Up-Level Your Life with Mindy
The Path to Balanced Living: Integrating Mind and Body with Hope Pedraza
In this episode, we'll unlock the secrets to achieving holistic well-being with my guest, the exceptional Hope Pedraza. Discover how Hope combines functional diagnostic nutrition, holistic practices, and energy healing techniques like Reiki and human design to help women overcome chronic health issues. By delving into both the physical and emotional roots of ailments, Hope offers a comprehensive approach to finding balance, joy, and fulfillment. Drawing inspiration from Louise Hay, this episode emphasizes the significance of understanding the energetic and emotional origins behind physical symptoms.
Explore the intricate relationship between thyroid and adrenal health and learn why chronic stress and cortisol overproduction can wreak havoc on these vital glands. Mindy and Hope critique the conventional compartmentalized approach to thyroid treatment and highlight the importance of a holistic perspective. They also discuss the role of the throat chakra in thyroid health, shedding light on how generational trauma and societal conditioning may contribute to the prevalence of thyroid issues in women. The episode also emphasizes the critical role minerals like sodium and magnesium play in maintaining adrenal and thyroid health, addressing common misconceptions and stressing the importance of quality sources.
Finally, discover the transformative power of understanding your human design for a personalized wellness journey. Learn how one-size-fits-all solutions often fall short and how respecting your unique energy flow can lead to more empowered health decisions. Hope and Mindy share their experiences with human design, explaining how this system can improve communication and interpersonal dynamics. Whether you're a Manifesting Generator or have another profile, this episode underscores the liberating potential of living in alignment with your true self, paving the way for enhanced well-being and personal growth.
To learn more about Hope, visit:
https://www.hopefulandwholesome.com/
To learn more about Mindy CLICK HERE
In this episode, we'll unlock the secrets to achieving holistic well-being with my guest, the exceptional Hope Pedraza. Discover how Hope combines functional diagnostic nutrition, holistic practices, and energy healing techniques like Reiki and human design to help women overcome chronic health issues. By delving into both the physical and emotional roots of ailments, Hope offers a comprehensive approach to finding balance, joy, and fulfillment. Drawing inspiration from Louise Hay, this episode emphasizes the significance of understanding the energetic and emotional origins behind physical symptoms.
Explore the intricate relationship between thyroid and adrenal health and learn why chronic stress and cortisol overproduction can wreak havoc on these vital glands. Mindy and Hope critique the conventional compartmentalized approach to thyroid treatment and highlight the importance of a holistic perspective. They also discuss the role of the throat chakra in thyroid health, shedding light on how generational trauma and societal conditioning may contribute to the prevalence of thyroid issues in women. The episode also emphasizes the critical role minerals like sodium and magnesium play in maintaining adrenal and thyroid health, addressing common misconceptions and stressing the importance of quality sources.
Finally, discover the transformative power of understanding your human design for a personalized wellness journey. Learn how one-size-fits-all solutions often fall short and how respecting your unique energy flow can lead to more empowered health decisions. Hope and Mindy share their experiences with human design, explaining how this system can improve communication and interpersonal dynamics. Whether you're a Manifesting Generator or have another profile, this episode underscores the liberating potential of living in alignment with your true self, paving the way for enhanced well-being and personal growth.
To learn more about Hope, visit:
https://www.hopefulandwholesome.com/
To learn more about Mindy CLICK HERE
hey, friends, this is your host, mindy duff, and you're listening to up level your life with mindy, your number one personal growth podcast that will bring you closer to uncovering your greatest self. As a certified holistic health and nutrition coach, I created this podcast for anyone who desires to improve physically, emotionally and spiritually. I'll be interviewing experts and sharing tips and tricks that have helped not only my clients, but that have guided me on my own transformational journey. I believe that we all have a greatness that lies within. We just need to uncover it. Are you ready to level up? Then let's begin. Hi everyone and welcome back to Uplevel your Life with Mindy. I am your host, mindy Duff, and I have a special guest with me.
Speaker 1:Today I'm going to be chatting with Hope Pedraza and we are going to be all over the board. Today we were just talking about our topic of the day. The topic du jour is going to be so many things, because Hope covers so many different things. Let me tell you just a little bit about her. Hope is a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, a certified holistic nutritionist, a Reiki practitioner, a human design guide, an NLP practitioner and a hypnotherapist, as well as the founder of InBalance, a Pilates-based fitness franchise and the host of her own podcast, hopeful and Wholesome. She helps female entrepreneurs heal chronic symptoms, create balance and ease in the body and, with the combination of functional medicine and energy medicine, so they can live a life full of joy and fulfillment and impact. So, joy, hope. Thank you for being here today. You're so welcome. I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me today.
