0:00

there's always a way out and there's always a way out of self-limiting beliefs but you need some structure for

0:06

that So that might take writing things down This would be an example of a CBT

0:12

cognitive behavioral therapy approach You write it down and then you dispute

0:19

it and say "Where's the evidence that that's true that I'll never love again

0:24

He was the only one for me." And is that fact or fiction and then you have an

0:30

alternate thought that's a healthier thought to replace the older one

0:43

Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of True Hope Cast the official podcast of True Hope Canada I am your

0:49

host Simon Brazier Here at True Hope Cast we take a deep dive into mental health's many psychological and

0:55

physiological aspects in a beautiful but wild world This is the show for you if you're looking for motivation

1:00

inspiration knowledge and solutions Today we're exploring a topic that touches so many of us healing and

1:06

growing from trauma and loss And we have an exceptional guest to guide us through that conversation Judith Belmont Now

1:13

Judy's got over 40 years of experience as a psychotherapist in private practice a mental health and corporate trainer

1:19

and a wellness conference speaker She also is the author of 11 mental health

1:24

and self-help books and two therapeutic card decks offering practical hands-on

1:29

tips for living a more positive life Currently she's a workplace wellness trainer for an online training company

1:35

continuing to share her invaluable insights Judy holds a masters in clinical psychology from Haymon Medical

1:42

College and a bachelor's in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania She brings a wealth of expertise and a

1:49

compassionate perspective to today's conversation We're honored to have Judy with us today So without further ado

1:54

let's dive into and discover how we can heal and grow through even the most challenging experiences Enjoy the show

2:02

Hi Judith welcome to True Hope Cast How are you what is going well i am doing

2:08

real well Thank you for having me and I'm feeling good today Beautiful Well we are going to be discussing healing and

2:15

growing from trauma and loss today But before we do that would you mind telling us a little bit more about who you are

2:20

and what it is that you do okay Um I'm a retired psychotherapist I was in

2:26

practice for over 40 years and now I do some mental health coaching online and I

2:33

am the author of 11 books and my last one that was out in January of 2025 this

2:41

year is um 110 CBT tips and tools and

2:47

CBT stands for cognitive behavior therapy and um I my focus is on

2:54

providing a lot of practical tips for living a better life Amazing Well we're

2:59

certainly going to talk about your talk about some of your books because I I noticed when I went into your website you actually have a section that says

3:05

bookstore and that's where all of those 11 books are housed So that's just amazing So we'll certainly talk about

3:12

that but I'd love to jump into the fact that you know you've worked with um so many individuals who who are trying to

3:19

navigate their trauma and their loss Yes Um and I wonder what are some of the common challenges that people face when

3:26

they're trying to begin that and to start moving forward um a lot of people

3:33

uh are not confident in themselves in healing

3:39

So they question should I be better off by now or what's wrong with me and

3:46

there's a lot of self-doubt So one of my missions with people is to not have them

3:52

compared their trauma or loss to anybody else's because people would say "Oh other people have it so much better or

4:00

don't have it so much better and they compare." And it's never good to compare because loss is loss and trauma is

4:07

trauma and you're entitled to your feelings but a lot of people kind of should them away or judge them away and

4:14

that is a impediment to going through the healing process

4:19

And do you think that people um have that idea of their own healing that they

4:26

should be feel healing as fast as somebody else or they maybe should just be healing quicker than they actually

4:32

are what do you think that that comes down to because

4:37

when I when I I I moved to Canada to study nutrition I practiced as a nutritionist for 10 years And one of the

4:44

biggest things well not I was going to say frustration it's not really a frustration but people had the expectation that they would heal their

4:51

digestive health they would heal their mental health within like a couple of sessions They thought they would be able

4:57

to take care of that in a couple of weeks when they had probably spent maybe

5:03

years sometimes decades in some people creating the the concerns and the issues

5:09

that they actually had So what's your experience in regards to those people looking for a quick fix yeah a lot of

5:15

people want a quick fix right and where where do you think that comes from um

5:20

I think you know this is a society where things go quick and we go we have fast

5:26

foods and you know we think things should be easier but you are very right

5:31

when it takes a long time sometimes decades to

5:38

deal with trauma and experience trauma or loss It doesn't mean that it's going

5:44

to be much quicker going back Now that doesn't mean that you can't start the healing process and keep on getting

5:50

better and better but um it's you know often takes a lot of work What would you

5:57

recommend to people to say perhaps because I can think of people in my life who are you know looking to make changes

6:03

to benefit themselves benefit their families but they they do come up with

6:08

those frustrations where they're not seeing the immediate results What type of advice would you perhaps maybe have

