Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign the podcast for those who find themselves immersed in adversity and choose to write their story instead of having others write it for them. I'm Drew Duraney and I'm your host.
Today's guest is Kristen Weisdack. Dr. Kristen Weisdack is the founder and CEO of Behavior Works of Southwestern Pennsylvan and a passionate educator having personal and professional experience working with individuals with special needs across the lifespan. Over the last 19 years, she helps parents and professionals who are frustrated and overwhelmed with navigating behavioral issues by using holistic approaches. She addresses gut health, nutritional issues, and many of the often unrecognized root causes of behavior.
She has worked with hundreds of families, service coordinators, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech and language pathologists, nutritionists, behaviorists, teachers, and many other mental and behavioral health professionals to shift their practice to a holistic approach.
She is a licensed behavior specialist, certified infant massage instructor, certified integrative mental health provider, and licensed brain gym movement facilitator.
Enjoy the show.
Kristen, good morning. It's so good to see you.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Good morning, Drew. It's good to see you too.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: So. So, Kristen, I. I am a flexible person and I love that, you know, we're doing this on a Sunday morning. It's my first one on a Sunday morning. But you are so busy with your patience during the week, and I admire that. And when you asked about doing it on a weekend, I'm like, sure, absolutely. So this is my pleasure to be able to see you on a Sunday morning, Kristen. I always thank the individual who introduced me to my guest. And I need to thank Sajad Hussain. Sajad, thanks for introducing me to Kristen. There's always a reason why these introductions happen and you all will find out why it was important for Kristen and me to meet today.
So why is Kristen on this show? So I talk often about, and my audience knows this. I talk about how initially we're taught that life is linear and it's not a malicious teaching by the people teaching us that they want that for us. And we're told if you do A plus, B plus C D is going to happen.
And for the most part, life is linear in the beginning and then it's not. Something comes from the external circumstances will appear and get in between one of those letters and that straight path in life starts to be a little more circuitous.
And when that happens, sometimes we see adversity and do something about it. And sometimes we see adversity and don't. And sometimes we don't see adversity. At all.
That's why I believe there's three different people out there, three different men, three different types of women for this case, Kristen, there's three different types of women out there. There's woman number one, who's got so many blind spots. She's just doing what other people tell her to do, live in other people's lives. She doesn't see adversity or even thinks she could change it. So nothing changes. And then there's woman number two. Woman number two has a heightened self awareness, especially from woman number one. And she sees that adversity, yet she believes that adversity is a barrier.
She's the victim.
Everybody else is to blame. Life is doing it to her and there's nothing she can do. And on her deathbed, she has so many regrets. And then there's woman number three. The women I have on this show. Kristen's woman number three. Woman number three has a very heightened self awareness. She sees that adversity and she's at the point in her life where she says, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. This adversity is not a barrier. This is an opportunity.
This is life doing this for me. And I'm going to seize this moment to take massive action and do something different and become a stronger woman on the other side. So, Kristen, for the audience, please reach back as far as you need to for that defining moment or defining moments, either that tap on the shoulder, the whisper in the ear, or like what I needed two by four upside my head that transformed your. You, your thinking and your behavior from whatever woman you were to woman number three. The Kristen we're speaking with right now.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: Well, Drew, thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity. It's a beautiful day here in Pennsylvania on a set on a Sunday. And yeah, it's just. It's really great.
So thank you for that. Thank you for. For doing what you do as well. I would say that the defining moment for me didn't come until I was about 40.
I think when you're. Whenever you describe woman A and woman B, I also went through some of those stages to become woman C because I think woman B happened during COVID And I think everybody, not everybody, because I can only speak for myself, right. But I think during COVID we felt like we were trapped and sheltered and that the world was against us. And I won't go deep into why those beliefs are there. We don't have time for that. But I think a lot of what happened during COVID was really transformational for a lot of people because during that, I felt like I didn't have control of my life, that the decisions I was making weren't my own.
