Unlocking Holistic Healing and Wellness: Faith, Nutrition, and Community

welcome fearfully and wonderfully made human today's episode is extra special as I welcome a guest who has been a vital part of my holistic health Journey back in 2012 after my son River suffered a t oo a traumatic brain injury sorry guys I began searching for natural ways to support his healing one of the first books I picked up after River's accident was nourish your nogin by Tina M Sullivan and that's when I began to search

for a more holistic way to help him somewhere along the way whether at a wellness fair church event or homeschool Gathering I met Sharon Farrar who then introduced me to today's guest Michelle Fletcher both Sharon and Michelle were absolute lifelines for me during that difficult season their support went be Beyond just introducing me to juice plus it provided a sense of community hope and connection things that are crucial for mental health especially during times of Crisis

I got River started on the free children's Juice Plus program while I dove into research and Michelle's passion and energy lit up every room she entered over the years we bumped into each other and her magnetic Spirit has only grown stronger Michelle Fletcher originally from England was with Jamaican Roots has lived in Fort laurdale Florida since 1986 she's the PowerHouse behind the holistic business Network a community for holistic practitioners services and products her 133-year partnership with

juice plus and tower garden shaped her holistic journey and she has reached the top 5% in her business as a leader and mentor she's a certified lean lean health coach public speaker and advocate for small and medium holistic businesses like me before diving into holistic health Michelle earned a BS in management information systems and that's a bachelor in science and spent over a decade in it after losing her corporate job in 2009 she pivoted to nutrition

and exercise becoming a trail laser in the Juice Plus community and Beyond she's also featured a featured speaker at international events and the founder of the holistic business Network which went International in this year into 2024 you can also catch her on the cover of feel well magazine and that's um Q CAA how do you say her last name Michelle tart t t t how do you T how do you say her first name Cadera CAD

okay I said that right all right so holistic health impacts Mental Health on so many levels when I started researching ways to help River heal naturally it wasn't just about his physical recovery it was about nourishing both of us Body Mind and Spirit through the resources Sharon and Michelle shared I learned that what we put into our bodies directly impacts our emotional and mental well-being whole clean foods like those supported by Juice Plus can improve mood

reduce inflammation and balance stress stress responses on top of that having a strong support system like the one Sharon and Michelle provided during one of the most difficult times made all the difference they helped me stay grounded offering practical advice and emotional encouragement which gave me a stren the strength to keep going the sense of community they fostered allowed me to feel connected when I could have easily felt isolated espe especially when conventional medicine just wanted

to medicate my son that kind of support wow it's still stored in my system all these years later that kind of support is critical for mental health especially for someone who's facing challenges in their personal life so without further Ado I am honored to introduce the dynamic Mi Michelle Fletcher Michelle welcome to the show let's dive into how you've been changing lives through holistic health and Entrepreneurship you for having me I am blown away by that

intro I mean not about me but your experience with me so that was really beautiful thank you yeah like people don't know what they're doing like you know what I mean I bet you had no idea the influence that you and Sharon had in that in those critical time none you were doing your thing and I'm just listening and picking things up and that's why I'm like wow I need to get you on the show so

what's a lean coach lean coach um lean stands for lifestyle exercise attitude and nutrition so it incorporates those four aspects of Health which are it just encompasses all the things oh man okay so yeah well tell me about this whole thing from it to what happened holistic health and then leadership like how' that all play out I yeah it is such a it's a funny story because I never imagined I would be where I am today

um back when I was in corporate but yeah my degree out of college was you know an IT degree which consisted of like part coding part business and so I was in that field for over 10 years in different positions whether it was data analyst um or it support supporting software that companies were using and even though I was good at my job I didn't love it um it was just something I chose while in college

because I knew that was an industry that was Rising but it's funny because since I was a teenager I've always been very much into like exercise and being very mindful of like healthy habits um I was one of those teenagers that I didn't really care too much for sweet drinks because they used to I used to realize they made me more thirsty so I always gravitated to water and my mom would be like why don't you

drink juice and I'm just like I don't want to drink juice it makes me more thirsty so there's little things that I picked up just growing up and it's funny because I come from a household a Caribbean household where you're always doing something and moving around but you're not really focused on health and wellness you're not so it's weird that I picked up on these things I really listened to my body at a young age like

