EP77: The Unselfishness of Self Care with Sherri Danzig

This is winning with wellness, a podcast about inspiring the wellness warrior in you. If you are feeling lost or alone in your wellness journey, or are looking for new ideas and inspiration, you are in the right place, a place you can learn about all things wellness, in business life and living. Your host Jenny rice, we'll be bringing you inspiring stories and practical tools to improve your overall wellness personally and professionally. Imagine what living a life of wellness would be like. Thank you for joining us today.

Welcome everyone to another episode of winning with wellness. I am so excited to have my guest Sherri here with me today we are going to dig into all things and I can't wait for you guys to meet her Sherri, thanks for being on the show.

Thanks, Jenny. I'm excited to be here.

Well, and I want to share a little bit about you before we get started so that everyone has a as an idea of your background. So you guys, Sherri has been a wellness entrepreneur for over 30 years. First as a neuromuscular therapist, and now as a self care mentor and international wellness entrepreneur, she partners with other professionals and business owners to expand their company's wellness culture. Sherri mentors, individuals who choose to choose wishes to choose vibrancy over exhaustion overwhelm Amen. How many of us would like highly pick over what you know, like get rid of the overwhelm? Let's do some vibrancy. Her clients are those who are looking for natural solutions for their health and well being and more balance and abundance in their lives. Sherri's company is choosing vibrancy. And I love that name. By the way, Sherri, their mission is to inspire and teach others around the world about natural and simple solutions for self care. Her company has impacted the health and raise the vitality of many 1000s of people. Sherri, I'm really excited to have you on the show and dig into this concept of like a vibrancy and you know, choosing vibrancy, and we have a small conversation before we got started. Why is choosing vibrancy so important?

That's a big question. And I think it's at the core of it, it's that we get to choose and you know, there's no matter who you are, and no matter what your story and your past has been, we can actually I think we can make changes, you know, you can't change the past you say the past is the past. And yet I think we can change how we look at something. And in that way we can change it, it's we can change our perspective. And I know myself personally, you know, we get attached to certain stories like this is who I am. Because this is, you know, where I come from, or this is how it's always been all that. And so to me, it's kind of a it's like shake things up. It's like, put your stake in the ground and say, How do I want to live? How do I want to feel that's one of my questions every morning, is how I choose to feel today. And so we get to choose. And you know, that's not to say it's always easy, and that there's not a whole bunch of stuff in chaos or conflict that we have to deal with. And at the very core of it, I believe I I passionately believe that we can choose because otherwise, we're simply a prisoner of what's happened in the past. And I totally don't accept that. So that's, that's, you know, that's really at the core of what I what I love and how I want to interact with people. And

I'm extremely passionate about choice, especially as somebody that is, you know, a champion for mindset and really using it as a tool. We're gonna have people right now listening that are overwhelmed, like you mentioned, and feeling very lost. Do you have any strategies or tips that you could share with them to at least get them starting to stepping into the idea of choosing vibrancy over over the state they may currently be in?

Absolutely. I think I've been there by myself. I've been in a place of feeling like I can't hardly see out of it. And and you know, it depends on the story. I think that there have been times where I needed someone that was a mentor or a therapist or a coach or someone that could guide me through. And so sometimes it's a it's a phone call and that kind of support. And I've learned so many too. goes along my own journey. And I think one of the one of the Go twos for me that I can, I've used it so much now it's it's, it's a way of being is to it, I call them meditation minutes because it doesn't have to be gotta go find that special place in your house where you can meditate and sit in the comfortable chair and all of that stuff. Sometimes it's sitting in my car, sometimes I've pulled over, because I'm freaking out about something I'm anxious about something. So it's about going in and having some quiet, quiet connection. One of my coaches taught me about putting a gentle smile on my face, just a soft smile. And then I am a big believer in im statements. So they those are affirmations or declarations to your inner being your inner self. And so when I can do that, it doesn't mean that I can go from being very, you know, in a state of of angst or anger or fear or whatever that is to immediately to be jumping for joy, you know, that's not real. And I see though, that I can bring it up to closer to feeling a sense of hope, you know, and it's about reminding yourself of something that where you felt successful. I have a piece that I do on social media, that's called unstoppable stories, because I love hearing them myself, I love hearing other people's triumphs. And I think we have to be reminded of our own and said, it can be the smallest thing. And so those im statements can be, I am strong, I am, you know, I am wise I am. However, we're wherever we're going with that, you know, depending. And so I have many of those that I use on a regular basis that kind of bring in I have, I have my own little ritual, I'm on the tennis court, you know, and I want to get myself centered. And I have something different when I'm about to go speak to a group of people, you know, and so or maybe walk into a family situation where there's, I have a little bit of conflict or some history with someone. So it depends, it's, it's dependent on the situation. And I think that's using our breath and connecting with how we feel paying attention to how we feel, pay attention to where the tension is in our bodies. And so all of those things are tools if I just throw a whole lot of information out at you, but that's the process that I

think they're so valuable. And, you know, I can guarantee right now there's somebody listening that are so incredibly grateful for hearing those words. So I appreciate you sharing them. When we think about wellness. What does wellness mean to you?

