Be Careful What You Think: The Power of Mind-Body Medicine with Kim D' Eramo
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Introduction to the Becoming Immune Confident Podcast
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Kara: Welcome back everyone to this episode of the Becoming Immune Confident Podcast. And welcome to those new listeners who are out there too, or if you're tuning in on YouTube and watching our conversation, hello my name is Dr. Kara Wada. I'm a board certified allergy, immunology, and lifestyle medicine physician, who also happens to be an autoimmune patient, and we love having amazing colleagues and guests on to have these nuanced conversations together.
And I'm really excited to welcome back one of our original guests, Dr. Kim D'Eramo. She is a physician. She's a bestselling author of The MindBody Toolkit and the founder of the American Institute of Mind Body Medicine. She received her board certification in emergency medicine and attended residency at Emory University.
Dr. Kim has studied and practiced mind body medicine for decades after experiencing severe anxiety and later severe autoimmune disorder herself, and she has resolved both of those through self healing after doctors told her that she'd be on medications for the rest of her life. Kim now assists individuals and practitioners all over the world to resolve illnesses and access the highest possibility for vitality and abundance and she shares a weekly live international MindBody TV broadcast and can be found at drkimd.com. Thanks for coming back, Dr. Kim.
Kim: Thank you for having me. I'm really excited for what we'll share today.
Dr. Kim's story: From severe anxiety to discovering the mind-body connection.
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Kara: So for those who didn't tune in, they're not, you know, original listeners and haven't binged all of our episodes, which we will link back to that one. Can you though share about your fascinating personal story, you know, how that led you down this path that, you know, by all rights is pretty untraditional for someone who has trained as you did, at an elite institution for emergency medicine.
Kim: Well, I had, you know, a severe anxiety disorder, panic disorder when I was really, really young after pretty profound awakening experience. And I realized, no one around me had any answers or awareness at all of what was actually happening for me. And even though I was very young, I had some clarity this was not a disease that there was a big shift happening in my whole perception of reality, my whole perception of myself. And it was pretty destabilizing, but medication was not going to be like the solution for this. So I realized I've got to kind of fly under the radar, pull it off, get my own answers and really explore this for myself.
And after years of just connecting within my own body, my body really started to show me, you know, when I shift my breathing, I could divert away from a panic attack or what I was focusing on was going to be a major determinant about what happened, whether I went into anxiety and panic. And also I started to realize what I focused on would change what was happening in my life. Like if I was in a conversation and felt myself getting stirred up, that I could actually shift my awareness and shift my breathing, that would have things come down, that would have things change course. So I was really aware of this mind body connection and how we are actually part of everything we're experiencing, not just in the body, but in our situations.
So that sort of laid the foundation for then going to medical school, learning about the body knowing I was here to become a doctor and share this deeper truth of what's really going on with disease. And that's when I had the autoimmune disease and really, it was just these crazy symptoms of abominable fatigue, pain, swelling, arthritis, migraines. No one could figure out what was going on, I'd get these flu like symptoms really frequently. And I went doctor to doctor, you know, we have doctors teaching us in school every day. So it'd be like a new group of doctors every few weeks or a month. And no one had any clue what was going on.
Eventually, my labs were showing inflammation and a lot of, you know, autoimmune stuff. And I got sent to someone who diagnosed allergies and had the whole gamut of what was going on and, "Here's your medications and your body has blah, blah, blah, disease." And I was like, "You know what? This does not feel like the right perspective. This is not my solution." I'd be on multiple medications and had to change my lifestyle. I'd never run again and be in control of my environment and everything about it felt wrong.
And that's really when I started to explore this whole mind body thing in a different way. I'd read about it. I'd read dozens and dozens of books, but I had to learn a deeper level of my inner connection with myself and begin listening instead of trying to change what was happening in just that little shift created an opening within me. I was receptive. I was listening. I wasn't running away from my symptoms or trying to fix my symptoms. It was like, "All right, body, show me what I need to see." And both the receptivity I entered and the clarity I got about like who I was being that was actually keeping the inflammation in place is what really shifted the whole thing. And within days, the entire complex of the autoimmune completely resolved.
