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Embrace Yoga For Stress Management with Daria Salih - E48
29 Plays1 month ago
Is your body constantly tense from daily pressures? Do you find your mind racing even when you're trying to relax? In our fast-paced modern lives, where demands seem endless and quiet moments rare, yoga offers a proven pathway to relief.
Today we explore the transformative power of yoga as a stress management tool. While yoga is now a common pastime for many, this episode will unpack how integrating even simple yoga techniques into your daily life can create profound shifts in how you experience and respond to life's inevitable pressures. We'll also look at how to build a deeply personal, holistic approach to daily health, so you can move beyond quick fixes and cultivate a vibrant sense of aliveness, every single day.
Daria Salih is a holistic health advocate and wellness educator with a candid approach to nutrition, stress management, and non-toxic living. Through her personal journey overcoming scoliosis and transitioning off pharmaceuticals, Daria has built a reputation for guiding others towards making empowered health decisions. She is certified in integrative nutrition through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN), and runs Sacred Soul, where she offers clients functional lab testing, cycle syncing, detoxification, and somatic work. She also hosts her own podcast, Conscious Conversations, where she encourages "deep healing through communication".
“What works for me is not going to work for someone else. And everyone is unique in their own essence.” - Daria Salih
In this episode you will learn:
- Why Daria considers being “alive” to mean connecting deeply to your body, senses, and emotions, and how breath is foundational to this experience.
- The journey from pharmaceuticals and restrictive eating toward holistic approaches, including an emphasis on intuitive nutrition, high-protein meals, and whole foods.
- Daria’s practical routines for improving sleep and managing stress, such as magnesium supplementation, red light therapy, blue light blockers, and somatic practices like yoga and dance.
- The importance of tailoring fitness to the body’s needs, including Daria’s experience with cycle syncing, functional movement, and evolving her relationship with exercise from intensity to intuition.
- How to reduce toxins in your environment—starting with food, water, and air quality—and the impact this has on long-term health and wellness.
- Insights into building supportive community and living with purpose, including the value of authentic social connection for overall wellbeing.
Resources
- Connect with Daria on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dariasavaya
- Learn more about her offerings with Sacred Souls: https://www.sacredsoulss.com/links
- Listen to her podcast “Conscious Conversations”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conscious-conversations/id1571015061
- Shop all the products Daria mentions in this episode: https://alively.com/products/daria-salih
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
Yoga as a Crutch vs. Healing
00:00:00
Speaker
yoga can become like this crutch where I'm actually spiritually bypassing doing the work and I'm just going to practice and practice and practice, right? Before I go and do the dance or I go for the walk or I go move my body, just checking in before I check out and asking myself, am I doing this from a place of wholeness or am I doing this as a distraction because I don't actually want to feel.
Podcast and Guest Introduction
00:00:26
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.
00:00:40
Speaker
All right, it great to see you again. think when we first met, it was Eudaimonia while were watching Huberman, if I'm not wrong. Mm-hmm, yes. Yeah.
00:00:52
Speaker
with Dr. Lyons. it was ah It was a pretty special day. it's such an incredible conference and such a pleasure to connect. Yeah, and so before we jump in everything, I'd love to hear how you describe yourself.
00:01:06
Speaker
I describe myself as ah lively and a really fun and playful human being. Love it.
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah, the play... It's an interesting one because it's so natural when you're young and we kind of lose that muscle over time. Over the summer, I read a book called Play all about how important it is and our development and neural development and everything and how we lose it and getting back to it. So it's it's actually been for the past six months something I've deliberately tried to incorporate more into my life. So I really like that you're a lively and playful human being. That's that's great.
00:01:44
Speaker
That's why we hit it off, including, you know, this being a lively. Can you show your arm maybe for anybody watching? Oh, yeah. so if you guys are watching this podcast video, I have a tattoo that's right here on my arm that says alive as a reminder to serve that I'm alive and that we're all alive. And I love how we connected through that word, because that's literally the name of your company.
00:02:10
Speaker
And, um, yeah, I'm just really excited to be on the podcast and and dive in.
Aliveness and Mindfulness
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah. So as we dive in, I mean, thinking about being alive and not just being alive and kind of sitting here, but truly living with vibrancy, vitality, living your best life for your entire life.
00:02:27
Speaker
What does that mean to you? What does that look like for you? Love this question. Being alive to me means when we are truly connected to our bodies and to our emotions.
00:02:41
Speaker
I really believe that we all... are human beings you know going through life. And there are so many challenges that we all face and giving ourselves really the space and the permission to feel the emotions fully is really what brings out this aliveness is when we're connected to our senses, what we see, what we smell, what we hear, and really adding mindfulness into each and every moment throughout our day and really connecting deeper to our breath. I really feel like our breath is what keeps us alive.
00:03:16
Speaker
And it's a big part of, you know, who we are human beings.
Philosophies of Life: Taoism and Buddhism
00:03:21
Speaker
Yeah. it I mean, so much came up for me just as you described that. Yeah.
00:03:27
Speaker
yeah Whatever these philosophies are, Taoism, Buddhism, Stoicism, everything, it's it's not about not feeling. It's actually being awake to all of it and being a full human, just not becoming a slave to what it is. And so that I guess that's the difference in being awake and being asleep is asleep, you're a slave to and don't even realize what you're feeling, why you're feeling, et cetera.
00:03:50
Speaker
Whereas what you're talking about, to truly be alive, to truly be awake, you're feeling it all. To feel. and you're doing it consciously. and you're breathing through and noticing and and understanding where it's coming from, that should be the goal of life, right? Like, I love that.
