The Better Question: What If Menopause Isn’t a Decline, But a Rebirth?

Perimenopause as a Rite of Passage 0:00

This is a powerful rite of passage, right? This a time of our lives when we move from being mothers, whether or not you had children physically, to being in the mothering function, which is the giving function. The taking care of, the tendering function to really bringing that energy back inside of ourselves to actually give birth to another aspect of our selves. So all of that that we've been birthing all these other people and things, at this phase of life, spiritually, we're like, no, it's time to bring that back energy inside myself and actually birth myself into the next season of my own life which is not going to be about mothering everybody.

Welcome to the resiliency method, the truth about healing. I'm Dr. Erica and we are here to uncover the root causes keeping you stuck. Together we'll restore your energy, your focus and your resiliency so you can finally heal, regenerate and feel truly alive again. She couldn't get out of bed. Every joint in her body was inflamed. She could use her hands, her shoulders, knees, feet. Couldn't sleep from the pain. And she also been hospitalized recently and run the full gamut of the American medical system and nothing had worked.

And within six weeks of starting the resiliency method, her partner didn't recognize her. That's not an exaggeration. Welcome to the Resiliency Method, the Truth About Healing podcast. I'm Dr. Erica. Today, spiritual coach and women's healing guide, Elaine Kalila Doughty, is joining me for this important conversation. Elaine works with high-performing women navigating the emotional, relational and spiritual dimensions of major life transitions, and she's also lived this journey herself. The better question we're asking today is, is what if perimenopause isn't a decline, but a powerful rite of passage inviting you to birth the next version of yourself?

And today we are breaking down why hormonal symptoms at midlife aren't just about dropping hormones, It's about organs, tissues, and glands that need real true healing. And why the thymus glands were the most overlooked piece of the autoimmune and hormonal puzzle. Why addressing the physical, emotional, spiritual trifecta is the only path to lasting transformation. If you ever thought menopause was just something you had to suffer through, well, this episode is going to challenge that idea. To explore what's possible for your health at this stage of life, visit drericaonline.com forward slash hormones.

That's D-R-E- R-I-K-A, online. com forward, slash, hormones, if you're enjoying the resiliency method, truth about healing podcasts, we'd be so grateful if take a moment, leave a quick five star rating and written review on Apple podcasts.

Introducing the Podcast and Guest 2:50

Your support means more than people can enjoy in this important conversation. Thanks so much for your support. Awesome. Welcome back, everyone, to our podcast today. We wanted to invite you. I'm with your spiritual coach, Elaine Kalila, and she has joined me today because we thought it would be fun and to buy you an eavesdrop into our conversation that we've been wanting to have for some time specifically about women's health and specifically about the transition that women make at middle age. And we call this collectively perimenopause, menopaus.

Both Elaine and I work with female high performing people out there. So this is inevitably a journey that they all than a path that they walk. And oftentimes, what Elaine and I have in common is we're encountering them at that point in life. So we wanted to join forces today to talk about what we each do with women, high-performing females in that context, and how we see this important change of life, both on a physiological, a spiritual, an emotional level. We like to call that the trifecta of health.

It really is. you know, a formula in terms of life is being able to look at all aspects of that, the physical health, mental health or emotional health and most importantly the spiritual health. So thank you for joining me today, Elaine. It's a pleasure to have you here. Thank you so, so much. And this is a conversation that's dear to my heart. Not just for the women that I'm serving, but also for myself, because what I have to say to you all right up front is that Dr. Erica has been a seminal force in my life in the last year of really helping and supporting me to reclaim my health from this transition that had been taking place in my own life for quite a long time, many years.

You know, we have this word perimenopause, menopausal. What does that even mean? It's like it's so not descriptive really of what it is we're going through at this stage of our lives. And so I'm excited to be here because this is not just something I want to share with everybody else because I've been through it myself and I think it's really important that we talk about it openly because it is not all just about hormones, y'all. Yeah, thank you for saying that. Well, let's start with like the brass tacks of what peri means around and menopause.

