Episode 99
Dr Tami Meraglia:
Why Traditional Medicine Got It Wrong with Dr. Tami Meraglia
For this episode, I'm thrilled to welcome back Dr. Tami Meraglia. She dives deep into the role of energy and frequency as a pivotal pillar of health. In this episode we explored everything from cellular health, meditation, the power of thoughts, and the transformative effect of gratitude.
First Aired on: Aug 6, 2023
Episode 99
Dr Tami Meraglia:
Why Traditional Medicine Got It Wrong with Dr. Tami Meraglia
For this episode, I'm thrilled to welcome back Dr. Tami Meraglia. She dives deep into the role of energy and frequency as a pivotal pillar of health. In this episode we explored everything from cellular health, meditation, the power of thoughts, and the transformative effect of gratitude.
First Aired on: Aug 6, 2023
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
For this episode, I'm thrilled to welcome back Dr. Tami Meraglia. A producer, author, and CEO of multiple medical clinics, Dr. Tami dives deep into the role of energy and frequency as a pivotal pillar of health.
Throughout the episode, we explored everything from cellular health, meditation, the power of thoughts, and the transformative effect of gratitude.
The Importance of Cellular Health:
Practical tips to support and enhance cellular electricity.
Practices to incorporate into daily routines for optimal health.
Western vs. Eastern Medical Practices:
Dr. Tami's approach to combining both for a holistic healthcare approach.
Importance of evidence-based care and when to use medications.
Healthcare and its Evolution:
How membership-based practices can make concierge medicine accessible.
The emergence and benefits of nationwide telehealth programs amidst COVID-19.
Emphasizing the Pillars of Health:
Deep dive into structure, chemical, and energy as the triad of health.
The transformative role of frequency and its connection to meditation.
Meditation Myths Debunked:
Addressing misconceptions around needing a "quiet mind".
Recommendations for beginners and understanding the real benefits.
Harnessing Positive Thoughts:
Strategies to manage negative thoughts instead of eliminating them.
Real-world anecdotes highlighting the tangible effects of our thoughts.
The Gratitude Practice:
Insights into how gratitude trumps even love in its transformative power.
Practical advice on cultivating and maintaining a gratitude mindset.
Other Resources:
Connect with Dr Tami Meraglia
Episode Transcript
Julie Michelson: [Page//00:00:00] Welcome back to the inspired living with autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michelson. And today Dr. Tami Meraglia joins us again. And we're talking about energy and frequency as a pillar of health.
Dr. Tami is the producer of the docuseries, the healing secret, the author of the nationally bestselling book, the hormone secret and the CEO of [Page//00:01:00] vitality hormone clinic in Seattle, bio Renati Stem Cell and Regenerative Center in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and the Seattle Stem Cell Center.
In today's conversation, we discuss why it's essential for optimal health to be supporting our cellular electricity, and Dr. Tami gives us great tips and essential practices to incorporate into our daily routines.
Dr. Tami, welcome to the podcast.
Tami Meraglia: Thank you for having me.
Julie Michelson: I'm so excited that you were gracious enough to come back and have a second conversation with us. Thank you. Thank you.
Tami Meraglia: My pleasure.
Julie Michelson: Really, really glad to, to get to hit on some of the things we didn't get to last time, but for listeners that did not hear your last episode, can you share a little bit?
I think your, your story is remarkable. Um, can you share a little bit of your journey from, I'm just going to leave it at how are you so open [Page//00:02:00] minded?
Tami Meraglia: I think it helps to not have gone through high school, undergrad, medical school, residency, doctor, like all in a row, I left home at a young age and danced professionally in a ballet company for many, many years and toured and, and, and had a whole life. That was very different from, your typical, you know, world, especially for a teen and early twenties.
And so when I went to school, I didn't intend on going to medical school. I was like, Oh my gosh, that's like a lot of school, but anatomy captured my interest and sciences. When you do well in them, you end up with a pre med degree. And I worked at, um, I haven't told hardly anybody this story because I never think of it as, as being important, but yet [Page//00:03:00] it sticks out in my mind as one of the places where I really decided that I don't know if I'm going to be a doctor, but I'm going to be involved in caring for people in a way that is significant.
So I worked at an assisted living home, a private assisted living home, which meant. I had seven adults with varying degrees of medical needs. I have no idea how it's legal to put somebody like me who had no training at the time in charge of this and I was in charge for 72 hours, all day, all night. You know, morning, noon and night and I had to do a straight catheter on one gentleman and there was, you know, another little lady in a wheelchair and there was this Irish woman and she had dementia and she was combative and they changed her medications the first day that I was there and I was in charge of [Page//00:04:00] medications and in the nighttime she was shouting and carrying on and I go in and she was a nanny.
And she says, I'm going to die. I'm going to make meet my maker.
Julie Michelson: Oh, no, not on my
Tami Meraglia: And I'm like, no, and then she looked at me and she says, who are you? And I said, you know, I'm Tami. She's what's your family name? And I said, Oh, Casey was my family name. And she said, Oh, the old Casey's are a terrible lot.
Julie Michelson: Oh,
Tami Meraglia: Just had all these intense experiences, but come morning, you know, I'd take them outside and I learned about the power of music to help them feel more calm and looked into nutrition.
And I don't know, it just piqued my interest of at any stage of your life, can you up level things simply?
Julie Michelson: I love that.
Tami Meraglia: I ended up going to medical school, but I was older. And I didn't swallow all the Kool Aid. I [Page//00:05:00] remember being told that, you know, we should prescribe, you know, proton pump inhibitors and H2 blockers for reflux, for heartburn.
And I was asking, well, but, but why? Which doesn't happen very
Julie Michelson: No. And, and, you know, gosh, I wish more doctors would ask that
Tami Meraglia: Well, I, you know, I
Julie Michelson: people we've had to work off of
Tami Meraglia: I know, and it's not easy to get off of them, and I was told, well, it's because people have too much acid, and I was like, that doesn't make any sense. Like an 18 year old has way more acid, and they eat a pizza and a liter of coke and go to bed and have no problem. Like this doesn't add up.
So I've always been that personality type that questions, like. Upstream. Like, but why? But why? And so then if you dig, you go, Oh, actually it's a [Page//00:06:00] deficiency of acid that causes this problem because your, your sphincter, your lower esophageal sphincter is supposed to close in the presence of acid, which happens when you eat.
But if you don't have enough, it, it, it doesn't close all the way or it doesn't close properly. So I just didn't swallow well. All of the Kool Aid and I think that the open mindedness isn't necessarily an open mindedness to information. It's a curiosity about why and asking questions constantly much to my husband's
Julie Michelson: That, that approach, um, is my, literally my favorite example of the different approaches in traditional Western medicine versus functional medicine, because it's, it's such a, literally a 180. Right there. Well, is it not enough acid? Is it too much acid? Which is it? And not enough for everybody listening is the [Page//00:07:00] correct answer.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: It's the, you know, we need that signal and the connection of the, the, this association of like, Oh my gosh, your digestive tract starts in your mouth and goes all the way out. What? It's all one system. Wow. Um, but I love that you brought up that example because That is that question. Why? Right. I used to as a tired mom, not always love that question.
We would joke, um, bringing me back, you know, 20, 25 years and the kids were little and you know, it would be like, yep, that's your favorite letter. But thank goodness. I even knew enough back then not to squash that. Right. That's what. Just keeps us going and growing. And I love that. And I'm so excited. So this open minded now [Page//00:08:00] physician is still obviously asking why.
Um,
Tami Meraglia: So I finished traditional Western medical school and you know, that's four years undergrad. That's four years medical school. That's three plus years residency. It's a lot of education and I'm so grateful for it and I wouldn't have traded it for the world, but I learned very little to nothing about wellness.
Truly optimizing health and I didn't learn anything about preventative medicine. So when you go to the doctor for your preventative medical appointment, they're not trying to prevent stuff. They're trying to find things at early stages. That's not the same. It's still a disease, a diagnosis, and a condition model.
And I don't have a problem with that. Just don't call it healthcare, call it sick care, cuz that's what it is
Julie Michelson: and it's good at
Tami Meraglia: glad. Yeah, it's awesome that we have [Page//00:09:00] antibiotics if you have a burst appendix and then a surgeon with anesthesia. So I'm glad it's there. But, um, But it doesn't cover wellness and it doesn't cover prevention.
Julie Michelson: I love that word. And like you said, optimization, right. Which is I think where you focus your, your time. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: And, you know, I actually had to go back to school. Uh, there's a lot of doctors that, you know, naturopaths that don't, uh, go to traditional medical school, but, you know, they say their education is enough and, and maybe it is, I don't judge. And then there's a lot of MDs who say that they practice functional medicine and they haven't done any formal training and maybe it is, and maybe their experience is enough.
