Healing Food Sensitivities and Fear of Food With Brain Retraining
Welcome to the Satiated Podcast where we explore physical and emotional hunger, satiation and healing your relationship with your food and body. I'm your host Stephanie Mara Fox, your Somatic Nutritional Counselor. I’m looking forward to my chat today with Lindsay Mitchell. Lindsay is a certified physician associate, the founder & CEO of Vital-Side, and a brain retraining coach. Vital-Side was conceptualized through Lindsay's personal experience with chronic Lyme disease, as well as her background specializing in internal medicine. She has extensive neuroplasticity training, which provides a unique framework to protocols she teaches, designed to effectively calm the chronic stress response and support the body in its optimal functioning. Since its inception in 2018, Vital-Side has helped over two thousand people suffering from chronic illness and stress reclaim control of their health and transform their lives. Welcome Lindsay!
Lindsay Mitchell 01:03
Amazing. Thank you so much for having me here, Stephanie. I appreciate it.
Stephanie Mara 01:07
Yeah, well, I'm thrilled to have you here just to kind of, I talk so much about somatics and somatic work here to also balance that out of, you know, this genius thing inside of our head also needs some support sometimes as well. And I would love to just start out with, you know, how did you get into this work? And, you know, you mentioned that you had quite a healing journey that you've been on to get you to where you are today.
Lindsay Mitchell 01:38
Yeah, I'd love to share part of my story. I think so many people listening, are listening because they're seekers, and they have chronic symptoms. So, you know symptoms, a lot of times we think just physical, well, it can be emotional as well, right. As you know a lot of your listeners have learned. So symptoms like feeling anxious quite often or depressed or just brain foggy. And they can be very physical symptoms as well. So things like brain fog, fatigue, pain, these are chronic symptoms. And I got into this work because I was experiencing those chronic symptoms. So I was starting to get like migraines every other day. At the time, I was working as a PA in internal medicine and I was doing a lot of traveling. So I thought, okay, maybe I have jetlag, you know, as a caregiver. You know, a lot of us whether you're a practitioner, or a parent or a natural caregiver, we don't think of ourselves as suffering or like, oh, you know, we've got to help everyone else, right. And so I was like, oh, you know, it's just got to be something that I'll just brush it off, right? Well, the migraines persisted, I got joint pain, fatigue, brain fog, and it got so bad I was I was traveling around Europe, and I got home and my body was like, no more, you know, conked out, really, that became my perfect storm of just with all the travel and then bacterial infection I didn't know I had, combined with other stressors and traumas throughout my life, and my body had this big, perfect storm. And so I was bed bound, you know, I was home bound for a while, bed bound for a couple of months, and just focused on survival. So, you know, that was my body's way of telling me and my background is Western medicine. So I went down that route first, I had treated people with Lyme disease. So I went to school outside of Boston. So I did one of my rotations like right outside of Lyme, Connecticut, I have seen it before, like, this is something that I'm so used to treating while the mainstay treatment is is really doxycycline and antibiotics for a couple of weeks. So that was my go to when I first realized that I had Lyme disease. And I had been tested for a lot of different things going down the western route first and then ultimately having to find a Lyme literate doctor and an integrative practitioner to help make that diagnosis. But then started really to treat it from that western mind perspective, went down that route and then quickly went down to the holistic route then changed my diet, changed everything in my life, you know, changed the products that I was using, right? All of these things was going to the chiropractor, PT, like detoxing, IV therapy's everything that you can imagine I probably did it because I'm a really action oriented person. I'm like, let's do all the things. Let's go let's make sure I like dot all the i's cross all the t's but I was still feeling sick. And so I had the diagnosis. Okay, whew, you know, I knew I wasn't losing my mind. That's how I felt. And the diagnosis helped me to communicate what was going on. But deeper than that diagnosis was this dysregulation happening. And this miscommunication between my brain and my body. So despite all of the therapies, all of the treatments I