The Journey of Trauma, Transformation & Spiritual Bodybuilding

Opening Story and Cluster Headache Experience 0:00

After about two months straight of that, doing that every day, I started having these weird headaches. They're called cluster headaches straight from the back of my right eye into my eye. And it was like, like it felt like my head was going to explode one day. So on that day I was literally about to run my hand into a wall just to like make it stop. Nothing was working. My partner that we were practicing craniosacral. And so he was like, hey, do you mind if I do some work on you, see if can help with the headache?

I'm like anything, just please. Like I'll do anything. I am desperate. So he laid down and he put his fingers on my CB4 joint, which is right here at the back of the skull. As soon as he did that, I shot out of my body. It was, like I was having a acid flashback or something. Um, it was terrifying, but also freeing. Do you feel like your hormones have turned against you? Trust us, you're not alone. We're Dr. Serena and Dr Heidi and on Hormone Heroines we explore all the root causes that are behind hormone imbalances and we teach you how to thrive through them.

Join us for real talk, expert tips and even a few laughs. Hello and welcome back to Hormone Heroines. Today we're going to be talking about muscle and bodybuilding and a lot of other life-changing things with Nahum Vizakis. And I'm actually going let him, he has a whole life story that is amazing, but I am going tell it so that I don't get any of it wrong. So welcome to hormone heroin podcast. We're very happy to have you here today. Thank you so very much. It's a pleasure and honor to chat with you today Good.

So, you want to know about my story, my life story? Yep. Okay, I'll give you the abridged version. I grew up in Massachusetts and while I was growing up I bounced around in foster care for most of the time. Homeless for part of that time, and I made a lot of really bad decisions. So, once I turned 19, I decided to join the military because I didn't really have anything going on. I really didn' know who I was, you know, and I don't think most people do at that age. So when I joined the... Absolutely not a bad age!

Yeah, right? So when I joined the military, I finally figured out that I was good at something. It was the first time I really experienced the feeling of self-confidence in physical fitness and physical activity. So as I went through basic training and went to my first unit, I really wanted to go, like I went to Airborne School. I wanted go to Ranger School and do the whole Special Forces thing. However, when I joined, I actually joined exactly two months after 9-11. So there was a lot of good change going on in the military.

And so I got to airborne school, then I initially joined the National Guard. Then I put in paperwork to get into Ranger school and they basically laughed at me. And like, yeah, we're getting deployed in six months. So I got deployed to Cuba, of all places, Guantanamo Bay. I was in Guatano Bay for a year, and I pretty disappointed. Most of my friends were going to Iraq and Afghanistan. And so I go back, I really wanted to go active duty. The National Guard would not let me go because of the numbers, administrative stuff.

Well, if you're not going let go, then I'm just going move. You might as well just send me. So I ended up moving to Las Vegas and when I went to las Vegas out there I literally in my new unit got deployed again right away to Death Valley.

Military Service and Identity Crisis 3:40

It was basically they do war games out to prepare units to go overseas to combat. So while I was there, I met a special forces sergeant major that saw my skills and my desire to go special operations, and he offered me an opportunity to EOD. And for those that don't know what that is, it's a bomb squad of the military. So. That got me in the door of the special operations community. And so I tried out, made it, went to school for, it was about two years long. After I made through school, I did great.

I got to my first unit. Again, like clockwork, six months later, got deployed finally to Iraq. Now, when I go to to I Iraq, that was a huge reality check for me. That was kind of my, first I would say spiritual awakening. I had this vision in my mind, you know, from really all the propaganda. I just believed it all. And I felt very patriotic. When I got over there, by now I was a higher rank and my job was very political. I started to realize just how much of what I thought I believed wasn't really the truth.

There was lot of corruption. It's like the good old boys system. If you're not in the old boy system, bad things really happen. So I'm not one for conforming to social norms like that and at I was about 30 years old and when I finally realized that I just started picking fights with the three figures and and they I had people that Made it their mission to make my life a living hell and that was a big I Just chalk it up to a karmic lesson. I Had to learn some things and I have to grow up myself and And going through that process, I really went through identity crisis because I attached my identity to being EOD tech, right?

