Episode #73: D.R.E.A.M. Your Way to Wellness, with Dr. Brian Stenzler

Hi, I'm Dr. Tabitha, the functional gynecologist. I'm a board certified OB, GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey. And I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist. So welcome. Hi, ladies. So I'm really excited about this episode. You guys have been reaching out and telling me that you want to hear more about information for your children, help your children stay healthy, get healthy, that kind of stuff, which it all ties into women's health, right? Because if we are stressed out and worried about our kids and focused on them, we're not necessarily taking care of ourselves and being healthy ourselves. And so it all is connected, right? And I think it's so important for you to be the best example of health for your children. Like, that is one of the greatest gifts that you can give your children is showing up as a healthy parent, Mind, body, and spirit. You know, like having your faith dialed in, really helping them see that they're a child of God, that they are loved and they're worthy. Just because they're alive, they don't have to prove themselves. They don't, you know, their worth is their worth. And showing them that taking care of their bodies and what they put in it matters and teaching them how to love themselves, I think is such an amazing gift that parents can give. And so I'm super excited about my guest today because he wrote the book on it. He has been thinking about this and dreaming about this for years and years through his chiropractic practice. And he came to, like, realize that in order to yourself be healthy and have a healthy future, we need to be passing these, you know, ideals onto our children and not just like, telling them what to do, but showing them what to do. And so I'm really excited because he finally, like, brought this to fruition. He wrote his book. Book. It's called Dream the Five Keys to Raising Kids for a Lifetime of Physical and Mental Health. So even if you don't have kids, this episode is worth listening to because it is about taking care of you and being the healthy example for anyone in your life, your loved ones. You don't have to have kids. And for you, because you are worth it, you are worth showing up and making Better choices and being healthy for Right. And so DREAM is an acronym. And he's going to talk about what the different letters stand for and why those are important. So we have a really good conversation. And I just think it's important to always get back to basics. And he has the unique perspective of being a chiropractor, so which I really appreciate as an osteopath. And so he's going to talk to you about, like, how all that is tied in with your nervous system and your musculoskeletal system. And that might be the missing piece for a lot of you who are doing all the right things.

Right?

You're trying to make good food choices, you're trying to move your body, you're trying to handle your mental state stressors, all of that. You might need an adjustment. It might be your nervous system. So this is kind of a cool conversation. I was really excited about having Dr. Brian on, so let me just share with you. So Dr. Stensler has been helping families live with abundant health since becoming a family Wellness chiropractor in 1998. He's served his profession in numerous roles, including president of the California chiropractic Association from 2014 to 2016. Aside from participating on the wellness team for the USGA, where he takes care of professional golfers, caddies, and volunteers at the U.S. open Championship tournaments. Each year, he works with hundreds of families in his three Dream Wellness Centers that are filled with newborns, toddlers, teenagers, and their parents. That's so cool. Like, I love it because of faith, family that gets healthy together is going to be so much happier. So I love that he is like taking on the whole family. So earlier in his career, Dr. Sensler was an adjunct neurology instructor for the New York College of Health Professions in Long Island, New York. And Dr. Brian uses his vast knowledge of the nervous system in everything he does, whether it's adjusting patients progress, providing lifestyle advice, or speaking to audiences. So Dr. Brian's the author of Dream Wellness the Five Keys to Raising Kids for a Lifetime of Physical and Mental Health. In this book, he provides. Oh, let's see. Hundreds of lifestyle tips that helps families reduce and neutralize chemical, physical and emotional stressors found in our everyday lives. And we are going to talk about why that is so important. So, so this is an awesome conversation. You don't have to be a parent to get valuable information out of this episode, but I would love for you to share this episode with everybody you know, because inevitably it's the everybody needs it, right? Not Just women, not just men, not just parents. So share it with everybody that you know, because it's a good episode. And stay tuned. Here we go. Well, welcome, Dr. Brian, to the Functional Gynecologist Podcast.

Thank you. It's great to be here, Dr. Tappus. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, I'm super excited about this discussion today because I think it's something that all my listeners can really utilize in their lives, whether they have children or not. I know you wrote the book for parents, but like you and I were discussing before, this really is just for healthy human beings, right?

That's right. Well, if I just wrote a book about how to be a healthy human being, I would have maybe three people buy it because I'm not Dr. Oz.

Right, right.

So we niche it into parents because the information that I'm providing is good for any individual who has a heartbeat. But obviously, for parents that want to, you know, be parents, you know, conscious parents, and. And raise really good, healthy, strong children, they want to live by the same principles that their parents would live by. I mean, the fact of the matter is, kids play follow the leader. So if the parents live a certain lifestyle that's going to keep them healthy, then their kids get to follow that and do the same. So for parents, it's actually even easier in a way, because you say, hey, if you're not going to do it for yourself, at least do it for your kids. Let them mimic something positive. But if somebody is not a parent, they absolutely 90% of the information in the book and is good for anybody with a pulse.