was doing, I was still feeling sick. So what I found out was that my brain and body were communicating this danger threat signal, you know, my senses, were picking up on this information, my brain was receiving this message, communicating it to the rest of the my body. And then this cyclical feedback loop was happening of stress, and the body was responding. So I was experiencing inflammation, pain, these chronic symptoms. And despite all the treatment that I had, I wasn't feeling any better. And I learned this, you know, I kind of sound like, oh, well, you knew all this at the time, like, No, I had no idea. Like, at the time, I was like, What is going on? I feel sick. That sucks. I hate it. Yeah, and going through that frustration and seeking, right like being that seeker learning more information. So I ended up reading about neuroplasticity, just meaning the brain changes, on a blog post, but I specifically learned about the application to the chronic illness. And so oftentimes, when you're dealing with a chronic illness, you are receiving that message that there's a threat present, because there very well could be, and then your body responds. But that's why often, even after changing everything, even after eating all the right foods, doing all the treatments, detoxing, you can still feel sick, and there was just like a light bulb moment for me of like, oh my god, this makes so much sense. And then on one hand, I had that information. And on the other hand, I was like, this is a cool modality, because it puts me in the driver's seat of my healing journey. And often, you know, or for me, in particular, I outsource a lot of my healing, I was like going to the appointments to get that healing. So now, I was like, I want to be the one to do the things at home to break this cycle of stress that my body is physiologically experiencing, right. It's not always that kind of mental stress, but the physiological stress response that was being communicated brain body and vice versa. So I was super excited to learn about this information, started to apply a lot of the tools and ultimately set my body up for success so that eight months into using some protocols that I had found through various programs, reading different books, you know, Dr. Norman Doidge, Joe Dispenza, Candice Pert. I went to Costa Rica, I was like, I ate like a piece of pizza like full gluten, full dairy. Like I surfed on the beach, and my body wasn't reacting, my body wasn't responding like this is a threat. And, you know, it took a few more months after that, to really feel that repercussion, that kind of sustainable and stable long term diminishing of that stress response, but then my body was able to fully recover as a result. And that's what's so interesting, this pairing of you know, somatic work, like what you do and teach combined with these mental exercises, and communicating with your conscious brain a new signal to the body and, and kind of marrying these two concepts. And what that does is it can set your physical body up for success to do what it does best, which is heal and recover. And we know that we've been really good at surviving right, just being in that survival response. So through this process, relearning how to thrive, which doesn't always come natural, and, you know, is something that we may have not experienced for some time but again with other modalities with other practitioners who are maybe more so addressing the physical body and then pairing that with this autonomic nervous system regulation to really see changes you know, watch people go from being very sick, very stuck to shifting entirely, you know, going from wheelchair bound to paddleboarding within a year like it's really really incredible to see the changes people make.
Stephanie Mara 09:44
Wow, thanks for sharing all of that and ohhh what an incredible healing journey you have been on and I really appreciated you bringing in this piece just because, you know, predominantly the listeners here are healing their relationship with their food and so often when someone experiences a broken relationship with food, you know, they start cutting foods out where it's like, okay, you know, I'm having a reaction to this food and that food and this food. And, you know, what I found a lot in my work with somatics is that often it's not necessarily the food that we're eating, but the state that we're eating the food in, and you just saying, like, yeah, I could have a piece of pizza with all the things that like diet culture says, like, no, no, don't eat that, or even the food sensitivity world, or the autoimmune protocol says, don't eat those things. You know that with some of this healing of like, I don't have to experience this food as a threat, you can start to assimilate it very differently.
