The Importance of Touch for Healing Pain and Decreasing Cravings

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.

Many of you may know that touch has been linked to the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone related to reproduction, social bonding, stress regulation, and promotes feelings of love, trust, attachment, intimacy, and calm. Ya know what else stimulates the release of oxytocin? Eating. Research studies have found that an increase in oxytocin can decrease the urge to eat. So you can imagine that if you're lacking safe touch in your life and touch has felt invasive, where you stay away from touch, that your body needed to find another way to receive the oxytocin that it desires to feel calm and connected. It found a way to do that through food. This is another example of why food is not just about the food. We can continue to be curious about what food is doing for your body, and there are many many different things food is supporting your body and brain with. I chat about the importance of touch today with Dr. Njideka Olatunde.

Dr. Olatunde is a visionary and creative energy behind Focus On Healing Wellness Institute, she is an accomplished Naturopath and a leading authority on the cultural integration of traditional health practices with conventional medicine for mind, body and emotional wellness. She is an author, acclaimed thought leader, Podcast Host, Master Reflexologist, Pain Relief Educator and consultant who has helped thousands of chronic pain sufferers relieve pain first with medication-free pain relief treatment, using the power of touch and Reflexology. We chat about the power of touch and re-defining what touch is, understanding the connection between stress and pain, refloxology, daily touch practices, and the importance of play and fun. I also sprinkle in the connection between touch and your food behaviors.

The first Somatic Eating® Program class has already occurred but you can still hop in to this class until Wednesday May 28th. After that you'll have to wait until I run the program again in October. You can go to somaticeating.com to sign up or email me at support@stephaniemara.com with any last minute questions. Now welcome Dr. Olatunde! I'm thrilled to have you here today, and really curious and interested to see where our conversation takes us. And you know, all listeners know that I usually like to start out with getting to know a little bit more about you and your history and how you got into this work that you do in the world.

Dr. Njideka Olatunde 03:19

Well, first of all, I want to say thank you for having me, and I'm looking forward to sharing information with your listeners. To answer your question, how I got started. Let me put together a brief version. First of all, I grew up with home remedies, and I grew up during a time when doctors used to come to your home for visitations, rather than you going to the doctor's office. As a child, to me, that was so fascinating. I said, well, that's what I want to do when I grow up. I want to be a doctor. Because in my mind, as a child, I saw a doctor as healing. I mean, people were getting well when you saw doctors. And so I said, okay, that's the route I want to take. But when I got to college, I got a rude awakening that what I saw doctors to be was not the doctor I wanted to be. So I abruptly changed my career paths, and I became a social worker. And as a social worker, I covered the whole gambit of social service programs working with infants to seniors and every type of social service problem, I did it, and so as a social worker, one of the things that really concerned me was that mostly everybody was going to the emergency room for health care. And I said, something's wrong with this picture. And all of a sudden, that desire sparked up again. I want to be a doctor, but the timing was right, because naturopathic therapies were coming on the scene, and so it allowed me to go back to school and get training and become a naturopathic practitioner, but as a naturopathic practitioner. When I first started, I already knew reflexology, so reflexology just became the service that I provided inside my natural therapy practice. So basically, it started from a childhood desire, and then I just added on to that, and in terms of leading me to do the work that I do, focusing specifically on relieving pain without medication, using the power of touch.

Stephanie Mara 05:31

Yeah, wow. I really hear like throughout your life, just like really trusting your instincts, and like listening to your body, which, you know, I talk so much about here, but it sounds like you even went into all of the realms of medicine and helping people that is about a matter of you listening to yourself and trusting your body and trusting your instincts. Yeah, so powerful. I'm curious if you could say more about yeah, the work that you're doing now around touch, and what you've discovered around the the power of touch.

