The Vital Side Podcast

How do you proactively grieve as a busy person? This week, Lindsay and Cait are joined by licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Mekel Harris, to discuss how you can address grief from a body-mind-spirit perspective. They dive into how understanding grief helps us better pinpoint how it shows up in the body, how grief impacts our personal growth with entrepreneurship, and simple & actionable tools you can use to begin to process grief. Mekel offers training, consultation, and supervision services to organizations around the world and holds an advanced certification in grief counseling, and has presented at over 30 domestic and international conferences. She focuses on pediatric, family, and community health issues, including grief and loss throughout the past 10 years.  She is a TEDx speaker, FOX13 Memphis mental health expert, blogger, magazine and podcast contributor, author, and course creator.  Show Notes: -Mekel’s story - starting her career in the 90s, working with children in developmental differences, and she started working with parents who were grieving their kids’ physical losses. -In Dec 2012, her mom died, and she started to make grief and loss her main focus. -Grief shows up in situations that you don’t anticipate - we can identify it as an emotion like irritability, anger, and sadness. -Spiritual questions also come along with loss - how do I make sense of this loss in my life? What does this say about me? What does it say about my belief system? -We associate grief with the physical death of an individual, but there is “hidden grief.” This is the loss of experiencing joyful times, and we can be grieving different routines. -We can widen our scope when it comes to understanding grief which helps us better pinpoint how grief shows up – both when it’s obvious and when it comes in a more subtle way. -Steps to take to grieve:  1.) Name it (as to not bypass an emotion) 2.) Claim it - owning your current reality to explore what’s happening around me and within me  3.) Don’t shame it. -Lindsay shares her experience navigating grief when a good friend & colleague passed away and how it manifested as “buzzing” at nighttime and how it affected her sleep. -Grief can live within the gap between what we envision for our lives vs. reality. -Simple tool: Cast a vision for yourself each day. Name and process the reality & tension that exists between the two. Move into action to address any grief and emotions that come up. -Anticipatory grief: proactive steps we can take to prepare for any future grief,  loss or shifts/changes in our businesses   -Set a 5 minute timer & ask yourself these 4 WH questions:  1.) Where are my thoughts taking me? 2.) What do I notice in my body? 3.) What’s happening around me? 4.) What can I do to help myself at this moment? -We have 50,000 - 80,000 thoughts per day (and most are “negative”). -We can utilize self-compassion and self-care as tools to address grief and be proactive about processing it. -As entrepreneurs, we grieve financial losses, expectations around launches, and other losses; we toggle between vision casting and reality. -Mekel has been an entrepreneur for 3 years, and the reality of ALL the freedom is that we also deal with loss of expectations, and understanding this is a step towards self-care. -Schedule self-care: Full Focus Planner: offering you quarterly goals that break things down into goals - “What can I do for myself?” -As entrepreneurs, we may pivot and find that our original passions don’t match the outcome of our vision and we experience great loss as a result - we can allow ourselves to pivot. -If you have not reached quarterly goals at the end of 2022, look at your calendar, and spend time anchoring into your needs with Mekel’s resources.   Resources: CLAIM YOUR DISCOUNT CODE - ELEVATE 50 and REWIRE20 -Rewire, The Vital-Side Membership (claim 20% off for the year) use the code REWIRE20 -Elevate (claim 50% for your first month) use the code ELEVATE50 *Use these links to claim your discount by TONIGHT @ 4 PM CT.* -Visit Dr. Harris’ Website -Visit Dr. Harris’ Facebook -Dr. Harris’ Instagram: @drmekel  -“What’s Happened To You?” By Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey -Find the Full Focus Planner here -Visit the Vital-Side Homepage here -Sign up for the Rewire: The Vital-Side Membership -Lindsay’s Instagram: @myvitalside -Visit Lindsay’s Website -Cait’s Instagram: @caitrossco -Visit Cait’s Website   Join our community: bit.ly/rewirethepodcast Podcast disclaimer can be found by visiting: bit.ly/rewiredisclaimer