Speaker 1:You're so welcome, so glad to be here. Thank you for having me, and I think you like embody all of my favorite things, because I'm here for all of the health and nutrition stuff, but then I also love that you're you're. You have the Reiki in there and you have the human design recognizing the energetic components of our health as well. So it's not just, it's not just what you eat, it's not just the energy, it's, it's, all of it. So so tell us just a little bit in your own words what you do.
Speaker 2:I know I read a nice little bio for you, but I always like to hear people explain it in their own words yeah no, it's good, and I know it's a mouthful, uh, uh, it's a lot of things, and if you know anything about human design, I am like the full embodiment of a manifesting generator, because I can't pick just one thing.
Speaker 2:I like to do all the things, um. So, yeah, I mean, typically how I explain myself to people is my work is at the intersection of functional medicine and energy medicine, so I'm helping people, typically women. I might work with people besides women, but mostly women who I work with get to the root cause of chronic symptoms. And the root cause for me is like I always use air quotes it's the real root cause. So it's looking at the physical and the energetic, because I am in. I believe that all of the things that are happening in our physical body all have its roots, their roots in our energetic, emotional body. So for me it's understanding, like, yeah, I want to understand what's going on in your physical body, but to really get to the root cause and like the underlying reason of why it's happening, we have to look at the energetic, emotional body, and so that's what I do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I love that and I'm here for all that and I'm sure um are you familiar with Louise Hay and some?
Speaker 2:of her work Okay.
Speaker 1:So I referenced that a lot on this podcast as well. In fact, today I've got something going on in my physical body right now Nothing I don't think super serious, but my first thing to start searching up is all right. What does Louise Hay say about?
Speaker 2:this.
Speaker 1:It's my emotional issue underneath this, because we can treat the emotional, or we could treat the physical, but you're going to get more bang for your buck if you do both.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:You have just so many different topics that you kind of I guess we'll say specialize in or like to talk about, and one of them jumped out at me as being really important because, gosh, off the top of my head, I could name easily 10 of my close friends and family who are on medication for thyroid problems and people who are listening. If you're not on medication for thyroid problems, you also can probably list 10 new people. It's just so common. So I'm curious. You have a kind of a talking point here about the link between adrenals and the thyroid.
Speaker 1:And I just am a little curious to hear your take on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. No, I love this question and I love this topic and it's funny you asked that. I did an Instagram live last week and I had things I wanted to talk about. I ended up going on this tangent, talking about the thyroid and the connection with the energetic and physical body, with the thyroid, so it's funny you're asking this.
Speaker 2:So when we're looking at just like the physiological piece of our thyroid and our adrenals and the fact is that our thyroid and our adrenals have a really close, special relationship and they have to be able to talk to each other and communicate with each other for both of them to work optimally, and I mean, I would say probably, like kind of what you were just saying, I think, like 90% of the women I work with have some sort of thyroid something, whether it's full on, like diagnosis, or they just have a slow functioning thyroid, they have Hashimoto's, like. So I mean, the thyroid thing is rampant in women across the board and I can give you my theory on that if you want to know it energetically. But we're talking about the physiological piece. The adrenals and the thyroid, like I said, have to talk to each other and in a lot of cases it's kind of like a chicken or egg situation. So it's like, okay, did my thyroid start malfunctioning and then my adrenals did, or did my adrenals start malfunctioning? Which caused the thyroid to malfunction? And honestly, it doesn't really matter which started first. The fact is we have to be able to address both of them.
Speaker 2:And when we're chronically stressed and I think everybody listening probably knows like this on some level when we're chronically stressed, we're constantly emitting cortisol, right, which is our stress hormone and that comes from our adrenals, and so our adrenals are our adrenals. I feel like our adrenals and our liver are two of the hardest working organs in the body, like we put so much stress on them. And so when we're chronically stressed and stressing out our adrenals, just by default and the chain reaction of events, our thyroid is going to take a hit too. And so, yeah, I mean there is this connection between the thyroid and the adrenals and we have to be able to look at, but we can't. And this is, I mean, this is like going down a rabbit hole.
