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Put Your Oxygen Mask on First image

Put Your Oxygen Mask on First

S1 E25 · The Positively Healthy Mom
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29 Plays1 year ago

In our twenty-fifth episode, "Put Your Oxygen Mask on First," we're thrilled to welcome Linda Alexander, an Elite Neuroencoding Specialist, Master NLP Practitioner, and Master Coach in Timeline Therapy. 

Originally from Germany and now based in the US, Linda is passionate about empowering mothers to thrive in the midst of life's chaos. Drawing from her own experiences as a mother, Linda offers invaluable insights and strategies through her 'Time to Thrive Program,' helping mothers overcome stress, cultivate resilience, and achieve success in all areas of their lives. 

Tune in for an enlightening discussion on prioritizing self-care and nurturing your well-being as a mom. 🌺💪


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Transcript

Introduction to Positively Healthy Mom Podcast

00:00:00
Speaker
Hey moms, it's Laura Olinger.
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Positively Healthy Mom podcast.
00:00:05
Speaker
Because there's no manual for the hardest job in the world.
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome today.
00:00:09
Speaker
My guest is Linda Alexander.
00:00:11
Speaker
I'm so excited to have you here.
00:00:13
Speaker
Linda, say hello to the Positively Healthy Moms.
00:00:17
Speaker
Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Laura.
00:00:20
Speaker
I'm so excited.
00:00:21
Speaker
Okay, awesome.
00:00:22
Speaker
Awesome.
00:00:23
Speaker
So let's just start right off.
00:00:24
Speaker
We'll dig

Linda Alexander's Journey into Motherhood and Career Challenges

00:00:25
Speaker
in.
00:00:25
Speaker
So what is your story about being a mindset coach for moms?
00:00:31
Speaker
Okay, great.
00:00:32
Speaker
Yeah, my story really started when I became a mom myself because so when I when I was younger, I always knew two things.
00:00:44
Speaker
And one was that I wanted to be a mom.
00:00:46
Speaker
Eventually, I didn't know when and how that would look like.
00:00:49
Speaker
But I wanted to be a mom and I wanted to be successful in what I'm doing, like job wise.
00:00:54
Speaker
And again, I didn't know how that would look like and job lined up pretty good.
00:00:58
Speaker
And there was a time when it seemed perfect to become a mom.
00:01:02
Speaker
And I was like, OK, that seems perfect to line up.
00:01:05
Speaker
It was like one of those moments where everything seemed to fall in line.
00:01:09
Speaker
Like my husband got a new job, moved to a new city.
00:01:12
Speaker
I was ready to step back from my job and I wanted to be just there for a baby.
00:01:17
Speaker
And I got pregnant.
00:01:18
Speaker
It looked everything great at first.
00:01:20
Speaker
And then everything went sideways.
00:01:22
Speaker
My husband's job didn't come through.
00:01:25
Speaker
My job had to put me on pause because the projects didn't come through.
00:01:29
Speaker
And so instead of being excited about being a mom and like the whole pregnancy phase, I knew immediately I had to go back to looking for a job.
00:01:38
Speaker
And I knew that everything changed immediately

