0:00

Children have a tendency to like the things that they that they tasted in the

0:07

womb. So if mom was constantly eating carrots, they're going to be more likely to eat carrots later on to actually like

0:14

the taste of carrots. And whatever foods you're eating in the womb are already

0:19

shaping the brain, body, heart, and and allowing for it to work together. The

0:25

microbiome is shaping once that baby's born. That's there's that whole colony that we have to tend to. And when we

0:32

don't provide especially the microbiome with the foods and the the nutrition

0:38

that it needs to thrive, then we don't have the chemicals that we need to feel

0:44

well, to feel more positive, to feel more relaxed, to feel more excited.

0:50

Those are all amino acids that typically are built in the gut, but those microbes

0:57

need the the right ingredients in order to be able to produce them. So that

1:02

alone, I mean, I could talk about a million topics, but that's that's one that comes to mind is being able to

1:08

provide the body with the tools it needs to give us what we need. Because we're supposed to be living symbiotically with

1:16

with uh our microbes. They tell us, "All right, you give us a

1:22

peaceful environment to live and we'll give you all these other things that are going to help you have a better life."

1:28

But then when we don't give them what what they need, one thing that happens, for example, when we eat foods that are

1:35

not ideal for our body, processed foods, our kiddos are eating a lot of processed foods, chicken nuggets and pizza, pasta,

1:42

all a lot of carby foods. What happens is that we are feeding the pathogens in

1:49

our gut. And when we feed those pathogens, the good bacteria start to

1:54

die off. And the pathogens are the ones that start getting us to crave the foods that we're trying so hard not to eat.

2:02

And then we blame ourselves and we blame our kids like, "Ah, they're just picky eaters or ah, they just don't they don't

2:07

want to eat this or do that." But really, there's this whole colony that's

2:13

got his own consciousness that's saying, "We're going to get you to eat more that and more, you know, more pizza and more

2:20

of this." And now we are not providing the body with what it needs to thrive.

2:26

And so you start to see the breakdown of the body. You It impacts your mood. It

2:31

impacts the way we think. Again, we go back to everything being so interconnected that you just can't

2:36

separate one thing from another.

2:49

Hello all and welcome to True Hope Cast, the official podcast of True Hope Canada. I am Simon Brazia, your host. At

2:54

True Hopecast, we dive deep into the many psychological and physiological aspects of mental health, bringing you

3:00

knowledge, motivation, and real solutions in a world that is both beautiful and wild. Today we're

3:06

exploring one of the most important journeys that any of us will ever take. Parenting in the earliest, most

3:12

formative years of life. Our episode is titled Parenting with Presence: Cultivating Trust, Joy, and Security.

3:19

Joining us is Dr. Karen Milano, a bilingual psychologist and early childhood specialist with over 20 years

3:25

of experience guiding families through pregnancy and the first five years of a child's life. Dr. Milano is the founder

3:32

of Lumat where she blends neuroscience, functional medicine, and ancient wisdom into a lifestyle that nurtures both

3:38

parent and child. Her mission to help families move from survival into true connection, raising children who grow in

3:45

clarity, confidence, and purpose. So whether you are a parent, soon to be parent, or simply curious about how

3:51

presence and connection can reshape a generation, this is a conversation you will not want to miss. Enjoy the show.

3:58

All right, Dr. Karen, welcome to True Hope Cast. Thank you so much for being with us today. How are you and what is

4:04

going well? Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be a guest on your

4:10

show. What is going well? It is beautiful outside. The sun is shining. I

4:16

have a beautiful view of the mountains and I am going to have a lovely discussion with you. So, lots of really great things.

4:21

Well, good for you. Well, it's October 23rd. You're in California, so you've got that nice sunny weather. I'm sure

4:27

it's not quite the same in the interior of British Columbia, but things are still very well, so that's okay.

4:33

Wonderful. Um, we're going to be discussing parenting with presence, cultivating

4:40

trust, joy, and security. But before we jump into that topic, would you mind just giving us a brief introduction

4:46

about who you are and what it is that you do? Absolutely. I am Dr. Karen Milano. I am

4:52

a child psychologist and an infant, family, and early childhood specialist.

4:58

I've been working with families about 25 years now and integrating Eastern and

5:04

Western practices for the last maybe 12 to 13 years. And I've completely shifted

5:13

my focus to pregnancy in the first five years. One, because it's always been my

5:18

passion and I've always loved working with littles. But because that's really where we build the foundation of our

5:25

entire life and the brain, body, heart and spirit come together and it's the the time where we can set up the system

5:32

so that everything works in alignment so that we can have the best trajectory of

5:38

life. Beautiful. And so tell me about this. So when you started um learning and

5:44

introducing about east and western practices and philosophies, tell me about that transition because that's not

5:49

a normal um child psychology transition. It isn't. As a matter of fact, I didn't

5:55

learn any of it in my schooling. Maybe little bits of, you know, mindfulness

6:02

and meditation, but nothing major. But when I was 5 years of age, I wanted

6:09

two things more than anything. And one was to be a parent and one was to be a doctor. I didn't know what kind of

6:15

doctor, but I I knew I wanted to be a doctor. And I did it according to how

6:20

society would say it was in line, right? I got the degree, got married, and then

6:26

when it was time to get pregnant, I couldn't. And I was devastated at that

6:32

time. And so that's where that journey started because while the doctors told

6:37

me that I was likely not going to be able to have children, I I couldn't I

6:43

couldn't take that as the answer. And I'm an incredibly curious being. And I just started really following my passion

6:51

and my curiosity and started learning, researching. And I stumbled across the f

6:57

the first step was stumbling across um an acupuncturist who uh specialized in infertility, but

7:05

he incorporated nutrition and herbs as part of my treatment. And so that's

7:10

where it started. Do you have kids? I do. I have a 12year-old boy.

7:18

Well, that's amazing. I mean, a lot of people who would have had that conversation with their practitioner

7:25

would have probably gone down a very different route and maybe given up to that and not searched any further. And

7:31

you obviously have that inquisitive scientific background where you want answers and you want to discover things.

7:37

So that's just amazing that you were able to take that step, but it's so unfortunate that that was the

7:43

conversation and I guess the finality of your fertility when it came to your

7:50

relationship with that with that doctor. It it was it was unfortunate and at the

7:56

same time a blessing because I think that had that not happened

8:02

I wouldn't have started this path to really shift the trajectory of the lives

8:08

of our future generation where I know for a fact that my childhood from from

8:16

the thoughts from the exposure to toxins from the way I ate all of it contributed

8:22

to my health issues, my mindset, all of it. That is what was the culmination of

8:29

whether I could have kiddos or not. And when I started to shift all of it, because you can shift it at any time,

8:35

it's just obviously a lot more challenging when we're older and our brain has been wired. But when I started

8:41

to do that and I saw the effects not just in in the ability to get pregnant,

8:47

but my mood was better, my energy was better, everything was better. It literally felt like some sort of voodoo

8:54

magic or something that I was experiencing. And that's what started making me wonder

9:00

why I wasn't doing this with my everyday clients. And I did. And I started to see

9:07

results much much faster. But even that wasn't enough because unfortunately we

9:13

wait until we are in a state of distress to get support. But if those kiddos from the beginning

9:21

had that guidance, the parents, because we we as parents, we're just thrown into parenting without any guidance.