Lindsay Mitchell 10:40
Yes. And I can give like a very detailed example of that, because I think some people really struggle to understand, you know. I know you talk about this a lot, and like, in a lot of your posts is okay, yeah, it's not necessarily the food itself, but your body's response to it. But I think sometimes people get stuck on, what do you mean your body's response to it, right? It's got to be a thought, it's got to be a belief, it's got to be, you know, whatever associated to it. Well, that's not necessarily how it started, right? It can start in that physiological response. And then we can use our prefrontal cortex, we can use the part of the brain that can bring up conscious awareness and thought, to shift and change our relationship to it. That's not necessarily the food itself, or even your thought or belief around the food itself. It's your body's response. So then we use conscious thinking to shift it. I'm happy to kind of give an example. I can give like an example of food sensitivities. And we can also substitute that for fear around food as well.
Stephanie Mara 11:49
Yeah, yeah, that'd be great.
Lindsay Mitchell 11:51
So what's interesting, and I'll preface my example, with this, the body doesn't distinguish between real and perceived threats. But the body doesn't necessarily distinguish between physical threats, emotional, psychological threats. So I'll use the example of food sensitivities. But you can substitute that with like the fear of eating certain foods, like you've mentioned, if you're kind of like subscribed to diet culture, and stuff like that. So if you've started reacting to food today, maybe you haven't reacted to it before, it may not be that food itself. So it can be that survival response being initiated by the brain. So what happens is, the brain says this food is dangerous, and the body responds through the stress response. So when we produce too much cortisol, which is our body's natural stress hormone for too long, eventually, our adrenal glands which sit right on top of our kidneys, they become exhausted. And that's when our cortisol levels drop. I think there's a misconception there, sometimes they're like, people think, oh, cortisol productions increased when we're stressed, but it actually drops after that long term production. So it's when we don't have enough cortisol levels to meet the demand that we start to not feel very good, right? We feel unwell. And stress causes our mast cells to break down and release histamine all over the body, including the digestive system. So when histamine is released in the digestive system in the gut, it creates an inflammatory reaction, which many of us may know as leaky gut, or maybe we've heard that term used before. So typically, when we have leaky gut, the foods we eat aren't broken down and digested properly, and large protein molecules get absorbed into the blood. And this triggers an immune reaction, right, so then the immune system kicks in. So then a memory cell is created. So the next time we eat this food, our immune system remembers these large foreign proteins and creates that immune reaction, and at the same time calls white blood cells to the rescue, hey, we need help. This is something that we need to fight off. So with the stimulation of white blood cells, those histamine releasing mast cells can cause that food sensitivity. So this is what's physiologically happening in the body as a result of stress. And I know for some of you listening or like maybe this is too much science than I signed up for today, but...
Stephanie Mara 14:44
We love it here!
Lindsay Mitchell 14:46
Okay. Good! It's helpful to look at it from that perspective, because it's not something you did wrong. It's not necessarily your beliefs around food. It could be a series of things right? It can be your body's reaction, because of that stress from that cortisol and cortisol depletion that kind of triggered this whole process. And that could come from diet culture, it could come from reading too much of diet culture posts on Instagram, it could come from, you know, dealing with other chronic conditions and bacterial infections and viruses, we don't necessarily know why it happens. But if we can trace it back to stress, that stress response, physiological, not mental, then we can learn to break it. And that's a really empowering thing that can be really, really helpful to learn, especially when it comes to food sensitivities, food, this thing that we are supposed to think of as safety as nourishment, food that is the gateway to our energy, our vitality now is dangerous, and that's huge. And so when that happens, of course, any of you who have experienced it can feel all those limitations, you know, all of these elements of freedom start to change. And that can even exacerbate the stress response even more.
Stephanie Mara 16:17
Yeah, I really appreciate you saying, it's not your fault. I think so many individuals take it on themselves of I did this, I did this to myself, I was eating the wrong things. I didn't control my stress. And it really isn't your fault. You were always doing the best you possibly could, with the awareness that you had in that moment to help regulate your system. And sometimes that just wasn't possible. And then you needed to keep eating every single day. And so just by having these food experiences every day, while you were navigating, maybe these stressful experiences as well, sometimes things get paired I feel like in our body that were never meant to be paired together like food as threat.
