Creative on Purpose Live - Kate Lyzenga-Dean

There, at the speed of bytes. Hey, look at that! We did it again! Technology Man has successfully brought this broadcast to YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Welcome to Creative on Purpose Live, insightful conversations with inspiring difference makers to help you live your legacy. I'm your host, Scott Perry, Chief Difference Maker at Creative on Purpose. If you're ready to cultivate more clarity, confidence, and calm by defining and leveraging your purpose, visit creativeonpurpose.com. You'll find insight and inspiration for better living while making a bigger difference. And if you sign up for the free Power of Purpose mini-course, you'll get additional goodness delivered to your inbox every week. Let's meet today's guest, Dr. Kate Lyzenga Dean. Welcome to the broadcast. Please tell our viewers how to pronounce your name, who you are, what you're up to these days, and where can they go to learn more about you and the difference you're making.

Yeah, so it's Dr. Kate Lysengadine. I know it's a mouthful, but I'm a functional medicine doctor who works with busy folks to get to the root cause of their health concerns. And I specify busy folks because one of my special interests and the people that I help often have a ton of stress. And that's something that, you know, as a difference maker, you know, sometimes following your purpose and living your legacy results in some stress. And so, um, my hope is to help those folks get to the root of whatever is triggering that stress, um, whatever is worsening that stress, and then the health issues that come along with those things, um, and find strategies for them that are personalized to their situation and that can help them, um, keep going despite that stress. Um, So that's kind of what I do. I do that via online consultation, so virtual services that way. I've got an awesome mini course, mini workshop called the Stress Better mini workshop because that's what we focus on. And then I also run an online community called the Resilienteers where we focus on building resilience to stress in our world, in our life, and in our body. So that's what I'm up to.

Yeah, fantastic. And you can see right down there that you can reach Dr. Kate at drkateld.com. And so I'm just guessing, Dr. Kate, that little 9-year-old, not yet Dr. Kate, didn't wake up one day and say, you know what I want to do? I want to help people relieve stress. That's my mission in life. So I'm just curious if you don't mind a little bit of your backstory. And how did you come to be doing what it is that you're doing.

So, uh, when I went to doctor school, um, I, I was under stress, believe it or not. And I— what happened was, is I started school, and I've always loved school, and that's always something that I've enjoyed. And so I wasn't interpreting school as being stressful for me. So I was just like doing my thing, working my way through medical school, and you know, constant classes, always studying, crazy labs, really rigorous program, all of that stuff. And what happened was I thought I was doing great, everything was fine, and then suddenly I woke up one morning and I had this horrible nausea that I just could not get rid of. And then I started having these other weird symptoms where I, like, my hands and feet would go like totally white, and, and then I would kind of get these weird, like, shaky feelings on the inside. And, and all the time in my head I'm going, I'm, you know, I'm sick, I have some sort of bug, you know, a stomach bug or something that I just have to get over because I'm fine and everything's fine. Well, that progressed and continued for months and months and months, and clearly it was not a stomach bug. And it took me a long time to realize that it was my body under stress. So it was the stress response, but it was just physical. I didn't feel emotionally anxious. I I didn't feel worried. I didn't, you know, I didn't feel any of that, but my body was trying to tell me, hey, you can't, you know, we're redlining, we're in fight or flight, you can't keep going like this, you need to take some steps. And so it was basically just like powering down on all of this, this stuff, just physiologically. Um, and it took a while for me to figure that out, that that was happening. Um, and I was at a doctor school So you can imagine the average Joe, you know, who's facing this kind of stuff, it would be really tough for them to figure out what was going on if I, while I was studying medicine in a doctor school, and my colleagues, we couldn't figure out what was going on. So that really inspired me as I continued on in my practice and as I started to see these things happening in other people's lives, to just like the, the light bulb moment that would happen when I would say, you know what, you're Your body is super stressed out even though your emotions aren't. Here's why. This is what's happening. This is what's happening. This is what, what's happening. And it was like this, like, instant, like, oh my goodness, this is like a game changer for these people because they're chasing all of these symptoms like I did. Um, and I, and I just found that if we got to the root and figured out, hey, this is your body under stress, what can we do for you for your body. Of course, you know, mental health and emotional health and taking those steps are really important too. But if you're not feeling it emotionally, sometimes we go straight to the body and getting them the help that they needed that way. And learning that sometimes life is stressful and we can't necessarily avoid or minimize stress. That's one of my, you know, one of my pet peeves is you'll see people out there just saying, oh, well, reduce your stress. Okay, like, have you lived in this world? Like, do you know what life is like around here? We can't always just minimize or avoid stress. So instead, what we have to do is learn how to teach our bodies how to stress better, to figure out how to build resilience so that when stress comes, our bodies can handle it. Like I had to learn back when I was in, in medical school.