And throughout that, there's one day that just kind of a light went off.
It's like, no, I have the tools and the resources that have been there all along.
I just needed to reach deep within myself and believe in myself and use the tools that I've had.
And that was transformational.
Then when I was 40, there was a co worker that came to me and she said, kristen, I think the way that you interact with people and your thinking is a little bit different from others.
And I said, I think I agree with you. So I explored that a little bit and found out that I have neurodivergent traits as well.
And really through that became woman C through both Covid and that kind of whisper in the ear that you spoke to.
And understanding that sometimes people come into your life and you need to take their advice selectively and really trusting your gut.
That's the biggest thing that I was always reluctant to do when I was younger, is trust your gut instincts and learn to listen to people to a certain extent.
But I think whenever you're making a decision, especially whenever you're a parent or whenever you have your own business, you know what's right.
But sometimes there's that barrier that comes along that somehow it gets overridden, the good decision gets overridden, and then things start falling apart. So really now in my life, because of COVID and because of that person that I was working with, that I've really just trust my instincts, trust my gut, and realize that I'm enough, you know, that I'm deserving. And that when you go through adversity, it's for a reason. When you go through hard times to reason and seeing that as, what lesson did I learn when I went through that hard thing?
What lesson did I learn and who did I become because of it?
And really understanding who you are inside can be really transformational.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: There's so much here. And I'd like to go.
I mean, I want to go back to when you finally felt like you could trust your instincts. And many of us, we know what we really think we should do or want to do.
It's that self trust.
When self trust is lacking, that's when other people's opinions override your own.
And the strength you found in yourself by realizing that you always had it in you.
What do you think made you finally feel that way?
And what do you think caused you not to trust yourself? And how'd you break down that barrier? Because many of us have those barriers.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Well, I think, to answer your first question, what caused me to trust myself?
Partially when my son was born in 2017.
And so he was born premature and spent about two months in the NICU.
And there was a certain point after he was born, it was a week and a half, two weeks into the nicu, and the nurses weren't following his feeding protocol, and he wasn't making enough progress.
And I thought to myself, I need to take charge here. This is my son.
And so. So I think that motherly instinct kicked in, was like, I really need to have a talk with the head nurse. I want to have his feeding schedule posted.
And I think a lot of that was transformational for me.
The thing that was holding me back, to answer the second part of your question is whenever you're young, you're naive. It comes naturally, and you don't listen to the people that love you and are giving you sound advice. Sometimes it's not always the best for you, but one of the things that you're taught, depending on what household you grow up in. Right. Because the way that you were parented is the way you parent. A lot of that is parallel.
So you want to trust people that are experts in your life, and you want to trust people that are, you know, saying they're going to help you.
And sometimes that doesn't work out if it doesn't resonate with you.
I. I do a lot of work in the holistic space, and so for the longest time, I made decisions that went against that.
And so that was the defining moment, I think, when my son was born and went through that experience in the nicu, that was really transformative.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: I love that story because it hits on, number one, doing things. Scared. Right. If you overthought about speaking to the head nurse, those voices in your head would have stopped you from advocating for your son. Right.
That advocating for your son empowered you. That was an empowering decision. And once you completed that decision, and I'm assuming they posted the feeding schedule and things improved, and they posted the.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Feeding schedule, and one of the nurses was using too much chin and cheek support to help with his feeding because he had some trauma, obviously, being born premature.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: But they were giving him too much chin and cheek support. So he had an abrasion on his chin because they were using too much.
And so it was false hope because I thought that he was drinking enough.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: Enough weight to come home. Well, it was because the, he wasn't progressing naturally. They were using too much chin and cheek support. So that means that they're pushing the chin up and stimulating the cheeks for that suck reflex.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: So a baby will eat because he had a rooting reflex that wasn't fully developed. He had a submucosal cleft palate, meaning that the bony part of the roof of his mouth wasn't totally closed shut. It was just the skin on the roof of his mouth. So he was having trouble with a natural suck swallow breeze.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: I see.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: And so it gave me false hope and that was crushing. And so you're saying that was the.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: The too much of that pressure wasn't allowing him to naturally learn how to suck. Right, right. We're kind of giving him forcing it.
