The Point of Pain

It has been an intense couple of weeks. With the crisis in India it has been devastating to see the lack of care and support from the government in India and from the wellness industry. It has been devastating and for those of you who are interested and able, there are so many ways you can offer support. If you're able to donate, The Desai Foundation has been doing a lot to get resources to rural areas that need it the most and even if you're not able to offer support financially, sharing about this issue and holding people accountable really helps. In this very dark time, the truth is that the main thing that is keeping me afloat and bringing me joy is the Chronicon Community. That's why today's Community Spotlight episode is so special to me. For this episode, I am so honored to sit down with one of our community members, Jessi Lane. Jessi and I talk about her story, the ups and downs with her health, how she found the Chronicon Community, how the community has been supportive for her, what it means to be ready to show up for the life you want, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Today's conversation is with the beautiful, powerful Aycee Brown. I've been following Aycee for a while and I really wanted to have this conversation with her on the podcast to hopefully help each of you open a door to spirituality, what that can mean for you and your life and how it could support you. Aycee Brown is a psychic channel, spiritual confidante and teacher, entrepreneur, and your favorite human design bae. She serves entrepreneurs, executives, thought leaders, and people who are ready to dig deeper into their own self-discovery and speaks about spiritual self-development, human design, radical commitment, and brand innovation. In this episode, Aycee shares her earliest experiences with her psychic abilities, how she went from scared to embracing her connection with spirit, what you can do to start leading a spirit-led life, how to incorporate your gifts in your work and life processes, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

One week ago I had my 40th birthday and coming up to that big milestone brought up so many feelings and reflections for me. Whatever age you might be, we all go through things in our lives that make it hard for us to feel like we can fully accept ourselves. As I looked back at the past four decades, I realized that I've learned a lot about what acceptance looks like for me. Wherever you are on your acceptance journey, I really hope that this episode will be supportive for you and help you to see that you're not alone in your journey. In this episode, I share the biggest lessons I've learned on the road to 40, how my childhood experiences affected my lack of self-acceptance, how my perspective on relationships has changed alongside my acceptance of myself, what you can do to make your way towards self-acceptance, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Today I'm sitting down with my dear friend and one of our Chronicon community members, Tiffany Yu. Tiffany and I connected last year through her company, Diversability, and the incredible work that she's been doing for the disabled community for over 12 years. More recently, we've been getting to know each other better through Clubhouse and I wanted to have Tiffany on the show, spotlighting her as one of our beautiful community members. Tiffany Yu is the CEO & Founder of Diversability, an award-winning social enterprise to amplify disabled voices; the Founder of the Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter, a monthly micro-grant that has awarded $47.5k to 48 disability projects in 8 countries; and the host of TIFFANY & YU, The Podcast. She serves on the San Francisco Mayor's Disability Council and was a 2020 Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit. At the age of 9, Tiffany became disabled as a result of a car accident that also took the life of her father. She started her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and has also worked at Bloomberg and Sean Diddy Combs' REVOLT Media & TV. She is a 2x TEDx speaker and spoke on 5 sessions at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. She has been featured in Marie Claire, the Guardian, and Forbes. In this episode, Tiffany shares her experience with disability and trauma, the problem with toxic positivity, how good intentions can still be damaging, why it's important to her to create open and inclusive spaces, her experience in the Chronicon community, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Suleika Jaouad has been my friend for many years and it was such a pleasure to be able to talk with her on today's episode. When we met, Suleika was in the middle of her treatment and I was so taken aback by what she was going through and how she was dealing with it. In this conversation, we go deep into her personal journey and details she hasn't even shared in her memoir. Suleika Jaouad is the author of the instant New York Times bestselling memoir, Between Two Kingdoms. She wrote the Emmy Award-winning New York Times column “Life, Interrupted,” and her reporting and essays have been featured in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Vogue, and NPR, among others. A highly sought-after speaker, her mainstage TED Talk was one of the ten most popular of 2019 and has nearly four million views. She is also the creator of The Isolation Journals, a community creativity project founded during the Covid-19 pandemic to help others convert isolation into artistic solitude; over 100,000 people from around the world have joined.  In this episode, Suleika shares how her leukemia diagnosis sent her down a path of self-discovery which led her to embrace her fragility, release the old goals that were no longer serving her, find her own style of advocacy, re-evaluate her relationships and boundaries, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

As I bring you this very special episode, I feel so many emotions. I haven't done an episode with you since May 2020 and it's the understatement of the year to say a lot has happened since then. In this first episode of season 4, I want to have a conversation about the cycles that we have all been in this past year and how they're tied to the cycles of life that we are constantly going through.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