So as I felt like I was basically failing in that area, the military, when you start to act out of line, they send you to the doctor. The doctor loads you up on pills and you go through the whole process. So it ended up being about a year and a half that I would just go to a doctor, load me up more pills. There was a point in time where I about 16 medications at once. And I got home, I didn't know anybody. It kind of turned into a whole different kind deployment when I go home honestly. I was diagnosed with PTSD and I went into what they call the Warrior Transition Unit.

And basically 40 hours a week I was going to therapy and and just getting it felt like I Was getting interrogated from five different angles, but really it was they were the way the Western medical system works at least from my experience the military is they They put you in categories of what's wrong with you. So you have this diagnosis. You have that diagnosis and And then with each diagnosis has a category of behavior patterns. So I was really believing that I wasn't broken in many, many ways.

And this was just feeding that imbalance until finally I got to a point where I just couldn't do it anymore. I had enough. so I took it upon myself. Just stopped all the medication, which is very dangerous in retrospect. That wouldn't recommend anybody do that, right? But I was in a desperate place. This is almost 20 years ago. So, you know, I took that upon myself and I just I started taking small dose of testosterone and hit the gym. And that's actually how I found bodybuilding competition. I came back to the one thing that made me feel like I had self-confidence and when I got super focused on it, I actually found, wow, like, i can mold my body and I can really create myself, develop myself.

And I started to connect this identity to bodybuilding now, which of course was another learned lesson down the road. But at this point in time, it was a major learning lesson for me to grow even further. So I did really well in that for a few years, but once like out of the military, I really want to understand what was wrong with my mind I felt like I Felt like there's all these normal people out there and I and then the other people that are trying to get help a lot of them Like I had a few friends die people getting addicted to other drugs and alcohol while they're being prescribed medication Their homes are failing, you know, their wives are leaving them all kinds of bad stuffs going on and i would just refuse to be a statistic so I got out and I started going to school at ASU in Phoenix for psychology.

And as I was studying psychology, I wasn't learning a lot of stuff, but there was still something missing. It was like there were these intellectual understandings of what was going on in me. But it didn't create a whole picture. That aha moment just didn't come, right? So after I went to school, I needed something else that was more aligned with me so that I could have my own business, because I didn' want to work for people anymore. So I actually went massage school after that. And when I went to massage school, that surprisingly changed my life in ways that I could not have anticipated.

Because up until that point in my, I had been living, you know, in fight or flight. Like I, had never known what it was like to have a balanced nervous system. Right. So I started going to massage school and every day in massage, school you're getting massages, you know, to practice what you are learning experientially. And we'd have to do what's called getting into our beingness before every massage. So at the stand there, take deep breaths, relax, get connected to the present moment and to, your client, and then start doing your work.

Well, after about two months straight of that, doing that every, day I start having these weird headaches, they're called cluster headaches. straight from the back of my right eye into my eye and it was like, it felt like my head was going to explode one day. And so on that day, I was literally about to run my hand into a wall just to make it stop. Nothing was working. My partner that we were practicing craniosacral. And so he was like, hey, do you mind if I do some work on you see if i can help with the headache?

I'm like anything just please like I'll do anything. I am desperate. So he laid down and he put his fingers on my CV4 joint, which is right here at the back of the skull. As soon as he did that, I shot out of my body. It was, like i was having a acid flashback or something. Um, it was terrifying, but also freeing. I had, I, had no control. But while I got shot down this what seemed like a wormhole. And while I was in this wormhole, in my mind, of course, on the outside, I would flop it around like a fish.

Some people thought I had a seizure or something. And, while being shut down this warm hole, it felt like demons were trying to attack me. Mind you, like I did a lot of psychedelics when I as a teenager, you know. But, the whole time it was the military. I never messed with any of that stuff. So, i was so confused. i didn't know what was going on with me and I terrified. But after a while, like that bad, scary feeling went away and I started to feel more relaxed. This went on for two hours. And mind you, it was in front of 27 people in, in class, right?

