Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Embracing Holistic Healing with Molly van der Griend - E46
21 Plays1 month ago
What if healing means more than just treating symptoms? What if real wellness means addressing the whole person - mind, body and spirit?
In this week’s episode, we hear from someone who faced a chronic illness diagnosis and after years of conventional treatments, made the decision to expand their healing approach by incorporating holistic medicine. Their story reveals how integrating complementary therapies alongside traditional medical care created a more comprehensive path to wellness.
Molly van der Griend is a health and wellness entrepreneur. Her own experience with chronic illness and holistic healing has shaped her approach, blending traditional and alternative medicine insights, which she now shares with a wider audience. Molly emphasizes the importance of mindset, agency, and personal wellness, advocating for a balanced and integrated approach to health. She is also the president and co-designer of Walker & Wade, a sustainable resort wear brand. Molly’s commitment to authenticity and personal growth resonates with those seeking to optimize their lives through holistic practices.
“Whatever you want in life, you have the control over your mind and over your thoughts and over your actions” - Molly van der Griend
In this episode you will learn:
- Molly's transformative journey from being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at 13 to becoming a health and wellness role model.
- The power of mindset and how Molly learned to control her thoughts and actions even during extreme physical challenges.
- The role of alternative medicine and holistic approaches in Molly's healing process, including meeting with a shaman and adopting practices from medical medium protocols.
- The importance of making an intentional choice in one’s daily mindset, as instilled in Molly by her mother through the game of "choices."
- The significance of sleep, nutrition, and routines that Molly incorporates into her life, including the impact of supplements and a balanced diet tailored to her health needs.
- How social connection, community building, and helping others realize their dreams have become an integral part of Molly's purpose-driven life.
Resources
- Connect with Molly on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollyxjane
- Shop Molly’s resort wear brand, Walker & Wade: https://www.walkerandwade.com/
- Shop all the products Molly mentions in this episode: https://alively.com/products/molly-van-der-griend
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
https://www.zapods.com
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
https://alively.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Personal Reflection
00:00:00
Speaker
I'll never forget the pivotal moment where when you're all the way at rock bottom to the point where you're in so much pain, you're basically hallucinating. You still have control over your mind and your thoughts.
00:00:12
Speaker
And I think that's where I really learned mindset. And I really learned this ability to be like, whatever you want in life, you have the control over your mind and over your thoughts and over your actions.
00:00:30
Speaker
This is the Home of Health Spam podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices, and routines they use to live a lively life.
00:00:43
Speaker
Molly, it is great to see you How are you doing today? I'm good. Great to see you too, Andrew. Thanks for having me. It is my
Perceptions of Health Role Models
00:00:51
Speaker
pleasure. I i think about you specifically in that I think people will see these health role models and think it comes so easily for them, right? They have this healthy, vibrant life um because that's that's what's shown today. But for you, that wasn't necessarily the the case always. and And so maybe if you could share a little bit about your journey to get to where you are.
00:01:15
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. um i heard a really interesting question actually about a year ago when I started thinking about this. Another podcaster asked someone, you know what is the earliest thing I need to know about you to understand who you are today?
Earliest Influences on Guest's Life
00:01:32
Speaker
and that question really got me thinking okay, what is the earliest thing to know about me to understand who I am today? Because I'm healthy. I'm an entrepreneur. I do all these things. I have this seemingly very productive lifestyle that I've built.
00:01:49
Speaker
But it definitely wasn't always like that. And i think in life, you have a lot of different new beginnings. If you want to become an entrepreneur, if you want to change your life for you know, become a little, a lot more healthy. And so for me, i didn't think a lot about, i was diagnosed um with a pretty aggressive form of ulcerative colitis when I was 13 years old.
00:02:12
Speaker
And the diagnosis process, as many of us know in the medical world, it can be long and complicated. It took about three to four months to kind of diagnose me.
00:02:23
Speaker
But I also thought about in the most recent years, I've been thinking about even my life before that. And I think in the last 20 odd years since I've been diagnosed, it's just been very focused on my health and how do I heal and ulcerative colitis and gut health and all of these things are such buzzwords.
00:02:43
Speaker
But I realized when I really started digging to before I was diagnosed, the first 12 years of my life, I think a lot of that mental
Mental Health & Mind-Body Connection
00:02:55
Speaker
instability, I wasn't the person that I am today.
00:02:59
Speaker
and I think my health journey was sort of put in front of me to help undo a lot of that. And so mind-body connection is obviously very important.
00:03:10
Speaker
Going back all the way, even before diagnosis, I feel like I was almost born into depression. ah very fearful mindset. I was very shy. i was the opposite of what I am today. a lot of times people don't even believe me when I say I just was sort of cowering in my own skin.
00:03:29
Speaker
And I think my illness was given to me in a way to teach me all of these different lessons, not only about health and wellness, but about advocating for yourself learning how to have a voice, having authority over your own decisions, and this overall piece of confidence in that, okay, I believe that experiences are you know given for me. They don't happen to you. And this whole whole victim mentality that I feel like a lot of people spiral into. So yeah, at 13, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and it got really bad for the first two years. And it came to a point where I was...
00:04:10
Speaker
If a lot of people don't know what ulcerative colitis is, it's not the most lovely thing to talk about, but it's basically internal internal bleeding of your large intestine, of your colon, which is a vital organ.
00:04:23
Speaker
You can't do a transplant on intestines at all. So it's not like the liver where it grows back. While that is also an extreme and very vital organ, like your heart, you can get a transplant.
00:04:35
Speaker
Your colon, you can't. And so it came to a point where all of the bleeding was either going to kill me or I had to basically get my colon removed.
00:04:48
Speaker
And i was five six and 64 pounds. Yeah, because you can't absorb any nutrients or anything, right? Like yeah it's just, yeah. and No, no. And I was being fed through a tube called TPN. So not a feeding tube because nothing can go into your intestines. So it's a feeding tube called TPN. And as I learned later in life, that's only accessible in really first world countries with high technology. So I wore basically like a backpack around for six months of my life with this like life-saving food in it when I could walk. but
00:05:24
Speaker
The first couple of years, it was just, yeah, just figuring out. And I was in and out of the hospital to the point where, i mean, doctors would have to put on those surgical booties and slide across the floor to get to me. Because even the pain, like the vibration of someone walking in my room, I would feel like it was just the most intense pain.
00:05:46
Speaker
But that's kind of where my journey began because I'll never forget the pivotal, the sort of pivotal moment where when you're all the way at rock bottom to the point where you're in so much pain, you're basically hallucinating.
00:06:01
Speaker
You still have control over your mind and your thoughts. And I think that's where I really learned mindset. And I really learned this ability to be like, whatever I want in life, it it took a lot of building years, but whatever you want in life,
00:06:20
Speaker
you have the control over your mind and over your thoughts and over your actions. And you might not be able to control what others think about you, what's happening to you, um you know your business, business partners, other people's actions at all.