Speaker 2:Probably another topic for another day, but this is kind of one of the gaps that conventional medicine leaves us in is we can't compartmentalize parts of our body. It's all connected. So when conventional medicine is sending us to 48 different specialists, we need to put all those pieces together. Just addressing the thyroid is not going to fix it, it's just not. So we have to look at it holistically and really address all the pieces that are connected.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you kind of hinted at this. But I am curious, your energetic reasoning for why are so many women affected by this? And men, but yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, men too, yes, but specifically women, and this is what I went on a rant on last week of my Instagram live, but specifically women, and this is what I went on a rant on last week of my Instagram live. So, okay, so all of the the um, if you're familiar with the chakra system in the body, right, there's energy centers in the body, and if you're familiar with human design, there's energy centers in human design. It's related to the chakra system, and each of these energy centers is linked to a certain plant or organ in the body right that emits certain hormones. And so herein is kind of what I love is putting these, these little puzzle pieces together of, like, you know what's happening in the physical body and then let's connect that and look at. You know which energy center is being affected and all of that. You know the glands and the hormones, so your thyroid is associated with your throat center, your throat shock or your throat center. You know.
Speaker 2:However, you want to say it, and when we think about what the throat center however you want to say it, and when we think about what the throat center is responsible for, the throat center is speaking our truth. It's your manifested voice. It's speaking out loud your truth, your thoughts, your feelings, your vision. Right, and so so many women in this is something that we hold back on, we hold back from sharing our opinions, we hold back from using our voice, and really, what I think is I I really believe that this is like a multi-generational thing and this is not like woo right now. This is like science.
Speaker 2:Science shows like we carry up to seven generations of trauma within ourselves, within our DNA, and that's stuff that we have to work through, along with our own human experience and the trauma from our own human experience.
Speaker 2:And so, when we look at it that way, we look at generations of women who have been silenced, who have been, you know, women treated as property for generations and less than human.
Speaker 2:Like we come from a long lineage of humans females who have been forced to shut their voice down, and so I really believe that we're in this generation.
Speaker 2:That's kind of like reaping that and this is kind of showing up, and we have that conditioning within ourselves and our DNA to be fearful of that, of sharing our voice and speaking our truth, and I worked with multiple clients that, too, that I can think of specifically right now, like thinking about right now that they were in. They came out of narcissistic relationships and they were working with me and this is, if you think about, when you're in a relationship with a narcissist, like that's one thing. You lose your voice, right? You just you lose your voice, you lose your power, and both of them had severe thyroid issues, metabolism issues, like, and all of that has to do with the throat center. So this is that's kind of my long-winded answer, but I really do think it's this combination of this kind of generational trauma that we carry as women in our DNA and then just kind of conditioning from society that we aren't as bold as maybe we could be in speaking our voice and speaking our truth, using our voice, and it's affecting how our thyroid is functioning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a really interesting theory and I don't disagree with it at all. It makes me think of we hear a lot of people pleasers.
Speaker 2:That's kind of a common phrase, and so that, I think, goes along with it.
Speaker 1:Again, we tend to see more females that would say yes, and most people, pleasers, know it, they'll tell you, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't rock the boat, I hate it. Avoid confrontation, keep the peace.
Speaker 1:That's me, and so if you are that person who's like, yes, oh gosh, I do not rock the boat, I want to make sure everyone else is happy and you also have a thyroid condition?
Speaker 2:You might want to look into that.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know, just out of interest, yeah, that's for sure, might want to look into that. I mean, you know, just out of interest, yeah, that's for sure. So moving on just a little bit, because again we've got so many different things to cover here. So let's talk about mineral imbalances here, and now the thyroid and adrenals can be involved with this as well. So how is our gut and hormones and thyroids and adrenals and just overall health related to mineral imbalances?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So minerals are one of the things. So, as an FDMP Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner it's a mouthful, so FDMP is better. I use functional labs to help kind of look at the physical pieces right, and so one of my favorite labs to use is an HTMA, which is a hair tissue mineral analysis which looks at the minerals. It looks at a lot of things, but looking at the minerals, and the minerals are the place.
Speaker 2:I like to start because, when we're looking from a scientific perspective, the minerals you've probably heard this, your listeners might have heard this the minerals are the spark plugs in the body, meaning that every reaction in the body has to start. It starts with the minerals, Like they're the cofactors for your vitamins and your hormones and your enzymes, Like it all starts with the minerals. So, at a cellular level, when we want to look at, what does it take to create balance in the body? Of course there's a gazillion ways you can answer that, but at its core, it starts at the minerals. That's what's happening in your cells. And so I want to look at the minerals first and foremost, to see you know, at this foundational level, what's happening. And I like it too because again me wanting to connect to the physical, the energetic body. I love it because when we're looking at the glands and the hormones which, like I just said earlier, connected to the chakra system, that's what minerals are, what makes those things function, Like we have to have the minerals for the hormones and the glands to function optimally. So it's really just putting all those pieces together. And so when we're looking at starting kind of the first step of bringing balance to the body, we want to look at the minerals and how that's affecting.