The Science of Mind-Body Medicine: Stress, Trauma, and Epigenetics
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Kara: I think this is really fascinating in the context, especially, you know, I go back to, you know, that scientific mind of like, okay, what physiologically may be going on and how we are understanding the impact that our brain has on, you know, some of us having that set point of our stress responses, set a few or so, you know, even more than a few, um, clicks higher due to sometimes events that predate even our concept of our lives. You know, stressors, maybe in utero or kind of in early childhood and the association of those adverse events on how our bodies function day in and day out.
I also am kind of intrigued and we talked just a tiny bit before we hit record about, you know, some of this emerging science around how for some individuals, you know, maybe these altered states of consciousness that are brought about through things that to be honest, up until recently, and even still, you know, depending on what circles you're talking with have been like pretty taboo, but using even psychedelics or some of these things to help people process and re integrate some of these experiences and seeing physiologic shifts with that. I'm just in that place, I think, that you were years ago of reading as much as I can.
And, you know, trying to understand and just, yeah, I just finished a book actually overnight. Um, I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. So I was like, Oh, I'll finish reading this book, Brain Energy, looking at how mitochondria are like very sensitive to some of these things and that really can create some shift. Like, it's so fascinating bringing this spiritual element with the science and, you know, for my brain to kind of understand and processing and capture things.
Kim: It's fascinating to realize how everything in the body is listening to and responding to our thoughts. And most of those thoughts are the unconscious programming not people think, but I'm really positive. Well, it's the unconscious stuff. And, you know, I didn't realize at the time when I had this autoimmune disease, I was in this battle to avoid failure, to overcome obstacles, to keep going, to push hard, to be better, to self improve. And it was like, my life was a self improvement program. That's not actually health. Not that growth isn't part of health because it is, but pushing yourself and like sort of fighting this dragon of failure is a total contrived way of living. And it will create that auto immune where the cells are like, ah, inflamed against themselves.
And yeah, we're really now seeing altered states, which can happen when like you find out something really tragic happened or you're in a moment that's like a severe, you got to react fast, like in a car. And you realize like, Ooh, the whole universe just opened up and everything slowed down. And it was surreal. You go into a different pattern of brain functioning. So in the work I do, that's a major component. If I don't bring you into a different brain pattern, you're just running the regularly scheduled circuitry and trying to learn something new. So it's like, "Yeah, yeah. Oh, I totally get that. Okay, great." And nothing actually changes. It can't go into the system until you shift the brain patterning, like kind of like a computer program that's running and you're going to reboot and put a new program on. You have to shut the computer off, let it go into whatever it does, it reboots, you turn it back on. Even the phone, like whenever I have a problem with anything and I'll say to my husband, "Oh, such and such isn't working." And he'll be like to turn it off and turn it back on again. And we usually don't know, how do I turn off? How do I reboot? How do I come into a more slower, more receptive brain state, which is exactly what happened to me after getting the diagnosis. There's a receptivity, "Okay, body. Show me what's going on," so we can let new awareness in. That's the most essential ingredient and most people like they don't know how to do that. So yeah, psychedelics or other things that induce an altered state can be unbelievably life changing. But what if I can show you how to induce that on your own so your system, not just your brain, but your whole nervous system becomes receptive at a deeper level.
Kara: There's a quote that was at the end of that book that I just finished and I had to write it down because it just, it resonated. "But when a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower." And this sounds like kind of, you know, this idea of that space around us, and really making that all conducive to healing. Yeah.
