058: Handling Stress and Toxic Relationships with Jennifer Shultz

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst, learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. Jennifer Schultz was just 47 years old when she started feeling chest and back pains. Her daughter insisted on taking her to the er. Now, Jennifer was in denial that anything was actually wrong with her and she was sure that the ER was just gonna send her right back home. She was wrong. You see the EKG that the ER ran for her, well, it had some life changing information for her. Jennifer, who was in great shape, didn't drink, didn't smoke, had just had a heart attack. A heart attack that could have killed her at 47 years old. Now why did she have this was the next question. Well, you see, Jennifer had been in a toxic relationship for five years and she thought that she could handle it. She was wrong and almost dead wrong. The silent stress she was experiencing in that relationship, it almost killed her. Join in today on Leveling up and learn exactly how Jennifer's journey happened for her, not to her, and how she's now rebuilt and created everything from nothing. Today on Leveling Up, I've got Jennifer Schultz. I am so excited to interview her. She's a living legacy creator. Don't worry, we're going to dive into what that means and what's interesting about Jennifer. Thank you for being here. First and foremost, Jennifer, what's interesting about Jennifer is that I met her literally from making an Instagram post about my dad dying of a heart attack when he was 49 and the impact that had on me and in my creation of what I do now for my career. And she commented back that she herself was a heart attack survivor and she's young and she completely changed her life after that. So I immediately messaged her and said, I've got to know your story. Tell me more. And so here we are today and I'm excited to dive in. So thank you for being here, Jennifer.

Oh, Natalie, thank you so much for having me. It's such an honor and a privilege. So I appreciate you so much.

Oh my gosh, I'm so glad to interview. Okay, so take me back because first of all, what's a living legacy creator? Tell us what that is.

Okay, so basically the reason why we came up with this title through my coaches, Living Legacy Creator, was just that. So people would ask, what does that mean? So I help CEOs and influential entrepreneurs create a living legacy to raise more money for their cause, their movement, or their charity. So basically what we do is we create powerful living legacies through connection, through events that I. Yes, I love that it's different.

I can't say I've ever interviewed anybody that does exactly that. That's pretty cool. Okay, but you did not always do this. This was born from something you went through, correct?

Definitely, Definitely. And that's how we connected. Like you said, I saw your post and my heart, like, even right now, like, I don't want to start crying, but I read your post. I'm getting emotional. My first, my heart went out to you for your father. And then what you're feeling, because I too lost my father six years ago unexpectedly. And. And then five years ago, I had a heart attack. And so when I saw all that, I said, oh my gosh, I need to post something to her. Just letting her know that I can relate somehow, you know, not expecting us to connect on, on a podcast or anything, but just to really let you know I cared. And that's what happened. I had a heart attack five years ago due to a very toxic struggle relationship I was in. Okay.

So I want to ask so much more, so many more questions because first of all, if you look at Jennifer, like, if you even look at her Instagram, she is extremely fit. She looks very youthful. She on the outside looks totally healthy. So you didn't look like somebody that would have a heart attack. I mean, that's what I'm gauging. So this is really important because I think we hear that stress and the mind body connection could really create and wreak havoc on our health. But I don't know that many of us really grasp it or believe it. So this is exactly what happened to you. So take us back. Like, who were you before that moment that this life changing event happened?

Okay, so. And you're absolutely right. When they, when you hear that phrase stress will kill or stress kills, it is a true statement and we don't take it seriously. So I was in a relationship with a man that I truly, deeply loved. And he just had so many issues going on, Depression and, you know, some mental illness. And then it became addictions. And I thought, you know, I'm superwoman, I can handle all this. And pushed it down, pushed it down, pushed it Down. And I didn't talk to anyone about it because, quite frankly, I was rather embarrassed that this was going on. And then number two, I was kind of, like, confused, like, why am I still with this person? But I did have this deep connection with him somehow. And so I kept building and building and building and building. And basically one night I lost my mind because like I said, I'd been building and built over years. Two weeks prior, he was really going through some major stuff of anxiety and depression and just lots of issues going on, and crying, screaming, just kind of all over the place. And I lost my cool one night, and I started yelling and screaming at him and making my point because I felt like I could not get his attention. Like, you've got to stop this. And five, six months prior to that, for the first time in my life, I was told I had high blood pressure. And the doctor literally said to me, he's like, jennifer, he's going to kill you. Because he knew. And I'm like, what do you mean he's going to kill me? He said, stress kills Jennifer, and your blood pressure is sky high. You are so stressed out. I want you to leave. I'm like, I can't just leave. So I would imagine it stressed you.