00:04:06
Speaker
And also existing to add to all of this existing in this lifetime without the need for substances specifically. So no pharmaceuticals because things like alcohol and pharmaceuticals, they, I believe they really dilute our essence, our aliveness in this life. So when I got this tattoo, that was kind of the message that I wanted to bring forth for myself and you you know, for the people who see the tattoo in my arm, it's just that like ah reminder that you are alive and that this life is so beautiful and
Journey to Authentic Living
00:04:40
Speaker
so precious. And it's such a privilege to be alive.
00:04:43
Speaker
Like our ancestors died for and went through so much for us to be here right now. Like the chances of us being born are, I think it's like, what, like one in a trillion, in know? So yeah, it's a blessing to be here.
00:04:58
Speaker
And I guess on that, what set you on this journey? Like what was the trigger where you say, Hey, you know, I really, I want to put this on my body as a permanent reminder. What set you on? This is kind of my calling in life is to not just do this for myself, but to help others do the same.
00:05:14
Speaker
Yeah. so when i was about, I think like 11 years old, I had spinal fusion on my entire spine for scoliosis. So I have two titanium rods, 20 some screws, was in the hospital for a week, lost 20 pounds and gained three inches in height.
00:05:31
Speaker
And from that experience, the whole spine and the symbolism of the spine and also the symbolism of the snake is what kind of brought that word through. and also because i was also on pharmaceuticals many years ago, antidepressants, anxiety, depression, medication throughout college, as well as Adderall. And I felt not alive when I was on those medications.
00:05:59
Speaker
So getting off of them, that was kind of like the see the shadow, break the cycle and then become alive. Yeah, I do. you Obviously, i'm this is not medical advice.
Holistic Health and Functional Medicine
00:06:10
Speaker
I'm not a physician. I don't know anything about this. But yeah with friends that have children that may be brilliant, may be just different in different ways, and the system's initial reaction is to prescribe.
00:06:26
Speaker
And my concern with all of it is it's trying to take everything down to an average level. which I guess would just lead to an average society. and like You need the Elon Musk. you You need people doing wild things and being wild.
00:06:41
Speaker
And if you're just compressing all of us down to the same thing, we lose so much of that humanness that you were just talking about, a feeling at all and not being dead to it. I'm not sure I'm asking a question there, but its it comes up for me because it it does worry me That if you don't fit into the box that we're saying is kind of the current way society should look and move and feel and act, then you need to somehow be on something to make you fit that box and what the long term ramifications of that are for innovation and advancement and creativity.
00:07:17
Speaker
Well, and you know, i mean, throughout, like for the middle schoolers and the high schoolers, I'm thinking right now, that's the first thing that, you know, you go to the doctor, you get a diagnosis and then people, they just hand you a pill and it's just the bandaid. It's not the solution. And that's why discovering holistic health and and discovering really my own, just like self discovery journey as a woman with health and coming really home to my body in this sense has been so, so empowering, you know, and then to share that with others and,
00:07:49
Speaker
That's why I love functional medicine because there are so many variety of different you know gut tests, hormone tests, mycotoxins. I mean, like everything is out there now to really be able to like get to the root cause because we are also bio-individual. What works for me is not going to work for someone else and everyone is unique in their own essence.
00:08:12
Speaker
Yeah. And speaking of what works for you, i mean, you talked about really staying away from pharmaceuticals and other things, but what you're very deliberate, thoughtful on what you are consuming and putting into your body. So what is your kind of nutritional routine? what does What does that look like for you?
Diet and Supplementation for Wellness
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah. So I love focusing on high protein breakfast and meals in general. So something that I've been really loving lately is this avocado egg mash. So I'll do that first thing in the morning and I'll do it with either a sourdough or gluten-free toast.
00:08:45
Speaker
I love working with spices. I'm half Persian and half Polish. So I'm working with a lot of herbs. like My grandparents literally, they grew a garden in Poland And I would go and visit every summer and i was like picking cherries. And like, that's where i feel like my really true love and like exposure for herbs and, and this natural way of living started, which is so beautiful.
00:09:07
Speaker
And then herbs as well, like working with different cleanses and whatnot. And so high protein breakfast. And then in the afternoon, i will do like a salad or something which with like maybe chicken or fish. I've been loving sardines. i don't know what it is. Like I grew up in Florida and then I traveled a lot like these last four years. And I moved to Miami recently, like eight months ago.
00:09:29
Speaker
And as soon as I got to Florida, I was like something within my body. I'm just like, I love sardines. And it used to just it like canned food used to gross me out. i don't know what it was. And so, and then dinner time, I will do either like a chickpea curry or something. I also do a lot of like cycle syncing. So I will have like grass fed beef, avocado, pasture raised eggs, grass fed butter. um And really like intuitively listening to my body and what it needs. I feel like over the years, my relationship to food has really changed.
00:10:03
Speaker
When i first got on this healing journey too, and and started having all of this awareness around the toxins and everything, i did become obsessive and it was unhealthy. And then it wasn't until I studied integrative nutrition IIN and And I was like, wow, actually, there's like so many other ways of having a healthy relationship to food.
00:10:26
Speaker
And it's really just like that entire program and that school transformed in my entire life and like mindset relationship to food and and everything. Yeah. I mean, from how you describe it, it seems like going from this mindset of restriction and closed offness to pursuit of what you actually want and and being awake to what you want and what, be assuming what you want is what your body needs. And so really kind of following the voices there. Is that fair to say?
00:10:56
Speaker
Yes. I mean, it sounds like you have a varied diet, right? There's nothing, no huge restrictions going in there. Are you supplementing with anything? You talked about some herbs, some cleanses.