Kim: And a lot of us, like, we're not even taught that we're like the plant in soil, that we are energy being in an environment of energy. So you're like, "Does that mean I eat different food?" Well, there's something to that, but your energy environment is more what they're pointing to. You got this flower, you got this soil, there's water, there's nutrients. Like, what is the environment? Most of us think I'm a physical, solid, separate body. And so what's my environment like air, the people, the food. It's way more than that. Your emotions, your thoughts, your beliefs, and what we're calling the adverse events. It's not just past like this timeline on this lifetime. It's handed down in the DNA. So you're going to be carrying like triggers or states of tension. Like, "Oh, I'm never going to do that," and it's not even something that's you, it's not even in your lifetime that you had an experience, made a conclusion. These are registered in the DNA. And so to shift that, we don't need to like, "Let's figure out what the adverse event was and transmute it." It's here now. We can, you know, we're more present. You are sensing and feeling. It's all here right now. You can shift it here now, not 20 years ago or in utero. Some of those might feel really intangible, but they're here now.
Kara: Yeah. Yeah.
Kim: does know how to release that.
Kara: Yeah. I find it incredibly fascinating looking at that data that comes out of, is in particular, people we've studied out of World War II. You know, seeing those effects in these generations after, and some additional work, you know, surrounding that, that it sticks, those epigenetic changes and they're not permanent.
You know, one of the really central concepts of the work you do and talk about is, the mind and the body are not separate entities. And how does this connection kind of play out practically, like in our health?
Harnessing Mind-Body Connection for Healing
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Kara: I think we've been talking about this a little bit, but maybe some more concrete examples.
Kim: Yeah. So, I know for me, a lot of the inflammation that was happening showed up in my joints. And so joints are about relating about, "Am I fluid with being in, you know, a flexible space?" It will actually show up in the body. And so for me, there was a lot of rigidity, not just in my relationships, but like who I am. So it's like, "Like it or not, I'm going to be this way" and there was I think in a good way, you know, creative explorer that was also like, kind of rebellious. I'm not just gonna buy what I'm told, I'm not gonna believe it, I'm gonna look for myself and get my own clarity. But that also created some rigidity of its own, where it's like, I'm protective, I'm not gonna just let everything in. And there's like a resistance. So anytime we're in resistance, that's inflammation, tension, cortisol, stress hormones. You're actually suppressing reproductive hormones because your reproductive system is kind of an afterthought. Like, yeah, when we get our regular show together, we can think about supporting someone else and reproducing.
So your system will shunt energy from that system first. Like that's not the necessary one to live. And I certainly was having issues with my cycle. It was very irregular. And I realized like someday I want to get pregnant. I can't continue being this me and have those things happen. And so it's pertinent to every single aspect of your life, whether it's your body and your health or your relationships, your fertility, or maybe you have kids and you're like, "How am I showing up as a parent?"
This morning I was super firm with my six year old and it wasn't like soft, compassionate, la la la. I realized like, no, that is not going to serve him right now. He needs to get in the seat for taking responsibility for some of the things that are happening. And it was like super firm, but he just like kind of was taken aback and like listened and let it in.
And so the ability to know how to be, when, like what's going to serve the moment the most, you can't do that from the head. "Oh, I read a book and it said I should be firm. Okay. I'm going to be firm." But it's this contrived conclusion that's like not organic. If you're in your body here, present, feeling, sensing, open, you're guided. You know, you have the insight, you have the intelligence coming through you. So that intelligence isn't just what creates our physical health, our hormones, you know, that vitality. It is literally everything. The relationships, money, work. You can't even see opportunities when you're in that spin out of just high beta all the time and your regular programming. You're in a conclusion. "Well, I know I have to do this. So let me think about it this way," versus once you drop in. "Ooh, what else is possible I may never have considered," and you can be receptive very very new information, new opportunities you would have never seen.
Practical examples of the mind-body connection: How your thoughts and emotions manifest in your physical body.
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Kara: So many people, you know, feel a lot of hesitation, some fear, resistance around this whole concept of mind body medicine. You know, we'll kind of chalk it up to woo or, you know, that there's an element of blame to it. Like how do you kind of, what's your response to that?
