Episode 14
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In this episode:
Jaclyn Bacon is joining us today and we are talking about high functioning anxiety. What it looks like in your everyday life, what the common root causes are, and how it relates to autoimmunity. Jaclyn illuminates the common pitfalls of the overachiever and gives us an amazing step to take to begin to shift into presence and step out of anxiety and illness.
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Episode Transcript
Julie Michelson: Welcome back to the inspired living with auto-immunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michaelson. And today we have such a treat for you. Jacqueline bacon is joining us and we're talking about high functioning anxiety. What it looks like in your everyday life, what the common root causes are. And how it's connected with auto-immunity Jacqueline illuminates the [00:01:00] common pitfalls of the overachiever and gives us an amazing step to take, to begin to shift into presence and step out of anxiety and illness.
[00:01:09] Jaclyn welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you with us today.
[00:01:14] Jaclyn Bacon: Thanks Julie. I'm so excited to be here.
[00:01:17] Julie Michelson: So one of the first things I usually ask our guests is, you know, how did you get to be doing the wonderful work that you're doing? Because most of us have a personal story that brought us to this world. So can you share with listeners a little bit of your journey that got you in functional medicine?
[00:01:39] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah, I'd be happy to. So, I mean really getting into nurse practitioner school, I started out pretty disgruntled about the conventional system. So I was going through clinicals, learning it with ease, but I was like, man, in the family practice. Still challenging to see people 10 minute [00:02:00] visits one after another, with multitude of complaints and felt like we were only like scratching the surface.
[00:02:05] So I felt that about 15 years ago and that really led me into lifestyle medicine and integrative and functional medicine at it at a young age. I went down that road through my own medical training and whatnot, and then really got to experience it myself personally as well. So I have always been a very healthy person and in high achiever.
[00:02:28] And then I came to a point where it's working as an MP and I was on my second pregnancy and never experienced really anxiety that affected my life. Maybe it helped me Excel in school and different things like that, but never created sleep problems or any issues until after my second pregnancy. And so that's where I was really experiencing some and insomnia.
[00:02:59] I was [00:03:00] feeling like really fatigued and tired, but also wired and on edge and having difficult. Unwinding. Like I literally would be watching a Netflix show and not be able to relax. That's when, you know, I was like, something's wrong. Like I should be able to unplug, but my nervous system was just like on overdrive and I was depleted after breastfeeding and all these pregnancies.
[00:03:24] And I went to my conventional providers as well as a functional medicine provider. And I wasn't getting any answers through the conventional, like insurance paradigm. They would do my labs, everything looked normal. I'm like, but this is totally new for me. I've literally, I used to, I remember before I even had my first kid, I was like, I don't think I'm gonna be able to wake up in the middle of the night.
[00:03:49] I was such a deep sleeper now. I think they even sleep well through the night. So it was like the stress change. But I didn't feel people are really looking deep [00:04:00] enough to explain why for myself. And so that's what really got me into the deep dive approach of functional medicine. And I do my own functional medicine labs.
[00:04:11] You know, my gut had imbalances, so I wasn't digesting things as well. I had early, very early auto-immune conditions. So I had thyroid antibodies that were elevated, but my thyroid hormones were not. So if I left that alone, I could have been on medication for life down the road. So I was like, okay, this explains some things I was super depleted in magnesium, which is your relax and mineral, and which is no surprise after pregnancy and breastfeeding that I was so depleted and had some inflammation going on.
[00:04:46] And then I also had kind of my upbringing and conditioning that led to all of this. So. I was so grateful for more clarity of the answers and then more of a holistic approach. I was [00:05:00] able to really unravel things and do the deep work and reverse these symptoms are for good, rather than just feeling which I was starting to feel.
[00:05:10] And the conventional realm see provider after provider. No answers. Get thrown more pills at myself and I'm like this. And even when I was doing better, I was getting thrown more pills at me. And I was like, this just doesn't seem right. And I have that background and I, so I had to kind of exit personally myself out of that conventional spiral of.
[00:05:37] Being victim to the system almost, you know, as a patient and take my power back of my health and Hey, let's get to the root cause. And that was like mind blowing experience for myself. That then led me into the work because I'm like I wanted this level of care as a mother, as a high [00:06:00] achiever, as, you know, a working functioning high level person and not to just be.
[00:06:06] Medicaid it for life and kind of like, here you go, five minute visit. Like that. Wasn't the solution I wanted. So I'm really providing the level of care that I wanted for women now.
[00:06:17] Julie Michelson: Yeah, which is amazing. And your, your story is so familiar because I'm guessing at some point, somebody alluded to the fact of, well, you'll have young kids, of course you're exhausted or stressed, or, you know, it's always, especially when labs are normal, especially when they're not running complete labs.
[00:06:38] Jaclyn Bacon: Right,
[00:06:40] Julie Michelson: I would imagine.
[00:06:41] And, and you, you, you touched on it, like how then, how do you practice that medicine after that? Like you have to, you have to provide that service. This is why we do what we do. And use the words, take my power back. I have a, I run a challenge. Take your power back from [00:07:00] auto-immunity. That is why we're having this conversation today.
[00:07:04] We can inspire one listener. To, you know, dig deeper and look to some of those root causes
[00:07:13] Jaclyn Bacon: Yes.
[00:07:14] Julie Michelson: and maybe go beyond the care that they've already received. That, that what I, what I love was so exciting to me about your story is that you basically prevented on it. You know, it was prevented auto immunity or. Any kind of permanent damage from it. And, and so that's one of the other reasons I wanted to bring your story to listeners because I share my story. I was 11 years in on 10 prescriptions and, you know and the exciting part is here. I am, you know, with RA that, you know, they tell you, if you don't take the drugs, you're going to have permanent damage.
[00:07:48] Now, my life is amazing. I feel so great.
[00:07:51] Jaclyn Bacon: That's awesome.
[00:07:52] Julie Michelson: But there's something. So I would love if I not F when it will be exciting when we get to a [00:08:00] point where enough people know that, you know, they, they can turn things around right away and to,
[00:08:08] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. Early detection. Like we're doing early detection for other diseases. Why aren't we checking antibodies proactive.
[00:08:15] Julie Michelson: yeah. Yeah.
[00:08:17] Jaclyn Bacon: And no level of antibodies is essentially normal physiologically for our body, right?
[00:08:23] Julie Michelson: Right. Which we should not be attacking our own tissue period. Like, no matter what. Yeah. So I, I said those are, those are just the things that I wanted to.
[00:08:35] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah.
[00:08:36] Julie Michelson: you recycle a, of this whole, like w we can do it early, trust yourself. Like so many things I hear in your story are the, like, those are the drums. I be like, nobody knows you like you do.
[00:08:48] And so if your doctors look at your beautiful labs and tell you you're fine, and you don't feel fine, find another
[00:08:56] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. Right. Yeah. And how disempowering and [00:09:00] confusing that can be. Like, if we're getting cues from our body to listen to our body, I need help. I need help. It's communicating to us. And then we're like, oh, you're, you're fine. Go on your Merry way. It's like, okay. So I'm just supposed to survive, feeling like CRA essentially.
[00:09:16] And then it kind of creates this mistrust almost with your own body. Or like it's not on your side. It is a hundred percent on our side. We can see the appropriate answers and tools to guide and support it. And that isn't often found with auto-immune conditions or chronic nagging symptoms in the conventional realm, unfortunately, present day.
