[00:00:00] Corinne Foxx: Welcome back to another episode of Am I Doing This Right? I'm Corinne Foxx.

[00:00:08] Natalie McMillan: And I'm Natalie McMillan.

[00:00:09] Corinne Foxx: And we are best friends, confidants, millennials, and the hosts of Am I doing This Right? A life how-to podcast from the perspective of non-experts.

[00:00:19] Natalie McMillan: And we. Well, I usually say we pop up a new bottle of wine, but this time we twisted it

[00:00:24] Corinne Foxx: off a new bottle of wine.

And this week we're talking, embracing what breaks us, how to conquer chronic illness with we have a guest today. Oh, Thai. I'm very excited to have you. We're going to be talking with Amina about the challenges of living with a chronic illness, how to advocate for your health in the workplace and how to nourish your body and soul.

And if you're listening to this and you're like, well, I don't have a chronic illness. Let me stop you right there. Let me stop you right there. Because if you are a person who has a uterus that bleeds every month, you do,

[00:01:01] Natalie McMillan: I think you do this revelation.

[00:01:04] Corinne Foxx: Every single. People who have uteruses. We are in pain, we are bleeding.

We are experiencing, I sometimes get physically ill, like nauseous. Like, yeah, it's just do casual thing that happens every

[00:01:17] Natalie McMillan: single month for a whole week.

[00:01:19] Corinne Foxx: I think this one's for you too, because that's something we all have to show up to work and show up to our lives and overcome. So

[00:01:26] Natalie McMillan: that port, so that port, and at the end of the episode, we're going to play a little unpopular

[00:01:31] Corinne Foxx: opinion, which is a fan favorite.

That's a fan favorite. I know.

[00:01:34] Natalie McMillan: I was like, So I wasn't surprised. I guess we put out that little thing on Instagram. Also follow us on Instagram. So Instagram am I doing this right pod? And we said, what are your favorite games and unpopular opinions up there? And citizen's arrest was a big,

[00:01:48] Corinne Foxx: yes. Yes, but not.

What are we drinking? This little epi? I've noticed a twist swap of the, we

[00:01:56] Natalie McMillan: love a twist. Oh God. I love a twist top. This is the hitching post peanut a. Central coast. It's a 2020, and it's going to cute little bottle. Oh my

[00:02:07] Corinne Foxx: God. That is a little bottle. That bottle is so cute. I have good faith in this one.

Yeah. And I

[00:02:13] Natalie McMillan: also, you know, when it's like two people, it's just good to have, you know, a smaller, but yeah, it's

[00:02:18] Corinne Foxx: not like a big bottle of guys who would say it's perfect for

[00:02:20] Natalie McMillan: friendship. Perfect friendship P now we're just gonna pour that also. Coming Sunday is Easter for all who celebrate Easter. Yeah. I just have a little story that I just, whenever Easter comes around, I think about it and I'm like, I was this insane.

Was this, I don't know.

[00:02:40] Corinne Foxx: I don't know what you're talking about, but then I have heard most of your

[00:02:45] Natalie McMillan: stories. Yeah. I think you, you know, you know this one. So when I was growing up in my town, very small town, very, very, very small. Less than at the time, it might've been less than 5,000 people. Jesus. Yeah, really small.

We would,

[00:03:01] Corinne Foxx: Jesus,

[00:03:02] Natalie McMillan: Jesus. We would do this thing called the passion play where the entire town pretended to crucify Jesus. Okay. And am I told you this? I didn't know. So we would like get dressed. I remember they put this, like,

[00:03:17] Corinne Foxx: it wasn't like a community theater thing or at the church, it was the whole town just did it.

[00:03:22] Natalie McMillan: All of the churches. There was cause for some reason that town has like six churches and they would all come together and like you would literally go to each church and there would be a new scene. Each church.

[00:03:35] Corinne Foxx: Fun. Got an immersive play experience. So like

[00:03:39] Natalie McMillan: the roads were closed. Like it was like, I remember following Jesus as there was like a boombox with whip sound.

I am not kidding. My mom has this on VHS tape because you could buy it, you know, to support the churches, I guess. So there was a really big controversy one of the years because they wanted a black man. No, no, because one of the other people, so there was Jesus hanging. This is what they are. We had crucified them.

We're at the end of the play and they're in there. Like literally we wrapped them in like a diaper, like with the sheet. Okay. They're hanging up there and. One of the other guys on the other cross had nipple rings stuff and people were so furious about nipple ring Jesus or no, not nipple ring. G what did you choose?

This half? The nipple rings I'll have to watch.

[00:04:40] Corinne Foxx: There were other people that get crucified, right? Yes.

[00:04:42] Natalie McMillan: But now I'm like, wait, was it Jesus that had the nipple rings or was it the other guy? Hm, regardless, people were pissed. Oh, wow. And I just feel like, do other T listen, if you're listening to this and you're like, yeah, my town does that.

Can you let me know?

[00:04:58] Corinne Foxx: I have never heard of a, of a city. Why you shouldn't play passion play in which we're not checking if, uh, people have ordinated themselves.

