Holistic Harmony: Balancing Mind, Body, and Spirit for Life Transformation

Unlock the secrets to a harmonious life in our latest episode, "Holistic Self-Improvement for Wellness." Meet Amy Lanius, who shares her incredible journey of overcoming chronic illness through a holistic approach that unites mind, body, and soul. Hear from Dr. Angelo Valenti on his transformative book "You Are Making This Way Too Hard: Find and Enjoy Life," offering practical tips for simplifying life's complexities to find true joy. Dominice Clifton also joins us to discuss her mission to aid female entrepreneurs in balancing self-care with their business goals, emphasizing the nurturing of every aspect of oneself for overall well-being.

Ever wondered how your mindset can impact your physical health? At 75, I reflect on my personal wellness journey, contrasting my vitality with peers who faced health declines post-retirement. Dominic's story of spiritual awakening through meditation, a morning routine, and intentional living offers further proof of the profound connection between mental, physical, and spiritual health. Together, we explore common life challenges like external influences and self-doubt, and how developing a strong internal relationship can help navigate personal and professional dissatisfaction.

We also dive into the concept of holistic wellness practices, challenging the traditional notion of balance and advocating for a harmonious flow in life. Learn how integrating somatic practices like breath work and mindfulness with cognitive therapy can alleviate stress and promote healing. Dominique underscores the importance of daily habits and self-belief in creating a fulfilling life, emphasizing the need for self-care and alignment of mind, body, and spirit. Tune in to uncover strategies for reclaiming your power and nurturing holistic self-improvement.

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:12

Hello and welcome to Healthy Mind Healthy Life with your host, avik. This podcast is all about exploring the latest research, sharing personal stories and providing personal tips for improving our mental health and well-being. Each episode will be joined by experts in the field of mental health, as well as individuals who have experienced the transformative power of a healthy mind first-hand. Together, we will dive into a range of topics, from managing stress and anxiety to building resilience and cultivating happiness. So join us on this journey to discover new ways to take care of our minds, bodies and souls, and let's work together to create a healthier, happier world, one episode at a time. So let's get started one episode at a time.

Speaker 2: 1:11

So let's get started Over each other. Yeah, yeah, exactly, great. So hello, hello, our dear listeners, welcome to Healthy Waves. It's a live group podcast where we explore the variety of engaging topics with the experts from different fields. So each episode, we bring together a panel of knowledgeable guests to dive deep into the discussions that inspire, educate and empower all of you to live your best life. So, whether it's health, wellness, personal development or holistic self-improvement, we are here to ride the waves with you. So I have some amazing guests today. I'd love to quickly introduce you with all of you. So I have Ami Ami Lanius, so Ami. I have Ami, ami Lanius, so Ami. Like dealing with the chronic illness from a young age and embarking on the profound healing journey has shaped environment reflects outwardly, and how our external environment affects our internal world. So Ami's passion lies in guiding others to discover their unique version of health, success, peace, purpose, fulfillment and the abundant. So welcome to the show, amy.

Speaker 3: 2:48

Thank you so much. Wow, you did your research. I appreciate the introduction, thank you.

Speaker 2: 2:54

Great, great. On the other hand, we have Dr Angelo Valenti, so I'll quickly mention about her. So Dr Angelo is a consulting psychologist based in Nashville with over 40 years of experience. So as the founder of the company, a psychologist, he helps companies hire the right people that's very, very important and develop the talent and coach leaders the right people that's very, very important and develop the talent and coach leaders. So, uh, he also coaches the individuals to live their best personal and the professional life. So he is the author of you are making this way too hard. Find, enjoy it's enjoy life. So definitely, we will definitely get into the details. So a guide to finding joy, contentment and the self-acceptance Wow. So welcome to the show, dr Angelo.

Speaker 4: 3:58

Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2: 4:01

Lovely. And also we have Dominice Clifton. So she is a purpose and accountability coach, somatic practitioner and the founder of Move and Steal and Nourish, the Wellness Collective. So she is dedicated to helping female entrepreneurs prioritize their self-care while also building the aligned businesses. So Dominus hosts the School of Healing podcast and authored Hold Peace to Heal. So her journey to deep soul work and healing has led her to empower others to discover their unique blueprints and pursue their dreams with the confidence. So, wow, we have three most amazing guests we have today. So welcome to the show again, all of you.

Speaker 1: 4:56

Thank you so much, excited to be here.

Speaker 2: 4:59

Lovely, lovely. So, because today's topic is very great, we'll be talking about the soul care essentials, which itself is something great Holistic self-improvement for the mind, body and the soul. So we'll quickly start. I mean, I'll come to Amy, so if you can share a bit about your journey with the chronic illness and how it led you to a holistic lifestyle.

Speaker 3: 5:28

Yeah, I would love to. So, growing up, I was very sick. Around my young teens I became very sick and it was very evident to me that people were really trying to keep my wellness in a very specific box. It was only ever talked about one part of my body, this one medication, this one thing.