A Transformative Moment and the Path to Mindset Coaching

00:01:41
Speaker
because that meant like I couldn't take off as long as I wanted to.
00:01:46
Speaker
And that really threw me for a loop because I always envisioned myself to be home with a baby.
00:01:52
Speaker
And suddenly that complete vision was destroyed and it hit me harder than I expected.
00:01:58
Speaker
And then there are some couple of things more that just piled up.
00:02:02
Speaker
COVID hit after my baby was born.
00:02:04
Speaker
So I was kind of struggling with it.
00:02:06
Speaker
sitting in front of the laptop, trying to work from home, holding a baby, trying to not fail at doing what I'm supposed to do.
00:02:12
Speaker
And I tried not to fail as a mom.
00:02:15
Speaker
Didn't even know what it meant because like my hormones were so like messed up.
00:02:18
Speaker
I was still on this roller coaster.
00:02:21
Speaker
So I didn't know what it meant to be a mom or like a wife anymore.
00:02:25
Speaker
Our relationship wasn't in a good perspective anymore.
00:02:28
Speaker
It just, it just piled up.
00:02:29
Speaker
It just piled up.
00:02:30
Speaker
And it threw me for a loop in this downward spiral.
00:02:33
Speaker
And it went on and on and on and on.
00:02:36
Speaker
Until I found myself actually so deep in that hole and it was all mentally in my head that I was crying in front of my son's crib and I was crying and I just asked for help because personally I didn't know how to help myself anymore and I also couldn't talk to my husband.
00:02:55
Speaker
So I asked for help to throw it out in the universe, not knowing what it would do.
00:03:01
Speaker
And a couple of days later, this prayer was answered.
00:03:05
Speaker
It was late at night.
00:03:06
Speaker
I was lying in bed, couldn't sleep.
00:03:09
Speaker
And I wanted to watch a YouTube video.
00:03:11
Speaker
And this advertisement came on.
00:03:14
Speaker
And for some reason, you know, like when you have this feeling of like, this is it, this is meant for you.
00:03:19
Speaker
This is the feeling I had when I saw this advertisement.
00:03:23
Speaker
So at 2 a.m.
00:03:24
Speaker
in the morning, I got out of bed.
00:03:26
Speaker
I researched this event.
00:03:28
Speaker
It was about an event and signed up.
00:03:31
Speaker
And something in me told me this is the change I was looking for.
00:03:35
Speaker
I texted my husband.

