Imagine getting up every day full of energy is

if you were in your 20s. Again, what would that be? Like? What

would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you?

Think about it. Your health isn't everything. But without

it, everything else is nothing. And yet too many of us are

taking it for granted. until something goes wrong. No one

wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with a disease or chronic

illness. And yet, we've never been taught how to be proactive

in our health through our school system, or public health. As a

registered health coach and integrative health practitioner,

I believe it is time this information is made available to

everyone. Combining new knowledge around your health and

the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in the

comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your

health for today and all your tomorrow's don't wait for your

wake up call.

Welcome back to the don't wait for your wake up call podcast.

My name is Melissa dealey and I am the host of the show. And we

are starting a whole new theme this month. And that theme is

play playfulness, the power of play. I love this quote from

George Bernard Shaw, we don't stop playing because we get old,

we get old because we stop playing. Think about that for a

minute. When did you last simply play.

I also want to introduce you to your unconscious mind, which is

it has the mind of a toddler it loves to play it talks to you in

signs and symbols, little puzzles for you to figure out.

It loves it when you get playful too. And this is when we open up

to downloads and messages and guidance, et cetera, et cetera.

And I recently had that experience myself. I recently

did a very intensive training course in NLP to become an NLP

coach, as well as in timeline therapy and hypnotherapy. And we

were most definitely working with the unconscious mind

throughout this process, which is incredibly powerful. And one

of my aha was for the week really was to stop trying to

make things hard, right. My messaging as a child had been

that if you want to be successful, you have to work

hard. And so I was working to release that limiting belief and

surrender in the, into the process, the process that it can

be easy, it gets to be easy. We don't have to overcomplicate

things. And on one of the days we had a break. And I it was a

beautiful sunny day outside and I decided to go out for a walk.

And I walked up the hill behind my house and I had my phone with

me and I was decided to listen to some music. And I just turned

to a playlist, my energy shifting playlist. And I decided

to just like randomly hit play and let it start on whatever

song it wanted to start on because I know I love all the

music on this playlist. And the song shut up and dance came on.

Well, that just gets me moving. Most you know, upbeat music gets

me moving, I really can't help but move when I hear this music

and I was all alone on the valley trail. I was crossing a

bridge over a waterfall. And I just started dancing and

twirling to the music because it was just giving me such joy on

this beautiful blue bird sunny day. And just, you know, this

course was super intense. It was a fabulous course. But it was

like 1012 hour days. And here I was outside because most of the

rest of the weekend it rained and I didn't even get a chance

to go outside. So I'm now twirling and dancing down the

valley trail just in the moment loving the music, surrendering

to that idea of play and some of the conversations we've had

through the week. And I started skipping and thinking I'm going

to bring out that little six and seven year old girl in me when

was the last time I skipped? Probably not since my kids were

about that age and I was holding their hand skipping. And I kind

of opened my eyes for a minute and I saw there was a single

person, you know, a fellow walking up the trail the other

way towards me and you know, my conscious mind went oh, what

will he think of you? Maybe you should stop and behave like an

adult. And then the other side of me was like, No, I'm loving

this. I'm feeling the joy. I'm in my body. I'm in the moment.

And maybe just maybe he'll see my joy. Maybe that'll bring a

smile to his face. Maybe that will bring him some pleasure. Or

maybe he'll think I'm a crazy person. But I have no control

over what someone else thinks of me. So I just decided I was

going to keep on playing. So I skipped I twirled I danced, I

really lived in the moment and enjoy that playlist. And as I

continued on this adventure, I did, eventually at some point,

start walking and just I was going up and down hills, etc. So

I had got a little bit of a workout in there and then

started walking, but walking at a pretty rapid pace, and still

kind of moving my arms to the music and really enjoying the

music. And on my way back, I knew the last song in the

playlist, because it was a song that had I had recently added

that week actually called Rise up. And after that song finished

playing, I just thought the playlist would stop. But no

music continued playing. And I really liked the next song. And

I had no idea what it was. And so I thought that I'd take a

look, see what this song is. And the name of the song was

surrender. And in that moment, I just felt overwhelming emotion,

because it was that message that when I let myself out to play, I

was getting a message back that yes, I needed to surrender. And

that was a really powerful message to me. And I continued

on my way home. And the next song came on. And again, it was

a really lovely song. And I had no idea what it was. And I

looked at the name of the song. And this time it said, Got you,

as in, got your back your support it.

