HEALING MENTALLY, PHYSICALLY, AND SPIRITUALLY…IT’S ALL CONNECTED

Welcome to the, my natural wellness podcast with Dr. Michelle tri giving you your holistic healthcare perspective.

Welcome back to my natural wellness, a holistic healthcare perspective with Dr. Michelle Trias. I'm so glad to have you back. And I am joined by a good friend of mine, Christina, um, Christina, you know, I've known you for so long and I've never asked you how to pronounce your last name. So tell me <laugh>

It's Kaki. I got really lucky.

Amazing. Okay. I hope that's happened to other people too, where you're like that's Christina. I just know her that's who she's <laugh>

It happens a lot.

Thank you for coming on. Um, and, and talking with us. So Christina is a, a mother, a, um, a healer she's got 10 years of experience making herbal medicine from scratch and farming internship, certif certification through Oregon state university. And she uses Bray and crystals and intuition when working with her clients. Um, so I, I met Christina because I was working with patients who needed herbal support and, and then I realized, well, she's got this whole other wealth of knowledge in terms of spiritual and emotional healing that she's working with patients on. So tell us a little bit about your journey to where you are now with what you're

Doing. I started herbal medicine when I was pregnant with my first child. And, you know, I saw this disconnection between the pediatrician and really through wellness and it's no fault of anyone, but for me, you know, it drove my passion to really wanna get to the root of disease. And why does my child have a rash? Why does my child have this cough? That's not going away. And through the studies that I've done, I've amassed a lot of knowledge. And one core thread that I began to notice with my adult, friends and clients was that within themselves was a disconnection between the mind and the body. And so through my own exploration, not only did I have an herbalism passion, I began to get involved with health coaching, but then again, the disconnection between the mind and the gut, wasn't just food related. And herb related, I saw a disconnection between the emotional body and why we are doing certain things.

And so throughout the last 10 or 12 years, it's been this beautiful unfolding of what is the root cause of our disease. And, you know, the thread that I like to put through the needle is our mind and our belly, our gut bio must be matched if we want to achieve wellness. And I'm currently on a path of conversation with my clients and my children who are the best teachers, um, learning why we do things, why we make the choices we make, and then the consequences repercussions are rewards based on that behavior. It's been a beautiful process,

Amazing your story. And my story have similar similarities in that we sort of were brought there by a, because of our children. You know, I, I feel like I was so, so disconnected before I had my first child, and I just did not understand how everything was interrelated, but something about having that life inside of you sort of forces you to reevaluate everything. And, um, and so that journey kind of began in the womb, but then, like you said, once I started to see, well, I would take it to the traditional pediatrician. And I was, you know, not seeing that there was that there was a, a search for like the reason which is, you know, we always want a reason. Let's give me a reason a root cause. So, um, I love that you, you shared that about your journey. You also had your, when we first met and I'll say that in quotations, because we've had this by phone, by email, um, long relationship, but you had a farm. Tell me about your farm.

Yeah. Um, I originally in 2012, I, I had my second child and I had a friend I would go to her house and I would say, what flower is that? What flower is that? What plant is that? And she's like, you know, maybe you should get a master gardener certification. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so I didn't realize I had this connection innately. I actually always have to plants. And then it morphed into, I went from being a master gardener in Oregon to studying through Oregon state university. They had a beginning beginners, urban farmer certification program. So it, the goal was to teach people in an urban environment, how to produce food in your yard. And there's definitely a need for that, but my yard was too small for my big dream. So we packed up the wagon and, uh, we moved to Texas and, um, I bought a five and a half acre farm, and I had an incident with a chicken <laugh> and I accidentally, um, let's say that I accidentally helped the chicken cross, the rainbow bridge. And

So

I went to the back of the property to, to bury the chicken and to honor it. And this was mind you, the first week of buying our farm.