Speaker 3: 5:50

And as I started to expand and get more opinions and do more kind of outside of the box thinking, I began to not only heal but discover that there is so much more to our health than just these physical little parts that we all kind of want to talk about, and so understanding that we can only grow as much as we are physically healthy, as much as we are mentally healthy.

Speaker 3: 6:19

It's almost like the chicken and the egg, or if you were to say physical health is one foot and mental health is another. If you're just working on one, you're eventually going to start going in circles. Your physical health can only become as good as your mental health, and vice versa. And so, learning that and leaning into that, and when I would hit certain levels of being stuck with my physical health, I knew it was something that I would need to do to step into my mental health as well, and so the whole journey that I have had has really hit home for me that that is like one of the most important things that we can talk about is the connection between the two that is.

Speaker 2: 7:05

That is the. This is the main uh reason behind the uh uh. The podcast is where we can definitely share your uh findings, your uh uh, how you've been through those situations, those situations with the uh listeners so that they do not repeat those uh things in their life. They can learn from your uh I mean, which you've been uh through. So, uh, thanks, thanks for sharing. I mean so and uh, we will come to uh dr angelo. So uh, so, dr angelo, like, like, like I mentioned uh during the uh uh intro, like about uh you that you wrote you are making this way too hard, so find you an easy way to enjoy life. So, if you can, if you can uh share what inspired you to write this.

Speaker 4: 7:53

I'd be happy to. And and you mentioned that enjoy life is spelled a little bit different. Uh, on the cover it's spelled N J O Y L F? E and the reason for that is that's my license plate. It's been on every car I've had since 1991. And it kind of embodies my whole philosophy of life.

Speaker 4: 8:15

I believe we were put on earth to enjoy life. I know there are struggles, there are difficulties. Everybody goes through some tough times at one time or another. Difficulties Everybody goes through some tough times at one time or another. Some people start at a very different.

Speaker 4: 8:31

We'll look at little children Everywhere in the world four, five, six-year-old kids. They find a way to find joy and happiness in whatever they're doing. They'll play games, whether it be just jumping in a puddle, petting a puppy, whatever it might be. They'll find a way to find some joy in their life. And somewhere along the way people lose that sense of joy. Too many people lose that sense of joy. So I believe everybody's capable of being more joyful than they are. And if they find that inner joy, that inner peace and that contentment, it'll have kind of effects on their relationships, effects on the kind of decisions they make and it'll affect their physical health as well.

Speaker 4: 9:22

Amy, I'm sure you can vouch for that. Your attitude has a tremendous impact on your physical health as well. Amy, I'm sure you can vouch for that. Your attitude has a tremendous impact on your physical health.

Speaker 4: 9:28

And I'm 75 years old and people tell me I don't look or act 75. And one of the reasons for that is I try to take as good physical care of myself as I can. I'm not on any prescription medication. I exercise every day and I've stayed working, and I believe it's very important for people to have a purpose in their life, something that they look forward to, something that's really important to and that they're passionate about to keep them going. Several of my contemporaries retired at 65, and I've watched their physical and their mental health deteriorate over the years because they've lost that sense of purpose. So that's kind of what encouraged me to write the book, in the hopes that people will understand that they are not only capable of finding more joy in their life, but they deserve to find joy in their life. It's okay for them to be happy and joyful and content with their life.

Speaker 2: 10:30

Perfect, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing this.

Speaker 1: 10:34

I'll quickly come to Dominic, so if you can share with us about the spiritual journey like you embarked on seven years ago and how it changed your life, Sure, I'll start by saying that I embarked on the journey not really fully encompassing what I was saying yes to at the time, just kind of following the breadcrumbs, and it's led to where I am now. But I really resonated with both what Dr Angelo and Amy was saying, specifically the way that the mind and body are connected the mind, body and spirit, spirit really and I started in, I would say, my personal growth and my spiritual development journey just from a space of wanting, feeling like there was a void, like desiring more out of life, not really having the answers to what that more was, but feeling called to do more out of life, not really having the answers to what that more was, but feeling called to do more and just being, I would say, obedient to the call from my intuition to just start being, still start meditating. I started my personal development and spiritual journey with my morning routine, which has evolved quite a bit over the years, but that was really my introduction into the space that I'm in today, starting with being intentional about how I started my day, so going from someone who would roll out of the bed and be rushing to get to work and just starting work and kind of going through the autopilot of life. My morning routine was the first time that I started putting the intention behind my day and how I wanted to feel, and that just continued to evolve. When I started my journey seven years ago, I wasn't the person that I am now.

