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 wakeup call.

Welcome back to another episode of The don't wait for your wake

up call podcast. My name is Melissa Daly and I am your host.

And this episode is a continuation of episode number

62 episodes ago as I continue to focus on the theme of

inspiration. And so if you haven't listened to Episode 60,

I suggest you go back and listen to episode 61st. And then listen

to episode 61. Because oh my goodness, the story of Tanya

Joyce, going from wheels to heels is such an incredibly

inspirational story. And I know you will absolutely love it. And

once you've listened to those two episodes, come back and join

me for episode 62. Here as we continue with 10 more sources of

inspiration in my life and how they impact me. So again, when

we are living in a place of inspiration, we are feeling

good, joyful, happy, motivated, we're looking towards the

future, we're looking at possibility. Instead of feeling

that things are impossible, can't be done, being afraid,

being angry, leave behind all of those negative emotions, and

we're moving towards the positive emotions feeling

lighter. And so that's why being in a state of inspiration is

such a wonderful place to be. And honestly, one of the easiest

ways to get there is to simply go out into nature. And I'm

very, very fortunate I am surrounded by nature. But I'm

surrounded by nature by a very conscious choice I made about 32

years ago, I came to Whistler, British Columbia, in October of

1990. And when I stood in the village and was surrounded by

the mountains, I was in awe of the sheer beauty of Mother

Nature. And I spent that winter here and it was my intent to

only be here for one winter, and then go on to London, England to

a career in Merchant banking using my Commerce degree. And

partway through that season. I have many people telling me all

you have to stay for summer because summer is amazing here

you can do even more in the summer. You can kayak and you

can paddleboard and you can canoe and you can swim in the

lakes and you can sail and you can hike and you can bike ride,

whereas winter was skiing or skiing downhill or cross country

but it was still skiing, right. And so I thought, That sounds

pretty amazing. I can say because it was just an

internship, I can push that back six months. And so I did that

then as it was coming around to the end of that year, and I

should have been going off to my internship. I also realized I

know what that life is like ahead of me in London. I've been

there I have friends in banking, I've seen their stressful life.

They're long days and then going to the pub at the end of the day

and eating crappy fried food and drinking and then going to bed

and getting up and doing it all again the next day. And is that

what I wanted for my life? Or did I want to be here in this

place surrounded by nature with all of this beauty? And okay,

maybe I won't make as much money as I would have made if I went

into Merchant banking. But what was more important to me, my

money or my health? And even then I wasn't in health and

wellness. I had no desire to go into health and wellness at that

point. I still knew that my health was important to me, and

more important to me than money. Because after all, what is your

wealth? What's it good for if you don't have your health,

right? I made a conscious decision then I have never, ever

regretted choosing nature. And nature truly is inspirational.

It lowers our stress the moment that we're in it, we can feel

our body calm. And when we look around at every everything that

nature is offers the variety, you know, the different types of

trees, birds, animals, etc, etc, etc. There's so much mountains,

lakes, beaches.

There's so much variety, and it's different every single day.