So I ended up being like a whole afternoon class. After I was done, I felt like I hit by a truck and. I came to. And I asked my instructor, do I need to go to the hospital? And like, what just happened to me? Am I okay? Like, please. And he actually was like kind of laughing at me. It was, like. Don't worry. You're fine, brother. I was okay. Will you mind telling me what the hell is going on? At this time, I was about 250 pounds. I at the peak of my bodybuilding career, right? So I'm about 220 right now, so I's 30 pounds bigger than I am now.

And I would, shredded and I just 250, pure muscle. The teacher said that I had the most intense SCR of anybody he's ever seen in his whole 35 year career of body work. You guys know what a SCRR is? Why don't you explain it for our patient or for. Yeah, yeah, good idea. So S.E.R. is an acronym stands for somato emotional release. so essentially what happens the fascia when your body is stuck in fight or flight is get so wound, literally tight that when you finally relax, that was the first time I ever relaxed in my life.

Now my nervous system finally started to recalibrate. So as it was recaliberating, my body was had this emotional catharsis, which is essentially fascial unwinding that my my fascia finally let go and opened up in all this fear and all these, you know, compressed energy inside me just released, Which is why it is so dramatic and took so long, right? Because I had so many layers. After that happened, like, everything in my life changed.

Psychology, Massage School, and Somatoemotional Release 12:40

Because, of course, my fundamental vibration shifted. So I didn't want to bodybuild anymore. I don't wanna eat the same foods. Like, I started doing yoga. like I Didn't hang out with the thesame people.I broke up with my girlfriend. And I just didn' resonate with anything. And I started just doing body work full time. Now, right around this time as well is when I got introduced to ayahuasca. So when soon after, like I literally just started manifesting like, you know, teachers and teachers that I never would have expected were into this spiritual kind of stuff.

Mind you, this is back in 2014. Right. No, nobody was talking about this stuff, back then. So I remember one time I was working on this woman that I had worked on about a dozen times before that, and I starting to get these visual imprints in my mind. Now, I kind of played it off at first. Like, that's my imagination. That's nothing. that stupid, right? But this is coming in really, really strong. And I Iwas having this vision just kept like a movie in mind of this little girl getting in a car accident.

So I stopped for a sec and I was working on this girl's lower back, right? So, I stop her so I say, Hey, hey, got to ask you something. Um, cause at that time I thought that she was going to think I'm crazy. Right. So it was like, look, were you ever in a car accident when you were younger? And she looked at me like how the hell did you just know that? She started crying. And, uh, she's like I will literally just reliving an accident that I had when I younger, my mom died. And then that just, it blew my mind.

I was like, there is something to this. Now, shortly after that experience was when I drank ayahuasca. And when i drank Ayahuaska, that was the first time that I ever felt the frequency of true unconditional love. That shifted me on a whole different level because up until that point, anything that i thought was love, now I realize wasn't love And that made me really go over with a fine-tooth comb all my relationships, especially with my mom and my dad, right? And I started to realize, wow, like I have these abandonment issues and I had these rejection issues, and have all this stuff tied to my parents because I was never held and loved.

And this is the first time I felt held like by the universe, by The Spirit of Ayahuasca. It was mind boggling to me. That started me on about a 12-year path of working with plant medicines. Soon after Ayahuasca, I was introduced to Combo. Then in 2020, i was introduce to Iboga and also Bufo. And I also was working for Sassafras here and there doing all these deep experiences with a lot of really, really great powerful teachers from all over the world. And that and many other things that were associated with fitness and diagnostics.

I went through this 12 year, I'd say dark night of the soul, where I had to clear out and open up all these channels within myself to understand all my self sabotaging ways and all of these different identities that I have formed to protect myself and survive over the years. Finally, I've gotten to a place where now I have stability in my foundation and I'm able to help others based on the experiences I had in life. So I kind of feel like the spirit of these medicines have been my teachers, my truest, deepest teachers.

