0:00

okay hi Sarah welcome to True Hope cast thank you for being with me today how are you what is going well

0:10

perfect well just as an introduction why don't you just let us know who you are and what it is that you do please

0:17

oh yeah my name's Alberta I'm

0:22

Doris so vitamins and supplements as well I'm just about halfway through my

0:27

holistic nutrition course in school wonderful and where are you doing your nutrition program

0:33

it's uh through Canadian School of natural nutrition I'm actually just doing the distance education I um had

0:39

started while I was on maternity leave so it was nice to just kind of fit it in wherever I could yeah awesome and do

0:45

they cover a lot of like information about supplements are there courses based on that as well

0:50

they kind of uh so far so one of our last unit is actually they touch on more herbs and supplements um but they kind

0:57

of uh throw it in here and there throughout the course so it's actually been so helpful to work at Vitality

1:03

because it goes hand in hand with school and I'm it just helps me understand it way better so they do touch on it a little bit yeah

1:10

you should be able to just walk around the health food store and do some like uh do some studying on the ground that's

1:16

what it almost feels like sometimes like I get paid to study so that's fantastic what's it like working

1:22

in a health food store and studying nutrition I love it it's um yeah obviously I'm

1:28

very into health and nutrition and that's kind of what I am hoping to do with my like a career-wise uh later on

1:35

in life so I really like it it's kind of exactly where I want to be right now so

1:41

and what what led you to start working in Natural Health

1:46

a long journey to be honest I um have really gotten into it a lot I

1:52

actually um so I am three and a half years clean um so my life before was a lot different

2:00

than it is now and I yeah I spent about five and a half years maybe an active

2:05

addiction um my timeline is a little off for that time uh but yeah it was kind of like in

2:11

my early 20s and um I was having a hard time getting clean here actually in Edmonton and so my

2:18

partner at the time in me he asked for a transfer and we actually ended up moving to Saskatchewan and that's kind of the

2:24

Fresh Start was kind of what I needed and like the push I needed and I was able to kind of focus on myself and I

2:31

started some self work um lots of meditating and kind of led me

2:36

down to the health and nutrition field that kind of lined up with covid and the

2:42

lockdown so during the lockdown I had started doing a few courses on udemy of

2:48

just about vitamins and supplements and the kind of got me really interested in there and I kind of started focusing on

2:54

that and healthy eating and yeah and then when we were able to move back and I had um I had my daughter and then yeah

3:02

it kind of just led me in here I had to start doing a lot of um like meal prep and trying to make healthy choices and

3:09

it just kind of all came together at the end and I decided that's kind of like what I wanted to do with my life so

3:15

amazing And in regards to Stepping towards you know healing from addiction

3:21

was changing your like physical location and environment like a big step in that

3:27

yeah definitely I was uh really struggling to get clean here and I had tried so many times I had gone to so

3:34

many different like programs like rehabs detox centers and everything and so I had all the tools and the mentors and

3:41

all the like everything you know and I just like it wasn't happening for me I think I just

3:47

everywhere I went I just kind of knew where it was and maybe because subtly I just wasn't really there yet and so

3:53

changing my environment was just the little kick that I needed and it was a fresh start like as soon as we got there

3:59

already I could just tell it was going to be different and um yeah I really took that to try to take

4:06

it to the full advantage and I um started trying to do some self-work and self-healing and I started doing a lot

4:12

of meditating and um yeah and I kind of had come to terms and

4:18

realized that I had such high anxiety and it wasn't like the normal amount of anxiety that people have it was

4:26

like I kind of realized that's kind of how I got to that point where I was was um I was just such so anxious like all

4:33

my childhood all through school and um like even when I was a little baby my

4:39

mom would say that she would take me into like a crowded room and my body would just completely seize up so it was

4:45

just realizing that it I probably had a really bad hormone imbalance that was

4:50

making me feel like this and um so I struggled all through through school and

4:56

ended up like for high school I just I skipped most classes I started drinking kind of getting into like smoking weed

5:03

and like was really disengaged from that just because it was so hard for me to function there and like you know do

5:09

projects and presentations it's just like I couldn't do it like my body would just shut down so

5:15

I think that's kind of how it led me into addiction is because it was such like a momentary

5:22

feeling where like I did feel anxious for a while and then obviously it would just made it way worse but

5:28

um yeah like when I with all the meditating and when I was in Saskatchewan I just kind of realized

5:33

that it was a lot of anxiety that I had so I started working on that and I

5:39

started doing all the kind of like the breath work and meditations that were kind of centered around anxiety and

