What Is Biohacking: How To Biohack Your Beauty With Dora Vandekamp
Find out what is biohacking from none other than the host of Biohack Your Beauty Podcast, Dora Vandekamp on the 35th episode of The Homework Help Show. The Dutch-born biohacking enthusiast is a Cal State Northridge alumna who took up political science but later realized her passion for ecotherapy and holistic healing. Learn how you can adopt conscious nutrition into your lifestyle and how you can biohack your beauty.
Dora Vandekamp’s Finding Her Passion For Biohacking Health
Dora Vandekamp was born in Holland and grew up with two sisters who were born to an Italian mom and a Dutch dad. Vandekamp relocated to Southern California and took up political science at Cal State Northridge. Her parents were “big on college” and her degree allowed her to work for the mayor of California at the time. She recalls that period in her life an experience that taught her a lot but ultimately wasn’t what she wanted to do.
“I always really wanted to have an impact on the world and growing up, I really thought that would be part of my life.” Dora shares on The Homework Help Show. She was always aware that doing something you were passionate about, making an impact on the world, while making a living wasn’t always all simultaneously possible. She recalls growing up and going through health struggles when she was younger. Dora shared her struggles with depression, anxiety, and having an eating disorder. A mentor she had when she was in college really inspired her and taught her that food had a lot of impact on how people think, feel, and their health spans.
Dora would also later learn that people with degenerative diseases, cancer, Alzheimer’s, anxiety, and depression were all impacted and linked to food. That was when she learned more about what is biohacking and how food had the power to prevent and sometimes reverse certain conditions. Learning all of that was her clear sign of what her purpose was. Dora knew she was up against industries that limited the knowledge people had and it was her gateway to the “game of health and wellness.”
An Easy Biohacking Guide For Students
“Eco-therapy-based activities” according to the City University of New York have multiple proven benefits such as improved cognitive function, an increase in overall well-being, and improved physical and mental health. In learning what is biohacking, you’ll learn that it also incorporates a lot of ecotherapy-based activities which combine human biological elements and nature.
There are plenty of healthy body life hacks students can adopt that are free and accessible according to the Biohack Your Beauty podcast host. Here are just some of the things you can adopt today for a better, healthier lifestyle thanks to ecotherapy. Learning how to biohack can be especially beneficial for students who are overwhelmed with schoolwork. It’s important to put health as a top priority which is why students can also benefit from getting essay help or even tutoring services from Homework Help Global as they navigate new ways to stay in good health.
1. Sungazing
Practicing ecotherapy has a lot to do with “just being”. Sungazing is one of the best ways to practice ecotherapy and is actually quite beneficial. To do sungazing correctly, the best time to do it is as the sun is setting, about the 5 last minutes of it to be exact. Dora says you don’t want to be staring at the sun when it’s brightest because that can be quite damaging to your eyes. Sungazing she says is when your body is literally “eating the sun” and taking in all its nutrients. Similar to how plants photosynthesize.
2. Cutting out seed oils
One of Dora’s “primary tips” nutrition-wise is cutting out seed oils. It’s also one of her best tips for “extending your beauty”, as she does specifically practice biohacking for beauty. There are quick and easy ways to cut out unhealthy oils in your diet that you can adopt today. For example, cutting out butter and using coconut oil as a replacement. Other great alternatives to seed oils are palm oil, avocado oil, and olive oil. The seed oils you should stay clear of are sunflower, canola, linseed, grapeseed, and sesame oil.
3. Practice conscious nutrition
Nutrition is a huge part of what is biohacking. For students working with a limited budget, practicing conscious nutrition doesn’t have to break the bank. It simply means being conscious of what you put into your body and choosing better. For 16 years, Dora practiced vegetarianism. For her, practicing conscious nutrition meant reintroducing animal protein back into her diet because that’s what her body needed. Practicing conscious nutrition can look different for everyone else. For the most part, it’s all about listening to your body’s needs and honoring that. You don’t necessarily need to just shop organic which we all know can be a little expensive. You need to make sure your body is getting enough and the right nutrients so that it doesn’t suffer. Another great way to practice conscious nutrition is by paying closer attention to food labels and lessening the number of preservatives and unnecessary additives in your diet. For more health tips, read our past blog on Brain Food For Studying.
4. Sleep better
One of the most basic but effective tips when learning what is biohacking is sleep. Sleep is how our body regains strength and a lack of sleep can cause a multitude of health problems. A few tips for better sleep include avoiding blue light at least an hour before going to bed, building healthy habits and a sleep routine to follow rigorously, creating a cozy and restful environment, and avoiding alcohol and caffeinated drinks. Read more from a past blog on how sleep affects your studies.
5. Put the phone away and be with nature
The easiest way to practice ecotherapy is to just put your phone away and spend some time with nature. According to Dora these ecotherapy activities can be touching a tree or walking barefoot on grass. She says even just three seconds of connecting with nature can be healing, grounding, and it resets the nervous system.
How To Practice Emotional Freedom Technique Tapping
EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique is an “evidence-based self-help therapeutic method” that has over 100 studies that back up its efficacy according to the National Library of Medicine. It was developed by Gary Craig in 1995 and today, it is an alternative treatment plan for people suffering from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. There are 12 meridian points that EFT targets and can relieve negative symptoms in the body.
Dora Vandekamp calls EFT “a great tool” and is a way to “reprogram” the mind. Whether it’s reteaching our body to get used to new foods or healing areas in our lives where we experienced trauma, EFT can help heal those areas. Dora likes to call it “free therapy” since it’s fairly easy to practice and can be used for times when the body feels anxious, like during a final exam or right before you’re about to speak in public.
An easy way to start practicing EFT is by tapping what is called the “karate chop” point. The area on the side of the hand where the pinky finger is. Dora advises using the ring finger like she does to tap the karate chop point whenever you’re feeling anxious. As you start the tapping motions, you can say affirmations like, “I’m feeling so upset right now about what happened, or I’m feeling so anxious about what happened. And I deeply love and accept myself.” You can continue by saying, “I’m feeling so frustrated and I deeply love and accept myself and just saying that a couple of times, whatever it is that I deeply love and accept myself and then walking yourself through something like this always happens.” You can say these affirmations in your head as you’re tapping any of the 12 meridian points and you can even tailor the affirmations to whatever positive words you feel you need to hear in the present moment.
Other points you can try tapping are the top of your head, your eyebrow, the sides of your eyes, under the eyes, under the nose, the chin, the collarbones, and under your arms.
Dora Vandekamp’s Tips For Young Women
When asked on The Homework Help Show if Dora had some advice for students or something she wished she knew when she was younger, she had a few pieces of advice.
“There’s nobody like you”, is one quote Dora lives by. She says not living authentically is doing a disservice to the world because everyone is made so uniquely and everyone has a purpose to serve. These days, people are afraid to stand out and only want to “fit in”. According to Dora, when you stand out, that’s when you really make a difference in the world and people’s lives. And when you live out your purpose and make a difference, that’s when you become truly happy. By being who you are and expressing yourself.
Another important piece of advice Dora wants to impart, especially to young women is, “Don’t prioritize other people’s happiness over your own.” She says this particularly about dating when you’re younger. “I feel like I spent my twenties making, you know, boys happy, and I wish I had spent that energy on building my life and my career and the things that really matter to me”, Dora shares on the podcast. She says relationships can be “beautiful and wonderful” as long as you’re not sacrificing yourself for someone else.
Lastly, if there’s anything she wishes she knew when she was younger, Dora says she would have wanted to have more courage to just be herself and be okay with how she looked. She used to be afraid of being perceived as “too much”, but realized that people who are “too much” are needed in the world because they are the ones strong enough to truly make a difference in the world.
Listen In To Dora Vandekamp’s Full Interview On The Homework Help Show
Learn more about how you can extend your beauty from health tips from Dora Vandekamp and more about what is biohacking by watching the full 35th episode of The Homework Help Show. Watch it now on YouTube or stream from Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Apple Podcasts.