Out even more, like just hearing you have to leave, right?

Yes, it did. And I was like, I can't leave. And. Exactly. It stressed me out more. And I kept thinking, no, I can handle this. I'm strong. I, you know, I left home at 13 years old. I can do this. I'm like a survivor. And so that night, when we got into this altercation, I call it, and yelling and screaming back and forth at each other. I all of a sudden, I walked into the other room, and my daughter happened to be visiting, staying downstairs, and she heard me screaming, and she came up and I grabbed my chest and I said, oh, my God, something's wrong. And at one point, he did grab me. He was trying to actually calm me down, he says. So he grabbed me and he held me really, really tight. Well, I thought he broke one of my ribs because the pain was so excruciating. And of course, I've never experienced a heart attack before. But luckily, my daughter, who was 20, used to watch, like, all kinds of those shows on, you know, whatever, the History Channel and the Medical Channel. And she started asking me all these questions. She says, mommy, you know, you're saying, like, your. Your arms are hurting and your jaws tingling. You're having a heart attack. Oh, my gosh.

I just got complete Goosebumps. It's like, yeah, we hear it. But, like, I would imagine in that moment, you don't even, like, really, it's not even occurring. You're just stressed out and dealing.

I was in total, a thousand percent denial. First of all, like, 11 o' clock at night. Who wants to go to emergency room at 11 o' clock at night?

You're thinking, I got to get up early. I got stuff to.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't have time for this.

Right, right. How are you taking off my makeup? Yeah. And I'm like, I'm not having a heart attack. You're out of your mind. She's like, no, mommy, you're having a heart attack. I'm taking you to emergency. And I fought her. Like, I seriously fought her.

Yeah.

We go out and she puts me in the car and she rushes me, you know, to emergency. And it's quite interesting when you're having a heart attack and you walk into emergency, they whisk you right in. And again, being in denial, I was joking about it. I'm like, oh, I'm like a vip. I get right in. Because I was so.

In the back of your mind, what was were you thinking? Were you thinking, I'm having a panic attack? Like, what was going through your mind of what was happening?

I wasn't thinking pan attack, panic attack. I was just thinking that I just got this big fight with him, and then I was just. This was all nonsense. This was not happening. I honestly wasn't anything.

Were you angry at your daughter for pulling you out and making you go to the hospital at this point?

No, I wasn't angry at her. I have to say, it's funny you asked me this question, because I'm thinking back, I wasn't angry at her. And because she's my firstborn. I don't know. With our children, we have a tendency. At least I do. And I'm sure other moms listening, can they have some wisdom sometimes that we just don't get? And so I was listening to her. I was letting her take over and take control. And I was okay with it, even though I was in denial. I mean, I'm like, okay, fine, let me go get, like, my hairbrush and my makeup.

Yeah, that's exactly my eyelashes on. Hold on. Like, no, I get it.

Yeah.

This is the shallow. What we live in. We don't. Because we don't think how serious something like this could be.

Yeah. Basically, they, you know, whisked me in. They do. She's like, my mom is having an EKG right now or a heart attack? She needs EKGs. I mean, she was like, little doctor.

Yeah.

She gets to go to medical school now. Yeah. So they do two EKGs. They put me in the room. They do two EKGs. No one's coming in. No one's really talking to me, saying anything. Finally, another doc, the doctor walks in and says, like, this is already. A couple hours have gone by. And he says, the cardiologist on staff or on call wants me to do another ekg. Don't ask questions. It's like, okay. You know, in the meantime, the guy that's with, he's calling, like, why is this happening to me? I'm like, this isn't happening to you. This is happening to me.

Oh, so he's being a total victim, like, which is, I'm assuming, what your relationship was like with him.

Yeah. So I finally handed the phone to my daughter. I'm like, I can't talk to him anymore. I can't deal with this. So finally, the doctor walks back in and he literally. And I'm not going to say the word, but he says to me, what the f is going on? You just turn. What was I, 48 at the time? 47. 48. You don't drink, you don't smoke. You work out because you have to fill out the paperwork and stuff. And you're, you know, like £112. You're 5 7. You look fit. Everything what you just said, right? And my daughter looks at the doctor and she's like, he. She lives with a crazy man. And he says, tell me what's going on, Jennifer? And so I explained my story to him, and he said, you had a heart attack. He's going to kill you. He said the same exact thing that the other. And then it started hitting home. I was like, wow, this really isn't good.

