Latest / Giving Pain Purpose with Lyndsay Soprano / Bliss Not Burnout with Roberta Garceau

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Bliss Not Burnout with Roberta Garceau · Giving Pain Purpose with Lyndsay Soprano

• Lyndsay Soprano (00:01.548) If there's one thing that I know with every single fiber of my being, it is stress and burnout. Everybody that knows me knows that I'm a complete stress ball and I'm totally burned out all the time, but for some oddball reason, I am able to keep on truckin'. Burning the candle at both ends has legitimately been my superpower for my whole life. Is it super? Not really. Does it make me feel powerful? Not particularly, but what my massive amount of overachieving and people pleasing has led me to a very great and amazing successful woman, but not wellness. I suck at the wellness part. I'm getting better, right guys? I'm getting better. And a lot of that is because of you, but man, man, am I burned out. I mean, it's even hard for me as I'm prepping to go on vacation to even think about being well. to think about relaxing on vacation because I live in this constant state of worry that I should be doing something else, I should be helping somebody else, who did I leave behind, what did I forget? All of it goes on and on and on. We call it the busy brain disorder in my family and it absolutely burns you out. So when will we truly start to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, stop the insanity of running ourselves ragged for everybody but ourselves? and it's time to take care of me. It's time to take care of you. And so that's what we're gonna talk a little bit about today. So today we're gonna get down and dirty and talk about being your own advocate and your own healthcare provider, which might sound strange, but it is true. Building supportive relationships in your village that you need to build, whether it's a small one or a large one. Coupling both Western medicine with traditional wisdom for a more holistic approach to wellbeing. Elemental Wellness, which what the heck is that? We're gonna get into that and sleep. And it's importance to wellbeing and healing. And we always talk about it. We all know we need more sleep. So maybe we might get a little bit more tonight and so much more. So without further ado, I would like to introduce you to my guest today, Dr. Roberta Dimples-Garso. Hello. Dr. Roberta Garceau (02:12.679) Woohoo! I will bring them on. Wow, I like that. Lyndsay Soprano (02:14.702) Dimples is now your mafia name. Dimples is your mafia name now, by the way. She's got the most amazing dimples on the planet and I can't stop looking at them and neither will you. So let's get started here, baby. So Dr. Roberta Garceau is a dentist, yoga and Ayurveda instructor and diplomat of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine. Through her brand Elemental Wellness and her number one amazing bestseller, Bliss, not Burnout, She equips people with tools to build resilience, prevent burnout, and live with greater wellbeing and balance. All right, babe, I am rolling out the red carpet for ya. I would like to start with your health scares, and you can choose one or many of them that led to these unexpected gifts in your healing practice, and let's take it from there. Dr. Roberta Garceau (03:00.383) Yeah. Dr. Roberta Garceau (03:07.231) Thanks so much for having me here. And really, these are unexpected gifts. And the one that I'll share is kind of my middle health crisis, which is what I share in the book. And what happened was I was running my dental practice, solo practitioner. I did have a space sharing partner. So there were some things that come up in any kind of couple, if you will, right? Even whether it's your life partner or your business partner. As you were saying, rolling on all cylinders, know, going, being a high achiever, really busy, super quote unquote successful, but not so good at the wellness part. my, kids were little, so I was taking, you know, doing full-time mom stuff, full-time work, ownership, everything. And we were in the middle of renovations. And what happened was I was taking care of everyone, patients, practice, children, family, and myself was last. And I ended up having internal bleeding and found myself on my bathroom floor one night in the middle of the night. And I literally, you know, no pun intended, couldn't get up, right? And just called out to my husband. And Lyndsay Soprano (04:24.815) The old line of I've fallen and I can't get up. Dr. Roberta Garceau (04:27.49) Yeah, I literally could not, which was frightening. It's like there was no amount of willpower that could have gotten me up. Ended up happening that I had internal bleeding and took an ambulance ride because again, the kids were in their pajamas in bed and we had no one to watch. So had to go in the ambulance by myself. And you you mentioned in the intro about being your own advocate. And we really do need to be our own advocate as well as advocate for those we care for. So I'm at the hospital, not feeling well, not knowing what's going on. I didn't know I had internal bleeding. I simply knew that something was wrong, right? We know our own bodies. Like this isn't normal. I'm very, very bloated. This is not my body. I don't know why I'm collapsing. And as a matter of fact, we weren't even sure if I'd had a small seizure because I had the kind of fainting collapse where your body literally goes into twitching and convulsions. And my husband's like, what the? Was that? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. Lyndsay Soprano (05:30.306) Yeah! I have no idea, but I'm on the bathroom floor right now. And I've been there before actually where I thought I had, my husband thought that I had a seizure as well. And I'm laying on the bathroom floor. It's interesting that we've had that parallel. Something's wrong guys, something's wrong. Dr. Roberta Garceau (05:45.415) Yes, yes. And so I really think, you know, there's other... So I think sadly, there's probably other listeners who can relate to this or something very similar. So I'm at the emergency room and, you know, they did an exam and they basically, told me I had PMS. And I'm like, okay, I've had two pregnancies and deliveries without medication. I'm a pretty self-aware person. And I'm in the middle of my cycle and they gave me Advil and sent me home. So I called my husband in the morning and he packed up the kids and their PJs and came and picked me. I'm like, something is wrong. I'm not okay. So everybody got off to school and daycare and everything else. And I drove me to my doctor to, and thank goodness when they were able to get me in. The first thing that the OB-GYN said is, oh, honey, you're not OK. And that was such a relief, oddly, right, for somebody to say, you're not OK. Because up until then, my husband believed me. But nobody else was believing me that something was wrong. And we'll fast forward. We don't have to go play by play. But basically, I had internal bleeding and needed a surgery. And I was like, OK, I'm not an alarmist. you when? And she's like, no, need surgery now. Now. Now. Yeah. Now. Yeah. So, you know, when all the dust settled, I'm a big believer, again, through life experiences and everything else in life that raises you up and some other traumas that I had had in believing that Lyndsay Soprano (07:11.884) Now. Yeah, not tomorrow, honey. Now. Yeah. Dr. Roberta Garceau (07:36.295) whatever your spirituality or religiosity is or is not, whatever your belief system is, I personally believe and need to believe that things don't just happen for no reason. And so that is where my point of, you know, seeing the gift in adversity, finding the lesson, finding the gift of the what is there for me to learn from this. And so when, you know, I was recovering, I was like, what do I need to learn from this? What is this about? Why did this happen to me? OK, physically it happened because I wasn't taking care of myself. And I knew immediately why it physically happened. I knew immediately, I haven't been talking to my business partner. I've been super stressed and I've been sucking on my inhaler because I'm having asthma when in actual fact, I was just so worked up. I knew why I got sick and was bleeding. But what was there to learn? So let me think about that. Okay. Was I a good dentist? Yeah. Was I a good boss? Yeah, pretty good. If I hadn't gotten my life saving surgery and it was a different day and time, or I had listened to the initial medical advice and just going about myself and continued to bleed without taking care of it, I could have died. Was I a good mom? Yeah, I was a really good mom. And you know, what other roles in life? Sister, daughter, friend, wife. was like, pretty good. But we were kind of trucking along, you know, when you kind of are those. Lyndsay Soprano (09:14.2) Pretty good, yeah. Dr. Roberta Garceau (09:15.898) Yeah, pretty good wife, but you know the passing ship thing that happens, right? And then how about my relationship with myself? No bueno. No bueno. I was not taking care of myself. And so I learned that, okay, I need to pay more attention to myself and to my marriage. Lyndsay Soprano (09:21.055) yeah. Dr. Roberta Garceau (09:34.195) being that I wanted to stay in it, And to making time for friends, making time for leisure, making time for the things that fuel our souls, right? And so yeah, there were definitely lessons there. And it would be nice to say that I learned all of that and, and a bag of tricks right off the bat. But I tend to be a lifelong learner and so it takes time. It's a process over time. My life did not magically change overnight, but, and I did change certain little things. And that really brings me full circle to elemental wellness. which is my view on wellness. And it incorporates my Western medicine training as a Western trained dentist, we call that allopathic medicine, with my training in traditional wisdom, yoga and Ayurveda. Ayur in Sanskrit means life and veda or veda means wisdom. So together they are life wisdom or life science. And it's considered to be the sister science to yoga. Lyndsay Soprano (10:39.15) Mm. Dr. Roberta Garceau (10:46.014) And I combine that with my understanding of sleep and breathing and wellness and meditation and mindfulness and other things for a really truly more holistic view towards wellness and Really in my book bliss not burnout. That's what I talk about That's the whole entire message is that it starts with awareness of ourselves of yourself first Taking care of yourself And only then are you available for anybody else. And sometimes those of us who are overachievers or who are caring for others, whether you're a health care provider by trade or by your job title, or whether you're caring for your children or your parents or a partner or a friend. or someone in the community, right? So truly, all of us are healthcare providers at some point in our lives. And as you say, the first role we need to be as a healthcare provider is our own health, right? And take ownership of that. Lyndsay Soprano (11:49.262) I know, I know. And it is one of the hardest things that I certainly have had to deal with. Learning about that, learning about like my tagline for my show that turned, it turned into it was giving pain purpose. And because I had to go through so many valleys and so many hills and so many crazy dark and twisty places to honestly... look at the things that happened to me from a trauma perspective, things that I did, decisions that I made, I own all of them, things that happened to me that I have absolutely no control over. Once I started to finally, slowly but surely forgive myself and others for that kind of crap that happened to me in my world, and I started to learn about why I live in chronic pain and feeling guilty myself, for the decisions that I've made. I didn't treat my body all that great in my 20s and my 30s, and now I'm dealing with that now. it's like the chicken and the egg, which one came first? Nobody knows full circle at all. But what I've learned is that I was absolutely given this pain for a purpose. And that's why it's giving pain purpose. And that's one of the reasons that we're talking here today, because I wanna take everything that's happened to me and make it worth something. Make it worth something because