Shifting Perspective on Energy & Harnessing Hidden Powers for Personal Autonomy. A Conversation with Heather Stewart. (Epi.#219)

Healing Holistically: A Conversation with Heather on Women's Health, Energy, and Self-Empowerment

In this enlightening episode, our host welcomes Heather as they dive deep into a holistic approach to women's health, advocating for self-awareness and self-empowerment. Heather discusses her podcast 'Back to Me, Wellness Your Way,' which focuses on comprehensive wellness, covering physical, emotional, occupational, and spiritual health. The conversation addresses the often-taboo topics of women's health, such as pregnancy issues, menopause, and hormonal balance. Heather shares her journey of overcoming health challenges like asthma and stroke through alternative methods and the power of visualization. The importance of understanding and respecting the energy of money is also explored, touching upon ancient wisdom and modern-day practices. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to heal and empower themselves holistically.

Bio:

Heather is a Transformation Facilitator, Coach, Podcaster, and The Thriving Life Method™ Creator. She seamlessly marries her background in corporate finance with her dedication to holistic health to help guide transformative coaching experiences for her clients. She found her own escape from the societal expectations of a career at the expense of health and vitality and now helps other mid-life women do the same. 

00:00 Introduction and Welcoming Heather
00:30 Heather's Podcast Journey
02:40 Women's Health and Holistic Approaches
05:08 Personal Health Experiences and Insights
10:28 Energy, Intuition, and Healing
15:10 The Energy of Money
20:46 Concluding Thoughts and Future Conversations

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Transcript

heat

[00:00:01] shilpa: Welcome, Heather. I'm 

[00:00:02] heather: so excited to have you here today. Thanks. I'm very excited to see how our conversation, we were just talking, so it's going to be a good conversation. I often 

[00:00:13] shilpa: have to catch myself when I have a guest where we've already connected on multiple topics and we'll have this preemptive conversation.

[00:00:21] shilpa: I'll be like, wait, wait, this is good for the podcast. Yeah, I do the same thing. Wonderful. Well, Heather, actually out of curiosity, just before I hit record, you mentioned you do have your own podcast as well. What is the name of your podcast and what is the topic? 

[00:00:37] heather: So my podcast is called Back to Me, Wellness Your Way, and it came after a stint in the hospital.

[00:00:45] heather: I had had a stroke and I had been doing a business podcast and I realized that, uh, because it was Halloween, And so it was a very busy emergency room. It was 2021. So it was [00:01:00] still kind of mid COVID. The hospital was quite busy and there was no beds. So I spent three days in the emergency room watching people coming and going.

[00:01:09] heather: I mean, I, I luckily had my own cubicle, but you know, watching all this coming and going, and I realized how people need. Help in different ways. So my podcast is targeted at mainly women, but I know that whoever needs it, we'll find it. And we talk about physical health and emotional health and your communities and your occupation.

[00:01:38] heather: Because sometimes, and I talk about how occupation also isn't necessarily tied to money and, but we do talk about money, and then we talk about spiritual soul health, so it's like we try to, I try to provide something for the whole person at some point, I mean, I try to keep them like you to half an hour, so it's little snippets, but I [00:02:00] talk to some really amazing people out there in the world helping others, and I'm, I've done over 200 episodes and I'm still loving and finding more and more people to talk to about what they're doing and I just love it.

[00:02:16] shilpa: Yeah. For me as well, podcasting started as an experiment. Um, really it's become a passion because I feel like I'm the very student and I get to seek out wisdom from all these awesome people. 

[00:02:28] heather: Yeah, exactly. I always tell people that it is for the audience and it's for the guest, but I always get a benefit from it.

[00:02:36] shilpa: Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, well, let's see. Let's start with, um, something that you and I both agreed on just before I hit record, which is women's health and holistic approach and my perspective is that when it comes to understanding women's health or solutions to how to help [00:03:00] us. Um, truly help us heal.