6:13

for somebody who's giving that who's hearing that from a friend or even a partner or a family member what would

6:20

you say well I think that if you go in the right direction you already feel

6:25

better Let's say you want to lose 40 pounds Well you're not going to lose 40 pounds in one week but if you feel like

6:33

you're making changes that set you up for losing that 40 pounds you might feel

6:38

better already So I think just be patient with the journey and you don't

6:45

have to have everything tied up in a bow You can be on the right path and feel

6:51

empowered And then the second part of that is know how to be empowered And

6:57

that is why I my personal focus is on hands-on practical tips on how to manage

7:04

stress how to deal with anger how to change your way of thinking because it's

7:11

much more complicated than just saying snap out of it or I

7:17

shouldn't be feeling that way Yeah You know not that it has to be that complicated when you know the tools but

7:23

if you don't have the tools how are you going to know what to do so I think that a combination of being patient moving in

7:31

the right direction but also learning some hands-on life skills that will get

7:36

you there will help support you in your healing journey Beautiful Yeah well said

7:43

I think also I think if you are if you were to have that question from somebody who is on

7:49

this healing journey I think a couple of like very simple gentle questions in regards to um you know

7:56

what what expectations do they have why do why do they have the expectation to

8:02

be healing as quick as they possibly can like I think just having a few like reflective questions helps people understand that they should have a

8:08

little bit maybe more compassion and empathy for themselves to to recognize that they are on a journey They're going

8:15

against you know sometimes decades of habitual pathways that have been

8:21

solidified and we're looking to you know we're looking to work through that and to create new new neur neuropathways to

8:27

create new habits and new new change So I think that's a great point A lot of

8:33

people talk to themselves in ways that they would never talk to anybody else

8:38

and they are often much more critical And so what I actually one of the tips in my my book is how to see yourself as

8:47

your own best friend and some practical ways of taking the vantage point writing

8:53

down for example some of the negative thoughts you have about yourself and oh

8:58

I screwed up this and what would you say to yourself and now what would you say if it was someone that you really

9:05

admired like your closest family member friend how would you deal with it

9:11

differently and people often are more empathetic to others than they are to themselves so self-compassion is

9:18

definitely a key beautiful yeah I think that's a classic part of cognitive behavioral therapy to to get some of

9:24

those thoughts those feelings those behaviors down on paper Recognize those patterns and yeah being able to turn it

9:32

into a bit more of an exercise where you're actually reflecting rather than just you know internalizing the the

9:38

struggle that people might be having and actually putting it down on paper and being a little bit more rational with it I think is incredibly helpful and

9:44

beneficial But in your in your books and and within your um within your

9:49

therapeutic deck card decks you focus on practical tips for living a more

9:54

positive life I've I've seen that on the website Do you think could you share maybe a few examples of the like handson

10:02

techniques or exercises that you recommend to help people manage through such things like trauma and grief okay

10:09

So um a lot of times we're stuck in habitual ways of thinking and it makes us have very self-limiting beliefs So

10:17

this is a visualization that you can easily relate to

10:22

Sorry Jude Can you just give us an example of a self-limiting belief and explain what that is for people just

10:27

like uh I'm a loser I failed I'll never forget I had this woman in my office She

10:33

was in her 30s and she over the coffee table raised her hand and said "I had

10:39

this many failures and I can't afford one more." So people have these limiting beliefs that they failed they screwed up

10:47

um they lost their chance Um and they spent a lot of time beating themselves

10:53

up That would be an example Perfect Um and so to change those self-limiting

10:59

beliefs you need to first thing identify that they're irrational

11:05

So for example I'm a loser That is labeling That's

11:11

labeling yourself And that's an example of what's called a cognitive distortion So just imagine yourself having a

11:17

magnifying glass and identifying the cognitive distortions behind some of your thoughts So I'm a loser Okay that's

11:26

labeling That's making me one-dimensional I'm just so much more than one label So how can I describe it

11:34

i'm disappointed I'm not farther along in my life right now So that would be a

11:41

rational authentic approach versus I'm a loser Yeah So that would be one example And

11:48

the visualization I was going to show you that is an example of how to be more

11:53

flexible with self-limiting beliefs is clasping your fingers like this and

12:00

telling me which is your thumb on top My left thumb is on top

12:07

Me too Okay And now unclasp and intertwine your fingers So the right

12:12

thumb is on top How does it feel different Different awkward strange So a

12:19

lot of times people think in one way and they need to shift slightly because if I'm doing a live presentation it's

12:27

usually about 40 60 50 people Doesn't matter if you're right or left-handed

12:33

some people are more comfortable one way versus another way And it shows the importance of we're all different but

