Transcript:
Hey mama. Welcome back to Follow Your Gut with me. Sarah Bennett, founder of ōNLē ORGANICS as a mama of four. I've gone through the ups and downs of sleepless nights. Undiagnosed symptoms gotten a complete runaround from the medical system and I've found a different way. No more waiting out your child's symptoms, endlessly Googling in the middle of the.
And feeling lost and alone in your family's wellness. This podcast will empower you to take leadership of your family's wellness. So your family can experience that deep level of health and happiness. You so greatly deserve. I'm so happy you're here. Let's dive into today's episode.
Welcome to episode 23, The Four Parts of Holistic Healing.
Many mamas who come into my world are many months or even many years deep into their child’s health struggles. Their child is consumed with chronic rashes, restless sleep, developmental, speech or growth delays. They have several allergies or food intolerances, sour smelling poop or behavioral issues. Not every child has all of these symptoms but the ones they have consume these mamas world. Because they are all very conscience and it doesn’t make any sense that their child has any symptom at all. These mamas have already invested so much time, money and energy into trying to help their child. They have gone to every healthcare precessional, tried every elimination diet, every recommended supplement and have in many ways lost hope.
This episode is dedicated to all of you mamas who have battled so hard. Those of you who have been given prescriptions for medications that might mask your child’s symptoms but you don’t want that! Those of you who have been handed nothing more than the complete runaround and you feel lost and confused. All you want is to help your child yet no one can even validate what you are experiencing, let alone give you clear answers of what’s wrong and what to do. This episode is going to change everything for you. It is also a good listen for mamas who maybe aren’t in the depths of crisis mode but are curious to learn more about how nurturing your family’s gut could enhance your life.
Now I want to start off by describing my role in my healing business and then I want to validate your experience before diving into the four components of a true holistic healing journey. It is important to me that you know I am not a licensed medical professional. Everything I have created from my gut balancing supplements, free masterclass, the Happy and Healthy From the Inside Out Course, my cookbook and this podcast - are all based on my personal experience, what I have learned along the way in healing my own children’s symptoms and now sharing it all with mamas like you. I have taken a very non-traditional route in building my business and it has been very intentional. Just like you, I could go to school and get licensed in anything I wanted to. But I have chosen not to because the universe gifted me something more valuable than studying behind books alone. The universe gifted me an experience. One that provided me with more understanding, knowledge and passion than any license or degree ever could. Plus, I am not interested in being yet another person that tells you exactly what to do. What resonates with me might be different than what resonated with you. I am here to educate you, to help you enhance your intuition and equip you with everything you need to know so that YOU can make educated decisions that are best for your child. because YOU, as a mama, are the most capable person in the world when it comes to caring for and healing your child.
This isn’t to discredit healthcare professionals. This is simply to acknowledge the 17 different ones that I took my son to when he was unwell. None of them but the very last one had an experience in what we were going through. They had a broad education of human health and while I am sure many of them had the best of intentions and are passionate about helping people, they didn’t have an experience or specific passion that provided them with the help and answers I needed. Many of them didn’t even have children. They offered me the support they have been trained to give. Which was prescribing medications that would treat each of my child’s symptoms individually. I was told that my child was fine. To just wait symptoms out. That there is no rhyme or reason to symptoms like colic and some children just experience it. It was easy for male doctors to tell me that my milk was the problem. It was my milk that was causing my sons colic, eczema and unhealthy poops. They told me to stop breastfeeding because hello! Not to be cynical, but doctors are frequently visited and trained by manufactures and so formula manufactures are in these doctors faces teaching them that breastmilk is the problem. Magical breasts don’t show up and pay these doctors a flashy commission for selling breastmilk.
Our medical system isn’t profitable if people are well. We live in a time and a culture where treating symptoms is the norm. Most healthcare professionals aren’t trained in how to prevent disease - they are trained in how to treat disease after it is already present. And while my son was on the fast track to disease I wasn’t about to let him get there. After receiving the runaround from doctor after doctor for 2.5 years I had to take things into my own hands.
If you are a medical professional I am absolutely not trying to offend you. I am sure if it that you are incredibly educated and you are in the industry because you genuinely care. I am just sharing what our experience was like and sadly the majority of mamas who message me or enroll in my course have experienced very similar care.
Anyway, the 17th professional I took my son to had personally experienced what we were seeing in our son. Chronic rashes, restless sleep, allergies even though they didn’t run in our family, sour smelling poop, speech/growth and developmental delays and behavioral outbursts that broke my heart every single time.
It was at this point that we learned how significant our gut bacteria is and that all of my child’s symptoms were connected to an imbalance. I followed the naturopaths gut balancing protocol and our son healed. Now, You might be asking yourself, how can that be? How can it be that something so seemingly insignificant like gut bacteria be connected to such significant symptoms. I totally get it. I was there too.
In those 2.5 half incredibly hard years of trying to get to the root of my child’s symptoms we spent over $25,000. This didn’t include any support for me as a sleep deprived, scared out of my mind mama. This was on different appointments and tests and supplements that didn’t do a thing for my child.
