144: Retrain Your Brain To Recover From Chronic Illness with Lindsay Mitchell

Hello again, everyone, and welcome to today's show. If you're one of the 130 million people that are dealing with Sirs Lyme disease, autoimmune disease, or other conditions that are impacted by mold on a daily basis, and you need to learn how to eliminate that exposure, then you're in the right place. My name is Brian Carr, and you're listening to Mold Finders Radio.

Hey, everybody. What's going on? Today's episode is pretty cool because we're going to talk about your brain. Your brain's, like, super important. And so, you know, we should talk about. Brains are so crazy. It's like, it's not just that there's toxins. Then it's like this massive computer system that gets rewired and nobody knows how to fix it. It's like calling the plumber that doesn't know how to fix your plumbing 10 times until you figure out somebody who can fix it. So, and so I'm excited to have Lindsay on the show today. Lindsay Mitchell. So she's the founder of a company called Vitalside. It's actually this membership program, and it empowers people with chronic illness and limbic system impairment, which is what we're talking about, like, nervous system stuff, to retrain your brain out of chronic stress responses so you can get relief from the symptoms that are created from that and kind of gain freedom back in your lives. She's trained as a physician assistant, working as an NLP practitioner. Which is neuro linguistic.

What is it? I totally just blank. Is neuro linguistic programming. That's what it is. Which again, is like brain training. And has experienced Lyme disease and recovered from Lyme disease herself, which makes her pretty qualified to help others in learning how to shift this response that's going on so you can get positive changes in those system or in your. In your symptoms, I should say. So with all of that said, I'm sure Lindsay has more to say. So, Lindsay, welcome.

Yes, thank you, Brian. Thank you so much for having me here.

Yeah, I'm really pumped about today. I think it's super cool. I think the brain is super interesting. And I think nobody really knows anything about it. And the people that think they know about it don't necessarily know a whole lot about it. And this whole side of what happens when you're dealing with some sort of chronic health issue of the side effect, like the physical physiological stuff, which I guess this is part of that, but it's like the nervous system, but like the symptoms you feel is really where a Lot of people focus their energy on, right? And they're like, oh, I'm, you know, my, this hurts. Or I have skin rashes or I have X, Y or Z or whatever. But like your brain is running a lot of this show and a lot of times we focus on detoxing the body of this or doing that. But like, if the brain has been taught that something is bad for a long enough period of time, it's still going to be freaked out by that thing being bad. Like, I think I used this, this analogy once and then I'll kick it over to you. Not recently. I was like, if I walked into, into my house and every time I walked in my house, some dude was standing there and just punch me in the face every time I walked in the house. And I bam, I get punched in the face and I get up and walk in my house and I do that for like three days, four days, maybe just one day am I going to walk back in the house anymore once I realize this dude's going to kick the shit out of me when I walk in the house? And the answer is no. And that's kind of what's happening with our brain. It's like when this stuff happens, you figure out some other weird way to get around something and it causes other problems and this and that. So that's always what I think of when I think of brain retraining is some dude standing in my brain punching me in the face when they see something they don't like. What do you think of that analogy?

Yeah, I mean, that's what I do is okay, how can we get resources so that we're not walking into the house getting punched in the face every single day? I mean, that pretty much sums up exactly what I do.

I think we have reworked the marketing campaign for what you do. Get punched in face by your brain every day. Here's how you fix it.

Well, you know, it's so interesting too because, you know, we, you're right. We focus so much on the physical body and even in that, you know, analogy, you're like getting punched in the face and you feel that pain and you feel that response. And we focus on the physical body because it's, it's easier. We can see it, right? We can feel it. We can, you know, get punched and be like, yeah, oh, physical inflammation, pain here. But the brain and body communicate all the time. So the fact that we're really not focusing on that communication is tough because what's going to happen when that person leaves your house. Like, they stop squatting in your house after a week, after punching you in the face every single time. Then.

They leave the house, and you open the door to your house, and immediately your body is, like, prepared for a punch in the face, and the guy doesn't have to be there, but your body can respond in fear, in stress, in almost preemptive pain in order to anticipate that that punch is going to take place. And it's the same kind of thing here. You know, detox, yes, is important. It's important to remediate the house and remove the toxin that's causing, you know, a lot of the symptoms. But it's equally as important to start to focus on that brain body communication, because even when that person leaves the house or even when you detox completely, your body can still be responding like a danger is present. And that's why focusing on that brain, body communication is huge. Because right now, your brain and body can be saying, danger, danger, danger. Survive, survive, survive. Or, you know, there's a threat, there's a guy sitting there waiting to punch you in the face. So when we're able to say, okay, what if I communicated a new signal from my brain to my body and vice versa, because the body also sends messages to the brain, what if we started to hone in on that response? How would that change the way that we feel? So this is typically brain retraining. And I can talk about that and how it sounds scary, and it's really not because we're all brain retrainers, but.

It'S such an important thing to focus on whether it's during the detox process and treatment process in combination with it. And then I also work with a lot of people who have done all the stuff right. They've changed their diet, they've, you know, moved houses, they've done all of these things to kind of get rid of the symptoms they're experiencing from mold illness, but their brain and body are still communicating that danger, that inflammation.

