Latest / The Lauren Castle Show / Why Your Functional Medicine Career Doesn't Have to Be One Straight Path

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Why Your Functional Medicine Career Doesn't Have to Be One Straight Path · The Lauren Castle Show

• speaker-0: Pay attention to your own body. Discover what lights you up and go there. Get into your own body and understand when it feels good, when it doesn't feel so good. And don't make that mean anything good or bad. It's just vibrations in your body that you want to experience more of or maybe less of. For those of you who have decided on functional medicine and yes, this is a thing that I want to do, pay attention to what aspects of functional medicine light you up. Because there are some pharmacists out there and other practitioners who diabetes is the the thing that they want to talk about, or thyroid disease is the thing that they want to talk about, or maybe dermatology or something like that. If that doesn't light you up, you don't have to help people in that way. Like we're all meant to help people in very unique ways. And if you're not following something that feels aligned with you, change your mind. speaker-1: Welcome to the Loren Castle Show, a podcast for people on a path to well-being, body, mind, heart, and soul. Join us for conversations at the intersection of pharmacy, functional medicine, and psychedelics. My hope is that each episode will leave you feeling inspired to step into your power, speak your truth, and live your most authentic life. Let's begin. Welcome to another episode of the Lauren Castle Show. I am back with my next guest, and I'm super excited for this one as well. So, Dr. Nicole Graham's is the central regional lead for the Functional Medicine Pharmacist Alliance, and she has spent her career exploring what it really means to support whole person health. While her foundation is in pharmacy and functional medicine, her curiosity eventually led her to human design, where she now helps people better understand themselves and. Navigate relationships and learn to trust their own decision making. Welcome, Nicole. speaker-0: Hi, thank you. speaker-1: So Nicole and I have known each other for several years now. And we're gonna get into that during the course of this interview. But I like to start all of these from the beginning, which is really the journey that we've all been on, moving from pharmacy to functional medicine. And for many of us now integrating really unique tools into our functional medicine practice that a lot of us might not think about as I don't know, I guess evidence based. I I'm just gonna Call it that because I think that's the fear that many of us have as pharmacists that if we start delving into some of these, you know, spiritual tools or however you want to look at it, that somehow it's going to diminish everything that we have built our foundation on. and that is so not the truth, ⁓ especially as we start talking about marketing and how we sell our services or position ourselves. Human design is a tool that I discovered with my first coach, Daniel Peridon, back in twenty nineteen. So I think that was even before Nicole and I really connected and met. ⁓ you know, we we found each other through the farm to table team first and then have been on some retreats together and yeah, you know, traveled the world together now. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: And I just think that's it's such a cool journey. And that's why I was like, we need to get Nicole on right away. You're gonna hear from all of our regional leaders with an FMPHA because for anyone that is considering our boot camp or joining our community, I think it's really important to get to know the people who are part of this amazing community because it's not just me anymore. And I was really intentional about that. ⁓ in bringing on people who have supported my journey. as well as had their own incredible stories to tell. And that's that is what this podcast is all about. So I'm gonna stop rambling there and I'm gonna turn it over to you to tell us a little bit about how you became a pharmacist ⁓ and kind of your background in pharmacy. And then we'll we'll transition into the functional medicine side of things. speaker-0: Yeah, so my journey into pharmacy is a pretty straightforward one in that most of the women in my family historically have been nurses and I did not want to be a nurse. so I was like, what can I do in healthcare that I don't have to stab people with needles and, you know, jokes on me because we started doing that immediately when I got into pharmacy school. But but it was ⁓ it was ⁓ the right balance of school and ⁓ education and income and all the things seemed like they were aligned for what I was interested in and fascinated by because medications and how everything affects the body is definitely something that is you I can dive down a rabbit hole in all of that. But but yeah, from from there I got into pharmacy school. I was like had decided in 10th grade that this is what I do what I was doing and like straight shot into that, did my pre-pharmacy, straight into pharmacy school, graduated, worked in retail, was a pharmacy manager for a while. And at a certain point, I decided that I ⁓ wanted to look at nutrition a little bit more because I knew I wasn't fueling my body quite the way that I probably should be because working in retail, the easiest thing was a bag of chips and a soda from from the cooler up front. but yeah, so I started learning about food. And that kind of brought me to this weird book about the microbiome. And then I started learning about the soil and environmentalism stuff. And definitely that's the that was my entryway into functional medicine was environmentalism. And I I went through a whole ⁓ well it we'll say a a crisis moment ⁓ of realizing that I was surrounded by plastic and pharmacy and I like had to go home and I was like, Okay, it's okay. But definitely went through a journey to get there. Not not your st I don't know that there's a standard way to get into functional medicine, but it wasn't a personal journey from my own health or from a loved one's health that got me there. ⁓ it definitely helped with a few things that I went through ⁓ health-wise, but it that wasn't the reason that I started down functional medicine. And I wanted to learn more about caring for people and getting people off of medications because as a lot of functional medicine pharmacists know, can relate to your patients as you get to know them, as you develop relationships with them, as you watch them age, they're not doing better. They're just increasing their doses and adding more medications and asking, ⁓ my gosh, why do I have to take so many pills? And and all of that is heartbreaking as a pharmacist when you don't have an answer for any alternative. So yeah, that's the quick and a quick version of what got me into