The Art Of Biohacking Your Feng Shui & Transforming Your Home Into A Complete Wellness Sanctuary.

Greetings. That's actually probably one of the most Trekkie esque ways to start a podcast. Referring to, of course, Star Trek. I haven't really seen much Star Trek, but I think they say greetings in that movie TV show. Anyways, I'm Ben Greenfield in this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show.

If I look at my desk or if I start my day and my desk in an absolute mess, there's papers, there's glasses, there's teacups, there's you things everywhere. It is not conducive to creativity and it automatically sends me into overwhelm. We all have that inner critic. We all have that fear based, egoic, limiting voice inside our head. The one that says we're not good enough or we're not smart enough or we can't do this.

He's an expert in human performance and nutrition, voted America's top personal trainer and one of the globe's most influential people in health and fitness. Provides you with everything you need to optimize physical and mental performance. He is Ben Greenfield.

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Hey, folks, it's Ben Greenfield. And my guest on today's podcast is probably somebody who would just about throttle me if they saw the workout environment that I just finished my evening workout in. It was basically my messy, cluttered garage with an old camper that my wife, at some point in the next few decades plans on turning into a glamper. But that is right now, a dilapidated, old, dirty, probably mold and fungus filled piece of crap. Don't tell her I said that. And the garage floor was messy and I have like rusty kettlebells and an old stained yoga. And it's definitely not what I would consider to be a workout environment that inspires a nice, clean, feng shui esque workout. Perhaps something more like where Sylvester Stallone exercises in Rocky 4. I would say is a little bit more like my workout space, but it works for me. Now, the reason I'm telling you this is because I want you to sit back and imagine for a second places where you felt really inspired or rejuvenated or energy or energized. You know, places like a retreat or a wellness sanctuary or a posh health club or walking in the forest or whatever. And you know, I really am of the opinion and I believe that My guest is too, based on some of the things that I've seen her write that you can change your mood, you can change your health, you can change your wellness based off of your environment. And that's kind of this concept of Feng shui, this Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing everything with the surrounding environment. And my guest today is Melissa Ambrosini. She's in Australia, which means it is either a very different time than where I'm at tonight or else an ungodly time, or both. And she wrote a book. Her book is actually called Mastering youg Mean Girl the no BS Guide to Silencing youg Inner Critic and Becoming Wildly Wealthy, Fabulously healthy and Bursting with love. That is quite a subtitle. She's a speaker, she's an entrepreneur. She is a self described self love teacher who teaches women how to master their mean girl, smash through limiting beliefs and ditch self doubt. I was recently on her podcast where we talked about stuff like anti aging and eating copious amounts of rosemary for sexual performance and all sorts of fun little topics. And now she is here on my podcast to talk a little bit about Feng Shui and transforming your home into a wellness sanctuary. So Melissa, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. And it's actually not that bad a time. It's only 1:42pm in the afternoon, so it's not a godly hour.

That's not too bad. It's also not too bad that we only were an hour off on today's scheduled podcast time. With all of the, the, the fallback time changes over here in the US and the fact that you're 8 billion time zones away, I think we did a pret job. So yeah. Speaking of which though, speaking of recording a podcast, you know, if we're going to talk about feng shui, we're going to talk about like your how, how you set up your home, how you set up your life. Tell me a little bit about where you're at right now. Like what does your office look like? Do you have little biohacks or tricks or tips or tools that you use when you're using your computer or your microphone, your recording equipment or your office?

Yes, I do. I have a couple. And you know, for me, I am an author and a speaker. Like you mentioned, I help women. So for me, creativity and being inspired in my space is really important. And I work from home, so I have a home office. So making sure that my home environment is conducive to creativity and being the best version of myself is imperative. So I'm currently sitting at my standup desk, which I don't always do, obviously this is an interview which might go for a while, so I thought I would sit.

But you know, that's kind of weak sauce. You can't stand for the entire length of a Ben Greenfield fitness podcast.

Well, I don't know. I'm not sure how long you'd have me. So I, you know, maybe I'll get up. I might get up and down.

We'll see.

But yeah, so I've got a stand up desk and I've got my defender shield pad here in front of me, which is going to block out some of the ems, which is great. I've got flux on my computer, which is a free app, which the blue light in the computer screen. And usually most people use flux at night, but I use it all day. It's such a nicer, softer light. I have my swannies, my blue blockers next to me. I don't have them on because it's daytime here, but I use them at night. If I'm ever looking at my computer or my phone at night, I wear them as well to block out the blue light. And I also do something called the Pomodoro technique. And I have an app called Focus Keeper, which reminds me to take breaks every 25 minutes and move my body. And so every 25 minutes my, my alarm will go off and I'll, I'll move away from my desk and I'll do one minute of squats or one minute of star jumps or one minute of push ups or something just to move my body. Because I actually being a rider, I sit a lot. Well, like before I got my stand up desk, I sat a lot lot and gave myself chronic lower back pain and hip flexor pain, which I had to spend thousands of dollars going to different people to help me fix. And then I discovered Foundations Technique. My husband introduced me to Foundations Technique, which I started.

You mean like the core foundation exercises from Dr. Eric Goodman?

Yes, yes. So I do those.

Those are fantastic.

Yeah, absolutely amazing. And they've helped me so much with my lower back pain. And I got a stand up desk and now I introduced this Pomodoro technique where I take breaks every 25 minutes and my lower back pain has dramatically increased. They say that, you know, sitting is the new smoking, but it has been so detrimental to me. It has caused me a lot of pain and a lot of money. So this is something that I really think a lot of people should get into. And I know you have the treadmill desk, which might not fit in my two bedroom apartment, but it's something that is on my wish list for when I get a bigger home.

