Mastering the Art of Self-Acceptance with Lisa Manyon

Episode Summary:

In this episode, I sit down with author, Lisa Manyon, to discuss the power of healing with love and self-acceptance.

Lisa shares her personal journey through a diagnosis of throat cancer that drastically shifted her perspectives and purpose in life and led her to write her book, Spiritual Sugar.

We talk about the epidemic of "not enough-ness" and how to recognize our inherent worth and value instead of seeking external validation and approval.

Lisa tells us how to embrace self-love and acceptance to live a fulfilling and balanced life.

In this episode, you will:

• Discover how practicing self-love and self-care can shape the world around you.
• Acknowledge your unique value.
• Learn to use your inner voice as a tool for self-love instead of self-criticism.
• Understand the importance of love and self-acceptance for overall wellness.
• Prioritize your own health and well-being.

“Our life is what we create, and anyone can make the changes and commit themselves to include self-care into their routine. It's a privilege to be alive, and it's our duty to fuel our bodies and be the best versions of ourselves.” - Lisa Manyon

Highlights:

04:06 - Lisa's Story

08:33 - Root Causes of Illness

14:27 - Not Enough-ness

18:22 - Rest and Self-Care for Overall Health

22:10 - Spiritual Tools and Principles

Guest Bio:

Lisa Manyon is the International Bestselling author of Spiritual Sugar, the Divine Ingredients to Heal Yourself With Love. She is also the president of Write on Creative and host of the podcast, Your Message Matters.

writeoncreative.com

spiritualsugar.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WriteOnCreative/, https://www.facebook.com/SpiritualSugar/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisamanyon/

Important Links:

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Free Light & Easy Lunch Meal Prep Guide + Recipes

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Free Rev Up Your Metabolism eBook

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Website: sarahhaaswellness.com

Facebook: Sarah Haas Wellness

Instagram: @sarahhaaswellness

Youtube: Sarah Haas Wellness

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Transcript

00:00:00
Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for being here. I am so happy to be here today. This is Sarah Haas, and this is the Boss Body Podcast. And I am really excited to introduce my guest, Lisa Manyon.

00:00:16
She is the author of a book called Spiritual Sugar the Divine Ingredients to Heal Yourself with Love. And she is also the president of Write on Creative and she has a personal story to share, but so much more than that. And you guys know that everything I've experienced in my life, I try to use to share whatever lessons I learned with others. And Lisa has done this so beautifully in her book and I can't wait for her to share some of those insights with you.

00:00:56
So Lisa, so wonderful to have you so grateful. Thank you so much for being here. Oh, I am just so delighted to be here and to share this little love letter to humanity so we can get the word out and so many people can just embrace the beauty of who they are and heal themselves with love. I know. I love that message.

00:01:17
Heal yourself with love. That is just the best. You just captured the essence of everything that I want people to feel and know and step into, and it's just perfect. So will you just tell the listeners a little bit about you? And I know you have a very powerful story, which is what led you to write this book.

00:01:46
Yeah, it's so true. So everything that I have done throughout my life and my career has really been divinely guided. And you mentioned that I have the business right on Creative, and I was given this divine charge to teach marketing with integrity, which is kind of an oxymoron in the marketing, advertising and copywriting arena. So I've been doing that for decades. And then in 2015, I got this download, I call them God Nudges or Divine Downloads from the Creator that said, you're going to write a book and it's going to be called Spiritual Sugar, and it's going to be about healing with love.

00:02:19
And at that moment, I was like, what? I don't know. I'm not a healed person. We're all perfectly imperfect, basically. But I didn't think that I had anything to share, really, with the world about healing because I felt I was still in process with all of that.

00:02:33
So I kind of journaled about it and set it aside and then fast forward to 2017 and I was having some serious health challenges. It wasn't sure exactly what it was yet, but I got another message that said, don't worry, you'll heal this with love. And I thought, oh my gosh. And it reminded me of the journal entry two years prior. So I pulled it out.

