Recharge Your Energy with Dr. Jenny Tufenkian | Wellness Sherpa with Jenn Payeur

Welcome to the Wellness Sherpa Podcast where we engage with passionate leaders, holistic thinkers and disruptors who courageously share their personal journey, mission and wisdom with you. Together, we create a safe space to empower you to live your best, most vital life. Thanks for being here. Well, hello everyone. Jen Payer here. I am absolutely thrilled to be with Dr. Jenny Tarfankian too. Fiance too Fancian. Thank you. I knew I was going to mess it up even though I wrote it down and you said you could go by Dr. Jenny, which makes it easier. Just absolutely thrilled to have you here in the Wellness Sherpa podcast.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited for our talk today.

Well, I'm excited to find you. How have we been in the same group and not been able to find each other? So I guess everything in divine timing, right?

Exactly.

Your beautiful flowers there.

Thank you.

So Dr. Jenny specializes in many things. She's a naturopathic doctor. I love the name of your practice in Joyful Health. It's beautiful and it totally resonates with, with my values. And why don't you share a little bit more about what you've recently been focusing on in the last four years and a little bit about your journey and how you ended up here.

Sure, absolutely. Thank you so much again for having me. So as many of us and I know with your story as well, it's sort of like your, my work right now, what I've been focusing on really chose me. I've been working with people who have complex chronic disease for decades. I've been in practice for over 20 years and I was clinical faculty at the school and the front desk always knew they could send their most challenging patients to me. And the reason why is because I had my own really health crisis. When I was a second year medical student, I figured I was on top of the world, had passed my clinical boards with flying colors and decided it was time to have a second child. Because my first child was sleeping through the night and ended up that the universe had different plans. I ended up having a series of miscarriages and one of those was at 17 weeks where I hemorrhaged, passed out and had to be rushed to the hospital. And it became one of those dark night of the soul situations. I had lost five other people really close to me that year. I had a young child. I was in medical school. There was no time. My friends would go meditate and I'm like, I don't have time for that. Like, I just kind of like, you know, I'm all my social life was waiting in line to go to the bathroom. That was my social life. Like I had a child. I was in medical school. That's all. I did nothing. And so. Right. And so. And I was one of those people where I was used to being everyone else's rock. And I had been all through childhood and adolescence. And there was something about my body getting slammed by the universe to a place where I was just stuck in bed. And I was, I. I couldn't make it to the bathroom without help. I was in bed for months. I had IVs in my arm. People later thought I was going to die, told me that they thought I was going to die. I was very sick. It was very scary. I had severe anxiety, suicidal ideation. I mean it was, it was a very dark, dark place that I lived in for a while. And that journey through that darkness of. I really had no choice, I couldn't like get up and ignore it. It was just right there with me. Sort of like when you were talking about your journey in terms of that breakthrough.

What about the two by four, Dr. Jenny, as you get the two by four where you've been getting messages and you ignore, ignore and then you just can't ignore anymore.

Yeah. Body slammed by the universe. Exactly. Two by four. And, and I, and I know that you agree with me that we have this. I, I mean, I see we have this physical body, this mental, motionless, energetic body. And it was like all of those systems were down at the same time and there was just nothing I could do but surrender. And in that surrender I was surrounded by a lot of people who came to me and helped me do healing work. And one of them helped me do subconscious work. And it was through doing subconscious work that I began to understand that I was holding trauma in my body that wasn't even mine. It was generational. It was other, other soul journeys, all that. I was able to work through that and was able to move out of that darkness and do that soul, deep soul work. What my soul had been craving for me to do. I did that work. And it made me a better doctor because I really feel like I was on the verge death. And I was able to really understand the power of life in a whole other way and tap into this other part of my being that allowed me to be present for those patients who were really, really sick. And I noticed it as soon as I went back to school A year later. I was able to sit with the really sick patients who might be dying of cancer, who have really severe chronic disease or had had traumatic childhoods and was able to be with them in a way because I had gone through that journey myself. The work and that subconscious work got me from what I call the bed to the couch. I was no longer suicidally depressed. I didn't have an. I was feeling okay, but I was still really tired. And this is when I got. Somebody said, do you have chronic fatigue syndrome? And this is the 90s. And I was like, get that yucky label away from me. I do not have the yuppie flu. Get it off me. And but I had to think about. It's like, oh, that is kind of what I got. And I just couldn't, I couldn't do very much in a day. I was tired all the time. And it was, you know, I was mostly on the couch. And so I ended up beginning to treat that. And after many doing everything I could as a young student doctor, I did break through and I got 150% better. Like all the way better. Like working 17 hour days, which I know aren't healthy, but they can be fun. And with my child and open clinics and was teaching, ended up having another kid and doing all that kind of stuff and really thought I would never get sick again. And really understood that people can heal from really complex disease. That, that the medical system says you can't, you can't get over this. I disagree. You can't. I've seen it. And I was able to help people get well. And then I ended up having a relapse. And this is when I didn't. Something I didn't expect to have happen. But I learned a very valuable lesson here. Yeah.

