Why You're Your Own Best Health Expert with Emily Ruth

We're not listening to our own bodies and trusting our intuition. And we have outsourced our health and wellness to experts in all these various fields. But the only person who's an expert on you is you.

Welcome to Crafted to Thrive, the globally ranked podcast for entrepreneurs living with chronic illness. I'm your host, Nikita Williams. And after being diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses myself, I figured out the surprisingly simple missing links to growing a profitable business without compromising my health. Since then, I've helped dozens of women just like you learn how to do the same. If you're ready to own your story and create a thriving business that aligns with your health and well-being, you're in the right place. Together, we're shifting the narrative of what's possible for entrepreneurs with chronic illness. This is Crafted to Thrive.

I'm so excited to have Emily on the show. Technically, this is the second time, y'all. I've been having internet issues, and so she so graciously has decided to re-record with me. But welcome, Emily. Please tell everyone where you're from, what you do, and we'll hop into this combo.

I am from Savannah, Georgia, and I'm a holistic health coach. I help busy, overwhelmed and anxious women to work on their health goals and listen to their body so that they can create healthy lifestyles with ease and joy.

Yeah, and she's really good at it, y'all.

It's really good.

So tell us, um, a little bit of how you started on this journey, because when we initially connected, you were sharing with me, like, you have a background in working, like, in Western medicine from a technician, like, Ultrasound, x-ray. X-ray. I'm like, is it ultrasound or x-ray? Because they are technically different.

Yeah, x-ray.

And it's just like, that was something we kind of talked about, being able to know the physiology of a person and then bringing that into your practice as a holistic coach is really helpful. But what led to where you are now?

Yeah, so I graduated from x-ray school in 2007. And with all the clinical training you have to have in order to graduate, I knew immediately this is not how I want to help people. I like didn't know what I'd wanted to do, but that experience showed me that like I wanted— it helped me clarify that I wanted to help people get well and stay well and stay out of the hospital. Mm-hmm. So over the next, what ended up being 15 years, because I'd spent so much time in school and wanted to have more of that knowing what the next step was, I really listened to my patients and observed what they were going through and talked to them about what they were struggling with. And over that course of time, I learned that we're not listening to our own bodies and trusting our intuition, and we have outsourced our health and wellness to experts in all these various fields. But the only person who's an expert on you is you. So what I— I'm on a mission to inspire others to reclaim that agency of their health and wellness. And then as a coach, I help guide them into understanding and listening to their bodies so that they can love them more and make these lifestyle changes from a place of love and self-nurturing rather than beating ourselves up and punishing ourselves.

Yeah.

And when we make this transition, that healthy lifestyle, it's still work, but it becomes much more effortless, and we feel a sense of peace and joy in it.

Yeah, I love that. It's so funny, this is— I already can tell this is going to be a completely different conversation than the one we couldn't record, so I love that. I, I love that you said that, especially about the taking the advocacy of our own selves and like really tapping into our who we are. It's something from my standpoint of living with chronic illness, like this whole thing, especially how we're treated as women when it comes to health and wellness, how often we are told that we don't know or we're like making stuff up or, you know, it's— you're supposed to feel that way. All of these things that has given us this like what's the word I'm looking for? It has definitely given us the belief that, well, we can't— well, we're probably wrong, right? Like, you're like, well, I must be wrong. I might be overthinking this, like, all of these things. And I also think that has literally— that response of what we've experienced in the world of just dealing with our bodies and our health has totally gone into every other aspect of our life, right? Our relationships, to our businesses, to the, you know, to how we care for ourselves and how we care for our family and our friends. So like, what is something that you have found that has helped women see one, that reality of like, well, this isn't all your fault. Like, this isn't all your fault that you didn't know, or that you stopped thinking you should learn more research because you've been told, well, all the research you've done is incorrect. Like, how have you empowered women to embrace now, like, no, no, no, let's go back to listening to your body and you being the expert in your own body.