Dr. Njideka Olatunde 06:06

Thank you for asking me that question, because we live in a time today when touch is taboo and it has negative I mean, you say touch, and all of a sudden everybody goes to the negative connections to touch, but as a people, we are a touching people, and that's our foundation for survival is based on touch. And to address your question, specifically, this is my unscientific research study. For about two and a half years, we were on what was known as the pandemic lockdown. And in that time period, the major thing that was missing from everybody's life was touch. And I believe that the majority of the people that made transition during that time was because of the lack of touch. I couldn't see my family, that's touch. I couldn't talk to my family, that's touch. I couldn't feel my family. That's touch. And that shows you the power of touch and how it affects our lives, and to take it another step further, when we are in pain that's touch, it's a feeling touch. Pain is a touch that we feel, and when we think about pain, we never connect stress with pain. Pain does not happen without stress. Stress and pain go hand in hand. So we're talking about touch, you're talking about pain, and you're talking about what is the touch that contributes to the pain, and that's stress. And what I'm saying is that stress is something that's happening outside of our bodies that we bring inside. And when you bring it inside, it results in pain, which is a form of touch. And when you're feeling pain, what's happening is that stress that you have brought inside of your body is trying to find a way to come out. And it comes out in the form, say, for example, of back pain. All of a sudden, now I got back pain, and the reason that you having the back pain because of the stress, is trying to use that as a way to come out of the body, but back is not the elimination system of the body. So the end result is pain. So we're talking about the connection between pain and stress as it relates to touching our body in the form of we need healing.

Stephanie Mara 08:59

I literally love everything that you just said. So a couple of things that it makes me think of is one, you know, I referenced this research before that, at the beginning of the pandemic, eating disorders also like triple fold. And so it makes a lot of sense that if we were lacking touch, and I know we were talking about this right before we started recording, that I've been reading more things on touch and how it produces oxytocin in our body, and that if we're not getting enough of oxytocin, food can sometimes be a replacement for that. And so it makes sense that we would rely on food for touch if we're not receiving enough touch, and something that you also really bring out, that just like, brings in so many, like, light bulbs for me, that I'm very curious about is that even, like, I know a lot of individuals that listen to this podcast struggle with patterns of binge eating, and when you're talking about like, pain can be touch, you know, ultimately with binge eating and you know, I've went through this myself, that like you feel so internal and like internally pressure and pain in your belly from having eaten so much that your lens takes on a very different perspective of like is it an attempt to try to receive touch like, to touch in on yourself, or to get some sensation of touch again? I always like to talk that all of our coping mechanisms have wisdom to it. And so you just bring in a whole nother lens here of the wisdom of even sometimes our food behaviors is like, yeah, sometimes we're trying to, like, receive some kind of sensation of touch there. So really fascinating.