Please interrupt you for a second. How far apart after you went through that and you were back shining your light and then you have a relapse.

Yes. So I have to do the math here. So I graduated in 2000, I was still sick. I was doing my residenc and it was halfway through my residency that I popped out. So they've been like 2001, just the beginning of 2001. And then I, I crashed again in 2004, sort of end of 2013, 14.

Okay. So about 12 years. Yeah. Okay.

12 years of what I called high big wave surfing to my friends. Like I'm surf, we're surfing on big waves, we're doing all this stuff, hope we don't fall. And, and, and it was such a, it was so interesting when I did have that because I learned a couple of really valuable things. One relapse is always Possible and not in a scary way like those of you listening. I don't want you to be scared by that. This is a piece of empowerment. I tell my patients this on day one because the truth is that once you uncover what are your root causes and what was your setup, what set you up to get this condition or what set you up for the relapse, once you know what those are, you know when you are at risk for relapse and you can start to retreat yourself if you need to. So the fact that I relapsed so quickly and it got so scary really fast was terrifying for me at the time. But now I realize that the pearl of truth in that, that can be valuable for everyone to listen to because now I know what my triggers are and so I can have a toolkit ready for me in case I'm at risk of relapse in the future. I ended up relapsing. I got really sick again. But this time I couldn't go back to bed or else I'd go bankrupt because I had a clinic. I had. I was. My family was dependent on me financially. I needed to keep working. I had severe pain from frozen shoulder, I'd injured my knee. I had perimenopause. I wasn't sleeping. All these things were tumbling me down to this really high inflammatory state. And it re triggered a whole bunch of stuff in my body. And since I couldn't sleep, I just got up and researched and I ended up researching what is going on with this stuff. It's about 2016, 2015. And I ended up really uncovering that there are these different root causes to chronic fatigue syndrome. Usually when I'm really sick or tired or my kids need something, my patients go away, my schedule empties, like the universe saying, take care of yourself, Dr. Jenny this. And I expected that to happen because I was so, so terrible. I was felt awful. But the opposite happened. My clinic people came in droves. I had this crazy long waiting list. I was booked out for months. All people with chronic fatigue that just found me. And through listening to people's stories and what I was researching at night and what I was experiencing, experimenting and guinea piggin on myself, I was able to map out these patterns. What, you know, what kind of tired am I listening for? That might mean they have one root cause versus another root cause. What tests are actually out there that works? What is underneath this condition? Back then, they thought it was just one thing. I was beginning to realize it's multifactorial now. That's Understood that it's a multifactorial condition.

Just for a second, because really important that we hear these things. Two things that you mentioned that I think are really important to highlight. One is that our bodies are always giving us messages.

Yes.

And a big part of the healing is, are we listening to those messages? So if anybody's asking why I have a black eye, I just launched a documentary, wrote a book, and I was going, going, going, and I was getting these messages. Jennifer, you need to slow down. You need to slow down. Jen, slow down. And then finally, last Monday, a week and a half ago, I tripped over my phone cord in the middle of the night, fell, and went face first into a dresser and knocked myself out.

Oh, my gosh.

I'm bringing this up because those messages will get louder and louder, and you and I have both experienced it in different ways. And relapses can look different. It doesn't have to exactly be the same thing that you had.

Exactly.

Common if we don't want. And number two, the healing journey is not a linear journey that goes this way. Right. It's like it's a cycle, and we go through it and we keep peeling off layers of these root causes.

Absolutely.

I just wanted to get those in because you. You mentioned those, and I think it's important for the audience to understand that.