Kim: Yeah, the first thing you have to do, you've got to stop making it wrong. Like if I made myself wrong that I was on that self improvement program so long and that it created the inflammation and the illness, I would never be able to take responsibility. Because taking responsibility is a pretty bold act. Your system, your mind, the programming will be like, "You should have done this sooner. It's your fault. This shouldn't have happened and it's because of you." And that's a total big fat lie. You can't really have taken responsibility any sooner than right now. So now is your clean slate. But the other important thing about this is the old narrative inside your system. Like I call it the dragon, Eckhart Tolle calls it the pain body. It's also, there's a lot of names for it.
Kara: I call it the inner mean girl.
Kim: Yeah, yes. The inner mean girl.
Kara: My millennial reference.
Kim: The program doesn't want to die and it's like, "Oh. She's on to me," and it will come out with a vengeance. "That won't work for you. Oh, that's just stupid" and then it's this protective like, "I don't know about that." And you think it's your thought. You think it's your decision. You think it's your insight and it's actually just the pain body kind of hijacking you so that you don't embark on a new way. And so this little like virus, you know, it's like a thought virus kind of wants to keep staying alive, right? It's not going to kill you because it's living off of you like a parasite, but it's going to keep you small. It's going to keep you diminished. And anytime you start to move in the direction of true prosperity and awakening, it's going to put the blocks on that. And it will do that in specific ways that you are kind of already accustomed to.
Like I said earlier, being a little bit like a rebel was like a helpful thing for me. Like I'm not just going to swallow everything they're teaching me. I'm going to explore for myself. But then it could also be used by the thought virus like, "Oh yeah, you should push against that. Don't let that in. They're just trying to manipulate you." And then it actually gets the better of you. So you got to keep erasing the chalkboard of everything you think and listen from here. Listen from the heart. That's where your true connection is. That's where your inner knowing is. And the wisdom, the intelligence that created you is alive in you now, guiding you. And so that's really what happened that day when I had that insight and had that massive healing. I started listening to that. I could clearly see and it was like all the story, the high beta brain wave. It just was silenced because I was dropped into my body, present, sensing, aware, soft, right? When you do soft body, full breath, you're not feeding that dragon. So you won't be hijacked and you will hear the truth.
Simple practices to begin your mind-body journey: Bringing your awareness to the present moment and shifting your breathing patterns.
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Kara: What are some simple practices that our listeners can maybe start with if they want to maybe dip their toes into this entity of mind-body medicine?
Kim: Yeah, it's super easy. So my main foundation is called the instant elevation. Instant because as soon as you connect with your body, you've shifted your frequency and elevation because you're at a higher frequency than when you're disconnected in resistance. So as soon as you bring your awareness to your body, like in that midline, breathing up and down, feeling, sensing your body. You can physically touch your body, like, skin on skin is really good. You're going to decrease your cortisol levels, you're going to increase oxytocin, dopamine, like, endorphins. As soon as you gently, slowly, touch your body, skin on skin. So just that alone, bringing your awareness here, the body can only live in the now, is going to get you connected. Usually ordinary consciousness, your mind is like outside of you. "What do they think? What are the need for me? Oh, I can't believe she said that." Or it's out in the future. "Oh, I got to make sure this doesn't happen." So like control, fear, anxiety. Or in the past, "I can't believe that that happened. And I've never been the same since I had this accident," and it's kind of like recreating past. So anger, resentment, regret. And then the last place is your identity. "Oh, well, I'm not that kind of person." And you go into the persona programming, right? As soon as you're like, "Well, because I'm a doctor, I can't do that." You identify with a false self. It's not actually real. Your guidance can only live in the now and your body only lives in the now.
Kara: So what are some simple practices that our listeners can maybe try out if they're wanting to dip their toes in this area of mind-body medicine?