[00:09:37] Right. Amazing for acute illness. Amazing for surgery,
[00:09:41] Julie Michelson: I say that all the time, God forbid, you know, there's I need acute care. I am going to the Western medical system, like that's where I'm headed immediately.
[00:09:52] Jaclyn Bacon: Absolutely.
[00:09:53] Julie Michelson: Yeah. So you, you touched on anxiety and I was thinking, as you were just [00:10:00] saying, you know, this whole is, we're talking about trusting your body, right.
[00:10:02] And knowing that those symptoms you're experiencing are signals, that is your body's way of crying for help. I can only imagine as somebody who is already in this anxiety pattern, that being told you're fine. And then, you know, who do you try? Like your, your medical provider and the medical providers are telling you?
[00:10:27] You're fine. So I, I just can imagine that would just fuel the anxiety and continue that, that pattern you talk about. This idea of high functioning anxiety. Can you share with us, I love that by the way. Can you share with us what that looks like in our everyday lives? Because so many of us hear anxiety and we think of crippling anxiety, right?
[00:10:54] We think of somebody who is, you know, really in a bad place. Yes. Yeah. [00:11:00] So it's really interfered with their daily life. And, and so you alluded to which, which is I, I just get really excited. You're like, I think having a little anxiety is what made me a go getter, right? Like there's, it does go hand in hand.
[00:11:17] With being a high achiever. So, so, you know, explain to us what you mean by, by high functioning anxiety. What does, what does that look like?
[00:11:25] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah, definitely. So high functioning anxiety is way more common than the diagnosis of anxiety. And so it will commonly show up in our day-to-day life. Like you said, it's like those overachievers people who might over commit, they have a difficult time saying no, and they're there, they're your yes. People.
[00:11:48] And so they might. Over work, find themselves really immersing in their work career. They're often big people pleasers. And so they [00:12:00] are like prioritizing other people's needs before their own. They may have difficulty just like being present. So they're always busy bodies on Mingo, perfectionist tendencies, high achievers, but difficulty just be. And you'll kind of find those patterns and a lot of people and in a lot of successful people, and that can be the pros of high functioning anxiety, but then there's the bad that comes with it.
[00:12:35] Julie Michelson: Which is
[00:12:37] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. So.
[00:12:40] Julie Michelson: I'm like, okay. You know, I could see, I hear things with different ears because I know. I know what the cons are. But, but it's like, yeah. I mean, drive, like, so some of that really does equate to drive and achievement and but the key was that, you know, they, they [00:13:00] hard to be in the present moment. You mentioned that you're in your own story, can't unplug, right?
[00:13:04] There's the, and that's, you know, when you what's, what do you hear all the time about high achievers? You hear the word burnout, right. But.
[00:13:12] Jaclyn Bacon: Exactly.
[00:13:13] Julie Michelson: So, but let's get into, so this high functioning anxiety, you're not, you know, it's not debilitating. It may even be helping in certain areas of your life. What are some of the negative consequence?
[00:13:27] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. So you might see some of the positive effects aspects and your career, but you may see some of the negative effects more in your interpersonal relationships. So, you know, your social life may compromise if you're overworking, not really having the most secure relationships. So you might have like anxious attachment patterns in your relationships.
[00:13:52] And so seeing that play out a lot of really high functioning people, they you'll see that commonly in their [00:14:00] relationships too. And if you're unable to fully be present, I imagine that's going to affect your relationships. Of course, that's also gonna affect your work, even though you might. Idolized productivity.
[00:14:13] It won't be a positive thing often when you're distracted or you're always busy or you're always on, you know that difficulty just relaxing and enjoying. So when you have these perfectionist tendencies, we tend to be over critical of ourselves and we tend to not feel like we're always good enough or compare yourself to others.
[00:14:40] And lacking just contentment and acceptance of what is, so what I kind of found my previous pattern is I was living in this place unknowingly of resistance, so, okay. I felt uncomfortable. Stress or I felt uncomfortable symptoms. Why [00:15:00] wasn't one plugged into my body enough to almost be in touch with that. And then I would resist that, oh, that anxiety and I would just turn externally. I would focus on other people's needs. I would overwork, I would go, go, go distract numb. Right. We all do this by different coming magnets. Yeah. So just that resistance though, of your own anxiety. It makes it so much worse.
[00:15:23] Oh my gosh. It just like this spiral. So if we're able to get into a place of awareness and shift, not first and then meet our needs and accept what is not as huge, but that really takes some practice and like training that muscle and rewiring of our brain neuroplasticity. But it's so possible.
[00:15:48] Julie Michelson: So very, very possible. And what about some of the, you know, here we're on inspired living with auto-immunity. How, how does that play in to auto-immunity? [00:16:00] You know, what are some. Physical consequences of set of not creating that change. Right. Not shifting.
[00:16:07] Jaclyn Bacon: Right. Yeah. I love looking at. The root causes of like, say in this instance with high-functioning anxiety, what are the root causes of that? Right. So we really need to get a really detailed intake to evaluate that from a whole person perspective. And that I find it's very much missing in the conventional realm.
[00:16:26] Right. So one part I find very much missing is looking at Trump. From our background. So, you know, doing, looking at adverse childhood experiences, then it's not, when we think here trauma, just like you were saying with anxiety, we hear the word
[00:16:44] Julie Michelson: have to be a capital T it could be a little D yeah.
[00:16:47] Jaclyn Bacon: Great. These it's not these overt abuse always.
[00:16:51] Right. It can be these kind of nagging, emotional or neglect, or our caregivers. Not [00:17:00] exhibiting their own boundaries, not having their own, you know, their coping with, with alcohol or with overworking themselves, you know, so that conditioning and what we've, we've been taught to not listen to our own needs, not to cope in healthy ways to perform in order to get rewarded, you know, high achievers.
[00:17:21] They're doing well in school while that's not just by chance, typically know that often was rewarded by our culture and conditioning. And so, you know, being aware of that aspect of our background. But then beyond that, the physical aspects are huge, like you were saying. So the root causes to really dive in deep through functional medicine testing really looks under the surface to why, why are we experiencing these symptoms?
[00:17:49] And that could be a multitude of things you're alluding to. So one common pattern we find with. Anxiety, which is just a symptom and also auto immune [00:18:00] conditions as a root cause is really our gut health.
[00:18:03] Julie Michelson: I knew you were going there because it's so true.
[00:18:11] Jaclyn Bacon: So, you know, our gut health, that is one of our most protective barriers from the external environment. And so when you have the symptom of anxiety, you have to think of a couple of things. One, is there a neuro inflammation going on? Is there inflammation of brain? Is there leaky gut in permeability of your gut that's then causing leaky brain and inflammation of your brain?
[00:18:37] Yeah, you're going to have brain fog. Yeah. You're going to have decreased mental clarity and cognition and poor memory retention and anxiety and possibly depression. Of course, you're going to experience those things. If your gut isn't balanced, not only that, just the permeability of your gut. Okay, then these good bacteria, they actually helped make your neuro-transmitters, you know, [00:19:00] 90% of our serotonin, that happy hormone in our gut.
[00:19:03] And so if we have these imbalances and that ecosystem of our gut, we're not going to have good nutrients. We're not going to have good neurotransmitters. We're not going to have optimal deep restorative sleep. We're going to get more autoimmune issues because two thirds of her immune function is in our gut.
[00:19:21] So it's. Man, if we can get a really good assessment of your ecosystem and microbiome, that gives so much clarity to the root cause and help guiding other aspects of care.
