From Anxiety to Calm: Amino Acids, Faith, and Gut Healing with Laurie Hammer

Opening advice on guarding sleep 0:00

So what would be one small realistic step that any of the listeners could take today to decrease their anxiety and start on a better path to wholeness? Yeah, guard your sleep. Guard your sleep like there's no tomorrow. Go to bed at the same time every single night, trying to make it by 10 p.m. Don't stay up past 10 p.m. Set your alarm, remind yourself to go to bed, and then just do that for 60 to 90 days, and that's gonna make a profound difference for you if you can stick to it. This is Doctor Talks.

Welcome to Vitality Made Simple. This is the podcast that equips you to feel better, look better, and to enjoy better relationships. Life is all about relationships.

Introduction to Laurie Hammer and her story 0:54

Love God, love people. That is what we want to do. And so today I'm excited to introduce you to Laurie Hammer. She is someone who's going to help you enjoy life with less anxiety. Welcome, Laurie. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me, Debbie. Great to have you. And Laurie is a functional nutrition therapy practitioner. And it was her own journey that led her to this. We had a fun little talk off recording about our grandbabies and how much joy that's giving us. So I want everybody to have more joy, less anxiety.

So Laurie, what happened in your life that pulled you on this path? Oh, well, you know, going through it's really hard, but you look back, you're like, I'm so glad I went through it, you know, because it's, you know, the other side is just so amazing. And I had an eating disorder. I was bulimic for 12 years of my life. And in my early 20s, I decided I needed to do something about it. And I had a mentor come alongside me. She tried to get me into some eating disorder programs. I did the counseling route, I did the group programs, the 12 steps, I did all that stuff.

And I was still stuck in that anxiety, in that eating disorder cycle. I was passing out, I was having seizures. My life was a mess. I had to drop out of nursing school. Family relationships were super tough. I was just making stupid choices because I was trying to drink my way out of an eating disorder, smoke some pot out of my eating disorder. You just try all these things, coping mechanisms. And I couldn't get into any eating disorder programs because I wasn't suicidal enough, my weight wasn't low enough, and I just didn't fit their really strict parameters, right?

So I can answer all the questions really well. And so I thought, well, I'll just move away, Debbie, because that solves everything, right? And it just only made things worse. And thankfully, this same mentor of mine, she had been a nursing professor. She sent me an article about an outpatient clinic in California, and their mantra was that you're addicted to what you're allergic to, meaning the food that you're craving is the food that you're sensitive to, right? And so they talked about food cravings and eating disorders and stuff.

So she's like, call out here. I think they can help you. So I called out there and they're like, yeah, come on out. It's outpatient. So I went out there for a week and I found I had celiac disease and I was sensitive to dairy. So everything that I was binging and purging on was creating a dopamine hit. It was creating an endorphin hit. It was giving me those slight little highs and that's why I kept craving, right? Because it was causing so much inflammation and when in it messes with your neurotransmitters.

And then I found out that, you know, I had some thyroid issues, adrenal issues. So this was my first dive into this functional health world. And back in 1996, it wasn't called that, you know, it was kind of the crazy world and that's where I went. And then most importantly, they tested. my neurotransmitters, meaning they had a questionnaire that I filled out and it has five areas in it. So questions on your serotonin and GABA and your endorphins and your catecholamines and your glucose regulation.

And then the most crazy thing happened is they said, here, we're going to try these amino acids and we're going to help to balance those neurotransmitters out to fix those deficiencies. And so we opened up capsules of amino acids, put them under my tongue, stared at the lady for a couple of minutes. She's like, how do you feel? I'm like, I think I feel better. You know, the anxiety would lift, the depression would lift. And over time, you know, the OCD thoughts went away and the noise that I had going on in my head went away.

I even had voices in my head. And when you're deep in an eating disorder, if you tell somebody you have voices in your head, they think you're schizophrenic, right? They think there's something really wrong with you. But it was really just the foods I was eating and then the depletion level of my body. And so over time with these amino acids changing my diet, changing my lifestyle, I got my life back and I'm still here today and that was in 1996. And I still do amino acid therapy with my clients today because it saved my life and I see it saving so many other people's lives.