Oh my God,

I couldn't stick the shovel in the ground. And it really surprised me because, um, there is a website called NRCS and NRCS is a government organization that lets you know, the type of soil that you're on and our soil was farmland of the utmost importance. That's why I bought it. And um, when I went to go bury the chicken and I couldn't stick a shovel in the ground, my dream was shattered because what I didn't know was that I was on, they call it gumbo. I was on Texas black clay. It is the stickiest densest material. They maybe grew cotton. And so what's interesting is when we meet up with resistance, um, my dream of starting a farm, a vegetable organic farm morphed into, well, maybe I can be the chicken lady and maybe I can grow herbs. And so I eventually transitioned into a herbal farm and I was growing herbs for my aary. So, you know, the resistance of not being able to live my dream turned into my now business <laugh>, which is incredible. So yeah, we had five and a half acres and I was the local, um, sourdough and chicken lady and I grew herbs and it was fantastic and I made medicine.

That's amazing. And, and that's just a, kind of a Testament of how that, how life can work in ways. If you just allow, I mean, you could have been like, well, this is my dream and this is what I wanna do. So now we have to sell this property and pack up and find, I want to fit what I have in my head into this box. But you allowed yourself to be open to the possibility that you were meant to be there and you, maybe your dream was meant to be something else. And it did it morphed into something very cool, you know, with using herbs. And I just, I, I love that, that you're you allowed that you were open to the possibility that there could be something else there for you outside of, outside of what you had thought, and that's really, um, a Testament to how you flow with life, you know, how you're in the flow. So that's very cool. I love that. I did not know that that is how the evolution of the farm happened. So well, I know that that's great. You've gone up and you've done some further studying and some further, um, you know, life's work. I, I would call it really and soul searching. I would call it too, um, to take your coaching kind of to the next level. Will you tell us a little bit, um, about what you're doing now?

Yes. So, um, to go back to the farm story, you know, I think the, if you SA, if you wanna say that, you know, the universe planted a seed in me, I think the reason that I, I came to that cur courageous, courageous change and my own resiliency to switch my dream was because I crumbled. And this is a very important piece, I believe in, in holistic healing, which is to allow yourself to feel the feelings. And so, you know, after the chicken incident, I literally laid on the floor and wet, and then there comes a moment when that inner voice kicks in and says, all right, get up, sister, what are we gonna do now? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And you know, I've had many instances of that and that, that voice is what I've been looking for, which is the voice of our soul, in my opinion.

And I wanted that wisdom. Who is that? What is that? And can I get more? So in October of 2021, um, we actually sold our farm in August of 2021 because that voice told me that we were done. And again, I could have resisted and said, no, this doesn't make sense. This is my dream, but I listened and my family agreed. It was time to go. We weren't, we weren't happy. Um, it just didn't seem to fit anymore. And so we were called to move to Pensacola, Florida, which we did. And the second I put my feet on the ground was when everything changed, I no longer had a farm. I no longer had, you know, obligations and friends. It was just me, kids were in school and that's when everything began. I began to delve deeply into my emotions. I began to delve deeply into my spirituality, which for me showed up through shamanism mm-hmm <affirmative>.

I resonate very deeply with those teachings. And, um, I ended up going to Peru and I did a nine day vision quest, uh, paired with isolation in the jungle and fasting. And I met my shadow and <laugh> I met my anxiety and I met my co-dependency and my abandonment and all the things that I had been ignoring. That's what that voice was trying to get me to hear mm-hmm <affirmative>, but I needed to be personally, I needed to be in a place of stillness and illness. And subsequently when I got back, I began to search for healers. I found physical therapists, massage therapists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and I also have a coach of my own. I believe everybody needs their own coach or therapist. Um, especially if you are helping others. And that was for me. And so I am on an, an ever unfolding journey of getting to know myself and, um, bettering myself and dissolving my old self to become what I am today, which is everything. <laugh>, <laugh> everything.

What a trip man to go all the way to Purdue. And, um, I mean, I know that when I fast, it can be a very spiritual experience. I never thought of it that way. Always thought of, you know, a means to improving health. But the more I open myself up to the fact that it, it can be spiritual and the more meditation I do when I'm fasting the, the more connected I feel to myself to the earth. Um, so that must have been an incredible experience to take nine days and just head into the jungle and yeah, meet, meet up with all of these, um, shadows, like you say, a codependency and, and fear, anxiety, all of these things that are kind of welling up inside of us. And I think the closest I've ever gotten to that is after, after yoga <laugh>, you know, and it's only like, you know, like a few minutes where I feel like, oh, okay, here I am, I'm here, I'm here a little voice inside.