I love that you just said that, because I think that piece is super important for people in this specific situation. Right? Like, first off, brain retraining, there's so many. There's childhood trauma, so many things, right? Like, we're talking about, like, one kind of specific reason that you have an issue, you know, that we're trying to train out of it. But I. I've talked with other doctors about this. I actually think a previous podcast with Lauren, Dr. Lauren Tessier, we talked about this. You just said it again. And if, like, when I Want people to take more away from this. But what I really want someone to take away from this is if you feel like that you have, you've spent the money, you've. I mean, heck, maybe you've had us come inspect your house. Whatever, you've had it remediated, you have it figured out and you're still symptomatic, right? But the people that you've surrounded yourself with, who you have to trust, the people you surround yourself with, right? So you, you know, once you bring them in, you gotta trust them, right? So don't bring them in if you don't trust them. So if you trust that I say that, listen, we got everything. We see the reports, we see everything from start to finish. It's not here anymore. And you're still getting like a big set of these symptoms. This is a huge piece of it. And it's not. You're not the first person that I've heard say that. Right. So when we start like saying, oh, I'm still symptomatic. And this is of paraphrasing from a different pod, if anyone wants to listen to it, as Dr. Lauren Tessier, she talked through kind of her treatment protocols and stuff, but like house first. And then if you're still having issues, then you look internally and see is there internal colonization happening? Right? Is it not the house has your body turned into the sick building, which is a Jill Christoph race. And then if that part is handled, then you start looking at now the brain piece of it like, okay, if we know it's not in the body, we know it's not in the house, why are we still symptomatic? And then that's the bad habits that your brain has created over the period of time that if you can help subside those things, that then the symptoms start to go away. And that's, that's what you do. That's so super cool. Is like focusing on that. And nobody really even like thinks about that. So I think that's what's super awesome.

And I think it's important to even pause and say, wait a second, this isn't my conscious thought process. Like, you're not the one that's consciously thinking about the fear of mold in your house and maybe even listening to this. You're like, oh, yeah, actually sometimes when you know my vent is like dripping, I'm like, ah, okay. You know, gotta. Gotta make sure I take care of everything. Right? But it may not be a conscious thought. And that's what's important here, is what I Do in, in the process I use with brain or training for people with chronic illnesses is address your physiological processes. So it's the physiology that's responding. So it may not even be a conscious thought. So a lot of times when people think the stress response, being stuck in that state of survival or threat, they think they're consciously, you know, anxious or you know, repetitively thinking about mold or something like that again and again. For some that may be the case, but not for everyone. So for a lot of people it's that kind of physiological training that has happened. Well, the mold was there or the guy punching you in the face was there. So. So I'm going to respond in order to anticipate this because our bodies are here to help you survive. Like that's what they do best is like, let's keep that heart beating, let's keep those lungs breathing. Let's keep you alive. So this protective mechanism and this threat response was designed to help keep you alive. But right now it's functioning in a way that is not responding to an actual threat. It's responding to a perceived threat. And that's why brain retraining of like, okay, I'm aware that this pathway of threat survival, stay alert, stay alive, isn't necessary at this moment in time. So how can I communicate a new way of being? And that's what brain retraining is like. We are all brain retrainers because what we focus on, you know, what we watch on tv, what we listen to on podcasts, all of these things retrain our brain. So what I teach in vital side is really putting conscious intention towards what we focus on to communicate a new signal, one that helps you to feel good, one that, one that can help to benefit your immune system and you know, feel stronger and more resilient. And that doesn't come naturally, naturally to us. And I think that's important. It's like, oh, I should, you know, have these kind of natural processes that allow me to, to feel calm and feel ease and feel peace. But we're not built for that. We're built for survival. So if you have had to survive for the last year or couple years or 10 years, whatever it is, your body's still going to be communicating that unless you intentionally start to communicate a new signal, one of well being. And that's what this process is, is really bringing your prefrontal cortex, the decision making part of your brain on board to intentionally make changes to your brain that benefit that brain body communication.

Yeah. 100 and like I know some People listen to like brain retraining. It's like some other like weird thing or whatever you know, that's like that you need do or something. And like just think about like a perfect example. Like this is a normal thing that happens every single day, right? It's just, we're talking about it. I have a kid that's 2 years old almost. My dog is 70 pounds. The first time I, the first time the door, not like somebody knocked on the door when he was like, you know, just barely walking. And my 70 pound dog barked really loud and then ran to the door and knocked him over. He now associated door knocking with loud noise, with me getting clobbered by a 70 pound monster, basically. And so then for a while, every time that either like somebody hit the door or the dog barked, you could see the reaction in his face, like, oh shit, what's going to happen? And then nothing happened. And then it happened again. He was like, oh, there's something to happen. And then nothing happened. And eventually like he's not afraid of it anymore. Right? But this is like in kids and infants and stuff like this, you see it happening in real time. Like they don't have the front end, like logic piece to like cover what they're feeling. Like that happens. So like, any of you with kids or anything, like, before we get into this, I just, I don't want anybody coming into this thinking like, oh, this is some like weird thing that's like, yeah, it's just another thing out there. There's this, there's that, there's that. I don't know if it works. We literally are, like you said, training our brains and retraining our brains every single second of every single day. So those of you who listen to me probably like my voice and what I talk about. I've trained you like, whatever, but it's, but that's, that's what happens. So anyways, it's super important. It happens in every aspect in life with everybody. So with all of that said, let's, let's kind of talk about what causes nervous system deregulation. Right? So first, I guess define that. Let's, let's talk about what that is or maybe a little bit, you know, more specifically, which is kind of what you were talking about already and then like what causes that?

So I think there is a confusion about.