From eating disorder to functional nutrition 5:00

That is an incredible story. It is a miracle that you're alive. It is a miracle. And God led me there. He totally led me there. When I moved away, I became a nanny. And I started going to, because I grew up in a different denomination. And they went to this what I thought was a crazy Baptist church at the time. And because I came from a Lutheran background, they're like, don't go to the Baptist church. But I went to church with them. And I started going to their young adults group. And I got saved.

You know, and I heard the gospel like I had never heard it before. And I surrendered my life and my prayer was, Lord, I feel like I'm going to die. Send me something so that I don't die. And that's what he sent me. Wow. Laurie and I fully believe that our misery becomes our ministry. I think uses, I mean, to see all through the Bible where he's used, you know, people, Joseph in horrible situations to, you know, to save people. Well, thank you for sharing that. I really, really appreciate that because that will help somebody going through something really hard and they'll know that God can use that to help multitudes, which you are doing.

I am. I am. It's just been amazing. That's why I said I'm thankful for it now. I mean, God didn't give me that, right? But He certainly has used it in an amazing way. Yeah. And you know, off camera we were talking about our children and you know, I don't know if our listeners, I haven't talked about this much, but God blessed us through adoption and you know, infertility is very painful. Yes. And I had seven miscarriages and, but you know, I wouldn't change it because through all that we have Samuel and Micah and now, you know, a wonderful son-in-law and granddaughter and And the ability to speak to other women who have these issues.

So, so let's dive into anxiety because a lot of people have anxiety. Like, Laurie, it almost seems like, like that wasn't on my health history until about eight years ago. And now people say I have anxiety. Like they say, I have a, you know, have a toothache. Grab a Ford car. Exactly. Yeah, it's just like I have anxiety. So explain like anxiety. Explain when somebody really has anxiety and then and then, you know, segue into. the whole neurotransmitter deficiency problem. I totally agree that this is...

Right. And I really think anxiety comes from different angles. And what I've learned over the years is people label their anxiety differently. So anxiety for one person could be they just feel overwhelmed and like super tense all the time and they're just like stuck. And then the other person, they just have so many ruminating thoughts. I think we've just blanketed anxiety like to mean a thousand different things. I mean, if we go to the DMSR, whatever version it is now, I mean, there's a definition, but it's just very generic.

It really doesn't have a lot of meaning, I don't believe, behind it. So there's just so many different aspects of it. And we're going through that neurotransmitter imbalance, those deficiencies. I'm looking at, is it serotonin anxiety? Is it GABA anxiety? Is it your low in endorphin anxiety? Or is it low in your catecholamines anxiety? I don't think there's a really great definition for it. And I think that is why, especially with the way our world has been in the last five to 10 years, we've normalized it.

We've normalized it. And we have stopped teaching people to go, OK, I acknowledge what's happening in my life. And I know I can deal with it. And I know I can move. We've decided that it's something that we immediately have to fix. And if we can't immediately fix something, then we get anxious about it. I think that's a piece of it too, I think just the way our society goes. So I think there's lots of components, there's many things. But yeah, I want to jump in because you mentioned your faith, and I too am a Christian, and that is such a big part of, it is a handling life that is dismissed these days.

It is dismissed, and I think that's a good point to depend on our Creator. We are, and I was just having a podcast with Dr. Russell Kennedy, and he was saying that as well. He said that he's coming to believe in a creator, something beyond us, that people actually live longer. They enjoy life much more when they can lay it down and say, I surrender this to you. Right. I surrender it to you. I know when I was, after I went to the outpatient clinic in California, it was like two days into that week and we were standing on the dock there and I just started bawling and I started bawling because I had prayed for this.

But then on the other hand, I'm like, I don't know how to live without this. Like this was my coping mechanism. This was like my, this was a piece of me. And it was almost like I was like mourning the, the leaving of it, the letting go of it. Does that make sense? It was just new for you. It was something new. It was like waters. Yeah. Because I developed the eating disorder, not blaming anything on anybody, but that was my coping mechanism growing up with whatever crazy stuff was going on around us.

That's how I coped with it. Right? So I had an eating disorder and I never intended to have it. I watched a Karen Carpenter movie and I thought I was fat and I was stressed out and I was an anxious kid and so that just kind of spiraled into that. And I kind of don't know where I was going with that. It just leads into the faith of everything because once I learned how to surrender and to let it go, that's when the healing happens. So it was a physical piece that was healing. But when I was standing on that dock and I'm like, Lord, I don't know how to live without this.