Lindsay Mitchell 17:04
Right. Right. Right. It's such an interesting perspective. And oftentimes, we can do that, like our bodies make this associations to things like EMF as a threat. Right? Okay. Well, it's like, yeah, maybe to some extent, but in moderation, how can we live effectively. And so that's what I always come back to and, and if you ever hear like it is all in your head, or something like that, please always just reframe it to, you know, going from all in your head to that brain-body, body- brain communication, that's what it is being all in your head gives you this, like idea that it was your fault to begin with, or that you did have some control over it. But we live in this world with stressors. And we're learning to live with that. And so that's what brain retraining is, is like learning to operate effectively in this world of stressors, and doing things the things that we want to do, the pizza that we want to eat, or whatever it is, like in a way that feels good to us. So we can function effectively in the world. Like that's really what this is all about. People may be confused and like brain retraining, it sounds so scary. It's like no, it's getting you to the things that you want to to again. Like, what is it that you want to do? How do you want to operate and live in the world? And we learn to communicate that signal again and again and again and break that cycle of stress that may be in repeat if you're experiencing these chronic symptoms.
Stephanie Mara 18:39
Yeah, you were going right into the direction of my next question of what exactly is brain retraining?
Lindsay Mitchell 18:46
Yeah, I think there are a lot of definitions out there, but I love this podcast because you're very niched in what you do, and I love it. I think there's so many broad terms used and now everyone is an expert in nervous system regulation. And I love it. You know, to be honest, I'm like, this is cool. People are having this conversation. But I think part of it it can get confused with like what brain retraining or nervous system regulation is. Nervous system regulation is this like umbrella term for so many tools that people have that you can use, right, we've heard about breathing, like self care can be a nervous system regulation tool, you know, somatic work. So brain retraining is kind of this subset of nervous system regulation. I specifically focus on the autonomic nervous system. So those survival responses, starting to become aware of how those responses show up in your body, learning to accept them, and then take action to start to communicate a new way of being. So what I do specifically is not so much focused on trauma processing that other nervous system regulation, often like somatic work can do, but its actually addressing this one specific piece, that physiological stress response, teaching the body to diminish it, so that you can start connecting with other things in your life, peace, choice, ease. And also, at the same time learning to eat the foods that you love, again, do the activities you want to again. So it is a specific action oriented process. And the idea behind it is we use a top down regulation, meaning we use that mindset piece of communicating a new signal from the brain to the body, we do that through a variety of ways, some visualization, sensory experiencing, and then we use that bottom up approach as well. So using that physical body, some movement, breathing, and we kind of pair everything or marry these, these two ideas and create structured protocols for people with chronic illnesses, to start to managing that stress response, communicate a new signal. And the idea behind it is once you start to do this, once you start to rewire your brain in this way, connecting with peace and ease in your life, through using these tools, then you'll feel more confident, more capable, you're eating more foods, right, you're like expanding the amount of food that you eat, so you have more energy, maybe you're doing more things, you're more active, this makes you more confident and capable, to then do other things like trauma processing, or to take the supplement that you know you've been wanting to take and that you know is really good for you, but you haven't been able to take it because you've been so sensitive, and your body has dubbed that a threat for so long. So it's really the stepping stone to connecting with more of your life and feeling better. It's like, if anyone asks me in short what it is, I'm like it's making feeling good a habit. And that's what we do. And that's what we learned. And it's starting with where you are with your chronic symptoms.
Stephanie Mara 22:07
I love that. It's making feeling good a habit. That's so great. Because, yeah, sometimes we get a really accustomed to not feeling so wonderful in our system, and that it can feel even overwhelming or even threatening to feel good, that to start to feel comfortable and safe, even feeling regulated and good in your body. And I appreciate that you're bringing in that it's got to be both, like yes, we can attune to the body and that's what we talk about here as bottom up approach. And what you're talking about is like you said that bottom down approach is just as important to address as well. I'm wondering if you could give an example of what a brain retraining exercise would even look like?
