Sustainable Minds | PODCAST | Eva Vennari

This is A Sustainable Mind, episode 49.

Listen to yourself. Listen to others, but listen to yourself more. I came into this world with some ideas that I wished I had held on to longer. And I know that our parents and loved ones, they did what they thought was right by giving me advice that was different than what I had come to know. But I listened to them instead of listening to me, and it set me back a bit. So my part of my journey is overcoming programming from, from limited mindset.

Welcome to A Sustainable Mind, where we delve into the minds behind today's most impactful environmental campaigns, organizations, and startups, inspiring the environmental changemakers of tomorrow. I'm your host, Marjorie Alexander. Eva Vennari is an author and the founder of the Elevii Institute, where she empowers individuals and families, especially those with environmental sensitivities, to take control of their health through holistic strategies. Eva, welcome to the show.

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Before we get started in exactly what it is that you do, I would love it if you would give us a little bit of background as to how nature, the environment, sustainability played a role in your childhood growing up?

Absolutely none. Like, the awareness of whether or not to buy something based on its packaging or to recycle was something that I kind of grew up with. That maybe dates me a little bit, but as a total, society really wasn't into it. It wasn't a thing to think about until, you know, as I started to grow up into adulthood. You know, separating your cans from your newspaper wasn't a big thing.

So what was it that was kind of the, the light bulb moment? Was it a single moment or was it just something that you, you gradually came into based on where you were living or your job or what?

Yeah, it was, it was a gradual awareness. I remember when the city where I was born, the city put out this new trash can system where you were assigned a black trash can for your regular trash and then a blue trash can for your recycles. And I was like, what is this all about? you don't know quite where trash goes and you think somebody else deals with that, somebody takes care of it. But they were asking us to be more proactive. And that was probably the beginning part of realizing that, oh, there's other things going on outside of us that we can be a part of to make a difference. That's, that's, you know, that was interesting to me.

So what was it that you were doing professionally at the time or as a, as a young adult? What was kind of your career path before you got to Environmental health.

And that was so completely removed from what I do today. And it was interior design. I was studying and becoming an interior designer by trade that I actually didn't end up doing as a business. I got roped into the IT world, you know, working with computers and making them work. Clearly not a sustainable path. So, That my focus wasn't necessarily on it, but figuring out how to make a living. And that was early, early 20s, just trying to figure things out.

I'm in my early 30s now and I'm still trying to figure things out.

So. It may be an evolution that we're all trying to discover all the time and we think we have a handle on it and then it slowly slips away until we do it again. Yeah.

So explain to people what it is that you do now, kind of your title, and then maybe a little bit more detailed about what you do on a day-to-day basis for your clients.

Sure. I'm a founder of nutritional counseling, hair mineral analysis work, and my company name is The Elevate Institute. And what I do, it's very scientific, but it doesn't require a doctorate to do. It requires me taking a little bit of your hair. I sample it and then look at it through the eyes of minerals and find out what your body needs naturally to reverse the signs of aging, heal itself, and get better in a slow, steady progress. It's very holistic as opposed to the allopathic approach that we're all trained to do as a child of hunt down a symptom and kill it with some sort of remedy.

Mm-hmm. Let me ask you this.

Yeah.

One question that I, that I had initially when I found out about what you do was, does everyone need the same set of minerals or the same amount of minerals? Does it depend on where you live, your gender, your age? And then do you kind of give them notes based on that, or are we all kind of starting at the exact same baseline?

And we're not, which is the so amazing part. We think that when we're born, we're born perfectly. And whatever imbalances our mothers had, they are passed to us in the womb. And we're born almost as a carbon copy of, of her and our mineral imbalances and even our toxins that can pass through her to us. And then we spend our whole lives overcoming that based on environment. And while from city to city, You have some variation degree as to what kind of toxins could be in the water supply, in the air. For the most part, what sustains us as a human being, we have an ideal that is pretty much the same from person to person. So there's things that we want to get to in the body as far as levels and relationships of minerals that make us perform at a top function as opposed to just kind of eking out as much energy as we can through energy drinks and coffee and wine throughout the day. Yeah, there are some differences that come into play, including our weight, our age. But when it comes to what we're supplementing the body with and what we're eating right now and what we're doing, you know, habit-wise to take care of ourselves, that's defined by the imbalances that are revealed in the hair mineral analysis. So it becomes very scientific and exact.

And when you're talking about the imbalances, give us a clue as to all of the ways in which these various minerals get into and then leave the body, because I'm not— I'm sure, I'm sure that there's a few more In addition to like eating and defecating and urinating. I mean, I'm sure that there's more ways, but I don't— maybe sweat.