It's hard to believe, but we've officially reached the end of our third season. Obviously, so much has happened and changed since this season started and it seems like the perfect time for me to connect with you one-on-one. Some of the things I want to share with you in this special episode are the hobbies and other things I've been leaning on during this pandemic, what I'm feeling about the future of Chronicon and how I've been navigating work in this time of uncertainty, and how I've been taking a hard look at relationships recently.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Alok V. Menon is as much of a light in this world as they are willing to hold and be with the darkness and I am so honored that they took the time to speak with me. Alok has been very open and generous with making sure that the conversation around pain and chronic illness is shared with as many people as possible and that we open that conversation to the world, whether it's ready or not. Alok is a gender non-conforming writer and performance artist. Their distinctive style and poetic challenge to the gender binary have been internationally renowned. As a mixed-media artist, Alok uses poetry, comedy, performance, lecture, sound-art, fashion design, and self-portraiture to explore themes of gender, race, trauma, belonging, and the human condition. They are the author of Femme in Public (2017) and Beyond the Gender Binary (2020). In 2019 they were selected as one of NBC's Pride 50 and Out Magazine's OUT 100. In this episode, Alok shares their struggle with self-acceptance and how they reclaimed their authenticity despite being surrounded by intolerance, how pain brings us together, recognizing that life is pain, why we need to realize that everyone is suffering, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Ruthie Lindsey is someone I've been following for a long time. I wanted to share Ruthie with all of you because she has been through a profound story that has a lot of devastation and heartbreak and she shares it in such a heart-warming way that I think it will lift your spirits even though the darkness. Ruthie Lindsey is a speaker, podcast host, social media figure and author of There I Am: The Journey from Hopelessness to Healing. She travels the globe sharing her story, empowering others to find purpose in their pain and to look for beauty in the midst of their brokenness. In this episode, Ruthie talks about the horrifying accident that left her the hospital for a month, the moment years later when she developed chronic pain that doctors couldn't diagnose, how she went from not being able to get out of bed to finding joy and beauty in her life, why self-love is such an important source of comfort, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Minna Lee is a wellness entrepreneur who I've been fangirling over online and she produces meaningful content that spreads education on well-being for all. Our conversation took some twists and turns that I wasn't expecting and that were beautiful and insightful. Minna Lee is a digital creator, a certified trainer, and a nutrition coach. By sharing her own colorful health history with her autoimmune disease and her mental health on her platforms, she empowers people to dig deeper into their personal growth and to take their health into their own hands with a 360 perspective. In this episode, Minna talks about her journey from disordered eating, to being diagnosed to Hashimoto's and adenomyosis, how she's changed her approach to managing her health over the years, what you can do to restore your relationship with your food, and how you can learn to listen to your intuition, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Sarah Ramey is the incredible author of The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness. Her book opened up a part of the world of health and chronic illness for me that I haven't had a lot of exposure to and her story is so impactful and eye-opening. Sarah is also a writer and musician living in Washington, DC. She graduated from Bowdoin College in 2003, received an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Columbia in 2007, and worked on President Obama's 2008 campaign. She is also the recipient of a 2018 Whiting grant. In this episode, Sarah shares her experience with having her life turned upside down because of her mysterious illness, why it's so important to have a community that understands you, how she's been able to turn difficult family relationships into positive sources of support, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Komal Minhas is a changemaker, a cancer survivor, a chronic illness advocate, and a very dear friend of mine. Komal was also included on Oprah's SuperSoul 100 list and she is the host of the Lessons Learned podcast. She also works in partnership with Startup Canada, Scotiabank, and the Business Development Bank of Canada to host the Thrive Podcast for Women Entrepreneurs. In this episode, we talk a lot about Komal's professional and health journeys and the flow of business. I really hope this episode inspires you to look at your business trajectory a little differently.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Ingrid Nilsen a New York City creative and an online video personality with over 8 million followers across her social media channels who's spent ten years pioneering an industry that has changed the way media and advertising is consumed. Ingrid uses her platform to challenge the beauty and wellness industry through informative content and interviews with some of the world's most influential people, including President Barack Obama and Bill Gates. Her CoverGirl ambassadorship was the first brand partnership of its kind between a traditional beauty brand and an online personality and she's gone on to do many partnerships with global brands like Amazon, Unilever and now Fresh. Ingrid was awarded the Digital Innovator Award by The Trevor Project, a Streamy Beauty Channel Award, was selected for Oprah's Super Soul One Hundred, and also named a UN Change Ambassador for gender equality. In her spare time, Ingrid hangs out in Brooklyn with her dog Tayto, watches French TV shows, and eats a lot of chocolate chip cookies. In this episode, we really get into Ingrid's story and talk a lot about grief, which is a huge part of her story. She really lets us know that a lot of the beauty that has come into her life has been through dealing with tremendous loss and a lot of challenges that she has been so vulnerable about throughout the years.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Hello, my loves. I'm excited to share this episode with you because it's one where we really just allow ourselves to examine what it's like to be a solopreneur, how our health can impact us as we're going on the solopreneur journey, and how to align our joy and nourish ourselves while we're chasing and running after our dreams. This week's guest is the amazing Amina AlTai and, not only am I inspired by her, but I'm also fortunate enough to call her a friend. Amina is a holistic leadership and mindset coach. Over a decade in marketing where she helped launch over 30 startups and grappling with two autoimmune diseases led Amina to burn out. In hopes of healing her own life, she sought training and nutrition, fitness and mindfulness. She now teaches entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs how to balance a thriving career, body, and mind. Amina has worked with Deloitte, Outdoor Voices, and NYU, is an Entrepreneur Magazine Expert-in-Residence, and has been featured in Goop, Thrive Global, mindbodygreen, The Observer, Yahoo!, and more. Amina and I talk about everything from body hair to joy to making friends. We also talk a bit about building a business, going after your goals, your money mindset, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