Dr. Njideka Olatunde 10:38

Because we don't understand touch and see the reason why we don't understand touch, because we only focus on touch from a physical perspective, but touch is also mental, it's emotional, it's spiritual, and evenit's financial. These are all mechanisms of touch, and if any of those areas, be it physical, be it mental, be emotional, be it spiritual, or be it financial, is a problem in your life, it turns into pain. And so to address that pain, we have to find something. It could be food. Anything that can make life stressful is a pain contributor. And I say that to say, for example, what got me into doing what I do and focusing specifically on pain and touch, I lost a lot of colleagues and friends and family because of pain, and the pain was because they had been diagnosed with an illness and they were prescribed pain medication, and when it got to the point that they could no longer maintain the affordability of the pain medication. They started seeking other alternatives, and some happened to be street drugs, some happen to be family medications, some happen to be alcohol abuse, all kinds of things that wound up taking their lives, and so I started focusing and looking real closely on the connection between touch and pain, and that led me to create what I call relieving pain first before treatment. And I do that because when a client comes to me, the first thing I'm going to do is a form of touch. Think about this. Whenever someone goes to the doctor, they only go because they're in pain. And if you look at it from a business perspective, when you go to the store to make a purchase, you know exactly what it is you want, and you go to wherever it is and you purchase it. So which means, if I come to my doctor from a business perspective, I want you to relieve my pain. That's what I'm here for. But when you go to the doctor, the first thing they're going to say to you is we're going to have to take some tests to find out what it is that's causing your pain. Then in the meantime, here's a prescription for your pain, but I don't know what it is that's causing your pain. I don't know why you're in pain, but I'm giving you some medication for the pain. Now, going through that experience, I changed the format, and the first thing I'm doing is giving the form of touch. And you know what the first form of touch is, listening. Listening is touch. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to let you talk to me. I'm going to let you tell me all about your pain, what you're going through, and that way, there's only one thing I'm listening for. I'm not listening for your pain experience. I'm listening for why you're in pain, and the why you're in pain is the stress that's connected to the pain. That's what I'm listening for. So after you have released yourself in terms of telling me about your pain and the connection with the stress we now move into what I call my technique, which is the reflexology. I use reflexology as the technique in relieving pain and when, and I'll explain that in a minute, but when I use that, what's happening is now you're no longer feeling the pain you got what you came for, the pain relief through the power of touch listening, and then the hands on technique of the reflexology, and so then that allows you to be more open to receiving treatment, which is where I put together the integrative approaches, because was your stress related to, is it food? Do I need to do a cleanse? Do I need to look at nutrition and the vitamins and the supplements and the minerals of my food? Do I need to really look at that? Do I need to now look at do I need energy work? Do I need to have massage? Or do I need to have acupuncture? It's a well rounded, what we call holistic approach, doing integrative approaches, because there's no one therapy that can do it all, because when you talk about stress, it's affecting the various levels of our who we are, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. So that's the whole concept that we're talking about when we say, you know, relieving stress and pain using the power of such.

Stephanie Mara 16:22

Yeah, I love that you are also redefining what touch means. And it makes me think of because we talk a lot about the work of somatics here, which is, you know, paying more attention to the body than the brain. And so what it makes me think of is like the embodied experience of touch, and sometimes that's not only like you're pointing to the physical touch itself, but how do I get the felt sense that my I don't know, my soul, my heart, like my insides, have been touched and seen and understood and held, and I completely agree with you that that can start with deep listening, and how often, you know, so many people feel so unheard in this world, because we're always like offering suggestions and fixes, and you know, all of these things that don't really ultimately make a person feel internally, touched and seen. And so I love that you're starting with this first starts with deep listening. And, you know, can we find people, whether that's working with a practitioner like yourself, if that's, you know, leaning on your friends more like, where can you find spaces where you feel deeply seen and heard and understood? And that that can also be a form of touch. And I love that you then bring it in, because I do sometimes suggest that to some of the people I work with as well, is when there's like a lack of physical touch and food is trying to become a replacement for that, that, yeah, then it's like, well, if you don't have someone in your life, or you don't feel comfortable, maybe asking for the people that you know for like a hug, for example, can we intentionally bring touch into your life through massage therapy, through acupuncture, where your body is going to be touched? So I love all of these points that you're bringing in. And you know, would love you to go into the explanation of reflexology and how you've incorporated that work.