I don't know. Well, this is all part of the awareness because, you know, I didn't think there was anything more than that either until, you know, you can learn a little bit more about it, but you don't know the degree of it until much later as you start to delve into this whole subject. But yeah, we can— we breathe in Minerals and toxins and chemicals. We eat them, we drink them. They sit against our skin all day long. So think about our laundry detergents and softeners, right? And even the cleaning products that they use at the dry cleaner. And our skin is the most— you know, it's the largest organ in our body and it does absorb. It takes longer to absorb, but anything that you put on your skin, it does go into our system very quickly, in fact. So Making sure that we live chemical-free. I'm going off on a tangent. But yeah, it's a perfect tangent to go off on, trust me. Yeah, and it's amazing to me how many people do not. They go, oh, I didn't even think about that when I mentioned it. Think about all the clothes that sit against our skin all day long, and we're just, you know, it's a constant exposure unless you want to sit around naked, and then you're exposed to whatever's in the air. So it's like your choice. Yeah, so touching Anything, breathing it in, eating it, drinking it. So those are, those are the major, major ways that I can think of that, that we are exposing ourselves to all the various different things. And here's the interesting part. When it comes to the imbalances or the toxins or the chemicals that are in our body, every moment the body is trying to maintain this homeostasis, is trying to get us to a place of not just survival. And sometimes that is all it can do, but it wants to thrive. It wants to give you its best. And if we can trust that, Then the rest of this information seems a little bit more natural. So whatever the body takes in, whether it's food or water, all of those things we just mentioned, it does not— the body does not distinguish with judgment, hey, this is good for me, hey, this is bad for me, and then sort them out. You know, just like— this is interesting how it relates to our first part of the conversation. These things didn't happen up at the dump. We had to do this at our home, separate the bottles, the cans, and the regular trash.

Mm-hmm.

So the body doesn't distinguish The regular trash with the things that can be used. It just says, oh, okay, I'm short on what I really prefer to use, you know, as far as recycled goods and, you know, whatever, and— or things that break down naturally. But I can use these other things that are considered toxins by judgment as replacements, like a spare tire works on a car, same type of aspect. And the body will use that. Now, your performance will be lower, but it will use whatever it has at its hand, and then it either stores— if it doesn't have the energy to get rid of. So you could be your own garbage receptacle and carry around. And that's why people tend to not lose weight as easily. Anyways, this is a much bigger conversation, but in brief, what that body does, it gets rid of the excess, of course, in our— through the fecal matter, through the urine. But we also sweat it out, not during exercise necessarily. It's more like if you go into a sauna or on a hot day when you're relaxing in the sun, that's when your body heals and it starts to get rid of toxins and other things. You breathe it out. You can breathe out toxins first thing in the morning. The body tries to get rid of and clear out any toxins in your lungs. That's one of the first parts of the body that, you know, during the circadian cycle of the day that it starts to clear out. What we're measuring is in our soft tissue, which is the hair, and that's the hair test. So we can see how the body is processing out all of those things, just like there is a record on tree rings throughout the year. We can see you know, how much water is in the environment, how much CO2 is in the environment, we can kind of see similar things in our hair strands. And so yeah, it's measured.

So are scientists going to be pulling our hair from— well, of course, these days most people are buried or cremated or whatever. So maybe they don't have public access to that. But I mean, so our hair really could be used kind of as tree rings or as Those, those cores that they get from the Arctic to show the level of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the course of millions of years. That's actually a really interesting anthropological thing that I didn't, didn't think of until now.

I would actually really enjoy if that study existed. Maybe it doesn't, but wouldn't it be cool? And hair does eventually decompose, but it's a slow decomposer, right? You know, there, I think the, some of the pharaoh mummies still have hair on them. So we could really go back in some time and seriously see what's going on.

That's really interesting. I'm gonna have to look into that.

Yeah, I would love to see that. Yeah.

You know, and something that we spoke about last week when we first met was, well, one question that I had is I'd heard this and I didn't know if it was an old wives' tale or an urban myth or something that know, it's actually real, but I heard that metals could not be expelled from the body, like at all. Like mercury, once it's in there, you know, you can't get rid of it. And everybody's freaking out about mercury and other heavy metals. And, um, for instance, I love seafood.

Wow.

Um, that's probably gonna be, be my, my last thing that I rip from my cold, dead fingers, you know, on my way to being a, a vegan. But, um, you know, I, I mean, that is something that I worry about and I'm, you know, I'm eventually hopefully going to to have children. And so it's just something that's constantly on my mind. If we know that we're full of bad stuff, how do we— how do we get rid of it?

Well, and that's precisely the myth that I live through every single day with my clients, is debunking that myth. I see it happening all the time. And when I go from their initial test— and when you're on a program like nutritional balancing, you want to update the test and kind of see what's going on metabolically with the person. So every 4 months, I get to see an update. What's going on? And if the body is receiving— and this is— this is just the common sense of it. It doesn't require, you know, serious long-term medical science to— to study this particular, you know, thing that I do. It— it really is if you give the body the minerals that it prefers—

Uh-hmm.