And then all the other actual education that I've had in informal settings sort of was supplemental and help fill in the gaps to create something brand new that is now finally, I feel people are ready for and open to exploring now that these great awake things are happening all over the world. Right. Wow. That's an amazing story. So I want to ask you, what are the top three lessons you learned from working with these plant medicines? And what's some advice you could give to someone who is experiencing similar crises that you went through?

Top three lessons, that's a really good question. Because there's so many. I would say, okay, first, associated with working with those kind of medicines, I feel is a very important topic to address, is that the medicines themselves do not heal you. They open up what you've been suppressing or repressing and allow you to look at your truth. But the true healing comes from the actions that you take after you have these experiences and the changed behavior patterns and habits from you doing your work.

So like these are they're amazing tools to help you grow and help. You learn. But I think some people just assume or think that you do this and then boom, you're healed. It doesn't quite work that way. Right. Because you you've been trained your body and your mind for so long. It takes repetition to be able like now you have the neural pathways open up but now You have to train them to keep them there because there's a natural tendency to want to pull it back also Love Unconditional love heals everything and that is where I think humanity is wanting to go.

That's what that's the deeper lesson here and wherever we are not being loving to ourselves and to others, that is where the work is. And there is really always work to do. Uh, and at the very core in this life, And this is especially for people that have struggled with things like, um, I don't know if I can say the word, but, uh, self deleting. Yeah. Things like that. We came into this. Life. Our soul knew what we need to learn. So we came into this life and our soul knows that we're able to move through all these things.

It's our ego, it's the attachments that have that convince us that, we can't make it. And that's to work to go through. No matter what you're going through, recognize that if you are still here, you here for a reason. And there is a way to move through it. You just need to stop trying to control, stop holding on and allow yourself to, to trust and move, through whatever experience it is that you need, and whatever attachment that there, is I mean, you know, everybody has their own unique thing, temptation or desire that they cling to when they're going through a difficult time.

So, Sometimes, first of all, you need to be gruelly honest with yourself. All right, because that shows you your truth. Then when you have the truth, then you make a decision to take a decisive action in a direction you want to go. So say like you wanna quit smoking, okay, well, like start going to the gym or do a hyperbaric chamber session once a week or commit to doing something else that's gonna have opposite effect that the smoking is doing. that's the way that that i see it right um and sometimes you need help or understanding you know you can't always do this alone in fact none of us are meant to do so alone we as human beings are interdependent in nature we need community and the darkness out there in the world they Propagandize and brainwash us to be independent or hyper independent, or try to separate us, which is really unfortunate.

I personally believe that we are starting to go in the other direction now because everything is so automated. Everything is. So, you know, far distance or, so, social media, especially, but being able to connect like you and I are right now, right, is is a huge benefit to get the information and these concepts out there. then we have to do our part to be able to bring it home and work in our community, in out immediate area. Does that answer your question? Yeah it does and also I think that's a really beautiful sentiment to leave off on for like the top three because I see all the time that some of the biggest issues that I feel like people are suffering from is a lack of community and if we had more more smaller communities or people that we can rely on.

I really do think that, we would all be happier and the world really would be a better place. Well, and a lot less stress too, right? Because in the way that the, world is presenting how you're supposed to live right now. It's like, I have to do all these things. And I, have have control of it. Letting go is the hardest thing because it's ingrained in us. I'm a Gen Xer also, so we were latchkey kids. Even if you weren't in a foster system and it's like, you just needed to do it. You had to it and that was the way it was and you'd be fine.

Plant Medicines and Spiritual Awakening 22:00

It's really hard to let go of control, especially in all of the systems that are out there right now. If you already feel like you're not in control and to letting go the little bit of a control you have is really And I think that's one of the biggest problems. Yeah, very true. The people that I see that have the most difficult time with this are actually people who have a lot of money. Because money gives you control, right? And society tells us that if you have lot a money, you're successful. The problem is, is that it becomes an addiction, I've noticed.