12:40

also what's natural for one person is not as natural for another Sometimes it takes a lot more work for someone for

12:47

example to be more confident and outgoing where someone else might not

12:52

have any trouble with that at all So it um it's an example of a visualization

12:59

And an advanced version is folding your arms That's even harder to do My right

13:04

arm is on top How about yours my left is on top Okay So now try it the other way

13:11

So sometimes in a live presentation people just keep on going around because they can't stop it anywhere That feels

13:17

very strange Very strange So when we get out of our comfort zone is when we

13:22

really start to look at things differently and we can try to overturn

13:28

some of those self-limiting beliefs But you have to have an arsenal of tools

13:34

Just like if you're a you know handy person and doing things around the house you need to have tools to help you hang

13:43

up the pictures and to do what you need to do to fix your house Yeah And a lot

13:50

of times people think they should know better without having to do some of the work And some of the work would be maybe

13:57

doing a log you know like in my books personally and there's plenty of self-help books out there you know I

14:04

have logs worksheets handouts things to fill out so that you actually can learn

14:09

hands-on tips A lot of times people think they should intuitively know this

14:15

stuff but a lot of times people haven't learned it because the people who raised them or their some of the kids that they

14:24

might have been bullied by or interacted with or might not have helped them learn

14:31

these skills Yeah that makes a lot of sense And and I just wonder in regards to

14:39

what type of advice or do you have any other practical tips to to help people understand that

14:46

going from a place where you know you're seeking therapy or seeking support you're seeking help you're you're you're in this place where you do want to

14:52

change It's never this like steady incline of success and then you get to this top and then boom you're you're

14:58

healed right there's there's bumps in the road there you know people people go backwards they take you know they take

15:04

one step backwards to go forward two steps How do you help people navigate the the because I think for a lot of

15:11

people they they are actually very surprised that there are bumps in the road when they're on this road for

15:17

success How do you help people navigate those challenges well the expectations have to be

15:24

flexible and not have be absolute Sometimes people think I have to you

15:32

know keep on moving forward and if I don't I failed You know they might blow things out of proportion Another

15:37

cognitive distortion is all or nothing thinking where you

15:43

think in black and white I'll never get over this I'll never be able to do that So if you're flexible with yourself and

15:50

you don't have those self-limiting beliefs and you turn that's terrible to

15:56

it's really difficult you are more empowered And if you have the bumps on

16:02

the road you realize that sometimes the even if I made a wrong turn it could

16:07

still get me to the right place I've always been amazed how people looking back at their lives no matter how

16:14

challenging it was often say "I wouldn't want to trade it I wouldn't want to go

16:19

through it again but I wouldn't want to trade it because I like where I am now." And as long as you can get deeper

16:25

instead of weaker and keep on moving forward rather than

16:31

looking back at where you went wrong A lot of times people carry their past

16:36

around like a backpack Mh and it weighs them down rather than use it as

16:42

information But don't get bogged in reworking the past because it never really does get

16:49

better You might have a different narrative but you can do that moving forward with in

16:55

the rearview mirror Beautifully said Yeah I think that

17:01

people all have an example in their lives of somebody who went down a rocky path and they came out of it and it was

17:08

actually the the motivation that they needed to do the amazing things that they have in that they have now I'm very

17:15

lucky in this position to you know host this podcast where we've we've had so many amazing practitioners come on to

17:21

the show and every single one of them I want to say has has shared their story of how they got to where they are And

17:27

and nine times out of 10 it's it's a story of you know tragedy or or or some sort of trauma that's led them to this

17:34

very unique particular path that they're on now And they wouldn't trade that

17:39

strife for anything because of where it's got them Yeah Yeah Very inspiring People have a

17:48

lot of courage and a lot of times they don't give themselves credit for having as much courage Yeah

17:54

Um and I'm always amazed at the resilience of the human spirit

18:00

That's right And I think that's when you're able to when somebody who's trying to go through these changes when

18:05

they become a little bit more self-compassionate and empathetic towards themselves and maybe put

18:10

themselves in the shoes of giving them giving advice to somebody else what they would would say rather than the the um

18:17

kind of the self- negative talk then people Yeah people can do amazing things

18:23

especially when they're not ruminating the same self-limiting beliefs over and over in

18:29

their head And that's creating certain feelings for lots of people which exhibit certain behaviors In the end of

18:34

it when you can jump out of that pattern people can do phenomenal things That's right I agree Beautiful Um I'd love to

18:43

ask you about um the connection between self-compassion and healing from traumatic experiences and how you see

18:50

those working together Well self-compassion is just being kind to yourself and

18:58

non-judgmental and accepting And a lot of times when people have been through trauma they often