Speaker 2:Because, yeah, when you're looking at adrenals and thyroid and these things that kind of can initiate this cascade effect of physical things going on in the body. It's all about the minerals and especially adrenals. I mean, we've mentioned adrenals a handful of times now and two of the big minerals that I look at that are most important for this gland are sodium and magnesium. And, like I said before, when we're chronically stressed and we're chronically constantly pushing out cortisol, it's just a strain on our adrenals and it's really literally draining them of minerals. And magnesium and sodium are two of the quickest things to be depleted in the body. And I'm sure you hear a lot about magnesium and magnesium is one of those minerals that's required for five to 600 different reactions in the body. So if we're depleting that, the fastest, naturally, you know, the other functions of the body are going to be slowed down or halted or, you know, just dysfunctional if we're depleting magnesium because our adrenals are just constantly overworked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and that's why I mean so so few of us are getting enough magnesium. I mean like it's almost almost none of you listening. Maybe one of you is getting enough magnesium if you're taking a supplement Exactly. Otherwise, if you're not taking a magnesium supplement, you can just pretty much guarantee that you're deficient. That's just. It's just is what it is. It's just how it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is how it is, and I know you know I am the first to tell you I am food first and I have a huge fan of supplements and obviously I use it with my clients. But magnesium is one of those that, like you, really do have to supplement it. Like our food quality is just not what it used to be. Magnesium comes from nutrient rich soil, which is not what our food is grown in, and so like just that, like you said, just kind of is what it is Like. That's one of those that there's a handful of supplements that I tell my clients like this is like maintenance. These are the things that I think you should take indefinitely and that's just one of the magnesium is one thing for sure yeah and sodium.
Speaker 1:I know when you mentioned the sodium, people are probably hearing that and thinking, oh well, I'm supposed to cut back on sodium or I have high blood pressure or I try not to eat sodium. So talk about that just a little bit and maybe about the type of sodium that we should be eating yeah that's it.
Speaker 2:And then you said it's exactly it, and I think I did a podcast episode on this last year, because I think sodium it's kind of like carbs, it's just one of those things that's been demonized for whatever reason and it's I've really I mean at its core. I really think it's just misinformation. So when we're looking at sodium yes, we hear about, you know, sodium causes high blood pressure and heart attacks, heart disease, stroke, like you know, whatever and the problem is not with the soda. We, our bodies, need sodium, like we have to have. So, like I said, there are adrenals use more sodium than any other part of the body. We have to have sodium chloride to make stomach acid. You have to have that to digest your food, like we have to have sodium.
Speaker 2:The problem is where we're getting the sodium from and when. You're getting it from table salt. Table salt is essentially the equivalent of white sugar, right, it's been stripped of every nutritional value, of all nutrients. It's just essentially just the sodium chloride, whereas when you're getting unrefined, you know, good quality sea salt, there's 80 to 90 other trace minerals in that little grain of salt. So you're getting all these other trace minerals that are shoving and pushing the sodium where it needs to go. It's moving things in and out of the cells, whereas when you're just using that table salt, which is, like you know, the bastardized version of salt, then it's your cells don't know what to do with it, so of course it's going to, you know, mess with how your blood flow and your blood vessels and your restriction of cells and what's going in and out of your cells.
Speaker 2:So it's not the sodium itself, it's the quality, where you're getting it from. And yeah, that's a huge thing is I have clients where I'm telling them like, okay, we're going to put, you know, celtic sea salt in your water and they're oh well, I'm not, it's it's. It's like a total mindset shift because we've told, been told for so long, but again, it's not, that's not the issue. And really I mean it's. You think about what's causing inflammation when we're, when you think about like the types of food that has just regular table salt, it's the big processed food, right? So there's other things involved. It's not like we're blaming salt when that's really not the issue.
Speaker 2:But yeah, all in all, the moral of this story is it's just about where you get your salt and it's the quality of the salt that you're taking, and I've had clients who and my mom too I've done some work with my mom that you know dealing with things like headaches. And I had a client a couple months ago. It was like fluid retention is having a body, but she was totally like anti-salt and I'm like, okay, this is a problem, like she's trying to think she's doing a good thing with like oh, and he did not eat salt and blah, blah, blah. But it's like, well, no, we just have to get it from the right place. And lo and behold, the headache started going away and, you know, things started to balance out. So it does make a difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I also, really quick, wanted to touch on the fact that you know you you are a fan of some of these tests like the hair um your tests for for testing for minerals is someone's like? Well, I want to know before I just go out and start taking magnesium.
