Tending to Our Terrain in the Seasons of Life

Introduction and Guest Welcome 0:00

Welcome back, everyone to the mess during your menopause Transition summit. I am your host, doctor Sharon Stills. It's such a joy and a pleasure to be back with you all again, and to be here with my special guest today. She is a colleague and a dear friend and someone who I just admire and appreciate so much. And I'm so glad she was able to take some time out of her busy schedule and be here with us. My guest is Doctor Catherine Clinton and she is a licensed naturopathic physician. She is specializes in gut health, autoimmunity, psycho neuro immunology, pediatrics, and she is really the tend your terrain doctor and and that's just so near and dear to my heart because I am all about terrain based medicine.

And so I wanted to have her on. We're going to have a lovely, openhearted conversation that you all are going to enjoy and learn so much about how your internal and external environment and the terrain of your body impacts your whole menopausal journey. So welcome, dear Catherine. I'm just I'm just beaming that you're here. Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to talk with you today. And I'm just thrilled that you're doing this summit because this is what we need. We need to be empowering, women in that really empowering phase of life.

Yes. This is all about empowering men and education and knowledge and just knowing it's all in you. It's all in you. So tell us just a little bit. Tell us your story before we start diving into what is the terrain and all of the good stuff. Absolutely, absolutely. So I got my start in natural medicine, actually, assisting with a midwife. And I did that for six, seven years. She actually became my midwife. And it wasn't, very far into apprenticing with her that I knew that midwives are cut from an amazing cloth that I'm not made of.

Right. So, that's when I started to research about naturopathic medical school, and when I actually, I had to go back and do all my prerequisites because I was a philosophy major. So when I finally ended up at, the natural, National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, it had really changed. And it was really, kind of modeled after traditional medical school with that initiation, long hours and, long clinic hours. And I it was the stress

Catherine Clinton's Healing Journey 3:04

straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, Lyme disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, multiple GI, infections and toxins. And it was a journey that was a great word that you used. It was a journey sort of piece, my physical health back together. And that's when I really started getting excited about psycho neuro immunology and how our thoughts affect our health. And how that relates, in a bigger sense to the terrain around us. Looking at mitochondrial research and really getting into how amazing our ecosystem is and how intricately pieced together it all is in the most beautifully, intertwined system.

And that has gotten me where I am today, tending our terrain and really interested in not only what our internal environment is doing, but also our external environment and how that's impacting health. So beautiful, so tending our terrain. Let's just start, because that might be a new word to some of the women listening. So what does that even mean? What is the terrain? Absolutely. Absolutely. So and so when we talk about terrain. So oftentimes in the medical sense, we're talking about what's happening in your body.

What kind what's your hormone status. What's your inflammatory status, what's happening with your neurotransmitters. And and cytokines and all of these things happening on the internal level. Right. It it encompasses what your thoughts and emotions and not only the, the ones that you're having presently, but, emotions, past traumas and stress, all of that plays into what our internal environment is, our relationship with the microbial world. All of these things are in that internal terrain of the body, and we know that we don't stop at the barriers of our skin, that our internal terrain really extends out into the environment around us.

And we can clearly see, I mean, both instinctively, right and with a into intuitive sense. We know this. But in the last few decades, research has really exploded around this. And we now know that the external environment around us has an immediate and lasting effect on our biology. And so that really, sort of is a broad stroke of what terrain is. And the neat thing that I really love about terrain medicine is that it doesn't, distinguish between my health and the health of the world around me. There's really this continuum that we see that really calls to us to tend not only to our health, but to the health of the planet we live on.

Because clean air, clean soil, clean water, all of these things are foundational. We really can't have a talk about what it means to be healthy without talking about those things. You know, clean food and the air we breathe and the water we drink. It's so, it's such a primordial relationship that we have. And our biology is constantly looking for that. It's looking for where is our place in this ecosystem? And and in are we in the right place, or do we need to be making moves to get back to that place?

And so many of what you and I see as physicians is that discussion action, that misplacement that leads to chronic illness, that leads to some of the, discomfort and dis dis ease that can happen in, perimenopause, in menopause,

What Terrain Medicine Means 7:11

solely coming from that disconnection and, and discomfort of where are places in this greater ecosystem. So how for the women listening who are saying, yes, I am, where is my hat? Where do they start? How do you find your place? How do you define that? Any any words of wisdom? Absolutely, absolutely. You know, the first thing I like to talk with my patients about when I'm talking about this and, and I see a lot of patients, just so listeners and viewers know, I deal a lot with autoimmunity, gastrointestinal conditions, chronic things.

