Michelle McCoy: This is why I know that this is the most dangerous type of fatigue we can experience because it does take us away from the truth of God's Word, our identity, who he says we are, who he is. And the reality is that the stress in our lives is affecting all three of these types of fatigue. And so if it's not dealt with, we're going to feel them.
Aubree Felderhoff: Welcome to Mold Free Mom, where we cut the confusion and break down what it really takes to heal from mold illness. Whether you're dealing with unexplained symptoms and no real answers, or you know mold is your problem, you've done everything right, and yet you're still not better. This podcast is for you. I'm Aubree, and I spent 12 years struggling with mold toxicity. before finally learning why nothing was working. Mold wasn't my only problem. Not knowing how to heal from it was. This is where guessing ends and real healing begins. Let's get started. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Hey, before we get into today's episode, I just wanted to say, if you or someone that you love is dealing with mold illness or symptoms that look like they could be related to mold, and you're not sure where to start, you're feeling overwhelmed with even the thought of what to do next, you don't have to keep piecing this together alone. I offer a free discovery call where we can talk through where you are right now and what would actually help you get unstuck and move towards healing. Head over to moldfreemom.com and grab a free discovery call. See you there. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Welcome back to mold free mom. I am so excited to have our next guest on this is Michelle McCoy She is a wife a mom and a high functioning fatigue expert and board certified holistic functional health coach for exhausted midlife professional Christian women She also hosts the top 1.5 percent globally ranked treasured wellness podcast After overcoming her own debilitating fatigue and burnout and navigating her doctor's health crisis, Michelle guides exhausted, stressed women, tired of being told non-answers, to steward their wellness naturally with God at the center. I'm so excited to have you. Welcome, Michelle.
Michelle: Thank you so much for having me Aubree it's an honor to be here and help talk about fatigue freedom today. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... I think everyone struggles with fatigue, but especially in the mold world. Unfortunately, we are all very familiar. It's usually one of the first symptoms that pops up. So tell me just a little bit more about how you got started down this path. I know that you said you had a daughter that had a health crisis and kind of had your own crisis. So tell us a little bit about the history of that.
Michelle: Yeah, so we have to go back almost 22 years now when our daughter was really sick and conventional medicine could not find an answer. They could not find the root cause and they were really compartmentalizing her symptoms. So we had a specialist for this, a specialist for that and they failed her and they failed us as her parents. It should never have taken three years to figure out what was wrong with her. And I literally had to basically fire all of her doctors, leave the state and find a practitioner that knew what was going on and helped us get to the bottom of it. And this is when we were seeing the top neurologist because our daughter was having chronic migraines, daily headaches, and just other skin issues because again, everything's connected, right? the sticking point for me was when we walk into the Children's Hospital that last day before I fired everybody and the neurologist, top neurologist at the Children's Center comes in and says, we can't see anything wrong with her. There's nothing wrong with her. We've done all the testing. They put her on medication that I would be arguing about later on at the next appointment because it was anti-seizure, cancer drugs, all these things for a little girl. So she said, we can't find anything wrong. Perhaps something's going on at home she doesn't feel safe to talk about. Yeah, talk about mama bear instinct. So I was like, thank you very much. You're not helping me. You guys have no answers. And I feel like we've wasted three years of our life and she's still in pain. So left the state, found out what was wrong with her. And every time I had said food, is it her food? No, feed this little girl, whatever she wants. She doesn't feel well. Food has nothing to do with it. Food had everything to do with it. She has a gluten allergy and that was contributing to her chronic migraines and her daily headaches plus her skin, all of that. So once we discovered that we were able to fix