Having a dysregulated nervous system. I think, you know, there's so many practitioners out there. Some are like, you know, these are ways to regulate your nervous system. And other people, we all live in a dysregulated state and have a dysregulated nervous system. So I'll really speak about it from my perspective. What I do is focus on the autonomic nervous system. And that's basically part of your nervous system that is, like, keeping you alive. That's basically saying, this is dangerous. This is a threat. This is not. So what we're doing is basically walking around all day, every day. And how we perceive information is through our five senses. So what we see around us, you know, like what your child saw when that happened, when the dog knocked you over, you know, also picking up what you smell, taste, touch, and what you hear. But we also have this sixth sense called neuroception. And it's basically this sense that says threat, danger, or is this safe? And it's based on past experiences. So if we receive the message that we're getting that this thing is threatening, it's likely because something similar or something that your brain has perceived as similar has happened in the past and that was threatening to you. And that's oftentimes why we can be watching, like, a sad movie, say, and say somebody dies in the movie. Someone's in a hospital bed and dies. Well, maybe you go to bed that night and you dream about when your parents got divorced or something like that, and you wake up and you're like, oh, I just feel depressed. Like, I feel. I don't feel good. I feel really sad. And it's because that experience that you had just watching that movie triggered this feeling of, okay, this. This is kind of threatening. And this reminds me of an experience in the past that I felt was threatening. Even though you were maybe three or four years old when your parents got divor. But that feeling exists within you. You know, our bodies memorize stress in the form of trauma, and that trauma can come up in our subconscious brains at night. So this is like a very tangible experience that can happen to every single person. It's part of life. And I think that's the important thing is we can all go in and out of these stress responses throughout the day. So we can get these signals of, like, threat or safety or threat or safety constantly. But. And this is important. This is important for us to stay alive because if we're driving down the freeway and the person in front of us stops short, we want to be able to access that survival response that allows us to put our foot on the gas and stop before we hit the car in front of us. So the stress response, getting that message of threat can be really good when we're experiencing it in that acute way of addressing it in the moment. But what happens is when we have had maybe a build up of stressors happen over time, like I use the example of like the sad movie, maybe we've had multiple psychological traumas happen to us. Maybe we have a buildup of mycotoxins in our bodies. Maybe we have, you know, not just. We weren't just diagnosed with my mold illness, but we were diagnosed with Lyme disease and a parasitic infection and all these different things, these are all traumas to the body. And so I look at it from like the kind of seeing like a pendulum, like our life is like, you know, we're swinging like this pendulum all the time and we go back and forth and like over here to the left is like, you know, traumatic situations, stressors, you know, sickness, death, like things that really impact us emotionally, physically, mentally and energetically. And then over here to the right is like the best peace and joy and love and exciting experiences you can have. So really what we're doing is we're learning in our lives. We're, we're operating in this way where we're dynamically moving back and forth between these experiences and then the factive way. But when we get that really heightened dysregulated nervous system, or when we get that really toxic exposure to mold after living in this house for 10 years, or when we experience a really traumatic situation, we can stay stuck over here to the left where we're sick and we get the physical symptoms, which is kind of the last to manifest after the energetic, emotional, mental, and then we get the physical component. And so we're over here and we're stuck. And so we're no longer moving dynamically through our lives. And so those are the people that I work with and I know Brian, those are the types of people that you meet because you know, you're going into their homes and you know, you're, you're kind of going through that process of remediation and kind of what's the next step here? Because we're so sick and stuck. And so that's really when our nervous systems are operating from this threat, threat, threat, threat response. Now when this happens, like I said, it can be an actual threat.

Or a perceived threat. So it can be that toxin overload. You know, it can be a traumatic situation that has happened to you. The brain doesn't distinguish between real and perceived threats. And it also doesn't really distinguish between like a physical threat, like getting into A car accident and a psychological threat. Like perhaps, you know, a situation that happened when you were a kid, and, you know, your dad just yelled at you and told you you were the worst person ever. So the way that we perceive that information and store it in our bodies is as trauma. So when we're living with that dysregulated nervous system, we're getting that threat response again and again and again. And we're kind of saying, stuck over here to the left side of the pendulum. So in that place, what happens is stress occurs, and stress is a result of getting that message of threat again and again. So what happens is we pick up the information of stress from our five senses and neuroception. And so our brains are like, okay, I need to respond, because there's danger present. So in that moment, you can think of, like, the hypothalamus, pituitary adrenal access. So the hypothalamus, this part of your limbic brain, is really discerning. And is the one that says, okay, is this dangerous or is this not? And so if it gets that message of threat, it sends a message to the pituitary gland, which is kind of that hormone control center of the body. Hey, is there a threat present? Yes. Okay. So then that pituitary gland sends a message all the way down to the adrenal glands sitting on top of the kidneys. And that's when you release stress hormones like cortisol. And that. That's that common, like, basic stress hormone we hear about, but we also release other stress hormones like adrenaline and norepinephrine. So all of this is going on, this, like, cascade of information is being relayed throughout the body, so other hormones are impacted. In that moment. You're not focused on digesting properly, or, you know, you're not focusing on detoxing. It's like your body's in this state of fight, like, get out of danger, flee, run away, or freeze and stay down, like, shrink. And that's when you can experience, like, brain fogginess, dizziness, these types of things. And it's all a result of your brain saying that there is a threat present and your body's responding. But taking that one step further, what happens? This is a common experience that happens with acute stress. But if you're getting that threat all the time and you're staying in that left pendulum swing, what happens is your immune system gets impacted. Your blood brain barrier responsible for weeding out toxins, becomes more permeable. And all of a sudden, you're testing Positive for all these crazy things on a blood test. And you are not able to digest food as well. You are, you know, all of a sudden these kind of, you're having these metabolic markers come up where you're like, oh, I'm not able to detox. Well, because you're. Your genetics get impacted through the concept of epigenetics, which is your genes changing that genetic expression. How they're so your genes don't change, but how they expressed are as a result of that stress. And so your immune system becomes impacted, your body becomes inflamed, and that results in sensitivities and physical inflammation. But that's all that brain body communication and that's being stuck over here to the left. And so again, real or perceived threat. And the process of brain retraining is basically okay, recognizing this threat, this danger response, being over here to the left, and then using structure, tools and protocols to be able to swing to the right and experience emotions like peace and ease and joy in your life again, which probably haven't been emotions that have been easily accessible. When you're over here to the left experiencing that dysregulated autonomic nervous system. And then once you're over here experiencing that to the right, your brain says, oh, this is possible for me. I can access these feel good emotions. Yeah. And so then the, the goal is not to stay over here to the right, Brian, because we're not like, oh, we have to experience rainbows and butterflies and everything's great all the time. The idea is we can access that piece so that we can come back to the pendulum of life and move between the two so that we live more dynamically and fully in our lives. So we can, yes, of course, like, experience, you know, hardships and deaths and, and, you know, the pain of life, but go in and out of that response so we're not being stuck in that response and then be able to equally move over to the right and experience the joys of life and, and the love and the happiness that we can experience. So it's very physiological. I talk a lot about emotions, but emotions are way to kind of access that physiological rest and digest growth and repair response that makes us more able to tap into our natural resilience, strength and ease that we can experience in life.