You get a lot of money, you have a lotta control, but now you've got nobody to share it with, or you, y'know, have very limited time where you're stressed out, causing harm to your own body and your mind, and eventually you burn the candle at both ends, right? Like, it's not sustainable. Yeah, well, and I think also then you start worrying about like, what if I lose the things I do have? And then that creates even more panic inside that you have to keep the thing that work so hard to get when really none of it's making you happy.

Very true, which is why, you know, I work with a lot of wealthy people to help them come back to their heart and recognize or realize you all this abundance Use it in a way to support other people's abundance. Like learn to let go and give it away and have faith that it'll come back. Because when you have all that, I personally feel, and I'm grateful that I've gone through everything that had before I became more financially successful, because now that understand life the way that do, I take my money, my investments, and I put them into things that help support growing communities, to help people that want to make the world a better place and do these important things, right?

So there's a more faith-based, you know, humanitarian kind of approach as opposed to, honestly, a narcissistic. Like, it's all about me. I got to have eight cars and 10 houses and like, why do you need all that stuff? It's stupid. Right, exactly. Speaking of your success, I know you've written a couple of books. What was your intention behind writing your book, The Indigo Flame? And can you tell us a little bit about it? So the Indigo Flame is essentially an autobiography. And it actually took me about 10 years to write it, and I'll tell you why.

As I would write this book, I remember I started writing it back in 2013, end of 2013 beginning of 2014, And I'd write a section and then three, four months later I will come back to that section. I realized, wow, being a victim here, like projecting my pain and my insecurity out, got to scratch it and start over. And I realized that I had to go through my full experience, my whole dark night of the soul, if you will, in order to be able to see all the lessons and explain them from a non-emotional, non triggered place and also be to explain the lesson that have learned.

So what for me, really, it was really a huge catharsis to to discuss some of these very difficult, very raw experiences that i've had and put it out there in a loving way. right like Jesus taught love thy neighbor love the people that hurt you the most and sometimes you know it's like yeah that that victim inside has every reason to be like oh no like they deserve to beat but that's just hurting yourself it. It's a reflection right of of your inability to accept the lesson that you were meant to learn so it took me a long time to learning all those lessons but once I put it together I really had a lot of strong life lessons that really just got down to, I just exposed myself in a vibrational frequency sense about all the difficulties that I've gone through in my life.

And I got a really positive feedback from people. Because when you can understand somebody else has been through some of the really dark places, including feeling like you want to leave this earth. I spent a lot of time in my life feeling that way. And I remember one time when I was in one of my lowest places and I talk about this in book. I was counseling or consulting with a dear friend of mine. He was a Vedic astrologer and a shaman. And he explained to me something that his mentor taught him.

Said, look, when you self-delete prematurely before your natural time comes to an end, what happens is, you know, all those repressed and suppressed feelings that you're struggling with, Now instead of being suppressed, now they are you. They surround you like in a room. And you have to process all of these emotional lessons now in the fourth dimension, which is essentially is kind of like a dream realm, right? And it won't leave you alone. Now you can't suppress it or repress it. now it's just right there in your face.

Not only that, time works differently in that place. So if you were meant to pass away when you're 81 years old, and you know, you self-delete at 41. Now you have 40 years worth of, unresolved emotions that you are going to have to move through. And that is what I think the true meaning of Hell is. Right? Because that stuff that you, that, you just didn't want to think about or feel it anymore. But now it had the opposite effect. Then eventually once you're finally able to move through that then you will ascend and clear it out and your soul will go to where it's meant to go next.

but you don't wanna get stuck or caught in that place. Yeah. Right. So something to consider. Yeah, I think that's a really important point. But I also think just listening to your story and everything that you've talked about, right now there's not a lot of really great role models on being vulnerable. And it sounds like that book was all about being a vulnerable and trying to present it in a way that isn't self-deprecating or trying victimizing, like you said. So I really think some amazing work that role models in that way to show how beautiful vulnerability is.