And that would mean, you know, quality chelated minerals. Chelated means easily absorbed into our storage areas of our body. It maintains that pH balance that we are so desperate to achieve. And if you give the body those minerals again based on your hair test, then the body knows exactly what to do with those minerals as they come into the body. And it goes, I know right where this goes. And it replaces— it pulls out the toxic metal or the chemical or corrects that imbalance, whatever it is, and then starts the process of dumping it. We call it— that's the industry term. We dump a toxic metal or a chemical. And I can see mercury coming out. So I had high levels of mercury also. This is common. I had uranium toxicity, copper toxicity, nickel toxicity, mercury toxicity, among other things. Cadmium was a big one too, but I could see it. And it took about a year for my body to get to the point where it was ready to dump the toxic metals out of my brain. I mean, it caused foggy thinking and issues with being able to concentrate, all these, among other things that it was going to cause if it had stayed in my brain. And you could see the level of mercury on the previous test was much lower. And then on the new test, it shot up. Well, that means the body's getting rid of it, right? So if you think about the conversation we just had a minute ago.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. The body doesn't distinguish good or bad. It just goes, hey, are you needed here anymore? Can we get rid of you? Do I have the energy to kick you out? And then it does. When it— when it does, when it has the energy, it says, okay, you're out. And you can see it come out in the— in the hair. And in the nails, that's the soft tissue. That's where we can measure it. But meanwhile, it's coming out every other way too. We can sweat it out, we can pee it out. Yeah.

You know what I've noticed? Okay, so you brought up nails, and this is another little tangent I'm going to go down. But some people, including myself, and I've had this happen over time, and I'm like, what is that? But every once in a while, I'll have like this line on a couple nails that grows out. And I'm like, that's not typically there. And it grows out and it grows out. And then eventually, when I When it gets to the end and I cut my nails, there's no longer a line there. So what you're saying is that there was something in my body that was being dumped and it showed up in my nails and probably in my hair, although I wasn't looking there. And now, and now it's, I don't know, back to whatever a good level is. So there is nothing of that type to dump. Is that—

Well, there's nothing in that layer. So our metabolism— and I'm so excited, I'm smiling and I'm almost laughing that you bring this up because this is exactly where I want you know, the mindset to go. I spent years covering up the signs of illness, not realizing it. And that's what I wrote my book about, you know, Owning Your Beauty.

Right.

But it was all about looking at my nails and seeing there's ridges, which are the vertical ones, and then there's wavy lines that, that mean something else. And then you have the little white dots on the nails that people don't know what that means either. It's like, okay, what's that all about? And it eventually grows out and then, you know, we cut it off. But yeah, each one of those things means something. And it indicates, yeah, the body was getting rid of something. Usually it's related to— and each, each one of those I just mentioned are related specifically to a nutrient mineral that the body actually needs. But we, through those imbalances, carry pockets of bio-unavailable forms of those nutrient minerals. And as the layers of metabolism— because they're like an onion, right?

Right.

You have different layers of metabolism we build up. Over time to compensate for a previous imbalance. The body's trying to create something new. If you think about how a pearl is created, you know, the— the oyster kind of throws up on the little piece of sand to make it more— the body is constantly throwing up new pieces of metabolism layers, you know, to create something that's more comfortable for the body. That's really the best analogy I can come up with. And you can reverse that sign to get to a more ideal foundation. And as you do that, you're healing one layer and then it falls away and now you're revealing a new layer. That's why I call the program Reveal. And in that new layer, you're, you're exposing the old imbalances that had maybe that— in your case, you're talking about a line in your nail. So that could be a bio-unavailable form of calcium the body had to get rid of. And so it'll show up as a moment of time in your nails and, and more than likely in your hair also. Wow. As evidence that it needed to get rid of it. Yeah, I know. Isn't that cool?

My mind's kind of blown right now. I'm like, I'm like, I just— how do I, how do I learn all the things about this right now? Through osmosis, through my headphones.

No, you can't. You can't. Yeah, just a little.

Wow, this is awesome. This is awesome. Okay, so One more question. Back to the mercury thing. And I know that we talked about this before, you and I, just one-on-one.

Yes.

But can you— and then of course, this is going to open up a whole other conversation. You were mentioning something about seeing where your fish was caught on your tuna and how that— so, so let me backtrack for a second. All seafood is bad. It has mercury. Don't eat it. You know, freak out moment. And of course, you know, I mean, that's— we're not taking into consideration the animal rights aspect. and all of that stuff. But just from, from a nutrient and mineral side of the conversation, some fish and some tuna does include more or less mercury based on what?

On the size of the fish.

Okay.

And, and where they are in relationship— like shellfish, they're just naturally going to be very, very high in mercury levels.

Right.