the problem because we got to the root and within a month she was a totally different girl. shortly after that, I went through my first fatigue crisis. But it was the second fatigue crisis that really laid me out. And that's when I hit burnout. you know, in Psalm 23, God will make you lie down if you are stubborn enough to not listen when your body's telling you to rest. And that is what happened to me. And so I hit burnout, I had no hormones left, I was just completely depleted. And I had to work my way through that and I had to help myself heal and recover because again, I was not getting the support that I needed. I was not getting the answers that I needed. And so I had to figure this out on my own and... So that's kind of my story. My daughter's illness is what lit my fire for holistic nutrition. And then, you know, my own fatigue crises, autoimmune issues, burnout, all of that just really just kept me fueled for like, no, women need to know that they are their own best advocate for their health and they can help their bodies to heal. The body was designed to heal. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... So true. goodness I so relate to your story in so many ways because I too my children were very sick when we were Going through mold the first time and I went to doctor after doctor for myself and for them and kind of the same thing Like this is normal. This is childhood. They're meant to be sick all the time You know, maybe they're stressed at home and me is the same thing It's almost like this gaslighting or if you don't have
Michelle: Yes. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... the answer then it's gonna go to something on your side that you're doing wrong you know, or you're not, you're not doing enough as a mom. It's so frustrating. So thank God that you listen to that instinct and move forward. And it sounds like your little girl is doing wonderful now. let's look at the mold illness world. Like I said earlier, this is the top complaint I see. In fact, I don't know anyone that's going through a mold illness that isn't extremely fatigued. That's one of the first things that we see. So we're all dealing with this crushing fatigue, even after sometimes we've left the exposure, we just can't seem to get over this hump. And so I wanna know from your professional opinion, why do you think a body would stay stuck in this exhausted state, even after, the exposure has gone?
Michelle: Well, that's such a great question. The simple answer is the body doesn't forget. There's a great book called The Body Keeps the Score and it's like a dictionary. It's a slow read. You wanna digest it in Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Yes.
Michelle: small bites. But it's essentially, it's very true. The body will hang on to what is going on, whether that's physical or emotional trauma. and trauma can be exposure to mycotoxins, right? That's trauma, that's traumatic to the body. So it doesn't just leave when you walk out of your moldy basement. Like it gets stored in our tissue and Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Hmm.
Michelle: it gets stored in just in our body, in our fat. And so a lot of people miss the fact that it affects us on a... brain issue as well and just the whole mitochondria and all of that you just want to kind of think of it as your car's not going to run very far on fumes if you don't put gas in your tank it's not going to run so everything is running on the mitochondria fuel it's your body's fuel and if you don't have that energy then it's impacting every area of your body, your brain, body, all body systems are affected. this is on a cellular level. So this is why you can't just leave your moldy basement and feel great. a personal example is when I go back home to see a family member, there is mold in the home and I react. It takes me a while to recover from that. And this is why even maybe weeks later after being out, like I know in your experience, you were in a hotel, you were an Airbnb and all of that, you, we're still struggling with low energy. we just can't recover as quickly as we might want to because just because we left the mold doesn't mean the mold has left us, Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Yeah, that's a big reason I stayed stuck and sick for so long that I thought once I got to clean air, everything was going to go back to normal when in fact, yeah, I needed a lot more support in order to recover, especially for how long term. So I want to dig a little bit deeper. I know that you've spoken about three very specific types of fatigue, which I've never heard before. Can you explain to us what those three types are and how do you know which one you might be dealing with?