So when people come and see me, they are not always working in a preventative way. It's usually like, I've been to all the doctors. I've done it. All of the stuff. Nothing's working right. So I try to start very simply to help them regain that place in the world. And one of the favorite things that I like to work with women on is rekindling that relationship we have with the solar system, with our sun. And that to me, is really a wonderful window to open and so easy. Right? So again, I work with people that are chronically sick.

So when I say, balancing our circadian rhythm, getting am sunshine, sometimes that's met with quite real resistance. You know, people are ill and they have a hard time getting out of bed. And for me to say, go outside in the morning sun before 10 a.m. and if you can put their hands or feet on the ground or on a tree, it's just like, what are you talking about? Woman? I'm not well, right. And so, I have them wrap up in a blanket and drink their tea by an open window. You know, something as simple and and, benign seeming as ten minutes in the morning sunshine seems like it's so simple and it can't have these effects.

But what we see and what we know is that it is one of the most powerful things we can be doing to balance and align our, biology with our external terrain. So when we get up and expose our skin or, and, or our eyes to morning sunshine, and I'm here in the Pacific Northwest, in Oregon, sometimes the sun is just gray for months. Right? So I'm not talking tropical sunshine. It doesn't have to be your favorite, beach location. I'm talking natural lighting. So getting outside before 10 a.m., letting that natural light, whatever it may be, hit your eyes.

Hit your skin. What that does, is it, releases a bunch of dopamine that have created feel good hormone. It also dumps a lot of serotonin. Again, that creative, feel good, energized, hormone neurotransmitters that help us really get through our day with energy and creativity. And that will be, enhanced if you can get out in natural light throughout your day, if you can keep that connection with the sun throughout the day, and then at night when the sun goes down, if we can lower that, if we can follow that relationship and that rhythm and lower the lights.

And again, I'm here in Oregon. So in the winter it gets dark at 435. And I'm not saying that that's when we go to bed, but our big overhead lights we turn down, we switch to something like a salt lit candle or a fire or candles, red lights, lower tones, less blue green light. And what that does is when we sync with the sun and lower that light, when the sun sets, it takes that big release of serotonin that we had in the morning and day light from from that exposure to the sun. And it takes that serotonin, it, transforms it into melatonin so that we can get a good sleep so that we can balance our immune system, balance our our endocrine system.

It is such a wonderful way to build resilience. And that is all based on our relationship with the sun. And so that's something that I encourage everyone listening today. This isn't something that you have explored already. This is a wonderful way to open up that window and see that the physical benefit it's I mean, there are loads of emotional benefits. I think that we live in such a disconnected society that find comfort and love and relationship with the sun offers such peace. You know, so many of us don't work in a safe environment, don't live in a safe environment.

Maybe don't have a safe family. So finding that safety and rhythm in the solar system, in the rhythm of the sun is amazing. And, and it also provides such a physical benefit that I challenge everyone watching and listening today to try it for a week and and notice notice the difference because this is what I challenge with my patients, and I've never had anyone come back saying I was all right. You know, I did the morning sunlight and it was fine. But, you know, it's always, a huge window, so beautiful.

And so I have a couple of things to say. First, I love that the first thing you're bringing up is the sun. And it reminded me when I was in medical school way back in 1997, and we had to write a, a paper on our favorite supplement, and I wrote my paper on the sun.

Morning Sunlight and Circadian Rhythm 13:41

So I, I so appreciate this, and I say it a lot. And this is so important to me when we're when we're mastering this menopause transition. Why name the summit that that we remember there's so many pieces surrounding us and all those supplements are fantastic. Stick and I take plenty of them. Trust me that the real healing comes from all these other things with supplements. Just supplement that. And so we we are taught to fear the sun, right? Lather up, cover up, stay inside the sun causes cancer.

And we've been fed this bass line because the sun is providing life. Without the sun there is no life. And so be in tune with it. Is is so important to to owning and proclaiming your part of the of the earth, of the connection. And so I just curious then also, I'm sure some women watching and I really want women to own this practice. And if all 100,000 of us watching do this, it will have this ripple effect throughout the globe because we're from all over. So I would think some questions that are coming up first.

