shannon, this is such an important message and I just love the way
1:00:35
that you've framed it.
1:00:38
And I think it's time for us to get off
1:00:42
the treadmill. Just get off the health tip
1:00:46
treadmill, go down to the basics, down to the
1:00:49
fundamentals, down to the foundation and live from there.
1:00:53
And I obviously, and you and everyone
1:00:56
listening, probably we have access to just an abundance
1:01:00
of health support. And the beautiful thing is
1:01:04
that when we need it, we can go get it.
1:01:08
But it, you know, if we're living in,
1:01:12
if we've got those fundamentals in place, it
1:01:16
doesn't feel like a treadmill. And I, and I also want to say like,
1:01:19
there's always, you know, like, and you mentioned this too, right? Like healing
1:01:23
is non linear. We could start here and end up somewhere else and go. And
1:01:27
it's like now, you know, we just are almost unlocking each
1:01:31
door that needs to be unlocked, whether it's healing, trauma, whether it's
1:01:34
changing our food, whatever it is, for sure.
1:01:39
But this is the, this is the solid ground that we can stand
1:01:42
on as we walk that path.
1:01:46
Very, very true. And I think we're in an environment, I Mean,
1:01:50
even, you know, Hollywood, all the lessons, you know, it's the biggest loser,
1:01:54
you know, it's, it's these. But, but health doesn't work that way. I
1:01:58
mean, every day we have an opportunity to change our
1:02:02
health, which is so exciting. I mean, every day you have
1:02:05
an opportunity to reconnect with nature, to
1:02:09
reconnect with light, and to rebuild, to rebuild the
1:02:12
photoreceptors in your eyes, to rebuild your
1:02:15
mitochondria, you know, and it's, it's so hopeful
1:02:19
and it's very easy if
1:02:23
you just take it slowly and not let it overwhelm you and
1:02:26
don't. It's not another thing. Sun and grounding
1:02:30
aren't an add on. They're foundations.
1:02:34
And I think when you use them as foundations,
1:02:37
they'll give you the clarity. It'll make you
1:02:42
feel like you're in a place where then, then you can decide what's the
1:02:45
next step. Then, then what do I do?
1:02:49
And then when you get that clarity, I think when you start
1:02:53
reading those emails, you won't be overwhelmed by them. You might even
1:02:56
giggle, you know, you might even say, oh,
1:03:00
you know, it's overwhelming. So just
1:03:04
cancel the chaos and start with the basics. The Squint
1:03:08
Essentials. Love. So where can everyone
1:03:12
find the Squint Essentials? So I have
1:03:15
a website which is
1:03:17
www.squintessentials.com. i think the most fun
1:03:20
place to find us is on Instagram at
1:03:24
Squint Essentials. And so I usually have a
1:03:28
theme for the week, but it all comes back to light. So I
1:03:32
give checklists every week, but they're always about light.
1:03:35
It's all the same things over. But they're good reminders because.
1:03:39
Because we get busy in our life and we can't divorce ourselves
1:03:43
from tech entirely. But, you know, we can use little
1:03:47
tips. You know, maybe you throw away your
1:03:50
earbuds. That would be a great start on tech. And maybe
1:03:54
instead of those earbuds, you use wired headphones,
1:03:58
you know, all these kind of basic things. So be gentle on
1:04:02
yourself. Don't do what I did, which is, you know, try
1:04:05
everything all at once and just say, I'm gonna win, I'm gonna win.
1:04:09
I'm gonna win. Because you're gonna lose that way. You're gonna lose Bitcoin because you're
1:04:13
gonna be overwhelmed. So take, just like I said, start with
1:04:17
morning sun, you know, and then at night, dim your
1:04:20
lights. Figure out ways, you know, as we're about to go through a
1:04:24
time change. So I have, I'm talking, you know, next week at
1:04:28
squint about, you know, it's dark. You know, we're all having these
1:04:31
moments. Oh my gosh, it's 7:30 and it's dark
1:04:35
and I'm not even tired yet. You know, what are we going to do?
1:04:39
And our normal behavior is, oh, I'm going to go watch four
1:04:42
shows of my new favorite show. And that's
1:04:46
fun, that's great. But again,
1:04:50
what is the context of light and how is that going to help me feel?
1:04:53
What's that going to do to my cortisol? What's it going to do to my
1:04:57
glucose? What's it going to do to my melatonin? What kind of sleep do
1:05:00
I want to have? You know, so you
1:05:04
don't have to live by the fire every night,
1:05:08
but you do have to make a few
1:05:12
changes to your everyday routine and it will
1:05:15
feel really good.
1:05:19
Yes. And there, you know. Yeah. And
1:05:23
some nights there's a show to watch. Of course.
1:05:26
Can wear the orange glasses. Yes. You can mitigate
1:05:30
little workarounds. There are, I mean
1:05:34
every night I. Go to bed really early. Right.
1:05:37
You don't have to go to bed at 7. But if your new favorite show
1:05:41
is on and then they say, do you want another episode? And then, you know,
1:05:45
you better be wearing blue blockers. Your body is wanting you
1:05:49
to because your body finished its day. You know
1:05:52
this, your cells got the last blue light of the day, that
1:05:56
natural blue timekeeper when the sun set. So your body's
1:05:59
expecting the day to be over. When you go to your shows,
1:06:03
you're starting the day again. You're giving your body that midday
1:06:08
blue high intensity light and saying, oh, it's time to wake up again.