19:05

come out of it not feeling worthy or feeling someone crumpled or damaged or

19:10

whatever And I see it almost like you know let's say well my favorite

19:16

visualization is like any denomination of a bill So let's say it's an American

19:23

money $20 bill or a $100 bill and

19:28

imagine crushing it and creasing it and stepping on it and doing all this stuff

19:34

and you open it up and how much is it worth still worth the same And a lot of times people forget that and they think

19:41

that when they go through trauma they're only kind of like half a person

19:48

Interesting They're a fraction of what they used to be But we are no less worthy than the day that we were born

19:56

And we don't judge a newborn saying "Oh you know this one doesn't have as much

20:02

hair as the other child in the nursery There's something defective." We don't do that with newborns But somehow as we

20:09

get older we learn to be very judgmental of ourselves and others and

20:14

self-compassion and empathy for others and just general it's what's called actually radical acceptance Now I'm not

20:22

saying to accept people committing a crime and abusing you but we're talking about a noncriminal you know situation

20:30

To be accepting and realize that we have the seeds of resilience to move on And I

20:38

think self-compassion really is a very important part of that Part of self-compassion that a lot of people

20:44

have a lot of trouble with is forgiveness forgiving themselves for not

20:50

having the foresight to what is no now so obvious in hindsight

20:57

people kick themselves why didn't I know better well you know as someone told me

21:02

once we didn't know every everything when we were five and

21:08

we also have a hard time forgiving others who we see as causing trauma in

21:16

us but the problem is that makes us continue to be the victim instead of a

21:22

victor And so it's really important to not

21:27

necessarily condone behavior that was not right but forgiving

21:33

for someone for example not giving you what they didn't have to give in the first place um can be very freeing

21:42

Yeah I think whether yeah you're going through big changes or not I think the

21:48

practice of of as you say radical acceptance and compassion not for not

21:53

just for yourself but for other people I think it's a it's the way that people should go through life Honestly I think

21:59

that there's so much um once you can let go of like all the jud judgmentalism and

22:05

all of that you actually free up a lot of energy to to do other things and to

22:11

think different thoughts and to feel different feelings and behave in different ways And it's a um incredibly

22:18

uplifting way where you're able to you know flip the switch I guess in your brain to go from being like you know a

22:25

judgmental person whether that's on what you're doing or what other people are doing and you end up kind of seeking it

22:30

out when you're in radical when you're you're in a radical version of that But

22:36

to have have that compassion to have that empathy to have that acceptance for other people and yourself you you're

22:42

literally freeing up energy and resources within your body to do all sorts of other different things And I

22:47

think that's a a great way to look at it Absolutely So let's talk about some of your books

22:53

So you've written only you've only written 11 books so it's not a big deal Um all on mental health and self-help

23:01

Which of your um works do you think has had the most impact on helping people

23:06

navigate specifically trauma and loss um I would say that well the book is

23:15

just out a few months ago so it hasn't necessarily made the impact of some of my other books but the my latest one 110

23:22

CBT tips and tools is the most comprehensive and has the most potential for doing that because it's basically

23:28

the culmination of everything that I have learned throughout my other books

23:34

um and and crystallized it and packaged it in new ways Um I also I I would say

23:41

my most influential book which was my best-selling book is uh for groups 150

23:47

group activities and tips another part of the series um because um it's sold

23:53

quite well and still continues to after many years and a lot of people use these

23:59

hands-on skills in working with healing groups or therapy groups or substance

24:05

abuse groups or those type of things So I think that's probably the most impact because um it just seemed to have caught

24:13

on with group counseling group therapy and support groups Beautiful I've got to

24:19

ask you So I'm looking at the bookstore on your website right now and there's a very very specific color theme And I've

24:27

got to ask you so our our product line is this blue and this yellow that you've

24:32

got there And you can see behind me the true hope sign as well That's Absolutely That's right So tell me tell me why tell

24:38

me about the color theme that you've used for books because I'm I'm I'll sh I'll share a link for people to get

24:43

access so they can see what I'm seeing but all the books are in this blue and yellow Please tell me more about that I

24:48

was I was wondering why I felt so at home with this ambiance here Not only

24:54

just you but also your color scheme That's right Um I well my favorite color

25:00

is blue I love blue And yellow to me symbolizes hope And here you have hope

25:06

in blue and yellow right there And I love the sun and what that re represents

25:13

that there's always hope for a new day And I think it's very similar to your

25:20

your your uh logo That's right Well just from what I understand about the books

25:25

and what we're talking about here you're offering tips and tools you know you're offering a resource for people to take

25:32

control of the take control of their own health in you know I guess in in a psychological manner And you're