I mean, a time of life when your hormones start to shift, you go from Being in a reproductive state as a female to a state in which you are not reproducing anymore It's a natural part of aging. It is not a sickness. Yeah, it's natural of us moving through I know you can probably speak to that that process and that phase of life from a spiritual standpoint What a gift it is. What do you notice with your clients when you're coaching them through this? This is the thing that we have such a focus on the symptom ology of perimen.

From Hormone Decline to Whole-Body Healing 6:00

I love that you defined as about so basically it's about the moment when your hormone ship that's a bout yeah medical point of view that is all we had for you right yeah what i really come to understand through my own journey and guiding so many. so many other women through this phase is that this is a powerful right of passage right this time of our lives when we move from being mother is whether or not you had children physically to being in the mother in function which is the giving function right the taking care of the time during function.

to really bringing that energy back inside of ourselves to actually give birth to another aspect of myself so all of the energy that we've been bursting all these other people and things. Add this phase of life spiritually we like no no it's time to bring that and get back in sight myself and actually burst myself into the next season of my own life which is not going to be about mothering everybody. Big memo, everybody. And this transition is really, really difficult because it challenges most of who we've been in the past, and it asks us to deal with ourselves not just on the physical, what's going on in our physical bodies, but on emotional, relational, the job level, our spiritual level.

Really ask the question of what is life about now? Like, I'm not mothering and I am not giving and not doing all of that other stuff. Who am I? And what do I care about? What is the legacy years of my life going to be about?" That's really where we're headed, right? It sounds so juicy. It's supposed to dry up and die. No! Exactly. the story around menopause that just is really not fun. And that's part of why we wanted to talk today because we see this in both of our populations and we both wanted share and thought we'd collaborate and sharing just like how literally juicy this time of your life can be both physically, both emotionally and spiritually, right?

And as you're talking, I'm thinking, And as I was reflecting on this, what we were going to talk about today, I'm thinking that it's like the word discernment has come up. And I think a lot of women like maybe talk, well I just don't do that anymore or I don t even have time or whatever. They get this kind of renewed self-empowerment, which probably sounds like they're just sick of things. A lot times people will express it in the context, Well, just got tired of that. But there is this beautiful thing that's happening, which is the boundaries are getting laid.

We're doing more discernment around things. we do have a better idea of what we're willing to to deal with in our life, what were not. And it's really an empowering part or part of the journey, I think, as a woman. Absolutely, absolutely. And one of the things that I think about when you say that, my love, is that yeah, we have this kind of narrative, right? And this is something I've been working with you on, which is around aging. I call now saging because that's really what's happening is we're just becoming wiser and more ourselves.

But we've being fed this awful story that we are in crime. that we are going to have to you know like when we're you're washed up that will no longer reproductive so who are we were not worthy in any way and that's a narrative that, we as women specifically have been given around who we become as we age right you that way. I'm meant to aspire to. Well, what if we're actually here to sage gracefully and well? And that's really where I am at. That's what I want. So put your hand up if that is what you want because I don't believe that I need to decline.

Yes, I' changing and the change is inevitable. We're always changing. I can't live a full and resilient life. And You came into my picture because when i met you. Oh my god for those who are listening to know me from my podcast you know that i've been through a really difficult ride with this period of my life i was really. Experience not just hormonal dysregulation but i wasn't also experiencing a lot of autoimmune conditions and. pieces that were really, really challenging me to have to look at not just what I was doing in my life on a physical level, but the emotional level or the spiritual level.

All of it was up for grabs. I met you. It was pretty much at the end of my tether because I'd been looking for support and hadn't been able to find anybody who had a framework for me that made sense to me, you know, that at all that make a difference. Right. Yeah. I'm so curious because you obviously are blending, a lot of different things together in your work, Erica, but I am super curious if you were to speak to, me as a woman coming to you at this phase of life, what would you say is really going on for us?