9:28

If we were able to intentionally wire the brain, intentionally guide the development of all those organs, we are

9:35

divine and magical beings and we just really give humans the ability to tap

9:41

into that limitless potential. And so I tie back to my son is the reason why I'm

9:46

on this mission to change the story around parenting and to really help people see how life could be different

9:54

that we could live a life where we can spend more time creating rather than surviving our life.

10:02

Well said. And I I'd love to just understand one more thing before we kind of step into the whole actual topic and

10:08

point of this conversation. I'm just interested. So 12 years ago you had a child. What was the what was the um time

10:16

dur what was the duration of time between you know having that child and having that conversation with your doctor

10:22

initially? That's a great question. Well, I started when I had the conversation with the doctor that I couldn't get pregnant. My

10:30

first step was to go to an IVF doctor, a western medicine doctor. And I love my

10:37

doctor. was is amazing. But we tried and I got pregnant and I

10:44

lost the baby and I thought this is this is just not

10:49

enough. It's not working. Not only was it very stressful from an emotional

10:56

standpoint, it was stressful on my relationship with my spouse and it was

11:01

very expensive. And so at that point I thought there there has to be something

11:07

else. And when I started going to see the the acupuncturist

11:14

and he started becoming a part of my treatment, let's see,

11:20

um it was it was probably another six months or so before I I got

11:29

pregnant. Okay. Mhm. Interesting. And when you heard

11:35

Okay, you I think I'm going to quote you right here, but you said that you couldn't take that answer from your

11:40

doctor. Uh what can you go back and tell me like what emotions you were feeling

11:46

there or like why did you lead to that? Were you were you angry? Were you like were you more

11:51

Yes, that is such a great question. I'm I don't think anybody's asked me that

11:57

question before and I've told the story many times. So, excellent question and I

12:02

actually can relive that experience and I can still feel it. I think it's something that over time I've learned to

12:09

process and shift and transform, but it still hits you. But I I wasn't even angry at the doctor

12:16

or at the situation. I was angry at my body and me. I was angry that I couldn't

12:23

do the one thing that as a woman I was supposed to be able to do. So, I dropped

12:28

into this feeling of worthlessness. I felt that I didn't deserve,

12:36

you know, I felt even bad for my husband. I'm like, "Oh, you deserve so much better than me because I can't give

12:43

you a child." I just felt incomplete, worthless. I I dropped pretty low down

12:49

to the depression scale because I felt my body failed me and I became

12:55

incredibly disconnected from my body and very angry at it which does not help you

13:00

get pregnant. No. And we know from you know I think probably the last like 10 years this

13:07

very important important sematic idea of you know we have this brain we have this

13:12

body they have to be working together and you know in this this world in 2025 if we're not actively spending time

13:19

energy and sometimes money in investing in that then then s conditions occur. Um

13:26

but yeah, it's um we could spend we could spend a whole podcast talking about maybe what what the doctor or what

13:33

the you know the the postconultation um

13:39

therapy could have been in that situation that you had there because I'm sure that every single day across the

13:44

world people are having those conversations and then they're feel feeling those experiences and then they're taking that home and what a

13:52

profound energetic shift in in a negative way that would be for a lot of people and we don't really have a great

13:59

system of care when it comes to people's mental health in general let let alone for serious circumstances like that. But

14:06

again, that's a whole another podcast episode. Thank you so much for sharing that story because of course I I think that emotional state and that

14:12

emotional drive that led you to where you are today is incredibly important. It's the it's the big bang for you. It's

14:19

the turning point. And I think the best doctors, the best practitioners, some of

14:24

the best people I know are individuals who have had that moment and turned it

14:30

into the best thing that's ever happened to them. And they're the stories that really like help shift people's perspectives and it's great. So, thanks

14:36

for sharing that. Of course, I am happy to. Um, okay. So what does it tr we hear the

14:43

words mindfulness uh consciousness we hear these words like all of the time but for me I like

14:48

to go back to like the the ethmology and the meaning and like what does somebody mean when they're actually talking about

14:54

being mindful or consciousness but the word presence is very important within your work. So before we like jump into

15:00

like parenting with presence what does being present mean to you? H another

15:07

really great question. You ask really wonderful questions. Thanks. To me, presence

15:15

aligns really well and goes hand inhand with connection, which is what I stand

15:20

for in my 25 years of doing this work. What I notice is that all the challenges

15:28

we have, name any challenge and you can trace it back to disconnection.

15:35

That is disconnection from a higher being. Whatever you believe in, disconnection from others, yourself,

15:43

your body, from nature, all becomes inter in integrated and intertwined. But

15:50

whenever we have this disconnection, problems arise. And so to me, presence is being able to

15:58

identify how to come back to connection, how to come back home. Because when we're

16:05

present here in this very moment, it is so much easier to feel and to be have

16:14

that awareness of what we're disconnected from in that moment in time. And so I like to bring those two

16:20

together because when you are present and you can learn how to really listen

16:26

to your body, listen to your thoughts, listen to your emotions most importantly, then we can find a way to

16:33

come back to connection because it's going to happen. We're going to be disconnected. And that those moments of

16:39

disconnection are the moments that help us or give us the stepping stones to

16:44

step into more of who we truly are and that divine being that we were born as.

16:51

I love it. I love it. Yeah. I I I very quickly Googled the ethmology and went through a little bit of the history of presence and I kind of found like it's

16:58

to be know to be in front of and it immediately made me think of our conversation about about parenting and

17:05

it made me think about my my kids especially my eldest. I've got six and foury old boys and my six six-year-old

17:10

is pretty he's a pretty intense beautiful sensitive ball of chaos. He's awesome. He's just a

17:16

he's just a little me so it's very easy for me to just connect with him. Uh, but when it comes to like actually being

17:22

present to be in front of him, if I actually need him to do something and hear me properly rather than me shouting

17:29

from the bathroom for him to go brush his teeth or something from, you know, 30 meters away. If I ever actually just

17:36

need him to listen to me, I need to get down on his ground level, be in front of him and communicate with him. And then

17:42

everything changes. Then there's no there's no fights, there's no battles. He actually hears me. He sees I'm like there. I'm present with him. I'm being

17:48

mindful. all these things and it's a very I don't know it's it's an interest I don't know about I don't know about in

17:54

America but in England we're very happy to have conversations with people from across airports airport terminals it's

18:02

so funny we don't mind having a shouting conversation with people from so far

18:07

away and I I try to have it in the house where we don't communicate with each other from other rooms but it's it can

18:13

be so challenging but just when I was just thinking of that of that being in front of my kid and actually getting down uh knee let know onto my knees to

18:20

communicate with him and everything works fine. And I'm going to add to that beautiful statement that being able to be present

18:28

and literally even down to where you come down to their height and level is

18:33

also being able to be present with yourself to really tune in to where you're at in how you're feeling. Because

18:41

what happens a lot of the time, especially when our kiddos are doing something that irritates us, it

18:47

irritates us for a reason. There's something within us, there's a trigger within us, a belief system that's ready

18:53

to come forth so that you can work through it. And so when we can take a moment to be present with our inner

19:01

being and our self and do a I like to call it the inner compass check. Now when you come down to that child's level

19:07

and when you have that discussion the trajectory shifts as to as to that level

19:13

of connectedness and and how that conversation goes. Yeah. I feel like when I am because I do

19:20

do it and I catch myself all the time, but like when I do give an instruction from another room to one of my one of my

19:26

kids, just from what you said to me there, it's like I feel like I'm only using my like this part of my body to

19:32

to engage with him and I'm basically being lazy in that situation. But when I can get down there

19:37

and be present with him, I'm I'm engaging all of me, which is there's way more value in that. And I think that on

19:44

a very unconscious level, my son will like connects with that as well. And then it's just it's just way better.