Yeah, and a couple of things that popped into my head as you were describing. Everything from the computer software that you use to your foundation exercises and the treadmill desk. First of all, have you tried this software before called Iris Tech as an alternative to Flux?

No, I haven't.

Okay, so I recently did a podcast on this. And by the way, everything that we talk about I'll link to if you go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com Melissa. That's BenGreenfieldFitness.com, melissa with two S's and one L. But Iris Tech is a software that does everything that flux does, but then it's got some extreme customization built in. Like you can adjust not just the, the brightness of the screen, but the flicker and the temperature and all these other things that affect your rods and your cones in your eyes. And then you talked about the pomodoro technique. Well, you can set this software up so it not only like, you know, causes your screen to pop up and remind you for your specific whatever if you're doing 55 on 5 off or 60 on 10 off or whatever, but it walks you through specific eye, neck, ear and full body moves that specifically fight against the type of stuff that happens to your eyes and your ears and your neck and your posture and your body when you're at your computers. It's really cool stuff. I mean, I know that flux is free. I think Iris Tech is. It's a drop in the bucket. It's like nothing for what it costs. But that software, I think is like flux on steroids. If anybody hasn't tried it on their computer, I think they should. The other thing I wanted to mention was you talked about how you do those foundation exercises. Same thing for me. So I actually, what I did was I have the book by Dr. Eric Goodman. It's called True to Form. Have you read his newest book?

No, my husband has, but it's next on my list.

Okay, so he's got one page in that book that I took a photograph of with my phone. And it's simply the moves that you do on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and the moves that you do on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. And I went from doing like five or ten minutes of yoga when I get up in the morning to instead doing his exact Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday moves and his exact Monday, Wednesday, Friday moves. And it turns on your butt for the day. It decompresses your spine. It opens up your lung. I freaking swear by it. Those exercises are indeed amazing. I think anybody who lives a modern life, sits, stands, anything, should. Should be doing those foundation exercises. But that book's called True to Form, and I would recommend, if you get a chance, check out the algorithm he has in that book for what you do on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Because it took me one week of doing it to memorize all the exercises. And I don't even have to glance at my phone now, but it works really well.

Oh, I'm gonna check that out. Thank you for mentioning that.

Yeah. So you mentioned that you live in an apartment. How recently did you move into your apartment?

We actually moved into this one in May this year, so we haven't been here in here for that long.

Okay. Did you, when you moved into your apartment, did you research at all things that you could test for? I mean, I know, I know feng shui is a little bit more about, like, how you. I guess, like how you organize and space things in your environment. But I also want to consider health. Like, did you. Did you test the water or the carpet or the wood or anything like that? Or do you think people should.

Absolutely, I think you should. There's two things that I think are imperative. And this is a pretty relatively new building. I mean, it's been redone and it's beautiful and it's modern. But there's two things that I would check for moving into any space. And the first one is mold. That is a biggie because it is killing people. Like, it seriously is. It's making people very depressed, obese, and sick. And I don't know if you've seen Dave Asprey's documentary Moldy, but whoever is currently living in a moldy place needs to watch this. And if that was me, I would get out of there straight away. I wouldn't even move into a house that has.

You wouldn't try to remediate the mold. Let's say you just found an apartment that you were completely in love with. You would just run. You wouldn't even go in and try and spray it or use. I mean, even like David, I know he has some kind of. Some kind of mold killing spray that. That he markets. Now, would you do. Would you just go to a different apartment versus treating the apartment that has the mold and the fungus in it?

I think I would. It is an incredibly expensive exercise. I just had a friend who has gone through it and it cost her about 30 grand to re gut all the bottom of her house because she had a leak. And her and her family were getting incredibly sick, and they couldn't get better, and they just didn't know why they were getting so sick. They had, like, sinusitis and really bad phlegm, and they were so unwell, and she couldn't understand why. And then she looked in one of her cupboards, and there was mold on everything. Like, this was a winter cupboard that she hadn't looked in in a while. And she looked in there, and there was mold on all of her clothes. And she thought, oh, my goodness, what is this? And she realized that their house is on a slant. And there was a leak coming in from the laundry, and it was an incredibly expensive exercise. So for me, it's definitely something that you need to be mindful of whenever you're moving into a new house. It is so detrimental to your health, you know, My husband is still detoxing. Eight years of mold exposure that he got in an old apartment many years ago, and he was incredibly unwell. He was bedridden for three years, couldn't work, and he was incredibly unwell. You know, diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which is kind of, you know, a diagnosis where we don't really know what's wrong with you, but we'll just say you've got fibromyalgia and just put you in that category. But I witness every day what he has to go through to detox his mold. And he's such a trooper, and he never complains, but he is still working on it. And it's just not something that if you can avoid, then avoid it. It's one of those things. If you can't avoid it, please avoid it. And the other thing is your exposure to EMFs. You know, I live in a city in an apartment building, and we got someone to come in and test the exposure to the EMF radiation. And she actually said our apartment was pretty good, considering we're in a city. And, you know, we're kind of like in a little WI FI box. You know, we cannot really control all of the WI fi from everyone else's computers around us, but we can control what we do in our home and the exposure that we limit ourselves to. So. So I would definitely test for mold and EMF are probably my two things, and I would get a professional in to do those if you're unsure. It'll just save you so much time and down the track, so much time, money, and energy. Down the track. Like my friend, you know, she spent 30 grand trying to fix this mold issue, and it's just not worth it and the effects that it can have on your health.