I love it.

Yeah.

I think it's so important to actually live yourself what you're preaching and telling your kids to do, you know, which is kind of the opposite of how a lot of us were raised. Right. You know, my dad would be smoking and be telling me not to ever smoke, and I just don't think that we can live like that anymore. We've learned that lesson, and we actually have to eat healthy, move our bodies. All this stuff that you're going to talk about today and, like, being a shining, good example, and our kids are more apt to do that themselves. Right. So I love that you're spreading that message.

Absolutely. Thank you. It's all about accountability now. Kids don't let parents get away with the things that we let our parents get away with, that is for sure.

Exactly. So your book, Dream, the Five Keys to Raising Kids for a Lifetime of Physical and Mental Health. I want you to talk about this acronym, dream. What does that mean to you?

Yeah. So, you know, throughout life, you know, you ask people, what does it entail? What does a wellness lifestyle entail? How do you get healthy, blah, blah, blah. And if you ask people, they say, oh, you have to eat good food and well, you have to sleep or you have to have a good attitude and all these other things. It usually takes about 20 minutes for people to really sum up what a wellness lifestyle is. That's why we came up with the acronym of Dream Being Diet, Relaxation, Exercise Being An Adjustment and Mental Wellness. So each of the five facets work with each other. They're not services, they're not products. They're actually categories of living that impact one another. They all work together and you need to have balance and harmony in all five facets.

Yeah, I love that. So I want you to talk about being a chiropractor and how the adjustment part is so critical for, for the other systems. Because this is what I talk about with my women all day long. Like if you can't get your stress under control and your nervous system managed and in control, you will never be able to get your thyroid imbalance and your sex hormones imbalance because that will always be rocking the boat. And you know, I personally go to a chiropractor and being an osteopathic physician, I just know the importance that the nervous system has and how it shows up in musculoskeletal issues and how treating those can actually realign your nervous system. So I love that you're incorporating that because I think that's a huge missing piece for a lot of people. You know, they're doing all the right stuff except the nervous system. Right?

Amen to that. And I'll tell you, I just got a referral today. I had a new practice member. I call them practice member instead of patient because the word patient means to suffer. And I believe words, what you speak about, you bring them out.

I like that.

I had a new practice member come to the office today, referred to me by an osteopathic physician who had been working with this woman for quite some time. She's been dealing with GERD and reflux and all this other stuff. And he's like, you know, you have so much tension here in the neck and the mid back. You really need to see a chiropractor to get your nervous system flowing better and all this other stuff. And I'm like, yes. I'm like, that's what we do. So many people think that chiropractors about back pain and neck pain and, and you know, why they think that is because that's what most chiropractors say we are. I don't understand that. That would be like a dentist out there just saying we're about fixing cavities. Wow, that's exciting when that makes up like not cavities, but back pain and neck pain makes up about 3 to 5% of my practice. Most of it is lifestyle based. And the reason is because we live our lives through our nervous system like you were talking about. Every organ, every muscle, every gland, every tissue, every cell in the body knows exactly what to do, when to do it and how to do it, because the brain tells it so.

Right.

So what we want to do as chiropractors is we want to make sure that the nervous system is functioning optimally and that we don't have misaligned vertebrae that are irritating the NERV system and not allowing it to work properly. But truthfully, Dr. Tabitha, my ultimate goal is to make my profession obsolete. Not really to make the profession obsolete, but to make the chiropractic adjustment not needed within with the absence of trauma or something else. If we live a lifestyle that is consistent with the dream principles which I will speak about, you really shouldn't need to get adjusted because you should always stay in adjustments. And what do I mean by that? Is if we take apart the five facets of wellness. D is for diet. That's anything that goes into your body from the outside world to the inside world. It's everything you eat, drink, taste, touch, smell, feel, hear. All the movies you watch and all the people you spend time with is just as much part of the diet as the food you consume. So that can include the TV that you watch, the movies that you're, you know, the music you're listening to, the books that you're reading, the people you spend time with is just as much part of your diet as the food you consume. Yeah. And then R for relaxation is giving your body a chance to call time out, to reset, repair, regenerate, and rejuvenate yourself. E is for exercise. Any activity that requires physical or mental exertion. And we'll skip A for a second. M is for mental wellness. That's about connecting your inner purpose and passion to your outer goals and tasks in all phases of life. Being right with the self esteem, self worth, self values, and so on and so forth. So the idea is, when you live a strong D R E M, you should stay in A, which is being in adjustment, which I define as being in balance mentally, physically, spiritually and Emotionally and having optimal brain body communication to the nervous system. Right. So what causes somebody to go out of adjustment is the inability to adapt to a chemical, physical or emotional stress. So you as a functional medicine practitioner and stuff, you know, how especially chemical stresses, you know, can just destroy the body, you know, create all types of stresses in the body that if the body can't adapt to the nervous system overloads and dis ease is the next thing that occurs. Then after dis ease is disease, of course. Right. So chemical stresses, you probably teach about the foods that you eat, right? Foods that might not be right for that person's body type. Or maybe it's genetically modified. Maybe those pesticides, drugs that people take, pushed or prescribed can be chemical stressors. Even if it's a good drug for the time being, like they need it for survival, it's still a chemical stressor. It doesn't matter how you put it.