00:02:53
Of course, in true entrepreneurial fashion, I bought the domain name and started building out the brand while I was healing. But I was really surprised and also it made sense because I didn't pay attention. Two years prior when I got that message, I was supposed to dig in deeper. I was supposed to be a little bit more present to myself. There were a lot of things that I missed in that message.

00:03:18
And when you don't pay attention to your intuition or those god nudges or divine downloads, you're going to be shaken into what's next for you. And that's what's happened for me. So I was gifted the opportunity to heal cancer with love so that I could show people it's not only possible, but that we are far more powerful than we give ourselves credit for. And it's really truly important that we stay aligned with those divine messages that we get, because if not, we're going to get an even bigger lesson. And I really don't want anyone to have to go through what either you or I went through.

00:03:54
No one wants to hear those three words, you have cancer. And that's what the diagnosis ended up being and it was throat cancer. So think about that. I'm helping people get their message out into the world with my write on creative business, and yet my voice is being impacted, my throat, chakra area, all of that. So it's all about what are you saying and what are you not saying.

00:04:16
So I always look at the root of everything and what causes any of the disease or illness in our bodies. And I've found that we've all experienced either abuse, trauma, or addiction, and all of that contributes to our health along with the societal factors that we're not really being set up to be healthy. Because a lot of the food out there isn't even real food. Things are being approved that are really not even good for our bodies. So it's very difficult to stay healthy sometimes when the options that are right in front of us are not actually promoting health.

00:04:54
Yeah, and I agree so much with what you said about you got a little nudge. You can call it intuition, you can call it the angels speaking to you, whatever you want to call it, and I think you get that soft nudge and a lot of us don't listen to it. And then the message gets a little stronger, a little bigger of a nudge, and if you just keep ignoring it, eventually you get hit over the head with a hammer. And I fully experienced the same thing with my own illness. And it's not that I don't want people to feel like you cause your own illnesses or it's your fault or anything like that, because it's just so normal and human to kind of have an intuition.

00:05:47
But to be you're scared or you have a regular job and a nine to five and you kind of have a nudge to go out on your own. But it's scary. Or for me, my marriage was a big one and I knew that it wasn't good and it wasn't going to be livable in a good way for me for the rest of my life. And there were also stress. I was putting myself through so much stress and anxiety all the time.

00:06:20
And that was the biggest one. That was the one that was always in the back of my mind, because I was doing so much right for my health. I was eating well, I was exercising. And I always kind of had that little tap on the shoulder that says, there's the stress piece. You're not dealing with that.

00:06:35
You're not dealing with that. And I would get sick a lot. I would get colds, get flu or whatever, and I would continue to ignore it. And eventually I ended up with breast cancer. And honestly, within probably the day of my diagnosis, it might have been the week or two weeks, the time was so crazy, it's sort of all blended together.

00:07:04
But I heard very clearly the message of this is because you have to slow down. This is because you keep pushing yourself so hard. And guess what? Now you're going to have a year or two of doing nothing. And as terrified as I was and as upset with having that diagnosis that I was, there was a little part of me in my mind that went, oh, thank God, now I have an excuse to rest.

00:07:39
Now I have an excuse to I'm going to be sick. I'm going to be going through treatments. I can just lay on the couch all day and watch Netflix. And of course, that got really old after a while. But the other thing that you said that really resonated with me is the part of your body where the illness shows up for you was your throat chakra, your voice.

00:08:06
And you were meant to write this book. You were meant to talk and share your knowledge, your wisdom with others. And for me, it was my left breast right over my heart. And I had been through a divorce a few years prior. I had lost my dad, who I had somewhat of a rocky relationship with.

00:08:32
And that's difficult when you lose someone and you haven't worked through things. And I was still dealing with a lot of heartbreak. And I 100% agree with you that that is all connected. It is. And that's your grief center, right?

00:08:49
So your breast area, your lung, all of that, it's a grief center. So that makes so much sense. And what you just said, we're going to go so deep on all of this because it's so interesting, is you mentioned you don't want people to blame themselves for their illness. But this is a really real thing that I know I struggled with because I actually felt guilt and shame for ever getting sick. Because much like you very much a powerhouse in business, pushing things forward, keeping everything together, running a business is not easy and juggling life is not easy.