Kim: So the the most essential foundation for the whole thing is you've got to get your energy here now. Where your attention goes is where your energy flow. So most of the time our attention consciously or unconsciously is outside of our body. We're focusing on what we have to do later, the future, the wanted, the unwanted controlling. "I've got to make sure to do this." We're focusing in the past and usually that's unconscious. So we'll feel anger, we'll feel resentment. We're actually carrying the past with us. So a lot of our attention goes there. And when we're in the future, we're going to feel anxiety, fear. When we're in this space of other people, like obligation or what they need from me, or I have to do this and I can't do that. Where sort of judgment. You're going to feel a lot of angst about like limitation. "I can't do this. I have to do that," judgment. But you're projecting your energy outside yourself. Like no one's out there judging you, but you're like, "Oh yeah, yeah, no, I know exactly what she's thinking. I know exactly what, this is what he thinks and this is what he's going to do. If I do this, then they'll do that." All your energy is out there.
Kara: All the stories, all the stories.
Kim: Yeah. And then the last place is identity. "Oh, well, because I'm a woman, you know, my life's going to be so much harder," "Oh, well, I'm a mom. So busy, busy, busy." Or, you know, "I'm a doctor, so I can't do that." And it's all BS. It's total belief systems, but it sucks up a ton of your processing power.
And so the body's like, "Yeah, I can do whatever we want to do here." But it needs your energy. It needs that circuitry turned on and you got to put your attention here. So that's the first step, the foundation for everything I do is you're going to begin practicing, getting your energy here now in the body.
Then all the shifts can happen. So sometimes people do affirmations or they do a lot of mind body work. They're like, "Yeah, I get this. This is so great," but they're not actually here. So it doesn't matter, right? "I'm powerful and healthy," "Yeah. I'm feeling my feelings" and there is nothing happening. It can't create that cellular change that shift in your frequency unless you're actually here. Your power is here now. And when you do get your power here now, all of that stuff happens automatically. So it's not really work.
Kara: How do you bring yourself into the here and now?
Kim: So physical sensation is a great anchor point. Your body can only live in the now. It's here, It's now. So when you begin to even just movement like, all right, I got some tension in my shoulders. I feel my bum on the seat. I'm going to shift my breathing. Soon as you bring your attention here, you got to make some changes because you're like, "Oh wait, that's not working out." So you'll move your body. You'll shift your breathing. That stuff will happen. But a lot of people are really unaware of like how to put my attention on my body. So I start with physical. So gently touching your body. Putting your hand skin on skin. And that'll actually decrease your stress hormone levels. That will bring you out of the high beta frequency brain functioning, and it'll bring you into a slower beta. You're already more receptive. You're already more perceptive. So like, "Oh, wait a minute. Why don't I just do that?" can automatically come in versus when we're running the automatic program. It's like, "No, no, no, I can't. I can't. That won't work. And that won't work. I don't know. There's nothing to do." You will never find a solution no matter how hard you work or how smart you are when you function from that state. So you've got to allow that shift first. And even if it's just a pause, like the power is in the pause and you're like, nothing's changed yet. Nothing's changed yet. Yeah. Just be in that pause for 10 more seconds because everything will change when you get your presence here now.
The power of breathwork: Exploring different techniques and their impact on the nervous system and stress response.
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Kara: Can you share a little bit more about breath work? Because I think, you know, for folks that aren't familiar, you know, breathing is just something that happens, right?
Kim: Your breath shifts your physiology. So that's really the second piece from my like three step formula. A is you gotta begin to master your awareness and get it here now in your body. Pull your energy back into your body. B is you're shifting your breathing.
Yay!
Kara: I love that, right? We've had that happen a couple times on this show.
For those that are listening and aren't watching, there are balloons that just came across the screen, um, because Dr. Kim was celebrating with her hands. I have no idea why this happens, but it does strike some joy.
Kim: Yes. So when we're in that high beta brain frequency, it puts us in the automatic programming and everything we do, what we say, what we think, how we breathe. And of course all of our physiology is in that program so we can shift out of that just by shifting our breathing. So after you get your energy here now, you shift your breathing. Let your breath come more into your belly. Let your shoulders relax. Your body will do the work for you for dissolving emotions, traumas. You don't have to keep identifying yourself as, "I'm a blah, blah, blah survivor," or "I have this trauma and I'm like managing it and coping it." You can actually be free from that where you no longer have that in your system.