So a big part of that is just normalizing that. I don't know how many hours of anatomy and physiology classes I've taken. And then on top of that, how many more hours of working directly with imaging women's bodies. I've worked in mammography. I've done X-ray imaging of women's uteruses. I've done uterine fibroid embolization, probably some other things, but like, yeah, pretty a good amount of time imaging women-specific parts. And it wasn't until I had been in my career for 3 or 4 years and almost 30 years old before I fully understood how are the hormones that dictate the entire month of our menstrual cycle, impact our whole physiology, including our metabolism, our brain, and our emotions. And at first, when I learned that, I was so angry because I felt like I'd been lied to. All those health classes in whether— I don't know if they started in 4th or 5th grade onward, you know, my mom and I never really had any conversations around this.

And they don't, they don't know either. They didn't know.

Even to this day, my mom and I don't even— I'm so in this world of talking about it online and holding workshops for women, but my mom and I still don't really be like, mm-hmm. So what did you know?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

And that's a work in progress. But yeah, so just normalizing that so many of us just don't know because we are in this culture in the United States that's just embedded in teaching you to look elsewhere for information, teaching you to trust experts that live in a very narrow silo of the medical world.

Aka all the research for 90% of it is male white men at the ages of 40 and older. Like, right?

Yes. Yeah.

Just, just in case you didn't know, y'all, like, I feel like I have to say that just in case. Just in case you didn't know.

Right, right. Yeah. We have only very, like, maybe in the past 15 years started bringing women into medical research and even less time incorporating women that are premenopausal. Like, that's a whole lot of women.

That's a whole lot of us than there are them. I'm just saying. Yeah.

So yeah. So normalizing that. And then I host workshops online and in person where it's a space where I, you know, share this knowledge, but also create a space where the women who attend, we're sharing our stories and our experiences and getting a deeper level of support, empathy, compassion, reassurance that I'm not abnormal. And also the experience of hearing different experiences. Yeah. Because we're so, especially around the menstrual cycle and breasts, those are areas we don't talk about very openly. And to be able to have that conversation and see the wide variety of bodies and experiences. Yeah, it's just— it's beautiful. Yeah.

I will say, when I had my hysterectomy way back— I say way back, but it has been way back because we're in 2023 almost. So 2017, the community I found of women sharing their stories and the I'll link it in the show notes. It's called Hyster Sisters. And reading other people's experiences, the questions you would ask your doctor, they'd be like, oh, yeah, that's not normal. Or it was very hard for you to feel as if what you were experiencing isn't just uniquely you and you're the only one in the world who's ever experienced this. You're, I don't know why this is so weird for you kind of feeling. And you're like, that can't be. Inside, you're like, that can't be. To find community of other women who experience it and find literally pages and pages of forums women saying the same thing of different, you know, colors and backgrounds and shapes, like you were saying, it's like, oh my gosh, okay, so I'm not crazy. Like, I'm not crazy. And this is very normal. And how do we get to a better place from this place? So when it comes to women, especially since we're recording this in the month of October, breast health is a huge conversation that we don't have. We don't have that conversation. And I definitely think there's so much stigma. There's a lot of talking about breasts with other things, but not necessarily how to take care of them as women, like massage and all these things. These are things I still don't— I'm learning and like, oh, you, you do that? Oh, like, you just don't know. Like, so from a standpoint in this conversation for women, how do they start to learn some of these things? Where do they go? What, what are some things they should know that's okay? Especially when we're kind of like circling this around more around breast health specifically because we're in October. So whenever you guys are listening to this, just know we're, we're talking about in the context of this. What are some things we need to know that most people just don't know?

Yeah, well, the first place to go to find information is my Instagram, @emilyruthhealth, because I've been posting information on looking at your breast from the prevention and health standpoint all this month. Um, and then things we need to do. There's a reason the old adage an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure has become cliché. So yes, screening has its place, but before screening, we need to be focusing on prevention from creating healthy lifestyles and stepping out of the mentality of fear and assuming that, like, I'm gonna develop breast cancer These things attached to my chest are gonna kill me and recognize how magical our bodies, including our breasts, are.

Mm-hmm.

And reclaim them for ourselves. Yeah. You know, yes, they, they nourish babies and they are visually appealing to our partners, but they're also, they can be a source of pleasure and nurture Nourishment.

Yeah.