00:11:08
Speaker
Are there any things outside of kind of whole foods that you incorporate, whether it's seasonally or cyclically ah into your diet and what you consume? Yeah. Yes. So in the morning i will do like water, minerals, and salt.
00:11:23
Speaker
And, um, in the evening, magnesium is like a non-negotiable. Honestly, if I could give myself one piece of health advice, like five years ago, it'd be to start supplementing with magnesium because it's such a game changer. And, you know, many years ago too, I was drinking a greens powder like every single morning.
00:11:43
Speaker
And then I stopped and I, it really, again, it's like the whole supplement stuff to me, supplements are amazing. I mean, That's really like my whole website I created was a list of all clean supplements. People can just have access to all of that in one place.
00:11:57
Speaker
And it's a supplement, right? So having like the sleep and the nutrition and like the basics down first and then adding supplements in. Also through eudaimonia too, with Dr. Mark Hyman's talk, um he said something about, I've been hearing this more and more often, like sulforaphane, sulforaphane.
00:12:18
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, I mean, there's, there's so much out there that at times I'm sure that for some people it can be overwhelming, you know, and like how to buy supplements and like where to find all of this really trusted information.
00:12:34
Speaker
There are some really, really great resources out there Not specifically like a website for for supplements. We can definitely link that below in the show notes. I can let you guys know. But the one that I'm thinking of right the top of my head is EWG.
00:12:48
Speaker
So are you familiar with EWG? No. So it's Environmental Working Group. It's a non-for-profit partisan organization that tests thousands of products for chemicals and rates them on a scale of one to 10. One being like, this is super safe.
00:13:03
Speaker
And 10 being like, this causes cancer. So you can put all of your personal care products in there and and it will let you know. Interesting. So with the magnesium, I'm curious, you said if there was one thing you could have told yourself earlier to do, it's take that.
00:13:20
Speaker
What are the benefits or what's the impact you've seen from taking it? What what is the kind of before and after? Well, I noticed a lot of just the quality of my sleep. I feel like I sleep more like a baby with magnesium and also with muscle recovery as well.
00:13:38
Speaker
So, but mostly like stress and sleep. It's really hard to me with. And the magnesium I take, it has like, I think 120 trace minerals. twenty trace minerals Oh, wow. Okay.
00:13:49
Speaker
Yeah. And on the sleep, I mean, what else do you do around sleep? It's so foundational, right? It's not that the day ends with sleep, it starts with sleep. So besides magnesium, what is your kind of night or full day hygiene around having this quality sleep?
Sleep Quality and Stress Management
00:14:05
Speaker
So actually, first, I want to share that about six months ago, sleep was one of the things that I was really, really struggling with because of the environment that I was living in. was very high stress.
00:14:16
Speaker
So that was then causing inflammation in my body and everything. So I feel like the last five months I've been... really focusing on stress and sleep and prioritizing that more than other things.
00:14:29
Speaker
And for me, what's been a game changer is just having like a wind down routine. So keeping the lights low, that's really big. I have like blue light blockers that I put on as well, lighting a candle, um taking my magnesium. And then I love doing red light therapy too before bed. And every single night I will put on, like I will fall asleep to a meditation.
00:14:53
Speaker
Okay. yeah Do you use a specific app or you just download different ones? or Yes, Open. Open, okay. yeah And do you...
00:15:04
Speaker
like the The big thing now, the the cooling pads and the mattresses. or like I swear about my sleep mask. For me, like that that was the biggest game changer. yeah Do you use like the mouth tape, the ear block? Do you do any of the other things? so The sleeping mask, also game changer. I don't know why I had so much resistance to that earlier. um But yeah, it's it's really great.
00:15:27
Speaker
Especially if you're someone that doesn't like have a room that is completely blacked out and like super dark. So that, and then the mouth taping, I haven't tried to actually mouth taping. I have like a grandpa that would snore all the time.
00:15:40
Speaker
And I thought about it when I, when I started learning about mouth mouth taping, but I don't think that I snore or I sleep with my mouth open. So I haven't done the mouth taping yet. I'm open to it though.
00:15:51
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, I guess on those two things, just if you're curious, so the ear I never, ever did, because like the phone one, never to stay, they give you on the plane or whatever. no you never use them. But then I heard on a podcast, somebody might talk about wax ones.
00:16:04
Speaker
and I tried that and they help a lot. like I sleep better having those. I got them for my daughter. and It's just much quieter. It's like you the eye mask, but for sound. So if you're light sensitive or sound sensitive, super, super cheap, wax earplugs.
00:16:19
Speaker
And then on the mouth taping, I go back and forth. So... it I don't know if I just drool a lot when I sleep or what, but I end up, if I do it for a while, I start breaking out, not where the tape is, but like outside of it.
00:16:32
Speaker
So I keep canceling. I'm trying to find the right mouth tape, but I do see it. I was just having this conversation today. my eight sleep tells me how much I snored in the night. And it cuts in by 50 to 70% when I mouth tape.
00:16:48
Speaker
So I definitely am getting higher quality sleep when I do it. It's everybody. i was doing Andy Galpin's absolute rest sleep study and. And they're like, you need a mouth tape. Like, this is an important thing. You're getting these interruptions. You should do it. So it it may be worth doing something to see if that's an issue at all. Because when you're asleep, you just really have no idea. have a friend who had really bad sleep apnea.
00:17:14
Speaker
And had no clue. And it was like in her late twenties, her boyfriend was like, babe, you sound like you're dying at night. Like there's something seriously wrong. and I don't know what you're talking about. You're just like, no seriously, you're dying. So she went in she had really severe sleep apnea and had to go get a deviated septum and all this stuff fixed. But we have no clue because you know, we're unconscious. We really have no idea what's going on.