But for me, I've always been curious. And so I actually went and studied naturopathic integrative medicine and got certified in that. It's not acknowledged by the American, you know, Medical Association, the [Page//00:10:00] AMA, but they're never going to recognize a naturopathic certification. So, um, so it was wonderful, wonderful to be able to learn the different paradigms and, uh, and I really feel like the way I approach.
My practice and, you know, the other physicians that work with me, and we have meetings about all of our patients that we see nationwide. We really approach it from an evidence based, holistic way of combining East and West, natural and Western, traditional and, um, forward focusing. So, you know, if you have high blood pressure, we are going to put you on a blood pressure medication that is a prescription because the worst part about a stroke is surviving it.
But we'll also work on getting you off it.
Julie Michelson: Why? Right? Why do you have high blood pressure? And let's fix that.
Tami Meraglia: Exactly.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. I love that. And then [Page//00:11:00] it is so important for, uh, thank you for sharing that approach, your approach with our audience, because it is, people will, you know, sometimes they'll hear my story if I've. I've done an interview, you know, in the other seat and I share, you know, the 10 prescriptions I was on, including a proton pump inhibitor way back when, because I had a heartburn from as a side effect from one of my other medications,
Tami Meraglia: Right?
Julie Michelson: I did not have, you know, a PPI deficiency, um, right, but it is so people will come and they'll say, you know, I want to get off my meds and I'm like, I want you to feel well.
Like, let's make that the goal, right? Live well, live fully. And, and so I love the, to highlight that sometimes medications, they're there for a reason. And when they're used properly. You know, no, they're not the end all be all, but they definitely have an, it can have an [Page//00:12:00] important place in keeping us healthy or allowing us to regain health.
Tami Meraglia: absolutely. Yeah. And it's, it's a lot more complex than people realize. And if you don't want to take a prescription, then you are going to have to do some other intervention. What involves a difference in your lifestyle, what goes in your mouth, when it goes in your mouth, when you go to sleep, how you breathe, what you supplement, how you move.
And there's, there's a commitment that goes along with that. So,
Julie Michelson: It's a, and it's a process and it can take time. And that's where the intervention is.
Tami Meraglia: Well, and that's why we created a membership. So first of all, we created a membership in our practice to help people afford concierge medicine. So everybody wants a personalized concierge medical doctor who does holistic medicine that they can call any time for any reason.
You know, during the pandemic, it was great because we were just there and we can write in a prescription if [Page//00:13:00] you need it, if you have a UTI and you have regularly scheduled. Evaluations of hormones and DNA and microbiome and we're we're looking and digging and optimizing in addition to that. And so I wanted it to be affordable in my.
The lowest price point is I've always got a commitment to making it less than a latte a day because I'm
Julie Michelson: that.
Tami Meraglia: Seattle and we have, you know, my professional baseball players and my professional basketball player patients and my professional football player patients that have my. Cell phone number and text me and all that.
That's a different price point, but we pay for less than 200 a month, but the membership mentality was something that, you know, you pay on a regular basis and it's like a gym for the inside of your body.
Julie Michelson: I love that.
Tami Meraglia: continuously working on it instead of waiting until there's a problem and it's...
Julie Michelson: Hey doctor, fix this. Yeah. [Page//00:14:00] I like that. It's a great way to get buy in, right? We all need to buy in that our health is our responsibility as well. And we need to be taking
Tami Meraglia: More affordable when it's spread out over 12 months.
Julie Michelson: sure. Sure. Yeah. It feels less, less painful that way, but also, you know, it keeps us kind of in that game and in that mindset as, as we move through the year,
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, if you've already paid for your appointment, you're probably more likely to show up
Julie Michelson: Yeah. You'll
Tami Meraglia: then
Julie Michelson: done,
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, 60 to 75 minutes having a, you know, double certified MD dig into your data for you and create a personalized program. And so that's what we do nationwide. That was the, the, uh, blessing of COVID was we created a nationwide telehealth program.
Julie Michelson: which is amazing. It is amazing. And there, there were many blessings in that time period. And I do think that that was definitely one of the [Page//00:15:00] biggest ones
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. Everybody learned how to use zoom.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So we're talking about prescriptions and we're talking about. You know, perspective and asking the question, why, which I think is the key, um, this question, why, why is it Dr.
Tami, that one of your, I don't think you use the word pillars, but I'm, I,
Tami Meraglia: I do.
Julie Michelson: okay. One of your pillars is energy.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. uh, I just think that If you think about how, like, well, how does the human body work? What's going on in there? So you look at structure, right? Um, if you have a broken leg, that doesn't matter what hormones or anything that you're going to give somebody. You actually [Page//00:16:00] have to realign that bone and allow it to heal.
You have to fix this structure. And then there's chemicals, right? So there's hormones, neurotransmitters, our food. Turns into chemicals. A weight loss is a chemical equation. So we help people out with that as well. And so the chemicals are important. But then when I was looking, you know, I wrote the book, the hormone secret, I was very blessed.
It was published by Simon and Schuster and became a bestseller. And I was looking, well, how does our body produce these hormones? Like what are, why do they produce these hormones? What's the message? And I realized that the messages are sometimes electrical or frequency or energy and your adrenal glands are a really great example of how your body can have a Full reaction in structure [Page//00:17:00] and in chemical because of energy, and I think of your thoughts as energy because we can actually look at your brain and measure the electricity and the frequency and depending on.
Whether you're actively thinking or not really thinking or meditating or sleeping, that is going to look very, very different. It turns out every single solitary cell in your body has electricity and current and frequency. And so when you're in a car and you're driving along and then there's sirens behind you and you hear them and you see the lights flashing, what happens?
Well, you have a thought. Usually. Oh, crap. How fast was I going?
Julie Michelson: know?
Tami Meraglia: But also, your eyes will dilate. Your respiratory rate will increase. Your heart rate will increase. Your [Page//00:18:00] palms will sweat. You will have a full body reaction to the thoughts.
Of being pulled over and getting, you know, in trouble, or late, or a ticket, or da da da da da. I was thinking, well, how the heck does that happen? So I came up with this philosophy of there are three pillars of health. The structure, the chemical, and the energy. If you have something wrong with your heart, we check the electricity.
If you have something wrong with your nerves, we check the electricity. If you have something wrong with your brain, we check the electricity. I mean, everything has frequency, energy, and electricity. And if you have all three, Optimized. There's nothing that can shake your resilience. That doesn't mean things don't happen.
It just means that you are able to continue to thrive through it. If you have two that are optimized instead of three. It just takes a relationship breakup, [Page//00:19:00] or a job loss, or a worldwide pandemic for you to have your health shaken. And if you only have one, you likely already have a diagnosis. of a disease or a condition.
And so my goal in our entire practice is to optimize the three pillars.
Julie Michelson: I love that. And so I am hoping to dig in today to talk about that frequency pillar, the energy. You know, I, I love that. It sounds so obvious when you say it, right? Like if you have a brain issue, we're checking electricity. If you have a heart issue, you know, yet people are always like, what do you mean?
You know, we're energy beings. What do you mean? Cellular energy? What does this mean? So tell me when you're working with your patients on that pillar, what [Page//00:20:00] kinds of things are you looking at or looking for or having them do?
Tami Meraglia: So meditation is probably the one of the biggest things that you can do to change the frequency of every cell in your body. And there are people like my friend, Dr. Joe Dispenza, who is working In doing amazing research, like with universities doing blood samples, saliva samples, DNA samples, I mean, he's really getting the data to show that meditation actually can change the way that cells function in a very profound way.
Um, it's amazing. So I
Julie Michelson: amazing. And that data is, I think, we shouldn't need, it's not new information, but, but the data has been missing as far as. in today's world, right? [Page//00:21:00] And so I love what the, just his whole movement of actually, you know, really collecting that data and, and it becomes irrefutable at that, you know, if you're, if you're someone who hasn't experienced it anyway, I think once you experience your own shift and you have your own, you know, then you don't need convincing, but
Tami Meraglia: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: it's really fun.
So you think everybody should meditate.
Tami Meraglia: Oh, 100%. But I don't think that everybody should meditate with Dr. Joe Dispenza's meditation type of practice. You need to find the one or ones that work for you. I probably have five different ones. You should have a tickle trunk because there's some days where the sound of anybody's voice on a meditation, I want to choke them.
Um, it just irritates
Julie Michelson: but she really needs to meditate at that
Tami Meraglia: I really do, but not with somebody's voice. So I'll go to something else like biornal brain beats, which, you [Page//00:22:00] know, you have, you are getting tones in your different ears. You have to wear them. Dr. Andrew Huberman of Huberman podcast just has some information about biornal brain beats.