otherwise, what the fuck am I doing here? I'm not gonna sit on the couch watching Netflix all day, that's for sure. I need to do something about it. And I mean, I closed my marketing agency after 25 years to do this full time. That was a huge decision and it was the best decision that I made for me. And it was the hardest decision that I've made for myself. so I... Dr. Roberta Garceau (13:16.274) Right. Lyndsay Soprano (13:38.37) I get it and I know there are people that are listening like, my God, if only I could, you can't, you can't. But it is incremental. It's not just like, boom, you're done. You have to build up to it. You have to think through it. You have to listen to this show. You have to meet people that are like-minded that will help support you in your village and not be so scared. And that was what I had to get out of was living in fear. That was the main thing that I had to get out of, fear of telling the truth about my story. Dr. Roberta Garceau (13:44.787) Yes. Lyndsay Soprano (14:06.912) and telling the truth about who I am, who I wanna be, what I wanna do, my disappointments, all of that stuff. And now holistically approaching all of different little areas, each in their own little, like as you were mentioning, like octopus, we've got tentacles all over the place. That is exactly what we have to do. We gotta grab this guy and figure out what we gotta do there. And it's a beautiful process when you totally honor it and accept it and live it. It's actually really neat. Dr. Roberta Garceau (14:33.852) Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. And I'm thinking about how you were saying, you you closed your marketing business of 25 years. Now, if you hadn't looked for the gifts and the multiple gifts in your situation and in your life story, your history, right? You wouldn't have ever come to this opportunity to be here with such greater purpose, helping people in meaningful ways and impactful ways. Lyndsay Soprano (14:37.102) you Lyndsay Soprano (14:57.794) Mm-mm. Dr. Roberta Garceau (15:03.324) connecting with people all over the globe. You have much greater reach now than you had in your 25 years of marketing, I'm sure. Or certainly it sounds like it's more meaningful. Lyndsay Soprano (15:14.478) 100%. Absolutely, and I get to meet people like you too. So after you go through all of this stuff, right? And you start to get into the, I've got to take, I got to take care of me now. What happens next? Dr. Roberta Garceau (15:21.03) Yeah. Dr. Roberta Garceau (15:31.827) Well, it really truly was a long journey because up till that point, had, it's interesting enough, I had, it's such a big part of my life now, yoga and Ayurveda, And you know, if Ayurveda sounds too hoo-hoo or woo-hoo to you, I like to think about it, like, hey, I was a biology major. What does that mean? It means the study of life, right? So, Ayurveda is really like the same thing, except guess what? It's thousands and thousands of years old. And the really cool thing is that now that we have the science and the ways to measure things, we're learning, holy cow, how did they know about, you know, molecules and atoms and particles? And truly they talk about genetics. They didn't use the word DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, right? They didn't have that. But somehow these ancient peoples had wisdom and they believed that they got it from other sources, that it came through them, but that their wisdom was incredible. so the marriage that happened after that is really combining like, I'm not trying to debunk or throw away the... modern medicine that we have today. And the truth is, if I didn't have antibiotics, right, a lot of us wouldn't be here if we didn't have antibiotics. If I didn't have that life-saving surgery, I wouldn't be here to talk about it. If I didn't have some other procedures, my body wouldn't be able to do the things I can do now. So I'm not trying to throw any of that away. What I am doing is creating a greater perspective. Lyndsay Soprano (17:06.988) Right, right. Dr. Roberta Garceau (17:19.398) a broader perspective, a different lens to look at life with by combining them both. And it's so cool. now, you know, I'm kind of getting a little bit away of what happened after that. But it fast forwards to kind of what's happening now too. And we can go back, we can circle back through, right? Like modern math now, we're just circle and spiral back in and in. But Lyndsay Soprano (17:39.47) Yes, yes, yes. Dr. Roberta Garceau (17:42.399) How it comes through now is like in my dental practice. I'll see patients and they come in and we're reviewing their medical history. And they'll say, well, you know, yeah, I take antacid medicine. I'm taking famotidine or pentoprazole or something else, right? And I'll be like, okay, why? It's not normal to have excess acid. Lyndsay Soprano (18:07.224) Right. Dr. Roberta Garceau (18:08.39) that's so uncomfortable and causing heartburn or reflux or irritable bowel, etc. etc. What else is going on? And so instead of just being more Western, like here's a pill that will take care of some symptoms, combining them both is like, okay, maybe you need this medicine and can we look at what else could be causing it? Are you having reflux because of your diet? We're going to talk a little bit about sleep. Part of sleep is what happens all day long. What are you eating and drinking? When are you eating and drinking? That's your circadian rhythm. Are you having a heavy meal within a couple hours of bedtime? It's not gonna work so well. Are you having alcohol within a couple hours of bedtime? You might have some indigestion. Are you having greasy meals and all of that. And so I'll talk to patients about lifestyle factors, about diet, about how they're scheduling things throughout their day. Lyndsay Soprano (18:51.95) Yeah. Dr. Roberta Garceau (19:06.642) We'll also talk about things like, all right, if it doesn't seem to be what you're putting in your body or when, what else is happening when you're sleeping? Hmm, are you snoring? Might you be having some difficulty breathing that's causing your body to try to breathe itself like an accordion? And so it