[00:05:11] Natalie McMillan: Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know how that guy got the role. My friend Desi, his brother was Jesus. A couple of times. Vince shout out to Vince. He was Jesus.

What was your role? Did you have a role? I, I was only in it once because usually I would just like follow her along with the crowd, but I, one time, I just remember being at this church and they put a purple sheet over my head and then put like a rope around my eyes.

[00:05:39] Corinne Foxx: So I would like a

[00:05:41] Natalie McMillan: little commoner. I was like a little commoner.

Yeah. Wow. My little sandals. I

[00:05:48] Corinne Foxx: know it's a small town life. You got to really get creative because there's not much

[00:05:53] Natalie McMillan: to do. There's not much to do also. This is completely unrelated, but I'm just very excited about it. I'm giving this to you. What's happening.

[00:06:01] Corinne Foxx: She just pulled something out of nowhere. Oh, I know what this

[00:06:04] Natalie McMillan: is.

I know this is the, this is a prototype, but it's tinted. It's a light, you know, you know, it has to be a light shimmer.

[00:06:12] Corinne Foxx: I'm getting not, can I say what it is? Yeah. Oh, so Natalie is transforming. It's transforming her signature scent. Well, I mean, one of two blood sugar baby into eight lotion. And this is a prototype, huh?

Ooh.

[00:06:30] Natalie McMillan: Ooh.

[00:06:30] Corinne Foxx: It feels so good. It's like a looks tinted almost well. There's a very loving God. It smells, it smells

[00:06:39] Natalie McMillan: exactly smells just like

[00:06:41] Corinne Foxx: blood sugar maybe. And there's some S I'm really, it's not like glitter. It's

[00:06:46] Natalie McMillan: like, you just look glowy.

[00:06:48] Corinne Foxx: We love a glove.

[00:06:51] Natalie McMillan: So good. I wanted you to test it cause you're, you know, your Sensi with like, oh,

[00:06:55] Corinne Foxx: skins, you know, I'll break out if this is not right.

I know it feels good.

[00:06:59] Natalie McMillan: So I'm hoping I'm like, I need

[00:07:01] Corinne Foxx: her to tell dash. Thanks. Not to keep this. Yeah.

[00:07:05] Natalie McMillan: Yes you do. I have several more. Wow. Oh my

[00:07:09] Corinne Foxx: God. I'm so excited. I can't wait for this to

[00:07:10] Natalie McMillan: line. I think it will be out by the time this comes out. Oh my God. I smell so good. Oh, wow. Okay. I did not do that. Just like the perfume.

I

[00:07:19] Corinne Foxx: know. I, I feel like I'm going to do this the whole episode. We're gonna be talking and be like, what, what

[00:07:25] Amina AlTai: did

[00:07:25] Natalie McMillan: you say I'm going to, we should probably, uh, we should probably move on to ominous. Speaking of wet. Yeah. Okay.

[00:07:32] Corinne Foxx: So we're talking, I'm going to today because we actually both, if you guys have not picked up on it throughout this podcast, we both have chronic illnesses.

I have endometriosis, Natalie has type one diabetes and, uh, Oh, seasoning silly as celiac as well. And I feel like not, we bond so much over like our shared experience of having auto immune disease and like how that impacts our daily lives. And I also feel like, you know, even if you don't have autoimmune disease, like we said, at the top, like, you know, being a person who has a uterus at bleeds like that in itself is something that is chronic, that every month you have to do.

The ups and downs of whatever that is. Yeah. That does affect your daily life and how you show up and how you feel and your energy. And I feel like I'm going to, it's going to be such a great person for us to talk to you about how to navigate that and how to show up to work our best selves and our lives, our best selves, and also how to feel more connected with our bodies even when they're not feeling so quite.

I'm not feeling so hot.

[00:08:31] Natalie McMillan: Yeah. I'm excited. So I'm going to intro her. All tie. Isn't that the coolest name? It's a great name. Hi, she's a holistic leadership and mindset coach proud immigrant and chronic illness advocate, a leading coach to notable female leaders and impact driven celebrities. Ominous mastery is in connecting us to our brilliance and teaching us to live and lead.

Each day as a woman of color of Iraqi descent, she often works with marginalized communities to help them realize possibilities in a way that honors their particular lived experiences. She's known for her work around aligned leadership and supporting clients in pivoting from role models to whole model.

I love that she trademarked that love it. She's an entrepreneur magazine expert in residence. You know, we love an expert, a member. Forbes coaches council and has been featured as an expert in goop. Well in good New York, post Yahoo, NBC, and

[00:09:33] Corinne Foxx: more. Ooh, I can't wait. Let's bring on I'm an ed ringer on

hello, Amina.

[00:09:49] Amina AlTai: Hey Kerryn. Hey Natalie. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:09:51] Corinne Foxx: Oh my gosh. Just for being here, excited to have you on. Um, when we really reading up about you, we were like, this is so perfect because Natalie and I, we both have chronic illnesses and we talked to each other about it all the time, but we've never really in depth, talked about it on the podcast and like how it affects us showing up to our jobs.