00:06:37
Speaker
But if you can control your own thoughts and you can be very clear about what you want out of life, then i think that's kind of the key to having a successful and fulfilled life.
00:06:51
Speaker
And so basically it evolved over two years. I was diagnosed right around my 14th birthday. So really 13. So 14 to about 16, went on a whole journey and steroids and antibiotics that totally wiped out my gut microbiome. um And it came to a point where...
00:07:14
Speaker
the doctor said to me, okay, you have a choice. You're going to really make it much further if you continue to bleed at this level and you can't gain weight and you can't get nutrients through a tube for the rest of your life. so my mom was very pivotal and in this moment too. And i was raised where you have a choice, which I think was also very important.
00:07:37
Speaker
We played a game as kids called choices and it was, she really gave us that authority over everything Okay, whatever you choose, you own that. And that's your decision. And so a lot of people think it's crazy, but I'll never forget the moment where she looked at me and she was like, okay, this is your body and this is your choice.
00:07:54
Speaker
And I'm not going to make that for you, even though I was 15 going on 16 years old. And I really sat with it. um And I decided that I had to get my colon removed that even though a colectomy bag for the rest of my life, like at least I had a chance.
Spiritual Encounter & Alternative Medicine
00:08:15
Speaker
So we scheduled the surgery and um basically this is kind of a wild story, but basically the night before, the surgery, we had never heard of holistic or alternative medicine. My mom and I, my, you know, she was with me kind of through every step of this journey because I was still really young.
00:08:34
Speaker
So we go to our, our church at like nine o'clock at night and um we're just praying, you know, that I would get better and this would heal me and I'd be able to live some of it, somewhat of a normal life.
00:08:47
Speaker
And i do believe in the universe and kind of, guardian angels and strange things kind of conspiring for you. But this woman kind of comes out of the shadows and, um she was like, why are you guys crying? We told her the whole story. And she basically said, okay, have you ever heard of, you know, alternative medicine, any of this stuff, you know, dadada and we were just had no clue. You know, I mean, this was 2006,
00:09:15
Speaker
two thousand yeah
00:09:20
Speaker
2007. um so she was like, come upstairs in the steeple of the church. She kind of whips out this massage table. I mean, this is the craziest story ever. And she starts doing this energy work on me.
00:09:33
Speaker
Like Reiki or what kind of? Sort of, but it wasn't Reiki. It was more... Just energy work is how she described it. And again, so much of my life is a little bit of a blur. And as I learn more about myself, I go back into my story, which we'll talk about a little bit later because I never really shared my story until maybe two, three years ago.
00:09:57
Speaker
So she starts doing this energy work and she says, After an hour or so. And this is like 10 o'clock at night at the church I grew up going to. I mean, it's so wild. And she said, you have such blocked energy and so much fear and so many blocked emotions that your body is so unable to heal right now until you remove a lot of that.
00:10:24
Speaker
And we were just like, you know, what do you do with that? And what does that mean? yeah Yeah. What does that mean? so she goes, my sister is a shaman and you should cancel your surgery and go see her tomorrow instead and just try.
00:10:41
Speaker
and so she, you know, Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, like one of the top surgeons. And we called them up and we're like, we're going to cancel the surgery. They thought I was, you know, we were totally insane, but we did. So that's what we did. So my mom and i go up, we drive up the next day, we go see this shaman.
00:11:00
Speaker
And, you know, this is a lot of the kind of universe mental mindset, uh, ah take with this, you know, grain of salt, obviously everyone's journey is very different, but we dove headfirst into the holistic wellness
Managing Chronic Illness with Mindset
00:11:16
Speaker
spectrum. And, um, it was a really, really wild experience.
00:11:21
Speaker
And basically I had a lot of stuck emotions and fear. And I think what I've learned, and I can go into the whole shaman experience if you want, but it's, you know, it's a wild story. It's a long story, but basically I think that chronic illness can be so much more than meets the eye. i think there's a lot of underlying factors to it. Oh, yeah.
00:11:43
Speaker
And your mind and your body connection, if I've learned anything from my many hospital stays. And while I wish it it ended there, I still had many hospital stays um after that as I was trying to figure out how to heal.
00:11:57
Speaker
I think that's an important point. It's not saying, hey, I saw the shaman and my ulcerative colitis magically disappeared. right You're still having to manage that. But the important word there is manage it.
00:12:08
Speaker
That you've gone from not being able to do anything about it. The only option out to survive is taking your colon out to it's now something you can manage and you do manage.
00:12:19
Speaker
Right, right. And um I just think that A lot of, you know, going back to the mind-body connection, i think it's so strong. It's so important.
00:12:31
Speaker
And for a lot of other people, they're discovering that. It's like, what is this? What is that? For me, it's so strong because ah had a lot of time Alone, flat on my back in a hospital bed where all I had was my thoughts.
00:12:44
Speaker
And you really examine, okay, what is this connection? What is anxiety? What is fear? What are all these unexplained emotions? And i think what's so important is not shoving everything down as far as you possibly can.
00:13:02
Speaker
But digging it up a little bit, putting it in front of you, noting it, understanding, okay, this is what's here. But then, you know, negative thoughts without action are just anxiety. The same the same way and a positive business idea without action is just an idea.
00:13:21
Speaker
So what was important for me to understand is, okay, if I have fear, a lot of health fear coming in and out of the hospital, every little thing, and it's not just the ulcerative colitis. I was diagnosed with a heart condition and psoriasis and this and bone density stuff and compounded effects from all of these medications I was on while I was growing and developing.
00:13:45
Speaker
And yes, they were trying to save my life, but medication can be like a pile on. Yeah. There's a toxicity to it, right? It's treating one thing, but then there are all sorts of side effects and then they compound around each other.
00:13:58
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. So trying to understand when something comes up emotionally, whether it's anxiety or fear, whatever your emotion may be. Okay. It's not necessarily the experience.
00:14:11
Speaker
It's what thoughts are my attaching to that experience that's actually hurting me and taking me down now. If I all of a sudden freak out because I have you know ah weird heart gargle, I just call my doctor and I say, hey, can we do a heart monitor today?
00:14:27
Speaker
I bought an aura ring. Hey, that tests my that tests my heart. Just what action can you do that will then put your mind at ease instead of continuing to perpetuate this negative thought?
00:14:38
Speaker
It's seeing the opportunity in that rock bottom. right I don't know if you're familiar with Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning. yeah For listeners who might not know him, he was ah he was in the concentration camp and lost all his family and wrote this book, Man's Search for Meaning. But he has this line between stimulus and response, there's a space. And in that space is our power to choose our response. Yeah.