Well, what's really interesting to me is that, um, I love what you're saying about stress kind of being unavoidable. It's, it's part of the human condition, it's part of everybody's life, whether you're a doctor or a ditch digger or anything in between. Um, it's just part of the nature of the world that we live in, which is, you know, complex and distracting and, uh, asking us to do a lot of things and, and that sort of thing. Um, what I'm hearing is that you were able to pay attention to the physical symptoms of stress, um, and that it was a signal to you that there was something going on that needed to be explored and, and resolved. And for other people, that stress can be, uh, manifest— the symptoms of stress can manifest spiritually and/or psychologically in addition to the physically. And one of the things that we are fond of doing here at Creative On Purpose is just like really defining the terms that we're talking about, because, you know, stress is a word we hear a lot. When we are talking about stress, what are we really talking about?

So from my perspective, when I think of stress, it begins— so it begins in the brain, it begins with a perception. Your body, neurologically— and sometimes this is subconsciously— your body is receiving the signal that there is a threat. So anytime your body perceives a threat, then it responds to that threat. So when I say stress, I'm— what I'm talking about is the cascade of events that happens in your brain, in your mind, which are two different things, by the way, and we can get into that in a second. But in your brain, in your mind, and in your emotions, or your spiritual self, that follow that perceived threat. And so some of us, we respond mostly in our mind— racing thoughts, anxiety, worry— kind of the common, more classic, I guess, presentation that people might say I'm stressed, right? Or emotionally, right, with fear, with anger, with irritability, with a lot of those other things that are associated with a threat, you know, to us emotionally. And those stressors, the things that are creating that response, can be the same. It can be physical, it can be mental, it can be emotional and spiritual, right? So, and, and we don't always respond that cascade doesn't always respond to a spiritual threat with spiritual response or physical with physical, right? They, they sometimes they crisscross or there's multiple things. So stress is the stressor or the stress trigger comes, we perceive a threat, and then the stress cascade begins with the fight or flight response, which tells our body, okay, there's a threat. We have to run away, we have to fight for our lives. And there's a third one actually that people are talking about now called freeze, which you probably— I mean, you know this— where you just stop and you're paralyzed. It's like the deer in the headlights, right? So fight, flight, freeze. Um, and then if that signaling, if that perceived threat, that, that stress response doesn't get turned off appropriately, then we get into chronic stress And that's where hormones are affected. We're making a bunch of cortisol. It can be very inflammatory, and all sorts of other health concerns can stem from not turning off appropriately or having that constant perceived threat in your life, right? A, a toxic workplace you go to every day, you're going to get a signal— threat, threat, threat— every day. So your stress response stays turned on. As opposed to actually running from an animal that's trying to eat you, you know, where, hey, this animal is trying to eat me, I'm going to run away, or I'm going to fight it off, or I'm going to hide and freeze and go, you know, you can't find me. And then the animal goes away, you survive, and then your stress response goes down, right? So when we talk about stress, there's the stressor, there's the stress response, and then there's How long is that stress response staying turned on? Because that in and of itself can create more stress.

Yeah. I love, um, that, that description and definition because I, I totally agree that stress is based on fear response and fear response does trigger the limbic system, which is the fight, flight, or freeze. And, um, I think it's almost always unconscious or subconscious. That's, I mean, that's our programming. It's supposed to be instantaneous because that's how we survived. Yeah, you know, and it's— so it's based on a biological evolutionary imperative. And what I was hearing in your description earlier is we bring the conscious— our consciousness into the conversation so that we can pause that reactive fight, flight, or freeze and try to manage, or, you know, see the signal and then start to process a healthier approach to stress that will promote a greater sense of happiness, equanimity, whatever it might be. So I would love to hear a few tips for, you know, when, when we do have the wherewithal to catch ourselves in and catch the stress, what are the things that we can do to start to mitigate the psychological, spiritual, and physical effects that stress has on us?