Wow, wow, wow, wow. So, okay, so now you get it. You're like, this is serious. I gotta fix this. What. What do you go to next? Is it like, okay, do you go into that. The doing mode again of, like, I get. I have to take blood pressure medicine. I have to do, like, where's your brain going? Or are you going, okay, I really need a whole overhaul?

Like, what. What.

Tell me what's going through your brain after this. You find this out?

Honestly, my brain went to, I want to go home. That is exactly. I wanted to go home. Because, see, you have to remember being in that situation when you are in a situation like that and you become codependent. I Literally kept thinking, I just need to go home. I need to go home. I need to see what's going on at home. And I still went back to that place of. That I allowed myself to get into, of being that codependent person of, I need to make sure he's okay.

How was he being to you, though? Was he. Did he have any concern at all? Was it completely about him? Like, I can't believe you're doing this and creating this.

It was definitely completely about him because even the next day, I mean, he kind of. I, you know, like, washed his hands of it and he like, literally raised his hands up and said, I had nothing. He, like, did not want to take responsibility. With that being said, since then, he has taken place complete responsibility. But the time, he definitely did not. And it took him four years to take responsibility for it.

So no ownership. Was there concern or empathy for you? Like, are you okay?

Not really. Because the next day they kept me overnight, which I did. I fought against again. I'm like, no, I want to. Stubborn one. And so I stayed and my daughter stayed with me, you know, until like the next day. And they made me do the stress test again. I'm being a smart ass. I don't know if I can say that, but I'm being a smart al. I literally was on the. Doing the stress test and I said, oh, good. I. I'm gonna miss my workout today, so I'll use this as my workout.

I would be that same conversation. This is. That's how it's not a good way to be, but, yeah, I get it.

Yeah. Okay, fine. I'll show you people I'm fine. And I'm on the treadmill. I'm like a crazy person because I'm gonna prove them I'm fine. And, you know, the doctor came in later and said, you know, thank God you are okay. You don't have any, like, major, you know, like, effects from it that I have to keep you longer. And I said. Then I went into. I also went into prayer that night. God, just like, heal me and heal whatever effects are, because I didn't want to deal with this. So when I. When I ended up going home the next day, my daughter brought me home. He, you know, back to your question. How was he dealing with it or did he have compassion? He never once said, I'm glad you're okay. I'm sorry, I can't, you know, I'm glad you're alive. He basically said, well, I got the other room ready for you, so you can Sleep in there.

Wow. So did you get clear from this that you needed to end that relationship?

Oh, yeah. That's how I started this new business. The next few weeks, kind of. I was very exhausted and tired and.

Well, you had a heart attack.

Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. I'm asking the doctor, can I go work out? You know, she's like, you need to take two to three weeks off. I want you resting and recuperating. We need to do more tests. Blah, blah, blah. So all that started happening and blood pressure medication started happening, which I was still in my. I don't want to take blood pressure medication. But now, you know, I do.

I do have a question for people listening to and for myself. Did you have high blood pressure historically, or was this because of the stress?

I never had it historically at all. This is. I believe in. My doctors believed it was because of the stress.

So had you gone in and had a regular checkup, like, when you weren't feeling that your blood pressure was on the normal side always. So that's very important. Yes.

So. Wow.

So it's amazing to think, like, because so many of us, we don't walk around with a blood pressure, you know, checker, so whatever they're called, we were not checking that.

So imagine that.

So, like, I just had a checkup recently. Last week, my blood pressure was low. But that doesn't mean if I'm in a stressful event, it's not getting high for that time. So that's really important to know distinction there.

It is important. That's a good point to bring up. It's important to get regular checkups and have your blood pressure checked. And especially if you feel like you're in a situation where you are under a lot of stress. And if you're like me, who thinks, oh, I can't handle all this, and you just push it down our bodies. Oh, wow. Our bodies react and we get sick and we have heart attacks. And a lot of health issues have happened to me since that time frame. And I know it's because of that whole situation of being so stressed out. Has all these other help on me now.

Okay, so you get home, you're feeling this, you know, you want to go down this road of fixing things. You make a decision to leave. What happens next?