And a lot of that has to do with where you put your attention, how you're breathing your body. So am I breathing in that soft body full breath, or am I carrying the tension, breathing into the upper lung fields? I'm good. I'm good. Everything's good. But it's actually because I'm avoiding what's here. I'm not feeling what's here.
So you can only carry that on for so long. And that stress breathing increases your stress hormones, you know, decreases your ability to digest your food, to rebalance your immune system, to think clearly. It's not meant to be a long term state. And when you shift your breathing, and there's way more advanced breathwork practices you can do to heal the body, but even just as simple as soft shoulders, full breath lets your body stay on self healing mode all day.
Kara: Tapping into that vagus nerve.
Kim: Your diaphragm.
Kara: Yeah.
Kim: Your diaphragm's either tense and it's starving that off, closing tight, or there's room for the vagus nerve. There's room for the lymphatic fluid. There's room for the blood flow to return. And there's room for you to feel at peace in your body, that your body's designed to do that. You just got to work with it.
Kara: What I found really fascinating, so I read, um, and I can't recall if the book is called Breathe or Breath. The one by James Nestor and he looked across, you know, at these different mind-body practices across the world. Tai Chi, other spiritual practices like saying the rosary, chanting, you know, very diverse areas. And what really came together that he, you know, he didn't do the research, but he kind of shared this is that they center on this 5.5 second breath. And that there is, you know, hypothesize that there is some sort of ancient wisdom that our ancestors, you know, learned along the way that there was this healing and this calmness, this stillness in breathing in these particular patterns.
Kim: Yeah. The book is called, 'Breath.' There's two different books. And my friend told me about Breath by James Nestor and I originally started reading the other one. But yeah, it's pretty fascinating because of what's happening in your brain and nervous system. Like for example, when you breathe through your nose versus your mouth breather and a lot of inflammation comes up in your body because it's stimulating that parasympathetic nervous system. So your body's constantly like, fight or flight, I'm being attacked. That's where most people live. They're like, you know, in all these different places where their energy gets dispersed and they're just constantly running from the dragon. They're not here now present. And the one thing those practices have in common is you're here, right? Your rosary, you've got the sensation of the bead in your hand. You're focusing into right where you bring your attention. And then you're harmonizing because the prayer is a fluid, has actual meaning. It's not just the rote words. There's a meaning and an energy that is evoked. And so when you're in that practice, it's letting new energy in your cells. Like we had said before, they're very receptive down to the mitochondria to the frequencies of your thought. And so when you go into a behavior like that, a pattern like that, you're activating the same things like the presence. I'm here now sensing and feeling my body, the breath. I'm consciously breathing. I'm present to my breath and I'm breathing in a fluid way that's harmonious to my body.
The importance of conscious choice: Making decisions that align with your true self and create prosperity in your life.
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Kim: And then my third part of that three step instant elevation process is conscious choice. Most of the choices we make are unconscious, right? "I have to do this. I have to do that. That's the only way." And like I said before, we get hijacked thinking that pain body is us. We identify with it. We're like, "Yes, this is a good idea. I'm the one who decided it." No, no, no, You're not the small self. You're not the pain body. You're not the wounded child. You're not the one hurting. You're not the one who's triggered. You are the being, the presence, the essence of life moving through this body. And that essence of life always knows exactly what to choose. What choice will create the most prosperity for me right now? Whether it's like, "I'm going to do this new diet. Yeah, that's a good idea." And you just feel into like, "Well, let me just check in. Is this going to create prosperity for me?" And you'll either feel like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Or, uh, something's off about that. But if you're not listening from the I am self, you will not know the difference. And so you always want to look, "Okay, what does my true self have to say about this?"
And then you can also check in, "What does my ego think about this?" And the ego is like, "It's a great idea. Let's do this." But the true self is like, " That's not really fluid for me. That's not the highest. What if we let that go?" So you'll get clarity that goes beyond the mind, which is filled with ideas and thoughts, and here's the newest thing. But the truth, the wisdom that created you is infinitely beyond all of it. And it. always knows.