Again, lots and lots of research about it. It literally puts your brain into a different frequency. Which then has a different cascade of hormones and inflammatory markers and chemicals and nutrients that are released throughout your body all from spending. 10 to 30 minutes sitting there listening to something that sounds like rain, but has binary by urinal brain beats.
And there's so many that are free. I mean, that's 1 of the things that we do in our practice is that we were, we're partly optimizing as, you know, really great physicians, I hope, but we're also navigating people's. You know, ability to get free things.
Julie Michelson: for
Tami Meraglia: How can you use your insurance to pay for that? How can you find this for free?
And so, there's lots on your, on YouTube that [Page//00:23:00] are free, that are by Urinal Brain Beats. Sometimes I like to use breathing meditations. Dr. Andrew Weil has a lot of them. Uh, Dr. Wayne Dyer has I Am That I Am. So if you have a very strong... Uh, religious or Christian faith, and that is actually based on the, the, the Hebrew word, I am that I am changed into the tomes of music.
I mean, there's just beauty everywhere you go in this. And if 10 minutes to meditate, I'm With so much love in my heart, I'm going to call you a liar. And ask you how much time you spend on social media or, you know,
Julie Michelson: Well, and it's, what's the saying, you know, and nobody, look, none of us have. 10 minutes for whatever, fill in the[Page//00:24:00]
Tami Meraglia: unless it's prioritized.
Julie Michelson: it, right? You have to make that time, and you're right, I call BS right along with you, that you can't find 10 minutes in your, you can't create 10 minutes in your day. Um,
Tami Meraglia: think it is? You know, I think it's more, Julie, that, um, people, A, don't feel differently at the very beginning when, so they don't get that positive hit and so there's not that dopamine hit and so it's not reinforced right away. And actually some people, a lot of people, um, feel worse. You know, they say, I suck at it, I can't quiet my mind, this was a failure, I'm more frustrated now
Julie Michelson: Like you're reading my mind. That was my next question.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. Guess
Julie Michelson: I'm a bad meditator.
Tami Meraglia: You are,
Julie Michelson: We all are.
Tami Meraglia: especially at the beginning. Can you imagine like a baby? Like, Oh my gosh, I suck at walking. I'm just never going to do
Julie Michelson: I'm not going to do it. [Page//00:25:00] I fell down. Yeah. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: You know, if you, I say that if you don't truly know, I don't like the word believe, but if you don't truly know in your heart and in your head that meditation can transform your present and future health and life, then go find some more research. If you are somebody that needs the data because it now is available. So there's no reason for you to not prioritize this other than you choosing to not. It's the same as exercise. The most powerful thing that you can do for your physical health is exercise. Even a 10 minute walk after you eat. And to just simply never exercise is no longer [Page//00:26:00] acceptable. You know. that exercise is going to transform your present and your future health.
So you have to be a good parent to yourself and you have to have a come to Jesus talk with yourself and you have to do things that aren't very comfortable like meditation.
Julie Michelson: I love that. I think one of the best gifts, cause I was in that same boat. I tried meditating several, you know, several different kind of rotations throughout my wellness journey. And. Was totally in that camp of I'm a terrible meditator. I can't do this. And it was, it was when I finally met Emily Fletcher from Zeva meditation.
And she said, she's such a doll. And you know, she was like. The brain isn't made that way. Like, it's the exercise of returning. It was like a lightbulb went off. I thought I was a failure because I was making a shopping [Page//00:27:00] list during my, you know, and like, oh, I'm just bad at this. I guess it's not working. Um, and so it's like an exercise.
You're not going to say, I'm going to exercise tomorrow and sign up for a triathlon. Like you're just not going to do it. So don't expect to sit down and all of a sudden, you know, have this really transformative meditation session. It's not going to happen.
Tami Meraglia: And I think that people think that they're supposed to have a quiet mind and maybe there's somebody out there that's saying that we should like have a little intervention with them or something because your mind can no, no more have no thoughts than your heart can stop.
Julie Michelson: But you don't want, you really don't want your, your brain to stop. I promise.
Tami Meraglia: no, but
Julie Michelson: where that even started, you know, that this idea is such a, so I love, I love that you said that. So meditation. Okay. And, and really you think just [Page//00:28:00] to start at 10 minutes a day is going to move the needle?
Tami Meraglia: You know, I, I think that people feel like they have to do an hour of meditation to make it count. I just think that, you know, what's scary to you, you know what you will do. Um, for me, I take a long time to settle down. And so a 10 minute meditation is never a good meditation for me. I have to do a longer meditation just because, like, there's just so...
You know, my favorite description of meditation is puppy training. So your brain is the puppy. Sit. And then the puppy goes, ah, ah, ah, ah, come back,
Julie Michelson: Yep.
Tami Meraglia: no, no, no, come back, sit. And that's all it is. And not getting mad. You don't get mad at the puppy for being a puppy. You just. Keep at it and keep at it and keep at it and then you will [Page//00:29:00] eventually have this truly blissful moment where you are engrossed in the present moment. And then you'll be like,
Julie Michelson: Oh, darn.
Tami Meraglia: I'm evaluating the present moment. I'm no longer in the present moment. So it's okay.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. And the beautiful thing is that, that, that correct me if I'm wrong, I, my understanding is even when we're not in that blissful, if we don't reach that, if we do our meditation and we're not getting that blissful experience each time, we're actually still on the cellular level getting the benefits of meditating.
Tami Meraglia: Yes, 100%.
Julie Michelson: Awesome. Yeah. Oh, good. I'll keep doing it.
Tami Meraglia: You don't have to feel like it was there. There's
Julie Michelson: It's not always a vacation,
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, there's no such thing as a bad meditation. It's like, you know, there's no such thing as a bad walk. You [Page//00:30:00] might not have liked it, but you logged that benefit.
Julie Michelson: I love that. That's amazing. So meditation, it sounds like number one, no brainer. Everybody should do it.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, and maybe go to like a conference or a weekend or a workshop or something. Um, I know that that's was like I tried for years to meditate and you know, I never kind of stuck to it. Uh, even though I would tell my patients all the time about the benefits of it. I'm like,
yeah, really.
Julie Michelson: as I do. This works.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, but then when I went, I went to a Joe Dispenza meditation a few years ago and I went to learn a few things to help my patients and maybe some breathing techniques and yeah, no, that's not what happened
Julie Michelson: Okay.
Tami Meraglia: when I had that time to really practice and learn and practice again and learn more and then practice again and practice again and I [Page//00:31:00] didn't have laundry and I didn't have to cook and I didn't have to clean and I didn't have to drive and I didn't have my computer and I didn't have my cell phone.
It was magical. So sometimes it does take that like, you know, little moment of time to actually. Get the skill embedded and then it's easier to continue on.
Julie Michelson: I love that. I also wonder some of it is being out of your physical environment. I think some of it too, is you went there holding it gently because it wasn't for you. You didn't go there like, I'm going to perfect this meditation thing this time. Right.
Tami Meraglia: Well, and I almost laugh. I'm like, Oh gosh, they're clapping and I'm like, I don't do this. I like, this is like a Tony Robbins event at the beginning. I'm like, I'm like,
Julie Michelson: When Joe first walks in the room and people go
crazy. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: But it isn't like that for long and then I had to have like a little conversation with myself. I'm like. Seriously? [Page//00:32:00] You're gonna be like all judgy? You flew here, you took a week off, your family is, I mean like, really? Yeah, you're really good at judging. You can stay like that if you would like to and waste this entire time.
Julie Michelson: I love it.
Tami Meraglia: Do you ever wonder who's inside your head that you're talking to?
Julie Michelson: Oh my gosh. I think half the, literally half the work I do with clients is about that voice. Really, you know, retraining and noticing and because our thoughts are energy, right? We just, we just said that. And
Tami Meraglia: Yes.
Julie Michelson: I used to always, Get to that part of the work with clients, right? This, the, the mean, I call it the mean voice and the mean voice, the patterns, the, you know, all of those things that got my clients to that place of where they are, that they're not well, right.
And one day it [Page//00:33:00] hit me, why am I waiting? What if we did this work first?
Tami Meraglia: for sure.
Julie Michelson: Oh, well, you know, I say it now joking around, but I also have tears in my eyes of like, The power to speed up healing and give your body that additional, and the beauty is we don't have to fix all of the past and we don't have to change, and you're not, you're not getting rid of the mean girl voice completely.
