The Kindness Matters Podcast
So. Much. Division. Let's talk about how to change that. Re-engage as neighbors, friends, co-workers and family. Let's set out to change the world. Strike that. Change A World. One person at a time, make someone's life a little better and then do it again tomorrow and the day after that, through kindness.
Kindness is a Super-Power that each of us has within us. It is so powerful it has the potential to change not only your life but those around you, too. Let's talk about kindness.
The Kindness Matters Podcast
Jessica Haas on the Power of Self-Kindness
Have you ever wondered if chasing your career ambitions could be costing you your well-being? Join us as we uncover the often-overlooked balance between success and self-care with our guest, Jessica Haas, (use this link for the offer Jessica talks about during the show!) an integrative health coach. Jessica opens up about her personal battle with burnout and how she transformed her life from a phlebotomist to a health coach in a functional medicine practice. Learn alongside her as she walks us through the importance of self-kindness and the necessity of not overextending oneself, offering compelling insights on how to prioritize holistic health for genuine healing and well-being.
Discover the profound connection between stress and health as we dive into stories that highlight the transformative power of joy and kindness. From managing a child's epilepsy with a holistic approach to a mother's incredible journey of bringing happiness amid her daughter's illness, we showcase the impact of self-compassion on overall productivity and happiness. Tune in to hear practical tips on recognizing and reframing negative self-talk, and understand why embracing self-kindness is the key to a more successful and joyful life. Don't miss this heartfelt conversation filled with inspiration and actionable advice.
The Kindness Matters Podcast is part of the DEN-The Deluxe Edition Network. Check them out to find your next favorite podcast.
Do you dread Mondays? Does the thought of another Monday steal the joy of your weekend? Let me tell you about a product I have found and tried that can do away with the Sunday Scaries. Oddly enough, it’s from a company called Sunday Scaries. I have personally tried their products, gummies and tinctures and I can personally attest to their efficacy. If you go to their website and order any product, use the code Kindness20 to receive a 20% discount on your order.
Do you like good coffee? Are you like me and go to bed in anticipation of a great cup of coffee in the morning (and afternoon, maybe). Then let me introduce you to my newest sponsor, Coffee Bros. They have built their business on the cornerstones of sustainability, quality, consistency, and freshness. From coffee to brewing techniques to coffee and espresso machines, they should be your go-to for all things coffee. And if you order from them, use the code Kind10 to get a 10% discount on your order.
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This podcast is part of the Deluxe Edition Network. To find other great shows on the network, head over to DeluxeEditionNetworkcom. That's DeluxeEditionNetworkcom.
Speaker 2:Kindness, we see it all around us. We see it when someone pays for someone else's coffee or holds the door open for another person. We see it in the smallest of gestures, like a smile or a kind word. But it's different when we turn on the news or social media. Oftentimes what we hear about what outlets are pushing is the opposite of kind. Welcome to the Kindness Matters Podcast. Our goal is to give you a place to relax, to revel in stories of people who have received or given kindness, a place to inspire and motivate each and every one of us to practice kindness every day. Hey, hello and welcome everybody. You are listening to the Kindness Matters podcast. I am your host, mike Rathbun. As you heard in the intro.
Speaker 2:This podcast is a member of the Deluxe Edition Network of Fine Podcasts and every month they have a podcast of the month, and for the month of August that podcast is Horsin' Around Host Joel Sharp with producer Jared Picone. Lead the boys from the Red Horse Hair Studio Shane Anthony, cisco Collazo, sean Boyle and Joel Capalupo through their nonsensical batter from the cutting room floor and deliver it in this hilarious, no-holds-barred podcast. From conspiracies and monsters to ghosts and surreal true life, your squishy brain will be filled with much of the awesome. Squishy brain will be filled with much of the awesome. Also, don't forget to check out the show notes, where you'll find links and discount codes for two companies I've partnered with Sunday Scaries, a company that makes broad spectrum CBD gummies, and Coffee Bros that make an amazing blend of coffees. I use both of these products and they are nothing short of amazing. And now let's get into the show.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome everybody. Thank you for choosing to listen to the Kindness Matters podcast. You are some of the kindest people I know, and I have a guest today. She's absolutely fantastic. She's dedicated to helping confident, driven women on the brink of burnout.