25:37

providing you know you're providing an actual resource but people have got to pick this book up They've got to read it

25:44

They've got to practically use these skills in order to know help them help

25:49

themselves And it's very much about like know what we're here at True Hope you know we make natural health products supplements and we can just market it We

25:58

can have it out on the store but people have got to you know read the research They've got to re listen to the

26:04

testimonials and go and speak to the store staff and and obtain information to then maybe make a purchase and then

26:11

to actually start nourishing their bodies from from the inside providing it with the nutrients it needs to be able

26:16

to um have their everything from their digestive system to their immune system

26:21

to um their brains working in a in a more optimal way And it's it's it's

26:27

about it's about hope It's about providing hope And we've been around for 28 years And a lot of people when they

26:33

come and find our product they've been they've been on and off very harsh medications for for sometimes decades

26:40

And they come to us and we're not just true hope but we're their last hope because they would rather probably not

26:48

be a lot of people rather not be around and have to deal with some of the side effects that they have from from from

26:53

some of these medications because it's could be very very difficult to live like that So yeah I see a lot of

26:58

similarities in regards to that hopefulness that sun We have the lighthouse as as kind of a beacon for

27:04

hope and um yeah it's it's wonderful they're able to connect and and yeah that's really really neat Yeah when my

27:10

publisher asked me what colors I wanted for this series which is the tips and tools series for for the therapeutic

27:18

toolbox um I said it has to have blue because everything that I love is blue

27:23

Um and also yellow for hope So beautiful Um wonderful Took it took it from there

27:29

But I think you bring up a good point that the mind body are so intertwined

27:34

that a lot of people think well if I take care of like have a pill I shouldn't have to work on my mind It

27:40

should help me do everything Um but it doesn't work that way You still have to

27:46

work on yourself while you're getting the benefits of the medications and the

27:52

supplements And I think hand in hand mind body works together in healing

27:58

That's right And I don't think a lot of people recognize that I think that through um our exposure to let's just

28:04

say alipathic medicine we have kind of this rigid idea that you know we have we have a we have a brain we have a body we

28:11

have organs and separate things And you can even go further in a reductition manner there to say we've got a we've got a head we have eyes we have ears and

28:18

we have kind of specialists for all of these things rather than thinking of them as part of this whole system and

28:25

how they're connected And um for me when I came out of nutrition school

28:32

I started working with a lot of it was basically 30 year old men who had gut

28:37

problems along with some sort of psychological issue as well whether they had depression or anxiety or stress or

28:43

brain fog or sleep issues And I was I specialize in gut health So I was like

28:49

listen I can help I can help with your gut stuff but you know you probably have to you know work with somebody who specialized in their me in mental health

28:56

to be able to work with that But what I found very very very quickly was that as soon as I was um helping people excuse

29:03

me as soon as I was helping people deal with their gut problems their psychological symptoms were just

29:09

becoming less less of a problem and less of a problem and less of a problem And we obviously know the connection between

29:16

the the gut and the brain through the through the veagal nerve and how a

29:22

majority of our immune system sits within our gut So when we have you know good quality digestion under control we

29:28

have you know a good quality diverse um microbiome

29:34

then it's going to have a massive impact on other systems especially within our brain So that was a big like epiphany

29:41

moment for me to recognize that yeah our our brain and our body are massively

29:46

connected and that you know things that we can focus on in either one can have impact on the other and I think that's

29:53

um I think that's an idea that's very foreign to a lot of people I think we might just see we just have this body

29:59

and uh kind of that's it But when you're able to actually recognize that you've got all these amazing parts that are

30:04

that are connected then people become a little bit more I don't know maybe a little bit more in awe of this kind of

30:11

amazing biological system that we have And it's also very empowering because in

30:16

knowing that you're just not passively expecting things to happen to you You realize you're part of the work

30:24

That's right Yeah Absolutely And it's the it's that root cause that we're looking for right you know with your

30:29

with cognitive behavioral therapy and all the tips that you're talking about and all the things we're talking about today you're talking about helping

30:35

people kind of like take a step back and look at the root cause of their problems rather than you know masking it over

30:42

with um I don't know food addictions sugar addictions you know uh all the

30:48

other addictions we could talk about which is you know stopping people from getting to the root cause of their issue to actually make significant changes so

30:55

they can you know step forward into their lives And yeah that's uh that's a that's a big part of what we we're here

31:00

at True Hope is to help people recognize that a lot of people's issues when it comes to mental health is is is a root

31:07

cause problem of chronic chronic nutrient deficiency And when you're able to actually get to the root of that and

31:14

provide somebody with a broadspectctrum micronutrient that you know regardless of your digestive integrity is going to