00:17:34
Speaker
So you said you're getting better quality sleep with the magnesium. How do you measure that? Do you have a device you measure? and need to get one. Okay. I used to have an aura ring and then i I was borrowing it actually from a friend who wasn't using it. And then, so this year I'm going to get my aura ring back.
00:17:53
Speaker
And, um I've heard of and the other one, which is a whoop. Yeah. Yeah. oh I can, I can attest to it. Yeah. see So that, um, for me, it's what I've really learned to focus on actually through listening through this, this, um, seminar at eudaimonia from the sleep doctor, that guy, he said that even if you're not getting a total of eight hours or more of sleep, then just focus on falling asleep and waking up at the same time.
00:18:23
Speaker
So for me, like my wind down is like 8.30, 9.00 PM. And then I like to be in bed by 10.00 PM and, you know, hopefully fall asleep by 10, 10.30 and then wake up at either 5.30, 6.30. Yeah. I mean, that that's fantastic routine.
00:18:40
Speaker
yeah you You mentioned one of the other big impacts, like both magnesium, but also it sounds like mostly on your sleep is that stress management side and being in a stressful environment. I mean, there's one piece of changing that environment.
00:18:55
Speaker
There's also... Daily stressors, right? We're we're going to encounter and it helps, right? We're anti-fragile creatures. so the right amount of stress helps make us stronger, not just resilient.
00:19:06
Speaker
Knowing that, having experienced that, what are your kind of mindset and stress management practices? So you mentioned open with the meditations that you fall asleep with at night. Do you have anything else you incorporate during the day? It sounds like breathing and connecting your breath is very important to you.
00:19:23
Speaker
What else? What other kinds of things do you do?
Somatic Practices for Stress Relief
00:19:26
Speaker
Yes. So one of the, one of my favorite practices is anything that has to do with somatic work. So if I'm feeling anxious throughout the day, or if I'm just feeling like I need to like shake something off or just move energy, i will just put my headphones on and put play my favorite song and just dance however I want. Like no one's watching.
00:19:46
Speaker
So that and then yoga, I mean, yoga has completely transformed same thing, like the relationship to my life and my body and everything. And it's really helped me tune in inward and listen to those like, protector parts and heal the inner child and and really just cultivate this deep, deep sense of compassion with myself through that mind body connection, that breath to movement.
00:20:11
Speaker
Because there's not that distinction. I think it's here. It talks a lot about like this. We talked about the mind and the body, but they're they're not different. Right. It is. It's this one single ecosystem coming together and the mind starts. believing You know, the studies where somebody holds a pencil in their mouth, so it's forcing their muscles to simulate a smile.
00:20:33
Speaker
they interact totally differently than if they don't. Right. And it's because their body is telling them, I must be happy. I i don't know why, but like, I must be happy because the muscles that I associate with happiness are telling me this thing.
00:20:45
Speaker
And so as you're feeling stressed, right, we think of it as a mental thing, but part of it is the body. There's a book.
00:20:57
Speaker
It was by these twins. I heard them on Brene Brown's podcast, but they they talked about a lot of the stress we experience in day to day life now. when we would get stressed in the wild, you had this full cycle you would run, right? Like, Hey, I got stressed because I saw a tiger and had to run and then I had to get, and like you went through the ah physical energy of burning it out. And you, you went through this full cycle, whereas now we're at this like constant low grade where we get it and we never complete the cycle. So it's just kind of building, building our cortisol. Everything's just like building up in us without this release valve of burning it off.
00:21:35
Speaker
And that need to move the body. Because that's that is kind of how you can burn off some of that stress and energy, whether it's dancing, whether it's yoga, whether it's going and lifting heavy objects at the gym.
00:21:48
Speaker
It makes a lot of sense. Yes. And also, I want to add one more thing to your question of like, what am I doing throughout my daily routine that um or in terms of supplements as well, digestive enzymes, bust and prebiotic probiotic.
00:22:05
Speaker
I love also seed was at eudaimonia and that's an incredible, incredible, like very science backed brand. So yeah, the stress management has been such a I feel like that's like my life's purpose. Yeah.
00:22:19
Speaker
It's to learn that really, truly, and like master it to a sense of like when we notice that we are dysregulated in moments, you know how you're describing that like fight or flight, right? Fight, flight, fawn or freeze and everybody based on our...
00:22:35
Speaker
nervous nervous system and and just how our brains are wired and the physiology of our body, you know, throughout our lives, especially through the first 12 years of our life, you know, when our brains are developing as children and our environment influences the epigenetics, you know, and the genetics of of our genes.
00:22:56
Speaker
Um, that is how we really learn that kind of like equilibrium of like, what's normal, you know, what is, how does it feel to feel like normal?
00:23:08
Speaker
in the sense of ah peace and calm, right? And that's different for everyone. So a lot of my own journey has been learning how to come home to that equilibrium and find that center within growing up in ah in a high stress environment.
00:23:22
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, and be curious how you identify or navigate the different stages of that. Cause I guess there's there's one piece initially it's just the awareness. It's the noticing, right? And it's,
00:23:37
Speaker
Because a lot of these are automatic responses and maybe once you get to Nirvana, they're not anymore. like you can They just literally pass over you like a wave and you're just the boat floating on the water. I haven't certainly gotten there. And so for me, it's getting better at noticing sooner.
00:23:55
Speaker
as the waves taking me over. And then it's a, okay, now let me feel and understand this. And then there's a question of, okay, what do I want to do or not do about this? Right? Like, is the Taoist like there's doing and not doing, or is it, there's something I want to proactively do, but how do you navigating those structures? How do you work through those phases or think about those phases?