5:44

trying to get a handle on it and um like it I was doing better

5:49

I was able to kind of function a little bit better but it was a lot of deep breathing before I went in to do

5:56

anything I had to even before like I was a server at that point and before I would go into work like if I worked at

6:02

five I would have to spend like the whole day like in meditation wow and then it would like kind of bring my

6:07

heart rate down a little bit and then like 10 minutes later it would like pop right back up so yeah I was really

6:13

struggling for the hell a really long time with anxiety yeah I couldn't think of a more anxiety

6:18

producing thing than like serving in like a busy restaurant and just as you're kind of talking about

6:24

taking yourself out of a particular environment that you know you when you're kind of like in the midst of

6:31

that addiction there'll be so many places and smells and it and and people

6:37

that would like you know maybe bring up the familiar um like thoughts and feelings and

6:43

behaviors that maybe wrapped around addiction I don't know I I had a addiction expert on the show if you uh

6:48

back in back in November and he's talking about your physical dependence and your psychological dependence and

6:54

that psychological dependence probably gets fired and wired depending on like the

7:00

the surrounding environment that you're in and if it's complete if it's completely familiar and um symbolic of

7:06

an addiction then it'd be very very hard to you know continue to avoid that you know you can do so much amazing work but

7:13

when you're like physically going to a place or physically seeing another person that that kind of like brings

7:18

those feelings and those thoughts back it's so challenging to do so so actually

7:24

taking yourself out of that environment it sounds like a really important step because then you know what you're seeing

7:29

and who you're being with the environment is new it kind of seems like there's an opportunity to create

7:35

something different and grow in that kind of unfamiliar unknown which is like a really positive place to to make uh to

7:43

make really good changes from And in regards to like you were talking about like your mum was saying that you were

7:49

like a you know quite anxious baby was there have you I mean and you said you also like you've worked on that anxiety

7:55

and I'm sure you've kind of like gone back through your life as well to kind of check in on that but was there anything

8:02

that like happened when you like a kid in regards to where this may have come

8:07

from because it sounds like this like this anxiety that you picked up as a young child has ended up like being a an

8:13

unconscious stable level of anxiety through like your your teens and then in

8:20

your 20s and then that's mainly like LED you into you know requiring you know

8:26

substances to to deal deal with that because it's a very an anxiety chronically it's a very very difficult

8:32

thing to deal with and it makes a lot of sense that people would look to change their

8:37

um their state of consciousness their state of consciousness through some sort of substance so have you ever liked to

8:44

have a chat with your mom or looked back or had any like sense or feeling that like maybe something happened when you

8:50

were a baby with the birth or the pregnancy or something like that I just find those things quite interesting in regards to like a root reason why you

8:57

might have been an anxious baby yeah actually like I've tried to look I've thought about it so much I've talked to like my mom a lot about it and

9:03

that's kind of the only thing that she would give me was like it was kind of just like from like the time you were a baby and like yeah so I don't know

9:09

nothing really stood out as I think in our family like anxiety is kind of

9:15

there's a few of us that have a lot of anxiety so I don't know if it was I don't know if that's like hereditary or

9:21

like what that is but um we can never really pinpoint like what it was exactly like it was just kind of like I was always like that interesting well we

9:28

obviously yeah we inherit obviously our genetics we also inherit behaviors right so you know maybe it's on some sort of

9:35

level one of your other caregivers may have may have had anxiety that you maybe like picked up on the energy on that frequency because obviously his babies

9:42

young kids all they are is energy right you can just look at a two-year-old or a three-year-old and all they are is Just

9:48

Energy and emotion all the time so you know maybe you kind of picked up on that but yeah it's interesting I wonder if

9:53

there's any decent research in regards to um you know anxious adults and tracing

9:58

that back to an incident or um a particular you know maybe a primary caregiver having levels

10:06

of you know some sort of psychological thing going on or maybe your mum just went to too many rock concerts in her

10:12

last trimester perhaps I don't know that was probably it so what how did you how did you begin to

10:19

work on the anxiety and did you start that when you moved into a new

10:24

environment yeah so that was like I think I found out like almost like that was one of the

10:30

first things when I started kind of meditating and sitting with myself and I was kind of instantly like oh yeah this

10:35

is like a lot of anxiety and so I started working on that because I was like this is so sick of living

10:41

like that like it was such a process to do anything I was scared to even like leave the house like I just had too much

10:48

anxiety about it and um yeah but it just didn't like I was meditating a lot because that was kind