So I would say the first step to doing that would be to make sure that your physical body— that we, that we're creating an environment internally in our body that is not hyperreactive to stress or prone to that stress cascade being kicked off or, or sticking around for a long time, right? Because you can, you know, stress does begin in the brain, but you can create an environment internally. Um, great example would be if you're not getting the nutrition you need, or if you're getting poor nutrition. Uh, if you're eating McDonald's every day for every meal, you're setting up an inherently stressed-out body, like internal system. You're, you're super inflamed, you don't have your micronutrients, you're probably not digesting properly, you're not eliminating properly. Right? It's not real food. So if we think about that, there are lots of things that we can do to our body internally to set ourselves up. So the big one that I talk to you about— I talk about with people first is balancing your blood sugar, because it's not something that we always think about when it comes to stress. But the spikes and crashes that come when our blood sugar is not balanced is triggering our body into a fight-or-flight response. It thinks it's starving, right? So that's a threat to our internal environment. So if we can keep our blood sugar more like this, nice and level throughout the day, where we're not having such spiky crashy, we're not skipping meals, we're not, um, taking in tons of sugar all at once without balancing out with fiber, protein, fat, that kind of stuff. So I always start with what can you do to level out your blood sugar. And for most people, that means eating more healthy fats, eating more fiber, and eating more protein. And then watching out for big gaps in between their meals, or watching out for that, you know, double latte, mocha, whatever shenanigans that spikes your, you know, caffeine plus sugar plus all of that can really drive blood sugar up and then it crashes. So that would be a really good tip to look at things, you know, physically first. Um, another big one that anybody can do anywhere is practice breathing. And a lot of times we associate that with things like yoga or, you know, meditation or mindfulness practice, and that's great, but it doesn't even have to be in that context to physically pull us out of that fight-or-flight response. Even just, you know, 5 deep breaths in and out while you're sitting at a traffic light— if you're breathing down into your diaphragm and you're breathing out more than you're breathing in, like length of time, that just— it tells your body, it nudges your body towards rest and digest mode. So out of fight-or-flight, which is sympathetic, into parasympathetic mode. And that's again something anybody can do anywhere. I mean, tons of other great benefits— helps you improve your focus, helps improve mood, helps improve your immune function. I mean, lots of benefits to that type of breathing work that really, even beyond the mental and emotional benefits of it, just physically getting your body out of that fight-or-flight response. So those two are big ones that we start with, and then There's so many to choose from. One of the trick— the tricky ones that I like to utilize involves a nerve called the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is cranial nerve 10, so it, it directly goes from our brain to like our heart and our diaphragm and our stomach. And so that's why a lot of times if you're stressed, you'll feel it kind of in that area, right? You'll feel tightness, or you'll feel like your stomach gets upset, or you'll get heartburn or whatever, because that vagus nerve is not being allowed to send like calming signaling to your organs. And so anything that we can do to affect the vagus nerve and bring it back online can be really helpful for mitigating stress response. So, um, toning and, and like turning on your vagus nerve— sometimes you can, if you splash cold water on your face I know that sounds wild, but you see that in the movies, right? People are like, huh, and they're stressed out and they go to the bathroom and they splash water on their face. Like, why do we do that? Oh, because it's actually like calming our vagus nerve and turning that stress response down. Same thing for like if you— and if you take a shower, a hot shower, and then you end like the last few seconds with cold water, that's really good for, you know, toning that vagus nerve and turning it on. Humm— humming and singing do the same thing for us through the throat. So those, again, all things that we can kind of work into our routines and into our lives and that are a lot of times, you know, feel nice and are good for us too in other ways. Um, so blood sugar, uh, breathwork, and then that vagus nerve. So the cold water on the face or singing, humming, that kind of stuff. Those are 3 really easy ones like anybody can do.

I love that. One of the things that we talk a lot about at Creative on Purpose is, you know, how very little is within our control and how, you know, decisions are not results or outcomes. Results and outcomes will happen. We can do things that will influence the results that we seek, but largely the only thing that we really have any control of is our thoughts, how we frame ourselves in our situation. And what we decide and do next. And what I'm hearing in some of those things that you're talking about is stress is, is, is part of the human condition. It's going to visit upon you.

And that's fine. Yeah.