00:24:17
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I love that you mentioned like noticing sooner because I think that that's really where it begins is just having the awareness of like, okay, I'm noticing, you know, the heat in my chest or I'm noticing the tension in my neck.
00:24:31
Speaker
And then for me, the biggest medicine from like stress has been movement. So getting out of the mind, because when we're when we're in the monkey mind, when we we're thinking in our mind, we're not in the feeling body.
00:24:43
Speaker
So overthinking is under feeling. And if we're overthinking and we're under feeling that we need to feel more in the way to feel more is through the body. So moving the body, whether that be through somatic dance, it could be running, right? It could be anything that just gets you out of thinking and into feeling.
00:25:00
Speaker
And there are some, there some days where it's like actually something that's more therapeutic is journaling, you know, yeah putting my thoughts out on a piece of paper that I can see for me. Most of the time, I i will say that if I'm feeling stressed or overwhelmed, i just go and and go for a walk or I um go and move my body. And also having the awareness too, because doing those things externally can also become a crutch, right?
00:25:26
Speaker
Right. Like anything like yoga can become like this crutch where I'm actually spiritually bypassing doing the work and I'm just going to practice and path and practice. Right. So again, it's like before I go and do the dance or I go for the walk or I go move my body, just checking in before I check out and asking myself, am I doing this from a place of wholeness or am I doing this as a distraction?
00:25:50
Speaker
Because I don't actually want to feel. that That was my question as I heard it, because I know there are times for me, i guess there's a difference in the thinking and feeling that I really have to think my way through or navigate for myself, but that it can be a form of escapism, running away, avoidance, right? Like, okay, hey, yeah, it's healthier than picking up drugs or alcohol, but it's another thing that you're doing that we're just saying, hey, this not just saying, like, yes, fitness is healthier. Moving your body is going to be healthier than those things, but it is a way to avoid really dealing with it. But there's a separate piece, like you said, of
00:26:26
Speaker
If the dealing with it that we think we're doing is just rumination and overthinking, that's not the path to happiness or fulfillment or anything like that. That has its own.
00:26:37
Speaker
And so there's something in there that it's not thinking, it's not necessarily moving, there's some piece of noticing and feeling, I guess is what you're saying before deciding which direction are you go.
00:26:50
Speaker
and you're You're asking in terms of like working through stress, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is a question I've never asked before, right? Like myself on,
00:27:01
Speaker
Because I was going much more, it's in the head and like you either kind of just turn it off and you go move your body. But you're talking about this whole point of this feeling in between.
00:27:12
Speaker
and this is kind of in my journey of the past 12 months of trying to come back more into my own body. Because I think I've turned a lot of those signals off and have lived very much in the mind or just like pushing the body and ignoring signals. But there's there's some world in there in the middle that I think you're referencing that I'm trying to better understand.
00:27:30
Speaker
Well, let me give like a kind of an example. It would be when you're noticing like the stress or overwhelm coming up, actually kind of like imagining yourself as like zooming out and like you're watching yourself and your behavior and completely from a place of non-judgment, just asking like, okay, what is coming up?
00:27:50
Speaker
Where is this coming from? And most of the time i find that like, um, I mean, and also like just the science shows us this, but anxiety is when we're thinking about the future and depression is when we're thinking about the past.
00:28:03
Speaker
So when we're in the present moment, naturally also there is a healthy amount of stress. Like stress is not inherently bad. It's that when we have the overload of stress, that's when we come out of that equilibrium and we, we, those protector parts come on or we go into like survival mode or we go into fight or flight.
00:28:23
Speaker
Right. So again, and I really think it just comes down to like noticing with non-judgment and then asking yourself honestly of like, what can I do in this present moment to shift my energy and shift into feeling joy, which is our birthright. Yeah.
00:28:42
Speaker
Yeah. I love that. When it it comes to the Not just the feeling, but the the doing, right? The moving the body. You you talked about music and the dance. You talked about yoga.
00:28:55
Speaker
What kept coming up in eudaimonia was really built around a lot of this, right? The early morning was on fitness, and it was that movement. Now, you move your body. understand This seems like this magic pill for health and wellness, like both mental health and physical health and all of it.
00:29:10
Speaker
What is your own fitness routine and practice? How do you how do you think about that?
Evolving Fitness Routines
00:29:17
Speaker
My gosh, it's evolved so much over the years. Yeah, it's evolved so much.
00:29:21
Speaker
And it will continue to evolve. You know, um i actually, I first started out as a dancer, not competitively. I just loved to dance and to express myself in that way creatively.
00:29:34
Speaker
And then I ran track for a little bit. I'm more of a long distance runner. I'm not like a sprinter. And then i got into yoga and that was really what kind of awakened me when I was in college of like, oh, wow, there's this like whole other world of like how I can manage stress. And I feel like for once in my life, I can actually breathe.
00:29:52
Speaker
You know what i mean? so And I used to do a lot of HIIT workouts. I used to do a lot of like very, very high intensity workouts. two hours at the gym plus sauna. and And I was like, not taking like any minerals or had any idea about any of this stuff.
00:30:06
Speaker
um And truthfully, like reflecting before I'm like, how, how is that even functioning? You know, like in that lifestyle. And now I really like to cycle sync my workouts.
00:30:18
Speaker
So during the follicular and ovulatory phase, I'll focus on, um, like high impact workouts or, uh, running or ah weight weightlifting. And then as I go into like luteal phase, I'll focus more on Pilates and sculpt and walks.
00:30:36
Speaker
And again, for me, I think movement movement is really intuitive. It's really intuitive. So it's, It also depends, you know, like as we're talking about stress, like if I'm having a very high stress day, but i do I'm at this point in my cycle where I do have a lot of energy, I might want to, you know, dance and go for a walk instead of going for a run.
