15 – What Being Healthy Means (TO YOU!)
Have you ever considered that your health might be more than just numbers on a lab report? Join me, as I share my personal journey to redefining health and wellness, starting with exciting updates from my at-home retreat. My husband and I are preparing for a thrilling governor’s event, and my energy levels, weight loss, and sleep quality are soaring.
Transcript
Sharise Parviz: 0:00
Welcome to Burn the Boats, baby. This is Sharise Parviz, your holistic health specialist, life relationship and energy healing coach. Hey, so today I wanted to talk about how the world for us would be different if we decided what health meant to us, if we defined what it meant to us. So before we get into that, I wanted to give you an update on what is happening at my at-home retreat. Things are going really really well. I have a lot of energy. I’m continuing to lose weight. It’s slowed down. It used to be a pound a day and now it’s maybe about a pound every three days maybe. So almost two pounds a week, I think, was what last week was, and it still continues to moving down and getting down, getting into some clothes that I’ve been in the back of my closet for a while and I went oh, let’s see if that fits today and it does.
Sharise Parviz: 0:56
So, feeling good, sleeping great. My sleep is doing really really well. I’m able to kind of sleep through the night and still waking up every once in a while and I just okay, you know, when I wake up and something is on my mind instead of, like you know, berating myself or waking up like I need to get some sleep. I need to get some sleep. I kind of just let it okay. What’s the message? What’s happening? What’s my brain? You know what’s my brain, you know thinking about, what is my mind on that we need to deal with, you know. And then it comes up and then I’ll pray about it and I’ll do some, you know, meditation in bed and I can then fall asleep. So you know, the biggest thing if you wake up in the middle of the night, I found that the biggest thing that keeps us from falling back to sleep is worrying about waking up and not going back to sleep. So if you get up in the middle of the night, I would suggest trying that, instead of like going looking at the clock and going right, which only just stresses us out further and we’re trying to relax, we can go back to sleep further and we’re trying to relax so we can go back to sleep is to pray, to meditate, to focus. Maybe do some focus meditations on your breath, on your sensations in your body, doing a body scan, exercise, body scanning, just kind of seeing how you feel from head to toe, and just focusing on your breath and allowing your body to just to be and if something is on your mind, give it to God and through those activities not stressing out about waking up and not being able to sleep, but through those activities that actually will help you to fall back to sleep At least it should. I have a whole in my wise and wild wellness way. I have a whole lot of tips on how to sleep, anyway, so, but those are a few that I recommend that I use on myself. You know, prayer, meditation, breath work, just focusing on breath, nothing big, just focus, and and then maybe body scanning and see where there’s some tension and then just letting it go right, okay, so, so, yeah, everything is going really well and, uh, what else gosh? Uh, oh, well, today my husband and I are going to a governor’s event, so that should be kind of fun. We’re looking forward to that. We’ll see how that goes, and I guess that’s it for updates.
Sharise Parviz: 3:26
So let’s get to the topic of the day. Okay, so what I wanted to chat about is I was listening to a podcast this morning and you may know her or you may not. Her name is Dr Jennifer Daniels, and I don’t know her story completely, but from what I understand and again, I could be wrong on details, but I think I’m close enough for you to get the idea is she was a medical doctor and she actually served, built her own facility, her own practice, like you know, the whole building and all invested in her community that she grew up in. She grew up in the ghetto and somewhere in New York Syracuse, new York, I believe and again the details may be a little shady on me right now I’m not sure but I believe it was Syracuse, new York, and she grew up in the ghetto and she wanted to go back and serve her community and she did and, from what I understand, she lost her medical license because, well, she wasn’t doing what the you know what the establishment was trying to make her do. Right, she wasn’t passing out pills like they were candy, so she wasn’t writing up prescriptions. Other like pharmaceutical reps would come in and say, you know, check your inventory and all this, and checked her inventory and saw that she was still had so much inventory or what have you, and then they reported her and I can’t remember, I don’t remember the details, this is just from what I understand and then she ended up losing her license and then going into debt and she actually ended up moving and she’s now from well, I shouldn’t say now, but from when I was listening to her podcast or going back and listening to her podcast in Panama.