Speaker 1: 12:06

I was a very inconsistent person. I struggled with my weight for over two decades and so, again going back to what Amy was saying, realizing that the mind and the body are connected the mind, the body and the spirit are connected. I always approached my weight loss journey in the past from a physical perspective, and so I would look at how I needed to work out and what I needed to eat and, you know, modify my meal plan and go to the gym and I might lose 10 or 15 pounds, but I could never keep the weight off and I never lost the amount of weight that I desired to lose, fast forward from 2017 until 2020. So, right before the start of COVID, right when things were starting to pick up, I found myself again asking questions, going back to what Dr Angela was saying about purpose like not feeling, like feeling called to more, but not necessarily feeling like I had the answers.

Speaker 1: 12:58

My life was in a bit of an array. So, in the midst of us being on the cusp of a global pandemic I was also unemployed at the time. I had a newborn and a toddler, and my marriage was just really struggling, and so there was a lot happening in my life and all I knew at that time was to just be still like there was. I didn't have any other answers. I didn't know what else to do.

Speaker 1: 13:17

And it was in the midst of that stillness meditation consistently that I heard a whisper that guided me to start for the next 90 days. Consistently that I heard a whisper that guided me to start for the next 90 days, focusing on my mind, my body and my spirit consistently. And so for me, that looked like being intentional about the things that I was taking in for my mindset what I was reading, what I was listening to, the type of motivational videos and things that I was watching. So I was learning every day and pouring into my mind. As far as my body goes, similar to Dr Angelo, I started moving my body every day, and that's something that I continue to do now, and that's been transformative for who I am as a person.

Speaker 1: 13:50

And then the final piece of that was prayer and meditation, and so that really deepened my spiritual journey. I started to learn so much about myself. I started to understand my purpose and what my bigger role was as a part of this human experience. Um, but it really did not all start to click until I started focusing on all the parts of myself, so not just the spiritual journey, not just the physical, like putting all of those pieces together um kind of really transformed who I am as a person today lovely, lovely.

Speaker 2: 14:21

Thank you so much for sharing Dominus. So I'll come again to Dr Angelo. So if you can share, like Dominus and Ami shared about their experiences, so I would like to discuss, I mean, if you can share the common challenges that people face in their personal and professional life that lead to the feelings of that dissatisfaction or maybe self-doubt I can say Sure, I think some of the biggest issues that people face is that they respond too much to external stimulus, whether it be friends, family, coworkers.

Speaker 4: 15:08

Social media is a big unfortunately a big influence on people's mood or outlook on life, and to the extent that one of the things that I emphasize in my coaching is to develop more of an internal relationship, locus of control, where you realize that you have more control over your life than you think you do, and so many people get caught into the trap of saying I should be doing this or other people have said I need to do this, and when people, when I hear people say should, uh, a lot, I I consider that to be psychological diarrhea.

Speaker 4: 15:48

That's when you should all over yourself, and one of the things, one of the things I try to do, is get get people to listen to their internal voice as to what's important to them, not what's important to other people. Now there are certain times in your life where you kind of have to respond to what other people are requesting, but too often we give up so much of our control to other people that you end up being lost, you have no compass or you become, instead of a moral compass, you end up with a moral weather vane. You kind of go whichever way the wind's blowing, and that's not really a way to live your life with purpose and intention and to get the kind of results you're looking for.

Speaker 2: 16:36

Lovely, thank you. I really love the way you explained it, so how we are connected with the external stimulus and the die-apart. I really love the way you explain it. But thank you so much for mentioning this and also I'll again quickly come to Ami. So how do you define the holistic self-improvement? I mean, what will be the key pillars, according to you, in your journey?

Speaker 3: 17:09

Yeah, so I say that all the time as well. Dr Angelo, I say that so much. Just don't like stop shitting all over yourself, right? Let's not do that. It turns into this shame spiral and it's no good for anybody. Oh, it's no good. I love that you said that.

Speaker 3: 17:25

And so holistic, meaning that there is so much in your life that gets sectioned off and we like to think that these things don't affect one another.

Speaker 3: 17:34

We like to think that our job is not affecting our parenting, our parenting is not affecting our marriage and vice versa, our health is not affecting our job and everything, when in reality, every aspect of what we are doing, all the hats we wear, all intertwine. They're all a community and they do affect one another. So everything from health, wealth, love and life, they're all interconnected. And so holistic, just meaning that all of those things affect one another. And so if you can learn to not find balance because I think balance is a BS concept that we all try and chase and never find but to find harmony and flow in between all of those, understanding that they all are different but they do deeply affect one another, and so we do have to be conscious of all of them and understand that if one is going downhill, then something else is going to follow it, and vice versa If something's going uphill, the rest is going to benefit as well true, thank you.

Speaker 2: 18:35

Thank you so much. And also so to Dominic, I'll come to you like how I mean, how will you integrate the somatic practices? I mean not, will sorry, my bad. So I mean how will you integrate the somatic practices? I mean not, will sorry, my bad. So I mean, how do you integrate the somatic practices into your coaching to promote that healing and the personal growth?