Dr. Njideka Olatunde 18:20

Oh, certainly I will do that. As you were talking, I was really thinking about examples of touch that we don't take seriously. Say, for example, you're feeling really down and all, somebody just comes and touch your shoulder and say, everything's going to be alright. That's a form of touch. If you're walking and all of a sudden you greet somebody, and then you give them a big smile. That's a form of touch. You're walking through a door, and somebody holds the door for you, or you hold the door for somebody, and all of a sudden they say, thank you. That's a form of touch. And one I love that people don't understand because I live in an urban environment, highway driving, and all of a sudden you're driving on the highway and you're trying to get over, and nobody's going to let you over, and you submit. And all of a sudden, somebody just slows down and holds back and lets you over and all you do is raise your hand up as a form of touch that could have made that person's day just by doing something like that. Those are little small things. It doesn't have to be big, it doesn't have to be elaborate. It's just little small things, or somebody saying, oh, I like that necklace you have. It looks so nice on you. That's a form of touch, understanding that when we connect one on one with somebody that and sharing energy, that's a form of touch that can be very uplifting to someone. Now you asked me about reflexology first, let me kind of share what it is to help your listeners understand who may not know what reflexology is. Reflexology is the art and science of working specific reflex and nerve ending points on your hands, your feet and your ears, to relax and relieve stress and pain, to improve circulation, to relieve toxins and impurities from the body, in addition to providing relaxation. So to explain what it is and how it works. It's very basic. First of all, when you're talking about reflexology, we're talking about the nervous system. A reflexologist works with the nerve endings, and the nerve endings connect to the brain, which is the body's communication center. So when we're doing reflexology, we're stimulating those nerve endings that delivers a message to the brain, that whenever there's pain, stress or trauma, the brain will then activate through the nerve endings to release the body's natural pain relievers. Now the way to give the paint the picture of that is, say, for example, inside your house, the electricity goes off. You go to the circuit breaker and flip the switch and electricity comes back on. But if you flip the switch and the electricity doesn't come on, you have to call an electrician. So the electrician will come in and say, okay, we got to do some wiring and connecting. Well, see your reflexologist as the electrician of your body, connecting the wires, which are the nerve endings to the brain so that pain can be relieved holistically, from a natural perspective, with the brain delivering the pain relievers. So that's the concept. Now here's another little point that mostly everybody on this call may not know this, but you have experienced reflexology and didn't know that you did it. If you are a parent, or if you go back to your childhood days, there's a little activity called this little piggy. And when you think of this little piggy went to the market, and then you're turning the baby's toes and wiggling your toes, you are activating the nerve endings to release stress, relieving points, to relax the body, because the nerve endings to the head are in your fingers, in your toes, so when you activate that, that brings about relief. So you've all had reflexology via this little piggy.

Stephanie Mara 22:55

I love that. That's awesome. If you could say more around how that works of like, you know, what are you doing in a reflexology session with someone?

Dr. Njideka Olatunde 23:07

Okay, first of all, I've even taken a step further, a little better than I would give an example, so that everyone will know that they can do on your hands. If you can see my hands here, we do what's called thumb walking, which is nothing but bending your thumb up and down. And what you want to do whenever you're feeling stressed, no matter what the stress is, take the palm of your hand and then take your thumb from your wrist and just walk all over the palm of your hand, going up and down all the way to the base of the fingers, and you just get in a habit of doing that. You don't know where the pressure points are exactly, but what you're doing is you're activating and so if you get in the habit of just doing that periodically, when you start feeling tense, you start feeling uptight, or your energy level is high and you need to calm down, or your energy level is low and you need to elevate it just get in the habit of always what we call reflexing the palm of the hand. You can also do it on the back of your hand, but then you can just take your four fingers and do the same thing on the back of your hand, and what you're doing is activating the nerve endings to calm you down. Take a deep breath and then just relax. That's a calming sensation, and that right there, is your first day tool for relieving stress and pain when you're feeling uptight, because what have you done that's a self help to where you've touched your whole body via your hand. That's the concept that we use, and that's one of the things that I stress, because we need to focus on self help. And when we focus on self help, that means self help care. And I say that to say that's why I wrote the book reflexology today, a family affair, which is a self help guide, giving you basic reflexology techniques that you can do for yourself. And in addition to that, share it with your family, because healing is a family affair. It's not just you going through pain, the whole family is experiencing it, but when we talk about healing, the whole family can play a part in the healing process using the power of touch.