Vulnerability is the true place of where empowerment is born. And once you. They feel like they have no more options available. They go do that work and they're having similar conversations like this. And now praising, you know, like being a good husband, being the good father, Being a Good Role Model, and embracing that vulnerability. We definitely need more of it. Of course, I'm doing my part to be able to get that message out. So thank you very much for your kind words. I really appreciate it!

You're so welcome. I think it's great work that you're doing. On the note of another book that he wrote, the biohackers guide to spiritual bodybuilding. Tell us a little bit about that book and your intention with writing that one. So that I wrote much quicker. And the sport of body building. Bodybuilding was a big part of what changed my life and helped me learn and grow. But there is a very dark side to bodybuild. There is a lot of narcissism, there's a of the ego, especially what we're seeing out in social media land right now.

It's scary, actually downright terrifying the things that some of these young kids are promoting and even like just being very irresponsible and teaching a a bad habit. So the way I look up, for me, bodybuilding was or has been like the hero's journey, right?

Lessons from Healing, Vulnerability, and Community 30:20

So I broke it down into sort of those phases. And I look at bodybuilding as a multi-dimensional process. You're building your emotional body, you're optimizing your astrobody, your physical body. And all these different things, like they count, they're there. If you are only focusing on your physically body then you eventually going to hurt yourself. because it's such a limited capacity, not to mention that when you're diving into the world of performance enhancing drugs, right? There's so much bad information out there.

Not to mentioned that there's a lot of dirty stuff out too. And people, when your injecting something in your body, you are fundamentally shifting the way that your bodies functions and with children. Anybody that's under 25 years old, your biology has not stopped growing yet. So when you start to bring in these drugs to manipulate your body for a particular outcome, it affects your prefrontal cortex. It affects you identity. So you will spend the rest of your life struggling with things like body dysmorphia and eating disorders and bigorexia.

All these different things that are making you become obsessive and lose yourself to the process. And, you know, I went through a phase, right, where I had to get humbled a little bit because I was a bit too hardcore. I obsessed with going pro for about two years. Right. I was like, I will do whatever it takes, anything at all, until I finally realized, man, like I'm going to, uh, hurt myself here. And through hurting myself, i'm hurting others. Right? I got very narrow minded. Um, and, um, And, you know, had to learn some tough lessons for my own health.

Uh, but also, You know. Like, broke some hearts and I, messed, with some really dear friendships. and um I had, to put that in check. So from learning that, I did a lot of research and I dug down to see and understand, okay, what, where was this pushing me? Because you really don't see it while you're in it. So when you take, when your abusing these drugs, meaning taking super physiological amounts, right? That pushes you into a dangerous zone of certain types of addictions that are elusive. Cause you're not like, you are not smoking meth, You're doing crack, not doing heroin, but these things will make you see things and understand things in a very close minded tunnel vision, one track way.

I mean, I've had two friends that had to get kidney transplants. So I have a couple of friends, that have had multiple surgeries on their spines. They don't have full function in their fingers. One friend that has had a bladder transfer, I don't even know how that works, but, you know, liver issues. I have a couple friends that died and they died from, being too much, going too into the experiments without taking care of themselves. And for what? Like these kids and the two of them were actually young.

They were in the late twenties. I mean, it could have been prevented, right? And these people, like a lot of, you know, successful people. Bodybuilding is a huge world. And when younger people see this stuff, I like like, oh my God, you know, I want to be just like that. They don't realize what's going on underneath. So I kind of map out and to my knowledge, there's nobody else that's laid out bodybuilding in the way that I have. But being able to identify what your intention is behind everything that you're doing, including just even lifting weights.