So that's, that's all super helpful to understand. So let me like a follow up and then we can try to maybe get into some of this, the, the tools that we're talking about here. So.

Brain doesn't understand real versus perceived threats. Right. Heard that before. If anyone hasn't heard that before, maybe that's a light bulb for you. Right? Because the. The question I wanted to ask is a lot of time in homes, right? So this is specific to, you know, kind of what we're talking about here, right? So a lot of times in homes, like, people never saw the mole problem. It's hidden. It was somewhere else. Right. And so they felt like their house was a safe place, but it actually wasn't from stuff that they couldn't see. So you talk about, like, senses and how you sort of kind of connect the dots on these feelings and stuff, right? If the reason that the emotions that turned into the trauma that are triggering all this stuff happened from. Let's call it an invisible thing because people can't really see it. Like, the. Where I'm going to is a lot of times what I see is that people get into another house, they get into somewhere else, and it immediately starts triggering the same feelings. Not necessarily because there's something going on in the house, but if we backtrack to, like, how they started feeling bad in the first place, they were in a house that they thought looked fine, where they were supposed to be safe, and they weren't. And so then walking into another house that looks exactly the same, but maybe it is a healthier house, and maybe they should be okay in that house. And maybe there's not a lot of problems in that house yet. The symptoms come back because to the brain, it's perceiving. I'm just like throwing this out of theory. You tell me if I'm right, because the brain is perceiving it the same way it was perceived before. And that triggers, like, the onslaught of the similar symptoms. Is that. Is that kind of like the summary of this? Not the whole summary, but what I'm taking away?

Yeah, that's a really good example. You know, that's a really common thing that happens for a lot of people who have experienced mold illness or remediation or their kids have experienced it or something like that. So it's. It's unconscious. You know, what you're describing is not a conscious process that's going on. They're more than happy to go into this new house, but from the information that they're getting from the house, the brain is saying, oh, this is very similar to the experience we had before. Remember how traumatic that was and everything that we had to go through as a result. And then you can start experiencing those same symptoms, that inflammation, the brain fog, the GI issues, whatever, in that moment. And so the process of brain retraining, what it does is, you know, going back to that word dynamic, because it allows you to live more dynamically in your life. And the idea is we can move throughout our lives. We can eat the foods we want to eat, or go into the houses we want to go into, or be exposed in an acute way to toxins because the world is full of them, but doing so in a way where we can get into that response and then move out of it, effectively not staying stuck in that physical, you know, physically symptomatic spot, but being able to, like, go into the house and being like, okay, this is, you know, a house, blah, blah, blah, I had lunch and now I leave. Breathe. And we're not stuck in that response. So we're meant to go in and out of these responses. That's. That's what's good about, like, good stress, like, use stress, like challenging ourselves and, and doing things that are a little bit out of our comfort zone and things like that. But we want to be able to move through our lives in that way so that we can experience those stress responses and then move. Move out of them just as fast as we got into them.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it totally makes sense once you start kind of, like, digging into how it works. So. So you mentioned tools and protocols and things. I'm sure there are kind of like fancy, fun toys to do stuff, and then there's maybe some things that, that are more, you know, people can maybe do on their own, like things like that. I guess maybe let's. Let's kind of talk about, like, the ideas of how you do stuff, and maybe you could talk through a couple of, like, the protocols or the ways that. That people could go about doing yet.

Totally. Yeah. And so, you know, brain retraining this specific niche with kind of retraining the stress response around life and specifically in response to chronic symptoms. I mean, it's. It's something that's been talked about since the 90s, but there seems to be some, like, you know, confusion around what it is, or maybe there's like, like some mystery around it. And I try to think as to, like, why that is, and I think it's because it's kind of hard to explain. So I think that's the reason. So I'm going to do my best to explain some of the structures and protocols that I use. So since we already went over the stress response and how our bodies respond, you can think of things in your own life. You know, those of you listening that may be causing you stress. So maybe it is walking into somebody's house that looks just like yours, or maybe it is like visiting any place new because you're afraid that they're going to have water damage. Or maybe it's eating a certain food or moving your body in a certain way, so bringing some attention to maybe those triggers that you have experienced in the past. So the process and the structure of what I teach is specific steps that use some movement, some breathing, language change and mental rehearsal. So mentally rehearsing something before the experience actually takes place. And that's what like Olympian athletes use. People who talk about manifestation use components of this. But basically we use all of these concepts in order to create a neurochemical change in the brain in association to the thing that you want to accomplish. So like the food that you want to eat, or the activity that you want to partake in, or the house that you want to walk into. So basically the structure of it, it kind of can seem like a meditation. Meditation. Like it can kind of feel like a meditation when you're running through it. But the idea is very specific. Starting out with something that you want to train with. And you can actually see yourself like walking into the house, you know, opening up the door. Maybe you start to experience some of those symptoms just through visualization of that experience. And then we go through a structured protocol together and that, that's this process of recognizing the stress response.