Speaker 1:I want to test myself and see what my levels are. But I've encountered a lot of people that say, oh well, I went to the doctor at my last physical and they did a blood draw and everything came back fine. But this ain't that, friends.
Speaker 2:So can you talk about.
Speaker 1:Can you talk just a little bit about why we do like hair? Testing and things like that versus just a blood draw.
Speaker 2:For sure, for sure. Yeah, I'm so glad you brought up because it is an important distinction and I talk to clients all the time like too. It's like, oh yeah, I went to the doctor and the blood labs, everything was normal. So with an HTMA the one we're talking about it's a hair tissue mineral analysis You're literally sending in some of your hair. Your hair is a tissue, so it's measuring what's in your tissues.
Speaker 2:When you go to get a blood draw, obviously you're looking at what's in your blood and this is a totally different perspective of what's going on in your body With any blood draw. A blood draw is just what's going on right now. It's like a blip in time, like acute, like right now what's happening in your body. Not to say that blood draws don't have their place and I do have a couple blood blood tests that's the blood chemistry lab I run for some of my clients, so they do have their place. But when we're looking at things for me specifically like hormones and minerals, it's just not a good, accurate look, cause you could do the same test tomorrow and it could say something totally different. Yeah, so with the HTMA, it's what's looking, look, look at what's going on chronically in your body because it's measuring again from your tissue, from a tissue which is your hair rather than blood. So it's a chronic look at what's going on in your body. So it's going to give you a more accurate picture of what's going on with your mineral levels.
Speaker 2:The other thing, too, to keep in mind like getting a little sciencey, but when you're looking at some, there are some minerals that are intracellular, meaning they're supposed to be in your cells. When we're measuring it in a blood lab, it's not going to look at that. If it's in your blood, like it's almost going to be kind of like misinformation. When you're getting a blood lab Potassium, for example I've had this happen multiple times with clients Potassium is intracellular, meaning it's supposed to be in your cells. Well, they go get a blood draw and they're like, oh yeah, my potassium levels are really high. When I got my blood draw, like that's actually bad and it means your body's not absorbing your potassium, right, and so there's, you're just going to get a different look at things when you do it from this kind of more functional perspective.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, thank you for that little explanation, because I think that's something that most of the general population has no idea. We just think we should go to the doctor and they just check your blood right. Well, sometimes that's okay and sometimes it's not. And I have yet to come across and I'm sure they're out there, but I have yet to come across just a general practitioner that says, oh, we should do a hair analysis.
Speaker 2:Like they just don't.
Speaker 1:It's just not in their scope.
Speaker 2:I guess, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Exactly yes. So let's talk now about the power of bio -individuality. Because that was a fun word to say, I'm going to say it again Bio-individuality and what that means for your health. Talk about this a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this basically just means there is no one size fits all anything for your body, and that's really and truly kind of at the core of why I have like 85,000 modalities I put together into my. You know, what I do with clients is for that reason. It's like how can we individualize, like maximize this individual piece? Because our bodies are so different, and I know you know I've been down the road too where you do you know the diet and do the trendy things. You do all these things that worked for all these other people and you're like well, why does it work for me? Because we're so, we're so different, our bodies are so different and so, like I think I think at this point we know that there's no one size fits all diet, but we still fall into the same path of like, oh well, this worked for these people, so I feel like it has worked for me.
Speaker 2:When it's like our physical bodies are so different from each other our emotional bodies right, we come from different environments and different traumas and different emotions and different upbringings and different conditioning Like all of these things are going to affect how your physical body's working and it's going to affect how receptive your physical body is to certain things we're doing to it, like the diet or the supplements. And so, you know, I have women I talk to that are so frustrated because they've tried all these things and nothing's working, or they're they're working with me and it's like, well, this isn't working yet, like we have to figure out what is the piece that's not being receptive to what we're putting us. Like what? And again, this is why we tie in the emotion energetic piece. What is the emotional energetic piece? Like what patterns are kind of underlying that are keeping your nervous system in this state where it's not receptive to what we're doing? Like what is? How are your hormones working? That's making it that this is happening.