functional medicine. So speaker-1: Yeah. I again, I I'm so excited to be doing these interviews with people who I've known for years and yet there are new things that I'm learning every time. so I love the environmental piece and honestly I think that is something that is it is it is one of the roots. If you look at that, you know, functional medicine tree, the environmental exposures and toxins and how that plays into, you know, gut health and autoimmune disease and all these different things. ⁓ but is really so important just from a a lifestyle perspective. And, you know, my lens through the psychedelic world is that we are so disconnected from actual reality, which is the earth and nature and all of these things. And oftentimes we see things happening in people's lives that is essentially nature or the universe or the world or God trying to show you and wake you up, right? And so we Pathologize and medicalize a lot of chronic disease that really, if you look at it and you figure out, you know, again, through this functional medicine lens, like what is out of balance, instead of just saying, you know, sure, we can understand how a disease process takes place in the body, but what caused the body to start dysregulating, you know? ⁓ so I think that's so important. And I think that this is something that we are collectively starting to wake up and realize that, you know, the pill for every eel model doesn't necessarily work by itself and the environment really does play a huge role. And it's why I added like a whole module into our boot camp to talk about reciprocity, which is how do we live in right relationship with our world? and The other thing that just came to mind when you were talking about the the whole plastic thing, I also definitely went through that. ⁓ especially post-psychedelic awakening and coming back in. And I was like, ⁓ I I come in and I type on this plastic keyboard and I put on my white coat and I put the pills in the bottle and give them to the people. And it all just felt not fake, but it just felt very strange. Like I was like, wow, this this is. So unusual now to just be in this box in this artificial lighting and surrounded by all of these pills. Like, what am I doing? So yeah, it's it's quite the the wake-up call whenever you realize and you kind of come off of autopilot of this path that we've been on and this dream that we've been working towards. And again, yes, there is a time and a place for the conventional allopathic medical approach. And certainly as people are deep into their disease state process, we need drugs to keep them alive and functioning. But as we start to peel the layers back, we can see that, you know, yes, there's there's a much better way, arguably, than maybe what we've been doing. So I love that. ⁓ and I like I said, I think people are starting to wake up to it. There's actually a a meeting. That I was at with all of the other heads of the pharmacy organizations ⁓ last year, which I it was like a pinch me moment. I like, I cannot believe I'm sitting here at this boardroom table with all of these other CEOs. Like, again, the things that we we start and we end up on this journey and we don't know where it's gonna take us. and one of the leaders from ASHP actually said that they are starting an initiative to cut down on plastic waste in pharmacy. And I was like, ⁓ my gosh, this is amazing, right? So again, it's like some of these these concepts that we may have been early adopters of in the functional medicine world, like we are really starting to realize, ⁓ yep, there's evidence behind this early evidence that we saw then and that a lot of us didn't even need to see or read in a journal, but we could feel it in our bodies and had that sense of mm-mm, this isn't right. Now we're actually starting to see change happening at more systemic levels. So we love that. speaker-0: Hooray. speaker-1: So tell us a little bit more about the functional medicine side of things. you know, how did you start to integrate this into your life? You know, I like to ask people about what kind of training they might have done, just because that is always a question people come up with. And I think it's important for people to hear because it does help others on their journey. and, you know, also, you know, kind of how you started integrate it into your pharmacy work, or if you made some major changes to Jump into this field. speaker-0: Yeah, I definitely made a few major changes in life. ⁓ but one of them was to leave retail and go into community pharmacy, which is sort of where I was officially introduced to the idea of functional medicine and actually calling it that, because I had moved to a independent chain that was very health focused, preventative health focused, and I was surrounded by a few people there who were super supportive of, you know, using nutrition, using lifestyle changes, using supplements where necessary to help people get better. And from there I learned about IFM and started my certification process there. I was like, say no more. This is the one for me. And I full steam ahead, ⁓ finished those modules as fast as I could. ⁓ I took a little bit a little while longer to ⁓ To finally take the exam, but that was I I wasn't practicing it full time. So I wanted to give myself a little bit of time in practice to try things out. And ⁓ I started implementing it into my practice in the community by, I mean, literally just talking to people on statins about CoQ ten, talking to people on Metformin about B twelve and and that sort of thing. And I made little signs to put next to the things in the in the supplements out in on the shelves to like ask Nicole about, you know, whatever. ⁓ so people started asking questions. And it was just through conversation and it being in an environment that supported me being able to talk to patients in that way and have a little bit longer conversation with them about what was going on. And by the time they walked out, they had, you know, a couple of things that they were hopeful would help them. And then they come back and say, ⁓ my gosh, this makes me feel so much better. And I'm like, okay, this is confirming that I believe in these products even more, even though I know the science behind it now and the new you know, all of that. Yeah. ⁓ where el where else was I supposed to go with this? speaker-1: So another common thread, a lot of people leaving chain retail to move into independent community pharmacy. And I I got my start in independent pharmacy. I don't know that I've like said that enough, but really and truly, like that is where I fell in love with pharmacy. And it's just it's such an amazing place to be. And, you know, I I truly hope that any independent pharmacy owners that are listening to this, if they are not already integrating functional medicine or nutraceuticals or these things into your practices, like please come talk to us. We would