Do you feel lost, overwhelmed, and inundated by ANOTHER detox remedy in your healing journey? Lindsay is joined this week by Vital-Sider, Lori Weir, who discusses what it was like after being diagnosed with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), Post Orthostatic Hypotension (POTS), and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Lori also details what led her to find the Rewire community and begin brain-retraining. She describes some of her major transformational moments - going from being hospitalized with intense adrenaline surges to today, riding roller coasters at Disneyland with her 3 children and husband. Lori Weir has a background in psychology, but it wasn’t until she and her children began to suffer from chronic conditions that she discovered just how important the nervous system was to her healing. She has been in the holistic health world for nearly 10 years She credits brain-retraining as being the missing piece to her healing puzzle. She is passionate about sharing her story and helping others see their own capability for self-healing. In 2022, she started partaking in community group sessions in Vital-Side Ed and taking her retraining journey to the next level in Elevate: Brain Retraining 2.0. Lori now works as the Vital-Side Community Manager, and she shares her story of healing with thousands of members on the Vital-Side Network and has reconnected with herself and her health in a massive way. Show Notes: -Lori’s story of first dealing with the sickness of her kids 4 years ago and becoming aware of her own need to heal in 2021 -Recognition of how from the darkest times in life come light and joy -Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS) diagnosis of two of her children -Discovering modalities like homeopathy that helped her children find symptom relief -Finding Rewire after being in the Lyme community and learning about brain retraining -When Lori had her eyes dilated and was diagnosed with MCAS… that was the moment she realized this wasn’t about the eyedrops - it was her body’s response to the eyedrops. -Having 911 called twice during adrenaline surges was Lori’s catalyst for change to start Rewire in July 2021 -After 3 months, she started to notice changes where she was calm and sleeping through the night when her kids were asleep. -Lori also noticed she was adventurous and confident to take her children out to hike in nature.  -She started asking herself, “Who am I?” after brain retraining for over a year; she went on a journey to rediscover who she was now that she was feeling better. -Starting Elevate has made her healing journey more fun and filled with purpose. -Lori recognizes that the Elevate videos are shorter, simpler, and easier than she thought, and she is now recommitting to brain retraining as a result. -Describing her experience as “wild,” looking back to where she and her children were suffering just 4 years ago to riding roller coasters and road-tripping to Disneyland from Texas today. Resources: CLAIM YOUR DISCOUNT CODE - ELEVATE 50 and REWIRE20 -Rewire, The Vital-Side Membership (claim 20% off for the year) -Elevate (claim 50% for your first month)  SALE begins 11/25 @ 12 PM CST and ENDS 11/29 @ 4 PM CST -Visit the Vital-Side Homepage here -Sign up for the Rewire: The Vital-Side Membership -Lindsay’s Instagram: @myvitalside -Visit Lindsay’s Website -Cait’s Instagram: @caitrossco -Visit Cait’s Website Join our community: bit.ly/rewirethepodcast Podcast disclaimer can be found by visiting: bit.ly/rewiredisclaimer

Cara Barone, CEO of Heal the Hustle, discusses rewiring how we work, earn, and lead to experience more ease and joy. Topics include: healing the nervous system, shifting mindset, understanding dysregulated nervous system, acknowledging emotional reactions, and recognizing the brain-body connection.

Trauma-informed somatic coach and mentor Samantha Johnson discusses the practice of Somatics and how it can help us reach our full potential. They explore the importance of recognizing patterns in our lives, being connected with all parts of ourselves, and cultivating safety through somatic practices. They also discuss the significance of self-awareness, emotion processing, and listening to intuition in living a fulfilling life.