Spiritual bodybuilding just doesn't just have to do with the sport of body building for me spiritual body-building is about finding and identifying the thresholds of yourself your different bodies and learning to master them one step at a time and Learning how to identify what's a Healthy threshold and what is a dangerous or unhealthy threshold? What is the ego driven desire and? what Is a heart driven Desire in learning how to watch the difference in you really have to be a true master of yourself to Be able to do this kind of stuff And the people that win at the highest levels, the one unique thing that they really truly have is that, they are more in their heart than they in there ego.

And that's why, because their energy is so different on stage. That's they win. They have that glow. It's not that difficult for them and they're also very genetically gifted. So, there's also a lot of people, that are trying to be something that their not. If you have shitty genetics, part of my language, um, you're going to be, You're only going be able to go so far. And now we have these new kids starting this new like looks maxing or smaxing is like a new thing that these kids are doing, right?

Where they're like smashing their face to reconstruct their jaws. It's absolutely wildly crazy to me. Yeah. You haven't heard of that yet? No, not me, no. I'm no, I have not heard that. Yet. No that I've watched. But yeah, these like, and that's like the epitome of narcissism. It's crazy. Right. So don't look, don' don't look max. It's the dumbest shit out there. But yeah, okay. Yeah. No, I mean, you know, we so we're naturopathic doctors. So we deal with like the whole body and the Holy Spirit all together all the time.

We kind of on a different level, reach this stuff all of the times with our patients. And we work with we worked with a lot of women, especially who, they used to be able to walk down the road and they'd have a six pack ads right you know just perfectly fine they could eat whatever they wanted to and be fine and now they're in perimenopause postmenopaus and Now they are struggling to get who they felt like they were back and myself I'm going through peri menopas and so I know exactly how they feel so we actually do work with them on You know, doing stress relieving, having the right nutrition, Having the Right Goals.

And I also, you know when we are older, it is harder for your body to recover. and so we also go over like you need to listen to your Body like this is not going to happen overnight. It didn't happen over night when you lost it not gonna happen. Overnight to get it back and I think that kind of leads into what you're talking about is how you Need to actually listen To yourself and be who you are. It just can get really construed when at a certain point in life, especially in like perimenopause, you kind of lose who you are because you know, if you've had children, and you have been raising children.

If you had elderly parents that you're taking care of, then you take care those. You've got spouses or you, know you in your career, probably the top of your, or, doing all of these things and kind lose yourself. And it's really hard to try to get people to give that back. So I think what you doing in that book, really helps to get the whole picture kind of like what we try to do so that they realize their spirit is part of who they are. I mean, that's really who their bodies not just who are, but they've got to match up and you've gotta pay attention and listen to both.

Bodybuilding, Longevity, and Health Foundations 37:40

and there's a season for everything. And, you know, like a case of point, when I was in Iraq, I struggled for a while, for probably about a year, to accept my situation. That struggle of accepting it, reality started to not feel real. I felt like I got caught in a bad psychological thriller that I played a trick on and I couldn't get out of it. Um, and so I had to learn how to surrender and let go. Thank God nowadays there are a lot of, uh, options available to be able to do that. But the first thing that you have to.

Is accept is like, look at it and be like you know what? I'm here. I mean, this phase of my life. And where is the silver lining? Where's the, where's, the little golden egg of how I can really. step into learning this new part of myself and focus on that. For example, like I went about four years where I just stopped training. I didn't feel called to it. But I missed my body. Like I was shredded for like five years straight. When I lost that, I like lost all the external validation, which is something that I had to really accept and recognize.

your energy, your vibe, that's what makes you attractive. That's, what really makes, you know, come alive. It's like, if you have good looks, then yeah, That is icing on the cake, so to speak, but that is not the core of who you are, of what make you special, and what made you great. So when you can focus on, like case in point, when I was in that period, I did a lot of plant medicine, a lots of spiritual work, And I got really, really good at body work. Right, so I got, I would just, was wowing people and really doing a lot of deep cathartic experiences with a lotta people.