So when I if I go outside in the sun, what do I do? Do I just stand there? Do I or should I be naked? Do I have clothes on, do I meditate? What what is the actual practicality of it. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And and I'm just going to chime in on that cancer piece, because we saw such a divide in our society here, in the US and Europe as well, when, you know, about 100, 150 years ago when we really started, manufacturing and industrializing our food, our medicine and our agriculture, we saw a really, a real left turn from what we had always evolved with as humans as far as what we ate.

Right. So as soon as we, had a predominant amount of our food from processed, manufactured, producers, we saw those skin cancer rates just explode. And the flip side of that is that we know that food, real whole food that's grown by the sun, is chock full of those, antioxidants and those phytochemicals that act as our natural sunscreen. Right. And I'm a very fair I think you can see quite a fair skinned lady. And I love my son. So what I do is I go out and as soon as I start to get that red, erythema from the sun, not a sunburn.

Right? It's that warmth, right? Not right before sunburn, but in the continuum. So you're in the sun, you start that exposure, you start to feel those capillaries open up and that warmth. When that happens, I'm fair enough to know that a sunburn isn't, too far away. You know, it's maybe half an hour away. So I move to the shade. And the interesting thing is that we have such this dichotomy in our head of, like, sunshine, sunburn, bad shade. You're away from the bad stuff. And really, light. Sunlight is information.

It is a nutrient all into its own. And so when I go back into the shade, I am still getting that natural, light reflected off of my skin, off of the grass, off of the trees, just in the environment around me. And while I'm protecting my skin because it is fair and isn't, going to handle hours in the hot sun in the hot summer sun. I also am reaping the benefits from the shade right? So that sort of it in context around what is that ideal sun exposure? It is so varied. On the individual. Right. So for me to tell myself that I need to go spend four hours in the tropical sun to really get my vitamin D stores up, that's not going to be appropriate.

It's so individual, depending on what our solar capacity is, to take in that, light. Those photons without burning our skin. But if that window is very short, it doesn't matter if we're in the shade, we're still completely reaping the benefit of that. I'm so glad you brought that up and clarified. Yes, because we're not saying to go get horrible sunburns. And, you know, that can lead to free radical damage. And a lot of it does have to do with your antioxidant capacity and making sure that you are healthy on the inside.

And I'm we didn't talk about this before, but that's pretty much me too. I'm I know my limit. I'm about a 30, sometimes 40 minute depending upon how strong the sun is. And then it's off to the shade. And I don't use sunscreen, because most of the sunscreens are so toxic and I want my skin to be breathing. And there's still a lot, as you mentioned, that you can be enjoying in the shade. So, so important. I think, you know, most people, because you and I are pretty fair. Most people can you can work your way up.

I remember, you know, at first, for me, it used to just be five minutes and then it was ten minutes, and then I could tolerate 15 minutes and so I think you can work your way up and expecting to have a half hour of sunshine a day as a nutrient. And as you say, as information is such a good health care practice. So, super important. So back to the morning sun. What what what when they go out there, can they be drinking their water just walking around? What are they doing? Absolutely. So my favorite thing to do is to absolutely, put my body in contact with the earth.

Right. So I'm barefoot and moving, because there is some amazing things happening in our body when we move our fascia in, there is really piezoelectric. So when we put pressure on it, by moving, it creates energy. It creates heat that drives or might occur. Andrea. And and really affects our overall health. So we see that being outside in the sun, if you can or, you know, in the natural light, I should say, and moving is really, really, a double whammy there. You've got the movement in the natural light.

They're both doing such amazing things for, you know, we talked about serotonin and melatonin, but they're also doing amazing things for, your mood, for your energy, for your mitochondria, which help with that brain fog, with energy, with hormones, with really mastering that transition into menopause. I think that mitochondria are such a huge piece of that because they really harken back to our our femininity and our feminine strength. You know, that mitochondrial DNA is passed down on the mother's side.

It's, it's really those maternal genes. And the reason for that is, it is so important that those mitochondria work, and we think of them as, like the energy powerhouses. Right? But they really are also messengers, and they really work in a, matriarchal sort of system where they are sharing information and energy. And that am son is one of the best primers for that. So we can be moving in the a m sun. And again, small steps are the best steps. Right? So if if it is drinking your tea or coffee by an open window in the morning, that's a great first step.

