Summary: In the October Solluna Power Hour episode, Kimberly discusses the theme of building resilience and strength across physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions. She emphasizes the importance of daily practices, nutrition, and emotional well-being in fostering a holistic lifestyle. The conversation covers the significance of heart coherence, the impact of food on immunity, and the role of spiritual growth in achieving inner peace and resilience. Episode Sponsors FATTY15 OFFER: Fatty15 is on a mission to replenish your C15 levels and restore your long-term health. You can get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription Starter Kit by going to fatty15.com/KIMBERLY and using code KIMBERLY at checkout. USE LINK: fatty15.com/KIMBERLY LMNT: OFFER: To get THE PUREST, MOST DELICIOUS PLANT-POWERED protein blend, infused with real vanilla and harmonizing adaptogens go to Animamundiherbals.com and use code: KIM20 to get 20% off your purchase! USE LINK: Animamundiherbals.com and use code: KIM20 to get 20% off your purchase!   Episode Chapters 00:00 Building Resilience and Strength 12:10 Food Cornerstone: Strength and Immunity 22:39 Body Cornerstone: Movement and Stability 29:45 Emotional Well-Being: Heart Coherence 38:48 Spiritual Growth: Inner Resilience   SOLLUNA PRODUCT LINKS Glowing Greens Powder™ Feel Good SBO Probiotics Feel Good Detoxy Feel Good Digestive Enzymes Feel Good Starter Kit Feel Good Skincare KIMBERLY’S BOOKS The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts Chilla Gorilla & Lanky Lemur Journey to the Heart The Beauty Detox Solution Beauty Detox Foods Beauty Detox Power Radical Beauty Recipes For Your Perfectly Imperfect Life You Are More Than You Think You Are OTHER PODCASTS YOU MAY ENJOY! How to Believe in Your Self Worth with Jamie Kern Lima How to Raise Your Standards In Your Love Life with Matthew Hussey How to Eat to Beat Your Diet with New York Times best selling author Dr. William Li The issues with consuming vegetable and seed oils with Dr. Catherine Shanahan How the Power Foods Diet helps with Weight Loss with Dr. Neal Barnard How Not to Age with New York Times best-selling author Dr. Michael Greger How to eat to reduce anxiety with Harvard nutritional psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo How to Optimize Your Metabolic Health with Dr. Casey Means TRANSCRIPT: Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (00:00.91)Hi everyone and welcome back to our October Power Hour Show where our theme this month is building resilience and strength physically, emotionally and spiritually. So just a reminder, this show is now once a month, the first Thursday of every month where we talk about our month’s themes and tips and tools across our four cornerstones, food, body, emotional well-being and spiritual growth to support you in the month ahead to feel your very best. And I have to say, I’m very excited about October in particular. It is one of my favorite months. It’s definitely one of my kids’ favorite months. They have been talking about Halloween and all the adventures and all the different parties and, you know, decorating everything already for a few weeks. There’s a shift now. It’s starting to feel like we’re really into fall. There’s a shift energetically. There’s a shift in the weather. And there’s a lot that we can do to build resilience and strength on the inside, which we’ll talk about today, which takes place across many layers of our being, so that we can feel centered as we march forward into the rest of the year, into the rest of the fall. We support our immunity, we support our gut health, we support our emotional stability, so that we continue to feel more clear, more energized, and we will enjoy our lives more and more which is really what feeling good means. It means that we can go through life being open, open-hearted. We feel more light, we feel more connected. And this really is possible the more we encompass our holistic Four Cornerstone lifestyle. So before we get into our show today, a little reminder that the show notes for today are at mysolluna.com, M-Y-S-O-L-L-U-N-A.com. You can check out the research, links to other articles, podcasts I think you would enjoy. If you haven’t yet signed up for our newsletter, I highly recommend that you do so to stay on top of community happenings. We give out recipes, we have community events, we have special deals. So it’s really amazing to come deeper into the community. I’d love to invite you deeper in. And also, little announcement that the hidden power of the five hearts. My latest book is now out in paperback. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (02:22.766)So can check it out wherever books are sold. All right, let’s get right into our theme today, which really has to do the core is resilience and strength, which comes from the inside of us. So when I think about resilience, when I think about strength, I now think about it in terms of staying centered. So what I mean by that is there’s a lot of things. that life will throw our way. Everything is constantly in a dynamic flux of shifts and change. Maybe we go to the grocery store and they’re out of a lot of the vegetables and things that we wanted. How can we stay centered and shift and not get rigid and upset or lose our center if there’s a huge traffic jam or if we’re getting barrage of emails or texts that you know can feel unexpected. When we are off our center, when we start to let the thoughts run, a lot of getting off center has to do with the mind which is why our heart work is so important and heart coherence which we’ll also talk about today. What happens is that we start to secrete more stress hormones and cortisol and this has a direct impact. Stress, which comes from thoughts, has a direct impact on lowering our immunity and also breaking down our cells and our organs and aging us in many different ways. So this month is a wonderful month before we get fully into the holidays. And while we’re still a little bit transitioning to the beginning of school, maybe still a little bit at the end of summer, which we talked about in our September power hour show. This is a really great month to root down into our center, into resilience, into our daily practices so that we build and can continue to build this resilience, which is inside of all of us, right? We can tap into this potential inside of all of us. Instead of feeling like we’re bracing for change or we’re just more susceptible to whatever’s being passed around, whether it’s Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (04:42.904)you know, cold or flu around your kid’s school or around your office or whatever it is, right? We start to build the inner terrain. And again, we’re going to talk about this physically, emotionally and spiritually, and they all very much work together. So what’s happening in terms of ancient wisdom, how Aryavita talked about fall and October is that we’re starting to really come into Vata season, which is air and wind. And this can start to increase feelings of anxiety, restlessness, also dryness and feeling more scattered. So from a Ayurvedic standpoint, it becomes even more important right now to support your Agni, your digestive energy with warm foods and steady routines, which is known as Dinacharya. Even though the outside starts to feel like, okay, there’s a lot going on. And I can say that for myself, I tried to keep up with, there’s WhatsApp groups for both of my kids’ classes. And of course there’s all the chess and the tournaments and my little one’s swim classes and work and scheduling and just so much, right? And I know you have so much going on, but we create this steadiness in our practices, small, simple steps. I always start with a warm drink in the morning. Maybe it’s hot water with lemon. Maybe I start to add ginger. I take my probiotics first thing. These daily self-care practices are building resilience just by virtue of doing them consistently. And it starts to feel really good emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Doing your daily meditation, taking time for stillness. Traditional Chinese medicine. teaches us that fall is governed by the lungs, which is linked to grief and immunity. So I used to think of grief only in terms of bigger things, like when I lost my mom, and there’s these life events. But there’s many smaller things that we can grieve and let go of all the time. We can even grieve the end of a day or, you know, the end of a wonderful Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (07:04.654)dinner or get together with a friend. We might be feel a little bit reluctant to say goodbye. We may say feel a little bit of grief even when we say goodbye to our kids when they go off to school. And so it’s really important to allow grief through, which means that we need to let it be felt. And we can do that. We’ll talk about this more in the emotional well-being cornerstone. We can feel things deeply and still feel that resilience. that comes when we’re centered in our hearts. It’s the thoughts again saying, you know, I don’t want this to happen. I don’t want this to change. I don’t want to let go of this. That really keeps grief as an energy trapped in our body. So it prolongs it. It causes suffering. It lowers our energy. And so it’s really important that we actually learn to let things through us. And again, when it comes to immunity, we’re going to be talking about that a lot. through all our different cornerstones because immunity means we’re less, we’re not as susceptible to being taken down by what is in the outside world, so to speak. So that could be, you know, different circumstances. It could be viruses and bacteria. It could be, you know, more wind and different weather. We start to build that resilience within what we’re doing. and the practices that we are following and the lifestyle choices that we are making. And this is enormously empowering and enormously effective. We cannot control everything in the outside world. There are definitely going to be colds being passed around. There is going to be perhaps cold rain that comes or, you know, unexpected shifts, which could feel, you know, lots of things out of our control. So what we really do, the wise, the wise one, and I know that we’re all working on building our wisdom together as a community here in our feel good community, our saloon a community is that we turn our attention inside because the more we remain centered and resilient, the more life can shift and life can change. We have our center and we are healing and building our own inner terrain. So Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (09:27.026)And I will say, and I was gonna get right into the cornerstones, but I can’t help but talk about the heart just a little bit, which we’ll get into more as well. When we think about the center of our being, I probably touched my heart a couple times already during this podcast. Our center, our heart is closer to our true self than our head is. And of course we wanna use our brilliant mind. We want to be able to have thoughts and to process and to… you know, rationalize things and to go through the world and have rational thoughts. But at the same time, when our hearts are coherent with more coherence, more connection with our brains and our nervous systems, we don’t have to feel the overwhelm. We don’t have to feel all this reactive energy. We’re not meant to be machines. Something happens and then we immediately fly off the handle or we immediately get stressed or the thoughts start spinning. We break these patterns. which for many of us could be going on for many years and decades by coming back to our center, breathing, keeping awareness, relaxing into the moment while we focus on our hearts. And then we’ve become more and more clear about how to handle what life brings us. So we’ll talk about this more in a moment, but perhaps as you’re listening to the rest of this podcast, You can even start to relax into your heart right now. You might be walking your dog, you may be doing the dishes while you’re listening to me. You might be driving in your car down the freeway. Wherever you are, just take a moment to relax into your heart and notice how that shifts the way that you receive this information and even relax your shoulders, your chest, your hips, your jaw, anything that feels a little tight. And this is a way to keep growing even in resilience, the more tension we start to release, tightness. It’s like a tree branch that doesn’t bend in the wind. So it ends up breaking, right? Tension and stress carry through all different areas of our life. So even when we’re listening to a podcast, even when we’re here together, use these moments to consciously release. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (11:46.518)and relax your body, relax your mind, relax into your heart. And this will start to carry over into the rest of your life as well. So our food cornerstone, let’s go into that first. And here we want to talk about building strength and immunity and agony, digestive fire and gut health, because this is a really important month to really turn this up before it starts to get even more windy and even deeper into the vata season. We can start to notice if we’re already starting to feel a little bit off, certain imbalances might show up as sugar cravings, maybe your appetite is erratic, maybe your digestion is off, you’re starting to feel a little bit more constipated, more bloated, or just a bit more scattered. You may start to feel your immunity is dipping down a little bit, or a lot, depending. So it’s really important, some of the things that we want to work towards. tangible symptoms, tangible markers rather, is that our appetite is regular, our elimination is regular, we need to be eliminating every single day for some of us multiple times a day but definitely every day we want to be releasing toxins, we want to strengthen our immunity and so it becomes you more and more few and far between when we actually do get sick. And we want to just feel this inner sense of groundedness that is something that you have to experience for yourself. For me, it starts to feel like I’m a bit more set back when stuff is coming across my desk or in my life or, you know, things that is brought to my attention by my husband or whatever. just a bit more, again, just seated in myself and not as caught up in stories, not as reactive. It’s such a powerful place to be. And that groundedness and that sat-backness, if you will, if I can describe it as such, means that strength, real strength, which is an energy. It’s a force field, which makes you strong. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (14:09.942)resilient to handle what life is bringing to you emotionally. Again, like our show title. Physically, you’re not going to get sick. You’re not going to break down from things that are happening, busyness at work or whatever. And spiritually, you start to build more trust of the universe, God, source, life, however you like to think of it. Just deep, deepness, right? Wisdom is growing. So one of the things, one of the tangible things that we can do from a food perspective is to add the warming spices. I love warm elixirs. This is such a great time to use this as a self-care modality. Heat up water, keep some of these spices on hand, mix them in, cook with them, use them in your soups. I’m talking about ginger, cardamom, turmeric, all of these stimulate agony. They boost circulation. Cinnamon is also really great as well. It’s also great for helping us to metabolize sugar. I use ginger in definitely my elixirs now. I’m all about lemon and ginger water, hot water. And I use it in a lot of different soups and I throw it in for my kids and I cook with it in big chunks usually and then I pull it out of their bowls. Sometimes I’ll even chew on a big chunk and I think it’s a really important It’s one of those really important and expensive ingredients that you can always stock in your kitchen. And if you feel like you need to up the ante, have hot water with lemon and possibly raw honey and ginger several times a day. Another really great plant, a food to boost your immunity is spirulina, which comes from the water. And I think it’s such an amazing, powerful, nutrient-dense food. It has iron, has vitamin A, it has amino acids, builds protein strength in the body in a way that your body can actually absorb. And it’s one of our key ingredients in our glowing greens powder, which by the way is a synergistic formula that blends plants from the land and plants from the sea. And yeah, it’s potent in antioxidants, it’s wonderful food. So I highly recommend bringing it into your repertoire now and going forward. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (16:34.838)And then back to what our Uveda teaches about warm, warming foods. I remember when I was a raw foodist in New York for a couple of years, and there were moments when I felt really good and it was usually in the warm months. And I was trying so hard to stick to this diet and a lot of my friends were on it too. And I really remember wanting warm vegetable soup, but being like, no, no, no, it’s cooked. And I think that’s what happens sometimes when we want to. stick to a certain protocol and it starts to override our natural inclinations, our natural intuition. And so you’re probably already drawn to warm soups. And I encourage you to check out the many recipes we have at mysalina.com. All our recipes are super simple and easy, which is how I cook. It becomes even more simple over time actually, because I think that when food is simple, you’re celebrating the flavors. and it’s easier to digest and it’s more in keeping with our lifestyle, which is that simple, is energy efficient and opens up the greater Shakti, the greater energy to run through your body and to run through your life. We don’t need to overcomplicate things. You don’t need a lot of stuff. You don’t even need millions of products. You don’t need millions of skincare items. You don’t need millions of steps in your recipes. And so please check out our, again, our recipes online. And the other thing I wanna say about food is this is the time to veer away from the iced coffee, the iced drinks, the processed snacks, having excess caffeine. You may have gotten into a habit, which is a good time to be aware of, to bring awareness to it now. Maybe just having two, three cups of coffee, and it’s a really good time to say, all right. I really enjoy my coffee when I drink it. I’ll have one cup. And after that, let me switch to something else because a lot of times we just really like the warm drink and maybe we just don’t need as much caffeine as we think we do. So I encourage you to check it out because caffeine, as we know, in excess can just start to overload your system. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (18:51.886)And it can lead to excess pitta. can aggravate vata as well. You start to feel more scattered. And again, this is about resilience and inner stability. So I want to call out a few research links. One is a 2022 study in Frontiers in Nutrition that showed spirulina supplementation enhanced immune cell function and reduced markers of oxidative stress. I love the research that shows the know, the age-old, the time-old wisdom, the plants being so powerful, right, because it just shows that nature has such a high level of intelligence. Again, back to not over-complicating everything. We just need to align more to nature. The International Journal of Arduvator Research found that warm cooked food support, Agni and resilience during vata season. No surprise there that the Arduvator Magazine is backing this up. But I wanted to point to this article, which is quite interesting. And then also a 2023 publication in nutrients linked dietary diversity to greater microbiome stability in immune adaptability. So we’ve talked about this a little bit in prior episodes, but I want to call it out here that it’s a really good idea to rotate your vegetables. We’re coming into a different season, which means there’s different foods which will be in season. I love going to the farmer’s market. It’s funny, I was joking about this. Sometimes it’s more expensive and sometimes it’s the same and sometimes it can be a little bit cheaper, but no matter what, it’s definitely more fresh. So for me, it’s like a treat. I’d rather go to the farmer’s market than to most any restaurant these days. It just tastes really, really good. And then you just get a instant sense of what’s in season without having to think about it so much. Also, I wanna call out digestive enzymes, which some of us take, some of us haven’t tried yet. I wanna talk about how important they are because I think that… Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (21:00.546)They are not really, there’s a lot of misunderstandings about what they do and their purpose. So first of all, our resilience and our centeredness is based on how much Shakti and energy is flowing through us as a total system, right? We can talk about acupuncture, meridian points, Marma points, whatever it is, but there’s energy flowing through the totality of your system. This is one of the reasons we take detoxi and eliminate because we don’t want waste inhibiting that flow. Another thing that is very energy intensive is digestion. Everything from mastication, chewing all the way to elimination. So when you take digestive enzymes, every time you eat, the enzymes help to break down the food so you’re not using your body’s energy. This is a huge secret, if you will, way to age less quickly. you want the enzymes to help break down the food. It also helps to prevent bloating. It also helps to absorb more nutrition. But a big part that I don’t think people get is it will help you preserve your own body’s energy, which again can then be re-channeled into immunity, resilience, warding off inflammation, cellular degradation, many things. So I encourage you to take the enzymes. We have amazing feel-good saluna enzymes which are researched. They have three times more lipase. They also help to break down fiber. Before you eat, I keep them now in my purse and in my car and I take them every time I eat for these very reasons. Okay, now let’s talk about our second cornerstone which is body. Strength through movement and stability. So when we are… Resilience in the body comes from both of these things. We want to be, we want to have mobility, right? We want to be able to move in different directions and we want to feel a level of strength in our core, in our bones. We want to be consistent as well. And I admittedly, I’m not as consistent with lifting weights, but it’s something that I’m working towards because I know it’s really great for joints and our bones and our muscle systems. and Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (23:20.814)I remember and I shared this with you when I interviewed Dr. Suhas, who’s an Ayurvedic physician, Vaidya. He talked about prescribing me weightlifting because I have a lot of vata energy. can get, you know, I’m very creative, but I can also get, you know, spacey and very airy and I tend to, you know, I can run very thin. And so he said weightlifting will actually help your mental and emotional constitution to feel more grounded. And so to be honest, I am not always consistent, I’m working toward it. So one thing that I did is I started to keep a set of weights, which for me is five pounds each, right? I’m starting light, but just doing some basic arm exercises, triceps, biceps. I kept a set, I keep a set near my son’s sandbox. And so when we’re out there playing and it’s still warm enough here in LA where we can play outside, I’ll do some of those exercises and it just makes it really practical. I also kept a set. I also keep a set in our bedroom next to one of our house plants on the side so it doesn’t look ugly, it’s not out of place. But sometimes while I’m filling up the bath and my kids are doing Legos or playing, I’ll do a couple sets then. I see them. I’m like, yeah, I remember. So I’m always honest with you guys. Do I do it three times a week every week? No. But because I keep the weights in a place where I see them, do I do them more? Yes. So I encourage you, however you want to think about, you know, building strength, starting to bring in weights, maybe for you, it’s doing a class, you work into your schedule or you go to the gym set times, you know, whatever it is, consistency is a really wonderful way to build that strength and that routine. And this helps so much with, again, the strength, the resiliency. And this also helps with everything, including sleep on your body is balanced in the way it’s being worked out and, you know, moving in different ways. It just starts to, you start to cycle between rest and movement and rest and movement. And there’s just more natural rhythms that you can start to build in. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (25:46.136)For me, walking is my favorite way to move. And I walk in the middle of the day and I walk outdoors and there happened to be a lot of hills where I live. So it feels like a level of strength training in that way. If you don’t live in a place with hills, maybe there’s a place where there’s some stairs. You you can go up and down the stairs a couple of times because I do, I used to do beach walks every day. And then we moved. to the mountains. And I really notice, okay, I’m doing the walk at the same time, but I do feel that strengthening element of hills. So I think if you can work that in, and again, any sort of strength training that feels good for you, any type of exercise or class or yoga asana class, I think it’s really great. It’s not just about cardio as we know, but resilience can really come from the ways in which we strengthen our bodies. I also think that, you know, going back to body for a moment, We notice that dryness that comes in. So it’s a really great time to maybe add two layers of moisturizer to your skin and your feel good moisturizer. If you checked it out, our Saluna one has really beautiful plants, non-toxic, high powered formula. This is a great time to do Abayanga or at least to oil the bottoms of your feet before you go to bed. which our Yovita teaches helps to ground energy and it also helps to just rest your nervous system. And it can be really nice to stretch your body before you go to bed so you don’t go to bed stiff and wake up with an even stiffer neck. Again, I don’t do it every single night, but if I have a couple of minutes to stretch and bring out my yoga mat, it feels really good. We can decompress. We can release a lot of energy through our bodies and breath work. And when you do that before bed, it’s a wonderful practice that can feel really great as well. So a couple of research studies I wanna call out. 2022 British Journal of Sports Medicine study found that 30 to 60 minutes of strength training per week reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease and all cause mortality. And I wanted to call this out because it’s per week. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (28:01.654)So I think to myself, if I’m lifting weights about 10 minutes, because that’s what I’m doing right now, if I, if I’m when I do do it a couple of times a week, that’s doable, right? Sometimes I think I’m not going to go to the gym and spend hours. And to be honest, I’m not going to the gym period right now at this moment in my life. But if I keep the weights around next to the sandbox and I do it a couple of times a week, that adds up and that has impact. And I hope that’s inspirational for you as well. A 2021 study in pediatric research found that morning light exposure improved sleep quality, and energy regulation. So this is so powerful. If you can spend a couple minutes in the morning, sometimes me and my kids play a couple rounds of soccer on our lawn. Sometimes I don’t do it first thing. I have to drop the kids off at school. But then I come back and I’ll be doing some work on my phone and I’ll sit outside for a couple of minutes or I’ll try to meditate outside. And I know it’s not always possible. not maybe rainy where you live that day or it’s not sunny or whatever. But when you can get some morning sunlight, it really is medicine. Just get it on your limbs. Just get it in and it feels really good and it does help to set you up for great sleep that night. And lastly, a 2025 review in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity found that walking improves cognitive resilience and executive function. Alright, now let’s talk about our third cornerstone, is emotional well-being. And this is what I was talking about. This is the heart of what I was saying at the beginning of the show, because yes, we can definitely eat. Our lifestyle is holistic and integrated. So we want to eat foods that are strengthening our gut health. We want to lots of fiber. We want to have spirulina. We want to take our SBO probiotics, which is important for that inner resilience and supporting mood regulation. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (30:04.654)We want to lift the weights and move our bodies. But I really feel like a huge missing piece in most people’s holistic wellness is emotional well-being. And emotional well-being has a direct impact on mental health. The mind. Why? Because it’s our emotions and our feelings which are creating many of the thoughts. When we still ourselves emotionally and we can learn to digest emotions, which in my work and in my research can be done in a very effective way through learning about the power of the heart and heart coherence, we start to shift our perspective. The outer world doesn’t have to change for you to feel more resilient, for you to feel more grounded, more happy, more content, more fulfilled, more at peace as you move through the day. And that’s a big part of shifting from the propelled heart stage, which I talk about in the Hidden Power, the five hearts, to the steady heart. The propelled heart is the stage in life where we are on all the time, go, go, go, make it happen, know, burnout and working all night and always on and constantly scrolling. We’re so attuned to the outer world that we don’t have the energy to place the focus on the inner world. And then wisdom starts to grow and information comes in and hopefully from our Feel Good Podcast can help contribute to that. Because what I’m doing here is passing on to you what has really helped me and what I’m so grateful to have learned about. So then we learned that hold on here. If I’m trying to make everything better in my life to feel peaceful, everything has to be just so, so I’m happy. I’m never going to be happy and peaceful. Things are always changing. So emotional resilience, which directly affects your immunity and your physical resilience, comes when we can be more neutral with what is happening before us in our lives. It doesn’t mean that we don’t interact. It doesn’t mean that we don’t have ideas and inspirations and we don’t take inspired action. But what it does mean is we don’t have to feel so up and down, so reactive, so extreme. Emotions and feelings will come. But this is what we want to Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (32:29.698)We want to work on daily life, being our teacher, not just meditation, which I’ll talk about in our spiritual cornerstone, which is important. It is a nice anchor. It’s a baseline, but then there’s the rest of life. Right. And I talk about this in the steady in life chapter, steady in life practice in the book. It’s not a chapter to practice in the book, which has helped me so much is when we start to feel inner disturbances. you know, this road is closed. have to take a detour or the parking lot is full. This is super annoying or whatever is coming up for you. You can use your heart as an anchor, right? Which means you focus on your heart. Sometimes I even put my hand on my heart. You start to take some nice deep breaths. You become aware that there is an emotion there. You don’t try to push it down or suppress it or wish it, wish it away. You let yourself relax. into the heart as you also allow the frustration to be there. You’re not buying into it. You certainly don’t want to keep that energy going by the thoughts. Ugh, why can’t a parking lot spot open up? Why is it so crowded? Why are all these people here? Whatever it is, move your attention away from the thoughts, move it into the heart, and then just relax. It’s really simple, but it really works. Try it for yourself more and more. You just breathe nice and slowly and you relax. And what happens is that energy starts to dissipate. And as you work with the heart, which is closer to your true self, which is the soul, the spirit inside of you, the part of you that’s even observing all of this happening, which is actually untouched by the outer world, right? The true self is not the ego. It’s not the fluctuations of the mind. There’s a steady part of you. that start to align with more and more. You start to let those emotions dissipate. Let them be there again. You’re not bypassing or pretending they’re not there. You let them be there and you let them have their space and dissolve. And then you can stay more centered because clarity comes. Your perspective and your thoughts shift and change. And then you can say, well, I guess I’ll just go to the lot next door or maybe I’ll park across the mall. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (34:56.01)I know it’s not crowded and I’ll have a 10 minute walk and it’ll be nice. Right? It’s not being so reactive. This is where the stress builds that breaks down our immunity and our strength and resilience. There’s a billion zillion things that can happen in your daily life that will take your energy if you are not watchful. Right? If you’re not really paying attention. And you can start to notice If there’s just more, I would say, pitta, fiery energy building up, you’re more moody, you’re more irritable, you’re more anxious, that’s because anxious energy is building inside of you. That’s because irritability is building up inside of you. So you don’t want it to be like a gasket that blows, right? You want to let it through, let it through just like you digest food. And again, this is the power of the heart. And I can’t tell you how impactful it’s been on my life, not just the heart aligned meditation, which I teach, but also just the daily practices in life, the steady in life practice. So then all of this is in the hidden power of the five hearts. You can also listen to it. There’s paperback, there’s hardcover. It really teaches in depth about how you can start to really work with your heart, which is a brain, but it’s so much more than that even. It’s an energetic power center. And then you can feel much more resilient and adaptable. Like you’re just flowing down the river. Okay, a rock comes and you just flow around it. You don’t have to get into this big kerfuffle. You don’t have to get, like this angst. Just breathe and release, breathe and release. Focus on your heart and heart coherence again, it can be measured in HRV patterns that are smooth, sign like waves. They’re not erratic and jagged. which emulate what’s going on in the inner state, right? And it colors, all of this colors how you see the world. The more we become centered and we allow our emotions to come through us, the more we will see beauty in the world and we will see through to the hearts of others and the light in others, where we would have judged, where we might have been harsh with ourselves or others, we start to feel more compassion and softness, where we might’ve… Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (37:16.726)you know, rushed through and missed a moment to be kind or connected. We take that moment to speak to a stranger or to acknowledge the person in front of us in a deeper way. And so all these micro moments build into a more fulfilling life, a more resilient life, a more joyful, peaceful life. And again, it all starts in the inner terrain. So there’s some interesting research studies I want to call out here. One comes from the Heart Math Institute, which is the institute that we did our research study on the heart aligned meditation actually. And it founds that heart coherence helps to lower cortisol, improve emotional resilience, and stabilize heart rate variability. So there’s lots of research on the physical benefits. as well as the emotional benefits. A 2022 study in Frontiers in Education found that journaling improves mood and helps to reduce depressive symptoms. And I didn’t talk about journaling specifically yet, although I do want to say here that journaling is something that I absolutely love because there is something releasing about writing something down and getting it out of your head. and onto paper where you can start to digest. You can sit with those emotions or feelings that were brought up and you can work with your heart as you journal. So what I do is I write, I take pauses, I breathe. I literally work on seeing things from my heart’s perspective. I reframe. It’s really powerful to do that. And there’s some really great journaling prompts in the new book as well, if you wanna check that out. Okay, so our fourth cornerstone. spiritual growth. And spiritual growth means to me that we become more anchored to the stillness, to the steadiness inside of us instead of to the external world. To be worldly we can say means we’re expecting the world to make us happy. We are looking to the world. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (39:36.354)to find solutions to all of our so-called problems and challenges. And when we grow spiritually, the more we realize that there’s this wholeness and this completeness inside of us, and again, a very potent access point is through our hearts, where we’re actually not lacking anything. We need to tap in more to that inner resilience and that inner strength instead of expecting life to give it to us, instead of trying to take more. from the moment, take more from our relationships, take more from any opportunity that’s in front of us. Instead of taking and taking, we’re more at peace and we’re more, again, this feel good starts to take on deeper and deeper meaning for me, which has been the name of our podcast for many years. But to me, feeling good means this is a spiritual high state where we are okay. with what life is bringing us. We’re less attached to things. Feeling good is open, connected, more lightness. So we do this, we create this from, first of all, meditation. And as I mentioned just now with our emotional cornerstone piece, emotional wellbeing cornerstone. It doesn’t mean that meditation is everything because there’s the rest of daily life. So we want to work with our emotions as we’re flowing through life and our feelings, which then impact our thoughts. And that’s part of part of spiritual growth as well, which is why everything is interconnected. But when it comes specifically to this cornerstone, which is really wonderful about meditation, is that it gives us a glimpse to be really in tune with that part of us, the true self energy, which is unchanging, which is the truth of our nature, which is powerful. is kind, which is loving, which is again whole and complete. And the more we spend time in there, and the Heart Aligned Meditation is only eight minutes by the way, and then you can do other practices or you can spend more time in there, you can expand it, we start to really increase our baseline of coherence. We become less easy to trick, to be duped, to buy into all our feelings and thoughts as reality, all the stories we tell ourselves. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (41:56.716)To buy into the world has to make us happy. The world has to be just so. This is such a huge way to be resilient because we are not as tied to the external world. Of course, we have goals. We want certain things to happen or not happen. But with a much less stringent level of attachment, rigidity starts to fade. Again, remember the analogy of the tree branch that breaks into more strength and softness, which are the qualities of the heart. There’s so much softness when you think about love, right? And compassion and care. There’s this strength in being adaptable, like water, it shapes around the boat, it shapes around the rocks. And so this means you’ll be literally more resilient inside your body, your inner terrain, your immunity, your gut health, everything strengthens. as you find this spiritual level of attunement, knowing that no matter what, you ultimately can handle what life brings you. You ultimately are going to be okay. So the Heart Aligned Meditation is a really powerful practice that I can offer you. We will link to it in the show notes. Another thing that I feel really helps me now more and more is AWE, A-W-E, right? finding more awe in daily life. Because it breaks us out of the cycle of thinking that this has to go a certain way and this propelled heart energy has to be like this and how dare that person talk to me and blah blah blah. Like all the inner dialogue that can feel really tumultuous. In these tiny moments, if we realize, we bring it back to the fact that we’re on a rock spinning through space and we aren’t in control. And life is moving along, right? And someday we’re all going to pass. Can we come to this moment and find awe and just seeing a patch of sunlight or awe just watching our dog run across the floor and the fact that they move in such a way or awe that this pile of sprouts was able to Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (44:21.102)push through the soil and create this incredibly nutrient-dense food right or whatever is in front of us. These tiny, so-called tiny things are all miracles. And I talked about this on a recent community Zoom. There’s a difference between appreciation and gratitude. Gratitude is very wonderful as well. And there’s a lot of research on gratitude taking us into a deeper place. But appreciation, which is the… energy that we work with in the heart aligned meditation is very opening in a slightly different way because it’s gratitude and it’s thankfulness, but there’s awe in it, right? It’s just like, appreciate that tree so much. I appreciate how my child is so happy or just bounces into the room. I really appreciate how my cat is snuggled up to me. So find these moments of awe. as you’re driving to work, as you’re sitting in line at the bank. And you can just find more of that and you realize that there’s so much magic in each and every day. And you can be more centered in each and every day. You don’t need such specific things to be happy. And this will build your resilience and your strength so much as well. In tandem with our other cornerstones, know, practicing your heart aligned meditation every day, taking your SBO probiotics, know, strength training, healthy foods, all the things we talked about, we talked about today are going to help you be resilient right here at the top of the month as you sail into October. It’s going to be a wonderful month. I hope that these tips and tools inspired you. I’m excited for you to hear, to hear more of your feedback. I would really appreciate a podcast review on Apple or Spotify, which is such a wonderful way to support the show. So thank you in advance from the bottom of my heart. I’d love a review as well for the new book if you happen to have read it yet, or again, please check out the new paperback. not, I will be back here on Monday for our next interview show. Again, lastly, check out the show notes at mysaloon.com. Join our newsletter list. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (46:41.292)so you can come more deeply into the community. I look forward to connecting with you. I’m really grateful, really appreciative that we found each other. And so I’ll see you soon. Take great care and sending you so much love.  