00:09:22
And so when I wasn't able to be at full capacity for a while, I did go through a little bit of darkness of like, oh my gosh, what did I do? Did I kill myself for this? And what is this? And is really pushing forward and striving so hard for success on any level worth it? And my answer is absolutely not.

00:09:45
We have to take care of our health first. And then you mentioned stress. And I cannot stress enough how important it is to manage our stress because that is what causes the greatest illness in us too. And we don't even realize it often. And because the world is so fast paced, we're again not set up to sit back, relax, breathe, take the time that we need for things.

00:10:11
And I often say sometimes we need to slow down in order to speed up. We've got to regroup. And so that time that you took, just with that relief of, oh my gosh, I can actually lay on the couch and I don't need permission now. I have a reason to rest. And while that's beautiful, it's very indicative of the culture that has been created around pushing and going fast when we should be resting all the time and taking care of ourselves and creating some kind of balance.

00:10:39
I'm not sure if balance is a true thing or not, but at least striving for it. Yeah. And you and I are so similar in being the Type A, the achiever overachiever. And I know a lot of that in myself comes from wanting outward validation, wanting to feel enough. And you can never get there.

00:11:03
You can push and push. And no matter what level of success you achieve, whether that is your children taking great care of your children, taking great care of your home, your career, whatever, your house, the success that shows outwardly or even physical beauty or fitness and we're always looking for the outward validation to feel like we're enough. And it's funny because I shared a lot of my journey on social media. I made videos and talked about my whole experience and it was kind of cathartic for me. And also I knew I had to talk about it so that other people could hear my message.

00:11:47
And a coach who happened to follow me on social media reached out to me and she said, I want to give you a free session. I just feel led to do this because your story just really I have things I want to say to you. And of course I took her up on it and one of the messages, the biggest one from her said, you don't feel like you're enough. That is what you've got to let go of. That's what's driving you to run yourself into the ground that's the root of it is not enoughness.

00:12:23
And I can't tell you how many women, I mean, everyone that I talk to that I'm friends with, my clients, we suffer with, that not enoughness. Yeah, it's funny that you say that. Not funny in a humorous way, but in kind of an ironic way. One of the things that Neil Dalmabwalsch said that was really profound was at one of his spiritual retreats and I write about it in the book is he said, you are worthy and valuable because you are, period. And that really struck me, and that was prior to the journey, but I was like, oh my gosh, wow, that's so powerful.

00:13:03
Because it brought tears to my eyes because it made me realize, like, oh my gosh, I am striving for outside validation. And really everything comes from within, and we have to start there. And that's why I'm so passionate about know, let's heal ourselves with love. And it is an ongoing experience. And I have a dear friend.

00:13:26
I mentioned her book in my book as well. Her name is Jennifer Huff. And she know, listen, you don't have to excavate everything you can activate, but we do have to acknowledge it and let it go. Right? If we dwell on the pieces that we feel like aren't perfect, then that can also cause some issues within ourselves.

00:13:48
So we have to really realize that we truly are perfect and whole. There are areas that we may need to heal, but we don't have to dwell on them. And I think many people will kind of go down the rabbit hole of different healing modalities and sometimes try to overcompensate with that, as opposed to just slowing down and backing up and realizing, you know what? I'm okay as I am. And all I need to do when we break it down, though, really the only things that we need to do are eat, sleep, take really good care of ourselves.

00:14:19
Of course, we do need to make a living because that's the way society is set up. But the first priority should really be taking care of ourselves, and we're just not set up in society to do that anymore. And that's why it's so important for you to share your story and for me to share my story and to ignite the spark of knowledge and belief in oneself so everyone can be healthier. And it's not an easy journey because it's a matter of course correcting on a regular basis. And sometimes I get off track and I have to remember, oh, yeah, I need to be walking every day.

00:14:52
I need to be taking my supplements every day. I need to exercise and get out in nature and do all these things. And I've had several people say to me, well, it feels like that's kind of a privileged life. Not many people can get out in nature so much every day and do all these things. And to that, I say our life is what we create, and anyone can make the changes and commit to themselves to include these things into their routine.