If we can work up to 10 minutes to 30 minutes in that natural light before 10 a.m. with some kind of movement, whether that's walking, whether that's yoga, whether that's stretching, qigong, shaking out all the bad vibes, dancing. I mean, whatever kind of movement we can have in a natural setting, in the natural light in the morning really sets our biology up to know that we're in a safe spot. We can do what we need to do, and we don't have to go around kind of trying to plug the holes in the dam with our fingers.

And that's what I see so often times with patients that are having trouble, transitioning in that manner of is, is the entire body is just inundated with all of these messages, toxins, foods, toxins in the air, stress from our environment, from work, from our social environment. And it's craving, our biology is craving those signals that we have evolved with over millennia. And moving in the sun in the morning is one of the biggest signals we can send our biology. All right, so where are we all?

Are we all committing? It's like, pinky swear we're going to do this. And I love it because I feel like when we're talking about transition to me getting out in the morning sun and putting my feet on the ground. And today the threat was starting to heat up here in Arizona. So I was like, ooh, the ground is getting toasty. But and doing a walking meditation, it's such a beautiful way to transition from sleep to the day. And I have personally had to work on this because I was one of those wake up and go get the phone from the other room and start checking email and see what my assistant has to say. And it's a much more loving act of self-love towards yourself.

If you just ten minutes, give yourself that transition of I've woken up, I'm present to waking up. I feel my body waking up. I feel myself in the bed. I give gratitude and thanks and then going outside and meeting Mother Nature and saying hello to the earth and putting your feet on it and connecting and saying, okay, I'm curious to see what's going to flow through me today. What kind of magic is going to occur in this day? And that's such a beautiful gift to give yourself. And if you are short for time and you want to drink your morning tea or your water while you're doing it, there's lots of ways to to improvise.

Practical Sun Exposure and Movement 25:40

And, but it is such a beautiful transition. And so it is, it is and it really gets back to that idea of coherence. Right? We are part of this bigger ecosystem. And when we are transitioning through our seasons, if we are fighting them, you know, and resisting them, we kind of get in that decoherence state. And if we can align. And so coherence is where our vibration and our frequency is matching the frequency of the world around us. Right. And when we are waking up and checking the phone and just other to do list and, and there we go.

And it's, you know, 1130 and we haven't even checked in on our inner dialog or anything like that, that really creates this chaos that eats away at that coherence. And there is a universal coherence. There is a planetary coherence. There is a an ecosystem coherence that we belong to. And when we can start our day with something that you just mentioned, like that routine that puts us in coherence, aligning not only our internal, our brain and our heart and and all of those different energetic flows, but aligning our internal coherence with the coherence of the world around us with the rhythm of the sun, with, the temperature of the the weather, with the elements that are around us.

What that does is it is such a powerful builder or resilience. So when we're talking about how we can best weather all of the seasons of, being female, right, how we can transition into that wise menopausal phase if we can cultivate that coherence both internally and externally, being coherent with the world around us, then that transition is just like the seasons, right? The world isn't like, whoa, we're not ready for spring, right? There's flows. And when we can match that flow and that coherence, that just takes our resilience to a whole nother level.

So I was sitting here thinking what about the moon and the moon and feminine energy and hormonal and flow. Do you have a moon practice to share with the ladies? I do, I love I have three things that I really like to do with the moon is I like to, have a special space for the new moon where I'm making intentions. Right. And and kind of be mindful of that phase of waxing and waning and at the full moon, you know, we really are, like, so much of our world, we're mostly water, right? We're we're water beings.

And the moon pulls on us just like it does the oceans. And so I really like to sink my sleep with the cycle of the moon, knowing that I'm going to sleep less and be more creative around a full moon and and vice versa. On the flip side, right, that I'm going to, really be sleeping soundly and deeply around the new moon. And so I try to cultivate that into, just my planning of like, okay, yeah, I know I'm going to not sleep as well, so I'm going to utilize that time to think about this or plan that versus where the sky is darkness, the new moon.

And it's like, I'm done, I'm out, see, in the morning. And really soak up that, that deep sleep. And I think that that's been really, really amazing as far as creativity, is, is pairing that with the moon and, and. Yeah, because it does, it does it pulls it absolutely pulls on us. So I, I love to honor that and be mindful of that so that instead of that full moon frustration of like, why can't I sleep? I'm like, RA, it's so intense, you know, just like, okay, here comes the full moon. It's going to be intense.