Week’s Episode Special Guest: Dr. Erika Schwartz About Dr. Erika Schwartz In this engaging conversation, Kimberly Snyder interviews Dr. Caroline Leaf, a renowned neuroscientist and author, about her latest book, ‘Help in a Hurry.’ They explore the profound distinction between the mind and the brain, emphasizing the importance of understanding the non-conscious mind and its role in managing thoughts and emotions. Dr. Leaf shares practical tools for self-regulation, particularly in moments of stress and regret, and discusses the impact of our thoughts on our physical health. The conversation highlights the power of self-awareness and the ability to create positive energy in the world. Guest Resources: Website: https://drerika.com/ Podcast: Redefining Medicine podcast Book: Don’t Let Your Doctor Kill You: How to Beat Physician Arrogance, Corporate Greed and a Broken System   Episode Sponsors: MOMENTOUS OFFER: Head to livemomentous.com and use code KIMBERLY for 35% off your first subscription. That’s code KIMBERLY at livemomentous.com for 35% off your first subscription. USE LINK: livemomentous.com Code: KIMBERLY for 35% off your first subscription.   FATTY15 OFFER: Fatty15 is on a mission to replenish your C15 levels and restore your long-term health. You can get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription Starter Kit by going to fatty15.com/KIMBERLY and using code KIMBERLY at checkout. USE LINK: fatty15.com/KIMBERLY   Episode Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Hormonal Health and Dr. Erica Schwartz01:52 The Importance of Bioidentical Hormones05:57 Misconceptions and Historical Context of Hormone Therapy09:50 Empowering Women to Understand Their Bodies13:53 Navigating Hormone Therapy: Timing and Longevity17:40 Balancing Hormones for Fertility and Overall Health19:30 Understanding Hormone Supplementation21:46 The Role of Hormones in Aging25:39 Proactive vs. Reactive Hormone Use28:11 Hormones and Disease Prevention30:30 Muscle Health and Aging33:53 The Importance of Supplements and Lifestyle   SOLLUNA PRODUCT LINKS Glowing Greens Powder™ Feel Good SBO Probiotics Feel Good Detoxy Feel Good Digestive Enzymes Feel Good Starter Kit Feel Good Skincare KIMBERLY’S BOOKS Chilla Gorilla & Lanky Lemur Journey to the Heart The Beauty Detox Solution Beauty Detox Foods Beauty Detox Power Radical Beauty Recipes For Your Perfectly Imperfect Life You Are More Than You Think You Are OTHER PODCASTS YOU MAY ENJOY! Wellness Insights: How to Listen to Your Body for Nutritional Guidance How the Power Foods Diet helps with Weight Loss with Dr. Neal Barnard EP. 877 How Not to Age with New York Times best-selling author Dr. Michael Greger How to eat to reduce anxiety with Harvard nutritional psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo   Powered and Distributed by: PodcastOne Transcript: Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (00:02.595)Hi everyone and welcome back for our Monday show. We have a very special guest here with us today. I’m so excited to chat with Dr. Erica Schwartz, who is a bestselling author. She’s the founder of Evolved Science, a world renowned medical practice based in New York City, built on the recognition that bioidentical hormones are the foundation for better health. She has eight books out. She’s been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Daily Mail, Vogue. Town and Country, the New York Post, and regularly on many television shows. goes on and on. Dr. Erica, thank you so much for being here with us today and sharing some of your wisdom. Dr Erika (00:44.782)Kimberly, thank you for having me. It’s such a pleasure. kidding? I think you have accomplished just as much, if not more, than I have. So I think that’s pretty impressive. You’re impressive. And I’m really honored to be on your show. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (00:55.631)your energy is so beautiful, Dr. Erica. I can feel your heart. I can feel your authentic, really wanting to support, especially women. I feel like, you now, Dr. Erica, there’s so much discussion around hormones. When I think about my mom’s generation and my grandmother, especially in different parts of the world, you my mom’s side is from the Philippines. I feel like we didn’t talk about hormones that much. And now all of a sudden it’s sort of like everywhere. You’ve been talking about this for, wow, yeah. Dr Erika (01:30.798)30 years. So yes, it’s, you know what I say, I am thrilled to have lived long enough to see it happen. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (01:39.822)Yes. Dr Erika (01:39.886)because 30 years ago when I started working with hormones, people thought I had lost my mind. And I was like, no, all this data is wrong. Everything that they’re coming up with is wrong. And it was really rough. now it turns out that I have patients who’ve been with me for more than 30 years, that I’ve been taking hormones more than 30 years. And it turns out that it was the right thing. And it’s just… Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (01:56.877)Wow. Dr Erika (02:04.82)unfair for these poor women who still suffering because the information is still missing. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (02:11.661)Yes. Well, let me ask you, Dr. Erica, let’s talk about some of this information because I know you’re a proponent of lifestyle as well and healthy food and exercise and all these aspects, which I want to talk about. But since, you know, the bioidentical hormones, is this something that we should pursue only when we start to feel adverse symptoms? Is it possible for many women to not feel those symptoms, to sort of glide through perimenopause and menopause? Dr Erika (02:21.07)Thank you. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (02:39.339)Or is it something that’s more your opinion proactive? Dr Erika (02:44.6)Kimberly, that’s such a great question. So this is the thing. I think that everybody should be on hormones. I think that when you go on hormones, depends on your own individual needs. I think that because there’s such confusing and mixed messaging coming around, but there’s more and more realistic stuff coming through. I think it depends on, you know, there are a lot of women who don’t even know that there are such things as symptoms around menopause. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (02:50.244)Mmm. Dr Erika (03:13.262)They don’t even know that that exists. So if you start having symptoms, by all means you should be on hormones. You should see a doctor or a provider, nurse practitioner, SPAs, they know how to provide services because they know how to take the bloods. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (03:13.646)Right. Dr Erika (03:32.438)evaluate you, you want to find somebody who cares about you, individual, the person, and who actually knows what they’re talking about. Because recently, there’s like a total on, you know, onslaught of Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (03:36.845)Yes. Dr Erika (03:49.464)hormone experts. And the truth is they’re not because they haven’t known about it long enough to know what do. You know, I teach at the American College of Anti-Aging Medicine, A4M, and we train a lot of doctors and a lot of providers. But the thing is, there’s still many, many more who need help. And in the conventional medical system, the medical education is completely zero on it. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (03:54.945)Wait! Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (04:11.097)Right? Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (04:19.001)Wait. Dr Erika (04:19.408)no education, the North American Menopause Society, the menopause practitioners, they really are very, far behind. And I’ll give you an example that when this whole thing started in 2002 with that study that really put us behind the eight ball, was the, they sent out, and this is the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology in North America Menopause Society, where all women turned to, and I’m a conventional doctor, trained doctor and what they did is they sent out this like a pamphlet telling women that what you should tell your patients since you couldn’t give them hormones anymore was that they should wear layers they should stay in dark rooms Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (04:50.093)Yes. Dr Erika (05:12.078)It was so offensive to me because I was working with hormones already. I couldn’t believe it. But you have to think that this is where they’re coming from. And that was only in 2003. So you’re talking about 23 years, 22 years ago. So there’s a long way to go to get the information out to everybody and get the right information out. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (05:34.848)That study you’re referring to, doctor, was linking hormones to cancer, correct? Dr Erika (05:41.482)It was a study that did not use bioidentical hormones. They used a synthetic form of hormones that came from Franklin Horse’s urine. And that study said that came out stopped early because supposedly there was an increased incidence of breast cancer. in the study and strokes and, you know, strokes and blood clots. The truth is that the study was wrong. The women that were studied in the study were women that were older. They were more than 10 years after menopause. They were, a lot of them had pre-existing conditions, meaning like there were smokers, they had all kinds of other medical problems. So, Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (06:19.567)Huh. Dr Erika (06:30.05)the study was just wrong. The fact that it was wrong, it just was wrong. And then what happened is that the principal investigators did take back the information, but unfortunately the media never covered that. So doctors never knew about it. The women never knew about it. And it took until in the past four or five years, 10 years maybe that Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (06:31.695)It was spewed. Yeah. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (06:45.827)Hmm. Dr Erika (06:58.344)Women are now talking about menopause, peri-menopause, they’re talking about hormones, and the information is very clear. And you know, the surgeon general and the FDA right now, they’re taking off the black box warning off of estrogens because there was no connection between taking estrogen and breast cancer and taking estrogen and getting ovarian cancer or whatever. It was just crazy. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (07:00.45)Yes. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (07:22.829)Great. Dr Erika (07:26.816)The truth behind it is that it was all about money and it was about Big Pharma having paid for the study that was supposedly the government sponsored study, but it wasn’t. It was Big Pharma paid for it. And Big Pharma paid for the hormones that they were using in the study. And then they thought that it was going to be the eternal, you know, the fountain of use, but it turns out that it wasn’t. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (07:36.047)Mmm. Dr Erika (07:54.198)It wasn’t even right because it was the wrong population. So anyway, make our long story short, they got scared because the last thing they wanted was for the public to know that it was the government had taken money from big pharma to conduct a study that wasn’t right. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (08:14.937)So Big Pharma didn’t want women to know about bioidentical hormones so they could potentially sell other medications or aids for women to deal with the symptoms. Is that sort of the gist? Dr Erika (08:26.784)Right. So, yeah, that’s the gist because essentially, and this is the funny thing, know, women get antidepressants when they’re perimenopause. I mean, women take more antidepressants than anything else. And you think about it, are we missing antidepressants in our system? Well, I don’t think so. I bet you don’t think so. We don’t have antidepressants there. There are a lot of ways to get rid of the depression and Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (08:54.671)Great. Dr Erika (08:55.342)lifestyle being the number one that you talk about so eloquently and so correctly and Diet exercise stress management everything you talk about and talking about for 30 years So I agree with you a hundred percent and then hormones you missing hormones when the hormones start going out of whack Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (09:06.018)Yes. Dr Erika (09:17.878)That’s what you need to do is balance the hormones, not give women antidepressants and basically take them out of the workforce, take them out of society, make them basically unnecessary. It’s terrible. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (09:23.18)Right. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (09:33.325)Let’s get a little specific, Dr. Erica, when you say hormones, you mentioned estrogen. Are we also talking about progesterone, testosterone? Dr Erika (09:42.306)Thyroid, adrenal, yes. We’re talking. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (09:44.495)So there’s a whole mix that you would have to meet with a doctor such as yourself to see what’s right for your body. Dr Erika (09:50.124)Well, I think it would be best to do that. People become their own doctors. you know, sometimes that’s not so bad, because I think that in the conventional world, we’re not helping our patients. You know, I have this book coming out, re-released actually, September 2nd, it’s called Don’t Let Your Doctor Kill You. And it’s the truth. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (09:57.465)right Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (10:07.524)Hmm. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (10:15.915)What a great title. Dr Erika (10:17.886)Thanks. But you know, it’s coming back out and we’ve expanded. The first time it came out was like 10 years ago. And then we added COVID and AI and a lot of pieces to it and more stories. And the thing is that in the conventional world, you really don’t get the help you need. And women, and I think that one of the most important messages is you live in your own body. I don’t live in your body. The doctor doesn’t live in your body. So listen to your body, learn to listen. And once you listen to your body, then you can actually follow advice or not. It’s your decision. And in the conventional world, unfortunately, Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (10:36.239)Mmm. Dr Erika (11:02.892)That decision is based on fear because it’s about intimidating the woman, scaring her into, my God, I might have cancer that I’m missing so I can have a million tests. But at the end of the day, nobody stops to see what’s going on inside. How could I improve my life because I live in here? So that’s kind of the goal. My goal is to eliminate fear. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (11:19.748)Wait. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (11:29.944)Yes. Dr Erika (11:30.08)and to empower women to learn as much as possible about themselves. And yes, you’re right. You do need a prescription for estrogen. You might not necessarily need a prescription for progesterone. You do need a prescription for testosterone, for thyroid, adrenal. You may not need a prescription because they’re supplements. But the thing is you want to work with someone who cares about you. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (11:52.587)Yeah, it’s just even hearing you say all these things, Dr. Erica, it just, I don’t know, for me, and I haven’t gone into this yet, it just feels like someone being their own doctor when hormones are so specific, that feels scary, like you’re just kind of prescribing to yourself. So let me ask you some specific, yes. Dr Erika (12:01.801)Yeah. Dr Erika (12:11.192)Well, can’t. You can’t prescribe for yourself. But if you understand how your body’s functioning, you’ll start living inside your body, right? That’s what you teach, is live inside your body. Be present, understand. Don’t react to the outside, react to the inside. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (12:24.749)Yes, be present. Dr Erika (12:32.593)then you can get right help because then you can, you’ll go to a doctor, let’s say, or some kind of provider and they say stuff that doesn’t make sense. You’re not going to be intimidated. You’re not going to be afraid. You’re not going to make a mistake of like, okay, I’m going to follow it. You’re going to say, well, that doesn’t make sense. Let me run. Go somewhere else. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (12:55.631)So Dr. Schwartz, I’m gonna ask you a three-part question. And if you forget one of them, don’t worry, we’ll go back. as you’re… Oh, sorry, sorry. I’m so sorry. Dr. Erica. Dr Erika (13:01.736)This is not much work, it’s my god. I’m just kidding. I just have people to call me like the shorts as much as I don’t like it. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (13:10.959)Might sound so formal, right? We’re sisters here. Yes, yes. So three parts. Number one, which is a fear women have once you start taking the hormones, do you have to be on them for the rest of your life? So we’ll talk about timing a little bit, because I read something recently, you have to start before 60. Number two, the symptoms. Dr Erika (13:14.154)Yes, we are. We’re all one. We’re all one. That’s it. Dr Erika (13:21.463)Yes. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (13:37.453)that we keep referring to, if we could elaborate a little bit more about when we know something’s off. And number three, I’d love to know not just about alleviating symptoms, but potential further benefits, whether that’s protecting our bone health. Like you talked about mental health, physical health. So if we could go into those three more specific things, Erica, I’d love to hear. First one, do we have to be on hormones forever? Dr Erika (13:53.774)Great job. Dr Erika (14:00.302)Okay. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (14:06.593)timing wise, like some people may experience symptoms in perimenopause. Some people, I think my mother went through menopause in her mid-50s. Dr Erika (14:16.862)Yeah, that’s because you’re half Filipino. The Filipinos go into menopause later in general. But let’s answer. So first of all, Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (14:20.184)Yeah. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (14:25.752)Okay. Dr Erika (14:29.684)Yeah, you should stay on hormones forever because you want to stay young and healthy, right? It’s not about chronologic age. It’s about physiologic age. I’m 75. I don’t think my body looks or feels or I feel the same I felt when I was 40 only maybe 35 only I work a lot harder at it. You know what I mean? What I do Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (14:32.345)Got it. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (14:42.702)Wow. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (14:54.721)Adrienne, it’s amazing. I mean, you look like you’re in your 40s. Dr Erika (14:58.674)I love you. you know what? They have that new app that my one of my grandchildren had and about what your age is, right? And you put it up and it said 48. It’s funny that you said that. That was the sweet. No, but I have to tell you. So yeah, if you stay on hormones, your chances of staying healthy and staying well. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (15:06.349)yeah, yeah. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (15:10.18)Wow. Dr Erika (15:20.982)are much higher. So why would I ever stop hormones? I started at 46 and I can promise you, I will die with my taking hormones because look at how I feel, look at what happens. But it’s not just the hormones. We’ll talk about that. So anyway, so the other part of it is you don’t have to stay on hormones or anything forever. You could do whatever you want. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (15:36.856)Yes. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (15:52.152)Yeah. Dr Erika (15:55.146)And I mean, most of my patients are now 30. You start having symptoms of hormone imbalances as a teenager. When you get acne, when you first take the period, you get PMS, those are hormone imbalances. And they’re all very easily treated with very low dose progesterone, very low dose. And it’s really easy. So if you have somebody like my first book, The Hormone Solution, that… Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (16:03.801)Right. Dr Erika (16:20.662)That’s what I wrote in it and that came out in 1999. think about, no, maybe 2002. So it’s so obvious that it’s a continuum, right? I mean, why don’t we address the fact that it’s a continuum and it’s okay. Yeah, go for it. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (16:36.889)But Dr. Schwarz, now you’re talking about that young, what about worries with fertility if you start taking progesterone or messing with hormones, let’s say before you have your kids? Dr Erika (16:51.128)Kimberly, you’re not messing with them, I promise you, because what I’m gonna teach you is how to support your system. You know, when you’re messing with them is when you’re taking birth control pills. And when you take birth control pills, it suppresses everything and you’re creating a menopausal hormone levels, which is not okay, right? So when you’re taking progesterone, by the way, that’ll help with fertility. As a matter of fact, if you do IVF or something like that, Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (17:02.539)Yes, which… Yeah. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (17:10.797)Yes. Dr Erika (17:20.172)they will give you additional progesterone. And most women who get pregnant that are under like really good medical care will take supplemental progesterone for up to 20 weeks of the pregnancy. So progesterone will never harm any future pregnancies. that’s… Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (17:34.424)Really? Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (17:38.979)Well, my doctors who were very, I just say conventional, never prescribed for my pregnancies. I never took any of that. Dr Erika (17:45.39)I think we should move you away from that. Yeah, I’m sure, but you know what? Maybe we should move away from that, because that didn’t work out well. It worked out well for you, but it doesn’t work out. I have patients right now, I have three patients who are in their 30s and they’re all three pregnant. And we have them all three couldn’t get pregnant, they were gonna do IVF. They wound up not doing IVF because we balanced their hormones. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (17:55.63)Yeah. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (18:13.411)Wow. Dr Erika (18:13.632)And one of the things they got was progesterone. The other one was thyroid. The other one was DHE. But there are a lot of things you could do to help women get pregnant by balancing their hormones. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (18:18.142)yes. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (18:25.807)That’s amazing, doctor, and that gives people a lot of hope. Is there any downside to taking progesterone, let’s say that young, you start in your 30s for the next 60 years? Dr Erika (18:28.846)the end Dr Erika (18:34.094)No, no, no, you know what, but you take it when you need it. You take it like when you’re in need. Yeah, or you take it just like for PMS, you take it for four or five days before your period. That’s the only time you need it. So it’s not gonna stay in your system. It leaves your system. It goes away, goodbye, it doesn’t exist. So it just supports, it makes your system better. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (18:39.859)you cycle it. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (18:46.703)Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (18:54.927)Wow. Dr Erika (18:59.106)You know what I mean? So that’s one thing. The other thing is, remember, when you think birth control pills, you’re putting women into menopause. So all this stuff. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (19:07.297)Yeah, I never did it, doctor. It always felt, for me, not the right choice. Dr Erika (19:12.396)Right. No, I agree with you. Me too. I agree. But women will take it because what other options do you have? I mean, I tell everybody to put an IUD and, without hormones. But the thing is, it’s really hard. And think about it. We, you need something. You don’t want to get pregnant anytime, really. So think about that. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (19:35.819)There’s always good old, you know, we call pull and pray. Dr Erika (19:39.19)Yeah, pull and pray. The rhythm method, yes. There’s a lot of praying going on there. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (19:47.543)Not so exacting, yeah. Dr Erika (19:49.836)No, right. all right, so we’re still on number one. Okay, so number one was, can you take it forever? You should take it forever. If you don’t wanna take it, you could stop any time, and that’s what you were saying, right? You could stop any time. Nothing will happen because… Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (19:53.358)Yeah. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (20:00.109)Wow. Dr Erika (20:12.64)It goes out of your system within a few days. So within a few days, you go back to what your baseline is. So if you have symptoms, they’ll come back. If you don’t have symptoms, they won’t come back. The thing is that I have a lot of patients that I’ve encouraged over the years when they said, I don’t think I need it anymore. I don’t think this, you know, cause once you feel good, everybody thinks, I don’t need anything. So I will say stop taking them. And then within a month, a week, three weeks, three months, they’ll be back and they’ll say, okay, well, you know, what do you think? Now, to go to number three. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (20:50.533)wait, hold on, before we move on from number one, Dr. Erica, this is so interesting. Can I ask you one more detailed question? So sometimes you hear this, and I know it’s different sorts of compounds and hormones, know, with melatonin, for instance, what you take, you don’t make. So there’s, know, people are taking so much melatonin and then they get off it and then it sort of messes up their sleep. And I know it’s different for men. My husband was on testosterone. Dr Erika (20:56.128)You can ask me as many as you want. Dr Erika (21:07.982)Thank you. Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (21:18.103)and then he tried to get off it, he got off it so we could get pregnant and then his levels went down because he was on it so long. So he had to get back on it. So what about this idea that, yeah, when your body gets used to not making something when you’re taking it. Dr Erika (21:34.786)But I’m not suggesting that we’re overriding the system. So melatonin, I’m not a big fan of, especially as you get older. Whereas the problem with melatonin is that we’ve been giving the dosing that you could get, that you buy from whatever stor

Summary: In this episode of the Feel Good Podcast Power Hour, Kimberly Snyder discusses the importance of entering June with intention, embracing seasonal changes, and understanding Ayurvedic principles for summer health. She emphasizes the significance of nutrition, body movement, emotional well-being, and spiritual growth, providing practical tips for listeners to enhance their holistic lifestyle and well-being during the summer months. Episode Sponsors LMNT: OFFER: Right now, for my listeners LMNT is offering a free sample pack with any LMNT drink mix purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/FEELGOOD. That’s 8 single serving packets FREE with any LMNT any LMNT drink mix purchase. This deal is only available through my link so. Also try the new LMNT Sparkling — a bold, 16-ounce can of sparkling electrolyte water. USE LINK: DrinkLMNT.com/FEELGOOD FEEL GOOD SBO PROBIOTICS OFFER: Go to mysolluna.com and use the CODE: PODFAM15 for 15% off your entire order. USE LINK: mysolluna.com CODE: PODFAM15 for 15% off your entire order.   Episode Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the Feel Good Podcast Power Hour01:54 Embracing Seasonal Changes and Intentions06:09 Understanding Ayurvedic Principles for Summer12:08 The Importance of Food and Nutrition20:04 Body Movement and Exercise Adjustments27:01 Emotional Well-being and Lightness in Summer33:47 Spiritual Growth and Letting the Light In   SOLLUNA PRODUCT LINKS Glowing Greens Powder™ Feel Good SBO Probiotics Feel Good Detoxy Feel Good Digestive Enzymes Feel Good Starter Kit Feel Good Skincare KIMBERLY’S BOOKS The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts Chilla Gorilla & Lanky Lemur Journey to the Heart The Beauty Detox Solution Beauty Detox Foods Beauty Detox Power Radical Beauty Recipes For Your Perfectly Imperfect Life You Are More Than You Think You Are OTHER PODCASTS YOU MAY ENJOY! How to Believe in Your Self Worth with Jamie Kern Lima How to Raise Your Standards In Your Love Life with Matthew Hussey How to Eat to Beat Your Diet with New York Times best selling author Dr. William Li The issues with consuming vegetable and seed oils with Dr. Catherine Shanahan How the Power Foods Diet helps with Weight Loss with Dr. Neal Barnard How Not to Age with New York Times best-selling author Dr. Michael Greger How to eat to reduce anxiety with Harvard nutritional psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo How to Optimize Your Metabolic Health with Dr. Casey Means TRANSCRIPT Solluna By Kimberly Snyder (00:00)Hello and welcome to our Feel Good Podcast Power Hour for June. I love doing this show. A reminder that instead of having a Thursday Q &A every single week, we’re doing this really incredibly jam-packed show on the first Thursday of every month that will give you the top tips and strategies around the four cornerstones, food, body, emotional well-being, and spiritual growth to have the most amazing month ahead and to enter the month with intention. So we will continue to build up this show so definitely stay tuned as time goes on we’ll incorporate even more ⁓ community ideas, comments, questions from you guys, we’ll do some giveaways. So definitely this is a show that is this you know has so much creative potential and I’m really grateful for you tuning in with me today. You may have been with me for many years. I know that we used to do this ⁓ Thursday Q &A show every week. I used to do it with Caitlin and our Saluna team. There’s been many different iterations. You may be brand new to our community and if so, congratulations to me and to you. I’m so excited to find each other and welcome to the community. We have so many offerings and including this very show. So I’m so excited to dive right in. Just a little reminder that our main hub is at mysolluna.com, our website where you can find literally hundreds, thousands of recipes that are going to boost your energy and your digestion, articles, ⁓ other feel good podcasts, the show notes to today’s show, and our amazing digestion focused supplements, including our SBO probiotics and detoxi. We have courses, we have our amazing waterfall cleanse. We have our Heart Aligned Meditation, so there’s so much over there for you to explore and to go further into our community. So here we are in June, which is such an incredible month because we are transitioning into summer. We have Summer Solstice coming up in just a few weeks, and this is really ⁓ the midway point of the year. So there’s a very important energetic transition that’s happening now. We see it in the collective nature all around and it’s happening inside our bodies. And so one of the most important things that we want to keep in mind is to enter June with intention. And I say intention because otherwise we get swept up in the excitement of yes, there’s longer days and more light and maybe more activity outside and lots more fun. But if we are intentional in balancing our energy, which is a very, our you’ve aided concept, which we’ll talk about in a moment, it’s very important to balance our energy each season. If we don’t watch it, we can actually get more burned out, we can aggravate our pitta, our fire energy, we can deplete ourselves, we can accelerate aging, we can get our digestion, our worn down, we can feel more dehydrated, bit more irritated. So it’s really important to maintain this balance, which does shift season to season in our practices, which is why it’s really important, again, back to our show every month, to really reflect and be intentional about some shifts that we’re making in how we eat, how we exercise, how we take care of our body, our emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and this makes a huge difference, right? Self-care is not just one and done, here’s everything I do, it’s the same thing for everybody because that’s not how nature works, right? And we’re part of nature. So we see this in evidence in terms of how there’s different fruits and vegetables in season, how there’s a fullness to the plants in certain seasons, and then there’s the shedding of the leaves. I’ve seen an incredible rebirth in the last few months in my area in California from the fires, right? Going from the scorched, of raising it down to the ground, and now there’s so much greenery. So we really want to take care of ourselves and our vitality in this very holistic way. And I promise you, you will get the best results when you look at things in this way. Now, as I mentioned, seasonal wisdom is a core part. It’s a core tenant of Arya Veda. And I have been a student of Arya Veda now for many years, for over a decade, including a pretty intense four-year ⁓ practitioner course that I went through with Vaidya J. ⁓ And so I love incorporating Ayurvedic concepts into our philosophy here at Solluna, which by, and the Feel Good podcast, which by the way, Saluna means the sun and the moon. So it’s really this holistic approach. And I created Saluna actually in the aftermath of when my mom passed away. And it was a really intense time. And I was going through so many different emotions of gratitude and grief and just feeling really alive on a whole other level. And so when we’re talking about feeling good, we’re not just talking about being giggly and happy all the time, we’re talking about this authenticness, this bliss and this balance that’s underneath the ups and downs of life. There is this stability and resiliency that you can start to access within your own body, within your own emotional resilience, within your heart. And so that’s really the goal of our lifestyle, to create that real wholeness, which results in more harmony and more abundance in your life. And it’s less and less dependent on other people, on what the world is doing that may not feel right for you, what your, you know, even your friends and your loved ones are saying or doing or their opinions. There starts to be this real confidence in your moving forward in your own life. And it’s really beautiful. So, Arya Veda, I’ll just give a really quick summary means the science of life. And it’s based on balancing these elements, which are the same elements in nature, the same elements that are in your body. So this is the Pancha Mahabhuta theory, air, space, fire, earth and water. So every season, there’s a different mix, there’s a different calibration of the energies outside. And each of us have more dominant energy. So you have more fiery energy, may have more pitta. Me, I can be a little bit more spacey and that’s definitely more Vata energy, more prone to constipation and whatnot. If you’re very grounded, ⁓ maybe a little bit more prone to weight gain or feeling depressed or slothfulness and imbalance, there’s more kafa, more grounded energy. So we want to be aware of what’s happening in our bodies. We want to be aware of the greater energies and find a way to merge and create that balance. And it’s very powerful when we do this. And this is a part ofSome of the biohacking and modern living and ⁓ it kind of can miss that. And we can incorporate all these wonderful devices and products, but we also want to respect and honor the ancient wisdom, which had so much, has so much to teach us about how to truly work on an energetic level in our bodies. Another ancient system is traditional Chinese medicine, which associates summer with a fire element as well. It’s a time for joy, connection, expression, but also staying anchored. So in Ayurveda, as we’re coming into summer, we are definitely coming into Pitta season. So there’s a lot of fire. The sun is ⁓ burning very hot and very bright for many of us in the Northern Hemisphere. There’s a intensity, there’s an outward expression, there’s an element of manifestation. But again, without intention, it can lead to burnout, can lead to irritation, to feeling fiery, to throwing our digestion off, to feeling more anxiety. So we wanna be aware that to balance the fire outside, we wanna incorporate more cooling spices, more cooling foods, more cooling practices. which we’re gonna get into right now with the four cornerstones. So let’s dive right in and we usually start with our food cornerstone. Although I do wanna remind us that they’re not necessarily in order of importance. All of these cornerstones anchor us into this holistic lifestyle. Food is and will always be a critical part. The foods that we’re taking in assimilate and become part of our bodies and part of our energy. So we can use food in this very ⁓ intentional way. I kind of veer away from saying thoughtful now because we don’t want to be full of thoughts, right? We want this intuition from our hearts to rise up and to teach us how to eat, what our body needs. And at the same time, to take these learnings and ⁓ ancient wisdom and modern science and incorporate it into our lives. So we want to be in alignment with the Earth’s rhythm. And so now understanding that there’s going to be a whole lot more sun and a lot more pitta, we want to make sure that we’re creating ⁓ this ⁓ shifting, right? Just like the earth is shifting on its axis and we shift our clothes and their seasonal foods, we also want to shift our diet. And there’s research that published that shows that how shifting your diet ⁓ and the seasonality has a big effect on your gut health as well. So a study published in Nature Communications, for example, examined the Hadza people of Tanzania, a country that I love, and found that their gut microbiome changed significantly between dry and wet seasons. And this was directly tied to their diet. They had more berries, honey, and tubers in certain months. And this highlights how seasonal diversity really does shape our microbiome, our third brain, which of course has a huge impact. on our health, on our immunity, on our moods. So we’re not meant to just eat the same rigid thing day in and day out, which would be boring, but also isn’t in keeping with nature. It’s not natural to do that. Research on a US cohort also showed that seasonal fluctuations in gut microbiome mirror shifts in dietary patterns. And again, all of this research, if you’re interested, you’d like to read research studies like I do, you can check them out. We’ll have the direct links on our show notes, which again are mysaloonamysolluna.com. So resilience is a really important word and we can be emotionally resilient, we can be physically resilient, and a lot of that physical resilience builds in our gut. We become more resilient against viruses, bacteria, infections. And also the ups and downs of life in general, right? A really steady gut can really help anchor us in life. And a study in Frontiers in Psychiatry found that a healthy gut supports stronger vagus nerve tone, which enhances emotional regulation, stress recovery, interoceptive awareness, which is our ability to tune into our internal body signals. So again, if we want to have a healthy gut, which we all do, it’s a huge part of our saluna. practices and my daily practices. I start the day with our SBO probiotics. I end the day with our detoxi. I’m always eating with digestion in mind. We want to also incorporate this shifting. So if you’re listening to this or watching this right now in our YouTube channel, ⁓ I want you to be aware that even now, even as we start to transition into summer, there are some signs of imbalance that I want you to be aware of. And some of these could include overly craving sugary cold drinks, including really tall, huge iced coffees. This is your body saying, hey, I need something I’m craving to feel more balanced and the ice is a quick fix, right? Doesn’t mean you can’t have these drinks sometimes, but notice how intense the cravings can be. And notice that it’s ⁓ habitual and repeated. So you may have a nice big drink and you want another one and you’re not satisfied and so on and so forth. Also feeling foggy, heavy, bloated, feeling irritable, ⁓ especially after processed or fried meals, wanting fried meals, just this general feeling of being off. And this… ⁓ Irritability is a really important energy to keep in mind through all our energies, whether it’s emotional, physically, irritability in our gut, because again, that is a sign of excess fire. When we’re in balance, we feel stable, clear, centeredness, which means Satvik in Ayurveda. We have aligned cravings. That means our body is really wanting the glowing green smoothie. It’s really wanting these delicious vegetables, whether that’s in a soup or stew or salad, we feel good when we eat well. And we also have pretty ⁓ consistent moods and we have great smooth digestion. So there aren’t big erratic ups and downs. We’re not overly gassy. Everything is moving ⁓ consistently, shall we say. So what we want to do some protocols for this month to keep in mind is specifically are to stay nourished, to cool your system, and to enhance that ojas, which is really that glow, that vitality from the inside out. So this is a wonderful season to continue or to restart your glowing green smoothie practice. Now, Ayurveda is big on warming foods, so I will say this whilst this is part of our morning routine, I’m still a fan of starting the day with something warm to drink, hot water with lemon, hot water with lemon and ginger. something to get your Agni moving. And I don’t advocate drinking the Glowing Green Smoothie ice cold. Even as it turns into summer, I have it closer to room temperature if that’s palatable to you or if you need it really cold. ⁓ That’s okay, but still start with something really warm in your belly first. First thing should be warm. First thing in your belly should never be something really cold. It’s really ⁓ powerful. to add the Glowing Green Smoothie in our GGP as I do every day to get that chlorophyll, that extra boost. There’s spirulina, there’s ashitaba, there’s amalaki, there’s wonderful Ayurvedic as well as cordyceps, mushrooms, plants that you wouldn’t have fresh. There’s seven key plants to give you that real deep nourishment. And it’s gonna result in a glow, it’s gonna result in higher immunity, it’s gonna result in more balance. So check out the recipe if you are new to our community. You’ve never made the Glowing Green Smoothie. I can’t wait for you to try it. It’s something that I invented. Wow. 14 years ago, I think, when I was in my little apartment in New York City. This is literally how it started. And I had studied at the Ann Wigmore Institute, which is a raw food institute in Puerto Rico. Did a training there and I came back and there they make something called energy soup, which is blending greens and they add seaweed and sprouts and all sorts of things. It’s definitely an acquired taste. And I remember sitting in my apartment and I had a bunch of spinach and I had really ripe bananas and those were the two ingredients I blended together. And I blended it and then I ate a spoon of it and I was like, this is kind of good and it’s kind of strange to ripe fruit with spinach. It wasn’t something that felt necessarily intuitive for me the way I was raised. You know, eating a lot of Filipino foods, lots of Asian foods. didn’t make smoothies when I was growing up. My mother’s from the Philippines. But anyways, I took a spoon of it and I handed it to my boyfriend at the time who was sitting on our blue couch in our West Village apartment. I said, hey, try this. And he was like, wow, that’s not bad. And so really put me on this trajectory of consistently having blended food. And of course now there’s a lot more seasonality. have a lot more knowledge. I do eat a lot of cooked food as well. But the glowing green smoothie is a wonderful way, a wonderful staple to get a lot of those enzymes and vitamins which are denatured with food, with cooking, excuse me. It’s also a great time of year to incorporate coconut water. And I just got a case of coconut water myself and… I have it after my walks just to, again, cool the system mentally, emotionally, physically. And I give it to my husband. I poured him a tall glass last night as the weather’s starting to heat up. He has a lot of pitta in his constitution. And we can feel it experientially. And also, Arya Veda teaches that coconut water is one of the most cooling, ⁓ effective ways to cool that pitta. And it’s also really great for electrolytes. It’s great for our… overall Constitution this time of year. And then we definitely want to use some cooling foods and spices this time of year. Celery, chopped in a salad, example, cucumbers, fennel, coriander, mint. These are some beautiful cooling spices and elements that we can use in our foods. It’s an important time to avoid hot sauce and excessive chilies and onions and garlic. which can actually really enhance pitta and avoid those as much as possible. Sometimes