What happens next really is I'm talking to, you know, my girlfriend that already knows the situation. She's like, okay, that's it. We gotta, like, you gotta do something and make some money and get out. I'm like, oh, what am I gonna do, you know. Yeah, I've been in fashion and beauty for my whole life. I mean literally, it's just bred in me. And she's the one that said, you know, I really think you need to take all of your skills. You've always helping people with their fashion and you know, you've always done this and that. And she was, you need to become a stylist. And I was like, okay, that sounds fun, I can do that. And I'm doing it for everyone else anyways all the time for free. And I was in the beauty industry and okay, I can do that. And so what I did because I was still living at the house, but in a. The house is a large home, so I was living in another like guest suite. And I was still dealing with the effects of being like literally brokenhearted from that relationship. And like, how could someone that I love so much, who said he loved me not take responsibility and, and do all these things. And to me that I felt. And so I said, you know, no more. So literally every day I started getting up and I started like this. I used to have the morning routine anyways, but I made it more impactful with listening to Joel Osteen, listening to Joyce Meyer and, and then getting dressed, looking like a frickin million bucks even, even if I cried all night long because I'm trying to figure out, what am I, 47, 48 years old, I gotta start over again. And I'm not excited about that. I started going to a place called Stonehouse. It's in Westlake Village, California. And I would show up there every day around 10am sure. And I looked like I just like walked out of a board meeting. I look so good. My hair, makeup, the dress, the heels, everything had my computer and I had no idea what I was going to do, but I was look like I was in business.

And where was this place you were going?

What was this called? Stone House and it's a wine that's S T O N E H A U s. You should look it up. It's absolutely beautiful. It's a gorgeous resort area.

So you would go and just hang out and do your figure out, say I was going to figure out my work or what I'm doing here.

They had all these cool little tables, you could sit outside. And it was very communal type of place. It was all built like around Italy. And so I would go there and I had like I said I had my computer. Okay, just look like you're working even if you're not. Just Pretend you're working and people look like. Each day I would start meeting somebody. Oh, you know, my name's so and so and, oh, my name's Jennifer, and I'm a fashion stylist. And I would just start talking to people and. Because it's a very, like, friendly kind of a place. And then basically, fast forward over a couple months. I had been seeing the owner of the property there almost every day. He walks the property, the very proud of it. And I, you know, got to know him. How are you? What do you do, what's your name, etc. And so one day he came up to me. It was actually evening. I happened to go there with some friends for evening, and his general manager came up to me and said, Mr. Nader wants to talk to you. And I was like, okay, like, what's automatically assumed something's wrong? And so Mr. Nader walks up to me and he had a bottle of wine in his hand, and he said, jennifer, I want you to style my entire staff. And I was like, are you drunk? What. What's going on here? So I ended up putting a whole entire PowerPoint presentation that keep in mind, no idea how to do PowerPoint. And I figured it out, got some, like, help from some friends, put a whole entire PowerPoint presentation, what I would do to make his staff look amazing and like, Stonehouse Italian feel of it. And so I presented it a few weeks later to him and his coo and they loved it and they hired me. And of course, I had no idea what I was doing. I was like, oh, my God, this is so amazing. And so basically from there, I had to, you know, I literally had to figure out, like, where do I get the uniforms and how do I size everybody and how does all this work? But I figured it out because I.

Know, I love that you didn't know what you're creating or how. I love that. And I love that you, like, from there, you didn't know what you were creating or how, but you just kind of put yourself in a situation to act as if you, like, planted yourself in the spot to, like, I'm going to just be here to be creative and get inspiration and hopefully meet people. I mean, that's just such a huge, phenomenal step that I have not seen with people where they do that.

Yeah, I had to. That was my choice. I have to show up and look like. I said, look like I'm successful. And he even said that night, he goes, every day I see you, you are dressed so sharp. And he's from Germany or Sweden or somewhere. He's like. And he found out I was German. He's like, germans always dress so sharp. And I'm like, okay, that's good. I'm only dressing sharp because I want to, like, do something with my life here. And. And that's basically what happened. And so I styled his stuff. And from there I started getting more clients would hear about me and, oh, I want to hire you to style me and this and that. And then basically from there, several months had went by and I went up to him one day and I said, and again, I have no clue how to put on a fashion show. Like, zero. And I go up to him out of the blue, I go, hey, Mr. Nader, what do you think about having style at Stonehouse? I'm saying it, I'm like, what am I talking about? I don't even know how to do.

It's so incredible. So I got so many more questions. So you launch that, you start, how does it evolve into what you're doing now? Because it's a whole other level and it's different. And I want to. And then I want to dive into like, what did you do to reverse heart disease? Because that's. And was it heart disease or was it a one time incident? Like, what were you being told and how did you reverse it and prevent it from happening again?