Lindsay Mitchell 22:53
Yeah, so I'll give an example. Definitely. But I'll also mention that if you are interested in in learning kind of these shorter brain retraining tools, you are welcome to check out Reset, which is an introductory course, and I can provide your listeners with a discount code. But it's basically a short Seven Day Course, all videos are seven minutes or less. And it like talks about what brain retraining is, what the autonomic nervous system is, and then a tool you can start to use daily. So just to kind of debunk or demystify any like questions around brain retraining, or anything like that. So I'll give an example for your audience today based on kind of what we've talked about with food. And so maybe a lot of people listening there for one reason or another, whether it's physiological, whether it was a belief that was created, whatever it is, may have this kind of warped relationship with food. So a simple brain retraining tool would be right before you eat kind of sitting down. And I kind of like to start with more of that somatic piece of like using a breath or something like that with eating. It's nice to kind of start with like a flowing breath, kind of that deep belly breath. So you can do a three, six breath. So inhaling for three, exhaling for six, running through that six times. So kind of starting to use that belly breathing to stimulate that rest and digest response a little bit more, maybe using that breath to even activate that vagus nerve as you move your belly in and out. So you're using that breath. And then at the end of that breath, just taking a moment and doing a deep inhale billowing out the lips, shaking out your face, maybe even your hands a little bit and then pausing so kind of removing some excess energy. So three, six breaths, six times, then a quick 10 second blow out the lips shaking out any excess kind of sympathetic response or a survival response you may feel in that moment. And then getting still and bring to mind a moment in time, maybe this was on vacation. Maybe this was at a birthday party when you were a kid. Where food was fun for you. A moment in time where food felt fun. So it could be like a cupcake that you decorated with your parents, it could be a pizza party at Chucky Cheese, it could be that acai bowl you had in Hawaii on vacation, right? Bringing to mind a moment in time where food felt fun. And in this moment, like you would view a video, like an old family video that you would plop in your VCR and watch right? Bring that to mind. See how you look while you're eating. Bring to mind what the food can taste like, what it smells like. Any noises you hear in that moment, maybe the sound of you crunching, maybe waves off in the distance, maybe people laughing around you, kids running around and, and people laughing in the moment. Anything that you see, make those colors vibrant, as you look at this movie reel of this moment in time where food felt fun, and then bring to mind anything you feel in this moment. So we're kind of stepping into that moment. And I know, you know, it can sound like oh, there's a lot of work here. No, this only takes one to two minutes to complete when you're doing it all together. And what you're doing as you recognize this, and you can do this for 30 seconds, you can visualize it for a minute, however long it takes you to go through those five senses, is you're remembering this different association you had to food. And you're reminding yourself through your five senses, because we receive information from our five senses. And if you're bringing this up in the moment right here, right now, your brains not saying Oh, that was just a memory of the past, you're actually experiencing those things, those neuro chemicals right here right now, that physiological shift right here right now. And so we're setting ourselves up through some of that kind of more movement and breathing and then stepping into that state through using this quick visualization of the sensory experience. And so I encourage those who maybe have a little bit of a disjointed relationship with food to do this once a day before you eat dinner for a week and see what you notice after so see how your body responds, maybe you connect with more joy as you're eating, and I'm sure you go into so much of that in your program. But this can be just an adjunct to some of this somatic work by remembering and reconnecting physiologically, with how we felt in those moments and bringing it to the present.
Stephanie Mara 28:11
I love this exercise, because it goes back to exactly what you were saying, and I actually say this a lot as well, that the body doesn't know the difference between real or perceived. And so even just remembering an event that happened, that was a joyous celebratory experience around food, your body thinks that you're reliving that right here. And right now, it doesn't matter if it's not actually happening right now. So I think that's a fantastic exercise to practice, to start to even experience meals more in that state of what you remembered, instead of potentially what it is experiencing food as now.
