Latest / Curiously Guided Podcast / Ep.76 | Building Resilience through Sound Healing & Play with Dr. Anu French, Integrative Pediatrician

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Ep.76 | Building Resilience through Sound Healing & Play with Dr. Anu French, Integrative Pediatrician · Curiously Guided Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Curiously Guided Podcast, the show for intentional business owners and curious minds looking to combine the inner work and outer work to create a life, business, and career that feels deeply fulfilling and wildly aligned on all levels.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: We're your hosts.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Shay.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm Mariah.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: We're two business strategists passionate about rewriting the rules to success in a way that combines both strategy and energetics.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: So this podcast started with both of us being in the online business world, craving more deep, meaningful, and transparent conversations.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we decided to come together and create a space to do just that.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Our guest interviews highlight cool humans doing cool shit, chasing their dreams, and going down their own rabbit holes to create a more sustainable and fulfilling life in whatever way that means for them.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: We see this podcast as everything that people won't share on social media.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: We don't give a fuck about highlight reels or proven frameworks.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: We love getting in the weeds, asking the tough questions, and doing the work to create a life and career we love, all while committing to ourselves and our personal growth.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Because only through that lens can we truly create a lifestyle that feels good from the inside out.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Curiously Guided Podcast.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Are you ready to trust the nudge and let curiosity guide the way?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because we're excited to shake shit up and live outside the box with you.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, friends.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to the podcast.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: We have a very special gift of an episode for you today.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: We're bringing on Dr.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: Anu French, who's an integrative pediatrician, musician, artist, poet, all kinds of beautiful things.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: Anu is a client of mine and a friend of mine from the past.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: I've dreamed of having her on the podcast for quite some time, honestly, since we started it.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: This episode was Mariah and I got off like wound up.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: We were so like nourished and uh encouraged.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Anu is just, I'll share with you when we introduce her a little bit later.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: She's a very inspiring woman.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: The medical practice that she's built is um a wonderful example of someone who just wanted to see something in the world and figured out how to make it happen despite a whole big system working against her.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll start in this episode kind of talking about the medical practice that she's built and then also just how she's been able to keep up with a really demanding job for a long time by building her own resilience.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: So the cool part about this episode, it almost makes a really beautiful part two to an episode that we launched a few weeks ago about stress.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: And we talked about with Dr.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: Gala the toxic effects that stress can have on the body.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so this episode with Anu almost turned into, okay, so what do we do about that?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: And Anu really talks about how we build resilience as human beings and kind of fill our own cup so we can then go fill other people's cups in this crazy stressful world that we're living in.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: So she is the best example of someone who is walking their talk that I have ever met in my life.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I am so excited to share this episode with you guys.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Damn, you took the words right out of my mouth.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: I was literally like, she is such a great example of somebody that's walking the walk.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like she's in the medical field.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like you hear from doctors, it's like reduce stress and just like do this to, you know, maybe you shouldn't work as much.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: But then these doctors are like working their asses off.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then you hear about Anu's schedule and just like what she does to just be able to unwind and come back to herself and her body, and just like it's so cool to see examples of people fucking doing the thing in all different industries.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like a lot of the guests on the podcast that we have are like business owners in the entrepreneurial space.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: But this conversation brings in a whole different dynamic of just like a whole different system that we're all involved in, but maybe don't have very much experience in.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I just I feel like I could listen to Anu talk literally all day long.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like the stories that she says and just like the way that she words things, it's like you can fucking tell that she's a poet.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I could just listen to her examples literally forever.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like in the episode, I'm like, I don't even want to ask you any questions, dude, because like I just want you to keep talking to me forever.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: So you guys are going to absolutely love this episode.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's got so many different gems, it's got so many different perspective shifts.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: It truly is probably one of my favorite episodes of the season.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna read her bio and then we're gonna get into it.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: French, an artist, musician, yogini, author, and integrative pediatrician, is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, double board certified in pediatrics and integrative medicine, with fellowship training in integrative medicine and integrative psychiatry, with special interest in integrative nutrition, healthcare equity, childhood mental health, and intergenerational resilience.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: She serves on professional and policy advisory boards of Let's Integrate, Aspire, and Whole Health ED, and is a member of Integrative Medicine for the Underserved and the AAP section on integrative medicine.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: In clinical practice for 27 years, she melds her passion to provide affordable, accessible, integrative pediatric care with craftivism through her affirmative art series and her meditative music at her office in St.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Louis.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: She has researched in public and published on the topics of nutrition, yoga, art, and resilience and has taught mindfulness, food as medicine, and sound healing workshops to medical, diabetic, and yoga students, pediatric and psychiatric, psychiatry residents, physicians, and Montessori educators.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, y'all.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Some of these words I don't really say too often.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm reading them and I'm like, phew, okay, baby.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: So having found balance through the healing arts after professional and personal burnout, Dr.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: French offers integrative resources she hopes will be helpful through her website and her Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram pages.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Her choice of meditation is walking her backyard labyrinth, being a mindful partner to her beloved and a mindful parent to her two precious daughters and her sweet dog.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: So with all of that, let's get into the episode.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: All right, welcome back, everybody.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: I am so excited today.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: I have um, I just shared this with her before we pressed record, but this interview is something that I've had on my mind since we created the podcast.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Dr.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Ann, we have Dr.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: Anu French here with us today.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: She is a true Renaissance woman in my mind.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: She is not only an integrative pediatrician, she's also a musician, an artist, an author, a poet.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: She is a proliferation of creativity.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I have um gotten a lot by just following her online.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: Honestly, I've had the privilege of working with her.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: Just being in her universe has really nourished me.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: Being around her energy has always been such a comfort and an uplifting thing for me.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: So her story, when I think of someone who's curiously guided, I always think of Anu.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: Her story is one that's been driven by being bold enough to follow your curiosity and then not really knowing where that would lead, but just kind of trusting and then seeing it turn into really amazing, awesome things that have really nourished her and the community that she surrounds herself with.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: So Anu, thanks for joining us today.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: We're so happy to have you here.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for having me on.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I I absolutely love the name of this podcast.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: And when I heard curiously guided, I thought, wow, that's just that's just perfect.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_03: Because I think that's what we all need to be every day, really, every moment.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, if we're it's one thing about being guided, but I think being curiously guided puts a whole nother spin on it.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I love the name of it and thank you so much for inviting me on.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, of course.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um so uh if you don't mind, we usually like to start with the origin story, if you will.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: Do you mind taking us back into time?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um, as much as you want to share your story of getting into medicine, I know you hit a point of burnout and that really pivoted your medical career.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: Do you mind just taking us through like that process and kind of how we got here today?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: Sure, I'd be happy to.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I I love the the healing um energy of an of a narration, like narrative medicine.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I think that's one thing that's become so important to me is giving space for people to tell their stories in the office.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's much more than a history or a her story, you know, it's it's just it's more about people really having, you know, just a safe space to tell you what happened and and just that process of sharing is tremendously healing.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: So again, I'm very grateful for this opportunity to tell you my story because um every time I tell it, I feel like there's another whole level of healing that happens for me personally.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm always grateful for that.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, I think if I go back to my my childhood was just I was all over the place.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: My father traveled a lot for his own education as a plastic surgeon, and so I was transplanted from continent to continent, school to school, and just it was kind of chaotic.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I was very inspired by my father.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_03: He was a uh immensely talented plastic surgeon, but I wasn't very interested in doing medicine, honestly, at that point.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: I wanted to be a journalist.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_03: I wanted to be um, I wanted to tour the world and tell people stories.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: And my father was like, no, that's not for a woman.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_03: And that was the end of that conversation.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, I can't even imagine saying that to my girls today, but so that's the way it was.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: And and so I ended up, you know, doing medicine, which is what you are you do.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: And um then I came to the United States and uh became a pediatrician, trained here to be a pediatrician.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I really enjoy it, and enjoyed it, and and I, you know, I didn't have any regrets at that point of being a a doctor.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: But then I got kind of into this, what I call the revolving door of medicine, you know, just treating symptoms and um just didn't seem like there was any heart or soul or spirit in what I was offering.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: It seemed very all in my head.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: And also, you know, I think I had come from a background where the the mind-body-spirit connection growing up with um, you know, Eastern medicine, you know, uh that was very much part of my life.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: And then I had put it all aside.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: I had come to the United States, the Mecca of evidence-based medicine, and that kind of that was my thing.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: And so kind of went all the way to the other extreme, you know, of only doing things and just rejecting anything that didn't have, you know, enough science, so to speak, behind it, and then burned out.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, just was kind of bored and sick and tired and just in a lot of toxic situations in my personal and professional life.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: Two little girls at that time who were also sick all the time, and I was just looking for other ways to do things.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I was personally going through a divorce, and my own health was in was in terrible shape, and stumbled on this fellowship in integrative medicine, you know, through the Andrew Wilde Center.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: And it came to my spam folder.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: So that tells me.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was like kind of just a silly email, right?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: That you guys are.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_03: I was kind of almost deleted, and I'm like, what is this?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_03: And oh, it's for MD.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: And at that time, I'm like, I'm gonna do this, spend my own money, I'm just gonna do it.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't think that this was going to be a career.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I was just thinking, I need some way to heal myself, my children, some other fresh perspective.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_03: And and at the same time, I was also, you know, kind of, you know, figuring out how to rebuild myself, you know, because I had really hit rock bottom personally.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um and, you know, at the end of a 20-year marriage, um two little girls again, you know, and just a part of an Indian community and a family that didn't support my decision to get divorced.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I lost a lot of, I guess, and now I would put them in air quotes, but friends and community and people who I my the construct that was so, I mean, I'd become so part of was just had completely rejected me.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, it was it was awful and painful and terrible at the time, but my goodness, what an amazing opportunity it was for me to sort of sort of rise from the ashes, literally, and just rebuild.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_03: And so all of that was happening at the same time as that perfect storm.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: And when you were talking about taking leaps of faith, right?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: Curiously guided, which is jumping off these cliffs, you know, with no idea.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_03: Are you gonna land, are you gonna crash, uh, you know, are you gonna take off?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: No idea.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: So that was all happening, and that's the time I was painting and creating music.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: I was actually doing all this stuff with my kids.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: I was creating music for them, you know, to help them understand their heritage and and and bring it to a to a space that they understood.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: I was painting and doing art projects with them, affirmative art for all of us.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_03: And and then I was also doing the fellowship, you know, and so just it's sort of again the concept of integration, integrative medicine all came together so beautifully for me.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: And it was all so organic and nothing was planned.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I just finished that and then I just started to heal on a really deep level and find a sense of alignment within myself, like a real harmony of mind, body, spirit and rebuilding, rewiring heart, brain, everything, um, and reconnecting with my children because I reconnected with myself, and all of that was happening at the same time, and then reconnecting with my patients because I was rebuilding myself as what I was offering, right?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_03: So just it was just that sort of like that was sort of the progress.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: And so in those few years after the fellowship, everything sort of came together and um sort of several of these huge, you know, full circle moments, um, professionally and personally.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, in the last 10 years, I think, you know, I've just it just kind of built on that, you know, it's just gotten stronger and stronger.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I think the most important thing for me as a mother, as a doctor, and also as an advocate for equitable, accessible, affordable, you know, decolonized pediatric medicine is basically building resilience.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_03: You know, how do we bounce, right?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: Because we're always going to fall off the wagon or you know, fall down and you know, it's and and face stress.