00:15:04
Speaker
Absolutely. And our response lies our growth and our freedom. And it it seems like there were is certainly infinite paths when you were 13 and how you decided to react and respond.
00:15:19
Speaker
and you responded by building yourself into the person you aspire to be. And that's an opportunity. That's an option we have right back to that agency of, Hey, this isn't all happening to us. We, we get to decide how we play this game. That is life.
00:15:39
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I always say to people when they hear my story, I'm grateful for it. It, my illness, all my struggles, all of these things, they have given me so much more than they ever took away.
00:15:54
Speaker
And every holiday I missed, you know, proms and graduations and having boyfriends and being a kid, all of that, I actually think built my character and shaped who I am today. It's why I have a resilience in business. And it's why I'm empathetic and I can deal with difficult people because you throw all your problems into a street corner, you take your own back. And it's just...
00:16:20
Speaker
It does build you up in that way. And you also you you're right, you do have the ability to choose no matter what. There's a lot of people that I even know that have got health issues or that have come to me with, you know, this or that. And.
00:16:37
Speaker
It's like, how do you have such a positive outlook? Well, I choose that because I can't change my circumstances. So I can only choose to use it to my advantage or choose to let it perpetuate fear and anger and ruin my daily life.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah. How I'm curious, because there's there's certainly ah level of 20 years of life experience and wisdom since that point to be able to reflect back and and do that. And just as a parent of a child, right, I i want to instill that same kind of agency and mindset. And so when she says, hey, daddy I really don't like math.
00:17:14
Speaker
Say, OK, look, but let's let's take a step back in school. you're going to have to do math until you're 18.
Teaching Agency & Mindset to Children
00:17:20
Speaker
And so we can go in with this mindset of, I don't like it. And all those times and all those problems, that's in homework, it's going to be painful and annoying, or let's find a way to make it enjoyable because you're going to be there anyway.
00:17:33
Speaker
So why not find it a way? Hey, this is kind of a puzzle. This is a game. This is something that's fun. But yeah now me being 40 something years old, it's it's easy for me to say that.
00:17:43
Speaker
I think it's much harder in that moment to really get it and live it right it. It just seems like this is awful. So having lived through that and now having that wisdom for those that may be listening who are in that now at a younger age or parents of people who may be in that, how do you suggest kind of thinking about it and and having that conversation?
00:18:06
Speaker
I think that also I'm very inspired by young women. And I think my purpose is I really want to help give back to young women, especially it can be men as well. But I think once people understand that they're in control of their own destiny, it's ultimately like an extreme ownership mentality of, I think a lot of times it's so easy to just blame an illness,
00:18:35
Speaker
Blame math, blame your parents, blame this bad thing that happened to you. But when you take extreme ownership over your life and say, it's powerful. And it's almost like you give yourself that power of, I have the power to decide, is this going to be a good day? Is this going to be a bad day?
00:18:53
Speaker
You wake up and you get to choose. And almost, it goes back to our our game of choices. And I think a lot of is... is and I'm not sure if my mom did this consciously or subconsciously I've, I've asked her, but she was just very, and and I grew up she was a very powerful, strong woman, you know, corporate job and, you know, fought through the journalism era in the, you know, eighties with all men. But she just said, I, I just always, you know, how does play that game of choices you get to decide.
00:19:24
Speaker
And I think it's the extreme ownership over your life you know, I'm here to support you, but ultimately this is your choice yeah and your happiness is your choice and the way you want to wake up and look at your life as your choice. And that can be really amazing.
00:19:42
Speaker
And also understanding that whatever you choose, you can accomplish if you, you know, kind of, Think that. it's It's very simple in a way. it's The only thing we can control is our thoughts and our actions. So think a thought and have that action to then go along with that thought. And it doesn't need to be super organized. you know I can be a little bit of an all-over-the-place person. I'm not a super, super routine person. The only thing I'm very routine about is my thoughts. If I feel something coming in, it's sort of like, note it Okay, note it.
00:20:21
Speaker
let it pass through and all of those negative thoughts, um, thinking them just sort of as a wave. Yeah. I mean, can we touch on that now? So you, you went through not just that one time, but multiple times through your life, but understanding that and the importance of mindset, do you have a daily or weekly mindset stress management practice that you incorporate into your life?
Daily Mindset Practices
00:20:47
Speaker
Yes. So Again, I'm not a super, super routine person because I'm very like... I think that life is constantly changing, especially if you travel or you're an entrepreneur.
00:20:58
Speaker
Not every day is going to be the same. You might wake up in a different place every day. and i I think from the outside looking in, my life can seem very chaotic. But the one thing that I do make sure I do is I wake up in the morning and i try and kind of center myself. I connect my heart and kind of my my gut and I lay there.
00:21:18
Speaker
Have you ever seen that old, it's circulated for a long time. you ah It's a TED talk about power posing. oh yeah, yeah. Amy Cuddy. Yeah. I listened to this so long ago, the very beginning of my career.
00:21:31
Speaker
And it really, really stuck with me. Because i think, again, this goes back to your mind body connection. If you have negative energy, negative thoughts, a lot of times we kind of like close in close off.
00:21:43
Speaker
And if you just do something as simple as just open up, or just like lift your arms up in the morning, your whole kind of mindset can change. So if I'm feeling stuck energy or I have a stressful day ahead, I'll make sure i you know, kind of lay there and stretch out and ground myself and then um also picking up my energy. So it's almost like you bend down, touch your toes and you kind of pull your energy up, bring your arms all the way up and kind of Yeah, almost like sun salutation, right? like There's a reason that you have sun salutations. that You start the day, this you're going up yeah and expanding like that. Okay. 100%. I also think that
00:22:23
Speaker
i also think that Putting negative thoughts. Sometimes people struggle with how how do you get rid of a negative thought? like They haven't gone quite through the practice of, okay, for me, I can feel it come in and I just feel it move right out. I'm like, yes, okay, goodbye.
00:22:41
Speaker
For a lot of people, that takes a lot. i mean, it took me 20 years to do that. It's not overnight. It's simple, not easy, right? is Exactly, exactly. So what I say to a lot of people too is, okay, if you have a shell or a rock or...
00:22:55
Speaker
Something physical you can kind of carry around with you all day and feel like you can put those negative thoughts into that object all day long. And you're just like, okay, they're going somewhere.
00:23:06
Speaker
They're going here. They're going into this object. And at the end of the day, go wherever you, a river, a lake, if you live near the beach and just throw it as far as you can. And sometimes that physical, making a thought physical, because they are not concrete. Thoughts are nothing. It's air and space. it just But making it physical, I think sometimes helps people understand that they can get rid of it.
00:23:30
Speaker
i think there's really something to that. We had another guest that had the practice know, you didn't want to be the person necessarily always telling your friends or whining or something, but just writing it down. She'd have the practice, write it down. And maybe you throw it away, but it's transferring it from circulating in your mind to physically.