So wellness is, you know, it's not what it's not is the absence of illness, right? I have a daughter, my my oldest daughter, I'm very proud of all three of my daughters, my oldest daughter is a medical doctor. And I watched her Yeah, I had a pretty front seat to her training. And doctors are taught how to treat sickness and illness, you know, they don't get they don't get trained, really about wellness. And, you know, we need people out there that that are professionals, medical professionals to treat sickness, right. 100% right. 100%. Exactly. And, but so wellness for me, though, is way beyond what the what a medical community would say is okay, that's, you know, good status, which is kind of the difference between a medical doctor and say, a functional medicine doctor or naturopath, you know, a wellness practitioner, their standards are higher, because they're not just looking for the average compared to the people that are really sick. We're like setting the bar. So wellness, to me is setting the bar of living where you not only don't have illness, or you're moving in the direction of better health, it's not, we can't stop and say, Okay, right here, here's a, you know, let's freeze frame. And because it's we're always moving in one direction or the other. So I think wellness has to do with our lifestyle. I think it has a huge amount to do with mindset. Right? It's how well we sleep. It's our the nourishment that we take into our bodies and nourishment is not only food. So it's making the best choices that we can and moving in a direction of optimal health where we have energy. You know, we feel happy, we feel hopeful. That's wellness to me.

You know it highlights it You know, a quote that Dr. Hills says, We're either moving towards health or we're moving away from health. Yeah, like, I love that you say that, that we're always moving. And I try 90% of the time to be moving towards health. Human beings, occasionally I don't move towards elk, I moved to the cookie jar. But again, it's trying to be in that, you know, that fourth, fourth moving forward motion. And so when we think about what you know, when we as we talk about wellness, and you, you know, the work that you do is really helping people find some inner peace and possibly balance and figuring out different ways to capitalize and self care, right? So when you talk about or talk with your clients, or if you were sitting here with somebody who's like, I'm overwhelmed, I don't know what to do. How do you describe self care to them?

Well, it is, in its most simple term, it's, it's paying attention to ourselves. So it's self awareness. And so the first step I take my clients through is clarity. And because, you know, a lot of times when people are overwhelmed, they don't know what's going on, they can't they're everything is spinning so much that they don't know what they want. They don't know if the if you know, how to how to make changes. I mean, they're just overwhelming overwhelmed is like, I can't focus, right? So we go through some steps to create clarity around what, what does bring you joy, you know, when do you feel calm? When do you feel grounded. And, you know, to look at, we know that the monkey mind is, is overactive with most people, unless you're a guru, you know, yoga guru who just is meditating for hours a day,

you probably are bombarded with more negative thoughts than you can imagine. And so it takes practice to shift that into a more positive mindset. And so I think, you know, to turn the overwhelm off, it's to have those quiet moments and to start focusing on what do you want to hear? You know, what would nourish you? You know, what, and we go through a lot of different exercises, one of it is looking at your values, like what's most important to you? And I think that we, you know, part of what I think it is the the work and the the benefit of working with somebody that can walk through with you on this, is that you because you have to do it yourself. I mean, you know, nobody is I'm very clear that I'm, I'm good at what I do. And it's it's only when somebody is willing to do the work, right. And so sometimes I think it's, it's, it's making that decision that, yes, I'm overwhelmed, and I'm ready to, to look at other possibilities. And so having somebody that's kind of holding you to that to make the time to look at all of those things and really claim what it is that you want, you've got this life that feels like it's out of control, it's probably not as out of control as you think it is. But that's how it feels at that time. So. So it starts with, you know, clarity on a lot of levels. And I think when we have that clarity, then the next step is then finding the courage and having support to have the courage to claim it. Because it's, you know, it means it means that some things are going to have to shift. You know, I mean, I we laugh at like, you know, you could have lots of things going on. And whether you're a working mom or your working dad, and you know, you've got we have many hats that we wear. And so it's not that you can just say, Well, I'm not gonna wear that hat anymore, I'm going to quit my job or I'm going to quit, you know, quit doing the things I do for the family or so it's it's not that we quit things. It's that we look at the clarity of what is it? What do we want to be doing? And you know, it's we all waste a lot of time. And so some sometimes it's figuring out, you know, what, when you have something and you go, Okay, this is really important to me, then you make the time to define it. So

I love that you bring up to about time. And I've shared this on other episodes, and I'm going to share it just right now so that people can maybe put that in perspective. If you sleep eight hours a day, and work eight hours a day. You have 72 hours a week to do whatever you want. Yeah. So So, if there's a will there's a way and I think of a time, you know, or a scenario, if, if you want a trip to go somewhere that you couldn't wait to go, you'd make time.

Right? Right.

What's the driver? Why do you know what, you know, get really clear on that, that is such an excellent explanation. So, Sherri, when we think about, like, where you are today, you have some incredible wisdom, and you've been on this journey? What would you tell your younger self that you're like, off? I would love to have told Sherri, you know, 1620, I would have loved for her to know this, what would not be?