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: So that's become you know huge part of what I do.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_03: And so um again, and also making sure that there isn't a there's definitely some alignment in my personal life with my professional life because you know people can smell and see hypocrisy a mile away.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, if you're if you're not really believing and practicing, you know, what you're preaching, I think that it doesn't have that much value.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_03: So that's sort of it.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Sorry, it's kind of long-winded, but that's it's sort of trying to sort of summarize it, yeah.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: So don't apologize.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: I could literally listen to you talk forever.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, do I even want to like come in here and ask a question or just have her like continue with her story?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because like you speak in a way that just like captures attention and it's really nice to listen to.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: So, like you said, um, even before we hopped on, but like how important stories are, and like you can tell just by the way that you tell a story that like deeply you resonate with the art of storytelling.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I just I want to thank you for that.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: But also thanks for being transparent in terms of the story because I think that it's a breath of fresh air and it takes some pressure off when we hear about a doctor in the medical system that like they went to school for health and for body and for like all of this, all of this stuff that's supposed to help us heal.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And they were even having problems figuring it out because like I know a lot of people that are like having issues trying to navigate different, different health issues.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just it's nice to hear that it's like not just us, you know what I mean?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: It it's the system, it's the system that's set up and that's that's training people.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like it starts even deeper than just us.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like it makes it less personal.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's not something that I did personally that can't figure this out.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's so much deeper than that.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: And what I hear from your story is just like when you can't like quote unquote, like figure it out, it's about the courage to go deeper.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's the courage to take it another level deeper.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because I feel like a lot of us, it's like we get into these moments where we're not curiously guided, where we're like hitting a wall.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's like we're getting frustrated.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's like, but can we have the courage to keep going deeper and to keep moving forward?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because, like, what if you didn't open that spam email?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that the universe would have like sent you 17 other signs because they were like, yo, girl, you need to go down this path.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it's just like, I don't really have any questions at this moment, but I just wanted to say thank you for the transparency.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: And like, I'm just I'm captivated here.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna send it over to Shah.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let's pick up the story because I think you're being a little humble about like, I think it's so brave of you to go into the integrative medicine and correct me if I'm wrong here, but now your practice is an integrative practice within the traditional system that we accept insurance, you're at a major hospital.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: So you've been able to take this.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: What I think a lot of people think of as like, I don't know what the right word is, but alternative medicine or a new way to do medicine, and you've brought it into the system, which I think is incredible.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how many people actually are able to do that?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think again, and people, you know, right now I'm mentoring pediatricians um who are doing the fellowship training at Andrew, the Andrew Wyle Center, which has been such an honor that they asked me to do that.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I wish I'd had that 10 years ago, you know, when I graduated and I was just like, oh, I got all this information.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: What do I do with it?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's nice to be able to sit in community with these really bright, brilliant, motivated pediatricians who want to learn how to apply it.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_03: So it's been an or again, it's the flow of a journey that, you know, kind of has brought me to this point.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_03: But I do, Mariah, I do, I do, I think I I like this thing in the world of resilience.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: We talk about really reframing, instead of saying, what's wrong with you, we say, what happened to you?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and that is from Dr.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_03: Nadine Burke Harris, who really is the pediatrician who really jumpstarted this whole thing about adverse child events and building resilience and the whole trauma-informed approach that we we try to put to bring into our practices as pediatricians.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_03: But but you know, understanding the difference between, you know, the structural failings, you know, of system, you know, and making sure that we're not taking that on, you know, and then also recognizing where personally we can work on ourselves, you know.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_03: So there's but understanding that there, you know, there's these are healthy boundaries that, and we have to say, you know, well, no, that is not because of me.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that is what happened to me because of something outside of me.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I can recover from it, but I don't have to take it on.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that's kind of really an important piece of the resilience building.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, the practice, you know, again, you know, I've been with Cardinals, uh, Cardinal Glenn and Children's Hospital now.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: Gosh, I'm I'm approaching my, I think my 25th year with them, but been in practice close to third, almost close to 30 years.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_03: And so um, you know, I think I've grown with them, you know, and they've grown with me.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_03: And and being in the practice this long, you know, and slowly bringing it in after I finished the the training, uh I was sort of left with the huge amounts of knowledge um and huge amounts of questions of like I'm wanting to learn more, um, and also um really starting to understand that I'm really interested in childhood mental health, childhood nutrition.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: So kind of fine-tuning the areas where I went on and got more training, you know, more fellowship training in those areas and nutritional psychiatry, integrative psychiatry, you know, food is medicine, you know, and and um and chronic, complex chronic, you know, kind of ill children who come in with these all these symptoms.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, you they're just the families that have been medically gas-lit, you know, for years by the, by the, again, by the structure, by the, by the system.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and you know, start starting to create safe spaces, you know, for people to just unwind and start trusting again first, uh, telling their story, and then moving into kind of the motivational piece of how do we create plans and and treatment um journeys, healing journeys where everybody's you know invested and everybody's doing it together as a more instead of more of a directive approach that we were talking about before.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: And um, yes, and the and the office, you know, it kind of evolved.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like I finished my that fellowship 2010 years ago and then had this vision for an office, but just you know, again, you you you you sow the seeds, you know, and then the right people came into the right positions at the right time that were able to really, you know, keep get that vision, you know, actually manifested.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_03: And so in 19 we opened Cardinal Glenn and Children's Hospital opened this office that is just pediatric integrative medicine.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: And again, it's sort of a work in progress, right?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_03: So I love again, the I keep coming back to your curiously guided, it's going to become my mantra.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, just kind of like because you know, even now I'm like ready for the next like five-year plan.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: Like I feel like because we're we're approaching five years in this office, and it was took me five years to open the office.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: And it and this five years of being in the office has been crazy with COVID hitting, right?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: Moving 2019 and 2020, like the world stopped, and so many things that we wanted to do sort of got put on hold a little bit.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: So so we're I'm I'm I'm always kind of envisioning the next five years.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_03: What do I want to do?
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_03: You know, so just always growing the the what we offer, but we basically are offering, you know, a whole child approach, which is what integrative medicine is.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we look at the whole child, but we also look at the the how the child sits within the triad of the caregiver, the prova practitioner, the clinical practitioner, and the child that that healing triad, and then the ripple effect of the family and the community, because how the environment affects everything, all the healing, which includes sleep and screen time and exercise and nature and nutrition and moving, you know, the mind-body, mindfulness part of it.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_03: So all of those things kind of bringing those into the plan.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_03: And so that we don't have a knee-jerk response to a symptom.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_03: We're always looking for the root cause and we're always trying to work on that, right?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: So, but we don't forsake traditional medicines.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I think is really important because anything that's evidence-based and required, we're gonna do.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: So if you need an antibiotic, you need an antibiotic.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: But we're also gonna make sure we protect your gut.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna do probiotics, and then we're also going to see, okay, why did you get this infection in the first place?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: What can we do to the whole body, um, to the family unit, um, to the you know, the community unit, and how can we build uh you know resilience and and and work on the preventive part of it also at the same time.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that's a really important piece because we're different from other holistic practices, which sometimes um you know recommend against vaccines or against medications and things like that.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: And that is definitely not what we do.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_03: We're we're pro um allopathic practices, um, but we're also cognizant of the fact that allopathy can only take you so far.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's great for acute care.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, if you have a heart attack or a broken bone or cancer, like you need an allopathic physician who's well trained and you need that person who's really, you know, understands what they're doing.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_03: But from the preventive standpoint, I think there's a little bit of a lacking in um, and also for complex chronically ill people, I think they sort of you hit a wall.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh that's yeah, that and we're trying, I like staying within a hospital system because effecting change from within is really important.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_03: And it can be frustrating sometimes, obviously, because again, it's like you're working against um, you're working within a system that's used to doing things a certain way, and so making those small changes.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_03: But I think it's been we've been we've been really um lucky in the sense that um what we offer is in great demand.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I would say that most children who come through our office do heal and get better, and uh just through word of mouth, we're just yeah, we're just crazy busy and it's hard to um, you know, I've I've cut back, I only work three days a week because it's a marathon, not springs.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, then the again these concepts of self-care, which you know are in you know, intrinsic to what we teach, have to be applied to us also as as practitioners and also as the staff, also.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: So so yeah, so yeah, we're we're really it's really exciting what we do.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's just melting pot of so many different um practices and trainings and teachings and workshops and everything that I've learned that comes into what we offer.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's the juice right there, baby.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's good shit.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like, thank you for creating something because I I agree with you.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's like one way or another.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's like there's magic in all of it, truly.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: And like I really like what you said in terms of like uh a little bit further back, but like reframing the question of what's wrong with you to what happened to you, I feel like that's a perspective shift all on its own.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: And like the podcast can end right there because like that's fucking like whoa.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then also how you were saying that like when your patients come in and the families come in, it's like and and we give them space to, you know, say things.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: And like I wrote down like that's revolutionary, and it's sad that it's revolutionary, that it's not a normal practice for us to go into a doctor's office and for them to be like, hey, let's start unpacking this stuff and like digging a little bit deeper and coming at like I've never had a doctor prescribe me nature, or even ask a question about that, or just like beyond what's your diet?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then when I say two sentences about it, they don't ask any deeper questions.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, sounds good.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds like she knows what she's doing.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like I was never taught how to eat properly.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: I have no idea how this body of mine works.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: So what you're doing is really, really, really cool and obviously really needed.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like the proof is in the pudding, the people are coming, you got a wait list, that type of thing.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: But my question is because as adults, it's difficult, I think.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like when we've been trained or programmed to think what is health and what is healing, we think of like how it's supposed to look.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: And how it's supposed to look is I take a medication for a period of time, or I go to the gym five days a week.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: And if I don't go to the gym five days a week, of course I can't lose weight.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: And like those are the only two things that we really talk about.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so I find it's like when you even suggest something like, what if you went for a walk outside?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: People are like, how in heaven's earth is that going to help me?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is not connected, absolutely not.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: You're telling me mumbo jumbo.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: So when we've been conditioned to think that health and healing is one way, and then your approach brings in all of this other stuff that completely shifts and expands the perspective of what people are thinking.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: How do the adults react?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because the kids, I feel like kids are kids are more pliable.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: My nieces, if I was like, hey, yo, drinking this green smoothie is gonna make you like a killer rock star, they'd be like, I love green smoothies.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what's up?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Way easier, but like, how do the adults react?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's such a good point, right?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_03: Because I think that's one of the lovely things about pediatrics, is because children are so receptive and you know, they're in that magic space all the time.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that's what makes it so fun to go to work because there's a certain, you know, they drag you into that space of make-believe and magic and and and hope, really, for lack of a better word.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, and and and being a pediatrician, I think you're you're trained very early on to understand that the the caregiver, you know, building um transgenerational intergenerational resilience is is really important.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_03: It just isn't you can't just focus on the child.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_03: And and you are going to face these challenges of of sort of conditioned belief.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: One, and also um, you know, just sort of, you know, we have to take people from resistance to ambivalence to motivation, right?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_03: If if people are resisting what you're offering because they believe that what they the way they've been doing it is the right way, or they aren't in a position.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's really important for me to just, you know, give a shout out to all the doctors out there who are really struggling in these systems that don't give you the time or the resources to listen to people's stories, right?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_03: You know, like you know, yeah, because because they're on a it's like it's assembly line medicine, which you know it's it is getting worse in some sense of the word, because you know, we're just everything reimbursements are being cut back and and everything is being sort of very much, you know, you're given this much time and that's it.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_03: And it's all like, you know, um, you know, productivity based and things like that.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I so you know, I think everybody's trying their best um to do the best they can with what with the resources, but that's where we have to get, we have to have changes structurally, right?