00:23:45
Speaker
putting it down. it also, sorry to keep going back to parenting, but you know, i a lot of times as a parent, your your child will come home from school and they'll tell you all the things that went wrong.
00:23:56
Speaker
Right. And I think the natural inclination is somebody's, Hey, you should be positive. Let's find the the good. But there may be something very similar of you are the shell for them because they're still learning the ropes or they're wearing this mask at school, everything they're going through. And so as a parent, you're you're coming to them there. That's how they're getting it out.
00:24:16
Speaker
They need to get it out. They need to have that safe space. So you are the shell. I never heard that kind of shell example, but as you said, I was like, Oh, maybe that's you know what my daughter's doing. And as a parent too, I mean, I'm not a parent, but I was raised by a really incredible one.
00:24:31
Speaker
And it wasn't when I got home from school, how's your assignment? How's this? It was, how did getting assigned that versus getting assigned that like group project? How how did that, how does that make you feel?
00:24:44
Speaker
How does your group make you feel? How, what do you feel like your role is in that? And by constantly practicing, sharing my feelings and sharing what I feel like my places in society, in the world, how do I feel about this?
00:24:59
Speaker
It really helped me build a very strong sense of self because I understand my relationship to everyone in my group project, my relationship to the teacher, my relationship to the work, my relationship to my vision. It was, oh, where do you think that, how does that project make you feel?
00:25:15
Speaker
where do you think it'll end up and how would that make you feel? And there's different ways of saying that, but instead of just a lot of parents, as I grow up, I realize I was raised very uniquely. And I think that's also built into my character as well. I think there's a lot of parents that are sort of passive and, you know, it's It's very difficult. I don't do it. i can't I don't have kids. I can't imagine how um difficult it is to your building, helping build someone's character.
00:25:45
Speaker
But from that perspective, it really helped me understand instead of just a parent that says, oh, do this, or I took care of this for you, you know, Oh, I, I solved that problem for you.
00:25:58
Speaker
My mom was like, how are you going to solve that problem? And it was a sounding board. It was never, um she never told me what I should do. And she even says, she won't even use the word should.
00:26:09
Speaker
She says, well, you could do, you could do that. These are options open to you. Yeah. Yeah. It's could not should. And that's a ah thing in our household. And even when we're going around, Oh, well you should rent that place. You should And she's like, could,
00:26:25
Speaker
And it it brings, again, the the sort of authority of over your own life and your own choices back onto you. So you have the the the consistent morning practice that may take a ah few different forms, depending how you're feeling that morning. But what about during the day?
00:26:43
Speaker
a do you have any kind of pauses you take? Or is it just, hey, in it just flows through? So I really focus on taking... each moment as it is. And I think it's a big buzzword of live in the moment. And what does that really mean?
00:27:00
Speaker
And I think it's take what's happening. Okay. Think about it and then take action on it. So if I wake up, I do have some consistent routines. I try and do celery juice every morning. i also think, you know, going back to, I'm sure you've heard of medical medium and, you know, he's kind of all over the internet now.
00:27:21
Speaker
10 years ago when, nine years ago, was in 2015. Um, I had a, another very confronting hospital stay where I'd kind of made it through college and yeah i was on this medication and it was sort of like, okay, this kind of works and kind of doesn't, I, I basically kind of fizzled, fizzled out,
Health Decline & Holistic Healing
00:27:44
Speaker
stopped working. So found myself back in a pretty serious state and, um,
00:27:50
Speaker
October of 2015, the whole thing again, the IV food tubes, whatever. And they said, okay, you're going to have to go on this pretty serious medication. we're go to have to try it. It's new.
00:28:05
Speaker
It's in the biologic family. And I just, I was very nervous about that. There's like extreme side effects and all of this. And so basically i stopped taking the medicine But I got out of the hospital. I got healthy enough to kind of recoup. And I was on a very temporary three-month medication.
00:28:28
Speaker
And the second I stopped it, it was almost just like I could feel my body downhill, downhill, downhill. And my neighbor, this is in January of 2016, my neighbor just comes over and says, hey, I have a book for you. And it was just you know, everyone bombards you with information when you're sick. And so I think taking little pieces of the puzzle and just really sitting with it and feeling, you know, what's right for me and not just, there's, there's so much information out there, even on Instagram now and social media and the internet and YouTube of like, do this and drink coffee. Well, don't drink coffee. And and there's a lot of confirmation bias going on. I mean, if you Google, you know, do blueberries cause cancer,
00:29:10
Speaker
there's going to be an article that says they cause cancer. If you Google do blueberries fight cancer, there's going to be an article that says they fight cancer. So you really have to sit with yourself and say, what feels good?
00:29:21
Speaker
What do I feel like is right for me? And so I, I honestly didn't read the book and And then my my mom, you know, I was very sick and she was like, I skipped to the the glossary to see if there was anything about ulcerative colitis.
00:29:37
Speaker
Turns out there was a big chapter about ulcerative colitis. Now we all know the medical medium is everywhere and it's a very extreme perspective, but it really did kind of save my life at that point. I did this cleanse and it was, you know, just raw fruits and vegetables for...
00:29:52
Speaker
six weeks until I was crying into my lettuce at the end. It was just, it was too over the top, you know, but it was a good reset in a way. um And I learned about the celery juice. So I've been doing that um pretty much every morning for the last nine years. you make it yourself? You you buy? i do. Yeah.
00:30:12
Speaker
I make it myself. I have a juicer. It's become almost therapeutic to just kind of like, boom, boom, boom, do it. What juicer do you use? It's a Breville. It's actually a very unique one because it's small. i don't like the ones with the big giant bucket. um I'll send you the link. But...
00:30:30
Speaker
it's kind of goes into, it's smaller. So it's easier to clean. you can put it in the dishwasher. But yeah, it's a Breville. And I know there's a lot of the cold press juicing is obviously better, but it that takes a lot of time because um my parents have one of those. And I think, you know, there's a little bit of go-between between, okay,
00:30:51
Speaker
I'm a busy entrepreneur. I still want to remain healthy. You can't do everything perfect. Time is the only finite thing in life. So you know you have your health and you have your time and you have your wealth. And you got to kind of figure out how you're going to optimize your life using those 3 resources. And so for me...
00:31:10
Speaker
The book Die Was Zero, but but he kind of talks about those three things. And I really like that philosophy a little bit because time is so finite. And as an entrepreneur, I want to do so much with my time and I want to pack a lot in, but also health is really important.
00:31:25
Speaker
It gives you more time. Right, right. Exactly. Am I doing it perfectly? Probably not. I should probably do a cold press juicer, but it takes me literally two minutes to make my celery juice.