I started to notice oh when it's that time of the month if I ate a lot of sugary Foods then I would have even worse cramps than normal um so I would realize oh don't eat sugary Foods or don't drink something that has a lot of sugar because then you're gonna have more cramps and this was I was like 15 and just paying attention to what my body was telling me and so um I've just always

had that awareness and it made me really grateful that when I kind of I was pushed out of the it space kind of because I lost my job in 20 in 2009 and I was home with two young kids for a year trying to figure out what I was going to do I was studying to become a personal trainer I had helped a lot of friends learned how to um work out at the gym and I

trained them and I'm not a personal trainer but I had learned all these tools from my University Florida state is amazing because they had I'm a seminal they had the most amazing fitness facility and not only did they have this amazing athletic fitness facility but they also offered um personal trainers to all the students so you could get you could really learn how to use and um take advantage of the tools in the gy by having

a personal trainer like that was a part of the program so I took a advantage of that and I really learned how to use all the machines and what things worked best for me so I would just then share that with other people so when I graduated Fitness became really my go-to as stress relief even in college like college was a very stressful time for me when it came to the studying part when it came to

the social aspect it was one of the best times of my life I was very social and that was probably why I struggled a little bit more when it came to my studies because I was just such a social butterfly even though I'm a smart person I would take more time to be social than would to study not so good but um I feel you though I feel I feel you yeah that's why you're the ultimate

networker honestly because of the personality that God has given you um did you ever take an mbti uh Myers Briggs Myers Briggs did I ever take that if not I'm sending it to you after this episode I feel like I took it a long time ago I cannot remember okay what the results were okay I bet you you're ENFJ but we'll we'll talk about that later off the Record off the off the off the podcast okay

so then right so you you did this coaching but the lean coaching I love it um as a health coach is that what you do you do that do people hire you for that specifically so I got my um lean Health coaching certification in 2020 when the pandemic happened and we were kind of forced to beat still I said it's time because I had been sharing and educating T of people on a healthy lifestyle for in

2020 for nine years I had been doing this and so I said you know let me get this certification to really like show that I know this information it was like a breeze for me to take because I knew 80% of the information already um had been teaching on it and so I love that it incorporates just like having a healthy lifestyle and how to easily incorporate that a lot of people feel that having a healthier

lifestyle they have to give up so many things yes but I love to say why don't you continue the lifestyle you have and add in more good things and as you're adding in the good things slowly but surely some of those bad habits or things that don't serve you as well your start to like pull back on it's going to I feel like it happens naturally so incorporating the lifestyle um the exercise the attitude attitude is

a mindset is important and then the nutrition um I just feel like it's a beautiful a beautiful way to just start uh on that path to Wellness so I chose that one it's actually by Dr Sears who's been an integral part of June plus this is his health coaching program he's a pediatrician correct isn't he a pediatrician in California I think that's where I remember starting to learn when all that happened and I was like oh

my gosh what am I going to do with my kid honestly and then you know I'm like oh free all right I'm gonna see if that help and then I that that book nourish your Noggin and I and I think it was Dr sear stuff that those two things Blended together was okay I'm going to do this protocol with my kid and I did and I'm grateful I mean he's he's he's now you know 26 and

married and and yeah so he's doing well I mean you know like after a a head injury or any kind of injury right you you just have to realize like here's your two choices like I we need the medical model I get it like you know if I had a broken arm or something emergency we need that but to continue in the pattern of like now you here you are going to be on these things for

the rest of your life like you know that's I'm just glad that that I was able to do what I can it's a lot of prayer too it was a lot of prayer and then the shifting of the lifestyle like you're talking about in the lean protocol you know um let I want to ask you because you're you're Jamaican right Jamaican Roots born born in England yeah okay so when did you come to Florida when I

was 10 years old oh that must have been rough a little bit rough no it was it was rough um when we moved here there weren't too many people that had met a family of color that had British accent you know we were I sounded straight out of I where I was from I was a British girl and so um when I started school I started at the end of third grade my parents didn't really know

what grade I was supposed to be in because uh like we don't say grade in England like everything's different you graduate high school school when you're 16 like everything was so different so actually it was funny because they tested me I tested super high because you know our educational system is ahead and yet they put me a year behind don't know why so I'm older like a year older than all of my friends which is great

because I feel like I got an extra year of childhood I tested very high and they they put me in the lower grade but then they would make me leave my class and go to the higher grade math and English wow none so in automatically I stood out because why is she in class and then leaving class then why does she sound the way she does how are there's black people in England like these kids I

went to a predominantly black school when I first moved here so it was so weird because where we lived in England we were like the only black family on the street wow and then we moved to the us and we're surrounded by people that look like us but they had never seen anyone like us it was just it was a lot of a in um I think I was a lot more adaptable I I just dealt

with a lot of questions I was kind of put on a um like I was like the show every day at lunch that the kids in my class would call the other kids standing in line waiting to go in the lunchroom come over here listen say this say that like it was just very strange yeah I would be very quiet I tried not to speak right oh no but that accent is beautiful though but I get

it because I came here in sixth grade from New York and I had like a New York Rican accent so it was like a little you know like deep and but they weren't nice to me here like some people were but it was just like they made fun of the accent and some girls were a little you know the Mean Girl thing in middle school and and so I would come home to practice every day not