Speaker 1: 19:00

Thank you for this question. I really appreciate this question. So I started out as a nutrition and wellness coach and I was working with women and I was finding that my clients again this was. I started that work around the time that we were like heavily into the midst of COVID and I was working with clients and they were extremely stressed out and I was trying to figure out how do I help them to release that stress. These were heavily educated, you know, very successful. We would deem them very successful women but including myself, right, balancing many roles. None of us knew how to manage our stress very well. Everyone was overwhelmed. We were constantly putting out fires and that impacted again. Mind, body are connected. That impacted weight loss, and so for me, I couldn't focus on a meal plan and like how to teach them to move their bodies. I needed to focus on getting their stress levels down.

Speaker 1: 19:47

So I started doing research at that time, really just to help my clients and to help myself, and it was like the more that I started to understand about the body and the way that the body holds stress and trauma. It was almost like a light bulb went off in my head. Oh, my gosh, this is why we're seeing so many of the things we're seeing in our societies from our illnesses and diseases, from our poor diets and the way that we're struggling to, as a society, manage our weight, to the crime and violence that we see. At the root of that, at the root of so many of our challenges, is really unresolved stress and trauma, and that really led me to the journey that I'm on today. That was the reason why I decided to start moving. Still is because when I understood the way that the'm on today, that was the reason why I decided to start moving. Still is because when I understood the way that the body worked and, again, how we hold that stress and trauma, I wanted to really educate people and just shout from the rooftops that for many of us, we have been taught to go about our healing journeys very wrong.

Speaker 1: 20:40

We oftentimes approach things from either a topical approach, and so we treat the symptoms of things, or we take this cognitive therapy, talk therapy only approach, and I am an advocate for therapy. I have gone through therapy at many points in my life. However, it's the combination of the mind and body together, so talking through and processing what is going on with your mind, but also holding space for the body to heal, for the body to heal. I am fascinated with the way that our bodies work and how, if just given the opportunity, we have the ability to do so much of the healing process ourselves. The problem is that we are all living in a state of fight or flight, in a stress response state, and we don't slow down enough for that to happen.

Speaker 1: 21:22

Right Like, if you pause, if you allow your body to rest, your body will begin to restore itself, but we're moving at such a fast pace globally that folks are just not doing that, and so somatic practices become a really important part of the healing process. And somatic is just a Greek word for body, and so what it means is holding space for your body to do what it needs to do. Some examples of somatic practices could be, you know, something like breath work or any sort of physical movement that gets to the body moving. I think it's important to note that you have to do what resonates for you, so there's no one size fits all approach to the process. If you like to swim, you can swim. If you like to dance, you can dance.

Speaker 1: 22:04

If you like to walk, you can walk, but it's it's about getting the body moving, and folks will be transformed at the amount of healing that can take place by just again moving the body on a consistent basis. That's extremely important and also just pausing long enough for the body to do the healing. So mindfulness, meditation can also be an important part of that process, and so when we talk about somatic practices or, you know, somatic healing, that's really what it's all about just holding space for the body to do what it needs to do. We have smart vessels. You know spirit grants it us with extremely smart vessels. We just have to slow down long enough to allow that process to take place.

Speaker 2: 22:42

Lovely, lovely. Thanks for explaining this in details and also, at the same time'll come to uh amy again. Um, so, if you can explain, or uh, let us understand, like uh, the connection between our internal and the external environments, like how they impact our well-being yeah, I love that you brought up stress yeah, oh my gosh, we're all way too stressed and not given the tools to do anything with it.

Speaker 3: 23:13

And yet it's considered this normal state of being nowadays, isn't it? This hurry, this stress, this busy right, and so not being able to be equipped with dealing with that, I think, has been detrimental for people and physical health. So let's we can use stress as an example. So being sick, let's say, is an internal stress that is going to affect your external life. It's going to affect everything you have going on in your external existence. And then let's say you have some external stresses going on Maybe it's work, maybe it's family, something that is going to affect you internally in some way. Like you said, stress causes so much grief on the body, it causes so much dis-ease, and especially I mean I focus myself on women as well and even just what that does to a woman's hormonal systems just from being in stress. Not just stress is awful, but's unbelievable, and I don't think we're ever considering how much physical effect that that stress has on us.

Speaker 3: 24:16

And so your internal environment and your external environment are a community. One is affecting the other at all times and vice versa. And so being aware of what is going on in your external environment, like Angela said, of what is going on in your external environment. Like Angela said, there's so much fun and joy and peace and purpose to be had in your external environment that is going to affect you inside in a beautiful holistic way. And then vice versa, if you are doing the things you need to do that feel aligned to you, to feel good, like you said walking, meditation, even, just like peace practices, self-care, all of these things it is very important to design them to the individual so that they're sustainable, so that they can be consistent, you're going to see that show up. You feeling better, you feeling more centered, you feeling more peaceful, joyful is going to show up in your external life.