Mindset Coaching Techniques: NLP and Timeline Therapy

00:03:36
Speaker
I was like, can you please sign up?
00:03:37
Speaker
In my head, I was screaming at him.
00:03:39
Speaker
Like, this is it, babe.
00:03:40
Speaker
Like, please.
00:03:43
Speaker
So we listened to, it was a virtual event, five days.
00:03:47
Speaker
We listened from our living room.
00:03:50
Speaker
And as I was listening, something started to shift in me.
00:03:54
Speaker
I realized I'm not the crazy one.
00:03:56
Speaker
I'm not the only one that struggles.
00:03:58
Speaker
And I also realized a lot of things are happening because I don't understand how my brain works and how humans function.
00:04:06
Speaker
So this kind of was like the starting point for me to get into personal development and really starting to understand how do we function?
00:04:14
Speaker
How do we work?
00:04:15
Speaker
What is like really like holding us back?
00:04:20
Speaker
And why do we, why are we so able to throw ourselves for such a loop when nothing is happening on the outside?
00:04:27
Speaker
And I,
00:04:28
Speaker
I fast like realized that everything changed on the inside.
00:04:31
Speaker
I was happy again.
00:04:33
Speaker
I felt confident.
00:04:34
Speaker
I felt good about myself.
00:04:36
Speaker
Like I, I was happy and nothing changed on the outside, but then sure enough over time, I would say, and that's when I had this crazy thought of like, wait a minute, if I can do it,
00:04:49
Speaker
Other moms can do the same thing and I want to help them.
00:04:53
Speaker
And that's really how my whole journey started because it was something that I needed and I didn't know.
00:04:59
Speaker
And now I made a promise to myself that no other mom should go through the same feelings where we are so stuck in our head because we just feel like we're not good enough and we cannot do it and nothing seems to go right.
00:05:13
Speaker
Because there's so many things that we can do.
00:05:15
Speaker
And it's often that we're just alone by ourselves why it's so hard.
00:05:19
Speaker
And that's why I committed to helping as many people as they can.
00:05:24
Speaker
I love that.
00:05:25
Speaker
Well, it's a great mission that you have for, you know, it's almost like bringing your personal and your professional life in together.
00:05:33
Speaker
It's all synchronized.
00:05:34
Speaker
So it's really must be very meaningful for you to do the work that you do.
00:05:39
Speaker
So speaking of the work you do, what exactly do you do?
00:05:44
Speaker
And I know I'm just sharing with the audience.
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:49
Speaker
So I label myself as a mindset coach for moms, because for me, that's where everything begins, which means I help people understand, like I said, how they actually think, there's thought patterns.
00:06:02
Speaker
I help them understand where their limiting beliefs are coming in, where they're holding themselves back.
00:06:08
Speaker
Sometimes it's stories they put themselves on, sometimes it's experiences from the past.
00:06:14
Speaker
So I really help them understand where they're at.
00:06:17
Speaker
and where they want to go.
00:06:18
Speaker
And then I help them bridge the gap by supporting them along the way.
00:06:23
Speaker
What I found for myself was that there's a lot of emotions involved that are actually stuck in our bodies that hold us back.
00:06:33
Speaker
So one big component for me, and I do all of this one-on-one, is actually help my clients release stuck emotions by letting go of the big emotions like anger, fear, guilt, hurt, and sadness, because
00:06:47
Speaker
it's really sometimes we're so blocked that we don't even see the truth.
00:06:52
Speaker
And I truly believe that we all have like this, this, this, this diamond inside of us and like, like great things.
00:06:59
Speaker
And it's like these layers that have been put on us and we just need to take it off.
00:07:04
Speaker
So I really am a coach, a guide, helping my clients to understand who they truly are and,
00:07:11
Speaker
what they have inside them so that they can show up in the life the way they want to show up as like the present mom, as the happy mom, being confident and successful at work because I really want them to be able to have it all.
00:07:27
Speaker
just so that we really can do what they want to do and be what they want to be.
00:07:32
Speaker
That's amazing.
00:07:34
Speaker
So what is it like when, or could you give us actually an example of when you are working with a client and they are working through their own past traumas or triggers or anything like that?
00:07:45
Speaker
Like, what is it like?
00:07:46
Speaker
Like, give us an example.
00:07:48
Speaker
And then what happens after that?
00:07:51
Speaker
So,
00:07:52
Speaker
I was like such a big question and I love it because I could go so deep.
00:07:57
Speaker
So what comes to my mind here is for one, I use NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming in my coaching program.
00:08:05
Speaker
So it's a technique that really speaks to the unconscious mind.
00:08:08
Speaker
It's a specific language.
00:08:10
Speaker
That reaches deeper because if you and I were to have a conversation and I would ask you like what kind of fears or doubts or like emotions are holding your back, we're talking on a conscious level.
00:08:22
Speaker
The truth is though that there's so much stuck within us that we aren't even aware of because we all know how emotions can transfer, for example, from our mom's bodies to the baby.
00:08:36
Speaker
And if the mom is experiencing something that made her really sad or nervous, this emotion can be transferred to the baby.
00:08:45
Speaker
So this baby would never be aware that this emotion was actually brought into the world unknowingly, but still holding this person back.
00:08:56
Speaker
Now, it's not the fault of the mom.
00:08:58
Speaker
It's not the fault of the baby.
00:09:00
Speaker
It's not what this is about.
00:09:02
Speaker
It's more about understanding what is this event and letting go of it.
00:09:07
Speaker
And since we're talking to the unconscious level, it's a very powerful method.
00:09:15
Speaker
That is very often very surprising to my clients, because like I said, if I would ask you on a conscious level, you would maybe say like, well, the first time I felt anger was maybe like four when I played with like a friend or a sibling and they took my toy away.
00:09:31
Speaker
Well, when we dig deeper, though, it's a completely different event and it can be so difficult.
00:09:37
Speaker
relieving to actually let go of this it's actually very beautiful because often you can see it in the face of of people like their the skin color changes like they get rosy cheeks the smile gets bigger afterwards like you can see physically a change that really a weight was let go of a client this week actually she she described it as it felt like
00:10:03
Speaker
she had this rock like being released and this burden falling off of her that she didn't even know it was there.
00:10:11
Speaker
So it's super powerful.
00:10:13
Speaker
It's just so great to see the clients come out on the other side.
00:10:17
Speaker
That's so neat.
00:10:18
Speaker
And,