And then it's just sort of fleeting. And so we're always chasing it, but it's always there, right. It's stop chasing it. It's it's there. You can get tap into it whenever you, whenever you need have that wisdom. It's just that sort of knowing and getting to that stage of like, well, I know that it's there. So, um, you know, we talk, you and I have had lots of long conversations about holistic health and what it means, but for people that are listening and, and to kind of merge together the importance of what Christine is talking about, holistic health looks at the whole person. So we're not just looking at, okay, well, here's what your labs are telling me. That's one, that's pathology, that's one layer of, of holistic health. And then there's, you know what what's happening, you know, in your gut, in your microbiome, on the bacteria, that's another kind of layer of what it could be.

You know, what's going on mentally, spiritually, emotionally. That's another layer of things that are happening. Um, and the body does keep scored. And so when things happen to us emotionally, when we have traumatic experiences, it affects our health. It just, it just does, you know, it lots and lots of patients that have had a traumatic experience. And then months later, a huge shift in their, in their health, like out of nowhere, out of the blue, you know, their mother passes away. This is huge for loss of my mother, father passing away, huge, huge, huge feelings of, of abandonment feelings of, and that never really gets dealt with. And then what happens is something happens in the body. Some big shift changes. And then, because like you said, we're not connected the way that we should be to mind. And we don't that shift that happens.

That's been happening. It, it goes on unperceived until finally the body says, stop. I can't do this anymore. I that's a heart attack. That's a stroke. That's an aneurysm, that's skin issues, that's anxiety and fatigue and depression. It, it can be any, it can manifest itself in any which way it can be, you know, but, um, but that's kind of the whole, when you look at holistic health, you look at the whole person, so what's happening spiritually, emotionally, what's happening mentally. What's what are traumatic experiences they have, or are going through, and what's going on in the body, what's going on with the labs what's going on with, with what they're feeling, what's this, their symptoms, that's one of the pillars, but without addressing the, the emotional, the mental and the spiritual component, you really never get to full healing because you're always having this obstacle kind of like a, <laugh> kind of like a, a table.

If you're missing one of the pillars to hold the table up, the table will never be steady, will never hold up. You'll feel you can maybe get it there, but not really. So, um, so that's why your work is, is so important in what you're doing and what, how you're, um, helping people to have conversations. Um, and, and it's a little bit different than like a traditional therapist office where you'd sit down and say, okay, what happened? Tell me how you feel. It's, um, explores deeper what you're doing. It explores on a much deeper, more spiritual level versus a mental, psychological level, which is also important, which is also very important. I, I believe that's very, very helpful. So, um, so tell us about your experience with, with what you're been going through with that.

You know, I was in Marshall arts for a few years and I, you know, was 35 and I was fighting hard and trying to keep up with the teenagers. And I put myself on a diet and I was, I looked good. I felt good. And then the injury started and I was able to heal a lot of the injuries because you know, I'm 35 when you get hit by teenagers, you break things. But there was one particular injury that actually, um, I actually quit martial arts because it was the one injury that wouldn't heal. And it really surprised me because I didn't understand I'm doing all the right things. I'm not eating anything inflammatory. I'm taking my fish oil I'm I was doing everything right. But this one injury was on the left side of my body and it was my ankle. It just wouldn't heal.

And it forced me to stop because it's your leg? What is it? What is it asking me to do? It's asking me to stop mm-hmm <affirmative>. And now this was a couple years ago before I began my health coaching courses, but I, I knew there was something I was missing. So I did some studies through the check Institute. I became certified as a level one health coach, and yet there was still a component missing for me and what I began to notice with myself. And then as it happens with everyone around me that I talk to <laugh> is this piece. I like to look at it like this.

When we ignore the whispers of our imbalances, you could say, when we ignore the whispers of our, no of our, we shouldn't eat that. This isn't right for me, this isn't the right relationship, whatever it is when we don't listen to the whispers, I like to look at it as like a top down so we can go our spiritual body always lets us know that's in my opinion, where the intuition's coming from, this is the feeling in our belly. This is a good door to walk through. Or this one looks kind of sketchy. Maybe I shouldn't go there today. If we ignore that, then it moves down to that mental, emotional body. Then we start getting the thoughts of, I don't know if this is the right job, the more we bypass our inner knowing. That's when, in my opinion, it settles into the body.