We're officially in a new decade and a new season of the podcast! I wanted to start season three of The Point of Pain with Mira Mariah because she is someone I admire so much and she is breaking through ceilings I didn't even realize were there. Mira is an amazing tattoo artist (in fact, she's Ariana Grande's tattoo artist!), a mother, a former speaker at Chronicon, and an amazing woman who has been featured in places like Allure, Nylon, Refinery29, etc. She also happens to have only one leg. In this episode, we discuss why I was blown away by Mira when I first discovered her, the experiences that shaped Mira into the bold person she is today, why we need to break the cycle of isolation that many people with disabilities or chronic illnesses experience, why she focuses on the solutions to a problem and not the cause, what it's like to be a mother as a disabled woman, the profound recent loss of a beautiful spirit and disability advocate that she was blessed to be able to call her friend, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Being that it's the end of the year and the end of season two, I decided to do something a little different for this episode. For the first time, I'm doing a completely solo episode. By the time we return for season three in February 2020, The Point of Pain will have officially turned one year old. So, what better way to end season 2, the calendar year, and the first year of the podcast than by sharing some lessons learned throughout this year that I'll be taking with me into 2020 and season three.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Kara Lowentheil is a Master Certified Coach with a B.A from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law. In the past three years, she's pivoted from her legal career and has grown her life coaching business from zero to seven figures. Kara is also the Host of the iTunes top-rated self-help podcast, UnF*ck Your Brain™, which has been downloaded over 5 million times. She's been featured in outlets like Marie Claire, Mindbodygreen, MSN.com, The Huffington Post, and more. Kara is the definition of owning who you are and, in this episode, she's going to help you better understand the way your brain works.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Ksenia Avdulova is the Founder of Breakfast Criminals and I've personally been a fan and friend of hers for at least five or six years. She's smart, gentle, kind, and loving and I really feel connected to my own heart when I'm around her because of the beautiful energy she has about her. When she's not attending fitness classes in New York or throwing a superfood smoothie bowl party in Brazil, you can find Ksenia attending transformational retreats, sharing her experiences, poking fun of her own superfood obsession on YouTube, and hosting Woke and Wired; which is the first podcast that brings together conscious entrepreneurship, personal growth, and social media. Ksenia has also been named as one of the “35 Under 35 in Wellness” by Wanderlust and “the fashion world's most in-demand breakfast chef” by MyRecipes. She impacts over 300,000 followers across multiple platforms as she shares the power of rituals and mindful nourishment. In this episode, we discuss the funny story of how breakfast food brought us together, the huge transition she's been going through in her life, her many Instagram handles and how she experiments with them, the value in blocking or muting social media accounts that bring up negative emotions for you, how to use social media for positive inspiration, and more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