[00:19:36] Julie Michelson: It is. So I know it, some listeners may be like, oh, the gut again, like this, all anybody wants to talk about, but I want to repeat the two things that you said that often people really genuinely don't realize, which feels like newer information, is that. Most of our neurotransmitters are made in our gut.
[00:19:58] They're not made in our [00:20:00] brain. And as you just said, over two thirds of our immune system is in our gut. So this, you know, why are they always talking about gut with auto-immunity? Why are we talking about gut with mental health and mood? But because it, I mean, it, it really is that.
[00:20:19] Jaclyn Bacon: So our second brain.
[00:20:21] Julie Michelson: It is an, you know, it almost, maybe the first one.
[00:20:23] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah.
[00:20:24] Julie Michelson: we'll see, we'll see how that goes in time.
[00:20:26] Jaclyn Bacon: you'll probably be renamed I'm sure.
[00:20:28] Julie Michelson: And so it, it is fascinating to see the impact on gut healing.
[00:20:38] Jaclyn Bacon: Yes.
[00:20:39] Julie Michelson: both things, you know, anxiety auto-immunity it's it is unbelievable. I can't tell you how many clients I've had with really lifelong anxiety issues. And then, you know, no coincidence, a laundry list of autoimmune diagnoses, and [00:21:00] there'll be doing really well.
[00:21:01] I have this one, one in particular keeps coming to mind. Would it be doing, you know, doing better, doing better, and then. The anxiety would come flooding back and the depression would be terrible. And we would check in and I'd say, well, you know what, what's going on? You know, oh, you know, I had birthday cake last week at a UN like, do you see the pattern between what, what you're doing with your gut?
[00:21:26] And I mean, literally that was like direct feedback of,
[00:21:30] Jaclyn Bacon: Right
[00:21:30] Julie Michelson: but, and it's not, I'm oversimplifying, there's more to it than that. It is always fascinating to me to see, because I think I used to be on the other side where I had no understanding of it. And I was like, I don't understand what is, what you're eating has to do with your mood.
[00:21:49] And how does anxiety plan to auto-immunity, you know
[00:21:54] Jaclyn Bacon: Right. And I love taking it that step. We will look often as humans, we'll look at our [00:22:00] behavior and just want to go straight. There let's change the behavior. Let's change that food let's change that. But even taking a step back and saying, why are we engaging in that behavior? So we all cope in different ways and we've been conditioned,
[00:22:14] Julie Michelson: to have to identify the trauma.
[00:22:19] Jaclyn Bacon: right.
[00:22:19] Julie Michelson: And the handle, you know, and change to change those patterns. You have to know why they're there. All of our patterns served us at one time. Like you were saying that being that overachiever really probably got that positive attention or relief from negative attention as a child, you know, to get those good grades or go after whether it's athletic.
[00:22:41] Academics doesn't matter. And again, those are things that seem to surface on the surface, but they create these patterns that expire that
[00:22:48] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. As adults. Yeah. They serve as children. We have to adapt to our environment and, you know, we have to really we're dependent on other people then. So the coping mechanisms we use then are very different than [00:23:00] what creates a very. Balanced and resilient adult. And there's kind of this bridge and time, and we just aren't taught healthy coping skills as children, or like how to have self-awareness and meet our own needs.
[00:23:13] It's, it's, it's one of the most overlooked things I think, as us as humans, what we're doing in our education system. But I see it starting to evolve, which is powerful.
[00:23:24] Julie Michelson: It is, it is I see a lot of younger people. I was thinking the same thing, you know, we send our kids to school and they're taught, you know, Trust your instincts. And you know, all of that, the creativity is take all of
[00:23:36] Jaclyn Bacon: Right. Yeah.
[00:23:38] Julie Michelson: suppress. And then, you know, when we decided to, you know, handle all of it as adults and relearn, like what really does serve us.
[00:23:47] I do see, you know, for me, I think I was in my third year. And already diagnosed with immunity before I got a glimpse of like, huh, maybe I don't want to raise my [00:24:00] kids that way. Maybe there's a way so that they don't have to undo all of this and their thirties and forties or twenties and thirties. So I do see.
[00:24:12] Shifting, but it, again, as you said, we weren't taught these skills. There's still a lot of, you know, the kids are only being raised with the level of which should their parents have dealt with their stuff. Right. So it's it's
[00:24:29] Jaclyn Bacon: your parents, their teachers, like all these people living around and, and I find it interesting. I hear that story commonly. When you mentioned, when you became a mom, That's when we kind of look at our own stuff a little more. And that was definitely my situation too. It's like, oh, I don't want the same thing for my kids.
[00:24:49] And it makes you look at you. Can't just say most people, apparently my counselor she's like, yeah, most people will just try to compensate and do the opposite of their child.
[00:24:59] Julie Michelson: Right,[00:25:00]
[00:25:00] Jaclyn Bacon: you're really not dealing with your stuff still. You know, you're just attempting on the external though, like, oh, I'm going to do different, but if we can look within and really we can stop that generational trauma habits.
[00:25:14] So that's the most powerful as far as that, but of course all this stuff leads to more physical causes. And if we have that sympathetic nervous system constantly activating. You know, not only gut health, but our hormones and thyroid health. And it's just this like
[00:25:33] Julie Michelson: Well, you said you weren't sleeping, right? Like, I mean, it all plays together and that's why that the approach of what's your symptom, here's your pill doesn't work because, you know,
[00:25:48] Jaclyn Bacon: Working at the Y.
[00:25:49] Julie Michelson: Yeah. Yeah. So you, do you talk about. The, you know, these root causes of the anxiety and the [00:26:00] auto-immunity and you, we talked, we just were talking about trauma and neuroplasty, you know, all these amazing things cause that it, it keeps coming back to what you said.
[00:26:09] W you know, we do have the power, we have the power, we have the power to improve our health. We have the power to. Create new parenting opportunities. You know, we don't have to either repeat the same pattern. I mean, that used to be how it was right with the family dynamic. We either repeated, or we did the opposite, which was often just as unhealthy the opposite.
[00:26:33] And, and we're not stuck with that. We do have the power, if we're willing. To learn and grow, to create a whole new opportunities and shift our family experiences. But what, yeah, what are some of the tools that people can use to help reduce that anxiety and improve that and maybe, you know, avoid auto-immunity or [00:27:00] turn it around quickly.
[00:27:03] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. So I always go back to the top three root causes. If you kind of look at them very big picture wise, it will often come down to stress and that could be physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, right? So stress is one, two nutrition, and then three talks. And so every individual, the root causes of the.
[00:27:27] And the priorities will be different at any given time, but let's just talk with one that is generalized. Everybody can benefit from, and yes, we can look at our backgrounds and do that work with an amazing trauma informed counselor or provider, but regardless of where you're at with your backup.
[00:27:47] Everybody lives in a modern society can benefit from nervous system regulation. And so I love to give some tips on how it can do that super practically, because it doesn't need to [00:28:00] be a big thing and incorporate that in our daily life.
[00:28:04] Julie Michelson: Because that's you just touched on, I think that that's some of the biggest resistance people think it has to be here. Like, you know, I don't have time to go to a cave and meditate for 30
[00:28:13] Jaclyn Bacon: Right, right, right.
[00:28:14] Julie Michelson: I'm like, no, no, that's not absolutely need to do
[00:28:17] Jaclyn Bacon: right, right.
