Diseases can be Prevented or Reversed Through Lifestyle with Christin Collins on The Healers Café with Manon Bolliger

In this episode of The Healers Café, Manon Bolliger (Deregistered naturopathic physician with 30 years of experience in health), talks with Christin Collins, understanding the mind/body connection, and that my thoughts dictate my experience

 

Highlights from today’s episode include:

Christin Collins

Because of my passion for healing my body, I was then blessed with the opportunity to become the person overseeing health and wellness for a $2 billion company

Christin Collins

I ended up putting in there an acupuncturist, a hypnotherapist, cranial sacral therapy, all modalities that I used, as well as you could purchase essential oils or take a class participate in the mind and body program that we created.

Manon Bolliger

Fear will, will ruin your immune system. If you stay in fear, you don’t need anything else to ruin it, you’re ruining it.

ABOUT CHRISTIN COLLINS:

Christin Collins is a magnetic, thought- provoking influencer inspiring thousands to connect with their purpose, ultimate joy and love.

As a former health care executive, she thought that she was doing everything she could to live a vibrant and healthy life; still her health struggled.

Her relentless pursuit to improve herself has led her to open her heart to the world and share the lessons she has learned along the way – from better health and healing, to connecting people through her creative charity and community involvement.
In her new book, Christin takes us on her non-traditional journey to uncover the root cause of her ailments. Along the way, she discovers that knowing and loving herself is essential to good health; and the foundation for optimal well-being.

Core purpose/passion: My purpose is to Inspire Awakening, but helping people understand that what they are searching for so desperately outside of themselves actually already exists within them. I am passionate about this as it has been my personal journey of discovery, and I want to support others to find true love and joy so they too can live a life of optimal wellbeing. I cherish that my mission is to support others to Find It Within Yourself, to reconnect with their life’s purpose and unique journey so they can thrive and enjoy the ride.

Website | Facebook | YouTube   |  LinkedInInstagram

 

About Manon Bolliger

As a recently De-Registered board-certified naturopathic physician & in practice since 1992, I’ve seen an average of 150 patients per week and have helped people ranging from rural farmers in Nova Scotia to stressed out CEOs in Toronto to tri-athletes here in Vancouver.

My resolve to educate, empower and engage people to take charge of their own health is evident in my best-selling books:  ‘What Patients Don’t Say if Doctors Don’t Ask: The Mindful Patient-Doctor Relationship’ and ‘A Healer in Every Household: Simple Solutions for Stress’.  I also teach BowenFirst™ Therapy through Bowen College and hold transformational workshops to achieve these goals.

So, when I share with you that LISTENING to Your body is a game changer in the healing process, I am speaking from expertise and direct experience”.

Mission: A Healer in Every Household!

For more great information to go to her weekly blog:  http://bowencollege.com/blog

For tips on health & healing go to: https://www.drmanonbolliger.com/tips

SOCIAL MEDIA:

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About The Healers Café:

Manon’s show is the #1 show for medical practitioners and holistic healers to have heart to heart conversations about their day to day lives.

Follow us on social media! https://www.facebook.com/thehealerscafe

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to the Healers Cafe. Conversations of health and healing with Manon Bolliger (Deregistered with 30 years of experience in health).

 

Manon Bolliger  00:18

So welcome to the Healers Café, and today I have with me Christin Collins. And I’m just telling you a few words about her and then I’ll just let her take over her. So, her background is as a former health care executive. And as we’re going to find out a little bit more shortly, she is now out of the system. And I guess well welcome. And I would just love to know a little bit about, well, what first of all attracted you to that field? And then what changed?

