The Mind-Body Connection: A Holistic Approach to Health with Laurie Teal

Hello, my friends, and welcome to Perfect Practice. Today we're going to be discussing what I think is probably, if not the most important topic for your business and for your clients, then at least certainly one of the most important topics, which is mental health and wellness. This day and age. I think it's very clear for us to see that whether you, if you live in North America, I think we're at a crisis level situation when it comes to mental health. And I think that's the greatest opportunity that we have as humans is to, is to focus on our mental and emotional and spiritual well being. Today I was doing a conversation with a group of people that I coach and one of the things that I reminded them is that our body physically stops growing after a certain number of years. And for some of us it even shrinks a little bit and we get shorter and smaller. However, there's a part of us that can grow forever and fill the entire space and the entire cosmos, I believe, at least. And that's our mental, emotional and spiritual being. And so it's something that we can continuously work on. So no matter where you are in that journey, whether you feel like you're in the valley or even at the top of your mountain, there's always more to climb and there's always more work to do. So with that being said, a few weeks ago, as synchronicity often has it, I met somebody who I have a strong feeling is going to become a really good friend of mine, and that's Lori Thiel. Laurie is technically a psychiatric nurse practitioner, but I think you'll soon learn to find that she does a lot more. And just like myself and many guests that we bring on, she's continued to evolve and sharpen her skills and pick up new tools and incorporate those tools into helping her clients and communities that she coaches and trains and helping bring the best out in each and every one of them, and that is through the work that she does. So without further ado, Laurie, welcome. Thank you for being here today.

Thanks, Satya, and thanks for having me. I'm really excited to talk to your community. And what I would have to say is I really look at mental health really not as mental health in like a box, really like the old. What I think of standard of care of mental health is we look at everybody in a very small framework of the diagnostic statistical manual. Right. And I'm quite frankly getting ready to have a burn party for that. But really I think that mental health is health. Like without mental health, we have no health. Right. Because when we. When we're feeling well and when we're feeling in a place of gratitude and we're feeling loved and loving and in the place of joy, when we feel spiritually connected, when we feel like we have a purpose and some passion behind it, we have this amazing cascade of 1400 chemical responses that really affects every aspect of our being and our health. So mental health, to me, it's healthy. It's just plain health. Right?

Yeah. You know, you bring. You bring up a really good point because it's kind of like what ingredient is the most important in baking a cake, right? You. You kind of need them all. So we need emotional health, mental health, physical health, spiritual health. And. And it's really all of those things combined that make the whole. And the, as they say, the. The. The sum is. Is. Or the. The. The. The sum is greater than the parts. And so when we put it all together, that's when we have exceptional health. From your perspective, why do you think we're in such a mental health crisis right now?

Oh, boy, that's a big question. I think there's a lot of reasons why we're in such a big crisis. First of all, I think that there's a huge paradigm shift that's happening. And whether we call that a spiritual paradigm shift or an evolutionary paradigm paradigm shift, you know, we see many, many systems around us that, excuse me, are, I think, are collapsing, right? Like our insurance systems, our healthcare systems. I work with a ton of teachers and, you know, educational systems are collapsing. We see, like, the political questions and structures all across the globe, right? Not just in North America or the United States, but we see political systems kind of crashing and crumbling down. You know, we're looking at the realities of what does war really solve and not solve, and what the truth is behind some of that stuff. You know, one of the benefits of the Internet, I guess, is you can find a lot of information and follow the money, so to speak, right? So there's a lot of, like, we're at this place of, I think, really looking at what is the meaning and value of our. Of our lives, right? And what's kind of getting in the way for us living, quote, a life worth living, you know, So I think that there's. I think there's a real paradigm shift that's happening from kind of like this mentality of how much can we own? How. How big can we. Can we grow? How. How much do we have in our bank account? And all these things that at one time really led to us feeling like we had a sense of value. You know what, you got the house, you got the picket fence, you got the de. Well, why are you still unhappy? Right, like, so I think that there's a huge shift that's happening from, you know, this sort of materialistic, power driven aspect of life to, okay, when you get all that and in the end, why aren't you still happy? And I think because there's, there's something way more that, that's underneath that, that I think we've all been really missing, which is really connection, Sachin, you know, like really connection to other human beings. You know, a level of equality, a level of just, you know, knowing that we're all enough. You know, when I look at across the, you know, the board and I've, you know, I've unfortunately seen many people in my industry commit suicide or go to jail and you know, and it breaks my heart, but there's an aspect that there's this huge drive towards something else and then in the end feeling so separate and so alone, so disconnected from themselves. And we all want to feel connected. We all want to feel like we have value. We all want to feel like we're loved. And I think oftentimes we work so hard striving to be and become something. And sometimes that striving is coming from such a deep sense of, of lack, you know, a deep sense of disconnection from our own being. And I think a lot of that comes from not only our culture but also comes from our childhood stories and generational stories. And I hope anyway we're on the cusp of something different.