Stephanie Mara 25:42

I really, really appreciate how simple, I was even doing it along with you. So for anyone who's just listening to this audio, like basically it was just kind of like taking the thumb and massaging around the edges of the palm. I even noticed starting to feel calmer myself while I was doing it. And what it makes me think of also is sometimes in sessions I'm exploring with people around how usually, when it's like hard to come into contact with the body, like you're talking about the experience of stress, usually our attention goes straight to the body part that feels the most stress, our shoulders, our chest, our belly, and so like coming to the periphery of, actually, your feet and your hands can sometimes be a more neutral experience, where you're shifting your attention actually away from the most intense, you know, maybe pain or whatever it is that you're experiencing, to actually say, like, okay, my hand is maybe not experiencing this pain right now. And can I touch in on my hand and massage it? And, yeah, it can just be another resource to kind of like, turn the volume down a little bit on like you're talking about that stress response.

Dr. Njideka Olatunde 26:49

You've defined it. That's the whole focus. Because when you start talking about relieving pain, you're talking about relaxing the nerve endings. And when you relax the nerve endings, the message goes to the brain. There's trauma. Let me give you another example that'll help people really understand this. Say, for example, your funny bone, you hit it. What's the first thing you're going to do? The first thing you're going to do is going to be a verbal release, oh, ouch. Or you're going to say something nice or not so nice, but soon as that happens, verbal. But see the reason for that is because then the nerve ending, the message goes through the nerve ending to the brain, trauma, discomfort in the area. Then the second thing you're going to do is rub it, because the brain has sent the message, put your hand on that area and start rubbing it. When you rub it, message goes up the nerve and again to the brain release the endorphins the body's natural pain relievers. So that's the whole process and concept, which is what you just, you know, shared a few minutes ago, in terms of, yes, my neck is in pain, my back is in pain, but once I start stimulating, all of a sudden, I'm calming down. I'm getting some form of relief. It's not feeling as bad, because the nerve endings and the brain are in communication with each other to be about bringing relief to that area that you're feeling the discomfort in so the body is a miraculous creation, from the standpoint that it can heal itself when we do one thing, learn how to work with the body and assist in the healing process. And I want your listeners to understand that when you see a practitioner, the practitioner is not the healer. The practitioner is assisting the body in the healing process. And it's a two way street. It's a give and receive. You give. The practitioner receives. The practitioner gives and you receive so it's a circular motion, and once we understand that, that's my approach, of how we take back control, of healing our bodies ourselves with our self help ability of using the power of touch.

Stephanie Mara 29:18

Thank you so much for also bringing in that it's not actually the practitioner that is the healer. I 1,000% agree with you, and sometimes I feel like because of wellness culture, whatever you want to call it, has given us this message that we have to look externally to us for the answers, like we've lost that connection with that our body's great capacity to heal itself. You know, I experienced that through going through long covid myself, of like seeing my body heal itself. It took time. Took longer than I wanted it to, but it did that itself. It wasn't necessarily, necessarily all the things that I experimented with that may have been supportive, but the body was just doing the work that it knows how to do, and so I love that you're bringing back that attention towards, yes, work with practitioners, they can hold the space that does maybe facilitate the safety and relaxation response for your body to then do the work that it knows how to do, but also to start tapping back into that trust in your body, which we've so lost connection with, of that trust in the body to do what it knows how to do.

Dr. Njideka Olatunde 30:32

And one of the reasons being what you said, which I'm going to share with you, what I tell my clients, all of us have automobiles, and we understand our automobiles. But one thing that we don't recognize, the automobile was designed as an exact replica of our bodies. It operates the exact same way, but we don't understand that, and so by not making that connection, that's why we have a difficult time seeing our practitioners in assisting the body in the process. Because think about it, when you purchase a car, they're going to say you got to have X number of months before you do maintenance this. Or if you hear something that's wrong in the car, let me go straight to mechanic. You know, the engine lights on. I'm hearing some clanking here, but when you take it to the mechanic, the mechanic is mechanically inclined to know exactly what it needs to do, because it's a mechanical problem. We take our bodies to the doctors the same way we take our cars to a mechanic. We take our bodies to the doctor. We look at them as being the mechanic that can okay, my back's hurting, so I'm you're supposed to know exactly what it is and fix it. When you do that, it makes it very difficult, because the doctor is not a mechanic, and the body doesn't operate like that. It operates from a system, and you have to understand that there are 11 systems in the body, and each system has a specific function. Each system has a specific need. Each system is specialized to do what it needs to do when it needs to do it. And so when you understand that, that's what a practitioner is doing, it's looking at the body systems to see what is needed, and how can I best assist that system in the healing process. And so when we understand and put all of that together, it comes that's what you're talking about when you say holistic healing. And in addition, just like you take your car for maintenance, the body also needs what's called preventive maintenance, and that's a word that is so obsolete now, it used to be very powerful preventive health care. Nobody's ever talking about prevention. We only talk about being in crisis. But let's get back to prevention. And when you talk about prevention, then you put the heal back into healthy.