When I first decided to do this episode, I was really scared because I've never publicly talked about this topic before. Over the past year, I've been having private conversations about sex and pleasure, but I think it's finally time to take it public. Gigi Engle is a feminist author, certified sex coach, sexologist, and sex educator. As a sex expert for Womanizer and a Brand Ambassador for LifeStyles condoms, she promotes and teaches about pleasure-based sex education, masturbation, and safer sex practices. She also serves as a Pleasure Professional with The O-School where she teaches a number of classes centered around pleasure, sexual health, and confidence. Gigi's work regularly appears in many publications such as BRIDES, Marie Claire, Elle Magazine, Teen Vogue, Glamour, and Women's Health and her articles have been shared over 50 million times. She also writes an advice column, Ask Gigi, and is an original member of The Women of Sex Tech. Her first book, All The F*cking Mistakes: A Guide to Sex, Love, and Life, is available for pre-order at the time of this episode being released. In this episode, Gigi shares how she found her way into the field of sex education, how masturbation can help you get into your body in a positive way and learn what you find pleasurable, the shocking state of sex education in our schools today, how to communicate with your partner about your sexuality, whether or not it's okay to masturbate when you're in a relationship, and more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

When I first found out about Paloma Kemak I was mesmerized and blown away by her ability to be fully honest with her audience, show how to thrive with a chronic condition, and also be raw and vulnerable in the moment when her condition is challenging. Paloma is dealing with a life-threatening autoimmune condition that millions of people in the United States have and she will be one of the speakers at Chronicon this year. She was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes as an adult and it's been her mission ever since to change the way people see diabetes. In this episode, Paloma and I discuss her life as a Type I Diabetes patient while simultaneously having a career in the fashion industry and volunteering with diabetic organizations, the cost of care, why she traveled to another country to get her insulin, what it was like being married to someone who wasn't up for the chronic illness journey, how she found the man that was right for her, our mutual love for positivity and keeping things super real and raw, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Liz Plank is an award-winning journalist and the Executive Producer of Divided States of Women at Vox Media, where she also hosts Facebook Watch's Consider It. In 2016, Liz presented a TedxTalk, How to Be a Man: A Woman's Guide, which inspired her first book, For the Love of Men: A New Vision for Mindful Masculinity. Liz was also named one of Forbes' 30 Under 30 in Media, as well as one of the world's most influential people in Gender and Policy. As a regular panelist addressing issues like politics, gender issues, and reproductive rights, Liz realized that to accomplish feminist goals and truly make progress, the other half of the population could not be ignored. It became clear to her that what is needed is an expansion of these conversations to include men while recognizing that they might arrive at these issues from a different place. Liz is one of my dearest friends and she just lights up the screen with her extraordinary ability to be funny while covering some really challenging topics and I am so happy to have her on the show today. In this episode, we talk about how Liz became interested in activism and journalism, the massive learning experience from writing her book, Liz's personal experience with dealing with mental health issues, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

When you have a chronic illness, it's common to wonder how you're ever going to have the energy or ability to accomplish the things you want to do, have the business you want to have, or live the life you want to live. I know for me personally, hearing stories of women accomplishing amazing things while living with a chronic illness really helps me put things in perspective and feel incredibly inspired. That's why I'm so excited to bring you this week's guest. Amy Lacey is the Founder and CEO of Cali'flour Foods and, in this episode, we're talking about the difficulties she had changing her habits after being diagnosed with Lupus, how she grew her company to $20 million in sales in less than two years and to being worth $40 million today, the five P's of her business, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

April Christina is a chronic illness advocate who focuses on endometriosis. She is also a New York City-based wellness and beauty vlogger. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Clinical Laboratory Science with a minor in Psychology in the hopes to pursue her goal of becoming a chemistry professor. However, after being diagnosed with endometriosis in December 2010, her goal changed. She reevaluated what mattered most to her and she realized she wanted to spread her knowledge and life experiences with endometriosis. She decided to turn her pain into purpose by educating others about their health and, as a chronic illness advocate, she is now focused on promoting holistic approaches to the human body. In 2019, April launched the Endo Brunch. This brunch was created for women and their supporters to have fun, meet other women with conditions like endometriosis, and to have access to information that can make them the healthiest person they can be. In this episode, we talk about how our identity is not our illness, dating with a chronic illness, how doctors used her race to dismiss her medical concerns, the importance of loving yourself enough to be your own patient advocate, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

I met Eliz Martin in the fall of 2018 at a dinner where we were both asked to speak about our health journeys, and I've admired her ever since. After I began following her on Instagram, I was even more blown away by her raw, unapologetic vulnerability and the way she shared about her health story. Eliz was abruptly diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis about seven years ago and she's now a chronic disease and disability advocate. Her favorite way of advocating is sharing how to “live limitlessly even while limited.” In this episode, Liz talks about her health journey and what it was like to receive that diagnosis in her early 20's. We also talk about toxic positivity, the ways that we've both learned to work with our bodies' limitations, the ways we've learned to lean on medications at times and then not, and so much more.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