Are you a new parent wondering how to regulate your nervous system? Lindsay and Cait are joined by Dr. Alex Mosley, a Texas-based chiropractor and a holistic wellness practitioner where they dive into the complexities of managing your nervous system while navigating the world of parenting. Alex discusses why she believes fight or flight isn’t always a “negative” response, why and how we can let go of “Mom-shaming”, and how we can begin to normalize temporary nervous system dysregulation as a new parent. Show Notes: -Alex’s personal story of how she discovered nervous system regulation work and her journey with allopathic medicine, leading her to realize the need for a more holistic view on health as a chiropractor -The difference Alex felt between being in the waiting room of a chiropractor vs. a traditional medical doctor -Alex’s experience as a new parent -- feeling contradictory emotions all at once, along with the dichotomy of being pregnant and being a new mom -Alex’s choice to do a home birth -Alex’s journey with postpartum high-functioning anxiety + weaving in old threads of her life with new threads of being a Mom & parent -Shifting your mindset away from “How can I decrease or get rid of this stress response?” to “How can I allow myself to be in this stress response effectively because it's a normal part of being a new Mom?” -Alex’s experience with “Mom rage” when her daughter was ~3 months old -- this is a sign of unmet needs -Parents need to take a step back and do their own healing work; as a result of mirror neurons, parents condition children to feel what they feel and act how they act -Being a parent allows you to tap into a whole new level of surrender, which allows parents to learn & grow -Babies need to securely attach to their caretakers. -Debunking the myth of babies “sleeping through the night” and how that relates to Attachment Theory -Relearning as your baby grows & develops – Alex’s experience with a “new baby” every month that her daughter, Georgia grows -Gaining confidence and alignment in the decisions you are making as a Mom – through collective learning; community & support; and connecting to your own intuition – as anecdotes to “Mom shaming” -Alex’s advice on regulating your nervous system in a realistic way as a new Mom – get back to basics & release expectations: 1) Make sure your decisions are in alignment with YOU – “if it doesn’t feel right to you, it’s not right for you” 2) Showering more often – let freezing cold water pour over you at the end of your shower 3) Make sure to eat – one-handed foods are helpful for easy eating on-the-go 4) Alex’s adrenal cocktail that is necessary to replenish minerals that are depleted after being in a state of fight-flight 5) Addressing in resources you need like counseling, housekeeping, or Instacart Resources: -Visit Alex’s Website -Alex’s Instagram: @thespecificatx -Listen to Alex’s Podcast You Crack Me Up: The Chiropractic Show -Book: “Mama Rising” by Amy Taylor-Kabbaz -Regulation station: 1 Week of Free Access! Click ‘join now.’  -Visit the Vital-Side Homepage here -Sign up for the Rewire: The Vital-Side Membership -Lindsay’s Instagram: @myvitalside -Visit Lindsay’s Website -Cait’s Instagram: @caitrossco -Visit Cait’s Website Join our community: bit.ly/rewirethepodcast Podcast disclaimer can be found by visiting: bit.ly/rewiredisclaimer

Have you wondered why you want to come home, check out, and just watch Dateline at the end of a long day? Are you simultaneously experiencing insomnia, anxiety, and stress throughout your day? In today’s episode, Lindsay is diving straight into why we’re addicted to drama. It’s not because we are passionate about crime or gore – it’s because we are addicted to chronic stress after being conditioned to live in a do-more culture. She talks about tangible ways to start changing your habits to get that necessary downtime without feeding the “drama loop,” and how to break the habit of feeding chronic stress. Show Notes: -We are exposed to drama through technology, news, social media, TV shows & podcasts -We can be addicted to stress hormones like adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine -The difference between experiencing a bought of stress naturally and being addicted to stress -Question to come back to: “What are you in control of throughout your day?” -Our work environments & day-to-day lifestyle make us addicted to stress through conditioning -Awareness is the first step to making drastic changes to the stress response -We can become aware, then understand the incentives and rewards the addiction gives us -What can we replace this habit with that offers the same reward? -Understanding and tapping into our natural resilience is our human birthright -Introduce small state changers throughout the day like vagus nerve stimulation  -How to start creating habit shifts: Resources: -Regulation station: 1 Week of Free Access! Click ‘join now.’  -Visit the Vital-Side Homepage here -Sign up for the Rewire: The Vital-Side Membership -Lindsay’s Instagram: @myvitalside -Visit Lindsay’s website -Cait’s Instagram: @caitrossco -Visit Cait’s Website Join our community: bit.ly/rewirethepodcast Podcast disclaimer can be found by visiting: bit.ly/rewiredisclaimer