Right, Stress.

And you need to clear that out of the body. And then there's also pollution that we breathe in, whether it's from cigarette smoking or just from being by factories or not having clean air. So those are a lot of the chemical stressors. And then we have emotional stressors like your job, relationships, your money, health, all of those are emotional stressors. And then physical stressors, your common sitting in chairs all day, being on your device like this or being on your phone like that. Right. A car accident, a fall, not exercising properly. So the dream lifestyle helps people neutralize and avoid chemical, physical and emotional stressors. So you stay in adjustment and don't need a chiropractic adjustment. You go to the chiropractor on a routine basis to get checked and make sure everything is good. And then that should be all that we have to do. And then you get coached appropriately into that lifestyle.

Oh my gosh, Dr. Brian, you're speaking my language because it's so true. I used to be in the chiropractor's office like every week or every two weeks, you know, I would go to the point where I couldn't move my neck or my back and I had to go get adjusted. And then I would go and live my crazy lifestyle, my sleep deprived lifestyle as an obstetrician living on garbage and not dealing with, you know, myself or my health and just being stressed to the maximum. And so he was essentially like resetting me almost, or at least getting me back in alignment enough to handle it until I destroyed it again for another week or two. And it's like it's another band aid Right. It's another form. And so once I realized that my back pain and my back herniated discs and all of that were from my lifestyle choices and I changed how I was living. Now I go to the chiropractor like, you know, probably every three or four months after like a four hour rock concert or country concert where I've been standing in bed shoes and having too much fun, you know, like, then it's legit, I'm out of alignment, I need to go see him, you know, or I'm not managing my stress again. And I can tell my nervous system is off. And so I love your idea of we don't need to be in a sick care system. It's the same thing that I was practicing. You know, I was doing surgeries three or four times a week. Now I don't do any surgery yet. People are healing and not needing surgery. Right? So it's just a different shift. And it's so awesome that you're like bringing this to the chiropractic world because that's what's needed. I'm tired of the band aids, right?

That's it. I mean, it's like, you know, if you're a hammer, all you see are nails, right? I mean like, bam, bam, bam, bam. And I'm tired of being a band aid. And so I'm like, okay, did you do any of the stretches I recommended? Do you avoid the high fructose corn syrup? Are you doing, what are you doing for stress relief and all this other stuff? I'm like, why are you coming to me? I'm like, I see these people wearing these big George Costanza wallets in their back pockets. And I'm like, you know what? Keep doing it. They're like, why should I? Why? I thought you said, well, you're not listening to me. And I want a boat anyway. So the more you wear the wallet in your back pocket, the sooner I'm going to get a boat. So the idea is take responsibility. People are so often, they blame their woes in life on bad luck, bad germs, and bad genes as opposed to bad choices. There are so many things that are in much greater control of our life when we make better choices. So I try to teach people how to live by choice, not by chance. And that is what this book is about. Again, whether you are a parent or not, you are going to learn all the things that you can do within those five facets on how to not rely on any type of a physician or doctor or healthcare provider. You have people so you can do more self care and they check you. So I truly believe everybody needs to have a chiropractor on the healthcare team. But you shouldn't need a chiropractic adjustment every time you go, unless you're constantly knocking yourself out of alignment. So if you're a UFC fighter, yeah, you should be going a couple times a week, no doubt about it. But if you're a yogi living up in the Himalayas, you could probably get away with once a year, maybe twice a year to get shaft and see how you're doing and everything in between.

Well, I just think that's how we all need to start seeing things. You know, we need to stop relying on the system to make us better. We need to realize these are our choices day in and day out and we need to do the work. And a lot of it's mental work. Right. So where do you even begin in your book? Do you just go through the five facets one at a time?