Speaker 2: 25:04

Okay, so the dominance. I'll come to you If you can also share the concept of soul care. We often hear this word, soul care, so I mean, why is it? Social essentials for the female entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1: 25:28

Yeah, so the concept of soul care really came to me Well, not came to me, I didn't admit the concept but became a part of my lifestyle.

Speaker 1: 25:32

A couple of years ago I used to be someone who advocated for self-care again as a health and wellness coach, I was really big in that space. But I think the problem with self-care is that it oftentimes, again, is a very topical approach. And so when I used to ask women, hey, what do you do for self-care? They would say things like I go get my manicure, I go get my my pedicure, I get my hair done, I go for brunch with my girls, you know, although I take it, I take a bath, all of those sorts of topical things. And then I would say, oh sure, like when was the last time you did something to nourish your mind or when was the last time you did something to nourish your body or, excuse me, your spirit? And folks would not be able to answer that question because it hasn't just, you know, it's not something that's on their radar. And again, it made me realize that we have to take an all encompassing approach to the way that we live our lives, and so soul care is an invitation to do just that. Soul care is about really pouring into, I like to say, nourishing yourself on a consistent basis. And so it's not just enough to do brunch on the weekend, or it's not just enough to take a bath, you know, once a week or whatever it is. You have to be really focusing on nourishing all the parts of yourself consistently. And, amy, as Amy said, when we do that consistently, there's a shift or transformation that starts to happen. We start to feel better.

Speaker 1: 26:46

When I started doing that consistently, I literally felt like I was alive for the first time and I didn't realize how numb I had existed in the world until I started to do these practices consistently. It gave me the, I would say, the courage that I needed to really go deeper on my healing process. Because, again, when we have unresolved stress and trauma, that manifests and shows up in so many ways and oftentimes it holds us back. And so soul care is really just what does it look like for you to consistently I'm talking on a daily basis or a very frequent basis focus on your mind, focus on your body and focus on your spirit, and not just the self-care or the more topical, physical, fun things that we like to do and when it comes to women entrepreneurs or just entrepreneurs in general, I don't think it's focused on gender when you are able to again thinking internal, external, right, like they're all related and connected. What's happening on the inside manifests on the outside.

Speaker 1: 27:38

When you're able to pour into yourself consistently, you start to feel a shift. You start to feel some of the heaviness that we oftentimes walk around with begin to dissipate, and that is going to impact how you show up in the world. So when I wasn't nourishing my mind consistently, I had a whole bunch of self-doubt. It's not that I don't have it now, but it doesn't hinder me and block me the way that it used to. There used to be a lot of fear and what I find is that I have a greater capacity as an entrepreneur to show up and to do the work that I need to do, because I pour into myself consistently right.

Speaker 1: 28:10

Oftentimes folks are operating from a place of burnout, like you don't have anything to give, because when was the last time you did something to pour into yourself? So when you make these practices a part of your daily habits, you're nourishing, you're pouring into yourself every day and as an entrepreneur, that's so important because we know that we invest so much into other folks, into other things, into our missions, but oftentimes we're pouring from empty cups, and so that really is what soul care is about. It's an all-encompassing approach to mind, body, spirit, but it's also about the consistency in which you do those things. So once a month isn't enough, it has to be every day. We're dealing with stress, every single day, different levels of stress, but every day we're going through something that's stressful, and so we have to make sure that we're taking care of ourselves on a daily basis as well dr angelo, like, as uh dominus has uh mentioned, about this whole care.

Speaker 2: 29:02

Uh amy has mentioned about the stress which is causing the internal and external uh environments and how they're affecting our well-being. So I'll I'll uh come to you like uh, and how do you help the individuals who uh I mean uh navigate the pressures that are created by the social media, the economic uncertainty, maybe, the changing dynamics in the relationship? So how do you help?

Speaker 4: 29:38

Well, first I want to say that some stress can be positive stress. People tend to perform certain tasks or at their highest level when they're under their optimum level of stress. If you weren't under any stress at all, you'd be in a coma. I mean, there's stress just getting up in the morning. But what happens is the people allow external factors or their own internal voice to create stress for them when there doesn't really need to be that level of stress. A lot of it is self-inflicted or inflicted by, like I said, outside forces, whether it be friends, family, workers, social media. So what I really encourage people to do is ask yourself questions why am I letting this affect me? What difference does it really make If you get really upset by a post on social media from a person that you don't even know about an issue that you don't really care about that much, about an issue that you don't really care about that much, then you're giving up a tremendous amount of control and increasing your stress level for no benefit. So you know, I had an example in my book where I said sometimes external pressures are like playing the game of whack-a-mole. Does everybody know what the game whack-a-mole is, where the little moles pop out of a right. You see it's a carnival game where you're standing there and you put a coin in the machine and then the my boss hates me mole pops up and you hit that one down. And then I'm not happy with my wife and I hit that one down and my golf game is lousy, and you hit that one down. And so how do you combat that? And the way you combat it is don't put a coin in the machine to begin with. Don't buy in to what everybody says you need to buy into. I think that people today are in a constant state of I don't even call it stress, it's agitation is what it is. State of I don't even call it stress, it's agitation is what it is because they're taking what other people are saying way too seriously when it really doesn't affect their life at all. So it sounds a little selfish to say you need to be a little more reflective, but it's really if you don't take care of yourself first, you won't be able to take care of anybody else, and if you don't love yourself first, why would you expect anybody else to love you? So I think it's really important to really not be selfish but be self-centered, to use that word not in a bad way, but to really center yourself. And you talked about the mind, body and spirit.