So I started to really start just focus on learning as much as I could, connecting to the energy, understanding biology and body mechanics. And so, went really deep into really mastering that part of my journey. And so now I've been able to combine these different modalities and these things, and I can just see things like, you know, I could do it in a fraction of the time, but it took me to be able go through these very cathartic identities, if you will, fully embrace it, accept all of it. And then once I accept it a lot of that stress, a lots of cortisol starts to release, right?

sometimes we just need to cry do you know that tears are are roughly 60% cortisol so people that don't cry right they're just building up that you you all that cortisol and all of that stress and that's why their their shoulders are like stuck here like this and they can't move their neck it's crazy Yeah. So let's kind of wrap it up for our listeners. What are your tricks for longevity and health and fitness? Obviously we know it's got to have to do with like the whole body and spirit and everything, but can you kind summarize something that our listener can just do starting now?

So that's going to be very much based on your personality type. I'll give you an example with my personality. Number one, first most important thing is sleep. So, like for me, I do high dose melatonin suppositories at night before I go to sleep. 500 milligrams. There's a doctor that wrote a whole book on it. It's incredibly potent antioxidant, but it's the only thing that works. So I take my high dose melatonin, I track my sleep for like two years to make sure I was getting into deep and REM sleep and all that stuff.

But as we get older, if you don't have sleep, you're cooked, right? And with that you have to identify what the stressors are that are keeping you from having good sleep. Second, making sure you know what kind of foods that your gut needs. I personally do Viome tests, but there are many out there. You can be eating clean, but if you're not eating the particular types of food to feed the right bacteria in your gut, then even those clean foods are not going to be optimal for you to keep you feeling your best.

Because if your got is out of balance, and gut and sleep to most gut sleeping hormones, right? The three most important factors, Right? That's basically what we that's, basically, what We say every day all day. Yeah, so in the morning when I wake up, I have a vibroacoustic sound lounge and I've a red light therapy panel above it. And I'll do 20 minutes on the redlight with some binaural beats on I just do some not really breath work, but I'm just conscious breathing and I visualize my day. Then I go to the gym and then I start my work day after that.

I usually do an infrared sauna about five days a week, cold exposure one to two times a And those are my basics. That's my foundation. Of course, like, you know, I take a few supplements. I am on TRT. And peptides are also a great supplement. But the fundamentals, the basics ensure if you have your sleep right, if your gut right through the foods that you consume, and if have you hormones optimized. Those first two are going to do most of the work of making the third one possible. Right? Yep. We talk about that all the time.

Here we go. Great minds think alike. So, so you have that trifecta down. Everything else is going to help, you know, like a little bit on the edges, but you, have to make sure that you that foundation. Once you had that, foundation set, then everything else, it's just all upstream from there. Nice. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for talking with us today. It has been a really great conversation. Really some important points. I think that everyone can really spend some time reflecting on us. And we just want to thank for being on.

Appreciate you guys bringing me on, it's been an absolute honor. You know, I look forward. Maybe I'll maybe I see you again. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So much. All right. Guys, have a beautiful day. You know how us women are always just pushing through it, and then when we go to find help, we're often not taken seriously or told, oh, that's just part of being a woman. Yeah, We've lived through, prioritizing everybody else, And then our own health falls to the wayside. That's why we started blossoming longevity by women or women.

We created programs that meet women where they are, addressing the root causes and all of the struggles that come with every stage of life. Like our vitality program. It reconnects you with your youth and your life so that you can thrive through the years. And with Clarity, we go beyond the skin to restore your health, clear your complexion so you can feel radiant from the inside out. With our Silhouette program, We help you reclaim your strength, optimize your metabolism, and your body composition so that you could feel great in your own body again.

And, with Harmony, you rebalance your hormones to heal from within so can you feel vibrant and ready to take on the world. That is why it's time to stop saddling and start flourishing. Visit blossominglongevity.com today. Thanks for watching Hormone Heroines. If this episode spoke to you, follow the show and share it with someone who also needs to hear it. And write a review. That helps more people find their way back to balance. See you next week.