The Science of Emotional Release and Epigenetics

00:10:19
Speaker
you know, just to give the listeners a little bit of context, you know, what you're talking about, isn't just some like woo woo crystals and rainbows and unicorns and things like that.
00:10:28
Speaker
There's actually a
00:10:29
Speaker
So much science behind this with like epigenetics, you know, our DNA can have switches that turns on and off.
00:10:36
Speaker
And so that is how information can be passed from a mother to a baby.
00:10:40
Speaker
And it can actually be generational, you know, two, three generations down the line.
00:10:45
Speaker
So an example, I mean, there's tons of science about this, but like one that I heard recently was a study that was done on, I can't remember if it was mice or rats, right?
00:10:53
Speaker
And what they would do was they would put like kind of inject the smell of cinnamon into their cage and simultaneously they would shock them.
00:11:03
Speaker
So they got conditioned to think cinnamon is scary because they would get shocked every time.
00:11:08
Speaker
And so they could test the cortisol levels, you know, of the stress that's being happened.
00:11:12
Speaker
Well, then two, three, four generations down the line of little mice babies,
00:11:18
Speaker
they discovered that when they put the cinnamon in the cage, that the cortisol was still being released, because the epigenetics, you know, genes literally got passed down.
00:11:26
Speaker
So that's how these things can happen.
00:11:27
Speaker
And so I think it's so interesting that, you know, the work that you do, you're really tapping into, you know, it could be two, three generations of something that you have no idea even happened, but it is in you.
00:11:38
Speaker
Isn't that crazy?
00:11:40
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:11:41
Speaker
And that's how it personally was for me, because I don't believe in teaching theory.
00:11:47
Speaker
So everything I teach, I experience for myself and I know it works.
00:11:51
Speaker
So I was led through the same process, which is called timeline therapy.
00:11:55
Speaker
And for me, it was like sadness was three generations ago.
00:12:00
Speaker
And that was so powerful to let go of that because, yeah.
00:12:04
Speaker
who would have known, right?
00:12:08
Speaker
And also the same practice to add on to this, you saying it's not woo-woo.
00:12:13
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:12:13
Speaker
That's actually a technique they use in Great Britain for soldiers that come back from war areas like Afghanistan or Iraq to let go of their trauma.
00:12:23
Speaker
So it's actually something that is used in that environment as well.
00:12:28
Speaker
So it's not something