For ourselves. So first thing, work on that relationship of, you know, how do I feel about my breasts? What words and stories from the past do I need to let go of? What emotions do I need to feel and move through to start loving my breasts again?

Mm-hmm.

And then from a place of love and care, doing daily breast massage. And this doesn't have to take more than 2 minutes in the shower each day of just gently massaging your breasts. You can go towards the inside, towards the outside. Just do what feels good to help increase circulation, to increase the lymphatic flow. And give them some loving attention. Now, yeah, if you do have breast cancer or, you know, something in your breast that you're concerned about, you don't wanna do breast massage. But an alternate practice you could do is just lovingly place your hands on your breasts and just, you know, send them loving thoughts and affirm their health and beauty. Mm-hmm. And then, you know, follow your intuition if you need to seek guidance. As far as what step to take next, you can reach out to me or, you know, trusted medical provider.

Yeah, and that's the thing too, like, everybody know, like, um, and I probably will put a disclaimer in the beginning of this episode, just like me and Emily are not like doctors, and obviously we understand, but that you need to be, you need to be the advocate for your health. This is a place of coming from like mindset around taking care of you. I think it's so interesting. I was reading a Bible passage the other day, and it was talking about breasts. And I was like, man, that's very detailed, like very detailed. And I was like, well, if our creator can talk about it like that, we should feel good about these things, right? Yes. We should feel good about our breasts. And I think sometimes there's just so much around the world— like, you know, people turn things that are good to bad all of the time. And it's really about, like, taking care of your body. Like, these are things— our whole body as women, like, it's a gift. It's a temple in the sense of, like, we are created with all parts of what they look like and how they look and, like, embracing that. And I think sometimes, especially if you live with chronic pain, that's a challenge. Um, I know for myself, I have many scars from different surgeries, and over the years of like— I had even an episode talking about scars, of like just touching the scar and not being like, "I don't want to touch that part because it brings up all of these feelings." But now I find myself just like, I've embraced like, this is a part of my story, this is part of my body. And when I do touch them, it makes it feel like not so scary, right? It's like, "Oh, okay." Or if you want to learn more about how to massage a scar or something like that so that you feel some of those nerve endings. I think the same thing is the same thing with our breasts. And I love that you said like not to be coming from a place of fear. As a woman who is 35 years old, I know way too many women who are younger than me who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and have gone through so many different things. And so that fear has definitely been something I've experienced where it's like, I don't want— like, I don't want to touch, but maybe I should. But what if I do? And like all of those kind of thoughts because it's just so much more prevalent now and the day and age, well, it's not just our moms and grandmothers getting breast cancer. It's anyone, you know, teenagers are having this. So I definitely think that's an important piece of what you're saying. So from a preventative place, what are some like habits we can start including outside of massage, like in our health or knowing how our hormones work that will help us with knowing that we're more informed instead of being coming from a place of fear?

Yeah. Yeah. Pretty— so the same healthy habits that sustain the rest of our body are also great for our breasts. So getting daily exercise with sweating to help release toxins, eating plenty of vegetables that help us to, you know, remineralize and provide all those vitamins and nutrients that our body needs, making sure that you're eating enough. There's so many women out there who aren't eating enough in basic quantity of meals and/or aren't eating enough when it comes into getting enough protein, getting enough vegetables and enough variety in our plate. So nutrition, exercise, meditation, or some sort of mindfulness practice where we can get quiet and, you know, work on those fears. Cause we all have fears and anxieties that are coming from somewhere and it might not be related to our breasts. But that high stress state of being anxious, fearful, exhausted because we're pushing ourselves too hard causes inflammation in the body. And there's been so much research. Even the Western world has acknowledged for a long time that stress and fear leads to inflammation, and inflammation is the source of all disease.

Yeah. And I'm not using this as a preacher pulpit at all because I don't believe in that, but the Bible even talks about that. So it's like, you know, I think we so often— I think it's because we're so accustomed to stress. Like, we're going to deal with stress, so I can't— you know, like, it's just what it is. But it's so important to realize that stress is, for a lot of it, is controllable by how we think about things. And what we do and the practices that we have, the habits that we have, have an effect on all of those things. And so you're so right, especially if you're living with chronic illness in any way, shape, or form. Stress is our enemy. It's like the biggest thing. If you want to know why you had a flare-up, trust and believe it probably came from that thought and stressing about something that happened or that stressful situation. It usually is triggered by stress. It's just finds.