That's like our daily lives. And we were saying, even if someone's listening right now and maybe they don't have a chronic illness, just being a person with a uterus that believes that kind of qualifies

[00:10:23] Amina AlTai: you to join the club. Yeah, totally. The wild thing is actually though is 40% of us in the us actually are managing chronic illness right now.

So it's 133 million of us. So. Plus probably most people that we know it's almost half the population is managing some form of chronic illness, which is wild to think about. Right. Wow.

[00:10:44] Corinne Foxx: Yeah. I, I did not know is that many people, can you actually, do you mind walking us through your diagnosis journey and like the onset of your symptoms and how you've kind of managed that over

[00:10:55] Amina AlTai: time?

Yeah. So I hit a pretty dramatic what I call stop moment. So I was in my twenties and I was, um, running my own marketing agency. And I had started my career in corporate America and very quickly realized that that wasn't for me. So I co-founded this marketing agency, but the thing was, is I carried all of my, kind of.

Cultural familial societal programming into the workplace. So it was like very much into hustle culture. I had no boundaries. I was deeply codependent and I was taking care of everybody, but myself and I remember about five years in and I just started to feel really terrible. Extreme lethargy, forgetfulness.

Like I was like 26, 27 and had memory troubles. And then the thing that actually got me to go to the doctors that my hair was falling out, like, I've always just had like, kind of like luscious locks. And then all of a sudden I have this like bald spot right in the front. And I was like 27 years old and have a bald spot.

Like, what is this about? So I went to. Actually at the end of the day, it was seven different doctors. Cause they were all like, nothing's really wrong with you. And I was like, no, I think that there really is something wrong. And so basically it was one Friday. I was driving out to a client and I got a call from the seventh doctor.

And she was like, what are you doing? And I was like, well, driving out to this client. And she was like, no, if you don't go to the hospital, instead of going to this client, you are days away from multiple organs. So basically I was so malnourished and so ill from these undiagnosed conditions that I was literally at the stop moment where I had to choose, am I going to keep going the way that I'm going?

Or am I going to choose to live another way? So it was very dramatic, but I think I needed that drama because I wasn't paying attention until that point. Yeah. You

[00:12:32] Corinne Foxx: know what? I, I feel like so many of us, when you get diagnosed with something that's chronic, you do have kind of these dramatic. Diane. Yeah, Natalie, you had a very similar day.

Mine was very similar. It was like, um, her doctors were, well, I don't need to tell your story. You can tell your story. Well, they were just,

[00:12:50] Natalie McMillan: they just kept saying, oh no, everything's fine. Like, there's nothing wrong, blah, blah, blah. And I just kept saying like, something's wrong? Like this cannot be right.

There was all these problems. And then, you know, turns out I was type one diabetic. And my doctor called, I mean, we called her at like 10 o'clock at night and she was like, you need to go to the emergency room. And my mom was like, can we go with like in the morning, like, this is a lot. And she's like, no, like you have to go now.

Your blood sugar

[00:13:18] Corinne Foxx: was like, at what it was like.

[00:13:22] Natalie McMillan: So at the time, like when I was admitted to the hospital, it was like a thousand and something. Yeah.

[00:13:28] Corinne Foxx: Whoa. She would think, I know it's crazy. Yeah. And I didn't have a, like a dramatic one like that, but I had the similar with you would going to, I went to like six different doctors before I even heard I have endometriosis before I even heard endometriosis.

And I was like, you know, anyway, We, we relate to your story and that it does take a long time sometimes to get a diagnosis and you really have to advocate for yourself. And it's hard to say no to a doctor. It's hard to say you're wrong to somebody who's like, you know, has a degree. And you're like, no, I know my body.

And I think it's really powerful that you have had this like, almost like metaphor moment. It was like, do I continue to. Path, that's not serving me or do I turn around and like advocate for my body and listen to my body. I think that's super powerful.

[00:14:15] Natalie McMillan: Yeah. And Chris and I like, we it's been so nice and I'm sure maybe you have some friends that also have a chronic illness.

So it's like so nice to like, have somebody to relate to when you were diagnosed. Did you have like friends and family who could. Understand what you're going through or was that, how was that for

[00:14:35] Amina AlTai: you? Yeah. I also just want to underscore what you're both saying about advocacy and listening to our own intuition because we know, right.

We have this inner voice, this inner guidance that just knows that something is up. And if, if even like 5% of you feels like something is wrong, like please advocate for yourself because it can be so intimidating to sit there with. And MD or any type of doctor that has all of this experience and is telling you that it's nothing nothing's wrong, but you know, deep inside that there is.

So like, please, if you feel that please advocate for yourself. So I just want to underscore that. Yeah, absolutely. The community piece has been so important. So. Natalie is really interesting to your story. My older sister was a type one diabetic, and, uh, she was diagnosed when she was eight and I was six.

And so I had a front row seat to her experience and I didn't come to my auto-immune diagnosis until I was in my late twenties. And so we sort of had that family story around it. And my, my family was honestly the most supportive. I remember. So I have celiac disease and Hashimoto's. And with the celiac disease.

I remember leaving the doctor's office being like, well, I can officially eat nothing. Like there's nothing

[00:15:35] Natalie McMillan: to eat.

[00:15:37] Corinne Foxx: Gluten.