10:54

of through like the lockdown um and then when I was pregnant even like on maternity leave and so I had a

11:00

lot of time and and I took that time to kind of sit with myself and it got better but it wasn't great and I think

11:06

that's kind of when I was realizing that um It could only take me so far and like that I and that's when I kind of started

11:14

wondering if I should go see a doctor and like kind of get anti-anxiety and that was kind of what was getting recommended to me

11:21

um and so I especially after yeah the birth of my daughter it kind of it stood

11:26

out more to me and it became more of a priority to um do something about the anxiety because I

11:32

just didn't want it to affect her life and um I think even after you obviously you

11:37

give birth there's you have heightened levels of anxiety anyways and so yeah like it was hard for me to like leave

11:43

the house or even like even move around like I just had so much anxiety about it so

11:48

I kind of I didn't want that to affect her life growing up and like taking her

11:53

out of opportunities and like I was scared to even like take her outside on a walk so like we can't do

11:59

this um so I ended up going to a doctor and um yeah I did get a prescription for anti-anxiety

12:04

um she did explain to me how my hormone levels just seem like they're really off

12:10

um because I was kind of telling her about the meditating and she kind of had said that that would only kind of do so

12:15

much if like your levels are just like really off um I also now realize I probably wasn't

12:20

eating the right nutrients either like I wasn't really helping myself out in that way

12:25

um but yeah so I started the anti-anxities and um it was rough to get used to them I

12:31

remember it was about two weeks of like just complete like I was at night I

12:38

would just sweat through my pajamas but I was shivering and that happened for like two weeks straight

12:43

um and then finally when I got used to it like I did feel better but it was very dependent on those anti-anxiety

12:52

medications like do you remember what you were taking it was actually an aunt so it was she said it was an

12:58

antidepressant that actually works for anxiety I think it was pristique pristine okay if I'm saying that right

13:05

um yeah but and it it helped but it was just crazy and I think it stood out to me so much like all the side effects

13:11

that were coming and that she was so like she was like you have to take it at the same time every day

13:17

um it was like very like yeah adamant on that and that was something I noticed like if I missed it even by like two

13:23

hours or so I would start feeling tingly like all over my body and it was instant and so I I started wondering I'm like

13:31

this can't be like super like good for you this obviously isn't natural like and it just like it sucks to be so

13:38

dependent on that like if you do miss it or like forget it it shouldn't affect your life in that way and just kind of

13:44

like Plum it down because it was instantly like I would feel anxious I would uh and maybe some of it was in my head but it was like in my body I could

13:51

feel it like the imbalance was right back yet well that's super strong they're super strong

13:57

drugs right and obviously you do need to take them at the same same time every day and it's obviously so important to

14:03

work with with closely with your doctor if you do need to go on those types of medications because they can certainly

14:09

maybe help some people in like maybe a short in maybe like the short term so and obviously the side effects can be

14:16

quite ridiculous in regards to what else you end up having to deal with and sometimes it's like the anxiety meds

14:22

cause you more anxiety and that's like one of your like Wilder symptoms um so just just before we let them move

14:29

forward Louis so you once you got clean from your addiction your anxiety was

14:34

still there and present right so would you describe your your addiction as like a crutch to attempt to like change your

14:41

State of Consciousness to not deal with the anxiety oh for sure for sure and actually I had

14:47

even before I kind of got had moved into the hard drugs there was a lot of other things like I think I said like in

14:52

school like I had started drinking and I started drinking pretty heavily then I started smoking weed I actually I

14:58

started smoking cigarettes and like a lot of them and I just remember like the relief I would feel like in any

15:03

situation I would just like yeah go out and have a cigarette and it felt like it was helping a little bit but

15:09

um obviously just very short term and um and so yeah and then when I started on like the hard drugs I think that was

15:16

because I fell so quickly into it too I think from the time I first tried to the

15:22

time that like I wasn't able to make rent or and losing my job was I think about like two months like I kind of

15:28

plummeted it really really quickly and then after that I was only able to hold the job I think for like a month and a

15:33

half tops um but it was yeah it was very much a crotch it was because I could just

15:38

withdraw from kind of like the outside world and it was very much I was in my own little world and I

15:44

didn't really have to leave I didn't care about my responsibilities I didn't have to leave the house I just yeah

15:49

withdrew completely and with that with that experience at school I just want to

15:57

kind of get an idea of like with that other kid because anxiety is just such a big problem depression such a big

16:02

problem especially for young kids and there's obviously so many aspects that go into that like life I've been