Understanding anxiety and neurotransmitter imbalance 11:00

And just that peace that would come in and he would just kept coming along beside me and coming along beside me and teaching me and loving me and moving me into that next step, moving me into that next level of healing. And he still does, and he's so faithful. Every morning his mercies are new. Yes, and addressing, you know, spirit, soul, and body. I think that's the key. We try to, you know, in the functional medicine world, as you know, so many things are our body. And we really get soul defined as, you know, mind, will, and emotions.

And we for sure forget spirit or it's some woo-woo spirit that's not even, that's not Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. It has to be Jesus. Yeah. And I think when we're in the church, Debbie, we're so focused on the soul and the spirit, we forget the body. I mean, these are some of the most unhealthy people I know. No, my joke, Laurie, is, you know, pray, pray for me and pass the doughnuts. Because that's exactly it. There's no talk of it. No, they're like, don't touch my food. Like, have you gone to a church public?

Have you been to Wednesday night church? Yeah. Yeah. It was, you know, looks nine months pregnant, you know, so, uh, no, it's, it's so essential, I believe, to, you know, we're designed spirit, cell, and body. And so we have to address spirit, cell, and body. Yes. Get well. Yeah. Which you do, which you do. I do. Yeah. Well, I think too, when we're addressing the physical piece, this is why I love the immuno acid there, because when we're calming the neurology in the brain, then. everything else gets easier to deal with.

So if your neurology is calmer, you can think better. That means if you're going to counseling, you can process things faster. And I discovered that I didn't have as much to process, and I didn't have as much drama and trauma in my life as I thought I did. Because I could actually think, and I could actually surrender, and I could actually look at life on life's terms and go, I can do this. That's not affecting me. I can set that boundary. I can move forward. I can go and do this job. I didn't have as much.

chaos around me once my brain was balanced and my body felt better. And then I could deepen my relationship with God. I was reading the Bible. Oh my gosh, I understand what I'm reading now because my brain wasn't going 72 miles an hour in this anxiety spiral. Yeah, no, that's, that's incredible. Well, um, so you do functional nutrition therapy, differentiate for our audience, um, functional nutrition therapy versus like, you know, regular like a diet. Yes. A dietitian is in a hospital and I don't, if any of you are listening, I'm not trying to group you all into one thing, but the majority of the dietitians that I have met and I know they tend to work in like a medical setting or a nursing home or a school setting, some of those kinds of things.

And they're very just diet focused based on what the government's guidelines have been set as. Maybe some deviation, you know, over the past few years, maybe some will get into like a ketogenic sort of diet or those kind of things. But that's about it, right? As a functional nutritionist, we are working from head to toe. So how is your nutrition affecting your brain? How is your nutrition affecting your skin, your gut, your kidneys, your liver? And how can we supplement and to support all of those pathways as well?

And then what testing do we need done? Because I run a lot of lab testing as well. What lab testing do you use, Laurie? Um, I do a lot of comprehensive blood work. So, you know, lots of basic panels that give me lots of information and I love to do the Dutch test. Sometimes we'll run some gut testing just depends on the person and what they need. Oh, that's so exciting. So, um, you know, what do you see as the most common nutrient deficiencies? Um, you're, you're coaching these people. Tell us about patterns you see.

Yeah, well, I would say everybody's deficient in amino acids across the board. So amino acids, you need amino acids for your hair, skin, and nails. You need it for your heart, your liver, your intestines. You need it for your hormones and your enzymes. You need amino acids for everything. And when people are sick, they're missing the foundations. So they're missing foundational amino acids, foundational minerals, and foundational fatty acids. So if we can fix those foundational things, then we can go, OK, what's left over?

And then address those. So do you heal the gut first? I know I want to talk about fermented food so maybe tell us about your philosophy there. Yeah so my first line of defense is amino acids calm the neurology because when the neuro neurology of the body is calm the brain is calm then your digestion can heal. A lot of times we go backwards, can it be done the other way? Yes and no, I think you've got to work on both. So my first line of defense is the amino acids, calm everything down. Then let's go to the gut because if that vagal pathway isn't firing all the time and you're not stuck in fight or flight, then your gut can actually heal.