doesn't happen while you're awake and alert and upright, but when you lie down pretty horizontal and you're having trouble breathing because you're airways closing, and now you might be doing a you know, sawing wood, and then maybe you stop breathing. Yeah, I'm really good at it. When you bought it, yeah, I do that one frequently. But then your body senses like, holy cow, this gal needs to breathe. So your belly starts pumping. And it can actually propel stomach acid up into your throat and into your mouth. So I see this as a dentist all the time. I'm like, Lyndsay Soprano (19:39.651) Well done. Lyndsay Soprano (19:56.494) Hmm. Dr. Roberta Garceau (20:02.684) You like to sleep on your right side? Because you got more acid corrosion on that side of your mouth. I can see it. your gums are receding there. Yeah, maybe it's not just you're brushing your teeth too hard or something like that. Maybe it's actually acid that you have some silent reflux because you can't breathe. So looking at a much bigger picture. Lyndsay Soprano (20:09.101) Whoa. Lyndsay Soprano (20:22.242) Holy moly, I never, I never would have even connected those two together. My ex-husband actually had a horrific sleep apnea. I think we talked about that on our meet and greet. He held his breath in a sleep study for a minute and 45 seconds. And the doctor was like, Dr. Roberta Garceau (20:37.948) Isn't that friendly? Because if I asked you to do that, you wouldn't probably be able to. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (20:41.108) You can't do it. No, but I can't even like thinking about it. I'm thinking about my teeth and I'm thinking about like I get a little bit of acid, but only when I sleep on the right side of my face. Like that is so interesting. I would have never made the correlation between that in any way, or form. my goodness. Continue on. Dr. Roberta Garceau (20:53.918) Mm. Dr. Roberta Garceau (21:01.566) Yeah. But yeah, but we don't know what we don't know, right? And so this is how when I have this more holistic approach, that's just one small example of how I look at things differently and how I approach my day to day differently for my patients and for myself, you know, and for friends. Lyndsay Soprano (21:07.414) Right, right. Lyndsay Soprano (21:12.814) Yeah. Dr. Roberta Garceau (21:24.114) You know, another favorite one is I have a patient who came in a while back and she's, she's, eats more clean than I do. Like she's, she's super healthy. And so she's tipped back in the dental chair and you know, I'm going to check her teeth and I'm like, Hmm, you know, it looks like you have a little dry blood in your nose. Do have a bloody nose? You know, recently, and she's like, you know, I've been getting bloody noses. So then we talked about that, about allergies and you know and just hydrating your body not just with water but also with oils and and healthy fats and perhaps using just a little bit of oil on your finger and rubbing it inside your nostril to moisturize and lubricate the nostrils so that you're less susceptible to germs and allergens and bloody noses. So Lyndsay Soprano (22:02.136) Mm-hmm. Dr. Roberta Garceau (22:16.484) simple simple things. I don't get paid to do this right you know to help people who come to heaven to tell them how to solve their bloody nose issues but you know once you know these Lyndsay Soprano (22:23.502) They're like, wait a second. Whoa, whoa, whoa, lady. It's so incredibly interesting because we are little pieces that build up our whole and where the holistic comes from. mean, people get so scared of that word. My sweetie is one of them. He's like, know, about the woo woo world. But it's not woo in my brain anymore. It's not. It is actually like legitimate, guys. And I think with that, when you're talking about what we put in our bodies, what we don't put in our bodies, how we breathe, how we sleep. Dr. Roberta Garceau (22:45.534) Great. Dr. Roberta Garceau (22:49.17) Mm-hmm. Lyndsay Soprano (22:58.998) our dailies, what we do with the diet, what we're putting in our bodies, what we're having exercise, are we having any fun, are we being grateful? Like all of those things lead up to such a happier and healthier place for us to actually live within, right? Within the elemental wellness. Dr. Roberta Garceau (23:16.846) Yes, exactly. Exactly. And it starts with awareness. much of the time, like you said, when you were running around cuckoo and you're burning the candle at both ends and how I was when I got sick. And it's something I've got to be aware of all the time because that's a tendency for those of us who live in the overachiever realm. We want to do it all, all the time. And just remembering like, hmm. Lyndsay Soprano (23:39.406) Yes. Dr. Roberta Garceau (23:45.737) We've got to rest and restore. We've got to bring it down. We've got to balance. Just pausing and asking, what do I need right now? If your listeners get nothing else today, just remember that one question, that one phrase, and ask yourself multiple times a day. Truly. I even did it for myself at lunchtime today. I'm like, okay, I've got a podcast coming. have AR to go over with my financial person and I'm trying to catch up on notes and records and I'm trying to get out on time because I want to get to everything where I'm going. And I'm like, you need to stop. You need to just take 10 minutes and chew your food. Maybe put your feet up and... open the window, get some fresh air. Maybe there wasn't time for a walk at lunchtime today, but at least you're like, just stop. What do I need right now? I needed to like, here we go. Just bring it down a little bit. Lyndsay Soprano (24:45.174) Yeah, take it down. Take a beat. That's what I like to say. Take a beat. And beats are hard to take when you're people like ourselves. But when I do, I'm so much more grateful for what I had been doing before and then what I do after, because I'm like, I actually took a little bit of time out for myself. And so when you're talking about your practice from a dental perspective, because you work in dental, but you also work in the world of yoga. And I know that yoga has kind of has been one of your saving graces. Can