to sound like that this is why I sound like this now it's weird but I get the cultural thing too because you're looking around and you're like wait I'm I feel out of sorts I so it's like at home you have a culture and now here you're trying to be um assimilated and Americanized right and then it's two different things so then you feel like you're neither one of them but I think that's the blessing for

us too because now that we're older women and we've gone through it we know how to bring everyone together yes yeah and I think it I guess that really sucks with me because I always want people to feel included and not to feel the way I felt when I first M here that's right girlfriend no so we have that in common too like that makes sense like we we are trying to make everyone feel included and

we probably you you probably see the human like their potential before they even see it in themselves yeah right yeah I do I do yeah oh so good he just made me identify something I didn't even really pinpoint before but yeah gave me a little sement that's well that's my training I've been trained for a long time being a therapist so and that's what I it's a psychoeducational training of understanding like the human that's in front

of you and you know especi and I'm a Believer right you I don't hide that I'm a Christian so it's like that's that's what I've learned through reading the word and what we're supposed to be doing on this Earth it's not just about the knowledge we're taking in it's the action not the Judgment that a lot of people see in religion it's the action of Behaving what you're reading right and and putting into practice so I

want to talk about um the Caribbean Community for a bit and how how do you Embrace holistic mental health approaches especially in cultural cultures like ours where mental health conversations are often stigmatized oh my goodness well you know for so many years it has been just you know there's all these um false things that people from the Caribbean will say about someone who's having a mental health issue like oh they they might be possessed or they

you know you hear some of the most the the strangest things but I I've noticed what I've come to notice and I think especially since um 20 20 is that even the older Caribbeans like my mom's age are really embracing the fact that mental health issues are a real thing is it's not this um you they make up all these stories because it's kind of like an old-fashioned traditional thing that's passed but I'm noticing there there's

a more awareness to mental health issues now and actually calling it what it is and seeing if there's can be um a way to help those people because I know my my brother he has kind of you know detached from the family he used to be the the center of attention at all our family events and we have family events for just about any reason any holiday we're together yeah um and you know over the years

we've noticed patterns that he's had and but now he's really separated himself and my mom would say well I wonder if someone did this or but I think she's really come to grips with he does have some mental health issues that need to be worked out and it's hard because you know he's detached himself and so just trying to get a hold of him to actually work on that has been really hard and his kids he

has um three boys they've been you know trying to work on getting counseling together and all of that so just trying to support them in that so I think that has been an eye opener for like my mother and then I I know that there's people like within her church and at her age that are now coming to realize you know these are things we have to address we have to seek help it's not we're not

just going to dust them under the carpet and say they're crazy we we we can find ways to help them so I'm very happy for that that we've moved into this face um you know being old school from the Caribbean is it really makes me happy well no really um I'm seeing that too in the Latin community in the Black American Community the Haitian Community because I because of um I I'm in a um quite a

few networks Christian and non-Christian of mental health professionals and we're all seeing this movement in the churches this is why I cre I really feel the Lord put on my heart to create the mental Wellness min at the at the church I attend because we're trying to break the stigma in the church because it's a real thing where people and I I have actually a 20 20 things I've heard in my office PDF I created of

spiritual bypassing where it's like the statement I don't have it in front of me but it's the statement and then how to um respond to it biblically lovingly with cognitive behavioral techniques and why why a Christian might say that and that's because of most of the people you're right like it is it's like oh it's Satan I'm like yeah you're giv Satan too much power but come on like like we need each other and us that

are trained in this CL it's just like a doctor that's trained right and if you need or a holistic prct a natural path or an acupuncturist or right a health coach we're training these things to help not to hurt I mean there's there's people in every um career that are selfish narcissistic you know malignant or covert narcissist that's all about them and the money and everything like that but it's us trying to understand that there's people

that look like us from our culture that have tools and we're trying to help our communities and you GNA it's fear it's fear that's why people talk like that because they want control so they're scared and then this is also the whatever they were taught so it's lack of Education right yeah so yeah and I love what you are doing in the church to share that information and to spread this message and I can't wait for

you to touch even more churches with this because well pray for me girl I mean you're already started you're started on this Mission and I can see it growing it's a beautiful thing to watch and to know that you know a lot of times when it comes to being in the church and mental health yeah they will say oh they're blame it they won't take accountability they're blame it on oh the devil and all the things

right Satan's over working over time and to know that no there's ways that they can get be helped and we can help them through this so let's talk about how you help because honestly that's another thing like I see in my culture too like they don't we don't know about I did not know about nutrition I grew grew up you know the rice and beans with the pork the you know I mean I'm half Puerto Rican

half Colombian it was just and it's good but now that I know like well we've eaten this for Generations it's ancestral I get it but the food here is very different and I had to you know I'm still trying to explain to people like no in 95 the glysophates and then this and that you have to understand like and they're like oh she's got her tin foil hat on again and I'm you know like I'm a