The Importance of Self-Care for Moms

00:12:29
Speaker
that it just sounds like it works.
00:12:30
Speaker
It actually works.
00:12:32
Speaker
And there's so much study behind it.
00:12:34
Speaker
What I actually love is that recently someone brought this whole picture for me together because...
00:12:41
Speaker
you probably also are familiar with the chakras that we have in our body, right?
00:12:46
Speaker
Yes, energy centers.
00:12:47
Speaker
Yes, energy centers.
00:12:49
Speaker
Well, NLP is just a different way of lifting the burden and the cages away from these energy centers because after we're so blocked that we cannot get what we want to get.
00:13:02
Speaker
And this is, if you want to see it that way, it's a different way of letting go of these energy blocks so actually energy can start flowing again.
00:13:12
Speaker
And that's why it's so powerful.
00:13:15
Speaker
Yes, I completely I think that's amazing.
00:13:17
Speaker
So next question.
00:13:20
Speaker
Why should moms put themselves first?
00:13:26
Speaker
Good response.
00:13:29
Speaker
Because it's so important, right?
00:13:31
Speaker
And I said, oof, because for me, that was the biggest learning.
00:13:35
Speaker
Like I, as women, we are so used to putting everyone else first.
00:13:41
Speaker
It's like we take care of our kids, of our friends at work.
00:13:46
Speaker
We take care of our coworkers.
00:13:48
Speaker
We make sure everyone else is taken care of.
00:13:51
Speaker
And then often we sit down last and eat a plate at the big family dinner after everyone is pretty much done.
00:13:58
Speaker
The truth is, though, if we do that, we don't do justice to ourselves.
00:14:03
Speaker
and other people either because we cannot actually not show up the way we want to show up.
00:14:10
Speaker
Like in the past, that was me, right?
00:14:12
Speaker
I would make sure everything is done.
00:14:14
Speaker
And for me, work was such a dominant field.
00:14:17
Speaker
Like I would work so much.
00:14:19
Speaker
I would put everything into work and then I had a baby and then I would put everything into the baby and try to put everything into work.
00:14:27
Speaker
And what it meant that it left me without energy.
00:14:30
Speaker
It left me without like, actually I was just drained at the end of the day.
00:14:36
Speaker
And then I realized this is not working on the longterm.
00:14:40
Speaker
And instead, when I started to put myself first,
00:14:44
Speaker
And said, you know what, instead of starting doing like the drawers on the weekend, I actually started with take care of myself.
00:14:51
Speaker
So I feel good.
00:14:52
Speaker
My cup is filled and I can actually help my family much better.
00:14:57
Speaker
Because instead of sitting there and saying like, oh, I wish I would have five minutes for myself.
00:15:02
Speaker
And oh my gosh, I've been running around all day and I didn't get a break to sit down and have a coffee.
00:15:07
Speaker
I can say, you know what, I had my break already.
00:15:11
Speaker
It doesn't mean that's the only one.
00:15:13
Speaker
It better not be the only one.
00:15:15
Speaker
But it feels so good to come from that place of like, you know what, I feel good about myself because I took the time to shower or to sit down with a coffee, like whatever it is that feels good, it's so much better.
00:15:29
Speaker
It's similar to when we're on the plane and they put down the oxygen mask.
00:15:33
Speaker
And I know you know that reference.
00:15:36
Speaker
Nobody says like, hey, take care of your kids and take care of the people in front of you and the people in the back.
00:15:42
Speaker
And then take care of you.
00:15:44
Speaker
No, you need to make sure that you are okay.
00:15:46
Speaker
So you can actually do what you want to do.
00:15:49
Speaker
And that is be there for your family and the people in your life that matter.
00:15:53
Speaker
So it seems like it's selfish, but at the end it's not because it's the best service that you can do for the people around you.
00:16:02
Speaker
I agree.
00:16:03
Speaker
I think that message is so, um,
00:16:06
Speaker
important for moms to hear for the ones who aren't doing that currently.
00:16:10
Speaker
It's like, just try it, try it for a day, try it for two days, right?
00:16:14
Speaker
Even if you don't believe us right now, just try it and see how you feel and see how much easier it is to give to your kids after, right?
00:16:22
Speaker
Because
00:16:23
Speaker
I don't think that this is necessarily a conscious thought that a lot of moms have, but at some point, maybe it comes and goes where you kind of get to there's a stage that moms go through.
00:16:34
Speaker
It's kind of like resentment and you're like, Oh, I have to do this again.
00:16:38
Speaker
Like I have to make lunches again, or I have to drive them again.
00:16:41
Speaker
Oh my gosh, this is annoying.
00:16:43
Speaker
Right.
00:16:45
Speaker
And the thing is, you can totally circumvent that.
00:16:47
Speaker
That feeling doesn't really happen when you've taken care of you and you feel great.
00:16:53
Speaker
You're like, oh, of course