The smaller the fish, say a sardine is going to have less in it and a smaller-sized tuna is going to have less in it than a larger tuna. You know, everything starts out as a smaller form of itself, just like us, and it grows. And as it grows, it deals with the same— those animals deal with their animals just like us, biology, right? So they're dealing with the same imbalances that we are, but they're not going to go on a nutritional balancing program. So Which— that just occurred to me and it was just so really funny in my head. But anyway, yeah, I had this idea and I have been telling my clients for 8 years, do not eat tuna. And I went to— I go every year to the Natural Products Expo, the one here in Anaheim, California. And I stood in front of the American Tuna booth and I looked at them with kind of, please help me figure this out. I said, I tell all of my clients— I didn't even introduce myself. I said, I tell all of my clients not to eat tuna. Because it has too much mercury in it. And the owner of the company comes over and he just started giving— he gave me a monologue, probably 5 minutes long, very emotionally delivered. And it was awesome. And it was full of all of this information about exactly that, the size of the tuna, where it's caught, whether it's— if you think about the layers of the ocean, they have the top layer, then you have, you know, you've heard of deep sea fishing, right? Those require different kinds of fishing techniques. So he says, look for line-caught tuna, not deepwater line tuna, and not the line hook. They have the circular hooks that go on a long line. They call it longline fishing. You don't want those. You want a single— like a couple of guys on the back of a boat. Really, this is what happens. And I've seen video of it. They had it playing there. It was almost like A River Runs Through It with the fly fishing, you know, the single cast.

Mm-hmm.

It would go out there and they come back with a tuna on the hook and the tuna would fly Right. And then they were off again to get another tuna. And these tuna were smaller. They were smaller in size. And he said the most important thing to realize is when you're looking at the mineral content of your tuna, in particular, he was talking about tuna, but this is true for any seafood product. The higher selenium levels— I don't know who tests the selenium levels on all the other fish, but he tests it. They test it in American tuna. And he's like, if you have a higher level of selenium, than you do of mercury, then your body is going to automatically, just like your body does now, right, your body will automatically get rid of— it won't absorb the mercury, in other words, is what it comes down to.

Mm-hmm.

So it was very eye-opening to me. So I started talking about, okay, how can we tell about the tuna? And he says, well, you can look right on the can. You flip over any one of our cans and you can see the date. the time it was caught, the boat name, not the name itself, but the number of the boat. And maybe this— maybe the size of the fish or something was all in, but they're all cataloged. And you can imagine the amount of data that they're taking in in order to get this information to us. But it's printed on the bottom of the cans, and then on the outside, the circumference, you know, where you see the label. Next, next to the word tuna of some sort, whatever that label is, it'll say how the fish was caught. If there's nothing there, Then you can suspect that it's probably deep line fishing or longline, right? And so you can kind of rule that one out, but look for the labels that have, you know, line-caught tuna.

Wow.

On the side there. Yeah.

You know, I wish that there was that amount or that level of detail in terms of, of where the food came from for the beef industry and the pork industry. And the poultry industry. I mean, do you— can you imagine the impact that that would have if it were on the back of every single package of meat?

That would be awesome. And I know that there were social pushes to get that information more readily available to us in the hands of a consumer while we're sitting there at the grocery store trying to figure out what to buy. Should we buy this packet or that packet and read the labels between the two and say, I've made an educated decision?

Exactly.

And we have been continuing— this is a political issue really, is we've been continually blocked. Even things like our grass-fed beef are no longer accurately labeled as truly grass-fed. Yeah, that's a whole, that's a whole nother political arena. It really angers me. And so I try to resource my— it's bad to say, but I try to resource as much of my meats from other countries who do still use a high standard and do label their packaging where it comes from. They don't go down to it was this cow named, you know, Mary Jo or whatever. That's a little morbid. That's my sense of humor. But, um, yeah, it doesn't label it that deeply, but it does say whether it was grass finished, which means that the cow that's eaten on grass on range its whole life, as opposed to just grass fed a portion of their life and then maybe finished with regular grain. So anyways, there's all these things to talk about. Wow.

That is so interesting. I do want to get into your book a little bit just because I, I want for people to be able to learn more about what it is that you do and what it is that you teach. Even if they aren't necessarily interested in becoming clients, but just learning more about these issues in general. Tell us a little bit about that.

Sure. The book is called Owning Your Beauty, and it's the 10 most common ways we cover up signs of illness that leave us confused about our premature aging. And it's a reflection of the history of my healthcare. I went through my 20s and 30s not knowing. I was one chasing— so if you split my journey into 2, one leg of my journey was all about going to the doctor and finding out Can you help me? What's going on? I need tests. I need to— I need to find out why I don't feel so good. And then on the other leg of the journey, I was simply saying, I want to look better.

Yeah.

I want to— I want to not feel the pain in the muscles and, you know, and the knots here. And I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia at some point, and it was just very difficult to feel good. But I also wanted to look good because I noticed that my skin was turning a form of gray I didn't like. I didn't know what that was about. So I was looking into Facials and different types of makeups and then nails weren't growing. So I had to get my nails done if I wanted to, to have decent looking nails, if I wanted to have them long. There were all these different things I was doing to try to look better. But really, it was the same journey.

Yeah.

And that's what the book does is it bridges the gap between those 2 worlds so that we realize what we are doing. Go ahead and make yourself look better, make yourself feel better. Just be aware. And it's all about raising that awareness and being that person who's in control of their healthcare as opposed to getting— putting into the hands of other people. And the book does have a generic nutritional balancing program that it can benefit most anyone. In the back of the book, it's part of it. So you get some, some really good information about what I did, how it worked for me, and then what you can do to try it on your own.