Michelle: yeah, I love this. And this has really come about by my own personal experience. I realized as the Lord showed me that there are three main types of fatigue. And this was after my second fatigue crisis when he laid me out. And he's like, girl, you're not listening to me. You need to lay down. but then also as I work with more and more women in the midlife season, and the more I'm walking through this journey, this fatigue journey with my clients, it just became so clear it wasn't just me experiencing these three main types. we all know about physical fatigue. That is, probably the most common, right? It's the most obvious, that low energy exhaustion that doesn't go away after that vacation that you're looking forward to so much or sleeping in on the weekends. mean, leaders are consistently saying, I'm going to rest on the weekend. Like I'm just pushing through because, know, we're high achieving. We get things done and and that's expected of us and we expect that of ourselves, but it doesn't just fix. The fatigue doesn't let up just because we slept in on Saturday or we took a nap after church on Sunday. We might be having harder recovery time after exercise. I see this all the time. You might be having sensory fatigue. That can be more headaches, pain behind your eyes or very, very tired eyes, dry eyes. sensitivity to being touched or more jumpy with sounds like loud noises your senses are on high alert. That can be physical fatigue. And then mental fatigue is where you are having more anxiety, sadness, more of the blues, crying for no reason, apparently. There's always a reason, but crying, you know, just out of nowhere. I call them tired tears and this like more anger, more frustration, inability to be patient, lacking joy, feeling like you want to be alone, losing drive. Again, these are things I hear all the time from women in this midlife season that are high functioning, high achievers, but they're dealing with fatigue. so stress is the precursor. more times than not, as it leads to mood disorders and just feeling all the feels, the emotional, because we can't just say mental fatigue without including the emotional fatigue as well. And then the third one is spiritual fatigue. I strongly believe this is the most dangerous type of fatigue. Why? Because it pulls us away from our source. It pulls us away from Jesus. When we are feeling tired, drained, exhausted, discouraged in our spiritual walk, which can come about from feeling chronically fatigued physically, our soul is fatigued, right? Our soul is needing refreshing and it's not getting that. Well, so the spiritual fatigue again is the most dangerous because it can pull us away from our source. But why would we feel fatigued spiritually? Well, it goes back to the good girl or the good Christian girl, right? Always saying yes, always doing, doing, doing, because you think that that's what you should be doing and not physically resting, which revives our soul, revives our spirit, revives us emotionally. And then you might be walking through something. You might be walking through a fiery trial where you're really struggling with your communication with the Lord, your... avoiding time with him. You are just letting the busyness overtake that that restoration, the Sabbath, that time with the Lord. this life we're living is it's a spiritual battle. So having these spiritual attacks from the enemy, that's another way that can pull us away and starting to believe the lies that the enemy puts into our mind because he's always he's up to the same tricks all the time. So This is why I know that this is the most dangerous type of fatigue we can experience because it does take us away from the truth of God's Word, our identity, who he says we are, who he is. And the reality is that the stress in our lives is affecting all three of these types of fatigue. And so if it's not dealt with, we're going to feel them. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Hmm in your experience does someone start with one type like are they under spiritual attack or mentally their fatigue or does it all kind of come together I could see probably both but what is what's the most common that you see with people that you work with?
Michelle: That's such a great question because everybody's so unique. what I am seeing more and more, yes, you've got that physical fatigue because it's what you physically feel, the draining. But I'm seeing a lot of lack of joy, a lot of lack of joy and lack of desire to do the things that you once enjoyed doing, lack of motivation. going through the motions and just pushing through on autopilot because again, that's what you've always done and that's what you know to do. you know, this it's a whole other thing about reflection and digging into maybe some past things that have happened that are continuing to come up that, you know, the body always keeps the score, right? So it will always come up at the most inconvenient times if you're dealing with past trauma or something. until we deal with it. So it Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Yeah.
Michelle: is kind of all across the board. It is kind of hard to pinpoint. I guess I would have to say physical because it's the most obvious. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Yeah, yeah, I think all of us know when we're exhausted and we just want to lay down, that's clearly physical
Michelle: Yeah. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... fatigue. And I'm thinking to my own mold journey, definitely it started physical, right? Like fatigue is probably the top thing that we see out of the gates, but that kind of goes across the board for so many different diagnoses and conditions and just life. Fatigue is probably
Michelle: Yeah. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... the top thing. So it's hard to pinpoint. But then I would say really quickly, became the, is it mental fatigue was the second one that you listed.
Michelle: Yeah. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... And I noticed that too. But I was also a brand new mom at the time. And as I was listening to what you were saying were the symptoms, I'm like, man, this is like moms in general, or at least maybe, you know, I identify as a mom, like lack of patience, feeling over touched, overstimulated, you know, more sensitive
Michelle: Yeah. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... to noise and yeah, ding, ding, ding to all of those, right? So how do you begin to move out of that whenever clearly if you're in a situation, you know, just being a mom, where you have, kiddos all around you or a husband or friends or whatever, just women in general, people in general, were needed. And so you can't change always the circumstances that might be leading to that fatigue. So what's the answer there for helping yourself to begin to replenish that joy that you see is missing?