16:09

thinking for just like the nutrient deficiency that you were talking about like you know you can be you can be significantly deficient in like

16:15

magnesium for example and it could affect so so many different parts of your body and even just like like

16:22

chronic dehydration can cause so many underlying health health concerns you know and we get diagnosed with the

16:28

pathology and it ends up it could actually just be like your nutrient deficient and you're like significantly dehydrated so your body can't you know

16:35

your body's going to manifest disease did you have um other like

16:40

um kids or other other people in your class in your school that were also like

16:45

dealing with you know it's like no psychological stuff and would also you know

16:51

turn to cigarette smoking Etc I mean like I remember that there was I

16:57

was definitely one of the more anxious kids in school but I do remember there was a few others and I remember even

17:03

like they would do a presentation and even like when they would start like I don't know some people like start crying

17:08

and stuff and I wasn't that bad but looking back I didn't really realize why and then now when I look back on it I'm

17:14

kind of like I just I feel so bad for them because I'm like oh that's just like a lot of anxiety and that's more

17:20

than I had and so but it's interesting because it really stands out kind of like um the kids that had high anxiety I

17:27

think they were always labeled as like you know like the shy kids and like but I just I think there's just so much more

17:32

going on there um yeah but even the people that I kind of knew kind of in my addiction phase

17:39

I'm not sure I'm sure there was some that were kind of they were I feel like

17:44

everyone is kind of trying to hide or cover up something maybe not necessarily anxiety but I think it very much is a

17:50

crutch for um like even like trauma like just covering up something in your life that

17:56

you're not ready to face and um I think that's very common very common in the addiction kind of world there I

18:03

think it's disturbingly easy as a team to easily fall into the Trap of using

18:10

substances to change your state of being State of Consciousness because of an underlying

18:15

condition be that anxiety or depression or just like being in school in general is quite anxiety provoking we're not

18:21

like you know you're actually like when you're 17 18 you're coming to the end of your like you know 10 years of

18:27

going to a school and sitting behind a desk and you know like that would cause anybody anxiety in my opinion but it's

18:33

uh yeah this doesn't seem to be a whole lot of um uh options for those particular kids

18:39

that that do struggle when they don't want to obviously stand out and say hi yeah I'm an anxious person

18:45

because that's you know doing that at that type of an age is a you know it's a very vulnerable thing to do and I don't

18:51

know if there are um teachers in place organizations in place within the school

18:58

setting to you know allow those kids to come forward and ask for help and I'm not quite sure like how that's changed

19:04

and there wasn't sent it was anything like that when I was a kid but I don't think there was I don't know maybe there was like there's bound to be anxious

19:10

kids but it's just like it seems to get worse and worse and worse Through The Years you know like as we should be

19:16

um understanding mental health a lot better we've got all these amazing Alternatives you'd think that the

19:22

psychological psychological conditions of young adults and young kids should be getting better and better and better as

19:28

we become more educated and learn more and the science evolves just doesn't seem the case and you know

19:34

you talked about the lockdowns as well and how unbelievably damaging that is to everybody let alone kids who are you

19:40

know like quite dependent on hanging out with their friends and being social and doing sports and all these things like

19:47

we've done a disastrous job in regards to thinking about that before we make like huge cataclysmic decisions but

19:53

we'll uh we'll move on with that but I want to talk to you about because you've got some history with true hope Canada

20:00

and our products I'd love it if you could tell us how that came into your life and how that like integrates and

20:06

flows into your um into your addiction recovery and your anxiety recovery yeah so I um when I was

20:14

coming off maternity leave and I at that point had already started my holistic nutrition program

20:19

um so I was sort of looking for a job and I was like there's no way I can start serving again and so I came across

20:25

the Vitality that was hiring and I got hired there as the manager um and there's obviously so many

20:30

products to learn but one of them was the true Health Products and it was one of the ones that was kind of brought to my attention when I

20:37

first was kind of giving the rundown of everything there um and they pointed it out as a mental

20:44

health multivitamin and that they kind of just very quickly explain that like

20:49

the kind of the back story to True hope and like what a cool story it is and um

20:55

yeah and then I ended up doing um there was like the the training on the product

21:00

and then I was able to try the product and so at that point I was still obviously on my anti-anxiety medications

21:06

but I was really already curious about what alternatives there were so I was

21:11

like just so excited when I heard about it a little skeptical I will say I was like I'm not sure like because I just

21:17

knew even because I like I had the original dose of the anti-anxiety I was on it

21:23

actually got upped so I was on a pretty high dose and so I was like I don't know like just you know like a multivitamin I