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and so I it I think the the most important thing I find is the the concept of motivationally interviewing a family, right?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_03: So when a family comes in, you know, I have like I'm a blank slate when I walk in, I have no agenda.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I've reviewed everything and I've looked at all the information they've sent me.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_03: But I when I walk in, literally have no idea what I'm going to do for the family because I want it to be guided.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_03: And again, I'm gonna I'm gonna keep saying curiously guided, but I I'm going to like really sit there and listen to what they think is going to be the best next step.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_03: And we, it really, literally is baby steps.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_03: And so when you do it in that way, it really does remove a lot of the resistance um that they might be coming in with, also a lot of the distrust and a lot of the, you know, kind of the anger and frustration they have with whatever they've been through until they come to our door.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_03: So so I think that's the motivational piece of it, where we really start um bringing in their viewpoint of what they think is going to be best for their family and their child.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's that's what really lays the foundation, and then we build from there.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_03: Plus, we also look at you know the socioeconomic status, the cultural background, um, you know, the um resources that this family that might be tremendously stressed is going to.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_03: So all of that goes into what we do for the next step.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm very upfront with families that this is a journey and this is the first step, and it's baby steps, and it's gonna take tiny, tiny little changes, but over time that's going to be hugely impactful.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_03: And then I say this all the time: like, you know, Sheikh, help me come up with healthier communities through healthier kids, you know, such a wonderful um, you know, motto for a new wellness, you know, which is sort of like the online community that I have.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_03: But, you know, and and I because I truly believe that the ripple effect is infinite, you know, if you start making a change in the child who is receptive, who is a lot more kind of pliable for lack of a better word, um, and who and they start seeing that the child is healing and feeling better and and and just you know, mind, body, spirit balance, then the parents are like, oh, I'm gonna do a little bit of this.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm you know, they come back and say, Well, I did that and I'm sleeping better, or you know, I told my sister about this, or I told my friend at church, or I told my friend at work, or you know, and so you can that ripple effect of literally like I can just see it, you know, when you throw the pebble in the water and the ripples, like I can see that that that the same thing happening again and again and again within families, and the children become, you know, advocates for their diseases.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_03: That's just really magical to see that happen, where they start talking to their friends or their school or whatever it is, or their youth groups and things like that.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_03: So, so that's where I think um it's it's not easy all the time, but it's definitely possible to have that that that little that shift, energetic shift in within the child and then the family unit.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_03: And then it becomes much easier for them.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_03: And then I'm constantly aware of my own, you know, innate biases and implicit biases.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, they talk about the placebo effect and the telecibo effect.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_03: So the placebo effect is your innate ability to heal and you really believe that something's gonna work, it's 40%, which is better than some medicines.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_03: And then the telecebo effect is the healing presence of the practitioner in that space.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_03: And that's also really important because if I offer something from a place of alignment myself and presence, and I'm really listening and I'm leaning in and I'm really careing, and I also genuinely believe that what I'm offering is going to work.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's another huge part of the healing process.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that all that comes in.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: There's one thing I'd like for you to touch on.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you brought up the idea of decolonizing medicine earlier, but I remember when we worked together, that was something, you know, I'm a white woman, Raya's a white woman.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: We I don't have awareness around this.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I was really struck when you were talking to me about um people that aren't from a Western background have all different perspectives and thoughts and approaches to medicine, and there's a lack of trust in our system.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_02: They don't want to go into our system, you know.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so would you mind sharing a bit about like I think that point you just made, like that trust is so key and that belief is so key and that trust in your practitioner.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: Can you talk a little bit about how your work is working to decolonize medicine a bit?
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I I have to give full credit to uh a wonderful organization called I Am For Us, that's integrated medicine for the underserved.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_03: And that's where I really learned even about this concept, right?
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: Because I think I had this personal experience of being a woman of color and being an immigrant, and also all the structural um racism that is built into medicine in the United States and all the patriarchy and misogyny and all of that that you face in medical training and residency as a woman and as a person of color.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, again, not being completely aware of it at the time when I was going through it, but then being part of integrative medicine for the underserved and their whole goal is to really create equitable, decolonized.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh yes, I think in my when I when I show up in the office, I think I'm keenly aware of trying to be culturally competent, you know, and um understanding that communities of color feel a lot more comfortable with me just because I am a person of color, um, just for that one reason, but also understanding that just because I'm a person of color, it doesn't automatically make me culturally competent.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_03: Like I've still got to do my work and understand that I have biases that have been taught to me based on being uh being Indian, uh, you know, come from a community, from a country where colorism is very rampant, you know, and so just some of these things that um my own education and then being part of that bigger system, you know, organization where I met so many people that are doing so much work in this area.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I think some of the simple things in my office are, you know, if you have somebody with a name that you can't pronounce, you ask, How do I pronounce your name?
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know, what's how would you like me?
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_03: What would you like me to call you?
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_03: You know, something like that, instead of saying, Oh, I can't pronounce it, because you know, you know, those sort of things that are common can white people do quite commonly where they're they're uncomfortable and they make it a joke or they make it, you know, sort of they think they're making it lighthearted.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_03: So trying to teach, you know, that sort of cultural competence, just that's the first step, right?
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and then understanding that um different cultures have different ways of believing in the healing journey, you know, curing something isn't necessarily the goal, it's you know what's for one's highest good.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_03: So understanding that, also understanding how important family members' opinions are sometimes within cultural certain communities, understanding that there are certain traditional ways of doing things.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_03: Like I remember when I was postpartum, you know, my mom was cooking certain meals for me with certain spices to help me heal and to help me, you know, make more breast milk and also to prevent postpartum depression and you know, understanding that these have come through generations of people way before modern medicine.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_03: And that's true of Latina communities and African-American communities, and and and recognizing that, you know, historically uh communities of color have been have been missed, you know, they've been, you know, kind of uh research has been done on them without consent.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_03: They've been treated very poorly.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and and there's continues, you know, even recently the American Academy of Pediatrics came out with a wonderful new policy and just are raising awareness of racism in medicine and how this needs to be taught, how certain things are just, you know, um medical students today still feel that African Americans feel less pain than white people.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, some of these things that are sort of being intrinsically taught in curricula that need to be, you know, these some of these biases that need to be removed, and and how poorly up are, you know, even now our are you know maternal mortality and infant mortality for African Americans, which is one of the highest in the world, which is disgraceful.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_03: And it's again because of so some of those things I think just being first of all awareness, and then secondly, when we come into our offices, understanding that when somebody approaches us um and they're seeking to build a trust and relationship, that we have to do our work.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_03: And we have to consciously, intentionally create spaces that are safe for people to speak up, and also spaces that are culturally sensitive and trauma-informed.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_03: So, yes, and I would again give a shout out to IM for us because they have so much that they're doing.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_03: I was part of their policy committee at one point, and I was very lucky to go with them to cap to be on Capitol Hill in 2018.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_03: There was an integrated integrative medicine caucus, and I was actually, you know, actually privy to how these things work, where we testified to have the CMF cover um uh things like acupuncture and chiropractic care and massage and trying to work towards a more of that.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_03: But but just they they reopened my eyes to how you know how I could practice in a in a better way, you know, and and and also just recognize my own biases, which I think a lot of us as physicians and and clinical practitioners need to be aware of at all times.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: So well, like you said, the awareness is the first step, right?