Learning to communicate with the stress response with that protective mechanism inside your brain, inside your body, through movement, through breathing, through. You know, sometimes we do some vagal toning and through words, through language, because that response is the response like you, you have a two year old, your two year old is responding with their primal instincts, their reptilian brain and also their emotional feeling and reacting brain. That's that limbic brain and that's the one we want to communicate with. So if you have a kid, it's almost like the, the way that you speak to that limbic brain is like you would speak to your child. You know, you can't reason with your child. You know that your child's not going to make a child decision that works for her in the best way possible because that part of her brain isn't developed that prefrontal cortex. So it's learning the language of the emotional, that feeling reacting brain and learning that type of communication and then modeling new way of being. So goal is really to reach.

Just response through visualization. And what we do is like no House to walk into visualizations of moments in the past where maybe you walked through an experience or you were in a house that feels so comfortable and around you, and it's such a wonderful, sweet.

Portive. And then you walk through an experience that perhaps makes you feel like it's in the future and it's your dream house, and you're surrounded by all of these beautiful things that, again, help you to feel supported. So it's basically creating the emotion ahead of the experience. And emotion is that neurochemical change. It's a physiological change in our brains. So when we're expressing that emotion ahead of the experience, then we are much more likely to experience emotion again when we actually do the experience. So we actually walk into house, we're like, oh, I've been here before, and I have felt this way. I have felt calm. I have felt, you know, at ease or supported, maybe, if that's the word that you're working with. I felt that sense of being supported and held in this space. So we do that with all the things that you want to train with now we can get really specific, but also using a lot of these tools, just modeling to your body, new way of being again.

All right, everyone, we're back. I mean, to you, it doesn't feel like we probably went anywhere, but it's been two days because we were having connection issues. So Lindsay and I are reconnecting now. We Left off literally 10 seconds ago, probably on some of the setup of this stuff up, and now we're going to start diving into how do we actually retrain our brain off of all the things that we just discussed, Protocols, processes, main concepts. Maybe dive in a little bit on some of those and. And give some actionable things that we can do. So let's. Let's start there. Lindsay. It's so weird, like. Like, it's been, like, a couple days to, like, know where the flow was, like, when we left off then. But let's. Let's start there, and we'll work through and. And see how this goes.

It's fun. It's a different vibe, though. You know, there's always something new that will come out of the conversation or a different perspective, so I can appreciate that. So, yeah, Brainerd training in general, I think there is a lot of confusion around it, like, a lot of mystery. And I really think it's because it's kind of hard to explain unless you experience it yourself. And that's why, like, I created an intro course that's just, like, a quick seven Day course of like, these are some examples of brain retraining, because it's really hard to describe unless you experience it for yourself. But brain retraining is something we're all doing all the time. You know, I know we talked about that before, but we're all brain retrainers. It's just bringing that conscious attention and focus to choosing an action or an activity or a thought or an emotion that actually benefits you. So it's really intentionally making these changes to our brains in a way that benefits us. So a couple of examples of how we can do that. Through movement, communicating a signal of safety. You know, when we experience something like movement, whether that's vagal toning or vagus nerve stimulation or moving our body in a somatic tool that actually provides us with that message of safety that can be sent to our brain so we can access that rest and digest response through our language. So the words that we use, so you may not even be conscious of it now, but the language that you use that you either tell yourself or you use and tell other people, like your kids or your friends and your family, they have such an impact on your physiology. So when we start to change our language, for example, simply getting rid of the word can't from our vocabulary or should, right? These words that tend to put pressure or we tend to feel limitation as a result of saying them, and we start to change our language and use language that I actually benefits our physiology, like, what is possible for me? Or this is something I actually asked my mom the other day when we were on the phone. She was like, rambling on about, like, a rumination process she had that she was stuck on. And I said, what's going well for you? And she's like, huh, that's a funny question. And it completely changed her train of thought. So simple, simple questions, simple language changes that we can use can actually change the way that we feel. Visualization is a great, great tool. So when we're able to visualize a new way of being and connect and hone in on our five senses, how we perceive information through what we see, what we smell, what we hear, taste and touch, then we can actually communicate a new way of being. So I name all these tools in kind of an ambiguous way. But what I teach in Vital Sight is really structured practices of, like, use these specific tools that probably require some of that somatic piece, that movement, that breathing or whatever it is, some of that language change and some of that visualization. And a lot of people will say, okay, Lindsay, yeah, this Sounds like, like, you know, accessing that rest and digest that parasympathetic response. Why can't I do that with yoga or energetic work or another tool? And you absolutely can, but with these tools and, you know, that we have in vital sight, they're designed for people with mold, illness, with chronic illness, with chronic symptoms. So the thing that a lot of other programs and tools don't offer is the mental rehearsal piece. So you can be using, you know, brain retraining, language change, like somatic tools maybe, and, and living your life and. And really kind of moving through your life, and you're like, oh, I feel a little bit better.

But when we use the mental rehearsal piece, training with an experience before you actually complete it, it. That's when we see changes to goals. So how I have it designed in vital side is you introduce something that you want to do, like a goal that you have for yourself, whether it's eating a certain food or, you know, maybe it's stepping into that house that, you know, had mold in it last year, or maybe it's going to any house that reminds you of your house. Maybe not consciously, right? But it's training with a goal in mind. Maybe it's a movement. And what you do is you actually introduce it in a small way right before you run through your vital side steps. And.