Yeah. And, and again, like stress triggers the hormone cortisol. And when your cortisol is elevated day after day after day, it throws off the balance, especially in women, of the rest of our hormones. So if you have painful or lumpy breasts, the first place to evaluate is estrogen being too high and, um, potentially your iodine levels not being high enough. So if you are in a place where like, things about my breasts don't feel right, probably not cancer. It's probably your, either your estrogen or your iodine. And those are totally treatable and fixable.

Yeah.

And with very, you know, simple lifestyle changes. Mm-hmm. Interesting note, cancer is usually not painful, especially in the beginning.

Yeah, that's true.— I definitely have heard that from doctors all the time. They're like, yeah, well, that's not usually— it's a very uncommon symptom for breast cancer. I've definitely heard that from my doctors. When it comes to hormones and stress, how does it affect— and this is something I have learned through using, like, getting my certification with essential oils— is like how stress creates brain fog and how stress creates not feeling or being able to be clear. How does our hormones affect that?

So the way that your estrogen metabolizes in your body is impacted upstream by your cortisol levels, which then influence your insulin levels, which then eventually influence your estrogen. So managing stress, so that you can bring those cortisol levels down, which allows insulin to become more effective and then doesn't mess up the estrogen pathway. Because there's this whole cycle of estrogen levels have to reach a certain point in order to lead to you being able to ovulate, which then ovulation releases progesterone. So if you're throwing the estrogen levels off, it kind of, it messes up the whole downstream cycle. And very frequently it all leads back to stress. But stress is not just emotional, it's also like physical, like from a bio, like within the biology as a place of study, stress is defined as anything that puts an organism into a heightened state. So not eating enough food puts stress on the body.

Yeah. Not sleeping, not drinking enough water, not breathing fully. Like, all of this stuff. Right.

It's all a form of stress on the body that just can wreak havoc. Yeah.

And it's so interesting that you say that. There's something that I have been practicing for the last couple of years. And creativity to me is a great way to help with stress, and especially if it's from a physical pain thing, because it does something to the frontal cortex of our brains, right? It allows our brain to like focus on something that is not stressful. It actually lights up the back of our brain to be like, oh, we're good, like we're in this. Even though you might physically still be in pain, it literally has been scientifically proven that if you are doing some form of creativity while in pain, it can reduce how your body responds to the stress that this pain is creating. And so when I have really bad flare-ups, I'll be like coloring or like doodling and breathing. And the essential oils are on in the air. They're like all of these different things that help bring— like counteract as anti-stressors, right, to what's going on with the pain. And so I can imagine if in our daily habit, right, we're creating these things of like, well, how do I eat? What am I— What am I putting in my body? How often am I drinking water? Am I drinking enough? All of those things will affect how our brain is more clear, right? More clear and focused than when we aren't doing those things.

Yeah. And like you mentioned creativity, that like if meditation or other mindfulness practices feel hard, taking time to do an art project is a form of mindfulness. You know, it gets you into that zone of doing something that you enjoy and being very focused.

Ruth, for you— I called you by your middle name. I'm like, why did I say that, Ruth? Emily, for you, what has been some things for you in your own personal journey of health that has been helpful for you and has been some fears that you've overcome, some mindsets you've overcome in order to get— because we're always growing— but to be where you are today?