Well, that's a really good question. So the book, it has something that comes along with it called the Dream Score, which is a lifestyle survey that basically is about 85 questions or so that really delves deeply into your lifestyle to see why you are where you are. So for example, when somebody goes to the physician for a checkup or because they have a symptom, doctor's going to do what, height, weight, blood pressure, the bmi, heart rate, all this other stuff, check your blood sugar, check this. And then it's like, okay, you have this problem, you need to take this. But they rarely ask why? What is it in your lifestyle that might be causing that? And so the Dream Score has nothing to do with any symptoms or anything like that. It's purely lifestyle asking questions about, like, what are the type of people that you spend time with, you know, how much water you were drinking per day, what kind of asking questions about food, you know, everything broken into the D R, E A M to kind of get a sense of where they are in their lifestyle. Then they get a Dream Score. They get an actual number to see if you think about it in terms of like a battery meter for like a mobile phone, right? Imagine the stress that you get when you know you're going to be out of your house all day and you don't have your charger and you see it depleting, depleting, depleting, right? What kind of things can you do to give yourself a quick charge or to maintain a charge throughout the day? So your Dream Score is going to kind of show you in a graphic form whether your battery is charging or depleting. That's number one. It's going to give you a score and let you know kind of where you are and in your wellness walk, if you will. And then it's going to walk you through the book in terms of what areas you should really focus on most in the book. Because not everyone's going to have time or the desire to read 300 something pages of a book. Right? They want to get to the information real quick. Now, I love the idea of somebody being able to read it from front to back, but people aren't reading the Bible from front to back. Not this is the Bible or as big as the Bible, but same idea that if you can't read the entire book, at least you use this as a guide through the book. So the first half of the book is all about the why it sets the tone for a wellness lifestyle. Kind of talks about what America's real healthcare crisis is. Right. And it's not what most people think it is. You know what it is, I know what it is. Our readers, they'll find out when they read it. And it sets different ideas about paradigms of the outside in approach to health versus the inside out. Right. The sick care system versus the healthcare system, like you alluded to before, Right. So we talk all about that and then I go of a whole chapter of brainwashing. It's like brainwashing. We're going to wipe the slate clean because everyone is brainwashed on a daily basis. All the commercials, if they watch any TV or listen to the radio, it's constantly commercial after commercial after commercial on drugs. Live this way, do that. So what we want to do is clean the slate and start a whole new paradigm of thought of understanding that we are created in perfection. And all I want to do as a healthcare provider is help people live the expression of that perfection. It is that simple. So the first half of the book is setting the tone for that. The second half of the book is the practical how to's the things to do. What do you want to cut out of your diet? What do you want to add to your diet? How do you get proper relaxation? What are some good exercise? What do you think? How do you exercise with your kids? You know, we're in the middle of a pandemic still and you know, maybe by the time somebody listens to this in like 2022 or 2023, a different pandemic, or maybe it won't be a pandemic but the idea is you can do physical activity at home like with your kids. I've got a five year old, you know, if I want to do good cardio workout, I put in my arms and I play a roller coaster video on the big TV and I jump up and down, I do all this vibration and after three minutes I am so out of breath, like it kicks my butt. I do push ups with them on my back. I mean, we could do things. To say you don't have the time is not an acceptable answer anymore. Because you know, we can make excuses all we want, but then it goes back to bad luck, bad germs and bad genes. We can make the choices. So we have, I have stuff all the way going from the D, R, E, A and M through, through everything in life. And I make it really simple. It's. I don't make it too. The information could be overwhelming. But we chunk it down. We have a workbook that goes with it. So it kind of really helps you do an exercise each time you finish a certain chapter. You can actually do an exercise if you want to, to start implementing it and start creating new habits.

Yeah, that's what I'm loving, is that you are making it easily digestible. You know, you could just go to the section that you need the most help with. You don't have to start at the beginning and read the entire cover. I've been there myself, like, oh, when I read Dr. Mark Hyman's Ultramind Solution, it was like a gazillion pages. And as a practitioner, like I knew I needed to get through that book, but I just kept thinking if I was a layperson, I don't know that I could do this, you know, because it's a, it's a lot of medical terminology and it's just densely full of information. And so I like that you're making this user friendly. You know, it's more interactive and I love that we can just do the quiz. And I would even say plan to do the quiz every year after you do it the first time because your life changes and as you change and make different choices, your issues change. Right. And so you can do the quiz again and like go back to the book and you might be reading a totally new section, right?

Absolutely. Well, I even recommend more than once a year. I say once a year when you're in the lifestyle side, like maintenance, as if you're going to maintain your body. But yeah, I mean, I recommend you take the quiz, you read the book, you implement some Changes, and then a month or two later, take it again and see what, see how you've scored. Then once you've stabilized and you're scoring in the high 80s or even the 90s, then you could go once a year as things change, or if you have a new lifestyle thing, you get married, you get divorced, your kid goes off to college, your kid starts whatever it is, any big life event or health thing, you do it again and see what pops up.

Okay, I love that. That's really good. So let's talk about just a couple things that people might not necessarily think of that they could try and incorporate. What are some tips in your book? Like, hey, have you thought about this with your diet to shift things?