in the fall and winter, I’ll intentionally use some onions or garlic, but to be honest, for the most part, these foods are very reduced in my diet just because I think modern living induces a lot of pitta anyway. Now it’s even more exacerbated. So I used to rely on those foods a lot more for flavor. But now that I’ve widened my spices and my flavoring foods and ⁓ ways in which I cook, simple, but just a lot of different variety, I feel like I don’t really need the onions and garlic, and I do feel a lot more calm. There’s an experientialness to this, which is really powerful. So. Another thing that’s ⁓ really powerful to help you digest your foods, because again, there’s breaking down that we really want to support when things get fiery and our guts can feel a little bit more imbalanced. One of the things that we want to bring in is digestive enzymes. And I just did a whole Instagram post about this, if you’re interested and like to look at little slideshows. But enzymes are part of our life. They’re alive. There’s anabolism and catabolism that’s always happening, that’s building up and breaking down. And so taking digestive enzymes before you eat is a really powerful practice. You can check out our Saluna ones, which have three times more lipase than other brands. I love them. They’re researched, powerful. They also break down fiber because some people can get bloated when they increase plant foods in their diet. So check it out for yourself. Okay, let’s move on to our second cornerstone, which is body. Now think about this excess pit to outside and just think about how our bodies intuitively would naturally calibrate. So one of the things that we wanna do is to perhaps adjust our movement, moving away from sweaty, hot yoga classes in a heated room, especially in the middle of the day. We might start to incorporate more yin practices. We might start to move our practices to the earlier morning because we start to feel more irritated or at least we get out of the really hot direct sun if we are going to work out in the middle of the day, which is still a great time. That’s when I happen to do my walks, but I wear a big hat. I carry water when I walk in the middle of the day. ⁓ We want to sweat. It’s a natural way to detoxify. It’s a natural way to feel that release. It feels really great to release toxins and to be part of that. There’s an interesting ⁓ research paper in the study of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, resulting in ⁓ having results. This is really interesting. That shows that dynamic exercise resulted in significantly higher excretion of heavy metals. like nickel, lead, copper, and arsenic compared to passive sweating in a sauna. So saunas are great. I’ve ⁓ incorporated saunas into my life over many years, but there’s something about moving and using your limbs and your body in this total way to ⁓ even enhance that detoxification. So something to keep in mind, get that sweat on. It feels really great. And also ⁓ breath work and meditation. You can use different breath work techniques while you’re working out. We had Wim Hof here on the podcast a couple of years ago. He has his Wim Hof breathing technique. When we get to the spiritual cornerstone, we’ll talk a little bit about our breathing that we can do with our heart focused breaths and our heart aligned meditation. But you want to take really nice, beautiful, full breaths through your body. maintain that balance so you don’t get overstimulated, take that fast breath work that isn’t cooling. And by the way, yoga says that there’s different energies that you pull in through the different nostrils. So the left is the pingala, the cooling, ⁓ sorry, the left is the, am I saying this right? The ida and then the pingala is the other side. So one of the breath work practices that you can do, and I believe I still have a YouTube video up about this, And we also, can search for it on our website, articles about this, is alternate nostril breathing. And this is where you would take your thumb and ⁓ I use my pinky finger. Some people use their ⁓ ring finger and you would close the different nostrils and breathe in and out. And it balances and can cool your body if you get overstimulated in the heat. So check it out for yourself. It’s really nice to do this guided. And this is one of the breathwork practices that I really love in the summer as well. So signs of imbalance in your body this time of year can feel ⁓ water retention, bloated, tension in your neck, jaw, and hips. There’s a relationship to the fascia. So you feel a tightening effect, that irritation again, sort of clamping down. Or on the other hand, just a low motivation to move. But when you’re in balance, you feel really connected to your body. You feel this aliveness. There is a glow, a clearness in your skin. There’s this energy. You can feel this. Again, I use this word aliveness without feeling overstimulated or burned out. So it feels good to move, but at the same time, you don’t feel like you’re getting too fiery. So some simple support strategies is to go for a walk in the morning before you get your day started in that nice, gentle sunlight. I really ⁓ love doing twists and simple movements. Again, on my Instagram channel, I show some of the heart movements that I do connected to different chakras. I love to ⁓ stretch a lot. So yin yoga is really great right now. You can do it in the morning, in the evenings. I do a little bit of stretching before I meditate, which is one of the protocols, these energization exercises that Paramahansa Yogananda teaches as part of Kriya Yoga. And I am a big fan of Abayanga and oiling because I think it calms your nervous system, which is very much needed in the winter, but it’s also very much needed in the summer. But the difference is that we use cooling oils like coconut oil in the summer. So you can warm the oil a little bit. I put some in a jar and in a bowl, and then I put hot water in the bowl while I’m sort of getting ready for my shower. And then I just rub it. through my limbs and my belly and my body, and then I rinse it off. It’s very simple, but it feels really good. And it’s an ancient practice, an Ayurvedic practice, this oiling of the body. So in the winter, we might use more warming oils like sesame oil, but now is a great time for the cooling, just like coconut water is cooling, coconut oil is also cooling to the body as well. Another thing is cooling baths. So not super hot, but taking baths that feel ⁓ Maybe lukewarm and you can even put salt. This is a really great time to feel energetically and physically that you’re cleansing your body like Epsom salts or Dead Sea salts, which I love very much. I’ve been to the Dead Sea and it just felt so cleansing and revitalizing even though it was really warm to get in there. I felt amazing and my skin felt amazing afterwards. So using the water element on your body is a really beautiful practice as well. And as I mentioned, just thinking about how intuitively can I refine and adjust my exercise routine for this season? What feels really good to me right now? What am I drawn to and what actually feels depleting? And sometimes it can be a little bit of a practice of letting go, if something’s really working for us, we feel really toned, we feel really great. But maybe there’s other ways that we can get that. feeling in our body but not get depleted as well. So maybe again, we shift to the times we’re working out or we shift to more walking or ⁓ different type of yoga or whatever it is this season because we don’t want to overwork our body. ⁓ Arubita does say that excess pitta is a main cause of aging, that overheating of the tissues and the cells. Okay, so let’s move and another way to flush through, can’t help but say is detoxing. which is our amazing saloon a supplement with oxygen and magnesium and vitamin C to feel that lightness, right? This is a continuation of that cleansing from spring into summer. So we don’t feel heavy and bloated, which no one wants to feel as we go into bathing suit season and getting outside and wearing shorts, right? So detox is a powerful aid right now, especially. So our third cornerstone is emotional, emotional wellbeing. And this is a time to lighten the load. I’m going to use the word light a lot and to just feel really in tune with there’s a lightness that happens in summer, right? We feel more perhaps introspective. We feel more things coming up in the winter, right? It’s a beautiful time to reflect and go deep. And this is a time for more lightness and joy. It’s a time where we don’t want to get burned out. We don’t want to get overly irritable. So we want to support that lightness, which is felt all around us in nature. We want to feel grounded. So one of the things that we can start to do is to literally ground and use the earth as an anchor while we journal, while we meditate to get outside. I went through a little bit of a like a nervous system cleanse, felt like a few weeks ago where I just felt dizzy, like vertigo, which I don’t usually feel, a little bit of tingling. So I went outside for a few days and laid my whole body on the ground, my whole spine, and just breathed and gave myself that space. And it really does feel, when you open up to it again, back to our intention, that the earth can be like this giant healing table and all those negative ions come out and soothe us. And again, what we’re doing physically, this holistic approach, also can soothe us emotionally. So this is time to, ⁓ you know, feel that freedom, that lightness to express through our voice, through our throat chakra, even to hum, to sing, to write. There is a research out of UCLA paper that found that writing or saying what you’re feeling can help to deactivate the amygdala, the fear center, and activate the prefrontal cortex, enhancing emotional control, clarity, and self-awareness. I’m a big journaler myself. I feel a lot of spaciousness and freedom when I am able to give myself that space to not only write, but to read and reflect on what I write. So every day almost, I am writing, I am reading. And it does make me feel more light. It’s like you’re offloading onto paper. You’re offloading in this really authentic way, where you don’t have to feel like you’re being judged. So some signs of imbalance can mean where you’re not being authentic, where you’re saying yes when you really want to say no, ⁓ feeling emotional crashes, especially after screen time or being social, avoiding feeling your feelings, avoiding quiet or alone time. And we can feel really balanced. We know we’re in balance where we feel more steady and consistent in our emotions and we feel inner guidance. We feel more natural joy rising up. And again, this doesn’t mean fake positivity or fake happiness, but when we feel the vulnerable emotions, like, ⁓ here’s fear coming ⁓ or there’s some shame or anger or whatever it is. And this is where there’s really powerful practice in the Hidden Power of the Five Hearts book called The Heart Aligned Steady in Life. This is where we breathe into our hearts, into our center, and we meet emotions. This is real self care. This is not abandoning ourself. This is showing up for ourselves. And then we let them digest. And sometimes we may need emotional support if we’re going through something. you know, please, therapy, counseling, coaches, whatever it is. But more and more we start to feel this resiliency where we’re not avoiding feelings that get pushed down and then can start to make us more fiery or more irritated. Has that ever happened to you? Because it’s definitely happened to me where I just take in, take in, and take in and then a really slight thing that my husband says or somebody does something and I, like I get a really big reaction, right? So we want to meet things along the way and this provides more steadiness. Again, this isn’t avoidance of feelings. It doesn’t mean that we don’t feel the spectrum as humans, but what it does mean is that we continue to metabolize more and more and feel that steadiness, which then produces this lightness and this joy, which rises up more and more as time goes on. So another thing to keep in mind if you’re a yes person, a people pleaser, is to get used to just saying, let me get back to you, instead of directly going to that go-to of yes and then taking time. for yourself to feel centered emotionally and then discern if that is something you want to say yes to. Whether it’s an outing, a project, a get together, taking something on, right? So just remind yourself to have that space. You don’t have to rush to respond. Part of self care is also letting yourself center. Take some breaths. You don’t have to answer that text back right away. And it’s really healthy to leave more time in your schedule, you don’t have to pack everything in as much. So you can allow more space for this processing, for creativity. And whilst the world will tell you like keep going faster and faster, the spaciousness is actually a way to feel more creative and just definitely a lot more alive to allow more of this joy to pour through. One sec. Okay, so let’s move to our fourth cornerstone, which is our spiritual growth cornerstone. And the theme is clearly as we come into June and the summer, let the light in. Let the light in. There’s times where we feel more of the darkness, which has a lot to teach us in the darker months, literally. But this is a time for allowing light in literally into every cell of our being and our body and letting the light teach us. letting the light come into our hearts, letting the light come into our thoughts, into our motivations. Let the light teach us to be more loving, to be more of ourselves, to be more compassionate, to choose the kind, the caring thing to do, which is harder to do when we’re fiery, right? And we’re irritable. So in terms of bringing in the light, one of the things literally, and I literally just did this right before I got on the podcast, is I got outside in the light and I did a meditation in the light. And what I like to do is, you know, wearing a sports bra right now and it’s very rural and private where I live, but I’ll take my shirt off and I’ll literally let light get on my heart, on my belly. It feels really good to get light on while you’re doing any type of spiritual practice, which could be prayer. It could be walking in nature. It could be meditating. There is ⁓ light codes, so to speak. There’s energy in the light. We don’t understand all of this. but I do believe there’s a full spectrum of colors. I think there’s a lot of healing that happens when we literally get into the light and it’s something that’s really ⁓ powerful. So I literally ⁓ go into the light and it feels really good. There was even a study in 2021, the psychology of religion and spirituality that found time that’s spending, or they found that spending time in nature and especially sunlight enhances Spiritual well-being reduces anxiety and increases feelings of awe and connection. So it’s this wholeness, right? It’s the moonlight, the sunlight. If ⁓ you don’t wanna get direct sunlight on your face, wear a hat like me. And of course, for your skin type, you can use safe practices. But I’m a big believer that the light is healing its medicine, especially this time of year. It can reawaken. It can energize and of course it gives us vitamin D. There’s a lot of vitality that can come through the light. And so it’s important that we open up to that. There’s more research from the Heart Math Institute that shows that when the heart and brain are in constant communication through multiple pathways, heart coherence, then we feel more a neurological, biochemical and energetic boosts. And this improves emotional balance, mental clarity, overall well-being. There’s a whole lot more research that I cite from the Heart Math Institute as well as other scientists. In the new book, here, the cover’s behind me if you’re watching this on YouTube, The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts, I think a lot of us intuitively know that when we connect to our heart, this power that is unleashed, this is not impractical, this is not overly emotional, but it’s the power. of the heart to connect to the true self inside of us, to actually give us wider perceptions, to allow us to have more emotional intelligence and resiliency, to feel a more zoomed out perspective. And it is in this heart’s power that we transcend a lot of the smallness of the thoughts and the reactivity and trauma, and we can live closer to our spiritual wholeness. I’m not talking about religion here. I know that we may all have very different spiritual beliefs, but I do believe in a higher power. do believe however we like to conceive of it, there’s energy connecting all of us. There’s oneness. There’s love, right? And so spiritual growth is about moving closer to that love, that self-love, that love of body, that love of God, spirit, however you can universe, however you conceive of it, love of each other, that connection. ⁓ And so we wanna be regular with our practices that work for us. There’s a steadiness that will bring us into summer. Again, intentionality. Instead of constantly trying different things and seeing what this celebrity is doing or getting on this bandwagon and moving around, be consistent. Choose and feel intuitively what works for you, whether it’s the heart aligned meditation or another practice. Really be consistent, because this consistency will build energy over time. And that’s been my direct experience. I do the heart-align meditation. I also do Kriya Yoga, which I learned many years ago through the Self-Realization Fellowship, which you can learn in the lessons that are given there from Paramahansa Yogananda, ancient practice of Kriya Yoga. It works really well for me. ⁓ I feel incredibly alive and grounded and joyful. from my practices. And let me tell you, wasn’t easy in the beginning to sit and meditate. It was very restless. But this consistency brings us these results, which isn’t linear. It can come like, wow, I feel really great. And then I have tough days. So for me, it’s the combination of the Kriya and the heart align that really change everything in my day. Another part of this ⁓ spirituality is really tuning into stillness and silence. so part of that practically means really unplugging. ⁓ Let the natural light come in and unplugging from the artificial lights and devices, going outside, having stretches of time where you’re not checking your cell phone. There’s more time in the evenings now. You can sip tea outside if that’s available to you. Go on the rooftop if you live in a city like New York. Really taking advantage of this natural light and bathing in it and soaking it in and getting off devices and the know, sometimes negativity of collective consciousness that’s in social media and the news, right? Just really allowing this joy and this light to come up inside of you. So again, there’s a lot more that I mentioned about heart coherence and using the power of our hearts, which I believe is so needed right now more than ever in my new book, The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts. which you can check out for yourself. And we really want to ⁓ move into thriving. To me, summer is about ⁓ vitality and aliveness and joyfulness and harmony. And so we don’t wanna feel like we’re surviving, we’re just sort of getting through the day or the season and we’re struggling. And when we incorporate all of these practices together, the cooling foods, the seasonal foods, adjusting our body care practices, including how we exercise and how we breathe and how we take care of our body, and really taking time for emotional support for ourselves, journaling and sitting outside and doing practices like the Heart Aligned Study in Life, which again is in the book, feeling through our feelings. So we’re not holding this burden of feelings, which can, emotions, which are energy and motion, and then results in. Lots of negative thoughts or feeling like we’re carrying a really heavy burden. And I don’t want to gloss over that. That’s why there’s a lot more information in the book about these practices because they’ve helped me tremendously. And I think that they’re needed now more than ever. And then spiritually to ⁓ come into the light and to be open to the light and to receiving more light. And there’s this quote from Yogananda that talks about, you know, holding up our vessel, what are we receptacle are we holding up for spirit universe to pour through into us? Is it a tiny cup or is it a huge pool? Right? And that means intention. It means openness. It means being receptive to the light, which is always available. We are never alone. Right? We are connected in this cosmos. Somehow this entire intelligence is moving through us. And I really believe we can connect to it through our hearts and through love and through slowing down a little bit and just being more present. And this is true medicine, right? This is allowing us to feel the joy of summer, whether that’s the simple sipping of homemade lemonade or running through the grass with your kids or running your hand through the ocean or a lake and really just feeling. the miracles of being alive. Not some big achievements you’re trying, constantly trying to strive towards, but really surrendering and receiving the joy that’s right here in this very moment that’s available to all of us. So I wish you the very best, most joyful, peaceful, wonderful, expansive of June’s into summer. And again, this doesn’t mean Happy giddy all the time. means getting deeper and more connected. And when those tough emotions rise up, whether it’s fear, you feel really vulnerable, you feel shameful, just letting them come through and starting to feel that anchoredness more more inside of you. And again, there’s so many ways we support that. There’s so many ways we talked about today through gut health, through your spiritual practices, through the foods that you’re eating. So please continue to check out all the resources that I have for you, the courses. the products, the articles, the recipes at mysaluna.com. If you haven’t joined our newsletter yet, please do join so you stay in the loop. And I will see you back here. We’ll continue to do our weekly Monday interviews. ⁓ And everybody that we’re bringing on now is related to the cornerstones, but they’re very heart led. And these conversations are transformative and they continue to evolve and get deeper and deeper, whether Dr. Tracy’s talking about the vagus nerve or Karen Eldid is talking about overcoming, striving, right? There is a through line in all of these Monday podcasts. And then this show, The Power Hour, once again, will be the first Thursday of every month. So I’ll see you back here soon. Remember to write to me, to ask me questions. I’m here to support you. I’m here with my full heart. and all my love and I look forward to connecting with you more.    