Yeah, I actually interviewed Dave on my podcast. I use the some of the information there to write a book. I have a book called how to Biohack the Ultimate Healthy Home. And a few little things he talked about in there was, yeah, like, don't get a home mold test kit. There's one made by a company called, I think it's called American Air Testing over here in the States. And then on a website where I know they actually talk a little bit about Dave's documentary Moldy, a website called surviving mold. @survivingmold.com There's a bunch of other folks who are like certified technicians who can test for mold. But then we even talk about, you mentioned your husband and what he went through. We talk about things like edible clay and this supplement called cholestyramine and coconut based charcoal, and even a book about using nutrition to kind of like bypass genetic mutations that would make you more susceptible or more sensitive to mold. Along with, of course, HEPA air filters, which I think are really important. But, yeah, it can be a huge issue. So you guys tested for that when you moved into your apartment, which was obviously a good move. But let's say that just because, honestly, I don't want to say this toto sound trite, but it seems like mold and fungi, at least in our really healthy community. And I know everybody listening to this podcast is just healthy as hell. So you might have this already dialed in. But a lot of folks know about mold and fungus. But when you moved into your home, were there other things that you looked at, fixing right away or that you tested or looked into in addition to mold and fungus?

Yeah, we looked at the carpet because obviously carpet has a lot of dust mites and allergens, and we wanted them to rip up the carpet. So we're renting this apartment at the moment. So if we owned this apartment, we would have just ripped the carpet up straight. We can't, because it's not a house. So we asked them to do that and they said no. So they paid to get very, very good organic carpet cleaners to come in and do a really, really good clean. And it's just in the two bedrooms, which is fine, but that's something else that you want to be really mindful of. You know, the carpets and what's going on there. But that's the only other things that we really looked at when we first move in. I mean, if there was wood, we would look at that. We'd look at, you know, the erosion that's happening there and if there was anything going on there. But for us, those, those three things, the mold, the EMF and the carpets were the main things.

Yeah. And the wood. You make a good point. You want to make sure you don't have like, like volatile organic compounds in the wood, which is important. I think that you can mitigate some of that stuff with, with HEPA air filters. Right. You can get like standalone HEPA air filters in your house. They also make like air ozonators and all sorts of things that, that can, that can mitigate some of those issues. But yeah, that, that's, that's a definite consideration too. Now, as far as carpets go, did you, or have you looked into like, alternative fibers for a healthier carpet or like, you know, natural wool or, or any other type of unconventional carpeting material that isn't quite as, as carcinogenic as a regular carpet?

To be honest, we haven't. But when we build our home, our dream home, we will definitely be looking into more of that stuff. And like you mentioned before, there is lots of things that you can do, like to create a home wellness sanctuary. Because we spend so much time in our homes. And whether you work from home or you don't, you still come home at 6 o' clock and you're breathing in the air in your home sanctuary and you're sleeping. And the microbiome in your home is, is so important because it is where you spend the most amount of your time. And yes, we do clays as well, and we do activated charcoal and we do all of that stuff as well to really support our own microbiome and support our health. But there are so many things that you can consider to help create the most inspiring wellness home sanctuary for you and your family to really thrive. Because that's what it's about. It's about creating a space where you can flourish. And we want that space to be not filled with mold and EMFs. We want it to be really filled with beautiful energy and not be toxic so that we can do the best work that we can do and we can show up in the world as the best version of ourselves.

Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. And it's multifactorial. Right. Like you talked about carpet, I know we wound up, we wound up paying a lot of money, frankly, for the carpet that we did put in the home. But it's like a natural Wool carpet. And it doesn't off gas like a lot of carpet. And they use some kind of environmentally friendly non polypropylene based backing. And it's less hospitable to dust mites and pollutants and toxins and fungi compared to a synthetic fiber. But yeah, a lot of this stuff you, you kind of pay for. But ultimately, in my opinion, you pay less in hospital bills down the road. And you also, at least in my opinion, you're more productive. Like I walk into my office and for example, I've got big natural lighting windows. I've got a HEPA air filter and an air oxidizer and like a negative ion generator. And I've got the stand up desk and then the treadmill right next to it. And I have all of these little things. There's even an infrared panel hanging against the wall. I think we talked about this on your podcast. That I pull my pants down and sit against every once in a while during the day to increase testosterone levels, believe it or not. But yeah, it really is interesting how many of these things can affect your health and all the different things that you can do. And I wanted to ask you also about air. You talked about fresh air. Do you do special things in your home to enhance air quality?

Absolutely. We, no matter what, you know, we open the windows and we open the doors every single day, even in the middle of winter to circulate that air. That's something that's really, really important. We also have an Air Oasis. Like I mentioned before, you know, I'm a writer and so my home has to feel creative and inspiring, especially my office. Otherwise I'm not going to want to feel inspired to ride. And the air Oasis removes, you know, odors and contaminants and it's just, you know, if you leave it on long enough, it ends up leaving the room smelling like a beautiful rainforest. It's really amazing. And it gets rid of the carbon based molecules, including things like, you know, smoke and bacteria and airborne viruses.

And it's that like a standalone unit that like goes in the corner of the room. Or is it like a desktop or is it a little bit of everything?

It's a standalone unit that just, we put, we put in the corner of the room and it's, it's really beautiful. It just, it honestly makes the room smell so good.

Do you know if that has a negative ion generator in it?

Oh, I'm not 100% sure. It probably does. It has, I know it uses good ones do. Yeah, I know it uses Like a UV lamp to convert the carbon based molecules into harmless molecules like carbon dioxide or water vapor.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah, we wound up. So I actually have a built in air filter in our house that uses kind of a similar thing. The one I use is called an Aller Air. It's just like built into the vents of the home. But these little negative ion generators that you can plug into outlets in your house, they're very similar to this concept of like, have you seen like Himalayan salt lamps that hippies have all over their homes?