You can decide how you, you know, how you, you mitigate, how you approach that by taking care of yourself and the through diet, taking care of yourself through just basic mindfulness activities. And the other thing that I'm curious about, just to hear your reflection on, reflections on, just because it's something that we talk a lot about here, um, is also making sure that we can build resilience towards stress by, um, being in, having a lot of, by cultivating intention and integrity in what we do and what we don't do, who we associate with and who we don't associate with. And prioritizing what's, what's really important. And, you know, the interesting thing about priority is it used to always be in the singular until the 1900s. It's only been since the early 1900s that we've decided that we can have a list of priorities. And so one of the things that we talk about often is like, what's the one, what's the most important thing? What's the thing that if I got it done today, would help me move forward in my endeavor to fulfill my potential and deliver on my promise. So just any reflections on those two ideas of, you know, being purposeful, and also making sure that you have your priorities straight?

Yeah, I think, I think a big one can even be just the mental shift of recognizing that you don't have to always be trying to minimize or avoid stress and accepting that there are still things that you can do instead of just saying, well, can't avoid this stressor, so I'm just gonna drink a lot of wine and, you know, call my friend.

That's not gonna work.

I mean, it works for a while. It is a coping strategy. Is it going to get you where you want to go? It depends where you want to go. But I would say that that can give you a ton of freedom to pursue things and to, to get out of your own head about stress, uh, because that's the thing about stress is it, it derails our logical thinking. It, it cuts us off from that whole frontal part of our brain when we're in fight or flight. And so instead of trying to figure out our stress, or, you know, there's, there's a lot of, a lot of talk around stress as a, um, as a mental exercise of getting rid of stress, um, or not letting yourself think bad thoughts, like just think positive. And all of that stuff is great, but when you are in the thick of it, sometimes what you just need to do is breathe 5 times in a row, you know, You set, set it on your phone, make your alarm and say, I'm going to breathe 5 times in a row today, every half an hour. And just let, let that be what it is and say, hey, I know this stuff is stressful right now. There's nothing I can do about that. It's okay because I'm going to talk to my body. I'm going to get out of my head and talk to my body about let's respond differently, right? Body, let's make a different choice. And the more you do that, the more you train your body to respond that way. That's how you build that resilience. It's a practice like anything else, you know, incorporating all of those mind, body, spirit, but also the body gets forgotten so much when we talk about stress. And so I would say, you know, focusing on stressing better instead of stressing less or stressing none, certainly. I think that is— that can be a game changer for people in who are pursuing something that just requires some stress to get there or to walk that journey, which most, most good things that we are trying to do in this world— I mean, you're difference makers, know that is inherently stressful. And so accepting that and, and trying other things instead of just stress avoidance or stress reduction I think that makes all the difference in the world. So just shifting your mindset away from that, getting rid of that whole idea of you should stress less or you should somehow relieve that stress or get away from it, you know, running from that is only going to end, end you on the couch watching TV all day because everything else is too stressful, you know.

Yeah, well, that's— I mean, that message is so important. So just, I mean, I want to highlight what you're saying, you know, ignoring, avoiding, or clinging to your stress is pathological and just an invitation to further suffering. And the— on the flip side, accepting that stress is an inherent part of a life worth living gives us the opportunity to dance with the stress a little bit, maybe think about it, you know, not Um, I loved what you were saying about, you know, just think positive thoughts, which is the most ridiculous advice ever because, um, the science, the neuroscience shows that that has no bearing on—

but it's out there. I, I mean, I, again, I see people, and it's, it's my pet peeve for a reason. I see folks out there, it's, you know, educated folks in medicine and healthcare, in coaching, and all of these other things who they say, you know, oh well, one of the things that you can do to help your X issue is reduce your stress. And it's like, what? How is a person supposed to do that? You can't always reduce your stress. So what, what next? You know, it's— I agree. I just think that that, that whole—