[00:15:40] Amina AlTai: Totally. And so my mom was so wonderful and like went to whole foods, maybe with me with like the list of foods that I could eat and like helps me like recreate these recipes and was just so supportive.

And that was sort of the first step. And then as I've gotten older, I have a big community that is sort of a chronic illness community. One of my dearest friends, her name is Nica Chopra, and she actually has a company called chronic on, which is a community for those navigating chronic illness, all about creating support and advocacy and a safe space to connect in.

And it just. I think it's life shifting, because I think a lot of us feel a lot of isolation around this of like, what does it mean to manage my energy? What does it mean if my brain isn't working? Right? What does it mean if I'm not feeling great on this day? And to have people that you can share that with, I think is just profound.

[00:16:22] Corinne Foxx: Yeah. The one I'm having a really bad endo flare. I, I meant, um, I'm part of a few Facebook groups for endometriosis and I write in there and all I say is like, Hey everyone, I'm having one of those days. Can you just send me some love? And I'll just get comments from other women. And it's different from somebody who knows.

Who's like, Just saying, like, hang in there or I've been there. Any of that, like from somebody else who's experienced, it means so much more than like, you know, my boyfriend and he's very supportive and he can say that, but he has no idea, no idea. He's never out of period. Um, and so like, he has no idea what it's like.

And so I agree with you, like community is so like a, such an important piece of the puzzle in like healing yourself. Um, you know, you say that you're a. Illness advocate. What does that mean to you? Like what, what message do you want to, you know, share spread? Yeah,

[00:17:16] Amina AlTai: I mean, I honestly think like even being in this body and doing this work in this lifetime as a form of advocacy, it was that piece, like showing up every day and doing this job advocacy.

And also, I really want to talk about the intersection of our wellbeing, our mindset, and our work, where. For most of us, we have to go to work. Right? We have to earn a living. We have to show up, you have to do a thing, but what does it mean to do that in a way when we're managing chronic illness or when we don't feel a hundred percent or what am I managing mental illness?

So I think a lot of us are dealing with so much and we have to show up every day. And so how do we do that in a way that allows us to be in our fullness, to be our real selves and to be able to bring others on the journey and educate them as well. So I feel like that's really sort of a big part of my work is educating people around what it's like to.

Move through life this way.

[00:18:03] Natalie McMillan: Yeah. Well, and it is so hard and, you know, even we have our like days where, you know, my blood sugar's off or she's having problems with endometriosis. And even if you're just on your period as a normal person here and having. Week or days of you're tired, you're in pain. How do we balance that with our work and like resting, cause like, as you said at the top, this whole like grind culture, it's really hard to kind of like give in, you know what I mean?

Or, or let yourself rest when everybody else isn't going 24 7. It's like, but they don't have the limitations, you know? Hmm.

[00:18:48] Amina AlTai: I think two things. So in my work with clients, I do, I believe we all have like what I call authentic energy code. So like we all move through life differently. Right? So like, depending on our hormones, depending if we're navigating chronic illness, like we're all just moving through life differently.

So we want to get really clear on how we specifically move through life. So those of us with female hormones, we have something called the rhythm. So our hormones actually shift every week and actually the Workday was designed around mentor modes. So there's that too.

[00:19:13] Corinne Foxx: I've heard that. Yeah.

[00:19:16] Amina AlTai: Of course.

Right? So knowing that our hormone shift every day, every week, what does that mean for us? Knowing that we might be more energized at certain times, more creative at other times, and less energized certain times we want to get really clear on our authentic energy code. So I always ask my. When are you most energized?

What do you do your best thinking work? When do you need to rest and then designing their work around that and then allowing space for agility? Right? So it's like we can't live by these hard and fast rules in these structures, particularly if we're navigating chronic illness, because we don't know when we might have a flare or be navigating something challenging.

So, and then the second piece I think, is pacing ourselves. I don't think that we really live in a world that paces, right. It's just sort of like, go, go, go, go all the time. But particularly in the pandemic, I've been using this endurance metaphor with my clients. If we're not in like a sprint, right. This is an endurance conversation.

And so endurance athletes and I had a client that was an ultra marathon runner, literally running. Marathons 24 hours a day. Oh my God. I was talking to them and thinking like, how do you do this? And one of the things that we were talking about was pacing and conserving energy. So there are times where you can push because you can, and there are times, you know, to pull back and, you know, to restore and, you know, to relax.

When you think about professional athletes, right? It's like the only reason that they're able to go in. And I mean, not the only reason, there's lots of reasons, but they're able to have like such an amazing race day or whatever is because they also make space for rest and recovery because they are pacing themselves.

They're not going. But that was miles an hour. And I think that that metaphor for us is so important. Like how are we pacing

[00:20:44] Corinne Foxx: ourselves? Yeah. I feel like so much of that too. It's like the American culture, right? Like, I feel like when you think of Europe, like they'd take siesta, you know, in Spain, in the middle of that, I remember going to Paris take like the

[00:20:57] Natalie McMillan: whole month of July off.