Homework Help Global remains a platform dedicated to elevating students’ lives by providing tips, advice, and lessons on how to be the best student you can be. Check out our past blogs for more how-to tips for writing essays or you could also try getting some help from one of our professional writers the next time you need help on an assignment on whatever subject!
FULL TRANSCRIPT FROM OUR PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH DORA VANDEKAMP BELOW
Dora [00:00:02] My thirties are my best years or my forties are my best years. And it’s only because when people get there, they realize how little other people’s opinions matter. And I think that take so sad that it takes us that long to get there, especially as women. It takes us so long to get to a place where we care less about what people think.
Patricia [00:00:29] H i everyone, and welcome back to The Homework Help Show. I’m your host Patricia, and this podcast is your one stop shop for advice, motivation and inspiration. So whether you’re in the journey of your educational career or have finished that season in your life, there’s always a lesson we hope to impart. Today, our guest is a certified integrative health coach and life coach who’s made it her mission to help people feel beautiful, healthy, purposeful and truly alive. Please welcome Ms. Dora Vandekamp.
Patricia [00:00:59] Hi.
Dora [00:01:00] Hi, everyone, hello!
Patricia [00:01:03] Thank you for coming to our show today. How are you feeling? How are you today?
Dora [00:01:06] I am doing amazing. It’s beautiful in California. Beautiful day. Enjoying. Yeah, the fall and happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
Patricia [00:01:16] Of course. Thank you for being here. So one thing we always like to ask our guests to start with is where you were born and raised.
Dora [00:01:25] So I was born in Holland, which is in Europe, also known as the Netherlands. And I grew up there. I immigrated to the United States when I was nine with my family, and I’ve been here ever since and I’ve lived in California. I’ve lived in Florida, so a couple of places. But Holland was where I started.
Patricia [00:01:50] So that’s where you were born. You’re originally from there and your parents are from Holland as well?
Dora [00:01:55] Yeah. So my mom’s actually Italian and my dad is Dutch, and they met here when my dad was studying here. And they had they wrote letters for months. They dated for like a couple of months, and then they had to go back to their homes. And so they wrote letters and that’s how they dated.
Patricia [00:02:15] Wow.
Dora [00:02:16] And then they ended up getting married like a year later. And they’re still together. So kind of a sweet story.
Dora [00:02:25] That is super sweet! Like I never hear, like stories like that with, like letters and like how love was before the Internet and social media. That is so amazing. So cute do you have any siblings or.
Dora [00:02:38] I do. I have two sisters. I have two younger sisters, and one of them lives in Washington and Seattle and one of them lives in Monterey, in California. So and they’re like my best friends. So I’m very blessed.
Dora [00:02:53] Three sisters. That’s amazing.
Dora [00:02:55] Two sisters.
Patricia [00:02:56] Two sisters, so
Dora [00:02:58] Three girls.
Patricia [00:02:59] So one of them is in the same state as you. That is so cute. Something else I want to ask is, where did you go to college if you did?
Dora [00:03:08] Yeah. So I actually went to Cal State Northridge, which is in Southern California, and I really had no idea what I wanted to do, but my parents were really big on me going to college, so I did. And I ended up getting a degree in political science. And I did work for the mayor at the time, and I worked for Garcetti, who’s the mayor in L.A. now. So I definitely got a lot of experience, but it didn’t turn out to be what I wanted to do, but it was a good experience to have.
Patricia [00:03:46] I love that. I feel like really similar in the sense that my parents really wanted me to go to college and actually kind of suck political science as well. So we’re buddies in that area where we had to do it different things. So I mean, to segue way to what you’re doing now, I really wanted to ask you, like, how did you get into this like holistic health and conscious nutrition and like basically what you’re doing now?
Dora [00:04:09] Yeah, you know, I always really wanted to have an impact on the world. And growing up, I really thought that would be part of my life. But I think so many of us search, you know, we’re searching for the way to have an impact. And sometimes it’s hard to find that thing that we’re passionate about that also allows us to make a living, to have an income.
Dora [00:04:35] Yeah.
Dora [00:04:35] So finding something that unites those two has kind of been a big part of my journey. And part of that was really going through struggles and I think a lot of us find our, our purpose by going through something challenging and finding out that we want to be that person for someone else that we didn’t have. And so I went through health struggles when I was younger. I definitely struggled with an eating disorder and I struggled with a lot of like emotional stuff. So depression was something that was really big for me and anxiety. And I met my mentor while I was in college and she was the owner of a juice bar, and I started to learn how food has an impact on how we feel, how we think, and also our health span. So, you know, we have so many people in our world who have cancer, who have Alzheimer’s, degenerative diseases, who have anxiety and depression. And I learned that food is linked to all of those things. And so knowing that we have the power to prevent and also to reverse these conditions was such a big moment for me. And then realizing that I was up against so much, so many people who didn’t have this knowledge and who And there’s also a lot of industries, right, that kind of limit us from knowing that. And so that felt like something purposeful for me. And that’s kind of why I ended up getting into this game of health and wellness.
Patricia [00:06:25] Well, I’m really glad that you finally found what you wanted to really do and how you can help people. And I feel like that’s really such a theme right now for a lot of especially like young students who are like feeling really lost and don’t know what to do with their lives. Like, I mean, I feel like for you and me, it’s like a similar thing where we’re kind of like asked to make such huge decisions as, like young people and we don’t really know where we fit in the world yet. And I feel like a lot of people will really relate to what we’re going to be talking about today, in the sense that you do help people with like body image and like mental health. And I really love talking to people like that because I feel like I’ve been through similar stuff as well. And, you know, it’s taken a lot to really know what works for you and what kind of like what you can do for your health that works best for you. Because not one thing works for everyone else. Like it’s very, very different. Like what works for you may not work for others and like some people like to do other things to help with their mental health, but then it doesn’t work for a lot of people. So I think it just varies. So what worked for you is what I want to know.
Dora [00:07:29] It’s a really good question, and I love that you brought up that everybody has a different experience and everybody has things that really nourish them. For me personally, I read a book that was really profound for me, and it’s called Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, and it’s by this dentist named Weston Price, who was a dentist in the 1930s, and he lived in Canada. He had a practice in Canada and he had all these children coming into his office who had like rotting teeth. They had terrible teeth. And he was getting all of these magazines and these studies from other places, indigenous communities in Europe, in Africa and Asia, where all of the children had perfect teeth. And the correlation for him was like, how can we have these terrible dental health when these indigenous communities who don’t have all the technology that we have have perfect teeth? So he ended up going and studying these communities over a long period of time and compared their diets. And what he found was that they all had very similar diets and their diets were rich in animal foods and they had no mental health issues. They had easy births. They had a really long health span. Right? So as long as they were alive, they were healthy. There was no cancer, there was no tooth decay. So all of these things he started to realize were really important when it came to how we ate. And the book is really beautiful. It has a lot of documentation, it has a lot of photos. And then he started to document as processed foods were introduced into these communities, how these people’s health changed. So you can see in the photos their jaw structure changes, their bone structure changes, their teeth change. So for me, what really helped was introducing animal foods back into my diet, because for a long time I was a vegan and vegetarian and that had a huge impact on my mental health. I was getting vitamin A again, I was getting vitamin D, I was getting copper again. And I think we often don’t make the correlation in our society because there’s so much information out there that it’s really hard to know what’s right. And I think in a way information gets kind of weaponized because there is money attached to a lot of. The information. Right. And so ultimately, I would say that the biggest thing is to do your own research and really use your intuition and discernment to decide what is your way, because we all have a different way of healing ourselves or coming into a place of alignment. But I feel like that for me personally, was really powerful and also just doing my own research instead of going on WebMD or something like that.
Dora [00:10:20] Researching. Yeah, yeah. And asking people you trust. Finding people who really are in alignment with who you want to be looking at people, whether it’s on Instagram or whatever, friends, but that have the same values as you do like that have the same outlook as you do, and allowing community to be a part of your recovery, a part of your life experience and your wellness and your wellbeing.