Here's some of the things that I concentrate on hydration and, where to funnel that inner right. Because tapping into that energy rather than fighting against it again, it's going to be a wonderful bridge to resilience. And I, I feel like the, the first step is just acknowledging and recognizing because these, these influence as these planetary influences are affecting us. And if we can take the time, hopefully from this conversation to really become aware, then we can, just, as you say, harness it to help us flow.

And so I, my neighbors probably think I'm nuts because I'm always out there and at the. Then that little wild fire come out and connecting to the moon. And so it is, a beautiful just I hope you're all just feeling it. If you're you might want to listen to this one again and just listen more from your heart and just feel the energy of what we're talking about. Flowing with the sun and transition and the moon and the pull and the emotions and honoring that. Just like if you are here listening and you are perimenopausal and still having a cycle or even before perimenopause, because you're just like someone who is on top of things and wants to learn and grow and pre-game your whole transition, which is awesome that you you honor when you're bleeding, and that's an internal time and that you, you made your own red tent experience where modern society, we can always go into the red tent and turn our whole life.

But that if you can, if you have the capability, if you set your own hours, that when you're bleeding that you are internal and nourishing yourself and creating sisterhood and so important for following and for being in tune. Beautifully said. Absolutely. And that's what I do again with, with creativity and workload is is. Yeah, really follow that cycle. And, and nature is the most amazing teacher for that. Both experientially and, and through all the research and things that we know, you know, intellectually, there's so much instinctively and intuitively that if we can connect, if we can get out of that intellectual space and experience that relationship.

And it's such a funny thing to say, but a relationship with the sun is really, foundational for our health. And it's it's a really, it's just really telling that we're in a day and age where that has been flipped full script, completely. And so rekindling those relationships we have with the world around us, whether that be natural light, natural food, clean water, you know, real connections with the people in our lives. All of these things help remind us of the bigger flow that we're a part of, right?

So many of us, I mean, and so much of our society is just looking at a mirror, right? Like they're just holding up a mirror to himself. And that is the world, right? And we're asking today that for a second. We put that mirror down and we don't view ourselves through that mirror. We look through a wider lens. We look through a lens where we don't end at our skin, where we are really part of this communication network. And that's really what it is. Right? And so once we can kind of wrap our heads around that and experience that, it offers a connection, a sense of belonging that I think so many of us are craving and and that craving harkens back to that need for resilience, that need for flow through our seasons and transitions.

And with so much, whether it be personally a lot going on or in the society at large, where we have a lot going on in our world right now, and there's a lot of imbalance and unrest and unknowing cultivating in your self and knowing that you you have that safe space, that you have that connection to the sun, to yourself, and that you can't you can't do it wrong. So you, you know that you're just doing it and you're taking time and you're honoring that. You're you're going to have this experience that's going to let you exhale and let you be and let you ground into your body and your day and be a co-creator of your day.

Coherence, Moon Cycles, and Feminine Rhythm 35:48

It's really about as we are as we are transitioning and aging and getting wiser. I, I, I'm it's just so profound. I have these moments where I just go, Holy crap, I like I just have this wisdom. And it's just because I'm 54. I needed to go through my 20s, in my turbulent teens, in my 30s, in my 40s, and I. I knew so much then, and perhaps when I'm 80, all look back and say, oh, you were your little kindergartner when you in your 50s and look what you own now. But it really there really is this beauty, of aging and of experiencing and in realizing these small, mundane acts are profound and some of the most beautiful treasures and gifts and experiences you'll take with you.

Absolutely, absolutely. So, wow, I, I didn't I didn't know we were going to talk about the sun for such a long time. What a what a what a lovely, lovely surprise. We'll have to, I'll have to have some Beatles playing in the background because I. When my granddaughter sleeps over, she's two, we wake up and we do this, and I play Good Day Sunshine by the Beatles. And it is now her favorite song. And. So people walk by and be like, see if we're out, you know we do it in the front. She likes the Beatles and she just is so happy.

And so we, we can do this with our with our young ones, with our aging ones, with anyone. It's it's a cross, cross generational activity. Absolutely. So I'm going to keep you a little longer because I have a few more. I have a lot of questions. But you you mentioned there's a couple of things that I'd love for you to just share with the listeners. You mentioned our relationship to the microbial world. And I'd love to hear you riff on that and explain that, you have such a beautiful way of explaining things.