 

Christin Collins  01:00

Oh, thank you for that. And thank you for hosting me and the work that you do. You’re shedding some beautiful light and helping lots of us navigate and find that inner meaning. So, thank you, I found myself in healthcare very accidentally, I am non clinical. So, I entered healthcare actually as a fundraiser. And I was connecting with community and helping to raise $100 million dollars towards a children’s hospital in our region. And while I was doing that, I was also asked to raise some money for one of our campuses within the hospital. And this particular executive overseeing this campus wanted to build something that he called an optimal healing environment. And I didn’t know what that meant. And we really didn’t have the staffing or the capacity to support his little fundraise, because we were busy over there building the Children’s Hospital. But I did accept the mission. And it was while I was helping him create this healing environment, I learned that I was responsible for my own health, and that the vast majority of disease can be prevented or reversed through lifestyle. So it was in that awareness that I actually went ahead and identified that I had chronic disease, even though I didn’t realize I did and then created my own out. And because of my passion for healing my body, I was then blessed with the opportunity to become the person overseeing health and wellness for a $2 billion company.

 

Manon Bolliger  02:42

Wow, that’s quite the quite the journey, my goodness, because that original, so that original natal at Children’s Hospital, but the other one it was to, to have health and wellness. But without really understanding what that meant. It was a vision.

 

Christin Collins  03:05

It was a vision. And it was so interesting because not only would it have a center, a gym, a healthy life center where people could come and work on their wellness through some healthy food through a lending library nutritionist. I ended up putting in there an acupuncturist, a hypnotherapist, cranial sacral therapy, all modalities that I used, as well as you could purchase essential oils or take a class participate in the mind and body program that we created. So that was a part of it. But also to it was about the built environment. What is the what is the feeling our folks welcome there while there? Well, we created a walking path where people could go connect with nature and be safe moving. We have gorgeous art that was donated that as you walked into the hospital, you kind of forgot you were in a hospital and you were taking in the beauty of culture and art. cents on the heated towels that were ingested pre and post surgery, which reduced the amount of medicine needed the length of stay. So it was a really a holistic approach to create an optimal healing environment that really changed the trajectory of my personal and professional life.

 

Manon Bolliger  04:30

Wow. So I mean, that’s quite a quite a bold idea. I mean, not as a naturopath, because for me, you know, 30 years of doing this, it’s like, yeah, it makes total sense. But um, so this was actually a hospital.

 

Christin Collins  04:47

It was a hospital and it was one of the five campuses within this system. And it was a very bold vision and we actually brought in a naturopath onto our team. So To your point, it really isn’t mind blowing. And this is how we should take care of ourselves and connect as a community. But in traditional health care, it was it was unheard of. And so much so that this project ended up winning a very powerful award from the state in honoring its work, but it was very pioneering and to be honest with you, it after about four or five years after a change of leadership within the system, it actually started to deteriorate and, and dissipate.

 

Manon Bolliger  05:39

Hmm. That’s unfortunate. But I’d be interested. When you say a change of leadership, is it also a change of what else was involved in that change?

 

Christin Collins  05:52

Sure, that’s a that’s a great question. We had a CEO for over 30 years that was leading the organization and quietly supporting this project, when that CEO then stepped down and retired, and we had a new person come in and take over the vision of repair versus prevent, and you know, be well, and how is the model set up? How are we paid? How are we trained? It started to default back into what is currently the traditional model of reparative. Health. It’s, it’s no one’s fault. It’s not a bad thing. I mean, we are not set up as a society, you know, to be we don’t pay for Being Well,

 

Manon Bolliger  06:37

no, exactly. Yeah. Which is an interesting concept to, to, because right now, I mean, with all these health care workers, that are not willing to take an experimental, biological, and you know, I mean, when you’re scientifically based, you actually want to see the science, you actually want to, you don’t really want to be part of an experiment unless you choose to. And people keep thinking that it’s, it’s done, and it’s, it’s safe and effective, so to speak. And that’s like, Well, wait a minute. No, no, it’s still we’re still in that, you know, we’re not done until 2023. Right, like, you know, so, I mean, so a lot, a lot. Right through, you know, anybody in the hospitals, but most healthcare practitioners ask themselves that question. And part of with all these …

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mandates, and I know, they’re a little bit different, but there’s a lot of lock stepping around, how do you look at what’s going on in the world? They’re looking at what needs to be created? You know, and it’s, so that’s why I was asking that because you have tons of experience, right? What needs to be created? That is a true, not I’ll turn that turbines in, you know, I know what the right word. It’s not complimentary, either. It’s like, it’s a parallel. But not sick base, sick based, it’s preventative base, but you still have to deal with people that are ill because there are people that are ill.