Speaker 4: 32:40

Every morning I take a walk around a lake near my house. It's a two-and-a-half-mile walk. It takes me about 50 minutes and I see pretty much the same people every day because we've kind of gotten into the habit of going on this walk and we all go at the same time and there are some people like me who enjoy the walk. There's exercise benefits. But if you're walking around a lake and there's deer and there's turkey and there's a couple bald eagles that are on it, I do it for the peacefulness of it. It's almost a walking meditation. But I see other people who are walking. Usually they're walking really fast and they're on a phone call. Every morning they're on a phone call while they're working.

Speaker 4: 33:28

So I'm asking myself what good to that walk. But there's not a mind, body, spirit aspect to that walk, where if you do that walk, if you're walking in nature just for the sheer joy of walking in nature, it can have not just a physical benefit but it can have a spiritual benefit and it can have a mental benefit too. But I think you know this whole idea of multitasking is crap. I don't think you know people. If you're multitasking, you're really not doing anything very well. Just do one thing. Well, exactly.

Speaker 2: 34:07

Very well said, it's doing one thing well, so it's definitely. So. I come across that saying like, like, one shouldn't be a master of all trades, so I mean jack and none. So, uh, definitely one should be the master of one thing, and uh, yeah. So, um, thanks for sharing this. And uh, also, I'll come to Dominic again. I mean, how do you help your clients to overcome the fears, doubts, and help them to pursue their dreams, to build the legacy?

Speaker 1: 34:48

So, if you can share, so I think the first part of that is really about being willing to do the healing work, to get to the root of what's causing the fear and the self-doubt. Right, like oftentimes, we we don't, we don't want to do that work. It's scary, it's, like you know, it's painful sometimes to revisit old memories or old scars, but you really have to go back to and go through whatever process through and work through whatever is causing the fear. We hold all of those memories subconsciously, and so that's where, like the mental, the mindset work becomes really important Holding those things in our bodies, the somatic work becomes a really important part of that process. And I would say the last piece of that is repetition is also really important, and so one thing that I found to be successful with myself and clients is just like going back to the morning routine, thinking about how you're starting your day and how you're speaking to the self-doubt and how you are affirming yourself consistently with, you know, positive statements that really reaffirm and affirm who you want to become in the world. When I think about, when I think or not when I think about, but when I think, when I approach my coaching program and just the way that I live my lifestyle. My coaching program is really split out as well into mind, body, spirit, and so we start with mindset, because if you can't get your mind on board, it's going to be really hard to convince the body you know to take action and do anything. And so the first part of the coaching program is really looking at mindset. It's understanding neuroscience and the subconscious mind. Really looking at mindset, it's understanding neuroscience and the subconscious mind and, again, how we hold things and how the subconscious mind is such a driver of our actions, how we don't have a ton of control consciously so we can make a decision and say, hey, I want to do this thing, but subconsciously, if your subconscious mind isn't on board with that, it's going to be really hard to do it. There's going to be a lot of fear, there's going to be a lot of resistance. And so the first part of the coaching program is just understanding and starting with the mind, because, again, like the mind drives the car, once you get the mind on board, now, okay, we got some action, we're moving. How can we focus on the body?

Speaker 1: 36:46

And when I talk about the body, it's really about reconnecting, oftentimes with our bodies. When we've experienced stress and trauma, we oftentimes become disconnected from our bodies. That causes us to try to cope in a lot of unhealthy ways to deal with what we are feeling or not allowing ourselves to feel. And so then we begin to look at building a reconnection with the body through healthy practices again, healing and moving, holding space for the body, moving the body consistently, just beginning to foster that reconnection with self. Again that becomes important, especially when you think about, like a health and wellness journey. Overeating and emotional eating, like these are all things that happen as a result of a disconnect from the body. So when we're able to really feel into our bodies, feel our fullness sensation, we begin to lovingly honor our bodies. But when you're disconnected, you ignore your body and you overeat.

Speaker 1: 37:34

And so the second part of that is really reconnecting with our bodies, reconnecting with our intuition Right. I think that's extremely important as an entrepreneur to really build and maintain a heart led business. You can lead from the mind and lead from the ego, but really aligning with your purpose is about being heart centered and heart led. But we can't do that if we are disconnected from the intuition right, the higher self. And so then that second part of the coaching program is reconnecting with all the parts of ourselves.