Yeah. So obviously we always want to tell people that the more natural it is, the better. The more thing it looks like how it came to the earth, you're going to be in better shape. You know, if you buy something that is processed, it's probably not going to be that good for you. And just because it's organic doesn't mean that it's healthy. It just means that it's organic. It doesn't have pesticides and it's not genetically modified, but it still could be loaded with sugar, it could still have gluten and all that other stuff in it. So be mindful. Obviously doing junk that's organic is better than doing junk that's not organic, but it's still junk. And you know, like you said before about garbage, you know, putting garbage in your body when you, you know, when you were practicing doing surgeries and stuff like that, I always talk about, you know, garbage in, garbage out. Giggle, the old computer term. Well, when you put garbage into your body, going to get garbage out. So garbage could be organic and it could be conventional, it doesn't really matter. But stick with the organic as much as you can anyway. But there are certain aspects of garbage that are worse than others. For example, I have certain deal breakers like high fructose corn syrup. You know, there should never be high fructose corn syrup in your diet whatsoever. There's not a good reason for it. Most colas have it, you know, the sodas have it now. I mean, it's pretty much in everything. You know, that's not something that you want to have. You want to avoid hydrogenated oils, you want to avoid anything with a color like yellow number this, red number that, green number that, you know, all those different types of things. Another thing from the diet that I like to avoid, no matter what is gossip, avoid Gossip, you know, that's. That goes in, garbage in, garbage out. That's bad for your system. Bad nutrition, right?

It sure is. I think that's the most toxic. You know, when you were talking, I was thinking, okay, the spring Oreos that are like bright yellow with the hydrogenated fats and I mean, those are like super toxic. But gossip, I think, might be worse.

Gossip, definitely. It wreaks havoc on so many different aspects of you because not only is it bad for your mental health, right. It's bad for your relationships. It could affect your digestive system negatively, too, because it could add more stress in your life. It has a negative effect on everything, and people don't realize it. And, you know, it might feel good for the moment while you're doing it. But it's like how if you're gossiping, think about the friend that you might be gossiping with. That if you're gossiping with this person who knows what they're saying about you when you're not around, and who knows how much they could trust you thinking like, oh, if you're talking about this person, you know, it's just, what are they going to say about. What are you saying about them when they're not around? So it's just not a healthy thing and we could all rise above that.

Exactly. And I just feel like that puts you in such a negative mindset and. And then you're worried about what other people are thinking, like you said, and it puts you down this path of, like, fear and worry and judgment and all of the negative things. And you can't be positive and negative at the same time. Right. You can't feel joy and fear at the same time. So it's just not worth it. But I would love for you to go back and explain to my listeners, because you mentioned, like, hey, it wreaks havoc on your gut. Can you, like, explain. Explain to them why mental stressors, like gossiping and all of that. What's that doing to your gut health?

Yeah, so I'm not a gut specialist. You probably are more than I am. You know, you want to keep the microbiome in balance and all that other good stuff, but the truth of the matter is, I mean, our nervous system. So for your listeners that don't know the nervous system as well as we do. Right. Your autonomic nervous system, which is the automatic part of the nervous system, the part that you don't have to think about, feeds the organs. Organs and glands and all that good stuff is broken into two parts. Right. It's the sympathetic and the parasympathetic, right. So most people have heard of that before, but they may not know what it is. But as you know, sympathetic is the fight or flight and parasympathetic is rest and digest. So when you're saying something, when you're doing something, engaging in something, that's going to activate the sympathetic nervous system, we end up in a situation where we become sympathetic dominant. Right. And we're in a constant fight or flight mode. And that there can create lots of inflammatory processes in the gut, which we know that gut health affects every other aspect of our life. Just like the nervous system controls every part of the body. Well, our gut has a very similar impact to it, you know, so when you have stress in your life that you're not adapting to, right, Then you're going to have more of those issues. So you're adding. When you, when you're doing things like spending time with people that are not healthy, you know, that are talking bad things, that are talking smack or whatever it is, or eating unhealthy food, it's all the same thing that is going to affect your gut negatively. That's going to impact your nervous system. That's going to put you in fight or flight. You're going to end up with inflammatory responses that's going to create, as your listeners probably have heard about, like cortisol production, right? You get more inflammation, adrenal fatigue, where now you're constantly stuck in that state of flux. And so, you know, one thing that we do is, well, we'll do a heart rate variability scan, which basically helps measure if somebody is in fight or flight. So if they've been engaging in destructive habits throughout their life, they're typically almost always going to come in, in fight or flight. So we need to address that. And sometimes we address it through chiropractic adjustments. Sometimes I'll send them to somebody, you, a functional medicine practitioner that's going to address it nutritionally. Sometimes I'll send them for biofeedback and neurofeedback. Sometimes they need a good coach, you know, personal development coach. So they just stop engaging in those habits that are going to put them in that stress mode all the time.

Yeah, exactly. I think you probably see that nervous system dysfunction the most because it does tend to come out physically. You know, we definitely see it in the gut. It blows my mind because when I think about kids and they tell you, you have a. I have a tummy ache. We know instinctively, oh, they're probably nervous about school. Or a test, or they're having a fight with a kid or their friend. But then we don't adopt that same idea for adults. We think, oh, that's a bunch of crap. It's not really affecting us. So every day I'm seeing patients who just have major gut issues. And it all stems from this unmanaged stress and this over activated nervous system. And I don't know where the disconnect is, but I love that you're like connecting the dots again and reminding us, like, hey, just because you're an adult now doesn't mean your gut's not telling you something. Like, I think we have more intuition and we have this innate intelligence and we need to listen to our body when it's trying to tell us something, you know? Oh my gosh, I appreciate that so much. I just think you, you're on the right track with all of that.