to help you. That's like a huge mission as well is to, you know, continue making sure that our independent pharmacists can thrive. So where did you go from there? Because you know, you are not currently working on it. You've had quite a few different roles and positions and life changes. speaker-0: Long story short, the ⁓ independent pharmacy was not the right fit for me. So I decided to move on. I actually got a part-time job at a veterinary pharmacy, which was completely drastically different than anything functional medicine related, but it gave me a gave me a job for a while ⁓ to help support my other dreams that I started having. ⁓ I knew that I wanted to work with people through a functional medicine lens, and I didn't want to have to deal with all of the legal aspects of creating my own functional medicine practice. So that's when I joined the farm to table team. And I've been on there ever since, helping pharmacists there. ⁓ eventually joined you on FMPHA to help others who are trying to build their own practices and bring my expertise and and ⁓ perspectives into things. So yeah, ⁓ somewhere in the process I got into human design and also have my own coaching business based in that. But Yeah, we're kind of all over the place and I have like six different jobs and wouldn't otherwise any of them. speaker-1: Yeah. It is. It's another common thread is, you know, I think we we get the sold idea that we have one job and we're gonna do it for the rest of our lives. And many of us actually find that there's a lot of things we're interested in and that we enjoy. And some of those start out as just passion projects, you know, something that we're doing that fills us up and excites us. ⁓ and others actually become full blown, you know, income options. So yeah, I know Nicole and I Like I said, we we kind of met through farm to table. ⁓ I, Melody Hartzler and I literally went to the same pharmacy school. We live in the same town. And so we've been kind of on these parallel paths. and when I first kind of started practicing functional medicine myself, like I thought I wanted to build my own practice. ⁓ I think I saw one patient through the farm to table platform and I was like, okay, that was enough of that. You know, it was like, yeah, no, my heart is not actually in that direct patient care in that way, which again, shocker. Like to say that, ⁓ clinical pharmacy is not my love of life, like it's okay. And, you know, I I think that's one reason that I was so intrigued by Nicole's path is, you know, yes, full IFMCP certified, one of the few pharmacists in the world. That has that credential. And she does health coaching and helps patients through a completely different lens. And I'm like, people need to hear this and like be okay with it. It's something you kind of have to rectify in yourself first before you can have that confidence to understand like how these different pieces are going to fit together. And, you know, that's something we try to teach in the boot camp, which again is why I pulled Nicole in and whenever I had the idea to start our state leader program, I was like, ⁓ wait, I can't lead fifty people by my That's a recipe for disaster. And so I really I borrowed from what I learned through Walmart, which was, you know, you you build a manageable-sized team. And as you build bigger organizations and you have structures in place, then I was like, Yeah, we we're gonna need to have regional leaders that can have teams of like 10 to 12 pharmacists, just like we did in corporate, except now it's not about. corporate measures and there's certainly no competition happening within the organization, ⁓ as I definitely felt whenever I was in retail. It's how can we all work together and how can we get to know people on a deeper level? and so yeah, it was just really, really exciting when Nicole said yes to that. because the coaching piece for sure, I I knew was going to be so valuable, but also the human design piece, which I personally had Nicole work with me, gosh, for at least like a year, whenever I was like really struggling. I think this was around the time that I had left Walmart and I was like Having this identity crisis of I'm not even a pharmacist anymore. What am I doing? Like, how can I be leading this organization of pharmacists and I don't even work on the bench? And, you know, just really questioning, like, is this worth it? Like it, it was hard. Like I was at this point that it felt scary. And I was like, Am I even supposed to be doing this or am I on the wrong path? And should I go in this other direction? Which honestly, it's It's it feels like a lifetime ago, but it really wasn't that long ago. It was like two or three years ago. And it was just a matter of patience and staying the course and believing in what I was building and that bringing in the right support meant that one, we could build it together. And two, honestly, it was sort of a way to set myself up that I couldn't back out because I had other people who were now depending on me. And depending on this community that we were building. And so I'm so glad that I didn't back out then because here we are today and you know, F and PHA is thriving. We have lots of pharmacists that are building their practices. And, you know, I get to support more pharmacists in stepping into their leadership capabilities, which speaker-0: I just want to add one thing about that story specifically. Like I remember that time and it was intense. And I I hope that we don't ever portray that, you know, cr starting your own business and and trying to build something yourself is an easy thing to do. Because when Lauren said that she was on the fence ⁓ about like whether to even continue, like I can't tell you how many times we had that conversation. And it ultimately I mean, I think every entrepreneur is going to have these moments where it's like, is this really, really what I want to do? And that's when you have to be really honest with yourself and connect back to why you would want to do it or why you don't want to do it. And all you have to do is like your reason for continuing and trusting yourself through the process and learning how to trust yourself and learning how to experience the emotions that it takes to be able to do this because We make decisions, people buy stuff out of emotions, period. Right. How we think we're going to feel or how we expect that we're not going to feel or or whatever. But all of that is wrapped into entrepreneurship and and everything that we do. So yeah, it is way easier to just find a job at a corporation that will pay you money for your hours worked. And sometimes that's not as fulfilling as it needs to be for some of us. And if that's you, then We've got some really good people to help support because we have all been to the point of no, I'm just gonna hang it up. I'm gonna take a break. I'm gonna quit this. This is dumb. Like ⁓ so many times. And then we come back and realize why we're here. And then we keep moving forward and make the right next step. And neither one of us, I don't think, know what we want to be when we grow up yet, but but we're here to find out. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. I feel like when we went on the retreat in twenty twenty-four, ⁓ to Conspaña in Costa Rica with Blair and so many other amazing pharmacist women, that was that was definitely a point that I was like sort of taking like a sabbatical again almost in a way. It was like we'd gotten F and PHA to a sort of like autopilot place, but I had not yet built the state leader program. And so yeah, that was that was right around that time. And, you know, I was exploring, you know, all these other things and like, am I gonna go, you know, all the way into psychedelic retreats and like that's gonna be my thing. Or am I going to I I signed up for modeling training at that point in time. I did yoga teacher training that year. And I really wanted to launch the podcast at that point. Like I I wanted to do that. And I, you know, had this whole idea for my Dr. Lauren Castle website and all that stuff. And like I wanted to do all of it so bad. And yet I knew I was like, that is like a surefire recipe for burning myself out even more to try and like do all of these things and not have a clear plan for where F and PHA was going to go. So Yeah, it just it it took that coaching and that patience to just keep moving forward and just keep putting one foot in front of the other and trust that like it was all going to work out, even though I just really wasn't sure at the time it was, you know, scary. So I like I said, I'm just super grateful now of like where it's all come. And I think that's a great point that she made too, right? Like I hope by sharing these like real kind of behind the scenes looks at like what it takes, the the grit that it takes sometimes puts it in perspective. But also, this is the whole point of why we're building it is because whenever you have a community of people who have done the thing and that have carved the path, it is so much easier. Yes, you still have to put in the work, but Now you have a whole team to fall back on, you have resources, you have people you can ask questions to. And, you know, I think from the human design perspective, you have a way of looking at what you're meant to do and applying that to your life. So I feel like we should talk about that now because, you know, that was a huge piece of the puzzle for me as well. And for people who are listening to this and they're like, what is human design? Can you tell us a little bit about, you know, what this system is? speaker-0: Yeah. So the shortest version is it is a blueprint of your energy. And it doesn't give you the answers for everything that you should be doing. It's not a how to guide. It is a blueprint for how your energy works. And I like to look at it as a lens through which to test things. I am a one three projector, so the the three line is always the experimenter and I I mean I encourage this for everybody, not just people with a three line, but it is, you know, hey, here's how your energy works. Try it out. Try it different ways. See which way is less has less resistance for you, for example. So like one of the things for you and I as projectors is to wait for the invitation. And I know conventional business advice is often you gotta be out there, you gotta be pushing, you gotta be hustling, you gotta be all these things that are not necessarily meant for how our energy works, right? So it's really for us, it's kind of more putting yourself out there and waiting for people to invite you into things because there's a recognition that's necessary. There is like our our auras are very penetrating and very intense. And if that's not invited in, we're about to be rejected. So experiencing that by testing, like when I I test it in small ways sometimes in conversations. Like if I want to be included in a conversation, I will just sit quietly until somebody asks me to join in the conversation. Because if I try to bulldoze my way in, that's when a lot of resistance happens and then I feel like I'm not being seen or heard or understood. And then I you know, all the emotions come up that like if I just wait for someone to acknowledge me, then it's so much easier to have the conversation. And that's just one of the ways that the energy types work in human design. I mean, there I could talk for hours about it, but yeah. speaker-1: Learning my human design and learning that I was a projector while I was still working in corporate America is like one of the things that really showed me I was not aligned, that I was like living and working in a job that was clearly made for someone else. So that was huge, also learning I was a five-one. I was like, what is this magic? What is this this like description that just felt so aligned? So five ones are the what do they call it, the heretic and the investigator. Yeah. It's basically taking on like this position of sort of leadership where yes, it can be very polarizing at times. And I think that all made sense with functional medicine and sort of it being this new area in pharmacy. But then the investigation part is like learn all the things and have the receipts to really be able to express to people like why this is legitimate, I guess. So it all made sense. Like it all just was like, ⁓ this this is the path I'm meant to take. So The way I also like to use human design, you know, it's based on lots of ancient systems like Kabbalah, Iching, astrology, the chakra system, quantum physics. And it sort of like pulls it all together into what you see behind Nicole if you're watching this on YouTube video, which is, you know, the the rave mandala, the body graph, ⁓ and just sort of this visual representation of speaker-0: Quantum physics. speaker-1: Who we are and how our energy flows. ⁓ the other really cool thing about learning by human design was that I am Spleenic, which is basically one of your authority types. So it's talking about how you make decisions. And again, this was something for me that was very different than how I was raised or conditioned to make decisions, which was. Take your time, like make a pros and cons list, sleep on it, don't make decisions in the moment, like think things through, right? And where did that get me? ⁓ anxiety. speaker-0: Basically. Yeah. Like speaker-1: Constantly ruminating, overthinking things, not trusting my gut by any means, like really coming from a place of like fear and scarcity a lot of times. and so this has probably been the single most challenging part of human design for me is to actually shift into a spleenic decision making, which is like intuition, instinct in the moment, like Don't think twice, just do it. And that felt scary as heck. But I can definitely say that in the times that I have