 

Christin Collins  08:22

I lost that parallel. And I like the I like the word parallel and what just bubbled up for me in your expression. But I think the reason that I was able to go there and help take the organization there and take the community there was because I wasn’t clinical. Right, so I didn’t have all of that education and schooling in the science. And I became aware, as I mentioned that I had chronic disease. My inflammation was literally over 100%. And that scared me quite a lot. And I was a vegan triathlete overseeing health and what like, you can’t make this up. But what else could I be doing to be well, and yet my, my auto immune system was shot. And it was through my understanding of stress, and some trauma healing that I thought I had addressed, but I didn’t, I became very aware of my mind body connection and how much I was angsting and destroying my digestive tract. So I we need met, we need modern medicine, we need medication, we need surgery, we need all of that. But in parallel, like you said, we need to be aware that how we think and what we think is 100% in alignment with how we feel and how we are. Yeah. imal taneous

 

Manon Bolliger  09:49

Yeah, no, it is that it’s really both because even with chronic disease, I mean, there are natural solutions to chronic diseases. And we sure we can spend our time there. But also it’s like, I found it interesting that you said I discovered I had a chronic disease. It’s like, you know that my first thought was like, Well, how could you not know? Right? But could you expand on that? Because I’m sure you’re not the only one who will self identify and say, Gosh, I actually have a chronic disease.

 

Christin Collins  10:23

I so appreciate that question. And I’m embarrassed, but I’m not. Oh, no, no, because it’s not no. Great, great question. Mid 40s. I’m trucking along, successful, you know, life’s good. Kids are good husbands good jobs good. And things over time, weren’t functioning or operating the same as they had when I was younger. And I just wrote that off as I was aging. That’s just how it is now. And just that new normal of how you feel. It’s almost like you know, you put the frog in the pot, and then you turn the water, the burner on and you know, it’s boiling up around. So again, I was not obese, I ate great. I exercised wonderfully. Everything seemed good, but every day. And there were a bunch of things. skin irritations, exhaustion in the afternoon. Brain fog. The biggest one, which I just wrote off was the expansion of my midsection, like just severe, bloating every day, after two o’clock, I thought I was gluten intolerant. I tried that for a while. I thought it was caffeine. I thought it was alcohol. Like I tried. I tried it all. Well, in reflection, because my my digestive system was just seeping and going crazy. I would get this daily bloat that I just wrote off as normal. Or I just couldn’t figure out what it was, I had no idea that it was chronic inflammation. So I we did a series of a test, I took a test that did I think it measured 100 markers. And 99 of my markers were within the normal range. I looked great on paper. And then the one marker for inflammation was when my doctor was reading it. He was like, Wow, that’s so weird. They didn’t test you for inflammation, because there was no marker on the graph. And I said, Well, I call me crazy. But like, why would you measure 99 And then they forgot this one. And we figured out that the dash the indicator was literally off the chart almost off the page. So I seriously did not know that I had chronic inflammation. And I had an autoimmune issue. Because that my new normal of my symptoms I just wrote off as you know, things.

 

Manon Bolliger  12:57

So you have discovered why now, right? I’m assuming these are something I mean, this is your private life. So you don’t have to share anything medical. Just to make that point clear. But is there something in your discovery that surprised you? What was going on?