[00:21:00] Corinne Foxx: I remember going to Spain and wanting to go get tacos at like, you know, 12. And I show up to this little taco place and I'm like, we are closed. Ma'am like, we are sleeping. We are relaxing. And I'm like, what are you talking about? And so like, I do think a part of it is like the American psyche of like, yeah, like, you know, you have to be responsible for your success.

And it's very like individualized and like we're all against each other. And it's just like so strange. And competitive

[00:21:28] Amina AlTai: and yeah, yeah,

[00:21:30] Corinne Foxx: yeah. Yeah. So you have something called the nourishment journal, which, which is a personal development workbook where you can unearth blocks standard between you and your dreams.

So how do you use the nourishment journal in conjunction, you know, with battling chronic illness and showing up as your best.

[00:21:49] Amina AlTai: Yeah. So I always ask people first and foremost, like, what's the dream? Like, how do you really want to live? What do you want to transform in your life? And then what's getting in the way.

So once we can really understand what the dream is and what's getting in the way we can kind of design and map towards that thing. But inside the nourishment journal, we look at all different areas of your life, from your relationship to work to your relationship, to money, to relationship to yourself, to community, et cetera.

And then we look at the space. So I ask you, like on a scale of one to 10, like how whole full and nourished you feel in each of those areas. And then any area that's really below a seven, we want to look at because there's probably something there for us, right? Whether it's mindset or something that just isn't working for us, and then figuring out what's really getting in the way of that thing and then mapping towards feeling really whole in that space.

And if there's an area that doesn't, that isn't important to you, we throw it away. But for the most part, if there are areas that are lacking and we want to really turn the volume up on the nourish. What do we need to do to move any mindset blocks out of the way to give ourselves permission to have that thing and then to show up in it consistently?

[00:22:46] Natalie McMillan: Yeah. Permission is always that we

[00:22:48] Corinne Foxx: always, we always, you know what you always do for me, not when I'm having an endo flare and I texted you go, I'm giving you permission. To lay down and not answer emails and, you know, take a nap in the middle of the day on a work day. I'm very blessed that I can do that.

But like, I, sometimes I do need, like, you didn't give him like, okay,

[00:23:10] Natalie McMillan: Natalie, I

[00:23:11] Corinne Foxx: can't do that. Like, you know, it's so hard to get it to yourself.

[00:23:16] Natalie McMillan: It's so tough. And like you were saying about like napping in the middle of the day, I wonder about people that struggle with chronic illness in a more corporate environment, like a nine to five, how do you suggest people can navigate their illness or if they're in pain, any sort of thing when they don't have that flexibility that we're so blessed to have.

Yeah,

[00:23:40] Amina AlTai: truly. So I think the first thing is really knowing your rights. So knowing what is possible for you knowing what is inappropriate and what is illegal too, because lots of times like managers, organizations try to put things on us or ask things of us that are actually not appropriate or not. Okay.

So first of all, like knowing your rights and what's within your rights, And the second piece is like aligning your advocates and allies. So who are the people around you that maybe are not navigating what you're navigating? And they're in a position of, let's say power or privilege and they can go to bat for you.

And you can have all different types of allies and sponsors inside the organization that have a bit more psychological safety or actual safety to go to bat for you around these things. So it's really important that we have our cheering squad, that we have our team inside the org that could also support us as well.

If we don't feel like we have the safety to do that

[00:24:26] Natalie McMillan: ourselves. Yeah.

[00:24:29] Corinne Foxx: Yeah, no, I mean, that's, that's like so smart to even just like read up on what's legal and what's not, you know, like, I didn't even think about that. I mean, we're very blessed that we don't have to work in that kind of way. I'm curious about, like, we were just talking also about.

Energy levels. And like, you know, maybe not feeling like your best, like what is the self talk that we need to learn? And it might just be back to like giving yourself permission when we're not feeling our best. And like when our energy is being taken from me, like what type of self-talk do we need to have in those modes?

Yeah,

[00:25:03] Amina AlTai: it's such a beautiful question. I think it's definitely situational as well, but what you're talking about before, and it kind of connects to this question and the permission piece, it's lagging having the confidence and giving ourselves the permission. If we need to call out that day or to cancel the podcast that day or not show up for the thing that day.

If we know in our hearts that we lack the ability to show up in the way that we want to show up, giving ourselves permission to say, okay, like, I actually need to pause. I need to take care of myself because what's in highest service for you is also in highest service for the other people.

[00:25:32] Corinne Foxx: Right. We always say that.

[00:25:34] Natalie McMillan: Yes. It's tough though. It's

[00:25:38] Corinne Foxx: so tough because

[00:25:40] Natalie McMillan: it's like, you want to, and again, I think it's back to this like patriarchal work culture where it's like, we want to be pleasing people and we want to do a good job. And we're always like trying to do more and more and more.

[00:25:52] Corinne Foxx: It's also like just flat out. And I just have to say, it's just not fair that as women, like we, yes, we have to go through so much more that like our male counterparts don't have to deal with.

So it's like sometimes it's hard, especially if you're in a work environment that is, you know, you're one of the few women there that you like, you know, you don't want to feel like you you're being held back by your own body, you know, I, or I

[00:26:16] Natalie McMillan: wonder, have you experienced. And I think as a woman with a chronic illness, do you feel like you kind of have to mask what's going on with you, particularly in a work sense so that you're not seen as like, oh, you know, she's flaky or needy or whatever, you know what I mean, how that kind of things can get spun that way.