Michelle: Well, this, okay, this is, it just reminded me as you were talking about that, because my kids are grown, they're adults, they're both married, and I'm waiting for grandbabies, and Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... How?
Michelle: it just reminded me of when they were little, and I would take a moment in the bathroom. I'm always recommending, go to the bathroom, hopefully Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... We're gonna wrap it up.
Michelle: you'll be alone in the bathroom, you should always be able to be alone in the bathroom, and I would shut the door, and I would sit on the edge of my tub, and I would breathe. I would just deep breathe and sometimes that involved chocolate, dark chocolate was always my thing. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Yeah.
Michelle: Back then I would get one little square of Dove dark chocolate and I would just, you know, cause I like to read the little messages and then I would just savor it and I would just breathe and inevitably after a few minutes there'd be these little fingers coming under the door. Mom, Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Yeah.
Michelle: mom, you okay? Mom, you in there? Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Always.
Michelle: So what that just reminded me of that, I haven't thought about that in a while, but what Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Yes.
Michelle: I recommend is to pop, P-O-P, pause on purpose, pause on purpose. Go to the bathroom, sit on the edge of your tub, do some deep belly breathing and really help your body to come back into harmony. Come back into, I'm really not a fan of the word. balance, think it's been overused, especially in the world because literally there can't be balance with all the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah going on and women are feeling pulled in so many different directions. This is why I call it high functioning fatigue because you are going at such an output that you've always gone at and so you're like, well, nothing's different. Why do I feel so much more exhausted? Why do I feel so more? much more drained. Why is my brain not working? It's because you've been going like that for decades. And your body again, remembers, holds on and it cannot continue to work at that pace. You know, in our 40s and 50s and 60s, like it was in our 20s and 30s, like it just, it just can't, something has to give. So we need to build in these moments to pop, pause on purpose It's so important to do that. I call it midday reset, get away midday. A lot of women I work with, they're professionals, executives, they may even own their own business and they are constantly on their computer. You have to pause on purpose and get away. Get away from the lights, get away from the screens, get outside, take some deep breaths and purposely... take the sacred time to pause. It is the only way that is going to help to restore harmony into your nervous system that's already taxed, already on high alert. And so it's really up to us because nobody's going to tell us to take a break. I mean, maybe, maybe our husband would, maybe, maybe our best friend might say something, but what's our knee jerk reaction? I don't have time. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... I'm happy.
Michelle: I'll rest when X, Y, Z is all done. So we have to own it, we have to do that. I mean, look, Jesus went away, he modeled this so beautifully for us. He went away all the time by himself to restore. So we need to do that too. He modeled how to rest, he modeled the Sabbath. The Sabbath is for us to restore and regenerate and rejuvenate. If we refuse to do that, you know, the natural consequences, we feel even more drained. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... that's such a good point. mean, Jesus was our model for this. And you see it time and time again of him moving away to be on his own and to pray and to breathe. And yeah, it's like we are somehow disconnected probably because culture expects for us to be these, know, overproducing, overworking. You are what you put out into the world. And it's so hard to break up with that.
Michelle: Yes. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... So, okay, let me ask you kind of more of a clinical question, but if you're someone that is dealing with pretty extreme fatigue, let's just say across the board, all three types, you know, it's been going on for a while, you're doing the POPs, maybe don't call it that, but you're doing nervous system regulation and you're praying and you're taking Sabbath and you're just not seeing that needle move. Is there some sort of lab test that you could look at? for fatigue or is there something else that we can do that might help us to move that needle?