So we're going in, we're putting out the inflammation, we're changing the diet to anti-inflammatory foods. We probably will add in some fermented foods. I love fermented foods, unless there's some reason not to, but then I use some gut supplements to bring down that inflammation, increase that hydrochloric acid, work with your gallbladder, your bile production, your pancreatic production, make sure you poop every day and go from there. Oh, I want to emphasize poop every day, Laurie, because, you know, I started asking my dental patients 20 years ago, tell me about your bowel habits.

And you can't believe how many times I heard non-existent, Dr. Debbie, non-existent. People would go three or four days or in their gastroenterologist would say, oh, that's your normal. No big deal. It's a huge deal. Every day hope every day, please. Yes. Yeah, so and you talk about, you know calm so You know unwrap what calm should feel like I think some people really don't They're so stuck in fight-or-flight.

Faith, surrender, and healing the whole person 17:00

Yeah that they don't know what calm is and I know it's so funny you say that because sometimes I have to give people permission to be calm because they start to feel calm and then they're like, we have to create some chaos around me. I'm like, no, it's okay. I've had a husband sit in my office, it wasn't too long ago, and he put his hand on his wife because she was feeling so calm. She's like, I don't know what to do with myself during the day. I feel like I'm too relaxed. because she was so used to being keyed up all the time.

And he just put his hand on her and he goes, honey, it's OK to be calm. So you shouldn't feel like life is chaotic all the time. When you have enough endorphins, you have this inner joy. You just look around and you feel like you have joy in your life all the time. It just feels good on the inside. And then when your serotonin is balanced, that's your sunshine. Like you're just happy. So you've got the joy and you've got the happiness and you're like, your glass is full. It's not half empty. It's overflowing.

You know, life just feels good and you don't have the noise and the chaos and it's not going to be perfect. There's stress, right? There's just stress in our life, but you're like, that's a challenging stress, but you're not going to freak out about it. You're going to look at it and respond appropriately, right? And you're not going to stress your family out. All of a sudden you're going to look around and you're like, Everybody's calling around me, because we as the mamas, we set the tone for the house.

So if we're feeling nuts and chaotic, then our home is nuts and chaotic. So you'll see that ripple effect happen around you. And then people are going to want to be with you more. Yeah, we're back to relationships. Well, and I think, Laurie, there's a real badge of busyness that has to get passed. Like, their self-worth is based on if they, you know, if they're just so busy, just so busy, so busy. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I get caught up in that, too. I'm like, oh, we got to do that. And then I'm like, OK, stop.

I went to my son's. He just bought an acreage, and they planted potatoes out there. So I was digging potatoes, and I'm thinking to myself, the next thing I need to do, the next thing I need to do. Then all of a sudden, you can just feel the Holy Spirit. He's like, just stop. It was a beautiful day. Nobody was out there. I lay down on the ground, and I fell asleep. Like, we need to give ourselves permission, you know, to do those things, just to stop. And I just had a great conversation with the Lord, and if I hadn't listened and been obedient, I wouldn't have had that great conversation.

Because that's about relationship, right? So this badge of busyness. you know, keeps us out of the right relationship with our Heavenly Father, much less the people around us. Right, right. Well, and I think even the anxiety related to trying to be healthy, to maybe following too many people on Instagram or whatever and do this and do this and do this and do this and do this. I had a woman come in who was stressed out about And she's like, Dr. Debbie, I'm doing everything everybody says on your podcast.

And I just don't feel good. I'm just so upset and I just can't relax. And so literally, Laurie, I said, I mean, this is not a real popular advice, but I told her, I said, hey, Do you like Dr. Pepper? And she said, I love Dr. Pepper. I haven't had a Dr. Pepper in three years. You know, do you like Cheetos? And she's like, I love Cheetos. And I said, she said, I haven't had Cheetos in forever. And I said, well, I want you to get a big gulp Dr. Pepper and a big bag of Cheetos. Go to the lake, take your shoes off, put your feet in the dirt.

Look out over the water, look at the sky, count your blessings. Thank God for everything you can think of to be thankful for and maybe do that once a month. I mean, your health is not going to crater because you do that, you give yourself permission once a month to go do something. You know that you really enjoy because I do think the anxiety, the anxiety of health perfection is real. Oh, it is real. It is totally real. You know, I had a client recently and when she came to me, she was seeing five different practitioners.