[00:12:41] Speaker B: They were forcing it.
[00:12:42] Speaker A: They were, yes. Okay, so I understand. So that's, that's very astute on your part to notice that. And so they changed that.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: That they did. That nurse never fed my son again.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Okay, beautiful. So then your son progressed. So that's definitely the empowering piece, is actually breaking the cycle and asking for help and.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: The, the thing that built the confidence was that, I mean, that result was beautiful. So you could take that feeling of being, of being an empowered, you know, mother and person and take that into other aspects of your life and it seems like you, you've done that.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Why? And. Well, as a result of that, we got occupational therapy while he was in the nicu.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Good.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: So that I could learn how to naturally help him with that sex swallow breathe reflux so that he could naturally gain weight and drink and come home sooner. So yeah, a lot of good things came from that.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: And it's just, that's a lot. Something that a lot of people don't know the difference between physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy. Describe occupational therapy and, and, and maybe why some parents who are first time parents may not think to suggest occupational therapy. You would think the healthcare field would offer that immediately.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: Well, right. So occupational therapy, there's different avenues of occupational therapy. So in, I work primarily in early intervention and I see clients privately, but in early intervention, there's occupational therapists that work on feeding therapies.
So they will help children with the suck, swallow, breathe reflex. We had occupational therapy when my son came home.
So they told me about feeding positions to help him so that he could naturally develop that suck, swallow, breathe without gasping for air. And then he got gassy and all these other things. So it helped with natural comfort and feeding and it really helped me Understand his rhythms. So there's the feeding therapy part of occupational therapy. There's also the fine motor skills and gross motor skills part of physical therapy, where they will help with, like, hand putty and different hand strengths and crawling and doing all of these motor movements to help with development.
Then there's the sensory part of occupational therapy, so you can do sensory bends to help desensitize children to certain textures.
But then there's the deepest level of occupational therapy.
When I had a clinic, the occupational therapy that I. Therapist that I work with, Mandy Keckler, she is amazing.
She actually was interested in more of the holistic method after she took one of my trainings. And so we connected and had the clinic together. And she specialized in something called primitive reflex integration.
And so through the primitive reflex integration, children can really work through trauma on a physical level.
Because when kids have any trauma now, it doesn't have to be like classic abandonment or physical or verbal abuse, any of those things. Trauma can be if you're born overweight or underweight, or if you're born via C section, or it's traumatic for your mother during pregnancy, even in utero, or if you're in a car accident, you fall and hit your head. There's. There's a lot of different things, chronic inflammation, a lot of different things that cause trauma to the body. And whenever there's trauma in the body, it causes the primitive brain to be overly active. So the child is in fight or flight. And so what you have to do, the whole goal of this is to understand what reflexes are still either retained, meaning they're overly active when they shouldn't be, or they're absent. They never developed in the first place.
Really. Their goal is to assess the body and the movements.
They are unconditioned motor responses, not unconditioned, but you don't have to think about them when they happen. Right. So that version of occupational therapy really understands at the root cause what reflexes are there and what exercises we need to do to integrate them. So it's like an on off switch. So I can use those reflexes when I need, but I can shut them off when I don't.
So when that happens, it takes the body from fight or flight to rest and digest.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Okay, And I love what you're saying because this, this, obviously there's occupational therapy for adults too. And most is adults have already been doing certain things. Then some kind of traumatic experience happens, and we have to relearn what we used to know. And I've seen that in so many instances where we take for granted some of the things that are automatic, you know, and then when, God forbid, something does happen, we got to relearn some things. So I just. I always have a special spot in my heart for. For occupational therapists because I, you know, witnessed it myself when I worked in healthcare. So thank you for explaining that.