And I really appreciate that, because the truth is that when I had that first experience and I got better, you know, it was adrenal stuff, and it was. And it was detoxing from my heavy metals, getting the 20amalgam mercury fillings I had in my mouth out, detoxing from that and a few other things. But those are, like the really big things that I did at that time. And, And. And people would come to me who were. Had chronic fatigue, and sometimes those would help those people. Then other people, I wasn't able to get them through the door because there was more to it. And the second time I got it, I had to explore all these other things. Right. And then I was able to help so many more people because it was like, oh, there's all these other root causes or these other part pieces of the setup. The picture became more complete for me as a practitioner. And in terms of that screaming versus whispering. That's so true. And I'm one of my pat. So I remember her saying, now I understand now I can hear my body when it's whispering to me, and it doesn't have to scream. Right. Like, that's really good. When we could do that.

Yes.

Oh, right. Oh, thank you. All this. Oh, thank you. Yes, thank you for the message.

I got it listening.

Right, right. So. So I ended up having, I ended up healing again from this, from this condition, from the condition. And again, 150% better. No limitations, no glass ceiling on my energy. Didn't have to energy budget, which is where you're like, oh, I don't know, if I do that, then I may not be have the energy to work on Monday or if I go out tonight, I won't be able to get that, you know, paper written tomorrow or whatever it is. So that energy budgeting piece gone and the pandemic hit. And I thought, you know what? There is going to be a second pandemic of chronic fatigue because two of the root causes, one is immense amount of stress that triggers your limbic brain and your, you know, autonomic nervous system into a danger response loop. And the second is our chronic infections. And so here we have the whole world, the whole world getting impacted by stress and by this, by this virus. And so I was talking about this during the pandemic that this was going to be a thing. I didn't know it was going to be called long Covid. I didn't know any of that. But so since the pandemic, I've been working with people who are struggling with long Covid and chronic fatigue and malgic encephalitis and have really just focused in and having this be my practice. And this is what I do. And like you, it just feels like this has chosen me to be the voice for this. Sometimes I feel like I'm the Lorax on the trees, shouting, going, you guys, there are answers. You mean to understand what these conditions are, we need to understand how to empower our doctors, how to empower our patients and how to, how to, you know, for everyone listening for you to be empowered to understand how to take care of your own health. Just to close out my little personal story, as I came through the pandemic extremely healthy, ended up getting the virus in the one little window I thought in my schedule. You know, I actually do have time to get sick. I'm going to get this virus at some point. And of course I got it then. And unfortunately I just had a gastrointestinal illness, food poisoning, previously, right before, and it was a complete setup along with an immense amount of stress. I've been under that it, I got long Covid. And so I then got to answer my questions of, well, how different is this chronic fatigue, malgic encephalitis too long Covid from the insider's experience. So now I get to speak as an insider as well as an outsider on this journey of, on this healing journey. And you're right, it is, it's never, the journey is never from here to here. We want it to be. It's like this. And sometimes you think you've, you've relapsed and you're actually just in a little meadow or maybe you have taken a step back, but there's always something to grow from in that space. So, yeah, so that's my, my story of why I'm here.

Now, when, when a patient comes to you, how do you determine what it is? If it's long Covid or if it's the chronic fatigue? Are they the same? Are they different? We share a little bit more about that.

Sure, yeah. It's a great question. And there is an a test out there for, to diagnose chronic fatigue syndrome, myalgic encephalitis, or long Covid, which is part of the reason why the conventional medical community feels really overwhelmed by this condition because it doesn't fit into their model of training of we have a test to say you have it. We have a treatment we can give to you, we can retest you to see whether this is working or not. They don't have their normal feedback system set up, you know, well for this condition. So it really takes a, it takes more time than you're going to get in a 7 or 15 minute doctor's appointment to unearth what's going on with your body. If you're struggling with complex chronic fatigue from long Covid or myalgic encephalitis. And I really see them as being the same thing with some slight variations. So when somebody's coming to me, what I'm listening for, I'm listening for lots of different things. I'm, I'm going through an algorithm in my head of what are the potential root causes that I know that trigger these can conditions in people. And I'm also going through what are the five health foundations that I know all of us need to have strong in our bodies for a body to be vital and healthy. And often those are the things that we want to focus on first. So say one of the health foundations would be sleep or digestion. If those are dysregulated and off, then it's going to be very hard for the body to naturally get back into its state of balance. And so that might be something that we would focus on as one of the things that we really need to get in. In, in alignment. In terms of back to your question about how is it that I actually diagnose them? It's what I'm listening for. In terms of what's happened to your energy and when did this change and explain to me what your energy is like throughout the day. Is it always the same? You know, give me a number of your energy. Is it 0 through 10? It doesn't really matter what the number is because it's all relative to your own personal experience. Right. But, but it's, but it's how much of a change is it for them? How is this limiting your experience in your life? And then there's some really key things that I think are important for us to all understand. There's something called post exertional malaise which is where that if you overdo yourself, you do more than you usually do in a day, then you pay for it. And you may pay for it right away or you may pay for it.