It'S okay, you're doing this in this kind of structured way that allows you to express the stress response in a contained way. And then you move, move through the seven steps and you access that new state of physiology, that new neurochemistry. So accessing that rest and digest response, maybe even a new brainwave state, and you're connected to maybe ease or peace or safety. So that by the end of using those tools, your brain now has this new connection of like, oh, okay, when I. I move my body or when I eat this food or when I go into this house, I can actually feel that sense of ease. And so you do it again and again all on your own, right? This isn't something that I'm telling you to do and you have to do it this way. This is a resource that's really empowering because you're using it for you. You're shifting you, and you're doing it in a way that makes sense to you because you're training with a goal that you have in mind. So that's that mental rehearsal piece. And mental rehearsal is used like Olympian athletes use it. You know, famous speakers, right? Use mental rehearsal to train ahead of the experience.

To respond in a way that they want to respond. And so we're kind of using those same core concepts here and doing it in a way that will ultimately benefit how you feel and improve your immune system and really optimize your health.

I gotta tell you, this mental rehearsal thing. So my dad, back in the day when I was a kid, did stuff like this with me. And I didn't really know, like, why or what or whatever he was. He was really into hypnosis. He really, like, liked all that stuff.

Stuff.

And so we did a lot of this stuff. So there was breath work built into hypnosis. There's, like, you know, visualization. There's, you know, mental practicing and all this stuff that happens. So I was a, like, very highly ranked national bowler when I was a kid. I basically paid for all of my college through bowlers, bowling scholarship winnings throughout my childhood. And. And I remember a couple times. So we would do stuff like this. And at first it was like. Like getting parts of. So. So a bowling swing is very similar like a golf swing. If you think of it like, it needs to be repetitive and the same every time, right? In order for, like, your release and everything to be the same, right? And so at first, it kind of started on, like, elements of, like, the swing or the walking to the line or the approach. And, like. Like, I used to have a problem where I would, like, walk left a little bit. And so it was like seeing myself start on the starting point and end straight ahead on the starting point, and then what would happen after afterwards, and, like, things like that, right? And then one of the. One of the times. So once we, you know, kind of started seeing, like, it. It would start working, right? So you mentioned, like, Olympic athletes, like, athletes doing this stuff. I mean, it's, like, totally legit. I wasn't an Olympian, but it was like, I was almost one, actually. It was almost a junior by, like, a couple of places in a junior Olympic tournament and the. The one big version of this. So we had kind of been messing around with that stuff and notice, you know, my game was, like, improving and stuff. And then I was getting the point where I was, like, I had almost thrown 300 multiple times, and, like, you get to, like, the last shot, the last couple shots, and there's all of this, like, pressure and nerves and all this stuff that comes in and you choke, right? You go out and you choke, and you pull the ball a little or something, and you don't finish it, right? So throw 298. I throw 299. I throw to, you know, whatever it is, and I'm not getting it. And so then we started doing it where basically I'm watching myself throw, like, go through the entire game, right? Like, you're throwing all 12 shots. You're going. You're sitting down in between frame one and frame two. Like, how are we feeling? We're getting up, and we're going through the whole thing and getting to, like, the 11, 12 frame and to the point where you. Where we were kind of, like, going through it. We're like, I'm so relaxed right now. Like, just kind of putting that in. In the mental rehearsal. Like, I'm getting to frame 10, frame 11, and I'm even more relaxed now than I was at, like, frame five or six, because. Why? Because it's been so easy. Like, if anything, I should be more relaxed. I just did 11 times. Like, this is the time to do it. Number 12, if I could do it right? And it was like, stuff like that. And then I went out and threw 300, and that was the first of, like, several that I threw, which was cool. Like, all this mental rehearsal stuff. We did it another time. I had this big national tournament and basically visualize my. Myself winning the whole tournament multiple times. And at that tournament, I was off that day. Like, as an athlete, there are just days where you show up, you just don't have it. It's, like, not. You know, sometimes you're in the zone, sometimes you're not in the zone, right? Like, I definitely was not in the zone, but I was, like, pushing through and fighting through. And I got to the final round, and, like, it was super. Like, every shot just felt like struggling. It just wasn't working. But it just, like, that whole, like. I mean, I'm. It's like I saw myself winning this. Like, I'm gonna win this thing. So I know it's not working right now the way I want it to, but I'm gonna win. So here's what I do to win. And I went out and won. And this stuff. This stuff really works from personal experience. It's amazing, right? And so, like, there's a reason athletes use it. Like, I have done it. And to be able to have these types of tools in a more structured way, like, you know, think of me. I was a kid, right? I'm like. I started nine. I'm 10. I'm 11. Then I'm going through high school. I'm in my teens or whatever. I don't really understand everything that I was actually doing. I was being. I had a structure put in front of me for my dad and it was giving me a path of what to do to get the benefit of these things. Right. And so that's what's really cool about a program like this is it's, you know, in my mind, the equivalent of my dad sitting there and telling me what to do. And here's why I do it, right? And the next time so, you know, you start to see it work. So I think it's super awesome. And this stuff actually works. Like I've seen it work for me. So I think it's really cool that you put something like this together.