You know, I'd love to get into generational trauma because you brought it up there. But before I do that, I'm just curious when the switch flows flipped for you because I can't imagine this is what you learned in school. So when did you start to see mental health this way? Or how is that? How has your journey shaped your, your perspective?

I think that's been, you know, quite Frankly, Sachin, I'm 54 and so I think that really started at, with the birth of my first child. I was young, I was 19. And when right after she was born, her, her father came into the room intoxicated after the night before and wanted to hold her. And I saw the nurse look at me with that look and, you know, that authoritative look and fear in her eyes and something clicked inside of me and I'm like, oh, this is not, this is really not a good story. So it wasn't long after that that I left that relationship. And then, you know, as life has it and patterns have it because we repeat patterns over and over again till we don't need to anymore. And, and I met another man and I thought that things were going so well and I ended up getting really, really ill. And at that time, in 1992, they diagnosed me with chronic fatigue syndrome. Now I was in and out of the hospital, multiple IVs, all kinds of stuff. Nobody could tell me what was wrong with me till I saw a Woo Woo chiropractor who started me on the, on a journey of something right of my body getting better. But I didn't really have any idea at the time that this illness was really serving me. Okay. But it's been through, but it's been trying to find answers to that and recover, so to speak, that each step along the way has, has brought me to different places where I've had to relook at generational trauma, my own trauma history, and in the patterns that have kept me stuck. And at this point, I can honestly say to you, I, I have no longer have any symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome. And I've learned that that illness was such a life saving point in my life because it really made me stop and take a look for the first time, like I couldn't work. And I was always like a worker and really pushed myself amazingly, but I couldn't work. I literally had to have somebody take care of me for a while. I, I had a daughter that was the most important thing in my whole world that I struggled to take care of because I could not take a shower and feel like I could go on with the day. I needed to go back to bed. So it was all of, even some of my childhood stories about wanting to be taken care of and I couldn't be taken care of, that this illness really stopped me in my tracks and, and gave me opportunities to start looking and asking for help, number one, and start feeling like I was good enough to ask for help and then start on my journey. And that led from seeing a Woo chiropractor at the time and doing like liver flushes and gallbladder cleanses and you know, all these things at the time in the early 90s was, you know, a little bit crazy.

Right ahead of the curve.

Yeah, yeah. And, and started seeing somebody doing nutritional supplements with kinesiology and so forth and like every little step starting to do a little bit more and, and as I did that, I started asking more questions about where did I come from and what was my childhood History and, and you know, my dad had abandoned us when I was really little. And like, what was that story? And how did that impact me? And started opening the idea of what is spirituality? You know, if, if I don't have a necessarily a mom and dad that can really be supportive and give me all that I needed at the time and where do I get that from? And so started opening the door for spirituality and then it just, you know, as synchronicities happen, like doors began to open and even got it. This is so interesting. I got accepted into a program through the Wellness Institute, which at the time was out of Issaquah, Washington. And they were training therapists and hypnotherapy and breath work. And it was, you know, you started out with a six day training and then you could go on up to, I think at that time it was three or four years and I signed up for it. And I should not have been able to join that because I was an RN at the time. I wasn't a therapist, but I had been working in acute care, psych, running groups and so they let me join. And during that process, Sachin, it was so amazing because not only was I able to learn all these techniques, but I worked. I ended up staying with that program for three years and I ended up working with the same 30 people all across the country. And we all became kind of a family and we were doing our own work as we were learning, you know, the, the, the way to work with other people. And not only were we doing that, we're doing vision quests, we're walking on hot coals, we're doing sweat lodges, we're learning meditation, we're learning about how everything is energy. Even then like Bruce Lipton's work was right on the cutting edge at that time, you know, and so that was one aspect that deepened my practice more. And then a few years after that I'm like, oh, I really think I want to do shamanic training. Alberto Velado's program, I never even applied and I got a letter in the mail saying I was accepted into the program. And so it's like it's been those kinds of weird things that have kind of happened and continued to just show up in my life that I'm so grateful for.

