Body Wisdom With Dr. Michele

Welcome to Season 3 of the Body Wisdom Podcast with Dr. Michele.

This season the podcast will be focusing on healthy habits. As your host, I’ll be recording solo episodes which will answer some of the most common questions I’m asked as a physician such as “how do I build a new habit?” "which habits are essential to get healthy again?" "what can I do to lose weight?" "how can I look and feel younger again?" "how can I start exercising again if I haven't done it in years?" and more. I will also be coaching patients and clients live on-air, and conducting interviews with other health & wellness experts. Of course, I am always open to new topic ideas, so if there is a topic you would like me to address or if there is a question you would like answered, please reach out. Email me directly at dr.michele.colon@gmail.com.

Today Dr. Michele answers the question "Why Is Self-Massage So Important?"

I hope you enjoy the show!

About Dr. Michele:

As a physician & surgeon, certified Ayurvedic and Autoimmune health coach, yoga/anatomy teacher, and overall health & wellness expert, Dr. Michele Summers Colon is an Advocate for Women's Health. Her passion is helping women help themselves to heal their body. She is the author of Body Wisdom: 10 Weeks to Transformation, the creator and host of the Body Wisdom with Dr. Michele Podcast, and the leader of the Body Wisdom Membership Program.

She has been interviewed and quoted in many prominent publications including USA Today, US News & World Reports, Health Magazine, Yahoo! Makers, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. One of Dr. Michele’s greatest strengths is her ability to help women create balanced, healthy lives by looking at the whole picture. She combines the best of Eastern and Western medicine to create individualized health & wellness plans for her patients and clients. For over 24 years, Dr. Michele has dedicated herself to maintaining a private medical practice and providing exceptional care to her patients while at the same time studying holisitic and integrative medicine. Dr. Michele believes that food is medicine and that yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation are the keys to perfect health.

Dr. Michele has a Bachelor’s degree in Physiology from UCBerkeley, a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and a Doctorate degree in Podiatry from Barry University, and graduated from a Foot & Ankle Surgical Residency in Los Angeles. Dr. Michele is also certified in Ayurvedic as well as Autoimmune Health Coaching, Yoga, Reiki, Reflexology, and Laser Therapy. Dr. Michele specializes in Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, and Therapeutic Yoga to provide the most healing, relaxation, and rejuvenation to her patients and clients. Dr. Michele has studied Ayurvedic Medicine extensively and has worked with some of the best practitioners throughout the United States to bring Ayurveda to the forefront of medicine.

Combining yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation is one of Dr. Michele’s passions so that she can spread the word to as many people as possible that this is the path to perfect health.

Why is self-massge so important? Because our hands are healing. In Ayurveda, the left side is the feminine or the goddess, and the right side is the masculine or the god. And we use them both to create unity. Self-massage is a very topical habit, but it is also about creating unity consciousness by bringing all the body parts into one.

Self-massage makes your whole body feel better. In Ayurveda, daily self-massage is called Abhyanga and is part of how to have a body. We should be doing it every day. We can change our aging trajectory by doing self-massage every day. We can actually break up scar tissue and increase the flexibility of our skin and joints.

What you put on your skin affects how you touch your skin, and how you touch your skin affects how you feel, your self-confidence. From research we know that self-massage helps us feel more grounded in our body, we feel like we have more control of our body, it affects how we age, and it deeply affects self-esteem and how we feel about ourselves. Your identity starts to shift as you get more grounded in the layers of tissues in the body.

In Ayurveda, we know that we have 7 layers of tissues, or the 7 dahtus. We are affecting all 7 layers of tissues when we perform self-massage on our body, from the bones to the nerves to the reproductive fluids. This is huge for people dealing with fertility, birth, and even menopause as we start to recycle some of the hormones and fluids of our body.

Self-massage affects all the levels of the body and moves stuck energy in all levels of the body, including the subtle body, the physical body, the energy body, the mind, the emotional body, the intuitive body, and the bliss body. For people with low energy, we can do it in a way that energizes the body using vigorous strokes. We can do a...