Kara: What I have found too, is this for me has taken this unlearning process to learn, like, you know? I'll share an example of how this showed up for me just yesterday afternoon. I was getting into that, like fight or flight, you know, kind of looking at my schedule today, this morning it was like, a little closer than I wanted. I knew it was going to be a little bit, um, a little sticky, but I took that moment, took a deep breath, kind of brought myself back to my body. And then I started just kind of thinking out loud of, "Okay, no. Calm. How could I be creative in making this work for today? And, was able to come up with a really creative solution that I was not able to access like when I was in that stress mode of like, "Oh, I would have never thought of this before," but I ended up asking one of my best girlfriends, she lives like a few blocks from the kid's school. I knew I had a zoom and had to pick the kids up. So I was able to log onto her wifi from her driveway, do my zoom from the car comfortably, like see a crane fly by. And then be able to pick my daughter up for her orthodontist appointment. And it all worked out fine, like,
Kim: Yeah, that's the power. If you're in a universal field of energy, everything is possible. But like, the small self, Kara, wouldn't do that. Wouldn't even think of that. It's like, "No, there's nothing. There's no way out. There's no way in." You actually, we can argue for the limitation. Argue for our victimhood versus like, "Wait a minute. What's possible here I may not be seeing?" And now you open up to universal source consciousness and there's all kinds of, I've actually had that same thing happen. I just intended like, all right, we need a little more easy breezy here, what's possible and had people call me and move their appointment to another day.
And I'm like, well, that's a nice way for it to smooth itself out. So sometimes there's an action for me to take and it's like in ease, like, "Oh, I can do that." But before I switch, before I shift, It's not, there's no action and anything I could even imagine would be so hard and so uncomfortable and not the right thing and, uh. So you have to do the internal shift. You're a giant receptor and you're either receiving information about why your life's not working, or you're receiving clear awareness about what's possible and how it can work. And you're the one who's got to dial in to change the channel you're tuning into.
Kara: Yeah. One other quick example. So, a couple months ago, I had decided I'm going to open up my clinics on Tuesday morning. For the last couple of years, I haven't seen patients on Tuesday morning, but I was going to start. So they submitted the information to Central Scheduling, so there would be a template.
Well, something got totally messed up and there were twice as many people on my template than what should have been when I walked in that first Tuesday morning. And old me would have just like spiraled, like, "Oh my gosh, how am I going to see all these people? What's going to happen?" And I just said, "You know what? This is what it is. I'm going to do the best that I can. I'm going to show up, you know, for each of these patients." And a few people didn't show up, I think. And like, you know, just everything worked out fine. And I know that old me would have used so much energy stressing, frankly being pissed off about the whole situation, um, victimhood, you know, kind of things that was like, "Well, okay, I'm going to have Erin, you know, put blocks so that this doesn't happen next week and we're just going to put my roller skates on and like, do the best we can." And it was a totally different experience.
Kim: That's what most people don't realize is like everything and everyone is responding to your energy. So if we're in our victimhood or pissed or we're like, ah, but then we like, try to double down and do our work, everyone's going to be in more resistance. There's going to be less flow for them because we, it's contagious. Energy is contagious. So if you're in your like, "All right, how do I flow with this?" You'll magically find people are like more responsive, more in flow, more like, "Oh, don't worry about it." And things actually go really seamlessly because we are connected. We're not separate. That's a great story. I mean, that's a great way to operate as a doctor, you know, and remember that.
Kara: So I took some notes. This is some months back, but this idea that, you know, pain times resistance is our suffering. So if we have control over that resistance part, pain is inevitable, like it's part of life. Physical, emotional, you know, whatever the context, but the resistance or that story, you know, that really is the variable piece that we, if we so choose and are in a space that we're, you know, able and wanting to, to turn that down. Yeah.
Kim: Yeah and i wonder what's possible. The more we shift inside, like the magical things can show up. We change our world. Be excited about that.
Kara: So what is one key piece of advice that maybe you would give people who are on their own health journey?