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: So that's huge.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: And then being able to provide a place where people can feel safe to speak openly and honestly, uh that's gigantic.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_02: But I want to pivot the conversation slightly.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: I one thing that I've always wanted to ask you when we're healing a big buzzword these days is inner child healing and how important it is to connect with your inner child and how healing comes through connecting with that inner child.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll be honest, I roll my eyes a lot of times because I'm like, oh, throw that around everywhere.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: But you, you know, I think you I would love to hear your opinion about this more than anyone because you're surrounded by children all day.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_02: I think your healing journey stemmed from you connecting to what your childhood interests were and you connecting with your children at the time.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: So would you mind sharing with us about like what is your what are your thoughts around inner child healing?
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: What does that mean and what does it look like for you?
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I always think about this um cartoon comic, and I can share it with you guys if I can find it of the ogre, you know.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, it's just just uh, you know, this woman saying, Oh, I want to take care of you and your inner child.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, I already did, and you can see the child inside the ogre, like the ogre ate his own inner childhood.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's just so funny, like complete disrespect for that whole line of like, you know, kind of, I guess, uh, you know, psychology and and all of that.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: And and you know, I also want to say disclaimer, I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist, you know, I'm not I'm trained in integrative psychiatry, but I'm not a psychiatrist or I'm not a psychologist or therapist or anything.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_03: So I don't have any background, but I can I'm gonna talk from my personal journey.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, my understanding, I I think that, you know, for me personally, like I think about certain traumatic events that happened to me at certain stages of my childhood.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_03: And I think what what I understand is that you you sort of get arrested at that time.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you that it's such an event that that for me is my four-year-old.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_03: I always think of the four-year-old little Anu in me, when when that was the time when things, something, you know, whatever it was.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_03: But and then I think, okay, so that little child didn't necessarily get affirmed and seen and heard um and was not given space, you know.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_03: So so she still exists inside me.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_03: And there are certain things that bring her up, you know, certain triggers in in my environment.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_03: And then it's my role as the adult Anu to step in front and take care of her.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so sometimes I just view her as my third daughter, almost, you know, because I have my two daughters, and then I have little Anu who also still needs to be taken care of, but in a way that's not shaming or belittling.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's just it's not like something's wrong with me.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's just that there's a piece of me that, and that's a piece of me that I nourish through music and art and and and just being a pediatrician, because I can just dress in these colorful, crazy, like you know, we wear like these giant, you know, Halloween earrings, and you know, we all dressed up as princesses, you know, and superheroes for Halloween news and there was Jasmine.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I loved it, you know, like this, you know, showing up as Jasmine and walking into the room and seeing the joy, you know, and all in everybody's saying, Oh my god, Dr.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_03: Fred.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you yep, that's me.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I had met these two families for the first time.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, yes, it's really me.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_03: Hello, I'm Jasmine, but I'm also Dr.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_03: French.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_03: Because they'd never seen you before ever, you know.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, no, really.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, uh taking and just showing them that it's really me under all the makeup and the wig and everything.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_03: But but I just think like, you know, um being able to know that there, you know, when when a child comes into the office, you know, we always focus first on what's okay.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like what are the strengths of this child?
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_03: What's going well in your world?
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I think affirming uh the child's experience, because that I think is part of the inner child healing, you know, is because many of us, I suspect, have our sort of this inner child that's still hurting because we weren't affirmed or seen or heard or allowed to have big feelings when we were little.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so when we have, and then our our kind of our society shames that and and build and it kind of you know criticizes that, especially women, right?
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh for me, I I personally did connect with my inner child after I had children, and I also connected very deeply with them through art and music, because again, there was sort of these opportunities to, you know, it's sort of cliche to say color outside the lines, but literally that's what we were doing, you know, with all the messy art that we do.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_03: And and my art is very has a strong childlike quality to it, you know, and I'm not a traditionally trained artist or anything, but I have done a lot of work around art as a therapeutic modality because of the healing that I've received from it and and my children, and and and you know, even today, um my my my boyfriend and I, we have like we do this date night once a week, and we're gonna do some neurographic art tonight, which is a whole new area that I love that really rewire, literally rewires your brain as you're doing it.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_03: It's incredibly wonderful stuff.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_03: But but I'm just saying, like, it's really a part of my life on a day-to-day basis.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_03: And so I do feel that um, and last year we did that whole, I mean, with Generation Mindful, which I give another shout out for a wonderful local company in St.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_03: Louis that is doing amazing work to raise socially, emotionally resilient children and families.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_03: And last year they've still got it on their website.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_03: They did a whole reparenting workshop where, you know, we as a parent, you have to reparent that child in you that did not get parented before you can actually parent your own kids effectively.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_03: And it's all I think I've seen that in my own life with my daughters for sure, because I just feel like they the their ability to mirror back to me parts of myself has been hugely helpful in me, understanding facets of me that just needed more parenting and then not really looking to myself to do that work.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then then you just feel so it's there, there isn't any resentment or or frustration anymore with anybody outside of you because you can just find it within you.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_03: And then I want to raise two resilient daughters.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I I always joke with them as long as they're not going to therapy for what I'm going to therapy for, we're all good.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we're good, you know.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_03: So that's my joke.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_03: That's the standard line in our home.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_03: But, you know, just kind of not putting my stuff, my shit on them, really like and breaking those intergen, you know, kind of the epigenetic burdens, you know.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_03: I say I'm we're chain breakers and change makers.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_03: Like we have to do that for our kids so that they grow up.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_03: I want them to always feel like they were heard and seen and had space, and that they're so that they don't grow up with this inner child that didn't get what they needed, you know.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_03: So that's really important piece for me.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_03: And then also with my patients, too, just wanting them to know that they're seen and heard um and affirmed in the office and that we're always looking at them as whole kids and not just as their ear infection or their celiac disease or their diabetes, you know, not identifying them by their diseases and just constantly work on that when we when we meet family so that we're not re-traumatizing.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_01: Interrupting this podcast episode really quick.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we just wanted to pop in here and share with you something that we've launched that we think that you are going to love.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_01: The Design Your Dream Day, a lifestyle design workshop.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_02: Mariah and I designed this workshop three years ago, and we've held it live several times since then.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we get a lot of great feedback from it.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: So we really wanted to package this all up and put it together in more of an evergreen form, especially now that it's the top of the year and a lot of people are thinking about goal setting.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_02: But really, the point of this workshop, Mariah and I are constantly bitching about goal setting.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: We were really frustrated by the typical way that we had been taught to set goals.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, we're working with people that are constantly feeling stuck and needing a pivot but lacking clarity.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: So we kind of went to the drawing board, you know, what would it look like for us to set goals in a more intuitive, creative way, um, but a way that's also kind of grounded in neuroscience and how the brain works.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: So we did a bit of research, kind of tested some things and brought in some of our favorite practices that have been helpful for us in setting goals and intentions for the year or the season, whatever you're at right now.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um the workshop starts with a bit of a hypnosis or a guided visualization.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's a really awesome time to tap into your more creative, childlike play side and let yourself dream big.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then we kind of start a little broad and work our way a bit more towards groundedness, a bit more into the tangible.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so we really start with a big vision and then whittle it down into the actual steps that you can take starting today or tomorrow to actually get there.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_02: So it's intended to be a bit of a high-level look, but also down in the weeds on the ground, what day-to-day steps you can take to actually get towards your vision.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_02: And the the big message of the workshop, it's not really about the outcomes, right?
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's more about shifting into a new identity.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_02: Who is this future version of you?
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_02: Who are you, who, what do they prioritize?
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_02: What are they devoted to?
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: What do they want to spend their time on?
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then how can we kind of reverse engineer that to let that influence um our lives and our typical day-to-day?
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and honestly, like my favorite part about this workshop truly is the fact that like we start with the inner vision and then we bring it into the outer action, which I think that a lot of traditional goal setting doesn't really do.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: You usually start with the outer action, you don't start with your inner vision.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then a lot of like meditations and visual visualizations will start with the inner vision, but then they don't weave in the outer action.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why I really love this process that we're gonna walk you through in the workshop.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_01: So you can learn more about the workshop or you can snag it over at curiouslyguided.com slash dream day.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_01: So we will put the links to that in the show notes, but let's take you back to the episode.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's it's so important, like inner child healing.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: We hear it so often now.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_01: I feel well, I mean, people that are into like personal development, like my boyfriend probably does not hear about inner child healing all the time because he's playing stupid video games.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_01: But actually, you know what?
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_01: There probably is inner child healing, he just wouldn't call it that.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that it's it's common, it's common because it works, but like on a logical level, you're just like, how could this work?
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_01: Picking up the pains and just like making a mess, and it's interesting for a while.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I grew up also loving to paint and to create art.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_01: And my mom would tell me that if I trace something that I wasn't being creative, that's not like that's not how you create, is by tracing something.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: So in my brain, growing up, I was like, okay, well, I have to draw things by hand because that's how you create art.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_01: And as an adult, this was like last year.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_01: I literally did not allow myself to buy a paint by numbers because in my head, I was like, that's cheating.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then I was like, I'm a grown-ass adult.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not six years old anymore.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_03: Like, we are not like you were six years in that moment, right?
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then I was like, you know what?
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I asked my boyfriend, I was like, you know what, for Christmas, I want to paint by numbers.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_01: Give me a paint by numbers thing.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I had so much fun sitting there, just allowing myself to play with these paints, but also not having to think about it and just putting the paint where the color is and just like losing myself in it.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it sounds so simple, but I think healing as humans, we try to make it more complex when it doesn't have to be complex.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_01: And like asking the question of what if healing could be simple?
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_01: What if healing could be play?
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_01: What if healing could be taking a walk?
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_01: What if healing could be doing a paint by numbers?
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then I think we combine that with this thread that I hear you say is, and I I just want to pull it out and say it that like change starts with being heard.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's really, really powerful.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like we can't change on any level in anything if we're not being heard either by ourselves or by somebody else.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, of course, if we're not being heard, resentment builds up and then we get defensive.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, we do, so of course we're not gonna change.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I just wanted to kind of put light on that.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then the last thing is you mentioned building resilience, like helping your daughters build resilience.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, can you just kind of dive into that?
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like our listeners and stuff like that.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_01: Can you just A, can you define what resilience is?
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then just give us some examples of it's like, okay, if I need to start building that, because I think a lot of us do living in this stressful-ass world, how do we build up resilience to be able to evolve in the world that we live in?