Stephanie Mara 33:24

Love that. I'm curious if you could say more of if there was, like, preventative touch care. Like, are there things that you would suggest so it maybe doesn't get to the point where our body is screaming for touch in all the many different ways that you have referenced today? Like, are there things that you maybe guide the people that you work with on how to kind of give the body its touch needs before it gets to the point of yelling.

Dr. Njideka Olatunde 33:50

Excellent question. I like that one preventive touch. The first preventive touch that anyone can ever do when you wake up in the morning, give thanks. Be thankful. That's the first form of touch each morning, no matter what's going on, be thankful. Be thankful for waking up. Being thankful for all that you're going to experience throughout the day. Be thankful. Then the next thing, because you've been resting all night, you didn't realize this, but you were fasting, and so since you were fasting, the first thing you want to do is go to nature's natural element, drink water. Take a glass of water and drink some water. Give thanks to the water. And there's power in that when you drink that water, give thanks to that water for providing the first nutrient of your body for the day. That's a preventive touch approach. Then you want to take some time and just get quiet and think of nothing, just listen to some silence. Don't be afraid of it, because it's helping you. That's a form of touch, listening to silence. Now, when you've done that, you have rejuvenated your body to get into the activities of the day. Those will be your first three powerful preventive touch steps that I would recommend, then look at putting on some relaxing music, listening to the sounds of instruments, because music is a healer, and we don't recognize that music heals. Music can be very uplifting. Listen to some music. Another thing, think about, if you live in an area where you can go outside and walk barefoot on the grass, first thing in the morning, it's very good, because the water is in the grass, and those are nutrients, because all of the pores that connect to every part of your body is in your feet. They open up and the energy from and that's a Native American tradition. The feet are your body's foundation, and when you walk on that grass barefoot, the body gives a big thank you, because all of the energy from the earth goes up from through your feet all the way up your body, energizing every cell, every system, every nerve and every muscle, every tissue of the body, from head to toe. That's a preventive touch method. So it's little small, simple things that you can do. If you look at that and think of some things that may be special to you that touch you, if it's an inspirational message you'd like to read, or informational message you'd like to hear, that's a form of touch. Create your own unique morning vibrations, morning stimulations, morning self help touch techniques to inspire you and help you create the best and healthiest day for that day.

Stephanie Mara 37:20

I love that. You know, I always like to wrap up with a baby step, and I feel like you just gave like, a ton of tiny baby steps that anyone listening to this can start to practice. And what I really hear in all of those suggestions is that it is just reconnecting with yourself, and that can be through gratitude, that can be through water, that can be through connecting with land. And there are so many ways to kind of like touch in on ourselves, through music, and to find what speaks to you. I love that you added that because it is going to be unique to each person. And what does feel like touch inside of you. So thank you so much for bringing in that nuance.

Dr. Njideka Olatunde 38:00

The thing that I can share and like, you know, leave with your audience, is to really understand this, you do have the power to heal yourself, and you've got to feel it, you got to believe it, and you've got to accept and receive it. You do have the power to heal yourself, because each and every one of us was born with the power to heal, because the power of healing, which heals all, is in the power of touch. Just understand and connect with touch. And when you connect with touch, you're on the road to taking back your life from pain and stress and so understanding that the power of touch heals all.