21:29

don't I'm not sure like I'm hopeful but and yeah so I started taking it and just even like a month later it was already

21:37

I just I already felt all the benefits and so coming off the Pharmaceuticals um

21:42

I even I felt that like the kind of the withdrawal from that um but it only lasted about three days but

21:48

it was the same feeling like when I had like not taking it for an hour or so so I knew that was from the anti-anxiety

21:55

meds but yeah coming on to the true hope um Empower there I there was really no

22:00

side effects to it and it kind of just seamless like it just integrated into my life like so well

22:07

um and I started feeling so good on it like even better than I did while I was on the anti-anxiety meds

22:13

um it just like it feels more natural and I I don't know I just I I don't know even know how much to overly explain it just

22:20

like I feel better I feel more myself I feel I don't know I'm not scared of any

22:26

situation that's thrown at me or anything like that I just I feel really good on it and it feels natural and yeah

22:33

like I'm excited to keep living on it and see where it takes me yeah and I

22:38

think I think with anything there's gonna be some sort of like psychological placebo effect and I think for most

22:44

people when they were gonna take like an antidepressant or an anti-anxiety Med or another anti-psychotic medication

22:50

there's going to be um some sort of level of like anxiety with

22:56

having to take something like that because you don't know how long you're going to be on it for you're obviously on it for a particular reason there are

23:02

side effects associated with it which you'll know but then when you look to take something that's literally just

23:08

food in very very specific bioavailable forms I feel like the the psychological

23:15

effects of just taking it would be so unbelievably positive because you know at the end of the day that you are and

23:20

you're obviously working in a health food store so you would assume that it's something that's you know a lot more healthy for you you'd have that like that drive and that

23:28

motivation for it to to provide you with like nourishment and energy rather than

23:33

being worried about what the drug the pharmaceutical is going to like do to you completely different like

23:38

psychological environment in regards to taking two different things and I think that once somebody's got the ability to

23:46

transition towards a natural health product like Empower plus um their whole road to recovery is kind

23:54

of like um it's it's it's floodlet it's lit up rather than like I want to say like a

24:00

narrow dark tunnel if someone was having to like go through and expect an a

24:05

pharmaceutical to like cure or treat or even heal their anxiety or depression in

24:11

the long term I hope that made sense but that's yeah that's just that's just a beautiful way that you've um been able

24:17

to have that accessible and you were talking about the education piece as well so yeah that's that's our true hope

24:24

University that is available to all of our retailers across Canada we've created a very like easy kind of fun

24:31

educational tool about all of our products a little bit about like who we are and what we do and we try to build

24:38

on that like every year to create more information because yeah as you say like

24:44

and we also gave you like we give our graduates like a free product to try themselves and I love that you're skeptical that's super that's a super

24:50

important trait to be a human to be a successful human being and but you had the courage to try it yourself with an

24:57

open mind and how what was your experience with using the product and coming off medications tell us about

25:04

that

25:09

the lower dose of Empower and I still already felt like the benefits of it so I am now on because I think it's either

25:16

you can do four a day or six today I believe so I said started with the lower one um and I still felt fine but I had

25:23

moved up to the the higher dose too um but I just I love it too just because

25:28

I'm so busy too and I just know that it's just giving my body the nutrients it needs so even if I am not getting it

25:35

or missed a little bit from what I was eating like it kind of fills in the gaps there too so it makes me

25:40

um happy in that way too to know that my body is getting the nutrients it needs and it was yeah there's no side effects

25:46

or anything to it and actually even yesterday so I normally would take um some in the morning and then some I

25:52

would bring to work and do in kind of like the late afternoon and I totally forgot yesterday um so I didn't end up taking them until

25:58

like eight o'clock at night and I felt fine the whole day there was no side effects like you know I didn't get the tingles that I did from if I forgot to

26:05

take my other anti-anxiety so and then yeah today woke up felt fine like there

26:10

was no like disrupt or like any spouts of anxiety that I had felt because I had missed it at all which I was really

26:17

excited about because that was huge with the other ones um yeah and it just

26:23

I uh yeah I don't know it just it was so easy and it literally just it makes me

26:29

feel like just so much happier too and it's just giving your body the nutrients it needs to kind of stabilize itself on

26:35

its own rather than giving the hormones that you need to not feel anxious it's

26:40

just giving like the building blocks so your body can do it itself and it's just way more natural and I I feel very good

26:48

about that yeah I've always thought that true healing and true treatment and even