Speaker 2:As an integrative health coach working in a functional medicine practice, she has witnessed firsthand the detrimental effects of burnout on health. Burnout often stems from overextending ourselves, and my guest is passionate about spreading the message that it is crucial not to give from a place of survival. When we've stressed, we cannot genuinely offer our best selves, and our intended acts of kindness can turn into judgment, resentment and frustration when they aren't received as hoped. My guest emphasizes the importance of self-kindness as a foundational step towards healing and well-being. She teaches clients to adopt a first self approach, envisioning their best life while using insights from their stress and emotions to uncover what they value most deeply. She is certified as an international health coach and a graduate of INN with an integrative health coaching certificate. My guest is Jessica Haas. Welcome to the show, jessica. Hello, I think I got through most of that.
Speaker 3:Yes, you did Beautiful.
Speaker 2:Minimal editing. Thank you, how are you today?
Speaker 3:I'm well. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I am very well also. It's a beautiful day in Minnesota, no rain, which is unusual, so we'll take it and you're out in Colorado, right I'm out in colorado.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, nice beautiful even-tempered today, so it's never not nice.
Speaker 2:now did I hear somewhere that denver was like second only to kansas, or not kansas, san diego, um, for number of sunny days per year?
Speaker 3:I wouldn't be surprised. I'm not sure of the statistics, but it's sunny here a lot.
Speaker 2:It's sunny a lot and you're going to like that, so fantastic of you to join me. I really really appreciate it. Talk to me about helping Women with burnout. What brought you to that space?
Speaker 3:So it's definitely a roundabout story, starting with me being my own patient. For a long time, I worked night shifts. I would sleep two hours and then I would go back to school while I was getting my degree. I was studying health and also theater at the time, so learning a lot about how people work and tick and how their bodies are, stay healthy or don't, learning a lot about balance. But in that time I learned how important it was to do things like sleep at night, which sometimes we take for granted, right.
Speaker 3:Wait what you can sleep at night, right, I thought, well, if I just keep doing more, that eventually it's all going to pay off. And I found myself in a situation where I had to step back and relax and just re-story the way that I looked at the world. Right, because it's not just about what we do, but it's how we're being. And so I really had to go through a deep journey of discovering what are my gifts, what are the things that I am passionate about, and how can I give to others and build what I need for myself, while while also moving up in my career, right, right? So, long story short, I have a crazy resume, but I ended up working as a phlebotomist for my functional medicine doctor, who is now my one of my close partners, and she hired me on as her health coach.
Speaker 3:Eventually, after four years, she watched me in my journey with my son while he was dealing with navigating seizures, and so she saw my passion for holistic health, and she needed some support with her patients, because in functional medicine, we often give a really detailed plan of what needs to happen and it's very hard sometimes for people to implement, and she was finding that, even though she had nurse practitioners or nutritionists or different people helping. The biggest thing she was really looking for was how do I help these people actually implement this into their life so that it can actually heal them, and so I started out focusing on food and macros and all the normal things that you think of with health, and quickly learned that one of the biggest stumbling blocks that my patients were running into was that they were very, very stressed and stress and digestive health, stress and hormones they often go hand in hand because when we are in fight or flight.
Speaker 3:We are not digesting our food, we are not able to like. Well, we digest, but it's not as effective right it slows down some of the secondary processes, because in fight or flight we are trying to run away from a tiger and so digesting your food or thinking clearly really aren't the number one things going on in the body. Sure sure.
Speaker 2:So just for my listeners who might not know what is the difference, is there a difference between functional medicine and medicine? Medicine.
Speaker 3:So functional medicine, it's a root cause medicine. It's not been around for a really long time but it really looks at a lot of different principles from a lot of different medicine. It's going to look at your microbiome. It looks at it's more of a deep dive into what is the root cause of what's going on. A lot of your regular traditional medicine today looks at like how can I fix the presenting symptom? But what we really want to look at is what is underneath that presenting symptom.
Speaker 2:What's causing those symptoms?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there's a lot of different modalities. Dr Meyer is a nutritionist and a regular doctor and a functional medicine doctor, so we use a lot of different modalities lot of different modalities, wow yeah, um, that's okay.
Speaker 2:So, and do you see that I mean?
Speaker 3:did you say it was new functional medicine? Is that new Within the last? Uh gosh, I think it's been 50 or 60 years. So it's not like brand new cutting edge, but it's like the world of medicine. The word functional medicine has not been around, um, for a very long time, but root cause medicine has been and it does pull from a lot of that.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah, because I see a lot of people having trouble with you know, nine times out of 10, you go to the doctor and they're just treating the symptoms. And I would it's just me, I'm not a doctor, but it seems like the common sense way to go would be to look for the root cause of those symptoms.