Yeah, that's a really great example. And you know, that's really kind of tangible to understand. And I know a lot of people listening may think like, okay, that sounds like manifestation work. And you know, you were able to connect with the emotions and the feelings and, and that relaxation even on your off days. But what if I am still so sick and I'm so tired and I'm brain foggy? And so we take all of that into account, right? So we're not like forcing you to sit down and think about what it feels like to be healthy. Like, that's not the process. That's why we include a lot of the other tools to really allow your body to say, hey, this is an experience that you do remember, even if you haven't felt emotionally connected to what it feels like to experience ease or safety for a long time. So it's kind of this three step process of awareness of the stress response and how it shows up, acceptance of it, and learning to communicate with it so that you don't feel mad at it or frustrated with it. You know, we move through those emotions so that you can learn that this is actually a protective mechanism that's showing up in order to keep you alive. And then the last step is taking action. So the action step is really modeling to your body a new way of being. And if you're taking anything away from this, it's like brain retraining. All it is, in the most simplistic terms is modeling to your body a new way of being again and again and again. And that's exactly, you know, what you did when you were focused on bowling and modeling to your body what it looked like to get into that outcome. But as someone with a chronic illness, you get to choose what that looks like. So experiencing some more ease, experiencing more peace, more joy in your life, and ultimately doing it and pairing it with goals that you have for Yourself, Whether it's like going to that Taylor Swift concert in the summer or, you know, eating that food that has caused that sensitivity again and again, if we address the body's response and calm that hyper reactionary, hyperinflammatory response, what then will you be capable of? And it could be so much more than you ever thought possible.

Yeah. And the nice thing about it is, like you said, and you're right, it's shaping whatever this structure, this program looks like around the goal that you have. Right. And so understanding having a program like this shaped in the lens of chronic illness to have, like, attainable and reasonable outcomes and goals in mind, and understanding of how you apply the tools and the tactics and stuff, that's what makes it really cool, as opposed to just a standard. You know, this is how you visualize stuff. This is how you do this. This is how you do that. Right. And I think that's what's really cool about it. And I mean, talk to me about, like, successes and stuff. Like, how have you worked with people? What are some of the. I mean, we didn't prep for this. So, like, you know, say what you can, but, like, does anyone stand out where they came in with something, you know, a chronic issue? And we kind of went through this process and, like, what was their kind of issue at the beginning and sort of how did it work and where did they end up? It'd be interesting to hear something like that.

Yeah, totally. We have a lot of success stories and testimonials either on my Instagram, at my Vitalside, or on the website. And, you know, it's incredible to see how much people can experience change in such a short period of time. And for someone with chronic illness is a year is a short period of time. Right. Because a lot of people have experienced these symptoms for, you know, multiple years or a long period of time. So one that comes to mind for me, just because she's a team member now, I actually have, you know, we have a small team in vital side, and I have two people on my team who started out as retrainers in my membership and Rewire, and one of them, Lori, she shares her story, and I've had her on my podcast past before. And so it's really great, you know, that she's kind of open to sharing her story, but she started out, she actually had mold illness. She had.

Mcas. Right. So. And then she was diagnosed with some other conditions, like pots, but MCAS was really kind of the major one, and she kind of got the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. And so basically she found out that her body was in that hyper inflammatory state. And she also had three kids that were very sick with mold illness and some other conditions. And so she learned about brain retraining to help her kids. And like a lot of us, you know, where kind of that natural caregiver can kind of neglect our own health and well being and take care of others. And then all of a sudden we're like, we're so, you know, reactive to everything. We have all these diagnoses. So that was kind of her, her story. And so prior to her, you know, starting brain retraining, she, I think it was twice she, you know, called an ambulance to take her to the hospital because she would get these like, wake up in the night, these like night sweats of this like adrenaline kind of moving through her body, like really characteristic of that stress response, this kind of like panic response response. But your whole body has that physiological response of the heart beating fast, you know, the sweat and all of that that came along with it. So she knew that she needed to do something differently. And she had already kind of seen all of the, you know, western practitioners. She'd started homeopathy, which was like a huge piece to her journey as well. And then she learned about brainwave training. And so she started to use the tools with her three kids, which was really cool to see. And so now she like adapts them to our clients and vital side of like how to use some of these tools with kids. And she was using the protocols daily. And so after about, I think for her, she said like five or six months, that's when she started to notice this huge transformation. And like, like it started in small ways of like how she was responding to her kids. And you know, maybe she was kind of responding in the moment and you know, not yelling, but just reactive and kind of, you know, really kind of having a lot of response and reactivity and emotion in that moment. And she started to realize she was more patient with herself and calmer. And then after she started to notice the mental and emotional changes, then she started to notice the physical changes. And so, you know, I remember her sending pictures of, you know, her going on these hikes with her kids and doing more activities and, you know, starting to introduce foods and starting to introduce all of these different things. And then she ended up, you know, becoming a team member of vital side. She has a background in counseling, so that was just a really good, good fit. And we met up just about six weeks ago. Or something like that. And I met all of her kids who are all flourishing now. And they're running around and they're incredible and really active and playing soccer. And we all went paddle boarding. And it's like, you know, she always texts me, she. She always will, like, text me this, like, long story of something they did and just be like, this is wild. Healing is wild. Like, my body is wild. She always uses that term. And I always, you know, get the tears in my eyes and goosebumps. It is so incredible. Like, she is shifting herself and like she gave her kids these tools. And it's all tools that your body is unlocking. It's not anything you're ingesting or consuming or resource that someone else is, like, telling you to do. And you have to show up every day. It's like, no, you are shifting you. And every time you use these tools, every time you train with something in mind, that's you shifting you. So your body has these natural healing properties that we can just access. And so she's fully living her life now, and. And it's just incredible to see that. And, you know, along with her, I've seen people go from, you know, wheelchair bound, working in the ER as a nurse practitioner to, like, within about a year and a half, getting back to the error, are fully working, fully moving, you know, eating the foods she wants to eat again, living the life again. So I, I see this all the time, much like your stories, you know, Brian, just kind of seeing people get back to that vibrant person, that, like, vital side of themselves again that we all have within us. But these tools just allow you to access different healing properties and.