And so now let's. Let's talk about your son and how is he doing now?
[00:17:38] Speaker B: He's doing really well. We didn't think that he would be able to talk or articulate well, I guess because of the submucosal cleft palate.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: We had genetics. We work with the craniofacial team at Children's Hospital here in Pittsburgh. And. And so we introduced.
Because you're uncertain as a parent, right. When you have a child, you have certain expectations about how they're going to grow up, right? Abcd. Right.
We build our own ABCD for our own children.
And so whenever they don't follow that developmental pathway, it's very hard. Right. So the things that I implemented, thank goodness I was working at the time on multidisciplinary teams. So I was working with amazing ots and pts and vision therapists and all of these wonderful people who really taught me about thinking outside the box. So we introduced sign language at an early age and was fortunate enough to learn about developmental pediatricians and developmental optometrists, really have been able to understand gut health and root cause analysis.
That was really the defining moment where I.
Because my undergraduate degree, my bachelor's is in human development family studies. So here comes a little bit of duality if we have time.
So the bachelor's degree is in human development and family studies. So it talks to you about lifespan development from birth to death, what happens biologically inside the body, what happens socially then. My master's degree was in applied Behavior analysis. So it's understanding of behavior, what functions of behavior and how can we look at changes, changing it with positive reinforcement and good strategies, et cetera, et cetera, and addressing skill deficits.
So it created a little bit of a duality because during my program, my master's program, they don't talk to you about the inner workings of the body.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: So you think they.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: Was trained under something called the 4th edition task list for Applied Behavior Analysis. And one specific line stuck out to me. It was G02. It said, Rule out underlying medical issues as causes of behavior.
And I thought to myself, when I went through classes here in Pittsburgh, and when I went through my classes, there was very Little conversation about how to rule out medical issues other than doing some assessments, asking some surface level questions like if they have allergies or eczema, things like that, and then referring them to their pediatrician.
And so it became very problematic for me when I understood that pediatricians generally, not all the time, generally only have about 7 to 10 hours of nutrition training.
I don't understand because they haven't specialized in developmental pediatrics. They don't understand about gut health and nutrition and all these things. And so that's what was the catalyst for me to get my doctorate. And the biopsychosocial approach to applied behavior analysis. That's what my, my dissertation focused on. And so that really was a catalyst for me in understanding what else is going on here and how else can I help Preston. So that really made me pursue trainings in certified. I became a certified infant massage instructor, certified integrated mental health provider, and understanding nutrition and working as a vision therapist for a while to understand binocular vision dysfunction, because that's a problem in kids with autism and ADHD related to trauma.
And so now he's doing really, really well. But we had to. I had to work a lot with him to do sign language and the reflux integration therapy and the occupational therapy and all these different things. So he's doing really great.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: And I'm happy for that. And I love to hear that. And you had a lot to do with that and still do.
And, you know, think about the mother or father who don't have any health care training or any kind of clinical training like you had. Imagine how lost you would feel.
It's a benefit that you had some people in your life where you were already working on this kind of stuff and you had. The signs are pointing to, oh, my God, this is coming together. I can, I know about this. Let me dig deeper. But for, for the most part, most people don't have those, those connections or that kind of training to even know that about anything about that binocular thing you talked about.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: And so how do we get the information that's. And the wisdom and knowledge that's in your brain, how do we get that to those families who know nothing and they're just taught the, the Western medicine approach when they're having their first kid and all they're focusing on is the A plus, B plus C, D. And then God forbid something happens, then it's like, oh, wait, now what? I don't have a path B.
How do we get this information?
[00:22:43] Speaker B: So when I work with clients privately the first step is about an hour and a half to two hour conversation.
And that's really the, the deepest part of my therapy is helping families understand the root cause.