Sharise Parviz: 5:13
So really great, interesting lady. She is one that has brought kind of like turpentine in the foreground, turpentine therapy into the foreground. And let me just say anything I say today is only for entertainment and educational purposes only. This is none of this is medical advice. This is all just us shooting the you know what. Okay, that’s all we’re doing here today.
Sharise Parviz: 5:39
So anyway, she was a big one that really was bringing the whole turpentine protocol to light and she did a lot of research on turpentine and how turpentine back in the Merck manual of like 1899, I think it was, it was everything. It was there to cure everything Right. And then slowly and slowly and slowly it went out of favor, mostly probably because drugs came into favor, but anyway. And then she rediscovered it, I should say, back in the 90s, and she started working with her patients with that had wonderful, wonderful results with the turpentine protocol. And I’m not going to discuss what the protocol is and I’m not suggesting you just sit there and take a bottle of turpentine. If that’s something you’re interested in, you can look her up, Dr Jennifer Daniels, and I think her website is Vitality Capsules. I’m not quite sure I think that’s right, but just look her up and you can Google her, or you know, duckduckgoer, or whatever you do, and learn for yourself, right. So, anyway, but if you’ve been hearing about the Turpentine Protocol, it actually stemmed all from her bringing it back to light what they did a hundred, you know, or more, years ago, all right.
Sharise Parviz: 7:00
So anyway, I was listening to a podcast of hers this morning and she talked about how, you know, we are already healthy, all the health we need we have. And you know, just maybe consider what she was saying. If we could define what health means for us beyond the labs, beyond the white coats, beyond what any expert or what the leading doctors say, or what the trend of the moment is, is what is healthy, and we define what that is ourselves by determining if we have enough health to live the life that we want to live. And if we have enough health to live the life we want to live, then we’re healthy. And it’s not about some outside, external, you know, checkmark verification. Hey, you’re healthy, right? It’s about how we feel and are we able to do the things that we want to do in our life. So, for instance right, I’ll take me for instance my goal I’ve decided and if you’ve been following along is not only do I want to get to dancing again, I want to get back to my professional level fitness and ability, that’s what I want to get. So I’m going to determine, since that’s the level I want to get to, of course I’m going to be looking at my diet and my training and my stretching and all of these things that will put me back into the place where I was professionally dancing, in that type of level, that fitness level. Okay, that’s where I want to be.
Sharise Parviz: 8:57
Now, your goal in life may not be the same, you know. You might want to just be able to enjoy, enjoy playing with your kids or your grandkids without pain. You might want to just be able to climb the stairs without getting out of breath. You might want to run a marathon. You might just want to go biking or walking with your friends. Whatever that is, whatever it is that you want to do in your life, whatever the activity is that you want to put into your life and have more to do, have more of in your life, determine your health. Can you do those things? If those are things that you want to do, you determine what you want to do. Can you do it? And if not, what might need to be shifted in your life? What might need to be modified, adapted, eliminated, replaced, to have you attain that health that will give you the freedom to do the things that you enjoy and desire to do?
Sharise Parviz: 10:00
And so, in that thinking, it’s not about the lab reports, it’s not about the yearly tests, it’s not about and I’m not saying go do tests, don’t do tests. You do what’s right for you. That’s between you and you. You know you got to do that, you got to be, you got to do what your conscious tells you to do. I, personally, I don’t do tests. I haven’t done a medical test in quite some time. I’m not saying that’s for you, but I haven’t. Now my husband has. And because, um, when we were testing his liver for, uh, his numbers, when his med? Because when he was on the drugs, but he hasn’t done it since, right, once we got everything back to normal. He hasn’t done it since.
Sharise Parviz: 10:42
And so the? So that’s a decision you have to make on your own, whether you’re going to go to the doctors every year or whatever, whatever, and get all the tests and get everything checked. And you know, now you’ve reached age 50. So you go in for that colonoscopy because that’s that milestone. And then you’re way before that. What is it? Age 40? I think it’s 40. I don’t know. It was when I was, when I was 40. You know, and you got to get to start your yearly mammogram. Now that’s changed. It’s no longer yearly, but you get the idea right. Every age comes with its own. Now look what we get to do at the doctor’s office.