In this special bonus episode, I'm catching you up on what's been happening in my life since season one ended earlier this year. I'm also announcing some exciting things I have coming up and letting you know a few things about the new season of the podcast that will begin on September 1st! Take a listen now so you'll know everything that's going on.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

CeCe Olisa is the Co-Founder of theCURVYcon and one of New York's top ten fashion bloggers. She's been featured in everything from Cosmo to Marie Claire to InStyle to Refinery29 and more! CeCe has such a vibrant spirit that she brings into her conversations about everything from God to fashion to music on her Instagram and it's really beautiful to see. Shortly after meeting CeCe for the first time, I was invited to attend theCURVYcon and it was truly a life-changing experience. In this episode, CeCe and I discuss how I look to her content about owning our bodies when I need support in this area with my own body, her perspective on mindset and how it's passed down from our parents, the importance of letting go of our shame around working with therapists on a sliding scale for payment, how her relationship with God plays a part in her work, the power of theCURVYcon for women who often feel underserved in the fashion and beauty industries, and more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Kelly Lynn Adams is a certified business leadership and life coach, writer, and motivational speaker who's helped thousands of women build smart and sustainable businesses. She also helps women redefine their success by shifting their mindsets, increasing their confidence, and stepping into their divine power. Kelly Lynn and I have known each other for eleven or twelve years now after being partnered up in a group coaching program and she has been one of my greatest teachers and truest confidants. In this episode, we discuss where Kelly Lynn finds her discipline, why she had to slow down to speed up, how I judged and almost dismissed her when we first met, her advice for women who have a full-time job while trying to pursue their dreams, our perspectives on being single at an age where it's not socially acceptable to be, where she learned to rely on God, and more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Chinae Alexander is someone I follow religiously on Instagram; as do about 150,000 other people. She and I met at a mutual friend's event years ago and have been in and out of each other's lives ever since. One of my favorite things about Chinae's platform is that she talks about everything from eating pizza and not shaming yourself about it to owning your body and your curves to being an entrepreneur to empowering women in every way she possibly can. Chinae's content is the definition of vibrant. She is bold, full of color, and absolutely unapologetic about how she feels. In this episode, Chinae and I talk about our non-traditional views on dating, what it's like to feel uncomfortable in your body, being entrepreneurs, doing vulnerability patch tests, how we handle unsolicited advice from social media followers, our mutual love of podcasting, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Erin Claire Jones is a leadership coach specializing in Human Design. She helps leaders and teams step into their highest potential by offering them the self-knowledge and tools to perform at the top of their personal and professional games. She has consulted for startups all over the world, built companies supporting executives, partnerships, and small teams to operate more harmoniously and effectively, and conducted research on leadership challenges at over 90 early-stage companies. She has also been featured in Forbes, the Times, Nylon, Culture Trip, Well + Good, and more. In this episode, we talk about what led Erin to the field of Human Design, what Human Design is, the five different types of Human Design, how knowing her Human Design type shifted her entire life, my Human Design type and how learning it has impacted the way I feel about how I process things, and more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Nicole Jardim is a certified Women's Health Coach and the creator of Fix Your Period, a series of programs that empower women to reclaim their hormone health using a method that combines simplicity and sass. Her incredible work has impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of women around the world in effectively addressing a wide variety of period problems, including PMS, irregular periods, PCOS, painful periods, amenorrhea, and many more. Nicole is also the co-host of The Period Party, a top-rated podcast on iTunes—be sure to tune into that if you want to learn more about how to fix your period—and she's the creator of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition's hormone health continuing education course. She's been a keynote speaker for the highly acclaimed Cycles and Sex, a platform and event series devoted to building awareness and education around sexual, menstrual, hormonal, and reproductive health. Rather than treating problems or symptoms, Nicole treats women by addressing the root cause of what's really going on in their bodies and minds. She passionately believes that the fundamentals to healing any hormonal imbalance lie in an approach that addresses the unique physiology of every woman. This is essential to reclaiming and maintaining feminine vitality at any age. In this episode, Nicole and I discuss birth control; including the ins and outs of synthetic birth control, IUD's, fertility tracking, and even my own journey with birth control.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Vanessa Fitzgerald is a holistic health coach, nutrition response testing practitioner, and an Adderall Detox and PCOS specialist. One of the things that drew me to Vanessa was that she is one of those people in the wellness industry that are just so pure, raw, and authentic in her content. Vanessa was diagnosed with PCOS at the age of nineteen and has been brutally honest about the ups and downs with her own health. By realizing the role nutrition was playing in her PCOS, she was able to erase her symptoms and felt called to help others work through their nutrition issues as well. Another thing Vanessa has been incredibly honest about is her detox from Adderall; which is not something you typically see someone being so open about. In this episode, we discuss her journey with detoxing from Adderall, what it's like to be single in your 30's, how she erased her symptoms by making changes to her diet and why those changes won't work for everyone, how we first met on a trip to Israel in 2016 and what our respective journeys have looked like since then, and so much more.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