And I'm 32 years later, I still wake up and see the mountains in

the winter covered in snow and have a hard time imagining what

they look like, in summer. And in summer, they're, you know,

grass, green, and beautiful. And I have a hard time imagining

what they like in winter, because I love to just be in the

moment, and enjoy what nature is offering me in that moment in

time. hiking in the woods, and leaving, you know, modern day

life behind the stresses and the worries of the world technology,

etc, etc. And just going out and being. And so, in that place in

nature, when we lower our stress levels, and when we find a place

of calm, when our conscious mind can slow down enough. That's

where creativity comes in. That's where inspiration

happens. We can be inspired to, you know, come up with a new

problem, new solution to a problem, we're trying to solve a

new plan for what's next in our life. Or we can just be inspired

to slow down and enjoy the peace and quiet and calm because we

get those opportunities so rarely in our world today. So I

am literally in awe of Mother Nature every day, every time I

go up the mountain skiing. It's beautiful to me, and I just want

to take photos. And some of my friends laugh at me because

they're like, you've lived here for 32 years, and you look like

a tourist. And I'm like, I don't care. I really don't care. I

want to capture this every time. And what's been really

interesting over the last 18 months, as I've been doing this

and sharing this on social. And through this pandemic, when you

know everybody's we've been staying home and doing less,

etc. You post these photos, and other people are commenting how

just looking at my photos brings them calm or inspires them where

they just appreciate seeing them. And then that inspires me

to continue posting my photos. And sometimes I think well, it's

kind of the same photos I posted last time. It doesn't matter

because somebody else is going to see it somebody who needed to

see it on that day. Because Mother Nature has so much to

give whether it's in person, or even through a photograph or a

picture. And so, those of you who know me, you absolutely know

I love spending time in nature. Whether it's downhill skiing,

cross country skiing in the summertime getting out on my

paddleboard. I actually don't know how many people I lost

count that I inspired to buy paddleboards in my last two

summers of paddleboarding and posting about it and I love that

I love that other people are getting out into nature and

enjoying that time on the water and the calm and it's so

healthy, we're letting go of stress in those moments. Hiking,

I used to always you know, I've done a lot of hiking over my

years here. But in since the pandemic taking out back country

hiking with my daughter, something the two of us can do

together and totally enjoy quiet time memory making just

relaxing, leaving all the devices behind, or simply

sitting in nature and enjoying the warmth of the sun coming

through the trees or what I absolutely love is walking

through the trees with a canopy above my head and you can't see

up to the sky. But then every once in a while the sun will

come through and you can see the rays of the sun coming through

the trees and hitting the ground ahead of you. It's just

absolutely beautiful. And what about the changing of the colors

in the fall? The spring you know that brilliant bright green of

new leaves and buds in the spring to the beautiful oranges

and reds of the fall.

Yes, I love nature. I could probably do a whole show on

nature. But I'm going to move on to the source of inspiration

number 12 which is laughter. Right? Who doesn't love the

sound of laughter think about that baby that new baby laugh

when you're just going boo at them and they think it's the

funniest thing ever. And it's just that really cute little

baby giggle and you can do it Over and over and over again.

And every time they laugh more, and it's that same little cute

baby laugh. We've all seen that experience that too, you know,

comedy shows to, you know, comedy television, just allowing

us that time to laugh. Those belly laughs are great episode

that my family and I love. It's called Miranda out of the out of

the UK, there's only three seasons, there's only five or

six episodes per season. But it is a laugh out loud hilarious.

To the point where you're laughing so hard your tummy

hurts. And that is so healthy for you. Because one minute of

laughter can boost your immune system for 24 hours. One minute

of anger or fear or stress, on the other hand can weaken your

immune system for four hours. So what would you rather laughter

changes your energy, it shifts your mood, it lightens your

load. And it's a very quick and powerful way to move into that

place of feeling lighter. So I absolutely love laughter for

what it does, because it makes us feel good. It's contagious.

When my oldest daughter starts laughing, she has an absolutely

contagious laugh. And I can't help but laugh along with her.

And sometimes she's you know, playing tricks on her dad and

laughing at her dad. And then I'm laughing too. And he's like,

Thanks for the support. And I absolutely can't help it. I just

start laughing when she starts laughing. And so that contagious

nature of laughter is really powerful as well, because it

brings us together as human beings enjoying the moment. So

laughter is yet another source of inspiration. Where can you

find laughter in your life? The 13th source of inspiration is

spirituality. Whether that's meditation, prayer,

contemplation, all of these can be a quiet source of peace and

inspiration. Sometimes inspiration comes to us, when we

slow down, right? I said that, in my last episode, when my

daughter and I were sitting at the sunset and quiet of the

morning. In fact, inspiration often comes to us when we slow

down. And we just don't slow down enough on a regular basis.

But when we choose to slow down and go within the inspiration

can reveal itself to us. The problem solving the ideas,

creative ideas for something we might want to do next. And so

what does that look like for you, it doesn't have to be a

make work project to slow down or to meditate or to pray. It

could be five minutes at a time. And sometimes it's a matter of

just starting. And initially it might be five minutes. But then

as you get good at meditating for five minutes, and you're

really like the peace and the calm and the inspiration that

comes to you, it's easy to build upon that to 10 minutes or 15

minutes. For me, yoga is almost like meditation that can be a 45

minute to an hour long class, of just being calm being within

closing my eyes to all the external input and the

bombardment of what's thrown in our eyes all day, every day, to

just allow the brain time to calm. And from that place, we

get inspiration. Number 14 Are my clients. My clients are an

incredible source of inspiration to me. And perhaps for you, it's

clients, maybe it's colleagues, maybe it's your bosses. But who

are the people that you work with? That might be a source of

inspiration for you.