00:15:18
The challenge with that is it's uncomfortable because it shakes up your entire routine, and then you have to make it a priority. Like, instead of going home and sitting in front of the TV, you say, no, I'm going to have a healthy dinner, and I'm going to go out and have a hike in the park or even walk around the block or just 20 minutes. So it's not really a matter of privilege, as many think. It's a privilege to be alive, and it's our duty to figure out the best way to fuel our body and to be the best version of ourselves that we can be. And when we're stressed out and overwhelmed and overworked, that's not going to happen.

00:15:52
Yeah. And it's such a huge problem in our society because resting and taking care of yourself isn't valued. It's looked upon as, oh, that's a privilege, or oh, good for you. Wouldn't it be nice? We're almost like, proud of our stress and we're proud of our busyness.

00:16:13
It shows that we're valuable and that we're worthy. And when I first meet with clients, I'll usually say, okay, what are the things that this is exactly what you just said. What are the things you have to have as a human in order to live and survive? You have to have food, you have to have water, and you have to have sleep. And what are the three things that our modern society are neglecting the most?

00:16:39
We're all dehydrated. We're not eating well. We're eating chemicals and artificial supposed food, and we aren't getting enough sleep. We're pushing all of that to the side and putting everything else and everyone else first. And another thing that you said before just really brought tears to my eyes because we are innately valuable.

00:17:09
We are perfect. We are whole. And if you have kids or even nieces, nephews, if you see a baby, they come into the world perfect. And I realized this immediately when I had children, I was like, oh, this is how god, this is how the higher power spirit universe feels about me because I was born perfect as well. And my kids, no matter what they ever go through, no matter what happens to them, no matter what mistakes they make, no matter what they do, all of that is superficial, and they're still perfect inside.

00:17:53
And you mentioned before that we all go through trauma. We have abuse, we have neglect, we have addiction. Everybody's been through something in their life. And you start to internalize that and think, oh, because that's my fault. That's because I'm not good enough.

00:18:12
That's because I wasn't worthy of the love I deserved. Your book and your message gets to that core. And really, I am getting emotional right now thinking about that because it's hard to realize that we are enough and we're worthy and we're perfect, and it's easy for us to see that in other people, but it's hard to accept it for yourself. So true. And I get emotional when I get feedback from the book, from readers.

00:18:44
And I really expected a lot more feedback from my female readers. And in fact, it's really resonating with a lot of male readers, too. And I gifted a copy to a friend of mine was recently married to this really lovely man, and I gifted a copy of the book to them as part of their wedding gift. And she said, Wait, I want him to tell you the story because I saw them not too long ago. And I'm like, what's up?

00:19:07
And she goes, I walked into the room, and he was just in tears. And she goes, yeah, she walked in, I was in tears. And she said, oh, my gosh, honey, what is wrong? And he said, I am reading Lisa's book, and she is leading us back to loving ourselves. And he was just in tears.

00:19:23
He's like, this is truly God's work. And I can't disagree with that. And you can insert whatever title deity or whatever you associate with God to that, but this has been divinely guided. And so I was so touched. I was like, oh my gosh.

00:19:38
Because these are things that we don't slow down to think about. Because throughout the book, I also have we've got the first part, which is the awakening kind of my journey with cancer. But the book is not all about cancer. It's really about taking care of ourselves. And the second part is the spiritual tools.

00:19:53
And these are all, I would say, nontraditional modalities, but actually ancient wisdom that we're just reactivating and sharing with people so that we can heal ourselves. And the final part is embodying spiritual sugar. And there's seven spiritual sugar principles that we can fortify in our life. So I pull all this together, and throughout there are these heart sparks which are deep journal prompts. There's actually a disclaimer in the book that says you may want to get some outside support, some coaching, consulting, therapy to move through some of these things, because we often don't give ourselves permission to really go in and talk to that inner child that was hurt and abused, neglected, whatever might have happened in our lives.