Yeah, you're definitely quantumly entangled. Yes, I love that, you know, you, I, I read your bio and we're so much more than our bio. But I, I do want to draw people's attention to some of the work that you've Done. So you use quantum biology in your practice. Psychology, shamanism, hypnotherapy, breath work, homeopathy, and. And you individualized your care for people, you know, using those as some of the. The tools in your tool belt. It's really wonderful to see the journey. I think that we're kinder spirits in many ways, because my degree doesn't necessarily define me, nor does yours. Right. Our titles can sometimes be very constrictive, and we talked about that before we started the recording that, you know, I have to call myself this. And because that's what's required of me. I'd be curious. And this is kind of. You don't have to answer this now, but I'd be. It'd be a wonderful thought exercise. One of my. One of my mentors, Dan Sullivan, said that whoever names the game owns the game. And because you're such AN N of 1, we all are, right? In our own way. But you're certainly an n of 1. It's almost like we're playing in somebody else's game who's playing by their own rules. And my friend Sally Hogset taught me that different is better than better. And certainly what you do is different, which I think in turn provides people with a better opportunity to reflect and to learn about themselves. And. And I think, you know, in. In your sharing about chronic fatigue syndrome. Thank you for sharing that. You talked about how illness was a gift and not a curse. Right. Some people see it as a curse. And I oftentimes get on calls with people and say, how can this be the best thing that ever happened to you? And if we start answering, approaching it through that paradigm, then we start looking for different. We just start looking at the problem differently. And I remind people that if your body wanted to, you know, kill you, it just has to stop breathing for four minutes. So let's get over the fact that your body isn't trying to kill you because it's super efficient and meticulous. And if it wanted to do that, you wouldn't be here having this conversation. Your body's trying to keep you alive, and the intelligent adaptation to your environment doesn't feel so good because you're adapting to a toxic environment. And that could be what's going on around you, but that could also be what's going on up here. And I know the brain isn't just. We kind of technically think of the brain as being in the head, but your entire body is the brain. Right, Exactly. So let's talk about generational trauma. Where did that come in your understanding of your journey. But then where can clinicians who are listening to this or perhaps even people who are struggling with mental health challenges thinking about this, where does, where does. And how does generational trauma come into play? And how can one. Do we all have it, and that's something we all need to explore? Or. And I think the answer might be yes, but how do we explore that or how do we know that's the sticking point for us?

Well, I think it's not the sticking point. I think it's part of. I think it's part of it. Right. Like, so there's sticking points in our own life, or we can say our trauma. And we, you know, I think many people are familiar with big T's, little T's, you know what I mean? And to me, a trauma is anything that you perceive as a trauma, right? Because there are some people that have such horrific things that happen to them, and they. And they really integrate the information into their nervous system as such, and they move on with their lives and they really don't see it as a trauma. And maybe we could say that suppression, maybe, who's to say, right? But they don't seem to have any real issue with it. You know, one person's story, you know, two siblings grow up in the same house, and they each have a totally different perception on what happened, you know, when dad was drunk, for example. Right. Like two different perceptions. And one's going to say it's trauma, and one's not going to say it's trauma. And it's really just on that perception that somebody attaches meaning right. To that experience. And so when we talk about generational trauma, you know, it's this, it's the same thing. I really feel like we have seven general. We can affect seven generations in front of us, just like our indigenous people people used to say, or native people used to say, and also seven generations behind us that have been informing us. Okay. And so if we talk about it from a psychiatric point of view, a mental health point of view, you know, we can say, like, if mom and dad, if, if, let's say mom grandparents grew up in the depression and what was that like? And everybody was always worried about having enough. And, you know, and there was always this state of anxiety and fear about whether the heat was going to stay on and whether we were going to have bread and we were rationing bread. And, you know, there's this whole energetic freeze response, worry response that happens around having enough. There's no way that those Children don't pick up on that energy of fear and scarcity and all those things, and they grow up with that same, that same information embedded, those same beliefs embedded in their, in their brain and in their nervous system. Right? And if they don't resolve that, then they're just recapitulating that same story. It just becomes a different, I don't know, it doesn't become about the depression, it becomes about whatever else is happening in life. Right? So that story just gets overlaid onto the next generation. And I think that happens with all of us. And you know, we have a dear friend whose family in her storyline was at Austeritz and she is so incredible, you know, and that was a couple of generations ago. And yet she's still so terrified to let go of any sort of control around what's happening in her community and has some struggles with opening up and feeling safe and when, when her own upbringing was very safe. You know, it doesn't make any rational sense, but those, those energetics and those story patterns are still informing her now. And I think oftentimes, like when I was doing my own work, you know, you know, we talked a little bit about the, this idea of, you know, an illness sort of being victimized by an illness, right? And I think it's super important, Sachin, that we can all say, oh, I'm a victim. At some point, it's okay. Like it's, we are okay. But it's like when we stay stuck in that, that becomes the problem. Because as the victim, when we start going, oh my God, what about me? Right? That's a really important statement to have, what about me? Because in that place of what about me? We can actually start having some accountability in that statement. There's actually value in you that you're not recognizing because you're asking, what about me? So you're starting to recognize that you have your own sense of value in that statement. Now you got to keep moving forward, right? And not stay in that pattern. But it's important that we recognize that, that what about me is really important. And so in my own process, as I went through some of the stages, not only of how did my illness serve me, but also how my trauma served me was that, you know, I got to a point where it was like, okay, I can keep blaming people, right? Mom, dad, whatever, this circumstance, that circumstance, whatever. But in the end, you know, what if we get to the point where we don't have to blame anybody, not the seven generations, because they all did the best that they could do at the time. Right? But it's like, how can. If I. As soon as I stop blaming, now I actually have the freedom to choose what is my path, what is my life, where do I want to go? And I gotta tell you, that's often way scarier than it is to stay a victim than it is staying the victim. The freedom is scarier most of the time than it is staying stuck in an illness. So I don't know. I hope I answered your question about generational trauma, but I think there's pieces along the way, and I think it's important to understand the generational patterns and where people got stuck and what their stories were so that we can really honor them. Okay. Because it's also this aspect of we don't want to just again, do that whole blame thing. I think we also have to move into a place where can we be in gratitude for their story and their suffering. And, you know, no parent goes into being a parent or grandparent. You know, no one in that generational lineup really wanted to make things suck for the next seven generations. Nobody wanted to do that. They were just doing the very best that they could given the resources, the, you know, what was available to them, the education, whatever. They did the best that they could. So how can we, you know, stop the patterning now? By owning. Owning our work and doing our work and healing. And how can we also be in gratitude for, oh, my God, they went through so much suffering, too, for me to get to this place. What if part of their suffering was for me to get to this place?