So that is asking about birth experience and nutrition, constipation, diarrhea, eczema, ear infections, reflux, if they snore when they sleep. So we're going through a lot of signs of binocular vision dysfunction. Like do they side eye the television or do they look down or they look up?
Are they preferring to stand or sit? Are they doing a lot of self simulatory behavior like rocking or flapping?
So through that, that private work, then we work together for generally three or six months every other week for an hour.
And so through that process, I'm not only helping them understand what is something that you can do right after we hang up that might be able to help your son or daughter.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: Love that.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: What can you do in the next week and then what can you do in the coming weeks and months? Because I'm looking for connecting them specifically because we start at gut health, just some vitamins and probiotics, but not all vitamins and probiotics are created equal, right, Absolutely.
And then we work on the diet and then we work on connecting them with people that are local to them, that can work on primitive reflexes and the trauma detox protocols.
But just some of the things that even if families, I offer a 30 minute complimentary conversation, just talk about some general things. And so there's a lot of value even in that complimentary conversation.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: Well, I think, you know, the, the more that these conversations you and I are having become norm in society, that's really how we can get this information out there. And you know, I mean social media has its drawbacks, but it also has its benefits. That the reason you and I reconnected, because we met, you and I met like three or four years ago. We reconnected because on LinkedIn you posted something that opened my eyes and you talked about and we kind of dabbled in it right now. But usually what happens when, when you see your child do something different from all the other kids, we go right to going to somebody about behavioral issues.
Why is he not behaving now? My son is 23 and he's got autism. And I remember he used to run back and forth corner to corner in the room and we just thought he had a lot of energy.
Yeah, we didn't do anything, any of that because we didn't know any different. 23 years ago when he got older and was able to Articulate. I asked him, do you know why you did? He goes, yeah, I thought better. I could think better when I was moving.
And he's like that now. He sitting still doesn't help him focus because it makes him overthink on things that he doesn't want to focus on.
So that he also touched the lobe of his ear a lot and mine and his mother's. So that sensory thing, things I would have picked up now had I known. And we ended up having him tested a little later in life.
So when I mentioned social media, you posted something that really got me and you talked about rather than jumping right to behavioral issues, how about take your kid to the ear doctor, the eye doctor, the nose doctor, the mouth doctor, you know, the dentist, the ent.
Because if you have a child who's non, just not, you know, old enough to be verbal and is non verbal or too young to speak, just regular, they may be in pain and not able to let you know. Or like you said with the eye, if they're doing the side eye and you're saying, oh my gosh, my child doesn't look me in the eyes, there must be something.
Go to those first level doctors. I call them first level because that's where we should think right away. The dentist if there's mouth pain, the eyes if they're vision problems, the ears if there are hearing problems. And what did I miss? The ear, eyes, nose. So tell me about. And the nose too. So tell me about.
And thank you for posting that. Tell me a little about the post and what you what got my attention.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: Well, really it's understanding the root cause of what's going on.
Because behavior is very observable, it's measurable.
And our society has become so connected with the fact that when we get a diagnosis or we think there's a behavioral issue, we've been conditioned as a society, I think, at least here in the US to get applied behavior analysis services.
So this isn't to say that I'm not a big component of aba, because I use ABA in my therapy every day. Secondary to the fact that we address the root cause.
Because when you can address gut health, you can address nutrition, you can address unrecognized pain and unmet sensory need. Like when you talked about your son running back and forth when, when kids are. Because I always ask parents, that's one of the questions in my assessment. Is your child always on the go?
Are they toe walking?
Are they rocking, are they flapping? And usually that's a sign that body's in fight orf flight.
And you can do some very simple things like add a vitamin, add a probiotic. It's like people and in perspective, it's like whenever you plant a flower, it needs certain things to grow.
And if the leaves on the flower start to turn brown, you don't cut the leaf off. Right.