19:50

Absolutely. Especially in a world where we're so distracted with phones and all the dopamine hits

19:58

that we get from all the things going on. It can be it can be challenging to be present. So I I really commend you

20:05

for having the awareness to take those steps whenever you're talking to your

20:10

little and and granted we're human. And it's never going to be perfect, but that's the beauty of it is is in the

20:17

repair of it where you have that interaction and you see, oh, well, I could have done it this way or maybe I

20:23

wasn't present or maybe I did come down to his level, but the things that came out of my mouth weren't in alignment.

20:30

Whatever it is, it's it's being able to have that awareness and it sounds like you you have a really high level of of

20:36

awareness in order to be able to do that. So, that's amazing. Yeah, I certainly try. I certainly try.

20:41

Yeah. so much value in in doing that and I think that a good motivating factor for people who you know I think that

20:47

it's important to if you want to make a like a big change in your life or even a small change what's the you know what's

20:52

the real reason what's the goal behind it and for me it's to have better value in myself and communicate better as an

20:58

individual but also like you know they're very small people still learning so if I can set that example then I'm

21:04

technically teaching him how to communicate with other people so it's it's a there's a lot there's so much value in taking that like extra minute

21:10

or two or whatever it might be in doing that. And I think for a lot of people, it's good to have that motivating goal

21:16

behind it. Absolutely. And with the way a child's brain develops, they and their nervous

21:23

system, they don't yet have the capacity to regulate their own emotions, to calm down on their own. That part of the

21:29

brain that does that isn't fully done developing until we're about 25 to 30 years old. And so to be able to be that

21:38

calm for them, to be able to regulate, we call it co-regulation with our

21:43

children, you are helping that nervous system get trained as to how to respond,

21:48

how to be in these situations. So, it does so much goodness for not just for

21:54

your little but for you because it also helps you to to take a moment to to calm

21:59

yourself down because again we're human and we're going to we're going to get triggered. Yep. Beautiful. Well, we are 18 minutes

22:07

in and I'm going to get on to my first question for you. Great. my first scheduled question anyway, but I wanted

22:14

to know like what does it truly mean to parent with presence and why is presence

22:19

so critical during pregnancy and the first years of life uh for a child?

22:24

Absolutely. Parenting with presence, I think to piggyback on what we were saying is

22:31

having the awareness having the awareness to really stop and take a look

22:37

at where you're at. How are you feeling? How are you doing? What are the belief

22:43

systems that you have around parenting, raising kiddos? Because when we do that,

22:48

we're going to find that there are a lot of belief systems that we've inherited over, you know, many, many generations

22:55

that make it challenging to parent, that make it difficult to connect. And so to

23:01

be able to to really step back and remember that it's not about the child,

23:07

it's about the relationship. So, I don't like to when I work with families, I never I'm gonna say, "Oh, this is the

23:13

child or it's the parent." No, it's the whole unit and what that looks like and

23:18

the back and forth between the the family. That to me is is learning to be

23:26

present, to take that moment to think through. So, actually, let me let me

23:34

rewind. Take a moment to feel your way through before you think. Because when you listen to your feeling, you're going

23:40

to have a better understanding if the the thoughts that are coming out are out

23:45

of alignment or not. Yeah. So that's part of that parenting with presence is having awareness of

23:52

yourself. Excellent. Yeah. That's wonderful. Yeah. It's um I mean parenting as you

23:58

mentioned at the beginning of the show, like there are certainly parenting books, but there is nothing teaches you

24:04

to deal with parenting properly. like it's just this right of passage that people go through that is a wild

24:09

incredible wonderful journey and there are some really great people like yourself that can help equip you I think

24:16

in how you actually know how do you want to develop these relationships and I um

24:22

I feel like it's very important that you work on like you obviously work on yourself but then I've got my relationship with my one child and the

24:30

other child and then there's the three of us and then there's my wife chucked in there as well and then I've got to remember I'm married as well I've got to

24:35

develop my my my marriage as well as being a parent. And that can also be super challenging when it's like your

24:41

parents 247 and it can be really challenging to carve time out to to be married. Um, and interestingly enough,

24:50

my I went away for our anniversary like not so long ago and my kids don't well

24:55

my eldest kid doesn't really like us going away for like a night like he picks up a big stink with it. But then I

25:01

sat down and said to him that, you know what, you've got friends whose parents

25:06

are no longer together. And probably a big reason that happened is because they didn't spend enough time together and

25:12

they didn't communicate. It's not always the case, but they weren't able to actually be man and wife together. And

25:19

it's really important that we're able to take that time to do that so we can be better parents and be better individuals

25:26

in the home. When I explained it to him like that, he was like, "Yeah, you two should go away." Because basically he

25:32

doesn't want his he doesn't want his parents to split up. Right. Right. And it is such an important foundation that so many of us

25:40

as parents ignore. I hear that story often from my clients, from family, from

25:47

friends, like, "No, no, no, no. We got to do everything with the kids." But you two are the foundation of that family.

