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Health & Fitness Redefined
Health and Fitness Redefined with Anthony Amen. Take a dive into the health world as we learn how to overcome adversity, depict fact vs fiction and see health & fitness in a whole new light.Fitness Is Medicine
Health & Fitness Redefined
Psilocybin and Neurofeedback: A Journey of Transformation
What if you could transform your mental health struggles into a journey of profound healing? Join us as we sit down with Tara, a former paramedic who bravely shares her story of battling mental health issues while working on the front lines and finding solace in unexpected places. Tara's transition from a high-stress career to a holistic treatment center opened her eyes to the power of neurofeedback, meditation, yoga, and a healthy lifestyle. Her journey took a pivotal turn during a serendipitous trip to Mexico, where she encountered psilocybin therapy, a moment that dramatically altered her path to wellness.
We dive into the transformative potential of psilocybin therapy, discussing not only Tara's personal experiences but also the broader implications of its use under professional guidance. With the evolving legal landscape in Canada and the United States, we explore the parallels between psilocybin and the journey of cannabis legalization. We also tackle critical issues surrounding pharmaceuticals like opioids and advocate for natural substances as viable alternatives for treating mental health issues. Responsible use and the need for proper preparation and guidance are emphasized to ensure safe and effective therapeutic outcomes.
In our final segments, we touch on the concept of brain rewiring and the importance of dietary habits in promoting mental health and longevity. Tara shares valuable insights on the benefits of locally sourced and seasonally available foods, blending traditional practices with modern nutrition. For those eager to connect with Tara and explore her resources, she provides details on how to reach her through Instagram and her website, offering a free meditation download as a gift. Don’t miss this enlightening episode that underscores the idea that fitness and wellness are intrinsically linked, reinforcing the belief that fitness is indeed a form of medicine.
Hello and welcome to Help With Fitness Redefined. I'm your host Anthony Amen, and today we have another great episode for all of you. So, without further ado, let's welcome to the show, Tara. Tara, it's a pleasure to have you on today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited, Tara. It's a pleasure to have you on today. Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:I'm excited yeah, excited to do another episode, hear your story, because it's new for all of us. So mental health to me is a super important topic, as all of my listeners know, and everyone that knows me knows. So, without further ado, I'll let you take the stage to kind of walk us through your story and how we got where we are today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, thank you. So I came from a background of working as a paramedic for nine years and during my career I really struggled with my own mental health. Prior to that, my family dynamic I had a sister and a father who both struggled as well with mental health. Prior to that, my family dynamic I had a sister and a father who both struggled as well with mental health. So I'd always been kind of around mental struggles but never actually experienced myself until about my fifth year into my career as a paramedic. And of course, I did traditional therapy and all of the things. But to be honest, I was really just coping well and I never really felt myself. I struggled to sleep at night.
Speaker 2:It was a tumultuous career, to say the least. And when I decided to leave that career, I ended up working in a holistic treatment center for mental health and addictions and that was really on a whole list of medications and leaving off of their medications, and they were treating with neurofeedback, with meditation, yoga, healthy diet, movement, exercise all of the things that our brain needs in order to be healthy. And so it really inspired me and I ended up on this journey that took me to Mexico, where I ended up finding psilocybin therapy, and so that kind of led me to a path and a career in that field, which has been so incredible and powerful to see the transformations that are happening for people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and not the first time. We talked about psilocybin on the show. So just tell me a little bit about that experience in the Holistic Center. What are some big things that stuck out to you?
Speaker 2:I really think that one of the most important modalities that they were using was neurofeedback, and so I was.
Speaker 2:It was really it was all new to me at the time and what I was seeing is that people who maybe, for example, were struggling with bipolar disorder and their brain is firing rapidly, it was calming them down and calming down their brain. So when they were in states of psychosis or what is considered mania, it was actually helping to calm down the brain. So a lot of the technology that they created has been stemmed from studying the brains of monks and meditation, and so it's basically reading the brainwaves and then putting audio to the brain. So you're putting on a headset and you're listening back to your own brainwaves and what that's actually doing is calming everything down. So the technology itself is incredible. It's been really helpful for things like bipolar and other disorders, traumatic brain injury, and so just knowing that people can come and that they can have this experience and potentially leaving off of medications which maybe have really strong side effects, is really exciting. And yeah, so I would say that was probably one of the most profound modalities that we were using.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and how did you stem from modalities of neurofeedback to psilocybin? When did that connection come to you? Did you feel like you were missing something and then wanted to try what you found in Mexico?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, very interesting question. I actually was not looking for anything At that point and stage on my path. I felt like I was coping well. So I would say the medicine actually found me because I randomly met a mushroom healer while in Mexico. Never had I tried psychedelics, maybe when I was a kid at a party, but I never really had any profound experiences with a psychedelic before and then having this experience totally changed me as a person. It helped me to see who I am, what I needed to heal, what I needed to do to move forward in my life and on my path, gave me a lot of clarity and it also helped me to feel self-love for the first time, and so at that time when I had that experience, I didn't actually realize how much I was suffering. But now that I can compare what I felt like at that time, prior to doing psilocybin to after, I would say it was definitely not the best version of me that I could be.