conspiracy theorist and I'm like no it's like please try to understand what you're putting in your body so that's something I see in you like I I watch you I see your social media you know you're out there showing that you're working out you look like you're in your 20s I'm not gonna ask how old you are oh I'm near to my 50s way near to my 50s in my 20s but thank you thank you oh

my goodness yes um so what do you do how do you challenge our community so I love to live the lifestyle out loud and just show people what can be done and um just all the things I've learned over the years uh moving your body is important but I don't I I always make sure people know that moving their body however they feel comfortable or will make it fun for them I know some people that they

might have Labor jobs you might not need to be in a gym or working out because you had a laborous day already so just being mindful of the different nuances that comes with your lifestyle and how you're living but um you know coming from a Caribbean household where you feel like you're eating healthy because the Caribbean way a lot of things were so easily accessible like they grew their grow a lot of their own food a

lot of the animals that they're eating they raised in there off of their land right and then they moov to another country like a first world country like this one and they don't realize the changes in the food that they're eating like it's it doesn't have the amount of nutrition that it did back in their Homeland because everything has been picked really early not even allowed to vine ripen most of the times and transported over time

and has lost tons of nutrients um they don't realize that you know like our the the animals that we're now eating have been put in these conditions that are not the best and then also given all these hormones and other things to to supply more food for more people and so they come here and I've seen it happen time and time again where I have family members that moov here from Jamaica and they Health within a

year or two takes a turn like they they will gain a lot of weight um they're start to have like a diagnosis of something and the one thing well there's a number of things that may have changed they're not moving their body as much because when they were uh on the islands you walk a lot more you know things are closer to home um and then two their diet definitely change you know it's easy to get

pulled into the American um culture and everything is you know so tantalizing to the tongue and so um and then all the a lot of the ingredients that are used just to even season your food like a lot of the additives they add where back home you know they might just be adding in a lot of the fresh herbs while they're cooking along with some of the seasoning but the herbs are going to do more of

the work than all the other you know additives that they're adding in our food today so it's just I A lot of times they don't really realize what has happened they don't realize if the food they're eating and how their lifestyle has kind of changed and I have to pin like point that out like no what you're getting here is not like what you got back home don't you taste the difference you can taste the difference

in the food here versus when you leave this country right so um giving them that awareness and then whenever I go back home like we had a family reunion last year and it was my job to talk about nutrition and diabetes is rampant in my father's side of the family like everyone has diabetes and just them understanding how much starches they're eating compared to the proteins and then they're not eating as much um of the fruits

and vegetables that they used to eat because now they're so much more convenient where they are ironically they live in the mountains like up but still there's so much more access to convenient foods and everyone has cars now like more people have vehicles where before they didn't so everything's getting more convenient and at the same time more people are getting unhealthy yes no it's true I mean that's with food it's with um just uh technolog is

getting smarter and we're getting Dumber yes you know I mean it's it's learning to mass okay because this is the thing I had to I worked with adolescence for a long time right before I just went with full-time with adults but that's the thing I'm just like you have this device it's not not I'm trying to get it away from you I'm not trying to get you out of social media I'm trying to teach you how

to master it so it doesn't Master you those are the two choices it's either going to master you or you're going to master it and you know it's like either living in fear or living in faith it's it's it's it's it's understanding your body it's that's what I spend a lot of time doing with clients they come to me they've already gone through the mental health system or I might be their first one but most of

them have already they're like I don't know what is this holistic counseling crap you know like and so okay I want to talk about that a little because I know I'm a faith-based practitioner and I've had I had Dr David Bernstein who T talked a little bit about back when he first started the advanced Wellness Center and how people thought he was some new Ager and went against him big time in the church and so I

don't know if you've ever had that like somebody talked to you about like H the word holistic sometimes people are like oh you're New Age and and then it's again it goes against God how do you respond to that Michelle because to me I'm just like more prayer more prayer I gotta pray more yes it's funny because when I chose the word holistic I really chose it from a more natural standpoint but then as I um

grew in what I'm doing I realized uh the bigger meaning it had for a lot of people and some of the people I was attracting and so one of the things that I said from the onset is that the holistic I'm referring to not all holistic is holistic in my opinion like my definition of holistic is not the same as some other people's definition of holistic so when we start to get into some of those things

that I consider to be a bit more woo woo or non science based those are not the ones that I attract and that is why I vet everyone who has become a part of the membership and then I also that people that are even a part of my events because I want to stand you know stay away from that aspect um because I I am sticking mainly to the science based and you know I am a