Sharise Parviz: 11:18
Okay, anyway, so instead of all of that, I’m just saying not that you can’t do it. You can do that and do this or just do this. So whichever one is right for you, determine your health based on the ability to do the things you want to do in your life. And if you can’t do the things that you want to do in your life, what can you do so that you can? What things? Maybe it’s food, maybe it’s your diet, maybe it’s activity. You know. If you want to play with your kids or your grandkids, you know what can you do. If you want to play with your kids or your grandkids, what can you do? Can you start exercising, Can you start walking, can you start doing things that help to build up your stamina and help to build up your energy and maybe lose some weight? I’m not saying that’s what you need, I’m just giving you examples. I mean, I wouldn’t know because I don’t know, we’re just talking, but that is something that, if I had you as a client, for instance, I would go through all of the questions that I need to. We love to do.
Sharise Parviz: 12:15
So you know, if there is a, you know, a master level athlete, right, and you know they’re doing all of the marathons or performing at the Olympics, competing at the Olympics or whatever you know, you would say they’re really healthy, you know they’re really fit, they’re really strong, right. And then you have the grandmother who walks the block three blocks. You know, or’re really fit, they’re really strong, right. And then you have the grandmother who walks the block three blocks, you know or walks a mile every day or around, you know the block three times, whatever, right, and they do it and they love it and they’re enjoying themselves, right. Would you say that the, the athlete, is healthier than the grandmother? Yeah, I guess you would.
Sharise Parviz: 13:07
In in today’s, you know going and looking at. Going and looking at from like, from the doctor’s point of view, from lab work or from fitness level or muscle versus whatever fat. All the tests, all that would determine that yes. However, the grandma may not want to ever become an advanced athlete. She has no desire. She’s just happy to be walking around the block three times or to walk a mile to the store or whatever it is. To her, that’s healthy. She’s doing what she loves to do and having a blast doing it. She’s enjoying it. So, yeah, she’s healthy for her and he’s healthy for him.
Sharise Parviz: 13:46
So now I’m just going to let’s just assume they’re living very, very healthy lifestyles, because, I’m sure you may or may not know this, there are plenty of quote unquote athletes. I know, because being in the fitness industry, that are very unhealthy. Just because somebody looks fit doesn’t mean they are. But if you’re an elite athlete, no, you got to have to put it together. You know you can’t, you can’t be, you can’t be cheating on your. You know you’re a fine. You know you got a motor that has to run beautifully. You’re not going to put crap in it. But anyway, the point is, let’s not get off track. Is that what is healthy for you is what’s most important, and maybe us determining our own level of health for our lives is what’s important versus what we’re told is healthy.
Sharise Parviz: 14:33
Because, let’s be honest, I don’t particularly believe in labs, not for myself and not for my clients. If they want to go and get it, they’re more than free to do it. I can look at them. But here’s the thing about labs Labs are a moment in time. It’s like a freeze frame. Right there you go. Labs are a moment in time. It’s like a freeze frame, right there you go. And you know our bodies, our metabolism, is changing all day long, so our bodies are constantly fluctuating one way or the other. And so when we get a lab test done and we look at it, we think, oh, my gosh, that’s what’s happening every moment of my life, is it? No, not really. It’s a moment in time, okay. So as long as we understand, hmm, this is a moment in time, then we don’t get too wrapped up in it. Now again, this is not health advice, this is just my hey. Like I said, we’re just shooting it here, okay. So the other thing about lab tests is they keep changing, they keep, they keep you moving the goal further and further away, right, the carrot on the stick is further and further from us, right? They keep pushing it further and further out. So, where you know, I mean there was no worry about high cholesterol until cholesterol drugs came out, okay.
Sharise Parviz: 15:50
And I remember when I was in my twenties, like after my second, the birth of my second baby, I was 27. I went to the doctors and did all the blood tests, because I did all that and my cholesterol is at 240. Oh, I’m not 27. Okay, 240. My cholesterol is at 240. Oh, 27. Okay, 240. My cholesterol is at 240. And the doctor’s going, you know, you really want to think about getting on cholesterol medication. And I looked at her and I went, yeah, no, thank you, but no.
Sharise Parviz: 16:21
And I just thought that was the craziest thing. I’m 27 years old, I feel great. Why would I get on drugs, right? So, um, so, anyway, I think on my last cholesterol check I had was a few years ago and guess what? It was still at 240. It hasn’t changed right now.