00:31:39
Speaker
And if that means you do it every day versus i do it once every 2 weeks and then I stop because it just became too hard, then it The theoretical best thing isn't the best thing if you're not going to do it. The best thing is whatever is the closest that you actually do.
00:31:53
Speaker
Yeah. And you can stick to it. So that that's what I do. And it's really easy. And I buy organic celery and I just do whole foods delivery. I get all my food delivered because that also saves time. yeah And for me, even as as busy air quotes as i am I can still find time to fit my health in.
00:32:15
Speaker
I'm sorry. I was just going to keep going
Nutrition & Supplementation Practices
00:32:17
Speaker
on nutrition. So we have consistently the celery juice, like understanding you're not super strict on routines. Are there other things you say, Hey, I try to make sure I get this in the day. Here's what my nutrition profile looks like.
00:32:29
Speaker
So I use, um, again, going back to, some of the medical medium practices and only because it really did very miraculously work for me. And again, it wasn't like overnight I'm healed, but over the last you know nine years since I kind of discovered it, now I take a lot of the information with a grain of salt, but I still do. I do some of the supplements that are recommended for ulcerative colitis. So which ones are those?
00:32:57
Speaker
So I buy them all from Vimrigi, which is... You know, they're all clean, holistic. um Thorn is another really great brand that I do a curcumin, which is like a you know, like turmeric kind of supplement that really supports gut health.
00:33:14
Speaker
Golden Seal is what I do from Vimrigi. And it's sort of a, it's it's a dropper and it tastes kind of interesting, but I just do two droppers every morning. and I do that, especially when I travel to Bali for, you know, for my job, because a whole other story, but third world country, you know, we'll get there. But, um, and then I do a heavy metal detox smoothie and that is daily, not, and not every morning. It depends, you know, it ebbs and flows depending on time. I have been doing it daily since I got back from
00:33:48
Speaker
Bali. I was there all of last month. So when I know I definitely kind of want to reset, I've been traveling a lot. It's basically just banana, wild blueberries, orange juice. I put a little coconut water. i mix it up. Dates, just all really healthy, healing, filling foods. And then the Vemraji, um,
00:34:09
Speaker
spirulina powder and barley grass juice powder. And those are just really, those been really healing supplements for me as well as collagen. I just got a new really clean brand. I use an app called Think Dirty to basically find the cleanest brands.
00:34:26
Speaker
So I think collagen is great. I mean, I have a bone density, a bit of a bone density issue. So um collagen is really helpful for that. Outside the collagen, do you supplement with any other protein or do you get enough with your diet?
00:34:39
Speaker
Yes. And this, in the heavy metal detox smoothie, I'll sometimes put a little protein in there. i use a protein powder called ritual. It's super delicious, non GMO, really great.
00:34:50
Speaker
They have vanilla. Um, so that's one I use. um But yeah, so there's there's the supplements. And again, you know it definitely ebbs and flows. I try to do the supplements every single day.
00:35:04
Speaker
but if I'm feeling really good and everything's kind of going well and i'm I'm really busy or I'm traveling, maybe I skip a day. But I always end up coming back to it based on what I feel like I really need and what my body really needs. If I'm in a high stress time, that's when i really try and make time change.
00:35:22
Speaker
in the morning to do that. But I think at the end of the day, too, with my diet, i for nine years, ah for 20 years, I've been gluten free. That was basically one of the very beginning things that I discovered after the whole, you know, crazy shaman experience. I've been gluten free for a really, really long time.
00:35:41
Speaker
This is back when people didn't even know what gluten was. And my mom and I were doing, you know, food science in our kitchen, making things out of ground almonds. And I mean, it was it was wild. Now it's a lot more accessible. and And most products at Whole Foods are really incredible. I think that sometimes gluten-free bread, depending on how you process it, if you can process gluten and it feels good to you, as long as it's not ultra processed. For me, I can't even the sourdough thing and you know the healthy. it It doesn't work for me. I'm just highly intolerant.
00:36:14
Speaker
I think there's a lot of gluten-free products that aren't so good. They're packed with like corn and seed oils. And you're kind of giving up one evil for another. Yeah, the labels can be deceiving. As I explained my daughter, refined sugar is vegan.
00:36:28
Speaker
That doesn't make it healthy. right like So just make sure you're eating good stuff. Absolutely. And the vegan movement, I think there's so much of a ah marketing ploy, especially in the US.
00:36:41
Speaker
ah Things are highly unregulated. And you know my my husband's family is all in Australia. And the food there is completely different. So you i really just look at labels. And the shorter it is, the better it is.
00:36:56
Speaker
and you look for the allergens. And then as of nine years ago, i don't eat dairy, corn, soy, or eggs. And i think that the egg thing always kind of that throws people off a little bit.
00:37:12
Speaker
For me, I just think, yes, if you have chickens and they're farm fresh, I'm sure it's fine. For me, they just don't agree with me. And it's just being more plant-based and protein-based has really worked for my gut health.
00:37:25
Speaker
so Yeah. I mean, this is the thing. One of the big reasons to do this show is, especially on nutrition, but for all of this, there's not a single right answer. There's not even a single right answer for you forever.
00:37:38
Speaker
As you said, like we're different each day. And so the the movement you may need in that day, the nutrition you may need in that day, it shifts. And so being able to profile different people who are navigating this real time and and sharing, it helps people see, oh, here are different models. So maybe, oh, then that piece of nutrition that that person does really, really resonates with me.
00:37:59
Speaker
Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. Absolutely. And that's that's what I've done my whole life. I've picked up little pieces of... information from different places and kind of put it all together. But at the end of the day, okay it may not be as concrete, you know, and there's a lot of people that want an answer of like, okay, do this, eat that, drink that.
00:38:22
Speaker
And my approach is a little bit more inquisitive and it's like, okay, okay, What do you really feel? And if you do all those things, and how are you going to feel when you get there? And maybe the problem isn't necessarily, okay, go gluten free. It's,
00:38:40
Speaker
You have this, you know, stuck kind of emotion that you can't get through or you wake up and you have a lot of unresolved anger. Why do you have all this anxiety?
00:38:51
Speaker
And really trying to ask yourself why and really trying to dig all of that up and sort it out. And that's the hard part. And that's where I've seen the most healing and the most transformation in the last years.
00:39:07
Speaker
three years where I've started to share my story and talk about things and understand, okay, I don't do anything without going through a quick check-in of why am I doing this?
00:39:19
Speaker
How's this going to make me feel? How's this going to affect my day? And in a positive way it or a negative way from something as simple as, you know, someone wants to have a call about ah a new idea. Okay. You know, what's already on my p plate.
00:39:33
Speaker
Do I have time for this? So, It takes a while, but my biggest piece of advice is really trying to understand and build up to have a strong sense of self and a strong direction of where am I going?