Yeah, you know, my expertise on that triangle is the physiological or the physical wellness, right? And there's just a lot of story or misconception around this time of life for a lotta women. And to what you just said, echoing what just you said that it's all about decline. In a sense, is that partially truly? Yeah because you look at hormones and they start to drop. But the story part around that is that somehow what's at the cause of somebody's symptoms. And the reason that gets a little complicated is because when you do supply the body with bioidentical hormones, you will see some of the symptoms improve at that stage of life.

What we do though is really, really look at it and say, well, that's partially why you're starting to have some symptoms for sure. So there's some physiological change and drop that happening. at a hormonal level. However, what we really know is that it's also just a signal or that the radar is going off saying, hey, this endocrine system, these little glands in your body that are in charge of secreting these hormones, talking to each other, working with the liver,

Elaineu2019s Recovery and the Power of the Protocol 12:40

or working There's some breakdown that's happening here. They're not optimal, the liver or kidneys are not optimum, and so thus, you're having some symptoms. You're have symptoms with that picture of your hormones going into that natural decline. Now, what our approach is different and why it made such a difference for you, Elaine, is because When most people are encountering this stage of life, if they're working with nutrition or supplements or herbs or things like that, oftentimes they are still working at a very medicinal level.

And again, that may become in the form of a functional medicine doctor that's prescribing them hormones. That's a medicinal approach. They might be working somebody that has given them a Chinese herbal formula. It's still a medical approach, The way that we approached your body and why it made a difference was because we said, well, sure, we're going to use some herbs, some whole food supplements. We might use a homeopathic remedy here or there. Ultimately, what we really want to get under is what's going on with your kidneys.

what's going on with your liver, what is going with thyroid, your pituitary, all these physiological structures, you're vagus nerve, nervous system. You know what it's doing on these organs, tissues and glands that would have you presenting as you are making this transition with symptoms. And that's the thing that was different, is we went after, we posed a different question, and we when after answering that question. And then when we got the answer to that questions, aligned the supplements, the herbs, homeopathics, whatever, to the things that needed to be handled to improve the status of that organ, of the tissue, that gland.

And we did it in the right order and at the time and right amount so that you would actually have a response. And the response that we had was you were having symptom reduction or symptom improvement, but not because we addressed it medicinally, because because answered the call to what your body needed to heal that organ, tissue, or gland. So that for you meant you had symptom improvement, but you also had sustainable and symptom-improvement and over time gradient symptom, improvement that was based off of a foundational level of the physiological change and improvement in your body.

Well, and let me just speak to what that was because the story is pretty dramatic. When I share this with people, what I'm here to do is to inspire you really because I want to let you know that if you are symptomatic, if are experiencing difficulty coming through this transition, which many of us do, by the way, for all kinds of different reasons, that there is hope. Because I honestly, when I met Erica, I was pretty hopeless. I had to really run the gamut through the america medical model and there was nothing that they had that could help me i've been hospitalized i had all kinds of things happen to me through these autoimmune issues and when i met you are i was pretty much bedridden i couldn't walk well.

All of my joints were inflamed, I couldn't use my hands, my shoulders, neck, knees, feet were all inflame. I could not sleep because I was in so much pain. I was really anxious and very confronted. I didn't know what was going on. All these diagnoses had been thrown around, rheumatoid arthritis, all the things. None of them were sticking because I did not have any of the blood markers for any. It was just my body. was going through an expression, as you would say, of all the different systems not working together.

What it was causing was massive inflammation in my body. That's where I was. And what I can honestly say to you is that I still don't totally understand Dr. Erica's methodology. I mean I do because I know that your Chinese medicine practitioner you also longevity practitioner and you've got so much expertise in so many different areas. What I can say to you all is that within a month and I remember this really clearly because i started working with you in June of last year we've been working over a year now.

I was going on a trip and I remember saying to you, I'm going to England for a month. Do you think I'll be able to get on the plane because I haven't been able walk or use my hands? You were like, yeah, you'll get in that plane. The moment you said that, it was like I don't know how she thinks I am getting on that. But I didn't. I will say it is perfect. My hands were still very sore. When I got back from England, which was mid-August of last year, I had so significantly improved that my partner, when I go home, was blown away.