Speaker 3:Well, and I think there's a place for any kind of medicine that you have. But the Western medicine model is it's get people in and out, get them a quick fix, make them feel better right away. You have a 15 minute appointment. We're not really going to have a deep dive, right. We're not going to talk about the toxins in your home or filtering your water or what kind of blue light exposure you have, and so these are things that I talk about many times with my patients, that it's just it's nice to be able to sit down and go. What is really going on Are your finances, is your relationship, what, like what piece of this is really bothering your health? Is this actually a real health issue that comes from something that you're eating or the way that you're exercising, or does this go to an emotional trauma, or does this?
Speaker 2:there's so many different ways that health can be helped, right, yeah, and so oftentimes yeah, and you mentioned it too, you were talking about it it's like get you in, get you out, and then, you know, charge someone.
Speaker 2:And I noticed just, probably within the last 10 or 15 years that's even gotten worse, because I used to go to my doctor for my yearly physical and we talk about all kinds of things. You know, things that were health adjacent, and then all of a sudden I did that with, I had to switch health plans, and I did that with my new doctor and I got this bill, you know X hundred of dollars for a yearly checkup. And I went what? Oh well, you talked about this and that and the other thing and that you know. So this whole yeah, don't even get me started on medicine these days, especially in the US, it's absolutely ridiculous, but that's not what we're talking about. That you know. So much more plays into when somebody goes to the doctor or they're feeling you know they have X symptom, but you really have to dig to find out what's causing that.
Speaker 3:And oftentimes it's burnout, do you think most of the time there is a stress element that plays into that, at least the health situations that I deal with, which tend to, like I say, be hormone related gut health things that are deeper than obviously. Many of these people went to a regular doctor. They didn't find relief, so then they're moving on to something like functional medicine because they have complicated situation going on, and so one of the layers that I found that really does help is looking at that stress, and sometimes it's it's mental stress. But there are other kinds of stressors too. It might be an environmental stressor, like you have mold in your home. It might be you need to filter your water. It might be that you are running four-hour marathons daily or something crazy. I mean, I've talked to people who do all sorts of things that are very stressful on the body and if we over-exercise or we over-push ourselves, that's also a form of stress.
Speaker 2:So that getting 30 minutes of exercise is not necessarily better. If you're getting 240 minutes of exercise a day, you can't overdo it.
Speaker 3:You can overdo anything, depending on the skill that you're bringing in and the output that you're putting out and the way that you're addressing it. If you're running because you love it, because it brings you joy and you are aligned with it, it's very different than if you're running because someone is trying to train you for a marathon and your life's at stake.
Speaker 3:Right, and that's not you know I haven't ever talked to anyone whose life is at stake to run a marathon, but you're trying to cure yourself of something that you're running away from, and I think some people actually, in a a very literal sense, are trying to run away from something that they don't want anymore.
Speaker 2:And that's a whole other subject. So now you mentioned your son. Your son had diabetes, is that? I don't see it epilepsy.
Speaker 3:oh my god, sorry, completely he started out a very healthy baby and at three years old, out of the blue had four seizures tonic-clonic, which are the big grand mal type seizures, and it was within two days. And so we went from a very normal, healthy family to all of a sudden dealing with these seizures.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, and he was newborn.
Speaker 3:He was three.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So at three years old, he couldn't swallow pills. He couldn't take a lot of these medications that they were prescribing the supplements, of course. Being interested in holistic health, I was trying to supplement with anything that I could. Interested in holistic health, I was trying to supplement with anything that I could, and so he had these concoctions of medication that we would suck up into a syringe, crushed up pills or whatever we needed to do. He was dealing with taking these really gross medications and we started to get really stressed right Because it's like how are we going to get him to take this two times a day?
Speaker 3:Yeah he was upset because there's a big change in his life. He's got to take this yucky medicine, and so my saving grace was a friend of mine, Tara Garrity, who wrote the book Making Cancer Fun, sent me a box of medicine syringes that had Velcro and little plastic toys and she said use these and make it a game when you give him his medicine. And me being a stressed out mom, there's no way this is going to work, but I'll try.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It can't hurt.
Speaker 2:Right, what have you got to lose?
