Oh boy, did this interview completely re-inspire me when it comes to taking care of my body and mind!
Jolene Park’s interest in holistic recovery began when she stopped using alcohol as a way to self-medicate her own anxiety. Jolene started using nutritional and lifestyle pieces to feel better, and drew on her studies in neurotransmitter and nutrient support, the cross addiction between alcohol and sugar, emotional resiliency techniques, and alternative healing, to overcome anxiety and stress.
“There is a sensitivity gene, and people will say: they feel more sensitive, they just take things more personally, and have used alcohol or sugar to buffer that. And it truly is in the physiology, there’s a gene there, and we call it the orchid gene. So if you think of an orchid, it needs a very sensitive environment, that ‘greenhouse’ environment, to thrive…
And the good news is, if that gene is tripped, when we put people back into really supportive, really soothing environments, using some of these techniques we know – with food, with yoga – they actually have a higher plasticity rate in their brain, which means that the brain will adapt and reshape and rewire… So it’s not a matter of ‘Oh, I’m doomed’ – NO, there’s incredible hope to bring things back into balance.”
Jolene has a wealth of wellness knowledge and is truly passionate about sharing these holistic tools with others. Join us as we talk about a broad spectrum of fascinating topics, including regulating cravings, gut healing (and why it’s crucial), and changing our brain chemistry…
“Three of my favourite things to regulate that fight/flight/freeze response that’s stuck on ‘on’ in the brain, don’t cost anything. The first is some form of focused breath work… Writing is really, really powerful. When we’re talking, we don’t get to that part of the brain that is holding on to that stress response. It’s in the mid-brain, the emotional and animal part of the brain in the back. But when we write and journal, it unlocks it. It unloops that stress response. And movement, particularly in the form of dancing, or really ‘shaking it off’.”
Resources mentioned in this interview:
:: Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s book: The Body Keeps the Score
:: Dr. Gabor Maté’s book: When the Body Says No
:: Jolene’s article: Women & Alcohol
:: Plus, Jolene’s TEDx talk: Grey Area Drinking
Jolene Park is a functional nutritionist, health coach, trauma informed yoga student and founder of Healthy Discoveries – a corporate wellness consulting and training company. Jolene shares empowering tools with her clients who also want to live an alcohol-free lifestyle. Her specialty is in the cross addiction between alcohol and sugar, depleted neurotransmitter and nutrient support, cravings, fight-flight-freeze stress responses, neuroplasticity, emotional resiliency techniques, habit change and mindfulness.
Find Jolene at Healthy Discoveries :: Instagram :: Facebook :: Twitter
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