00:30:58
Speaker
So again, it just, it really depends. So whether like Pilates, you might be in a studio yoga, maybe you're doing it at home or studio. Are there pieces of equipment or things that you utilize at home or when you travel that may be different than what you're doing, going to a a separate location?
00:31:17
Speaker
Yes. So about two years ago, I decided that I wanted to travel the world for nine months. And one of the things that was like my saving grace and like my best friend throughout my travels was I have these two pound ankle weights.
00:31:34
Speaker
So i'll either put them on my wrist or like this morning, for example, i went for a walk. So I put them on my ankles and I do like mat Pilates and sculpt. And yeah, it's just...
00:31:44
Speaker
actually having those like helped also rekindle ah my love and like relationship to movement that it made me also feel just more like feminine and more feminine in my body and not like doing these like intense workouts like I used to many years ago.
00:32:03
Speaker
Yeah, because I guess it's a much more natural movement that you're doing when it's that lighter weight. It's just adding the tension. It's similar, I guess, are you familiar with rocking? and You're just kind of loading, but you're you're doing this natural kind of walk, which is this human way of moving around versus like sitting there cranking out. Look, I love deadlifts and squats and all that, but they're not things that you normally do kind of day to day. It's pretty artificial movements that you're doing.
00:32:33
Speaker
Functional movement and mobility is longevity. i mean, I remember seeing this one video that Deepak Chopra recently posted, I think like a few months ago, where he was just like getting up off the ground, you know, and to like have the joint mobility and like the bone mass, especially as women, as, as we age and we like, you know, pre-menopause and menopause, like you lose that like bone mass index. If you're, if we're not, you know, taking care of ourselves properly and supplementing and doing the things Low impact, high intensity works best for me.
00:33:07
Speaker
And I also recently did my genetics testing and they said that the genetics test showed me that I respond really well to high impact workouts. So I'm like, you know, it just, again, it depends.
00:33:20
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I recently was listening to podcast talking about to build that bone
Building Holistic Homes and Health Investments
00:33:25
Speaker
density. It's actually, we do it when we're much younger than we think, right? It's like before we're 15 or, and or and As a former swimmer, this is really sad to hear, um swimmers had lower bone density than people who are sedentary because you're spending all this time in this weightless environment. So even though we're working out, we think we're working out hard, all that, it's not helping on the bone density side.
00:33:46
Speaker
So I'm pretty excited. my My daughter, even though her mom and I were both swimmers and that's what her mom was trying to push her into, she's really getting into jumping, which is a lot of high impact, high jumping and long jumping.
00:33:57
Speaker
And so hopefully really helped her build that bank of bone density for when she gets older. Yeah. I mean, i I loved it. My best friends were swimmers and everything, but it's, there, there certain separate issues. Like all the chlorine, I have pretty damaged lungs now, separate lung breathing issues. So they're, they're downsides to a lot of things. I think we're all living an experiment to, to some extent, which I'd love to actually kind of get your thoughts on that as well. So Whether it's 5G, whether it's conspiracy theory, whatever it is, there are all these things that we're just throwing into our environment that maybe on a single dosage, you say, hey, this isn't a problem, but they haven't done it for 50 years. So we don't really know over 50 years what it's going to be.
00:34:39
Speaker
And if you're getting that little dosage from 20 different things a day for 50 years, we really don't know what that's going to be. like They don't look at the accumulation. How do you think you talked about a stressful environment, but there's also like ah a toxic level of environment.
00:34:52
Speaker
How do you think about creating this human, natural, healthy environment that that you can actually inhabit, um given the world we actually do live in if you're living in the U.S. and the Westernized world at this point?
00:35:07
Speaker
Yeah. Oh my gosh. We're getting into like the best part of this podcast. and So, um, I'm just going to preface this for the listeners that some of the things that I may say may be very kind of controversial and it might be very triggering. And, you know, at the end of the day, and we're we're all just existing in this human experience, doing the best that we can with the level of consciousness that we have.
00:35:28
Speaker
And these are the things like changing these things in my environment I've noticed has just impacted, my health and my nervous system, like on a cellular level. And one of the things that I love teaching people and that I want to physically actually go and physically into people's homes in 2025 and do this is a service that I haven't yet offered. Um, but it is offered on my website. So I'm in this kind of like beta testing phase,
00:35:56
Speaker
where I want to physically go into people's homes and help them create a holistic home. So doing the air purifier, the water filter, going through your entire supplement cabinet, the fridge, and just like in one shot, everything so that people can truly feel alive and thrive with their health.
00:36:14
Speaker
It can be overwhelming when you talk about the the water filter and all this, because i amm thinking, but you're you're buying, you you want to eat healthy food. So you're buying organic vegetables. But at the grocery store, having to put them in those little plastic bags and or their plastic wrap when you're getting and then you get them home.
00:36:30
Speaker
And so say you take it out the plastic, but a lot of drawers and everything in the refrigerator plastic as well. So it's like when you think about detoxifying the home in the healthy environment,
00:36:43
Speaker
What is is, it a Pareto principle? Is it, hey, we can get this totally clean? Like, what does that actually look like? You say, hey, we're just going to have to write off some things because it will be way too stressful, expensive, unrealistic to tackle this.
00:36:57
Speaker
Or, no no, this is a thing we can actually do. Here's what it looks like. Well, the first step is elimination. So in order to even invite anything new into our lives, we have to first let go of the old and and purge, right? So whether that be your closet or or some of the things that you have, or even your camera roll, right? Like for 2024, I like cleansed out my inbox, cleansed out my camera roll. I mean, I have to do that...