I'm sorry. It's not going away, you know, but when you notice and you address it in the way that works for you, and we can tip the scales with these positive inputs. It really allows the body, and I never thought about it in the way of. The pillars, you know, the, the, the medical school approach, um, but the, the fact that you need that energy to [Page//00:34:00] be working for you to heal is I see it all the time.
I mean, people, it used to take me so much longer with clients to get them to really feel like their needle was moving. And now it's like, Oh, let's just, we're going to jumpstart that. And we're going to start with. This phase.
Tami Meraglia: That's
Julie Michelson: I, I love that you've given me the more kind of, I didn't know why I didn't ask myself why I just, you know, it was just something that
Tami Meraglia: You can always ask me. I'm always questioning why. I'm like, oh, why's that? Why's that?
Julie Michelson: Tell me which why I'm missing in this. I can learn more. I love it.
Tami Meraglia: Well, I feel like our thought, how you think and how you feel, what you think and how you feel, um, is like the doctor. So we all have a doctor inside of us. And let's pretend this doctor is a very traditional, old fashioned, uh, western doctor. And they write lots and lots and lots of prescriptions. So your thoughts are literally prescriptions.
Hang here with me. [Page//00:35:00] So those, that prescription, which is your thought from your doctor, goes to the pharmacy. Who's the pharmacist? The pharmacist is your pituitary gland. What does the pharmacist do? Does they, do they look at the prescription and say, oh, that's not gonna bless your life, that's gonna stress you.
I'm gonna change the prescription. No, they don't have a license to practice medicine. They're not allowed to change the prescription. What do they do? They dispense chemicals. that match the prescription. So off your pituitary goes and it just dumps chemicals and nutrients and hormones that match your thought and your feeling.
Then every cell in your body reacts to that. You have a thought of fear. Off you go. Fear, worry, stress, anger, lack, scarcity. Fear again. I mean, just [Page//00:36:00] all of these thoughts are prescriptions. Exactly. So if, if the doctor can write a prescription for fear, and can the doctor write a prescription for joy. And the answer is, of course,
Julie Michelson: Yes. And that's
Tami Meraglia: then oxytocin and all these other hormones that bless.
Julie Michelson: All the
healing, anti inflammatory,
Tami Meraglia: inflammatory. Yep.
Julie Michelson: yep, I love it. You just gave, and that's exactly, you just gave me this amazing way, and I will quote you always, to articulate when I say to clients, you know, our, our cells believe our thoughts as true, even if you know they're not true when you think them, like it, that doesn't matter.
It's like, the horse has left the barn, like,
Tami Meraglia: Because the pharmacist can go, I know this is not good for you, but the pharmacist isn't
Julie Michelson: But that's the, I love that. That is [Page//00:37:00] amazing. You just made my week so awesome.
Tami Meraglia: Well, and then we have to step into that power and responsibility of, um, being present of and aware of our own thoughts and our own feelings. And, and then, um, It's really hard to change your thought about a thing. So, you know, if you're worried about work or finances or a relationship, it's really hard to turn that exact thing around into a positive.
It's a big stick to lift and look at the other end. But you can think about licorice ice cream.
Julie Michelson: Right.
Tami Meraglia: Which is my favorite,
Julie Michelson: Dairy free of course.
Tami Meraglia: the birds or whatever.
Julie Michelson: Any, any, well, and this is, I don't know, you're leading the witness. So is gratitude practice part of where you're going with this?
Tami Meraglia: [Page//00:38:00] Yes, I think that, you know, I wrote in my book, The Hormone Secret, about the power of gratitude. Everybody thinks love is the most powerful emotion and, um, it turns out it's gratitude. Um, people that write three things about their partner that they're grateful for in a study actually ended up thinking that their partner was better looking and kinder at the end of the experiment, which, you know, that's just crazy.
But gratitude is very powerful. Um, gratitude is the ultimate state of receivership.
Julie Michelson: Ah, say that again.
Tami Meraglia: Gratitude is the ultimate state of receivership.
Julie Michelson: That's beautiful.
Tami Meraglia: And I think that what we have to look at is that all the things that we think of as problem solving and focusing on problems to figure it out and to, you know, analyze it and fix it [Page//00:39:00] and all of that are really just barriers.
to receiving. Now that doesn't mean that you just lollygag
and go, look, well, everything's going to be fine.
Julie Michelson: I wished it so. Yeah,
Tami Meraglia: Right? I'm manifesting, I'm thinking about ice cream. Um, and so that's, that's the balance, right? That's how to be real and in the present without attaching. To the problem of it, um, when you order something on Amazon, you know, I'm in Seattle.
So Amazon is like, we can get it in a couple of hours. So when you order something, UPS or wherever, do you worry about it after you order? Like, how is it going to get here? Is it, oh no, is it going by plane? Is it going to be an accident? Is it going to be by train? Is it going to be by car? Is it, you know, do you worry about it?
No, it's been ordered and you get on with your life, but you [Page//00:40:00] did have to do the work to order it. You had to make sure there was enough money in your bank account or on your credit card to have the charge go through. You did have to make sure that the address was correct. You did have to be specific about what you ordered and you did have to create the space for it to be utilized.
If it, you know, you ordered an appliance, you're not going to have it in your yard. So there are things that you need to do to. Create the space that are practical, but then stop worrying about the how
Julie Michelson: Yeah,
Tami Meraglia: sometimes the how isn't your business if you've prepared for the arrival and maybe that's. You know, splitting hairs, maybe that is part of the how, but I think if people were very honest, they would say that they really get stuck more in massaging the how and worrying about the, maybe it won't.[Page//00:41:00]
Julie Michelson: I love that. That is, yeah, and we can, you can totally live there. What I love about like the gratitude practice or which lead it exactly what I was saying with my clients because changing those patterns. Like nobody's going to listen to this very unlikely and wake up tomorrow all of a sudden no longer in that loop, right?
Um, that is a process, but I truly believe, I know when you have a gratitude practice and I, I cheered because you, you, the study you You referred to was three things, because that's what it's kind of like meditation. People are like, Oh, I don't have time to journal. Like, can you write three things, three things every day, just three things that you're grateful for.
Um, and, and so. So that's what I call tipping the scales or stacking the deck, right? That's that balance you were talking about doesn't mean [Page//00:42:00] you're never worrying about anything or that you're already, you know, this amazing letter goer of, you know, like that's not an overnight thing. But in the
Tami Meraglia: isn't.
Julie Michelson: meditating, expressing gratitude, whether it's to somebody or I like people to write with a, with a handheld utensil to get those neuropathways grooved
Tami Meraglia: Hey, I have a paper calendar.
Julie Michelson: Me too.
Tami Meraglia: But I'm old so
Julie Michelson: Yeah, me too. But if I write it with my hand in my calendar, I will remember it.
Tami Meraglia: And I think that, you know, I think that the human brain responds better to questions than to in, than directions. So if you find yourself worrying, then ask yourself, is there something in this situation that I can do to prepare and create? And if the answer is yes, [Page//00:43:00] then do that. But the other question is, or is what I'm doing perseverating on worrying about the what ifs?
And if that's the, if that, if the answer to that question is yes, then you need to find something else to think about.
Julie Michelson: And
Tami Meraglia: It doesn't mean let it go and, and let God and
Julie Michelson: no, no,
Tami Meraglia: manifest and let the universe keep going back to. Is there something I can do to, to create this, to prepare for this, to make this happen that I can do?
If yes, great, do it. If your thoughts are just about the worry about the what if, then... And
Julie Michelson: It's time to shift. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: time to shift.
Julie Michelson: I love that. Well, I think, although you are always full of surprises, so I, while I think I know how you're going to answer this question, I also know there are infinite possibilities. What is one step that listeners can take today to start to move the needle on their health?[Page//00:44:00]
Tami Meraglia: Schedule. Time. Schedule. An appointment. For ten minutes. Of meditation. And find it in advance. If you spend your ten minutes looking on YouTube for the perfect meditation or by your no brain beats, then that's not going to work. Know what you're going to do in advance.
Julie Michelson: I love that. I love, and I love that you took the, you know, you got to do that ahead of, do your homework first
Tami Meraglia: Right? That's
Julie Michelson: schedule. Yes.
Tami Meraglia: the prepare, create, get ready for, and then you spend your time in the present moment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Julie Michelson: it. I love
Tami Meraglia: And it doesn't have to be big. You do not have to go to a week long retreat. You do not have to do an hour long meditation. No, a 10 minute binaural brain beat. And remember, When you start, you're going to suck. That's
Julie Michelson: okay.
Tami Meraglia: When you start getting in shape, going for a walk feels terrible. But it was, [Page//00:45:00] there's no such thing as a bad walk. There's no such thing as a bad meditation.