And this, in my opinion is where disease begins to manifest because we've ignored the whispers and the knowing. And now it's had time to ferment, if you will. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so I am so interested when people have a pain, uh, illness, a rash, a, a disease, what didn't we listen to along the way mm-hmm <affirmative> right. There were stop signs. You just blew through. And I wanna know why. And I've had many people tell me that I'm not a health coach. I'm more of a <laugh>. I don't know what I am, but you know, they're like, you don't, you're not a health coach. You do something else. It's like talk therapy. We're gonna do it. Right. <laugh> right. And, but my job is becoming, I'm becoming, you could say a sort of midwife of the soul. I want people to begin to listen to their yeses and their nos. I want people to begin to feel what is right and what isn't, and to subsequently have courage to make decisions based on their knowing and not the knowing or opinion of anyone outside of themselves. And this is where the health can begin. This is where we can cure ourselves. Mm-hmm <affirmative> because we all have that potential mm-hmm <affirmative>, but we must turn towards the uncomfortable feelings and the discomfort. And we must turn off the people pleasing. Sometimes mm-hmm <affirmative> and that's hard

Creating boundaries, but right. Creating boundaries. That's hard. That's very hard, right? For some people it's like, it's, it's, it's tough. And you're right. It's, it's all about kind of going in. And I tell people this all the time, when they come in for appointments, I'm like, you are the one that's doing all the work. You are the healer of your own body. You know, I can kind of guide you and make a little bit of a go this way. Don't go that way. Try this path, look down this road. Don't go that, you know, but really the person who's there sitting in that chair is doing all the work that has to get done. You are, you are the, you are the healer of your body. So when someone says to me, intuitively, like, I don't feel like this is right. I'm like, great, perfect.

I love that. Let's try something else. Let's do something different. Instead of what about a traditional medical model would say, well, this is the protocol. This is what you need to do. Well, no, everybody knows intuitively what's best for them. Once you tap into that, you can, you can make those decisions for yourself pretty easily. You're like, yeah, that's better for me than that. This is good for me. And that's not good for me. Um, the more, the more we, we do the work, the closer we are to being able to tap into that much more, much more easily. So I just, I love everything that we've been talking about. Um, uh, is there anything else you wanted to, to share with us today before we, before we wrap up?

Well, I would like to add that, you know, the foundation to healing yourself is going to be to turn on your feelings again. And I like to work with ceremonial Kaka in this aspect, because going back to the detoxing, I went through a, uh, three week detox and finished it out with a two day water fast recently. And the two days I did water fasting, I did have some ceremonial Kaka, and it changed my life because I no longer was inputting anything in my system, but medicine and I got very clear. And what was clear for me was that I stopped feeling a long time ago. And when we stopped feeling our feelings, you know, who's driving the bus. And so I would finish with, don't be afraid of your feelings, allow yourself to know what's right. And what isn't for you, and to find the courage to say, so mm-hmm, <affirmative> healing is possible, but it starts within you. And if you need help, you know, we're here for you.

Absolutely. We definitely, we definitely are here for you. If you are listening and you do need help and you feel like this sounds like just the right kind of person that I wanna talk to, you can, um, visit my website. There's information about Christina there and a, and a link to her site. So you can connect with her directly. Um, and, and I hope that you will feel from, from this short time that I have shared with, uh, with Christina here on the podcast, what I feel every time we connect that this is, uh, a great person to have in my corner. <laugh> so I love having you as one of my partners in the practice. Um, so thank you all for, for listening. Thank you, Christina, for, for being on the podcast. And, uh, we will continue to have conversations like this and dive deeper into, into healing, not to healing natural holistically.

Thank you.

Thank you for listening to the, my natural wellness podcast with Dr. Michelle triage, to learn more about my natural wellness, go to www.mynaturalwellness.com. That's www dot M Y N a T U R O. wellness.com or call 2 3 9 5 7 9 3 8 4 6.