Goes back to the analogy you used of are you trading something for another? Right. You're in that energy deficit, right. And you're having to choose what to. To exert your energy on.

Yes, exactly. So that's usually, usually people with some level of post exertional malaise either consciously or unconsciously do the energy budgeting and they're. And you know, they're always trading like kids birthday party or going out with my friends, right. Like I can't go out with my friends on Friday and throw the birthday party on Saturday. It's not gonna work. I have to do one or the other. So the post exertional malaise is really the body's mitochondria, that which are the power plants inside your cells. They are to reset their energy cycle, reset that ATP. It's supposed to happen really fast in the body. If you have a big workout, it should reset within 20 minutes. And for people with post exertion with chronic fatigue syndrome, allergic encephalitis, long Covid it is common. Not everyone, but it's common that they have some level of post exertional malaise where they pay for it. I say not everyone. And that's a little bit controversial because they just added in a couple years ago. The way that you died officially diagnose myalgic encephalitis is that it does include this post exertional malaise piece. It's just that I would say clinically I've seen people who don't really have that bad of post Exertional malaise. And yet they still fit all the other boxes. So I diagnose them with it. Because when. Because the label doesn't really matter. It's like what you do for the treatment to get them back living their life fully. That matters.

So sleep, digestion, what else is important to keep a body healthy.

Yeah. So the five health foundations are I. And I sort of. I cheat because I put them together with some other things. So I say rhythm and sleep in terms of what is your diurnal rhythm? Often your sleep is so dictated by what you do first thing in the morning. Are you getting that first morning daylight? You know, walking. Walking out and just opening up your window and sticking your face out there for a few minutes. And getting that daylight in without glasses on is so important. So setting that journal. So rhythm and sleep is number one. Digestion and detoxification is number two. Movement and breath is really important. And then mindset and spirit. And I used to just have those four health foundations, but during the pandemic, I brought in the fifth, which is connection. And connection is connection to yourself, to your higher self, connection to your community, connection to, you know, your environment. It's that thing that so many of us didn't have during the pandemic that caused even more dis. Ease.

Yes. Yeah. And I think that I have goosebumps as you say that. I think it's so important because as humans, we are meant to connect. Right. We're meant to connect with ourselves. And I think a big part of what's been happening over the last 20, 30 years is we're inside most of the time, sitting at a desk under fluorescent lights.

Yeah.

And it's just bombarding our energy and it's creating this further disconnect. Yeah. You know, you. You mentioned it in the beginning when you were sick. I don't have time to meditate. No. I'm just, you know, I've got all these things to do. Right. And in 2022, I. I did four retreats with Dr. Joe Dispenza that were.

Oh, great.

And one of the things he said that finally, like, totally shifted me was meditation is where you meet you. How many of you will die on the sword to not miss an appointment for somebody else? But when you have time for you, you give that time away. I'm too busy. I've got this going on. Right. And he said, so you're missing the opportunity to connect with you. I. I personally believe, based on my. And I did have chronic fatigue in 2008. It's I think it's what eventually led to my cancer diagnosis.

Exactly.

Because I. It wasn't treated or acknowledged. Yeah. Back when I had it. But that disconnect from ourselves is really the beginning of the. The dis. Ease in our body because that is the found. That's our foundation. Right. Yeah.