Yeah, all over my home I do.

Not have a Himalayan salt lamp. I wear the equivalent of a, a Himalayan salt lamp. On my wrist I have like a bracelet with all the minerals in it that generate negative ions, the same as a Himalayan salt lamp. But then you can get these little things, I mean, for like 20 bucks off of Amazon, these negative ion generators that you can plug into any outlet of the house, and they generate the same type of natural ions that you get from water crashing against the beach or running over springs or wind passing through forest, trees, and all the things that you would get if you were spending a lot of time outside. And they're these little things they plug into the wall and they work amazingly well, especially in a 1, 2 combo with something like that air filter that you described. Air is fun to play with. What about plants? Do you do much with plants?

Oh, yeah, we have them all over the house as well as the Himalayan salt lamps we absolutely love. And we have plan. You know, I, I didn't, you know, I just wanted to fill my house with as many plants as possible. I love succulents. You know, I think they're really pretty and I mainly just kind of went for them because they were pretty. But, you know, there's certain common indoor plants that will significantly reduce the amount of toxins in the air. And the plants take in the toxic chemicals through their leaves, their roots, and even the soil that they sit in, removing many of the toxic vapors that may be lurking about our environment. So there's so many great ones that you can have, and they're so cheap, you just got to get out there and pick them and bring them into your house. Peace lilies are great for getting rid of VOCs. Boston Ferns. They absorb moisture. There's so many good ones. Mother in law's tongue is a potent O2 producer. At nighttime, there's spider plants. There's so many great ones that you can, you know, you can get into your house. But, you know, and I really love And I don't. I haven't done a lot of research on succulents and cactuses, but I just love them because they're so pretty.

Now, now, the definition of a succulent would be like, is that. Are those like, kind of like the thick, fat, stocky plants, like a cactus?

Yes.

Okay. And those specifically, do some of those things that you just talked about?

I'm not 100% sure. I haven't really looked into the benefits of succulents, but I know peace lilies and Boston ferns and spider plants, mother in law's tongue, gerbera daisies, they're all really, really great for eliminating the toxins in the environment.

A lot of those that you mentioned, those were part of the NASA study on how certain plants can. Well, a lot of people think they just produce extra oxygen or they produce negative ions like I was talking about, but that's not true. I mean, well, it is true, but like you mentioned, they can actually absorb toxins. Like you talked about the peace Lily and how that could literally, like take volatile organic compounds or VOCs out of the air. Or like the Boston fern, that can absorb a lot of, like the, the moisture that can cause mold and fungi. And, you know, a lot of these plants, they, they aren't just producing oxygen. They're doing a lot more than that. And it's, it's really interesting how you can kind of pair, you know, ancient tools like that with these more modern tools, right? Like, like negative ion generators and, and air oxidizers. And of course, you know, salt lamps probably kind of fall into the middle, but I, I actually wanted to ask you to describe to folks why it is that you'd want to actually improve indoor air quality by using something like a salt lamp for negative ions.

Oh, my gosh. They're, you know, they're not only do they feel really good in the house and they kind of admit. Omit a really calming. They have a calming effect on your nervous system. I don't know the science behind that, but it just, it just does. And maybe that's why all the, you know, you said all the hippies have them and they're really super chilled out. Maybe there's a reason for all the Himalayan salt lamps, but. Yeah, Himalayan salt lamps emit take out all the. Produce negative ions in the air. So we have them positioned all through our house and it really, really helps.

Yeah, and it's interesting, too. They can also draw water molecules from the air. And that's like when you go into a sauna for example, like a dry sauna, and you splash a bunch of water on the sauna coils, you actually get. It's one of the reasons that you feel so good if it's a good sauna and if wherever you're at actually filters their water, otherwise you're breathing in some other stuff, too. But if it's like a good sauna and you splash the water in there, what you're breathing in is just a boatload of negative ions. You get the same thing if you have an essential air diffuser next to your bedside. But when little droplets of water in the air actually hit this, like a. Like a Himalayan salt lamp, you get the same thing produced. I mean, that's how the salt lamp is producing these actual ions. It changes the electricity in the air with the. By the salt interacting with the water. So it's really kind of cool how those. You know how a piece of salt can do that?

Yeah, it's amazing.

Now, what about in terms of, like, cleaning your home? Anything from, like, cleaning your carpet and vacuuming to cleaning the countertop. Do you have specific things that you do with respect to cleaning the home?

Yes. We have an amazing vacuum with a HEPA filter, which is really important. We have.

Super important. And I know I'm interrupting you right off the bat, but we have. We have one of those, too. We have one called a rainbow vacuum. Ungodly expense. Whereas, like a $2,000 vacuum or something like that. But. Oh, yeah, yeah, it's got the HEPA air filter. It's got, like, an essential oil diffuser in it. I mean, like, you clean our house at the same time you dump a bunch of negative ions and essential oils into the air and kill all the mold and fungi with the hepa. It's. Yeah. I think having a good vacuum is crucial for anybody who. Who vacuums. So you guys use. Use a solid vacuum.

Yes. And ours doesn't. Doesn't have the essential oil. But now I'm really jealous. I'm going to ask for that for Christmas.

Yeah. You could probably duct tape one to the side of it, figure out something to do.

Yeah. But we do have a beautiful, you know, one of those young living air. What is it called? Sorry?

Like an essential oil burner.

Yeah, yeah. Yes, we have one of those, and we love that. So we have that going all day every day just to produce really nice smells in the house.

What do you defeat using it?