Sharise Parviz: 16:39
Here’s the thing. I’m not going to get into cholesterol. I can get on that another day, but here’s the thing is that you know they’re constantly changing. So I think cholesterol was at 200 and now it’s like 180, and all that right, because, honestly, because they’re just drugs. How can we prescribe more of them? Well, we just keep lowering the numbers of what is healthy. So you know, with that, how do you know what you’re trusting? I mean, there was a time when cigarettes were healthy for you and you know, nine out of 10 doctors recommend this brand right, or? Oh my gosh, what else? I mean, how many things through our medical history have we been told is a healthy standard that we find out later is completely wrong. I mean what we have going on today. We have the whole body positivity and that weight and being overweight is really not a health concern. Okay, right, we’ve known differently forever, so now it automatically isn’t.
Sharise Parviz: 17:45
Now, I’m not talking about shaming someone because they’re overweight, not at all. But what I am talking about is let’s be real, we can love the person Absolutely. It’s not about shaming the person, but we want them well. And so when we are telling people who are, who are obese, and that, yeah, you don’t need to lose weight, you don’t need to lose weight, you’re fine, you’re healthy, look at you, you know weight has nothing to do with health, okay, and it does and we see it Right. So we know it. Okay, I mean, some things are just logical and make common sense. We know it.
Sharise Parviz: 18:25
So, that being said, you know why wouldn’t we want someone to be as healthy as they can be? It’s not about body shaming, but it is about loving somebody enough to be honest with them and to care about them, enough to do something about it. Right, to let them know, because by ignoring it and avoiding it, we’re not being positive, we’re not supporting them, we’re just setting them off to an earlier grave. We’re not supporting them, we’re just setting them off to an earlier grave, anyway. So, that being said, the whole point I’m saying on that is that the doctors are changing. Well, the doctors, not the doctors, really. The doctors are just going along with what they’re being told to go along with, but the establishment right, the industrial medical complex, all of that they are constantly changing the rules on us. So I don’t know.
Sharise Parviz: 19:17
You know you can get your labs. You cannot get your labs, but you know what could be healthy. You know, one year is completely unhealthy, the next, you know, maybe not every year, but you understand what I’m saying. So what do we believe? Well, if you’re going to go get your labs, get your labs done, but then ask yourself how do I feel, though? How do I really really feel you might want to do this, or don’t get your labs done and determine your health based on are you able to do the things that you want to do? And, if not, what are the things that you can do in your life to help you to get to that place of health so you can do what you want to do, your level of health that you want? Okay, I’m going to expand on that and say it’s not just our physical health, because I work with clients. I work with people on, again, as a holistic health specialist holistic, you know. I work with them on all the different levels their mental state, so not just their physical, but their mental, their emotional, their relationship. So you can do the same thing with that. So you can do the same thing with that.
Sharise Parviz: 20:29
You can say what is it? What would a healthy relationship look like? For instance, a healthy spiritual life for me, a healthy mental life. What do I want more of in my life? What do I want to think and focus on, versus what I don’t want to think and focus on? What do I want? More peace and calm in my life. You know, in spiritually. I mean, do I?
Sharise Parviz: 20:58
I know that there’s, you know, the church lady that sits next to me in church and she knows every verse in the Bible, from every book and verse and chapter, and she can quote it all from six different translations. She’s so much spiritual than I am, more spiritual than I am. She’s a real christian. Okay, I mean, I’ve, you know, we’ve been there saying that. Well, maybe you haven’t, but I certainly have. I’m just not christian enough. But do I really? Is that really what I really? I mean, you could do it if you really wanted to. You can sit there and memorize passages and books, and it’s beautiful that somebody can do that. I think it’s don’t get me wrong, and that’s for her.
Sharise Parviz: 21:38
But what does spiritual health mean for you? Is it more prayer time with the Lord? Is it just more contemplation? Is it whatever it is for you? You know you have to decide that and I don’t want to keep throwing ideas out, because then it’s kind of like I’m feeding it to you and when I pose these things to you I don’t want you to take on my ideas. I want you to come up with your own. So I always kind of try to hold back giving a lot of examples because I don’t want that to get in your brain, so because I want you to come up with your own. So, looking at your spiritual life, looking at your relationship and I don’t just mean your romantic relationship, it could be any relationship with your kids, with your boss, with your coworkers, with your friends, with whatever. Choose a relationship, look at it and go is this as healthy as it could be?