Julie Michelson: I love it. Amazing. Dr. Tami, I am so grateful that you came back. This was a conversation I've been so looking forward to having. Um, where is, and it'll all be in the show notes as well, but where's the best place for people to find you?
Tami Meraglia: You know, our website, you can learn about how we can help you nationwide. Um, either in a membership or just even one appointment with us anywhere in the United States or Canada so that we can help you get a personalized program that can optimize. And that's biothrivelife.Com.
And uh, if you wanted to just email us support at drtami. com and I would be very grateful if people would go to Instagram and follow me there because I spend time pretty much two or three times a week just. Doing videos of education, just information, and I want to bless people's lives.
Julie Michelson: Amazing. And you [Page//00:46:00] are such a gift. I am very grateful for you. Really appreciate your time
Tami Meraglia: Thank you for having me.
Julie Michelson: for everyone listening. Remember you can get the transcripts and show notes by visiting inspired living. show. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this conversation as much as I did. I'll see you next week. [Page//00:47:00]
Dr. Tami is the producer of the docuseries, the healing secret, the author of the nationally bestselling book, the hormone secret and the CEO of [Page//00:01:00] vitality hormone clinic in Seattle, bio Renati Stem Cell and Regenerative Center in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and the Seattle Stem Cell Center.
In today's conversation, we discuss why it's essential for optimal health to be supporting our cellular electricity, and Dr. Tami gives us great tips and essential practices to incorporate into our daily routines.
Dr. Tami, welcome to the podcast.
Tami Meraglia: Thank you for having me.
Julie Michelson: I'm so excited that you were gracious enough to come back and have a second conversation with us. Thank you. Thank you.
Tami Meraglia: My pleasure.
Julie Michelson: Really, really glad to, to get to hit on some of the things we didn't get to last time, but for listeners that did not hear your last episode, can you share a little bit?
I think your, your story is remarkable. Um, can you share a little bit of your journey from, I'm just going to leave it at how are you so open [Page//00:02:00] minded?
Tami Meraglia: I think it helps to not have gone through high school, undergrad, medical school, residency, doctor, like all in a row, I left home at a young age and danced professionally in a ballet company for many, many years and toured and, and, and had a whole life. That was very different from, your typical, you know, world, especially for a teen and early twenties.
And so when I went to school, I didn't intend on going to medical school. I was like, Oh my gosh, that's like a lot of school, but anatomy captured my interest and sciences. When you do well in them, you end up with a pre med degree. And I worked at, um, I haven't told hardly anybody this story because I never think of it as, as being important, but yet [Page//00:03:00] it sticks out in my mind as one of the places where I really decided that I don't know if I'm going to be a doctor, but I'm going to be involved in caring for people in a way that is significant.
So I worked at an assisted living home, a private assisted living home, which meant. I had seven adults with varying degrees of medical needs. I have no idea how it's legal to put somebody like me who had no training at the time in charge of this and I was in charge for 72 hours, all day, all night. You know, morning, noon and night and I had to do a straight catheter on one gentleman and there was, you know, another little lady in a wheelchair and there was this Irish woman and she had dementia and she was combative and they changed her medications the first day that I was there and I was in charge of [Page//00:04:00] medications and in the nighttime she was shouting and carrying on and I go in and she was a nanny.
And she says, I'm going to die. I'm going to make meet my maker.
Julie Michelson: Oh, no, not on my
Tami Meraglia: And I'm like, no, and then she looked at me and she says, who are you? And I said, you know, I'm Tami. She's what's your family name? And I said, Oh, Casey was my family name. And she said, Oh, the old Casey's are a terrible lot.
Julie Michelson: Oh,
Tami Meraglia: Just had all these intense experiences, but come morning, you know, I'd take them outside and I learned about the power of music to help them feel more calm and looked into nutrition.
And I don't know, it just piqued my interest of at any stage of your life, can you up level things simply?
Julie Michelson: I love that.
Tami Meraglia: I ended up going to medical school, but I was older. And I didn't swallow all the Kool Aid. I [Page//00:05:00] remember being told that, you know, we should prescribe, you know, proton pump inhibitors and H2 blockers for reflux, for heartburn.
And I was asking, well, but, but why? Which doesn't happen very
Julie Michelson: No. And, and, you know, gosh, I wish more doctors would ask that
Tami Meraglia: Well, I, you know, I
Julie Michelson: people we've had to work off of
Tami Meraglia: I know, and it's not easy to get off of them, and I was told, well, it's because people have too much acid, and I was like, that doesn't make any sense. Like an 18 year old has way more acid, and they eat a pizza and a liter of coke and go to bed and have no problem. Like this doesn't add up.
So I've always been that personality type that questions, like. Upstream. Like, but why? But why? And so then if you dig, you go, Oh, actually it's a [Page//00:06:00] deficiency of acid that causes this problem because your, your sphincter, your lower esophageal sphincter is supposed to close in the presence of acid, which happens when you eat.
But if you don't have enough, it, it, it doesn't close all the way or it doesn't close properly. So I just didn't swallow well. All of the Kool Aid and I think that the open mindedness isn't necessarily an open mindedness to information. It's a curiosity about why and asking questions constantly much to my husband's
Julie Michelson: That, that approach, um, is my, literally my favorite example of the different approaches in traditional Western medicine versus functional medicine, because it's, it's such a, literally a 180. Right there. Well, is it not enough acid? Is it too much acid? Which is it? And not enough for everybody listening is the [Page//00:07:00] correct answer.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: It's the, you know, we need that signal and the connection of the, the, this association of like, Oh my gosh, your digestive tract starts in your mouth and goes all the way out. What? It's all one system. Wow. Um, but I love that you brought up that example because That is that question. Why? Right. I used to as a tired mom, not always love that question.
We would joke, um, bringing me back, you know, 20, 25 years and the kids were little and you know, it would be like, yep, that's your favorite letter. But thank goodness. I even knew enough back then not to squash that. Right. That's what. Just keeps us going and growing. And I love that. And I'm so excited. So this open minded now [Page//00:08:00] physician is still obviously asking why.
Um,
Tami Meraglia: So I finished traditional Western medical school and you know, that's four years undergrad. That's four years medical school. That's three plus years residency. It's a lot of education and I'm so grateful for it and I wouldn't have traded it for the world, but I learned very little to nothing about wellness.
Truly optimizing health and I didn't learn anything about preventative medicine. So when you go to the doctor for your preventative medical appointment, they're not trying to prevent stuff. They're trying to find things at early stages. That's not the same. It's still a disease, a diagnosis, and a condition model.
And I don't have a problem with that. Just don't call it healthcare, call it sick care, cuz that's what it is
Julie Michelson: and it's good at
Tami Meraglia: glad. Yeah, it's awesome that we have [Page//00:09:00] antibiotics if you have a burst appendix and then a surgeon with anesthesia. So I'm glad it's there. But, um, But it doesn't cover wellness and it doesn't cover prevention.
Julie Michelson: I love that word. And like you said, optimization, right. Which is I think where you focus your, your time. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: And, you know, I actually had to go back to school. Uh, there's a lot of doctors that, you know, naturopaths that don't, uh, go to traditional medical school, but, you know, they say their education is enough and, and maybe it is, I don't judge. And then there's a lot of MDs who say that they practice functional medicine and they haven't done any formal training and maybe it is, and maybe their experience is enough.
But for me, I've always been curious. And so I actually went and studied naturopathic integrative medicine and got certified in that. It's not acknowledged by the American, you know, Medical Association, the [Page//00:10:00] AMA, but they're never going to recognize a naturopathic certification. So, um, so it was wonderful, wonderful to be able to learn the different paradigms and, uh, and I really feel like the way I approach.
My practice and, you know, the other physicians that work with me, and we have meetings about all of our patients that we see nationwide. We really approach it from an evidence based, holistic way of combining East and West, natural and Western, traditional and, um, forward focusing. So, you know, if you have high blood pressure, we are going to put you on a blood pressure medication that is a prescription because the worst part about a stroke is surviving it.
But we'll also work on getting you off it.
Julie Michelson: Why? Right? Why do you have high blood pressure? And let's fix that.
Tami Meraglia: Exactly.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. I love that. And then [Page//00:11:00] it is so important for, uh, thank you for sharing that approach, your approach with our audience, because it is, people will, you know, sometimes they'll hear my story if I've. I've done an interview, you know, in the other seat and I share, you know, the 10 prescriptions I was on, including a proton pump inhibitor way back when, because I had a heartburn from as a side effect from one of my other medications,
Tami Meraglia: Right?
Julie Michelson: I did not have, you know, a PPI deficiency, um, right, but it is so people will come and they'll say, you know, I want to get off my meds and I'm like, I want you to feel well.