Yeah, for

[00:26:36] Amina AlTai: sure. And that's a problem in and of itself. So, you know, when I was first diagnosed with those, my original autoimmune diseases, I sort of made a choice that I wasn't going to live as half of myself, just because I didn't have the energy to, I couldn't be work homina and outside of work Amina.

And so I was like, this is just all of me. And so that was a very conscious choice to bring sort of wellness and wellbeing into my career in business coaching, because like we're not disconnected at the head and the body, right? Like we are one system. We are one year. And I need to show up in the fullness of myself because me doing that gives other people permission to do the same.

Like if I'm hiding this really big part of my life, I'm not giving others permission to show up in their fullness. And I think that that's not fair to them. And so it's also exhausting to pretend that I don't live this way. Right? Like this is my reality. So, you know, if you're, if you're going to be a community with me, you're going to know about it.

And so. There are conditions and containers in spaces where it doesn't always feel like it's safe to lead with that. But this is my identity and I've lived before denying parts of myself. And it's partly what I believe had me express those auto-immune conditions. So there's no way that I'm denying my truth around.

[00:27:46] Corinne Foxx: Yeah. And I love what you said about you showing up as your fullest self gives permission to other people to do. So, you know, like we're kind of breaking the barriers when you come forward. You're like, Hey, this is my reality. And someone's like, oh my God, thank God you said something because this is my reality.

And I, you know, I'm putting up a mask and like, you know, you were saying at the top, like, was it 40% of Americans, you know, are living with chronic illness? And like, I really only know Natalie that, you know, in my close circle, It makes me curious, like who else is someone? I, I know maybe very personally that is struggling and just needs me to open up more.

You know what I mean?

[00:28:24] Amina AlTai: It's such a beautiful question. And I think about this often too, like I had a dear friend who until I was really talking a lot about my chronic illness. I didn't know that they had epilepsy and they were going through life with epilepsy. And it wasn't something that they talked about because of that shame because of that stigma.

And he, the more we talk about it, the more we de-stigmatize it, we release the shame. This is the body that we're in, in this

[00:28:44] Natalie McMillan: lifetime. Yeah. And that's part of the advocacy work because that's the only way things will change, you know, once it's like, oh, cause none of us want to be at work, exhausted in pain.

Like nobody wants to do that. It takes people to stand up for themselves. I'm not doing this yeah. For other people to go, oh, okay. I can do that too. You know?

[00:29:05] Amina AlTai: And going back to what you're saying Crenn before about like, you know, it's challenging to have a uterus to, to have these female hormones. Right. I, I had said to my therapist recently, I was like, oh, like what would be possible for me?

Like if, if I had male hormones like possible, like if I didn't have these chronic illnesses, like different hormones, And so I think it's, it's the responsibility of those people that maybe have healthy body privilege or are living in a position of privilege or power to support us in that way. Right.

They have a different experience in this lifetime than us. And so it's, I think part of their work to stand up for us to shine a light on it, to create spaces that are supportive for. Yeah, I

[00:29:44] Corinne Foxx: believe us

[00:29:47] Amina AlTai: bare minimum. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:29:48] Corinne Foxx: Nobody wants to not feel well. Nobody's loves that. You talk a lot about like nourishment, like when we were researching you, like, there's just so much about nourishment and I'm curious about what's the difference between in your eyes, the difference between rest and nourishment.

And can you explain how that plays a role in burnout and also healing our bodies and our minds? Yeah.

[00:30:10] Amina AlTai: So rest, I think of as a pause nourishment, I think of really as holistic. So like what are all the ways in our lives that we are filling ourselves up so that we can show up in the way that we want to show up.

And so I think about it as you know, our financial nourishment, our workplace nourishment, our relationship to ourselves, our community is our body. The thoughts that we have in our head, all of those allow us to either feel really great and show up fully, or they can be detractors. So we want to really understand what we need to turn the volume up on in terms of nourishment for ourselves.

Because I believe that nourishment is a conduit to clarity, right? When we are taking care of ourselves in a way that is true for us, we can be the people that we came here to be. And in terms of burnout, I mean, burnout. Wow. What a topic? Oh God. Especially now, right? We're more burned out than we've ever been in the world.

Health organization officially recognizes it as a real workplace phenomenon. Oh, wow. I, I didn't know that, but I also think that workplaces don't know what to do about it. Right. And I think that we're actually entering kind of a labor workplace revolution. We haven't had a revolution in the context of work in over a hundred years and we really need one because life is very different.

We have very different folks in work than we did a hundred years ago. We're living in very different bodies and we need to really overhaul this because sort of this hustle culture, this like capitalistic patriarchal way of running businesses is to humanizing. And it's not really in supportive very few

[00:31:29] Natalie McMillan: people.