learned how to trust that instinct, even when things feel completely crazy at times, like this makes no sense. Why would I do this? It's like, nope. Something deep down instincts, like primal instinct almost, knows what is right. And It takes like a really deep self trust, like unshakable level of self trust to be able to make decisions in that way. speaker-0: For you, especially to be in tune with your body because it's a very subtle signal. It's not a blaring foghorn telling you this is the way. It's just such a subtle thing. And it's so easy to override it with your brain and logic and trying to pros and cons your way through life, right? Yeah. And that I mean, there's there are lots of different authority types. Mine is a very drastically different one. I have emotional authority. So that means that. When I make decisions in the moment, it might not be very aligned and I might not realize it until it's too late. So that's how I end up being overcommitted. And just like Lauren said out, take your time, sleep on it. And that's exactly how I should be making my decisions. And I felt like ⁓ in my life, I was being encouraged to trust my gut and make the decision now and don't don't ruminate, but like It always felt like I w ended up overcommitted because if I was on an emotional high or like a emotional good point, not not even just not a low, then I would commit myself because, ⁓ that sounds exciting. Like, yes, let's do this. Yes, let's do that. And then a couple hours later I'm like, ⁓ this is a lot. This is too much. Now I have to back out of something. Now I have to, ⁓ I don't like this at all. Like I'm I should just say no. But then in the moment it's like, no, trust your gut, trust your gut. Like No. And there are one of the authorities is to trust your gut in the moment, but not mine. Mine is if I am feeling any sort of way about anything, it's not the right time to make a decision. But if you can find the calm in the storm, it might go a little bit faster. But yeah, there's there's the emotional authority that literally takes time. There's the ⁓ sacral authority that is the trust your gut, the fiery response. And then there's the spleenic authority that is just a little whisper of lightness that ⁓ that can be your decision maker for you. And then there's other authorities like ⁓ the self-projected authority of the in it's basically like an internal compass pointing you in the right direction that might not make any sense. And all you have to do is speak out loud to hear what's going on. So like there's so many different ways to that people in general make decisions that are right for them. But that's the whole idea is looking at your specific chart is how we figure out which one is most aligned for you. So yeah. speaker-1: Yeah, I I love it. Like I said, it's it's something that has been really impactful in my life. And, you know, I think with these types of topics, it's something that people just have to be curious about. And, you know, if it's something that you're intrigued by, then reach out to Nicole and let her walk you through it. ⁓ because you might be surprised. Like it it could be something that really changes your life. and What I also think is interesting about these different types of systems is that there's actually ways you can connect it back to your health. ⁓ whether that's like medical astrology or even in human design, there are specific aspects of it that relate to health. So I know one for me in my chart talks about that I don't do well with things that are cold. Like I do better to be in warm environments or have like warm foods. ⁓ and like For me, that's always been spot on. Like I I hate being cold. And so the whole idea of like cold plunging, all that stuff, like, yeah, I tried it, but at the same time, it was like, this, this is not actually serving me. And of course now there's like way more research saying, like, yeah, cold plunging for women is not necessarily the best thing. You know. So like in some ways it's it's ways, you know, that we can use that information as well. ⁓ same thing with like sleeping with projectors. We're supposed to get a ton of rest. That was also how I knew that I like, ⁓ yep, this totally checks out for me because I've always been someone that needs to sleep like all day long. Like I could sleep for twelve or fourteen hours when I was like a kid and in high school, like not over exaggerating, would sleep until one PM. speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, and even like taking naps and and such, like there are people who never nap and that is completely aligned for them. And I'm like, I'm just gonna have my little siesta if I can. Just give me an hour. I need to lay I need to get horizontal and and maybe close my eyes for a bit. speaker-1: Yeah, Seth and I were joking about this, that I can fall asleep anywhere. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Yeah. Like it's it's totally a thing. So speaker-0: Well, and it it has to do with how your body uses energy. So for projectors, we work in really, really efficient sprints. And in order to maintain that, you need to rest. Cause we're like s the the energetic sprinters of of life. So if we're doing something that wears us out, we're gonna get a week's worth of stuff done in a few hours. And then we're like, okay, gotta rest, right? Like, and then there there are others who it is that slow and steady wins the race. And then they're, you know, like it they can do exactly what they're meant to be doing all day long, all week long, and just turn off the key and go to bed and get back up and do it again tomorrow. And I'm just like, that's not me. But learning that about yourself and and experimenting with that, because at projectors especially, we can get to the point where we should go to bed. And then if we don't, then we are night owls and we are up all night long doing everything and trying to trying to get conquer the whole world overnight. ⁓ and and then we pay for it the next couple of days. But speaker-1: Yeah. That that wasn't me at all when I was doing my master's degree and working full time and you know, staying up till three AM to complete my assignments. Yeah. speaker-0: Yep. It does a lot to the body. And ⁓ I mean, that is probably gonna wreck anybody's cortisol levels, but especially for projectors who n who need that rest in order to work so efficiently in their day li daytime hours, hopefully. But yeah. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. So human design, obviously huge part of what you do now. And, you know, obviously I think it it really fits in well with the skill set of, you know, coaching from a health perspective with functional medicine, with clients, with patients, also the career coaching and business coaching and marketing coaching that you do within F and PHA. but now you're sort of bringing another lens to it, which is relationships. ⁓ which I think, you know, is another area of life that oftentimes can just kind of get overlooked or fall to the wayside as, you know, we're pharmacists, we're living these like career oriented lives. And yet it's arguably the most important thing. And this is something that I also try to tell pharmacists, like when they're getting started in functional medicine and looking at this, is like if you have a partner. To really make sure that you're aligned in this new path because it is it is something that is going to take you on a journey. And so, you know, I I think it's really unique and interesting that this is an area now that you're sort of applying this to. So tell us a little bit more about how human design works in relationships. speaker-0: Yeah, so in human design we all have our own energetic charts. And then our partner has an energet an energetic chart also that is different than ours. And learning to understand your partner's energy type and how they move throughout the world and different things different aspects about their personality that are included in that chart can be so eye-opening. To even just as simple as like, ask your partner if if you have a generator partner, ask them yes or no questions, simple yes or no questions, instead of ⁓ what do you want to do later? Like it's ⁓ do you want to do this? Or, you know, like that's the only example I can come up with right in this moment. But to be able to support one another in a way that energetically aligns is there's a depth to it that. Some people will never meet. And sometimes there's a disconnect in your relationship, and you just can't figure out why you're not communicating well. And you've got all this, maybe you've seen a therapist about how to communicate better and something's just not clicking there. And I think this is where human design can step in and start to explain the differences in between you and your partner. And you can understand each other better and really feel. Held and supported by each other if you're both willing to put in the work. ⁓ but this doesn't limit this isn't limited to just romantic relationships. So this is best friends, this is business partners, this is, I mean, we can even go into small group dynamics of ⁓ the penta, and that's a little more advanced than maybe what we need to talk about today. But you can really like within the comp what we call the composite chart, the, you know, yours plus another person overlaid to see where the connections are. You can see why there's, you know, this spark of chemistry. You can see why you understand each other better. You can see, you know, where, ⁓ where one person is going to have a dominant energy in one, one space and where the other maybe should differ. And if they're not, that can cause some tension and ⁓ it's so fascinating to look at these and how you can work together with another person ⁓ to really for for everyone's benefit. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ we've definitely leveraged human design within FMPHA. I think that was something that was also really cool whenever you started telling me about some of the things you were observing. And, you know, again, it's it's like all confirmation, you know, and again, just aligning to make life easier. Like at the end of the day, it's it's this way of just like instead of fighting against the system and fighting against you know, our natural tendencies and abilities just because the rest of the world says that it should be this way or that way. You know, it's this individualized, differentiated sort of process. and it's honestly a huge reason that I finally started this podcast too. Like I I was revisiting my conscious sun sign, which is 13.5, and it is the listener. Like it is literally all about this. And I think I was scrolling back through as well when I was preparing for this episode and sort of aligning like who I wanted to interview and in what order. And ⁓ like I still had that text message from you when you were like, Lauren, you have got to start this podcast. Like, I know, I know, we're gonna get there. Like, it's gonna happen. So yeah, it's just exciting that it's finally here. And it does, like it feels so good. Like, yes, again, entrepreneurship, trying new things, doing stuff. Yep, it takes effort. We were setting up this space and like testing the lighting and the mics and all the things, but anything in life takes work. It takes effort. And so it's like, how can you enjoy the process? Like, how can you find things that you're meant to do that are going to use your gifts and your skills and your abilities in this way that feels natural to you and that you can bring in people who have complementary skill sets to help augment that process. And so I'm like, it all it makes so much sense. And then like once you shift the mindset to start. Thinking in this way, then everything just kind of becomes like an opportunity instead of just, you know, another obstacle. It's like everything is figure outable, which we'll get more into my Marie fangirlism, like on my episode with Marina Books off, because that was where we got our start. But it's true, like everything is figure outable. speaker-0: Yeah. And just to kind of touch on, yes, we're we're in a space where it's not quite evidence-based. And astrology is something that has been around for how many years now? Like thousands. And I am the first to admit that when I started my journey as a pharmacist, journey into functional medicine, I called myself an open-minded skeptic, where I was always like, fascinated by astrology, fascinated by, you know, all the woo things. But I was like, no, we're gonna put that in a separate box and we're not gonna like tell people that we're interested in that because ⁓ my gosh, like that would be career suicide if I were to start talking about this. And and I just want to give everyone out there permission to let your imagination go, let your interests pop up and follow them. And it's okay to live life out loud because I started giving myself permission to talk outwardly about human design and to use it in more spaces when I realized that most of the people that I talked to about it were also pharmacists and also other healthcare professionals. So it's not that we completely throw out science and don't believe in any of that anymore and we're a hundred percent immersed in the woo side of things, but like, what's the harm in Trying something a different way. Like there's there's zero harm in looking at what your chart looks like and what your energetic body looks like and seeing how you can use it to your advantage potentially. And if it doesn't work, I don't care. It's it doesn't hurt me at all. Like forget it. Move on with your life and do what feels good for you. But let yourself test things out. Let yourself explore and ask questions and get whatever sort of I don't know, ⁓ interest bug out like let that happen because