Hmm. Yeah, that's very profound. What a great way to think of it. And, you know, for all of us to kind of maybe even take a moment to reflect on all the generations that came before us, right? All the hardships that they had to go through and, you know, the challenges and struggles, you know, and they were probably in true survivorship versus the comfort of the world we live in today. As uncomfortable as it might be for some of us, we still live in a pretty amazing time to be alive. And I think it's important for us to, when it comes to decision making, and this is what I love about everything that you're sharing. It's very in aligned with the way I think and teach and try to practice my life is, I told myself every decision I make, I want to make my ancestors proud. To the people that came before me. I'm imagining seven layers back, they're all staring at me with, you know, the decisions I make, and I'm considering Will my future generations thank me? Right. So will my ancestors be proud of me and want my future generations thank me? And it makes decision making so much easier even in the most minor decisions that you make. So for people who are indecisive, having that audience of all the people that came before you and the people that will come after you is such for me has been such a valuable tool. So, yeah, honor your ancestors. And one of the ways we can honor them is by, is by working on resolving that generational trauma so we don't pass it down to the next generation.

Right? Because we're going to, we're going to do that because it's so embedded in our, in our psychology and nervous system. We are going to like, you know, I remember when, when my daughter was born and the whole idea of I'm not let you know, the same patterns of trauma affect my daughter. I'm not going to do it the way my mom and dad did it, right? Like that's the stance and I see it in every 20 year old that comes through my office. I'm not going to do it like my parents did it, right? No matter how good or bad it was, I'm not doing it like that. It's like, okay, great, okay, so how do you expect not to do it like that just because you have the idea that you're not going to do it like that and the heat of something, guess what? You, you're going to do it just like that because it's so embedded and you're so unaware of the level that it's embedded in your being, right? And we have to call that stuff up into our awareness and into our consciousness so that we have a choice. Because if we're not stepping into it and wanting to discover more about it, whether it's out of inspiration, desperation, right? Whether if we're not stepping into it, into that awareness and willing to look at it, it's gonna keep recapitulating. There's no way it's not going to. And even at 53, with, when I think about 54, when I think about all the work that I've done, there's still times where, you know, I feel like patterns come around like a fractal. And there's still times when it comes around like, oh, I know this pattern. But once you know and have the awareness and some experience with working with it, now you have a choice that you can consciously choose something different, right? But when you're starting out the fractal and you're like caught up like this. And it's like so awful and there's so much suffering and then all of a sudden you have a light of awareness that comes on. You're like, wow, right? And you go, wow, there's so much more room now. But look at my arms. Am I free? No. And then the storyline will come around again. The same pattern will come around again. And we might, we might argue against it and swear and whatever for a little while and feel really victimized. And it might take us six months, three years, 10 years before we go. But it's still not this, you know, but each part I'd like to say now, when I get to that pattern thing that hits me, I'm like, okay, I accept. Might only last a few hours. It doesn't generally last a few days anymore, right? It might last a few hours. And it's like, okay, how do I move this? How do I work with this? How do I bring meaning to this? How do I, how do I make different choices that are going to affect not only my own well being, but my family and the next seven generations.