Yeah. It almost makes me wonder too, because I feel like, and I could be wrong about this, but I feel like I've read statistics that there's more chronic illness now. Like kind of as years have gone, the number gets bigger and bigger and I almost wonder, yeah. Due to burnout and because you're so

[00:31:47] Corinne Foxx: stressed,

[00:31:49] Natalie McMillan: you know, and I think that stress is such a huge, I mean, yeah, if I'm stressed out, my blood sugar gets all crazy.

[00:31:56] Corinne Foxx: What'd I just say, oh, I was like, oh, I gotta have a kink or sore. And you were like, it's probably cause of stress. I was like, yeah, I've never had one.

[00:32:03] Natalie McMillan: Yeah. So I just think it's like, if we could all slow down, would we all also just be in a healthier body? You know, question. Yeah. I guess we'll find out you have a signature program that I want to talk about called the radical Uplevel.

So it's a three month coaching container that helps entrepreneurs Uplevel their work and their lives. How have your experiences with chronic illness affected the material that you teach within that container?

[00:32:36] Amina AlTai: Yeah dramatically. So basically everything that I'm sharing or every teaching is based on my lived experience.

So like part of the reason I became an entrepreneur is because I didn't feel fully expressed or fully taken care of in the context of a corporate role. And, you know, even how I arrived at my teachings was because of navigating chronic illness. Like even when I was talking about those authentic energy codes and managing our energy, like, I wouldn't have that piece of the curriculum if I wasn't in this body.

And so it's dramatically affected it, but I think it's relatable to everybody because to your point. And talking about it. We want to live at a different pace. We don't want to expend ourselves or exchange our bodies for success. Right. We're really kind of moving in a different direction where that's just not available for us anymore.

[00:33:18] Corinne Foxx: Yeah. It's we got to slow down to fill it out. Then we have to practice what

[00:33:24] Natalie McMillan: we preach and my head, like what's that I think it's Gandhi that says, um, be the change you wish to be in the world, because I was just thinking even like Instagram stresses me out, like my work, like having to post things on Instagram and I'm like, Not like stressed about it.

Right. Like, but I think other people feel the same pressure they do for sure. So we all need to just let ourselves chill

[00:33:47] Corinne Foxx: out. So maybe we'll have to sign up for ominous course, course. Thank you so much. I'm going to for coming on. Speaking with us, this is a conversation we've wanted to have for a long time.

And thank you for the work that you're doing and your coaching, and, and also just talking and being vulnerable about your own challenges and your own story. I mean, again, when you share it, it, it helps other people.

[00:34:11] Amina AlTai: Um, thank you so much for having me. I'm so grateful for the two of you for also sharing.

Like we said, it gives others permission to stigmatize. We allow them to show up as who they are.

[00:34:19] Corinne Foxx: Yeah. And we'll link to everything you're doing in our show notes for our listeners, so they can connect with you. And if you want to sign up for her courses, you can go ahead and do that, or get the journal or the journal you offer so many things.

So we'll link to everything in our show notes, but thank you so much. Thank

[00:34:35] Amina AlTai: you so great to be with you both have a great rest of your day. You too.

[00:34:46] Corinne Foxx: Wow. That conversation. I love her. I'm so happy. We had our eye on the meat and we kept talking about, you know, our journeys and it's something we talk about all the time, but I'm glad we can like bring to the potty. Yes. I agree. Okay. So let's circle back on this. What are we drinking? We're

[00:35:05] Natalie McMillan: drinking the hitching post hometown peanut Novar it's 2020 it's California.

It's a little bottle, which. And do you want to talk

[00:35:16] Corinne Foxx: about our Hottie? Oh yeah. Our howdy is miss Selena Gomez, because if you guys don't know, Selena Gomez has an autoimmune disease, she has lupus. Yeah. And she's thriving. She's making albums, she's making TV shows. She's doing her thing. She was nominated

[00:35:30] Natalie McMillan: for an Emmy recently, right?

Oh, for an only

[00:35:33] Corinne Foxx: murder, only murders in the building. I loved that show. That was so funny. Watch it. I got to watch it. Now you wouldn't love it. Oh, really? Do you like Steve Martin? I feel like you love Steve Martin. I don't really know too much. Steve Martin. Oh, you would like it. You would like it's up your alley.

Okay. So one to miss sell,

[00:35:51] Natalie McMillan: miss sell. What are we thinking? That's okay. I'm going to give a four. I'm going to give it a five. Four and a half hour and a half. I've Selena

[00:36:01] Corinne Foxx: four and a half at a miscellaneous bad. It's not bad. It's just, it's just nothing to like scream

[00:36:06] Natalie McMillan: about to know. Yeah, it was a very average

[00:36:15] Corinne Foxx: all right. This is the part of the episode where you play a little wrap-up game. And this week we're doing,

[00:36:24] Natalie McMillan: still really looking for somebody to send us. A song.

[00:36:29] Corinne Foxx: Yes. We're holding up to play it. Okay. Now, so what is your unpopular opinion?

[00:36:34] Natalie McMillan: My popular opinion is, and I feel like ladies will disagree with me on this. Cause it seems to be

[00:36:43] Corinne Foxx: like a F like a ladies like this a lot. Oh, I know what you're going to say.

Chocolate. Oh, I was going to say, you're going to say your other one, but I won't say it. You've already said that I've said that way.