like there were times when I was studying human design at first, because my one line, I'm a deep diver into the what is this? I gotta figure out how this works, what what's going on here? And I would spend hours just completely immersed in the world of human design, trying to figure it out and learn more and all that sort of stuff, to the point where like. stuff in my life wasn't necessarily progressing at the rate that I wanted it to. So there was I started out with some judgment on, you know, should I really be spending this much time looking at this? Like, ⁓ I gotta really and and sometimes there is a balance there. But I was also I also decided to give myself permission to just go because it was a part of my human design to follow these rabbit holes down to find out what I find out and to become an expert in this area. And If I hadn't done that at that time, if I hadn't had little spurts where I'm studying this, I wouldn't be where I am today feeling as ready to share it with the world as I am now. And you don't have to share anything with the world, but and you can use things privately. You can, you know, whatever it is. Like I'd love to chat about it, but also Yeah, there is a way to connect a lot of different things together to build. A practice of your dreams to build the life of your dreams, to build, even if it's just in your private life, that this is something that you dabble in. Like give yourself permission to explore. speaker-1: Yeah. Yep. I love it. There's there's so many rabbit holes that I have gone down. And it's funny as you're you're saying that. I used to be obsessed with Greek mythology. Like I used to spend hours reading about Greek mythology secretly when I was at work at the nuclear power plant because I would get done with my work. Again, I'm a projector, right? Like The amount of work that they would give me to do in a day, I could get done in like one hour. And there was nothing else for me to do, but I just couldn't leave. So I would sit there and read about Greek mythology in my free time. And like that is, you know, one of these rabbit trails that I just followed. And guess what? We finally got to go to Greece in real life on a farm or farm to table teamslash FX Med C E, functional medicine C E C E cruise. So the little things that seem so random, I swear, there is always a golden thread that leads back of like that interest, that thing that you think has nothing to do with the career or the life that you're supposed to be living. ⁓ no, no. Like the things that you are interested in and that you are passionate about and that excite you, those are the exact things that you are meant to explore and to research and to figure out how to make real in your life. And so All this time later, it finally aligned that was like, Yeah, I am totally gonna say yes to going on this cruise and going to Greece because it's on my bucket list and it is like a destination I've always wanted to been to to go to. And it was honestly one of the most spectacular, amazing things I've ever done in my whole life. Like I can't even put it into words. And so again, the ideas that we think we have around like what CE is supposed to look like and How we're supposed to learn, right? What if you could go on a cruise and it could be a business expense? Like this is how you start building the life of your dreams. No? And yeah, I'm just super grateful because we got to go on the cruise together and it was amazing. We've gotten to go to Costa Rica together. We've been to Tulume together. Yeah. Again, all from human design. speaker-0: Yes. Because a hundred percent. speaker-1: Shout out, shout out to Annette, who was one of my first human design coaches ⁓ that Tori Rarick introduced me to. And yeah, like it was again just this really interesting thread through the years that connected us in these ways. And Tulume was another like bucketless destination that I was like, I need to go here. And it finally, finally happened. So we got to share some really amazing. powerful, life changing experiences together and speaker-0: just laughing internally because my my joining the Tulum trip was like a week and a half or something before it was supposed to happen and you were like ⁓ I haven't really told anybody but I'm going on this thing and I was like thanks for my invitation and she's like ⁓ my gosh no you can totally come and I'm like I can ⁓ my gosh I'll book my ticket now and yeah no it was it was fantastic moment of I got my formal invitation and I had no idea that this thing was even happening. And it was it was so it we went so deep and it was so amazing in our own personal transformations. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. And this all of this is why like I just keep coming back to the work that we do of helping pharmacists start their own practices and their own businesses and none of this would be possible if we were both still working in corporate pharmacy, you know? And man, if if there's anyone that's listening to this that's like, I wanna go to Greece and Tulu, Costa Rica and all the places, like Here's your invitation, friends. Like we are here for it. We are here for you. ⁓ I think that we've covered a lot of different ground here. you know, just to kind of bring things back. you know, what would the message be that you would have, I guess, to someone who is trying to figure out, you know, their life path right now and trying to figure out where do I go from pharmacy or functional medicine or this human design thing or plant medicines or, you know, all of these these different things, what would your advice to someone be? speaker-0: My advice would be to pay attention to your own body and discover what lights you up. And go there. Regardless of your authority, get into your own body and understand when it feels good, when it doesn't feel so good. And don't make that mean anything good or bad. It's just vibrations in your body that you want to experience more of or maybe less of. But even like for those of you who have decided on functional medicine, and yes, this is a thing that I want to do, if you're When you look at marketing yourself and offering services, pay attention to what aspects of functional medicine light you up. Because there are some pharmacists out there and other practitioners who diabetes is the thing that they want to talk about, or thyroid disease is the thing that they want to talk about, or maybe dermatology or something like that. But if that doesn't light you up, you don't have to. Help people in that way. Like we're all meant to help people in very unique ways and paying attention to what lights you up, you do not need to be a generalist, or you don't have to have a specific niche. You can use functional medicine as the tool that you're selling, right? ⁓ but yeah, it's follow what lights you up and don't when when you notice that you're not living in a way that fe or maybe that's a