Absolutely. Let's see if I can live up to that. So, so, you know, so often times, in our world, we are really, stuck in this paradigm like a war like military paradigm with our microbial world. Right? This germ warfare where we are trying to sanitize and clean and keep those guys away, because they're bad, right? And that just really couldn't be further from the truth. These microbes. So our microbiome is made up of bacteria, viruses, fungi, knees. And they are all working together in, in guilds.

Right. That's what the research is, is really calling them these gills, these communities. So when we were first starting to research the microbiome, it was like what we'd find one, one strain of bacteria and oh my goodness, look at what it does. And here's another strain. Oh my goodness. What does that do. And of course we're studying everything in isolation right. But when we zoom out and look at what's happening with the microbiome, it is these communities of messengers that send our biology messages.

So what the heck is she talking about? Our microbiome sends, metabolite messages to our brain, to our gut, to our heart, to our lungs, to our kidney, to our blood, to our uterus, to our ovaries, to all of those parts in the male, prostate, urethra. All of these things are really influenced by what's happening in the gut microbiome. And they have their own microbial environment. Right? So when the gut microbiome is talking to the lung microbiome, it's the microbiomes that are talking to each other.

And what we see is that there's this intricate, amazing, vast network of signals of communication. And these microbes are not only communicating by metabolites, they are communicating with electricity and they have these electrical signatures that they send out these frequencies that guide our biology, that guide our DNA, inform our DNA on how it should express on literally its place in the world. Right. Because our DNA, we have this weird idea that it's like the blueprint. And, you know, our body's like looking at the DNA, okay?

That's what we do. That's not what's happening. It is sort of like this key and lock is this, transmitter in the communication network where there's so much influx in. And the microbial, world is one of the major sources of those signals. And and that guidance on our DNA. And so when we talk about our relationship with the microbial world, so many of us think of sanitizers and antibiotics and all of these things. But really that's a massive derangement to this primordial relationship that we have.

I mean, we were talking just a little bit ago about mitochondria, and those are this beautiful marriage of a eukaryotic cell with bacteria. And and that is what's really guiding our, our energy process within within our cell, within the body overall. So when we are talking about how do we connect, how do we relate with our microbial world, with our microbiome, the list is so long because it starts to look like that external terrain. It's just all of it really matters. And and these microbes, it almost appears to me to be that they are an intermediary.

Right. So we've got, our skin that covers the outside as well as our GI tract. Right. We're like a long, weird donut. And so the outside, our skin and our GI tract is covered with microbes, and these microbes are acting as an intermediary in this vast messaging system, communication network that we're a part of. So they say, they know if we are aligned with the sun or not, even if they're hiding in our gut, right, not exposed to the sun, they still know, they all of these microbes have circadian clocks, just like all of our cells have circadian clocks.

And so there's this crosstalk between our biology and the microbial world of like, hey, this is where you are. Is that cool? The biology is like, oh yeah, we're outside in the morning with our feet on the ground. We're cool versus like, okay, yeah, we're just on day 377. Artificial light and toxic food. Okay. We're just going to run some repair, you know? So it's a whole different, conversation. Right? Depending on where you are physically in this world, our microbiome really plays as an intermediary, as a information gathering and sending unit.

And that's what we see in the research. You know, we've come so far from lactobacillus is doing this to this really rich, relationship that we have with the multitude of microbes in our world. And what we concentrate on in mainstream media and medicine is just a slight, you know, like 1% of what's actually happening with our relationship with microbes. So I thank you for asking because it's really, really important. And when we talk about transitioning and and mastering menopause, that relationship with the microbial world is so undervalued.

And, and that is something that is not being talked about at all is how that microbiome impacts that, transition into menopause and whether it is smooth and vital versus, uncomfortable. And so, so it really is a huge piece of our health,

Microbiome, Terrain, and Resilience 45:28

whatever season of life that we're in. Well, I, I knew you'd do it justice. Said it was beautiful. And I always just think we it's friend, not foe, are we? And our terrain, our microbiome. These microbes are symbiotic. Until we don't get morning sun, we don't acknowledge we're water beings and hydrate properly. We don't get the sleep we need. We don't eat the proper food. We get the toxins. And that's when our terrain gets pissed. And that's when microbes then can become pathogenic. And so it's all about the terrain.

It's all about your being. And that's what helps you exist in a harmonious way. Without disease in the world. Absolutely, absolutely. And they're really they are really messengers. And a vital piece of our biology. And so really cultivating that relationship, just like we would cultivate a relationship with the sun or with good food or with good feelings. Right. Our microbial world is really, really under rated and underappreciated when it comes to our health. And it it couldn't be more important.