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_01: But how do we do it?
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_03: So resilience, just by definition, is the ability to bounce back from stress.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_03: So, and it's not something that you're born with, it's something that you can learn.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_03: So that's really hopeful to me.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like everybody is neurobiologically resilient.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_03: We all are.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_03: We can all kind of just heal ourselves.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, this was became a hugely important piece for me when COVID hit because all the stuff I was doing to build resilience was outside in the home.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_03: I was going for massages, I was going for pedicures, I was going to the yoga studio, you know, I was like going work, you know, and suddenly I was like, everything screeched to a halt.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, okay, how do I build resilience every day in my life in the chaos?
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I love the paint by numbers analogy because, you know, it's like mindfulness that's mindless in a way, right?
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_03: So it's it's it's a perfect example of how to build resilience because we're really trying to get out of our heads.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_03: And when you're when you're taught from a young age, like when you you're only creative if you do something original, you know, or you're only creative if you do something perfectly.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's that was my upbringing, you know, and so you're it's so wonderful to to to sort of think of doing things mindlessly, you know, and actually being extremely mindful, right?
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_03: So, so I uh there's some things I like, I like to, I just share from my own personal life.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like, how do you make this like so humming in the shower?
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_03: Like everybody can hum, everybody can be a sound healer because you don't have to know how to sing, but everybody can hum.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_03: The humming breath, the bee breath, it's called in in yoga, is tremendously important.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_03: It it raises nitric oxide, it raises oxytocin, all of these are hugely important for our healing, and it's self-soothing because it simulates your vagal nerve, and everybody at some point is taking a shower.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_03: So, so just humming in the shower.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_03: It's the one thing that's that's a that's one way to build resilience.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_03: Brushing your teeth with different brush like hands every day.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's isn't that the everybody, most people hopefully are brushing their teeth.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_01: So brushing.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_01: I tried doing that and it was like a mind fog.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, my brushing my teeth now takes like five minutes if I'm doing it with the other hand, because it's like you can't think about anything else.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's wild.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_03: Truly mindful, right?
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_03: Because you have to drop into your body.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_03: You can't be thinking, okay, what am I gonna have for breakfast?
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_03: Where am I gonna go eat?
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_03: Because you have to actually, yeah.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_03: So that's one thing.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_03: The other thing I I recommend is um breath work.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_03: So breathing, so being conscious of your breath.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I love the breath work you led us through, Mariah, before we started.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's the kind of thing dropping into your body.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_03: I always talk about that.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_03: We're all sitting.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_03: So just being aware of your bottom in the seat, aware of your feet and your shoes on the ground.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's called a body scan.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_03: It takes 30 seconds, drops you right back in.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_03: Again, calms all the stress hormones in the body.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_03: Doing the the square breathing I talk about, where you breathe in, going up the square, breathe out, across the square, breathe in, down the square, breathe.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, square breathing.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody, anybody can do that for 15 seconds when you're feeling relief stressed.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_03: So these are some of the things that for building resilience, um, sort of on a day-to-day basis.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_03: The other thing I talk about is, you know, um, I like to talk about rituals of some sort.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_03: So something that you're doing in your life that uh is uh grounding and sacred to you, you know.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I I think most like brewing a cup of tea, steeping a cup of tea.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_03: It sounds so simple, but you know, so many herbal teas are healing, but just the process of making a cup of tea and then mindfully eating.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_03: So I I like herbal teas and I like dark chocolate for that.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_03: That's the other thing for building resilience.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_03: I like dark, like dried fruit that's covered up with chocolates even better.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_03: So mindfully eating practices where you're sort of actually looking at what you're eating, holding it, smelling it, seeing where it takes you, because it usually takes you on a journey of some sort.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_03: And then actually when you put that piece of chocolate in your mouth, it dissolves slowly and feeling it.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_03: So again, mindfully at some point in the day, trying to have a mindful eating moment again builds huge resilience and just amazing studies for that.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, just trying to think of other things that you know, on a day-to-day basis, um some way of you know, getting in touch with nature.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_03: So again, it's difficult for everybody.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_03: Again, I I'm always aware of people who live in neighborhoods that aren't safe.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's easier to say, oh, go out, go for a walk in your neighborhood, you know.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_03: We don't have a neighborhood that's safe, you know.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_03: So, so how do we so I think looking every morning if there's some way that you can look at the the eastern sky?
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, again, the problem with our time change and stuff like this, you know, you don't always you can't always look at the sunrise, but photobiomodulation, getting that sunlight into your eyes first thing in the morning resets your entire body.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_03: It resets your stress hormones, it resets the way you respond to stress.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_03: So, again, things like that.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_03: So, some way of getting exposed to nature, even if it's like having a window that you look out at, um, putting a bird feeder in your backyard, I talk about that, or planting a plant that attracts butterflies and bees and pollinators.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_03: So those kinds of things I think are really important.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_03: And then as families doing things together, so you know, there's all kinds of resources, and I'm happy to share stuff with you guys later if you want a list of things, and you know, because obviously the time is limited, but you know, some of these things of intergenerational resilience, doing things together, so messy artwork together, something it doesn't have to be perfect art, doing it together as a family, doing yoga together as a family, or even mindful movement.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_03: One thing I love to talk about is the walking meditation as a family.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody gets a turn to lead the family, and you just walk, and you can go the person leading the family can go anywhere.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_03: So you can go up on top of bunk beds, underneath dining tables, go out into the backyard, but you're walking quietly, and it's just a few minutes.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_03: You set a timer, and you have to hold a word in your head.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then you come and sit down as a family and you talk about what word you held.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I've done this for years with my kids, and it used to be things like ice cream and poop and you know, you know, that fart and stuff like that.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_03: And then we finally evolved to a little bit more deeper things like world piece, and you know what I mean?
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_03: But that wasn't the point.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_03: The point was like, and then we would journal it a little bit.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_03: So, so like that, like so.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_03: I think that you finding things that you can do, blowing on pinwheels together.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my god, it's such an amazing way.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_03: You're doing breath work, you're mindful, it's fun, you're stimulating your vagal nerve, you know.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_03: So there's all kinds of activities, you know, that you can kind of bring into.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_03: But but I think becoming conscious of the fact when we tie it into the fact of our reparenting ourselves, our inner child.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I always like to go through the three R's.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's so you regulate, relate, and then respond.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that's really important, the three Rs.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, so that is really important when you're trying to build resilience because when you regulate, okay, you're working on your own resilience first, then you're relating your person is feeling heard and seen and affirmed because you're relating to where they are, and then you're responding appropriately.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_03: And I that's hugely important for the work I do in my office.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_03: When I walk into a room, that's the first thing I'm trying to do is I'm gonna regulate.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_03: And the way I do that is I wash my hands, and that is a mindful practice for me.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_03: So it's one minute of washing my hands, being completely aware of the whole process, clearing my mind from the previous and taking some breaths.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's so I'm that's my regulation.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_03: Then I'm relating, which is the whole process, and then I'm coming up with the plan, which is kind of the last thing on the list.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_03: Instead of walking into the room saying, Okay, this person has a near infection, I'm gonna prescribe an antibiotic, you know, instead of doing that, just going in.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that's that's really important, I think.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_03: And those are some of the simple ways that you can just and even you do one thing, you just start with one thing, it's incredible the shift that happens in your ability to just pause and respond to what's happening in your lives, you know.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_02: That clearing practice is so powerful.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited to start using that throughout my work day.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, well, I do want to talk about what we were excited.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, one thing I've enjoyed about following along with you is that you're constantly, you mentioned it earlier, you're exploring your own curiosities.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you mentioned you and your partner are gonna do this new type of painting that's all about rewiring your brain.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_02: And you're always bringing in the science with the healing.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I love that.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so one thing I was telling Mariah, Mariah has been very interested in sound healing recently.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_02: She's been turned on to it.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_02: I was telling her about you.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_02: I had never very much, I never really experienced sound healing until I listened to the CD that you shared with me, your CD.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_02: It was nuts, Anu.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like my whole body, I had never felt that just from sound in immediately.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so where Mariah and I are like, there's something magic about sound, and we're both getting a lot of comfort and calm and resilience building through different sound practices, but we don't really know much more than that.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_02: Would you mind sharing a bit about like what you've done and your research around sound?
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I think it's important.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_03: I uh me, I genuinely believe that we're all sonic beings, like we're all vibrational beings as humans, you know, and so we're we're we all have our own harmony and we have our own vibration and we're all at a certain frequency.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, and to me, disease, dis-ease is when we're out of we're out of tune with ourselves, basically.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_03: Just and so any form of sound healing, any form of sonic medicine, you know, and you each one of us really has to find our own, because you know, I I don't always respond to certain kinds of sound healing, like, you know, so you can't just say, oh, go, go for that, go for Tibetan bowls and gongs, and you go there, and you're like, oh my god, this is making me feel worse, you know.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I just had that experience recently.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_03: And because you have to so you have to be careful what you recommend, but just for people to understand that there is this the field of kinetics, which is the field of the science of sound.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_03: And um we we talk about entrainment, which is where you it takes a little while for your vibrational frequency to line up with the vibrational frequency of what you're taking in through your senses, whether it be tactile or auditory or visual or a combination of both.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so the repetitive nature is really, really important.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_03: And that can feel monotonous and tedious sometimes to people.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's I think that education about that piece is very important.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_03: And then the silence after you've had any kind of sound healing, whether it be words or music or vibrations or frequencies, it doesn't matter, or musical instruments, whatever, is as important as the actual sound healing because that is the time really when the actual entrainment is happening, is in the silence.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_03: And that's when your body's actually coming into the same frequency and and into a sense of harmony.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_03: So when you're when you're experiencing these things, I think it's important to have those few minutes of silence with yourself too.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_03: And and my personal interest is Vedic mantra, which is Sanskrit mantra.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what I was raised with from my grandparents and my parents.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I want to honor them and my ancestors for that, you know, that blessing.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_03: And then that's what I was trying to teach my children.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_03: And they were like, ah, we don't want to learn this stuff.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_03: This is too hard, this is boring, we don't understand.