Thank you. Yeah. And people just need to realize it. I mean, it's, it's, it's innate to us. Like, we know it, but we, we don't think about it. And then they, oh, do they, do they just get, they put themselves at first Pepto Bismol, they're just downing that by the gallon. Right? And it's like, oh, no. And they don't, they don't. They're not thinking about those little things that they can easily change. It could be as simple as the news that they're watching at night. Yeah.

Oh my gosh, that stuff is so toxic. I had to literally detox from CNN a couple years ago. Like, I all of a sudden caught myself on it, like more than I needed to. And then I was switching to Fox. I wanted to compare and I was like, this is so toxic. And it was hard to turn it off and keep it off. And I had to find something else to replace that action, you know, and like, what can I do during that time? But that was really life changing for my mental outlook. So I would recommend anybody do that for sure. Like take a news detox.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's funny because up until, up until Donald Trump ran for president, I never watched the news.

That's why I started.

Yeah, well, because it's entertaining. Love them or hate them, it's entertaining. Now it's boring again. So not as much. But I mean, the truth of the matter is I used to get my news from watching like late night comedy, you know, and if they said something like David Letterman or before that, Johnny Carson, even if I don't, whether I agree with their Political commentary or not. I learned some things, I would hear some things, and if it sounded interesting, I'd look it up and find out what's going on. Because you need to know what's going on in the world, right? So we can't be, you know, ignore it completely. But it is toxic. Like, if you watch cnn, like during the COVID pandemic, I mean, how long. They just have all the numbers, all the deaths, all the infections, all of this.

It's never getting back over and over and over, like. Like it's new information. So your brain just keeps processing and thinking that they need to be afraid when really they're just rehashing the same 20 minutes of information for 24 hours. And.

And they don't make money by giving you good news. No, they don't make money by saying, Covid's over, or there's no pandemic right now, or there's no sickness or disease. They don't make any money doing that. They don't make any money saying, republicans are great Democrats and Republicans love each other. There's no money there. Just like Fox doesn't make any money saying, we love the Democrats. Everything's wonderful. You know what? Most of the people in Congress are actually friends with each other. They hang out with each other. They don't care. It's all about the news. It's all about the elections, all this divisive stuff. It doesn't even really happen at the Capitol. Maybe more now than it used to, but that's not how it is, because I spent a lot of time up at the Capitol in Sacramento, and I see how those legislators get along and everything, and they respect each other for the most part, but they put on their game face when they get on the TV and they bash the other one, and then they go have a drink with them afterwards, and it's like, okay, but we're. We're listening to it as bicep, and we actually think that there's that much vitriol, and we take that in and that that destroys a lot of people. And not only is it negative, but it's scary for people. Just watching the news is going to put them in fight or flight.

Right. Which suppresses your immune system. So please don't watch the news.

Right, right.

So good. So what is the most important thing? Well, is there one most important thing that parents should be teaching their kids, or does it have to be all the five facets?

You know, I think if there was anything that a parent would instill in a child, it would be to encourage that child to live consciously, to really, to really just think about the consequences of every action. Because, you know, my five year old, he's done a really good job at that, where if he eats something that's good for him, he realized that that's going to help make him stronger and healthier. And if he were to take something that's not healthy to eat or something, he knows it's not going to be good for him. He doesn't choose to not eat it to avoid the bad thing. He does it to encourage the good thing, which is really good. He knows what the consequences on both sides, the negative consequences and the positive consequences. But when you're living consciously, you understand that there is a consequence to every thought, every action, every word that you say has a consequence that vibrates out there that somebody's going to receive that information and it's going to be constructive or destructive for that person. So living consciously would probably be the number one thing. And you could start that very early on.

Oh my gosh, I think that's an amazing tip because that covers it all. It covers the five facets, it covers everything. Because if you're living consciously, you're thinking about what you're putting in your mouth, you're thinking, you know, whether you're moving your body or not, if you're on the iPad 20 hours a day, you know, if your nervous system is not being managed, like all of it. So I just think that's amazing. And it's hard because a lot of adults aren't living consciously. Right. And so I think that the more we work on ourselves, the better we can show up for the people that we love. I mean, that's what I've learned over the years. My gosh, I've been a parent for like 28 years now. It's kind of crazy. And I still have little kids, like it's never going to end. So, yeah, I just think that we just need to keep working on ourselves. We're always a work in progress, right?