26:54

curing certain things is about providing your body the ability to do it for you

27:00

rather than attempting to change its biochemistry and you know enhancing the

27:06

production of something or reducing or even eliminating the production of something which is primarily what you

27:11

know Pharmaceuticals do but if you're giving your body like such a nutrient dense bioavailable form of you

27:19

know very complex very deliberate forms very deliberate dosages and combinations

27:24

and you're giving your body down a consistent basis then it can just like as you say use the building blocks to go

27:30

out and do all the amazing things that it wants to do because your body is designed to make you feel awesome it's designed to heal it's designed to repair

27:37

and if you're giving your body something like Empower plus this broad spectrum

27:42

amazing micronutrient on a consistent basis then you're basically just getting out of the way and allowing your body to

27:49

do what it does best rather than really trying to do something because we can certainly try too much and there can be

27:55

stress that comes with that but as you say like you can miss a day you can miss a morning

28:01

and you're not going to obviously feel the side effects that you would with like a pharmaceutical drug which is like

28:07

you know very like chemical dependent and at the end of the day we're using natural ingredients that your body is

28:15

has evolved to consume and use and utilize and get around the body very

28:21

very quickly so it's like so familiar for the body to take these products in

28:27

and use them because we have the internal you know endogenous chemistry

28:33

and biology to do that so it's just yeah it's just a wonderful thing and um do you have you have you ever had a

28:40

period of time where you've noticed when you're not taking it for me like if I miss a day or I miss a couple of days I

28:47

know that my like agitation level Rises a little bit and my patience with

28:52

well with not just my kids but with myself and anything like I just like it a little bit more impatient and I'm like

28:59

oh okay I'm impatient because I've not taken my Empower plus today because you know I know so so important to me do you

29:05

ever notice anything like that I I prized about was um I didn't I didn't

29:13

notice at all like it was like I had taken it but it was yeah I don't know it just

29:19

totally like the other ones are just totally masking I think the issue where in power just

29:25

faces it and it just yeah yeah completely yeah it's probably all that meditation that you've been doing is

29:30

certainly serving you better than me that's great when you have people come in uh and you

29:38

rest you recommend them Power Plus like what are usually what are the conversations like what are people asking you what type of uh conditions

29:45

may they have like when you so when you end up recommending that product what is usually the conversation you have

29:51

well like you well honestly like the most common thing that people are coming in looking for right now is like meant something to help with like mental

29:57

health or stress I don't know if it's everything that's going on right now or just probably just a little mix of everything

30:03

but um so that is one of the most common things that people are coming in to look for and I hear the same thing a lot and

30:10

it's I've had people say that they're supposed to be on anti-anxodies and they don't want to take it and then I'm just

30:15

like oh I have the perfect prog product for you um so that's like a neat that one is an easy kind of sell on it but

30:21

um even if anyone that's like just looking for something to like relax or anything like that I love showing them

30:28

in power um just because it just kind of targets everything so it because you never

30:34

really know and I think there's so many different like you know there's different herbs and you can take different like amino acids and

30:39

everything to kind of try and get yourself to relax and combat anxiety but everybody is different and if you don't

30:46

know exactly what it is that you're deficient in that's causing you your Stress and Anxiety you'll have to try

30:51

like so many different products to then maybe but then still I feel like you're just kind of more or less covering it up

30:58

especially uh like with certain ones it's just like um yeah but

31:04

yeah I just I love showing in power just because it's it's such a great product and it's it sells itself

31:12

um even the font like the founder story is amazing and um there's just so there's so many

31:18

people with so much anxiety I've come to learn and um I don't know if it's that people are

31:23

talking about it more but I feel like more and more that's what I I have people coming in and so I love

31:29

pointing that out um I kind of give them the rundown we have all the pamphlets a lot of them go home and check it out themselves and

31:35

they always come back like being blown away by like the story behind it

31:41

um and then we have a few customers that are like that come in and they know exactly what they're looking for because

31:46

it just seems like anyone that has tried in power stands by it and they're always have such great things to say like I've

31:52

never heard anyone be like ah didn't really do much for me or anything like that which is really cool

31:59

um yeah no it's I mean it's I mean I've been working for the company for about five years now and

32:04

I have the the honor and the pleasure of hearing people's feedback from social media or from our podcast from our

32:11

website and yeah like as you as you talk about more and more people coming in to get things to support their mental

32:17

health I get to see the statistics of people coming onto our website and this month has been ridiculous in

32:23

regards to how many people people have got questions right they are going either walking into a store and asking

32:29

questions like how can I support my mental health how can I avoid going on medications how can I come off them and