[00:28:18] Julie Michelson: Yeah. That would be great. Let's go there. What, what.
[00:28:22] Jaclyn Bacon: So, you know, we have the spider flight system versus our rest and digest. We want that rest and digest parasympathetic nervous system relaxation, more, not this constant activation of fight or flight. Like most of our modern society. So how can we intentionally do that by engaging and really biohacking our nervous system with practical tools day to day.
[00:28:47] So those parasympathetic nervous system tips that are just transformational and play with it, like experiment with the ones that you enjoy. And first I would recommend [00:29:00] attaching. Simply to an existing habit. So a couple things is I love, love, love building self-awareness first. So when you build self-awareness, that is not only impactful on its own.
[00:29:13] Checking in with your. And, but it then directs your future behaviors and how to meet your needs. So that would look like a simple self check-in. And so that could be while you're doing existing habit and brushing your teeth in the morning. Yeah, exactly. Like, Hey, what am I feeling like rating your stress levels zero to 10, naming an emotion or two you're feeling, you know, Naming, like what is my physical energy?
[00:29:44] Like zero to 10. What's my mental clarity. Like, so you already have an intake and the day of your capacity. And so you can like you don't, you're not pushing through and burning yourself out more. You're like, man, my stress is already a [00:30:00] four and I'm just waking up. Okay. Well, I can take some deep breaths and calm that down pretty quick.
[00:30:06] But if you wait until your stress levels and eight later in the day, oh, that takes so much more time, energy and effort to decrease. Right? So it's all about that earlier cues and awareness. So we can nourish ourselves. We can meet our own needs. It's very simply, and it literally takes like two minutes to do that.
[00:30:29] Julie Michelson: It's amazing. And I love literally when. We speak the same language would be an understatement. Always saying like awareness is the first step you can't create change. If you don't know where you are, you need to know where you are.
[00:30:45] Jaclyn Bacon: right.
[00:30:45] Julie Michelson: do you want to go? And then you can start to move that needle. And literally everything, you know, I mentioned that challenge that I run sometimes, literally everything that you just, the tech ends, those are all on.
[00:30:58] Like the first day they [00:31:00] get attracted. Because just to, because again, as you were saying, these are the things, when you're in that, go, go, go. Next thing, next thing, next thing you, you have to be present to do that. Check-in and so many people haven't been present in a really long time. And so I love that.
[00:31:19] And even the. For those of you that are listening on audio? I w I was brushing my teeth with my imaginary toothbrushes. She was saying when you brush,
[00:31:30] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah, totally.
[00:31:31] Julie Michelson: Because this stuff really, really does work.
[00:31:34] Jaclyn Bacon: It does.
[00:31:35] Julie Michelson: And so,
[00:31:36] Jaclyn Bacon: When you were saying about being present our brain, literally can't be anxious and thinking about the future past, if we're in the moment present.
[00:31:46] Julie Michelson: yeah.
[00:31:47] Jaclyn Bacon: So before.
[00:31:48] Julie Michelson: say right. Fresh. And when you're stuck in the past and anxiety is when you're stuck in the future present, this is where it's at. That's what it does. It takes training. It is a month. We [00:32:00] definitely yeah, but, but the, the fun thing is even just the shift from doing that check-in exercise is you get rewarded like you, and it just starts to build on, on itself.
[00:32:14] Jaclyn Bacon: Oh, wow. I didn't even realize I was feeling sad about that. And that's why I've been numbing and watching more shows or wine or
[00:32:24] Julie Michelson: Yeah. And you, you mention well looking for the unplug, right? That that sometimes is elusive. And you mentioned how much more difficult and longer it takes to address, you know, a stress level of an eight.
[00:32:40] Jaclyn Bacon: Right.
[00:32:40] Julie Michelson: But often until you start doing these check-ins and, and, you know, just dipping your toe into some presence sometimes, you know, feel a for you, you know, you don't even feel the difference between a foreign and eight you're just constantly.
[00:32:56] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. And your brain going.
[00:32:58] Julie Michelson: Yeah. And so I [00:33:00] love that. So, Yeah. I always ask what's one step listeners can take, but you just gave us and yes, it had multiple parts, but I'm going to, I'm going to umbrella it under just the check-in. Right. I hopefully everybody brushes their teeth in the morning to.
[00:33:17] Jaclyn Bacon: Morning coffee, maybe.
[00:33:20] Julie Michelson: I do have one client who, when we started working on toxins and I got him to understand what was in the toothpaste he was using. He for apparently for about two weeks, just didn't get clean toothpaste and just stopped using toothpaste. And I'm like, oh, well, probably better. But your poor girlfriend, and deodorant, he did the same with Bodel same time.
[00:33:46] I was like,
[00:33:46] Jaclyn Bacon: dedicated.
[00:33:47] Julie Michelson: That's amazing. I'm glad you were no longer, you know, putting toxins in your mouth and under your arms,
[00:33:53] Jaclyn Bacon: That's the most important part. Anyhow, the brushing action.
[00:33:57] Julie Michelson: but even he was still brushing. So when you brush [00:34:00] in the morning, you know, it start to, to do that. Check-in I love it. And I love the.
[00:34:06] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah.
[00:34:07] Julie Michelson: Yeah. And some of it, you and I, you know, we're giggling and it, it's simple and it's fun and it's, it's not simple. Like, it is simple in that you can do it in less than two minutes, but so many people, you mentioned name and emotion, I'm feeling so
[00:34:25] Jaclyn Bacon: I know how to do that at first. I literally didn't have that skill to identify my emotions.
[00:34:30] Julie Michelson: Yeah.
[00:34:31] Jaclyn Bacon: So, and that's, that's common, you
[00:34:33] Julie Michelson: It's very common. And so I just wanted to acknowledge for anybody who is
[00:34:37] Jaclyn Bacon: it's going to feel weird.
[00:34:39] Julie Michelson: pick up this, this exercise that yes, we're saying it's simple in the, it is, it's a small step to create huge change, but that it, it is, it will take practice and some of it will be uncomfortable when you start.
[00:34:53] Jaclyn Bacon: Especially in the beginning.
[00:34:55] Julie Michelson: Yeah.
[00:34:56] Jaclyn Bacon: Trust in that and making it fun. That's what keeps you [00:35:00] engaged and realizing the positive feedback. How you continue to build habits is our brain is always looking for the negative for survival. But if we look for the positive, oh, how did I feel when I checked in that day?
[00:35:12] Oh, wow. I actually felt a little lighter. It was more engaged. I was more mindful with my meals, you know? So even when you exercise, pay attention to that positive reward, because that's what. You to continue that habit.
[00:35:26] Julie Michelson: Absolutely. That's an, and then it's a whole healthy drive instead of overdrive. I've love it. Before we wrap up, where can listeners find you? I will have all of the ways to get ahold of you in the show notes. But just for people listening that don't want to take a peak, where can they track you down?
[00:35:46] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. I love connecting with people on Instagram. If they're on there and I put valuable content out there all the time and people message me and ask me, you know, advice and things. And so, yeah, just my Instagram, Jacqueline, [00:36:00] JC L I N underscore bacon like the meat. So that's always fun. And then just my website.
[00:36:05] So jaclynbacon.com
[00:36:07] Julie Michelson: You have given us so much gold today. Jaclyn. Thank you so much for joining us.
[00:36:14] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah, it's so fun.