you talk a little bit about how you got into that and how this all how this how we can put this all together? Dr. Roberta Garceau (25:17.831) Yes. Dr. Roberta Garceau (25:26.066) Look how brilliant you are bringing me right back where I needed to pick up again. So what happened after? Yeah. So after I had been sick, I did try to, you know, live more well. And if we even go to before when I got sick, I am the youngest of seven siblings. And so I got to see all my siblings. Lyndsay Soprano (25:29.986) You got it. That's why I'm the hostess with the mostess. Dr. Roberta Garceau (25:54.331) struggle with bad backs and some really bad back problems. And I was like, hey, if I'm going to do this dentistry thing, I need to have a strong core. So I need to protect my back so I don't have troubles like they've had. So I'm going to try yoga. That was my actual chain of thinking back in the time. So I dabbled in yoga very, very little bit here and there. And then again, when I had young children, I was having time, trouble making time to go to yoga classes. So I went to some and then asked the instructor like, gee, can you recommend any videos, DVDs? That might tell you when that was. And so I did buy a couple of DVDs. Lyndsay Soprano (26:17.742) You Lyndsay Soprano (26:38.412) I know we're old. Dr. Roberta Garceau (26:45.19) and made time. I got up 30 minutes earlier in the morning when the kids were still asleep. So I had my time and just went down in the basement in the dark of the basement and practice these tracks of yoga on these videos. And I'm like, you know, in a month or two, I'm going to be so bored of the same thing. Well, I practiced those same videos for years until the dog ate one of them. And the beautiful thing is one morning, I was like, I feel like I've had the best massage of my life. And I just gave it to myself. Like that was really cool. And that is one of the things that I just one of the things that I love about elemental wellness is that it's so empowering that we already have everything we need. We already have all the wholeness, all the wellness, all the resources that we need. We just need to tap into them. And I'm a big believer that my I nor anybody else, we don't empower others. I feel like that's for me, it might be semantics, but for me to say that I'm going to empower somebody else implies that I have that power and I'm higher or greater than them that I can bestow upon them this power, right? What I like to think of it more is like you're at the gym and somebody's spotting you as you lift the weights, right? They're there, they're supporting you, they're helping you, but You've got it. You've got that strength yourself. And that's really how I approach everything. Whether I'm supporting my patients, whether I'm supporting a yoga student, whether I'm supporting someone who's come to hear me speak at a conference or at a workshop or a retreat, I'm trying to teach and share how each of us has everything we need inside and we can empower ourselves. And that is a really cool thing about yoga and Ayurveda. So once I realized that personally, I was like, wow, I like this yoga thing. And over time, I started to realize, all right, it's not just the physical. I started noticing, wow, as I'm being more mindful and aware and centered, I'm feeling more focused. Like I can breathe better. I have... Lyndsay Soprano (28:50.499) Yeah. Dr. Roberta Garceau (29:08.688) more self-regulation. And so it just continued from there. And over time, I actually had a hygienist who said, you know, there's not that much out there online about yoga for dental professionals, you should do some videos. And I'm like, well, I'm not a yoga teacher, what are you talking about? She's like, it's YouTube, you don't need to be a teacher. That's not good either. But I did. And then she's like, Lyndsay Soprano (29:30.921) Yeah! Dr. Roberta Garceau (29:37.481) you know, you're really good at this. You should become a yoga teacher. And I said, yeah, right. How am I going to take off a month of my life to become a yoga instructor? And then I was like, how am I going to take a month off of my life to become a yoga instructor? And so I found amazing instruction at Kripalu, which is considered to be the Harvard of yoga schools here in the United States, and did a two by 12, which was basically taking two weeks off of work. in one month and a couple months later I went back to take the other two weeks off and from there it just kept going. I was like, all right, I've got the 200 and I have over 800 hours of yoga and Ayurveda teacher training. And it's just, I can't unsee it, right? I can't see life a different way now that I see it this way. Lyndsay Soprano (30:23.522) Wow. Dr. Roberta Garceau (30:31.588) Coming back to elemental wellness, again, that is how I view life and wellness, Western medicine, traditional wisdom, and yoga and breathing. And it's just looking at life through the elements. So elemental wellness refers to the five great elements as seen through the lens of Ayurveda. So in that tradition, everything in the world is made up of different varying proportions, but everything is made up of five things. And that's earth, water, fire, air or wind, and space. So those are the five elements. And it's kind of beyond the scope, I think, of what we're going to talk about today. I do introduce it in Bliss Not Burnout for those who want to learn just a little more and see like, hmm, are they interested in this at all? The other reason I chose the term elemental wellness and trademarked it is because it's profound, right? But so simple, so elemental at the same time. I'm like, this is beautiful. This is like, we don't have to get fancy and know all fancy words and terms and. biology, if we just look at things in the terms of five elements and balancing that, seeing it in ourselves and understanding how we can use that awareness to live with greater wellness, like life changing. Yeah. So I don't know if any, if you want me to expand on any of that or if I was just like, yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (32:03.617) Well, and I like that. Lyndsay Soprano (32:11.092) No, you did. You did great. And