Speaker 1:And it was micro dosing or was it full doses?
Speaker 2:No, it was a full dose.
Speaker 1:And you weren't worried about other side effects from taking the mushrooms. Or what do you say to people that are? Because there are people who have the exact opposite effect and then just go manic there or not, so walk me through that understanding.
Speaker 2:Well, of course there's going to be contraindications to using psilocybin, such as people who have had episodes of psychosis. So schizophrenia and bipolar are currently contraindicated. When you're using it in a therapeutic setting, which is now what I do for my field of work, I help people to create a safe space, I guide you. We really do a really good job at preparing you for the experience so that you are able to surrender to it. So in my experience, having worked with it now, I would say that I've never actually had anybody even have a bad trip, because I think it's all relative. So when we go into a state of psychosis from psychedelic trip, it might be that we were just not ready or prepared properly or that maybe we had some of those conditions that I mentioned that were contraindicated.
Speaker 1:And then when people come see you for something like that, is it something they're taking with them Like, are they continuing treatment, taking the shrooms, or is it something that's like a one and done experience? Or is it something that's like a one and done experience?
Speaker 2:So the way that I work with it is in a retreat setting. So usually we do two macro doses, so two big doses, and then most of the time I mean just from one experience sometimes can be enough to just change the brain completely. So the studies are showing that it's actually rerouting neural pathways in the brain. So when you actually have physical changes happening in the brain you don't need to keep using it ongoing. Some people will continue microdosing, just using the small amounts, but most of the time it's one or two sessions and I like to say like it's almost like you are 1.0 when you showed up to a retreat or to use psilocybin and then you'd be. It takes you to like 2.0 version of yourself and then, as you integrate that experience now, maybe in a year or two years you'll be ready for, like, the next experience.
Speaker 1:So so it's not something that you consistently need to keep taking yeah, that's because's because I was thinking in my head, just preliminary to answer that and asking that question. Full disclosure was, isn't it? You went to the holistic retreat and you didn't want it to watch people get off of medicine, but then, if you're hopping into another medicine, which shrooms could be considered medicine?
Speaker 1:then, it's the same issue, right? Because you're continually relying on something else to get you through it, as opposed to internalizing and fixing things yourself. So you're not relying on other substances, you're only relying on your own sheer willpower.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely yeah, because there is like a neurogenesis happening in the brain, like the changes in the brain. That is why you don't need to keep taking it, because the physical changes are happening. So I've had people come to work with me that actually have never even had a psychedelic experience, feel different, they are able to conceptualize their life different, they relate to the world around them in a different way, and so their life, as a side effect, ends up changing as well.
Speaker 1:Do you have any examples of people particularly? You don't have to give names, obviously, but just this is what they were suffering with pre and this is how they came out after.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that particular experience that I'm speaking to. He was actually a retired police officer. He went very public about his experience, so it's on the website, and so he was suffering with PTSD. He retired early because of his diagnosis. He was really struggling with it, was triggered all the time, had a hard time relating to people and came to retreat as almost like a last option for himself. And so during his experience because he came from the police field, where you are taught to control your environment at all times he actually wasn't able to completely surrender to the psychedelic experience and he was very blocked for him.
Speaker 2:And he came out over that seven days, not only relating to himself, in a very different way, because he was always negatively or had a lot of negative self-talk, self-loathing. He started to give himself love and self-love and self-compassion and just started to be able to interact with people outside of himself in a more loving and understanding way. And his entire life changed. He no longer drank alcohol and if he did consume alcohol it was usually minimal, where before he was drinking a case of beer a weekend, you know. So everything for him and his life changed.