I'll start with basically how I got to be doing what I'm doing. So going back to when I did say to him, what do you think about doing style at Stonehouse, where I have models who are real women, CEOs, entrepreneurs, moms, grandmas from ages 30 to 75, sizes 2 to 20. Again, I'm telling you, this was a God driven thing because there's no other explanation why these things were coming out of my mouth. I've never done this before. And so he looks at me, goes, I love it. That's fantastic. He goes, you go get Chris, that's his coo. Tell him I want to do this. And I go find Chris. I don't know where he was. I find him and I tell him, Mr. Nader said, yes, blah, blah. He's like, done. You have full reign to use any, any piece of property on this property. And so I decided on the room I wanted because it only held 50. And I was like, okay, if I can get 25, I'll be so excited. And so I started producing this fashion show for a cancer. And I can't remember the name of the cancer, but I chose this cancer. It was a rare cancer that children get. And we literally had standing room only with over 85 people. And, you know, it was my first one. I think we raised about, I don't know, five or six thousand dollars. And I was like, oh, my gosh, this is amazing. I can't believe we just did this. And from there, it started growing bigger and bigger. And I've done for, you know, friend dressers, cancer schmancer. And then I've also done ones for smaller charities. I did one for a woman who was 22 years old, who six weeks before her baby was due, they found that she had cancer in her back. Mom. And I'm like, you know what? Why I don't have to pick these big, huge charities. I can pick a local girl who needs help. And that's what we did. We raised, like, $10,000 for her. And so from there, I was actually watching, and you mentioned my coach, Shanda Sutner, who's also a friend of yours. I was watching one of her videos one day at 7am and she was talking about what she does, and her stylist happened to walk in. Carla, who I'm now good friends with. And she said, oh, my stylist is here. And at that second, I knew I wasn't supposed to be a stylist. I knew that I was supposed to be on the front end to make a bigger difference, because I was really passionate about these fashion shows because I love all the different charities, and I couldn't pick one. And I heard God say, you don't have to pick one, Jennifer. You can do these fashion galas and raise money for lots of different charities. And I wasn't falling in love with the styling. You know, I was doing it. But it was a way for me to, like, make money, get out. And then bringing back the heart attack, I finally decided. This makes me so emotional. 2017, I had not told anyone about my heart attack. The only two people that knew, well, three was at the time, my fiance. We ended up calling it off. And then my two daughters. I didn't even tell my parents. Whoa.

Why did you not tell anybody?

I was so embarrassed, Natalie. I was so, like, why would you stay with a man that caused you to have a heart attack? What do you think? And I didn't want my parents. And what's ironic is the hospital that I made my daughter take me to was the hospital right down the street from my parents, just in case I didn't make it. I'm like, they gotta be. In case my girls and But I told my daughters, you have to swear to me you're not going to tell Grammy and Papa. Don't tell them. I don't want anyone to know. I just. I just don't. So in 2017, I just kept getting, like, pulled and nudged in my prayer time and again, I heard God saying, you can't help people if you're not talking about it. How are you going to make a difference?

Yeah. And with your. I mean, how did your kids feel about. Were they saying. Did they want to talk about it? Were you telling them, like, specifically, don't talk about it? I don't want to share this.

No, they just, you know, they love me and they supported me, so they said, okay, mom, we, you know, Mommy. They call me Mommy. They won't talk about it. When you're ready, you'll talk about it. So, I mean, we have that respect with each other. And so in 2017 is when I ended up telling my parents. And I also was working out at a Club, Renaissance in Orange county, and I, again, was showing up there every single day, and I was making friends with the general manager and all these people. And finally one day at the general manager, I said, hey, you know what? Have you ever thought about doing a fashion gala? And he said, what do you mean? And I said, well, this is what I do, and I'm at the gym, and it's all about health and fitness. Why don't we pull in American Heart Association Association. Now, keep in mind, I had worked with them.

Yeah.

But I said, why don't we pull in them? And I then said, I had a heart attack. And I said, it's time for me to start helping people. And from there said, yes, I contacted American Heart. I told them my story. I told them what I'm doing. And that was my biggest gala. And we had more people, we raised more money.

Yeah, because you were super vulnerable and authentic and real. That's what. That's what worked.