You might already know my guest this week, Jera Foster-Fell, if you're one of the 161,000+ people following her on Instagram. One of the things I love about Jera is how she's able to showcase her sweet, sensitive, and confident sides on social media while talking about the highs and lows of life in a way that I think a lot of people can relate to. Jera was born and raised in New York City. She studied Fine Art at USC and, in her “former life,” she worked as a graphic designer in L.A., New York, and Boston. In 2015, after working at several soul-sucking jobs, she ended a long-term relationship and was struggling with social anxiety. She hit an all-time low. Everything changed for Jera when she found a new passion for life through the combination of exercise and social media. Over the past nearly four years, Jera has grown her lifestyle Instagram account to what it is today, has become an Adidas Ambassador, and pursued her dream of becoming a SoulCycle instructor all while openly sharing both her triumphs and failures along the way. Covering topics from mental health to fitness, girl power to body acceptance and everything in between, Jera's goal is to create a community where women can empower themselves to get out of their comfort zones and to build a strong foundation of self-confidence. In this episode, Jera and I talk about everything from butt pimples to break-ups, finding confidence to making friends as an adult, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Prior to hosting TLC's What Not to Wear, Stacy London started as a fashion editor at Vogue before transitioning to a career as a stylist for celebrities and designers and then moving into her ten-season stint on the hit tv show. As a child, I watched Stacy on What Not to Wear and found myself enamored with her beauty and impressed by her charisma, bright spirit, and fashion sense. Little did I know that I would meet Stacy at a party many years later and end up calling her one of my dearest friends. I've been wanting to have Stacy on the show since before I launched because there's a part of her story that you might not know about and that's her experience with having both Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis. In this episode, Stacy and I discuss the funny moment when she called me by the wrong name during our first time meeting each other, her mission to help others realize they're more than the one thing they think defines them, why we can't solely focus on self-love and need to also include space to focus on our self-truth, the importance of being our own advocate with respect to the medical care we receive, her advice for those who feel unworthy of taking the time to dress the way they want or present themselves how they want, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

I met Robin Sandomirsky at a time in my life when I was feeling lost and looking to step into a new era of my life. She's the luminary intuitive and life practices guide of Soyala who has been teaching movement, meditation and spiritual practices, and offering private and group session work in multiple modalities for almost twenty years. Robin believes that every human has the capacity to move towards a more comfortable life experience as we explore the pathways to our own awakening - and that this exploration ignites authentic compassion for all beings everywhere - completely changing the way we engage with the field. In the episode, Robin and I discuss our hesitations when it comes to how the popularity of healers in the wellness space has exploded in recent years, where Robin's shamanic journey began and the struggles she experienced during the first several years, how she's helping me understand my recently recognized clairsentient abilities, one of the greatest lessons I learned in 2018 that Robin taught me, the difference between our thinking state and our being state, why I call her a “death doula”, and more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Liz Miele has been a friend of mine for the past twelve years and she's one of my best friends of all-time. She is a comic and one of the most entertaining, interesting, and incredible people I've ever met. Liz is originally from New Jersey and she began doing stand-up at the age of sixteen in New York City. At age eighteen she was profiled in The New Yorker magazine. At 22, she appeared on Comedy Central's Live at Gotham. She's recently appeared on Comedy Central's This Week at the Comedy Cellar, NPR's Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me!, Hulu's Coming to the Stage, and more. In this episode, Liz and I discuss how we met in acting class and began forming our friendship after I chased her into it, how the topic of mental illness has been something she's had to deal with in her family her entire life, the ins and outs of what therapy has looked like and done for us both, how she watches her emotions so she can better control her reactions, the importance of finding a balance between numbing out and sitting in your emotions, and more.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