25:54

and to to be able to step away from a child. It's more about how you approach

26:00

it like you like you said and how you help that child manage those emotions

26:07

because they're going to be emotions. They're going to feel sad, scared, angry. If we can allow for those

26:14

emotions to come through in a safe space so they can process it, it's also

26:19

helping them learn that regulation, how to how to deal with adversity in a way

26:25

that is positive. So taking something that in that moment felt not so great

26:31

and turning it into a Oh, I see. Yeah. And you can do that at any age actually,

26:38

even when they're babies. It'd be hard to believe, but even the conversations that you have with them, you're emitting

26:45

energy and those babies are feeling your energy. They're feeling how you're coming across. And to be able to start

26:52

that pro uh process of being present starts I think you asked me this earlier

26:59

and you asked me something else. Starts in the womb because you can be present while you're

27:05

in the womb. We we kind of just keep going through our day, but that little brain's developing, the organs are

27:11

developing in a mother's state of being and the environment around her. Not just from a emotional standpoint, but even

27:19

the food you're eating, the toxins you're exposed to, all of it is influencing the development of that

27:24

little human that's growing inside you. And to be able to take moments to be present, to connect with your child. I

27:32

actually like to teach expecting parents how to connect even if they're expecting

27:37

so that you can already start deepening that relationship and when that baby is born is going to make that parenting

27:45

process so much easier because we're we are trained to believe that parenting is hard and it is what it is. But it

27:52

doesn't have to be. It's just that we've never really been given a road map. We've it's the one job we never train

27:57

for. for everything except for parenting and there's so much you can do right

28:03

from the beginning to learn how to be present and you're al you're also

28:08

practicing it because I don't know how it is for you as a parent but when when you become a parent you have to do

28:14

things sometimes that feel a little unnatural like okay how do you like okay I got to talk to a baby or you know

28:22

communicate with a toddler who barely understands me like I notice it a lot on phone calls where they're, you know, a

28:28

parent and a child are facetiming and they're like, "Hi, hi, how are you?" And you don't even know what to say or even

28:34

how to play with them. I notice it happens a lot in play. And so, there's so much that you can do even while

28:40

you're expecting so that when the time your baby comes, you've already practiced so much that it becomes second

28:46

nature for you to be able to connect in a different on a different level. I love it. Yeah. I mean, it's all

28:51

energy, it's all frequency at the end of the day, right? So whether it's sound, whether it's speech, whether it's light, whether it's, you know, food has an en

28:58

energetic value, medicine, supplements, everything, you know, it's got like whether negative or positive long short

29:04

wave. So absolutely super important. And yeah, it's hilarious when you will

29:09

FaceTime, my wife will FaceTime with her best friend's baby, the noises and

29:15

sounds that come out of her, it's absolutely hilarious. Yeah, it's funny. And they're communicating. They're talking. Maybe it's not the best through

29:20

a screen, but it's something. Yeah, that's great. Um, so you often talk

29:27

about aligning brain, body, and heart in parenting. So, can you share, you know,

29:33

how this multi-dimensional approach helps children feel more secure and

29:38

connected? Absolutely. Everything is connected. The brain,

29:43

body, heart, and spirit are meant to work together. When they're able to do that,

29:50

we are able to tap into that limitless potential. We can do really truly magical things that I don't think as

29:56

humans we've even had the capacity to experience quite yet because we haven't

30:03

cracked the code on how to truly tap into that. I feel like some people have and they make movies of them, but every

30:09

single human has the potential to be extraordinary. To me, the extraordinary

30:14

is really should be the ordinary of what all of us are able to do. But typically,

30:20

the way we've been raised, the way society is, we have a tendency to disconnect things. So, I'll use it as an

30:27

example. If you go to the doctor, and obviously we're always doing the best we can with what we have, but if you have a

30:33

pain here on your your elbow, they're going to look at your elbow. We're going to x-ray the elbow, nothing else. But

30:41

we're not looking at what could have happened to even lead to the elbow pain, right? Because it becomes a combination

30:49

of your thoughts release chemicals that put your body in a state of misalignment

30:55

and it starts to cause disease. The the environment that you're surrounding is

31:01

going to impact not just your emotional well-being, but your overall health. The

31:07

the people you're with and how you interact with them, the way you talk to yourself. There are so many different

31:12

things that influence our everyday life. Our gut and how our gut is reacting because

31:20

most of we're mainly micro microbiota. We're there's not a whole lot of human

31:26

in us. And we don't think about all of these different components that are meant to work together. But when we when

31:33

we don't see the big picture of how connected everything is, each thing starts to work separate from each other.

31:38

and the brain signals that are going through the way the gut's communicating with the brain, the brain with the heart, there starts to be a mismatch or

31:47

you say an error in communication. So that's what starts to cause a lot of the challenges, issues with health, belief

31:54

systems, all of that when those organs and all of those uh parts of us are not

32:00

functioning together. And so it becomes crucial in parenting because if a

32:06

child's having I'll give you an example of a meltdown. If a child's having a meltdown, we focus so much on the

32:12

emotional piece of it. Oh, child's falling apart like it's frustrating or angry, but we don't even know. I wonder

32:21

what that child's nutrition looks like or what is that child eating? Is the child eating things that supports the

32:27

body to release the chemical like GABA that is going to help the body relax

32:32

when there is a meltdown? Are there other components that are influencing that child's behavior? And

32:39

so all of these pieces can make everything so much easier and so much more aligned to where we are spending

32:46

more time connecting, creating versus battling with the everyday challenges of

32:53

parenting. when we don't see the big picture of how everything comes together. Yeah. it, you know, it makes me think of

33:00

school and the foundations of learning and the space and time that children spend, you know, at at their school,

33:08

which obviously has a lot of value, but the amount of education that could be put in towards

33:15

even just like the the importance of your microbiome and that you know you are like almost 10 times more

33:20

genetically foreign organism than you are human organism. Like these are like simple

33:26

simple things that give you a completely different perspective on what your body is and how you can treat it. Um and you

33:32

know I see these videos on Tik Tok of like schools in Japan where like these 50 56 year olds are lying down doing

33:40

like a meditation like halfway through the school to help like you know regulate their bodies and like they're getting guided through that type of thing. I think that's an amazing thing

33:47

that we're really like missing out on in regards to Yeah. connecting mind and body and providing kids with incredibly

33:54

important resources in order to help cope with the emotional stress it is of being a human being and having the

34:01

capability to, you know, self-regulate to the best that they can and also recognize that if I can feel like this

34:07

and I can support myself like I I can be there for other people when they're going through those things. And um yeah,

34:14

I just think yeah, I think we're just missing a massive chunk when it comes to the school curriculum when they're

34:19

learning about, you know, historical events from thousand years ago, but like, you know, we're not learning about how we can

34:25

treat tree anxiety. Yes. Well, I think about it. If you go on a hike and it's going to be an eight

34:32

hour hike and you just go wearing flip-flops and

34:37

it's going to rain, you don't have the gear and you know you have to climb a mountain but you you didn't bring

34:42

anything to even get up the mountain, it's going to be a really challenging hike. But if you know like, okay, well,

34:49

I've got food, I've got water, I've got the right clothing, I've I have my

34:55

compass, whatever it is, all of these different tools. Now, that hike is going to become really enjoyable, and you're

35:04

going to have it's the same hike, but you're equipped completely different to be able to go through it. And that is

35:09

what the body does. And the brain, body, heart, spirit is intended to allow us to

35:16

do what often seems to be impossible. But so so early on we forget. We forget

35:23

who we are. We forget those capabilities. We grow in fears and doubts. And then that disconnection

35:29

gets, you know, further and further apart. And again, it's not just from ourselves, but from others, from nature.

35:36

We're not connecting to nature enough anymore. We're not stepping outside. and

35:41

you know playing in the dirt doing all that are going to help your microbiome, they're going to help your mood, they're

35:46

going to help all of it and everything is so beautifully interconnected.