Speaker 2:And so, following up with him, even two years later, his life is still different. He up with him. Even two years later, his life is still different. He was able to also like connect with his own creativity, his, his like heritage, his hispanic roots. He got back into drawing, something he used to love, so he was just really able to connect with himself again. And then everything else, just as a as a byproduct, just kind of, and then everything else, just as a byproduct, just kind of didn't affect him anymore. He didn't have the same symptoms. It's so interesting.
Speaker 1:I like these topics because there's you ever hear. I know I've mentioned the show before, but I don't know if you've heard of the heroin effect from the Vietnam War. Do you know what that is?
Speaker 2:No, I don't actually.
Speaker 1:So they had. All of our soldiers went to vietnam. Obviously it was traumatic experiences throughout being there. So I don't know the exact number, but it was something like 65 percent of soldiers were doing heroin in vietnam while they were there.
Speaker 1:It was a crazy high number because they just did it just to cope with everything they were seeing around them yeah and the government knew what was going on, so they were trying to prepare for what's going to happen when they come home, like are we going to have a bunch of addicts coming home to the US? Like how are we going to handle the situation? And then what they found is, out of that crazy high number which let's just hypothetically say was 60%, but it was high only 0.5 of that percentage ended up continuing doing heroin once they got home and everyone just cold turkey, quit and never had a relapse. So crazy, not something you would think.
Speaker 1:And what they've learned was it has everything to do with environment. So your environment teaches you where to source drugs, how you feel when you're doing the drugs, and things around you in that specific environment trigger you wanting to go do that and you put yourself in this cycle. Whereas if you remove a person from an environment and you put yourself in this cycle. Whereas if you remove a person from an environment and you say, hey, now you're back home, now they enter their home environment, life which doesn't have that so they don't ever get the trigger to do it.
Speaker 1:So it's very interesting to see the coping mechanisms of the human brain, which kind of leads to my point with retreats, which is why they work, because somebody's leaving that environment. They no longer get those triggers. They no longer have those same stimuli that's coming in after them, so that's why they're able to just go away. And then those that go back to their home environments are way more likely to relapse, as opposed to those that don't move elsewhere more likely to relapse as opposed to those that don't and move elsewhere.
Speaker 1:Oh interesting, so are you relating that to like a psilocybin retreat as well? Yeah, I'm relating it to just all retreats, because this is the hardest part when it comes to understanding, studies and understanding if things work and don't work. Because my field is filled with this stuff. I can take certain environments and there's other external factors contributing to it. So is the external factor the retreat in the environment or is the psilocybin, or is it a factor of both? Like that's so hard to prove unless you put yourself in a super controlled environment and it introduced the same exact stimulus again and again and again in order to show that it works. That makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yes, I understand what you're saying, so this is how I see it. So you were in your environment. You come to a retreat, you do psilocybin, your brain changes Now you leave and you go back to the same environment and of course, you're going to have support software to help you to integrate back into your environment. But the thing is you see your environment through a different lens now, and so that's where I feel like it may be in comparison to like a different.
Speaker 1:You're experiencing different stimuli because you're seeing your environment in a different stimuli Exactly, and your brain is saying this is no longer the same home. This is home too.
Speaker 2:Right? No, exactly, and I think too with psilocybin you can find greater insight and depth and understanding of yourself as a human being in your own experience. That then you can take home with you to relate to your environment and then again see it through a totally different lens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting and then I don't know. Obviously you told me before you were in Canada, so I don't know if the laws in Canada are how things work up there. But just out of curiosity, are you able to test psilocybin, or is it a class level drug where they can't even experiment with like it is here?
Speaker 2:so here in canada we have some legislation where, um, where you can work with it as long as it's used for medical purposes. So we actually have dispensaries that you would sign a form saying you were using it for medical use that we sell here. Also, in British Columbia, which is where I am here, they decriminalized all drugs in all of the province. Most of my work personally that I do with psilocybin is in Mexico, however, so it's a totally different um, let just well, their rules, they're all different.
Speaker 1:It's a great, everything's different everything's different. Yeah, it depends on the day there yeah, I mean like here you just don't know where someone's sourcing something from right, so that's, who knows if you're getting that or you're getting something else?
Speaker 2:yeah yeah, and that can be really scary when you're even if you're taking it for yourself, just for your personal use, I mean, anything that you get, you know, a days you really have to trust where it's coming from, and that's why it's nice here we have the dispensaries that are run by herbalists or naturopaths, so people that are in that field, and they can get the best quality of products.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would love to see it move forward, kind of like marijuana was right. So marijuana was a class level four like, just from the state's perspective. They were never allowed to study with it because of that reason and then it started slowly becoming decriminalized reason. And then it started slowly becoming decriminalized and class levels slowly getting like trimmed down so they're able to finally start doing studies on marijuana and the effects that it has on us in a controlled environment and just from being a kid, like when I was younger, it used to always be thought that you thought that marijuana doesn't have the same effects as smoking cigarettes.