[00:03:03] shilpa: It's, um, not very well understood in Western society, even the very nature of, uh, you know, being on your cycle, being past your cycle, being in menopause. It's just, um, and there's so many taboo subjects like, um, Just having, um, any issues with your pregnancy 

[00:03:28] heather: is taboo. Because it makes you a bad person. If you're having a problem with your pregnancy, which is ridiculous.

[00:03:36] heather: We never give anybody, we never. Okay, I should say, I shouldn't say it that way. I don't know of anyone who judges someone else for, you know, anything that happens to them. You know, if you get sick, if you have to have your appendix out, you know, all of these things, but we, and it's self imposed. We judge women.

[00:03:58] heather: If, or [00:04:00] we, these women think they get judged if something happens with their pregnancy. But I mean, I, I, my first career, I was a CPA, but my second career, when I went into wellness, I spent two years in school to become a massage therapist because here it takes a lot of schooling. And the amazing things that happen in these bodies and they keep working for so long, sometimes it blows my mind.

[00:04:26] heather: So having. It's, it's not spoken of and it's quite common for women to have multiple tries at becoming pregnant and having children. And it is so hidden and it's such an issue of shame for a lot of women. I think it's so sad instead of being able to talk about it and get support. They feel like they've somehow done something wrong.

[00:04:52] shilpa: Yes. Absolutely. I've been through it many times. Unfortunately, it was very difficult and a lot of [00:05:00] guilt, a lot of emotional, um, wreckage occurred in my, my psyche. Um, but also there's just like lack of understanding of how to balance the hormones or understanding what's really going on. Um, and luckily as.

[00:05:18] shilpa: Because I'm, you know, a seeker and I find solutions. I feel like, wow, I wish I'd known this 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I could have healed something that really needed it. How are you, um, approaching your. Knowledge that you 

[00:05:36] heather: gain, right? It's, it's super interesting. So, so when I was a teenager and, you know, you suddenly you have a cycle and you're thinking, what the heck is this thing?

[00:05:48] heather: And how do I navigate this? And, uh, and my mother is funny. My mother didn't talk to me about it. I ended up and I went to my doctor to talk about it at the [00:06:00] time because that's what you did back and back in those days. And the funny thing is my doctor was the man who delivered me. So I was comfortable with him.

[00:06:11] heather: But ever since then, I've never had a male doctor, but I don't think that speaks to whether the, which kind of doctor to choose. Um, because I've had, I'll get into it later, but I had a huge half an hour conversation with my current doctor, who's a female about, um, Menopause and my final statement to her ended up being I hope you don't have this kind of problem when you're in menopause.

[00:06:37] heather: But all of the research that's been done is very outdated, a lot of it. That there's, they're, they're putting their decisions on and on a population that had a different health outlook. They ate differently. They had different lives. So for me, when, when things started to happen that I couldn't explain, I did the [00:07:00] same thing as you.

[00:07:00] heather: I didn't take You know, their answer in my thirties, I developed asthma and nobody could tell me why and I had been healthy up to then I said, why they, they didn't, they, I mean, the, the, um, allergy doctor didn't even look me in the eye. He just looked at all the scratches on my arm to tell me what I was allergic to.

[00:07:22] heather: And I wanted him to look at me. I kept like kind of bending down and I was so disheartened when I left there because he gave me a prescription. He said, here, you have to take this. And there was a time where you just, you just trusted what the doctors said because that's all you knew. But I said, no, this isn't right.

[00:07:43] heather: I don't want to take this. I know what the impact of long term use of steroids is on the lung tissue. And I know that for some people that's the only option, but they didn't tell me whether I had any options. So that was the first time I went to a naturopath. And he spent [00:08:00] almost two hours with me and explaining to me how things happen in the body and how things developed and why I probably developed asthma and alternate approaches to take.

[00:08:11] heather: And this was like, I was still, you know. In my prime, although I feel like I'm in my prime now in my 50s, then it was in my medical prime back then. And, uh, he just, so I worked with him and I never had to take inhalers. I just managed through diet and through changing some of the things that I did that, um, Now, I, I would say I don't, they probably still say I have asthma, but I would say I don't have asthma.