He was like, how is this even possible? You're not the person you were six weeks ago. It's a radical shift. Yeah, it was beautiful to see. It is such an honor to get to work with women like you, Elaine, and especially in this capacity because I know you're up to and doing big things in your lifetime and in the world. I'm very humbled by the gift that I've been given to be able to act in that way for somebody like you. I got to tell you too how many times I heard that airplane story too. Literally, when we do our approach, within even a few days, I had so many women come to me and go, ''I have to get on an airplane on Saturday, and they are having full on panic attacks.'' I can't believe the resiliency of so high performing women out there, quite frankly.

I'm like, I can't even believe that you are getting on an airplane and talking in front of a group of people and doing all the things that your doing in this state. I am always blown away by that. You were definitely one of those people that was just trying to hold it all together and do the best you could. And I admire that so much. Very quickly we've seen, and I've heard that story a million times now. about getting on an airplane and being able to even function, and yeah, in a relatively short period of time, you know, that's because of the process that we're doing.

It's a way of conversing and working with the body in manner with a very algorithmic, proven, over 40,000 visits, front-line visits working bodies, it teaches you something. When you work with patterns of body, how to read them and understand what is the bodies signaling based off of what you know about anatomy, what about how things work biochemically, and then also what we've been offered through the study of ancient medicines. When you can bring all of that together, plus your own brass tacks touching bodies and working with bodies for 15 years, there's some kind of level of alchemy that does come together and creates a beautiful result for people.

So I'm just honored too that you have given me that trust to be able to help move things forward. You know i am i'm one of those people that when i find something that works i gonna share it because i don't want anyone to suffer i dont want to needlessly i want other things you just said i think super important about this that was one other reasons that really tip the scale for me coming to work with you. What is because you were talking about the. We need to talk to your body, right, number one, and where I, the work that I do, I a lot of talking to the body about emotional, spiritual, psychological more issues, where that's my trifecta.

And listening to body I'm somatically trained and so when you talk we're going to talk to your body and we actually have to get permission from your to address certain symptoms. That made so much sense to me that there was this way in which you were saying there's layers, right? You can't just go straight in because your is super sensitive and it's protective and its going react. And that so much sense to me that there needed to be almost like this relationship built in order to get the go ahead to go to the deepest level of the root cause of what was actually going on.

Absolutely. And there's like you said, there are multiple layers to it. It's not a quick fix. Generally speaking, we get people through the entire three phases. There is some order and some general, I would say, like I call it, a straw man to how the body wants to do, what some of the things are that we see pretty commonly across the bodies. But everybody's healing protocol and program looks different. And you've sent me several patients.

Healing Is Not a Quick Fix 22:00

If you all shared your protocols with each other and what you're taking, they all looked slightly different, you know? That's because each body is different and we really want to meet the demands of that uniqueness. That is why it works really well for high performers too because a lot of high-performers don't have the ability or the time or, you know, the luxury. of trial and error on their body, you know? And so that's also, I think, why you got our results because we were able to really dial into exactly what you needed and at what time and in what dose and then that made all the difference for you because you also can't afford to, be taken out necessarily for long periods of time because your body's trying to heal.

Now that doesn't mean it's perfect, You have to have some days in there where you're going to require more rest or you need to move through something because it is a healing process. Let's talk about that because that is probably one of the biggest shifts that I've noticed with this work. And then I want to ask you a couple of questions, but one of the big things I've noticed is there's been a rewiring in my mind that's had to go on because even though I consider myself a healer, and I work with women healing, we live in waters that are symptom problem oriented.

That's just our model. I've never really participated in the Western model. I'm always doing accurate training in it a little bit. Yeah, it's still in there. And what we have done, I had to understand and why I want to say out loud is, is you said two things that are really important to me. It's not a quick fix. This is not, you're not going to just take a pill and Thank you very much. That is the Western Medical Models approach. Healing approach and healing means that you have a step forward and then there's a little backward and forward.