I think that when you think about like when people start talking about chakras and Ayurveda and all these different things that are Eastern medicine, a lot of people are like, well, I'm not, you know, from those cultures. What does it have to do with all of us white people? Right. Give me a break about that. It's like the simplicity of it. We overcomplicate everything. Right. We overcomplicate. Dr. Roberta Garceau (32:29.704) Mm-hmm. Lyndsay Soprano (32:40.59) everything and it's one of the reasons why we end up starting what we start doing from a health perspective. I know for me with all the different teachers that I've worked with and all the different doctors that I've worked with and different healers and practitioners all that I'm like I am not going to take 72 supplements today. That is not going to happen. I need something that is much more simple for me to have it be long lasting and that's one of the things to that I take from a lot of what you've talked about today is that even though it goes deep and even though it runs hard and it can turn us into a much more balanced human being in our space, it doesn't have to be this difficult. And I don't know why we've made everything so hard to do. I don't know why we've made it so much more challenging for us to get healthy. It's just not that hard when you get down to the simple things in life. Dr. Roberta Garceau (33:24.946) Mm. Lyndsay Soprano (33:36.342) that you know that broccoli is better than eating a bag of chips. Like we all know this. This isn't like this rocket science kind of conversation here, you know, but we just end up not doing it because we're burnt out. We're running late. We're going to a soccer game. We're going to ballet class. We're going to hear from my husband. We're doing this for this. And all the end of the day, all you have left is a bag of chips. And you're like, well, I got to put some in my body. So I'm going to do that. It's like, it's the simplicity of it all. If we could just take a beat. Dr. Roberta Garceau (33:59.537) Thank Lyndsay Soprano (34:06.604) and actually focus on the things. Take a breath to connect with ourselves. Like you said earlier, take 10 minutes for yourself. Go take your shoes off, put your feet in the grass. That's what I do. Especially when I have really challenging conversations with people that have been through some incredibly traumatic stories that they speak about on this show. I have to, as a monumental empath, I have to go and clear when I'm done with these conversations. Dr. Roberta Garceau (34:22.257) and Lyndsay Soprano (34:35.47) because otherwise it sticks with me and it sits in me. And that's something that I had to learn in season, the middle of season two, because I was getting all worked up. I was taking on everybody else's stories as if they were my own. And I was feeling for them constantly. And it was a beautiful thing, but it was also something that I really needed to work on and face and go, that didn't happen to you, Lindsay. I'm here to help share your story and to help others learn about, you're not alone in this world in the things that we experience, but there are simpler ways that we can get through this. this, it's like you said, it's like the ABCs. It's not that difficult. It just takes some giving each other and ourselves just time to do it. Dr. Roberta Garceau (35:26.846) Exactly. And I love how you were talking that it's simple and long lasting. And that is the message. It's like, yes, we all know broccoli is better than chips. And it's not rigid. When I'm proposing, it's not brand new news. I'm just sharing it in a different way. It's not that you have to be on this rigid program, follow this strict diet, or that it's my way or the highway, or this is the only regimen that's going to work for everybody. Lyndsay Soprano (35:34.369) huh. Dr. Roberta Garceau (35:56.671) No, not at all. You know what works for me may or may not be helpful for you. And so that's where the self-awareness comes in and honoring who each one of us is as an individual and what are the things we can do to support our own wellness. You know, if you do want to go and have those bag of chips, I ate a bag of chips on Sunday, you know. It's okay. Life is short. It's meant to be enjoyed. There's no... Lyndsay Soprano (36:22.37) An entire bag? Dr. Roberta Garceau (36:25.712) It was a snack size bag, Lindsay. And what if I did eat a whole bag of chips? Party size. You know, that's the point is that. But that is the point too, is that we don't have to like, you know, berate ourselves if we do make that choice. We can say, okay, that was a choice and I'm probably feeling kind of crummy for having made that choice. Lyndsay Soprano (36:26.248) Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (36:36.546) Well, you are all that in a bag of chips, my love, so. Dr. Roberta Garceau (36:53.746) I knew in the moment it wasn't my most supportive choice and yeah, it's probably gonna be a while before I do that again, right? That's it, fine. It's not really judgment, it's an awareness, right? We don't have to give ourselves that negative self-talk and I'm a loser and there I go again, I ain't making, like whatever, I don't know. We don't have to go down that road. It's really, really simple and it doesn't have to be all at once. That's the other piece that I really wanted to drive home. just little, something little. I learned like maybe you're one of, I shouldn't throw brand names around, but maybe you really want those kind of corn chips that are loaded with chemicals and flavors and very, very processed. So then instead of having those, maybe you go to a brand that's organic, right? It just has a little less junk in it. And then maybe one day you decide you're going to make your own kale chips, or sweet potato chips or something. Lyndsay Soprano (37:44.077) Right. Dr. Roberta Garceau (37:52.071) you enjoy that's even that much healthier. But you don't have to go from total junk food out of the vending machine to like, I'm never going to touch a potato chip or a slice of bread ever again in my life. It doesn't have to be that way. Yeah, that's not what we're advocating. So really truly