Exactly. So at that fashion gala, that was the first time I publicly spoke and told my story about what had happened to me. And I was blown away afterwards. I mean, so many people were coming up to me and like, oh, my God, I was in that type of situation, or I am in that situation, and I had no idea. Stress can cause a heart attack. And American Heart came up to me, and they're like, oh, my gosh, Jennifer, we want you to go out and speak. And all these doors started opening for me just because I just, like you said, to be authentic and real and share My story and not be ashamed by it, not let it hold me.

Why do you think so many people are so scared to share their real authentic selves?

I think embarrassment, shame. For me, it was. And I think that a lot of. And I think because people judge. People do judge people. Like, why would you stay with a guy like that? You know what? What are you thinking? You have two daughters. What? You know, I had those things said to me. Would you want your daughters with a man like that? Well, no, I think it has a combination of the judging, the shame, embarrassment. And I. Okay, I admit, I was one of those women. I had to be perfect all the time.

Yeah.

My hair had to be perfect, my makeup, my outfits, everything. And I know where it comes from because I figured all that out. And now, you know, working with my coach, Shanda, I don't have to be perfect anymore. I'm like, this is who I am. Take it or leave it. And I do my lives, and my hair's not always so great, and my makeup's not always. I don't care anymore. It's all good.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

Wow. It's interesting. It's looking at it that way. It's almost like. This is going to sound funny, but it's almost like the heart attack happened for you, not to you. It happened for you, to wake you up, to be your authentic self and to live in your calling.

Completely, 100% agree with you. I look at the heart attack as a blessing, not as a curse. I'm grateful. I am grateful for every single thing that happened during my relationship. I. The gentleman I speak of, he has now since given his life to God. He's like a completely different person. I have forgiven him. It's nothing but positive. And I am. I've even told him. I'm so thankful for every single moment we went through because it's helped me to become who I am. And then, you know, as I mentioned, I've had health issues. I developed. And a lot of people have heard of this, and a lot of people have an Epstein bar. And it's been a two year actually, after my last fashion gal in 2017 is when I got Epstein Barr. I just literally last week started feeling better from it. It's been like two years now.

Is that connected? Is Epstein Barr connected? And is that stress related as well?

Yes, Epstein Barr is extremely stress related. And I don't know technically if it's connected to the heart attack, but because of the stress and I don't know, some people might think this is nuts. But last week, I had three different people say to me at my mastermind, because they asked me, tell me your story. And when I brought up the heart attack, every single one of them and the ecste bar, they all said the same thing. You've had heartbreak, you had a broken heart, and you've got emotional crap that you haven't dealt with, and that's why your body continues to get sick. And I believe that. And I literally, that day, I put my hand over my heart. This was on a Monday. I put my hand over my heart and I just got on my knees and I prayed that God would heal my heart and just heal my. My being. And I felt good. It's been like 11 days. I have more energy. My brain fog went away. And, I mean, I'm doing other things, too. Don't get me wrong.

So, yeah, so talk to us about that, because. So this is a pattern with many people where we.

We the.

I have to be perfect. I don't want to share. It almost starts being fake. Like, I'm not going to share my authentic self. So we hold in emotions, we put others first, and then, yes, it develops into disease.

So what have you.

Because clearly you got the lesson and you created something new from it, and you're giving back and you're stepping more to your authentic self. But you're. You also still. You know, you got another disease. You got the Epstein Barr diagnosis. Now, granted, 11 days, you think you might have shifted and you're feeling better, but what do you do to heal the emotions? What do you do to prevent this from happening again? Like, what have you added into your life? What would you tell the person that you were before? What would you tell that Jennifer from several years ago that had the heart attack before she had a heart attack? What do you want people to know so they can start taking care of themselves and prevent this?

Well, I would say exactly what my daughter said to me. She said, mommy, you had a heart attack, and God was trying to tell you something, and now you're sick with Epstein Barr, you need to slow down, because I can be a workaholic. And so I have completely shifted my life during the time when I was sick. Sick, I could barely even lift a plastic bottle of water. A water bottle. Because I was so weak, I couldn't focus on anything. So I would definitely tell people that, number one, you need to be working with a team of doctors, not just one. And if you have two or three like I do, and they're functional medicine, I'll never say that word.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yeah.