1:06:12
It's the middle of the day. So use
1:06:16
man made smarts which are blue blockers. Block the
1:06:20
blue. You don't have to not watch shows anymore,
1:06:23
but you might need to watch shows in a
1:06:27
more mindful way that is very, very doable.
1:06:32
Yes. I'm having flashbacks. I
1:06:36
had a job for a while coaching women in
1:06:39
finance who had just had babies and
1:06:45
they all had their routine and they,
1:06:48
they would leave work earlier now that they had a baby
1:06:52
and then they'd, but they wouldn't want to fall behind their peers
1:06:56
so they would put the baby down and log back on and I,
1:07:00
when we, you know, is my job as a coach to support them through to
1:07:04
their goals and those were their goals that I think back down like, oh,
1:07:08
right. I wish I could have at least told you
1:07:11
to put a filter on that. Laptop screen.
1:07:15
I know. And you know, we just don't think about it.
1:07:19
And I didn't think about it. In fact, you know, when I was working,
1:07:23
my badge of honor was that I had three screens. I had
1:07:27
a Bloomberg and I had this and I thought
1:07:31
I was so cool, you know, this, I had
1:07:34
made it. I was a three screen
1:07:38
businesswoman, you know, but at the time, oh my gosh,
1:07:42
I think about what I did and I think that period of time
1:07:46
was incredibly detrimental to my health. You know, I thought I was
1:07:50
winning, I thought I was superwoman, but I
1:07:54
didn't realize. I mean. And the worst part of it is that I
1:07:58
worked market hours. So. But I
1:08:02
was in California. So I would wake up at 4:30, I would wake up at
1:08:06
4:30 in the morning and then I was a hard worker worker and I would
1:08:09
stay at my, you know, desk till 5 o'. Clock, right. In the
1:08:12
winter that meant I never saw the sun.
1:08:16
I literally never saw the sun during periods of the year.
1:08:20
So imagine. And I didn't, you know,
1:08:23
imagine. And now we know your poor body,
1:08:28
your poor cells. I know, I know, but it's true. We just
1:08:31
don't think, like, we just, just don't think about
1:08:35
it. No. And there's things that feel so important and they
1:08:39
are, I don't, I know that, you know, career is, is of course
1:08:43
a really important purpose and I don't want to take away from that.
1:08:46
I have, I have friends now who work in Manhattan five days a
1:08:50
week and you know, but I tell them like, can you, could you eat
1:08:54
lunch outside? Right? You know, just, just these little
1:08:58
things because it's just not on the radar. And
1:09:01
so I really appreciate, Shannon, that
1:09:05
you are putting it on the radar for people and
1:09:08
reaching, you know, reaching especially women
1:09:12
because the great thing is like, you feel good now. I feel good now.
1:09:16
I mean, I do think, I don't know that I'll ever quite
1:09:20
get my mitochondria back to where no, I wouldn't have been
1:09:24
if I hadn't trashed them. Right. However, I
1:09:27
can live my life. So these,
1:09:31
whatever is going on with anyone listening,
1:09:34
take heart, right? Like when given
1:09:38
the correct inputs, our bodies can do amazing
1:09:42
things. Yes. And I, and it's very true,
1:09:46
you know, I trash my mitochondria too. And
1:09:50
truth be told, I trash my mitochondria every day
1:09:53
that I live. Where I live that's full of 5G,
1:09:57
you know, I, I mean we have so many inputs and then we can talk
1:10:01
about food and everything is, that's in Our food.
1:10:04
So for me, these daily routines,
1:10:08
they're not optional, they're mandatory because
1:10:12
I have done enough damage with all my artificial
1:10:16
light, and I did enough damage by thinking I was a
1:10:19
California girl, but I really wasn't at the beach much, you know,
1:10:24
and. But that's not to say, you know, I,
1:10:28
you know, I have zoom calls, I'm in meetings, but I take sun
1:10:31
breaks, so there's way to mitigate it. It isn't an all or nothing. It isn't.
1:10:35
Oh, well, that's all well and good. I have a job. I can't. Of course
1:10:38
you have to go to your job. You have to do your job, but take
1:10:41
a leadership role at your job. Bring your meeting outside.
1:10:45
Encourage these meetings outside. Take sun break. You know, people.
1:10:49
Take smoke breaks. Take a sun break. Let's rename it.
1:10:53
You know, there's lots of things we can do if we do
1:10:57
it together. And once we're all educated, I think we'll all feel
1:11:01
better and we can all help each other.
1:11:04
Yes. And that's. Yeah, that's a great spot to wrap up, as. I
1:11:08
don't. That's another thing people do. They're like, oh, I have to change every light
1:11:11
bulb in my house. That's overwhelming. I'm not going to do it. I have to.
1:11:13
Overall, I have to quit my job and move to the Bahamas. I can't do
1:11:17
it. Never mind. It's like, no, no, no. Any. Every small change.
1:11:21
Every small. Any small change makes a difference. Start small, small
1:11:24
change. Yes. All right, Shannon, thank you so
1:11:28
much. This was incredibly fun. Thank you so much, Meredith. And
1:11:32
thank you for all you are doing. You're my hero. And,
1:11:36
you know, you were a big part of getting me started on all of this,
1:11:39
and so inspired, so grateful for you. Thank you, thank you,
1:11:43
thank you, Shannon.