[00:36:53] Natalie McMillan: I just don't like pasta that much. I think vanilla is better than chocolate. Like if I'm getting a dessert, if somebody says you want vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream, I'm going

[00:37:02] Corinne Foxx: vanilla.

Okay. Well, there's so many layers to the chocolate cake I'm going to pass. Oh, there's so many layers. There's so many layers to this. I agree with you. And the terms of sometimes baked goods, but I think overall, like you wouldn't do, you know, like a little dark chocolate school. Oh, my God, like a little dark chocolate

[00:37:21] Natalie McMillan: square.

No, I'd rather have like gummy, like a gummy candy or something. I guess I like eminent. I mean, I like like Halloween candy chocolates,

[00:37:31] Corinne Foxx: but like, I love those chocolate,

[00:37:34] Natalie McMillan: like desserts, like the flavor of chocolate

[00:37:36] Corinne Foxx: or, um, what about like, uh, like a lava cake? I prefer

[00:37:40] Natalie McMillan: just the ice cream. I mean, I like the, like the lava part, like with the ice cream, like the chocolate mixed in with the ice cream, but like, I wouldn't order the lava cake and beyond.

Like if I go to like, to get a smoothie or whatever, and they're like, oh, you can put a protein powder in it. Like you can put chocolate. I do

[00:37:58] Corinne Foxx: not put no, no, no. I get what you're saying in that sense. Yeah. So you have to decide what it's good for. It is better in like little pups, like a chocolate chip cookie.

Oh yeah.

[00:38:11] Natalie McMillan: Love a chocolate chip cookie. Yeah.

[00:38:12] Corinne Foxx: Yeah. But that's not like a chocolate, like

[00:38:16] Natalie McMillan: I would rather have a chocolate chip cookie over a brown. I

[00:38:19] Corinne Foxx: love a brownie. I do too. A warm brownie. Interesting. It is an unpopular pant. I feel like

[00:38:27] Natalie McMillan: the ladies, we, we love chocolate, but I just, I don't think it does. I think for nomos better personally

[00:38:35] Corinne Foxx: and popular I'm popular.

I have an unpopular opinion. I've I've briefly mentioned this, but I'd like to go more in depth and this one, actually people might come for my neck. Oh. And I'm being real about that. McDonald's fries. Are I E I eat, there's a lot of other fries that I like better. I love a waffle fry. I love burger king fries.

I love a, um, a potato wedge. I love there's a lot of things I love more than McDonald's fries.

[00:39:07] Natalie McMillan: Here's my question. Because of course, you know, I also, it is unpopular

[00:39:11] Corinne Foxx: cause I really like a tater tot

[00:39:13] Natalie McMillan: McDonald's. They're my favorite fry, in my opinion, what is it about the McDonald's fries that you

[00:39:20] Corinne Foxx: don't like?

Okay. Here, I'll tell you exactly what it is. Okay. When I think of a McDonald's fry, I don't think of the best part of the fry. I think of that last little crispy mother fucker though. That little chunk, the

[00:39:32] Natalie McMillan: little ones at the bottom that are left over

[00:39:34] Corinne Foxx: sharp. Yes. Oh, I hate those things. I don't mind though.

You don't mind those little motherfuckers

[00:39:40] Natalie McMillan: at the bottom. Oh my God. Cause there's, it's basically a

[00:39:43] Corinne Foxx: chip. I don't like that thing. And so that's what I associate with McDonald's fries. I don't know why there might be a childhood trauma in there about that. So

[00:39:52] Natalie McMillan: it's less about the flavor and more about.

[00:39:56] Corinne Foxx: Experience. It's more of, yeah, it's less of the flavor and it's more of the little bits I hate the little bit. Okay. But like a burger king fries, they don't have the little bits because the right cut of a waffle fry, like a thick wedge. Yeah. I don't, I need it thick because I can't have any. Splinter off into a little thing.

That's going to like chip the top of my mouth. Like I just can't have that. There's too much of a risk with the

[00:40:20] Natalie McMillan: McDonald's. I see what you mean. You know what you might also really like is even have you had Arby's fries?

[00:40:26] Corinne Foxx: Oh yes. The curly fries. Yes. That's what I'm saying. That's my house, the seasoning on it.

Those are, but that's kind of where I like to live. Yeah. And that feels safe to me. And I'm not going to get hit with a little, little prickly bit. Yeah.

[00:40:39] Natalie McMillan: It's every, you know, there's a mid forever. Okay. And McDonald's that?

[00:40:47] Corinne Foxx: I turned down a large McDonald fry. I don't want that clear. Right. I'm just letting you know that if I had an RBS aura, aura, a Berg BK, BK, I might go that way.

And that's. I think that is unpopular. And we'll put these on the stories, you guys for chocolate and fries and McDonald's fries, and you guys can weigh in on your opinion as well. Um, am I doing this right pod on F the Graham Graham and you guys don't forget if you like our show, you can rate and review the podcast.

We're actually going to start reading some of our reviews on the, on the potty. We'll make sure to start doing that, but. We'll be back next week, back next

[00:41:30] Natalie McMillan: week with a brand new episode.