So for my own health, like I mentioned, kind of alluded to learning about my menstrual cycle, like, or the menstrual cycle and understanding the hormone fluctuations. And I took a deep dive into that in order to chart my fertility to prevent pregnancy. And that was just opened up a whole new world of being able to use my menstrual cycle to evaluate my overall health. And then that led me into discovering that I might have a thyroid issue because of what I was noticing in charting. And then that led me to seeking out an excellent acupuncturist who sat down and did a deep medical history. And she's like, honey, you're exhausted because you're not eating enough food. And then she had me take this blood test to evaluate what my food sensitivities were. And so up until then, I'd been pretty good at like, okay, I have new information, I'm putting it to use, I'm following through. But then when my food sensitivity came back and I had— it was dairy, which I knew about, wheat gluten, which I was, you know, because it's trendy, I had tried eliminating it, and then cabbage and eggs. And at the time I was eating a lot of cabbage and eggs. And so getting this test back, she was like, for 3 months you have to avoid all 4 of these 100% completely so that we can heal while we heal your gut. And even after we do that, we might not be able to reintroduce them. And there was a lot of mind drama and stress over what am I gonna eat? You told me to eat more and now you've taken out.

Yeah. I've experienced that so many times in my life. Yes, exactly. Like you want me to stop eating the one thing I can eat? Like, okay, that sounds great.

So just, you know, embracing the imperfection and doing— like, at the time, my husband and I were living in D.C., working long hours and just doing what was easy. And like, coming from sort of like, oh, I like to get everything at the farmer's market and prep and da da da. And it just got to a point where it's too stressful. It was like, nope. You're going to have to buy the frozen food and, you know, not 100%, but like shift my food preparation to be less time-consuming to reduce the stress that was coming in from other angles and just letting go of the need to have some, you know, this picture I created in my head that hasn't been realistic since, you know, we moved out of being an agricultural society and into the industrial age. And now I don't know what we're in, the technology age.

You know, it's really interesting because that is a cultural thing that I've come to appreciate. Like some of my friends that live in other parts of the world who still do have more of that agricultural experience, like they go shopping for their fresh veggies every day because it's on their way home and that's what they have. Like here in the States, we don't have that. Or even in certain parts, like my grandma, I remember growing up, grandmother on my dad's side, she had like fruits and everything just growing in the backyard. And that's, that's what we would have, like tons of mangoes and papaya and all of the good yummy stuff. You go to the store and I still to this day have never had a good mango other than the one at my grandmother's house because we don't live in that kind of world. We'll live in, especially here in the States, we live in like fast produce and it's like here we'll pick it before it's ripe and by the time it gets to you it's like crap. So like we live in a very different world, so adjusting our minds around like, how does eating healthy look like here? Because we don't live in like, you know, Jamaica or the islands where you can just eat food that's on your land. It's very different. And so I appreciate you bringing that out because I have had the same thing. Like, in my head, when I've done like different diets or restriction stuff, like, you think, oh, I'm going to be so good. And you're like, this is so unrealistic. Like, I need to like—

yeah.

Yes, they have it frozen. We'll do it frozen because by the time you buy everything so-called, you know, fresh, you don't have time to make it.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I love it. Yeah.

Like, just make it easy. If it's something you have to do, go ahead and make it easier, right? It's already hard enough, right?

Exactly. And, you know, choose the healthiest option within that easier, you know, frozen vegetables over the frozen pizza, but like, do the best you can.

Yeah, we've started doing that recently here at home too. It's like, it's nice. We used to buy lots of fresh places. There's a place that you can buy it, it's called, um, Misfits, if you've never heard of that. Misfits. Yeah. And they're great. But what we found was like, we don't ever use all of it because we don't have the time to prep it and to clean it and then chop it. And I know everybody loves batching and all that kind of stuff. I don't work like that in any, any area of my life. So to force myself to do that when it comes to food is a challenge. So I definitely think what you're saying about choose the healthier option, but also can it be easy?

Yes.

Remove some of that stress. Yeah. This is so good. There's so much more we could talk about. But what would you say for a woman who is looking to learn more about her body and feel more healthy, be more healthy? What are some of the, like, 3 steps that they can take to start gradually, you know, embodying that kind of lifestyle?

So first I would say when you wake up in the morning, give yourself even just 1 or 2 minutes to be quiet and check in. How am I feeling? You can rate it on a scale of 1 to 5, and you don't have to write it down. I like to kind of turn this into a journaling practice when I have more time, but just noticing like, how do I feel? Emotionally, physically, mentally, give it a number. And then what can I do to feel just 1% better? And then once you identify that small step, go do it. Is that 3 steps?

Yeah. I mean, it's one step that's kind of broken down in 2 steps. I mean, 3 steps, but yeah.