Very often the clients that come to work with me have been

looking for solutions to their root cause of their health

issues for quite some time and not getting answers being told

nothing's wrong with them, or that we don't know what's wrong

with you. And they're frustrated. And sometimes

they've almost given up, they don't think they can heal it all

and they have to feel like crap for the rest of their life.

Which is absolutely not true because your dis ease does not

have to be a life sentence. But sometimes that's what people are

led to believe. And so when they start working with me, they

don't have a lot of hope left. They're thinking will this work?

Won't this work? I'm not sure they have to buy into my belief

that My programs work. And I know my programs work because

I've seen them work with hundreds and hundreds of

different people and get great results for all of them. And so

I have to share how the programs work with them. And then they

have to choose to step into that. When we have hope, we can

continue the healing journey is when we quit, that we've lost

our hope and nothing happens. So as long as we keep trying,

there's the chance that will then the body can keep healing,

right. So they step into that. And then as we create the

environment for their body to heal, and they start noticing

the benefits very quickly, usually within the first three

weeks. Now they develop their own belief that, hey, there's

something to this, this can work for me, I'm feeling better, I'm

on the right path. And they're inspired to keep going, and

their belief blossoms. And when I see them take on their own

belief, and I see them step into doing the work. That inspires

me, because it isn't always easy. But they do it. Because

they start to see the benefits. And that inspires them to keep

going. And that inspires me to keep doing the work that I'm

doing, because there's more people out there that need that

kind of help and support and guidance on their healing

journey. So I want to say thank you to every single one of my

clients that trusted in me. Because you inspire me every

single day and stepping into doing the work that you need to

do to help your body heal with my guidance. And you inspire me

to keep doing the work that I do. And it brings me great joy,

because I love seeing the results that people get. So

number 15, the 50 source of inspiration, are our friends. We

have all different kinds of friends, friends in different

shapes and sizes, that all have different skills and different

knowledge that we don't have. And so they can do things that

we can't do or don't do. And this is inspiring, because from

there, we can learn from each other. And I have a particular

very good friend who I've actually only known for the last

six months where accountability partners in a business coaching

group that we're both in. And we both agree that our coach

assigned us to be partners together, it was just a perfect

match. And honestly, this lady is an angel. Recently, she moved

into the house of neighbors who had a disabled daughter and a

son. And they hadn't had a vacation since the kids were

born. And caring for a disabled child is anybody any of you

would know if you have disabled children, that's 24/7. And

they've never had a vacation. And so Jackie, who I've

nicknamed an angel moved into their home leaving her own

teenage son and husband in their family home in order to care for

these two kids while their parents got their first ever

vacation.

Is it easy looking after a disabled child? Absolutely not.

This is a disabled teenager, she's you know, got some weight

to her. So Jackie had to be lifting her, you know, getting

carrying her into bed and bathing her and getting her to

eat food and taking her to her brother's Christmas concert. And

she sent videos of her dancing with this child who's standing

in her leg braces and holding her up so she could dance and

playing music. And remember in the last episode, Episode 16

music was one of the sources of inspiration. And they were

dancing to this music. And the brilliant smile on this girl's

face was absolutely incredible. And the gift that Jackie gave to

this family in moving into their home and caring for their

children. That inspires me to be a better person. Because to me,

she is an angel. And I was watching this as she was sharing

videos of her experience thinking could I do that? What I

do that? I don't know. But Jackie did it. And now, next

noon, if there's a time where I'm asked to do that I would

want to say yes. Because Jackie's inspired me to be that

better person. So that I can say yes to that. So thank you,

Jackie, for that inspiration. And then we have affirmations as

our 16th source of inspiration. And again, there's many

affirmations out there, you can Google them, you can make up

your own. And I made up an affirmation that many of you

have heard many times over, in regard to self care when I first

started my health coaching certification course, because

that's where I first learned that self care is the most

selfless act, and that we should be looking after ourselves

first, not last, because I always thought I had to look

after everybody else first. And me last, and then I never really

got to me. And when I flipped that on its head, it made so

much sense, you know, we can't serve from an empty cup, put the

oxygen mask on first in the airplane, etc. Right? Fill your

cup until it's overflowing and serve from the saucer that made

so much more sense to me. So I created an affirmation that self

care is the most selfless act, as it allows you to show up and

give the world the best of you instead of what's left of you.