And it'll backward. What I'm still working with, as you know, Erica, because I have my moments. And I have my little step backward. I'm like, what's going on? I don't like this. Even though in my mind, I know, oh, this is your pattern. And for me, it's always the same symptomology that comes up because what we're working to unwind. Everybody, imagine who comes with you has some core pattern that keeps feeding itself, right? My mind's uncomfortable because it has to do with my heart and my words.

It's just uncomfortable, right? And so it's my nervous system. And I imagine many of you who are listening to this will have nervous-system issues because we've grown up being anxious and or we develop these patterns. What I've had to learn how to do is to be really kind and gentle with myself when I go through an episode and in fact as we're recording this that we just started today. Today is the first day that I've really felt great in the last week. I had one of those episodes mainly because I hadn't been on my protocol because i've been traveling.

It happens, but what I know about that is when I work with women and they are going through a big transition in their life, either emotionally or in the relationships or they're coming to a recognition that they've done with something, there's always that same thing happens. We go forward and then we contract. Same thing, only it's happening on the physical level. So I wanna say that to us all that when we say we wanna heal something then that actually means that we need to be in an active, loving relationship with self around that healing because it's not going to happen overnight.

And we have to have patience with ourselves to get to the point of the healing actually happening. Yeah. Are you tied to treatments, protocols, and gurus who promise results but don't deliver? You're not alone. For years, I struggled with my own long-term illness and I know how frustrating it feels when nothing seems to work. That's why I developed the resiliency method. It's a science-backed approach to combine the best of Western and ancient medicines to restore your body's natural intelligence.

Patient after patient has discovered what's possible, living stronger, brighter, and more spiritually connected than ever before. Whether you're facing autoimmune issues, hormonal imbalances, weight struggles, or just feeling stuck, you don't need another quick fix. You need a clear path forward. Take the first step with a discovery call at drericaonline.com forward slash discovery. That's D-R-E- R-I-K-A online. com forward. So discovery or dive deeper with the full initial consultation at Dr. Erica online dot com board slash initial dash consultation because your health, your clarity and your freedom cannot wait.

And I want to let you off the hook as you're not unlike a lot of people I encounter Elaine and that is you know, part of that triggering and when you feel that little codon, I don't know if it's a relapse or if its just more I call it the radar going off and it is time to go to the next level of healing. Because I describe healing as really it like if you think about it, it actually like more of like a funnel and you start top level and its more superficial in the body and then you keep kind of earning the right to deeper and deeper, and that's what makes our process so special and quite frankly I think one of the best longevity programs out there because we can get into this level of depth with the body.

We're dealing with some things that people and bodies aren't even having symptoms for today. Like we started this conversation around menopause, but what menopus, you navigate that scene, what you're talking about maybe in your 70s, 80s if you look around these days, the neurocognitive decline that we're seeing in our population, you know, it's like on a plethora, right? Well, we are talking about, menopause or what might get you in the door, but this program really in its entirety is actually facilitating that deeper level of detoxification that needs to happen in all of our bodies to essentially keep the brain healthy, to keep a nervous system healthy.

That's key because that's where all the signals to all your organs come from. To deal with the root causes of some of these major medical diagnoses. I just was driving down the mountain with a surgeon this past week and I was showing him some pictures of things that people eliminate through our program and through process from their bodies or that I pulled out in certain areas and shoulders and things like that. And I was like, hey doc, you've cut open a million bodies. Do you see this stuff when you're opening up these bodies?

He's like all the time. He was blown away when I sharing with him that that's what we do inside our program is we facilitate the removal of all these things that obstruct the

The Thymus Gland and Root-Cause Medicine 29:20

natural process of blood flow, circulation, electrical signaling throughout the body. We take those barriers and obstructions out really one by one. Gradiently as we move down that spiral and that's what equates to I don't have dementia when I'm 80. I Don't know when is the conversation we're having right because I just got back from visiting my dad and my Dad does have to mention. it was stroke induced, which I believe was COVID related. I think he had arrhythmia. It was a confluence of things, but I could sit with him and he's not that old.