[00:08:41] heather: It doesn't affect me. And that's been, you know, 20 years. So I think that the trend, like, and this is what I do in my coaching, and it's not just health, but it's everything. Don't give away your power to someone else. [00:09:00] Right? You have autonomy over yourself, and you have the right to ask those questions. And if you don't get your answers to go and find someone who can answer them.

[00:09:12] heather: And there are lots of, I mean, there are lots of things out there that probably aren't necessarily legit. Or above board, but you still have to go and ask the questions and do your own evaluation and some people I feel like some people are so overwhelmed. They just like I can't I can't so That's I feel like that's where I come in sometimes because I've vetted so many things.

[00:09:38] heather: I've, I, for the last 20 years, I've told all of my clients, I'm an experiment of one. And they'll come to me and say, I've heard about this. I'm like, let me go find out. And all of the people that I've talked to, so I feel like part of what I, my, what I do is I'm so interested. Also for myself, but also for my clients.

[00:09:59] heather: I'll go [00:10:00] out and I'll ask all the questions. And I network with a lot of really good healthcare people. And they'll tell me about something new. I'm like, tell me about that. And I actually have some clients who are doctors who will tell me the latest research and where to find it. And I'm just like, I love this, you know, I feel like I am this giant basket of information just waiting to help people.

[00:10:23] shilpa: I like the fact that you're tying it back to something that's scientifically backed up, but by the same token, I get the sense that you're also really tuned in to your own intuition. 

[00:10:36] heather: Yeah, yeah, um, it's when, so it's a quick, so when I had my stroke, um, I actually didn't know it was a stroke. In fact, I waited 12 hours to go to the hospital because it didn't have any of the typical symptoms that they tell you.

[00:10:53] heather: And finally, 12 hours later, I went, yeah, I should probably go to the hospital. And it was still [00:11:00] another like 10 or 12 hours in the emergency room before they realized that I'd had a stroke. But I knew that something was off. Like. And when I talked to my neurologist, he showed me the scan of my brain. He said, you'd actually had two strokes.

[00:11:11] heather: But I don't, what happened was I had double vision. He said, I don't know why you had double vision. Because that's not the area of your brain that was affected. So I said to him, kind of being serious, but he thought I was joking, he said, Well, my body knew something was wrong and knew that I had to get my attention.

[00:11:27] heather: So it knew that if it did something to my vision, I would notice that. And because I've practiced yoga for 20 years. Well, I've been teaching for 20. I've been practicing for longer than 20. And meditation. You've become very in tune with your physical body. So I think about it as, you know, our brain thinks it's in charge, but it's only part of the partnership.

[00:11:50] heather: You know, your, your body is part of the partnership. Also, your soul connection is part of the partnership. So when something is going wrong or [00:12:00] something is happening, I'll just get this like, something's not quite right. And what do I need to do about it? And I wouldn't say I always make the right decision.

[00:12:09] heather: But usually I, I get there in the end, but when I was in the hospital, I found out that I had a tear in one of the arteries in my neck, the carotid artery, which had caused a blood clot and that's why I'd had a stroke. And it wasn't anything to do with my health. It was just, I guess it can come from, you know, whiplash or somebody, not that I've been punched or anything, but just like rapid movements to the neck.

[00:12:34] heather: And, uh, So as I laid there, I was meditating for three days and I was visualizing, I have a friend who knits, I was visualizing her knitting and just sewing up that little tear and making it nice and smooth. And three months later, when they gave me an MRI, my neurologist said, well, unless I was looking for it, I wouldn't know where the tear was because it's completely gone.

[00:12:59] heather: So it [00:13:00] was healed so well. And I think because I've said, okay, I know how to use. So I said, yes, I'm going to go in and do that. And I just imagined a little Pac Man going through, eating up blood clots, like all of these things, because visualization, we, we discount it for some reason as maybe we think it's too easy or we can't find a way to measure it scientifically, but I just think we haven't tried to measure it because we can measure so many things now, right?