Oh, I love. For creativity, and when I'm writing, I love peppermint because I feel like that's really, like, pick me up. It really. It's really punchy and amazing. I just love it. You know, at nighttime we do, you know, jasmine and lavender. You know, they're really beautiful. For more calming, if I'm having people over, I'll sometimes do like a lemon. Lemongrass. You know, there's a couple of mixes that you can do, like a balancing mix. There's so many great oils they have. I love them. And we have that thing going all day, every day. It's just really beautiful. So we have that and we have the HEPA vacuum. We use a steam mop because we found that they work a lot better than normal mops that kind of just move all of the toxins around on the floor. The steam mop really, really works quite well. And then we make a majority of our own cleaning products. We make our own with essential oils, bicarb soda, vinegar. We use a couple of Dave Asprey's bulletproof products, like his home biotic products, which are amazing. And yeah, we make a lot of our own. We make a lot of our own with essential oils from beautiful oil companies and filtered water, bicarb soda and vinegar. And it's so much cheaper. That's the thing. It's so much cheap. It's so much better for you, for you and your family. And think about it, especially if you have kids and they're crawling all over the floor and. And they're going to be touching the floor and then licking their hand, you do not want them to be in contact with toxic bleach or any of those highly toxic chemicals if they are known endocrine disruptors and can cause a whole host of health issues. So you want to make sure that your cleaning products are as organic and natural as possible.

Yeah. And you don't necessarily have to make them. I mean, I know, like the environmental working group, for example, like, they have. They have some really good resources on actual brands that do a decent job, you know, making chemicals that aren't super toxic. But yeah, same thing over here. It's oregano, it's vinegar, it's lemon. You can use some sea salt on like butcher blocks to draw out some of the stuff from meat. And then we use two oils. We use oregano and we use thief. And, you know, it's so, so simple. And you're right, it's probably way less expensive in the long run as well.

Exactly. Yeah. We make a lot of our own thieves sprays for the kitchen bench top and things like that. And it not only smells good, but it does the job.

All right, I'm going to apologize for just a second because I'm opening my can of sparkling water. Let the party begin. So anyways, I want to kind of ask you a few things that I guess might fall a little bit more formally into this idea of, you know, the flow of key in the home and feng shui and that is like colors. Did you focus much on like palettes and colors and the idea that certain colors can affect certain moods? Or have you looked into that much at all?

Do you know what?

I.

We had a feng shui expert come into our home before we moved in and she spoke a lot about this and she kind of said, you know, for Nick and his creativity, these are his colors. For you and your creativity, these are your colors. I have a 10 year old stepson who spends 50% of his time with us and she, you know, did his chart and told us his colors. But to be honest, we really haven't dove into it a lot. It is something that I would really like to explore more of. But no, I haven't gone into it too much. I'm curious, have you gone into it at all?

Yeah, there's. There's a really good book about this. It's called Drunk Tank Pink. And I heard this guy speak at a conference and he goes into. The whole idea is based around the fact that that's what they color the isolation room in like prisons. You know, like the. The room where people go into when they really got to calm them down, they use Drunk Tank Pink. And then he went on to talk about how. Well, he talks a lot in the book about things like buy buttons on websites and how orange makes people want to buy but pink makes people want to donate or blue calms people out. Or like, black is considered an aggressive website, which is probably why t nation and bodybuilding.com and all these websites are black. But yeah, there are some interesting things in the book about workspace. It talks about how the color green is really restful for the eyes. And if you have like green, especially in like an office where you might be looking away from your computer for screen breaks and stuff like that, either having a, you know, a window, like I do, that looks out into a green forest, or else like a wall or an object or a plant, that's green in an office is one of the things that he goes into and then to like stimulate you. Orange is really good and red is really good. But you wouldn't want to have those like, you know, know, in the bedroom where you're gonna go to sleep, you know, where you'd want, like, more of a neutral color, like a white or a pink, God forbid, or something along those lines. And then, like, a gym would be something that's very stimulating again, like a black, like an aggressive black or a red. But, yeah, it's a super interesting book in terms of, like, you know, the way that colors affect mood and affect people. So that one's called Drunk Tank Pink. It's a good one.

Yeah, I'm going to check that out. Definitely. That's. And now that you say that, like, I was thinking, you know, my office, there's. I look at. I look. You know, I look to my right, and I've got the ocean, and it's really beautiful and inspiring. And then in our bedroom, it's very neutral colors. It's very calming. It's very beautiful. And I think that's just something that I. We organically gravitated to because we think about what type of way do we want to feel in each particular room. Like, in our bedroom, we want to feel relaxed, we want to feel calm, we want to feel comfortable. So you do you automatically gravitate to. You know, I mean, for me, there's no way I'd have a red wall or a bright pink blanket or something like that. Like, it just. That just doesn't entice me. And, yeah, in my office, there is. There's lots of beautiful, bright colors, and there's a Himalayan lamp just next to me. And there's a big, beautiful vision board with lots of colors and beautiful words and things like that. And then, you know, I've got a big, beautiful window next to me that overlooks the water, which is amazing.

I like it. Cool. Okay, so a few other questions for you. One thing that I wanted to ask was basically, as far as feng shui goes, I know part of it is, you know, like, open spaces and decluttering and cleanliness. And I'm curious if you have, like, specific. Specific tactics that you use to ensure that your mind stays organized. Right. Because I know that there are certain people who just have reams of paper all about their desk, and they swear that their mind is super organized and they know where everything is. But at the same time, they've done studies that show that those type of things detract from your actual attentiveness. They increase distractibility, they increase propensity to multitask. So do you do specific things to kind of ensure that your home is decluttered?