And to your point, about all of your amazing work that you're doing with bringing this plant, the plants into the world and talking about the energetic healing of the plants and how connected we are to them and how we've evolved with the plants. Same thing too, with just that time in nature. That. That time in nature is so important to help us re. Regulate our bodies. I think the more we spend time on screens, the more we spend time in social media, which, you know, I'm there too. Like, we all have. We. We are using these as tools and yet I think we have to be aware of the power that these things can also have on our energy body and not just our emotional body, but our energy body as well. And there's sort of an energetic pattern to that. Even that social media world, like there's a. That's another current of energy that we go into every time we pick up our phone and look at it that impacts our energetic, energetic field. And so being out in nature can really help clear that for us. So again, if you kind of feel it, I remember my kids when they would watch too much TV and like, they would sort of almost be like they were stoned, you know, they'd be like, whoa, like, and they'd start behaving badly. And I'm just like, oh, you are TV talk toxic. It's like, I need to throw you outside. You need to go roll in the grass in the rain, you know, like, get that stuff off of you and find yourself. And I think we need that as adults too. And that's part of that connection piece, right? Just, just like, when do you feel like you are you and what do you need to do to get there? Like, for me, I know I can just. Just go outside and be by a tree and it helps me, you know.

Come back a tree. Put your bare feet on the earth yesterday, you know, so it's been really busy. Yesterday I said, you know what, I just need to go do some grass angels. Get in the ground, lay on the ground. And I flipped over on my stomach. And you know, for me I can actually feel the. The heartbeat of the earth. And it's like, wow, you know, that's just a reflection of us. And then I was like, Oh, I can feel my own heartbeat.

Wow.

I can feel this community, this commune happening, this resonance. And it does. You know, it's. We, we have a tendency because of all of the doing that we're in right now to think it's one more thing on the list. And I know I had that before. It's like, oh, you know, I don't have time for that. And it's like, it's the most important thing. Get up, go outside, connect to nature, take in the sun, receive. Right. We're so used to giving and being outward. Allow yourself to receive this, this beauty. Beautiful, free medicine that's out there for us.

Exactly. I totally agree. It's so important to be, have that just be part of, part of our daily life. Yeah.

And so how do you talk to your patients about that? Because some people say, what, what do you mean I should go outside? What do you mean? How is that going to help me? So how do you enroll them in that ideation of this is going to help you heal. Yeah. Going to help bring you back into a state of resonance and balance.

When I'm talking one on one with people, I'm really meeting people with where they're at. And so I talk with them in terms of a framework that, that I think is going to connect with where they're coming from to get them to, you know, understand the power of being outside. Or what is it that, what are. Where is it? I usually. What I ask, and this is what I would ask you, who's listening? You know, those of you who are listening to this is what, what do you know about your life now that makes you feel more connected to yourself, to your higher self, to all of that that makes you feel good? I mean, for some people, it's prayer. For some people it's, it's taking a, you know, going out and getting exercise. For some people it's, it's, you know, reading, you know, doing some writing or something. It's like we all have our different ways. And so I think it's important to remember that we all know something about ourselves. What is it that you know? And then doing more of that. And then if I feel like there's a place, sometimes it's just remembering that that's what you need to do and then bringing that in and understanding the value of it. Like you said, like, it's not just like, oh, if I have time. Like, I remember when I was. Before all this happened to me in medical school, my thinking process was, oh, I love doing that stuff. Once I get all 55 things on my list done, then I'll get to treat myself to go outside and go for a walk in the woods.

It's like versus starting your day with that.

Exactly.

Oh, and then you have more to share.

Exactly. And I think as the older I get, the more lessons I have, the more that comes back to me of the importance of. Of it's not even just filling my cup first. It's really just allowing myself to be me and to really support who I am so that I can live out my purpose and be more present for all of fertility for, you know, everyone that I'm here to, you know, help out in this world. Right. You know, or to guide or whatever it is that we're doing here. Yeah.

I wonder if you see this in your practice, but back when I was in the crux of my healing crisis, I one day had this epiphany that said, I wonder if I switch my mindset from, what did I get done today? What do I achieve? Right. Because I'd always have my to do list. Love to check. Making those check marks. Got it done. Got it done. To how much joy did I have today?

Oh, that.

And I changed. And that's why I was so. When you said, in joyful health. I love that because, you know, joy is a high vibration. And when I started looking at my life through the lens of joy.

Yeah.

Like, oh, my God, I'm so depressed because even the things that I love to do became another check mark on my list, and that went very rote and very unconscious. Yeah. And I started asking clients that I work with in my healing practice, what brings you joy? And I am stunned by how many, especially women, look at me like deer in the headlights. What do you mean?

I know.

And it's something with their kids or their husband. And I said, well, what about you? Yeah. And then I often will ask them, what did you love to do at 3 or 4 or 5 years old?