Speaker 3:And, to my amazement, it shifted the energy in the room and he was able to take the medicine with a smile on his face, with his little race cars cheering him on. His little paw patrol guy was like yeah, you can do this, you're tough, and he was able to um eventually. After several years of working on the condition, we were able to turn around his his seizures to where he's been seizure free for three years now.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:Long journey to get there, but the piece of that I think will be interesting to your listeners is the the energy of kindness and joy and fun that was required in that moment to really help him heal.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. Wow, that's so cool. I did an episode early on with a woman who her son on his first birthday was in the emergency room and was diagnosed with leukemia on his first birthday. Turns out it wasn't leukemia, but because of that experience she quit her job working for the FBI and somebody yeah, now I'm not going to remember Berry Elderberry syrup and her dad had a recipe that his mom had had and she made it and her son hated it, and so then she started fiddling around and she finally got a recipe that he could take, and he takes it all the time now.
Speaker 2:He's perfectly healthy. She started selling it at like farmer's markets and stuff. Finally got a brick and mortar store and somebody wrote to her and said you know, we're going through cancer at my house and I'd like to buy some of your elderberry syrup. And she said, if you're going through cancer, you're not going to pay for it for me. And she sent it to him. And it's just, there's so many people in the world like that and apparently you have friends like that too.
Speaker 2:Yes, I've never heard of the book making cancer fun, though. Hey, everybody, we're going to be right back to my conversation with jessica haas right after this brief message from our another Deluxe Edition Network podcast.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm sorry, Did I break your concentration?
Speaker 1:Everybody be cool, because this is season three of the Church of Tarantino podcast and we're about to get medieval on your ass. I'm your host, the Reverend Scott Kaye, and for our third season here at the church, we'll be taking an in-depth look at the film that not only changed cinema but made Motherfucker Bring out the gimp and Royale Wigson A part of the pop culture lexicon practically overnight. I'm, of course, talking about Pulp Fiction as it turns 30. We should have shotguns for this kind of a deal. No-transcript project announcements spewed from QT's mouth over the past 30 plus years to give you the level of blue balls these unrealized projects have left us with. I hid this uncomfortable hunk of metal up my ass two years, so grab yourself a big kahuna burger and a $5 shake and stop on down to the Church of Tarantino and become a member of the coolest fucking church around. God damn, jimmy, this some serious gourmet shit Now touching you three times a month yeah, she also.
Speaker 3:So Tara had a daughter who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, which is a type of brain cancer oh my god four and she has this amazing story where she goes through and talks about how she would make parties. She's like, if this is the last moments that I have with my daughter, I'm going to make it fun. I I'm not going to be miserable.
Speaker 3:She was going through a domestic violence case At the same time with her husband and there was just a lot going on for her and her saving grace really was Throwing these little parties in the room, for like alright, it's a chemo party. She drew faces on the little puke hats that they would put on the toilets when they needed to collect a sample that they would put on the on the toilets when they needed to collect a sample or whatever it was.
Speaker 3:But but she did whatever she could to keep those spirits up and um. Ultimately, her story is also a success story where her daughter came through, which is just.
Speaker 3:I mean, she was my flower girl in my wedding very close to my heart, um, but no, now she's going on to college this year and it's just absolutely amazing what I have learned from her about parenting and how do you get a kid to listen and engage and really, as adults, we forget about fun sometimes, we forget about the kindness and the goodness and we just want to make things work. We just want to do it and do it right, and this is something to play with my patients all the time too.
Speaker 3:It's like I just have to work harder, I have to do more, I have to make things line up and I have to control the situation, and we oftentimes forget the receiving, the loving, the kindness, the things that need to go with that to be really truly successful on a deep spiritual level.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. So now you're a big believer that you have to be kind to yourself. Yes, not necessarily in order to be kind to somebody else, but it starts with you, but it starts with you.
Speaker 3:I think we can get caught in a trap where we are trying to do for others and I've seen many, many people who get frustrated because you're attempt for us to get the dopamine hit that we're not giving ourselves of being kind to ourselves, so we can reach out and try and be nice to others and we get that, that reward and that praise that we're not accepting from ourselves. But I do think that it's not as effective at really lifting everyone as if we are being kind to ourselves first and foremost. Then, when we shine our light, when we lift others up, when we become leaders to those around us by saying you know, this is what I see in you, I see your gift here is how we can raise together and move through the world in a better way together through that connection. If I'm suppressed and not being kind to myself and I'm lifting someone else up, then you're just putting someone on a pedestal and you're not walking with them and you're not really having that authentic leadership right.
Speaker 2:Yes, I just kind of learned like amen, get my praise on all up in here. So do you have any tips or tricks for people how they could be kinder to themselves?