All in the health space. Now, you and I both know that there's a lot of similar things, right? But somebody, everybody's got their own little twist on things. You know, this clinic was doing, you know, hyperbaric and biofeedback and all those other kind of things, and that wasn't helping. And then she went to this clinic, and then she went to that clinic, and that clinic, and then she finally ended up with me. And, you know, I had to tell her, I'm like, you have to pick one. I don't care if you pick me or not, but you have to pick one, and you have to stick with it.

for at least 90 days, right? So we have to take responsibility as practitioners too. And I teach all my students this because I have a practitioner course that I teach too, a certification that, you know, don't be so worried about getting that client. Cause do I think I could help her better than a lot of other people?

Functional nutrition, gut health, and amino acids 22:00

I do, I really do. But I didn't care if she picked me or not. I just needed her to pick something and stick with it and be okay with it. And she never did. And I felt really bad for her. And then she ended up in the hospital. Oh, it was really sad. You know, we tried but but people have to be all in and they also have to go in and and the the the anxiety Not sleeping well, maybe we could go here next, like not being able to sleep well causes people so much anxiety. And so the ruminating thoughts about not sleeping well, and we hear, well, if you don't sleep, then you're going to die.

You know, these bad things are going to happen. You're going to gain weight. Your heart's going to, you know, all of these things about not sleeping well. And don't get me wrong, I teach people to, you know, have a really good rhythm to sleep well. That is the goal. But there might be times in your life Where you're not gonna sleep on we just have to figure it out and that's a signal to the body So if we stop looking at it as an issue and look at as a signal and we just thank God for the signal And we're like, okay, what can I do at 2 a.m?

You know, what can I do? I can pray for somebody I could get up and I could read a little bit You know a lot of anxiety comes because we have to reframe like we have to figure out like where's it coming from and right? And then surrender that. And like, what can I replace that with? Right? So we do have to shift our thoughts. You know, life and death is in the power of the tongue. As a man thinks, well, what is he? Right? I mean, all of these things that the Bible teaches us, they're so right, and they're so true, and we can't negate them.

People are like, well, I can't think my way out of anxiety. I really think you can. Like, I think you can. So you support your body physically and then you start changing your thoughts and then your soul, you know, you're reading the Bible and you're listening to the Holy Spirit and it just all comes into alignment. It really does, Laurie. It's, you know, it's being transformed by the renewal of your mind. And that is so scientific based to, you know, neurons that, uh, fire together, wire together.

That's the heavy in law, Donald Hebb bought a hundred years ago, you know. discovered that. And so the more you think, whatever you're thinking over and over and over, that becomes the road, that road becomes deeper, those roads become wider, and pretty soon it's automatic. So people have to take every thought captive and then change it. I mean, we have the power. And I think, you know, you show people that they have the power to do that. Yes. Yes. That's huge. Yeah. Yeah. And to get rid of the fear, right?

We're not given the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. Like we have a sound mind of Jesus Christ, right? We have the same mind as Christ. And so when we like start to really, even if we understand this much, Debbie, it profoundly changes how we live our life. It profoundly changes how we, we look at our finances, we look at our relationships, we look at, you know, what the next 10 years of our life are gonna be. Like it profoundly changes once we understand that the renewing of our mind is getting us to the place where we have the mind of Christ.

Yes. Yeah, that's that's that sanctification. And when people know that they're designed to heal, they're designed to change, they're designed to be able to renew their mind and nothing really. So often I'll have people stand in front of the mirror and really just repeat some affirmations. I mean, I don't know at that point if they believe in God or believe, you know, they believe, but I tell them your, your body's designed to heal. You're not your diagnosis. That's a curse you cannot take. You know, whatever the diagnosis is, Oh, Dr.

Debbie, I'm an Alzheimer's patient. Oh, Dr. Debbie, I'm a diabetic. You know, whatever. No, no, no. A child of the living God created in his image and your body is designed to heal. Yep. Period. We take and we remove those interferences. And sometimes those interferences are our thoughts. Sometimes there's physical things going on in our bodies. Sometimes there's things around us. But we remove those interferences, give the body what it needs, and it heals. And it heals. And then it heals. Yeah.