After living in pure survival mode for 2.5 years and finally healing my son I was left with so many questions. Why did this happen to my child? Was it something I had done? Could it have been prevented? Why did it take so long to get clear answers? I am sure you have these same questions so let’s go over them in just a minute.
But first, I was exhausted after battling so hard and decided to turn my focus on celebrating our new thriving life instead of dwelling on it more. My child was sleeping which meant I was sleeping. His very limited appetite was now budding and he started craving more healthy foods. His skin was smooth for the first time in his life and he didn’t have behavioral outbursts anymore. He started looking at me in the eyes and oh it makes me emotional to talk about but it felt like we got to meet him for the first time. Like a dark cloud was lifted from his body and his soul was finally comfortable in his human presence.
Over time my mind gifted me the magical release of those hard years. To be honest with you, without even knowing it, I blocked it all out. Shortly after, we introduced our third child and then our fourth. By this point we were 2.5 years into having healthy children. But when our fourth babe was four months old I noticed a few spots on his body. They seemed to get itchier and itchier by the day and before long they were all over his body. His sleep went to heck, his poop started smelling really sour and he was suddenly really fussy when he had been so content and comfortable for the first four months of his life.
I should have known right away but I had blocked out our previous experience with this. So we started the whole process again. We were traveling on Vancouver island in the middle of nowhere but I found a naturopath. She assumed mold exposure so I bought all the supplements she recommended and aggressively searched our airstream top to bottom with special lights and found nothing. Then it hit me! Oh my heck! He has a gut imbalance just like our second child. Okay! I was so grateful to have answers but so bothered that I had spent several hundred dollars yet again on supplements my baby didn’t even need.
I rebalanced my little Birdies gut and just like my second child, all of his symptoms went away.
It got me thinking. If two out of my four children experienced an imbalance - this couldn’t possibly be a rare anomaly the way I had assumed when my second babe was unwell. After seeing such profound healing in my two children I decided to implement everything we had done for our whole family. If focusing on my children’s gut could heal such severe symptoms why wouldn’t we all do it because there are zero negative side effects to what we did to heal them. As a family we all started taking the supplements and following the gut balancing protocol. It quickly became a lifestyle and while I had always been conscience, there was a rhyme to everything we were doing. From the foods we started eating in abundance to the few we avoided, the mindset we all settled in and a few other simple adjustments.
We all started sleeping deeper, waking up more rested, parenting became easier and this is really when I realized our life had been fine all along. Not great but fine. I thought it was good but once we started living this way, our life was different. We were thriving in a way I never knew was possible. As a teenager I was diagnosed with clinical ADHD. I never medicated for it because that didn’t feel right to me but I learned how to live with it. Nurturing my gut though completely changed my ability to focus. The voice in my head slowed down and got a bit quieter. I actually had the capacity to follow through on good ideas whereas before I was too scattered and would start projects but my mind would be a million miles ahead and I would get bored and never finish.
One night I was laying in bed marveling at the transformations our family had made. We were camped at the city of rocks in Idaho rock climbing for a week with some friends. My heart fell asleep happy and peaceful. In the wee hours that night I startled awake. I was somewhere between asleep and awake and it felt as if I were detached from my body. As if I was an outsider observing myself. The universe and my soul had a conversation and I got to listen. I woke up the next morning knowing exactly my purpose in this life. In addition to motherhood I am supposed to share our experience, deepen my knowledge and share healing with others.
So I got right to work and this is when ōNLē ORGANICS was born. I started an Instagram page sharing our experience and so many mamas resonated with what I was sharing. This is when I knew I was onto something powerful. I had the answers that so many mamas were floundering to find. The way I did for 2.5 years.
I started by creating my own brand of supplements that are equivalent to the ones we got from our naturopath. But I am not interested in simply being a supplement brand. My heart and soul have more to offer because while my supplements are amazing and are changing lives, like all supplements, they supplement whatever lifestyle you live. Our family’s healing and transformation is a product of an all encompassing holistic lifestyle.
So now I want to share with you the four components of holistic healing. Supplementation is certainly one of them but there is more to healing than adding in supplements. I teach all of this in my course Happy and Healthy From the Inside Out but I want to give you an overview here.
The first is Mindset. It is important for you to believe that healing is possible. You have to allow yourself to move beyond the symptoms that are consuming your child and lean hard into trust. Your child follows where your mama mind goes and while I know you have tried everything, you can’t lose hope. If you are stuck in the mindset of discouragement and skepticism it is going to be incredibly hard to heal your child. You must know it with everything in your body that it is possible to heal. Decide that healing is the only option.
Another part of this mindset piece is you need to feel validated. What you have gone through is incredibly hard and you need to know you are not alone. Learn new practices to care for your mama soul. You need to heal yourself of the emotional toll your experience has had on your mind, body and soul.
The second component is knowledge. It is important to empower yourself with a strong foundation of knowledge around gut health. The more you know the more confidence you will have. But you have to be intentional about where you gather your information. And google isn’t your best option. Read books, watch documentaries. Follow along with me on Instagram and I will not only inspire you but share important information that every mama should know. Learn HOW to prevent imbalance, how to rebalance the gut bacteria and how to maintain balance for your entire family. And you of course need to know WHY it is so darn important. The why is what will empower you to commit to the how.