[00:13:31] shilpa: Yes, I'm always reconciling those emotions because on one picture of Yogananda, and I do meditate and the kind, the types of techniques that I apply are very subtle and energy, but yet the scientific mind and the Western society, I constantly am always like, what's happening here? Nothing, nothing. I remind myself, trust the process, have some [00:14:00] faith, but I love this.

[00:14:03] shilpa: Metaphor you offered on visualization. That's something that I'm truly opening my heart to the power of visualizing that more subtle energy healing, but also in helping in other areas, which is often woohoo, like the manifestation of things, you know, like mentioned. Um, I think you mentioned the way you said something about even, um, money mindset or.

[00:14:30] shilpa: I don't know if those were your words, but that is a facet of energy. That's why I have you on the Energy Awareness episode, because it's all about, I would say, managing that energy. 

[00:14:44] heather: Well, it's so, you know, everything seems to align. Sometimes I won't know why something is happening. So just yesterday, I was trying to listen to an audio book that I've been listening to and I couldn't get it to load and I couldn't get it to load.

[00:14:59] heather: So I just [00:15:00] randomly picked a book. That I could get to load onto because when I, I walk for an hour a day and I'll usually listen to something and I've been trying to listen to Dolores Cannon and she's very interesting, but, um, this book that I got to load was called, uh, Love Money, Money Loves You, and it's about.

[00:15:23] heather: The energy of money and it's, it's by Sarah McCrum and I have, I've read, you know, um, all of the money manifested books and they, they're, they're all like money is energy, pay attention and just, you know, be in the vibration, but hers is so interesting because She has this segment where money is talking to you, and it's like it's an entity, and it's telling you I am not dirty, I am energy, and I am the connection between humans, and [00:16:00] I am everywhere, and there, I am endless, and there's More than me than you can imagine.

[00:16:07] heather: And I'm thinking it was just such a different way to experience the energy. And it was basically saying like, right now you need paper and coins to, to represent me, but you don't actually need that because I am just energy. And I felt like it's, we use the word abundance a lot, but it's like this, this energy.

[00:16:26] heather: I feel like it was more like a heart energy that is I'm everywhere. And you're just showing it as these pieces of paper right now. But you will evolve to the point where it will just flow. And it was so interesting that I was listening to that yesterday by accident, but nothing's by accident. You know, the universe said, you're going to need this tomorrow.

[00:16:48] heather: Here. I listened to it. 

[00:16:50] shilpa: You're going to have to give me the name. People say, I love that. a concept that you just articulated. So I'm Indian and I was raised in a very traditional [00:17:00] Hindu family and the Sanskrit word for money, the concept, the deity is Lakshmi, which is beautiful representation, and there's such an honor to giving the energy of money.

[00:17:21] shilpa: Respect in the culture that I was raised in. Literally, if something came in with Some physical, even coins or bills, we would do a pranam to it and, um, honor it. And there's a lot of rituals around money and the concept of that energy, that form of energy, and being again, raised in Western society over time, I would dismiss these things, you know, but now here I am at this age and I'm like, you know what?

[00:17:57] shilpa: There's just. Truth to this, now that [00:18:00] I've even tied everything back to science, if it is energy, then why not give it a name? Why not have a conversation with that energy? 

[00:18:09] heather: Right. And it's funny that we now are realizing that everything is energy. You know, even us, we're just in a dense form. And I've seen like, I have, I've actually been to India three times, love it there.

[00:18:27] heather: Um, you know, there's places you can go and visit where you're like, how did they do that? But it's because they understood and they knew they had that depth of practice in that stillness where they could align their energies. So I think it's just, we haven't, we haven't really had a chance to do these things that seem like miracles.

[00:18:48] heather: And, you know, at some point in our long distance past, airplanes would have seemed like miracles. Now we're like, ah, airplanes, whatever. We get upset when there's no Wi Fi on the airplane. I mean, [00:19:00] like, let's be serious. So I think it's just, we haven't. reached a level of maturity, I, or I think we had maturity in the past and we somehow lost it.