00:39:50
Speaker
What do I want to get out of life? What makes me feel fulfilled? And i think that goes you know like goes into so purpose. And i think that's a buzzword sometimes as well. Like, oh, I need to have this one you know, profound purpose that's gonna change the world. And a really high bar to hold yourself to. your Right, exactly. And it it doesn't always have to be that way. It can just be, my purpose is to wake up and feed my dog and take him or her for a walk. And i mean, I don't have a pet, but I know, you know, if that's what you want to do then that's great too.
00:40:31
Speaker
I saw a really interesting thing on social media, this guy talking about his regular life and he wakes up and he takes his dog for a walk and he goes to work and he takes his lunch break and he comes home and he you know, reads a book and goes to sleep and he's very, very happy and content.
00:40:48
Speaker
And that's totally okay also. We don't all have to be Elon Musk or whatever, right? like There are many, many options. The underlying anxiety is a good point. of like You could have all the right theoretical nutrition, but if your body is not ready to receive it, it's still not going to process appropriately. and And it impacts so many other pieces too, right? I would imagine...
00:41:14
Speaker
the ability to sleep, to fall asleep, to stay asleep.
Impact of Stress & Lifestyle Choices
00:41:17
Speaker
do you have how do you prioritize sleep? How you work through that I learned a lot about sleep this year, actually. um i feel like I've always needed a lot of sleep. And I think there's been a lot of people that joke with me. I mean, I'll never forget in college, I would just sleep all the time. And granted, I wasn't as healthy as I am today. So I was probably healing a little bit.
00:41:41
Speaker
But then I still got you know close to a 4.0 in my college degree. And everyone was just like... you know, kind of would make fun of me in a way I've always prioritized sleep. And i think that was subconscious. But now that I've learned a lot more about sleep, about, you know, your chronotype and what's your optimal hours of sleep, I think that's really important for everyone to know.
00:42:06
Speaker
And your aura ring can give that to you. You can also do a blood test and find that out. um So I've always been more of a nighttime person. And, you know, my aura ring kind of confirmed that. And it's funny. ah I know women need more sleep than men. That's...
00:42:24
Speaker
been researched as well. But for me, it's optimal that I sleep from 1130 until 830. That's nine hours. That's a lot of sleep, which again, is a lot of time. And you know time is the thing I'm always trying to optimize running a business.
00:42:43
Speaker
But for me, if you're not clear If you don't have a clear mind, then you, you might as well, you're not going to get all the hours out of the day anyways, by sleeping less, it doesn't necessarily give you more productivity at all.
00:42:58
Speaker
Well, quite the opposite, right? Oh, absolutely. The work that's going to come out, the, how long it takes to get the work done. All of it is impacted. All of it. All of it. And, um, I am a big fan of, you know, working less hours and having them be really highly efficient.
00:43:16
Speaker
And I try and be highly efficient with everything in my life in terms of, okay, I'm going work a little bit and then I'm going wholeheartedly, if I'm having dinner with someone, my phone is nowhere near me and really be present in the moment.
00:43:29
Speaker
So sleep plays into all of that. And I've, and i've You know, the only times I've ever really struggled with sleep is when I've had high stress, high anxiety, especially regarding health and hospitalizations. Obviously, I've been on long bouts of steroids, years of my life I've spent on steroids, which is It affects your sleep more than... i mean, there six-week periods where I basically didn't sleep at all because it just affects your adrenal glands and your cortisol levels so much.
00:44:06
Speaker
So if you have... high cortisol releases, which, you know, back in the day, it was like, oh, a bear is chasing on us. And so we got to, you know, get that stress hormone going. So we're going to run and run away. Now it's, you're sitting at your desk and you get an email that may stress you out You're spiking your cortisol.
00:44:27
Speaker
That not only affects your gut health, but it affects your sleep. And the more that those levels of you know cortisol spike and adrenal fatigue and all of that, which again, goes back to mindset. How do you kind of control those thoughts and actions?
00:44:43
Speaker
But because I've been able to help can control those thoughts and actions and really over the last three years, um four years, that's been huge for me. And sleep has not been a problem at all. I mean, the other thing and regarding sleep, and I know this can be a touchy topic, but Drinking alcohol obviously affects sleep so much.
00:45:07
Speaker
I don't drink alcohol. So I stopped drinking alcohol completely a little over a year ago. and it's really changed my life.
00:45:17
Speaker
And i I think it's so much easier than done for some people. And so when, you know, there's you know dan Daniel Amen, the you know brain kind of doctor who's always talking about it. And he has a lot of conviction when he talks about it. And it's amazing. It's very convincing, but it's buzzing around so much. And I think what people don't talk about enough is why do I need the alcohol?
00:45:43
Speaker
What am I medicating basically with it? It sounds like you kind of have your routine. It's 1130 to 730, eight to nine hours. And then the the no alcohol, do you do time how you eat?
00:45:57
Speaker
You know, a lot of people will come on and say, hey, I try not to eat within X hours of going to sleep. I find it impacts my sleep. Yes. Eating later really affects sleep. Um, it For me, it doesn't disrupt my sleep enough to wake me up. But it's funny, my aura ring will say your heart rate was elevated because you ate closer to bedtime. So that's obviously huge. I ice sometimes get very...
00:46:26
Speaker
tired when I eat, which is different. You know, everyone has different experiences. Exactly. So maybe that's why it doesn't affect it as much, but I definitely try not to.
00:46:37
Speaker
Eating late definitely affects your sleep. So um I think the optimal time for eating, I i don't eat a ton in the morning, but except for my smoothie.
00:46:48
Speaker
And then I usually have lunch a little bit, you know, later around one or two. And then try and have dinner 730, 830, which because I'm more of a night owl, that's enough time. 1130 to midnight is kind of when I fall asleep.
00:47:06
Speaker
So Five hours before i fall asleep, four or five hours. I think that's a substantial amount of time.
Adapting Lifestyle During Travel
00:47:13
Speaker
With travel, because I know obviously a lot of your work is in Bali. you you're having it When we spoke initially, you're in fly like you're you're bouncing all over. um How do you think about creating the the sleep environment? i mean Do you travel with an eye mask? How do you keep the the room temperature-wise or the sheets or anything?
00:47:31
Speaker
Yes, temperature is very important. And it's funny because normally I live in Florida. So normally it's my house is set to 75 during the day and i have no problems with that. I run very cold.
00:47:43
Speaker
At night, I sleep at 65 degrees. And i started doing that more recently in the last six months. And I think that that's been a huge change. Again, a lot of the research shows colder.
00:47:56
Speaker
And this goes back to basically pre-air conditioning. no at night it got colder and then your temperature kind of it it rose throughout the night. So there are there are definitely special like temperature devices and incredible sleep mats, which I'm definitely looking into getting and seeing if that helps. But um that basically, the temperature will follow the original pattern of the earth of cold at night. And then as the sun rises, it gets a little bit warmer.