He's 82 and otherwise a vital human being. And I really came back from that saying to you, Erica, I don't want that. You're like, and I said, what can we do about it? And you were like we're doing it. Your program. True. I mean, that's the thing too. People got to be cognizant. You got a look at how your parents are aging. Absolutely. No one's afforded the ability not to work on their health these days. Maybe some of our ancestors got away with not doing much, but if you look our boomers right now and If you see that your parent is having some kind of health issue at 70 or 80 and you're accepting that that's normal and that their decline in 70s or eights, I'm sorry, Elaine.

I don't know about you, but I am planning to be in this body for a lot longer and I playing the game where I'm going to have that be my quality of life. If you are unwilling to accept what you're seeing and witnessing with your elders, then you've got to make the decision and the downright, you know, put a stake in the ground, say, I'm going to do something else. And the reason why I say nobody's afforded, because we're just too since the Industrial Revolution, we are too exposed to too many toxins in our environment these days.

Every time a generation is exposed that they procreate have a next generation of exposure. So then that next lineage gets the exposure from the previous line. It's piling up. And now, if your parents showed dementia in their 70s or 80s, anticipate that you could start seeing it in your 60s and 70. And no doubt, like, truly, I'm seeing that clinically, that every decade is the next generation seeing the symptoms even a decade later. This is an accumulation of the tops. And it's why I have so many young people in my practice these days, because my generation maybe got away with not doing anything until their 30s or 40s before they were forced with a symptom picture to take action on their health.

Right. But these days, our teenagers and our 20-year-olds are needing a lot of help to even be able to be employable. That's amazing. It's me thinking about what I call the reckoning of perimenopause, and I think that that's what happened for me. and it has happened for so many women who are Gen Xers like me, right? The reason that we're struggling with this portal, I mean, yes, it's a spiritual awakening and I absolutely stand by that and think it is a very important rite of passage, but the things that become untenable physically for us during this period of time are because most of us had not had to deal with it.

I mean, I was otherwise limping along. And I wouldn't say I wasn't healthy through my 30s and 40s. Right. But I had symptoms. My body could manage those symptoms in my thirties and forties. Like, it was only when I reached about 48 that I couldn't anymore. And really, I'm 58. I just turned 58 now. The last 10 years has been this accumulative journey, and I think this is true for a lot of us, of never quite feeling well. And then coming to the point where it hit a complete standstill, which I was accelerated by COVID, for sure.

who are going through perimenopause in COVID that's like a complete kind of meltdown happening because now you've got this horrible virus going on at the same time that you which is compounding the symptomology right and so I think it all kind of came to a big explosion with me personally, but I'm not alone in that. And I feel it's really important when we're talking about it for us to realize, I mean, like it is kind shocking for me to hear you say that, it makes sense, the accumulation of toxins and stressors and internal trauma and all the things that I work with in my practice that we at Menopause have the opportunity to clear.

So what I want Is is that i feel like what i'm doing with you erica is clearing the slate. I'm getting back to a point where i can make new decisions for the rest of my life and how i live my live now going forward with your help. Absolutely, it's almost a rebirth. It's another level. And yeah, you know, kind of to bring full circle where we started, we don't have to see it as this natural progression into demise, and that it's pathological. One of my Chinese medicine teachers used to stand up in the front of the room and it would make him so angry and I can see, I get it where he was coming from because he'd say, you know, menopause is not pathologically.

It doesn't have to come with symptoms. And for the young people listening too, by the way, if you're having symptoms with your period, that's not necessarily That's not bad. Periods aren't pathological either. No, they're not showing a little bit of your body. Symptoms with your period today and your young person is because all the things that I'm talking about with Elaine that are symptomatic when you hit perimenopause We just accept it. We've been told by this society around us that that's normal.

It is not normal, and if you're having symptoms with your period or you have symptoms of your perimenopause, it's because there's an imbalance and there is an opportunity to heal some organs, tissues and glands to make and set this body up for a different path going forward. So if you think about your clients who are like me coming to you at this phase of their lives, what are some of the most common ways that women end up with you? Mine was, I can't get out of bed Erica, like I'm completely inflamed.