Oh, my gosh. I am the most neat freak person you will ever know. And that is because when I have a cluttered environment, cluttered environment means a cluttered mind, like you said and cluttered mind, cluttered environment. And it is a reflection of what's going on internally for you. So if I look at my desk or if I start my day and my desk is an absolute mess, there's papers, there's glasses, there's teacups, there's, you know, things everywhere, it is not conducive to creativity and it automatically sends me into overwhelm and it sets off my fight or flight response in my body. My body. And I start producing cortisol, I start going into panic. And this may be a feminine thing, I don't know. But this is just how I work and what I have noticed over the years. But if I create a beautiful environment that is inspiring, the work is going to flow a lot more effortlessly. So it's, you know, my job is, you know, to make sure that I have a beautiful, clutter free, clean and tidy home environment. We have a two bedroom apartment and it's not massive, which is great because I can keep it really nice and tidy. I sometimes think, how do people with, you know, five, six, seven bedroom houses do it? But obviously they probably have help. But yeah, you know, it's really easy to keep my space really clean and tidy. And it's very important. And my husband has a music studio and for him to feel, he's a musician and for him to feel in his creative flow like he can't have equipment all over the place and cables everywhere, it just wouldn't flow for him.

Yeah, I completely agree. I did not used to think that decluttering was important at all. And now I am a decluttering freak. Like if I, I mean not just in my home, if I walk into a hotel room, I will get rid of like, like magazines, books, things that I'll shove into drawers. And I even turn that into a place where there are as few distractions as possible. And you know, when I get books in the mail that I know that I want to read, but they're going to distract me. There is a specific hidden drawer that I know contains books that need to be read, but they're not out in sight. Right. So I'm not getting that visual stimuli to get distracted and you know, thumb through them throughout the day. And next to my bed I've got all my little bedroom biohacks, like my pulsed electromagnetic field therapy for my collarbone and my little CBD oil vaporizers and all these things, but they're in two little drawers on the bed stand so you just can't see anything so you're not distracted before you go to bed at night. I think a lot of people don't think about those things. It's so easy to think about whatever neurofeedback for your brain to decrease distractibility, or using a nootropic or a smart drug, or perhaps doing something like distracting yourself with pomodoro techniques. But ultimately, if you have a really clean, organized, decluttered workspace or living space, I think it helps with productivity in leaps and bounds.

Absolutely. And I'm exactly the same. When I go into a hotel room, I get rid of all of the notepads, the pens, the magazines, the booklets, the brochures. I put everything away in the drawers because it overwhelms me. And I'm the same. I have a drawer under my little man's bed that is full of books that I need to get to. And then I keep one or two beside my bed because it just. It's, you know, it just creates more flow and more stimulation for the creativity to flow in. And it's just so much more pleasant to be in. It's such a nicer energy and a nicer environment.

Yeah, I completely agree. Now, I also know, I think you mentioned this in a blog post or in your writing somewhere that you actually hired somebody to come to your house and do an energy clearing. And I'm curious what that is like. What is an energy clearing?

Yeah. So we had this expert, her name was Jenny, and she is from a place called Healing Places, actually. And she comes in to evaluate the energy in your house and clear any bad or negative energy that that was present from the previous owners or the tenants. And she did this clearing on the house, and then she also did an energy clearing on myself and Nick. And this allowed us to basically let go of any negative energy that we were carrying. Because ultimately we wanted to move into this new space with clear, loving energy and intention. We set intentions for this house. We want this house to be full of love. We want this house to be full of adventure, joy, happiness, fun, spontaneity. You know, these are all the words that we really want our home environment to represent. And she also helps clear any bad or negative energy from. Yeah, anyone. Anyone that lived in here. Not just the past owners, but like, you know, maybe years down, years ago, that lived there because, you know, maybe there was a divorce in this house, or maybe there was a couple in this house that there was domestic violence, or maybe there was a death, or maybe there was, you know, a serious incident. And it is now scientifically proven that everything is energy. And that negative bad energy can lurk around and it needs to be cleared before you enter. And it's so important. You know, I don't know if you've ever had. I've walked into rooms before and I'm like, I don't like the energy in here. I don't know what it is, but it feels really uncomfortable. It feels really uncomfortable.

I agree with you. I mean, like, I have a little bit more of a scientific bent to the way that I think, you know, a lot of stuff that, that tends to delve into the woo woo. It makes me question the science behind what's actually happening. I think a lot of stuff that's spiritual, you can still measure, you can still quantify. And if you look at quantum physics, actual vibration of matter, you can change the vibration of matter for a long time. I mean, they've shown this in, it's kind of controversial, but they've shown it. For example, if you project positive energies towards water, if you pray and you say the word love and play classical music, you know, where there's water. And they've shown something similar in plants. The water actually forms a more crystalline lattice like structure, or the plant grows a little bit faster, especially compared to if you say negative things, you know, like words like words like hate or you have negative energy. And it's, it's really interesting because they've also shown that, you know, humans can do this, right? We produce beta brainwaves that operate at specific frequencies when we are stressed out. And we can actually change matter around us even without saying words like hate or glaring at a glass of water. And it would seem, or, well, it wouldn't seem, we actually know that everything vibrates, right? Like your liver vibrates at a specific frequency and your red blood cells at a different frequency and your brain cells at a different frequency and the freaking like spackle on the wall at a different, different frequency and the leaf of the plant in your home at a different frequency, but everything vibrates. So if you can somehow change the actual vibrational frequency from one of negativity to one of positivity. I mean that's, that's the freaking basis behind a whole bunch of people who literally heal people in like Sedona, Arizona is like one of the sound, healing frequency capitals of the world. And you know, I interviewed a guy on the podcast who literally makes music Music that heals specific organs. So as cheesy as it may seem, I could totally get the concept of not just changing, like the vibrational potential of a cell or of water or of a plant or of an organ, but of a home.