Speaker 1: 38:05

And then the last part is really the spirit piece remembering. I call that the remembering phase, and that is remembering our purpose, remembering our power, remembering that we are all spiritual beings that have made a choice to have this human experience. And so, before coming here, I believe that we all had a purpose, had a mission. Our souls had something that it was called and felt led to do to contribute to the world. And so the last part of that is doing the spiritual work and making the connection with yourself and spirit right God, to discover what that is.

Speaker 1: 38:34

And once you have done all of that so you've gone through the mindset work, you've reconnected with all the parts of yourselves, the amount of impact that you are able to have in the world is just, you know, it's substantial.

Speaker 1: 38:46

You are transformed and now you are connected with your purpose, aligned with your higher self, and now you want to, you know, make a positive impact in the world. And of course, that looks different for each of us. There's three of us on this call that are very different, but just based on the conversations that we are having, you can tell when people have gone through the process of understanding all the parts of themselves, understanding their purpose, and are now able to, because of the work that they've done, be able to empower other people to do the same. And so we're all connected, right like we're all in this process together, and when we go through our journeys, when we have the courage to do that, we empower other people to do that, and that is really how the world begins to heal and transform okay, great, great and um, also, I'll come to.

Speaker 2: 39:31

Uh, I mean like, uh, how can people start building their self-belief and the vote to achieve that holistic peace and the potential? What do you say?

Speaker 3: 39:43

Yeah, nature walks, like Angelo said, no, but you're speaking to my soul. That's where I find presence, that's where I find peace, that's where I find joy, that's where I'm able to pinpoint oh, that's a new bug, there's a new little bird today. That's like being out in nature, man that brings joy, peace, presence. It's unbelievable. And, like you said, there's that good version of stress. I wanted to touch on that real quick, because there's distress and there's eustress. It's called and we all have these three kind of centers of being. We have our comfort zone, and then we have our growth zone and then we have the anxiety zone. And if we're in that good stress, in that eustress, in that growth zone, magic happens. It's so powerful.

Speaker 3: 40:26

But I deeply believe that the connection between our internal environment and external environment really are these two pillars of self-belief and self-worth, and they're two very different things. Self-belief is what you believe you can do in the external world and self-worth is what you believe you are worth and that reflects out into your external environment. And so building up those two pillars is such a powerful practice, because then you're combining both. So believing that you are capable of doing something is different than believing you are worthy of having that thing. So when I'm working with people I typically find someone has higher in one and lower in the other, and vice versa. Typically in our community we do see higher self-belief and lower self-worth. We tend to attract those people in the holistic self-improvement community High self-belief, just believing that they're capable of these things and not understanding why they're not able to achieve them, why they're getting that self-sabotage, why these things aren't happening for them to the level that they believe that they're capable of achieving. And again, it's like having two feet. It's self-belief is here, self-worth is here If you have one. Eventually, if you have too much of one and not enough in the other, you're going to walk in circles and so building those two, having a practice around those two and one of them you talked about habits.

Speaker 3: 41:49

Habits is a great one, daily habits, stating you're going to do something, proving that you do it, and then self-assigning. That builds self-worth. That self-assignment piece is the really special one, the acknowledgement that I did that thing, even when I didn't want to. I went for that nature walk even though it was colder outside than I maybe would have enjoyed, those kind of things. But the self-assignment is what builds that self-belief. I said I was going to do that. I did it, I did that thing.

Speaker 3: 42:17

And then self-worth is this whole other beautiful journey that happens when you keep the promises that you make to yourself, when you set boundaries, when you have courage and when you invest in yourself. And then there's this peak. That happens where you need to learn to have a healthy level of comparison. Comparison can be detrimental or it can be very, very positive. We always want to be comparing what we call apples to apples. We don't want to compare to someone who is in an entirely different situation, an entirely different body, an entirely different, and then think, well, why can't I have that thing? That's always going to be detrimental. But if I myself am also comparing to a woman almost in her 40s who is also homeschooling and building a business and all of these other things, then that's a more apples to apples comparison and that's where we can find inspiration instead of this detrimental thing which is always going to help our self-worth to very staple pillars for anything we want to do and see.

Speaker 2: 43:12

Okay, that's really lovely, great. So before, um, I'd quickly uh, uh, allow all of you uh, if you can, if you can, share one advice uh that you would love to definitely share with the listeners. Uh, so that for, I mean for the listeners who want to start or maybe they're starting their own journey towards the self improvement uh, towards the holistic uh way, so what one advice would you give them?