it's an invitation to shame, right? Like, just, just reduce your— I mean, just, just be happy. I mean, that's just— you're inviting someone that is in bare to further suffering. And the thing that, that you were saying that really resonates is a practice that we have in the Difference Maker coaching program, which is notice, name, and navigate. You have to actually bring your consciousness into the equation so that you can notice that, you know, something is not right, that, that, um, that stress, you know, is happening. And then by naming it, saying it out loud, writing it down, bringing it forward, holding it at arm's length, we can objectively look at what's going on. And instead of letting the narrative of, you know, victim— victim speak, or what you were saying earlier about avoiding, ignoring, or clinging, we can start to think about, well, how can, you know, if I name this thing objectively without all the adjectives and adverbs, value judgments, and strong emotional content. How could I leverage this as a moment for learning? Is there an opportunity in this obstacle or a silver lining in this stress? And how can I, you know, bring all these things that you talked about, you know, bring a little bit more mindfulness, settle our body, and start to think about healthier ways of approaching dealing with the stress, not, not managing it in the sense of trying to get rid of it, but leveraging it as an opportunity to move us forward. I love that message. As we're coming down to the last few minutes of our conversation, there's one final question I always ask, but I'd love to ask just one question before that. And that is, you know, in this work that you do and in, in your journey to doing this work, I'm imagining that you have experienced some stress around making mistakes, or what appeared to be mistakes in the moment, maybe they, those were opportunities in disguise. You know, we all, if we're doing work that matters, will experience failure many, many times. And often that is what enables us to move forward in our endeavor. Is there, is there one particular moment that appeared to be a mistake or failure at the time that you were able to leverage as a lesson or turn into a flip into an opportunity, um, that would help inspire other people to think a little bit more thoughtfully about the challenges they have in their lives?

Hmm, I would say I— so more pertinent to more recent changes that I've made in, in how I'm doing this work, and some of it was again outside of my control, but I think that I lingered too long. If I, if I look back, I lingered too long in a, in a model, a healthcare model that did not allow me to practice and to interact with people and to serve people in the way that feels good and feels most like the most integrity to me. And I think a lot of people find themselves in that place, right, where they love what they're doing, but the way that they're— the structure that they're in, that they're doing it in, feels— they get— they reach a point where it feels wrong, maybe just for themselves, maybe wrong, you know, for other reasons. But I, I allowed fear and stress and worry to keep me there longer than I wish that I had. And having, having made the jump and moved into a model that feels right to me and that I think is serving people better with more integrity and is going to help them better, I've actually found that, that there's freedom there and that the scary, stressful, fearful, anxious part of that journey was completely worth it. And, um, I'm wishing now that I had done things differently or done things sooner. Um, but at the same time, I feel like now I can relate more to people who find themselves stuck in different areas and in different ways, whether that's stuck with their healthcare journey, stuck with um, stuck in their own sick body, stuck in their career of choice, stuck in their workplace, stuck in their relationship, however that is. Helping people get unstuck, you know, I, I think I can relate a lot more to that and speak more to it on a personal level. Um, so going through that stress or going through that scary period of time, and, and not to say that it's not still scary sometimes, but I think that makes a difference too in how I interact with folks.

Yeah, I love that. Ignoring sunk costs is one of the hardest things anybody can ever do. But I imagine for someone that has a lot of money and time invested into something like a medical degree, it can be very challenging. So for a final question, it's always— and you've already delivered a ton of insight and inspiration for people that are watching this broadcast who aspire like you to live a little bit more bold, be a little bit more focused, be a little bit more disciplined in their pursuit of making a difference. If there was just one final exercise, idea, quote, maxim, what have you, that you would impart to our listeners to help them just step a little bit more, be half a shade braver in their pursuit of living a life on purpose, with purpose, for purpose, with and for others, what would, what would you share with them?

Yeah, I— and again, I feel like I'm repeating myself, but I would say don't be afraid of stress itself. Don't— and endeavor to stress better instead, that you have options. Um, that— I think that, that is the biggest shift that people can make when it comes to trying something new and, and making a difference, is not being afraid of the stress, learning to stress better, and moving forward anyway.

Endeavor to stress better. I love it. A quotable line for sure. So, exactly. So we thank everyone for tuning in. Dr. Kate and I really appreciate you lending us some of your valuable time and attention. We hope today's broadcast motivates you to take a bolder step into possibility, living your legacy. You can learn more about Dr. Kate and the difference that she's making down there at drkateldd.com. And of course, it's always great to see you at creativeonpurpose.com as well. If you're listening to this as a podcast, please consider leaving a 5-star review. It helps more of the right people connect with the insight and inspiration shared by our guests. Now, take the insight and inspiration from this conversation and fly higher in the difference only you can make. Dr. Kate, thank you so much for sharing some of your wisdom and insight.

My pleasure. My pleasure. Thank you.