Patricia [00:10:47] I love that. I love that you brought that up because it is kind of crazy that you think like you would think people who had like access to really good health care would be more healthier. But you’re right. Like there’s money involved and like the pharmaceutical industry has like stakes in all these types of things. And we don’t get that right information about what to eat and what’s really good for us. And I think it’s really fascinating that you said you were previously a vegetarian, and how long were you vegetarian and then how long are you now back to introducing animal products back into your diet?
Dora [00:11:20] I was a vegetarian for 16 years. I became a vegetarian. I was 12. And the reason was I really wanted to help animals. And I think for a lot of us, we believe that we’re helping the environment by becoming vegan or vegetarian. And I think vegetarian is better than vegan. I think vegan is, in my opinion, not healthy because animal foods are really, really vital for our nutrition. And I started eating meat again in probably like around my mid-twenties. Before that, I cut out seed oils, which was another big part of my journey, and I think that that had a big impact on my physical health because seed oils and when I say seed oils, I mean like canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, rice, bran oil, the oils, basically soybean oil, the oils that are really in most things these days and replacing it with coconut oil, which is a staple fat in our ancestors. Eight coconut oil, maybe not my ancestors, but indigenous communities, duck fat, animal, fat, tallow, lard and butter. This is what our ancestors collectively ate, and this is how our bodies are designed to function with high fat content. That’s how our brains work properly. So, you know, like fat free, all of those things, our bodies aren’t getting the nutrients they need. So that was a big shift for me. And I was a vegan when I did that. And then I introduced animal foods in around my mid-twenties. That’s when things really shifted for me.
Patricia [00:13:00] It started with like the seed oils. That’s really crazy because like if you think about like packaged food, they always say fat free and people correlate that with being healthy. But it’s actually crazy to know that that is really important in our diet actually, and that really we needed.
Dora [00:13:15] Yeah. And you bring up something really powerful because we look at labels to guide us and again, like coming back to conscious nutrition, conscious nutrition again, it’s really allowing yourself to be sovereign over your own food and your body and really choosing. So don’t allow like a package to tell you that it’s good for you. Look at the ingredients, because often those things that say gluten free, fat, free, all natural paleo, keto, whatever it says on that, that’s an advertisement. So they’re trying to get you to buy the product. So you always want to look at the ingredients, anything you’re getting and look at the preservatives in there. What is the oil they’re using? Are they using synthetic stuff in there? You know, are they using moldy stuff in there? Like often there’s grains that haven’t been dried properly. So like really trying to look at the ingredients and research for yourself. It takes time. It’s hard not to it’s hard to be healthy sometimes, You know, it takes a lot of energy. But after you practice and you begin to create systems for yourself, it becomes easier and you begin to get to know other people who share the knowledge. And then you don’t have to do it all by yourself.
Patricia [00:14:32] Yeah, I feel like it’s similar to like, information, like there’s just so many products out there and there’s all these like fad diets and there’s all these like, things that are like trending or like these trendy diets or like, you know, being failure keto, which I feel like for some people do work. Like I said a while ago, you know, not everything works for. Types of people, but it’s like hard to be like a conscious, like consumer given all these like crazy products out in the market. And the crazy thing about that too, is like shopping. Organic is kind of expensive if you’re not really, like, knowledgeable about what to eat and what to buy. Like, it’s really hard, like you said, to make more healthy decisions and it takes a lot of time to do that. And that’s why I feel like conversations like this is really important because you have to be responsible for your own self. Like you said, being sovereign, having that autonomy on yourself and being like, You know what? I’m not going to just follow all these like fad things that I see on the Internet or like Instagram, and I’m actually going to make conscious decisions for myself because all of us have like different bills, we all have like different body types. And I think it’s called like a biome, like it’s like different for everyone else, right? So we need to be responsible for ourselves. And that’s why these conversations are really important. What you do for your followers and your clients is really important. That’s why I feel like it’s so nice to have you on our podcast to share to our students because it’s always like the young people. I wouldn’t say they don’t care, but you know, when you’re young, you don’t really think about your health that much because you still feel really strong and feel really healthy. So it’s not something you really think about until later on in life when you’re like older and then you have like illnesses that you have to like take care of because you don’t make those right decisions when you were younger.
Dora [00:16:16] Yeah, I love that you brought that up. And, you know, when I was in high school, I was like eating Eminem’s for lunch, you know, like nobody else, like Cesar’s Pizza and Eminem’s. And honestly, I think for a lot of us, especially women, I feel like we kind of start to care about our health because of the physical stuff. So like, I don’t want to age or I want to have it be out a certain way. And so I think it’s kind of sometimes that’s the portal, you know, sometimes that’s how we start to be more conscious. But being able to jump into the next phase where food doesn’t become an obsession, it becomes a way to empower yourself. It becomes a way to create the life that you desire. Because when you have the connection between your brain performance and your food, your fertility and your food, your skin and your food like your energy and your food, your mood and your food, like these are all things that what you eat impacts impact. So it impacts your relationships, it impacts your job, it impacts your money, it impacts how you look, it impacts how you feel and impacts how happy you are. It impacts everything. And so when we know that we don’t have to do it all, but starting small, it really does make a huge difference. Even the little things. And when you’re younger, that’s when you have the power to really, like you said, the microbiome, right? That’s so big when it comes to your health. So saying no to the things that compromise your microbiome, even something like, you know, pesticides, if you can eat more foods that don’t have pesticides going to the farmer’s market or going to the local co-op or growing your own food and being able to eat foods that don’t destroy the microbiome, that’s already huge. Avoiding seed oils, cooking at home, like those are all little things that can really, really empower you to become more fully healthy as an adult.
Patricia [00:18:23] Yeah, you brought up a really good point about like, I feel like there’s just such pressure for women to look a certain way to, like you said, like to not age as if it’s like this horrible thing like that. Women should be so afraid of like aging and there’s just so many products that are being introduced to us. It feeds into that insecurity and a lot of young impressionable women who might be listening to our podcast. Now we’re in college and like see these like unrealistic body standards that are in the media and that turns into having like an unhealthy relationship with food. And as you said, like food is such an important component to like our relationships and our health and how we think and how we move and all of that. Like food is not the enemy. And I feel like a lot of young women, they go through like phases where they think food is the enemy because it’s going to make them look like a certain way and it’s not going to be they’re not going to be fitting into the standards of like beauty nowadays and like with the media and all that. So we have to really push out there that like message of having a healthy relationship with food because ultimately that’s like where we get our sustenance and our energy and like, you know, how we function in society. Like it’s not like food is not your enemy. Like you shouldn’t, like, stop yourself from eating or all that, like such a crazy thing that we don’t really, like, teach women or like even men. I know you have like a lot of clients. You are an eco therapy practitioner, am I correct?
Dora [00:19:47] Yes, I am.
Patricia [00:19:49] How does one become an eco theraphy practitioner?