00:20:35
Because, again, like you just mentioned and we've touched on, we've all been touched by something, whether it was immediate or a family or a friend. Trauma, abuse and addiction are prevalent, and stress is prevalent. So having tools to help mitigate that and kind of just activate the idea that it's okay for us to slow down and take care of ourselves, it's not only okay, it's necessary. And we have to make those changes. And with you and I sharing our story and saying, listen, it's not easy.

00:21:07
We're still doing the work, it also will ignite that passion in others for themselves and that self love. And so I'm just so glad that you and I can share. When we first connected, it was just instant connection. It's like, oh my gosh, these stories have to get out there and we're going to help change the world in this way. It's our way of helping to heal those broken threads of humanity.

00:21:29
And it all starts within. Yeah. And I think that there's a lot to be said about being vulnerable and how that allows other people it gives them almost permission to do the same because it is hard to do that inner work and it's hard to admit that you have fear, that you have shame that you don't feel good enough. It's really hard to admit that to yourself and then it's really hard to admit it to other people. But it's something that really needs to be talked about in society.

00:22:03
So that by you leading by example, other people feel like, oh, it's okay to do this for myself. And I think it's interesting what you said about men being attracted to your book, because I work primarily with women, but I have had some men clients over the years and it was really amazing because they are deep down dealing with the exact same issues.

00:22:35
They get messages just like women do about how men should behave, how they shouldn't deal with their emotions, how they should just buck up and put on their bootstraps and how they have to be fearless and there's so many and masculine and strong and go out and achieve. So as women, it's a little bit different, but deep down, it's the same root problem. It truly is. And it does all boil down to self love too, and really taking care of ourselves. Another one of the messages that I received while writing the book, this Is All Divinely Guided, was that, first of all, it wasn't supposed to be a religious movement.

00:23:20
And it's not. I get that question a lot. It's spiritual, which means whatever your faith or your beliefs are is 100% okay with me, with the Creator, with anyone. It just means that we need to look at our faith a little bit deeper and what that looks like. And the message I got was that society is so broken that we've moved away from hope and faith and believing in anything bigger than ourselves.

00:23:41
And I was told, lead people home to themselves by sharing more about nature, by getting them out into nature. Because once you're in nature and you look around, there's no denying that there's something bigger than us. Now, can I define exactly what that is? No. I often call it, you know, interchangeably.

00:23:57
People will call it the know all kinds of things. Gaia, Mother Earth, whatever. It's all a part of, you know, I'm an equal opportunity believer as long as it's positive and in the light. And so get out in nature is what I would say to the listeners here, as well as much as you possibly can. It truly is healing.

00:24:19
And what the message I was given was once people see that, they're led back to that belief in something bigger than themselves, and people don't slow down to get out in nature enough. And it was interesting. I was just at a gathering last night for a good friend's birthday party, and we had a bunch of women there, and we were just sharing different things, and we were talking about how important nature is. And we live in this beautiful area of southern Oregon where we're really blessed to be able to get out into nature all the time. And one of the women there who's fantastic, she just wrote a book as well, but she said she had someone come to visit, and they had not been in actual nature.

00:24:58
I can't remember which city they lived in, but it was one of the concrete jungles where there isn't a lot of nature. And she questioned whether or not nature was real because it didn't look like it looked like on TV. And that right there, we were having this deep conversation about that because it was like, wow, it's true. There are people in parts of the world that are not as blessed as we are to get out into nature, to have that immediately there. And so when people are actually exposed to it and see it, they didn't even think it was real because we're living in such a fabricated world with TV devices and all of that.

00:25:35
And I've got a love hate relationship with technology. I use it to get the message out. I leverage it for my business. But half of the time, I know I should really actually be unplugged and out of nature. Yeah.

00:25:46
So getting that balance is huge. I'm the same way. I'm inside all day. I'm in artificial light. I'm in air conditioning.

00:25:53
I'm on zoom, working with clients and doing podcast interviews and all of that kind of right. But I grew up in the country. I mean, I grew up way out in rural, in the mountains in Tennessee. I did, too. That's so funny.