Michelle: we always want to start with, blood markers, However, just be aware that conventional panels will almost certainly miss this, miss that if it is a mold issue, it will most likely miss it like a standard CBC metabolic and lipid panel. It's going to potentially miss what is going on in the body and also conventional providers are trained just to look within the ranges. They're not trained to look outside of the ranges. Really, they don't have a lot of training on reading the labs. They just do what comes, what spits out from the lab company. So, and then there's different ranges for different labs and all of that. really, that's a good starting place, of course, but also putting a functional eye on that instead of a conventional eye. So the functional ranges are different, more aligned with well people instead of sick people like in the conventional world. The Dutch test is great, it's kind of like the gold standard. which is why it's quite pricey for hormones and just seeing with urine and saliva how your hormones are affected. I mean, it's a great option when you are struggling with a lot of fatigue and brain fog and hormonal and just a lot of metabolic concerns, that would be a good place to go. and then there's like genetic testing you can do some genetic testing to see how you are actually detoxing if you do if you don't if your pathways are slow or too fast or clogged In conventional medicine, they want to manage symptoms and this is why mold specifically is so kicked down the can for so long. You were kicking the can down the road for so long before a diagnosis is made. I see that in SIRS and mold and Lyme disease, all of these things. So it is important between managing symptoms and actually understanding what your body's trying to tell you because the body is always talking. and you know, even if your conventional lab panel comes back normal, air quotes, and you feel anything but, you know when something's not right. I always want to ask what's not right instead of what's wrong. so standard blood labs may not catch mold illness, but they will leave some clues. I see this a lot. Women will come to me. I just had my labs done. Everything's fine. I'm normal. Everything's good, but I feel like garbage. And then I will review their labs with a functional eye on them and I will see discrepancies. I will see... deficiencies, I will see things that the body's been telling them, these patterns that the body's been speaking. And in a conventional, it'll be, that's, that's unremarkable, or it's, it's you're on the low side of normal, but you're still in the normal range. So you're fine. But really the body's under burden and it's trying to tell us something. So it's really, it's really important just to trust your God given instinct. If you know something's not right, you keep searching because you are your own best advocate. Your labs may look fine, but you know if you don't feel fine. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... do you have some examples of what I guess would look normal on these standard blood tests, but when you look at the functional medicine overview, you actually know is not normal. Because I do know with all of the lab tests, they're looking at this normal range and they're basing the normal range on everyone that is taking lab tests. Well, normally you're not taking lab tests and blood work if you're healthy. Like I'm not gonna go get myself stuck and have my blood drawn if I'm a healthy person. I'm probably gonna avoid that. And so these ranges, I learned this at the very beginning, these ranges that are quote unquote healthy are healthy, but it's reviewing sick people that are in there doing labs. And so it's not actually healthy. Even if you're in the middle of quote unquote healthy, you're actually in the middle of what, my understanding, what is sick blood work. So.
Michelle: Yeah, Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Functional is looking at optimal, right? Not quote unquote healthy
Michelle: yeah. Yes. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... within the sick people. So how would you know looking at these quote unquote normal levels that actually, no, that's not where I want my vitamin D or whatever level. I want it to actually be here to be optimal. Do you have some examples of that?
Michelle: And you just said it, vitamin D is the very first one that I go to because Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Okay.
Michelle: it is the most common that women come to me in super deficiency and they have begged their primary doctor to run a test and they are denied over and over and over again. And I had my own personal experience with my husband where his doctor, this was years ago, he did request a vitamin D and the insurance company said, we're not paying for that. that is scientifically unproven to be, you know, any help at all. You don't need that. And I'm like, says a non-doctor. it took me nine months to fight with the insurance company to get them to pay it. It was like a $300 charge for a vitamin D test, which by the way, you have the power to order your own labs online. You do not have to go through what your doctor says, what your insurance company says. If you are willing to pay out of pocket or use your flex card, you can get whatever you want. So just tuck that away for knowledge. you're absolutely right. The conventional labs are based on sick people, not healthy people. This is why we have such broad ranges, like 30 to 100 or something like broad ranges too. So