 

Christin Collins  13:19

Yeah, definitely. And I’m not shy about it. I and I don’t share it. Um, I wrote about it really for my own healing journey? Yes. And didn’t exactly know how the pieces would fit together. But it was after sitting down and just seeing what stories are what life experiences bubbled up. I did in reflection, as I looked back on what I wrote, it was very clear this thread which started probably at birth, if not prenatal, of stress, of fear. That thread through my 54 years of life so my discovery again, yes, there’s times I need medicine and surgeries. Absolutely. But the power of the mind body connection was really for me the part of lifestyle that was the last for me to understand I had the food I had the exercise I sleeping pretty good. But the stress the mental health and then the purpose the why behind life. That’s been my latest chapter and the one that really took me over the edge not only to heal my body, my body now is functioning phenomenal. I can eat, you know, drink and be merry and I’m in a very healthy place, but it really was from the inside

 

Manon Bolliger  14:45

out. Thank you for sharing that nobody’s and it’s so it seems so obvious, but it’s not because we’re in a society That seems to separate everything. So we think, okay, we need drugs for the mind and drugs for the body without understanding really, that we are mind body. But that once we we understand the impact that fear, for example, or trauma has on us and especially on our, on our autonomic nervous system on how we operate and how we deal with everything, including how we digest, right? Like all of that, how we absorb nutrients if we can’t balance that, and without finding the cause you don’t have to, and that’s the other thing, you know, we, we think, Oh, well, I’m not officially anxious, I’m not officially depressed. I’m not. I don’t want to take drugs for this or drugs for that, because some people are aware that there’s more, right, but then it’s like you’re hanging and nowhere land and you still have the reaction of your body that causes high levels of inflammation, like fear will, will ruin your immune system. If you stay in fear, you don’t need anything else to ruin it, you’re ruining it.

 

Commercial Break  16:23

Hi, I’m Manon Bolliger I wanted to take a moment to thank you for watching these podcasts. If you haven’t subscribed, please do. Also feel free to leave comments and like it. This way more people get to find out about this work and about other choices for health. So I think it’s really important that we all share this information, I have a free gift to you. It’s a 7 sequence email that has tips for every day, and a little insight about how to live your life when it comes to health. www.DrManonBolliger.com/tips And it’s very much built on how I managed to overcome stage four cancer and what it took. So I I would love you to have this. And thank you once again, for listening to these podcasts. www.DrManonBolliger.com/tips

 

Christin Collins  17:25

And love your reflection of its you started by saying it seems obvious and I was giggling because I’m like, maybe from your lens. Having been a healer practitioner for very, you know, decades and decades, it does seem obvious. To me it was so non obvious and to know clinician who I was exposed to was this ever obvious. So I love this for your your audience and you know, your your community that you hold space for because whether you really know this, I want you to know that a lot of us didn’t or don’t Yes, or if you are that you know you if you’re new to this information, be patient that it’s not maybe in the forefront of of discussion. I searched for a really long time trying to get some semblance of guidance with this. I literally working in healthcare. You know, I had to figure all this out on my own. Yeah, that’s That’s tragic. This project, right. So now my whole purpose of being is to just share your story so that people know, like, I’m like, Hey, this is what happened to me. I’m not saying it has to happen to you or is happening to you. I think the fact that I found out I had you know, he’s because I don’t know how people get to figure this out if they don’t have a major life episode. That’s irreversible. I fortunately had a major life episode that woke me up to find the answer, but a lot of people don’t get that opportunity until it’s too late.

 

Manon Bolliger  19:08

Mm hmm. No, I think why I resonate is because I had the same thing. But yeah, we’re not we’re not the same exact thing we’ll ever, or of course, right. But I was already a naturopathic physician. I was already in practice. And I ended up with stage four cancer. And it’s like, so I was eating all the right things I was, you know, everything looked, right. And so, when you say that healthcare practitioners, and even alternative or you know, whatever you want to call it in the society, those that, you know, predominantly would prefer to use natural solutions, let’s say if they don’t have a truly holistic vision of The human being mind, spirit body, then these things are going to be missed. You know, so so when I actually bought this, I was embarrassed. That was my feeling, it was like, wow, I think I’m not going to tell anyone, you know. So just going to continue my work. And I’ll figure it out. And I had lots of ways to figure it out. So thank God, you know, I had think, but I, but I really had to, it prompted me to do my own deep inner work. And it’s actually a program I currently teach. And I teach all my practitioners, it’s about really how to listen to your body, because we’re not trained in that. And in that, I find that this is anyway, I didn’t expect to share my story from my interview with you, but it’s so similar.