You might, you might in society, but you really have to look at the roots. What's going on with the soil beneath that we can't see what's going on inside of that child that we can't see.
That's why that developmental pediatricians, developmental optometrists. We have a great one here in Pittsburgh. His name is Dr. Hans Lessman. He's in Switzdale.
And those specialists really help understand the root cause of what's going on.
And that is so imperative because once you can do that, you can understand it's not that your child won't behave.
They can't.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: They can't. So you really hit on something very important because there, there are many more behavioral pediatricians. I just throw the word behavioral in front of it because most pediatricians.
[00:29:14] Speaker B: Yeah. The behavioral developmental pediatrician.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: Yeah. They don't. But a lot of them don't have that developmental, developmental background like you mentioned seven hours. So if we can increase the quantity of developmental pediatricians and then the developmental and behavioral pediatricians consult together on the same case with the same patient. Ideally there'd be pediatric practices that have both developmental and behavioral pediatricians because they can sit and consult and do case studies and share information.
Aside from that, if those pediatric departments don't have that diversity, then we definitely need to have more people on the outside know this stuff, whether they're laypeople or not.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: So there's definitely a lack of collaboration between those two worlds.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: Because it's Eastern versus Western medicine views.
And when your world is built around. And mine was too around aba. Right. It's so partially is whenever you are so passionate about a topic and helping people in one particular arena.
I would encourage people, if you're in the doctoral field in any way, shape or form not to get too hyper focused on them and not to prevent your patients from making informed decisions. Right.
I love it when my parents work with a pediatrician and they listen to them.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:42] Speaker B: Actually have bedside manner and let the parents trust their gut instincts and say, I don't know much about that, but I'll explore it with you.
Let's understand that together. Let's how to. How to help your son. Right. If that child is Coming to you time and time again, and they're having the same issue over and over again.
Have you really done what your purpose is in life?
[00:31:04] Speaker A: I know. I love that because we, we do seem to try to tackle symptoms because it's easier. That's the easy way is to handle symptoms. The root cause obvious. I mean, to me it's, it's like common sense and obvious. But I've been in health care for so long. I was always into like, well, why, why, why? Always questioning, why is this happening? Don't put a band aid on a hemorrhage. Let's find out why the hemorrhage is happening.
So, and that's the issue, like, with a lot of our chronic diseases in this country, because they're chronic, because we keep addressing the symptom and not the root cause of it. So if nothing else, I want the audience to take, take that root causes are more important than symptoms. Symptoms you could see, they tell, they're telling a story. The symptoms are tapping on the shoulder and saying, hey, hey. There's more to this.
[00:31:53] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's just like whenever the indicator lights come on in your dashboard, in your car.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: That's a good one.
Yes. Why is the check engine light on?
[00:32:02] Speaker B: Like, why is the, why is the belt making that weird sound?
[00:32:06] Speaker A: Yeah, because imagine if the check engine light comes on and you go to a friend and say, do you know how to turn this check engine light off? It's bothering me. That's like symptom rather than. Well, there might be a reason why that check engine lights on. Let's dig deeper and find out why.
[00:32:22] Speaker B: It'S getting connected with the right mechanic.
[00:32:24] Speaker A: Well, there you go. Yeah. Let's just that it's true. It's true. There's so many parallels to that.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: Taking care of a car versus taking care of a human. We seem to take care of our cars better than we take care of our humans.
That's another story. So, Kristen, anything else.
Is there anything else that I may have missed or we haven't talked about that you would like the audience to know?
[00:32:48] Speaker B: I would say if you're a parent listening to this, always trust your instincts, get a second opinion and find a provider that is going to listen to you. At the bare minimum, find a provider that is going to value your input and help you explore alternatives.