self-awareness, that's where it starts. Because only from there can you take care of yourself. When you're running around not mindful, you don't even know what you need, right? Self-aware to self-care and then, hey, how about some self-compassion? You know, like we're all human at the end of the day. Lyndsay Soprano (38:15.566) So Lyndsay Soprano (38:25.422) Most of us are. Dr. Roberta Garceau (38:27.71) Are you an alien? Lyndsay Soprano (38:30.166) I know a couple aliens in my life and I am one of them. My dad always said that I wasn't born, was hatched. Dr. Roberta Garceau (38:34.43) Aww. Lyndsay Soprano (38:37.87) It's always been his line for me because my body has always been very funky since I was a young little lady. But you know, the the well-being part, you know, we're bombarded, especially when it comes to sleep. We are bombarded with things to help us get to sleep and all the gummies, all the pills, all the rubs, all the creams, all the spritzes, all the pillow sprays, all the lavender, all the masks, all of it. My bedroom is literally filled with this in every single drawer, right? Does it help me sleep? Absolutely not. Does it make me feel like I'm trying to sleep? Yes, it does. But when you when you in listening to what you're saying, you're like, well, did you have any alcohol before you went to bed? Did you eat a heavy meal before you went to bed? Did you do before you went to bed? Yeah, all of us are doing these things. We're all doing it. And so it's not saying you can't do it, but maybe be a little bit more mindful. Dr. Roberta Garceau (39:14.014) You Lyndsay Soprano (39:34.528) about what we're doing before we start going to bed. Dr. Roberta Garceau (39:35.55) Wait. Yeah, yeah. I mean, personally, like if I want to enjoy a glass of wine, maybe I have that a little earlier, ideally even before you eat. And then I might enjoy just a cup of herbal tea before bed to kind of just like, hmm, you know, just something easy and simple. It doesn't mean that you can never enjoy something as long as it's something that's safe for you to enjoy. Just again, the word you use, mindful. Yeah, huge difference. Lyndsay Soprano (39:40.174) . Lyndsay Soprano (40:02.903) Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (40:08.298) It is a huge difference. when you're working with, so you've got a couple things that you do. So you work in the dental field, obviously, and then you've got your, all of this yoga and Ayurveda practice that you do. How are you combining those from a business perspective? Dr. Roberta Garceau (40:24.222) So I did teach yoga classes in addition to my having my dental practice for quite a while. was that was pretty busy. I taught yoga for cancer. I taught yoga for people who were at risk of homelessness and perhaps in transition between medical and and not having a home and Lyndsay Soprano (40:39.319) Hmm. Dr. Roberta Garceau (40:53.288) coming back to their previous lives. I taught yoga to individuals with intellectual disabilities and some physical disabilities. And so they were fantastic teachers. And then I taught regular yoga to people who weren't maybe not in those populations for years. And then things transitioned when we had a pandemic and a lot of things closed and access to things closed. So how I bring it now is from time to time, I'll teach medical and dental students. I'll do kind of week long workshops for them. Not the whole week, but a couple of few hours a day throughout the week. And we talk about all of this. I teach them about elemental wellness. I introduce them to Ayurveda to supplement what they're learning in school. We talk about self care. We practice yoga together to understand how to take care of ourselves physically, ergonomically. We do different breath practices. It's like, how can we harness the power of breath to energize ourselves? Like sometimes, you know, we're not feeling it, right? But just still got to bring it. So breath isn't just to calm down. Breath can also be used to lift up your energy and elevate you and get you going. Or breath can be used to center yourself. There's plenty of studies, scientific studies that demonstrate just two minutes of mindful breathing can actually change test scores. Lyndsay Soprano (42:01.39) Yeah. Dr. Roberta Garceau (42:21.948) and performance in sports in as little as two minutes. It's amazing. So we're getting this modern Western support, scientific support for things that they figured out thousands of years ago. And so I share that with them. I'm also teaching and speaking at study clubs. I speak to the California Dental Association for a webinar, physician assistants, their annual meetings. Lyndsay Soprano (42:29.134) Crazy. Dr. Roberta Garceau (42:50.27) I'll be teaching at the Connecticut State Dental Association next spring at their annual meeting. I'll be teaching respiratory therapists during respiratory therapy week in October. And I'm working on collaborating with others to bring wellness retreats to everybody. Because yes, my audiences right now are people who are more in healthcare. My message is for everybody because again, we're all healthcare providers to friends, family, and our community. And number one, we need to be healthcare providers for ourselves. So it's universally applicable strategies, tools and techniques that just little things. You don't have to have special equipment. You don't have to have a membership to a club. You don't have to buy special clothing. You can do some of these practices in the bathroom on your way to the bathroom or while sitting in a red light. Simple, simple things we can do. walking the dog, taking your dog to go do its business. It's like, hmm, I couldn't practice a mindfulness strategy that's included in Bliss Not Burnout. That's pretty cool. And it's free. That's pretty cool too. Lyndsay Soprano (44:02.829) Yeah, exactly. Like I said earlier, we overcomplicate things and we forget that. It's actually get down to the simplicity of it all and the little baby steps. That's certainly what I've found with my healing and what I've gone through. Did I expect to have a miracle with everything that I've been trying to do? No. I give everything that I've