[00:36:16] Julie Michelson: for everyone listening. Remember you can get the show notes and transcripts by visiting inspired living.show. I hope you had a great time and enjoy this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
[00:01:09] Jaclyn welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you with us today.
[00:01:14] Jaclyn Bacon: Thanks Julie. I'm so excited to be here.
[00:01:17] Julie Michelson: So one of the first things I usually ask our guests is, you know, how did you get to be doing the wonderful work that you're doing? Because most of us have a personal story that brought us to this world. So can you share with listeners a little bit of your journey that got you in functional medicine?
[00:01:39] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah, I'd be happy to. So, I mean really getting into nurse practitioner school, I started out pretty disgruntled about the conventional system. So I was going through clinicals, learning it with ease, but I was like, man, in the family practice. Still challenging to see people 10 minute [00:02:00] visits one after another, with multitude of complaints and felt like we were only like scratching the surface.
[00:02:05] So I felt that about 15 years ago and that really led me into lifestyle medicine and integrative and functional medicine at it at a young age. I went down that road through my own medical training and whatnot, and then really got to experience it myself personally as well. So I have always been a very healthy person and in high achiever.
[00:02:28] And then I came to a point where it's working as an MP and I was on my second pregnancy and never experienced really anxiety that affected my life. Maybe it helped me Excel in school and different things like that, but never created sleep problems or any issues until after my second pregnancy. And so that's where I was really experiencing some and insomnia.
[00:02:59] I was [00:03:00] feeling like really fatigued and tired, but also wired and on edge and having difficult. Unwinding. Like I literally would be watching a Netflix show and not be able to relax. That's when, you know, I was like, something's wrong. Like I should be able to unplug, but my nervous system was just like on overdrive and I was depleted after breastfeeding and all these pregnancies.
[00:03:24] And I went to my conventional providers as well as a functional medicine provider. And I wasn't getting any answers through the conventional, like insurance paradigm. They would do my labs, everything looked normal. I'm like, but this is totally new for me. I've literally, I used to, I remember before I even had my first kid, I was like, I don't think I'm gonna be able to wake up in the middle of the night.
[00:03:49] I was such a deep sleeper now. I think they even sleep well through the night. So it was like the stress change. But I didn't feel people are really looking deep [00:04:00] enough to explain why for myself. And so that's what really got me into the deep dive approach of functional medicine. And I do my own functional medicine labs.
[00:04:11] You know, my gut had imbalances, so I wasn't digesting things as well. I had early, very early auto-immune conditions. So I had thyroid antibodies that were elevated, but my thyroid hormones were not. So if I left that alone, I could have been on medication for life down the road. So I was like, okay, this explains some things I was super depleted in magnesium, which is your relax and mineral, and which is no surprise after pregnancy and breastfeeding that I was so depleted and had some inflammation going on.
[00:04:46] And then I also had kind of my upbringing and conditioning that led to all of this. So. I was so grateful for more clarity of the answers and then more of a holistic approach. I was [00:05:00] able to really unravel things and do the deep work and reverse these symptoms are for good, rather than just feeling which I was starting to feel.
[00:05:10] And the conventional realm see provider after provider. No answers. Get thrown more pills at myself and I'm like this. And even when I was doing better, I was getting thrown more pills at me. And I was like, this just doesn't seem right. And I have that background and I, so I had to kind of exit personally myself out of that conventional spiral of.
[00:05:37] Being victim to the system almost, you know, as a patient and take my power back of my health and Hey, let's get to the root cause. And that was like mind blowing experience for myself. That then led me into the work because I'm like I wanted this level of care as a mother, as a high [00:06:00] achiever, as, you know, a working functioning high level person and not to just be.
[00:06:06] Medicaid it for life and kind of like, here you go, five minute visit. Like that. Wasn't the solution I wanted. So I'm really providing the level of care that I wanted for women now.
[00:06:17] Julie Michelson: Yeah, which is amazing. And your, your story is so familiar because I'm guessing at some point, somebody alluded to the fact of, well, you'll have young kids, of course you're exhausted or stressed, or, you know, it's always, especially when labs are normal, especially when they're not running complete labs.
[00:06:38] Jaclyn Bacon: Right,
[00:06:40] Julie Michelson: I would imagine.
[00:06:41] And, and you, you, you touched on it, like how then, how do you practice that medicine after that? Like you have to, you have to provide that service. This is why we do what we do. And use the words, take my power back. I have a, I run a challenge. Take your power back from [00:07:00] auto-immunity. That is why we're having this conversation today.
[00:07:04] We can inspire one listener. To, you know, dig deeper and look to some of those root causes
[00:07:13] Jaclyn Bacon: Yes.
[00:07:14] Julie Michelson: and maybe go beyond the care that they've already received. That, that what I, what I love was so exciting to me about your story is that you basically prevented on it. You know, it was prevented auto immunity or. Any kind of permanent damage from it. And, and so that's one of the other reasons I wanted to bring your story to listeners because I share my story. I was 11 years in on 10 prescriptions and, you know and the exciting part is here. I am, you know, with RA that, you know, they tell you, if you don't take the drugs, you're going to have permanent damage.
[00:07:48] Now, my life is amazing. I feel so great.
[00:07:51] Jaclyn Bacon: That's awesome.
[00:07:52] Julie Michelson: But there's something. So I would love if I not F when it will be exciting when we get to a [00:08:00] point where enough people know that, you know, they, they can turn things around right away and to,
[00:08:08] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. Early detection. Like we're doing early detection for other diseases. Why aren't we checking antibodies proactive.
[00:08:15] Julie Michelson: yeah. Yeah.
[00:08:17] Jaclyn Bacon: And no level of antibodies is essentially normal physiologically for our body, right?
[00:08:23] Julie Michelson: Right. Which we should not be attacking our own tissue period. Like, no matter what. Yeah. So I, I said those are, those are just the things that I wanted to.
[00:08:35] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah.
[00:08:36] Julie Michelson: you recycle a, of this whole, like w we can do it early, trust yourself. Like so many things I hear in your story are the, like, those are the drums. I be like, nobody knows you like you do.
[00:08:48] And so if your doctors look at your beautiful labs and tell you you're fine, and you don't feel fine, find another
[00:08:56] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. Right. Yeah. And how disempowering and [00:09:00] confusing that can be. Like, if we're getting cues from our body to listen to our body, I need help. I need help. It's communicating to us. And then we're like, oh, you're, you're fine. Go on your Merry way. It's like, okay. So I'm just supposed to survive, feeling like CRA essentially.
[00:09:16] And then it kind of creates this mistrust almost with your own body. Or like it's not on your side. It is a hundred percent on our side. We can see the appropriate answers and tools to guide and support it. And that isn't often found with auto-immune conditions or chronic nagging symptoms in the conventional realm, unfortunately, present day.
[00:09:37] Right. Amazing for acute illness. Amazing for surgery,
[00:09:41] Julie Michelson: I say that all the time, God forbid, you know, there's I need acute care. I am going to the Western medical system, like that's where I'm headed immediately.
[00:09:52] Jaclyn Bacon: Absolutely.
[00:09:53] Julie Michelson: Yeah. So you, you touched on anxiety and I was thinking, as you were just [00:10:00] saying, you know, this whole is, we're talking about trusting your body, right.
[00:10:02] And knowing that those symptoms you're experiencing are signals, that is your body's way of crying for help. I can only imagine as somebody who is already in this anxiety pattern, that being told you're fine. And then, you know, who do you try? Like your, your medical provider and the medical providers are telling you?