That's so valuable.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: Absolutely. And you know, I think, and I love that. Thank you for that message. And, and the, the sooner the better. I mean, I, I think if you, if you surround yourself with the right with the best practitioners who will listen to you when you see something in your child and first instinct is I want to talk to somebody about this. Don't overthink it and, and think yourself out of bringing them to somebody. But the first thing is, like I said, have that community you can trust. And then you bring, then you listen to your instincts and bring it up. But don't, don't, don't not do something about it. I think you know, well, the audience certainly has captured the essence of Kristen Weisdack and they're going to want to get touch with you. So audience please. If you're out there and you have any type of questions or wondering about your child, a conversation with Kristen is well worth it.
Her email address is. Emailing Kristen is probably the best way to get in touch with her. So it's, it's behavior. B E H A V I O R works W o R x Pennsylvania for Pennsylvania. So behaviorworkspa mail.com email Kristen and she'll get back to you.
All right, so I have two questions for you, two final questions. All right, so picture yourself in your happy place, you know, where you like to be. And you're sitting down with young 7 to 10 year old Kristen and you want to give her advice about life. What are you going to tell her?
[00:34:43] Speaker B: I would say trust your instincts. That would be the biggest thing.
Trust your instincts and don't let anybody dull your sparkle.
Do things in life that make you happy, be with people that fulfill you and make you feel loved and appreciated.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: I love that. That's wonderful.
All right, switch hats. You're now sitting down with young Kristen, the young businesswoman entrepreneur and you want to give her advice about business. What would you tell her?
[00:35:18] Speaker B: I would say the same thing.
Trust your instincts and if something doesn't resonate with you because I think when we're not happy, we don't connect with energetically who we are because we're all energetic beings as humans, right? We're just made up a mass of the cells that vibrated a certain frequency and surround it. Surround yourself with people that will build you up and not break you down. Find your community of people that truly appreciate you and value you and are going to help you and that you're going to help them. Right? You have to have that reciprocity. I do a lot of work in the holistic space, obviously, but I've also worked in the blue zone treatment.
[00:36:02] Speaker A: What's that?
[00:36:03] Speaker B: Blue zones are where and this is a whole nother.
[00:36:06] Speaker A: Have part two of this yeah, but.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: Blue zones are areas of the world where people live to be centenarians. So a hundred or more.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: Very high statistics that they reach that age.
And one of the phenomenon that the Japanese follow is called ikigai.
Ikigai is being with people that build you up, that fulfill your purpose.
Because when we're connected with that, we are like batteries.
[00:36:36] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:36:37] Speaker B: We need charged.
And when we are with people that drain us, it's no good. Right. We can't be our best selves. So be with people that energize you, that make you happy and that fulfill you.
And also that you can lend something to them to evaluate.
[00:36:56] Speaker A: That's beautiful advice. And that advice can go to anybody who's listening because.
Yeah, I mean, I've been on the side of allowing somebody to drain me. And that's the thing. I allowed it.
We can control it. We have control over who we allow in our space.
[00:37:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:37:13] Speaker A: No one can forward. We can make decisions every day and we're looking to make the best decisions for ourselves. So, Kristen, thank you so much for coming on. But more importantly, thanks for coming into my life.
I've got a lot going on, moving forward with the special needs space and you certainly are going to be one of my. One of my. Go to people because the world needs you. So keep doing what you're doing. Thank you.
[00:37:38] Speaker B: Well, I look forward to the opportunity to help more people and to help you on your journey as well.
[00:37:42] Speaker A: So wonderful. Thanks so much, Kristen. Hey, everybody out there. Please take care of yourselves.
Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please please subscribe and give us a review to help others find it.
I'd like you to answer this question.
Are you living the life you want to live or are you living the life others want you to live? I'd like you to think about that for a second because I strongly suggest you live the life you want to live. If you want to learn more about what I stand for and my services and how I'm able to help many men get out of their own way, please go to my website at www.prophetcompassion.com.
feel free to also email me at drewrophetcompassion.com I'd love to have a conversation with you.
Take care of yourself and choose to write your own story instead of letting others write it for you.