What are the other typical patterns that you see in women like like, me? Oh, it definitely runs the gamut. Certainly, hormone dysregulation is a big one. You mentioned it, autoimmune stuff. These things are actually not separate of one another, by the way, too. There's a certain way and one of the reasons why what we do is so unique is we put particular attention on the thymus gland. And you've already, you know this from being a patient. The thymus gland is one of the most underplayed areas of our body.

And again, another story that we all decided collectively was normal, was that the thymos gland just atrophied or got smaller and trunked up in adolescence and that was normally. The reality is you could Google the Thymos gland, not even two years ago, Elaine, and you would see that as the explanation. Well, the New York Post finally came out this year with a couple of articles highlighting research around the thymus gland and how they're starting to recognize the importance of the Thymis gland as not only a steadfast for your proper immune system function that you can also think of it as a set best

Aging, Toxic Load, and Future Health 37:20

for staving off autoimmune conditions, neurodegenerative conditions. longevity, keeping inflammation in check, and keeping hormones balanced. There are certain things about the body that really tie back and where systems interact and cross and that happens in the thymus gland. Really, the whole conversation that it's not important, quite frankly, I think was in a sense deliberate for selling drugs and for creating a a dependence on a medical system that people were profiting from. And so it's a big part of what we do is really addressing and understanding just how those things all interact together.

And when patients come to us, it can come through a variety of different things. It can be a high performing athlete that wants to just really maximize and get a competitive edge against their competitors. And we'll introduce them to how you maximize the body from even if you're not having a ton of symptoms. I always say though, people with the symptoms are the lucky ones. Literally, I'll read a symptom picture of 15 to 20 symptoms back to somebody that just walked in my door and I say, and by the way, you are lucky.

And they look at me like I'm crazy, but I am going, no, because this has given you, and it was kind of the same for you. This has afforded you the motivation, the ambition and the tenacity to get into action around your health. And sadly, a lot of people that maybe are lower in symptoms or maybe they are managing life with a handful of symptoms, don't oftentimes take action on their health and that back to my point nobody nobody gets off the hook with dealing or having a strategy for their house today you just don' and if you are avoiding that or your deep prioritizing that as a part of you know what you do with with your approach to life.

then oftentimes you're going to pay the piper somewhere. And it's usually, if you are not investing in your health on an earlier part of your life, it is later on and probably to the tune of 10 times more in terms of dollar amounts. Somebody just shared their cancer journey, what they just paid for one round of chemo is like $60,000 and she has seven or eight of them ahead of her. She's like sharing, this is the cost of cancer guys. And if you're playing that game, you are going to have fewer choices, less quality of life, and you will pay more money.

So decide what your strategy is. When are you going make that investment in your health? Are you gonna make it when you can actually get a return on that? You can have better vitality, better aesthetics, experience, or are gonna wait until the shoe falls? Well, you know, it's interesting you say that because I often have the same conversation with women in my world too, right? Because the trifecta of our mind, body, spirit, is intimately connected. And so if you're addressing your health, if your then also not addressing other areas of your life where you Right.

Something I deal with a lot where we, where, we settle for, or we're saying, well, I'll get to it tomorrow or share or I leave the job when or what I mean, like we keep putting things off and eventually we pay the price of that because what you realize y'all, having just turned 58, and some of you who are listening to this will be older than me, some will younger. But this is what's real for me is that I'm looking at the next part of my whole life, which is into my 60s, 70s 80s and 90s. Right? Maybe longer, but I am looking it from the point of view of like, wow, I realized that i need to actually really be intentional with the years that have now.

years matter because I don't have as many of them left potentially as what I've already lived. Maybe I'm going to live 120, who the heck knows at this point. Everything's changing so dramatically at the moment in time. We're going through such shifts in our collective consciousness and in the technological changes and the biotech field and all of the places that we could imagine, right? We have no idea what's happening next year, let alone in 20 years time, like where we'd be. But what I do know is, is that this phase of my life and our lives, when we go through this change, you know, what has been called the change which is probably actually a better description of it than perry anything.