Christian and I am not in agreement with a lot of other things out there that may claim to be holistic but I don't feel they they have the same level of um uh standards as I as I expect when I'm referring to holistic so that has been how I've NE navigated that from the Inception because I was just like no not all things I feel like fall under the umbrella that I'm referring to now I know

people use it in another in another term and they can have their things but I'm staying strictly to the science Bas um holistic here okay good to know so what what do you wish people in the church understood about holistic health and is do you have any Scripture or or anything that inspires your approach so um it's so funny uh there's so many Trends out there when it comes to health and wellness right you have people

saying oh you should be vegan you have people saying you should be oh no you should eat meat oh you should and when it comes to discussions like this I always refer to what would Jesus do and what has Jesus done Jesus ate fish right yeah Jesus and his disciples they were fish like they were fishermen they ate fish a lot so I'm just like if Jesus was eating fish I would eat fish and and I

think to the new the Old Testament back when what God had them do in order to um to cleanse themselves of the sins that they had done was you would kill a clean animal and then you would put it on the burnt offering and then you would have to eat it so God from the beginning of the Bible tells us we can eat meat he gave us you know animals to eat once ad Adam and Eve

sinned then you know that was what would feed Adam and Eve and the generations to come so I always look at what does the Bible say and I just everything else doesn't even matter because what does God God's words say yeah and if God is saying this is okay then that is the path I follow yeah so I I root all things back to okay what would God do what what does God say in his word

or what has Jesus done and if it's good enough for them then it's good enough for me yeah no for real I mean he that's the guide he gave us a guide yeah it's the foundation it's the foundation I mean the Book of Genesis talks about light to me that's light therapy it talks about food it talks about the the trees it talks about us breath it is something that I take seriously in my practice that's

what I mean for about holistic as well I'm glad like we we we're kind of on the same like page of that that's wonderful and that the thing is I get a little frustrated because I've been to a lot of uh denomination churches before and I know that quite a few like to point out one or two different things constantly but they're not looking at their own health and wellness like you know what I mean by

that and I and I don't want to be judgmental because that to me like I'm I don't want to be like that I don't I have a big old log in my eye I'm not trying to take your splinter out but it's just frustrating to me when I'm hearing people become too political on some things and then I'm I'm like whoa where is that in the word but wait our body is a temple you're you're sitting

there 300 pounds overweight and your body is a temple and and I understand that there are genetics I get it and I understand that like I'm a therapist I do know that that happens in in in certain places in communities because that's that becomes their addiction you know or they or they don't know any other way or that's their form of whatever you know there's alcohol there's all these things and I think that's where I I

get a little bit frustrated with within the church walls of you know people that don't want to take responsibility for themselves in that manner of understanding us holistically that's why I asked you that question like how do you see H and what would you what do you wish the church knew about that or like what do you think the shift is because it's all connected mental health physical health and spiritual health right it's all we're not

separate it's all connected what do you say about all that oh my goodness there's a lot to say but um I you know I agree with you with that frust ation because there are so many things that we could focus on especially in the church there's so many things you can focus on but sometimes there's things right in your face like you're if you look in the mirror there's issues that are not being addressed and so

um one of the places that I used to do a lot of talks in with juice plus was in churches and I would always love to go to a church just to plant the seed like there's got to be someone that's going to plant that seed because it might just be that the leadership they don't have any knowledge of um certain things that can help keep their churches healthier physically um not just spiritually right and so

uh I really love like there's certain um denominations like 7-Day Adventist that is something that they include from the beginning of how your body is important and how it's important to take care of yourself and to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables a lot of um 7-Day evenses you'll find are vegetarian or vegan because you know the plants are important but then we see other denominations where that is not even a typically a discussion and

they their idea of Wellness is when it's you know they have a health there and it will have people that are there to kind of put a Band-Aid on issues not to get to root of issues and to then educate on why these issues are happening and to how and how to prevent them so I just want more of that to happen and one of the reasons I started this network is to help educate the community

but educate everyone and you know in God's timing I'm hoping to reach out to you know there be someone from a church that can say hey can you bring this to our church so we can learn how to prevent and to practice prevention and not just when everyone's blood pressure is high we're GNA have someone come out and do blood pressure testing and no let's not wait till it gets to that point let's live well let's

live with Vitality that's what God wants for us God wants us to have abundance abundance in our Wellness abundance in our financials abundance in the life we're living and how we're serving him that's what he wants and um sometimes I feel that is the missing link in a lot of um the churches yeah I mean it's and in our culture because we can't talk about churches in other countries I could just see what's happening here in

our own you know what I mean because yeah it's it's also an understanding like we've turned something so beautiful from the book of Acts into a business model and church is not supposed to be like that according to the Bible I read it is like we're like far away from from what we're supposed to be like I mean and and I'm challenging any from any denomination read your Bible in context right and understand it and God

gave us everything we need and that's why we also need Christ because we are not perfect we do Rebel right and so it's like we have a lot of quantity years like people with quantity years like they're here like 90 100 but the quality it's like for 30 years of their life they're suffering suffering and they think stuck in that and they're not I like how Dr Heyman that's where I first heard this so I don't