• 1:05:59
  SPEAKER_03: So that's when I started.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_03: Started creating the Sanskrit chants with the English meanings.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_03: And that was kind of the fusion music that you know that I kind of created.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_03: And then I was doing this at my yoga class every week.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_03: And then someone said, Well, you should make a CD.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_03: And then suddenly I got introduced to somebody who had a studio.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_03: And then I went and recorded it.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_03: All happened within like a week.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_03: It's just, you know, funny how these things happen.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_03: And then I, you know, then someone taught me how to stream it.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, I'm like, I'm a doctor.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_03: What do I know about all this stuff?
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, oh my God, there's a whole world of musicians and creatives out there that I knew nothing about.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_03: And so so it's all, you know, it's just it's been really fun.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_03: But really, the the the um, you know, it started because I was finding so much harmony coming into my own life from doing it.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I still do, and and chanting is a huge breath work, it's amazing breath work for me.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, like it's very balancing, and I can reach for those mantras at any time during the day and be just doing it quietly in my head, you know, just to heal.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_03: But but bringing it into kind of the community, you know, uh these two yoga studios have been asking me to teach um mantra as part of their curricula.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I've done it for a few other uh places online and just helping people understand that when we hum and we chant, what's happening is like we are really actually releasing um like nitric oxide, which again has become so important.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's in your sinuses and it's in your throat and it's in your lungs.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_03: And this is hugely important for relaxing everything, you know, keeping everything open and decreasing inflammation.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_03: And then oxytocin, which we know is like the love hormone you get from hugging, but it also comes from from chanting, and also balancing the vagal part, so the parasympathetic part of our nervous systems, which is the rest and digest piece of it.
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_03: So we live most of our lives in the sympathetic overload of fright, flight, fight, freeze, you know, like, and we never ever see, even though we go to sleep, we're still like in that space, you know.
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_03: We never, and so having some sort of practice where you're tuning into some sort of a sound that brings you to a place of feeling more relaxed and peaceful before you go to bed specifically, but anytime the day it really helps.
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's been a huge part.
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I've been doing some some research where I've been kind of putting these electrodes on my own head and kind of seeing what happens when I chant, and it's just been fun.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, I haven't really gone in too far with where I'm gonna take it, but it's just been more fun for my own.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like, oh, if I chant this, what happens?
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_03: If I chant that, what happens?
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_03: Do I really and then I did do we did do some you know research in our office on the healing harp.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_03: We have a beautiful healing harpist in St.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_03: Louis, Amy Kamey, and she's just amazing stuff, you know, she's done so much work.
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but we did a pilot study with her where we used her music and we studied brain waves before and after in parent-child cohorts, and we actually showed with the raw data that just listening to this healing harp moved these families from distressed, kind of chaotic brain waves to calmer, more peaceful brain waves and quality of life measures improve like sleep and anxiety, things like that.
• 1:09:04
  SPEAKER_03: So, so I think that that I'm I'm absolutely sure that if everybody even humming in the shower, I think let's even if we start there, because sometimes it seems overwhelming, or finding music that resonates with you in a way that you feel more peaceful, calmer, grounded, um less stressed and and and less foggy, you know, where you feel like you can think more clearly, where you can react.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's it's powerfully a powerful tool, I think, in and really important in um continuing to build resilience, where we're well our goal is to decrease inflammation in the body, you know, and and that way decrease chronic disease.
• 1:09:49
  SPEAKER_03: And when sound healing is unique because it takes away these blocks, you know, we have energy bodies as well as physical bodies, and we have blocks in them because we have thought processes or or choices we make in our lives or trauma that we've you know experienced that wasn't really under our control.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_03: And when you do these sound healings over time, you just you clear these blocks and you you release some of these um disease processes that are happening physiologically in the body, and then you you your energy flows freely and you can think and you can feel and you can relate and and and respond in a much more grounded way.
• 1:10:27
  SPEAKER_03: So I think, yeah, I I love sound healing and I and it's such an important part of my own healing journey, you know.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_03: Just it's and I go back to it all the time, you know, and and it's really important.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_03: Even this morning, I I went somewhere and I was listening to some Vedic chants on the way because I was feeling kind of stressed this morning, and I thought, okay, this is what what can I do?
• 1:10:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I was listening to Hamilton the last couple of days and I watched it with my kids over the Thanksgiving break, and I was okay, I need to stop listening to Hamilton right now because I love Hamilton, but it's not really my heart rate is up, my blood pressure is up.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_03: I can even find so I I found something called the sacred chants, and then I sometimes I listen to my own music.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it was funny.
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_03: I was in a sauna once um at somewhere, and my music came on Pandora, you know, my own music, and I was like, oh my God, I can't listen to this.
• 1:11:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I need to listen to Deepak Chokra or you know, somebody else.
• 1:11:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, wait a minute, no, maybe I can't listen to this.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_03: And I was trying to relax into it, but I've gotten more um used to listening out, more comfortable listening to my own music.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_03: But but I think like that's that's the thing, you know, just finding that for me, that sacred mantra is so soothing.
• 1:11:32
  SPEAKER_03: I immediately feel all my defenses go down and things.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_03: So so everyone has to find what works for them.
• 1:11:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, no big deal with your shit coming on Pandora.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like, no, no, no big deal.
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Hair flip on that one.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm fascinated by the data that you're finding.
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I would love to have you back on the podcast after you've had some time to kind of like collect data and just like play with it.
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we don't even need to know, like scientifically, what is this, but like just exploring that on a deeper level is something that I'm really curiously guided about.
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not curious to do the research myself, but like if somebody wanted to put some probes on my fucking brain and like test me, like I am game, I will show up anywhere.
• 1:12:18
  SPEAKER_01: But I have found sound healing to be wildly beneficial.
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I went to a retreat in October, and one of the biggest things that I was so excited about is she was like, we're gonna do a sound bath.
• 1:12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, you know, sound bath, it's like calming and relaxing.
• 1:12:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I was so excited, I was just like, I'm running around this retreat house and I'm literally just like, I fucking love sound baths.
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_01: I fucking love sound baths.
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody's laughing at me because it's like, it's just it feels so good.
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_01: But then I did notice at the end or like during it, she ended up using a gong and my body was like, and I was like, gong ain't it, like gong, whatever frequency this gong was.
• 1:12:56
  SPEAKER_01: So when you said that, I was like, there definitely are sounds that don't resonate as deeply with me, but I have a Spotify playlist that I'll listen to.
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really, really helpful because there's like all the different frequencies.
• 1:13:13
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the time, one of my favorite places to listen to sound healing is at the gym when I'm doing like weight training.
• 1:13:20
  SPEAKER_01: For some reason, and obviously it's like not a surprise once you understand the data behind sound healing, but like it just gets me so into my body where I feel like I can feel my muscles contracting on just a deeper level.
• 1:13:32
  SPEAKER_01: But if I'm listening to a podcast, I'm again so in my head that I'm like, do I even have muscles?
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't even know if I'm working my muscles.
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't even know.
• 1:13:41
  SPEAKER_01: So sound healing, it's just been like incredible.
• 1:13:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then I remember when I was working with, I don't know if it was a naturopath or I'm not sure who it was, but she was like, you need to start chanting.
• 1:13:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, absolutely not.
• 1:13:55
  SPEAKER_01: For some reason, there's like this weird thing in our human brains that's like, no, I can't, that's silly.
• 1:14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I can't do, I can't say that.
• 1:14:03
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want anybody to hear me.
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_01: And like, I can't say this out loud.
• 1:14:06
  SPEAKER_01: People are gonna think that I'm weird.
• 1:14:08
  SPEAKER_01: But then I found a Spotify playlist and I just listened to it until I could remember the words without having to think about them.
• 1:14:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it like snaps me back into my body.
• 1:14:20
  SPEAKER_01: It is wild.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_01: So if y'all are listening to this, Anu, I would love to put the links to your sound healing music in the show notes if you have it available.
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_03: I'm happy to send that to you.
• 1:14:32
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, I and you know, I think it's uh that that's the reason why I sort of created the fusion music because um, you know, the the English words are basically the meaning of what's being chanted.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then I found these melodies in our ancient Indian Sanskrit mantra, which were very similar to some of the um some of the melodies and hymns and other cultural, you know, songs that I've heard from other cultures and religions.
• 1:14:58
  SPEAKER_03: And so I started finding all these kind of overlaps and said, okay, I'm just gonna create all this music.
• 1:15:02
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, again, it's so funny how these things happen.
• 1:15:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like it wasn't none of the stuff that I was creating was ever intended to be put out there anywhere.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like I remember when I was painting, I was off my divorce, I was devastated and I was in really bad place for a year, like I was in a dark place, and I was just so, you know, I was I felt like a failure, you know, like I failed.
• 1:15:24
  SPEAKER_03: I failed my marriage, I was not happy in my work.
• 1:15:26
  SPEAKER_03: I, you know, I was being told I was going to fail as a mother because I divorced, you know, all these messages, you know, this really awful messaging, which, you know, I don't believe any of that anymore.
• 1:15:36
  SPEAKER_03: But at that time, and I was painting these affirmations, I am love, I am strong, I am brave, you know, I have, I am worthy, I am, you know, and I was trying to paint these things because I wanted to truly remind myself that these were true.
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I was doing it with my children too.
• 1:15:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I have created that little children's book from that, and then I was painting all the stuff.
• 1:15:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then, you know, one of my really good friends, Shirana Yoga, she's like, You want to sell your art?
• 1:15:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, nobody's gonna buy my art.
• 1:16:01
  SPEAKER_03: She's like, No, why don't we try it?
• 1:16:03
  SPEAKER_03: I'm having a you know, this trunk show, you know, just come and I was like scared, like it's such a vulnerable place, like very much stuff out there.
• 1:16:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I always look at my stuff as kind of child-ish art, like you know, it's like it's you know, and and sold out, all 28 pieces sold.
• 1:16:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, oh my gosh, like I could feel and what was more interesting to me than selling it was talking to people.
• 1:16:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like people would say, Oh my god, this really I'm gonna put this on my desk, or my I'm gonna give this to my, you know, my son, or I'm gonna buy this for my my co-worker, or you know, there were all these stories about why, and then a lot of the art I do now is on commission, you know.
• 1:16:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I I do have a Red Bubble store and you can buy prints and stuff on there, but what I really enjoy is more like the on commission.