Dr. Kim's upcoming workshop: Learn how to deepen your mind-body connection and access your innate healing potential.
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Kim: I do have a workshop coming up that I want to share with people because we're sharing this work to more and more people who are really in it, whether it's cancer or MS or a severe autoimmune disease, or my life got hijacked by this illness we don't even have a name for and chronic fatigue syndrome. It's so bewildering. And so in this workshop, I'll be working with you to bring you some of the tools that get you here now and get you connected because sometimes it's just information I'm giving you. If you're not deep in your body receiving, it's just new information. What does it take to actually generate shifts in your cellular, in your physiology, in your brain, in your fricking money, your life, your relationships, that you're like, "This is awesome." You've got to be more embodied and you've got to embody the more true presence of who you are, not like double down on the pain body and like, "Okay, she's all geared up" and all of your protective measures and all your coping mechanisms like that's actually what made me sick. My coping mechanisms of overcoming failure were like creating inflammation in my body. So how do we actually delete that and more and more enter the I am that I am, the true being. That is something we've got to be receptive to. And so in this workshop, I will bring you the tools and resources and some of the insights around like, what does that mean? How do we create a shift in her brain state as well as opportunity to work with myself and my team to really step into a whole new consciousness in your life. You're not meant to live in struggle. You're not meant to live in lack. There is enough to go around and there is abundance, but just like we don't see those opportunities of "How could I do this?" When we're in those programming states, we don't not see or choose that abundance that's here. So in the workshop, we will really go deep into this and you'll create some shifts right there on the call.
Kara: Awesome. And this is coming up soon
Kim: Yes, it's on May 16th and the link is drkimd.com/workshop.
Kara: Awesome. And so folks can kind of find information there. In addition, go to your website without the forward slash to see all of your book and other courses.
Kim: Yeah.
Dr. Kim's book, The MindBody Toolkit: Discover practical tools to activate self-healing anytime, anywhere.
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Kim: The mind body toolkit is really, I had learned a lot about mind body medicine and the science and the body heals itself, but it was like, well, what do I do with that? How do I activate that? So when I wrote my book, it's 10 tools. You can use anytime, anywhere to activate self healing. So your body's always listening and it doesn't mean you're not, you know, I have to just meditate for 10 minutes. No, you can do while you're driving, you do while you're speaking, you do while you're playing your kids out. Like you can be present here with your body and be doing some stuff. It's not like it's a separate thing. So that, that was what I needed is like, how do I live in the moment while I'm doing my life versus like, "Okay, I'm living in the moment" and then leave the moment and go out there and live my life. Like that will never actually sustain itself. And so the mind body toolkit is also on my website, drkimd.com.
Kara: Awesome.
Becoming Immune Confident: How to trust your inner wisdom and navigate setbacks on your health journey.
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Kara: So on the podcast, we talk about becoming immune confident. As someone who struggled with their health, how does that confidence grow even with the possibility of future setbacks?
Kim: Um, the more we're connected, the more we're shown. So it's not like a flying leap of faith. Ooh, this is what I want to do. It's clear. You get more and more clarity. And then the more you take conscious choice, the more you're connected. So it kind of like feeds on itself. And then it's just, this is so obvious. I'll never live any other way. I can see the path. I'm not just flying leap of faith. You're listening to your knowing. But it's showing up for you. It's showing you the path. So it just becomes more and more confidence as you trust.
Kara: Awesome. Thank you so much, Doctor
Kim
Kim: Thank you for having me.
Kara: I'm excited to check out the workshop. Yeah.
Kim: Yeah, I'm really excited to have people there. Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to see your growth and you're clearly moving more and more into connection with yourself. And I know that's a real gift to others.
Kara: Thank you. Take care.
Kara Wada, MD: Hey there, amazing listeners. Before we wrap up today's episode, I want to take a quick moment to ask for your support. If you're enjoying the content of the Becoming Immune Confident Podcast, we're bringing you week after week, there's a simple, but incredibly impactful way you can show your appreciation.
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