As a Neurobiologist Research Scientist in her twenties, Aimee Raupp began experiencing personal health issues. She became frustrated by Western medicine's inability to provide answers and began to seek solutions from Eastern medicine. After beginning acupuncture treatment, she discovered how a mind, body, nutrition approach was key overcoming her illness and maintaining good long-term health. Aimee holds a Master of Science in Traditional Oriental Medicine from the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in California and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Rutgers University in New Jersey. She is licensed in New York to practice acupuncture and traditional Chinese herbology and is certified by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Inspired by her personal experience, Aimee has dedicated her life to the service of helping women renew hope and reawaken to their healthiest life through the teachings of traditional oriental medicine. She practices privately in Manhattan, the Hamptons, and Nyak, New York. Aimee is also the Acupuncturist helping me heal my body and I've known her for about five or six years now. In this episode, Aimee and I discuss what acupuncture is, when led her to try acupuncture in the first place, the missing component in the self-love conversation, why it's okay to not love your body at times, my own experience with feeling too ashamed to speak publicly about taking Western medications, why I say Aimee's latest book is like she's giving everyone a hug, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Hello loves. Actress, journalist, and body positive advocate, RaVal Davis is the go-to girl for smart and engaging discourse around all things related to body positivity, women's issues, and entertainment. She also just so happens to be one of my dearest friends whom I've known for over a decade and my greatest connection to prayer. A sought-after speaker, host, and all-around valued talent, The CNN Op-ed contributor packages her honest yet feminine opinions with grace and style. She is the host of BET's Don't Touch My Hair talk show, a topical series that addresses the concerns of black women. RaVal is also a published writer who has penned pieces for CNN, Essence, Nylon, The Huffington Post, EBONY, The Grio, VIBE, and many more. With a magnetic persona, trademark perspective, and fearless determination, RaVal Davis is making her mark as an actress, host, and personality. In this episode, RaVal and I discuss her journey of letting go of her limiting beliefs and finally following her dreams, how she healed me during one of the most painful moments of my life, our mutual connection with God in a way that isn't confined by the rules of religion, and so much more.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Paola Mendoza is an accomplished film director, activist, and author. A co-founder of The Women's March, she served as its Artistic Director and co-authored the New York Times bestseller, Together We Rise: Behind the Scenes at the Protest Heard around the World. Paola is also a co-founder of The Soze Agency and has been the creative director for campaigns fighting for immigration reform, criminal justice reform, and incarcerated mother's and women's rights. She is a co-founder and Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed, Resistance Revival Chorus (which I am a proud member of). In this episode, Paola gives us the chance to understand why she does what she does, how her mother has been a huge influence on her, how she's braved difficult conversations with her 5-year-old about today's current climate, when she realized that love is more effective than anger when doing her advocacy work, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Casey Gerald has witnessed every facet of the American dream. From his harrowing childhood in Texas to his tenure at the heights of America's elite institutions to his journey through the cities and towns of the American heartland where his spent his recent years as co-founder and CEO of MBAs Across America. Now, his work as a writer, speaker, and business leader centers on the question, “Will the American dream survive another generation?” Casey received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Political Science from Yale College. He began his career in Economic Policy and Government Innovation at the Center for American Progress. He has been featured on MSNBC, in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, and he's even appeared on the cover of Fast Company; which also named him one of the most creative people in business. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of NPR's, Generation Listen, and is the author of There Will Be No Miracles Here. In this episode, Casey and I discuss how we've both experienced others using our stories to validate or dismiss the suffering the others, the role God has played in both of our journeys, how he was able to share from such a vulnerable place in his memoir, why it was important for him to shift his focus from success to wellness, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Heather K. Terry is one of the Founders + Executive Sensei of Paper Greats, LLC, a CPG company producing functional, beautiful paper products designed to be kind to the environment and the consumer. Heather began her career as one of the Founders of NibMor Chocolate; which can be found in thousands of retail locations within the US and Canada. She also ran Ggachi Bakery in Greenwich, CT and is the author of From Broadway to Wall Street: Cautionary Tales of an Unlikely Entrepreneur. In this episode, Heather and I discuss her various entrepreneurial endeavors; including how she found her way to these different businesses, the emotions that go with moving on from a business or project you're passionate about, and how she takes care of herself so that she can continue to give so much energy to her career and family.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Reshma Saujani began her career as an attorney and an activist. In 2010, she surged onto the political scene as the first Indian-American woman to run for U.S. Congress. Reshma is a Wall Street Journal Magazine Innovator of the Year and one of Fortune's 40 Under 40. Currently, she is the Founder of Girls Who Code. In this episode, Reshma and I get very honest about our relationships with God, the ups and downs she's experienced with pregnancy and fertility, what it was like going through those ups and downs in a very public way, the work she's currently doing to help women and young girls, and more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Jennifer Racioppi is a Duke-certified Integrative Health Coach, a board-certified Holistic Health Counselor, an astrologer, and an expert in the cycles of the moon just to name a few. When she was just 18, Jennifer learned she had cancer survivor and, when I first her Jennifer's story, I was brought to my knees. Even though she and I have had many conversations over the years about her story, it still honestly brings tears to my eyes every single I share it with others. In this episode, Jennifer and I talk about the fact we're both not going to having children and what that process has been like, what happens when people can't show up for you on your health journey, how we go from feeling a victim to feeling like the wisdom we obtain from our health struggles made the journey worth it, how the moon cycles tie into the concept of the point of pain, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