As practitioners. Thank you on behalf of practitioners. And for the practitioners who are out there, you know, there's going to be certain patterns that they might see in their clients, but it might start with identifying patterns in themselves. So what are, what are some patterns that we can look for in ourselves? Or perhaps maybe you can extend that to others. That might be an indication that this is mental health is really where we need to start with this person. And again, with the understanding that it's all part of being healthy. Where would. Yeah, so what are, what are some patterns we might identify with people?

So I think the biggest thing that we need to. The patterns we need to identify, and this is kind of a soapbox that I stand on, Sachin, is that, you know, at one point, maybe along the way, especially in psychiatry, you know, we learn about codependency and we learn about the victim triangle and nobody wants to go, oh, I'm codependent. Like, we get all this weirded out about all this language stuff, right? But to me there's. Well, not just to me, but I believe that there's only two emotions on this whole planet and they're love or fear. Right? Because, because if we talk about anger, anger is really just the disguise of fear. If we talk about guilt, fear, shame, fear, right? If we talk about sadness, usually it's sadness related to some level of fear of not being enough, not having what you need, whatever, or it's a sadness related to this love that's nowhere to go. When someone dies, we love them and there's this loss. There's so much love and there's nowhere to like, give it, right? And so sadness is kind of love with nowhere to go. So I feel like there's two emotions, love or fear. And I feel like all of us, we have this, I'll call it, this layer over top of the globe of humanity that is really the victim triangle. So victim, rescuer and persecutor, and it's all held up by fear. So I think the biggest thing that we can each do is pay really close attention to when do we fall into that. If we're judging somebody, we're in fear, right? And so I think the biggest thing that we could do is really identify our own patterns of where we, where we get stuck in that triangle. Because if you watch any Lifetime movie, you can start watching that victim triangle. Oh, look at so and so sad. She's waiting for Prince Charming to come. That's going to be really amazing. She's going to be rescued and then, oh my God, he wants to tell me that I can't do this and do that. And now I'm feeling like I need to tell him to, you know, whatever, back off. I'm gonna run away from him, I'm gonna use his credit card, whatever the story is, you know what I mean? But if you watch the news, if you watch any movie, you're gonna see those patterns play out over and over and over again. And I think that when we look at even the history of people, right, we're no longer having to stay safe from the saber toothed tiger and all of that, we're getting caught. We get stuck in that paradigm when we go to war with each other, when we're talking about, when we're talking about natural resources. We even see that pattern in many religions, right? If you don't do this, you're going to go to hell, right? So we get into that whole pattern, even there. So what if we were to remove that pattern altogether? What would happen to us as humanity if we started choosing love over fear? What would happen? I mean, I got enough, you know, canned stuff to share with my neighbor, you know what I mean? I got enough toilet paper, which in the United States was a big deal during COVID you know, people were hoarding toilet paper. I got enough toilet paper to share with somebody. You know what I mean? Like, how can we move more into that where everybody has value and everybody has purpose and it doesn't matter what they look like, where they come from, what religion they choose, what gender they are, what sexuality, sexual orientation. There we're just. We're all just people trying to feel connected and feel like we can, you know, we can feel loved. That's it. It's so simple.

Yeah. You know, what you're sharing reminds me of a quote from Ram Dass where he said, we're all just walking each other home.

Yes. Right.

And if we can. If we can see ourselves in others, Pramak Swami says that our. Our joy lies in the heart of others. And so I, you know, absolutely admire what you just shared, because what would that world look like? Right? What would it look like if the question was, what would love do? And, you know, that was the answer that emerges from that with. With. With whatever situation we're facing. You know, there's a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things, and there's a way to do things with pure intention and. And love. That might give us a third opportunity, a third answer to whatever question we ask.

Right, exactly.

Right.

Like, what could we. Instead of choosing out of fear, how do we choose from a place of love? And I also think, Sachin, that, you know, when we're. When we're looking at each other, whether we're a client or whether we're a practitioner, provider or whatever, that means we're all human beings to me. There's no real hierarchy in that at all. You know, we're all just human beings. And so looking at that pattern of where we get stuck in that. In that triangle, that's where we give our power away. And when I say our power, it's our power to choose. You know, Viktor Frankl, I'll never remember the quote exactly, but something like one of the man's last freedoms is his. His. His way of choosing and looking at the world. I mean, it was something like, along that nature. Right. And so if we can look at each of us as that, in that pattern of where we get caught in that and where we give our power away to that. Our power to. Our power of love, our power of, you know, freedom, our power to choose however. However you want to, you know, say it the way that we think, you know, I don't know. I think that's the biggest thing that could really shift. Maybe it sounds grandiose, but I. I'm gonna start getting a little weepy, but I really believe that, like, if each of us took responsibility for that, it would be enough. That would just be enough. I'm not not saying you have to give $10 million away. You have to, you know, go feed people across. I think if we all just did that as a basic start, wow, it. It could be amazing. Amazing.