Excellent.

So it's a really easy way.

Cool. So anyone that's interested in getting the book Owning Your Beauty, Eva has all of this information, including blog articles, many of which are really awesome, the ones that I've had a chance to read. And you can get your hands on that at theelevateinstitute.com. And you can also get a copy of the first chapter of Eva's book, Owning Your Beauty, by going to theelevateinstitute.com/freegift.

Yeah, it's an example. The very first chapter of the book is about the thyroid dysfunction that I experienced. And I had hypothyroidism. I was diagnosed with that. I was on Synthroid. But a lot of people doing the same thing is that two-pronged approach. We go to the doctor to get our Synthroid, and then we're also doing these beauty treatments that are covering up signs of illness unknowingly. So the thyroid assessment, you can do that yourself and self-assess. That's why it's called Assess Yourself with the free thyroid assessment on the website at theelevateinstitute.com/freegift.

Awesome. Very, very cool. I look forward to reading the entire book. These— it's so interesting how we— kind of the phases of noticing or realizing something in your life. I thought as a kid that nature was something out there that you drive to. Oh, yes, me too. And really, nature is all around us. And environmental aspects, it was the pollution and the water. But like you mentioned earlier in the conversation, it's the air that you breathe. It's the chemicals that are touching your body every day. Like there are just these levels and you get deeper and deeper and deeper, and there seems to be a never-ending pool of new things to learn to better your health, to better your environment. It just seems like the list is never-ending. So I certainly look forward to reading your book because this is definitely an aspect of environmental health in general that I'd never, I'd never really thought of before.

Well, it's a deep subject and if you've ever Googled alternative medicine, the overwhelm that comes with that and there is a lot to learn. There are still many things coming out science-based and also riding on the backs of hype with people who find something new and great in a new berry or in a new melon or try this, try that. And I try to circumvent the hype and I try to circumvent the trends and I go with what I know has been working long-term and it just took me a while to get back to grandmother's wisdom really is what this is, and then tapping into your body's natural ability to heal through the hair analysis. It just makes sense. And so I would say look for things that make sense to you to follow that.

Awesome. So again, head on over to theelevateinstitute.com/freegift for the first chapter of that book. Take a drink of water.

Water is good.

I have— what is this thing? I think it's a 32-ounce Yeah, 32-ounce bottle. And so I'm like, I just need to drink 2 of these a day. So that's kind of how I keep up with my— I suppose I probably should be drinking 3, but if I get to 2, I'm happy.

2 is better than most. It's kind of like you shoot for the stars, you hit the moon, you're doing pretty good. And the, the only thing that I tell everyone, and it's the hardest habit to break, was drink between the meals, not with them.

Now, why is that?

Because we want to support the body's natural digestion and that's all about increasing or sustaining the natural enzymes and acids in our stomach. And it's there in a certain— what do you wanna call it? Like potency. And if you add too much water, it dilutes it. And now you've compromised your level of digestion. And you're getting less minerals and less nutrients out of the food that you just ate. So rule of thumb, 30 minutes before you eat. I know, right? 30 minutes before you eat, and then wait 30 minutes after you eat to drink.

Okay, well, okay, wait a sec. So that has to do with water, but I can tell— I might be making a strong assumption here, but I think you enjoy wine. So with your meals, I mean, like, yes. So really?

No. No, I drink them out. Yeah, I drink them separately. So, you know, with wine especially, if you're drinking wine on an empty completely— now there's difference between having an empty stomach and one that's in the middle of digesting. So digestion occurs about for 15 to 20 minutes after you eat, and then it's a slow process of dumping that food into the small intestines. That takes a while. So I drink after I eat and—

Okay.

Yeah, that's really it. I make sure to drink any alcohol that I— as long as I've eaten something, and then I wait.

Wow.

Drink.

Okay. Interesting. Interesting. Every time I'm like, okay, I've got, I've got the big picture. Totally. Yeah. I get— then I get to something, you say something, and I'm like, wait a second. And it's like, so simple. Like, everybody eats, everybody drinks water. So, okay. Anyway.

Yeah.

I see you and I are going to have a lot of conversations in the future.

There's so much to learn.

A lot of little conversations in the future. But now we're going to get into our 7 sustainable questions right after this. Over the last few years, I have received hundreds of questions and worked with dozens of you that are facing challenges making earth-conscious decisions in your everyday life. I'll admit it is not easy, especially if you feel like you're doing it alone. I work with earth-conscious millennials who feel they can't afford to go green, and they feel guilty. I help them live a more earth-conscious lifestyle while staying on budget and still totally enjoying their lives. I am offering a Go Green and Thrive Breakthrough Consultation where together you and I will discover the number one thing that stops you from reaching your green goals. And trust me, it is not what you think. We're also going to talk about how going green can save you thousands of dollars a year and improve your health. And you're going to walk away with a success plan for going green while staying within your budget and enjoying your life every step of the way. I only have a few spots available each month, so sign up at asustainablemind.com/thrive. This consultation is for you if you're having challenges going green while staying within your budget, if you think that you know what you should be doing, but you just don't have the time, or if going green is something you are committed to, but the process is just overwhelming. If that's you, fill out an application at asustainablemind.com/thrive and let's get started on this journey together. Okay. We're going to get into our 7 sustainable questions here.