Are you struggling to understand your brain and body’s impulse reactions to certain stressors or triggers in your life? This week, Lindsay shares tangible tools to begin your brain retraining journey, as well as breaking down and identifying what an acute stress response looks like, and the role our stress hormones play in that response, and shares a visualization exercise you can try from the comfort of your home.  Show Notes: -Identify the goals you have in your life – how & why to use brain retraining -Going from unconscious brain retraining to intentional brain retraining -Lindsay’s background in science and medicine & interest in optimizing health -Understanding and defining our own perfect storm after exposure to toxins or trauma -Definition of the acute stress response – toggling in and out of fight-flight-freeze -Example of the stress response in animals -How the stress response can show up in our lives as physical, mental, or emotional symptoms -Example of how the brain changes using the example of the stress hormone, cortisol -Information on Epigenetics with Dr. Bruce Lipton -What happens when we make intentional changes to our brains using the example of dopamine -The difference between avoiding stressors and triggers & recognizing your capacity to start to regulate your autonomic nervous system -A BONUS Nervous System Regulation tool using visualization & breath: go from acute fight-flight-freeze to connect with your own natural resilience Resources: -Visit the Vital-Side Homepage here -Sign up for the Rewire: The Vital-Side Membership -Lindsay’s Instagram: @myvitalside -Visit Lindsay’s website  -Cait’s Instagram: @caitrossco -Visit Cait’s Website Join our community: bit.ly/rewirethepodcast Podcast disclaimer can be found by visiting: bit.ly/rewiredisclaimer

Do you ever find yourself faced with the social pressures of drinking alcohol? Does alcohol no longer align with your higher vibration and the ultimate vision you have for your dream life? Lindsay and Cait are joined by alcohol-free lifestyle expert, Amanda Kuda, who discusses the role alcohol can play in your life, in your social circles, and in manifesting your dreams. Amanda discusses Gray-Area Drinking, how to manage & overcome the social pressures of drinking, and why more and more people are choosing to live an alcohol-free lifestyle. Amanda Kuda is a writer, intuitive coach, and mentor who helps leaders and entrepreneurs break up with booze so that they can break through to their best lives. Her biggest passion is teaching other high-achieving women how to navigate the stumbling blocks of going alcohol-free so you can step into a life beyond your wildest dreams. Show Notes: - Amanda’s story: how she used alcohol as a social lubricant in order to “fit in” - In her 20s, she started to discover that there was more to life - she started her spiritual & personal development journey...but she still felt like something was off - Switching the mentality from “doing more” to looking at her lifestyle to see if there was an activity that was misaligned; her inner guide told her it was drinking alcohol - How to listen to your mind, body, and natural intuition to understand your own needs - How alcohol can change your brain chemistry and alter your health - Defining “gray area drinking” — what is is & why/how it causes challenges - “You don’t need to have a problem with alcohol in order for it to be a problem in your life” - Archetypes (by Gretchin Rubin) – 1. Moderators and 2. Abstainers - Tapping into your own ability to create, reprogram your brain, and rewire mental processes when abstaining from alcohol - Learning more information about what alcohol does to the brain on Andrew Huberman’s Podcast - Amanda’s recommendation: take a 90-day break from alcohol to reconnect with your intuition without alcohol as a roadblock - The Cosmic Algorithm: the Universe shows you content that aligns to your personal goals and values, including your social life, friendships, and personal relationships - When shifting your relationship to alcohol, there may be shifts in your current friendships —this can be a good thing and lead to deeper & more authentic connections - Curate your own life by shifting your focus (+ the science behind the Reticular Activating System (RAS) in our brains) - Manifesting and how to shift your relationship with manifesting by breaking up with alcohol - If you lower your energetic vibration & dilute yourself to a different energetic level, you require a heavier lift to get you back to your desires and highest potential - Your destiny is closer than you imagine if you get out of your own way - “Optimize your life by removing obstacles” by James Clear - There is a paradigm shift occurring —we are becoming more focused on living vibrant lives inside & out; we are approaching an era where alcohol drinking is becoming less seductive Resources: -Visit Amanda’s Website -Amanda’s Instagram: @amandakuda -Unbottled Potential Podcast -Gretchen Rubin’s Podcast -Andrew Huberman Podcast Episode on Alcohol and the Brain -James Clear’s Book: Atomic Habits -Visit the Vital-Side Homepage here -Sign up for the Rewire: The Vital-Side Membership -Lindsay’s Instagram: @myvitalside -Visit Lindsay’s website -Cait’s Instagram: @caitrossco -Visit Cait’s Website Join our community: bit.ly/rewirethepodcast Podcast disclaimer can be found by visiting: bit.ly/rewiredisclaimer