35:52

And if we could start to see the big picture, what I do notice is that when

35:59

you can realign to yourself and connect to that higher being, everything else

36:04

starts to fall into place, right? So you don't have to focus on as many things because if I I don't know say I want to

36:11

lose weight and I'm inspired to go for a

36:16

walk and I listen to that inspiration and I go walking and oh that walk I'm

36:21

like now I feel like jogging and I'm excited to jog and I jog. This is just our body working body, heart, brain,

36:29

spirit doing what it needs to do to get us to where we need to get to. And if we follow it, the next thing I notice is

36:36

now I'm craving a salad. I'm not even craving fries or a burger. It just starts to naturally happen that all of

36:43

those other dimensions of health just kind of start to line up on their own

36:49

when we even just can start to focus on one thing and allow the other pieces to fall into place.

36:55

Yeah, fabulously said. Yeah, I think we have this monstrous deficiency in spirituality like all across the board

37:01

in our culture. And um I said this a lot a lot of times on the show that it would

37:07

be very it would be a lot easier to um live in awe of this planet when you were

37:13

looked up at the stars and there was a trillion stars there, you know, right? Like we have this light pollution problem where we are very rarely in awe

37:21

of our surroundings because we live in these like concrete jungles where it's it's stressful to look around rather

37:27

than to you know be be covered with mountains, nature, snow and like all of these incredible things that we have

37:33

around us and yeah people have this um big deficiency towards it. I think a lot

37:39

of people, especially like in my community, I see a lot a lot more younger people um stepping into church

37:45

to find a community to find a spiritual element to be connected to something um

37:50

bigger than themselves or even to just be connected to their own community because that can also be a challenge these days is to find people who just

37:57

want to be part of their neighborhood and talk and share and be together and provide and that's I feel there's a bit

38:03

there's a little bit of a resurgent going on there like I think maybe in may be smaller smaller cities that I live in

38:09

for sure. But yeah, it would be I can imagine it'd be a very stressful struggle to live in like a big city

38:15

these days. You know, it's it's it's challenging for a lot of people. And the the interesting piece even when

38:20

you do live in a in a place where there are a lot of people, we're still very very isolated.

38:27

Yeah. And then the other piece that I noticed, and I noticed this not just with other people, but with myself, that

38:34

wherever our frequency is, we gravitate to certain people that sometimes are not

38:40

the best for our soul. And this is going is goes back to parenting. Who are we

38:45

surrounding our children with? Who are those people that are in our lives? Are

38:50

they adding value? Are they uplifting each other? Are they supporting each other? And unfortunately we are in a

38:58

time where there's there's just a lot of negativity. There's a lot of sadness and

39:03

anger and the discussions become about that and there's not as much space to

39:09

talk about what is working, what is great and that is one of the reasons I loved that you started this podcast with

39:16

what is going well because we just don't ask that so much anymore. I feel like when you ask people how they're doing,

39:23

just because we're human, this is how our brains are wired, we have a tendency to go straight to what is not working.

39:31

Is one of the things that we can do when our children are really, really young is that we can help wire the brain so that

39:38

they can start to see what is working. Oh, or when something doesn't go well or

39:44

it's not ideal, that's not the end of the world. Great. It's data. It's an opportunity to shift, to pivot, to do

39:51

something different. It's something that I'm experiencing so that I can now I have clarity as to what I want, what I

39:58

don't want. All of it is so great. But we focus so much on it being negative or negative emotions. Let's just shove them

40:04

out of the way. And we want to do the complete opposite because it does allow us to experience

40:09

adversity without so much suffering. Yeah. I like to uh begin conversations

40:15

with what's going well or how are you sleeping? And that really you really get a good insight into what people are

40:21

experiencing when you ask either of those questions. Um I'd love to talk about the role of nutrition and

40:28

supplementation within your work. So how does proper nutrition and specifically supplementation support healthy brain

40:34

development and emotional regulation in young kids? It is so incredibly important even

40:40

starting from pregnancy. Children have a tendency to like the

40:46

things that they that they tasted in the womb. So if mom was constantly eating

40:52

carrots, they're going to be more likely to eat carrots later on to actually like the taste of carrots. And whatever foods

41:00

you're eating in the womb are already shaping the brain, body, heart, and and

41:05

allowing for it to work together. The microbiome is shaping once that baby's

41:10

born. That's there's that whole colony that we have to tend to. And when we don't provide especially the microbiome

41:19

with the foods and the the nutrition that it needs to thrive, then we don't

41:24

have the chemicals that we need to feel well, to feel more positive, to feel

41:30

more relaxed, to feel more excited. Those are all amino acids that typically

41:36

are built in the gut, but those microbes need the the right ingredients in order

41:43

to be able to produce them. So that alone, I mean, I could talk about a million topics, but that's that's one

41:48

that comes to mind is being able to provide the body with the tools it needs

41:54

to give us what we need. Because we're supposed to be living symbiotically with

41:59

with uh our microbes. They tell us, "All right, you give us a

42:05

peaceful environment to live and we'll give you all these other things that are going to help you have a better life."

42:12

But then when we don't give them what what they need, one thing that happens, for example, when we eat foods that are

42:18

not ideal for our body, processed foods, our kiddos are eating a lot of processed foods, chicken nuggets and pizza, pasta,

42:25

all a lot of carby foods. What happens is that we are feeding the pathogens in

42:32

our gut. And when we feed those pathogens, the good bacteria start to

42:37

die off. And the pathogens are the ones that start getting us to crave the foods that we're trying so hard not to eat.

42:45

And then we blame ourselves and we blame our kids. Like, ah, they're just picky eaters or ah, they just don't they don't

42:51

want to eat this or do that. But really, there's this whole colony that's got his

42:57

own consciousness that's saying, "We're going to get you to eat more that and more, you know, more pizza and more of

43:03

this." And now we are not providing the body with what it needs to thrive. And

43:09

so you start to see the breakdown of the body. You It impacts your mood. It

43:14

impacts the way we think. Again, we go back to everything being so interconnected that you just can't

43:20

separate one thing from another. Yeah, I mean there's a constant war going on obviously like when it comes to

43:26

the the microbiome in your gut and we have, you know, we have microbiota all over the place and you know they're in

43:32

very specific species in very specific numbers in let's say a balanced healthy person. But yeah, there's only so much

43:38

space in that gut and they will want to make you eat certain foods so they can

43:45

grow in their numbers, you know, and it's very important like diversity is obviously a huge hugely important part

43:50

of of a diet, especially when it comes to like fruit and vegetables. But yeah, that that whole microbiome piece is

43:55

super fascinating and you know, I I practice as a nutritionist um for a long period of time.