You have to work with good doctors who. For my virus that I have Epstein Barr, it's a virus. And so a lot of. And this is nothing against Western medicine, do not get me wrong. But a lot of Western medicine, they don't understand it. They were saying to me things like, oh, you're depressed, or, you know, you had a heart attack and you just need to sleep and here's a pill. And I'm like, no, this is not working for me. This is not. Something else is wrong. And it wasn't until a functional medicine chiropractor said to me, let's take some other further tests. And then we discovered that I had the Epstein Barr and I had some other viruses. And my immune system was completely in the gutter. And from there, I had to start working with supplements. And echinacea, who everyone swears by, was making me worse. So I had to get off of Echinacea. And I'm taking certain supplements. And I've adjusted them over the past two years. Ones that seem to work better with Epstein Barr. Because I started working with or reading a book by Dr. Kynes, who about the Epstein Barr solution. So supplements. You got to take the right supplements. So you can't just go to Whole Foods and say, I want this, I want that. You've got to be working with a good doctor. I started doing supplements. I completely have changed the way I eat. I have to eat specific foods because certain foods trigger my virus, like eggs and corn. My virus loves that.

So how did you know? Like, because from my understanding, a lot of the symptoms of Epstein Barr are very similar to a fever. Right. I mean, to a. I'm sorry, the flu or the fever. It's the rash, it's the fever, it's the loss of appetite. Is that pretty much what you had?

I didn't have loss of appetite, but I had extreme fatigue. Like, I couldn't wait for more than five seconds. And I wanted to sleep all the time. And the brain fog was so bad, and the dizziness and the vertigo was going on. So some of my symptoms are not the typical Epstein Barr or mono symptoms, as they call it. So 90 to 95% of people walking around have Epstein Barr. It's just. It lies dormant, and when it pops its ugly head. Like mono, right? Yeah. Really vicious and hard to get rid of. So, like I said, I've had to change my life. So what am I doing differently? I'm still taking my supplements. I still. I do Ozone iv, which a lot of people haven't heard of that. That has definitely made a difference with me. I started working with a doctor in San Juan Capistrano, and she does Ozone iv.

What's Ozone iv?

So they basically, you know, in my way of explaining it, they take out. They stick an IV in your arm, and they take out your blood, a certain amount of blood, and then they put the ozone in it, and they mix it up really nice and sweet and soft, and then they literally put it back into your body. So it's basically.

I'm thinking of, like, ozone layer, like the Earth.

So what.

What am I missing?

Yeah, no, it literally, it's like cleaning out your blood, and it's getting rid of bugs and viruses.

Okay.

I did my first round. I did 22 rounds of ozone IV. This was like a year and a half ago. And last. Or a year ago, I guess. Yeah. Because last March, I started getting better. March, April, because daughter was my oldest daughter who helped me with the heart attack, Chelsea. She was getting married at the end of April. And I was bound and determined that I was going to be 100% better so I can present for that girl in her wedding for the whole entire weekend. And so I was doing ozone like, three, four times a week. I was doing these other radical treatments that I don't know what they're called, but basically they zap all the bugs and viruses out of you. I was going there two to three times a week. Sometimes two to three, four hours. I was getting chiropractic care. I was eating clean, I was resting. So all I was doing was doctors sleeping. Doctors eating right, sleeping. And the other thing to add something else into this mix was my blood sugar. I had hyper and hypoglycemic issues going on. And what people don't know when you have disease, like what I have going on, you've got to get your blood sugar levels leveled off. Otherwise it's almost impossible to deal with other issues.

Yes, for sure.

So trying to go with the blood sugar issues and then the viruses and doing everything possible. So I got better, and then I had a relapse because I had stress coming to my life, like, bad stress.

So, okay, how do we stop this cycle with you, with others? Because I feel it once. That's like in our personality type. Right. Like the type A stress, it's gonna keep rearing its ugly head. So you could be doing all the right things. The ozone therapy, the go to the beach, the meditate, the control your morning. But how do you. I mean, you can't Control every stress that comes into your life. So what do you do to deal as when you feel that happening? Like, when you feel that that's coming on?

Well, I think for me now, I'm embracing it completely different than I did the first time. Because the first time I was like, oh, my God, what's going on? Why am I getting sick? Where now it's like, okay, I've had a relapse. I've got to deal with this differently. I'm really choosing to stay in peace and I'm choosing not to let people who might stress me out and I tell them up front, look it, I'm getting better and I'm healed. I claim I'm healed. Like, I've cleaned. I'm healed ever since I had the relapse. But I do do the mindset where I'm constantly saying I'm healed and I'm in prayer and I'm just doing everything, like listening to your podcast. I love listening to your podcast. And they motivate me, they inspire me and they help my mindset to say, okay, I can do this. If they can do this, I can do this.