Like, let's make that the goal, right? Live well, live fully. And, and so I love the, to highlight that sometimes medications, they're there for a reason. And when they're used properly. You know, no, they're not the end all be all, but they definitely have an, it can have an [Page//00:12:00] important place in keeping us healthy or allowing us to regain health.
Tami Meraglia: absolutely. Yeah. And it's, it's a lot more complex than people realize. And if you don't want to take a prescription, then you are going to have to do some other intervention. What involves a difference in your lifestyle, what goes in your mouth, when it goes in your mouth, when you go to sleep, how you breathe, what you supplement, how you move.
And there's, there's a commitment that goes along with that. So,
Julie Michelson: It's a, and it's a process and it can take time. And that's where the intervention is.
Tami Meraglia: Well, and that's why we created a membership. So first of all, we created a membership in our practice to help people afford concierge medicine. So everybody wants a personalized concierge medical doctor who does holistic medicine that they can call any time for any reason.
You know, during the pandemic, it was great because we were just there and we can write in a prescription if [Page//00:13:00] you need it, if you have a UTI and you have regularly scheduled. Evaluations of hormones and DNA and microbiome and we're we're looking and digging and optimizing in addition to that. And so I wanted it to be affordable in my.
The lowest price point is I've always got a commitment to making it less than a latte a day because I'm
Julie Michelson: that.
Tami Meraglia: Seattle and we have, you know, my professional baseball players and my professional basketball player patients and my professional football player patients that have my. Cell phone number and text me and all that.
That's a different price point, but we pay for less than 200 a month, but the membership mentality was something that, you know, you pay on a regular basis and it's like a gym for the inside of your body.
Julie Michelson: I love that.
Tami Meraglia: continuously working on it instead of waiting until there's a problem and it's...
Julie Michelson: Hey doctor, fix this. Yeah. [Page//00:14:00] I like that. It's a great way to get buy in, right? We all need to buy in that our health is our responsibility as well. And we need to be taking
Tami Meraglia: More affordable when it's spread out over 12 months.
Julie Michelson: sure. Sure. Yeah. It feels less, less painful that way, but also, you know, it keeps us kind of in that game and in that mindset as, as we move through the year,
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, if you've already paid for your appointment, you're probably more likely to show up
Julie Michelson: Yeah. You'll
Tami Meraglia: then
Julie Michelson: done,
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, 60 to 75 minutes having a, you know, double certified MD dig into your data for you and create a personalized program. And so that's what we do nationwide. That was the, the, uh, blessing of COVID was we created a nationwide telehealth program.
Julie Michelson: which is amazing. It is amazing. And there, there were many blessings in that time period. And I do think that that was definitely one of the [Page//00:15:00] biggest ones
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. Everybody learned how to use zoom.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So we're talking about prescriptions and we're talking about. You know, perspective and asking the question, why, which I think is the key, um, this question, why, why is it Dr.
Tami, that one of your, I don't think you use the word pillars, but I'm, I,
Tami Meraglia: I do.
Julie Michelson: okay. One of your pillars is energy.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. uh, I just think that If you think about how, like, well, how does the human body work? What's going on in there? So you look at structure, right? Um, if you have a broken leg, that doesn't matter what hormones or anything that you're going to give somebody. You actually [Page//00:16:00] have to realign that bone and allow it to heal.
You have to fix this structure. And then there's chemicals, right? So there's hormones, neurotransmitters, our food. Turns into chemicals. A weight loss is a chemical equation. So we help people out with that as well. And so the chemicals are important. But then when I was looking, you know, I wrote the book, the hormone secret, I was very blessed.
It was published by Simon and Schuster and became a bestseller. And I was looking, well, how does our body produce these hormones? Like what are, why do they produce these hormones? What's the message? And I realized that the messages are sometimes electrical or frequency or energy and your adrenal glands are a really great example of how your body can have a Full reaction in structure [Page//00:17:00] and in chemical because of energy, and I think of your thoughts as energy because we can actually look at your brain and measure the electricity and the frequency and depending on.
Whether you're actively thinking or not really thinking or meditating or sleeping, that is going to look very, very different. It turns out every single solitary cell in your body has electricity and current and frequency. And so when you're in a car and you're driving along and then there's sirens behind you and you hear them and you see the lights flashing, what happens?
Well, you have a thought. Usually. Oh, crap. How fast was I going?
Julie Michelson: know?
Tami Meraglia: But also, your eyes will dilate. Your respiratory rate will increase. Your heart rate will increase. Your [Page//00:18:00] palms will sweat. You will have a full body reaction to the thoughts.
Of being pulled over and getting, you know, in trouble, or late, or a ticket, or da da da da da. I was thinking, well, how the heck does that happen? So I came up with this philosophy of there are three pillars of health. The structure, the chemical, and the energy. If you have something wrong with your heart, we check the electricity.
If you have something wrong with your nerves, we check the electricity. If you have something wrong with your brain, we check the electricity. I mean, everything has frequency, energy, and electricity. And if you have all three, Optimized. There's nothing that can shake your resilience. That doesn't mean things don't happen.
It just means that you are able to continue to thrive through it. If you have two that are optimized instead of three. It just takes a relationship breakup, [Page//00:19:00] or a job loss, or a worldwide pandemic for you to have your health shaken. And if you only have one, you likely already have a diagnosis. of a disease or a condition.
And so my goal in our entire practice is to optimize the three pillars.
Julie Michelson: I love that. And so I am hoping to dig in today to talk about that frequency pillar, the energy. You know, I, I love that. It sounds so obvious when you say it, right? Like if you have a brain issue, we're checking electricity. If you have a heart issue, you know, yet people are always like, what do you mean?
You know, we're energy beings. What do you mean? Cellular energy? What does this mean? So tell me when you're working with your patients on that pillar, what [Page//00:20:00] kinds of things are you looking at or looking for or having them do?
Tami Meraglia: So meditation is probably the one of the biggest things that you can do to change the frequency of every cell in your body. And there are people like my friend, Dr. Joe Dispenza, who is working In doing amazing research, like with universities doing blood samples, saliva samples, DNA samples, I mean, he's really getting the data to show that meditation actually can change the way that cells function in a very profound way.
Um, it's amazing. So I
Julie Michelson: amazing. And that data is, I think, we shouldn't need, it's not new information, but, but the data has been missing as far as. in today's world, right? [Page//00:21:00] And so I love what the, just his whole movement of actually, you know, really collecting that data and, and it becomes irrefutable at that, you know, if you're, if you're someone who hasn't experienced it anyway, I think once you experience your own shift and you have your own, you know, then you don't need convincing, but
Tami Meraglia: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: it's really fun.
So you think everybody should meditate.
Tami Meraglia: Oh, 100%. But I don't think that everybody should meditate with Dr. Joe Dispenza's meditation type of practice. You need to find the one or ones that work for you. I probably have five different ones. You should have a tickle trunk because there's some days where the sound of anybody's voice on a meditation, I want to choke them.
Um, it just irritates
Julie Michelson: but she really needs to meditate at that
Tami Meraglia: I really do, but not with somebody's voice. So I'll go to something else like biornal brain beats, which, you [Page//00:22:00] know, you have, you are getting tones in your different ears. You have to wear them. Dr. Andrew Huberman of Huberman podcast just has some information about biornal brain beats.
Again, lots and lots of research about it. It literally puts your brain into a different frequency. Which then has a different cascade of hormones and inflammatory markers and chemicals and nutrients that are released throughout your body all from spending. 10 to 30 minutes sitting there listening to something that sounds like rain, but has binary by urinal brain beats.
And there's so many that are free. I mean, that's 1 of the things that we do in our practice is that we were, we're partly optimizing as, you know, really great physicians, I hope, but we're also navigating people's. You know, ability to get free things.
Julie Michelson: for
Tami Meraglia: How can you use your insurance to pay for that? How can you find this for free?
And so, there's lots on your, on YouTube that [Page//00:23:00] are free, that are by Urinal Brain Beats. Sometimes I like to use breathing meditations. Dr. Andrew Weil has a lot of them. Uh, Dr. Wayne Dyer has I Am That I Am. So if you have a very strong... Uh, religious or Christian faith, and that is actually based on the, the, the Hebrew word, I am that I am changed into the tomes of music.
I mean, there's just beauty everywhere you go in this. And if 10 minutes to meditate, I'm With so much love in my heart, I'm going to call you a liar. And ask you how much time you spend on social media or, you know,
Julie Michelson: Well, and it's, what's the saying, you know, and nobody, look, none of us have. 10 minutes for whatever, fill in the[Page//00:24:00]
Tami Meraglia: unless it's prioritized.