What if we just did that for an hour? Like, imagine the world decided, like I always thought, and maybe this crosses your mind as well. Like, we have a bonus day every four years, right? So every four years, there's an extra day in February, right? I've always thought, like, that day just goes to waste. Like, that should be a day off. It's a day that only comes once every four years. It should be a day of celebration, like that should. It comes more, less frequently than New Year's does. And we celebrate like crazy when there's a new year. But every four years is this extra day. So imagine a day like that where we just said, you know, today we're going to ask what would love do? And with this bonus day, just approach every thought, every person, every opportunity from that framework. And I think the world could shift very quickly. Imagine the healing that would take place, right? All the conversations that haven't been had that would be had. You know, the forgiveness that would take place. I mean, it would just be an amazing, amazing thing to witness and be part of. And, you know, there's nothing stopping anyone who's listening to this right now. You know, to do that, you don't have to wait for a leap year. You don't have to wait for the weekend. You could do that right now. And just for the rest of the day, just challenge yourself. And I don't even think it's a challenge, but just remind yourself to pose that question. What would love do? How would love answer this email? How would love prepare this meal? How would love say thank you to the next person that does something nice for you? You know, how would love do something nice for somebody else?

And it's not just, how would that impact the external world, you know, because that is part of it. But how would that shape your internal world? How would that change how you feel about yourself and the value that you have for yourself? Because, you know, my tagline says, what if you're the one that you've been waiting for? And I, and I, you know, another soapbox is it starts with. It starts with me. It starts with you not as a provider, but as a human being. Like, it starts with me. And. And so, because I spent a long time in my life looking out the window, waiting for somebody to come. My. My first husband, waiting for him to come home from work. Looking out the window. I spent 17 years looking out the window and, and like no one came. Okay, So I need, I need to come. And so what if I were to, to take that, that lay. What would love do? And like, not only what does love do for everyone else, but how does that shape me when I come from that place? And how does it, how does it shape it when I say I'm going to come from a place of love for me first, Me first. Because when I love me first, everything else is so much easier. There is no triangle because I'm full, I'm valued.

Yeah, there's a, there's a few quotes and thoughts that come to mind. One of them is, you know, you gotta, you know, basically fill your own pot first, right. If you want to pour into others. And then the other one is we've got to light our own candle, right. So if we just imagine a little candle wick on the top of our heads, it's so much easier to light other people's fires if ours is lit first. And it doesn't diminish our own. So it's a wonderful reminder that the things that we do to make the world a better place really starts by us becoming a better version of ourselves. And it's a, it's a two way street, right. When you do good unto others, it makes you feel good. I know there's, you can probably speak to the chemistry of that better than I could. And when we share our gifts, but also we feel appreciated and valuable. There's a shift in our chemistry as well, which I think would be very powerful.

Totally. And you know, that's the power of, you know, having people in your life that, that can also nurture you. Right. But I'm not going to choose people in my life to nurture me if I don't first understand the value of who it is that I am. Right. And that's a, and I think that's a practice and that's a progression. Right. And then as we practice and we say goodbye to relationships that really don't serve us, that kind of keep us at a lower frequency, a lower, lower vibe that continue to pull us into that triangle, you know, and when we start saying no to that, something amazing starts happening in the universe. We where it just sort of starts pulling people together that, that are, that resonate a little bit differently. Right. And in those places now, you know, there's an amazing husband in my life, like amazing man of 14 years. Right. There's amazing friends and colleagues in my life that now just because we, we really work to keep each other out of the triangle, right? And in a place of love. And that's where real intimacy and real connection continues to grow. And guess what? When that happens, I get to have the opportunity to even learn more and more about me because now there's a safe container for me to continue to, you know, to develop whatever that is, spiritually evolve consciously, become more aware, step out of what I think my box is a little bit more and grow a little bit more and love a little bit more. Like, what are my limitations? I think we're, you know, that pattern, okay, well, maybe it's still here, you know, but now I have this amazing support around me to help nurture that and nurture me in a different way. But it started with me, say, me loving me and saying no to some of those other things that weren't serving me, right? Does that make sense?

Yeah, it does. I think it's. We only have a certain amount of bandwidth and resource, and I think the best place to invest that bandwidth and resource is in ourselves first, right? So it's like you got, don't just fill the pot, but you've got to, if you want to make coffee, you got to boil the pot.