[00:10:27] You're fine. So I, I just can imagine that would just fuel the anxiety and continue that, that pattern you talk about. This idea of high functioning anxiety. Can you share with us, I love that by the way. Can you share with us what that looks like in our everyday lives? Because so many of us hear anxiety and we think of crippling anxiety, right?
[00:10:54] We think of somebody who is, you know, really in a bad place. Yes. Yeah. [00:11:00] So it's really interfered with their daily life. And, and so you alluded to which, which is I, I just get really excited. You're like, I think having a little anxiety is what made me a go getter, right? Like there's, it does go hand in hand.
[00:11:17] With being a high achiever. So, so, you know, explain to us what you mean by, by high functioning anxiety. What does, what does that look like?
[00:11:25] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah, definitely. So high functioning anxiety is way more common than the diagnosis of anxiety. And so it will commonly show up in our day-to-day life. Like you said, it's like those overachievers people who might over commit, they have a difficult time saying no, and they're there, they're your yes. People.
[00:11:48] And so they might. Over work, find themselves really immersing in their work career. They're often big people pleasers. And so they [00:12:00] are like prioritizing other people's needs before their own. They may have difficulty just like being present. So they're always busy bodies on Mingo, perfectionist tendencies, high achievers, but difficulty just be. And you'll kind of find those patterns and a lot of people and in a lot of successful people, and that can be the pros of high functioning anxiety, but then there's the bad that comes with it.
[00:12:35] Julie Michelson: Which is
[00:12:37] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. So.
[00:12:40] Julie Michelson: I'm like, okay. You know, I could see, I hear things with different ears because I know. I know what the cons are. But, but it's like, yeah. I mean, drive, like, so some of that really does equate to drive and achievement and but the key was that, you know, they, they [00:13:00] hard to be in the present moment. You mentioned that you're in your own story, can't unplug, right?
[00:13:04] There's the, and that's, you know, when you what's, what do you hear all the time about high achievers? You hear the word burnout, right. But.
[00:13:12] Jaclyn Bacon: Exactly.
[00:13:13] Julie Michelson: So, but let's get into, so this high functioning anxiety, you're not, you know, it's not debilitating. It may even be helping in certain areas of your life. What are some of the negative consequence?
[00:13:27] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. So you might see some of the positive effects aspects and your career, but you may see some of the negative effects more in your interpersonal relationships. So, you know, your social life may compromise if you're overworking, not really having the most secure relationships. So you might have like anxious attachment patterns in your relationships.
[00:13:52] And so seeing that play out a lot of really high functioning people, they you'll see that commonly in their [00:14:00] relationships too. And if you're unable to fully be present, I imagine that's going to affect your relationships. Of course, that's also gonna affect your work, even though you might. Idolized productivity.
[00:14:13] It won't be a positive thing often when you're distracted or you're always busy or you're always on, you know that difficulty just relaxing and enjoying. So when you have these perfectionist tendencies, we tend to be over critical of ourselves and we tend to not feel like we're always good enough or compare yourself to others.
[00:14:40] And lacking just contentment and acceptance of what is, so what I kind of found my previous pattern is I was living in this place unknowingly of resistance, so, okay. I felt uncomfortable. Stress or I felt uncomfortable symptoms. Why [00:15:00] wasn't one plugged into my body enough to almost be in touch with that. And then I would resist that, oh, that anxiety and I would just turn externally. I would focus on other people's needs. I would overwork, I would go, go, go distract numb. Right. We all do this by different coming magnets. Yeah. So just that resistance though, of your own anxiety. It makes it so much worse.
[00:15:23] Oh my gosh. It just like this spiral. So if we're able to get into a place of awareness and shift, not first and then meet our needs and accept what is not as huge, but that really takes some practice and like training that muscle and rewiring of our brain neuroplasticity. But it's so possible.
[00:15:48] Julie Michelson: So very, very possible. And what about some of the, you know, here we're on inspired living with auto-immunity. How, how does that play in to auto-immunity? [00:16:00] You know, what are some. Physical consequences of set of not creating that change. Right. Not shifting.
[00:16:07] Jaclyn Bacon: Right. Yeah. I love looking at. The root causes of like, say in this instance with high-functioning anxiety, what are the root causes of that? Right. So we really need to get a really detailed intake to evaluate that from a whole person perspective. And that I find it's very much missing in the conventional realm.
[00:16:26] Right. So one part I find very much missing is looking at Trump. From our background. So, you know, doing, looking at adverse childhood experiences, then it's not, when we think here trauma, just like you were saying with anxiety, we hear the word
[00:16:44] Julie Michelson: have to be a capital T it could be a little D yeah.
[00:16:47] Jaclyn Bacon: Great. These it's not these overt abuse always.
[00:16:51] Right. It can be these kind of nagging, emotional or neglect, or our caregivers. Not [00:17:00] exhibiting their own boundaries, not having their own, you know, their coping with, with alcohol or with overworking themselves, you know, so that conditioning and what we've, we've been taught to not listen to our own needs, not to cope in healthy ways to perform in order to get rewarded, you know, high achievers.
[00:17:21] They're doing well in school while that's not just by chance, typically know that often was rewarded by our culture and conditioning. And so, you know, being aware of that aspect of our background. But then beyond that, the physical aspects are huge, like you were saying. So the root causes to really dive in deep through functional medicine testing really looks under the surface to why, why are we experiencing these symptoms?
[00:17:49] And that could be a multitude of things you're alluding to. So one common pattern we find with. Anxiety, which is just a symptom and also auto immune [00:18:00] conditions as a root cause is really our gut health.
[00:18:03] Julie Michelson: I knew you were going there because it's so true.
[00:18:11] Jaclyn Bacon: So, you know, our gut health, that is one of our most protective barriers from the external environment. And so when you have the symptom of anxiety, you have to think of a couple of things. One, is there a neuro inflammation going on? Is there inflammation of brain? Is there leaky gut in permeability of your gut that's then causing leaky brain and inflammation of your brain?
[00:18:37] Yeah, you're going to have brain fog. Yeah. You're going to have decreased mental clarity and cognition and poor memory retention and anxiety and possibly depression. Of course, you're going to experience those things. If your gut isn't balanced, not only that, just the permeability of your gut. Okay, then these good bacteria, they actually helped make your neuro-transmitters, you know, [00:19:00] 90% of our serotonin, that happy hormone in our gut.
[00:19:03] And so if we have these imbalances and that ecosystem of our gut, we're not going to have good nutrients. We're not going to have good neurotransmitters. We're not going to have optimal deep restorative sleep. We're going to get more autoimmune issues because two thirds of her immune function is in our gut.
[00:19:21] So it's. Man, if we can get a really good assessment of your ecosystem and microbiome, that gives so much clarity to the root cause and help guiding other aspects of care.
[00:19:36] Julie Michelson: It is. So I know it, some listeners may be like, oh, the gut again, like this, all anybody wants to talk about, but I want to repeat the two things that you said that often people really genuinely don't realize, which feels like newer information, is that. Most of our neurotransmitters are made in our gut.
[00:19:58] They're not made in our [00:20:00] brain. And as you just said, over two thirds of our immune system is in our gut. So this, you know, why are they always talking about gut with auto-immunity? Why are we talking about gut with mental health and mood? But because it, I mean, it, it really is that.
[00:20:19] Jaclyn Bacon: So our second brain.
[00:20:21] Julie Michelson: It is an, you know, it almost, maybe the first one.