Really access your natural resilience. And we are naturally wired to survive, but we have the capability to tap into our healing properties and our natural resilience. And so that's what this allows you to do. And I see it every day. Like, every day when I'm connecting with clients. I'm like, constantly getting goosebumps and just in disbelief at the healing powers of the body and the brain.

Yeah. And it's, it's, it's why this conversation is so fun to have. So, like, tying it back to, you know, our world, homes, mold issues, the health journey on that and like, wrapping it up. It's. Some people.

May not need to do this to start feeling better, although if they started thinking about this stuff, it would probably have a positive impact on their life in different ways. But some people fix the issue, get out of the exposure, you feel better, you're able to go on with your life. Things are cool, you're happy. Right. And other people, you do address it. You get out of the exposure, you fix it, you mediate it, whatever. And it's still just not. Your body's not like, where it needs to be yet. Right. And the. The reason that this conversation is so helpful, it's not to say that everyone out there absolutely needs to do this. This. I. I mean, listen, my experience that way had nothing to do with chronic illness stuff, and I saw how it worked there. So I feel like. I feel like there is actual benefit of just kind of messing around with this, even if you don't feel like you need it for your health, because you identify a goal that you want and call it manifesting, call it the secret, call it whatever. But, like, we, you know, we control ourselves. You know, it's funny, I've been telling my daughter, she's like, my mind is saying. I'm like, no, your mind isn't saying anything.

Anything.

You are in 100 control of your mind. And if you don't like what your mind is telling you, you just tell it what it should know. It doesn't know any better. Right. It needs you to help define what it says and, like, so we can do this stuff. Right. And so if you're at that part of the journey where you. You've addressed things and you've gotten to that point, like, I'm still not back yet, like, this is like a legit thing to consider. Right? This isn't only one person that's been talking about this today when frequency. Like, I've had multiple people on the show that have mentioned a portion, like, they've mentioned brain retraining or limbic, you know, all of that stuff, this is the first kind of deep dive conversation into how all of that works and, like, the mechanisms and all of that stuff. So if you're falling into that category, look into something like this, because this might be the piece that gets you over if you know that you fixed your exposure issue right now, it's. Your body just has to know that you fixed it and that everything's okay. And so.

Yeah, anyway, so that's. I was excited for today, and I think. I think this has been really cool. Do you have any, like, final thoughts you feel like people you want to throw out there for folks before we wrap it up?

I think if you're feeling overwhelmed by all the things, you know, what doctor to go to. If you're experiencing chronic symptoms, you know, remediation of your house you know, and then now, all of a sudden, it's brain retraining, and it feels just like one more thing to do. I just encourage you to, you know, take some time today and take about 20 minutes and do something that just feels fun to you, even if you're like, I haven't experienced anything fun in a long time. I'm so sick. Go outside, you know, look out your window, grab your favorite cup of tea, put your feet in the ground outside if that feels good to you, and just give yourself some space. How I look at healing is like, really in three buckets. And it's like addressing the physical body. So, you know, and. And that means. That can mean mold remediation. It can mean, you know, addressing, you know, your arm, your body, like your practitioners that treat the body, addressing the nervous system. And so that includes brain retraining and trauma processing. So all three of these things, they all have common threads. But if you can kind of look at what you're paying attention to in your healing journey and say, all right, I'm going to dedicate energy to, like, one of each of these things, or maybe just the physical body and nervous system first, first simplify your healing journey so that when you think about it, you don't get overwhelmed. So first, really giving yourself that permission to do something fun that's enjoyable to you. 20 minutes today, if you could do 20 minutes tomorrow, that's awesome as well. And then also after that time just spending about five, 10 minutes.

What am I paying attention to in my healing journey? Is it kind of addressing some of these buckets, or is like my physical bucket, bucket overflowing, and I'm overwhelmed and maybe I can try something else in another bucket. Right? So simplify as much as possible. That won't only impact your health, it'll impact that brain body communication so that you're not experiencing so much overwhelm when you start thinking about your healing journey.

Yeah, absolutely. It can be overwhelming. And it's. You got to take one step at a time, but know that there's an end. And I think sometimes the overwhelm is that people think there is no end. And it's like you can't see this light at the end. And so, like, the first thing is there is a way to get there. I've seen it. You've seen it. We've seen it with multiple people, right? So it can happen, but it doesn't happen overnight. But one thing at a time is how you get there. Right? And so, And. And if you break things up in smaller goals and you achieve little tiny pieces of goals. You now feel like you're achieving things, things. And it's a positive feeling, right? Instead of I have a hundred things to do and I've done 37 of them and I've got 63 more things to do and that feels like is the end of the world. Right. But if I had 100 things to do and I broke it down into, you know, 50 sub things and each one of them had two things, then all you have to do is two things and you've achieved the first milestone. Right. And there's like this internal like thing with, with micro goal setting like that that helps you move and progress and feel like you're going somewhere and, and what you're saying is kind of like the similar concept to that. So how, how do people find you? How do people check you out?

Yeah, so my website, I'm assuming, is linked below. On my website I have lots of cool stuff. Like I've got a free video all about my story of healing recovering from Lyme disease and other chronic illnesses. You know, I've got access to that seven day course called Reset that's also listed on the website. And Rewire is the program that I recommend for people with mold illness and chronic illnesses. So you can check that out also on the website. And my Instagram is a great place again for free resources. So that's at my vitalside and we've got a lot of great, great stuff going on there, including testimonials. So if you're curious about this information and you don't quite know where to start, that's a good place to start consuming some information that will kind of aid you on this, like, very first part of your healing journey.

Love it. This is awesome. Thank you for the the two day talk, Lindsay.

Thank you so much, Brian, for having me.

All right, goodbye.

Bye Bye.

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