Summary: In the April Four Cornerstones Power Hour episode Kimberly discussed the importance of adapting our wellness practices with the changing of the seasons, particularly in spring, which symbolizes renewal and rebirth. Kimberly gives listeners practical tips and takeaways for the spring by enhancing their diet with raw foods, the significance of movement and body care, the emotional benefits of decluttering, and the spiritual journey of self-discovery and growth. Kimberly encourages listeners to engage with the community and share their experiences as they navigate their wellness journeys.   Episode Sponsors LMNT OFFER: Right now, for my listeners LMNT is offering a free sample pack with any LMNT drink mix purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/FEELGOOD. That’s 8 single serving packets FREE with any LMNT any LMNT drink mix purchase. Get yours at DrinkLMNT.com/FEELGOOD . This deal is only available through my link so. Also try the new LMNT Sparkling — a bold, 16-ounce can of sparkling electrolyte water. USE LINK: DrinkLMNT.com/FEELGOOD   FATTY15 OFFER: Fatty15 is on a mission to replenish your C15 levels and restore your long-term health. You can get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription Starter Kit by going to fatty15.com/KIMBERLY and using code KIMBERLY at checkout. USE LINK: fatty15.com/KIMBERLY Episode Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the Four Cornerstones Power Hour 03:11 Embracing Spring: Food Cornerstone Tips 06:02 Enhancing Body Wellness for Spring 13:00 Emotional Wellbeing: Spring Cleaning for the Soul 17:56 Spiritual Growth: Rebirth and Awakening 25:02 Conclusion and Community Engagement   SOLLUNA PRODUCT LINKS Glowing Greens Powder™ Feel Good SBO Probiotics Feel Good Detoxy Feel Good Digestive Enzymes Feel Good Starter Kit Feel Good Skincare KIMBERLY’S BOOKS The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts Chilla Gorilla & Lanky Lemur Journey to the Heart The Beauty Detox Solution Beauty Detox Foods Beauty Detox Power Radical Beauty Recipes For Your Perfectly Imperfect Life You Are More Than You Think You Are OTHER PODCASTS YOU MAY ENJOY! How to Believe in Your Self Worth with Jamie Kern Lima How to Raise Your Standards In Your Love Life with Matthew Hussey How to Eat to Beat Your Diet with New York Times best selling author Dr. William Li The issues with consuming vegetable and seed oils with Dr. Catherine Shanahan How the Power Foods Diet helps with Weight Loss with Dr. Neal Barnard How Not to Age with New York Times best-selling author Dr. Michael Greger How to eat to reduce anxiety with Harvard nutritional psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo How to Optimize Your Metabolic Health with Dr. Casey Means STUDIES AND RESEARCH A 2021 review in the Journal of Nutrients found increased raw vegetable intake correlated with improved metabolic health markers, including blood pressure and lipid profiles. A 2018 study in the Journal of Frontiers in Psychology linked raw fruit and vegetable consumption with better mental well-being compared to cooked versions. A 2017 article in the Journal of Appetite showed people naturally shift toward lighter meals in spring/summer, due to circadian rhythm and temperature regulation. A 2024 study in the Journal of Affiliations found that vitamin C increases non-heme iron absorption up to 3-6x, especially when eaten with meals containing inhibitors (like phytates or tannins). A 2001 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Demonstrated a dose-response relationship: as vitamin C intake increased, so did non-heme iron absorption. 50 mg of vitamin C (about what’s in the juice of 1 lemon) significantly improved absorption. A 2023 study in the Journal of Pharmaceuticals found spirulina to be highly bioavailable, especially when combined with vitamin C. A 2023 Study in the Journal of Oil Crop Science found that heated seed oils produce cytotoxic compounds harmful to the liver, gut lining, and cardiovascular system. Participants also showed increased hemoglobin and ferritin levels after regular intake. A 2022 study in Frontiers in Nutrition showed how PUFAs, especially linoleic acid, affect neuroinflammatory pathways. TRANSCRIPT Kimberly Snyder (00:00.6)Hi everyone and welcome back to our feel good community or welcome to our community if this is your first time tuning in and I’m very excited to say that this is our very first month doing our monthly Four Cornerstone power tip roundup. This may evolve in terms of its title but this is going to be how we roll out these Thursday shows from now on. There’s going to be one Thursday show at the top of each month where I will cover my top tips for you for that particular month across our cornerstones, which are food, body, emotional wellbeing, and spiritual growth. Everything evolves. As you guys know, everything is dynamic and it’s important to stay in flow. And we’ve been doing these weekly Thursday Q &A shows, I can’t believe it, but for almost a decade. And it started off with my friend Tony, then it was with Caitlin, then I started doing them myself. And it feels organic for us to now shift into this very power packed Thursday show where I can really give you my top tips across the cornerstones and the show will continue to build and evolve by next month in May. We’re gonna do some really fun. giveaways and other ways we can incorporate parts of Saluna and our products and offerings, which will be really fun. And yeah, it’s just this evolution. really grateful that our Feel Good podcast is in the top 3 % of podcasts across the board. You know, there’s podcasts in pretty much every category, but our community has grown and grown. And I feel really called to putting a lot of energy into the quality of our Monday shows. It takes me quite a bit of time to read all the books and then again, to really give you an amazing show once a month and you can take time to really digest all the information to carry you throughout the month. And you can continue to ask questions so I can incorporate that into this monthly show. Again, you can ask questions at Kimberly Snyder (02:16.254)love at mysalina.com. You know what’s going on, what’s happening with you, any of the around any of the cornerstones, how you eat, any questions about digestion or spirituality, or the heart led work that I focus so much now and then the new book, The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts. So I’m really excited to get your feedback about this and also to give you something that really comes from my heart and I hope will give you a tremendous value. And I’m really excited to kick it off this month of April, which feels like a really important month because we’re really in the heart of spring. And spring is this rebirth month. It’s the month of renewal, new energy. We’re starting to shift or really, really shifting now from the heaviness and a little bit more, you know, just earthiness of winter. into where we can really start to plant seeds that will continue to grow in the next few months to come in terms of our body goals, our energy, our creative projects. So I’m really excited to kick it off this month. And as I said, the show will continue to evolve. Before we go any deeper, a little reminder to please join our newsletter at mysalina.com where you can keep in track with new recipes. I’m also really inspired part of my energy will shift back into creating several new recipes for you guys a month. We get a lot of questions about wanting to get more food ideas. And so I’m listening to you guys. So know that I’ll be putting more energy back into creating new dishes for you. It’s cyclical for me. Sometimes I create dozens of new recipes for certain books. Now I’m really focused back here on our podcast and Saluna for a moment. So when you join our newsletter, you’ll get the recipes, you’ll get tips and tools and articles. So check that out over on our website, mysaluna.com. And please leave a review for the show and share the show with anyone that you think would benefit. It’s a wonderful way to spread the love. All right, so let’s get right into our show today. This energy of April feels very powerful to me. And so one of the things… Kimberly Snyder (04:36.558)that we wanna do as we focus on the food cornerstone, I’m gonna give you a really tangible idea and then a bigger conceptual concept is to add seed crackers into our salads. So I went to a restaurant the other day, Wild Living Foods, when I was in downtown LA for my son’s chess tournament and it just felt so on point to eat a salad like this. this is because it’s the natural time of the year, even in Ayurveda, which has a lot of cooked foods, a lot of soupy dishes, soups and stews, but this is the time of the year to expand our raw food ratio. So when we have more salads, more salad based meals, we can still have denser foods like seeds and nuts and sea crackers, but the ratios are changing now. So whereas in winter you might have a big curry, some brown rice, and just sprinkle some sprouts on top, now we’re looking to really evolve that. ratio in a very organic way where the salads would become the bigger part of the meal. And also I have a lot of open faced wraps, just having a lot more micro greens, a lot more sprouts, having more smoothies. I still have smoothies year round, but this is where I’m starting to feel called to the Power Protein smoothie again as a second smoothie of the day and thinking about how we lighten up our overall diet. because that’s what’s happening, right? If you look outside and you see the buds starting to sprout, and even though there’s some burn areas near where I live, thankfully no burned homes, but we look out over where the fire came down over the mountain, but you already see the green grasses. And a lot of the trees didn’t actually die. They’re shedding this sort of singed outer layer and there’s this greenery coming. So it’s a really, to us that in timing to increase our greens is only going to benefit our body. It’s a natural way to evolve our diet right now. And what happens when we do that is we start to get in flow with this raw vitality that comes from our foods, which is enzymes and vitamins, vitamin C, the sun energy. So we feel enlivened. Kimberly Snyder (06:56.706)we start to feel more creative. We start to let that Kundalini energy rise up, which is impossible if we feel overly stagnant. And it’s not possible when we have a lot of fear running through our programming, which we’ll talk about in just a moment with our emotional wellbeing cornerstone. a tangible example is more salads with the crackers added in, as opposed to a lot of dense food and a little bit of raw. Another thing to think about is pairing these greens with vitamin C because we want to start to build this base of iron and minerals as a really strong foundation to feel grounded as our energy may start to take off. So I’ll give you an example. The Dharma’s kale salad has kale, obviously, with lemon juice in it, or with your glowing green smoothie, which has a lot of greens. and hopefully you’re adding your glowing greens powder, which is a really powerful way to up the anti, to have these greens that you wouldn’t have fresh, chlorella, spirulina, moringa, ashitaba, great for your skin, great for your energy, great for your hair, right? But we have that lemon juice, which helps your body to absorb that non-heme iron. And I’ve been mentioning this a lot because I think it’s so great sometimes to have those. You know, not all the time maybe, but to have the numbers to back up. And when I did my blood work a couple months ago, my iron levels were really great. And I attribute that to that intentional combining of greens with vitamin C. think, you know, lemon in your salad dressings is a really easy way to do it. If you’re making a good green goddess dressing, putting in lemon juice or lime juice, finishing a soup or a stew that you may have greens wilted in, just a squeeze of lemon on top, not cooking the lemons. And again, glowing greens powder in your glowing greens smoothie. So another thing that is great to think about right now, and then this will also, and there’s research that we’ll still link to in these show notes. Kimberly Snyder (09:14.04)There was a 2023 study that I pulled from the Journal of Pharmaceuticals that found that spirulina is highly bioavailable when it’s combined with vitamin C. Participants showed increased hemoglobin and ferritin levels after regular intake of iron. So again, back to how this research really backs up these natural flavor combinations and profiles. I’ve been putting lemon juice in my salads for so long now. And it just feels really fresh and it’s a great way to increase that iron. Okay. So another thing that we want to think about, and this will naturally parlay into our body cornerstone is oils. So I’ll start with the food oil component, because now we want to make sure that our metabolism and our digestion are really great. There can be a drying effect from winter. right, because of the heaters and just the air. And so we’re coming into this more sort of juicy, this potency and spring. So healthy oils, whilst we’re increasing our raw foods are really important and it will help us to avoid any drying effects. And drying from an Ayurvedic standpoint can happen even from just eating too much raw food. So we combat that but with healthy oils. cooking with coconut oil, adding extra virgin olive oil to certain salads, avocado oil, and avoiding seed oils, which are inflammatory in the body. And even if you like snack foods, and sometimes my kids like chips, but there’s certain brands like Siete now where you can get avocado oil-based chips instead of chips made with sunflower oil or safflower oil or cottonseed oil, which are inflammatory in the body. And there’s so much wonderful research around healthy fats these days. For instance, a 2020 study in the Journal of Biomedicine found that high omega-3, a good omega-6 to omega-3 ratios helped with inflammatory diseases and helped to reduce autoimmune conditions. So again, this means these really beautiful oils, even avocado oil. Kimberly Snyder (11:37.998)Coconut oil has a lot of saturated fat, but it’s medium chain fatty acids, which can metabolize quite well. And avoiding these really high heat pressure seed oils, which can be quite difficult for your liver to metabolize and have such a high ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s. Along with healthy oils, it’s so great to start adding in those chia seed eggs. As I call them, I use chia seeds a lot. I made my son’s birthday cake a few weeks ago and I use chia eggs instead of regular eggs, of course, because I’m plant-based. You use one tablespoon of chia seeds to three tablespoons of water. It works so well. It’s how I make pancakes. You can use that chia gel in your Power Protein smoothie. And also just again, back to the seed crackers. I think this is a great season, a great month to get some seed crackers. You can make them yourself. We have some recipes. If you have a dehydrator or you can just buy them and again, crush them, add them to your salads for a little bit of texture and getting some of those healthy Omega-3 fats in as well. So speaking of oils, now let’s transition to our second cornerstone, which is body. And just for a moment, as you’re listening to this, you may be in the car or doing the dishes. Just start to feel what is naturally happening in your body right now. could sway a little bit. You can start to move your neck, some organic neck rolls. What I feel in my body is this, Kundalini rising, right? It just means this energy is wanting to come up and out, sort of like the flowers and the locusts are coming out of the soil. We wear a lot of heavier clothes in the winter. and we can feel a little bit more, you know, stagnant, sitting at desks and chairs, watching a little bit more screen time maybe. And so we want our bodies to move and to get outside. So depending where you live, this can be the season where we start to do natural grounding, reconnecting with the earth, kicking your shoes off, even just for a few moments, getting in your lawn. Kimberly Snyder (13:56.536)putting your feet down on the sand, if you’re playing with your child at a playground where there’s a sandbox, right? All these ways that we start to reconnect our energy with the greater collective energy of spring. And because I was talking about oils, again, maybe we’re taking a lot of hot baths, there’s a lot of dryers on, great time to oil the hair. I’m a big fan of hair oil. You can use a rosemary mixed with a carrier oil or herbalized. Ayurvedic oil or Anima Mundi has a really great roots oil, but you’re just going to take a couple drops and massage it into your hair in the evening. And it’s great to reinvigorate your scalp. It’s great for circulation and just bringing that. Ayurveda also says it’s great for Vata energy to bring down that energy. Even helps your brain power helps you to feel more grounded. You can also start to bring some, I’ve got some essential oils here in my hands. If you’re listening to this, not watching it. Some natural oils like clary sage can feel really good in the spring to bring that. For me, it just feels really fresh, like refreshing up our energy. So working with essential oils can be really powerful as well. And then also from a body cornerstone perspective, since we’re in this month of April. It’s this time of cleaning out and cleansing. So we can also start to relook at our exercise routine. What is something that we can bring in? I did a Sahaja mini yoga post on Instagram. If you follow me or if not, you may want to check it out. My hand tells at underscore Kimberly Snyder. It feels so primal to me to get on my mat and just let my spine move around and lift and move. It feels like a really nourishing way. to move energy. Again, that may feel pent up. It feels really good to move my neck back and forth to get back into some natural expression. There’s a connection between your sacral chakra, which is where we create energies. where emotions get processed. It’s where reproductive organs are, hormonal balance, fertility, and letting that come up and through our throats and the whole spine in general. So Kimberly Snyder (16:15.756)check out that little practice on my Instagram or simply get on your yoga mat and feel in ways in which you can start to move your spine. I was hiking with my kids a couple days ago and we saw a rattlesnake and it was exciting. We were far enough away it was safe, but just watching the way that the snake moved off the path in this, you know, just incredibly beautiful way. There’s so much with snake energy that I associate with the spring, this shedding off stagnation, the old snake skins. This is the year of the snake. Another reason to get on our email list is we put out some free programming for the community. And I did a year of the snake zoom a couple of weeks ago and I’ll do another one coming up. So make sure you get on our list so you can join us if you would like. And this idea of this rebirth energy, we want to feel it physically and somatically. We’ve been doing these shows, there’s so much trending around trauma and how much somatic healing is needed because trauma is stored in your body. And also the stagnant energy from the preceding season, again, from winter. So as we birth into spring, letting your spine move again, this is where the grounding comes in, thinking about maybe you feel like walking outside instead of just doing that treadmill in your gym, which you did all winter, because it was freezing where you lived or there was snow on the ground or it was just an easy thing to do. But now you may feel called to be out in the sunshine and get some fresh air. So let your body lead your movement and remember to oil your scalp. maybe some whole body avianga oil massage as well as you start to shift. So now our third cornerstone, emotional well-being. And one of the things that you can start to do, and this is really interesting because spring cleaning has always been a thing, is you can work with the physical and start to come into the deeper layers of your emotions. Kimberly Snyder (18:24.512)or sometimes it can go the other way in reverse. And what I mean by that is for me, it started in March, this natural cleaning things out and rearranging. So those of you that watch this on YouTube, on our YouTube channel, if you look behind me, my podcast shelf looks a little bit different than it did a few weeks ago. It was like freshening up the shelves, moving different furniture around, completely rearranging our bathroom, getting rid of more old stuff. And it felt deeper than just physical. So from then I started to go through some really big realizations and even more heart awakening. And I was journaling a lot and I was starting to feel a lot like another layer. If you’ve written the Hidden Power, the Five Hearts, going deeper into the devoted heart and feeling more empathy, but also more truth coming forward because To be honest, boundaries have always been a little bit tricky for me where I want to be kind and I want to give, but I don’t want to betray myself. And I’ve really been navigating in the past few weeks and years about that line between really considering other people and also what is right and true. And so this comment came out, came up a bit recently as well. You know, many of us that are parents, have to negotiate other parents in the space and also advocate for what’s true and letting our child lead. even that, sometimes parents want to do events or they want to have play dates. And if it doesn’t feel right to, you know, your family or your child, finding a way to be honest and truthful, but in a kind way. Right. So for me, you know, back to this idea of spring cleaning. What I have found and what I would recommend for you as well to see how this can benefit you in your life and in your emotional wellbeing and health is clearing clutter, clearing space, and just getting rid of what is not needed has really helped me, again, back to this April month of rebirth, get really clear about boundaries, clear about what’s not needed, old ideas. Kimberly Snyder (20:43.894)all things I was holding onto, allowing my heart to burst open and to get bigger, even more and more. So this is where everything can work together so powerfully and so beautifully. So if you’re feeling like, eh, there’s some heaviness, there’s a little bit of things to clear up, but you’re not sure how to do it, try cleaning out a drawer. Try cleaning out your bathroom or one shelf of your kitchen and see what that ignites in you. Or like me, clear out, then you allow some space maybe to do your heart aligned meditation and then to journal, what am I ready to let go of? Whether that’s an idea, an old