 

Christin Collins  20:58

I appreciate you sharing that. And I too, I ended up with cancer at 21. And I know that I manifested that from again, the the trauma and all the angst, right. And then later, probably 710 years ago, I went ahead and did the genetic testing. Because my brother ended up with two daughters. I don’t have biological children, but my brother ended up with two daughters. So I wanted to understand was my cancer genetic, just in case they were predisposed, of which of course, it mine was environmental, it was not genetic. And, you know, the cancer piece? You know, we don’t I woke up from an operating table when I was 21. And I said, How did I get cancer? What did I do wrong? You know, I mean, how we get the cancer, we still to this day, aren’t, you know, necessarily understanding how we get cancer, there are some things that are a to b, but there’s a lot of things that are not explained. Yeah. And again, you said this before, and so my passion is about diving into root cause, and the interconnectivity within the environment within an environment of that’s where we get our total health. That’s where we get our total experience. And as you mentioned, we are currently in a phase where everything is dissected and isolated and taken into it’s, you know, this one element, and it’s like, well, wait a minute, that one element put in the middle of that trauma, or that, you know, community is going to show up very differently than if it’s over there, and sunshine and rainbows and unicorns, right. So I love what you’re saying, and what you’re leading to listen to the body, because the body is going to tell you, but we’re so distracted. Right, that we’re not listening?

 

Manon Bolliger  22:52

Yeah, I think that’s true. And I noticed in what you’re also offering, it’s a part a big part of it is, is also self care, self love. And, you know, reconnecting to that, because we’re so outside based, you know, and that’s the thing, even the now that there’s this, you know, pandemic or whatever. The solutions are like, oh, there’s, you know, I’m okay. And it could be much more complicated, like, they likely I would think, already knew how they were going to treat this. But let’s just say that they truly believe that this is the answer. The fact that people are not questioning it more that there could be other things that What about our, our immune system? What about the things that are innate in us? You know, what makes this so different? From, you know, our ability to actually look after ourselves, right? So instead of looking after ourselves, or any focus from any authority on you know, yes, do all the right things go out and get some fresh air get some vitamin? I can’t even say those things because that’s what got my license suspended. Yeah, so again, say anything healthy here, but like, you know, but the fact that, that the narrative is moving further and further away from our ability or, you know, allowing us or us taking charge of our health, that we’re actually having a very strong impose belief system that the solution is outside.

 

Christin Collins  24:48

I so appreciate you bringing that into this shared space. When I found myself exiting healthcare, in the pandemic. I there was a package that was offered For financial purposes, for reduction in workforce, and I was blessed to be able to say, to take it. And I had no idea what I was gonna go, do I still need it to work. And definitely I’m not ready to retire. But like, what do I go do? And what I’ve discovered in the past year and a half is a tagline. That bubbled up, and I didn’t quite understand it when it did. But it says, find it within yourself. And it doesn’t say find health within yourself. It doesn’t say find love with it doesn’t say what it is. Because the it for each of us is going to be a slight variable, right? And so exactly what you just reflected on in a world that may be imposing on me, right? I can’t control many of the aspects of what’s imposed on me, and I’m not going to spend my breath, freaking out and worrying about things that are outside of my control, right, I’m going to educate myself, I’m going to speak up about how I feel for sure. But I’m also going to release that otherwise, it’s just negative stress on me that got me in trouble to begin with, right? On the flip side, I try to spend the majority of my day in, you know, from the inside, looking out and making decisions. I’m curious when I’m not in alignment with someone else, instead of me wanting to like rent a billboard and scream at the top of my lungs. What a jerk they are, can’t they see they’re wrong? It’s how I used to behave. Now. I’m just like, you know, what, what do I control? What is my health? Like, for me? It was that in that mindset, in and of itself has reduced my anxiety levels and my stress levels. So I’m not in fight or flight all the time. It’s in the chaos of of what we’re currently going through.