know if he's the one who quoted it but the genes are the bullets the environment is the trigger right and and and understanding that and and realizing where we are at this moment and how do we take responsibility and you know you hire you can hire someone like me or a coach a health coach or a wellness per you know I'm not against coaches there's sometimes a thing between us licensed therapists and coaches and and I'm

like no we all need each other I we have to have a team of some you know of learning and this is why I created the podcast because I'm like no I'm G to bring a whole bunch of different people with different points of views to make people who listen understand that hey this person might not I don't get that but maybe that like I'm going to take this lean thing that Michelle just said and really

understand that maybe I'll follow her and maybe she'll influence me in that manner because we we need each other I I need people I have my acupuncturist and my therapist and my chiropractor and my functional integrative and my accountability partners and my church and my pastor and right it's like a community and that's why Community yeah that I love the holistic business Network I had Kate the nutritionist come talk to the Women's Club and her her

we actually Michelle I hope that you guys do do like a one day thing somewhere where Kate could come in and present that presentation where Dr um Lauren there's something in the work it's so I love it I mean the relief retreat was wonderful I just you know tell them about a little bit about that idea the relief Retreat and why you did it oh okay so we recently and I can't believe it was just a

little over a week ago we had the relief Retreat it was a two-day virtual event um and it featured amazing um practitioners and experts in the holistic realm and Diana was one of them so good um we had mental health therapists we had um acupuncturist functional um well Kate is functional medicine for the gut for gut health we had um colon therapy like so many topics but we really wanted to this to help the community understand

there's so many ways to help improve your health so many different types of modalities out there that some of them you might not have ever heard of and so we wanted to Spotlight really plant um speakers to share what they know we had a sex therapist on there and just learning how to have more intimacy with your partner um and then it was also a win for those who were speakers for them to be spotlighted in

what they know the knowledge they have a lot of times as a holistic business or an holistic expert in what you do when you're sharing ways to help people get well you're kind of overlooked right there's so many other shiny things that people are looking at and listening to and so we love to give that um group just as much visibility as possible because we know they're actually changing lives and um anytime we can get you

out there to share what you know and to help someone it might be one person whose life has changed by that information right what did what did um the shepherd do he went back to that one right he had 100 sheep one disappeared he went looking for the one and left the 99 because one person it it makes all the difference for that one person so that was why we had that event and we plan to

have more that really Spotlight the amazing members we have within the network yeah is it going to be available for the public to either you know download or or pay a fee or whatever or is that what's what or I don't know I don't know what you're doing with it but get each portion like each speaker you guys are going to get your portion of that event and be able to Showcase it however you wish too

so whether you want to put it on um your social media or you know share clips that were just so good on there with everyone because I want to watch it I didn't I didn't get to watch it right so I would love to watch the whole thing because Saturday I was in the in the event that I was moderating so I didn't even get to touch Saturday and I want to I'm always learning too I'm

a we're gonna get you that information so you can watch it too all right wonderful I love that and so I want to leave the The Listener with some practical tips like when you are stressed out because right none of us are perfect what are your go-to tips for your mental health how do you balance your mental physical and spiritual health when you need to because you know you're being challenged you're growing a global business and

so you're human you're not in the man you're not a manic State person constantly that because that's unhealthy right it's like no how do you how do you balance I want I want the listener to you know walk away with a few tips and you know that they can utilize that you might be able to do when you first started too because think about it you're here now but think about somebody that just tuned in and

said I don't even know where to start I'm overwhelmed there's so many things coming at me do I biohack do I go cold plunging do I do this do I do that like what do you what do you do for you okay oh wow so I'm going to keep this as simple for like someone who's new to this right so here are the practices that I incorporate almost daily so first thing and I need to move

away from being on my phone first thing in the morning but I open my phone for the Bible app and every morning I open the Bible app and I love that they have like this five minute devotional where there's a quick video and it talks about the verse of the day that they chose and then it goes into more um it goes into more detail with some paragraphs that just educate you on what those verses mean

and how can you incorporate it in your life so just really starting my day in the word I have a question about the app is it the uver Bible app or which app are you talking about U version the U version okay all right all right go on and I used to I used to always do um U verion is amazing because they have so many different types of they you have all these choices of topics

that you can choose to be a part of like they have a whole Bible study for like three days or a week or like two weeks so I've done so many over the years I've been a part of U verion probably for like 13 years and I actually you can have your friends on there too and you guys can go through different studies together so I do that sometimes where there's a really good one and I'm

like let's do this together and everyone gets to comment on the different verse of the day but right now um I did one over a month ago but now I do every morning I check out the video which is like a minute and 20 seconds then I go through the more detailed um description of that so it helps to keep me grounded in the word um first thing in the day that's what I want to have