31:21

get into your brain get into your body and do its thing and help supplement you in that way people can actually

31:26

springboard off that and do quite amazing things for their health That sounds great Yeah Um well back to trauma

31:34

and loss Um obviously they are incredibly isolating things that people

31:39

experience I think most people have got some kind of experience with trauma or loss and how that makes people want to

31:47

isolate themselves and how that can be a tricky downward spiral from there let's

31:54

say But what strategies do you suggest for um helping people rebuild social

31:59

connections during that healing process because isolation and and becoming social obviously they're different parts

32:05

of uh they're different parts of the scale Um so yeah what do what do you think about

32:11

that you um actually started to say what I was going to say

32:17

which is great that not being socially isolated connecting being able to ask

32:24

for help reaching out feeling like you're not alone that's one of the best things you can do in the healing process

32:31

Because if you shrivel up and you avoid people and you isolate because some

32:37

people they end up isolating rather than reaching out Mhm Um they end up making

32:43

themselves worse Yeah it really does help to get support Another thing is to

32:50

realize that the grieving process is a normal part of life You know take Kubler

32:56

Ross's model of grieving First there's denial No you know this can't be

33:01

happening to me or my loved ones Then there's anger You know why me or why

33:08

them and then there's bargaining Well maybe if I do this or if I would have done that that wouldn't have happened

33:14

Then when that doesn't work is depression and then acceptance growing from the hurt And a lot of times people

33:22

around you also might not realize anger bargaining and going back and forth It's

33:28

not linear Is an very important part of the healing process and honor it all

33:35

And it's healthy to be angry It's healthy to be bargaining That's part of it But you always want to reach towards

33:42

acceptance because acceptance is growing from the hurt It's not wishing it

33:47

happened but in spite of it happening how can I move on

33:53

deeper as I said instead of weaker yeah I think I think we have a big misunderstanding in regards to how I

34:01

want to say unnatural isolation is especially when it comes to trauma and grief um and loss I just

34:08

think back to you know when you know 10,000 years ago when we'd had smaller tight-knit communities

34:15

there would be a very very different way in which they would deal with with loss of of a of a tribe member or or a family

34:22

member something like that People would come together There would be almost like celebrations of of um of life you could

34:28

say be very very different to what we have now And I think that um whenever we

34:35

have kind of a a 2025 issue I always kind of think back to like what we what we would have done when we were in

34:41

smaller communities when we were in um more tight-knit social circles how

34:47

different that that would play out Well some people make it now Some people make

34:53

it through their interest groups or the friends or neighbors or family And the

35:00

more you develop a sense of community the more support you have the easier it is to go through

35:07

That's right Yeah And it's it's such a challenging thing because we have created within our culture this

35:14

this very easy pathway to isolation you know with with with phones and you know everyone's got their own room in the

35:20

house And um it's it's it's very easy to be able to block yourself off off from

35:27

the world but also feel like you are actually connected through through a device And we know well I know and I'm

35:35

sure you know and a lot of people know that you can't mimic true connectivity without being you know

35:42

face to face with at least one other human being who can be there for you And we talked about the we talked about the

35:49

importance of of um empathy and and understanding and how vital that is to

35:54

help people grow but especially during times where they need that And you often

35:59

need physical connection You need a hug You need to just be with people You need a hand to hold You know there's there's

36:05

reasons there's reasons that we instinctually do those things um during

36:10

those times for people When I feel like we've just got this we've got this beautiful part of our human nature is to

36:16

have that understanding and that feeling of when somebody need somebody just needs a hug

36:22

You know there's no words there It's just it's this instinctual beautiful human thing that it's just it's a

36:28

wonderful wonderful part of who we are And isolation community is is basically

36:35

validating validating our importance Yeah And if we feel like we don't matter

36:40

and we're not important we're going to feel more isolated and depressed and not heal as well Yeah Yeah Well said

36:48

Absolutely Um we we talked a little bit about nutrition and true hope but I'd love to just ask about your experience

36:56

and what role like foundational nutrition plays in supporting mental

37:01

health and a healing journey after trauma and loss Is that something that you've got experience in i don't have

37:06

like a specific experience rather than an anecdotal but a lot of people have

37:12

found supplements and making sure that they take care of their uh nutrition and

37:19

generally eat well That doesn't mean you can't in moderation have things that are not classically thought of as so healthy

37:26

for you Um I I think that everything in balance is good and certainly nutrition

37:33

um and supplements can certainly help that you know different people believe in different things and um I I have found

37:41

it extremely helpful for a lot of people and I know I certainly you know try to

37:46

do the best I can with keeping myself healthy Beautiful Yeah I mean I so I I take the