[00:20:23] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah.
[00:20:24] Julie Michelson: we'll see, we'll see how that goes in time.
[00:20:26] Jaclyn Bacon: you'll probably be renamed I'm sure.
[00:20:28] Julie Michelson: And so it, it is fascinating to see the impact on gut healing.
[00:20:38] Jaclyn Bacon: Yes.
[00:20:39] Julie Michelson: both things, you know, anxiety auto-immunity it's it is unbelievable. I can't tell you how many clients I've had with really lifelong anxiety issues. And then, you know, no coincidence, a laundry list of autoimmune diagnoses, and [00:21:00] there'll be doing really well.
[00:21:01] I have this one, one in particular keeps coming to mind. Would it be doing, you know, doing better, doing better, and then. The anxiety would come flooding back and the depression would be terrible. And we would check in and I'd say, well, you know what, what's going on? You know, oh, you know, I had birthday cake last week at a UN like, do you see the pattern between what, what you're doing with your gut?
[00:21:26] And I mean, literally that was like direct feedback of,
[00:21:30] Jaclyn Bacon: Right
[00:21:30] Julie Michelson: but, and it's not, I'm oversimplifying, there's more to it than that. It is always fascinating to me to see, because I think I used to be on the other side where I had no understanding of it. And I was like, I don't understand what is, what you're eating has to do with your mood.
[00:21:49] And how does anxiety plan to auto-immunity, you know
[00:21:54] Jaclyn Bacon: Right. And I love taking it that step. We will look often as humans, we'll look at our [00:22:00] behavior and just want to go straight. There let's change the behavior. Let's change that food let's change that. But even taking a step back and saying, why are we engaging in that behavior? So we all cope in different ways and we've been conditioned,
[00:22:14] Julie Michelson: to have to identify the trauma.
[00:22:19] Jaclyn Bacon: right.
[00:22:19] Julie Michelson: And the handle, you know, and change to change those patterns. You have to know why they're there. All of our patterns served us at one time. Like you were saying that being that overachiever really probably got that positive attention or relief from negative attention as a child, you know, to get those good grades or go after whether it's athletic.
[00:22:41] Academics doesn't matter. And again, those are things that seem to surface on the surface, but they create these patterns that expire that
[00:22:48] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. As adults. Yeah. They serve as children. We have to adapt to our environment and, you know, we have to really we're dependent on other people then. So the coping mechanisms we use then are very different than [00:23:00] what creates a very. Balanced and resilient adult. And there's kind of this bridge and time, and we just aren't taught healthy coping skills as children, or like how to have self-awareness and meet our own needs.
[00:23:13] It's, it's, it's one of the most overlooked things I think, as us as humans, what we're doing in our education system. But I see it starting to evolve, which is powerful.
[00:23:24] Julie Michelson: It is, it is I see a lot of younger people. I was thinking the same thing, you know, we send our kids to school and they're taught, you know, Trust your instincts. And you know, all of that, the creativity is take all of
[00:23:36] Jaclyn Bacon: Right. Yeah.
[00:23:38] Julie Michelson: suppress. And then, you know, when we decided to, you know, handle all of it as adults and relearn, like what really does serve us.
[00:23:47] I do see, you know, for me, I think I was in my third year. And already diagnosed with immunity before I got a glimpse of like, huh, maybe I don't want to raise my [00:24:00] kids that way. Maybe there's a way so that they don't have to undo all of this and their thirties and forties or twenties and thirties. So I do see.
[00:24:12] Shifting, but it, again, as you said, we weren't taught these skills. There's still a lot of, you know, the kids are only being raised with the level of which should their parents have dealt with their stuff. Right. So it's it's
[00:24:29] Jaclyn Bacon: your parents, their teachers, like all these people living around and, and I find it interesting. I hear that story commonly. When you mentioned, when you became a mom, That's when we kind of look at our own stuff a little more. And that was definitely my situation too. It's like, oh, I don't want the same thing for my kids.
[00:24:49] And it makes you look at you. Can't just say most people, apparently my counselor she's like, yeah, most people will just try to compensate and do the opposite of their child.
[00:24:59] Julie Michelson: Right,[00:25:00]
[00:25:00] Jaclyn Bacon: you're really not dealing with your stuff still. You know, you're just attempting on the external though, like, oh, I'm going to do different, but if we can look within and really we can stop that generational trauma habits.
[00:25:14] So that's the most powerful as far as that, but of course all this stuff leads to more physical causes. And if we have that sympathetic nervous system constantly activating. You know, not only gut health, but our hormones and thyroid health. And it's just this like
[00:25:33] Julie Michelson: Well, you said you weren't sleeping, right? Like, I mean, it all plays together and that's why that the approach of what's your symptom, here's your pill doesn't work because, you know,
[00:25:48] Jaclyn Bacon: Working at the Y.
[00:25:49] Julie Michelson: Yeah. Yeah. So you, do you talk about. The, you know, these root causes of the anxiety and the [00:26:00] auto-immunity and you, we talked, we just were talking about trauma and neuroplasty, you know, all these amazing things cause that it, it keeps coming back to what you said.
[00:26:09] W you know, we do have the power, we have the power, we have the power to improve our health. We have the power to. Create new parenting opportunities. You know, we don't have to either repeat the same pattern. I mean, that used to be how it was right with the family dynamic. We either repeated, or we did the opposite, which was often just as unhealthy the opposite.
[00:26:33] And, and we're not stuck with that. We do have the power, if we're willing. To learn and grow, to create a whole new opportunities and shift our family experiences. But what, yeah, what are some of the tools that people can use to help reduce that anxiety and improve that and maybe, you know, avoid auto-immunity or [00:27:00] turn it around quickly.
[00:27:03] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. So I always go back to the top three root causes. If you kind of look at them very big picture wise, it will often come down to stress and that could be physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, right? So stress is one, two nutrition, and then three talks. And so every individual, the root causes of the.
[00:27:27] And the priorities will be different at any given time, but let's just talk with one that is generalized. Everybody can benefit from, and yes, we can look at our backgrounds and do that work with an amazing trauma informed counselor or provider, but regardless of where you're at with your backup.
[00:27:47] Everybody lives in a modern society can benefit from nervous system regulation. And so I love to give some tips on how it can do that super practically, because it doesn't need to [00:28:00] be a big thing and incorporate that in our daily life.
[00:28:04] Julie Michelson: Because that's you just touched on, I think that that's some of the biggest resistance people think it has to be here. Like, you know, I don't have time to go to a cave and meditate for 30
[00:28:13] Jaclyn Bacon: Right, right, right.
[00:28:14] Julie Michelson: I'm like, no, no, that's not absolutely need to do
[00:28:17] Jaclyn Bacon: right, right.
[00:28:18] Julie Michelson: Yeah. That would be great. Let's go there. What, what.
[00:28:22] Jaclyn Bacon: So, you know, we have the spider flight system versus our rest and digest. We want that rest and digest parasympathetic nervous system relaxation, more, not this constant activation of fight or flight. Like most of our modern society. So how can we intentionally do that by engaging and really biohacking our nervous system with practical tools day to day.
[00:28:47] So those parasympathetic nervous system tips that are just transformational and play with it, like experiment with the ones that you enjoy. And first I would recommend [00:29:00] attaching. Simply to an existing habit. So a couple things is I love, love, love building self-awareness first. So when you build self-awareness, that is not only impactful on its own.