Like, absolutely. And the beautiful thing is this grace, you know, so it's like you could have been screwing up your whole life and you decide to make a change now. And your cells are constantly replicating, they're reproducing, they're starting. You're a new person every how many years? You know, was it every seven? I mean, so the truth of the matter is everything that somebody has in their life right now is a result of their previous days, weeks, months and years alive. Everything that you'd have in your life in 10 years from now is going to be a response from what happens now and tomorrow and the next day and the day after. So wellness, the wellness lifestyle is cumulative. It's not like, you know, you had to do it from day one in order to catch up. You can do it whenever you want. It's like, my gosh, it's like exercise in the sense of if you've never exercised a day in your life, right now you're 50 years old and you decide to start exercising, aren't you going to be better off at 51 than you were at 49 having never exercised? Maybe you're not going to look like someone who's a bodybuilder, but you're going to be better off because you started, you took action. And so that's the whole idea is everything we do now will impact our future, from our thoughts to our words, to our actions, every single thing, our life, our destiny is ultimately determined by our now and our future because our past is in the past. So you can't do anything to undo your past, but you could do something to change your future.

Yeah. I love it. And we just. We need to keep showing up and being the example for our children. And if we don't have children, do it for the people that we love in our lives, because we do have major influence. And I think that people need to realize that, you know, you influence your wife, what you do as a husband, you influence your friends, you influence your patients. You know, I influence people as well. And you don't have to be a doctor whoever. Like, one person influences another. That's how it works. So if you're watching TV all day, most likely so is your spouse, so are your kids. If you're outside riding your bike, hanging out, enjoying nature, I bet your spouse is doing that, too. And your kids. Like, we really do have that much influence on each other. And I think we need to bring out the positive good things. And that's all I hear from you. So I just think everything you're doing is amazing and keep doing it.

Thank you. Yes. You know, I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to. To share my words. I mean, I've been doing it in practice for 23 years, and I'm like, I need to get this beyond where I live. You know, this needs to be out there. And that's why I wrote the book. And like you said, even if you don't have kids, do it for yourself. And you said, do it for those others that you love that you care about or they care about you. But more importantly, there's one person that you need to love more than anyone else and that's yourself. And you know, one of the things that I mentioned in the book, one of the exercises is go in front of a mirror, look straight in your own eyes and just say I love you. And it's amazing how hard it is for people to do that. A lot of people cannot do that. So a good lesson in self love, you know, understanding the importance of why you're so important. So if you're not going to do it for anyone else if you don't have kids, because I always say if you're not going to do it for yourself, at least do it for your kids. But you should do it for yourself because how can you take care of anyone else and how could you love anyone else truly when you don't love yourself?

Amen. That's so good. So Dr. Brian, they can go to dreamwellnessbook.com right?

Yup.

Where do we get the quiz that we can take? Is it part of the book?

The quiz is part of the book. It's when you get the book, it'll tell you exactly where to when you start taking it. So it's like after reading the first couple of pages, like the forward and all that other stuff and right after the intro it says go now, take the Dream Score. And you could do it right there and then you get the report right away and you can read the book through that lens if you so choose to kind of really focus in on that. So it's all part of it. There's no extra charge for the Dream Score. It's all included as one. One great asset.

Awesome. I love that. So dreamwellnessbook.com all the links are in the show notes. Are you on social media? Can people follow you?

I am Brian Stensler and Dr. Brian Stensler. I'm going to get better with social media. I have Instagram is Dreamwellness. I have to remember my login. I mean I'm so. I'm not the best on social media. We do have a Facebook page if you go to for, for parents it's dream. What is it? Facebook.com dreamparents okay. And that's the living the dream lifestyle. So if you are a parent, you want to join that community, you'd certainly do that. So dream parents after facebook.com so check that out. Join a community of like minded parents that have great questions. And I also have a gift for your for your listeners.

Yeah, tell us about that.

Yeah, so we had talked about, you know, diet and stuff like that. Well, one of the biggest things people need to detox from the digital world, they're so addicted to their phones, to their social media. And that's why you ask, are you on social media? It's like, I'm only on social media because I need to be to reach a large audience. I don't spend any social time on social media. I just don't do it and I don't want to do it. And I purposely avoid it because we know how toxic it is. So I've got a great workbook out there for adults. It's a digital detox workbook that's absolutely free. When you go to dreamwellnessbook.com and you just put in your information, and if you have children, you'll also get automatically the reduced screen use for kids. So getting kids. And that's an entire ebook. It's like 40 or 50 pages, all about how to help your kids get off social media. Because we all know what happens at the dinner table. You've got zombies, right? Everyone's on their devices. I'm guilty of it too, at times. Not doing social media, but office stuff. So I do the best that I can to get my device away from the dinner table. But a really good ebook for the kids, a workbook for the adults, and that's all free as soon as they just opt in and learn more about the book.

That's awesome. I think everybody needs to check that out because especially since COVID we are definitely on our screens way too much. We're doing it right now. We're on zoom. But it's a necessary evil. But you just gotta manage it. You gotta keep it in check. And it's really hard. Children can't keep it in check for themselves. And so that's your job as a parent, to make sure that they have limits and that they're going outside, they're doing other things with their body and their brain, Right?