Dora [00:19:52] I love that question. And I want to touch on what you just said real quick before I answer that, because I think that’s such an important topic and I think it’s so incredibly powerful that we are talking about it today and that you’re bringing that up on your show because I think it’s not only food that becomes our enemy as women, but our bodies. And we end up really, I don’t want to say hating our bodies, but that’s what so many of my experience is, this like very difficult and terrible relationship with our bodies. And I think there’s something to that is really getting to know your body and coming back to your body and loving your body and seeing how incredible it is and being able to be in your body. Because I feel like for so many of us as women, it’s painful to be in our bodies because it’s not how we want it to be or how it’s supposed to be or how somebody told us it should be, or how society and the media tell us it should be. And so we we go into our heads and we live in our heads and we live in our minds and we don’t live in our bodies. So we end up becoming more anxious. We end up having a lot of confidence issues and we end up having these stories ruminating in our minds. And what we can do to as the medicine for that is to ground back in our bodies and to get to know our bodies and experience our bodies. So that leads us into eco therapy because we are made of the earth, right? We are a physical representation of the Earth. We’re an extension of the Earth. But practicing looking in the mirror and seeing yourself and loving your body and feeling like touching your body, you know, like grounding yourself in your body and also just appreciating your body for all that it does. Because it is a miracle. Like you’re sitting here, you know, and while you’re sitting here, you’re you’re breathing and you’ve never once had to think about breathing. You just breathe. And you’ve been breathing for 20 years, 30 years, whatever, and your blood is pumping and your heart is beating and your hair is growing and you’re able to see beauty and you’re able to sing and hug people and kiss people and, you know, do all of these amazing runs, run, walk, dance. And I think we forget that it’s so easy to forget all the amazing things our body does for us every single day. And so just being able to ground into your body, come back to your body, spend time with your body, like lay in bed or wherever, and just like sit with your body, feel your body and know that it is a part of you. You know, that’s such an important part of you on this earth. I feel like we make our body the enemy when it’s doing its best to we everything we are asking of it and more. And so I feel like part of the healing of that piece of where we are so hard on our body and we want it to be skinnier, we want it to be different shape and we want it to do these things. And I think it starts with just learning to love yourself, going deep within and working on self-love and self-worth and like gratitude for your body. So I wanted to say that before I answered your question.
Patricia [00:23:30] So, yeah, that is really true. Like, I feel like I always say that too. Like we come from the earth. Everything we could ever need is actually provided by the Earth. If you really think about it like everything else is just an addition. And I feel like because you talk about like ancestral eating, which is something that I recently learned about as well, and just like going back to basics and like really utilizing what the Earth has for us because we are earthy beings and yes, our body is so magical. If you think about it, it does everything you could ever need it to do without even asking for it. Like you said, we just breathe our hearts, just beat our brain. Just think I think it’s such a wonderful thing. And yeah, we really need to be more appreciative of that and not think of all these other like the physical attributes and all that, because it really doesn’t matter like the facade of it all. Like it doesn’t really matter what matters. It’s like skin deep. What matters itself. What matters is like what’s on the inside more than the outside. Like, no one teaches us that, like in school, like it’s not really taught in school. Like these are things we have to learn, like you said, from communities, from doing your own research. So could you tell us, like, how does eco therapy go into that? Like, what’s the correlation between the two?
Dora [00:24:39] So you go therapy is really about coming back into your soul’s essence and into alignment with who you are. Like your true. And one of the components of that is just being because when you look at nature and you look at Mother Earth and you look at everything that’s happening in the environment, everything is just being right. Nobody is like none of the animals or plants are trying to do anything. They just are being. And so a big part of eco therapy is really just learning how to be without having this future thought or past thought, without trying to fix anything or change anything. A lot of it is just about being as you are. And so it incorporates mindfulness, it incorporates grounding, it incorporates the elements of the earth. So we have so many components of the Earth that are healing for us. We have sun. Right. So sun is something that is really powerful for your circadian rhythm. So circadian rhythm is really just our 24 hour cycle and it determines what hormones are working at what time. So when we’re sleeping, right, melatonin is one of those sleep hormones that’s working and it’s making sure that you sleep through the night and then it’s making sure that you wake up in the morning and cortisol takes its place and it starts to ramp up so that you wake up. Cortisol is, you know, we we think of it as the stress hormone, but really what it’s doing is it’s helping you be alert. And so it’s highest in the mornings. So light is the biggest determinant of circadian rhythm. So when we think of that, we may think, oh, it just means sleep and waking, but it means literally every function in your body is determined by light. Like, that’s a huge thing. And when you think of our modern, like day and age, we are always indoors. We’re not ever out in the sun. We’re always under like artificial light, fluorescent light. And so that is a huge component of eco therapy, is looking at the elements and seeing how we can harmonize our bodies back into alignment. Because a lot of us, whether it’s inflammation, whether it’s lack of sleep, whether it’s, you know, like weird stuff with our period, whatever it is, our hormones are determining that. And so looking at the ways that we can allow nature to help us come back into balance. So that would be sunlight that would be grounding, which is allowing the electrons from the earth to flow back into the body and help bring the body back into harmony. Sounds like a weird witchcraft thing, but it’s really actually a real thing. You know, the negative ions from the trees combating all the positive ions that we get from technology and our computers and our phones, things like that. So I think there is a combination between the physical aspects of eco therapy and also being able to practice stillness and meditation and observation and also practicing observing beauty and taking in beauty. Because I think for many of us beauty is a huge component of our lives. It’s what we live for is witnessing beauty around us. And that’s what makes you tear up, right? That’s what like when you watch a video on Instagram that makes you emotional. Like, that’s beauty, right? Like the well of emotions that overflows. That’s what we live for is those moments when we are so in the present and so enamored by life and how beautiful it is. And we can find that in nature all the time. It’s there, it’s everywhere.
Patricia [00:28:22] I love that. I mean, I just realized like it’s literally in the name eco therapy and like finding therapy within the earth. Like, that’s so amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that, actually, until today. I do want to ask, like, because, you know, for a lot of like college students, like, they don’t necessarily have like a lot of the resources to, like, eat better. And that’s why they usually have really unhealthy diets because it’s so convenient to eat out. It’s so convenient to just do take out and not really like cook your own food. And yeah, for a lot of times they’re indoors. They’re just, you know, studying. How can students like listening to us right now practice eco therapy in their own ways, whether they’re in school or at home?
Dora [00:29:03] Yeah, you can go anywhere. There is nature. So you can go to a park. Even if you have a tree by your school library or by your house, even putting your hand on a tree. And it sounds silly, right? Like I’m just standing here with my hand on this tree and the, you know, by the street. But that’s a way to connect. I mean, if you think of in a spiritual sense that this tree, it’s living, right? It has energy and it’s emitting energy. So even just connecting with any piece of nature is really powerful. One thing that you can do if you are able to I know college students are really good at sleeping Less is getting up early and watching the sunrise or getting, you know, the sun set. In and watching the sunset with your bare eyes. So if you wear glasses or contacts, taking those out because that blocks UV rays and just the last 5 minutes of the sunset when the sun is very dim, like you don’t want to look into the bright sun, that’s not a good idea. But they call it sun gazing. And what you’re doing is you’re literally eating the sun like your body is literally taking in nutrients from the sun and it’s setting your circadian rhythm, which is so healing for your body. And if you believe in kind of more spiritual stuff, it’s really healing for the third eye as well. The pineal gland that’s right here. So that’s something you can do. You can touch a tree, you can go barefoot in the park, even 3 seconds of connecting to nature, like grounding either on a tree or in a park starts to reset your nervous system. It takes 3 seconds. I mean, anything that you can do. And then I would say just prioritizing. I feel like we do this with our health, We do this with nature, is that we think of it as an afterthought. It’s kind of like, well, either when I get the time or when I get the money, I’m going to invest in this or I’m going to do this. And I think it’s just really prioritizing. Like, what will I spend my money on? Will I spend it on a new phone or will I spend it on a system that helps me have access to healthier food? You know, and sometimes we have to make a choice and not everybody has a choice, you know, and that’s hard. And I hope that that’s something that we’re moving towards, that everybody has a choice. And I think that a lot of us are doing that work and everyone to have access. But if you do find that you’re looking for healthy food and you don’t know how to get it besides like Whole Foods where it’s really expensive, looking at a place that has less expensive food. So if you go to the farmer’s market, a lot of times they will have inexpensive foods. They’re like produce wise, and it’s cheaper than if you go to a Whole Foods. If you have a co-op, you can become a member. You do pay, I think, a monthly fee, but you get a discount on everything. And then the other thing you can do is you can go to the Weston Price Foundation website and they’ll tell you where there are local farms and local markets that sell food from local farms. So whether it’s dairy or Rothbury that you can’t find at your local supermarket or if you’re looking for eggs or meat or anything like that, that’s a resource too. So I think that that’s really helpful. And also just finding people who are interested in health too, because that’s a big thing as community. And I feel like for a long time I had to do it alone or I felt like I had to do it alone. And I often like I dated people who weren’t into health, and I realized that that was a big thing for me. And so I had to choose to surround myself with people and have a partner who also felt like that was important because, you know, you’re kind of absorbing and and tuning into the people that you’re around all the time on many levels. Even on a microbiome level, like your microbiome starts to match the people around you, your nervous system matches the people around you like. It’s a big deal investing and having people around you that are on the level that you want to be, whether it’s health wise or financially or spiritually or just even from a nervous system perspective, like are these people kind of, you know, those are important things to think about.