Balancing Self-Care with Family Responsibilities

00:16:55
Speaker
I'll do this.
00:16:55
Speaker
Of course, of course, because I love my kids.
00:16:57
Speaker
Like somehow it just gives you the energy and it takes away the burnout.
00:17:02
Speaker
And you just have like you're just operating on a whole new level.
00:17:05
Speaker
Do you have anything to add to that?
00:17:07
Speaker
I absolutely agree with that.
00:17:09
Speaker
And I also want to say I totally get all the people that are just listening to this and say like, yeah, yeah, I heard this before.
00:17:14
Speaker
This is, this doesn't feel right.
00:17:17
Speaker
Or this seems so crazy because I refuse this for so long.
00:17:23
Speaker
Like I,
00:17:24
Speaker
I actually, I would have been the same way.
00:17:26
Speaker
I would say like, yeah, yeah, of course I'm supposed to take care of myself.
00:17:30
Speaker
Like, yeah, sounds nice, but where do I take the time from?
00:17:34
Speaker
Because I'm already so busy with taking care of everything else.
00:17:38
Speaker
So how am I supposed to sit down for half an hour?
00:17:41
Speaker
The truth is though, once we make the switch and we take the time for ourselves, we see more of the opportunities because they automatically create themselves because they're so good for us.
00:17:54
Speaker
that we automatically, one, look out for them.
00:17:56
Speaker
And two, we realize sometimes it's just like a five minute break in the morning.
00:18:01
Speaker
Like for me, it was a big shift to wake up before my son does.
00:18:05
Speaker
Because if I am woken up by him, then it's like right in the middle of like, bam.
00:18:13
Speaker
Like mom mode, right?
00:18:15
Speaker
Like breakfast, getting dressed, like listening to the same story over and over, whatever it is.
00:18:20
Speaker
But if I wake up on my time,
00:18:24
Speaker
And I have actually time to sit down and like, just like, even if it's a couple minutes, it makes all the difference.
00:18:31
Speaker
I actually started doing like a little meditation while I'm still lying in bed.
00:18:35
Speaker
And it's just like a five minute meditation that, that
00:18:39
Speaker
changes the day completely because I take time to ease into it and take care of myself so I can show up the way I want to show up so I totally get the resistance it's totally worth it and it's fun at the end
00:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
00:18:56
Speaker
And I hear that resistance, too, because I know I think that's pretty universal as well.
00:19:00
Speaker
Like, I remember feeling that way.
00:19:03
Speaker
And, you know, and even now, like, there are still still still sometimes where I go, I go in and out of that taking care of myself first, because I'm really busy with my work and my kids.
00:19:15
Speaker
And sometimes I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I didn't prioritize myself.
00:19:18
Speaker
And then I start to feel it.
00:19:19
Speaker
And I'm like, wait, but I know better.
00:19:21
Speaker
Why am I not doing this?
00:19:22
Speaker
You know, and I don't beat myself up about it.
00:19:24
Speaker
I just know I can reset and start tomorrow.
00:19:26
Speaker
But yeah, mine looks a little different.
00:19:28
Speaker
I'm, I've never in my whole entire life been a morning person.
00:19:32
Speaker
So starting off, I don't mind hopping out of bed and just jumping right into kid mode like that to me is not a big deal.
00:19:38
Speaker
Like I've just always done it that way.
00:19:40
Speaker
But to me, mine's nighttime.
00:19:41
Speaker
I like to have like my me time at night, settle down.
00:19:44
Speaker
I have my routine, but then also carving out a little bit of time in the middle of the day.
00:19:48
Speaker
I've been