Absolutely. And it's not that all screen use is bad. There's so much great educational material out there. There's inspiring material out there. It's about how much of it are you doing? What is your posture while you're doing it? Right. But then how much nonsense are you actually getting on social media? So it's. It's not just screens itself that are bad. It's how you're using it and the quantity of it. So the quality and the quantity is where the issue comes In.

Yep, exactly. Get you back to the conscious living. Right. Just making sure that you're using it appropriately.

That's right.

So much good information. Dr. Brian, thank you so much for all of this amazing work you're doing. I mean, it's so needed.

Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you, Dr. Tabitha, for having me and for doing this and having such a great audience and for doing all the work that you do. I mean, it's so refreshing having an obstetrician who looks at it from a much more natural perspective from functional medicine. So kudos to you. Congratulations, and keep up the great work.

Thank you. All right, take care.

Bye now.

Awesome. So I hope you got something out of that episode. I know I did. I find it very valuable to just be reminded of basic information. You know, a lot of times, like, let's get back to basics. But what my favorite gold nugget of was today, like, live consciously. Life is a choice upon choices upon choices. They're not. Things are not happening to you. They're happening for you. And if you can teach your kids that, oh, my gosh, they're gonna be so far ahead of the game, and they're gonna have amazing, beautiful, happy life. So let's try to teach our kids to be conscious thinkers and to realize what they put in their body, what they do in their body has consequences, good or bad, and help them see those consequences. So that's what I took away from today's episode. I hope that you. You took something amazing away, and I would love for you to share it with me. Go on Facebook or Instagram. DrTabitha t a b a t h a tell me your golden nugget for the day. I want to hear, you know, what you are gaining from this. I know this is valuable information, and I would be so appreciative if you would hit the five stars and the subscribe button. So itunes and everybody knows that you want to hear more of this and share it with all your friends. Because I do this for you guys and keep shooting me your questions and your topics and everything. I hope that you're finding value. And all I can do is keep trying, keep putting it out there. You know, I. I want to just mention, like, me being vulnerable and doing this. It's super uncomfortable. It is. It takes me out of my comfort zone. It's something different. I never know how the interviews are gonna go. Like, it's a complete guess, you know, of how the conversation's gonna go, what questions I end up asking. Do I look like A complete fool or do I pull it all together somehow? And that can be really scary. And I've honestly had days where I want to cancel because I'm nervous and I'm scared and I don't want to look like a fool. And the reason I keep showing up and doing it and fighting past those fears and just ignoring them is for you guys, because I want you to do the same in your life. I want you to push past your fears. I want you to get uncomfortable. I want you to do things that take you out of your comfort zone because you know that it's going to create, you know, momentum, it's going to have impact. It's what you're meant to do. Like, even though it's scary, do it anyway. So I just want you guys to realize, like, this is not serving me. Like, this makes me scared. And I just really want you guys to. To use me as an example to go and do the big, scary, amazing things in your life. And maybe that is not drinking alcohol anymore. Maybe that is leaving a very miserable job. That's like destroying your health. Maybe that's asking your husband or partner to go to counseling to work on stuff that you been avoiding. I mean, whatever the thing is that you're afraid to do but you know will lead to a greater life if you do it. Like, just do it. Focus on that greater result, that positive consequence, and figure out how to get through the discomfort and make it happen. This. This podcast that I've been doing now for over a year has been super rewarding, but it is scary every time. I will tell you, I'm talking to amazingly accomplished people who write the books and do all of the things right. Like, they're super accomplished. They got the pocketbooks and everything to show you. They got the successful practices and the followers on social and all that stuff that doesn't matter, but what matters is that you show up anyway. You go through the discomfort, you figure out how to make it happen because you know that it's going to be worth it. And it gets better. It gets easier, I guess. Well, maybe not. It. It gets more common to be out of your comfort zone, and you figure out ways to handle it right. So I don't get, like all crazy heart racing, sweating through my clothes anymore because I've realized how to control my nervous system when I'm in a scary new situation or environment. And so when you do the uncomfortable things more regularly, you get better at managing it. So it's not necessarily easier, but it's more doable. And so I have learned so much about myself by being in uncomfortable situations and doing things I never thought I could do. So I just want you to, you know, take that for what it's worth and do it yourself. Because I want to be my best example for you guys, to show you that you don't have to settle, you don't have to just live the life that you've been given. You can shift things, you can change them, mix it up, do whatever you need to do. But you got to get uncomfortable, and you got to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Like, just figure out how you can do that. And it might be baby steps. It might be putting yourself on video and feeling the discomfort and getting through it anyway and then moving on, right? So whatever you got from that, I hope my ramble was helpful, but honestly, I'm doing this because I know that you guys can have amazingly healthy, happy lives if you just take the chance and don't live in fear. Live in your faith, live in your belief, believe in yourself, and you're going to be good. All right, I hope you guys have a kick ass week. I'll see you next week. Bye.