vitamin D, I have to talk about that. You are... completely normal if your vitamin D is at 30. You are clinically deficient in a functional range if you were at 30. So functional ranges, I want to see your vitamin D at 60 or above. Ideally, it would be 80. So knowing that now, if you get your vitamin D test and it says you're 30 or 31 and your doctor's like, oh, you're good, but you feel exhausted, Push back, question that, or just take the ball in your own court and do something about that. Sit out in the sun, get more sun to skin contact. You may need to supplement, especially if you live in the North or where you're just not getting enough sun. And you wanna be careful on that too. So working with a practitioner that helps with that, because a lot of times too, if you are clinically low for conventional, they'll just give you a vitamin D, like a 10,000 IU pill where you're taking it like every day for five days kind of situation, right? But that's a whole other thing because are you absorbing it? It's just a whole other thing. So you wanna work with somebody that understands that. so vitamin D is one of the ones that you have to push back on for sure because it is very, very common. that women that are struggling with exhaustion and brain fog, they are deficient in vitamin D. again, a patient, I mean, sorry, a client story, she had begged her practitioner for a vitamin D test as well as other, and he refused. She came to me, we ran some labs and her vitamin D was 16. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Even on conventional then it was under
Michelle: Exactly. So clinically deficient and so struggling and vitamin D deficiency really does affect the brain. And so all systems, when one system is hurting, they all start hurting. So we have to look at the body as a whole. cannot compartmentalize and we need conventional medicine. Don't get me wrong. We absolutely need it. It has its place, but it is disease management. It is emergency medicine. It's not necessarily helping you to be optimal, helping you to be truly healthy. unless you need a surgery or something like that, there's a lot that can be done on our own because we're listening to our God given instinct. We're researching, we're seeking out help and we're able to get. to the root cause to really help us. So we're not wasting so many years feeling like garbage, you know, instead of getting to the root cause. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Yeah, absolutely. So I'm thinking about my listeners and wondering, I know you gave us the pop method, but are there some other just easy, maybe not, but easy, low hanging fruit, kind of those practical things that we can do if we're just really struggling with fatigue day to day, we're eating properly, we're getting the blood work, but we're just not seeing results. What are some things that we can do on the days that are really hard just to give us a little bit more energy and life back into our veins?
Michelle: Yeah, nutrition of course is paramount, but it's not the only thing, right? What I see so much in women over 40 is that they are not eating nearly enough protein. having coffee before water. it's not just where we need to be hydrated, but it hurts our hormones when we have caffeine before we're hydrated. And also when we have caffeine before we're feeling, before we're fed nutritionally. So we need protein before that caffeine hit as well. And this is where a lot of women like push back because they're like, but I'm not hungry in the morning, but you really need to give yourself something. So even if you put, a scoop or two of collagen in your coffee, clean collagen in organic coffee, that gives you a little bit more of a boost. You're getting 10 grams or so, but you need protein before you're reaching for that cup of coffee because our cortisol is the highest at the first thing in the morning, but it can quickly nose dive. So especially if you're already struggling with fatigue, you just crash harder if you just drink that cup of coffee with sugar or whatever you put in it and then you have no nutrition. So nutrition is important and eating often, know, fiber, protein, getting your fruits and your vegetables and watching the carbs, the simple carbs that just turn to sugar in your body. So then we need to talk about the nervous system and the lymphatic system. We need to help our bodies to detox as best as we can in a busy day, in a busy life. And the easiest thing to do is to pause on purpose and breathe. so I build in AM renew times, midday reset, and then PM refill times where you're literally pausing on purpose to breathe. to get into the word, to pray, to stretch, know, these things that are going to help your lymphatic system walking, stretching, bouncing, like rebounding. I love sauna. You really do wanna sweat, which can be a double-edged sword when you're dealing with fatigue. So I'm always helping my women like, okay, you don't have to work out for 30 minutes a day. You don't have to do hard cardio. You can do a 10 minute, HIIT workout to get your heart rate up and then stretch. You can go for a leisurely walk. You can do smaller chunks of movement that is fun for you. It has to be fun or you won't keep doing it, which is honestly bouncing on a rebounder is quite fun. But you want to keep your lymphatic system moving. If it's not moving, if you're not pooping and you're not sweating, you're clogged. It's staying stagnant in your body. And that just sets off a firestorm throughout the whole system. think of it as your