32:34

people are also asking those questions in some search engines and finding us which is just amazing because we want to

32:40

we want to be an alternative um a complementary

32:45

um choice for people who do have a lot of motivation and passion and Power about

32:53

wanting to reclaim their health back and they know I think everyone knows that that they don't whether it's a stigma

32:58

thing or they they've seen people go into antipsychotics and not had a good

33:04

time um whatever the reason may be for them it's so amazing that we do have this as

33:10

an option for people and you know not only do we have an incredible backstory not only do we have you know 35 Medical

33:17

Publications which is you know the it's the most studied micronutrient formula on the planet we have um our true hope

33:24

University so all our retailers across the country are so unbelievably um educated and if they need to ask a

33:30

question or if there's something they don't know we're super available to be able to do that and that's always always

33:36

evolving I feel like our reps are just an unbelievable team of beautiful human

33:41

beings that are available at any point to help customers one-on-one if they

33:47

have questions whether that be a big thing or a little thing and if we don't know the answer we will find that out for them

33:53

um just so many incredible things that makes true hope such a phenomenal remarkable company and yeah I just

34:00

honestly wish that we were um I you know first option for a lot of

34:06

people when they start thinking about like I might need to take something to support my mental health be that a drug

34:13

or something more natural and it's amazing we've got people like you you know having conversations every single

34:19

day and that you are clearly invested in the company the story the products you've taken in these cells you know

34:24

you've walked the walk there that's that's just amazing um for those people who are on some sort

34:31

of medication to support their mental health because you know Empower plus has been studied before schizophrenia

34:37

bipolar ADHD PTSD depression anxiety you name it it's been it's been researched

34:42

for so we've got this like really really broad spectrum um supportive nature with this just one

34:48

product but for those people who are in Pharmaceuticals who who want to heal and don't want to be on them forever and

34:54

want to come off them and you know working with health practitioners is important what would you say to those people who do want to heal and come off

35:02

that there is definitely another option I know that was what I was so skeptical like with all the side effects and I'm

35:08

sure there's so many other people that have had the same experience that and you kind of think like this can't be

35:14

right this can't be that great for my body um but yeah there's a great option it's

35:20

just like it's all just vitamins and minerals like everything that your body needs anyways so it's nothing crazy it's

35:25

nothing scary it's just exactly what your body needs and the ratio that it needs

35:31

um and that's great like it's you can I don't know it worked for me so like you

35:37

can definitely like get off your Pharmaceuticals if that's something that you're interested in and understandably it's not really available to everyone

35:44

right now um so if yeah like but if it is something that you're wondering about or you've ever wondered about that yeah

35:50

Empower is a great great choice and it's yeah I can't believe how like good I

35:56

feel on it I can't believe that I don't have anxiety anymore because that was like such a huge part of my life so it's

36:01

just like is sometimes totally bizarre to me I'll just like be doing something I'm like ah this is so funny because I

36:07

would never have done this like ever before but yeah and it just opens up your life and it just like yeah it it's

36:13

so much better yeah such an amazing such an amazing success story and you're obviously gone through quite you've gone

36:20

through some serious stuff for a long period of time and if this product can support you then it can certainly support people who are just looking to

36:26

something to just manage their stress manage the everyday anxieties and you know depressive things that come up for

36:33

kind of everybody you know we've all got a connection with all of those different things so it's just a great Testament to

36:38

how this product can support all those different people and yeah as you say like there is another option and I think

36:44

for a lot of people when they do go to a doctor's office with the intention of getting something for their mental

36:50

health they feel that that's their last option and that's their last resort because they may have they may have tried many many different things

36:57

um you know like you you try lots of different things as well but it just like it wasn't that like one thing that kind of like broke through the roof to

37:04

give you that like that that path towards the light you know so yeah certainly do have other options out

37:10

there it's a you know healing your mental health healing your physical health healing your spiritual health

37:15

whatever that might be it's a journey it takes work it takes intention it takes becoming conscious of

37:21

your thoughts feelings and behaviors and you have to you know be be in it to do it and it's not just about taking

37:28

the Natural Health product it's you know it's it's also about looking after what you eat moving your body well getting

37:35

sunlight you know all these things and I just feel the Empower plus is the like foundational tool to allow your body to

37:42

give you the energy to even think about doing all those other things that are going to support your mental health and

37:48

super super valuable do you do you share your ex your actual personal experience in store with people

37:55

actually lately I have a little bit more I think it's still something that I'm getting more used to for a while I kind