got to everything I do. That's just who I am. that when it comes to the journey that I'm on with my healing, it is up, down, all around, and all of it is baby steps. Because when I try to go full throttle on everything all at the same time, A, I don't know what's working, B, I'm not being mindful about what it is because I'm so busy trying to take 72,000 supplements and trying to do this movement and that practice and this, that, and I'm like, then you give up. And so the giving up factor, I beat myself up about it. So once I finally started to do these just little simple things, little simple changes, man, did I start seeing changes quickly. Even doing it in smaller increments, I got better results than trying to go full throttle to do it all, know, like to the moon and back in a day. Mm-hmm. Yeah, insane. Yeah, it's pretty blissful. Dr. Roberta Garceau (44:54.398) Mm-hmm. Dr. Roberta Garceau (45:13.094) Isn't that amazing? Yeah, yeah, those little wins and you build momentum. I think it's very blissful. Lyndsay Soprano (45:22.062) Yeah, you do. It's just like you start walking, right? You start walking, you're like, huh, I can walk a little faster than this. You're like, all right, maybe I can jog. Who likes to jog? I mean, come on, nobody likes to jog. Then you can start to jog a little bit. And then all of a sudden you're running. And that's actually how I started swimming. So my exercise protocol now is I swim. And I used to dance and I used to sing and I used to do all of these things. And now my stage is my pool. And so I get in it and when I first started swimming, I would... I got like 15 minutes in and I was like, that was ridiculous. Like that was so sad. I would never be an Olympic swimmer. Why am I even trying to think that I would become an Olympic swimmer? Because that's Lindsay. Of course I want to become an Olympic swimmer. No, so once I finally put the medals beside me for a hot minute and took a beat on it, now I'm swimming almost two hours a day and I can't even believe that two hours has passed. And because it took me doing those 10 minutes, then the 15, yeah. And it has literally changed not just my brain and how I feel, how I'm walking, how I'm sitting, how I feel overall, how I feel about like all the bubbles that are coming out of my mouth and my nose when I'm swimming through them in the water. It's just, I dance in the pool. I mean, you should see me, I'm doing like Chicago, I'm doing leg kicks in there. I am having a blast. And I get out and I feel blissful. Dr. Roberta Garceau (46:42.11) you Lyndsay Soprano (46:48.13) But it started with 10 minutes. It started with 10 minutes and now I just love it. I can't get enough of it. My sweetie finds me in the pool at like nine o'clock at night because all the lights are on in the pool. We have little twinkle lights in the trees and it's just, it's incredibly blissful. So I love it. So doing all these baby steps and working towards our goals, you you have been such a joy here today to talk to. What would you like to leave before we hit the dusty trail here for our listeners? Dr. Roberta Garceau (46:48.798) And that's it. Dr. Roberta Garceau (46:55.53) Dr. Roberta Garceau (47:19.706) I really want to bring it back full circle to what do I need right now? That is the question. It starts with that self-awareness and then honoring that. And I mean it multiple times a day. Just ask yourself that. you pull in, if you're commuting to work and you're pulling in the garage or you went to the grocery store and you're pulling. You're coming back to your home. Before you cross that threshold, what do you need in that moment? Just at any time of day. First thing when your eyes open, before you go to bed. Gratitude is huge and really that self-awareness is gonna take you so far. There's no need for perfection, little tiny steps. Even if you never get from the 10 minutes to the two hours, even 10 minutes, two minutes, one minute is better than nothing. Yeah, I promise you'll feel much more bliss. Lyndsay Soprano (48:11.214) Amen, absolutely. Well, and if you saw her cute little face with her dimples, you'd just be in bliss looking at her anyway. well, we can find this young lady all over the place. I'll put it in show notes and in social media, of course, but on Insta and in Facebook, she's at MyYogaJoy. You can find her there. She's on LinkedIn as Roberta Garso, G-A-R-C-E-A-U. Dr. Roberta Garceau (48:20.894) Aww. Lyndsay Soprano (48:38.058) and can find her on her website, drrobertagarso.com. We'll put this again, all in show notes. And what was the URL that you mentioned right before we got on for your book? Dr. Roberta Garceau (48:48.776) So another way to find me and the book quickly is to just Google Bliss Not Burnout. We do have a www.blissnotburnout.com and that'll bring you right there. Yeah. Lyndsay Soprano (49:01.134) Perfect. Yeah, I love it. Bliss, not burnout. It is her book. is everywhere you can get on Amazon. It is a number one bestseller. Bliss, not burnout. Hope for healthcare providers. I know that sounds like we talked a little bit about healthcare providers. You and I both are healthcare providers to each other. And you guys need to be your own advocate for your own health and your own wellbeing because it starts with you. I mean, it really does. Doesn't start with the 50 other people that you're trying to take care of, I can tell you that much right now. Dr. Roberta Garceau (49:26.706) Yes. Dr. Roberta Garceau (49:30.152) No, definitely not. Lyndsay Soprano (49:32.046) No. Well, thank you so much for your time today. It has been wonderful to see you again and I hope to have you back soon. Thank you so much. It's been pleasure. Thank you. You are exclusively invited to share this self-awareness VIP pain journey together. Let's get to the heart of how to heal with you by mine and Roberta's side. Please follow the Pain Game podcast wherever you digest your podcast content. We will be there. Dr. Roberta Garceau (49:43.186) Thank you, Lindsay. Lyndsay Soprano (49:59.884) visit us at thepangamepodcast.com and follow us on all the socials. Thanks for listening, my little VIPs. Catch you on the other side. Do do do do do.