We're also afforded to make new choices. It's like You know it's like you get to reevaluate who you've been on every level and choose consciously who want to be and for me doing the journey with your car has been fundamental to that because my body and spirit and not. Disconnected they are all interrelated so as i'm working on my body and detoxing on the body i am also detox my mind and also do you talk to my world of the things that no longer work for me right because it's all the same time. I love it and it's almost, you can appreciate this, it is a shift in frequency.

We're going at it at all levels and bringing in all three pieces of that because that's what changes the frequency and that is how we all vibrate at a different level. And then that's how we attract, you know, at that level is to have those things all frequently or on the same frequency, right? And if you are missing one of those components, then oftentimes your frequency will lag because of that. You know if can't get out of bed in the morning, there's only so much you can do to raise your vibration with your spirituality, and vice versa, quite frankly, And I love to talk about it in terms of frequency because truly that's actually the language that we use inside of all of my work is we're attuning to being able to raise our frequency.

And what does that actually mean? To raise a frequency is, we are changing the way that were thinking. We're changing that way we that are responding in our lives to come from a place ultimately that I would call more loving, more compassionate, and more centered. and we're able to start to make decisions from those places and create the world that we want to live in rather than the one that's been handed, which is really the truth around how we look at it in terms of our health too. We've been given some very toxic health practices.

crazy, right? We only have to think about the nutrition in hospitals. Have you ever been to a hospital and seen what they feed you? It's insane. It is like insanity. In fact, as far as to say, do they want you to remain sick? Is that what transgender is? And we have Don't get me started there, but the point being is that we know that there's toxicity inside of our healthcare system that is fed to us daily.

Reclaiming Power, Trust, and Resilience 44:40

And we have to do a lot to reprogram. into actually healing, you know, work to give us the life that we all deserve to be living. So I want to thank you, Dr. Erica, for your part in my journey in that because truly I understand what is happening to my body because I'm living in it and the level of attunement that I have to It's so much deeper and it's much more connected. And you're empowered. I think you feel probably for the most part, even despite your symptoms that you can still have from time to time, I've seen a shift in your empowerment over your health.

That's right. And that's what it's really about too. It's getting you the power back. I can help you, but ultimately I really want you to be empowered to know that you can trust your body. That's perfect in design. it was made to heal. And we are just simply unleashing that incredible innate intelligence that is already there. and that what's the beautiful part. that why it feels so resonant. You know? And why is feels true is because it is. you know, that you were made perfect in design. Yeah, and that piece is actually one of the greatest gifts and it's one I say to my clients all the time, which is the You, you are the exactly who you were on the inside.

There is nothing wrong with who. You are. Nothing that you actually need. We just need to uncover who actually are right. It's about getting rid of all the things that are in the way of the essence of who are coming forth. And we're both doing that in different ways. That's amazing thing to hear and i really don't hear that because you know your body knows how to heal your mind knows have to feel your psyche knows had a heal you spirit knows. just need to get out of the way of feeling and trust.

And trust is probably the biggest thing. I won't say that I'm perfect at that all the time. Because sometimes when we get symptoms, it can be challenging to the mind. But we've been taught that symptom means, oh, something's wrong. One of Talk me is you know Elaine Slow down for a moment. It's not that there's something wrong your body's communicating with us Letting know either it needs something to change or that it's ready to Yeah, and I just want to thank you Elaine for your trust and the I guess I said the privilege to be able to work with you in this capacity and for trusting me to send others who are also and they're my favorite clients because you're working with them and their vibration is beautiful and i know that has a lot to do with And thank you for joining me today and sharing your story and being willing to, yeah, just really get into this topic.

So important. Thank you so much for your support and your help. And I really hope that everyone continues to find your work and find you in order to support them because you have such a great system that's so, so helpful and really makes a difference in so many women's lives, not just mine. you know, the lives of my clients that I've sent to you have really benefited. And I seen that too. So love it. Blessed be blessed to be much. Thank you. Thanks for tuning into the resiliency method, The Truth About Healing podcast.

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