Speaker 2:But we have to look at things at so many different levels because we are so different, and I think that you know, with even with all these, like the biohacking things, like there's so many trendy things, biohacking things that we think are, oh, this has to be good for everybody, but it's not necessarily the case. And I have to have conversations with clients that like, speaking of adrenals you've mentioned this multiple times now who you know they want to do the cold plunging and you know the HIIT workouts or whatever, but it's like okay, well, if your adrenals are already tanked, then you are putting way more stress on those already stressed out adrenals. So, like again, you have to look everything so objectively and really understand your body, which is why I love tying human design into my work, because it's helping you understand your body on an energetic level so that you can make the best, most empowered decisions for your body, rather than just taking everything and trying it all. It's just, you know, you have to figure out, take what works for you and understand that some things just don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I, I completely agree. Um, so let's talk about human design just a little bit. And just for your reference, hope I do have gosh, do I have one or two? I feel like I have. I know I have at least one really in-depth episode just dedicated to human design. So, people that are listening, if you're like, well, I didn't hear that, we'll go back and listen to it, so we won't go into, like, all the nuts and bolts of what?
Speaker 1:it is so that we can dig a little bit deeper onto how we can use it so maybe just like a 20 second, like remember. This is what human design is. And then tell us how. How can we use human design, especially specifically for our own wellness?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so just a quick little definition. So, basically, human design is your energetic blueprint. It's the energetic blueprint of your soul, right? So it's combining some of these ancient teachings like the chakra system and astrology and Kabbalah tree of life, I Ching with things like neuroscience and quantum mechanics and quantum physics, and it puts it all together in this body graph, right? So this is like how you were designed to be energetically. It's like you're energetic at a DNA level, how your body interacts with the world around you, the energy around you, and how you're here to be on this planet. You, the energy around you, and how you're here to be on this planet. And so I love looking at wellness through the lens of human design.
Speaker 2:Because if we look at what causes dis-ease in the body right, dis-ease in the body we spend a lot of our time, a lot of our lives, acting in a way that isn't necessarily in alignment with our design. Right, living by the shoulds and now you've probably heard that term and we say that term all the time when you should yourself right, living according to the shoulds. It's basically, it's like just the mindset of like I should do things this way, I should live my life this way, I should do. I should. But when we're shooting ourselves rather than like to meet resistance and we start to feel frustrated by the lack of progress or you know patterns of maybe some not so great decisions, right, we start to meet these things when we hit this resistance over and over again. This is what causes dis-ease in the body. We're spending an excessive amount of energy being someone that we are not designed to be and our physical body is going to show us that it's going to end up manifesting in our physical body. So I believe this is really what I said at the very beginning how we have this energetic, emotional root cause of physical symptoms.
Speaker 2:It starts with this and for me, the key to unlocking all of this is human design. It's understanding how we do best make decisions and how we best communicate, and how your best environment for eating and moving your body and how we're designed to show up in our relationships, how we're designed to show up in our business or our job or career. All of these pieces allow for a more free-flowing energy throughout the body. It's really about just keeping that life force energy flowing in the body, like it's really about just keeping that life force energy flowing in the body, and that's what creates ease in the physical body. We allow that free flow of life force, energy, and we're not shooting ourselves and doing things in a way that it's like ignoring the signals that your body's sending you, that this doesn't feel like the best way to do things right, and I think that's where it comes from is we live in a world that's very analytical, right, it's very mental. We live in a very mental world and we've become so disconnected from our bodies and that's really one of the big things that I want my clients to lead with is understanding what it is like to be in your body and to feel what's happening in your body, and that's how you really learn to understand and embody.
Speaker 2:Your human design is listening to your body Because, like just for thinking about, just making decisions, so your authority in human design, your authority is how you best make decisions, and all of that, no matter what your type is, no matter what your human design is, all of it requires you being in your body. There is no such thing as mental projection. We are not, or mental authority. We're not supposed to make decisions from our mind.
Speaker 2:Our mind is where we kind of roll around ideas, like one of my mentors called it like a playground. But our body is where we make the decisions, and so it's understanding what it means to be in our body, to make decisions and feel things and feel how we're meant to move through life. I mean, that's really the key of of keeping that life force, energy, free flowing in the body. So that was a very long way to answer your question, but it's really for me it's just there. There are specific aspects we can look at in your chart that tie into specific wellness pieces, but overall it's just understanding putting all those pieces together to allow for more ease in the energetic body, which allows for more ease in the physical body.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that explanation because you know, when you're talking about disease, which is disease? Right, it's all diseases caused by stress. Every single, every single thing that's ever gone wrong with you is because of stress. And when we think stress, we think, oh, I'm stressed out. Well, okay, yeah, but there's some kind of stress in your body right and maybe it's not just oh, you were stressed out. Maybe it's. You know you've been eating a diet full of sugar and that is putting stress on your internal organs and functions.