[00:29:13] Checking in with your. And, but it then directs your future behaviors and how to meet your needs. So that would look like a simple self check-in. And so that could be while you're doing existing habit and brushing your teeth in the morning. Yeah, exactly. Like, Hey, what am I feeling like rating your stress levels zero to 10, naming an emotion or two you're feeling, you know, Naming, like what is my physical energy?
[00:29:44] Like zero to 10. What's my mental clarity. Like, so you already have an intake and the day of your capacity. And so you can like you don't, you're not pushing through and burning yourself out more. You're like, man, my stress is already a [00:30:00] four and I'm just waking up. Okay. Well, I can take some deep breaths and calm that down pretty quick.
[00:30:06] But if you wait until your stress levels and eight later in the day, oh, that takes so much more time, energy and effort to decrease. Right? So it's all about that earlier cues and awareness. So we can nourish ourselves. We can meet our own needs. It's very simply, and it literally takes like two minutes to do that.
[00:30:29] Julie Michelson: It's amazing. And I love literally when. We speak the same language would be an understatement. Always saying like awareness is the first step you can't create change. If you don't know where you are, you need to know where you are.
[00:30:45] Jaclyn Bacon: right.
[00:30:45] Julie Michelson: do you want to go? And then you can start to move that needle. And literally everything, you know, I mentioned that challenge that I run sometimes, literally everything that you just, the tech ends, those are all on.
[00:30:58] Like the first day they [00:31:00] get attracted. Because just to, because again, as you were saying, these are the things, when you're in that, go, go, go. Next thing, next thing, next thing you, you have to be present to do that. Check-in and so many people haven't been present in a really long time. And so I love that.
[00:31:19] And even the. For those of you that are listening on audio? I w I was brushing my teeth with my imaginary toothbrushes. She was saying when you brush,
[00:31:30] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah, totally.
[00:31:31] Julie Michelson: Because this stuff really, really does work.
[00:31:34] Jaclyn Bacon: It does.
[00:31:35] Julie Michelson: And so,
[00:31:36] Jaclyn Bacon: When you were saying about being present our brain, literally can't be anxious and thinking about the future past, if we're in the moment present.
[00:31:46] Julie Michelson: yeah.
[00:31:47] Jaclyn Bacon: So before.
[00:31:48] Julie Michelson: say right. Fresh. And when you're stuck in the past and anxiety is when you're stuck in the future present, this is where it's at. That's what it does. It takes training. It is a month. We [00:32:00] definitely yeah, but, but the, the fun thing is even just the shift from doing that check-in exercise is you get rewarded like you, and it just starts to build on, on itself.
[00:32:14] Jaclyn Bacon: Oh, wow. I didn't even realize I was feeling sad about that. And that's why I've been numbing and watching more shows or wine or
[00:32:24] Julie Michelson: Yeah. And you, you mention well looking for the unplug, right? That that sometimes is elusive. And you mentioned how much more difficult and longer it takes to address, you know, a stress level of an eight.
[00:32:40] Jaclyn Bacon: Right.
[00:32:40] Julie Michelson: But often until you start doing these check-ins and, and, you know, just dipping your toe into some presence sometimes, you know, feel a for you, you know, you don't even feel the difference between a foreign and eight you're just constantly.
[00:32:56] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. And your brain going.
[00:32:58] Julie Michelson: Yeah. And so I [00:33:00] love that. So, Yeah. I always ask what's one step listeners can take, but you just gave us and yes, it had multiple parts, but I'm going to, I'm going to umbrella it under just the check-in. Right. I hopefully everybody brushes their teeth in the morning to.
[00:33:17] Jaclyn Bacon: Morning coffee, maybe.
[00:33:20] Julie Michelson: I do have one client who, when we started working on toxins and I got him to understand what was in the toothpaste he was using. He for apparently for about two weeks, just didn't get clean toothpaste and just stopped using toothpaste. And I'm like, oh, well, probably better. But your poor girlfriend, and deodorant, he did the same with Bodel same time.
[00:33:46] I was like,
[00:33:46] Jaclyn Bacon: dedicated.
[00:33:47] Julie Michelson: That's amazing. I'm glad you were no longer, you know, putting toxins in your mouth and under your arms,
[00:33:53] Jaclyn Bacon: That's the most important part. Anyhow, the brushing action.
[00:33:57] Julie Michelson: but even he was still brushing. So when you brush [00:34:00] in the morning, you know, it start to, to do that. Check-in I love it. And I love the.
[00:34:06] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah.
[00:34:07] Julie Michelson: Yeah. And some of it, you and I, you know, we're giggling and it, it's simple and it's fun and it's, it's not simple. Like, it is simple in that you can do it in less than two minutes, but so many people, you mentioned name and emotion, I'm feeling so
[00:34:25] Jaclyn Bacon: I know how to do that at first. I literally didn't have that skill to identify my emotions.
[00:34:30] Julie Michelson: Yeah.
[00:34:31] Jaclyn Bacon: So, and that's, that's common, you
[00:34:33] Julie Michelson: It's very common. And so I just wanted to acknowledge for anybody who is
[00:34:37] Jaclyn Bacon: it's going to feel weird.
[00:34:39] Julie Michelson: pick up this, this exercise that yes, we're saying it's simple in the, it is, it's a small step to create huge change, but that it, it is, it will take practice and some of it will be uncomfortable when you start.
[00:34:53] Jaclyn Bacon: Especially in the beginning.
[00:34:55] Julie Michelson: Yeah.
[00:34:56] Jaclyn Bacon: Trust in that and making it fun. That's what keeps you [00:35:00] engaged and realizing the positive feedback. How you continue to build habits is our brain is always looking for the negative for survival. But if we look for the positive, oh, how did I feel when I checked in that day?
[00:35:12] Oh, wow. I actually felt a little lighter. It was more engaged. I was more mindful with my meals, you know? So even when you exercise, pay attention to that positive reward, because that's what. You to continue that habit.
[00:35:26] Julie Michelson: Absolutely. That's an, and then it's a whole healthy drive instead of overdrive. I've love it. Before we wrap up, where can listeners find you? I will have all of the ways to get ahold of you in the show notes. But just for people listening that don't want to take a peak, where can they track you down?
[00:35:46] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah. I love connecting with people on Instagram. If they're on there and I put valuable content out there all the time and people message me and ask me, you know, advice and things. And so, yeah, just my Instagram, Jacqueline, [00:36:00] JC L I N underscore bacon like the meat. So that's always fun. And then just my website.
[00:36:05] So jaclynbacon.com
[00:36:07] Julie Michelson: You have given us so much gold today. Jaclyn. Thank you so much for joining us.
[00:36:14] Jaclyn Bacon: Yeah, it's so fun.
[00:36:16] Julie Michelson: for everyone listening. Remember you can get the show notes and transcripts by visiting inspired living.show. I hope you had a great time and enjoy this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
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My Guest For This Episode
Connect with Jaclyn Bacon
Jaclyn Bacon
Holistic Nurse Practitioner
Jaclyn Bacon is a holistic nurse practitioner and health coach with over 15 years of experience.
She specializes in functional medicine and getting to the root causes of your symptoms.
Jaclyn provides online health consulting services to women worldwide. Guiding them to break free from anxiety, restore their gut health, and balance their hormones for good
She specializes in functional medicine and getting to the root causes of your symptoms.
Jaclyn provides online health consulting services to women worldwide. Guiding them to break free from anxiety, restore their gut health, and balance their hormones for good
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