[00:19:11] heather: You know, we went through the Kali Yuga and we forgot so many things. Um, so now we're coming out of the Kali Yuga. The energy is saying, okay, they're waking back up. Thank goodness. Let's, let's get some action. The people who are more awake, let's shake them a little harder so they can start to spread the word.

[00:19:28] heather: And if you distrust that it is all energy, then. You're never really worried about anything, you know? I mean, there's nothing to worry about. Energy can't be destroyed. You just continue in another form and energy can be shifted. I did a, I did a podcast last week where this woman was saying, if you, we were talking about how to shift your, your own energy to help you as she was fascinating.

[00:19:58] heather: So, oh, and the book is [00:20:00] called Love Money, Money Loves You. Love Money, Money Loves You by Sarah McCrum. And if you listen to the audio book, she has a lovely voice. 

[00:20:12] shilpa: Oh, I, I love it. I just was jotting it down when you were sharing it. I'll probably listen to it because I go for walks and my thing. I'm doing this whole thing called habit stacking because my mind is good.

[00:20:25] shilpa: Yeah. So my form of getting that other habit in is going for the walk and listening to something that uplifts me or educate me. Now, there's so many things you said, and I know we're sort of almost at the end of time, so you might have to come back, because you said some stuff about Kali Yuga, and I, you just lit me up on the inside, because this is something that I, I believe in, I was raised with, understanding the, um, Yugas, and how there's a dark age, and then we've been [00:21:00] through these cycles endlessly, so what may appear to be the darkest, maybe you.

[00:21:06] shilpa: We're shifting out of it. Um, and I want to tie back. Maybe we can wrap up with this done. Hopefully we'll have you back again in the future. Absolutely. I feel and you've mentioned a few anecdotes for yourself that I've healed myself or understood myself, whether it's on a psychological level. Emotional crisis or physical illness or maybe almost a disease like it's not there yet.

[00:21:39] heather: Mm hmm. 

[00:21:41] shilpa: Throughout my life, but the time when I stopped listening to it, whatever that it is, um, I suffered, 

[00:21:50] heather: right? Yeah, it's interesting because I feel like I was connected to it And then I [00:22:00] wasn't for a long time like through Probably all through my teenage years until I hit about 27 where I kind of went, wow, you know, I just had this little wake up and it was just a little small comment that someone made.

[00:22:17] heather: And it was just like, someone turned the lights on and it took me some time. So that was 27. It's taken me, it took me some time to climb back out Being in that state, but it's so powerful when you do recognize that your guides and your, your higher self are trying, trying desperately to help you all the time.

[00:22:43] heather: And they're trying all the ways they can think of to get your attention and things that we dismiss as, Oh, that was, that wasn't real. Yeah, it was. It was real. Right. Absolutely. Believe it. Trust it. 

[00:22:58] shilpa: Believe it and trust it. [00:23:00] And I, um, again, I, I want to go back to that metaphor you provided about knitting up the tail.

[00:23:04] shilpa: Yes. Um, I've, I'd love for you to share more when we have another conversation about that, because I do feel like when we are able to finally let go of our distrust and tap into that energy. Think about the power of so many things we could heal. 

[00:23:30] heather: And I have seen, I have watched, I mean, they were videos, but they are, they are trusted sources.

[00:23:38] heather: People healing things that I, when I talk to my doctor friends, they tell me it's impossible. And I have a, I have a friend who is a healer and he goes to Brazil to work with the healer down there who, Has, and he's experienced it firsthand, and I trust this individual to tell me, you [00:24:00] know, when things are fake or not.

[00:24:02] heather: And this healer down in Brazil, he can do astounding things, but people, it's, it's our disbelief that keeps us from healing. 

[00:24:11] shilpa: Yes. Yes. Well, Heather, I know we're truly enjoying our conversation for another half hour, but um, so I want, in honor of your time, I will just want to say thank you so much. Um, the show notes will have a way for people to reach out to you and any information you want to share, um, just let me know and I'll make sure it's in the show notes.

[00:24:36] shilpa: Absolutely. I'm easy to find. Well, thank you, Heather, and have a lovely day. You too. Take care. Thank you. Thank you.