Welcome to Season 3 of the Body Wisdom Podcast with Dr. Michele.

This season the podcast will be focusing on healthy habits. As your host, I’ll be recording solo episodes which will answer some of the most common questions I’m asked as a physician such as “how do I build a new habit?” "which habits are essential to get healthy again?" "what can I do to lose weight?" "how can I look and feel younger again?" "how can I start exercising again if I haven't done it in years?" and more. I will also be coaching patients and clients live on-air, and conducting interviews with other health & wellness experts. Of course, I am always open to new topic ideas, so if there is a topic you would like me to address or if there is a question you would like answered, please reach out. Email me directly at dr.michele.colon@gmail.com.

Today Dr. Michele discusses "The Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet."

I hope you enjoy the show!

About Dr. Michele:

As a physician & surgeon, certified Ayurvedic and Autoimmune health coach, yoga/anatomy teacher, and overall health & wellness expert, Dr. Michele Summers Colon is an Advocate for Women's Health. Her passion is helping women help themselves to heal their body. She is the author of Body Wisdom: 10 Weeks to Transformation, the creator and host of the Body Wisdom with Dr. Michele Podcast, and the leader of the Body Wisdom Membership Program.

She has been interviewed and quoted in many prominent publications including USA Today, US News & World Reports, Health Magazine, Yahoo! Makers, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. One of Dr. Michele’s greatest strengths is her ability to help women create balanced, healthy lives by looking at the whole picture. She combines the best of Eastern and Western medicine to create individualized health & wellness plans for her patients and clients. For over 24 years, Dr. Michele has dedicated herself to maintaining a private medical practice and providing exceptional care to her patients while at the same time studying holisitic and integrative medicine. Dr. Michele believes that food is medicine and that yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation are the keys to perfect health.

Dr. Michele has a Bachelor’s degree in Physiology from UCBerkeley, a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and a Doctorate degree in Podiatry from Barry University, and graduated from a Foot & Ankle Surgical Residency in Los Angeles. Dr. Michele is also certified in Ayurvedic as well as Autoimmune Health Coaching, Yoga, Reiki, Reflexology, and Laser Therapy. Dr. Michele specializes in Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, and Therapeutic Yoga to provide the most healing, relaxation, and rejuvenation to her patients and clients. Dr. Michele has studied Ayurvedic Medicine extensively and has worked with some of the best practitioners throughout the United States to bring Ayurveda to the forefront of medicine.

Combining yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation is one of Dr. Michele’s passions so that she can spread the word to as many people as possible that this is the path to perfect health.

This season we are going to be talking about Healthy Habits so that we can feel younger and healthier.

When we talk about what we eat, we all seem to have a method and an opinion. We are in the day and age of personalization — and this extends to diet. “I’m a vegan,” or “I’m into paleo,” or “I need to eat animal flesh to function.”

Around here, we’re less interested in labels and we’re more interested in the relationship between humans and the plants that feed us. In this habit, we turn our attention to taking your relationship between plants and your body to the next level of integration.

Eating a plant-based diet is about the relationship between our outer ecosystem, where our food grows, and our inner ecosystem. How you source your body’s energy and what you build your body’s tissue out of is of obvious importance.

We each have the opportunity to nourish and nurture ourselves from the outside in... and from the inside out.

The first activity is to check out where you are in the spectrum of how you feed yourself. Once you know where you are starting, the next action step reveals itself on your path to a healthier and more conscious body.

Next, investigate your relationship between your body and where you source your energy. You’ll become more aware of the exchange of consciousness, energy, and nutrients between the bodies of plants and your body.

It’s a process full of nourishment — not deprivation.

This relationship with our food and nature is very deeply tied to stress. Nature is trying to feed you. If we have the world view that life itself is nourishing, then we can’t really experience stress. The more connected we are to nature, the more connected we are to the plants, and the more nourishing we are to plants, then the more we understand that nature is trying t...

Welcome to Season 3 of the Body Wisdom Podcast with Dr. Michele.