00:37:22
Speaker
feel like clear for myself and my mind. Yeah. So the first thing would be like elimination. So tossing the toxins and then based on what the the home needs, like what the people really want to prioritize. Like some people, they come to me and they only want help with supplements. Some people, they come and they're like, I want the clothing. I want to, like, give me everything.
00:37:42
Speaker
You know, some people want to have ah ah their own at home sauna. So again, it's very custom and very bio-individual. But if I were to say, like if you are feeling overwhelmed on your journey and you do want to make changes, and even if you're someone who's on a budget, maybe you're not, but if if you're on a budget, one of the best things that you can do to prevent thousands of dollars in medications and in surgeries and in doctor's visits is shift the mindset of my health. oh This is expensive. This is an investment into my long-term health. right So think of ourselves like our body as a car.
00:38:16
Speaker
If we're going to get the oil change and we're going to be delaying the oil change, we're putting not good oil into our car. It's going to end up having thousands of dollars. The engine is going to break that that you know all these problems are going to come. Maybe not right now. You'll save some money now on you know the cheaper oil, but in the longterm, right? The health span, that is what's going to put a dent in our pocket. So same thing goes for our body, right? If I'm investing right now at a very, very young age, right?
00:38:45
Speaker
you know, I'm only 26 years old. And to me now is preconception because everything that I do for my body now is setting a strong foundation for my fertility. Because I do everything for motherhood.
00:38:57
Speaker
You know, all of this, like reducing my toxic burden and load is because I want to have a healthy child one a day. And of course, like my own vessel as well. I want to feel alive in this experience. So, yeah. Does that answer your question?
00:39:11
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It certainly does. it You know, when we think about health and you you already talked about kind of motherhood and living for something and someone outside yourself.
Authenticity in Social Connections
00:39:23
Speaker
One of the the big and often neglected pillars is that social connection piece. And we connected over this common alive, a lively term and phrase and way of living at a conference and beautiful community around eudaimonia, all aggregating and coming together around living a lively life.
00:39:46
Speaker
How do you deliberately build that social connection or cultivate that on a day-to-day or week-to-week kind of basis to to make sure you're prioritizing it adequately in your own life?
00:39:58
Speaker
Well, first it starts with me. So getting clear on my wants and needs and desires and friendships and in relationships. And I've found, and I find that joining different masterminds, communities online, or whether that be in person, if you're, if you're in an isolated kind of ah smaller town and and you maybe don't have like events going on in person, like for me, when I was traveling for those nine months, one of the most healing things, because I did feel very isolated Even though I was meeting amazing people traveling, like you're only in a place for a certain amount of time. So you can't really build those like deep, deep relationships.
00:40:36
Speaker
And so I found that like joining online communities where... you know Whether that be like a business mastermind or like a sisterhood type of online community that has felt really healing.
00:40:46
Speaker
um And then also, I really feel that just being vulnerable and being our authentic selves and being proactive in the sense that... you know If you want to have a really good friend, like we have to become that first ourselves.
00:41:00
Speaker
you know And as I've become aware of all of these, that the the toxins and the holistic health and functional medicine and everything, like this wellness community is amazing. like The people, the connections that I've made and that I continue to make, it's just very aligned people that are on the path of living their most authentic life and self and also living their purpose.
00:41:24
Speaker
Yeah. And it's what's it the general you look at the five people you spend the most time with, and that's kind of what the quality of your life is. And so confining those communities of the people that have the life you aspire to have.
00:41:38
Speaker
and really understanding what that aspiration is. Because there there could be the, hey, I aspire to have like the big yacht and the helicopters and all that. like Why do you want all that? And and what what is it you truly, truly want? Is it you want it because you think other people will think you're cool and you want other people to think you're cool because you want to feel loved and you want to feel loved because you haven't in the past?
00:41:57
Speaker
Get down to what you actually are trying to get and there's probably a way easier and more direct path than getting a yacht to get that thing that's probably not going to provide the thing that you're actually chasing in the first place. But finding that authenticity, like you said, it starts with you you. You need to understand what your own authenticity is.
00:42:15
Speaker
i find so few people know what they want and even fewer know why they want it. And so much comes down to, I mean, I have super successful friends older than me who said that they've only now kind of in midlife come to the realization of how much of their life they live trying to make other people happy. And a lot of times those other people were their parents.
00:42:38
Speaker
And And so having an eight year old daughter, like this is conversation I constantly have with her all the time. And I have no idea if it and like gets digested. I'm like, look, I have my life.
00:42:49
Speaker
This is your life. As your parents, my job to work to help make you safe and healthy and happy. It's not your job to make me happy. You need to figure out what you want and and don't do it because you think it's going to make your mom happy or me happy. Like you got to figure out what you actually want.
00:43:04
Speaker
And that like, that is the mission of your life. Because i have so many friends that didn't. And like, it's just a waste of time. Like, you really got to do this. And I have no idea if it's just like glazing over an eight-year-old, but I'm going to keep trying for what it's worth.
00:43:18
Speaker
Yeah. Well, that's a really powerful like way it sounds like, you know, you're instilling some really great empowering messages and just like ways of parenting. um And I feel like that's what the younger generation needs. You know, there's a lot of people that, you know, most of us are taught We go to school to get the job, to get the house, to have the kids, to get married. And that all of these things externally will make me worthy and good enough and a good person in society.
00:43:48
Speaker
And while yes, all of those things are amazing. And yes, having the yacht is also great. Right. But again, it's like behind the why and really asking ourselves like, what really fulfills me because it's not about like just having the job. It's about like, what's your life force energy? Like, are you truly happy? Are you making impact in the world? Like, is this your, um, life's purpose? And that's why I really love this concept called Ikigai.