37:52

majority of our products I do it more as like a a health maintenance But I if I know that I've got a busy week coming up

37:59

or if I'm traveling or if I'm going you know if I'm if I'm flying to the UK for example and I know my my body is going

38:05

to be in a kind of a freaked out stress state because you know we're not really supposed to be 35,000 feet in the air

38:12

right um so if I know that's going to happen I'm going to bulk up a little bit more on the available nutrition that I

38:18

give my body because I know it's going to be in a stress state it's going to be clutching onto resources to keep me like highly highly alert So I just make sure

38:26

that I'm giving my body that that kind of little bit extra to help deal with those rather than becoming in a state of

38:31

lack where I'm going to be susceptible to being overt tired or sick or all these other things So just that

38:38

foundational piece where we do have we do have these unfortunate situations in

38:44

our culture now where our soil is so nutrient poor therefore our food is nutrient poor therefore it's very very

38:51

tricky to get all the necessary minerals vitamins antioxidants amino acids all

38:57

these things from our diet So being able to supplement is very very important and

39:02

choosing the right one is important as well So yeah that's just yeah I I think when it comes to my experience with you

39:08

know helping people with with their gut health and then with their mental health being able to provide your body with good quality nutrition is absolutely

39:16

vital to not necessarily cure you of everything It's not going to do that but it's like we're talking about helping

39:22

people just feel that little bit better An example is we have people who describe who have been depressed for a

39:28

long period of time and they start taking our product to deal with those chronic nutrient deficiencies that they feel this like black veil is lifting

39:35

very slowly from their eyes from their head and that gives them the the the

39:41

different thoughts and different feelings and then they can maybe exhibit different behaviors to maybe go and spend some more time in the sun sunlight

39:48

or connect with an old friend or you know deal with the isolation piece that we're talking about And then then you're

39:54

able to start ticking all these very important boxes of what it means to have you know holistic health nutrition

40:00

community exercise sunlight you know all these things contribute So we're just looking we need it all Yeah we need it

40:07

We need it all And in 2025 if you don't have an active plan to take care of all these things then it's it can be

40:13

sometimes very tricky to do these very let's say fundamental human things that

40:18

we absolutely need So um yeah it's a big piece for sure Mhm Yeah

40:26

Yeah Um in regards to

40:31

people being o overwhelmed with their grief what advice would you give to somebody who feels stuck or overwhelmed

40:39

by their grief who doesn't see any type of way to move forward

40:45

um again a a lot of it I I I would like if

40:50

let's say a client came to me and said this kind of thing I would say what are some of the thoughts that you have and I

40:56

would write them down and then we would look and and look at the quality of their thoughts because really the

41:03

quality of your thinking determines the quality of your life and you still can

41:10

be happy even if you've had a significant loss And people who are stuck in what was

41:16

rather than use the love and the um the the relationship that they had

41:23

and all the good stuff in other relationships Um if it's stifled because

41:30

that person is no longer with us through whether it's estrangement or death or

41:37

divorce or whatever um you're just going to be stuck So I would make sure the

41:43

person is thinking clearly and by what you just said I know that person would

41:48

not be thinking clearly because they would be stuck and won't see any way out and there's always a way out and there's

41:55

always a way out of self-limiting beliefs But you need some structure for that So that might take writing things

42:03

down This would be an example of a CBT cognitive behavioral therapy approach

42:08

You write it down and then you dispute it and say "Where's the evidence that

42:16

that's true that I'll never love again He was the only one for me." And is that

42:21

fact or fiction and then you have an alternate thought that's a healthier thought to replace the older one And you

42:29

also differentiate your feelings from your thoughts A lot of people confuse them You can't tell yourself oh I

42:37

shouldn't feel sad But you can say that is not a healthy thought that is causing

42:44

me to feel sad So you can differentiate For example

42:49

if someone says to you I feel like you're criticizing me then you can know

42:55

that person is not differentiating thoughts from feelings because I think you're criticizing me Therefore I feel

43:02

angry or I feel sad or I feel rejected So just those simple techniques of

43:09

separating thoughts from feelings being a thought detective and changing the quality of your thoughts so that they're

43:15

more temporary than permanent instead of I'll never get it together It's been

43:21

hard to get it together together up until now

43:26

Once you start thinking in more temporary ways you open up doorways and then there's true hope

43:35

I love that That's a great little uh that's a clip that I'm going to use Absolutely With the true hope at the end there That's wonderful Yeah The the

43:42

practice of writing down the thoughts that come in for us and then actually assessing it uh on paper Is there any

43:50

evidence is there any validity to these thoughts is a really interesting very very simple idea because at the end of