Patricia [00:33:34] That’s so amazing. The first few things that you actually share, just like sun gazing or just like something as simple as being in nature, are really inexpensive things that students can really try. It’s really not that hard. And I think that’s really important. And I feel like it goes against the norm of thinking that it’s like expensive to be healthy. It’s like health is an expensive thing to do when actually like you can just practice eco therapy and it’s pretty much like there’s no cost at it. And to all our listeners out there, when you see the sun set, please put the phone away and look at it with your own eyes. I heard it here first like that, cause you know how easy this sounds that you’re automatically going to go, Where’s my phone to take a photo? No action. Look at it with your eyes. And that’s actually like aiding in your health. I never even actually thought about that. So that’s a really amazing advice. Thank you for sharing all those, like, amazing. That’s where people can have healthier food options. Like, that’s really amazing.
Dora [00:34:29] I want to say to I love that you said that. Put your phone away, because I think that that’s like a big health hack in general. Yeah. Is like because our phones make our brains like, a little wacky, you know, like we’re thinking so much and there’s so much information coming in and so many ideas coming in. And sometimes it almost feels like a high, you know, because there’s so much and. Energy. And I think if we want to cultivate inner peace, allowing yourself to have some time away from your phone and being in nature is really powerful. Like when you’re in nature, let yourself be free of the phone. One of the things I’ve been doing is I want I go to the beach around sunset and I bring up garbage back and I pick up trash. So I’m grounding and I so I’m getting like I’m getting from the earth and I’m giving back to the earth. So I’m getting like, this exchange between me and Mother Nature. And I get to see the sunset and I’m never on my phone because I don’t want to touch my phone because, like, I have gloves on and stuff. But that’s been a really amazing practice for me and I feel like we can all do something like that where we feel like we’re doing something purposeful and also connecting to the earth.
Patricia [00:35:37] Yeah, I love that. Yeah. So you guys, you hear to hear first, please try to put the phones away because it’s like it’s really hard because you’re always overstimulated when you’re on your phone and then you forget about the really important stuff, like just being one with nature and doing like simple stuff is, you know, it’s like I feel like when you’re kind to yourself, you start to be kinder to everyone else around you, even to your environment. And I feel like because you’re on this journey, you, you get these, these like ideas of like, yeah, I not only want to feed into myself and be good to myself, I want to be good to the environment that’s also feeding me and that that’s I feel like that’s such a great relationship that we all should cultivate. Yeah, I really, I really love that. All of the stuff you’ve been sharing so far and something else that you’ve been sharing with your clients, I feel like is the law of attraction and ways you can practice that. So I did want to ask you, what are the easiest ways to practice Law of Attraction?
Dora [00:36:31] I love this. I love talking about the lodge action. For me, it was something that came again. Like I shared a little bit about how I had a hard time with like emotional stuff and mental stuff. And for me it kind of came from this place of needing to focus on something else besides feeling sad about the world. Because I feel like for so many of us, we see all of these things happening in the world and it feels really heavy. It feels really sad and feeling helpless in a way like not knowing what to do or where to start. And so I felt like in a way, to help me become able to make a difference, I first had to come from a centered place where I was able to focus on the good in the world, right? Because there is so much good in the world. We just tend not to see it because whether we’re on Twitter or on Instagram or on the news or whatever, we don’t see the good stuff, right? It’s almost all the bad stuff. And so I feel like when it comes to the law of attraction and creating a world that we want to see, it starts with us. It starts with looking into our own world, like in our world, and seeing where we are able to take responsibility for ourselves. Everything is frequency. We are frequency, right? The world is frequency, your frequency. Our bodies speak the language of frequency. And when we understand that light attracts to light, what we want to do is we want to hold the vision of what we want to create. And so whether that is creating a partnership that is loving, whether it’s creating financial success, whether it’s creating a sovereign life, whatever it is, it’s really about first deciding what it is that you want. And that can come in a lot of ways because often we have to experience what we don’t want in order to know what we do want. So getting really clear about what it is you want and then allowing yourself to hold space for that. And often that means kind of getting uncomfortable because usually where we want to be is different than where we are. And so we have to be able to stretch ourselves into that new place. So that might mean that we have to put ourselves out there. That might mean that we have to speak in public. That may mean we have to show up on social media or whatever. And I think it’s just allowing ourselves to get uncomfortable and hold ourselves in that place of trusting that path, trusting that there is something bigger than us guiding us. And I would say something that’s really helped me is called the emotional guidance scale. So I don’t know. Have you heard of the emotional guidance scale? For sure. It’s really cool. So what it is, is this scale of emotions and at the top is like the most blissful state of emotion, which would be like joy, love, appreciation, passion. And then all the way at the bottom is depression, despair, hopelessness, grief. Is at the bottom, right? Grief is a really hard emotion to have. And so in between, there are these steps. The idea is that we don’t have to say like, oh, well, I want to be happy and I want to have these things and I know that these things are in alignment with me being happy. So I have to be happy all the time. That’s not what the Law of Attraction is about. It’s really about becoming aware of where you’re at on the scale, where you’re at with your emotions, and then reaching for the next step up. So if I’m really angry, like I’ve been angry a lot of the time, I’m not going to just reach for the feeling of joy and appreciation because maybe I can’t get there today. Maybe I’m just able to reach for pessimism. And pessimism is actually a pretty neutral emotion because it’s not specific. So the more specific an emotion is, the more powerful it is, right? Like if I’m angry about a specific thing, it’s a really powerful momentum behind that emotion. Pessimism is kind of just a general emotion. It’s a softer emotion, maybe boredom, even I can reach for boredom. So I would recommend looking at the scale. It might seem kind of abstract now that I’m explaining it, but looking at the scale and allowing it to kind of be a tool because it’s really all about just reaching for the next step and knowing that wherever you’re at on that scale, that’s kind of what you’re in alignment with. When it comes to manifesting, when it comes to creating the life that you would like to have and allowing yourself to take responsibility, like we said earlier, for where you’re at and yeah, being able to feel wherever you’re you’re at with love for yourself.
Patricia [00:41:37] That’s really fascinating. And I wanted to ask you actually, like because you did say like everything is frequency and if you want to attack something, you have to get yourself to that to vibrate in that frequency of whatever it is you’re trying to manifest in your life. And at first I was like, you know, I feel like and for a lot of people who are really trying to get into the law of attraction or manifestations and all that, that could be like one of the hardest steps is how do I attract what I want? How do I vibrate into that frequency of whatever I’m trying to achieve? And you brought up like it’s actually you can’t just jump from like from being sad to being happy immediately. Like, you have to kind of go through, like, the phases and go through like the other emotions in between before you get there. And that’s something I actually never really thought about. So what other ways can we, like, really successfully attract or manifest anything we want in life? Or if there’s anything that you’ve done specifically in your life that’s made you really believe in this? Because I feel like you really like the Law of Attraction. Like you said, you really love this topic. So maybe there’s something that happened to you personally that you can share with us.