Speaker 1:It's healthier with ABCDE, doesn't have any long-term effects, isn't addicting. Turns out that's totally false. They now show that marijuana has permanent effects in your brain and you start losing the ability to have memory recalled after chronic use. I found that it is addicting See my dog's agreeing with me but it is addicting in the sense that people get psychologically addicted to it. So it's curious to see what would happen with that. I'm going to even take it to the other step to give the other argument. Where you have oxycodone and legal pain medicine, that is the same thing. They used to think it wasn't addictive, and now we all know here how horrible it is, etc. Etc.
Speaker 2:so it's just interesting to see what's going to come in the future well, I have to say, when it comes to cannabis, obviously overuse of anything is going to cause you know, cause issues.
Speaker 2:But if you're using it in the way that it was meant to be used, I mean it is a plant right and we do have the cannabinoid system I don't even know if I'm saying that correctly, but it is working with a system in our brain or in our bodies. But then you have, on the other end of the spectrum, something that's made in a lab, like an opioid. I just watched that pain hustlers. I'm not sure if you've seen it yet, but what a crazy story and just the fact that that has been legal. Like that's something that's made in a lab, versus a plant like a mushroom or cannabis that grows in the ground. I mean, nature has given us what we need to heal our bodies. You know we can all agree that food is medicine and I think we are kind of waking up to that now, but I think that overuse of anything can be actually hinder our health in the long run.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, and I agree. I'm glad you stopped barking. Sorry about that.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, that's okay, it's an interesting conversation, you know, because I mean we've socially accepted pharmaceuticals are okay for us to take regularly, but then we get really worried about taking something like cannabis or psilocybin, for example.
Speaker 1:Right, no, I, I agree and I like the. I like the non-chronic use, not reliant use, like I mentioned before. It's a big, yeah, it's different and it's definitely something on the other side and to be like, totally like fair, you take the person you mentioned before, the former cop yeah like if in his mind, like this is the last straw, like then yeah, he should definitely do it. There's no reason why you wouldn't do that If you're at that point in your life. I've tried everything. Nothing's working and.
Speaker 1:I don't want to be alive anymore, then that's something you need. Go try that, see if it's the fix. He did the right thing going to somebody like you instead of the wrong thing of heavy drinking, which is going to destroy his family life around him. It was going to destroy his personal life, going to destroy his liver, like we all know the effects of drinking too much can have on the body. So it's nice to see he took a positive turn away from it and it's an argument I make all the time with fitness, like I'm sure if you listen to the show often, I always move away from pharmaceuticals.
Speaker 1:We're too reliant on a pill made in a lab just because we saw some chemical hormone had an effect on our body, so we just amplified it by doing a shit ton of it into a pill. And now we're noticing even aspirin, baby aspirin which has been given to everyone over the age of 50 to help prevent heart attacks and clotting, they're now saying can have permanent effect, negative effects on your body.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 2:So like yeah, I know Well, and I mean to be honest, like, even with foods like there's you know, you, you there's two sides of every coin. There's always, like kale, for example, they started to make that a big deal, like it was something that isn't healthy for us. But then there's the other side of where it is healthy. But I think with, for example, psilocybin, I think that it's.
Speaker 2:It's interesting because I've worked with a lot of people who have been addicts, come out of recovery, and the one thing that they say about psilocybin specifically I can't speak to the other psychedelics is that the difference between taking that and going and taking heroin, for example, is that you need heroin to feel good and so you need that next drug, you need to keep taking it. But with psilocybin it's like you take it, you have the experience which changes how your brain is working. Maybe it's a psychedelic experience for you, and then you you leave that experience and then then you feel good. So now you don't need that substance again to feel good. It's actually that's, that's what the experience causes for you moving forward in your life.
Speaker 2:so interesting yeah, and I mean it is, and there's so many studies happening right now, so that's really cool because obviously the research is out there showing that it's good for depression, for anxiety, for ocd, ptsd. Um yeah, I think we would live in a very different world if we all had this experience. And I'm curious have you ever taken psilocybin? No, no, okay no huh, how about any other psychedelics?