00:48:28
Speaker
And then during the day, it'll be a little bit ah little bit warmer, maybe 10 degrees warmer or so. So Yeah, i do definitely sleep temperature cooler at night. And i know that Nest does those incredible times where you can set it and all of that's a little bit more of an investment. but But that's that's definitely made a big difference in in my sleep for sure.
00:48:49
Speaker
And light sensitivity is because you're in different rooms? yes i'm mask Yes. I Yes. I have blackout curtains in my home. And most of the places I travel, if it's a hotel or if it's a place in Bali that I'm renting for a month, I make sure that that's all the different lights and I like cover them with tape. And I think that light and sound really...
00:49:12
Speaker
really matter a lot. I'm lucky that my husband doesn't snore, but if he did, I would probably need to utilize earplugs. So yeah light and sound. Even for me when I'm really concentrating or at work, um I know everyone operates differently. A lot of people thrive in an office environment. For me, i have to have no sound when I'm focusing on something.
00:49:35
Speaker
I do my best work on airplanes, I always say. So I think that that's what makes traveling a little bit easier. Just the white noise of a plane. i can just crank out so many ideas.
00:49:46
Speaker
So eye mask is definitely important. I use a silk one so it's soft and comfortable. And we actually, i manufacture eye masks out of leftover fabric for dresses too. So that's kind of a fun little product too.
00:50:00
Speaker
So I bet the patterns are pretty cool. Yeah, they're fun. yeah They're fun. They're really fun. You've started the day, right? You thinking how you move your body based on how it feels. Do you have kind of a movement and fitness, not set routine, because I know you're not big on routines, but you try to say, hey, within a week or month, I'm trying to get these kind of modalities in.
00:50:22
Speaker
Yes. So definitely. I think movement is super important. Trying to build up my, my bones back. Cause I have osteopenia. I go to a place called osteo strong.
00:50:33
Speaker
And so that's, um, it's just force against your own body weight and research has shown that that helps build back bone density. So that's really cool. And it's, it's not as much of a,
00:50:47
Speaker
work out. I definitely try and walk at least three times a week. I also think walking is just very meditative too. It's a time where you can kind of, whether you do it to connect with friends, it's it's a fun way for me to get in time with friends. When I'm so busy, we go for, you know, walks with my girlfriends. It's a great time when, you know, for my husband, it's, you know, his undivided attention. So he's no phones, computers.
00:51:13
Speaker
It's really nice time to catch up with my business partner or So walking meetings. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Or with my assistant, you know, it's, I definitely do walking meetings. I'm up. I also, because I don't work a desk job, I'm up moving, walking all the time. I don't sit at all. So I think that my routine is a little bit different. yeah The other thing that I do in terms of fitness and exercise is and love tennis. I think having your brain. And I think the reason why I i love it so much is because it's a mind body connection type of sport and it stimulates my brain and it, there's lot, there's strategy. You're kind of thinking while you're working out and it, it's a
00:51:57
Speaker
good workout, especially June in Florida. I mean, it's very hot. and you're swimming You're swimming as you're getting across the court in the community. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And you know what? You can kind of pick it up and do it anywhere. I brought my racket with me to Bali and the place that I stay has got an indoor court 10 minutes away. What kind of racket do you use?
00:52:18
Speaker
I use a Wilson Clash. Okay. Yeah. yeah And it's great. And I use a a little bit of a ah heavier weight. I mean, I'm a lefty, so you know grip's got to go the other way. It's it's a little interesting, but it makes it fun playing. And i think anything that can stimulate your mind and especially the mind-body connection, for some people, it's golf. I know pickleball has been a ah huge thing.
00:52:45
Speaker
It's also a lifelong sport. So it's not something that... I was listening to a podcast the other day about um you know exercise and moderate exercise. And I think over the course of time, because if you're like pounding in the gym or lifting crazy weights, that can sometimes do more damage over time My husband has two torn labrums from...
00:53:10
Speaker
being in college and like pumping iron. And it's like, maybe that wasn't the best thing to put that high level of stress on your body. But again, everyone's different. And I have a smaller frame, so I'm not gonna, you know, go crazy lifting an insane amount of weight. It's so for me, some things like yoga, tennis, I don't play golf, but things like that, where it's a mind body connections, more of a life and The barrier of entry isn't as hard.
00:53:38
Speaker
So you're in fashion, right? That's your your business. um But then you're on your feet a lot and you want to do these walking meetings. What are your kind of go-to shoes to say, hey, this this fits with the look I have today, but I'm also not going to just be crying at night because my feet hurt so badly.
00:53:55
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So... This is it's kind of abstract, but I use Sorrel, Sorrel shoes, and they're actually known for their, which is funny because I live in Florida.
00:54:06
Speaker
They're known more for their winter boots and snow boots, but they have this kinetic bottom. That's almost like, and and in my kitchen, I have these ergonomic mats as well yeah um for joint stress, because obviously with, with inflammation, I have a lot of joint stress.
00:54:21
Speaker
pain. That's why I don't, you know, run like crazy or anything like that. But, um, and then for tennis, I use, um, basics. Okay. So again, like very, very ergonomic absorb a lot, but,
00:54:35
Speaker
The other thing that is also really great too, when I walk is sometimes, or even if I'm in a park or you take you take a break and stop, I'll take my shoes off and I'll ground my feet into the sand or into the grass. And i think one of the big reasons I made a lifestyle change in kind of I moved to Florida, my business brought me here as well, but having that sort of year round ability to go outside, get vitamin d put your face in the sun, you know, obviously using sunscreen,
00:55:09
Speaker
um is because of being able to really ground and connect
Ayurveda & Lifestyle Balance
00:55:14
Speaker
with nature. and I think, um, you know the um I'm leading a little all over the place, but I do follow a little bit of Ayurveda practices. i don't know if you know a lot about Ayurveda.
00:55:25
Speaker
As I was kind of going through my health journey, my mom... left the corporate world. She retired from large, large, large conglomerate. And after 25 years of service and basically started this kind of new holistic life with the Chopra center. So she's a certified Ayurvedic meditation and it's called perfect health. So, um,
00:55:49
Speaker
kind of lifestyle eating for your dosha yeah and um working out for your dosha. So sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, taking in all the senses. And so a lot of the Ayurvedic oils and products I use as well, because i am if I don't know if how much, you know, your listeners will know about Ayurveda, but there's three doshas, Vada, Pitta, Kapha, and Vada represents air and space.
00:56:17
Speaker
And, So they can be, you know, kind of dreamers, a little bit flightier, um body characteristics are a little bit more, you know, maybe thin framed.
00:56:27
Speaker
And when they're out of balance, they tend to have a lot of, you know, anxiety and um they tend to be very ungrounded and Pitta is fire.