Okay.

So can you share with us one longstanding habit that you believe has significantly improved your life?

A long-standing habit. I would say this one we just broached about water is probably the best-serving one ever. And people, you know, think that's a no-brainer. I'll just drink my water. And it comes down to the type of water. It comes down to when we drink our water. So the habit is to not drink water with my meals.

Is there a blog— is there a blog article on that on your site?

Because now I just want to learn more and why and, you know, If there isn't, and if there isn't, I have an article about it and I will post it as a blog, so it'll be there. Perfect.

Perfect. Thank you. I'm the type of person that like, I'm like, I believe you, but I need to know why. Right? Like, that's— I don't know. It's just a weird quirk about me, I suppose.

Okay.

What is one new habit?

The new habit.

Well, I think it's important.

Yeah. The more we know, I think it makes us more responsible. In other words, our conscience is going to get in the way. And some people call it a feeling of guilt, you know, when we don't do something that we know that we're supposed to. And there's a lot of heaviness and, you know, blame and shame associated with that. But I'm just thinking, if you know you could do something to help yourself and everyone else around you, and then you don't do it, Maybe you should feel guilty. I'm just being—

Don't make me laugh while I'm drinking water. Oh my goodness.

Bad timing.

Almost did a spit take there.

But the question was, what am I doing? What new habit, right? Is that what it was? That's terrible. My new habit, I'm getting out there and in sun. So, I tell this to everybody, but I work from my home, which is also very sustainable. My commute is down the stairs.

Yeah.

That's awesome. I love that. And I have freedom to move about, but I'm out getting sun in the parks. I'm outside using the parks and the public communities, and I bring my blanket and listen to podcasts for the hour that I'm out underneath the sun and just enjoying Join that because it just, it brings us energy. It's so good for us.

Now, did you say that you listen to podcasts for that hour just because I'm interviewing you, or is it actually—

It's actually, it's actually what we do. My boyfriend and I, we go out, get our blankets, and we plan to go, you know, before a certain time of day, and we put our blankets out there, and whatever he's listening to, whatever I'm listening to, we'll talk about what we want to hear, you know, as far as subject matter, and then hit play and There we are for about an hour.

All right. Okay. Well, as a bonus question on the sort of ish the topic that you're, that you're all about, what is a good podcast that you might want to suggest for people that are wanting to tackle like the environmental but also the health aspect of things? Where do those things come together?

Oh my goodness. Can I be self-serving?

Yes, you can be self-serving.

I'm a member of a group called Connected Women of Influence, and they have their own radio show, a podcast channel called Women Lead Radio. And they've invited me to be a new host with them. And I'll be hosting the show Owning Your Health, where I'll be interviewing all kinds of practitioners, both from traditional medicine and alternative medicine, so that you can learn more and therefore have better decision-making powers when it comes to what it is that you want to do to feel better about Your body.

Cool. And that's Owning Your Health. And that's going to be on iTunes or wherever you find your podcasts, or where can we find that?

Exactly. On iTunes, it is— let's see, it's called Owning Your Health, but it's under the umbrella of Women Lead Radio.

Gotcha.

Cool.

And of course, as always, this will all be linked up in the show notes page for this episode. Just go to asustainablemind.com/049.

Okay.

What is one item or resource that you've acquired or started using in the last year that has helped you live a more earth-conscious lifestyle?

One, one of the modalities that I just— it gives me the tingles whenever I talk about it— is earthing. Have you ever heard of that?

I have heard of that, but it's like years ago, and I was definitely not as much of a hippie back then as I am now. So I think I kind of, I think I kind of was like, eh, not interested in that.

Yeah. And this is one of those other grandmother, you know, uh, wisdoms that we don't realize the power of. And we have isolated ourselves from the planet, the earth, just the ground itself with tennis shoes, right? Neoprene soles and with wood on our floor and our, in our houses, you know, we're up off the ground, but we used to in Ages of old and ancient civilizations, there's proof that we used to sleep on or in pits in the ground. And this was the natural body. It's just— there's something about it so that the earth has a negative charge to it and the body, we build up the opposite, you know, the positive, and it becomes inflammation. You've heard of inflammation, right?

Yeah.

We carry it with us all the time. But if we spent 20 minutes. Again, under the sun and wet grass or, you know, our feet on wet grass at the sand where the water laps up onto the wet sand there. You get this amazing feeling in the body within 3 seconds. The energy neutralizes and sets the body into a state of healing. And doing that for 20 minutes a day has made all the difference. And you don't have to go out to do that. You can You could buy an earthing pad, and earthing.com is where I get mine. But you can buy sheets and pillows and pads and all this stuff. But it's a great way.