And it just made me think of the instructor of my course the

universe. And you know that the direction for me to surrender,

but in surrendering, I am supported. So again, a lot of

emotion welled up inside me and sheer joy and pleasure and the

awareness of what can happen when we let ourselves out to

play. So that was a really powerful experience for me. And

it directed me into surrendering into the process of a mentorship

program beyond the end of my course. So that I didn't have to

figure out from scratch how to, you know, integrate all of my

new training around the mental and emotional bodies in addition

to what I do with the physical body, and to actually have the

instructor of the course who's a naturopathic doctor, guide me in

doing that, because she's already done it. And so

surrender into that guidance. And the quickest way is to

follow someone who's already done it and avoid their

pitfalls, because you can learn from them. So that was my very

recent experience of playing and laughing and getting those very

strong messages. If you're enjoying my content, and someone

that wants to step into being proactive in your health and

learning more, I would love to invite you to join my membership

community. There's a link in the show notes for only 1999 a

month, you get access to all of my content, and there's a lot as

well as weekly calls that you can come and get your health

questions answered. It's truly priceless. I'd love to see you

join the community, check out the link in the show notes. So

when we play, we laugh. And you've heard me say before the

healing benefits of laughter, one minute of laughter boosts

your immune system for 24 hours. Whereas one minute of stress,

fear, anger, weakens it for four hours, and stop and think for a

moment if you're in a school at recess time or lunchtime. All

the kids are out playing in the playground. What do you hear?

What is the sound that comes to you? It's the sound of laughter

right? It's the sound of pure joy those kids are having

because they're playing they're moving their bodies. They're

running around, they're having an amazing time.

And there is such a powerful connection between the mind and

the body and play is literally nature's therapy and it's

medicine for the whole body. But as adults, we often get too

serious. And we get stuck at our desks worrying about finances,

life, getting it all done your presentation next week, your

holiday to visit family next month. Just stop and imagine

being a child again, your six or seven year old self, close your

eyes, as long as you're not driving. And think back to that

time, think back to how excited you were to go outside at recess

and run around. You probably didn't even care if it was

raining. You were with your friends playing you're in the

moment, you didn't have a care in the world other than the

sheer joy of being able to run, Skip, slide, hop, jump, climb

seesaw hanging upside down on the monkey bars. Do you remember

that. And remember how that felt the excitement to be free of the

classroom, the sheer joy of moving through the wind and air

in some way, feeling the wind on your face blowing in your hair.

Where did that person go? That person grew up and per societal

norms, stop skipping, jumping, hanging upside down. And then in

middle school, it was no longer cool. But we still played

organized sports through school and our community. And that

continued through high school. So we were still having fun

moving our bodies and then came University. Maybe some people

played sports at the university level or the intramural level.

And then came the real world, a job. Life got busy with our 40

hour plus work week socializing, maybe there was a community

sport you played once or twice a week, then you get married and

have a family. And there's no longer time for that either. And

if we don't protect our play time, we find that it's suddenly

gone. Because we're looking after everybody else first. Do

you relate to that? As adults that takes real conscious choice

and planning to build in play time into many of our lives? We

commit to going to the gym to do a workout. But does that even

sound fun? No, it

has the word work in it. So for most people, that doesn't sound

like fun at all. Maybe for some people they love their gym

workouts. And if that's you, kudos to you. That's awesome.

But for the bulk of the population that isn't moving.

The word workout doesn't inspire them to go to the gym, right? I

totally get it. But with the best of intentions, we start,

maybe it's our New Year's resolution that we make in

January because everybody else is doing it. We know we should.

But it doesn't last. Doesn't the world, the word play sounds so

much more fun than the word workout. Just feel the

difference in your body of the word play versus workout. And

yet it doesn't seem to be accepted for adults to play.

Yes, we can play a game or play a sport. But it always has to be

organized. What if we could just walk outside our house and play

just like we did as children. Moving your body has so many

benefits. And it's not just for weight loss. The data is

extensive, and it's shown that moving your body improves your

mood is boosting your memory is reducing stress and anxiety.

It's staving off a host of preventable diseases from heart

disease type two diabetes, obesity and some types of

cancer. These are the same chronic illnesses that I'm often

talking about in relation to toxins and reducing your toxic

load. But exercise is also important. You've heard me talk

about detoxing, as I've said also nutrition sleep. I've

covered off on all of these topics. But getting into this

topic of exercise movement play is something new. And that's why

I wanted to focus this month episodes on this topic. And

here's something I've always loved watching is dogs. They all

know that word walk to the point where many pet owners have to

spell it out or come up with another word entirely because as

soon as their dog hears that word, they start to go nuts.

They're jumping up and down their tails wagging. They're

trying to get their leash. They are excited because they know

they get to go outside and walk and run and play. And it they

don't care what the weather is. They are just so excited to get

out and move their bodies.

And I've often wondered, why can't we humans be like that be

like those dogs. They love so much. And yet, for us humans,

we've largely become a sedentary societies. And often we don't

get in enough movement because we think we don't have time.

We're already busy, right? Raising our family, and we've

got to get kids to school and get to work and drive kids do

their sports events, etc, etc, and get the groceries done and

make dinner and well, there's just not enough time in the day.

But if we break it down into small increments, you can find

time in your day, I promise you. So what can you do to ensure you

play every day? First off, choose something you love that

is simply fun, not work, make it so it's easy to do without

needing big plans to make it happen. So you want to have good

ease of access? What ideas can you come up with? Honestly,

think back when to when you were that six or seven year old

child? What did you love to do then? Was it skipping rope? Was

it just skipping? Was it hula hooping? These are all things

that you can do in your backyard. You don't have to go

anywhere. They don't cost any money. Well, okay, you can go to

the dollar store and buy a skipping rope. It's probably $2.