Absolutely. And everything you're saying is totally resonates with me. I actually have some meditations on my website that are designed to heal different areas of your body and designed to help you release negative patterns through the sound waves. So, like what you were saying before, I also wanted to mention that Jenny from Healing Places that came in and did this energy clearing for us, she picked up on something in the building. We live in an apartment block which is about, I think, 18, 18 apartments. And she said that many years ago this used to be a public club with poker machines and that not abundant energy was still lurking. You know, that real lack, that real struggle, that real scarcity mindset, that real depleted energy was still lurking in this block. And she cleared that energy for not only our apartment, but for the whole block. And she did it for about a week later. So my neighbors seriously owe me on that one. But it's just interesting that that's something else that she picked up. So, you know, it's not just about the apartment. It's the, you know, what was on this land before us.

Yeah. And it's really weird. And again, this is kind of freaky, but I will, like, sleep in certain hotel rooms and it seems to me this happens more in foreign countries and I don't know exactly why. And again, I know people grit their teeth when I delve into the spiritual and get out of the realm of biology and science, but there are certain places where I know that they do things like devil worship or there's been sacrificial rituals in the past and all sorts of kind of weird stuff that we don't quite have as big a history of in our puritanical little America. And I will have nightmares quite often in places like that. And I know it's not just because I'm out of my element, because it doesn't happen when I'm traveling to other places. And again, I believe it's due to the fact that you can create negative energy that affects your spirit, that affects your pineal gland, that affects your dimethyltryptamine or your DMT production while you're asleep. I mean, I think that there really is something to this, you know, even when you're going to places other than your. Than your own home or to other countries.

Absolutely.

Yeah. Well, I Want to. I want to ask you another question. Speaking of travel, do you, in addition to decluttering a hotel, do you do special things when you get into like a hotel or you travel? Because I know you speak and you know, you do a fair share of jet setting.

Oh, my goodness. I do. I do. I have a long list of things that I do when I get into a hotel room. Room. And you know, obviously you are out of your comfort zone. You don't have all of your little biohacks, unfortunately. But one of the main things I do is I take my water structure with me, which changes the structure of the water. Water back to the structure that it is in nature, which is more of a hexagonal instead of a grid like structure. So that comes out of your tap.

Now what do you use for that?

There's a water structure. It's about $500. And it's. What is the website? Nauticalaction technologies.com I think it is. Yeah. And you can read about the structure because you no longer need a filter, which is hard to really get your head around. But you have to check it out. And we have our whole house that goes through this water structure. And now so it changes the structure of the water back to its natural state.

Yeah, I know exactly. I know exactly what you're talking about. And I don't. We didn't talk about this before. I don't know if you know this, but my dad is one of the leading designers of structured water and energized water Systems in the U.S. oh, my God.

I had no idea.

Yeah, that's what he does. It's what he's done for the past five years. It's why I actually know a little bit about water is because this is what he does. He creates these type of units that again, he actually, he got on my case the other day because I published my blog post about how to biohack your hotel room. And I didn't have one of the things that he has in there, which is actually up in my refrigerator right now. And it's similar to what you described. It's this filter that you pour water into. Right. So you don't necessarily, like, you don't have to go underneath the sink of your hotel room and, you know, pull down your plant pants to make a plumber's crack and, you know, re plumb the hotel room. Instead you just pour the water into this structured water filter. And then it sounds like similar to you. In our home, we have like a whole house structured water filter, which is more or less and very simple. Speak series of glass beads, like a vortex that water passes through. So, yeah, the. The water gets its. Its electronic energy, its vibration back. So. So, yeah, being able to structure water on the go, though, is smart. It's a cool concept.

Yeah, absolutely. So we have two that we travel with because, like you said before, I am always on the road. Always. And I was getting so sick every time I would go away because I was out of my environment and I didn't have my little biohacks that I could take with me, and I would get stressed and overwhelmed about not having clean water and, you know, going to undo all of this great work that I've been doing. So we have a couple. I mean, they're $500 each. They're not cheap, but, you know, I have one, my husband has one, and we take them wherever we go. So that's definitely something that you need to look into. Also.

When I get into that is spending, though, I mean, like, I think the ones. The one that I use, like the little, like, it's called like a mini energizer, like a handheld energizer. I want to say that one's like, you know, it's somewhere between like 150 and 200 bucks. You just like, pour water into the bottom and then the. Or you pour it into the top, and then the water, like, flows out the bottom after you pour the water in the top.

I'll have to check that one out.

Yeah, you can also screw it to, like, shower heads, or you can screw it to, like, you know, like kitchen sink, stuff like that. So you can actually, you know, use as like a. Like a little portable filter. But yeah, I'll put. I'll put a link to it in the show notes if you want to check it out. I think it's. It's got a cheesy name. It's called the Hydro Energizer, but it actually seems to work. So you've got your water, you've got. Tell me about a couple other big things that you do when you go into a hotel room.

So if you saw me when I first walk into a hotel room, you would laugh. I'm kind of buzzing around like a little mad scientist. I unplug everything. So I unplug the tv, I unplug the. The alarm, the phone and everything. Literally everything. I unplug, pull them out of the wall. Like, I don't even turn them off. I pull them out of the wall. I open the windows and let in fresh Air. And I turn off the air conditioning because it dries me out and I wake up with a sore throat and dry eyes. So I make sure I turn that off. I sleep with the same silk eye mask that you have. And earplugs.