And that's the way we were created. Yeah. Oh, it's so wonderful. It is. Well, um, what are, like, what are some of the telltale signs that people might have early before they actually have these, these, uh, depletions say young women, I mean, any age, any age men or women. Yeah. So I mean, all of a sudden, you're not sleeping well. That's a huge sign that there's something going on. Maybe you're obsessing about things. All of a sudden, you have these ruminating thoughts that are going on. You're like, where is this coming from?

I've never had these before. Women PMS, that's an amino acid deficiency a lot. So I've seen a lot of PMS just be changed by using amino acids. Um, you just feel overwhelmed. Like sometimes we don't realize we're overwhelmed until we're like really overwhelmed, but just being paying attention to those like, Oh, I just, I don't think I can do another thing today. Or you just feel scattered. You can't get things done. You're rabbit trailing all over the place. Um, if your glucose goes up and down all the time, you get hangry, you know, grumpy, all those kinds of things in between meals.

Um, yeah, those are some of the big ones. We cry a lot. That's a huge signal. Oh gosh, that would be terrifying. So you have this call mom group. Tell our listeners about that and what it looks like, what you do. Tell us some of the transformational stories that you express. So this is a group program. We do it online. There's an academy. on the Call of Mom Academy that you can go through. And I teach people how to use the amino acids. So it's very self-paced. You get to meet with me twice a month as you go through the Academy.

And there's a nice support group in there. So we just found out who's in there at the time. But we teach you different lifestyle changes to make, have food fundamentals course in there, so how you need to eat, basic gut healing. We really just focus on brain health and how we can optimize that. What amino acids do you utilize? Well, I send you a kit in the mail, and it has nine different supplements in it, and we go through a trialing process. And I walk you through that in the academy. I teach this to my practitioners as well, that I have my certification course.

Calm, mindset, and practical anxiety relief 28:30

So you have, I don't have it here on my desk, but I send little packets of amino acids, and then we open them up, put them under our tongue. We wait two minutes, and then you go, do I feel something cognitively, emotionally, or physically that has changed? If the answer is no, we'll do a second one of that amino acid. Again, you're waiting a couple minutes. What do I notice a shift? Is it positive? Is it negative? If it's negative, we don't do any more of that amino acid. If it's positive, we're like, that's the dose I'm going to start with, so maybe it's too tryptophan.

So if we're working on serotonin, we're going to try 5-HTP or tryptophan, right? If we're working on GABA, you have a lot of positives in the GABA section in the questionnaire that I give you, then we'll try GABA, or maybe we'll try L-theanine. And then by the end of that trialing session, you'll have one to five different amino acids that are going to work for you. And then you can outline how long you need to take them, how many times during the day, the dosing, all those kind of things. And then that helps to work on your mood, balance that neurology out so then you can heal your gut, work on your hormones and everything else.

Do you start one at a time or several at a time? With the trial process, we trial all of them as long as you can tolerate it all and most people can. We'll do all nine of them and then you'll start with, you know, anywhere from one to five of them. So some people need five, some people can only want one. So you can do it at your own pace. If you can start with, you know, if you test for all five, then I would start with all five because that's going to balance you more and you're going to see results faster.

So really anybody could do this. I mean, you probably have a lot of male clients that... I do have a lot of male clients. The more I market to the call mom, the more men I get. It's just kind of funny. Yeah. Well, I mean, you want the whole household to... You do have the whole household. And usually when the women start, the men are like, maybe I need some of that too. So yeah. And all of a sudden you have all five kids too. So it's just a whole family affair. Yeah. Well, it really makes me think Lori that, um, like for say narcissists, narcissistic personality disorder, or, I mean, any of these things that people are dealing with, this would be part of the therapy.

It would be part of the ADHD. Oh my gosh. Yes. Think of, think of whatever, whatever you. Yeah, ADHD medication, SSRIs, they're so overused, so over years. And if we just change the diet and fix the deficiencies, people aren't going to need those medications. Well, and there's not going to be any side effects like dry mouth. No. Your recital thoughts. All SSRIs have a black box worrying. Yeah. Big problems. Big problems. Well, how do you incorporate mindset into your teaching? It just kind of comes out naturally because when your brain is calmer then people are more open to you know making those mindset changes and It's just I don't know Debbie.