 

Manon Bolliger  26:54

Yeah, yeah. No, I think that’s such a big point, too. And I know, other people have said it, too. But it’s like, it gives us an opportunity, really, to look at what we’re in control of, and what we’re not. And that doesn’t mean in action, and doesn’t mean that question, I doesn’t mean any of that, but how we, how we’re living inside ourselves. And, and I think too, you know, some people have more rage, or more anger, or more anxiety, or more, whatever, whatever, all of these different emotions that, you know, float through us, right. But to take more time to notice. And, you know, and I like myself one little practice I do is I don’t do well, wearing these masks, I just I it always triggers me. I mean that you could say, oh, sure, that’s past stuff, and PTSD and whatever, it doesn’t matter, like, whatever. It’s just my reality. And I just smile, and I smile at people. And I feel that there’s not everyone jumps out of the way. Now I know in Florida, they’re not wearing. Yeah, okay. But, but yeah, but here, it’s pretty, like, we have a different version of the virus. You know, hear everyone is mandated to do this, you know, and not a side like in Australia, where that’s must be a different one as well. But anyway, it’s just the connection with other humans, but coming from within you with love. And I think this is something so big, that I’ve stopped seeing people jump off the sidewalk, just in case. You know, I think that ultimately, if we’re coming from a place that is honoring of ourselves, and we are in love, I think it really helps. And that also means if I see somebody terrified, I will go would you like me to put this on for you. But I make it clear that it’s for them. It’s not because of arbitrary things that change every two weeks, because honestly, frankly, I can’t watch the news. It’s just too complicated. It’s like, common sense anymore. So I’m just

 

Christin Collins  29:27

okay. The news is a great example of, you know, the opposite of from within, right. And, you know, it was interesting, because I was still in health care, obviously, when the pandemic hit, and this surge of, oh my gosh, what do we do to support our team? And yeah, and I, it took a lot. I was trying really hard not to be sarcastic and be like, Oh, really, you know, now all of a sudden, we’re concerned about the well-being of our staff. You know, I mean, I have been trying to say this on that I fortunately was able to be there and be able to try to discuss offer programming, offer support offer all kinds of tools in ways that we could love on and support our team. So, the pandemic has provided a lot of challenges and devastation and, and triggers all kinds right. Also provided us this deep, deep pause, opportunity for introspection. That’s thinking through our why, whether it’s I am very uncomfortable wearing this mask, or, which is funny because I’m on the flip side, you know, I don’t love wearing it, but I don’t really care. It doesn’t bother me. So I’m probably one that wears it. Again, I live in Florida. So I have one that probably wears it more out of respect for others because I’m okay, like, I’m fine. You know, what’s been happening in the course of this journey, when I do connect with someone and I am covered the expression of connectivity through eyes, the intentionality of, of expressing Hi, I see you, hi, I respect you, hi, whatever they’re wearing or doing or saying or eating, I just have found this experience to be this huge pause. We’re so many people are either really uncomfortable with sitting with self managed, because so many of the distractions have not been available. You’re either really, really in a dark place because this is really really hard work or you’re having some very interesting breakthroughs about self. Yeah, yeah. Interesting.

 

Manon Bolliger  31:54

Yeah, no. Well, I mean, it’s, you know, if I think I don’t want to suggest that we need it to this. But I look I look at my illnesses as as I’m grateful for them, because they were all wake up calls. And I think this is a big wake up call. And so but I’d be ready for being done now.

 

Christin Collins  32:22

Like, are we through I just, I’m like, I’ve been very patient.

 

Manon Bolliger  32:27

Yeah. Our time is totally up. It’s been

 

Christin Collins  32:35

Oh, this is so fun.

 

Manon Bolliger  32:37

Well, thank you very much for being on the show and sharing your your life in your experience.

 

Christin Collins  32:43

Well, thank you for holding such beautiful space and shining so beautifully and you’re you’re helping so many people. Thank you.

 

Manon Bolliger (Deregistered with 30 years of experience in health)

Thank you for joining us. For more information, go to DrManonBolliger.com.

 

* De-Registered, revoked & retired ND, after 30 years of practice in healthcare. Now resourceful & resolved to share with you all the tools to take care of your health & vitality!