00:56:38
Speaker
yeah Yes. And that is, you know, a lot of, they describe it as kind of like lawyers and doctors and very like fiery, like decision makers and And over dinner diagnosis, that that's what I was labeled as. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. They have a high level of, you know, dry intensity.
00:56:54
Speaker
And when they're in balance, it's like ultimate drive, clarity, decision makers, focus. When they're out of balance, it can be anger and frustration and just like, you know, very extreme.
00:57:07
Speaker
and then, um, Kapha, is mother mother earth basically kind of mud dirt and they can be very very grounded very calming hold a lot of space but then when they're out of balance very slow very sluggish tired unmotivated so i try and eat a little bit um given that i am primarily Vata Pitta.
00:57:35
Speaker
So grounding myself, especially after all the flights that i take and all the air and space that I'm in is really, really important. I mean, you're obviously a very purpose driven person. I mean, you talk about the connection with mother earth, but then there's also the the community connection.
Community, Purpose & Entrepreneurship
00:57:51
Speaker
and I know that's something you're investing even more of your time and committing more to. Can you, can you say a little bit about the work you're doing there? I love, again, I wasn't always like this. I was a very, very shy, kind of anxious child. And through my experiences and through kind of the actions I've taken, the business I've grown, I really i really love people. I really love learning about their stories.
00:58:17
Speaker
And I've kept a journal almost my whole life. And I found you know journals as I was moving, dating back to almost 2004, think was one of the earliest ones that i found and there's a theme, an ongoing theme in every single journal entry up until, you know, now i still keep one where I write my thoughts and then towards the end where you know, figuring out my purpose, figuring out all these things and how I'm going to grow and learn. At the end, it's always, I want to just help and and serve and help other people.
00:58:48
Speaker
And I think part of the human experience we're here on earth with other people and they come in and out of our lives and there's human connection to me is so incredible.
00:59:00
Speaker
And I've met a lot of amazing people since moving to Florida, but I've cultivated a lot of really incredible, interesting people in my life. And I think it's just amazing.
00:59:12
Speaker
being open. And what i hear from a lot of people, even a lot of the people that I've met since I've moved here is how do you know so many people? How do you have this community around you? How have you been able to cultivate all these really cool entrepreneurs and this and that? And I think a big part of it is being very open about my story, being very authentic to who I am. And that will attract whatever you, whatever you give, you will attract. And I think at the end of the the day, we can be mirrors um for the good things and the bad things.
00:59:47
Speaker
Helping and serving, that's, that I feel like is my true purpose in life. And I love helping people realize their dreams and their goals and kind of help them get out of their own way for lack of a ah better word. And with business and, you know, being an entrepreneur, there's a lot of things that can get us really stuck.
01:00:11
Speaker
And what I see from a lot of people is, you know, what are other people going to think and how is this going to come off and ah things that, that are completely outside of their control.
01:00:23
Speaker
So with relationships and with people, it's okay. Who, Where do you really want to go what, what is your sort of sense of self and what's your dreams of what like becoming very clear about that.
01:00:38
Speaker
And I think by listening, a lot of people think, Oh my gosh, it's, it's so hard to meet new people. And like, I think that's where the whole alcohol thing comes in And a lot of people drink, and yeah you know, a lot of people like a lot of society is very nervous in social situations. And I think that's why a lot of people do drink alcohol.
01:00:56
Speaker
Most of the people I asked, why do you drink alcohol? Social situation. And, um, um I think when you think about it so many people are thinking the same thing.
01:01:07
Speaker
So when I go into meeting a new person, i always say yes to meeting new people. First of all, I i really always do. i say yes to any new experience because i also think about if I can have one new experience a week, whether that's meeting a person or, you know, i just went fishing, you know, with caught 20 yellowtail snappers in the keys the other day, like kind of on a whim and,
01:01:31
Speaker
If you can have one new experience every week at the end of the year, that's 52 new incredible life experiences. And that's using your life and your time for a greater good. So it's speaking of using your time. You're formalizing some of this, right? Yes.
01:01:48
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. So mollyvandergreen.com. And so I'm, I'm formalizing, helping young entrepreneurs, not necessarily young in age, but young in business starting and um early stage, just helping being a sounding board for new ideas. And I think it's really important when I,
01:02:08
Speaker
you know, join my business partner was very, very, very early stages of the business. It was, you know, hardly formed. It was kind of an idea. And a lot of times, you know, building it,
01:02:19
Speaker
I felt very alone, especially when picking like technology that wasn't really her her strong suit. My business partner is an incredible artist. And so I was sort of alone and like, okay, what what email program should i go with? How do I talk to customers? And now I have all of that knowledge, but also it's the mindset piece of where do you want to go with the business?
01:02:40
Speaker
Right. And just like the mind body connection, it's the business and purpose connection. It's the physical. How do you make a, how do you do a cold call?
01:02:51
Speaker
How do I get customers? No problem. I can teach anyone how to do that. I have 12 years of experience in customer businesses, customer facing product, product-based businesses, but it's about the mindset imposter syndrome. How do you work through that?
01:03:07
Speaker
That's what i'm I'm, you know, helping um entrepreneurs kind of figure out. And that goes back to kind of meeting new people. it just if you listen and hold space for people, that's, there's no way kind of like a relationship can fail because you're just supporting and holding space for each other's ideas to foster and grow.
01:03:28
Speaker
i mean Speaking of meeting new people, you know we were new to each other. it was a prior podcast guest, Sam, introduced us. Is there anyone you can think of that you think we should invite to the show?
01:03:40
Speaker
There's so many people. i mean My mom would be incredible. She has so much wisdom. um and her business has helped so many people in terms of very strictly Ayurvedic lifestyle.
01:03:55
Speaker
i have so many incredible, you know, entrepreneur friends with wellness businesses. I've got a friend that has a holistic interiors. So holistic design, which is a whole nother thing that I've been, you know, making a change of this year. Cause it's not only what you put in your body, it's what you put around your body. So she um will completely redesign a healthy home.
01:04:17
Speaker
um Change out your couch, your bed, your paint color. And again, you know, barrier of entry to that is difficult. But if someone is looking into that space um or even just redesigning with kind of intention in mind, she has an incredible um business. Another ah friend of mine who's got a very similar you know, story with ulcerative colitis and holistic healing. Her business is just getting off the ground. Molly, this has been amazing. I mean, when you talk about being authentic and and fully sharing your story and your journey, you walk the talk. It's been an absolute pleasure. So I appreciate your graciousness and you being with us today.
01:04:57
Speaker
Thank you so much. I really appreciate the conversation and, um, Hopefully we'll we'll stay in touch. Definitely. Absolutely. Thanks. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Healthspan podcast.
01:05:10
Speaker
And remember, you can always find the products, practices, and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other healthspan role models on Alively.com. Enjoy a lively day.