You did it again.

Yeah, I did. Okay.

You did it again. Okay, wait a second. So, so you're telling me, okay, the earth has a negative charge. I know that. The body has a positive charge. I know that. And then there's this inflammation aspect and they are connected. How are they connected? Why are they— maybe that's not important. Maybe I should just say, if you go do it, you'll have less inflammation. Should I stop there? Should I ask you?

No, it's a great conversation. And I think the more we know, the better, right? This is my motto. So yes, as the info— we're meant to— we came from the earth. This is my belief. And we're meant to connect to Gaia and the earth energy and the physicalness of her. So if we keep ourselves too separate, then yeah, we build up a positive charge in our bodies and that basically is inflammation. So I'll give you a little story that kind of goes with this. My mother had—

Sure.

She had arthritis and the kind that was osteoarthritis, right? The little— the knuckles start to bulge. And I gave her an earthing pad and I says, okay, Mom, you sit down and you read 20, at least 20 minutes a day in front of the TV, right? She goes, yeah, yeah, I do that. And I says, okay, here's the pad. I'm going to plug it in. I want you to put your bare feet on it for 20 minutes every day. And she goes, okay, all right, fine. And we had gone on 6 months or so and seeing each other and visiting and all that stuff. And we were on the phone and she starts— she just kind of got into a complaint mode. And she's like, what am I putting my feet on this pad for again? And I go, well, tell me, how is your arthritis? And there was a little bit of a pause and she had to think about it for a second. She goes, well, I'm not having any pain. I said, that's why you're putting your feet on the pad.

Oh my, okay, okay.

So too much buildup of those positive charge, you know, when it doesn't have a place to release. So connecting to the planet gives it an opportunity, a conduit to release. You know, we become more in tune.

So, so this— oh my gosh, I— how much time do we have?

Okay, so, so I'm—

and I'm sure I'm sure it impacts so much more than just inflammation, right? Like—

Oh yeah, yeah.

I'm wondering if that— and, and I, I of course will do— I'll probably spend an hour later on today just researching this one topic specifically. But are there— do you know of any studies that have done, uh, been done about how earthing helps, uh, lessen anxiety, uh, decision fatigue, which we all have these days? It's insane. Yeah, depression, just other common— I don't want to say mood disorders, but kind of, of that just everyday hamster wheel thing that most people are dealing with.

Yeah, the overwhelm of all of those different moving parts. I want to say that when I ordered— and this is, this is what's been happening with every order I've, I've placed with them— with earthing.com, you get a book, and in that book Talks about their studies, who have used the product and kind of what they have discovered from it. And I want to say that in that book, there are additional resources that list actual studies in there. I don't have them off the top of my head, but yes, I believe they have been done.

Okay. Okay. So much to learn. So much to learn. Okay, we're gonna get back. We're gonna get back on track here. They say that there is a silver lining in every good struggle. What is one silver lining that you've experienced from a difficult time in your journey?

I would say, and I used to say this a lot, I'm blessed with being ill young. And I started, yeah, I started to become very ill that I really was aware that I was ill by around the age of 20. I ended up with scarlet fever and I was told I was infertile and I had The beginnings of chronic fatigue that went undiagnosed for more than 10 years. So I feel really blessed that I was able to experience those things at a young age and move through them and be the— my own billboard for recovery on all those things that the doctors were telling me, I'm sorry, Eva, we don't know. We don't know what is wrong. We don't know why this is happening. We know we can give you an antidepressant. We know that we can give you an anti-inflammatory. But we really don't know why you're creating fibroids or all these other things. And so that journey, I think, of having the personal, the firsthand experience of the frustration, the not being heard, not being validated by what we consider to be our saviors when it comes to health, great to use them for other things than healing. And where I found healing is now what I'm able to share with everyone else. And so that's what I'm most grateful for. That's the silver lining.

Wow, that's absolutely fantastic. And that is so interesting. Blessed to be sick young. Whoo, that's, that's— yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot wrapped up in that, that could be unpacked. Of course, that's another conversation. And but, but also, you know, I mean, of course, there's the, the amount of maturity that comes from that. And, you know, wanting to question Your sources when the rest of us might take what they say at face value. And that's absolutely what's going to help me. But also, because you're young, your body actually has a chance to recuperate, and then you can go on and have a healthy and full life after that. It's not while you're in decline, and what comes after is, you know, you're, you're in like the, the third phase of your life where everything's kind of downhill anyway. I mean, of course you, you don't believe in that because your book is so awesome. Yeah. Okay. That's me projecting my crap onto everybody. Sorry, guys.