Julie Michelson: it, right? You have to make that time, and you're right, I call BS right along with you, that you can't find 10 minutes in your, you can't create 10 minutes in your day. Um,
Tami Meraglia: think it is? You know, I think it's more, Julie, that, um, people, A, don't feel differently at the very beginning when, so they don't get that positive hit and so there's not that dopamine hit and so it's not reinforced right away. And actually some people, a lot of people, um, feel worse. You know, they say, I suck at it, I can't quiet my mind, this was a failure, I'm more frustrated now
Julie Michelson: Like you're reading my mind. That was my next question.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah. Guess
Julie Michelson: I'm a bad meditator.
Tami Meraglia: You are,
Julie Michelson: We all are.
Tami Meraglia: especially at the beginning. Can you imagine like a baby? Like, Oh my gosh, I suck at walking. I'm just never going to do
Julie Michelson: I'm not going to do it. [Page//00:25:00] I fell down. Yeah. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: You know, if you, I say that if you don't truly know, I don't like the word believe, but if you don't truly know in your heart and in your head that meditation can transform your present and future health and life, then go find some more research. If you are somebody that needs the data because it now is available. So there's no reason for you to not prioritize this other than you choosing to not. It's the same as exercise. The most powerful thing that you can do for your physical health is exercise. Even a 10 minute walk after you eat. And to just simply never exercise is no longer [Page//00:26:00] acceptable. You know. that exercise is going to transform your present and your future health.
So you have to be a good parent to yourself and you have to have a come to Jesus talk with yourself and you have to do things that aren't very comfortable like meditation.
Julie Michelson: I love that. I think one of the best gifts, cause I was in that same boat. I tried meditating several, you know, several different kind of rotations throughout my wellness journey. And. Was totally in that camp of I'm a terrible meditator. I can't do this. And it was, it was when I finally met Emily Fletcher from Zeva meditation.
And she said, she's such a doll. And you know, she was like. The brain isn't made that way. Like, it's the exercise of returning. It was like a lightbulb went off. I thought I was a failure because I was making a shopping [Page//00:27:00] list during my, you know, and like, oh, I'm just bad at this. I guess it's not working. Um, and so it's like an exercise.
You're not going to say, I'm going to exercise tomorrow and sign up for a triathlon. Like you're just not going to do it. So don't expect to sit down and all of a sudden, you know, have this really transformative meditation session. It's not going to happen.
Tami Meraglia: And I think that people think that they're supposed to have a quiet mind and maybe there's somebody out there that's saying that we should like have a little intervention with them or something because your mind can no, no more have no thoughts than your heart can stop.
Julie Michelson: But you don't want, you really don't want your, your brain to stop. I promise.
Tami Meraglia: no, but
Julie Michelson: where that even started, you know, that this idea is such a, so I love, I love that you said that. So meditation. Okay. And, and really you think just [Page//00:28:00] to start at 10 minutes a day is going to move the needle?
Tami Meraglia: You know, I, I think that people feel like they have to do an hour of meditation to make it count. I just think that, you know, what's scary to you, you know what you will do. Um, for me, I take a long time to settle down. And so a 10 minute meditation is never a good meditation for me. I have to do a longer meditation just because, like, there's just so...
You know, my favorite description of meditation is puppy training. So your brain is the puppy. Sit. And then the puppy goes, ah, ah, ah, ah, come back,
Julie Michelson: Yep.
Tami Meraglia: no, no, no, come back, sit. And that's all it is. And not getting mad. You don't get mad at the puppy for being a puppy. You just. Keep at it and keep at it and keep at it and then you will [Page//00:29:00] eventually have this truly blissful moment where you are engrossed in the present moment. And then you'll be like,
Julie Michelson: Oh, darn.
Tami Meraglia: I'm evaluating the present moment. I'm no longer in the present moment. So it's okay.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. And the beautiful thing is that, that, that correct me if I'm wrong, I, my understanding is even when we're not in that blissful, if we don't reach that, if we do our meditation and we're not getting that blissful experience each time, we're actually still on the cellular level getting the benefits of meditating.
Tami Meraglia: Yes, 100%.
Julie Michelson: Awesome. Yeah. Oh, good. I'll keep doing it.
Tami Meraglia: You don't have to feel like it was there. There's
Julie Michelson: It's not always a vacation,
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, there's no such thing as a bad meditation. It's like, you know, there's no such thing as a bad walk. You [Page//00:30:00] might not have liked it, but you logged that benefit.
Julie Michelson: I love that. That's amazing. So meditation, it sounds like number one, no brainer. Everybody should do it.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, and maybe go to like a conference or a weekend or a workshop or something. Um, I know that that's was like I tried for years to meditate and you know, I never kind of stuck to it. Uh, even though I would tell my patients all the time about the benefits of it. I'm like,
yeah, really.
Julie Michelson: as I do. This works.
Tami Meraglia: Yeah, but then when I went, I went to a Joe Dispenza meditation a few years ago and I went to learn a few things to help my patients and maybe some breathing techniques and yeah, no, that's not what happened
Julie Michelson: Okay.
Tami Meraglia: when I had that time to really practice and learn and practice again and learn more and then practice again and practice again and I [Page//00:31:00] didn't have laundry and I didn't have to cook and I didn't have to clean and I didn't have to drive and I didn't have my computer and I didn't have my cell phone.
It was magical. So sometimes it does take that like, you know, little moment of time to actually. Get the skill embedded and then it's easier to continue on.
Julie Michelson: I love that. I also wonder some of it is being out of your physical environment. I think some of it too, is you went there holding it gently because it wasn't for you. You didn't go there like, I'm going to perfect this meditation thing this time. Right.
Tami Meraglia: Well, and I almost laugh. I'm like, Oh gosh, they're clapping and I'm like, I don't do this. I like, this is like a Tony Robbins event at the beginning. I'm like, I'm like,
Julie Michelson: When Joe first walks in the room and people go
crazy. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: But it isn't like that for long and then I had to have like a little conversation with myself. I'm like. Seriously? [Page//00:32:00] You're gonna be like all judgy? You flew here, you took a week off, your family is, I mean like, really? Yeah, you're really good at judging. You can stay like that if you would like to and waste this entire time.
Julie Michelson: I love it.
Tami Meraglia: Do you ever wonder who's inside your head that you're talking to?
Julie Michelson: Oh my gosh. I think half the, literally half the work I do with clients is about that voice. Really, you know, retraining and noticing and because our thoughts are energy, right? We just, we just said that. And
Tami Meraglia: Yes.
Julie Michelson: I used to always, Get to that part of the work with clients, right? This, the, the mean, I call it the mean voice and the mean voice, the patterns, the, you know, all of those things that got my clients to that place of where they are, that they're not well, right.
And one day it [Page//00:33:00] hit me, why am I waiting? What if we did this work first?
Tami Meraglia: for sure.
Julie Michelson: Oh, well, you know, I say it now joking around, but I also have tears in my eyes of like, The power to speed up healing and give your body that additional, and the beauty is we don't have to fix all of the past and we don't have to change, and you're not, you're not getting rid of the mean girl voice completely.
I'm sorry. It's not going away, you know, but when you notice and you address it in the way that works for you, and we can tip the scales with these positive inputs. It really allows the body, and I never thought about it in the way of. The pillars, you know, the, the, the medical school approach, um, but the, the fact that you need that energy to [Page//00:34:00] be working for you to heal is I see it all the time.
I mean, people, it used to take me so much longer with clients to get them to really feel like their needle was moving. And now it's like, Oh, let's just, we're going to jumpstart that. And we're going to start with. This phase.
Tami Meraglia: That's
Julie Michelson: I, I love that you've given me the more kind of, I didn't know why I didn't ask myself why I just, you know, it was just something that
Tami Meraglia: You can always ask me. I'm always questioning why. I'm like, oh, why's that? Why's that?
Julie Michelson: Tell me which why I'm missing in this. I can learn more. I love it.
Tami Meraglia: Well, I feel like our thought, how you think and how you feel, what you think and how you feel, um, is like the doctor. So we all have a doctor inside of us. And let's pretend this doctor is a very traditional, old fashioned, uh, western doctor. And they write lots and lots and lots of prescriptions. So your thoughts are literally prescriptions.
Hang here with me. [Page//00:35:00] So those, that prescription, which is your thought from your doctor, goes to the pharmacy. Who's the pharmacist? The pharmacist is your pituitary gland. What does the pharmacist do? Does they, do they look at the prescription and say, oh, that's not gonna bless your life, that's gonna stress you.
I'm gonna change the prescription. No, they don't have a license to practice medicine. They're not allowed to change the prescription. What do they do? They dispense chemicals. that match the prescription. So off your pituitary goes and it just dumps chemicals and nutrients and hormones that match your thought and your feeling.