44:00

Yeah. And the amount of, you know, I work primarily with like men in their 30s that could no longer get away with

44:06

their nutritional habits and not have it, you know, basically hit their belly and make them feel depressed, anxious,

44:13

and like with brain fog. Soon as I fix their microbiome, which is like happens fast if you committed, it's so

44:19

ridiculously quick how quickly that happens because your body can do everything way better than you can once you provide it the right

44:26

environment and ingredients. And as soon as their gut fix fixes up, their brain fog lifts, their depression lives,

44:32

they've got way more energy, bowel movements are back to normal, and that

44:37

things are all good. But it's remarkable how quickly those types of things can change once you give the body what it

44:43

needs, right? And for littles, if you think about the what parents struggle with the

44:49

most, sleep, meltdowns, they're, you know, having big emotions, all of that

44:55

is directly correlated as well to what they're being exposed to in terms of

45:01

toxins, the food we're eating. And over time, if from the womb we're eating

45:08

certain foods, that starts that that load, that load of heavy metals, of

45:13

viruses and bacteria, and they just start to pile up. I always think of it like like some sort of um what are they

45:21

called? Where all the trash goes? I can't think of the name of the like a dump. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

45:26

Just every time like, "All right, every Wednesday it's trash day." and they take all the trash and it starts to pile and

45:31

pile and pile and pile. And so imagine if if it starts when you're in the womb,

45:37

what happens when you're 30, 40, 50, 60, and we we say, "Oh, I'm just

45:45

old and in pain." But when you actually stop and think about what our bodies have been through and how the amount of

45:53

heavy metals and viruses and toxins that are in it, of course, we're going to start to fall

46:00

apart. And now we are seeing an increase in chronic illness. I've had so many friends pass away of cancer at a young

46:07

age, being diagnosed with cancer, me and my infertility, infertility's gone up

46:13

significantly, obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer's, all of that. All of that is

46:19

the load of years and years of not just what you're eating, but the toxins, the way you think, the way you process

46:25

information. All of it is so connected. So imagine if we shifted that literally

46:31

from the moment of conception, how different our lives could look like

46:36

internally and externally. That's right. Yeah. Here here at True Hope, so we have we have six products

46:43

with throughout our collection. Our primary product is called Empower Plus. It's a broadspectctrum micronutrient.

46:48

It's 37 ingredients that are incredibly bioavailable and very much balanced. And

46:53

our whole goal at True Hope is to provide people's bodies the the nutrition it requires to do all the

46:59

things that it needs to be doing to pro creating the hormones necessary for all of those incredibly complex um things as

47:08

well as neurotransmitters for brain health. And we find that when people start taking

47:14

our products and we we have a very unique way in which we micronize our minerals. We break them down for 4 days.

47:20

The industry standard is 4 hours. So the particle size is so small. So you could have poor digestive capability. You're

47:25

still going to be able to absorb absorb the nutrition within this product. And it's actually got 35 peer-reviewed

47:31

medical journals proving its efficacy for like conditions such as anxiety, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia. It's

47:37

a really remarkable product. But all we're Yeah. All we're doing is providing

47:42

the body with with the nutrition that it that it absolutely craves and requires and needs. And when you throw like the

47:47

stressful environment of today with poor soil, poor eating habits, bad sleep, bad

47:53

microbiome, um, uh, health, it's all, you know, your body's always just in

47:59

this state of lack. And it's actually quite remarkable how some people can go 10, 20, 30 years before their body

48:05

basically cracks and then, you know, you have symptomology which gets labels labeled as a disease and then you kind

48:10

of take this one thing for it which never really well never cures it. Um, so

48:16

it's so important that a foundational level that's actually just a really simple um, beginning is to just get your

48:23

body fueled up with the things that it needs to make you feel better and do all the

48:28

processes and kind of get out of its way. Um, and then that's really the the

48:34

beginning stages of, you know, being able to think about cooking a good meal or going for a hike or like being with

48:40

your community, whatever that might be for you. It's just the foundational piece is, you know, you got you got to start at the basics. And if you're not

48:45

giving your body what it needs on a consistent basis, then you're always going to struggle. You're always going to have sleep issues and feel anxious

48:51

and depressed. Like, it's just it's not it's not super complicated. And sometimes it's such a quick little

48:58

shift of maybe there's a mineral deficiency or vitamin D or zinc or B12

49:04

or something that can make such a difference. I definitely see a lot of

49:09

success when I've had clients on amino acids and on supplements that are going

49:14

to support whatever they're experiencing. It can be so quick within 20 minutes like, "Oh my goodness, what

49:19

is this?" It really is pretty pretty magical. And as you said, we can escape

49:25

everything that's out there and, you know, be able to remove all of the things that are even even when you go

49:31

organic and whatnot, there's still sprays that fly, you know, through the air and fall on our food. But if we can

49:40

consistently detoxify the body, then at least we're giving it a better chance. Like for example, with my son, I like to

49:48

give him a detoxifying smoothie on a regular basis. So that becomes part of his everyday like ah it's great at

49:54

smoothies. It's got dragon fruit and wild blueberries and all of that's helping to release the body of of some

50:01

of those um heavy metals and toxins that are in there. So at least we're cleaning

50:07

it out as opposed to things piling up because that's the other piece like

50:12

these um supplements that you talk about. Amazing. But how much better are

50:17

they going to work if we do all these other things to allow for the body to

50:22

even absorb them better? And again, all together when you implement these different pieces, it just becomes so

50:30

much easier to have a better life. Yeah, nailed it. And yeah, we so we only

50:36

carry six products right now and we only really produce products that um combine

50:41

with our like main micronutrient formula. And if there is a little if there's a gap in the market where

50:47

nobody's really filling that properly or there are products on the shelves that aren't doing the job properly, that's

50:53

kind of like where we'll fill that gap. Like we have a we have a product called Framinos which is a um 23 free form

50:59

amino acids for those individuals that struggle to you know make the neurotransmitters for like sleep for

51:05

example. And you know when you provide those building blocks that you mentioned the importance of amino acids then again

51:11

like you are just you know you're giving you're you're supplementing your nutritional requirement which for

51:18

everyone these days is so vitally important. Yeah. I I I naively went into nutrition school. I did a three-year

51:24

nutrition degree in Victoria on Vancouver Island. And I thought that you could just do everything with food and

51:30

supplementation was just for like lazy people that couldn't be bothered to eat right all the time. And super quickly

51:35

that I changed my mind on that when I learned about agriculture and food and

51:40

the biodiversity of just human beings in general. Like yeah, we all might kind of like look the same, but our genetic

51:48

requirements for like certain nutrients can be unbelievably vast. Um even to like the the specific

51:55

mineral, the specific vitamin. It's um it's super super interesting and truly

52:00

wonderful. And yeah, I think what what I'd love to do is get you back on the show and we just have a whole show on like pregnancy and supplementation

52:07

because what I've been learning about specifically iodine really fascinates me and and and I've got a bunch bunch of my

52:14

wife's friends have been pregnant in the last like 12 months and none of them had a conversation with their doctor or

52:19

midwife or anybody about like the importance of iodine for for mother and baby. And it's such a like uniquely

52:28

remarkable mineral that like, you know, we're pretty much deficient in, but it's

52:33

a pretty cheap product that you can have on hand to to consume and especially like the um

52:39

in October to like April when it's you know it's we're outside less and you know kids are always sick etc. There's

52:45

another whole conversation about that as well. this is an immunity product and for for women's hormone health and thyroid

52:51

function like so so powerful but yeah we can have a whole other podcast series on that