resentment that you’re ready to forgive, strengthening a boundary, getting rid of wishy-washiness, getting rid of people pleasing, whatever it is, it starts to stir up. And remember as well, all these heart coherence tools in the book. including the Heart Aligned Steady in Life practice can really help you sort through some icky old patterns and emotions while feeling safe to feel. So what we do in that practice, I’ll share in an abbreviated way, is to first to connect to your heart, which is a brain, and an energy power center. We can do it right now just to breathe down into your heart, the center of your spine between your crown chakra and your root. Feel this centering. and do your coherence breath or your heart aligned meditation. And then you can allow to the extent that you have a capacity window for to feel your window of tolerance, to feel a big emotion and to breathe through while you stay connected to your heart. It’s like holding onto a rope attached to a pole in the middle of a storm, right? There’s an anchor inside of you. So you don’t have to feel overly upset or rageful or sad or whatever it is with the emotion so that you feel swept up and into incoherence of the dark heart, you can stay centered in yourself. Yeah, so this is a really powerful practice to play with cleaning your space, letting go, and then seeing what arises within you from an emotional well-being standpoint. And then next we want to talk about spiritual growth. And this idea of rebirth is such an important concept in yoga. Kimberly Snyder (23:07.002)And in this awakening of the heart, it’s this cracking open into more of the true self, more of who we are and less of these old ideas. So it may be a really great time to read some inspirational material, including the heart book, the five hearts, then empower the five hearts, but also the Tao Te Ching, which I talk about quite a bit as well, which is about this spaciousness and going beyond ideas. And depending on your practices, your faith, and maybe reading parts of the Bible or Rumi or whatever spiritual texts call you, a really great time to add that in perhaps to your meditation practice or your journaling practice to think about this idea of rebirth. We can die and be reborn day after day. We wake up each day into this new experience of consciousness. So we don’t have to wait until New Year’s. We don’t have to wait for some, you know, our birthday or, you know, solar returns, some sort of prescribed astrological concept. We can die and be reborn every single day. And so now is such a potent time to lean into that practice. and to think about it. So I encourage you to, from a spiritual standpoint, which again, isn’t formalized religion, but it’s about tuning into your energy, your unique energy inside of you through meditation, through stillness. What is it that I really want to birth into this month, this day and spring, along with the oldness and the heaviness? of winter, when am I ready to leave behind? And you can write a new intentions, you can journal about it, you can visualize and vision it after you’re coherent. So that’s what I do. I do my heart aligned meditation, and then I allow some time for devotion and prayer. And then I let my heart lead me into this vision of me into even more freedom and lightness. Kimberly Snyder (25:31.276)I have to tell you guys spiritually, I had an amazing experience a few weeks ago where I saw this really popular author who happens to be at the same publishing house as me. And she’s a huge podcast. And I saw her and I’m not on social media lot, but I do go on to look at comments and to make sure, you know, everything is, you know, I can support in any way. And I happened to see her. As Anna made it as always in her flow, doing some kind of talking video. And then I felt so deeply in my heart, you guys. I said, wow, I’m really happy for that person for this level of success. But I said, I don’t want that. That’s not what I want in my life. And this felt so freeing. And I can literally say, with my whole heart that I really birthed into a whole new level of contentment and concept of success, where success for me is really about the daily peace, having loved ones and close relationships with my family members, having really just supportive practices, deepening my meditations. There’s so much internally and just enjoying being present and seeing the nature around. And it’s not that I don’t care and I love our community and I do want to continue to grow. I’m very passionate about Saluna and our Feel Good Podcasts, my books and all the offerings. But whereas in the past, I might have been in more of a comparative mind, judging myself, how I could be bigger or do more or feeling like, I should be like this person, you know, six. 10, 12 years ago, I could literally look at this person who also has a podcast and is also an author and again, feel happy for them, but also to be clear, hey, I don’t want to be that person and I don’t, you know, that’s just not the style of how I want to communicate or put things out, which is great for her, but it just felt a little bit of that, you know, rah-rah energy. I just, you know, I’m just really happy in my own journey. Kimberly Snyder (27:53.074)And if anything, know, feeling good, the name of our show and what these cornerstones is about is really for you to feel more more connected to how amazing your journey is and how you are and how you really don’t have to be anyone else and that your heart will continue to awaken and unfold in its own beautiful way for you to find your own definition of success and your own deepening of relationships, including with yourself. That’s what feeling good really is. Feeling good isn’t just built on, look at my achievements, or, you know, look at how great my hair is today. Although we all wanna have good hair, we all wanna, you know, create. But feeling good transcends those things. It includes them, but it transcends into this really deep, rooted sense of wholeness, right? That’s what this… is all about. That’s what saluna is. The sun and the moon is about wholeness. The cornerstones help us to feel this wholeness of the true self. So I wanted to share that with you because I’m just so grateful for all these teachings that we have. And I’ll share everything with you because it’s really been a journey for me to get to this level of peace, which is deepening more and more. And I still get thrown off. Don’t get me wrong. And I still have triggers. and I still have reactions and I still have big feelings, but wow, most of the time I’m peaceful. Most of the time do I feel this beautiful flow. And that’s really what I want to offer you with this show and with this work. And you really can get there yourself. So again, April is a beautiful month for deepening into that. Thinking about expanding your raw foods, your greens, pairing greens with vitamin C rich foods. I’m gonna be giving you more recipes. Please join the community. It’s going to be amazing. Even more, I have a lot more energy to put into Saluna now. I’m not writing a book at the moment. Which is another rebirth for me to put energy back into the podcast and into Saluna in a much bigger way. And body lights, feeling the oils, feeling the natural expansiveness that wants to come up and out of your spine. Let it be expressed in your natural movements. Let it be expressed through releasing old emotions. Kimberly Snyder (30:11.534)Clean some part of your house. Notice how decluttering outside will help you declutter energy inside. And then spiritually tune into what does rebirth mean for you right now. Try your heart aligned meditation or other meditations that call to you feeling that stillness from which rebirth and spiritual growth really takes place. So I’m here to support you more and more, more than ever. Remember to email love at mysalina.com. where you can submit more questions. I’ll still be answering your questions in this monthly framework, which I’m so excited about. Our monthly roundup, Power Tips Around the Four Cornerstones, however we’ll title it. And then starting next month, we’ll also be incorporating some fun community giveaways. So be on the lookout for that in May. Just as always, so grateful to be on the journey with you. So I’ll see you back here. We will continue to do weekly Monday interview shows. and those will all be in different cornerstones each week. So stay tuned for that. And remember, you can find me at at underscore Kim, at underscore Kimberly Snyder on Instagram. Thank you in advance for leaving a review for our show, which means the world. Check out the hidden power of the five hearts, which is really, you know, after over a decade of writing eight books, it’s my resting point now. It’s like my final message in terms of writing books. for this moment. feel really complete with what I shared and expressed in that book, which affect our vitality in so many different ways. So please check out the book. Please check out and join our newsletter at mysalina.com. And I’ll see you guys back here soon. Sending you so much love.  

What Causes Sugar Cravings and How to Break Them Hi everyone and welcome back to our Thursday Q &A show. I hope you’re having a lovely day. Thank you so much for tuning in to be with us here today. Our topic is around the hormone DHEA and how to create youthful vitality. I’ll talk about some, shall we say, non-mainstream ways to elevate your DHEA and to feel more of this youthful vitality, which I believe is our birthright, and that we can start to really foster and elevate no matter what our biological age is. So this is a show about elevating your life force, feeling great in your life and some really practical tips and tools and strategies to do so such as…..   Episode Summary: In this episode, Kimberly delves into the complexities of sugar cravings, exploring the emotional, psychological, and physical roots. She emphasizes a holistic approach to managing these cravings, incorporating aspects of gut health, nutrition, mindfulness, and spiritual growth. Through practical tips and insights, listeners are encouraged to find balance and fulfillment beyond sugar, fostering a deeper connection with themselves and their community.   Episode Sponsors FATTY 15 OFFER: Fatty15 is on a mission to replenish your C15 levels and restore your long-term health. You can get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription Starter Kit by going to fatty15.com/KIMBERLY and using code KIMBERLY at checkout. USE LINK: fatty15.com/KIMBERLY Feel Good SBO Probiotics OFFER: Go to mysolluna.com and Get 15% Feel Good Probiotics. Offer good for 15% off Purchase. USE LINK: PODFAM15 for 15% off your entire order. Episode Chapters 00:00 Understanding Sugar Cravings 02:52 The Emotional and Psychological Aspects of Sugar 06:10 The Role of Gut Health and Nutrition 09:02 Balancing Sugar Cravings with Mindfulness 11:50 The Impact of Stress and Lifestyle on Sugar Cravings 15:01 Exploring the Spiritual Connection to Sugar 17:47 Practical Tips for Managing Sugar Intake 21:05 The Importance of Community and Support 23:52 Emotional Resilience and Self-Care 27:08 Finding Sweetness Within: A Holistic Approach   SOLLUNA PRODUCT LINKS Glowing Greens Powder™ Feel Good SBO Probiotics Feel Good Detoxy Feel Good Digestive Enzymes Feel Good Starter Kit Feel Good Skincare KIMBERLY’S BOOKS The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts Chilla Gorilla & Lanky Lemur Journey to the Heart The Beauty Detox Solution Beauty Detox Foods Beauty Detox Power Radical Beauty Recipes For Your Perfectly Imperfect Life You Are More Than You Think You Are OTHER PODCASTS YOU MAY ENJOY! How to Believe in Your Self Worth with Jamie Kern Lima How to Raise Your Standards In Your Love Life with Matthew Hussey How to Eat to Beat Your Diet with New York Times best selling author Dr. William Li The issues with consuming vegetable and seed oils with Dr. Catherine Shanahan How the Power Foods Diet helps with Weight Loss with Dr. Neal Barnard How Not to Age with New York Times best-selling author Dr. Michael Greger How to eat to reduce anxiety with Harvard nutritional psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo How to Optimize Your Metabolic Health with Dr. Casey Means STUDIES AND RESEARCH In 2006, a study published in the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society examined the psychological mechanisms behind food cravings, focusing on emotional, cognitive, and biological influences. The study found that the driver for why a majority of people crave sugar specific foods is linked to the role of biological and emotional drivers In 2022, a meta-analysis presented at the European Congress on Obesity examined the effects of vegan diets on weight loss, blood sugar regulation, and sugar cravings in adults with overweight or type 2 diabetes.This study explored how plant-based diets influence metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and cravings for sugary foods, showing that a vegan diet may naturally help reduce sugar dependency by stabilizing blood glucose levels and promoting satiety. In 2024, a study published by the University of Leeds examined whether replacing sugar with artificial and natural sweeteners impacts hunger levels, appetite regulation, and sugar cravings. The study found that sweeteners can replace sugar in foods effectively, reducing appetite and blood sugar levels without negative health impacts, supporting their use in dietary management. In 2022, a study published in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity examined the link between loneliness and increased cravings for sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) among adolescents. The research aimed to understand how emotional well-being influences dietary behaviors in relation to sugary drink consumption and found a direct correlation between loneliness and heightened SSB cravings among teenagers.   TRANSCRIPT Kimberly Snyder (00:00.76)Hi everyone and welcome back to our Thursday Q &A show where today we’re going to be talking about sugar and specifically what causes sugar cravings and how to break them with a holistic four cornerstone approach. Everything boils down to energy and that very much includes sugar which creates a certain energy biologically in your body. It makes us feel a certain way emotionally and mentally there’s so much wrapped around sugar. And as someone who is, I would say, a huge chocolate lover, someone that definitely likes to have a lot of sweets myself, I have a lot of ideas and thoughts to share with you, as well as research around how we can enjoy moderate amounts of sugar, but not feel that overwhelmed, that addictive quality that can really imbalance our gut, health, and also just our energy overall. This is a pretty big issue. get a lot of questions from you guys around sugar and how to really get it fully under control. So today I want to talk about it from this very holistic standpoint, which has really helped me a lot. Again, there’s an emotional quality to sugar. There’s even a spiritual quality. There’s the physical gut health, blood sugar that we want to talk about from a physical standpoint. And also, of course, the actual nutritional composition of sugar and how we can balance that in our diets overall. Before we go further, I want to remind you that the show notes are at mysaloona.com. I highly recommend that you get on our newsletter if you haven’t joined already. We put out information every week, including amazing recipes, articles. We have sales, we have community events, we have free meditations. So please be sure to sign up so you stay in the know. And I also want to mention that this is going to beour last Q &A show in this format. We are going to be moving to a once a month show, which will rotate around the cornerstones where I can add in a lot of different information. be an extended, expanded show where we can actually take a lot of different questions around each cornerstone each month. It’s gonna be amazing. So that will start up in April and that way we’ll still have our Monday interview show. Kimberly Snyder (02:26.806)and then we’ll have the once a month Thursday show. So you can really have more time to digest these really information packed episodes and enjoy them weekly still. But the cadence of the Thursday shows will just be a little bit, you know, more spaced out, which I think will be a great way to go deeper into each cornerstone. So I’ll be looking out for that one in April where we will kick it off with the food cornerstone as our first monthly show. All right, let’s get into our show today. Speaking of food, I would say this is a multi cornerstone approach. Although sugar of course falls in our food category, like I said, it is an energy. We put sugar in our body and it creates an effect. That’s why many of us want the sugar. We feel differently. There’s an energetic quality to it. It expands all the cornerstones. So our question comes from Jill in Dallas, Texas. Jill, thank you so much for writing in today. And you ask, Hey, Kimberly, I love the podcast and listen every week. So thank you. Thank you for being in our community, Jill. I have a question about sugar cravings. I have a bit of a sweet tooth and always seem to crave sugary food when I get hungry. Why is that? And what can I do to break this cycle? So first of all, Jill, you’re not alone. Many of us naturally crave sugar in our lives. And first of all, there’s a truth to it. In Ayurveda, there are the six key tastes. One of them is sweet madhura. So we’re meant to have some sweetness in our life. Now it doesn’t have to be from refined sugar. We can supply this sweet quality, which creates overall balance in our diet from grains, from whole fruit, for example, from certain high quality sweeteners such as raw honey. So what I found is clients and readers that I talk to that have a more extreme diet, it can exacerbate sugar cravings in the long run, or they may feel that they need to have cheat days. So if we’re really cutting out carbs altogether or eating really strict Kimberly Snyder (04:47.512)paleo type diet or something like that, you know, we can start to see some hankerings for sugar that can build up over time. And then there’s also a psychological aspect to sugar because we think about our modern life today and let’s face it, there’s a lot of potential roughness, there’s triggers, there’s a harshness in aspects in our world. whether that’s the pace of the emails coming in or the traffic, people honking, people being abrasive in your life, certain relationships. So that sweetness that we crave sometimes from external sources, which could be as easy as popping a candy bar or having some ice cream or whatever it is, is almost this really soothing quality that we are reaching for because there is this, again, this abrasiveness that can be part of our lives. A 2006 study published in the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society examined the psychological mechanisms behind food cravings focusing on the emotional, cognitive, and biological influences. And the study found that the driver for why a majority of people crave sugary foods is linked to emotional drivers. So if you haven’t checked out my book, I think… six books ago now, it’s called The Beauty Detox Power, and it talks about the nine top food cravings. And one of them, of course, is sweets and sugary treats. And it was really interesting when I dove into the research around this because I have experienced cravings for sugar at certain parts of my life and certain parts of the day. And then I also can see where the cravings would shift into more fatty foods. like having lots of butter and oily foods when I was looking for stability and also crunchy foods like chips and pretzels I would crunch down a lot when I would feel the need to release tension and I wasn’t expressing my emotions. So I started to track these patterns in my own life and I started to see it in my clients. And it was really that for many people at the end of the day, there was all these Kimberly Snyder (07:09.102)little frustrations and irritations that we’re building up in the nervous system and looking for a type of release. So whether that’s, you know, sitting down with a, you know, with a plate of cookies while you’re watching Netflix, just to feel like you’re giving yourself a reward or a treat, we’re seeking relief through the day. And the question is, how do we give ourselves little moments of relief so that it doesn’t build up into this need? to, you know, whether it’s the end of the day or mid afternoon getting a lollipop or, you know, a piece of candy out of our purse to get us through the afternoon or really sugary drink from Starbucks. What else can we do energetically to balance? Which we’ll talk about in a moment because sugar is not as simple as saying, okay, I’m just going to buy the sugar free cookies or are going to completely fast from the sugar if we don’t look at the underlying reasons. Why are we are consistently pulled toward this or over pulled towards this Madura quality, the sweetness. Sugar rich foods trigger the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward, reinforcing a desire for sugary foods. Again, how can we feel fulfillment in our life without this actual reward? We know that dopamine hits can come when we’re looking at how many people like our social media post or if people give us compliments. You know, there’s many different ways that we’re looking for external reward. And I’m here to say that, you know, that’s okay. And we want to balance that. But there’s so many ways that we can reward ourselves, including, and I’ll give a little hint here, feeling that deep sense of inner security in our hearts. So doing some of these very brief heart coherence practices, which we can do right here, right now, shifting to your heart, taking some Deep breaths, breathing in easefulness as you focus on your heart and exhaling out a sense of ease. Now there’s science to this as well. Research from the Heart Math Institute that I also talk about in the Hidden Power of the Five Hearts shows that taking deep breaths while we were focusing on the heart starts to activate the heart brain, which contains 40,000 neurons. So this can start to widen our perceptions. It starts to create a sense of relaxation. Kimberly Snyder (09:32.64)and safety in this moment. And what I have found over time is just feeling more steadiness through my day. So whether it’s a need to text a friend when I get stressed out or having, you know, for me, I really like chocolate. So, you know, a couple of pieces of a chocolate bar, whatever it is, I can soothe myself more through the day in these micro moments, which also adds up to not having these big you know, moments of sugar cravings or cravings in general, particularly