Lindsay Mitchell 28:52
Absolutely. It's such an interesting thing of communicating once you know that you can use your sensory experiences to communicate a new way of being it's this like superpower that we ever knew that we had, you are bringing that neuro chemistry, that physiology here to this moment in time. So whatever you started out with maybe like fear of this, these foods because tacos you've been sensitive to in the past or you read a post about how this particular meat wasn't good for you, whatever it is, you know, you're able to shift and change the way that you feel set your body up for the neuro chemistry that allows you to connect with safety and ease. And so as a result, digest better, move into that growth and repair state or rest and digest state with more ease while you're eating this food which can eventually diminish the reaction to that food.
Stephanie Mara 29:49
Yeah, I'm curious in your experience, because you mentioned the vagus nerve, and you know what we're talking about here in both of our realms is really that mind body connection and I'm wondering how you've seen like brain retraining really facilitate like more vagal tone, which is basically like helps us feel that relaxation response in our body more.
Lindsay Mitchell 30:10
Yeah, so vagal toning like, I love it, because it's really, for a lot of people, it's really tangible, like it's something that they can use today. And we go through a combination of ways to kind of integrate this into our tools in the vital side membership. So okay, first I'll mention what it is. So vagal toning, so vagus nerve is that 10th cranial nerve connects from the base of the brain all the way to the digestive tract, and innovates so many places in between. But what's really cool about the vagus nerve is when you stimulate it, you can actually signal a message of safety to the brain. Now, it's cool because people who are operating in this realm where they're working with food in the digestive tract, okay, using this can be such a benefit, right. But I often like to pair it with that top down approach, because sometimes just stimulation of that vagus nerve can like our body doesn't quite know how to feel that, doesn't quite know like, if this is good or like the safety response, it may be scary, right? If we have been in that state for so long. So pairing it with a top down approach can be really beneficial to start to allow you to experience that more. I have, you know, time and time again had people who are like, Oh, when I do like humming, for example, or gargling like real kind of tangible ways that you can start that vagal toning process, maybe it makes me feel worse afterwards. And so sometimes being able to pair that with what this is, and again, use language use, you know, visualisation sensory experience to communicate that this is actually safe can be really beneficial. But for those of you who are wanting to start that kind of vagus nerve kind of toning today, being able to use things like gargling for 20 seconds, if that's possible for you, or as long as possible, humming the happy birthday song twice over, one of my favorites is laughter yoga for vagal toning of just, you know, using different laughter exercises to stimulate that vagus nerve. There's so many tools out there today. You know, people are always like, Oh, what do you think about this device or this, I'm like, whatever you can do, like I love it, when you can do it yourself, you are shifting you rather than relying on a device. I personally don't typically recommend using something that quantifies your growth and your progress or uses like data to figure things out. Because that's probably what got us here is like all the lab testing, all of these things, all these frustrating things that can feed that stress response. And so for example, like you can vagal tone, and then you can track your heart rate variability. And if it's not the ideal number, you're like, why isn't this working? How do you feel? What's going on internally? Like, are you feeling different? So I really do appreciate the things that people can use on their own to kind of help stimulate that vagus nerve.
Stephanie Mara 33:18
Yeah, I completely agree with that. And also really resonate with I was just thinking about this the other day, too, that there's just kind of a over abundance now, of nervous system regulation, brain retraining, somatic exercises, tools that are being offered on social media that it might feel really overwhelming of where do you start? And what do you use and what's going to be most effective. And so I appreciate you bringing that in, of just choose one. You know, like, if you come across something like just choose one and practice it and say, for the next month, two months, I'm just going to practice this one exercise that I have picked up on that I resonate with, that I've been taught, and really get that so assimilated and integrated into your being before you move on to the next thing, because I think there's so many different suggestions that even that can keep you stuck a little bit in that sympathetic nervous system fight or flight response of wow, I'm overwhelmed even with all the things I could be doing for myself.