Sharise Parviz: 22:39
Now, obviously, when you’re dealing with more than one person, you kind of want to be on the same. You may want to have that conversation of what does a healthy relationship look like together? Right, but you could ask how can I make this relationship? How can I make my spiritual life? How can I make my mental life? How can I make all of this healthier for me, the kind of health that I want? It doesn’t have to look like anybody else’s right To be healthy. So that’s something you know. I’m just contemplating here Again, I’m just going through my own brain and kind of coming up with these thoughts as I’m talking to you about it.
Sharise Parviz: 23:21
But to make a list, maybe taking every area of your life physical, mental, spiritual, emotional relationships and you can list your relationships or whatever else. Whatever you know, I’m going to say buckets. Whatever bucket in your life that you have work, it could be hobbies, it could be anything. Just think about all just brainstorm, think about all the different areas of your life, put it down on paper, you know, and, as this is just as an experiment, and think to yourself what does a healthy, what does this look like, this area look like when it’s healthy for me, and describe it, write it down, what does it look like being healthy?
Sharise Parviz: 24:10
And then, once you’ve done that, for all the areas, any areas, or just one area that you’d like to focus on, then I think the next step would be I’m contemplating this with you is looking at your life like looking at your day, like a normal, average day, kind of going through your life and looking at everything that you do, everything that you do, all the activities and this is just kind of like an awareness exercise and looking at you know, what you do, and looking at everything as being malleable, everything that you’re doing, being shiftable, being adaptable, that you’re doing being shiftable, being adaptable, something that could either be eliminated or modified to fit into the vision of health you want in that area. And so when you look at things with a curiosity and with a wonder and with a possibility of, hmm, how can I make my life? And looking at all the things that you do on a daily basis, how can I maybe just tweak them so they can help me to achieve the health I want in this area? I don’t know, it sounds like a fun exercise, so it might be something. I think that’s something. I’m going to try and see what I want to do.
Sharise Parviz: 25:30
So let’s recap you determine what is healthy for you. All right, that that’s what we’re going to do. We’re not going to listen to the experts, who always change their mind anyway. I mean, you can, if you want, but on top of listening to the experts, you can do this too. Or you can say, eh, forget the experts, I’m just going to do this too. It’s up to you, your decision. No medical advice here.
Sharise Parviz: 25:56
All right, let you list all the different areas of your life that you would like to focus on building more health in your physical life, mental life, spiritual life, relationships and anything else that you can think of. And then you look at what it means to you to define. Define what health means in those areas. Write it out. Def at what it means to you to define. Define what health means in those areas. Write it out. Define what health means in the area of your physical life, your mental life, your spiritual life, your emotional life, your relationships, et cetera, et cetera.
Sharise Parviz: 26:21
Then next, look at your day and everything you do. I mean every bit of money you spend, every, every action you take. Is there anything? And looking at everything you do, I mean every bit of money you spend, every action you take is there anything? And looking at everything with curiosity and as though everything is shiftable, changeable, malleable, adaptable or maybe even eliminatable, possible eliminating. What are the things that you do in your life that can be modified in some way to help you build health in that area? And I would only start with one area. Don’t go overboard. Start with one area in your life and see if you can bring more health into it.
Sharise Parviz: 27:05
But just make sure that, whatever your health is, it is defined by you, not by someone who really doesn’t understand you, doesn’t understand your life, doesn’t understand your desires, doesn’t understand your dreams, doesn’t understand your goals, can understand you better than you. No one, no expert, no one can understand you or have the answers better than you do. You do. You have them, we all do. We all have them inside of us. So tap into that and define what health means for you. So tap into that and define what health means for you. Hmm, all right, I’m ready to go. I’m gonna go make my list right now. So have a great day and I will talk to you soon. Remember, burn the boats, baby, take the island and commit to the path ahead. Yeah, I’m cheesy because I’m feeling cheesy today. All right, bye-bye.