And I say that every single day. As I shifted my habits into

looking after me first. And as I did that, I noticed a shift in

me, I noticed a shift in my family. Because I was looking

after me first. And I was actually more stress resilient.

I was actually calmer two teenage daughters at time when I

first implemented this and notice this and one day I had

this aha that. There, they're not riling me up like they used

to. I'm not responding and yelling like I used to. They

still push my buttons, but I respond calmly. And the only

difference was that I had started looking after myself,

blocking myself care time in my calendar, making sure I got my

workouts in or my paddleboarding or my skiing or whatever it was.

And self care for every single person is different. For me,

it's some form of exercise, or it's enjoying a bath and the day

for reading a book. For you, it might be totally different. But

affirmations really help us to change habits. We're so

programmed to just be in our comfort zone and do what we've

always done. And it can be hard to get outside of that and to

create a new habit because our brain wants to keep us safe in

our comfort zone. And anytime we step outside of that we start

doing something differently. It starts sending us messages to

pull us back, questioning what we're doing, why are you doing

that? You sure you want to do that? That's hard, this looks

different. Is it safe? Why don't you come back over here where I

know I can keep you safe. And that's why so often, when we're

doing something that has a stepping outside our comfort

zone, we might even feel butterflies in our stomach, like

standing on stage to give a speech, a piano recital standing

at the start line of a marathon. Because our brains like whoa,

what's going on here. And it's questioning us and we're feeling

a little bit nervous.

And when we continue to step in outside of our comfort zone and

move forward on that path, those affirmations can help us keep

moving forward. So that is a 16th form of inspiration. The 17

is exercise. So when we exercise, we have endorphins

moving through our body, we're feeling good, we're better

oxygen flow through our body, therefore, you know, more blood

flowing through our body, etc. We just feel better. And I

realize if you're used to lying around on the couch, that it

might be really hard to find that motivation to get up and

exercise. But when you do you always feel better. I don't

think anybody's ever gone and done a workout and then said,

Gee, I wish I didn't do that. And so it's incredibly

inspirational because we're always feeling better. And again

we're getting out of our conscious brain when we're

exercising our brain can calm and you know new thoughts, new

ideas, new inspirations can come to us. I've recently invested in

the mirror button Lululemon is partnered with a mirror to

promote that and so now I have a whole exercise gym in my living

room with over 10,000 workouts in it from chair, workouts you

can do in your chair to yoga to stretch Change toning to barre

Pilates boxing kickboxing, tai chi, cardio competition family

fun. I, I can't even remember all of them. There's so many to

choose from. And then from beginner to intermediate to

advanced to expert, and five minutes to 60 minute classes,

and some live classes, and then a whole bunch of recorded

classes. So every single day, at some point, I can go to the

mirror and I like to do my workouts in the morning, I can

go to the mirror, and I can do a half hour of this and a half

hour of that. Or maybe I do an hour of something, try different

things. And just enjoy that. And I can play my music, play their

music. And again, remember, music is another source of

inspiration. I'll often play my energy shifting tunes just

because they're faster, especially if I'm doing cardio.

Oh, dance was another one I forgot to tell you, then I have

to play their music. And I'm totally uncoordinated. And you

know what, it doesn't matter because I'm at home and no one's

watching. But I'm moving. And I'm creating that blood flow.

I'm getting out of my thinking mind and just being in the

moment and from their source, if that's the source of

inspiration. So I absolutely love my mirror. And but it

doesn't matter what exercise do you like to do? Maybe it's just

getting out and going for a walk. I told you in the two

episodes ago, about my mom walking the pole to pole without

even knowing it and getting her Fitbit badge because she was out

walking her dogs. And then she's getting out and getting close to

the beach because she's living in Australia. So she's closer to

nature. So all those benefits from getting outside and doing a

walk. So what type of exercise do you like, because that's

what's most important. If you like bike riding, then go ride a

bike, if you hate bike riding, don't ride a bike, find

something that you like, because then you're so much more likely

to do it. And you can start off in baby steps, 15 minute

increments, and build up. And as you build up and you feel better

and you feel fitter, you're further inspired to keep going.