Then every cell in your body reacts to that. You have a thought of fear. Off you go. Fear, worry, stress, anger, lack, scarcity. Fear again. I mean, just [Page//00:36:00] all of these thoughts are prescriptions. Exactly. So if, if the doctor can write a prescription for fear, and can the doctor write a prescription for joy. And the answer is, of course,
Julie Michelson: Yes. And that's
Tami Meraglia: then oxytocin and all these other hormones that bless.
Julie Michelson: All the
healing, anti inflammatory,
Tami Meraglia: inflammatory. Yep.
Julie Michelson: yep, I love it. You just gave, and that's exactly, you just gave me this amazing way, and I will quote you always, to articulate when I say to clients, you know, our, our cells believe our thoughts as true, even if you know they're not true when you think them, like it, that doesn't matter.
It's like, the horse has left the barn, like,
Tami Meraglia: Because the pharmacist can go, I know this is not good for you, but the pharmacist isn't
Julie Michelson: But that's the, I love that. That is [Page//00:37:00] amazing. You just made my week so awesome.
Tami Meraglia: Well, and then we have to step into that power and responsibility of, um, being present of and aware of our own thoughts and our own feelings. And, and then, um, It's really hard to change your thought about a thing. So, you know, if you're worried about work or finances or a relationship, it's really hard to turn that exact thing around into a positive.
It's a big stick to lift and look at the other end. But you can think about licorice ice cream.
Julie Michelson: Right.
Tami Meraglia: Which is my favorite,
Julie Michelson: Dairy free of course.
Tami Meraglia: the birds or whatever.
Julie Michelson: Any, any, well, and this is, I don't know, you're leading the witness. So is gratitude practice part of where you're going with this?
Tami Meraglia: [Page//00:38:00] Yes, I think that, you know, I wrote in my book, The Hormone Secret, about the power of gratitude. Everybody thinks love is the most powerful emotion and, um, it turns out it's gratitude. Um, people that write three things about their partner that they're grateful for in a study actually ended up thinking that their partner was better looking and kinder at the end of the experiment, which, you know, that's just crazy.
But gratitude is very powerful. Um, gratitude is the ultimate state of receivership.
Julie Michelson: Ah, say that again.
Tami Meraglia: Gratitude is the ultimate state of receivership.
Julie Michelson: That's beautiful.
Tami Meraglia: And I think that what we have to look at is that all the things that we think of as problem solving and focusing on problems to figure it out and to, you know, analyze it and fix it [Page//00:39:00] and all of that are really just barriers.
to receiving. Now that doesn't mean that you just lollygag
and go, look, well, everything's going to be fine.
Julie Michelson: I wished it so. Yeah,
Tami Meraglia: Right? I'm manifesting, I'm thinking about ice cream. Um, and so that's, that's the balance, right? That's how to be real and in the present without attaching. To the problem of it, um, when you order something on Amazon, you know, I'm in Seattle.
So Amazon is like, we can get it in a couple of hours. So when you order something, UPS or wherever, do you worry about it after you order? Like, how is it going to get here? Is it, oh no, is it going by plane? Is it going to be an accident? Is it going to be by train? Is it going to be by car? Is it, you know, do you worry about it?
No, it's been ordered and you get on with your life, but you [Page//00:40:00] did have to do the work to order it. You had to make sure there was enough money in your bank account or on your credit card to have the charge go through. You did have to make sure that the address was correct. You did have to be specific about what you ordered and you did have to create the space for it to be utilized.
If it, you know, you ordered an appliance, you're not going to have it in your yard. So there are things that you need to do to. Create the space that are practical, but then stop worrying about the how
Julie Michelson: Yeah,
Tami Meraglia: sometimes the how isn't your business if you've prepared for the arrival and maybe that's. You know, splitting hairs, maybe that is part of the how, but I think if people were very honest, they would say that they really get stuck more in massaging the how and worrying about the, maybe it won't.[Page//00:41:00]
Julie Michelson: I love that. That is, yeah, and we can, you can totally live there. What I love about like the gratitude practice or which lead it exactly what I was saying with my clients because changing those patterns. Like nobody's going to listen to this very unlikely and wake up tomorrow all of a sudden no longer in that loop, right?
Um, that is a process, but I truly believe, I know when you have a gratitude practice and I, I cheered because you, you, the study you You referred to was three things, because that's what it's kind of like meditation. People are like, Oh, I don't have time to journal. Like, can you write three things, three things every day, just three things that you're grateful for.
Um, and, and so. So that's what I call tipping the scales or stacking the deck, right? That's that balance you were talking about doesn't mean [Page//00:42:00] you're never worrying about anything or that you're already, you know, this amazing letter goer of, you know, like that's not an overnight thing. But in the
Tami Meraglia: isn't.
Julie Michelson: meditating, expressing gratitude, whether it's to somebody or I like people to write with a, with a handheld utensil to get those neuropathways grooved
Tami Meraglia: Hey, I have a paper calendar.
Julie Michelson: Me too.
Tami Meraglia: But I'm old so
Julie Michelson: Yeah, me too. But if I write it with my hand in my calendar, I will remember it.
Tami Meraglia: And I think that, you know, I think that the human brain responds better to questions than to in, than directions. So if you find yourself worrying, then ask yourself, is there something in this situation that I can do to prepare and create? And if the answer is yes, [Page//00:43:00] then do that. But the other question is, or is what I'm doing perseverating on worrying about the what ifs?
And if that's the, if that, if the answer to that question is yes, then you need to find something else to think about.
Julie Michelson: And
Tami Meraglia: It doesn't mean let it go and, and let God and
Julie Michelson: no, no,
Tami Meraglia: manifest and let the universe keep going back to. Is there something I can do to, to create this, to prepare for this, to make this happen that I can do?
If yes, great, do it. If your thoughts are just about the worry about the what if, then... And
Julie Michelson: It's time to shift. Yeah.
Tami Meraglia: time to shift.
Julie Michelson: I love that. Well, I think, although you are always full of surprises, so I, while I think I know how you're going to answer this question, I also know there are infinite possibilities. What is one step that listeners can take today to start to move the needle on their health?[Page//00:44:00]
Tami Meraglia: Schedule. Time. Schedule. An appointment. For ten minutes. Of meditation. And find it in advance. If you spend your ten minutes looking on YouTube for the perfect meditation or by your no brain beats, then that's not going to work. Know what you're going to do in advance.
Julie Michelson: I love that. I love, and I love that you took the, you know, you got to do that ahead of, do your homework first
Tami Meraglia: Right? That's
Julie Michelson: schedule. Yes.
Tami Meraglia: the prepare, create, get ready for, and then you spend your time in the present moment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Julie Michelson: it. I love
Tami Meraglia: And it doesn't have to be big. You do not have to go to a week long retreat. You do not have to do an hour long meditation. No, a 10 minute binaural brain beat. And remember, When you start, you're going to suck. That's
Julie Michelson: okay.
Tami Meraglia: When you start getting in shape, going for a walk feels terrible. But it was, [Page//00:45:00] there's no such thing as a bad walk. There's no such thing as a bad meditation.
Julie Michelson: I love it. Amazing. Dr. Tami, I am so grateful that you came back. This was a conversation I've been so looking forward to having. Um, where is, and it'll all be in the show notes as well, but where's the best place for people to find you?
Tami Meraglia: You know, our website, you can learn about how we can help you nationwide. Um, either in a membership or just even one appointment with us anywhere in the United States or Canada so that we can help you get a personalized program that can optimize. And that's biothrivelife.Com.
And uh, if you wanted to just email us support at drtami. com and I would be very grateful if people would go to Instagram and follow me there because I spend time pretty much two or three times a week just. Doing videos of education, just information, and I want to bless people's lives.
Julie Michelson: Amazing. And you [Page//00:46:00] are such a gift. I am very grateful for you. Really appreciate your time
Tami Meraglia: Thank you for having me.
Julie Michelson: for everyone listening. Remember you can get the transcripts and show notes by visiting inspired living. show. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this conversation as much as I did. I'll see you next week. [Page//00:47:00]
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Dr Tami Meraglia
Dr. Tami MD is the producer of the docuseries The Healing Secret, the author of The Nationally Best Selling book The Hormone Secret and the CEO Vitality Hormone Clinic in Seattle, Bio-Renati Stem Cell and Regenerative Center in Puerto Vallarta Mexico and the Seattle Stem Cell Center Dr. Tami is key note speaker for the American Academy of Anti-aging and conferences in the US, Canada, Asia and Dubai. She has appeared on Good Morning America, Fox National News, NBC, ABC and has hosted multiple radio shows.
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