Yes. Yes, I.

And to take them back to their childhood. Yeah. And then they're like, oh, I used to love to sing or hum. And I'm like, great.

Yeah.

Start humming. Yeah. You know, so how do you kind of pull that out? And do you see that similar pattern?

Yes, absolutely. 100. And I've asked similar questions. And similarly, I'll go back to childhood. So I. I have the same thing in terms of those things. And actually. Yes. And I think just personally, in my own life, I've been aware of that. Well, I think that lack of joy is part of what leads to burnout for a lot of people. And that burnout is a gateway into a chronic fatigue milgic encephalitis pattern or makes you. Would make you way more vulnerable to get long Covid for sure, because you have just become a doer instead of somebody who is there living like a human. You're a human doer instead, a human doing instead of a human being in terms of your existence. And I. And the joy piece, I think it's so. It's sometimes it's just a perspective shift and you can do the exact same thing. And this is where, you know, personally in my own journey, just even recently, I was on vacation in New Zealand. And because I'm launching this big summit that's a huge project. It's like birthing your first child. You know, it's this huge project. It's like your documentary. It's a lot of work. And it's stuff that you, you know, you thought you'd be done before you left for a vacation, and it's not. Or you're waiting for other people to do things. And I ended up working a lot more on that vacation than I expected. And some of those were very long days. My husband was in the same situation with his business, so. So we had some work days on our vacation. And it was so interesting to see how I can look back at some of the days that I was working 14 hours on vacation. And they are delightful in my memory, like, delightful days because of how I was energetically on that day. Like, I was in my joy. I was in my bliss. I was grateful. I was on this beautiful front porch with butterflies around me, looking at the ocean as I'm writing a guy to help people sleep. And, you know, I mean, I. I just was. I was blissed out. And then I noticed the times when I was like, got into my cranky right where I was like, not in my joy. I'm like, I can't believe I'm working. I don't want to work today. I don't want to have to do this blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I'm like, that was not. I did not feel good. I chose like, it was like a choice that I chose to not have a good day that day because of my attitude. So I got. It's like, like myself under a microscope. I got better and better at going, oh, nope. That's the cranky, constricted feeling. Right, Ken? Jenny, do you have another choice right now? Is there something you can do to bring yourself into another Place of choice right now. What do you need? You know, like, do you need to go out? Do you need to jump? Do you need to dance? Do you need to sing? Do you need to hug yourself? Do you need to ask your husband for a hug? Do you need to go for a walk? Do you need to say, I'm going to do this later because I need to just go have fun right now and then I'll come back and do this? Or do you need to just get this done and then go play? And, you know, and. And it's like, gosh, you know, every single day is like, that. We have a choice of, how do I want to be today? How do I want to be today? And even for those of you who are listening to this, who are struggling with really complex health concerns, this is. This is still. This is still true for you and even more so true for you, as hard as that may sound. And that's kind of. I. You know, I think there's just a real place we can still choose to be in our joy and our love. Yes.

No matter what. Right? Yeah. Choice and. Yeah.

Yeah.

I think the most important messages.

Yeah. And not to say that there isn't also a time to be in your anger and experience your fear and all of that in your grief. You know, I mean, I. When I first got Long Covid, it was overnight. Like, I was kayaking and hiking and traveling and felt great. And then I had seven days of acute illness from crawling up from Long Covid and then on, and I felt like I was recovering well. Day nine, I woke up, and it was like, as if the Death Star was going down and sent out a million drones into my mitochondria. All of a sudden, I had chronic fatigue. Myalgic encephalitis. Overnight. Didn't have energy to go down the stairs, couldn't chew the salad I'd made the day before. It was like I was exhausted. I was like, well, this is trippy. And. And I. I was. And I had all this stuff I was planning on doing that I could hardly, you know, like, I couldn't function. And I really, literally remember, I kind of look over there because it was that wall over there that. Remember putting my head against and just sobbing, you know, and this is with all my experience, all my training, all my resources. I was just like, you know, I was just crying. I mean, like, really, you know, really?

Again, really?

I know it's like, ah, okay. You know, so I get it. And we all have those moments, and I think it's important to honor those moments as well. So we're not just paving over what's real for us. And yet it's being able to have that space and time. That's another part of connection, is being real with what's real inside of you, getting support if you need it, to process that, and then realizing that you want your baseline. Most of the time, I choose to be in this other place. Right. Yes.