um in my mind is God's word so I start that with that and then um I will say I work out for the five days a week sometimes I only get in three but um working out has always been a way for me to relieve stress from I played soccer in high school love the you know the what do you call it the workout High you get from playing a sport and then in college I started

you know my Fitness in the gym and helping others but it's really a great way for me to De compressed to release a lot of stress because I don't just have the stress of growing this business I'm growing but also have a family too a husband and two children and they're teenagers so they stress me out a lot I made I was I was choosing to be um suszie Homemaker last night and I had some bananas

that were going a little bad so I said oh let me make banana bread I make the banana bread I made it late so I was like oh we'll eat it tomorrow I had it covered my husband was like oh can I have some of the banana bread I was like yeah why not even though it was late I was like it's not the best choice but okay if you want some I wake up this morning

and and the bread was cut in the center not at the Ed ends in the center my stress level went up like this I was like are you serious why would you do that why would you cut the bread in the center so now there's two pieces to the side and I'm like this is wild like if you want to grind my gears that is it like I I really get annoyed but that was like seriously

so you know motherhood wife Hood all the things the the nuances but staying grounded in just knowing God's word it's like oh it's always I I always feel like it puts me it brings me back because I wasn't always this grounded I was a bit of a wild child and so God's word has helped me amen seriously and I do a Bible study I I'm part of a um really intense Bible study well indepth Bible study

um with Bible Study Fellowship so studying Revelation now are you yeah wow that's some deep stuff there I know BF so good and so you know the things I've learned not just from the word but from the women in the group and their perspectives and it is amazing it really has taught me to be a better mother a better wife so just being in that community of women and some of them are new to the word

might be their first time ever doing some of them but just hearing the perspectives all the way around is incredible and it really opens your mind to being more open to other people their perspectives and the way that I should think and um behave so wow that was it so God's word and F working out releasing that stress and what would be my third thing being mindful of what I'm putting in my body now I'm not

a perfect eater yeah I'm a health coach but you know I love cake if I'm at a birthday party I'm eating a cake yeah but I will say 80% of the time I will try to eat the best I can like I will make sure I'm getting in some vegetables some fruits um I'm mindful of like the types of carbs I'm eating so I I I gravitate to like um you know nuts and thieves and just

having healthier choices for the foods I'm eating because as I said I'm getting closer to 50 I'm very close to 50 I'll welcome you I'll welcome you to the club when it happens yes it's a big party but nutrition plays such a huge role that's one of the first things I learned when I yes came into like this Health Arena is that nutrition plays a a bigger role than I ever thought like 75% of disease is

caused by um is caused by things that we're eating in our lifestyle so we can totally have control over that yeah and so that is as I get older and I'm great to have gotten that knowledge in my 30s that I can now you know Implement and have been implementing because pray f it gives me more years here on Earth but um just being Mindful and making some simple changes maybe you just make one change where

you say oh I'm going to eat a a fruit or an apple an extra fruit or an extra vegetable today or every day it can make such a difference yeah or I can use or I'll go to bed earlier or put my phone in a different room or I'm going to try this prayer app or you know or it's like you you have power and that's the thing like the hopelessness and the powerlessness and the you

know it's it's trying to understand that there is power and there is hope right and and but it's up to you to pick up the tools like I know you you whoever's listening if you're feeling sad or exhausted or heavy or like no they don't get it I'm I'm a mom or I'm this or I'm lonely it's like understanding who you are in Christ would be the the benefit of like I always get my clients to

start with Psalm 139 even if they're not Believers like it's weird that they'll ask me because I don't put because as a clinical therapist and ethically I'm not allowed to push anything but because they go on my website and I'm like you understand who I am right and they're like yeah but can we just go with the evidence-based the science and I'm like that's sure I go that's okay but is it okay that I pray for

you before you come into my session and after and they're like what and I'm like I just need your permission but honestly I really don't need their permission because I could do whatever I want outside of my sessions but it's just getting them to understand their why and their senses all five senses and that we're created to love God and love others it's very simple and we've made it that Psalm Psalm 139 yeah so it's where

what I love about the psalm and the reason I do that because at the very very end it talks about search my heart and know my anxious thoughts and whatever is not from you Lord like it's basically T making you take ownership of you with God but the whole Psalm is all about how you created me in your mother's womb how you did this for me you're with me when I'm asleep when I'm awake so it's

just a comforting Psalm and the reason I learned that it's the craziest thing I was teaching preschool a long time ago when I was getting my um Masters and and stuff like that and that's what they would three-year-olds they would have that's the PSAL that they would try to get the the littles to be memorized that was the beauty of it and I was like and I wasn't even a Christian then mind you I was working