Dora [00:42:46] Yeah, I feel like we have to remember we’re manifesting everything all the time. It’s not like we just manifest the good things, right? Like if $100 shows up in your pocket or you, like, find $100 in your pocket, like you manifested that, but you also manifested like we manifested this interview, you know, like you manifested the eggs you made for breakfast this morning. Like everything we’re constantly creating. And the idea is that you’re deliberate about what you’re creating. So most of the time we’re not deliberate about it. We just kind of go through life and then things show up and we’re like, Why the hell did that happen? Or, Oh my gosh, this happened, and we’re not really being intentional about it. The more intentional and deliberate you can be, the more you can create that’s in alignment with what you really want, right? So it’s really about living an intentional life, living a deliberate life. Part of that is deciding what you want. One example would be my boyfriend, right? I’ve been dating him for three years before I dated him. I dated other guys who were not what I wanted and I kind of couldn’t really understand at that time. Well, why, you know, I’m I dating these guys. Why do I never date guys that end up being what I think of as my forever partner? And a big part of that was because I wasn’t clear about what I wanted, right? I just kind of whatever showed up for me, I was like, Oh, this looks fun. Sure. And so I feel like what I ended up doing after my last relationship ended was getting really clear about what it was that I wanted and what it was I didn’t want, right? I didn’t want a lot of the qualities that my exes had because I had experienced that, and I realized that wasn’t for me. So I got really clear. I made a vision board. I wrote down the qualities that were really important to me. I think we get a little carried away with those lists, though. Like he has to have blue eyes, but time care and he has to be six foot five and he has souls. But you know, his muscles have to be not to define. Whatever. So like I would say, just top five things. Top five things that you want in a partner. I highly suggest not making any of them physical because ultimately what really is important and I maybe I sound like like a, you know, a mom saying this, but ultimately those things are they’re nice. But honesty, loyalty. Somebody who is kind, you know, things like that. Good partner, maybe good parent, things like that. Right. Thinking of those things and writing that down so that when that person comes along, you recognize them. And when someone else comes along and they don’t have those qualities, you’re very clear that that is not your person. That’s not your person. They may come in a pretty package, but that’s not your person. And it’s really important. And this applies to everything in life. If you fill up the space with something that is not what you want, that thing you want is not going to come because that space is filled up with something else. So whether it is a job, whether it is a person, whether it’s a way of doing things like if you are waiting for something else to come along and you’re like, Well, I’ll just keep this around until that better thing comes along. You might be waiting a long time because you are giving your energy to something that isn’t in alignment with you. You’re almost like not setting a boundary. You’re not allowing yourself to be in your fullness. And so I think that’s a really important thing to remember, is don’t be someone you’re kind of okay with. If you really want to be dating someone who is your soulmate, you know, and also allowing there to be a time to get to know that person to make sure they have the qualities that are important to you. So that’s kind of an example. I think vision words are really fun. I don’t think they’re necessary, but it’s nice to have a vision for yourself that you can look at. I think affirmations are really fun, but I also think you don’t want to be in your head too much because I feel like when we get these affirmations and then we start to like, have to say that a hundred times a day or you have to do I don’t know, there’s like the three, three, three method and all these methods.
Patricia [00:46:59] The angel numbers.
Dora [00:47:00] Yeah, like they’re fine. And I think life should be fun. But I also feel like, don’t get in your head about it because the thing that’s coming isn’t going to come when it’s like a watch pot never boils, you know, like you have to be in life. You have to be in the moment and in the present. And that’s honestly out of everything. And that’s why eco therapy is powerful, too. Like, if you’re enjoying life and you’re in your fullness and you’re living your truth, like being authentically you. Nothing can stop you from having what you want when you have to be authentic, like you have to live in the truth of who you are. And that might be showing up on social media as yourself, which can be really freaking scary. Or, you know, being who you are around your friends who have only seen this other side of you or being yourself with your partner when you’ve never done that before and you’re afraid they’re going to leave. And if they leave, ask them, because that’s not the person you’re supposed to be with. So I think a lot of it is just learning how to live as yourself in love and in presence. And then that’s the vibration of things coming to you, right? Like if that’s like equals, like you being in your full truth and in your full joy, that’s when everything that you want comes to you anyway. So I feel like that’s been something really powerful for me to learn, super powerful.
Patricia [00:48:20] And I feel like a lot of like really young people can benefit a lot from like hearing this because like I said, no one really teaches these types of things. And I feel like you speak about like manifestations and law of attraction in a really like doable way. Like you said, not really like being in your head about it. And I feel like it sounds complicated, but it’s really simple just being intentional. Like if you want something to happen, do that. If, like you said, with a partner, if this is what you want, but you’re settling for something else, how can you expect what you really want to come into your life? That’s never going to happen. If you have a placeholder right there taking up all your energy and you’re not able to, you know, save that are just like, you know, I feel like it’s such a waste of energy doing things halfheartedly. So it’s better to just like wait and really keep that energy and stay on that vibration, stay on that frequency to really attract what you want in life. I watched or I read this somewhere, like the way to manifest is like thinking, like everything is a mirror. And if you’re like, looking at yourself in the mirror and you want your reflection to wave their hand, what do you do? You just wait your hand because everything is a reflection. It’s kind of like that. You just have to put out there what you want to receive. Basically, it’s like, it sounds complicated, but it’s like, really? Think about it. It’s also just like a trial and error. Like you said, it’s like you don’t really realize this when you’re young, but as you grow older, you realize what you don’t want, what you do want. So yeah, I feel like you really just have to be patient with. Yourself and be gracious with yourselves. Like you’re not going to be able to be kind to anyone if you’re not being kind to yourself first. I feel like that’s a good, like frequency to like radiate on
Dora [00:50:03] Absolutely. And and have fun on the journey. I mean, I know that everybody says that, and it’s so easy to say, but yeah, we always think, like, when I get there, that’s when I’ll be happy. When I get my partner, that’s when I’ll be happy. I just know when I have this, when I have my car, when I have whatever. But if you’re not happy now, it’s going to be really hard to be happy then, because it’s a state of mind. It’s not a thing or a person. And practicing that, figuring that out, if you got that figured out, you’re good, you know, like you can manifest anything. If you can be happy now and have fun and see beauty now.
Patricia [00:50:41] Yeah, this is like a good advice to all of our listeners out there. Like they always think, okay, after college I’m going to like, live this really amazing life. And then they look back and they’re like, I didn’t get to appreciate that time that I’m never going to get back now. So, you know, it’s our listeners just like, enjoy the moment, enjoy the journey. It’s not about the destination. It’s about, you know, it’s about the journey. It’s about getting there. Like because I feel like for like, for me, for example, like I went through this like time where I was like, okay, if I get to this like, goal weight, I will be so happy. That’s like, that’s it for me. Like I’ll be. And then I got there and I’m like, Okay, well, what’s next? This it’s not really like you. You think, like the goal is the end and then nothing comes after it. No, there’s always going to be another goal. There’s always going to be another milestone. So it’s all about like just enjoying where you are right now, misleading, you know, like you can’t live in the future. You have to live in the moment now because this this right now, this is it. Like, you know, there’s no better time than now, like you can think of. Oh, just going to do it tomorrow. I’m just going to be happy to where? I’m just going to keep putting it off. It’ll never happen. Like you just have to be really intentional with, you know, like your mindset and your perspective. And I feel like that’s a really good advice for all of our young people listening out there. Just like, enjoy where you are right now.
Dora [00:52:01] If you just practice living authentically, where you’re at right now becomes way more fun. It really is. I think when I look back, I was like, I just wish I had been more brave to be myself and more brave to just like myself because that’s really so liberating. And once you get there, that’s why people say, Oh, my thirties are my best years, or my forties are my best years. And it’s only because when people get there, they realize how little other people’s opinions matter. And I think that it’s so sad that it takes us that long to get there, especially as women. It takes us so long to get to the place where we care less about what people think, about how we look and to other people. And if you can learn that and practice that, I wish I had done that, just say it, you know, who cares? I’m just going to have fun and be myself and and create art or magic or whatever you want and doing it on your terms.
Patricia [00:52:54] I love that. Besides the law of attraction and manifestation, another thing that was like, really I was really curious about is this thing called NFT or emotional freedom techniques happening. Could you tell us more about that?