52:58

absolutely I would love to have a further chat on that because even as

53:03

even as you're talking about it and I think about what you said that you know we wish you could get it all from food

53:09

but we also live on a planet that has become deficient on the things that once

53:16

upon a time we probably could have gotten by going outside, getting some sun, putting our feet in the dirt, but

53:22

we don't really have the same level of richness or, you know, the quality that

53:28

we would need. So, absolutely, even even if you live somewhere really sunny, you're putting on sunblock and now

53:33

you're not getting vitamin D. So, sunblock, that's another that's another

53:39

conversation. Oh my gosh. Wild. Um,

53:44

I know we're at the 50 minute mark. I'm just going to I want to be I want to be um I want to be courteous with your time

53:49

here. So I want to talk to you about quickly about surv um like from survival to connection and then we'll jump in and talk about lumiots because that sounds

53:56

super cool and I want to learn more about that. But um you know for I think many parents

54:01

describe feeling like they're just surviving in those early years. Um

54:08

so how do you guide families to move beyond survival into that into more joy and connection?

54:14

I love that question. I think as I mentioned earlier, we have never been in

54:21

a world where there is a training component to parenting. It's more like

54:29

here you go, you'll know what to do, you'll be fine. And then we do whatever

54:35

we can with the tools we have and on top of it we get judged for how we do it. And so if at the end

54:42

of the day, you know, if I'm going to an attorney, to a get a surgery, to a

54:48

medical doctor, even someone to go do my taxes, I would hope that that

54:55

professional actually learned properly how to do that. I I would hope that a surgeon didn't ask another surgeon like,

55:02

"Hey, can you tell me how to do surgery?" Or, you know, just maybe read a book or heard it from a friend. And

55:10

that's that's how we parent. Not that there's anything wrong with it because this is how we know to parent, but we

55:16

parent based on how we were parented. And we just make the assumption that it was good enough.

55:23

Yeah. But imagine if we actually had the foundation and the training to

55:28

understand how to guide an individual who is so unique, who's got their in

55:34

unique way of being with a unique parent, with a unique family, and really understood how all these pieces come

55:41

together. So your parenting could be guided differently in a way that is sustainable, that feels good to you,

55:48

that's in alignment with who you are versus pushing, you know, I'm I have to

55:53

do this because this professional told me so, even though it doesn't feel good, but if you could do it in a way that

55:59

just makes sense for your family, the parenting journey would completely

56:04

shift because parenting is hard only because we're thrown into it. because we don't ever really get any true

56:12

foundation as to how to parent. We may take a course here and here, but it's never a connected multi-dimensional

56:19

approach. You need lots of professionals and then they don't talk to each other. Yeah. And so to be able to do that, I like to

56:26

guide families where not only are they getting the foundation to make choices

56:32

that are in alignment with who they are, because I don't believe it's about telling you what to do. It's about helping you discern what makes sense for

56:39

your family and what doesn't. Yeah. And to provide them that information so that they can do that inner compass

56:45

check, take inspired action and lead a very different parenting journey in a way that is very supportive, where there

56:52

is community where you feel like someone is holding your hand but at the same time allowing you to be who you need to

56:58

be. That's how I do it. very different from I guess a a lot of the parenting

57:05

programs that are out there is that I take a very integrative approach and I

57:10

really allow families to be who they need to be and to empower them to make

57:16

the choices that make sense. And I do that through an entire ecosystem that

57:21

incorporates not just your everyday parenting but what is fun like what is working?

57:28

How can we have more fun in life? How can we travel when kiddos are younger? What about going to the restaurant

57:34

instead of being afraid to take your little one out to eat? Like all these things that make parenting fun, I like

57:40

to shine a light on them and double down on them so that we can have a more joyful parenting experience.

57:47

Isn't it wild that it wasn't so long ago that we would have, you know, we would have parental trainers, we would have

57:54

grandparents in the house that would teach us and support us and actually

58:00

give us breaks and time and somehow someway like we have pushed the

58:06

old people into old people's homes and we live in fivebedroom houses with two bedrooms being facilitated and the last

58:13

thing we want is our it's not well this isn't what I think but the last thing people want is to have like their grandparents or their mother-in-law or

58:19

father-in-law in the home with them. And how like it's super untraditional what

58:24

we do now in our culture compared to like human history and living together with two, three, four, maybe five

58:31

generations of individuals learning off each other, supporting each other, everyone having a role, a purpose, a

58:37

responsibility within the community. All things massively lacking in today's culture. And

58:43

it's so wild how like that wasn't that long ago and like where we're at now and there's this it makes complete sense to

58:49

me that we have a lot of like parents who are like just like got no time and they are struggling.

58:55

Absolutely. there's the sense of community has really disappeared and even when it feels like you have a lot

59:00

of people around you that doesn't necessarily mean that you have the support because I think part of the the

59:08

challenge is that everybody has very different opinions and everybody has a way of telling you how to do something

59:15

as opposed to being able to come together and allowing ourselves to be who we need to be and providing support

59:22

and community versus uh do this do that which I noticed ends up stressing

59:28

parents even more and then they push people away. It's like well no because then you're going to tell me to do something I'm in agreement with. So this

59:34

becomes this this like back and forth of challenging

59:40

tension between families, grandparents, even you know spouses and disagreements

59:46

as to how to do one thing or another. And so I think it's so important to be able to come together as a family and

59:53

have these open conversations and understand where people are coming from and allow and and really learn about

1:00:01

okay is this about you and your triggers and what you experience because you have traumas or is it truly about the little

1:00:08

human in front of us and I think there's a huge distinction there. Yeah. I just think imagine like back in

1:00:16

the day it would have been way simpler. Like everyone was kind of on the same page. There wasn't all these distractions. There wasn't a thousand

1:00:22

different jobs people were doing. Like it was like you were you were a farmer or you probably weren't. I don't know.

1:00:27

Like and it was way simpler. The parenting style was so simple. And then now you've got like you know going

1:00:33

through the generations you've got like like way more stricter disciplinary early generations of parenting and then

1:00:39

you know more support and flexives um flexible styles. Mhm.

1:00:45

It's uh Yeah. And then it's it's just funny because everyone every generation thinks they've got it nailed down like

1:00:51

with this whole we've got gentle parenting now which we all think is just like perfect and the one way to go and then in 10 20 years it'll be totally

1:00:57

different and they'll be you know they'll be they'll be they'll be mocking that and making books and documentaries

1:01:02

about that like back in the day. So it's just like humans are so funny. It is. But but we go back to like the

1:01:09

message I keep bringing up is that we have all these opinions, right? opinions about what should be,

1:01:16

what shouldn't be. Because the opinion for maybe my grandparents at the time, they thought it was okay to be kids.

1:01:22

That's how it was. And it wasn't that they were doing it out of like something negative within them. They were

1:01:28

genuinely trying to raise their kids as best as they could and that's what they were taught was best. But it goes back to a lot of opinions.