Speaker 1:So it's not all just like mental stress, although that's part of it too. So every time that there's some kind of something that isn't flowing right, you're creating the potential for sometimes giant problems that could lead to chronic conditions or cancer and then, ultimately, death because you don't have.
Speaker 1:you know things aren't flowing the right way, so it just makes so much sense to me that we would want to have our bodies working optimally, functioning optimally. I mean a lot of you that are listening already are pretty cognizant of the fact that you should eat healthy, and so I know a lot of my listeners try. I mean we're.
Speaker 2:You know, cake is yummy too, but maybe not all day, every day Right, but you know, I know a lot of my listeners work out.
Speaker 1:Some, I think, have shared with me. They listen to this while they go for walks this podcast which is great, but it doesn't stop there. You can't just take care of just the physical body.
Speaker 1:And that's where you know human design is so open, set up to so much more, to not just not just. Okay, I'm going to take care of my physical body. Okay, I went for a walk and now I'm going to sit and meditate, which is good and great for you, but it's bigger than that. It's more. It's more about how. How am I operating in the world? How am I showing up for myself?
Speaker 2:How am I?
Speaker 1:interacting with others. What kind of occupation do I have? Am I honoring the way that I am meant to function in the world? And that's that's human design, which is so interesting. Now, I know that human design has well it's come into all of our lives fairly recently, and so it's not like we were just born and said, okay, well, I'm a generator, so here I go. So Hope. I'm curious in your own personal life how, how has human design changed things for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think the biggest or the first shift was really how I was, how I was operating my business, like running a business, and how I was showing up in my business. And I mentioned earlier that I'm a manifesting generator and I think this was kind of the first light bulb moment for me, because I used to get so frustrated with myself and annoyed with myself because I've always been like, oh, I'm going to do this and this and this and this, and then I'd be like no, like just pick one thing and stick with it. But I could never force myself to do that. And so, like learning that piece about me was so validating, like oh, okay, this makes sense. And then like so many unfinished projects and then learning, like, oh, that's kind of like you know, the signature quality of a managing. It's like you don't have to finish all the things if it's not letting go anymore. So I think that was the big thing is understanding my type as a managing, what that means and being, you know, multi-passionate and multifaceted and and like moving from one thing to the other and like not really ADD, I just like to do all the things and you know.
Speaker 2:So I think that was the big piece in honoring that part, and then I think you know, the more I learned about you, know your, my authority and strategy and profile and all the other pieces of it, it was it just allowed me more that, the validation for sure of like there's a lot of, a lot of, and I think that's for a lot of people it's like just honoring the parts of yourself that you've either like try to push away or shove aside or ignore, or like, oh, no, that's not me. It's like, oh, I'm like, no, this is how I'm designed, like I've divinely designed to operate like this and I'm going to own it. And so just being able to take that into business and then relationships, I think is another thing, and I did a retreat last month and we we dove into individual human design. But we also looked into human design of you know, their spouses and partners, and some of them had kids and understanding like how that helps you navigate relationships and how you communicate with them.
Speaker 2:And and it's like one of the gals said, she's like I have so much more like compassion and tenderness for my husband and understanding like this. She's like these parts drive me crazy, but now I get it Like this is how? So just being able to like if you have a family, if you have a like a team, if you run a business, like understanding these pieces of those people that that you work the most with or that you're the closest with it, I mean it can really change the dynamic of how you run your relationships and how you honor relationships between other people, just understanding why they operate the way they do, how they operate like, and being able to kind of like adjust how you communicate and things with them. In that way, I think and that's been a game changer for me too and helping my husband understand, like his and mine and the ways that we're different and I mean it's just, it can shift everything just understanding each other better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you're right, understanding and understanding yourself better, and then that's going to help you understand each other better. And yes, all of that, I know, I know I am not the human design expert, so you might have to correct me here, but so I have a one three profile, which, if I I think that's where this comes from. So if I'm wrong, you can just tell me. But I have.
Speaker 1:So, like this podcast has a very broad title title and I did that on purpose because at that point in my life I had realized that kind of kind of like you what you're talking about. I don't so much start all these projects, but like I have to know about everything yeah, that's your one line.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's there it is, it's the one, so like human design like I got.
Speaker 1:I am so interested in it. Yeah, books on it dove so deep into it. But like, well, I don't want to like coach people.
Speaker 2:I just need to know everything about it.
Speaker 1:And then once I feel like, all right, I got it.
Speaker 2:I'm on to the next. Like what else?
Speaker 1:can I learn about?