43:58

the day if you can't find any evidence for that thought then you can hopefully start slowly evaporating that thought

44:04

and start thinking something different There's been a lot of research with cognitive behavior therapy It is the

44:10

most widely adopted orientation in the world and um there's a lot of validity

44:18

to how effective it can be because if you don't isolate your unhealthy

44:24

thoughts replace them with healthier ones and challenge them identify those cognitive distortions you're going to be

44:31

trapped in uh very self-limiting beliefs that just make you feel down and

44:37

depressed and anxious Yeah And a lot of times people it's actually called ants

44:43

People don't understand that they have these automatic negative thoughts called

44:48

ants because they're so automatic And so one of the uh techniques that I have in

44:55

my book is looking at your thoughts instead of from your thoughts Yeah So instead of I'm a failure

45:03

imagine that being written on a cloud or a leaf on a stream That's actually taken

45:09

from acceptance and commitment therapy Um Stephen Hayes uh developed that brand

45:15

which is kind of an offshoot of cognitive behavior therapy and they work very well together And basically imagine

45:23

yourself looking at a cloud I'm a failure and looking at them rather than

45:31

there I go again having that thought rather than I'm a failure So a lot of

45:37

times we need to just have what's called an observing head where instead of being

45:44

wrapped up in the thoughts to observe them and observe the quality and and

45:50

then you can begin to question the validity

45:55

Wonderful I think that's a very I think a lot of people can actually do that like right away They can I think if you

46:00

were to ask people to take a second and think about and write down what are the

46:07

reoccurring self-limiting beliefs or negative selft talk that people might have I think that they will be able to

46:12

come to a couple of sentences pretty quickly and then be able to very quickly assess that using yeah CBT methods and

46:19

there's some amazing identify your core beliefs that's even better and the core

46:25

beliefs are usually we have one or two core beliefs that surface in a lot of negative

46:33

beliefs such as let's say you're at a meeting and you're afraid of speaking up

46:39

Okay why are you afraid uh I don't want to say something stupid If you did what

46:46

would that mean to you so you ask yourself if I did what would that mean it would mean I'm not as smart as

46:51

everyone else If that was true what would that mean it would mean people might not like me If it's true what

46:57

would that mean so you keep on digging by asking yourself what would that mean And at base the core belief is

47:07

I'm worthless or I'm not important or I'm flawed

47:13

And so once you work on that core belief a lot of those anxiety depressing kind

47:18

of thoughts will be seen in a different light

47:24

Yeah I love it I think that's really really cool And I think when when you are talking about making significant

47:30

neurological changes you know I think when people hear maybe that they're they're they're changing their thoughts

47:37

there's actually something very physical going on in there in regards to obviously your your neural connections

47:42

And I tell you what's incredibly important for creating new neural connections and breaking down old ones

47:48

is foundational nutrition uh because you're unable to create new high quality

47:53

nerve cells without the necessary building blocks in order to do that So I think that making these types of changes

48:00

and taking good quality nutrition at the same time is is absolutely vital You could see it like a partnership the mind

48:07

and the body working on your mind and your body It's you know there's a synergy that both together work better

48:14

than one and one separately I couldn't have said it better myself

48:19

Judith That's beautiful Thank you so much Do you um can you just mind telling us a little bit about where people can

48:25

contact you where's the best place to do that they can learn more and and maybe even pick up one of your books Great Thank you Um well you can look on my

48:33

Amazon page I have an author page on Amazon and also you can go to my website

48:39

which is belottwwellness.com and I have a lot of free resources on

48:45

there I do have a lot of sample worksheets and handouts a couple from my latest book but they're all from

48:51

different uh different books Um and it would be a good practice to you know see

49:00

the types of things that's out there that you could actually learn hands-on skills to better your thoughts to better

49:06

your life Beautiful Well that's wonderful Well I'm going to make sure that the um the Amazon link and your

49:12

website link are in the show notes so people can find that very easily So no problem there But um I want to say thank

49:18

you so much for coming on the show today sharing your experience sharing your stories and your wisdom I think we we talked a lot about CBT which I think we

49:25

don't haven't really talked about that much on the show So I really appreciate you bringing that up and and broaching

49:30

that topic with people It's it's just wonderful Thank you so much Thank you so much for having me I really enjoyed

49:36

talking to you Awesome Well that is it for this episode of True Hope Cast the official podcast of True Hope Canada

49:42

Again all the information you may need to connect with Judith will be in the show notes so go ahead and click there and navigate your way Um you can leave

49:49

us a review on iTunes and a star review on Spotify if you fancy doing that But that is it for this week We'll see you

49:55

soon