later in the day and after dinner is where they would usually strike when I was done with work or my kids were in bed and then I had a little bit more time to sort of fester. It’s like little by little, we’re putting out these spot fires through the day so we can keep ourselves more grounded. And there is so much research around heart coherence and the power of our hearts. that’s been really huge for me because it’s not coming from a mental place. It’s coming from a deep embodied place coming into this power center of our hearts, which is spiritual, it’s energetic, and it’s physical. Now there are certain people which may be predisposed to higher amounts of sugar cravings. I think that there’s so much, you know, with epigenetics and how we influence that, but it is important to realize that there is a specific gene such as the sucrise isomaltase si gene, which means that some individuals may have a preference, a higher consumption of sweet foods. And we don’t know genetically if it was certain parts of the world. People adapted or lived with a higher amount of sweets. You know, I definitely believe in a genetic constitution. I know my body. does very well in tropical environments, for example. I do very well in tropical fruits. My mother’s from the Philippines. I’m half Filipina. And I feel like that’s a very strong component that runs through my blood and my body. And Susanna on our team was mentioning the other day how, you know, she does well with Kimberly Snyder (11:50.114)the cold and some denser foods and her family is from the Ukraine, right? So we can’t ignore nor do we want to totally, you know, rule out that part of our constitution. It’s part of deeper understanding of ourselves. So just know that some people may have a little bit of a tendency and it doesn’t mean that with lifestyle and all the tips that we’ll get into in a moment, we can’t balance it. But it’s really interesting to understand that. So there’s definitely stress that has an impact. And there’s a lot of research around this as well. When we are feeling that moment of being out of control or feeling threatened or the hurry energy as I call it, and we’re feeling like that, ooh, things are out of control, we’re looking to feel soothed. We’re looking to feel calmed down. And that’s where it’s a very easy fix. It’s become an ingrained pattern for many of us. to go for that sugary soda or candy bar or, you know, in my case, the chocolate or whatever it is, just to feel that temporary moment. you know, for chocolate has those, you know, bliss enhancers. There really is something to sugar, even healthier forms that do give us that temporary lift. And again, I’m all about enjoyment and moderation, but we don’t want to feel that attachment. Right? There’s so much about in the yogic path about non-attachment where we don’t want to give our power away to something outside of ourselves, whether that is needing another person to show up for us in a certain way or needing that food to be there or needing this particular job. More and more, we want to bring that sense of security and power inside of us because we are so rooted in this incredible self. which we can access through the heart and inside of us. And we really need to lean into that more and more. And when you do that, you will notice a change in your voice. You will notice a change in your relationship with food and in your outer relationships will be more relaxed and easygoing and less about needing someone to hear you or understand you or be there or prefer you or whatever it is. And it’s really going to happen across the whole of your life. Kimberly Snyder (14:13.646)In 2022, meta-analysis presented at the European Congress on obesity found that plant-based diets influence metabolism and insulin sensitivity and therefore can help reduce sugar dependency by stabilizing blood glucose levels and promoting satiety, satiation, feeling fulfilled from your food. It’s a very deep sense without being overly heavy. to have a glowing green smoothie, for example, with a glowing green spouter ideally, or to have a really wonderful, like our Kitchari recipe, something really dense and filled with fiber and minerals, and to feel that nourishment in your body. So we wanna make sure… And we’ll get into the tips in just a moment. There’s a real balance into your diet. Actually, let’s jump into that now and I’ll keep talking about the research along the way. Let’s start with our food cornerstone. One of the things that we want to do is to create that sense of stability because when we’re not stable, we start to go off track. We start to feel like we need those cheat days or we need extra caffeine or we need extra sugar or we’re going to just, you know, randomly, just not eat at all. So having a nice cadence to your meals on a regular basis and making sure that your meals are filled with fiber. Now we don’t have to eat perfectly, right? But having fiber-filled meals with lots of plant foods, since only plants contain fiber, is a really wonderful way to balance your blood sugar levels. You want to have healthy fats as well. to balance that with carbs and protein, not just to have all starchy meals all the time. You my kids love rice so much, but then I’m making sure like last night for dinner, we had a soup with lots of different beans in it and a lentil pasta and veggies, and I have them put their rice on top of that. So there’s a balance. And you know, I top it with some avocado, there’s also some coconut oil in the soup. Kimberly Snyder (16:23.458)just making sure that there’s healthy fats going on. Because I found that when we forget to have some of those components in our meal, it’s meals, it’s easier to go off track. So a nice nutrient density is going to really make sure that from a nutritional standpoint, we’re getting our micronutrients in. I mentioned the glowing greens powder, which has become such a foundational part of my life because that has spirulina in it and chlorella. and ashitaba and amulaki, these really grounding herbs and plants which have tons of iron and vitamin A. I got my blood work done a few months ago. I was sharing this here on the podcast and on social media and everything was ideal levels from the zinc to the vitamin A to my B vitamin levels and everything. And I think I really credit that to the total lifestyle. but including having these really nutritional staples in my diet, like the Glowing Greens smoothie with the Glowing Greens powder added in, which is not greens that you would eat fresh. You would not eat fresh spirulina per se. You would not be able to get Amalaki, which is grown in India per se, but you can have it in a concentrated dense form and really get the benefit of these foods on a regular basis. Speaking of which, which will branch now from food into body. both together because they work together is gut health. There’s so much research about making sure that we have really great gut health because I remember when I had Candida and a lot of yeast in my body, my cravings were bananas, my moodiness, my anxiety. And I was trying so many different things. I was trying to limit my calories. I was trying to cut carbs at one point. It just didn’t work until I really got my gut health under control. So fermented foods are really great, like kimchi and sauerkraut. I love tempeh. I love to drink kombucha, low sugar kombuchas. And I also do take as a staple our saluna as bio probiotics, which are clinically researched strains in the proper ratio. Gut health is an ongoing effort. We live in a world with Kimberly Snyder (18:44.046)toxins, there’s been so many heavy metals in the air. you know, aware of that since the fires here in LA, there’s additives in foods, there’s stuff in the water supply. I mean, can’t get away from that. But these things do affect the sensitivity of our microflora, as well as stress, as well as eating sugar, what we’re talking about here. So we just want to make sure that we are consistently eating fiber. having fermented foods, taking our SBO probiotics on a regular basis. Now, I also think it’s a good idea to take a multivitamin. Of course, if you are thinking about conceiving or you’re pregnant, a really good prenatal, because sometimes there can be gaps in our nutrition, and that will help to balance sugar cravings as well, just to make sure that we’re getting, you know, chromium and zinc. Now magnesium is a mineral that many Americans are deficient in. But if you’re following our saluna beauty detox lifestyle, hopefully you’re having a lot of Dharma’s kale salad, a lot of glowing green smoothie, because you can get a lot of magnesium from greens as well. And because again, nutrient deficiencies can trick the brain into craving sugar because it means there’s an imbalance. I think there’s a lot more with the emotional aspect as well. I want to get into that in a moment, but I definitely want to mention that. So we want to make sure that we’re avoiding these artificial sweeteners. There was a 2024 study published in the University of Leeds over in the UK, found that replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners can impact sugar cravings and appetite regulation. So when it comes to sweeteners, there are really great ones out there. For example, monk fruit, which is in our glowing greens powder to balance the taste because there’s some really dense greens in there. As I mentioned, moringa and chlorella and spirulina can be quite tense. So the monk fruit is actually really great because it doesn’t impact blood sugar and it can support weight management actually. I’m a big fan of natural Kimberly Snyder (21:03.406)fruit as well. You know, as our bodies become balanced, we want to have whole fruit. I’m not talking about crappy like fruit purees that you get at those smoothie mixes in Starbucks or, you know, something like that that’s not fresh or just straight apple juice. I’m talking about seasonal berries and apples and things that you would be able to find at your farmer’s market. or your local market or in your garden. And I really believe that, I mean, for my diet, look at when I cut fruit for a while when I was balancing my yeast, but now fruit is really a core part of my diet. And I still have chocolate, but I think it’s the combination of making sure I’m getting all the nutrients, having my Glow-In-Greens Smoothie with the Glow-In-Greens powder. I do take a whole food based multivitamin. and I do have a lot of fruit. I also do the other practices that balance parts of my lifestyle, especially the heart coherence practices that I mentioned. This is essential because you can get your diet under control, but your emotions can be out of whack and we all need tools. A 2022 study published in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity found that there was a link between loneliness and increased cravings for sugar sweetened beverages. So there is a direct correlation that was found in research between loneliness and heightened cravings for sweeteners. So again, back to the energy of sweet, which feels almost like a hug that you’re getting externally, this soothingness. How can we feel that from within and also from within our own community? I think it’s important to start with awareness and honesty about our emotional states and our fluctuations day to day. The great yoga guru Paramahansa Yogananda said that introspection is one of the greatest ways to progress. We have to be able to look in, think about how much we’re distracted and looking outward on our social media feeds, constantly scrolling. Kimberly Snyder (23:24.704)online shopping, chit chatting. There’s a million ways we can distract ourselves. And so we want to be able to create some time to journal or just have stillness and just be aware, you know, what is going on with me emotionally? And you may start to notice that maybe there is some aspect of loneliness that you haven’t wanted to see, or there’s just an increase of overwhelm, burnout, feeling frustrated or stuck in your life. And it’s important to be aware of that because you don’t have to stay in these periods of being stuck or, you know, whatever sort of dark heart energy states that you’re feeling. There are ways to move through it. And again, I want to say from my heart that I provide a lot of tools, research and teachings in the Hidden Power of the Five Hearts that has helped me so much. There’s so much talk about out there about trigger and traumas and patterns. But for me, some of it just still feels very mental and I can’t quite pin it down. But there’s something so simple and so powerful about just shifting your awareness to your heart, doing the heart aligned meditation, which is in the book and there’s free tracks on our website at mysalina.com. Even touching your heart, breathing into your heart, taking these pauses through the day, 10 seconds, a minute to break the mental cycles. And for me, this is the place for emotional resilience and emotional intelligence. As I talk about in the steady heart chapter, the third heart stage, this is when we can start to really feel that we are not being controlled by our emotions, but that we are in control of our emotions. We feel them, but we have tools for not getting swept up into them. We can actually hold space for ourselves. and it is tremendously empowering. And it’s a tremendous way to get your sugar cravings under control because that again is a way that we start to get swept up into sugar cravings is when we don’t have the tools, so we’re feeling our feelings, but we start to feel all over the place as well. So I can really say that some of these tools are incredibly powerful. Kimberly Snyder (25:44.426)as well as any other ones, journaling, any type of breath work practice or any other meditation that resonates with you to really feel more emotionally resilient. Because as humans, we have big emotions and many of us weren’t taught how to navigate them. I know I wasn’t as a child, but it’s something that I’ve learned as an adult and I think it’s one of the most important aspects of self care as an adult. There’s also a spiritual growth aspect to sugar cravings. So we’re looking for some type of sweetness and to feel okay and to feel rewarded in a world that can feel turbulent, chaotic, out of control, quite harsh at times. And so there’s this burgeoning energy of the true self and the heart bursting up, radiating up and out of you. that starts to be that pillar of sweetness. You Yogananda talked about so much of the sweetness of God and divine in his writings. And whether you like to use that word or you may say source or creator or universe, or however you like to think of it, higher intelligence, there’s this incredible transcendent power, I think, that flows through which… You know, this peace that passeth all understanding. We don’t understand a lot of the things that happen in the world. A lot of it can feel quite unfair from a human perspective. But the more I tap into this spiritual, spirituality, right? The energy that’s in our hearts and inside of us, I really start to feel that sweetness coming up where you start to feel more lightness in your everyday moments. It’s just like a laugh, a laugh that comes in more, just a lightness. There’s a sweet quality that comes through life where it doesn’t have to feel so heavy or so serious or so rigid that it has to work out a certain way for you to feel happy. You can start to feel more in flow with what’s happening. And there is an incredible gift that comes with that. So I encourage you to lean in more to that sweetness that is found. Kimberly Snyder (28:04.46)with spiritual growth. And there again, I’ll offer the Heart Aligned Meditation, as well as my last book that preceded this heart book called You Are More Than You Think You Are. If you’re interested in learning about the spiritual aspects, particularly from the Vedic texts and yoga of fearlessness and confidence and creativity, because there’s so many incredible ancient teachings around each of these topics. And the more we feel that power rising up, the less we rely on external, externals, attachment to externals, such as compliments, validation on social media, having to just look forward to our next most delicious meal, or sweet craving, sweets and treats, doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy food, but we don’t wanna be a slave. to food. We don’t want to feel a slave to the cookies and the treats, right? I don’t have to tell you that. I know you feel that inherently. So feel that in yourself. There is a source of sweetness, which is so much bigger than anything in the external world. And you can tap into that more and more and let that sweetness run through your life. There’s even a section in the Bhagavad Gita that talks about amrita and it’s this sweet nectar. that is said to be secreted in your Vaishuda chakra, the back of your throat that drips down almost like honey as you start to access these higher points of consciousness. So imagine that there’s actually said to be almost like this metaphysical type of nectar, which comes through you that you can access without having to eat the honey or the sweets externally, because we’re into higher and higher energy vibrations and fields. So when we’re talking about vibration, there is a very grounded scientific component to this. Our heart fields are measured by magnetometers. There’s energy that’s given off by everything, even electronic devices. That’s what electromagnetic frequencies are. There’s energy that’s given off by your brain. So there’s a frequency that we can step into that’s higher and higher, no matter the circumstances in our life, no matter when things start to feel really down or convoluted. Kimberly Snyder (30:27.566)or things that we don’t want to happen, unfortunately, we can start to sink into this place of security and sweetness and love inside of us. And it brings that quality up and out. So you can see how much sugar is a very multifaceted approach. And if we really want to break addiction and cravings for sugar, we need to look at it in this holistic way. Otherwise, I completely believe that we never will be totally free. So yes, the physicality food wise, get your micronutrients in, get your diet in balance, have greens, have plant foods. You don’t have to be fully plant based if you don’t want to, but you need that fiber. You need to nourish your gut health. You wanna get enough SBO probiotics in, you want to definitely have some kombucha or fermented foods on a regular basis. You want to eat a broad spectrum of colors, eat seasonal foods. We have a lot of other podcasts I think you would enjoy on seasonal eating. You want to make sure that you are having tools emotionally, understanding that a big part of sugar cravings, there’s so much research about the emotional component. When you feel those triggers, when you feel, you know, there’s a harshness. Starting the day with the heart aligned meditation. coming into your heart, doing the heart align steady in life practice, which is in the Hidden Power of the Five Hearts, through the day. So you start to digest your emotions and dispel them through the day in the micro moments. So they don’t all add up and suddenly you need this ginormous dessert that when you go out to dinner with your friends, whatever it is. Now listen, we’re all gonna enjoy the birthday cake. My older son just had a birthday party and believe me, we had multiple cakes. I baked a cake. There was a Erin McKenna. amazing baby cakes cake. If you live in LA or New York, she has incredible vegan bakery. We got a vegan ice cream cake from Carvel, which by the way has vegan ice cream cakes, some of the locations. And so I had all the cakes, but guess what? I don’t do that every day. So when we have this spaciousness to break free of cravings, there’s a really healthy balance of flowing in. Kimberly Snyder (32:44.344)flowing out without trying to grip down and control. And that is where our power gets taken away. Right. And I believe that constriction of energy affects everything from our radiance, our vitality, our hair health, even our energetic qualities, our creativity. There’s so many things. It’s all really interrelated. And so to feel this radiance, this real a spiritual aspect of you coming up and out of you in your life, making spirituality a part of your daily life through practices that resonate. could be the heart aligned meditation or another type of meditation that could be spending time in nature more or in stillness, journaling, breath work, but really realizing that we are not just these physical beings made of bones and skin, but there’s an energy. a permanency that’s running through you as well. And when you tap into that, there’s a sweetness which will saturate your life in a way that no cookie and no piece of cake ever could, a sustainable sense of sweetness, as amrita nectar. And I can say as someone who’s transitioned from a lot of anxiety and a lot of fear to a lot of stability and a lot of peace and a lot of love, I really wish for you to experience that as well. And that’s why we have so many different offerings for you across all of these cornerstones. So please do check them out at mysaluna.com. You can check out the free Heart Aligned Meditation Tracks on there. You can check out our Glow and Greens Powder, our SBO Probiotics to help nourish you deeply and to get your gut health in check. Our probiotics are really based in research. They’re based in nature, how our ancestors got probiotics from unwashed wild fruits and vegetables to get that really hearty soil-based organism that can, organisms that get through your stomach acid that has a really great culture count at 16 billion, but is in the right ratios and strains, as well as lots of information. So I welcome you into the community. I’ll be holding some more free community events coming up. So please join our community newsletter and remember that we will be shifting the format of our podcast going forward to a once a month focused cornerstone Kimberly Snyder (35:07.732)a Thursday show, I think you will love. So tune in for that. The first one will be airing in April. I send you all my love. And remember, you can always reach out to me for support. You can leave comments on our website or on social media at underscore Kimberly Snyder. If you enjoy this episode or show, please leave a review. It’s a wonderful way to support the show. And please also pass the show on to anyone that you think would benefit. We are here to share and to support each other and spread the love. And you’re a very important part of that collective love with your unique heart and your unique energy, which no one else in the cosmos has. So I’ll see you back here in just a few days for our next Monday interview. Till then, take care of yourself and wishing you so much love.