Sleep master sleep mask.

Oh, yeah. It is next level. Like it's beyond. And I have forgotten it once and I've ended up having to put a pillow over my head. And it's not the same. It's definitely not the same. So I block out the light at night as much as possible and I wear earplugs because there's always, you know, you know, the lifts. And I wear my blue blockers, my Swanies at night. I don't watch TV because, you know, it's very. We don't actually have. We have a. We have a monitor in our house here, but we don't have. You can't watch TV on it.

It's the same as us. We've got like a really cool monitor, but you can, you can put a DVD in it.

Yeah, exactly. That's what we've got. So our little boy, when he's here, he doesn't watch tv. And we very, very rarely watch tv. We'll occasionally watch a documentary or a movie once a month or something like that. But it's. I used to go into hotels and they always have these massive TVs at the bottom of the bed and it's very easy to kind of just put it on and fall back into that mindless numbing that the TV's doing. And I would put it on and I'm like, I'm not even watching this and it's just polluting my brain. So I always unplug. I always unplug that. Now.

Yeah, it's pushing information to you, right? Like, I would rather choose the information that's going to go into my head. Kind of like Sherlock Holmes or he didn't want Watson to tell him any more than he actually wanted to know. It's kind of like tv, right? Like, you could go to the Internet and you could pull up whatever, you know, like Hulu and watch a five minute clip of the best of the best of whatever. The American elections, which at the time we're recording happened tomorrow. So those are fresh on my mind. But, you know, rather than watching two hours of CNN where you just get whatever they decide to push you, along with the, you know, the 17 minutes of commercials that you'll see during that period of time. So, yeah, just the fact that TV chooses what it is that you're gonna watch for you. Makes me remiss to turn it on. Plus, the remote itself has more fecal matter on it than the actual toilet seat in a hotel. If anybody was curious about that.

That's disgusting. And have you tested that?

No. Somebody else has. I think it was. It was like Consumer Reports or some website, had a. Had a test of what the dirtiest thing in a hotel room was. And it's the TV remote, of all things. I think part of it is because they just don't clean it. It as well as they do the toilet seat. Right. Because it makes sense to clean a toilet seat, but some people just kind of forget about the remote. So. Interesting. You've got. You know, I recently published this article about. I called it 11 Ways to Biohack a Hotel Room. And you and I do a lot of the same things. We unplug everything. I don't turn off the ac, but I travel with like a portable air humidifier that you can just plug in. And you can get the ones that diffuse essential oils too to kind of like. Like kill two birds with one stone. But yeah, unplug everything. Unplug the alarm clock. Unplug everything behind the bed. I even bring one of those, like, Ethernet converters that lets you take the Ethernet cable that a lot of times they have at the front desk of a hotel and you could plug it into your computer.

And yeah, I do the same.

Turn the WI fi completely off. And then of course, there is the world famous trick to keep the light from coming through the crack. And the curtain curtains, you know that one, right?

Well, what I use is. I have. I don't know if you've seen women. A lot of women have those hair clips. And I clip the curtains together with a hair clip.

Nice. Yeah, I was gonna say I use the hanger from the closet and you put one side of the hanger on each part of the curtain and it keeps the light from streaming in at 5:30am or some other ungodly hour when you're. You're trying to sleep off jet lag. Well, this is a lot of fun stuff. I could geek out on this stuff for hours with you, but I've been taking copious notes to everything from the Air Oasis Air purifiers, to the vacuum cleaners, to the Drunk Tank Pink Book, and of course to another book called Mastering youg Mean Girl, Melissa's no BS Guide to Silencing youg Inner Critic and Becoming Wildly Wealthy, Fabulously healthy and Bursting With Love. How old is that book.

It's literally brand new this year. It's only been out and it was a number one bestseller here in Australia and New Zealand when it first launched at the start of this year. And it's not just for women. And I should really mention that. It's about. We all have that inner critic. We all have that fear based, egoic, limiting voice inside our head. The one that says we're not good enough or we're not smart enough or we can't do this. And it's about mastering that voice inside your head so that you can unlock your full potential and live the life of your dreams on your terms. So the book is for anyone. It's not just for women. But, you know, I do use a lot of female terminology, and I do call you beautiful the whole way through it.

All right, so my wife's gonna give you some really weird looks when Mastering your Mean Girl shows up on my bed. Stand next to what's up there right now. I think Bradfeld's book on venture capital, the Multi Orgasmic man, and then My Gratitude Journal are the three books there now. So we can throw Mastering youg Mean Girl in. I'll tell her you told me to.

I will definitely send that to you and Jessa for sure.

You should actually, I. You tell. Take it. Be a good, good Christmas present from Australia.

Yes.

Just be sure you sign it. Okay? I don't. I don't. I. I won't accept it unless it's signed by. By the famous Melissa Ambrosini.

Oh, I will definitely sign it for you. No worries.

Cool. I love it. All right, well, if you're listening in and you want access to the show, notes to Melissa's book, and she's got a really cool blog and website as well, and just a cool lifestyle, you can go to, to BenGreenfieldFitness.com Melissa. And over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com melissa again, M E L I S S A. You can access the show notes, her book, everything we've talked about, additional resources, and pretty much everything you need to biohack your own feng shui and transform your home into a little bit of a wellness sanctuary. So, Melissa, thanks for coming on the show and sharing this stuff with us.

Pleasure. Thank you so much for having Melissa.

All right, folks. Well, I'm Ben Greenfield, along with Melissa Ambrosini, signing out from BenGreenfieldFitness.com have a healthy week.

You've been listening to the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast. Go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com for even more cutting edge fitness and performance advice.