body's garbage collector, right? We need to collect the garbage and get it out. And that's why breathing is the easiest thing to do, but breathe from your belly. And you don't have to do all these fancy breath work type stuff that you see all over the internet. Just breathe, just inhale fully through your nose, hold and exhale through your mouth. you wanna feel your belly moving so that you know you're not breathing from your diaphragm. you can't detox your way out of a depleted body. So you have to make sure that the pathways are open because if they're not open, they're just going to get clogged. So I'm always about keeping it simple, not taking all these protocols and these supplements, like just help your body to feel safe first and work with somebody who knows the system and the pathways and the correct order of doing things so that your body feels safe. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... I love the simplicity of breathing because it can be done anywhere, know, morning, night. It can be done driving. I mean, it literally could be done anywhere. some people recommend things that it's like, you have to have this perfect program and this perfect system and all the steps and the cold plunge and this and that. And it gets so overwhelming. of like you said, our bodies are designed to heal. God's given us our breath. was the first thing, we were given this body and he breathed into it. use that. I just love it. And it makes so much sense. when you were talking about pops, I was thinking, okay, I could add a pop, lunchtime, but you're saying like the morning and then lunchtime and then the PM block and before bed. So you're saying infuse it, which makes so much sense. We're breathing, you know, 22,000 breaths a day. how many of those are intentional, slow, really just taking time to re-infuse ourselves with the breath of life?
Michelle: it is so powerful. One of the things that I help a lot of, again, women that are on their computer all day is for your midday reset, lay down in your office and put your feet up against the wall or lay on a, like I have a little love seat by the window and I'll lay on that and I'll elevate my feet and I'll just close my eyes and I'll breathe. it is amazing what it does to your nervous system. Again, bringing your body back into harmony and you are actually so much more productive when you go back to your desk when you've taken that time to breathe and just to be still. I call them sacred pauses. whatever sinks into your brain and helps you to remember to do it. Sacred pauses, pop, pause on purpose, midday reset. It doesn't matter because it's It's all the same thing. You're going to stop. It's like the stop, drop and roll, right? You're gonna stop and you're going to pause on purpose with intention to help bring your body back into harmony. And it does wonders for helping to calm your nervous system, get you out of fight or flight, back into harmony. And again, that helps the brain. It helps the brain fog to lessen. You're more productive when you come back. you feel more alert. And you know, I practice this too. I have to honestly, because I'm never going back to burnout. Like I'm not doing it. Like that was bad. I was so dizzy that I would be standing at the stove cooking dinner and I would have to turn everything off and go lay down and put my legs up because I was so dysregulated. I was so beyond burnout. So my body was giving me so many signs and I had just kept pushing through and I can do it, I can do it, I can do it. I'll rest when I get this done. It will always backfire on us. There's a pivotal point where your body will say no more. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... Hmm.
Michelle: So building these sacred pauses, pausing on purpose is going to help your nervous system so much so that you can continue living the life that you are called to live, but with more energy instead of feeling drained. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... I love that. think that's what we all want is just to live a vibrant, healthy, joyful
Michelle: Yeah. Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... life, you know, to the biggest extent and the highest quality that we possibly can. I've had so much fun just chatting with you and learning. And I know my listeners have enjoyed it and learned so much. So where can they, if they want to learn more about your program and just how to get through this fatigue that we're all dealing with, where can they get in touch with you?
Michelle: The best way is to hang out with me on the podcast, Treasured Wellness Podcast, anywhere that you listen to podcasts. And then I do have a blueprint that I would love to offer to your listeners. It's three reasons you are still exhausted. And it's a free download that you can get and I'll be sure that you have the link Aubree Felderhoff | Mold Fr... thank you again, Michelle. I really appreciate your time today.
Michelle: Thank you so much, Aubree my pleasure.
Aubree: Thanks for listening to Mold Free Mom. If this episode has helped you make sense of some of your symptoms, diagnoses, or why nothing has worked in the past, please make sure to follow the show and leave a quick review so others who are struggling can find it quicker. If this episode brought someone struggling with unexplained sickness or mold to mind, please share it so they don't have to waste years of their life chasing the wrong answers like I did. Remember, you're not broken. You can get your life back. You just need to be shown how.