Speaker 3: 43:43

would you like me to go first? Yeah, sure, I'll go first. Um, I believe it is that. I believe that it is understanding the difference between self-belief and self-worth and diving into the practices, into doing those daily. Dominique, you talked about daily practices instead of just going to the spa once a month, or I mean those are wonderful things If you can indulge in those things that bring you all of that joy and pleasure sometimes is wonderful. But what can you do on the day-to-day that is going to bring you that peace, passion, purpose, joy, fun, fulfillment. And I think we sometimes get too outlandish with these things before we allow ourselves to feel those feelings. It has to be this big outlandish experience when, in reality, we can find things that feel good to us every day.

Speaker 3: 44:30

All three of us, it sounds like, move our bodies every day. What a powerful practice. What a powerful practice to build your self-belief and to build your self-worth. That is one. And sustainability is the key to habits. Sustainability is the key to habits.

Speaker 3: 44:46

So for me, my sustainable way that I move my body every day for a minimum of 30 minutes is that I have a phrase that it's I'm going to move my body today in a way that feels's I'm going to move my body today in a way that feels good. I'm going to move my body for 30 minutes in a way that feels aligned for me today. If I were to say I'm going to move my body for an hour at the gym lifting heavy weights, that would not be a sustainable practice for me. I don't even have a gym in the small little town I live in, on a dirt little road. We are very removed. It's the best, but that would not be a sustainable goal for me.

Speaker 3: 45:18

So already I'm setting myself up for failure. And to be consistent is the ability to adapt. So I gave myself the premise. So there is a measurable amount there for the habit, every day, the 30 minutes but there's freedom in what that looks like and that creates the sustainability. So what can you give yourself every day that is going to be sustainable? To build self-belief, to build self-worth and build that connection with self.

Speaker 2: 45:43

Lovely, lovely. So, Nick, I mean I'll go, Sorry.

Speaker 4: 45:54

I didn't mean to step on you, okay, all right, uh, sorry, I didn't mean to step on you, okay, um, all right. The one piece of advice I'd give people is to analyze what, uh how much they're letting other people or other outside influences control their life. And begin to take more control and especially, in above all, own the decisions that you make. In other words, make good decisions. Recognize that you're not going to make all great decisions, but own them, whether they're great or not great, because if you own your decisions, then you recognize that you're capable of changing the direction of your life or changing something that's not working. If you believe that those outside influences are controlling every aspect of your life, it's going to be impossible to make any lasting changes. So, I guess, own your decisions. If you want to use bumper sticker, three words own your decisions, that's it.

Speaker 1: 46:52

That's beautiful, and I would close out by just reminding the listeners to remember your power. I firmly believe that we are all such extremely powerful beings but we forget that life really pushes us oftentimes to forget that things happen in our childhood and we, our power, might be taken away, or we give it away and we grow up operating in that same sort of mindset. And going back to what Dr Angelo said, we begin to give power externally. So we look for advice about our lives and direction from our lives, from all these external sources our partners, our spouses, you know, other adults around us, colleagues, friends and we aren't able to make our own decisions and really lead our own lives. But that is how we were intended to live to make our own decisions and really lead our own lives, but that is how we were intended to live. And so when you start to do the things that we've talked about on today's podcast session the mind, body, spirit work when you start to understand and remember who you are, the essence of who you are doesn't change. You just sometimes get away from that. You get back to a space of really being comfortable with being seen and heard, comfortable with owning your power, and I think that so much shift can happen with the way that we show up in the world and how we are able to impact and help other folks, and just the difference that we are able to make in the world when we are able to remember our power and not to give it away.

Speaker 1: 48:08

And another part of remembering your power is remembering that you have the ability again to heal yourself. Yes, it's great to have professionals and doctors and therapists to assist you with that process, but I believe that it's really on us, as Dr Angelo said, it's our responsibility to take ownership of our lives and we have to stop giving our power to other folks, to for them to tell us how to live. Being still. Your body's going to do a lot of the work that it needs to do for itself. Allowing yourself, holding space for yourself to heal, is such an important part of that, and so just really remembering like you are a powerful being, right, you have the power to. It might take some time to change habits, to change behaviors and patterns, but you can really create, co-create the life that you desire Exactly.

Speaker 2: 48:50

That's really lovely and thank you so much, everyone, for sharing your insights. It's really really great. I really enjoyed and I believe same way uh listeners also enjoyed it and they got also resented with, uh, their lives as well. So thank you so much again for joining us on the episode of healthy waves and, uh, dear listeners, like we hope that you have enjoyed our discussions on the holistic self-improvement for the mind, body and the soul and a big thank you, definitely, uh, it's uh, needless to mention, but uh, a big thank you to uh uh, to our guest, emmy, dr angelo and uh dominus for sharing uh, uh, your valuable insights and the experiences and for the listeners, I would love to also mention, like before, uh, I mean, always remember that taking care of your entire self is definitely the key to a living balanced and the fulfilling life. So, uh, and then, and also I'll mention, stay tuned for our next episode and until then, keep riding the waves of health and the happiness which is very, very important in life. So, thank you so much thank you, thank you.