00:26:08
We didn't really talk about that when we talked last, but I grew up in a town of maybe 300 people. Oh, wow. Yeah, it was every day. I didn't know anything different. Indoor, outdoor.

00:26:21
The doors were open. We had no air conditioning. I played in the creeks. I fished in the ponds. I walked through the forest.

00:26:30
Had my own little imaginary fairy worlds in the forest. Same here. I love that. That's so interesting, right? Yeah.

00:26:38
And now that's where I go back to when I need I mean, it calls to me. I have to get out. And I do live in a subdivision now, but we have a state park nearby, and I go there several times a week, probably four or five days a week. Just being by the water, being in the trees, it does put you in touch with the bigger universe, and it shows you that the universe wants everything to thrive. Trees grow without any.

00:27:15
You don't have to plant them, you don't have to fertilize them. The whole ecosystem is supportive for things to grow and thrive. And we're part of the ecosystem, and we are supported by the universe to thrive. And we are loved and we are cared for, and we are important and we are enough. So I think that tool right there that you just shared is huge.

00:27:41
Just go outside, it's immediately calming and it's even been scientifically proven to lower your heart rate, lower your blood pressure, lower your breathing rate, and that is no mistake. It's because humans are meant to be outside. It's so true. And even people who live in bigger cities, there are parks nestled in your communities that you should be taking advantage of whenever you have the opportunity. I was recently in Southern California visiting family.

00:28:13
My mom and I went on a trip and that was a really special thing. And we intentionally went to a park so that we could be more grounded in nature. We needed that, right? That's just part of intrinsically who we are and what fuels us. And so it was really there's some beautiful, beautiful parks wherever you go.

00:28:31
So if you say there's no nature around, there really truly is that's kind of an excuse. You can find some, I promise. So get out there and do it. And when you take a child out in nature, they are immediately fascinated. And I know when my kids were little, when they were sad and upset or cranky, when they were infants, if you went outside, it was like awe.

00:28:55
And they just immediately quieted down. And it's funny because I was walking with a friend of mine just very recently, and she has a two year old, and we take walks together regularly. And part of how we keep her in the stroller is collecting pine cones and sticks and rocks, and she points them out and we get it and give it to her and she asks for them now constantly. And she had a stick, she was dragging it along the side and playing with it, and my friend said, Sticks the original toy.

00:29:32
That is so true. Well, I just want to thank you for not just being on the show, but for putting this book out and for spreading just this amazing message and something that we all need and we all need to hear. And that just enriches our love for ourselves, which ripples out into our entire life and helps us just to have so much more joy and just go out and live our best lives possible. And I want to make sure that the listeners know how to find your book and how to find out more about this message that you are spreading. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

00:30:14
So people can go. Directly to spiritualsugar.com. I actually have a complimentary journey of awakening audio and some journal prompts that are from the book. So if you want to get a little taste before you buy, check that out. And also you can go directly to Amazon from the Spiritual Sugar website.

00:30:33
You can order signed copies from me on the site. It's available at Barnes and Noble and other large outlets and also in local stores. I make a point to support the independent bookstores. So the independent bookstores locally that cover it. I also promote them on social because I love books and we need to go into bookstores and buy them.

00:30:52
Also, if it's not in your local bookstore, ask for it by name. They can order it for you. So that's really the best way to capture me right now. The work that I'm doing with Spiritual Sugar is mostly based on the book. I am doing some personal retreats in magical Ashland, Oregon.

00:31:09
There's some information about that on the site, but the best way is just to reach out via the website, and if you want to have a conversation about it, that's great, but get the book first, and you can go on your own personal healing journey. Fantastic. Fantastic. I know I will be ordering a copy, and I cannot wait to dive into it and read more about everything that we've talked about today. Thank you so much.

00:31:36
I absolutely loved this conversation, and I just appreciate you being here. Thank you. It was my pleasure. And thank you, everybody, for listening. I hope you have a wonderful day, a wonderful week, and a wonderful life in general.

00:31:53
All right, until next time. I'll see you then.