1:01:35

No one truly sits down to genuinely learn and understand human development,

1:01:41

how a brain grows and how it functions, how that little one functions, how that little one thinks, how to intentionally

1:01:48

guide the development of that of any of those organs. In general as a society, that is not

1:01:54

something that's supported. If anything, it's like you're going to go get help. Is there something wrong with you? And

1:02:00

it should be the other way around. If we train, if I have a presentation next week, I'm be doing powerpoints. I do

1:02:06

research, I learn, I want to like be on it and I know the entire subject and I

1:02:12

can see it from different perspectives. But then we raise humans and then we

1:02:18

wonder why we grow up the way we do because the idea is like, oh yeah, well, those around me are going to support me.

1:02:24

And that is beautiful. But none of us have really taken the time to understand

1:02:30

and learn how to do it in a way that is going to truly allow brain, body, heart,

1:02:35

spirit to thrive as it is meant to. And and I do agree with you that, you know, maybe there was a time where it was a

1:02:42

little bit simpler, you know, where, you know, even when we cooked at home more

1:02:47

often, we went outside more often. I'm sure there were other other issues and struggles back then, but I think if we

1:02:54

could take the time to truly learn and understand and treat it as um as another

1:03:00

I don't know career job, whatever you want to call it, the word job, but to really truly learn as opposed to see it

1:03:06

as something negative, it would definitely be a lot easier. Yeah, I agree with you. Um all right,

1:03:12

tell us about Lumiot. What inspired you to create it and how is it reimagining

1:03:18

what's um possible for families today? What inspired me to create it? I'll go

1:03:23

back to my son. He was the reason that Lumi talk came about. I was actually working I worked for the department of

1:03:29

mental health for 15 years. I worked in community mental health for another five

1:03:35

of that. I spent a lot of time working for systems where I felt very

1:03:43

stuck and stuck in the ways I knew that we could do things better. But once I

1:03:49

did have my little one and because I raised him using a very multi-dimensional approach to parenting

1:03:55

and I see the difference if anything, how can I be more like you? Like it's so

1:04:00

much easier for you. It's everything just flows and his creativity and the

1:04:06

way he sees the world is is so different from most kids because he grew up in and in a

1:04:15

different approach. And I don't even know I didn't know then what I know now. I can't even imagine if if he was a baby

1:04:22

now. Yeah. And so he was really the reason when when I felt that as a professional,

1:04:28

as a psychologist, I was doing a disservice to parents because I was

1:04:34

waiting along with the rest of the system until they were in dire need and needed me. And that is if they were

1:04:40

fortunate enough to be okay getting help. And I don't think that's fair that we have all this knowledge. So many

1:04:47

tools that parents don't even know about. I even bring in assessments and things. so we can better understand the

1:04:54

individual. But you can't access that unless you meet criteria for depression,

1:04:59

anxiety, or something's seriously wrong to access this support. And so I wanted

1:05:05

to take everything that I know and what I can do with families. And I wanted to

1:05:11

bring it to the everyday parent so that every any person that especially

1:05:16

first-time parents when it's so stressful to bring a little one home and feeling like you don't know what to do,

1:05:22

how to do it, and it's such a shock to the system that they wouldn't have to be alone in this process. That not only

1:05:28

would they have a road map to parenting, but that they would have community to do it in. Because as you said, you can have

1:05:35

lots of people around you, but you're so alone in the process. Even so, within your family, in your own home, sometimes

1:05:41

that feels alone. And I really wanted to create something that would wrap the

1:05:46

entire family, not just moms, not just dads, but the whole unit because every

1:05:52

single person in that unit matters and every single person in that unit is going to im influence the way that

1:05:59

little human is going to grow. And so that's that's why Lumiat was born was to

1:06:06

change the story that parenting is so hard to parenting can be so much easier than you think when you have a road map.

1:06:12

But beneath all of that, my true mission behind LumiT is for children to always

1:06:18

remember who they are. Never to forget the potential, the divinity that they

1:06:23

have inside, that limitlessness that they have so that they can grow up knowing that they can be, do, have

1:06:30

anything they want. and that they can take the adversity of life and

1:06:35

use it to shift it into something positive because it always is.

1:06:41

Divinity. Beautiful word. I love that. Final question for you. Um, if parents

1:06:47

could do one simple thing today to start creating a more luminous, connected

1:06:53

future for their kids, what would that first step be? to go inward and start

1:07:00

with themselves to start really examining

1:07:05

what is it within them that makes them feel incomplete because

1:07:10

they're not. They're so complete and so perfect as they are and we constantly

1:07:16

look at ourselves as parents and feel like we're running short some. We're

1:07:21

like I'm not good enough. I'm not doing enough. I'm not I don't know enough. whatever it is is that they could take a

1:07:28

moment and just look in the mirror and see how amazing they are and just start

1:07:33

there. Because when you can start to see the goodness that you bring, no matter who you are,

1:07:40

then that starts a a machine and a cycle of of getting you to step more into who

1:07:46

you really are. I love it. What a amazing place to finish up there, Dr. Karen. Thank you so

1:07:53

much. Um, where is the best place for people to learn more about you and connect? Is it

1:07:58

lumitop.com? Yes, I made it super easy. Social media website. I actually have a really great

1:08:05

quiz that you can take to see how connected you are to your little ones to

1:08:11

see if if you're in a space where that connection is deep. And in at the end of

1:08:17

that quiz, it'll actually give you ideas as to how to deepen the connection, deepen the bond because at the end of

1:08:23

the day, when you start to learn how to become more connected to yourself, to higher being, your others, nature, all

1:08:29

of it, then everything starts to become easier. So connection is a big piece of of how I lead and what I lead with.

1:08:36

And is that the take the screener button I see on the website here? That's the that's the quiz. Hey,

1:08:41

yes. Yes, there's a quiz in there. There's a lot of resources in there as well on different toxins, the gut, just

1:08:48

the different dimensions of health that I the model that I created. So, there's

1:08:54

lots of resources and goodies in there, but that's a simple one that that's fun and engaging as well that can give you a

1:09:00

lot of feedback and information and it takes a lot of these different dimensions and brings them together.

1:09:05

Amazing. Well, I'll make sure that that quiz and the website is in the show notes for people so they can connect with that really easily. But,

1:09:11

thank you. I appreciate it. Of course. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. I'd love to get you back to talk about so many other

1:09:17

different topics, but we'll make sure that we do that. But I I really appreciate your time today. Did Did you enjoy yourself?

1:09:23

Absolutely. This was so much fun. So great. Love your questions. Love your way of thinking and commend you for

1:09:31

because I can already tell what an intentional parent you are. Thanks very much. Um Okay. Well, thanks

1:09:37

again, Dr. Ken, for coming on to the show. Thank you everyone for listening. Thank you for everyone for watching. For

1:09:43

more information about Dr. Karen, you can visit the the links I put in the show notes there. Um don't forget to

1:09:49

subscribe if you haven't yet. You can leave a a review on uh iTunes and on Spotify. Um yeah, but that is it for

1:09:55

this week. Thank you so much for watching and yeah, we'll see you soon. Bye.