And as you do that, though, it's, it's like our capacity to love grows more. Like when I was, when I was stuck in that cycle of, we'll just call it like a first marriage chronic fatigue syndrome cycle, right? And there was so much of my energy, even as I started to get better, that was still pouring out, you know, still serving. I worked in acute care mental health for 26 years and, you know, was still pouring out and pouring out. And, and that was amazing and beautiful because what happened was as I poured that out and people responded, I got that fed back to me. Like my value got fed back to me, right? But then there are other places along the way, like supervisors or whatever, other places that they really didn't see the value in some of those things. And so there was always like this little, this little push, pull thing that was happening. I think that causes us to also grow. But if we continue to do it, like I pour out so that I can see my value and it comes back, you know, we tend to get burned out in that way. There's no way in heck that any one of us decided to become a provider of anything, right? In health because we wanted to necessarily be rich or whatever. We did it because we wanted to help people. And maybe it came from a place of helplessness early on in our lives where we felt helpless and we needed to do something. And so that was the impetus of wanting us to help other people. Right. But we can also get to the point where we get so burnt out because we're looking for our value. And I don't think this is conscious, but I think we're looking for our patients to give us value. Right. That's where we end up with boundary violations. That's where we end up feeling burnt out. That's where, you know, sometimes providers make decisions that get a little scary. And, you know, I've had a couple of people that I was quite close to at one time that ended up going to jail for boundary violations, you know, a couple of providers who ended up committing suicide, you know, because we, you know, we have a great capacity to hold love. But I think as we do our work and as we put ourselves more first and in a loving way, we are actually growing our capacity to care more for people, not care less for people. And whenever I talk about loving ourselves more, I hear people say, well, isn't that a little selfish? And I go, yeah, I guess it is a little bit selfish, you know, but selfish in, like, a nasty, negative way. I think we've been taught something really inappropriate about that word selfish. I think we have to become a little bit selfish about our own value and our own. This is our own life. This is our life. And we can give more of ourselves. And we have more capacity to give more when we're coming from a place that's more out of love and instead of out of fear.

Yeah. You know, the. I'm getting a lot of visual downloads as you're speaking, and so I'm really enjoying our conversation. And the download that I'm getting as. As you're saying that is, I'm thinking of a light bulb that's just kind of flick, dim and flickering. Right. And so if that light bulb were to shine bright and consistently. Right. Because it's getting the energy that it needs and doing the work that it needs to be doing, you would never call it selfish.

Right, right.

You would. You would see that it's serving its purpose. And so if our job is to bring light into other people's lives and we're kind of. The dimmer switch is turned all the way down and we're kind of flickering. I think it's really selfish of us and irresponsible of us not to work on our own light. Right. And to be that bright shining light and to show people what's Possible. Right. Especially as providers. I mean, listen, I understand we all have unique situations and circumstances, and it's not about where we're at because where we're at isn't who we are. It's really about continuing to walk that path and listening to conversations like this, perhaps even working with someone like yourself and doing that internal work that's required for us to shine bright. I mean, that's the most selfless thing that we can do because when we. When a light bulb shines bright, it's not for itself. It's to illuminate the path for others.

Yes. It's to be a reflection. And listen, we're always a reflection of each other. But what, at what vibration do we want to be a reflection of? Do we want to be a reflection of the trauma? Do we want to be a reflection of the pain and suffering? Or do we want to be the reflection of love and freedom?

Beautifully said. I love it. I could talk. We. I said this earlier. I could talk to you all day. And I. And I. I wasn't kidding. There's so much, so much alignment in the way we think and such an important message. I think that's another thing I wanted to. To share is that it's for. We're fortunate. It's unfortunate that people are struggling, but we're very fortunate that people like you are doing this work that are, you know, providing such valuable insights and a different way of healing. Right. Instead of masking symptoms, and sometimes it might be necessary, but instead of masking symptoms and numbing people with medications, you're facilitating them to do the work that's actually required so that they don't keep passing this on from generation to generation to generation. And I love the context of, of which you look at somebody is, you know, honoring their heritage, but also acknowledging their lineage and the people that will come after them. It just makes the work even so much more meaningful because if you think about it, one person, seven generations isn't seven people.

No.

Right. It's a lot of people. I, I'd have to do the math. But you can only imagine, like, even if it's just 2 to the exponent 7, that's a pretty, pretty substantial number of people that will be impacted by the work.

Yeah. Well, think about the number that you've impacted in your life, Sachin, and then multiply that by seven generations. I mean, alone. I mean, that's a lot of people.

Yeah. Really puts things in perspective. Thank you.

Right, right. And just because. And just because we don't know the Story of the person bagging our groceries. The fact that we are able to like approach them with our light and be kind and smile and say thank you and have gratitude. I mean that could change that whole person's day. Maybe, maybe more than that. Who knows, right? I mean it's that simple. So it's not even the people who are constantly in contact with. It's. It's anybody that we're in contact with.