Speaker 1:never. Okay, I'm crazy enough. No, um, I am a. I'm a really big believer in rerouting your brain, yes, but I think it can be done on a individual, personal level, just for the lack of a better word. I believe certain people have the capability, like myself, to be able to rewire their own brains because they look at themselves differently right whereas the majority of people don't have that capability because they're either not taught it or they just don't have that insight into themselves.
Speaker 1:So for that group of people going to rely on something, I'm all for it. Someone like myself who taught myself how to rewire his brain over the course of a couple years like it's hard to do.
Speaker 1:It's not for the faint of heart, but I I did it amazing yeah it's very interesting to see, like that's why I never did psychedelics, like why would I want to get rid of? Or even even if it doesn't get rid of right, I don't want to ever not feel good again, so just keep on that path, yeah, and honestly, like it's not a one size fits all, right, so it's what works for you.
Speaker 2:So if you don't feel the call to try psychedelic, then I don't think you need it. But also it can help some people that don't feel like there's other options or that are really curious and want to experience it because it is non-addictive. So even if you did have one experience, it could be profound and it could shift the way that you experience your entire life. Your perception will fully change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm kind of going back to my original point. I drink alcohol, but I don't ever drink alcohol to get drunk. I don't like being drunk. I like the taste of beer to the point I drink non-alcoholic beer and everyone knows that on the shelf. It's just what I enjoy doing. I don't like the brain-altering side of it. I did drink when I was younger and I learned how much I didn't like that. It's just curious to see it. I don't know. I think it was aristotle. I said let food be thy medicines yes medicine be thy food right.
Speaker 1:Is that right? Yeah, yep, nice, love that quote so it's curious to see how we go back to like chinese medicine and how many of those things actually ended up working, for example, ginger. It was something that was always used for to eat stomachs and now we see that ginger works better than most like tum products yep so it's curious to see how that like that route really goes.
Speaker 1:I had an interesting conversation with the client today. I know this is a little off topic, but it's relates. She was talking about something with. She talked to a nutritionist or I don't know whatever it was about. We ended up coming at the topic of fruit and she was talking about how she needs to eat her body weight and fruit for breakfast every morning because some doctor suggested it, or so on and so forth. And we went down this rabbit hole and what we came out with and we're going with this point is that if you go back 500, 600 years right, let's go pre-grocery stores, pre-having the capability of being able to go to local marketing and sourcing food what we notice when we take a look around, if we just go in the woods, what's available to us at that given point, right. So I live in the Northeast, you live in Canada. Yeah, how many times a year are you able to get fruit from outside?
Speaker 2:Yeah, very rare yeah. Rare right, yeah.
Speaker 1:A couple weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, basically, yeah, rare right A couple weeks. Yeah, basically, yeah, whatever our summer is, it's like three weeks.
Speaker 1:What is plentiful around you? What can you always get 365 days a year?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 1:I don't know what's the answer to that Animals, Okay okay, you always have the capability to get and hunt animals. They're always around some hybrids of different seasons, but there's always something you can go hunt and eat. So, make sure you're sourcing, having enough food. With that way, what else is around?
Speaker 2:Oh wow, I feel like I'm on a talk show here that I don't know the answers to. I was never good at trivia.
Speaker 1:It's okay. Vegetation to the sense of green leafy plants or around most of the year, maybe not all the year in Canada where it snows all the time, yeah, but for the majority of the Northeast here you can go like leaves off a tree, yeah, you can go get things like that. They're around most of the year not all of you, but most of the year. Yeah. There's plants that make it to those. Herbs like lavender makes it as hard as like negative 30 or something, so you always have that capability of eating. So if that seemed to have worked for us in the past thousands of years, why isn't that something we're sourcing now with the blend with modern medicine? Because obviously diseases killed us rampantly and we died at younger ages, which is half true.
Speaker 1:But if we learn to combine both of those together with vitamins, I think we really have the answer we've been looking for as far as what we need to eat, how we need to eat it and rely on what's around us and know those are the kinds of foods we need to eat, if that makes sense, and that ties into psilocybin, because if it's naturally sourced, the fact that you can always get it. Like where does psilocybin? Because if it's naturally sourced, the fact you could always get it like where does psilocybin come from?
Speaker 1:it comes from cow dung, right, so there's always, it's always around yeah, you can have cows around, especially if you live in, like northern europe so very. It's very interesting dynamic to think about what's sourced at certain given times.
Speaker 2:No, and I think it's an important conversation to be having, because we are importing a lot of our food so that we can access things like fruit year round.