Traveling can be taxing on our nervous system, and it can be difficult to find the time and space to check in with yourself while you’re on a plane, in a car, or exploring a new city. This week, Cait shares a detailed how-to guide and offers actionable and proactive steps you can take to ensure your nervous system is well cared for and regulated before and during your travels.  Show Notes: - Cait shares her recent personal experience with staying regulated while traveling to NYC - How a woman's monthly cycle can add nuances while traveling - Nervous system regulation tools while traveling: - Engage in movement — stretch before your flight / car / bus ride, take a class in your destination city or watch a free class on YouTube, sweat it out for bonus detoxing - Nature — find a park, put your bare feet in the grass, or lay down to ground yourself - Music — Cait shares her go-to playlist to listen to when commuting from Point A to Point B (especially on long flights) - Pack food & nourishing snacks — google health food stores ahead of your trip so you know the distance to/from the closest options from where you’re staying; pack your go-to healthy snacks to minimize airport food when possible - Take space — engage in intentional breathing, solo time, & make intentional upgrades to your physical space when possible (i.e. seat upgrades for extra space on an airline flight) - Bonus tip: research ahead of time! Save a google list of all your “saved” and pinned places for healthy food, grocery stores, workout classes & more - Cait’s final and #1 tip: slow down, ease up on expectations to see and “do it all” while traveling, and be present to your surroundings Resources: -Cait’s “Regulate and Elevate” Spotify Playlist -”Weightless” Song -Visit the Vital-Side Homepage here -Sign up for the Rewire: The Vital-Side Membership -Lindsay’s Instagram: @myvitalside -Visit Lindsay’s website -Cait’s Instagram: @caitrossco -Visit Cait’s Website Join our community: bit.ly/rewirethepodcast Podcast disclaimer can be found by visiting: bit.ly/rewiredisclaimer

What does healing mean to you? This week, we learn to break the typical definition of healing as “being healed” - and re-define it to a definition that makes sense to us. We discuss how healing should be less about “fixing” something and more about reconnecting with your sense of self. We discuss small ways you can anchor into your healing journey, as well as some questions you can ask yourself to recalibrate. In this episode, we talk about the best way to support our brains, bodies, and minds rather than think of ourselves as broken. Show Notes: -Healing is a recalibration back to homeostasis - back to our own purposes & missions -Healing steps - stepping into the sunshine, getting less screen time, or simply tuning into your own body -An analogy of “healing as a hose” – what setting do you need to put the hose on during this season of your life? -Focus less on fixing & more on creating a daily practice -The human experience is full of yin and yang – normalizing the balance that life brings us of having exciting & easy days vs. challenging & more difficult days -As humans & natural problem solvers, we can have perfectionistic tendencies that can lead to feeling like we are “not enough,” “not doing enough,” or “need to be fixed” -Asking yourself, “Where am I right now on the pendulum of desire and detachment?” – If the desire/fixing/elevating piece is being experienced too much, then balancing it with detachment can be a gentle way to allow yourself to make mistakes & fail -If you lean too much into desire, there may be too much masculine energy. You can balance this with more soft, gentle feminine energy to infuse healthy detachment energy into your personal growth process -Simple tools you can use throughout the day to start to re-define healing: talk to yourself the way you would treat your best friend Resources: -Link to the Rewire: The Vital-Side Membership -Lindsay’s Instagram: @myvitalside -Visit Lindsay’s website -Cait’s Instagram: @caitrossco -Visit Cait’s Website Join our community: bit.ly/rewirethepodcast Podcast disclaimer can be found by visiting: bit.ly/rewiredisclaimer