Dora [00:53:07] I’d love to have is a great tool. So a lot of the work we do, I think consciously or subconsciously, is with the subconscious mind. And our subconscious mind is really what is working all the time and using the beliefs and programing that we’ve picked up along the way. And a lot of those programs come from our parents. They come from our culture, our society these days. They come from social media and television. But these beliefs don’t always serve us. Often they don’t serve us. So there are ways that we can reprogram ourselves. Something like if we have a challenging connection to food or our bodies, right? Or if we have trauma in our lives, we can actually help heal those areas of our lives through EFT. And what we’re doing is we’re tapping on meridian points in the body. And what we’re doing is we’re tapping into the amygdala in the brain, and the amygdala is the emotional response center. So everything is related to response. So when you’re going through something and you feel that like pit in your stomach and it has to do with maybe public speaking, right? Like whenever you go on to somewhere, you have to speak in front of your class and you get that pitying your stomach. You feel like you’re going to throw up and maybe, you know, like you can’t speak or you feel so nervous. You can use FTE to help like heal that area of your brain so that you don’t get so scared. Even something like spiders, if you have a fear of spiders or something. And so what you’re doing is first you’re tapping into the emotional center that has the fear and they are transforming that using. Like positive affirmations using just different language and soothing that part of your brain to transform it. And it can take sometimes it takes one time, sometimes it takes multiple times. I think on my YouTube channel I probably have one or two videos, but there’s a couple of really great UFC practitioners on YouTube where you can literally YouTube search like Anxiety and then F.T and they’ll come up and they have videos where you can literally go through all the steps with them and it’s a video and they basically lead you through it. So it’s really beautiful. It’s literally free therapy kind of. So I highly recommend looking them up and I do it in my practice. I do it like one on one coaching. But if you’re working on your own or you don’t have a coach or you’re not in that place right now where you can have a coach use YouTube, YouTube is a great tool for EFT
Patricia [00:55:51] I feel like are there like EFT, like tapping techniques that students can use to like get them to be more motivated or to get them to focus better?
Dora [00:55:59] Yeah, an easy one. So I’ll show you one point. That’s really easy. This is called the Karate Chop point and you can literally like if you’re sitting in class and you’re having a freak out or you had a fight with your partner and you need to like tap and get into the present moment using your fingers. I like to use my to like in my ring finger and my middle finger, but you can use any finger and just tapping on the karate chop point. And you can start with saying something like, I’m feeling so upset right now about what happened, or I’m feeling so anxious about what happened. And I deeply love and accept myself. I’m feeling so frustrated and I deeply love and accept myself and just saying that a couple of times, whatever it is that I deeply love and accept myself and then walking yourself through something like this always happens. This happens way too often, you know, things like that. And then moving into a space where you start to soothe yourself. So this really doesn’t always happen. This only happens when maybe there are other ways that I can think it feel like it right now, but maybe there is something different out there for me to think about, you know, and starting to really soothe your self, soothe yourself so that you get to a place where you can tap and say, if I tune into, you know, my heart, I know that this is just right now, if I tune into Spirit or God, I know that I’m safe right now. I know that this is just a moment in time and it’s passing. I know that I’m surrounded by people I love who understand me and who are here for me. Even when I’m scared, I know that I can go talk to my best friend after this and she’ll listen to me. Things like that, where everything feels better and just using this point, it’s really powerful and you don’t even have to say it out loud. You can say it in your head.
Patricia [00:57:48] And what’s the science behind it? Like? There are there’s I feel like because there’s like app on sure as well there’s just like I read about all these like different points in our body that correlates with the different like one point could lead to a kidney in 1.2 liter lungs and applying pressure on that will alleviate some pain. Like what is the science behind like empty? Like, yeah, did that come from.
Dora [00:58:09] So I think it was developed initially it was called TFT, I think, or something like that, and it was developed by a practitioner and then it evolved into f t and it was popularized by a guy named Nick Ortner who wrote a book about it. It was called The Tapping Solution. It’s a great book. He’s done so much stuff since. I highly recommend checking him out as well. And really the idea is that it’s working with the brain, so it’s working with that part of the brain. That’s the emotional response. But knowing that our meridians are all connected to our brain, right? And so when you think of how your body contracts, when you’re in fear or anxiety, when you think of how your stomach right. Like tightens, when you have like a sequel response, which is like a gut reaction when your heart starts to pound, right? These are all things when you start to sweat. Like these are all physical manifestations of the emotion. This is why it’s so powerful to understand how our body works, but also how to know what’s going on when it comes to your body. Because our bodies are all connected, like in a certain, like holistic way. So when you’re tapping on certain areas of the body, it’s tuning into other areas of the body, it’s tuning into organs, it’s tuning into cells, it’s tuning into every part of your body because it’s a holistic system. I think in our world we think of everything as like being an isolated thing. Like if you have back pain, you know, you treat this part of your body or if you have a, you know, a heart being they arrested, they’re like, that’s a very isolated way of thinking, like. In Eastern medicine. As you mention in acupuncture, we understand that our body is a unit and so everything is constantly working together. There is not one thing that you can isolate that works on other things like ice in an isolated way. So I believe that that would be like the best way I can describe it is just knowing that everything is connected to your emotional body. And so that tapping, like you said, it’s grounding tuning into the brain and it’s also tuning into areas of the body.
Patricia [01:00:21] I love that that that does make sense. It’s like there’s so many like ways to just like, make yourself feel better. There’s so many ways to like alleviate anxiety, which is like something that you showed a while ago, which I feel like is really helpful. And I feel like a lot of people are really going to like, get into even now that if if they’re listening. One thing I do want to talk about also is like, you do have your own podcast called Biohacking Your Beauty. Is there anything or like, are there beauty hacks that you can share with our audience? Yeah, Little tips and tricks.
Dora [01:00:54] I love talking about biohacking and I love talking about beauty. The first bio hack that I learned and that I think is extremely powerful is what you eat because that has such an impact on your health. And no matter what technology you use, no matter what you’re doing, you know, you can do the sauna every day, but if you’re not eating in alignment with your body’s needs, then your skin is going to age. It’s going to look dull. You’re going to have a lot of metabolic issues and gut issues, which affects your skin and how you age. So my primary tip, nutrition wise, is cutting out seed oils. So cutting out seed oils is probably the biggest thing you can do to extend your beauty and your skin for a long time. So eating instead of eating butter, eating coconut oil is good. You can do palm oil, but palm oil is for me environmentally conflicting because I feel like it’s really not the best. There is avocado oil, which you can do, but you have to be really careful because avocado oil is always often cut with vegetable oil. So you’re really not getting 100% avocado oil, which is a shame. And then olive oil is good to eat, but not when it’s heated at high temperature. So you don’t want to cook with it. You kind of want to use it as like more of a dipping or like a dressing kind of oil. So that would be number one. I think eating a rich animal diet is also really powerful because collagen because fat, because vitamin A, copper, vitamin D, these are all like essential nutrients for your skin. This is what happens when we become deficient in nutrients, our hair, our nails, our skin. This is the last thing our body cares about. Our body cares about our organs and our survival. And so if you’re not giving your body enough food, right, if you’re starving yourself or if you’re dieting and you’re not getting proper nutrition or if you’re not getting adequate nutrients, then your skin suffers first, your skin ages first because your body’s not going to go, well, she wants to stay, you know, looking younger, so I’m going to just compromise her liver instead. That’s that’s not how it works. And so if we want to preserve our skin and we want to feel beautiful on the outside as ourselves, really giving your body proper nutrition, and sometimes that means giving up the fight of being really skinny, which can be really hard. That was hard for me, was like having so many body issues and having that as my priority and realizing that it was compromising the other things that were important to me, which was my health, but also how I look. So those kinds of things I think are really just important to know. And also I would say grounding is really amazing, like connecting with the earth. It’s free, putting your bare feet on the ground, sun gazing, being out in nature, whether you’re out by the ocean or out by the trees, that’s a really powerful biohacking that has a big impact on beauty because it’s fighting inflammation, and that’s a big part of what causes aging. And then there’s some fun technologies and stuff. I think Red Light is a really accessible one, and that’s something that I think makes a big impact on your skin and on your health and increases ATP production, which is basically like what gives your cells energy and it’s really good for your mitochondria and it’s really increased collagen production in the body, in the skin. So that’s a really good one. And then there are other like fun technologies we could talk about, but I don’t know if you want to talk about those too.