This season the podcast will be focusing on healthy habits. As your host, I’ll be recording solo episodes which will answer some of the most common questions I’m asked as a physician such as “how do I build a new habit?” "which habits are essential to get healthy again?" "what can I do to lose weight?" "how can I look and feel younger again?" "how can I start exercising again if I haven't done it in years?" and more. I will also be coaching patients and clients live on-air, and conducting interviews with other health & wellness experts. Of course, I am always open to new topic ideas, so if there is a topic you would like me to address or if there is a question you would like answered, please reach out. Email me directly at dr.michele.colon@gmail.com.

Today Dr. Michele discusses "Movement, Breathing and Exercise."

I hope you enjoy the show!

About Dr. Michele:

As a physician & surgeon, certified Ayurvedic and Autoimmune health coach, yoga/anatomy teacher, and overall health & wellness expert, Dr. Michele Summers Colon is an Advocate for Women's Health. Her passion is helping women help themselves to heal their body. She is the author of Body Wisdom: 10 Weeks to Transformation, the creator and host of the Body Wisdom with Dr. Michele Podcast, and the leader of the Body Wisdom Membership Program.

She has been interviewed and quoted in many prominent publications including USA Today, US News & World Reports, Health Magazine, Yahoo! Makers, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. One of Dr. Michele’s greatest strengths is her ability to help women create balanced, healthy lives by looking at the whole picture. She combines the best of Eastern and Western medicine to create individualized health & wellness plans for her patients and clients. For over 24 years, Dr. Michele has dedicated herself to maintaining a private medical practice and providing exceptional care to her patients while at the same time studying holisitic and integrative medicine. Dr. Michele believes that food is medicine and that yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation are the keys to perfect health.

Dr. Michele has a Bachelor’s degree in Physiology from UCBerkeley, a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and a Doctorate degree in Podiatry from Barry University, and graduated from a Foot & Ankle Surgical Residency in Los Angeles. Dr. Michele is also certified in Ayurvedic as well as Autoimmune Health Coaching, Yoga, Reiki, Reflexology, and Laser Therapy. Dr. Michele specializes in Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, and Therapeutic Yoga to provide the most healing, relaxation, and rejuvenation to her patients and clients. Dr. Michele has studied Ayurvedic Medicine extensively and has worked with some of the best practitioners throughout the United States to bring Ayurveda to the forefront of medicine.

Combining yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation is one of Dr. Michele’s passions so that she can spread the word to as many people as possible that this is the path to perfect health.

This season we are going to be talking about Healthy Habits so that we can feel younger and healthier.

When it comes to getting your body moving, set things up the night before. Set your work out clothes where you’ll see them. Make it hard not to do the new behavior. When you’re highly motivated, maybe you can look up some exercise videos on youtube that you like, and you can save the ones you like.

There are natural periods of low and high motivation. Do the hard things when you have high motivation. We don’t want to expect ourselves to be highly motivated. We don’t want to set ourselves up for failure, so do the super easy thing that sets you up as fail proof for each habit. We want to do baby steps for change. Make it so easy that you can’t say no. It is not about motivation; it is about the small changes sequenced right.

We are lining up with nature’s rhythms to have better energy, better rest, and better eating habits.

Ayurveda and exercise physiology: it’s important to exercise during the Kapha time of day because it’s the densest part of the day, so we will get less imbalances. If we don’t exercise during the strongest part of the day, then we don’t have enough prana and we get more imbalances. This is the time of day to get out of your sleepy body into your physical body.

It’s important that we move 20 minutes a day before breakfast. How you move is less important. Daily Burn.com and other free fitness channels have many 15 minute workouts that you could try if you need some ideas or guidance on how to move your body.

You’re going to create a pattern for the rest of your life. You can practice deep breathing (pranayama) first.

It’s just 20 minutes, so that we can shift to fat metabolism for the whole day. It’s a non-negotiable. Right after drinking your water and elimi...