So number 18 is acts of kindness. And love this one,

because so often acts of kindness don't actually even

have to cost you anything. Think of it if you're just giving

someone a compliment. And in this world, how often does that

happen? Not often enough, to the point where if you do

acknowledge someone and give them a compliment, they might

feel uncomfortable. And try to push it off or say it was

nothing. Because they're not used to receiving compliments,

because we're not giving them often enough. And giving a

compliment doesn't cost you anything. But it gives the other

person so much. And guess what it's actually giving you

something to because you feel good about giving that

compliment to the other person. Any act of kindness leaves you

feeling good. Whether somebody drops something and you pick it

up for them. Whether you're opening the door for someone,

whether you're buying someone in front of you a coffee in or

behind you a coffee and wine just because whatever it is,

that act of kindness leaves you feeling good.

And you've made someone else's day, at the same time. And what

if all of us could just go out and give five compliments today

to five different people genuine compliments. And notice how you

feel as a result of doing that. And notice how you've made each

and every one of those people's day. Now, if that isn't a source

of inspiration, I don't know what it's making someone else's

day from a simple act of kindness. Number 19 change

change as a source of inspiration. I've always said

the only guarantee in life is change. And yet some people are

very resistant to change. Because they're in that comfort

zone where their brain knows they can keep them nice and

safe. And they don't want to get out of it. But there's no growth

sitting in your comfort zone. So in order to have growth we have

to get out of that comfort zone staying in it all the time

simply gets boring. And boredom can actually lead to depression

and depression can actually lead to negative health implications.

And there's no better sign of that then people in retirement.

They count down the days to retirement and Then retirement

starts and then they have maybe have a whole month first month

planned out are going to travel. And then after that they have no

idea what they're gonna do with all of this time. And if they

don't make a plan on how they're going to spend that time, it

gets boring. And that boredom leads to depression and

depression leads to illness. And too many people die really soon

after retiring. It's actually tragic, because you work all of

these years of your life looking forward to retirement. So you

can do all of these things, and then it doesn't happen. Which is

why I actually believe in the Japanese approach of IKI guy

where you find your passion and your purpose. And you do that

every day for the rest of your life. You don't have to retire

from it because you love what you do. And so then retirement

isn't even a thing. You might do it less as you get older, but

you don't have to actually retire. But if you're living

life by design, you can take vacation when you want to take

vacation, you can live your purpose when you want to live

your purpose. But moving out of our comfort zone, and inviting

change into our life is inspiring, as we don't know

where we're going or how it's going to turn out. And that's

totally why your brain wants to keep you in the comfort zone,

because it's like, where are you going, I don't know, if I can

keep you safe over there. Let's come back to the comfort zone.

But the reality is, when we step outside that comfort zone, it's

an adventure. And that is inspiring. And we just have to

gently tell our brain that it'll be okay that we've got this. And

let's go over here and you'll find a new Comfort Zone later

on. You see, your brain is your best friend and your worst enemy

at the same time. It's your best friend when it stops you from

stepping in front of a bus. But it's your worst enemy when it's

holding you hostage in your comfort zone. So learn to talk

back to your brain and bring it with you on your adventure out

of your comfort zone. And that is inspiring that yourself Be

inspired simply by not knowing what the outcome is going to be.

But being open to the journey. And the 20th source of

inspiration is a conscious rethink, slow down, meditate,

take the time for check ins with yourself. Excuse me, are you in

alignment in all aspects of your life? Is there anything you need

to shift in order to get into alignment is when you are in

alignment in all aspects of your life, you will find yourself

living in peace, harmony, and joy. And there will always be

room for growth, there will be always room to try new things.

And that is a great source of inspiration. When we rethink

when we do check ins with ourselves, check that we're on

the right path. And if we're not, we do a little zig here, a

little zag there. So I hope you've really enjoyed these over

the course of two episodes, these 20 sources of inspiration.

And I truly would love to hear from you whether you email me at

Melissa at your guided health journey.com. post a message on

YouTube underneath these podcasts or send me a message

through my website at your guide to health journey.com through

the contact form. And let me know which of these 20 sources

of inspiration most resonated with you.

When we take the time to just stop and think about all the

ways that we can be inspired in our life, we can truly start to

create a little bit of change, we can start to realize we're

boredom setting in we're bogged down when we're just doing same

old, same old and we can shake it up. And that is inspired. So

thank you for listening to the don't wait for your wake up call

podcast. And next week I have yet another fabulous guest and

this particular guest has had two near death experiences. And

clearly her work isn't done on this planet because she's here

to share her story with you. Amazing woman so inspirational.

So come back next week and listen to episode number 63.

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 Two Minutes to share this episode with someone

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to a wider audience and help disrupt the sick care system we

have today

and make human health the global priority. Health is your true