Hmm, I'm a very different person than I was at 16. And 20, you know, I've grown a lot and, and I've had my share of some, you know, hardships. And, and I do really believe that. And I used to think of myself, and probably other people thought of me this way, too, as kind of a drama queen. You know, like, if I didn't have a lot of drama going on, then it wasn't important. And so I think it's, it's, if I could have learned earlier, to slow down a little bit, you know, to calm down a little bit, that, well, here's the thing that I struggled with, until, I don't know, five, six years ago, some somewhere in there, have the this concept of being enough, being enough, and so to and to really to be able to embrace that. I marvel at young people, and sometimes they're young kids that they get it? And of course, they may still, they may still get that kind of drilled out of them a little bit, because, you know, we have to, because the world wants to tell you, you're not. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, there's a lot of that out there a lot of the more we if we surround ourselves around people that are also feel a sense of abundance, then, you know, your success does not mean somebody else fails, but we, you know, the world out there tends to kind of measure things like somebody's winning, and somebody, somebody's winning, somebody has to lose. And so that's not the way I want to set my life up for people in my life that I'm either coaching or that they're my friends and family. It's this whole idea that, you know, the more people win, the more opportunities there for others to win. So I look at it. So yeah, you know, and the other thing I want to say about time is that it doesn't have to take a lot of time, we have this concept that self care means, you know, three hours or two hours, or even an hour of something, whatever that is. And I because I sit in front of the these days, you know, we're on zoom so much, I make it a point to get up multiple times a day, and even to take five minutes. You know, I drink a lot of water. So, so I have to get up and pee too much information, perhaps. But you know, strategy, the right. And it makes you get up. My watch tells me you know, it's time to get up. Yeah, so it's good to have those kinds of things. Sometimes I get into these, if I'm building a new habit, I'll set an alarm on my phone that repeats. In fact, when I first was was making this huge shift, to go from kind of hiding out on the comfy couch of life, to saying I kept saying to my coach, you know that I had this big goal. And then I kept having distractions, I called them. And he called me all at one time. And so he wanted me to say a mantra positive, this positive statement. And I was good if I did it three times a day. And then he wanted me to do it 30 times a day. And I'm like, Are you insane? How do you do anything? 30 times today. But I put on my phone, I put a calendar alert. And I did it for 16 hours a day. And the 16 hours I was awake. And then I without even realizing and I set it so that 30 minutes before it gave me a reminder. So I had 32 reminders a day of my mantra. So you could you know, if you care if you carry your phone around as much as up to then use your phone as a reminder of the things that are self care. So again, it could be just a couple of minutes. I think I've kind of I don't know if I answered your question. I kind of went off on it. No, it's

I think it's all valuable because you shared it beautifully. We are not the same people we are when we were young. And those tools guided you to where you are today and had you had those tools back then who knows how fast you would have got to where

you are and I do not look back I don't believe Looking back with regrets. I mean, there's things that you know, I'm sure there's things I wish I could have not, I didn't say to someone or someone that I lost touch with, you know, those kinds of things. I mean, we have all those things. And yet, I really believe in embracing the things that were the most painful. Somebody said today, I was talking to her, and she said, our deepest, our deepest wounds are our greatest medicine. And I love that, you know, it's the things we don't learn when we're winning when we are gliding through life, it's fun as can be. And we all want that. And it's temporary, because then we're going to have some more learning opportunities, right? So. But that's when we learn. And so the things that happened to me, not some of them not so great. And yet I am who I am today because of it. And I think we're all that way we, we can look back and say this is how I responded to something. And it taught me something that was a great lesson. So try it, try reminding yourself that when you make a wrong turn, and then you're like, I can't believe I got to go 20 minutes out of my way. It's like, oh, right, and you're the lesson.

So we are honestly getting to the last few seconds of our time together. Sherri, what is one thing you would like to leave the audience with?

Well, I think that I think women understand this more or get this messaging more, but it doesn't necessarily, I don't think it's necessarily a woman's thing, which is that self care is selfish. Or that, you know, this whole idea of being selfish, you're thinking about yourself too much. Because some of us were taught that as a as a child. Absolutely. And so it is, you know, self care, I think is the most unselfish thing we can do. Because when we find the time we make the time to invest in ourselves, in our how we talk to ourselves, how we spend time with ourselves, how we are doing things that are of value to us. And on and on. There's so many things we could talk about with self care, when we pour that into ourselves. We are the best version of ourselves. We could be and everybody benefits from that.

Absolutely. That is a beautiful way to end this episode. Thank you so much, Sherri, for being on the show. It has been a privilege to have you share your time with us. Thank you.

Thank you. It's been a delight to be with you. Thank you.

And for those of you that are listening, we thank you so much for sharing your time, your energy, and hopefully we've inspired you to move into some chosen action. We encourage you to ignite the wellness we're in you all obviously come on over. Check out your holistic Earth for more resources and tools where you can inspire that new journey. whatever area you're wanting to support your mind, body and soul, and it wouldn't hurt to look at all three. Thanks so much for checking us out and we look forward to seeing you at the next episode.