So you notice that a lot of the people, people that have achieved and overcome, you know, great setbacks and have achieved massive success, it's almost never in the actual doing. It's in their way of thinking and their being, like, how they've changed their thought process, how they, how they've showed up versus, like, did they do more.

Exactly. It is so mindset. I know that. I know that word gets thrown around a lot, but it's so true. Our mind is so powerful. And, you know, I have a good support team with my friends, my daughters now. I, you know, said, look, I need to be around you. I need love, I need. Because that's what the book talks about that I read. It says, you need to be around, you know, so I'm doing everything I can to surround myself with good, positive people, whether I listen to them on podcasts or watch it on, you know, computer or even, like I said, being around my daughters and my family and going to the beach, taking off my shoes even when it's freezing outside and getting ground and just doing everything I can for that self care. I've also taken on my coach's encouragement of only working three weeks out of the month, taking that last week off, not working on the weekends and resting. And even like today, you know, after we do our podcast, I'm going to rest for an hour. I'm going to take it and Rest.

I love that.

Yeah, I'm going to be okay. And the other thing I've had to give up, which I had to be okay with was working out. I haven't worked out and I'm a workout freak like you, not afraid, but you know what I mean.

So no workouts. Do you, do we. What did you replace with walk yoga? What do you do instead?

My doctor said I don't want you in that gym at all because I was pushing it. And I mean I would go for half an hour and barely do anything. Like we're talking five pounds and I would be wiped out. And she said, you're done, Jennifer, you're not working out £5.

Is this a never ever again.

This is for the last three months. And so I actually just texted her with, with her yesterday and I said okay, I'm going to give myself. I'm doing much better and I'm going to wait till the end of March and I'm going to start slowly again going back to the gym in April. So what I've done is my walks on the beach and there, trust me, there's days I can't even barely walk down to the water. There were days that I could barely walk down to the water and now I just, you know, I take, there's days I can take long, long walks and I kind of go slow. Then there's days I can go faster. Sometimes I have to sit down and just kind of like, okay, it's all good.

Yeah.

And again it's a mindset like I've had to mentally tell myself it's okay, you're going to be, this is going to help you not make it work.

And your story, your journey is so fascinating to me and I love this and I wish you so much more health and goodness coming your way. And I know that your story has really made a difference for so many people today. I'd love to know. I have a question. I ask everybody and I'm curious your take on this especially since you've been on the other side of it now. Like you literally had a near death happen to you. Really? If somebody is in their own personal rock bottom right now like they, maybe they're in that abusive relationship where they are dealing with the stress or maybe they've overcome their massive, you know, set back health wise or they're dealing with it right now or whatever their personal hardship is. If you were to give them some advice, looking on the other side now of three things they can do to start shifting out of that and leveling up and creating everything for nothing.

What would you tell them? Wow, that's a loaded question and powerful one. I would definitely, for me, prayer, like, turn to God. He's got the answers. And definitely be praying, spending time in the morning, even if, like, you are in a relationship that you're not sure why, there's a reason for it, I promise you. And surround yourself with positive things coming into your mind, whether you're reading podcasts, things like that, and don't give up. Like, don't give up. There's been so many days, even the past six months, Natalie, that I had major monkey chatter in my head, like, just quit. You can't do this. I'm never going to get better. I'm never going to be able to work my business again. And I don't have the bandwidth. And thank God I had the people in my life that I could shoot over a text or call and say, okay, I'm losing my mind. I'm telling myself these horrible things tell me to stop it. And they would hold me accountable. So I guess really prayer, diligence your mind with positive things, you know, reading and stuff. And then don't, don't ever, ever, ever quit. Oh, definitely don't quit. Because when you start feeling better, you get out of that relationship. It is amazing, the doors that open. It's incredible. Oh, it's amazing.

So good. Gosh, Jennifer, thank you for being here today. Where can people find you? Like, where are you most active on social? Where can they learn more? What if they want to plan a charity event with you? Like, tell us where to find you.

Okay. They can either go to Facebook, which is Jennifer Schultz. My last name is S H U L T V so there's no C in it. Jennifer Schultz Style, which is my business page or you know, personal page and then Instagram, same thing. Jennifer Schultz style. My website is jennifershult style.com so Jennifer S H u l T comments thank you, Natalie for this and for letting me share my story. And I really hope that it can impact some people today.

I believe it will. Thank you. Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram at Nataliejilfit I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.