It is like you said, friend. Friend to, we'll go to the links. All right. Good friend, very good friend. And then we'll pull out all the stops. Right. And when we zoom out, you know, the, the path, the pathogen part of it is, is really interesting because again, it's that mirror of like I am looking at myself and what are the microbes doing to me versus like a bigger ecosystem picture where these microbes are becoming problems when our terrain dictates that right when our terrain says, oh, this one is not in the place that she needs to be in the things she needs to be eating, she's not attuned to the weather or the sun or any of it.

This player in the ecosystem isn't quite working right. So when we look at it that way, it lends a whole different lens to it. And of course, I'm not here to say that, infectious disease and the consequences of that are, are not important or not tragic, but at the same time, we need to be zooming out so we get a clear context of what that is, because our microbial world is foundational to our health and the current conversation that we're having about microbes and our terrain and health is so limited and so, misguided because it's only talking about a very small percentage, interactions that we have with microbes, and it's taking it out of context.

So, I think really working on that relationship with our, our microbes is foundational to building resilience to, being aligned with the flow of the world we live in. Exactly, exactly. If you are terrain based, the the chance of having a severe infectious disease lessens. And of course, sometimes if there is a severe infectious disease and we're looking at life or death, you do have to go after and hunt and kill just to stop the stop the, severity. But that is not the way to to navigate health. It's it's always better to prevent, to balance, to align.

And then that risk reduces. So so much infinitely. Absolutely, absolutely. And really is about that relationship because we are so connected with our, microbial communities. Right. There is no life without that. So trying to zero in on one, like we were saying before that that's really we left that behind a couple decades ago. The there is no one there is no isolated microbe in there working by itself. That's not how it works. They they are a community. So this idea of, like, this pathogen coming to get us as a single entity and that takes us over, that's not at all.

What's happening is, conversation that that microbe is having with the trillions of microbes that make up our body. So that's something that we need to be cognizant about and really need to be working towards a reframing of the whole thing. Because we can't endure this, this warfare that we have with our microbes, we can endure that as a species. And, that'll take care of itself, right? Once we're gone, that war will be over. But in the meantime, the devastate and destruction that we are inflicting on the world around us with this war, like, relationship with microbes is just the furthest thing from what we need for the health of our bodies and for the health of the planet.

We live on. All right? War is make love, not war. Right. I remember early on in my career studying over in Switzerland, and the microbiome conversation was prolific. This is 20 years ago, which wasn't really being talked about and just being reminded that we are we are these bags of bacteria. We have more bacteria than human cells. And so to to make war on a part of ourselves is, is harmful rather than learning to live in communities. So thank you for thank you for just discussing that. I I'm very sad we we have our time is up.

I feel like we're just getting started. But as as I knew and as I said at the beginning, I don't lie. I told you it would be a beautiful conversation. And it certainly was. And so I know the ladies are going to want to know more. And learn more. And so you have a free gift for for everyone. I know a little bit about that. I my free gift is a guide, a rewilding our transition. And that is just our free guide with very easy, simple ways to rewild our transition into menopause and and how we can do that in our homes, in our foods, in our gardens, in our, thoughts and our minds and our emotions.

And so I just I'm excited to offer that to people as just a simple window to open to start that process of aligning with the world around us and creating better health for ourselves and the planet that we live on. So thank you for letting me. That's that's going to be a real delight to read. So thank you for sharing that. And thank you for for bringing your heart and your mind and your your vast wisdom to the conversation today as we as you help me fulfill my my mission of educating and empowering women and widening the conversation to to our terrain, to our hearts, to the environment that they're there's so many important pieces and and it does in ten minutes in the morning can can change, change your life.

And it's free and it's available and it's beautiful. So thank you for sharing those practices with us. I, I, I hope everyone pinky swore with me we're gonna get outside, right? We're going to do it. We're going to do it. We're going to get outside. We're going to greet the morning. We're going to greet the sun. We're going to relook at our relationships and embrace a beautiful one with with Mother Earth around. I can Mother Earth around us. And so, so thank you. Thank you so much. And I look forward to checking in with you all on the next conversation.

And as I mentioned, this is this is going to be one you're going to want to listen to again and again, because I think you can just start receiving it on a deeper and deeper level. So we'll see you soon. Bye everyone.