And what I like to do is if I can, you know, give myself 5 to 15 minutes to journal about like, okay, What's my rating? What can I do to feel better? But also, why am I feeling this way? Just like off the top of my head, what, what have I done probably in the past 24 hours that's led to me feeling this way right now? And that kind of sets up the rest of my day with an intention of reminding myself how I want to be and keeps me moving teeny step by teeny step on that path towards who I want to become.

Yeah, it makes the— I think it's like what your point is, is it's the practice of intentionally doing and living and being, right? It's something that I've definitely learned myself that's been so crucial and not being afraid to adjust things because of what you are seeing and being intentional about that adjustment. It's so much less stressful when you approach it from that standpoint of just like, what's the one thing I want to shift today? That will make tomorrow and the rest of the day better. That's a— it just becomes more of a habit. And when you feel great at the end of the night, you know, I would add, just from Emily's standpoint, like, I like to do a day— like an evening kind of practice of like, what am I grateful for? And I always look for one of the ways that I'm grateful that I paid attention to my body, right?

What—

in what way was that? How did I do that? It's just a reinforcement of of recognizing that this is a journey that's like ongoing, but you are being very intentional about it. And like looking back over, you know, the next 3 months and being like, even if you felt like you did nothing else right, you did that right. You know, like it feels really good to be able to look back from that standpoint.

Yeah. Yeah. And as you continue this practice of checking in with yourself and noticing how you feel and paying attention to your body, and noticing the nuances over time, it gets easier and easier. And you, you know, when you first start this, you may be like, my body's not telling me anything. Be patient, ask and keep asking. And it'll start to come and more information. And then, and you'll be able to start this dialogue where you're like, you feel something and you know what it means.

Yes.

Yeah.

I will say, though, Emily, for most of the women that I get to talk to and work with who live with chronic illness, they are really good at this. Like, they are really good at knowing. It's kind of eerie. Like, even when my husband's like, how in the heck? Like, how in the heck did you know that one movie? I was like, I just know. And that's an empowering place to come from as you go into this. And if you are at that place where that seems like, girl, there's— I don't know. I just know I feel hurt, or I just feel that one thing. That's a place to start, like, just acknowledging that you feel pain or you feel uncomfortable or something feels tight. Like, you don't have to— your vocabulary of why those things feel the way they feel or are the way they are will grow as you continue to feel them and be really in check with them and, like, think about, well, why do I feel that way? And I love that you shared, like, just start from some place.

Yeah. Well, and for your listeners who already have that that good conversation and knowing, like, celebrate that because so many other people around you don't have a clue. And some of them are in pain. You can see by the way they walk, talk, and move, they have become numb to it. So like, it sucks to be in chronic pain and have chronic illness.

Yeah.

And there's a little bit of, a little bit of gold there to—

Yes, exactly, Emily. Exactly. Latch onto and celebrate. Yes. Yes. So good. Well, how can everyone find you? What do you have coming up? Any events or anything that they can check out online or in person if they're happening to be in Savannah?

So you can find me on Instagram at @emilyruthhealth. I keep that really well updated with what's going on. I don't have any online things planned at the moment of recording, October 22nd, 2022. In the Savannah area, October 15th in Pooler, Georgia, I've got a meditation at Stretch Zone. Pooler from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM. I have a Monday meditation at Amped Fitness in downtown Savannah at 7:00 PM every Monday. You can find all that on my Instagram and on my website.

Okay, great. Thank you, Emily, for being on and sharing a little bit of your knowledge and your story. I appreciate having you.

Yes, thank you, Nikita Williams. It's always so much fun to talk with you.

Yeah, you too.

That's a wrap, y'all. Thanks for tuning in to Crafted to Thrive, the podcast that helps entrepreneurs with chronic illness to thrive and build a holistic business and life. Check out our website at craftedtothrive.com for this episode's show notes and all the gifts and goodies. Connect with me on Instagram @thrive_with_nikita for more tips and behind the scenes and more. Tag me to share what you loved about this episode, and I'll feature you on an upcoming episode. So until next time, remember, yes, you are crafted to thrive.