The third component is food. I know you know this but I am going to say it here to emphasize the importance. Food is medicine. Everything your child eats is either nourishing their body or wreaking havoc on their wellness. We live in a time where processed foods are normalized and not many people even know what foods contain GMO’s. You probably do but you need to learn exactly what foods to eat while rebalancing the gut and which ones to avoid. This is critical because if you are feeding your child foods that feed the bad bacteria and yeast it is going to be really hard to rebalance their gut.
Lastly, supplementation. To truly nurture the gut you need more intentional than going to the market and grabbing a random probiotic off the shelf. This is a waste of your time and money because there are very specific probiotics that are needed to heal the gut. To learn more about this you can listen to episode 10. In addition to building up the good gut flora with very specific probiotics it is important to also include a supplement that naturally and gently kills the bad bacteria and yeast. Please listen to episode 21 to learn more about this.
Combine mindset, knowledge, nourish foods and supplement and you become the leader of your family’s wellness. You heal your child and family right from your own home. You know what to do when things come up because they are bound to. We are all human and the Gut bacteria fluctuates like the immune system and hormones. Minor imbalances will come up from time to time and when you have a holistic healing system to lean on, you will be able to get right back on track.
Earlier I brought up the questions I had and I am sure you do too. Why did this happen to my child? Was it something I did? Could it have been prevented? Why did it take so long to get clear answers? Are other children struggling in the same way?
Before we wrap this episode up I want to answer these questions for you. So why do some children experience significant gut imbalance? There are many different factors so really I think I will make an entire episode out of this question alone but in brief, some people are genetically more susceptible to imbalance. A mamas gut bacteria passes onto her child during birth and if she unknowing had an imbalance it will show up in her child. Human Exposure to chemicals, pesticides and toxins is higher than it has ever been and even if you are very conscience, it is impossible to completely avoid them. These are not only damaging to the good bacteria but in many cases actually feed the bad bacteria and yeast. Antibiotic treatment is incredibly common (which is not bad when necessary but disruptive to the good gut bacteria), vaccines and medications disrupt the good bacteria, processed foods are easier to come by than Whole Foods and not only is our modern soil depleted of so many nutrients, it is also lacking the good bacteria that humans use to consume in abundance just by eating fruits, vegetable and grains. Most water is chlorinated and while this helps keep our drinking water safe by killing the bad bacteria it unintentionally wreaks havoc on the good bacteria. combine any of these factors with the fast that good gut bacteria is fragile and easily disrupted and you have yourself in the perfect storm for significant gut imbalance. No matter how intentional you are, if you don’t know how to nurture the gut bacteria from an all encompassing holistic approach you will undoubtedly experience imbalance.
The next question. Was it something I did? Possibly. And I say this with love and kindness. Of course you didn’t do anything on purpose. It is possible that you unknowingly passed an imbalance onto your child during birth or you unknowingly fed your child food that you were raised to believe was healthy. Healing means self love and acceptance. Your child having a gut imbalance is not your fault. Healing means letting go of guilt and shifting all of your focus on healing.
Could it have been prevented? Maybe. But everything in life happens for you and your child expediting an imbalance has opened up an awareness and opportunity for you to learn how to not only heal your child but to to also transform your entire family’s health and happiness.
Why did it take so long to get clear answers? I’m not sure. In fact this baffles me. Why nurturing the gut isn’t the first healing plan us mamas are given completely blows my mind. Of course balancing the gut isn’t the answer to healing every single symptom and disease out there. But it sure as heck doesn’t hurt and it clears the slate so you are able to further heal with more clarity.
Are other children struggling in the same way? Yes. Sadly many many children are struggling with imbalance exactly like your child is and like my two children did. Single launching ōNLē ORGANICS two years ago I have had the opportunity to support over 2,000 mamas in healing their children. You wouldn’t believe how flooded my DM’s and emails are. Every mamas story is so sickeningly similar. It haunts me that so many children are so unnecessarily struggling with the healing is so gentle and simple.
I shared a lot here with you today and I hope you leave knowing that you have done nothing wrong and that you are not alone. Healing is 100% possible for your child. If this episode resonated with you and you are ready to heal your child and family with the all encompassing holistic components that I shared with you my course is designed for you. I would love to welcome you in. I am going to attach a link in the show notes so you can explore it further if this is something that would be supportive to you.
Sending you all my love. I’ll be back next Monday.
Thank you so much for tuning in today. Before you go, something you should know is that everything I share on this show is also applicable to you, not just your child.
And did you know, I started only organics as a way to create and share the absolute best quality supplements and products that support gap balance shop onleorganics.com. That's www.onleorganics.com. Lastly, I always wanna be very transparent that I am not a doctor nutritionist or dietician.
I'm a certified family health coach, and most importantly, a mama with a passion sharing my story and the products and practices that have brought abundant health and happiness to my own family. Please always listen to your own inner voice of wisdom and your healthcare professional. I'll see you next time.