Yeah. I mean you could change somebody's story.

Right? Right.

Like their perception of the world might be people suck. Like people are so mean. Like nobody's grateful and then they encounter you and their entire perception of humanity can change.

Which just a little glimmer of hope is like just, you know, is so powerful.

This is awesome. I really enjoying our conversation. We'll have to do a part two. All right, so planting that seed and invitation to come back on and you know, in the meantime, how can people learn more about the work that you're doing? I'd love to get them to plug into your network and your community and, and also where can we, where can we continue to follow you and learn more from you?

Oh sure. So thank you. You can check out my website. It's literally very easy. Loribteal npp.com and you can sign up for a newsletter there if you like people like that. That way people are able to find out. Ongoing workshops. I do workshops and retreats. I also offer intensives where someone can come and spend anywhere from three to five days with me. And that's really built around each individual and what that individual's needs are. I can bring in other providers to also help serve at that during that time and offer activities for integration time. That would be fun. So I guess the newsletter, going to the website and signing up for a newsletter to stay on top of some of that would be a good way to do that. I am working on a program that I can offer to people who are not necessarily necessarily working one on one with me but would offer some really good information and some ongoing skills that they can do even before they come to see me or just utilize themselves. So that's on my list of things to do. Sachin. But I guess the easiest way would be for there would be there. I'm also on the medical board of an amazing AI platform called iAFIT. And iAFIT has a very small, small. A very small intention which is to raise the consciousness of the planet and, and what I love about this AI platform, it kind of fell into my lap. It was not Anything I really thought I would get involved with, it kind of fell into my lap. And what I love about it is that the whole platform is built on a state of coherence. So anything that you're doing, whether you're asking, you know, to help with a journal prompt or help to rewrite a PDF of some sort or whatever, everything is delivered in a state, in the state of coherence. So as you're reading it, you're actually becoming more heart focused. And what I mean by coherence is your heart is now giving information to your brain. And when that happens, when you're in that state of coherence, 1400 chemical responses happening. Very, very well researched by the Heartmath Institute. So, so grateful for the work that they do. And there's sonic supplements that are on there to help you with anything from sleep, attention and focus, increase your, your energy to do a really big workout. There's so many different ways that you can use iFit and it's just a blast. So I encourage people to check that out, see what they see, what they think about that and see if it's a fit for them. And I guess that's what I have to say. Sachin.

Well, thank you. Thank you for, again, the work that you do. Thanks for taking time out of your day and spending it with myself and our community. And I have a strong feeling, aside from the second episode that we'll record together, that I feel like we're going to do a lot of good in the world as a collaborative effort. So I'm so grateful that we have met, so grateful to get to know you even more deeply during our conversation today. And here's to an amazing, amazing end to the year and start to a whole new year. Much love, much light, and thank you for taking the time to be here.

Thank you, Sachin. You too, sweetie.

All right, friends. Well, there you have it. The amazing Lori Thiel. I hope you enjoyed our conversation today.

Thank you.

I know I certainly did. Got lots of goosebumps, got lots of downloads and lots of opportunities to reflect my big takeaway from this. Laurie, just in closing here, that you may not even know until, unless I tell you, is that I think I've been a little bit too hard on my son and, and passing down some of that generational trauma of it's never good enough. So I can't wait until he gets home to tell him how proud I am of him and maybe to let off the gas pedal a little bit and let him grow into the man that he needs to grow into and, you know, just be. Be a quiet observer instead of somebody who's trying to shape him so I can really witness who he is. So thank you for that. I think that was my powerful lesson to take away.

And that's the benefit, Sachin, of just being in conscious communication and in conscious relationship with other people. Right? Because none of us are ever going to be perfect. That's not. I think that's unrealistic. We're perfect in our imperfection. And isn't it just amazing that you even have the awareness and the desire to do something different and give yourself some kudos for that and some love for that, because you love him so much, you're willing to just make it be less about you and more about watching him blossom into his. And into his potential. Right? And that takes amazing courage to be able to do that and let go of control. So. So give yourself some kudos for that, okay? And that's what received. It's so important for us to have community where we can come together and talk about those things because, you know, we need each other. We can't do this solo.

You're absolutely right. Thank you for bringing that out in me. I receive your acknowledgment. And again, thank you. And for those of you that are listening, the links that Laurie mentioned will be in the show notes, so go grab them there. Check out her amazing work. I'm on her newsletter. Just received it last week. It's very, very grounding and very centering, so it's a great anchor point for me. Thank you for that as well. Welcome. All right, well, have a wonderful day, everyone, and here's to your health, happiness and wholeness. Bye for now.