Stephanie Mara 38:53

Thank you for that addition. I really appreciate that, because I know so many people come to me with really a sense of hopelessness that their behaviors with food are never going to change, and that sometimes it can also start with, like, yes, I'm such a believer of somatic work, but also I do like to explore, like, what are the beliefs that you're operating from that are affecting the way the body also functions, and that's why we have a mind body connection. You know, these two things are talking to each other, and then even starting to say, I don't know how I'm going to change this yet, but I am, I believe that change is possible for me sends also a very different message to the body.

Dr. Njideka Olatunde 39:35

And one other thing, let me share this with everybody. We're all quote, unquote, adults. And as adults, we're all operating from what's called a structured box, and because of that structured box, we have been led to believe this is how adults are supposed to operate. They're supposed to be on this high intelligent level, and we're supposed to operate in a structure. I got news for you. You need to learn how to step outside of the box. And when you step outside of the box, what you're doing is you're letting that little girl and that little boy inside of you come out and play. And when I say that, I'm saying you are entitled to have what I call a be silly day, do something that is totally silly. And when I say silly, I'm talking about, look at children. If you allow children to be children. They have fun with the littlest insignificant things, and it brings joy to them. And they make it fun. You are entitled to do the exact same thing. Step out of that structured box, be silly, do something fun and enjoyable that you may have liked as a child, or something you just say, I just feel like I don't want to do nothing today. I just want to be do it. Don't question it. Don't try to figure out why, just do it. And you will be surprised the load that will be taken off of you, just for that moment that you decided I'm going to be silly today, I'm going to have some fun today. I'm gonna do something I never have done in a long time, but I'm doing it today. You are in control, and it doesn't matter what the person next to you who see you. It doesn't matter because it's you.

Stephanie Mara 41:47

I love that as a final send off, because play and fun are so important, and I agree with you that sometimes we lose also contact with that as well as we grow older of like what it means to adult and that play and fun and novelty and awe are just as important as adults as they were to us as kids. So thank you so much for all of your wisdom. I absolutely loved this conversation. I'm curious how individuals who are listening can keep in touch with you.

Dr. Njideka Olatunde 42:16

Thank you for asking. First of all, I want to share something with you, too. In the African tradition, when you come to someone's home for the first time, you bring a gift. And I have a gift for you and your listeners. I have a stress relief and medication free stress relief poster that I will share with your listeners, and all they have to do is go to touchologyreflexology.com and download and they will get the poster. And that's my way of saying, thank you for spending time with me and listening to what I had to say to you today. You can reach me on my website, which is focusonhealing.com, and I encourage you to go to my contact page and ask any question that you may have about touch, about relieving pain, and believe me, I will get back to you. I encourage you just ask me any questions, because I look forward to hearing the questions, and I'm there for you as well to be able to address that. The other thing is, if you're interested in purchasing a copy of my book, reflexology today, a family affair, I have a hard copy, and I also have a download copy, and all that's available on my website,focusonhealing.com. And I encourage you like, you know, just connect with me. And another way is I host a podcast which is called the touchology wellness experience, and I invite you to come on and listen to as I share with guests about relieving medication free alternatives in touch and healing. And so I just thank you for this opportunity and look forward to hearing and sharing with you as well.

Stephanie Mara 44:02

Wonderful. Well, I will leave all of those links in the show notes so people can keep in touch with you and just thank you so much again for being here and sharing your wisdom.

Dr. Njideka Olatunde 44:11

Thank you for having me.

Stephanie Mara 44:12

Yeah, well, to everyone listening as always, if you have any questions, I'll leave both of our contacts in the show notes. Reach out anytime, and I hope you all have a safety producing and satiating rest of the day. Bye!

Keep in touch with Dr. Olatunde here:

Website: https://focusonhealing.com/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/njidekanolatunde

Instagram: www.instagram.com/evolving_butterfly

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@changingliveswithtouchology

Podcast: www.touchologywellnessexperience.com