Speaker 2:But is that the healthiest and the best way for us to eat that's optimal in the long run? And, like you said, when you couple that with modern medicine, I mean you probably could live a very long life. But then when you do think back to the history of psilocybin I mean the Mayans used it thousands and thousands of years ago, aztecs, I mean, they actually attribute a lot of their intelligence and their ability to to like use geometry to the use of psychedelics. And there's, there's actually a type of geometry that you only NASA can actually interpret, that we can't even understand. So you know. So I do think that there's something to be said for the history of it as well. It's not new, it's been around forever, and I think that there was a lot of really smart people that were making pyramids with no equipment at one time, you know do you know why I think kind of to people living a shorter life why, people don't know this.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about the average lifespan of human beings, right? So they think the average lifespan, let's say it's like 72. Now it was like 45, go back 300 years. That didn't mean people lived to 45 and then around the year's age of 45 they would die. What was very interesting is most people did not die in the middle age. Besides wars and um, the robotic plague right, the research found interesting was most people died as infants in the ages of zero and like five, at a very high mortality rate. On the flip side of that, if you made it to, let's say, 15, 16 years old, you were had like an 80 chance just picking a high number, but it was around that to live to like 65, 70. So our mortality rate was lower. We died younger only because the amount of infants that were dying back 300, 400 years ago and was it disease taking them out?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah it it was everything.
Speaker 1:It was disease, malnutrition, it was uh due birth, uh the environment. There was the cold, the, the heat okay but yeah, infancy, like that's why most people had 15 kids. The idea was you have 15, five live wow, interesting to make it up to teenage year, but once you made it to that point, you were going to live. Not to say, some people didn't die in their 40s, but they had a really good chance of making it to like 60s, 70s. That's even back to ancient greece oh, wow, yeah, so fascinating.
Speaker 2:Like they had that, that documentary, the blue zones or something. I never watched it, but it was all about about the longevity of all of the areas in the world and where people lived the longest and what they were eating and consuming and what kind of lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Do you know the number one reason why people live the longest that they've discovered in that documentary?
Speaker 2:No, why Stress Interesting? So when you don't have stress, you live longer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of those blue zones, yeah, blue zones, because they either didn't believe in time or barely followed it.
Speaker 2:So when they had it be somewhere in the morning, it was when I got there okay and that I would say, like a lot of european countries kind of live a little more like that, like here in North America, we're just like always on the clock right, we're always struck in traffic, driving to work, coming back, you know, making dinner, picking up the kids, like whatever your life is, it's just, it's a grind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is very interesting. That was the number one thing they linked was stress, which is why monks tend to live a long life, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Constantly try to be stress-free. And then certain areas that tied in with the Mediterranean diet. Yeah, it was the ultimate.
Speaker 2:Right, which is a lot of fish as well, right.
Speaker 1:Fish and olive oils and things like that.
Speaker 2:Healthy fats and yeah, interesting. So then, that means that we need to manage our stress here so yes, right yes so what's the key? What's the key to that?
Speaker 1:great question, that's the million dollar question meditation, yoga working whatever works for an individual. Yeah, like there's what I always say, this with everything. People always say what's the best exercise to be doing?
Speaker 2:the one you do yeah, something whatever that is for you, I agree yeah, whatever you can do, whatever you can tell.
Speaker 1:decrease the stress in your life, like exercise is a great stress relief. Going for walks, meditating, uh, listening to music with the lights off, like you pick, yeah, just whatever that relaxation technique that you like and you like doing, do that one.
Speaker 2:Yes, I agree. Yeah, I think that's great advice.
Speaker 1:But yeah, tara, I'm going to ask you the final two questions. I asked everyone just to wrap this up, and the first question is if you were to summarize this episode in one or two sentences, what would be your take-home message?
Speaker 2:manage your stress and, um, I would say, you know, trust that there's something for you, for whatever you're struggling with, whether it's your mental health, whether it's your physical health, that there's always a solution, and it's not a one size fits all solution.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that. That's a good one. And the second one how can people find you, get a hold of you and learn more?
Speaker 2:you can follow me on instagram. I am tara portelli and also my website is wwwtaraportellicom, where you can access me there, and I have a free meditation download. So if you want to dm me on instagram, I can give you the link for that love it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Tara, thank you for coming on. Thank you, guys, for listening to this week's episode of Health and Fitness Redefined. Don't forget, hit that subscribe button. You can join us next week as we dive deeper into this ever-changing field. And remember fitness is medicine Until next time. So Outro Music.