The Role of Sleep in Health and Energy Maintenance

00:19:49
Speaker
trying to prioritize my health in 2024.
00:19:52
Speaker
And so what that looks like for me is doing a workout in the middle of the day, which seems very disruptive to my flow.
00:19:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:59
Speaker
Because then it's like shower, not shower.
00:20:00
Speaker
How do we do that?
00:20:01
Speaker
You know, but I've been making it work and I can tell you, I feel amazing.
00:20:06
Speaker
I just have so much more energy to get through the day.
00:20:08
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And it's just like totally paying off dividends to my kids and my clients and my work because it's like the way I'm structuring it is working for me.
00:20:16
Speaker
So maybe that's another point that we make is everybody's can be different, right?
00:20:19
Speaker
We don't all have to do the same thing.
00:20:21
Speaker
It's just whatever feels good to you, whatever fills your cup and gives you energy so that you can be there for the people that you love in your home, right?
00:20:29
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:20:30
Speaker
I agree with that.
00:20:31
Speaker
And also, when you were talking the workouts at night, for example, a trap we all fall into is like, oh, we do a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
00:20:41
Speaker
And I will just do this real quick.
00:20:43
Speaker
And I do the dishes at 11 p.m.
00:20:45
Speaker
at night because I want to get it done.
00:20:47
Speaker
And suddenly I find myself going and.
00:20:50
Speaker
to bed at like midnight, but I need to get up at five or six in the morning because the kids need to get ready for school and I need to get ready for work.
00:20:59
Speaker
Well, that's like burning the candle on both ends.
00:21:02
Speaker
It's just not working.
00:21:04
Speaker
And when we talk about
00:21:07
Speaker
putting yourself first as a mom, I actually want to say that sleep is probably one of the biggest ones.
00:21:14
Speaker
Because that is one that makes such a big difference when we actually give our body enough rest.
00:21:21
Speaker
Because we all know how it is when it's like, especially with like a baby, it's like sleepless nights and we're trying to operate in robot mode and like have to hold our eyes open because they just don't stay open by themselves.
00:21:34
Speaker
It's
00:21:35
Speaker
it's, it's just completely different.
00:21:37
Speaker
So I think that is so important to pay attention to the time we actually allow our bodies to rest.
00:21:46
Speaker
Yeah, speaking of sleep, it's funny, that topic just keeps coming.
00:21:49
Speaker
It's like the universe must want me to know that because it keeps coming in.
00:21:52
Speaker
It's just like sleep.
00:21:55
Speaker
But no, one of my guests a while back was a functional medicine certified health coach.
00:22:00
Speaker
She was actually one
00:22:01
Speaker
instructor in school.
00:22:03
Speaker
And so she just, we talked about all the modifiable lifestyle factors, which we're kind of veering off track a little bit here, but it's just all the, you know, diet, exercise, stress management, sleep.
00:22:14
Speaker
She said, if we could just pick one thing,
00:22:16
Speaker
It would be sleep.
00:22:17
Speaker
She's like, sleep is so important.
00:22:18
Speaker
And then I was at a conference this weekend, a health and wellness conference, and she referenced a book, the speaker referenced a book, and I can't remember the title right now, but they just have done so much science and studies about sleep.
00:22:31
Speaker
you know, if you are down to a few hours of sleep at night, even by, or like lacking like one or two hours of sleep, the cumulative effects on your body are like so bad.
00:22:40
Speaker
Like they're just like connecting all the connections to cancer and things like that.
00:22:45
Speaker
Like, it's like, how is that?
00:22:46
Speaker
That's not good for your family either.
00:22:47
Speaker
You don't want to be, you know, ideally having any type of disease in your body because then you can't be the mom.
00:22:52
Speaker
So it's like, do it now, take care of yourself now.
00:22:55
Speaker
So you're not like faced with like some more severe health consequences down the line.
00:22:59
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:23:02
Speaker
And I love how you said like, hey, this topic just keeps coming up because I think that is also a really big lesson that I was just aware once I entered the coaching world is if a lesson keeps coming up, then there's something like a topic that keeps coming up and there's something for you to learn, like something for you to shift.
00:23:22
Speaker
So when you say like, hey, this sleep.
00:23:24
Speaker
So yeah, maybe there's something to look at.
00:23:27
Speaker
But it's like,
00:23:28
Speaker
It's so fascinating because like sometimes we're like, oh, wait a minute.
00:23:33
Speaker
Why does this like the same topic or like when your friend shows up and it's like, you're like, wait a minute, I just went through this whole stuff.
00:23:40
Speaker
Like, how does she talk about this now?
00:23:43
Speaker
Because it's literally in your face.
00:23:44
Speaker
Like, yeah, this is the area you want to work on.
00:23:48
Speaker
It's so true.
00:23:49
Speaker
And I literally I do have to use a lot of discipline on myself to go to bed because like I said, I'm more of a night owl.
00:23:54
Speaker
I want to stay up and watch my show or wind down or whatever.
00:23:57
Speaker
And I literally have to say, Laura, go to bed.
00:24:02
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That's what I have to do to get myself because otherwise I don't want to.
00:24:05
Speaker
Like I just want the party to keep going.
00:24:06
Speaker
But yeah, I've learned my lesson over and over and over again.
00:24:09
Speaker
So maybe that's also what 2024 is about for me is just to have that discipline to just go to bed, even if I don't want to, because I know how important and how much better I'll feel the next day and how it's affecting my long-term health.
00:24:21
Speaker
I'm going to pause my conversation with Linda Alexander.
00:24:25
Speaker
If you'd like to hear more, listen to the next episode.
00:24:29
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Positively Healthy Mom podcast because there's no manual for the hardest job in the world.
00:24:36
Speaker
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