Speaker 3:Well, first and foremost, we have to become aware of what we're telling ourselves. No-transcript patterns of how we talk to ourselves is the first thing that you want to know.
Speaker 2:Absolutely that negative self-talk will get you every time.
Speaker 3:And sometimes it's not even like you're bad, you're stupid, you're fat. Whatever Mine was, you have to work hard to earn money. You have to work hard, right, and so I spent a lot of time in a lot of coaching myself working on how do I bring ease to my life, Because if I have to work hard all the time, it's not a very nice way to be and it's not very kind if you're constantly whipping yourself to do all the things perfectly.
Speaker 2:For sure.
Speaker 3:When you're able to lift that pressure that you are putting on yourself without even recognizing it, it's amazing how your productivity might increase your life flows easier. When you get in that alignment, you're not hitting as many walls, right?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:And so. So what I work with with my patients is what is your story? And then how do we challenge that a little bit? How do we turn that around on its head so that when it comes up that I have to work hard to make a bunch of money and that's how I'm going to go through life? Well, what if I just work with ease and I work in my full potential? Yeah, Then you challenge that and you reframe and you put that up on your bathroom mirror or whatever it is that you need to do, so that you remember when you get in that place of feeling frantic, feeling like you need to control things. Well, how am I going to challenge that? And is it true that I really need to do that? Or can I do this in an easier way?
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I have a post-it. I'm glad that I'm not perfect and that I never will be, because it means that I'm not limited to where I am today.
Speaker 3:I love that quote. Beautiful, I love it.
Speaker 2:And it's sitting right here on my computer. Wow, yeah, and it's sitting right here on my computer. Yeah, that it's so true, though, because we we oftentimes we beat ourselves up, and and if we, you know, we don't have something that we think we need, then we just have to work harder, and, and that's so destructive mentally, physically, physically can be. Do you see patients like telehealth kind of thing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So if somebody was listening to this episode, for example, I went I need to talk to Jessica. They can do that.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, absolutely. Hop on and we can do a 15 minute call and just get to see if we're even a good match, and if we aren't, I can always refer you somewhere that might be even a better match or I can't imagine somebody not wanting to work with you.
Speaker 2:but and but match. Yes, it has to work both ways.
Speaker 3:Right and yeah, yeah. So I am happy to coach.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, that's good to know.
Speaker 3:Dr Meyer. If you want to work through our practice, which is a separate thing, I have my own business, but also with Dr Meyer. If you want to work with her, you would need a visit in Colorado at least once in the year. But if you can come out once, then you can work there.
Speaker 2:Perfect, perfect. Well, jessica, it has been such a delight having you on. I feel better. I feel you on, I feel better, I feel uplifted. I feel motivated now just from talking to you, and I'm sure my listeners will be too. Thank you so much. I'm going to have all of your links in the show notes, so if you're listening to Jessica and you went, that girl makes a lot of sense. You can just jump in the show notes and you'll. You can go straight to her website and uh, yeah.
Speaker 3:I've got a freebie. Um, I will give you my landing page, but there's a meditation in there that will set up your day for success. If you are just trying to calm your nervous system, you can just pop on and look at that video. Or if you need some tips for burnout, I have a burnout journal that you can hop in and look at as well.
Speaker 2:Cool. Thank you, wow. So there's absolutely no reason not to listen and go to those show notes, folks, because there's a lot of stuff there. Thank you so much, jessica. I appreciate you and I appreciate the time that you're giving to me today and fantastic to talk to you.
Speaker 3:Thank you for your time and the message of kindness. I absolutely love it.
Speaker 2:We will be in touch. Wow, what a great guest. So appreciate jessica hawes. I mean all of us, I think, at some level or another, can relate to being burned out or stressed out just by the world in general. Right, and and I so appreciate the work that she does and her group over there in Denver. If you are feeling like maybe you've been experiencing some symptoms and your regular doctor just doesn't know what's going on, maybe pop into the show notes, pick up Jessica's link and try it out. Give her a shout. That is she's so cool and that will do it for this episode of the Kindness Matters podcast for this week.
Speaker 2:Make sure you follow us on all your social media channels. We're on Facebook, instagram, linkedin and TikTok. I believe we're also on YouTube as well, so you can always find us. Just check out the Kindness Matters podcast. So we will be back again next week with another episode, but in the meantime, be that person who roots for others, who tells a stranger they look amazing and encourages others to believe in themselves and their dreams. You've been listening to the Kindness Matters Podcast. I am your host, mike Rathbun. Have a fantastic week.