It's so true. So tell us more about your summit. We talked and joked a little bit before we started. It's the longest but very comprehensive about your summit.

Yeah. So I have been just so excited to be able to bring together over 50 speakers who are experts in long Covid in myalgic encephalitis. They are. They're clinicians, they are researchers, they're energy healers. They're amazing people like you who are doing work. And what I love about this summit is this condition is really not understood well. And we're coming to a place where we're really getting to be a lot more clear about what's causing it, what the symptoms are, how we can diagnose it, how we can address it, how it's not the same for everybody, how we need to have an individualized medicine approach to your earlier question. It needs to be unique for somebody. And in the summit, there are going to be so many amazing answers for people to listen. So I'm very excited. We were joking that we were. What's that?

When does it launch? And what is the name of it?

Yeah, it launches on March 31st. And the actual. The. The cart opens on March 31st and it's actually running from April 11th to the 17th of April and then. And it's. So if you're listening before then, sign up. I'd love to have you join if you're interested. It's totally free. You can listen to the summit, record summits. You know each day that we'll have new speakers coming in. And the name is. I was joking that we're going after the longest title award, and I think we're going to win it, which is the Brain Fog, Chronic Fatigue, long Covid, Memory Loss and Pain Breakthrough Summit. Love it. And I have to cheat and look in the notes because even I cannot remember it.

Like, I will not remember that.

So next time I do a summit, we're just going to call it the Great Summit or something.

I love it. And so what inspired you to create the summit?

It is a huge undertaking. That's a really good question. My inspiration for Doing the summit is. It feels like there's this void. There are over 400 million people with long Covid.

Wow.

And there's. And there's probably hundreds of millions of people with chronic fatigue, malgic encephalitis. And that's underdiagnosed. It mostly impacts women. The men who get it often are more sick than the women. And this condition is. There aren't answers for people. Too many people are being told by their doctors, I'm sorry, we don't have an answer. You have to get used to it. I met a 20 year old in New Zealand who was told when she was 17. You're gonna just have to get used to it. It 17. We don't have anything to do for you. There's a few medications that might help some of your symptoms, but you just have to get used to being tired all the time. I mean, I get mad, I want to cry. I want to, you know, because that's not true. That is not my experience. That's not what I know. And that's not what these 50 speakers know either. And we all have different things that we can bring to the table. And I feel like because there isn't one path, having multiple speakers come is a way that you can find your path. Path. I know that one of the first times I had chronic fatigue, I listened to a summit. And it was in the talk in the summit that I learned something. And I followed that thread for myself and allowed me to have a breakthrough in my life. And that's what I want for you. I want those of you who listen to find that talk that's like, oh, that's the one that resonates with me. That's the next step in my healing journey. That's going to be the one that's going to open the door so I can be a fuller expression of who I'm at to be. I consider chronic fatigue people who are stuck exhausted as unnecessary suffering. That time I spent on the couch was unnecessary suffering. The breakthrough moment in the bed. That was the dark night of the soul. My soul needed that experience to grow into who I was the years I was exhausted. Unnecessary suffering. I don't want you to suffer unnecessarily anymore.

I love it. So where can the audience find you if they want to know more about you?

The best place is to go to my website. Dr.jennytoufankian.com that's D R Jenny J E N N Y to Fancian T as in Tom U F as in Frank E and as in Nancy K I.

A N. All right. And we'll put that in the show notes as well. Any final words, anything you'd like to share with the audience that will inspire and empower them to take action on moving through this?

Yeah. Thank you. I. You know your body better than anyone else can ever know your body. So never have. Never listen to a practitioner that doesn't respect what you have to say about what you're feeling. You. You know that better than anyone else. And also always know that your body is there to heal. Your body is sending you signals and signs and anything that you're experiencing right now is a sign and a clue of something that it wants to tell you more about. So just knowing that there's always hope, there's always the ability to heal. The body wants to be back in balance. That's what it's meant to be. It's just finding the. Putting the tool kit together for yourself so that you can get your body back into balance is what you need to be doing.

So beautifully said. Thank you so much. I'm so grateful that you were here. We are sisters from another mother for sure. With how we view the healing journey with the body is wanting to do is come back into balance and come back into perfect health. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And I look forward to your upcoming summit.

Wonderful. Thank you. Bye, everyone.