Yeah. My dad, he started the program at a late life and when he started having heart palpitations and I stopped him and I said, I know you've had resistance to this, but I am coming over. I am taking a sample of your hair and you are getting on the program. Because I was I was scared. You're not gonna go away without a fight. And we got him— let's see, we is me and the mouse in my pocket. He started to do the tests, and about a year and a half in, he hadn't grown hair on the top of his head since I was born at the age of, you know, his age of 40. And he started to grow little sprouts of hair, and the hair on his arms started to grow back. And he says, I've got more energy. And he's building furniture now, and he's going traveling. Yeah.

Awesome.

Doing some great things.

Well, at any age, it's like, wow, Martin, tell us what you really think. Well, it's so interesting, you know, I, I, I— so I lost both my grandfathers in the last couple years, and, you know, watching that their, their mind be pretty much fully intact until the day that they weren't here, but their body completely Broke down. And my grandmothers, on the other hand, still with us. I'm very blessed in that way. And their minds are just not with us physically. They're, they're great. So it's, you know, when I have conversations with people about, you know, the effect, the effects of sugar and the sugar industry, or, or, you know, the things that we're talking about in this conversation and just being so thankful that I live in the time that I live in to, to know and learn about these things and that information can be passed because at a point, not that it's completely too late, but I don't know, I, I do have a lot of, of, of fear around, you know, getting to the point where it's too late to turn back, you know?

Yeah. Well, especially when, yeah, you've lost your, your mental, yeah, your consciousness of, of being aware of what it is that you're able to do for yourself. Yeah. And then you're in the hands of those around you to take care of Right. That, I think, is probably too late. But anytime before that, I say, take it into your own hands. And that's why I'm such an advocate for the integrity of listening to your body.

Absolutely. And speaking of taking—

Do it now.

Yes, please do it right now. And speaking of taking, taking matters into your own hands, what is one internet resource that you find helpful, you personally find helpful, something that you go to every once in a while to to learn more about a specific topic. What is one resource that you can share with our listeners that would be beneficial for them as well?

Well, I think this is where I, I would repeat and just start with something simple like earthing.com, and that can open up doors of possible ways that we have forgotten. And it's really about interest because what is, what is the most interesting thing to you? And then starting with just that little bit of Well, that intrigues me, and then letting, letting that unfold a little bit into finding out more details. But, and that's kind of where one of the places that I was early on pointing to, but over time it just became books and resources and learning to understand my own intuition and lots of books. Oh wow, lots of books.

Yes, please. That is our next question. What is a book that you would recommend for sustainable minds out there?

Oh gosh, there's, there's a couple of them. And I have everything kind of very cerebral with me. I love to think about things. And then dropping into the body is kind of secondary. It has been, but I love the conversations that authors such as Gregg Braden are having. Dr. Joe Dispenza, How to Change Your Mind, How to Change Your Body Through through changing your mind, meditations. Greg Braden has this one book, The Secrets of Lost Modem of Prayer, talking about communal efforts. You know, what can we do together to bring more peace to the planet? Which of course, the more peaceful you can be, the more homeostasis your body can achieve. And therefore that activates the healing process and how you can create your own miracles. I mean, all of these things are such great interest to me. And one book leads to the next book, you know, about that. And what's interesting is that all leads to abundance. And so one of the books I'm in the middle of right now is called How Rich People Think. Great book talking about, you know, the middle class versus the world class and how they think. And a lot of that has to do with these things. It sounds like it's all about money, but it's not. It's, it's all about, you know, the ways of thinking that brings us to the next level of life.

Wow.

Yeah. Yeah.

I, that's a, that is a great way of thinking about that. All the people that have recommended that book have never put it that way. And now I'm going to put it near to the top of my reading list because of that endorsement. Because in my mind, I'm like, okay, it's like, I need, yeah, yeah. I need to get my, my, my, my income together. I need to get my finances together. Great. I'll go read this book, but now you've helped me understand it in a slightly different way. So, hmm.

Ah.

And finally, if you could give your 10-year-old self any piece of advice, What would it be?

Oh, listen to yourself. Listen to others, but listen to yourself more. I came into this world with some ideas that I wished I had held on to longer. And I know that our parents and loved ones, they did what they thought was right by giving me advice that was different than what I had come in to know. But I listened to them instead of listening to me, and it set me back a bit. So my part of my journey is overcoming the programming from, from limited mindset. So listen to yourself.

Good. Good.

Yeah.

So anyone that is interested in checking out the Elevate Institute, checking out all of the amazing blog articles she's written, please visit theelevateinstitute.com. And anyone that is interested in checking out Eva's book, go to theelevateinstitute.com/book. And as always, any of these other resources that we've mentioned, the books, the research, which I'll probably do a little bit more of on my own and then post some of the articles that I've found on the show notes page for this episode, go to asustainablemind.com/049 for the show notes page on this exact episode. And I want to ask you if you have any final words or parting pieces of guidance to leave us with.

Well, because I question everything, I'm known as the healing rebel, and I have to say this more like loud and clear: be your own advocate.

Hey there, Sustainable Minds. If you want to grab the resources from today's episode, including all of the articles Eva has written and her new book and upcoming podcast, please visit asustainableminds.com. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll catch you next time on A Sustainable Mind.