Welcome to Season 3 of the Body Wisdom Podcast with Dr. Michele.

This season the podcast will be focusing on healthy habits. As your host, I’ll be recording solo episodes which will answer some of the most common questions I’m asked as a physician such as “how do I build a new habit?” "which habits are essential to get healthy again?" "what can I do to lose weight?" "how can I look and feel younger again?" "how can I start exercising again if I haven't done it in years?" and more. I will also be coaching patients and clients live on-air, and conducting interviews with other health & wellness experts. Of course, I am always open to new topic ideas, so if there is a topic you would like me to address or if there is a question you would like answered, please reach out. Email me directly at dr.michele.colon@gmail.com.

Today Dr. Michele discusses "How to Take the Chaos Out of Your Morning Routine."

I hope you enjoy the show!

About Dr. Michele:

As a physician & surgeon, certified Ayurvedic and Autoimmune health coach, yoga/anatomy teacher, and overall health & wellness expert, Dr. Michele Summers Colon is an Advocate for Women's Health. Her passion is helping women help themselves to heal their body. She is the author of Body Wisdom: 10 Weeks to Transformation, the creator and host of the Body Wisdom with Dr. Michele Podcast, and the leader of the Body Wisdom Membership Program.

She has been interviewed and quoted in many prominent publications including USA Today, US News & World Reports, Health Magazine, Yahoo! Makers, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. One of Dr. Michele’s greatest strengths is her ability to help women create balanced, healthy lives by looking at the whole picture. She combines the best of Eastern and Western medicine to create individualized health & wellness plans for her patients and clients. For over 24 years, Dr. Michele has dedicated herself to maintaining a private medical practice and providing exceptional care to her patients while at the same time studying holisitic and integrative medicine. Dr. Michele believes that food is medicine and that yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation are the keys to perfect health.

Dr. Michele has a Bachelor’s degree in Physiology from UCBerkeley, a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and a Doctorate degree in Podiatry from Barry University, and graduated from a Foot & Ankle Surgical Residency in Los Angeles. Dr. Michele is also certified in Ayurvedic as well as Autoimmune Health Coaching, Yoga, Reiki, Reflexology, and Laser Therapy. Dr. Michele specializes in Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, and Therapeutic Yoga to provide the most healing, relaxation, and rejuvenation to her patients and clients. Dr. Michele has studied Ayurvedic Medicine extensively and has worked with some of the best practitioners throughout the United States to bring Ayurveda to the forefront of medicine.

Combining yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation is one of Dr. Michele’s passions so that she can spread the word to as many people as possible that this is the path to perfect health.

This season we are going to be talking about Healthy Habits so that we can feel younger and healthier.

This habit is about lining up with nature. Waking up at the right time of day to be aligned with the expansiveness of the universe’s energy is important to feeling great energy in the day. When you’re lined up, you are more at ease. When we aren’t in alignment, we experience stress, there’s a loss of energy, and we feel dull and out of tune. Habits that we have that don’t line up with nature don’t serve us.

Look at the big picture: why are we doing all of these habit changes? They’re hard. Tap into your WHY. Why do you want to feel healthier and younger? Don’t try to be a perfectionist. Success isn’t doing any of this perfectly. Perfectionism will get in the way of you experiencing success along the way. Perfectionism leads to “the what the hell” principle: throwing in the towel if you can’t do it perfectly and don’t do it at all.

Starting the day right is all about the energy in that part of the daily cycle, during vata time. Movement stimulates the peristalsis. We experience time opening up. The sacred time of day is the early morning.

When we start our day right, we wake up with the sunrise, connect to the universe (in our own way), hydrate, and eliminate. That's it!

What is one small change you can make with getting up early, connecting to the universe, hydrating, and eliminating?

You can do a very quick and simple one-minute meditation to get in alignment with the expansiveness of the universe. What also helps me on some days is to just take a minute to connect with my breathing or with a feeling of gratitude for the day ahead. I lay in bed for a minute, do a minute of deep breathing, and with my eyes closed, I get right into gratitude for my day, for my life,...