It just comes naturally I don't have a specific video or program. It just comes out. The love you have is great. It shows. So what would be one small realistic step that any of the listeners could take today to decrease their anxiety and start on a better path to wholeness? Yeah, guard your sleep. Guard your sleep like there's no tomorrow. Go to bed at the same time every single night, trying to make it by 10 PM. Don't stay up past 10 PM. Set your alarm, remind yourself to go to bed, and then just do that for 60 to 90 days, and that's going to make a profound difference for you if you can stick to it.

Set your alarm to go to bed. I've never heard anybody say that, Laurie. It makes sense. You set your alarm to wake up. You set your alarm to go to bed. Set your alarm to go to bed. Set your alarm to go to bed. And if you have the opportunity, because I know a lot of people have to get up and go to work at a set time, but if you have the opportunity to sleep, like I do, I sleep until my body wakes up, which is usually 5.30, 6 o'clock, because I go to bed by 10 and I'm up by 5.30, 6 o'clock. Right?

So I'm getting a good eight hours, you know, seven to eight hours of sleep in there. And I feel really good at that. So I'm not sleeping until like nine or 10. Some people are like, Oh, wake up. Like, you know, we're not telling you to sleep into nine or 10. Just wait, let your body wake up without an alarm and see what happens if at all possible, or just do that on the weekends. You know, if you're not able to do that during the week, but let your body do what it really, really needs to do in that sleep process.

And if you wake up during the night, that's fine. Get up, get stretched, take a glass of water, you know, do whatever you need to do, but just go lay back down. And if you don't go to sleep, don't stress about it. Just rest, keep calming your mind, you know, thinking. praying, reading, listening to music, put on a good sermon. There's theta wave music on YouTube that you can do for free.

Sleep habits, vitality, and closing remarks 33:30

So they've got those birenal beats. And so there's lots of different things that you can do to just, even if you're not deep sleeping, you're still relaxing and that's good for your body. It is such a joy to get to wake up when you wake up a few years. I started my first patient at seven, but now, you know, I have a clinical practice, but I don't start until later. And it's so nice to just let your body tell you when you want to wake up. Yeah. And that's the way we're designed. We didn't have alarm clocks until I don't know what, how many years ago.

It was the roosters, you know. It was the roosters, yeah. But people went to bed when, you know, shortly after dark. They were going to bed at eight, nine, 10. They went to bed at the chickens. That's what you would. They kept like roosters. I mean, here in, I was a, you know, a farm family. And how do you, how would you define vitality for yourself? Oh, that's a great question, Debbie. How would I define vitality? Vitality to me would be living life to the fullest, just being full of joy and happiness and doing what God is, you know, the mission he's just laid on your heart to do and just running like there's no tomorrow for it and loving life in the process.

That's great. That's wonderful. That's what, that's what I, I think he is so well worded. I think that's what most people would want. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. How can people find you? And I'll leave your wisdom. OK. You can go to my website, LaurieHammer.com. You'll find all my stuff there. I'd love to meet you on Instagram. So go follow me, the Call Mom Community on Instagram. Send me a message. Say, hey, I saw you on Debbie's podcast. And I would love to connect. Now, this is L-A-U-R-I-E, H-A-M-M-E-R, so Laurie Hammer.

So we'll have all that in the show notes too. And the Call Mom. I think that's wonderful. The Call Mom, to find a community like that, boy, women need it. Do you want to have the Calm Retirees Group? I could do that too. That would be good. I've got a lot of retirees right now. Yeah. Well, I think a lot of my friends, I mean, I'm still doing lots of fun things that I love. But I think lots of people who retire abruptly have trouble adapting to that. So they could really use your info. And thank you, listeners, for joining us.

I'd love for you to be here. This is just a labor of love. And I think we're in 145 countries now. That's because you're sharing. Please subscribe. Send this to somebody who's anxious. Send this to somebody who needs to calm down and who needs to have richer relationships. Thanks again. Blessings until next time. Thank you for tuning in to Doctor Talks. We hope today's episode has enlightened and inspired you on your path to optimal health. Each day is a new opportunity to make choices that empower your well-being.

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