Right? Hula Hoops, same thing. So this is your homework for the

week. And I really would love for you to tune back in next

week as well to learn from Play expert, Janet Olmstead, who has

written the play book. And within that she offers 150 ideas

to start playing. And the 150 also refers to the number of

minutes you should be engaged in moving in a week, 150 minutes in

a week. So that's not much, it's just over 20 minutes a day at a

minimum, right? You can break that down into 210 minutes, or

four or five minutes of doing something that moves you. During

our caveman days, the men were working, walking 15 to 18

kilometers per day hunting. And now we've been we've become so

sedentary sitting at a computer all day long. We barely walk

that far at all. So what are some of the things that you can

do in five minute increments, like I said, you know, hula

hoops, skipping rope, you're just running up and down the

stairs in your house. Going over, if you've got a park

nearby you like I'm fortunate to have, you could go over and, you

know, climb up and slide down and climb up and slide down or

get on the swing and pump your legs. And these are all things

that we can absolutely do. But we also need to be shifting our

mindset around it and saying, I want to have fun. It's okay for

me to have fun. It's okay for me to, you know, be joyous and to

move. And it's okay for adults to still play, as opposed to

thinking that playgrounds are just for kids, and that you

can't join in and have fun, too. So, as I said,

that's your home for your week. Next week, I have Janet Olmstead

here. And then the week after I will be talking about all the

ways that I love to play because perhaps that will inspire you.

And the week after that, I'm going to have Deb King on from

the wisdom playground. And we're going to be talking about having

bringing play into the workplace as well, because we can

absolutely do that. And before we end, I would just like to

share a testimonial with you. This is something new that I'll

be doing my business coach suggested and and it's a great

idea because you're listening to my podcast. But if you don't

really know what I do or how I help people, then you're not

able to share my work with others and help your loved ones.

And so as an integrative health practitioner and registered

health coach, I help two people get to the root cause of their

health issue. And once we understand that, where the body

is out of balance, we can support the body and coming back

into balance, we can remove what the body no longer needs in

terms of toxicities or excesses, et cetera. And when the body is

imbalanced, it will heal itself. So the testimonial that I would

like to share today is a very recent one from somebody that

I've only been working with since January of 2022. She has

had chronic fatigue syndrome for over 40 years and really, really

struggled with this and gone to many, many medical doctors

looking for answers and nothing has ever really worked. And when

she was referred to me by a mutual friend, I suggested we

run some lab tests to see where the imbalances are in her body.

And the one that I was particularly interested in

having her run was one that shows the mineral deficiencies

and metal toxicities because I suspected that there was

probably some metal toxicities going on here. And she decided

to run all her labs to get a baseline, which was a brilliant

idea. And once we saw the results in her labs, we knew

exactly what was going on. She had very high cadmium, very high

nickel, very high copper in her labs. And she needed to do a

heavy metal detox in order to get these toxins out of her

body. She also had a little bit of bacterial overgrowth, and she

had her mitochondria were showing that they were

dysfunctioning and needed support, right and our

mitochondria are our energy powerhouses. So no surprise that

for somebody with chronic fatigue syndrome, there were her

mitochondria are struggling. And so we were able to start a heavy

metal detox, we were able to support her mitochondria with

some good supplements. And within two weeks of starting her

protocol, I got this beautiful email from her, thanking me for

giving her 40 years of her life back because she had just been

able to spend the last five days sewing a beautiful, no new quilt

for her and her husband's bed as well as for pillowcases. And

she'd worked nine and 10 hour days on it, and had the energy

to do that. And she said, I haven't had the energy to do

that. In 40 years, I've needed naps to get through my days. And

she said that she was sleeping again, because we were

addressing her diurnal rhythm and her cortisol levels. And

that was helping her get to sleep at a normal time and get a

solid eight to nine hours of sleep per night. So I love

getting testimonials like this, because it's just so fulfilling

to me to be able to help someone in such a profound way. And it's

really not that hard to do when we run the labs and we can see

exactly what is going on inside the body and where the body is

out of balance. So if you know anyone that is struggling with

chronic fatigue syndrome, or any kind of chronic illness that

they're looking for answers for, feel free to send them to my

website, they can go ahead and book a complimentary call so

they can meet me I can understand what their health

goals are and if I'm the right person to be helping them. So

thank you again for tuning in to the don't wait for your wake up

call podcast. Have a wonderful week ahead. And I look forward

to having you join us next week. To further the discussion on

Craig.

Thank you for investing this time with me on the don't wait

for your wake up call Podcast. I'm so glad you joined in. If

you can take two minutes to share this episode with someone

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help disrupt the sick care system we have today and make

human health a global priority. Health is your true wealth.