at a Christian preschool but I was picking that up so I was like the Lord knew that my fa I was like so bullheaded and I was already I was a new age and I was a atheist I've gone through a whole realm of things and then I'm here with these little preschoolers learning these cute little songs and it was like register and you know I'm what 20 years old 21 years old and like you see

what I'm saying like I'm listening to these things how God works like that I I know planting nothing to you now yeah and Psalm 139 I'm like what is this Psalm about because I was raised Catholic and then my um with my my dad's side my Puerto Rican side of the family my grandma was Santa Ria medium and so it was I think we I said that a little when we were in in you know but

it wasn't like she was Hardcore taking chicken heads and drinking blood okay people so because you know people get to a whole it wasn't that it was just you know the it was some of the Saints and all this stuff and some of the things she did but anyway it's just part of the culture like it's you know we all have some kind of culture that's not and and when it's misunderstood you know to me though

like that's how I found Christ is like studying religion I studied a bunch of different religions and that's I was 29 and I was studying um the Torah the the um oh my gosh the Quan the Quran and the Bible and not and then I was realizing like whoa whoa Jesus thises Jesus you know and I knew who Jesus was I was raised Catholic you know he was on a crucifix all the time and then I

was realizing like you know all this head knowledge because the word talks about that right head knowledge heart knowledge or heart understanding and knowing it's two different things so it's like oh no like Jesus like wow he was a rebel he was like he went against the grain of religion he's he loved humans where they were where they're at he he taught us how to behave in this world like you know and he came because you

know are we enough I don't I'm I'm not enough that's why I need Jesus and I'm okay with that I'm okay with not being enough I'm okay not being perfect now back then it was like Perfection that's the anxiety that's the depression yeah right so oh that's so true yeah so good well anyway I know that I could talk to you forever because every time we have a conversation it is like my goodness we could go

on and on and on but um if there's one thing you want to leave The Listener one thing you know like to encourage their mental health and their physical and you know holistically just you know is there a quote or anything like that you would want to leave them and as we're on this mental health discussion I always think of the verse Bible verse and I don't know I'm I know the verses but I don't know

like the chapter or the book right I don't but I what came to mind is be anxious for nothing in everything through prayer and supplication right and um Philippians some Philippians whenever you know I don't get anxious a lot but at times when I do I think of that birth because I'm just like oh I need to take time whatever I'm being anxious about and know you know you have to just give it up to something

that's bigger than yourself amen and that's why we have um Jesus that came on our behalf to be that advocate for us and give it to God seriously give it to God it's and you know it will work its way out yeah he will work it out on our behalf yeah I mean always does it's for his glory and our good and it might not be the way you want to see it but when you fully

surrender it is a magnificent thing that happens to your soul it's hard at times but I want you to know like there is hope and you know we're living in more and more people I mean I think it might be because I'm you know like I'm what I do I'm hearing a lot of it so it might not be as heavy as it is but to me like you know cast your anx you know cast your

anxieties cast your burdens onto him because he cares for you right or you know finally Brothers whatever is true whatever is Noble whatever is right whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things God talks about how we think stinking thinking is not in his in his book it's about the renewal of the mind yeah right oh so that goes my by you know food and mood

understanding that understanding all these different aspects of who you are your five senses and what you have the choice to do what you need to do for them you know you're you might not feel you know you might some people live in toxic homes and they can't get out of it and I don't you know it's it breaks my heart but I try to teach people like okay you don't have a choice because what is it

homelessness like when I worked with adolescent I'm like no but you have a choice of how you think about things or how you are going to take the next step and even if you fail and go backwards it you know it's two steps forward one step back it's a dance yep right so how can how can people find you Michelle like if they want to you know know about you know hire you for something or want

to know about Juice Plus or that tower garden or just different things like how do how do people find you okay so there there's a number of ways one way is on Instagram uh you can find me under health coach Mish so mic health coach Mish also if you are curious about what is the holistic business Network we have an Instagram page for that also called the holistic business Network and then we also have a website

called the holistic business network.com so those are some areas where you can find me um and I'm also on Facebook as Michelle Fletcher South Florida okay um so those are just four ways and I would love to hear from anyone if you have any questions or I mean you're in fantastic hands with Diana and information that she's helping to bring to the community is excellent just excellent yeah you too like God's calling us to for to

move forward for 2025 I feel it I could see it with you guys or you ladies and um and and that's it like I'm I'm hoping that we can have another conversation again and and we'll see and I'll see you at the next neck next neck networking event and I really love that I'm finding like-minded people because it sometimes it was pretty lonely when you're you know you're thinking holistically or understanding that whole part and then

you're like nobody you know they get one part of it and not the others and it's just like trying to find like-minded girlfriends that love Jesus love their bodies and love others so good I love it you should you should um capture that that was so good H well I just did on my podcast so anyway all right listener don't forget to trust in the Lord guard your heart and renew your mind bye and now for

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