• 1:16:47
  SPEAKER_03: So people will say, I want this particular piece for somebody because this is their story, and then I create it based on that.
• 1:16:55
  SPEAKER_03: That's so so it's just it's interesting how that, you know, again, that was another leap of faith, right?
• 1:17:00
  SPEAKER_03: Just putting my stuff out there and and being aware of how much I could, it could be rejected, like nobody could have bought anything, you know, and then I would be like, okay, well, this art was meant for me, not for anybody else.
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_03: But but those moments, you know, I think of like um really trying to to, yeah, I'm happy, I'm happy to share all the links, you know, with you and any way that, you know, I really put these things out with the intention of mind, body, spirit healing, you know, hoping to resonate with somebody so that they can bring a little brightness into their life, you know, literally with the colors, but also with the affirmations, like the affirmative piece of it is really important to me.
• 1:17:37
  SPEAKER_03: And also in the music, also it's the healing piece of it, like using it as a tool to build resilience.
• 1:17:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because I know that those things scientifically, we know art and music are hugely important for yeah, go ahead.
• 1:17:51
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry to cut you off.
• 1:17:52
  SPEAKER_02: Why are those I am statements so powerful?
• 1:17:54
  SPEAKER_03: Like yeah, like om tatsat.
• 1:17:56
  SPEAKER_03: I think of om tatsat is the Sanskrit I am that, that I am, om tatsat.
• 1:18:02
  SPEAKER_03: So basically, you know, it's an affirm affirming that this is enough.
• 1:18:07
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I am that already, that I am already.
• 1:18:11
  SPEAKER_03: There's no you there's no there's nothing more needed, it's all there, you know, and so that's where it starts for me.
• 1:18:18
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's like I am complete, I am whole, but I am also imperfectly incomplete, as you were saying, gloriously incomplete is what I like to say.
• 1:18:27
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a glorious work in progress.
• 1:18:29
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's absolute glory here, but but just but also understanding that you know, you know, the facets of of affirmation, again, it's the being heard, seen, fit, you know, understood, um, starts with us, like uh within ourselves, right?
• 1:18:46
  SPEAKER_03: So I think it with my kids, you know, it's just so important.
• 1:18:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like when they come to me with these big feelings, it's just knowing that they're they have a space to be heard.
• 1:18:54
  SPEAKER_03: And we have this little thing in our house, it's like, you know, do you want me to catch the ball or do you want me to catch the ball and throw it back to you?
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_03: So that's kind of our catchphrase.
• 1:19:02
  SPEAKER_03: So if they come to you and say, okay, do you want me to catch the ball?
• 1:19:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I just need a vent, I just need someone to hear me.
• 1:19:08
  SPEAKER_03: I just need to bitch about this.
• 1:19:11
  SPEAKER_03: I just need to, you need to be on my side.
• 1:19:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then oh, they'll say, No, I need you to throw it back.
• 1:19:17
  SPEAKER_03: I need advice.
• 1:19:18
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I need guy, what do I do next?
• 1:19:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what do I do with this?
• 1:19:20
  SPEAKER_03: So I love like that's been really helpful in our family.
• 1:19:23
  SPEAKER_03: And the other catchphrase is like, my my kids is like, this is not helpful right now, is what they say to me when when I'm going off course.
• 1:19:31
  SPEAKER_03: So, like they're calling me out on my bullshit, and I'm so pissed and I'm so proud at the same time.
• 1:19:38
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, good, good.
• 1:19:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like you're putting healthy boundaries with me, which means you can do it with anybody then, you know.
• 1:19:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I think like those sort of things are like the affirmate, affirmative part of it is hugely important.
• 1:19:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:19:50
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Anu, I want to hold you hostage here all day, but unfortunately, we're running out of time.
• 1:19:54
  SPEAKER_02: I was hoping that you could share with us a bit about the heart math that you shared with us before we started with the introduction.
• 1:20:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I yeah, absolutely.
• 1:20:02
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I have to again a shout out for Sheila Pride of the Moksha Institute, who did the workshop that I took.
• 1:20:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm not heart math certified in any way.
• 1:20:10
  SPEAKER_03: I just again like like to make sure people understand scope of practice and expertise, but I practice it every day.
• 1:20:17
  SPEAKER_03: And it's really heart-centered breathing and heart-centered intentional, um, you know, intentional meditation where we're trying to bring coherence.
• 1:20:27
  SPEAKER_03: You know, what that means is like when you're in a stressful situation, you don't want your heart rate to go all over the place.
• 1:20:34
  SPEAKER_03: You want it to have a certain, you know, less of that variability.
• 1:20:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you want it to be steady state.
• 1:20:40
  SPEAKER_03: And what happens is we our bodies, if you're in sympathetic overload, which we talked about a little bit, is like, you know, immediately your heart rate goes up, your blood pressure goes up, you're and it's erratic.
• 1:20:49
  SPEAKER_03: Your response is erratic, your breathing, your respiration, your blood pressure, and your stress hormones are just surging through you.
• 1:20:56
  SPEAKER_03: And you're you're defaulting to sort of that reptilian brain, like the base brain.
• 1:21:00
  SPEAKER_03: And so all your responses again could come from my, for me personally, from the four-year-old who's completely immature, has no understanding of what's going on, but is reacting, right?
• 1:21:09
  SPEAKER_03: So instead of coming from the mature executive functioning preparal cortex, which is like, oh, I need to think about this.
• 1:21:16
  SPEAKER_03: I need to pause.
• 1:21:17
  SPEAKER_03: This is not really about me, this is about somebody else, you know, that kind of a thing.
• 1:21:20
  SPEAKER_03: So that's where heart math can be.
• 1:21:22
  SPEAKER_03: And it's literally rewiring, like it's creating another pathway in between your heart and your brain, so that when you're in that stressful situation, you don't immediately go into panic mode.
• 1:21:34
  SPEAKER_03: And then you're also starting to like it's like in a forest.
• 1:21:38
  SPEAKER_03: I always think about it, like, you know, there's a there's a pathway already made, and that's kind of the one we kind of go through because oh, somebody's already walked this path before several times.
• 1:21:48
  SPEAKER_03: But that doesn't actually mean it's the best way to get through the forest.
• 1:21:50
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas when you're doing heart math, you're actually creating a new, whole new pathway, which is what neuroplasticity is, right?
• 1:21:57
  SPEAKER_03: And we know now, my goodness, you know, we were taught when I went to medical school, we were taught that the brain and the spinal cord are static.
• 1:22:03
  SPEAKER_03: You know, they just you can't, they can't be changed.
• 1:22:06
  SPEAKER_03: And now we know that you have a genetic blueprint, but you can completely change its expression and how you rewire and uh your heart and brain based on choices you make, thought processes, breathing, you know, nutrition, everything.
• 1:22:21
  SPEAKER_03: So so heart math is one of the tools I use a lot in my my personal life.
• 1:22:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I also, and I'd gone, I do see an integrative cardiologist.
• 1:22:29
  SPEAKER_03: So he does all my regular stuff, but he also looks at sort of the the the functional, physiological kind of where's my heart going, not just the structural piece of which he does that also.
• 1:22:40
  SPEAKER_03: And he done run this test on my autonomic nervous system, and it was so wonderful because it was like my stress response was excellent, you know, my resilience was excellent, all these things were in the green, but my ANS balance was not great, which means I still respond chaotically to my life, which, you know, with politics and and and you know, you know, kind of teen girl kid, and and and the stress of sort of being around Peg in a in a square hole or a square, you know, being in a hospital system and trying to practice something that's sort of against the grain and all of that, you know.
• 1:23:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I you could see that my my response is still erratic.
• 1:23:19
  SPEAKER_03: So I've got work to do, but my ability to bounce back is really good on the on the testing, and it was like this objective data.
• 1:23:27
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like so excited about that.
• 1:23:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I would give HeartMat a huge amount of credit and chanting for me, like the sound healing is huge, and then art, of course, like because always doing doing something in that area.
• 1:23:38
  SPEAKER_03: So I think it's nice to see these measures sometimes in our life.
• 1:23:42
  SPEAKER_03: They just gave me so much.
• 1:23:43
  SPEAKER_03: Again, it was affirming for me personally.
• 1:23:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it also gave me hope.
• 1:23:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like, oh, good, like some of the stuff that I'm doing, like brushing my teeth with the wrong hand and you know, and humming in the shower, even if it's off key, and you know, all that stuff that we're doing is actually working, it's actually helping, you know, and and then then also offsetting hopefully the my my progression to chronic disease in the future, which we're trying, you know.
• 1:24:07
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I don't care about getting old, I don't care about wrinkles, I don't care about gray hair, but I want to be vibrant and energetic and be able to think clearly and you know have my joints intact and you know, things like that.
• 1:24:17
  SPEAKER_03: Some of the basic stuff I just want to age with vibrancy.
• 1:24:21
  SPEAKER_03: Like I see all my mentors in integrative medicine, they're on the 80s and they're just recently I did a book club with a 102-year-old doctor, yeah, who just wrote her first book at 101.
• 1:24:32
  SPEAKER_03: We had a book club through the Andrew Wilde Center of Integrative Medicine for all the alcohol.
• 1:24:35
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 1:24:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and she just tested it, she's still practicing and completely, and I'm like, that's what I want to be when I grow up.
• 1:24:42
  SPEAKER_03: I want to be age, and she looked 102.
• 1:24:46
  SPEAKER_03: You know, she looked 102.
• 1:24:48
  SPEAKER_03: She did not sound, her energy body was clear, and I mean so so that's what I talk.
• 1:24:53
  SPEAKER_03: I think these little things that we do every day can can put us on the path towards towards that.
• 1:25:00
  SPEAKER_01: So this conversation is literally like exactly what I needed today.
• 1:25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Anu, thank you for thank you for showing up, for sharing your stories, for sharing your wisdom, for sharing your research, for being so transparent and like just what a wonderful source of like motivation and inspiration, truly.
• 1:25:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it's funny because this morning I had a thought in the shower because I could tell that I was stressed out.
• 1:25:26
  SPEAKER_01: I could tell I'm just ooh, baby, I'm spiraling about absolutely nothing over here.