Lindsay Mitchell 34:28
Yes, yes. And yes. It's so funny because I, you know, I operate in this world and I have operated in this world for the past six years prior to that I was looking at these tools for myself, and even at the time, like on social media, like on Instagram, there weren't that many things and so fast forward now in these last six years, especially in the last two years, all of these tools have come out all of these experts are, you know, available like creating these programs, and of course, like, again, I'm glad that the information is being offered. But it is about that integration piece. So if you are someone who's like, this information sounds really cool, but I don't know where to start. Really give yourself that permission to unfollow those people who just don't resonate with you. Or if, for one reason or another, you don't even know why, but they just don't resonate with you just unfollow them, we can only focus on so much, and then start to kind of do introductory programs to each person's information to start to see if this is information that resonates with you. And it's interesting, like the people that I work with, a lot of them are practitioners. And they say, Oh, well, your stuff and the way that you you talk about, it just resonated with me, and I'm like, that is so good. Because that just means my message is coming across in a way that your body and your brain are understanding, as opposed to someone else who may have a really good program themselves, too. But if you start that, but you feel like pressured or anxious or like you have to claim this discount in order to get it just because you know, you wanted that discounted rate or something, then you can go into that course in that sympathetic dominant response, and you may not connect with the information very well, because it wasn't initially the language that you felt aligned to that you, you know, felt connected with. So it's, it's a lot, and I personally, I'm like, constantly taking steps back of like, okay, feeling into this, like, is this something that does resonate with me? Can I, like, get rid of all of that excess noise? I love that people have an opinion. I love that people are talking but like, I don't need to hear it.
Stephanie Mara 36:58
Yeah, and that is such an ongoing practice of checking in with self to say, what's for me, and what's not for me. And just because it sounds really great, and it looks really great, it's putting that trust back into how does my body respond to this? How do I feel about this? And so that you get to say, Okay, well, my breath gets shallow, I go into a stress response, I started to feel tight and tense, that information gets to be the most important information, because it's going to be that body feedback that tells you what's going to be best for you.
Lindsay Mitchell 37:34
Yeah, I love that. And I love learning to trust the body in ways like that. Because often we have gotten to this place where we don't trust our body's very much, right. And, and I see it all the time with people who joined vital side who were like, I've been in the stress response for years, and my body has been responding in this state of hyper reactivity, hyper inflammation for so long. I don't know, what's mine, and what is the stress response anymore? So this process, yes, it's about modeling safety and a new signal. But it's about also relearning who you are, aside from that survival state that you've been living in. That's not you. That was a season of life that you went through. And so part of it is then uncovering who you are at your core.
Stephanie Mara 38:26
Yeah. So well said, Well, how can individuals keep in touch with you and your work in the world?
Lindsay Mitchell 38:33
Yes. So Instagram is a great place to start, you can find @myvitalside, I give a lot of great free resources on there about brain retraining, and then you can also start with Reset. So Reset is that seven day introductory course. So very low price point, you know, you can kind of see what brain retraining is and see if it's for you. And that is listed on my website, vital-side.com.
Stephanie Mara 39:04
And I'll put all of these links in the show notes. So everyone has easy access to all of this. And I just appreciate your perspective and your wisdom. You put out great content also on Instagram. So if you go check out her account, and it resonates with you go follow you. And I just appreciate your your time today and just sharing all of your wisdom and what you've learned along the way as well.
Lindsay Mitchell 39:29
Thank you. Thank you so much, Stephanie.
Stephanie Mara 39:32
Yeah, and to everyone listening if you have any questions as always reach out anytime and I look forward to connecting with you all again soon. Bye!
Keep in touch with Lindsay here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myvitalside/
Website: https://vital-side.com/
Reset: https://vital-side.com/pages/reset-7-day-course “SATIATED50” for a discount code of 50% off