Speaker 2:Let me learn everything about this next thing, and that's part of why I love this podcast.
Speaker 1:People talk to me about it all the time, of why I love this podcast. People talk to me about it all the time. I'm like my podcast is one of my absolute favorite things I do because I am getting to learn from experts on these topics that I'm interested in and like kind of go deep and ask more of these questions. But I can't, just, I couldn't just do a podcast on human design.
Speaker 2:Let's say or just a podcast on nutrition and I would.
Speaker 1:I would be over it so fast because I need all those different things.
Speaker 1:But, that's part of my. Once I learned that I was like, oh, that's why. And then it made it more. It's more freeing, it's like, okay, yeah, this is it. It's almost like a permission slip, Absolutely To say, yeah, no, this is, and it feel it just feels right to honor that. Yes, when you can go that way and I'm sure I've shared this before on this podcast, but in that one of the books that I got on human design, this has always stuck with me there was an example of a man who and I don't know what his thing was, I don't know if he was a generator or whatever.
Speaker 1:I can't tell you that part. But he was at work, he was doing really really well working with projects and they promoted him um and it turned out he was really great at starting the projects, but they promoted him to overseeing the completion of the projects and he started struggling to the point where he almost got canned and it's like holy cats, like he just got this promotion because he was so good, and then now he's like struggling. But he during that time had gone and learned about human design and worked with a coach or someone and discovered that no, no, no, no, no, your thing is startup.
Speaker 2:You need to be, you're the startup guy and that's where he thrived.
Speaker 1:So he went back to his work and he was like hey, listen, can I get moved to just where we start up projects? And they were like all right, and then he just thrived from there. So it's just kind of knowing and honoring and then letting that energy flow a little more. It just feels so much better when you can go that way.
Speaker 2:It really does. And I mean, like I said, it's really about feeling your body. And I had a girl on was on my retreat and she said the same thing that we're talking through her design these pieces. And she's like, all this time I felt like I had anxiety, like she's, like I've honestly been thinking about going to the doctors. I feel like I had anxiety and I just realized like I've been pushing against everything I should be not pushing against. So it's just that freedom of like. Okay, now I get it. Now I understand me. Yes, yeah. So I have one final question for you, and this is a question I ask everyone, and that is what is one thing you wish everyone would do in regards to their own bodies.
Speaker 2:And I talk a lot about intuition. You know, in my world, in my work, in my podcast and stuff, but I think I don't know, I think that can be kind of just like a fluffy, like oh, listen to your intuition, but it's really about listening to your body and listening to the signals and I think so many of us, especially in the Western world, get into chronic symptoms and chronic disease because we've shut that part out and, like I said, it's conditioning of just this fast-paced world and we live in, like I said, this mental world where we're all in our heads. But when we can get down into our bodies and really listen to our intuition, your body has all the answers. And you've probably read or heard of the book the body keeps the score, which is a really good. It's a really good book, but it's a really good illustration of just how the body does have all the answers.
Speaker 2:And so when we're able to listen to our body and listen to the signs and the signals that it's giving you, it's going to tell you what's right and what's not right for you. It's going to tell you what's good and what's not good for you. It has all the answers. So, yeah, that's my advice is just listening to your body, listening to your intuition and getting to a place where you trust that voice, that intuitive voice, and kind of shutting out the noise of conditioning in society and being able to let that be kind of like your guiding light.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, I love that answer. I love it. I I feel, like all these questions that I've asked you, the ones that, like I, knew the answer, like I, that I would have the knowledge to have an answer for I feel like we've answered them the same which you know, I feel like it's great to yeah, it's great to like interview people that are totally different, you know but, like, once in a while it's nice to have somebody where you're like, yes, me too, you're like me, but in Texas.
Speaker 1:But um, so I, I super appreciate you being on the show today, hope, if people are listening and they're like, oh, I, I need a functional nutritionist or I need a human design gal, or whatever. How can they find you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram at the Hope Pedraza. My website is hopefulandwholesomecom, and then, like we said, I have a podcast. It's the Hopeful and Wholesome podcast. You can find me there too.
Speaker 1:Awesome and I will put some links in the show notes so people can find you with the click of a button and Hope. Thank you again so much for being on the show today. Thank you, Mindy, Thanks for having me and everybody else that's listening. I hope that you are having a fantastic day and I will catch you on the next one. That's it for today. Friends, If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe or, even better, leave a review and let me know what resonated with you the most. The more you tell me what you love, the better I'm able to create future episodes with even better content. I'm sending you so much love and light. I'll see you in the next episode.