little extreme, but if you're not. Following something that feels aligned with you, change your mind. And for some of us, we have to try things out before we decide whether something is for us or is not, because that's one of the things that's on my chart is I'm here to find all the ways that don't work before I find the one that does. And then I share that with everybody, which which has worked. Which has benefited a lot of my clients. But ⁓ for me it's ⁓ I I think I wanna do this. Okay. Well, the only way to know that if this is right for me is to try it. And then I changed my mind and I've gone through like four or five different iterations of what my own business looks like. And as long as I don't make that a problem, it's not a problem. You don't have to have the answer. You don't have to stick with something for forever, right? This is just what's right for right now. And you can change your mind later when you have different information. speaker-1: Yeah, I love that. And and this is why I love using human design and astrology, because as you're saying that, I can also see all the places in my own astrology chart specifically, where it's like, well, I am a Taurus Mars in the tenth house, which is part of like career and things like that. And I have a Capricorn stellium in my sixth house, which is also work related. so when I make a decision I am gonna see it through. speaker-0: Ha ha. speaker-1: And thank goodness for that. Thank goodness that I'm the kind of person that can have a vision to start working at Walmart and stick with it for twelve years until I get to the top of that dang ladder. Like again, it is it is all information and it's things that we can articulate with words and drawings and patterns and systems, but it's also information that we can feel in our bodies. And so I loved that point that you brought up because I do think that a lot of these discussions and these these systems can be definitely very heady, very esoteric, very out there, very analytical, and yet it all falls apart if you do not know how to connect with your body and the sensations and the feelings. And again, as an Aquarius air sign. I and that's ⁓ a double Aquarius, sun and moon. Like the whole concept of even having a body and knowing what to do with it sometimes felt very foreign. And I think for a lot of people, you know, this this could circle into a whole nother podcast that I'm sure I will get into at some point in the future, but just around trauma and like how so many of us Have become disconnected from our bodies due to various forms of trauma, whether it's, you know, major traumas or even just smaller things that register as a traumatic experience in our life or our childhood, you know, things that start to dissociate us. And so anyone who has struggled with anxiety has experience with this. ⁓ Anyone who has struggled with depression or mental health or any of these things, PTSD. You've probably experienced this. And again, whether you had the words and the language to articulate what was happening to you, or you've never heard of this in your life, and you were like, What, what are you even saying right now? What are you talking about? This would again be another invitation to, you know, explore working with a functional medicine practitioner, working with a health coach, working with someone that does things like human design, like all of these different systems are ways that we can come back to our body. And this is also why, you know, part of this podcast is focused on what I call body, mind, heart, and soul. And this was a framework that I started to use in my own healing journey because it was very easy for me to forget different aspects of that. And, you know, sometimes I would be Too focused on my body and just the symptoms, the physical symptoms that were coming up or manifesting. And I didn't pay attention or realize that they actually had an emotional connection that was driving them, or I would have thoughts that could create sensations in your body. And so I actually started like, there's a specific article, and I'll post it in the show notes for this, but. I had this thought and I I went back and PubMed searched it because I was like, has someone researched this yet? Like, is this a thing? Can our heart actually talk to our brain and not just our brain, you know, top down send signals to our body? And the answer is yes. Like again, we know these things are all connected. We talk about things like the gut brain axis and you know how that drives, you know, our our gut physiology and microbiome affecting our mental health. But then Our heart itself actually has the ability to send signals and have its own communication system. And so that was something for me that like whenever we say listen to your heart, no, like physically, literally, your heart has the ability to send communication signals through the rest of your body. So that is just what came to mind as you were were sharing all of that. and so I think that's a cool segue. ⁓ to sort of wrap everything up that we've been talking about. ⁓ So where can people find you if they want to learn more about the work that you do in human design, functional medicine, FMPHA? ⁓ We haven't really talked too much about this, but Nicole is kind of TikTok famous. speaker-0: Ha ha ha. speaker-1: I feel like it's worth worth mentioning. speaker-0: I I have been on TikTok for a while, yes. ⁓ and that that's another perfect example of I'm changing my mind again. ⁓ because I started that journey out in functional medicine, talking about supplements, talking about different functional medicine, kind of shifted into anxiety focus and then overthinking and now relationship human design. So ⁓ it's all there if you want to scroll back far enough. but but yeah, I'm on TikTok at well, and Instagram at Clarity with Nicole. I have my website, NicoleGrams.com. probably on a few other socials, but TikTok is my main one and it it does go on to Instagram too, so I'm there as well. speaker-1: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. I am again just honored to be on this journey called Life with You and to have you supporting our members in F and PHA and for doing all of the amazing work that you do in the world to help people with anxiety and now relationships. So thank you again and thank you all for listening to this episode. I hope you'll join us again. For another episode in the future. And if you enjoyed this one, be sure to like, subscribe, send it to a friend, and we'll see you back next time. That's it for this episode of the Loring Castle Show. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I hope you'll join us for the next one where you'll hear more stories from me and some of my amazing guests. Be sure to like and subscribe to the podcast no matter where you watch or listen, and check out our website. doctor Laurencastle.com and FmPHA dot org. We'll see you next time.