00:44:17
Speaker
yeah Right. So it's, yeah, it's the intersection of what you do, what you're good at, what the world needs you for and what you can get paid for. And going through that exercise, like you guys can just like YouTube it. And I'm sure there's a video and there's actually this really great guy, Matt Gray. He teaches all, he teaches, oh, I sent you Matt, Matt's info. So he he teaches about that concept as well. And that really can kind of help awaken like,
00:44:43
Speaker
what's my purpose. And also like that kind of reality check of, am I really fulfilled? And am my living what I was meant to, to live while being here? Yeah. and I do want to go back a
Tracking Health Metrics and Consumer Influence
00:44:55
Speaker
little bit. We, with all these, like pulling the toxins out of the environment, the things you're adding in or taking out,
00:45:01
Speaker
There's one level of how you feel, how you live. There's another of their metrics behind this. And one of the things you referenced, Mark Hyman, advisor to function health, um that's something we are both doing. Like I did it then the last year you're starting to do it.
00:45:15
Speaker
How do you track? Like, are are there certain metrics, blood or otherwise that you are tracking? You talked about Thor and and getting that maybe on sleep that you use or or want to use going forward that you find really important?
00:45:29
Speaker
Well, for now, it's just me tracking my steps. This is one of my health goals for the year is that definitely I would love to collect more data around my health just so know I can actually create more of that custom protocol and plan based on those statistics and the data because I studied biomedical sciences. So I really love like anything like lab related and you know, everything at the end of the day, I just feel that does come down to like the numbers, you know? um but I'd actually be curious to know like how you track and if there's anything that you recommend.
00:46:04
Speaker
Yeah, so i mean for me, I ah use a WHOOP. I also have my 8-sleep bed. i was doing the Andy Galpin absolute rest sleep. I also have a Sleep Me Chili bed when I'm back in the US. So I have a bunch of data that that I'm pulling in and really try to keep it focused on, and then I do periodic blood work besides function. so the The one I was looking at mostly is is my testosterone at the rate level. is it getting suppressed? like it's it's gone down a decent amount. I think there's a lot of stress with a lot of travel recently.
00:46:33
Speaker
So keep an eye on that. ApoB, because as an absolute number, we know the lower is the better. It's not like you're dialing it into something. And so... Listeners of this podcast are probably tired of me saying it, but like my number one recommended product because it's basically free and it's highly impactful is this Chinese gooseberry, Indian gooseberry, Hamla.
00:46:54
Speaker
It's this powder. Take half a teaspoon a day and it just stomps on your ApoB. It just pulls it down. And... like babies have basically zero and we just kind of go up over time. But I've seen people cut theirs in half and keep taking it down with this ambulance. So that, that is one I've been tracking and doing a lot. And then trying to just get better in my sleep. Like we're talking about the snoring and the mouth taping ah my sleep. I think for me,
00:47:21
Speaker
Sleep and movement are probably my two most foundational things where I really notice a difference. If I'm not moving enough in the day, I get antsy. If I'm not sleeping well, I get pretty kind of down in the dumps.
00:47:34
Speaker
And so those are two that i really calendar the time and protect it to make sure I'm getting different kinds of movement in. And then the sleep... figuring out what it is that helps me or doesn't help me um in terms of earplugs, eye mask, magnesium, electrolytes, whatever it is to add in.
00:47:52
Speaker
Love it. Love it too. And one other thing I want to mention too, because you previously before we talked about the the stress and sleep, you mentioned about more about something about the toxins. And I also want to mention how, you know, a lot of it comes down to understanding like the psychology around behavior and like buying behavior and like what really pulls us to invest into these things. A lot of it is just like past programming from childhood or like embedded scarcity. Right.
00:48:20
Speaker
So kind of how I envision people take their power back and we become more sovereign human beings is by becoming a conscious consumer. So we can, we actually have the power to change the economy. We are all equally powerful, powerful, very powerful human beings.
00:48:38
Speaker
And when we understand that the profits are When we shift consumer behavior and we invest our money and our finances into brands and products and people, programs, et cetera, that are giving health into the world instead of creating illness and disease, that is how we truly create a healthier next future generation. So our children and the next people on this planet that are going to be creating and and existing are going to be functioning at an optimal level.
00:49:12
Speaker
yeah that makes a lot of sense well we've covered a lot of things right like to to live a fully vibrant healthy life it It takes, in today's world, deliberate thought, and it takes work.
00:49:26
Speaker
But it can also, like we touched on, feel overwhelming to people that may be earlier in their own journey, but they they want to get started. Rather than being intimidated by the mountain of things they could do, is there a place that you would recommend someone start?
00:49:42
Speaker
Because it it really is about that first step on the 10,000-mile journey. um and Anywhere you would point people to? I would say start with your food. Food is our life force.
00:49:53
Speaker
It is how we function. It's how we live, breathe and and and get by and eating whole real foods, just like cutting out anything processed, learning how to read your labels and then cooking, like finding this you know Coming back to what we how we started this episode, which is like finding and creating that play in creating recipes and and nourishing your body as a temple.
00:50:20
Speaker
and That is, I feel, the the easiest way to really become healthy is by the food. Food can either be medicine or poison. And I think that when we learn how to really... nourish ourselves from the inside out and have that healthy relationship to food where food can become creativity and celebration and art and really viewing it from that like childlike lens um is how we can really heal on a cellular level as a society.
00:50:46
Speaker
love that. Well, thank you so much for that and for today and the work you do to help other people be alive and live that a lively life.
00:50:57
Speaker
Thank you, Daria. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Healthspan podcast. 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.
00:51:13
Speaker
Enjoy a lively day.