Patricia [01:04:44] Or you could share some that are like really helpful and really relevant right now. Yes.
Dora [01:04:49] One of the things that I think is really powerful is neurofeedback. And neurofeedback is something that is really helpful if you’re struggling either with sleep, with anxiety or with just mental stuff. And I found out about neurofeedback through a clinic that I love here in the Bay Area called the Bay Area Brain Spa, and they actually work with a lot of students who have issues with mental health because suicide rates are really high. Students are under so much stress and it’s really heartbreaking. It breaks my heart to see how many young people are feeling so overwhelmed, so anxious. And so what they’re doing is they’re using this technology. All you do is you sit and you listen to music and you have these sensors attached to your ear. So you have to the right ear, one on the left ear and then one on each side of your scalp. And it’s just they use this kind of like putty to attach it and it’s conductive. And then it starts to give your brain feedback. And the way I like to describe it is meditation on steroids. So basically, the effects of meditation, you get that it’s training your brain to go back to equilibrium, to go back to balance so that you’re not feeling incredibly extreme in any particular area of your life. So yeah, so I would say neurofeedback is a really amazing tool. It’s definitely something that is really helpful for performance as well. So if it’s something that you’re looking for when it comes to exams or career stuff or just your relationships, it’s really helpful for kind of bringing your brain into equilibrium. So that’s something you can do. And I think they’re bringing it into clinical environments as well. So like with therapy or, you know, even something like like a psychologist, if you go and you talk to them, there are places where you can do that. And then also like looking online and seeing where it’s available in your area. Some schools even offer it, so that might be something to look into. And then the other thing I just started using is called a Huey, and it’s frequency medicine. So working with the free is in your body. So it scans your bio field and it tells you what’s going on in your body that’s out of balance. And it works with mental, it works with physical, it works with the emotional, and then it runs a frequency program on your body that brings your body back into equilibrium. So that’s been really amazing. Like it’s a medical device in the United States. It’s qualified for like pain and anxiety. And then also in the in Europe it has as well. So that’s been something I’ve been loving as well.
Patricia [01:07:45] I didn’t know there were all these like different types of technologies. So like really you can literally pinpoint like what’s wrong with you? Like it’s, you know, and it’s like you just like, find out and then you can go from there and get get treatment once you find out what’s wrong with you because it’s like really difficult sometimes to like, even know what’s wrong with you. You might have like inflammation, like bloating, and you think it’s just like something you ate, but then it’s something else. And it’s hard to pinpoint because you don’t really see what’s going on inside your body. So I feel like these technologies are really, really helpful and I feel like a lot of our listeners will really try it out and like, do do their research and see where that’s available. So do want to ask like just towards the end, because I know we’re a little over like the hour that I told you. What are your personal favorite ways to do self-care?
Dora [01:08:33] I think one of the biggest things is making time to be by myself in nature without any distractions, because I feel like we’re always getting so much input, like when it comes to social media, when it comes to work, like my work is literally mostly on social media and just interacting with clients one on one and in group settings. And so I’m constantly getting all this information. I’m constantly around people and I love being around people, but that means that I’m not receiving like what Spirit has to offer me, right? Because I’m not I’m not still, like I’m busy. And I think when we’re busy, we don’t get to tune into ourselves as much and we don’t get to tune in to. So for me as a spiritual person, like what Spirit has to tell me or teach me, and I believe that we are meant to listen as well. We’re meant to listen to our bodies or mental listen to our soul, and we’re meant to listen to the greater source that’s out there. And so I feel like going somewhere, wherever that is, and just being alone is a really big thing. No phone because funds are very addictive and like you just want to pick it up. So not letting your brain be like, Oh. And, you know, 5 minutes I can go to my phone, like really being able to just have a boundary. And I think that’s something else I would mention is setting boundaries with yourself. Like, we talk a lot about boundaries with other people, but often if we’re not setting boundaries with other people, it’s because we don’t set boundaries with ourselves. We don’t know how to do that. And so what does that look like? It means, you know, being devoted to yourself, being devoted to making sure that you provide all the needs that you need for yourself. Maybe it means going to bed at a certain time and waking up at a certain time. Maybe it means not eating certain foods or saying no to yourself, right? Like saying, No, I’m not going to be on my phone past nine. Those are boundaries that you’re setting with yourself. And it’s it’s a practice. I don’t like the word discipline. I like the word devotion. It’s like a way to be devoted to yourself, Right? Like, how can you be devoted to yourself in that practice of devotion? Often it looks like saying no to yourself. And it is a practice because it’s not easy.
Patricia [01:10:56] I love that. I feel like a lot of people can really relate and really like learn from you and the way that you take care of yourself and the way that you carry yourself and how you take care of yourself. I feel like you really shared a lot of like really great advice to me and of course to our listeners. So I’m really grateful. One last question I would like to ask is if you have a favorite motivational quote that you’d like to share.
Dora [01:11:21] Oh, that’s so hard, because I’m like, what is a quote that I live by? Like, this is so cheesy but be you because there’s nobody like you. And if you aren’t yourself, you’re kind of doing the world a disservice because you’re made so uniquely and you’re designed so perfectly with such a unique purpose in this lifetime and we want to fit in so much. But we’re not meant to fit in. We’re meant to stand out. And when you stand out like, that’s when you really make a difference in people’s lives. That’s when you really have the chance at being happy is just being who you are and really letting yourself express yourself without shame or guilt about it. So I think that’s not really a quote, but that would be the message I want to.
Patricia [01:12:13] Share the live by. Honestly, I feel like a lot of people need to like hear that more. I feel like we try to emulate other people’s lives and we always try to compare ourselves with others. But there is literally no one else in this entire world like you. That is the beauty and that is your power, actually, that no one else is like you. That’s really amazing. Maybe just like one last thing. Do you have any last parting words for our listeners or to any students? Maybe something that you wish you knew when you were a student back then?
Dora [01:12:44] One thing I would say is don’t prioritize other people’s happiness over your own. I’m speaking especially about dating when you’re younger. I feel like I spent my twenties making, you know, boys happy, and I wish I had spent that energy on building my life and my career and the things that really matter to me. Being outdoors and doing the things that I love. And I feel like for so many of us women, we are taught that that’s a priority. And I think a relationship can be beautiful and wonderful. And especially in your twenties, it’s good to date because you get to experience and learn, but just make sure that you don’t sacrifice yourself for someone else, especially when you’re young, but always also. So I would say that’s really something I wish I had done differently. And I also would say I wish that I had just had the courage to be myself much earlier on and be okay with my body and the way I look and the way I am. And, you know, sometimes I would think I’m too much. But we need people who are too much because those are the people that create change in the world and make a difference and have an impact. So that’s what I would tell you.
Patricia [01:13:59] I feel like everyone who just listened to that is going to really like appreciate that you’ve shared so much and I’m so glad to have found you and I’m so happy that you took the time and came on our podcast and share all of these amazing insights. We really appreciate it. And thank you, of course, to everyone who’s listening to us. I will be sharing stories, links in the descriptions of our podcast. We’ll put your social media and your website and your podcast listen to her podcast, Biohacking Your beauty if you want to learn more. Thank you again, Dora, for being here. And everyone is in another episode of The Homework Help Show. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. That’s @HomeworkHelpGlobal. And thank you once again. It was an amazing conversation. Thank you for being here. Thank you, everyone.
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