This season the podcast will be focusing on healthy habits. As your host, I’ll be recording solo episodes which will answer some of the most common questions I’m asked as a physician such as “how do I build a new habit?” "which habits are essential to get healthy again?" "what can I do to lose weight?" "how can I look and feel younger again?" "how can I start exercising again if I haven't done it in years?" and more. I will also be coaching patients and clients live on-air, and conducting interviews with other health & wellness experts. Of course, I am always open to new topic ideas, so if there is a topic you would like me to address or if there is a question you would like answered, please reach out. Email me directly at dr.michele.colon@gmail.com.

Today Dr. Michele explains "What is Easeful Living?"

I hope you enjoy the show!

About Dr. Michele:

As a physician & surgeon, certified Ayurvedic and Autoimmune health coach, yoga/anatomy teacher, and overall health & wellness expert, Dr. Michele Summers Colon is an Advocate for Women's Health. Her passion is helping women help themselves to heal their body. She is the author of Body Wisdom: 10 Weeks to Transformation, the creator and host of the Body Wisdom with Dr. Michele Podcast, and the leader of the Body Wisdom Membership Program.

She has been interviewed and quoted in many prominent publications including USA Today, US News & World Reports, Health Magazine, Yahoo! Makers, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. One of Dr. Michele’s greatest strengths is her ability to help women create balanced, healthy lives by looking at the whole picture. She combines the best of Eastern and Western medicine to create individualized health & wellness plans for her patients and clients. For over 24 years, Dr. Michele has dedicated herself to maintaining a private medical practice and providing exceptional care to her patients while at the same time studying holisitic and integrative medicine. Dr. Michele believes that food is medicine and that yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation are the keys to perfect health.

Dr. Michele has a Bachelor’s degree in Physiology from UCBerkeley, a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and a Doctorate degree in Podiatry from Barry University, and graduated from a Foot & Ankle Surgical Residency in Los Angeles. Dr. Michele is also certified in Ayurvedic as well as Autoimmune Health Coaching, Yoga, Reiki, Reflexology, and Laser Therapy. Dr. Michele specializes in Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, and Therapeutic Yoga to provide the most healing, relaxation, and rejuvenation to her patients and clients. Dr. Michele has studied Ayurvedic Medicine extensively and has worked with some of the best practitioners throughout the United States to bring Ayurveda to the forefront of medicine.

Combining yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation is one of Dr. Michele’s passions so that she can spread the word to as many people as possible that this is the path to perfect health.

Easeful living is a habit in and of itself but it's also a result of the previous Ayurvedic habits we've covered. Easeful living is about being more present, more calm, more content, and more at peace. Easeful living is about being able to savor each moment and to tap into gratitude and the abundance that surrounds us.

It's about feeling so deeply nourished by life that there's more patience and compassion for those around us.

Easeful living is about being in a flow and having a deeper trust that you are taken care of.

Easeful living is a grounded connection to your natural state, your divine inheritance as a human, the basic teachings of heaven on earth.

When you notice stress, choose ease. The problem isn’t the problem. Your reaction to the problem is the problem.

Stabilize your day-to-day perspective in the expanded backdrop of easeful awareness, in touch with intrinsic plenitude.

Like a toggle switch in your nervous system, you live in either reaction or reception. The first perpetuates stress, the latter cultivates ease. One unconsciously meanders towards unconscious tension, limitation, and disconnection. The other intentionally leads to an extraordinary, heart-centric, intimate, and evolutionary life.

Allow stress, overwhelm, or anxiety to fade into the background as you focus on living into what each day unfurls. You’ll enjoy an extraordinary life and become an inspired leader for your future.

How do we do this?

It comes about from daily self-care and healthy routines.

When we're not in an easeful state chances are we haven’t aligned our day with what matters most. Or maybe we're too busy and overscheduled to be able to slow down and enjoy ourselves. Maybe we haven't taken care of ourselves with proper food, the right exercise or enough sleep. Maybe we're stuck in ...