38:02

of like would hide that about myself and like I wasn't sure how people would react to especially in certain

38:08

situations but more and more I have been more comfortable with it and I find it it does help people like especially to

38:15

know like the back story instead of just being like oh this is a great product like hearing that I take it myself and

38:21

like everything I've been through it's actually I've had very positive conversations around that

38:27

um and it feels like almost people are more willing to trust me when I open obviously when I open up a little bit

38:33

about about that because yeah so more and more and I think it is helpful it's

38:38

helpful for me too to talk about as well and share my experience and if I'm ever able to help someone get through a

38:44

similar situation or anything like that that's you know that's the goal yeah I mean that's a super Brave and courageous

38:50

thing to do because not everyone's not everyone's comfortable with that right whether that's they don't want to share that part of their life or they don't

38:56

want to revisit it too much you know but there's obviously I think there's a lot of um

39:02

a lot of Pride and power that you can take for you know recognizing that you have done the work to overcome that past

39:08

personality and that past person so yeah I think that's awesome I think I think what's amazing about like having this

39:15

conversation with you right now and having podcasts having long form discussions about this and me asking you

39:20

questions about your story people are going to be able to relate to what you're what you're saying

39:27

because it's got an emotional impact as an emotional frequency that we can all connect with I just think yeah I think

39:32

the the long-form storytelling podcast environment really allows people to

39:38

listen to your use into your story The Emotional aspects of that they can connect with it so well and they they

39:44

can understand intuitively that you are not lying you are being genuine you're being authentic

39:51

and people appreciate that right because that builds trust that builds Rapport and I think that sharing that like on

39:58

the floor in your store is a really really great way to get people to you know to to connect with you and that's

40:04

what I'm trying to that's what we're trying to create with this podcast is connecting with people who have these

40:09

beautiful true authentic stories that give people the um the thought to even think about like

40:16

trying to change their situation through all these amazing tools that we do have because

40:22

there are other many other options to start healing your mental health other than the conventional means of just

40:28

taking a drug for you for the rest of your life and I would say it is easier too like it

40:33

took me so long to go to the doctor's office because it 'd be so anxious so that's another great thing about Empower

40:39

is you don't actually have to do that you can even order it online if you had to or wanted to or there's of course all

40:45

the stores that haven't as well but that took me like a year to get myself into a doctor's office alone so I know there's

40:52

probably some other people that are struggling with that as well do you or carry and recommend any of our

40:58

other products at vitality a few of them we have the interstellar as

41:06

um which are both actually I had a I've had more people coming in right now looking for the interstellar

41:12

um or products like that so that was one that I've got to recommend um a little bit recently actually and

41:18

I've had um some interest in people excited about it as well yeah I find the

41:23

yeah I find the inositol so good for blood sugar balancing my my one-year-old's got like a he has a

41:31

hypoglycemia issue and the the inositol just works absolute wonders for him and

41:36

when the kids were being a bit too crazy or go get the inositol bottle and they

41:42

love it they line up for it and it just it chills them out real quick and it's also just amazing for sleep as well oh

41:48

that's awesome I'll have to try that on my kid yeah give it a go for sure um that's I think I think that's that's

41:54

perfect I'm so happy that you came onto the show to share your story with us we had we've had some technical issues in

42:00

the past with trying to get this working but that was this has been perfect um if people have got any like questions

42:06

for you if they want to connect um where can they where can they do that if you feel comfortable with that of

42:12

course of course yeah well I mean if you're in Edmonton obviously I do work at um the hawkstone Vitality so

42:17

definitely you can stop in and ask any questions um if not you can feel free to send me an email as well it's just um Sarah

42:24

dotmeister1 at hotmail.com and I'd be happy to answer any questions well that's awesome thank you so much

42:30

for being open with that to to answer any questions and yeah of course if you're in Edmonton you should go check

42:35

out that Vitality health food store because um there's amazing people like Sarah working there every day yes thank you

42:42

thank you so much for having me no thank you so much for coming on sharing your story and I think this is going to be

42:47

very beneficial for um a lot of people to you know start thinking about those alternative options but Sarah thank you

42:54

so much for coming on the show I appreciate it yeah thank you awesome well that is it for this episode of True

43:00

hope because the official podcast for True hope Canada I'll leave some information in the show notes in regards

43:06

to Vitality health foods and how to connect with Sarah I'll put her email up there for you but don't forget to

43:12

subscribe if you haven't yet you can leave us a little review on iTunes if you wish but that is it for this week we'll see you soon

43:19

[Music]