The New York Times profiled Michael Skolnik as the man you go if you want to leverage the power of celebrity and the reach of digital media to soften the ground for social change. He is also the co-founder of The Soze Agency; a social impact agency that partners with companies, non-profits, foundations, and movements to create campaigns that uplift compassion, authenticity, and equity. Michael is also a respected leader in the new social justice movement and has helped ignite conversations around America's relationship with race and the impacts of the Trump presidency. With more than 300,000 followers, he's a prolific voice on social media and a regular commentator for CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. I was blessed with having Michael's help during what I consider to be the lowest point in my career and that experience dramatically shifted things for me. Thanks to Michael being the person he is, I'm far from the only person who's received his support and I hope you'll enjoy listening to this interview as much as I enjoyed recording it.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Katie Willcox is someone who, even though she's younger than me, I look up to in many ways because she has this unapologetic way of speaking out about the truth with such beauty and grace. Katie is the founder and CEO of Natural Model Management and Healthy is the New Skinny. Using her 15 years of experience in the modeling industry as a curvy model, Willcox strives to change the game of self-love by approaching the topic of body image from an intellectual viewpoint vs. an irrational and emotional one. In this episode, Katie and I discuss the modeling industry, the fake side of the wellness industry, why she speaks out about controversial issues in such a public way, the importance of having boundaries, her top book recommendation, and so much more!   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Having worked for over six years in a Philadelphia school district as a Youth Development Coordinator, Jamira Burley, was recruited the city's mayor to lead The City of Philadelphia Youth Commission; where she represented the interests of over 600,000 Philadelphia youths and worked to ensure youth voices were represented at every level of decision making. Jamira has also managed the Gun Violence and Criminal Justice portfolios at Amnesty International USA; one of the first, and largest, human rights organizations in the world. In this episode, you'll hear the powerful reasons why being an advocate for change is a personal mission for Jamira and how she's able to keep fighting to make the world a better place even when the world makes it difficult to do so.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Deepica Mutyala is one of my greatest friends and soul sisters. With hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, she's adored by people all over the world and I know you're going to adore her as well. Deepica includes a layer of truth in everything she shares on social media that can be difficult to find these days. She talks about mental health, her ups and downs with being an influencer, social media, and following her dreams, and how her family has been an anchor for her through the entire process. In this episode, we're going to discuss Deepica's journey that includes building a platform that challenges societal norms of beauty and some of the personal and professional challenges she's experienced along the way.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Hello loves. This first episode is the one I've been the most nervous about as I approached the official launch of this podcast. While I will be highlighting the journeys and stories of others on this show, I wanted to share my story with you first. A dear friend and fellow podcaster, Blair Badenhop, offered to do a bit of a reversal and interview me for this first episode. Being so comfortable with Blair allowed me to open up in a raw and vulnerable way during our conversation. In fact, even though I've been blogging, Instagraming, and appearing on podcasts and television for the past ten years, I've never shared these stories publicly … until now.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!

Hello loves. I'm so excited to be on this journey with you. I know this is just the beginning, but I have so much planned for our time together. In case this is your first encounter with me, I'm Nitika Chopra and I've been an entrepreneur for the past nine years. It's been such a beautiful and humbling experience that led to me having my own talk show on the holistic lifestyle channel, Z Living, for two and a half season and being a beauty expert on QVC where I emphasized natural beauty. Currently, I have a blog and do brand partnerships and live events and it's really allowed me to have so much fun with my career in a variety of different ways. The reason I first began my entrepreneurial journey was because I had a story to share regarding a medical condition I was diagnosed with at the age of 10. In this introductory episode of The Point of Pain podcast, I share that story and the reason why I felt called to create this podcast. Whether your pain is physical, emotional, entrepreneurial, or something entirely different, it's my hope that this podcast will help nurture you through gaining a deeper understanding of those experiences. It's time to stop numbing our pain and the journey starts here … with this introduction to The Point of Pain podcast.   To learn more, visit the show notes.   Want to continue the love-fest? Follow me on Instagram!