• 1:25:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm in the shower.
• 1:25:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like I got this little, this little seed kind of like dropped in.
• 1:25:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just like, it's because you're in your head.
• 1:25:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I got this vision of like all of us just walking around in our head because we're using our phones, right?
• 1:25:46
  SPEAKER_01: And like what a blessing to be alive during this time where it's like we have access to so much information and to be able to connect, to be able to have a podcast where we can connect with people across the country and have these conversations.
• 1:25:57
  SPEAKER_01: What a blessing.
• 1:25:58
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like this vision of everybody just walking around on our phones.
• 1:26:02
  SPEAKER_01: So of course we're always in our head.
• 1:26:05
  SPEAKER_01: And what if the healing, like we said, A starts with being heard, but like what if we just allowed ourselves to get into our bodies?
• 1:26:14
  SPEAKER_01: And like all of these examples, like when you were talking about the examples, I'm so grateful that you shared them because like it truly is about going back to the basics.
• 1:26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what if you just took a walk?
• 1:26:26
  SPEAKER_01: But it's our human brains try to make all of this shit so complex, like building resilience.
• 1:26:32
  SPEAKER_01: What is my five-step plan to build resilience?
• 1:26:34
  SPEAKER_01: And what is the framework to strengthen my muscle of resilience?
• 1:26:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, bitch, go outside and go for a walk without your phone, or just like sit and breathe.
• 1:26:44
  SPEAKER_01: Or like, I always used to roll my eyes at tapping.
• 1:26:48
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, tapping, this isn't helpful at all.
• 1:26:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then intuitively the other day, I was like, I'm gonna tap.
• 1:26:55
  SPEAKER_01: So then I started tapping.
• 1:26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Didn't my brain for a second go, I need to look up a YouTube video on how to tap?
• 1:27:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, no, like just follow, follow what your body is asking for.
• 1:27:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so I would just tap in these places in my face and like, I don't know how to tap, but like I do know how to tap.
• 1:27:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's fucking innate wisdom to be able to do these things.
• 1:27:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that the magic, like, through all of your examples and all of these stories, it's really just like, how can we not make it complicated?
• 1:27:21
  SPEAKER_01: How can we just allow ourselves to come back to the basics and like allow that to be enough?
• 1:27:25
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have to overcomplicate it.
• 1:27:27
  SPEAKER_01: The world is complicated.
• 1:27:29
  SPEAKER_01: Healing can be simple, coming back to ourselves can be simple.
• 1:27:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I just want to thank you for being a really amazing example of all of this and sharing that like it doesn't have to be as complicated as our brains try to make it.
• 1:27:44
  SPEAKER_01: And like you're allowed to create just to create.
• 1:28:00
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have to buy anything.
• 1:28:02
  SPEAKER_01: We can just sit here and use these resources that are available to us.
• 1:28:05
  SPEAKER_01: So truly, from the bottom of my heart, I just wanted to say thank you.
• 1:28:09
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for having me on.
• 1:28:11
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, I always I always say the healing goes both ways.
• 1:28:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my stories.
• 1:28:17
  SPEAKER_03: And and I appreciate what you're doing to get the message out to the world.
• 1:28:21
  SPEAKER_03: And I'd love to share my resources.
• 1:28:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I have a monthly newsletter that I put out.
• 1:28:26
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, this month is going to be just kind of a wrap-up of 2023 and all the stuff that I had, you know, all the resources.
• 1:28:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I have an integrated medicine cabinet as Shay knows on my website.
• 1:28:36
  SPEAKER_03: I love that she came up with that term.
• 1:28:38
  SPEAKER_03: So, like where I have free resources for families that I've gathered that I use for my own kids and also families that come to my practice.
• 1:28:46
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, and and just also, just also the the the, you know, again, I feel so heard and seen and affirmed by both of you today.
• 1:28:55
  SPEAKER_03: So I really want to say thank you for that because, you know, again, you know, this has been so much fun doing this podcast.
• 1:29:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's been, I just love the energy that you both bring to it.
• 1:29:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's just really, it's very, it's very non-judgmental, you know, and safe, which I love, which just allowed me also to to feel comfortable to just, you know, say what I with no filters here.
• 1:29:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I just absolutely love the cursing on this podcast.
• 1:29:20
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 1:29:21
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
• 1:29:22
  SPEAKER_01: There was no way we could there was no way I literally could host a podcast without having the explicit button on.
• 1:29:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I just can't help myself.
• 1:29:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's I tell Mariah the heat the healing for me is coming through the cursing for whatever reason.
• 1:29:35
  SPEAKER_03: But um yeah, I just bought I just bought a coloring book called 50 Shades of Bullshit.
• 1:29:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's amazing.
• 1:29:40
  SPEAKER_03: So like that's kind of that's okay.
• 1:29:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I love it because that's part of my cult.
• 1:29:44
  SPEAKER_03: The coloring books are also a huge part of my healing.
• 1:29:46
  SPEAKER_03: But this one is really good because it's like, and that's it's like the I don't know, it's like the X-rated edition.
• 1:29:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's a really pretty bad 50 shades of bullshit, but it's wonderful to color those curse words too.
• 1:29:58
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 1:29:59
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, well, that's amazing.
• 1:30:01
  SPEAKER_02: I really want to encourage our listeners.
• 1:30:02
  SPEAKER_02: I get so much nourishment and joy from following Ani, get on the newsletter, get uh follow her Instagram.
• 1:30:08
  SPEAKER_02: She's always exploring her curiosities and sharing them with everyone, and it's very inspiring, like Mariah said.
• 1:30:14
  SPEAKER_02: So, Ani, what the last question we like to end with is what has been sparking your curiosity lately?
• 1:30:20
  SPEAKER_02: Are there any new rabbit holes that you're going down or what's been kind of um scratching that itch?
• 1:30:25
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my God, where do I start?
• 1:30:27
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, well, I think right now, so I am a Reiki III practitioner.
• 1:30:31
  SPEAKER_03: So Reiki is a form of therapeutic touch um and it's a form of energy healing, and you have to be attuned into it.
• 1:30:38
  SPEAKER_03: And so there's like several levels.
• 1:30:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't advertise that I that I'm a Reiki practitioner, like I don't do Reiki sessions or anything like that, but I do believe that we're kind of an instrument for energy.
• 1:30:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so I've been really going more into like how can I how can I improve my practice in the sense that I'm actually more trauma-informed and also more for grief, you know, and so like because I feel like there's this huge communal grieving going on around the world.
• 1:31:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it sort of started with the pandemic and all the losses, and now we've got these wars, and there's just been so much horror and loss, and and also just um, you know, there's been a loss of so many human rights, you know, like just basic human rights, you know, I'm kind of being, you know, and I and I am hopeful to see the younger generation rising and and facing the challenge of our times.
• 1:31:31
  SPEAKER_03: So, but I feel like Reiki, it's such a it's it's spiritually guided life force energy.
• 1:31:36
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's just if you get attuned into how to to use that form of healing, you're not really doing anything, you're like a hose, you know, and so the water is the energy, and and and then what happens is you know, when you water the garden, a little bit always falls on you too.
• 1:31:49
  SPEAKER_03: So so there's a like that healing going both ways.
• 1:31:52
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm really I'm kind of going into a little bit more.
• 1:31:54
  SPEAKER_03: I kind of lost track of that for a while and and and recently I've been really drawn to get back into really researching that a little bit more and also just understanding how I can bring that into my practice and my own my own life for my own healing.
• 1:32:07
  SPEAKER_03: So kind of Reiki is kind of where I am.
• 1:32:09
  SPEAKER_03: My mother, my mother is a grandmaster in India, and so she's the one who kind of trained me and attuned me into it, and so it's been really good to kind of get back to that.
• 1:32:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:32:19
  SPEAKER_01: How cool! Your family, like you were attuned by somebody in your family.
• 1:32:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 1:32:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, my mother is amazing.
• 1:32:25
  SPEAKER_03: She is a you know a psychologist, but she's a doctor of Ayurveda, and she does all kinds of energy healing and so on in India.
• 1:32:32
  SPEAKER_03: So she's I always think she's the original integrative healer and has been a huge influence in in some of the choices I've made in my, you know, in my professional life.
• 1:32:42
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, that's that's kind of what I've been really.
• 1:32:45
  SPEAKER_03: When I went recently, we had a little Reiki share where Reiki practitioners come together so we can learn from each other and and also understand a little bit more.
• 1:32:54
  SPEAKER_03: And there's so much research behind Reiki.
• 1:32:56
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, at therapeutic touch and how important it is uh in in again as an as an alternative or a complementary modality.
• 1:33:03
  SPEAKER_03: So that's been kind of that's where I've sort of been dabbling recently.
• 1:33:07
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I love that.
• 1:33:09
  SPEAKER_01: And like what a beautiful example.
• 1:33:11
  SPEAKER_01: We always try to have just like conversations about people combining the inner work and the outer work, and you're just like a beautiful example of that, of just like combining the science with the energetics.
• 1:33:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like also just looking at the data, but not letting the data like take over your brain like it can so easily, but like allowing the magic to still be there and like using the data as like a backup of like maybe your intuitive nudge or like what you're feeling.
• 1:33:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's really awesome.
• 1:33:43
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
• 1:33:46
  SPEAKER_01: We are going to put all of your links to your website, your social media, your newsletter, and all of that stuff in the show notes for our listeners.
• 1:33:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that we're ready to close this episode down.
• 1:33:58
  SPEAKER_01: So remember, friends, that you have the power to create whatever the fuck you want.
• 1:34:03
  SPEAKER_01: Follow the nudge, ask the questions, and let curiosity guide the way.
• 1:34:08
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you in the next episode.
• 1:34:11
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to this episode of the Curiously Guided Podcast.
• 1:34:18
  SPEAKER_01: We appreciate you so much for being here.
• 1:34:21
  SPEAKER_01: Truly, this podcast is such a joy for us to create.
• 1:34:25
  SPEAKER_01: If you love the conversation or you're a fan of the podcast and you want to support us in creating new episodes, feel free to head over to curiouslyguided.com slash support to buy us a coffee.
• 1:34:39
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• 1:34:47
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• 1:34:53
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• 1:34:59
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see you in the next episode.