Ep. 86 A Journey of Holistic Health with Marnie Marmet

[00:00:06] I'm Michele Simms and this is The Beauty in the Mess, a community where people who crave a shift in mindset, personal growth, and connection to like-minded people come together to start rewriting their stories. Through engaging, honest, and insightful conversations, the show will help you embrace the mess to recognize the meanings and the lessons it holds and discover its hidden treasures to help you start making a mindset shift. Let's listen, learn, and reclaim who we were meant to be.

[00:00:34] Hi friend, welcome to The Beauty in the Mess. In this episode I get to sit down with Marnie Marmet. Marnie shares her personal backstory of transitioning from a focus on outward appearance to an in-depth journey of internal transformation. Our discussion explores her path from running a promotional products company to becoming a certified integrative health practitioner.

[00:00:57] Marnie emphasizes the importance of finding and trusting one's voice, especially for women who often feel unheard or unworthy. She also delves into her holistic approach to health, covering goal setting, self-care, and mindset. And she talks about her passion for gut health and the transformative power of journaling and human connection. So listen for insights on creating balance in your life and overcoming the resistance of loved ones when you're trying to make these lifestyle changes.

[00:01:25] Marnie is an author of My Song Unleashed. She's a serial entrepreneur, a podcaster, a board-certified health coach, and founder of Zenful Life Coaching, a practice dedicated to helping women and teens create a healthier and happier life. She supports clients in implementing personalized nutrition and wellness plans and making gradual, sustainable lifestyle changes.

[00:01:48] Her areas of expertise include longevity, mind-body-spirit holistic health, gut health, yoga, mindfulness, and meditation. As co-creator and co-host of the Art of Living Well podcast, Marnie empowers listeners to challenge the status quo, and she provides information and inspiration for living their healthiest and most authentic life. She has also owned and operated Chili Bean Promotions, a promotional products company, for more than 20 years.

[00:02:18] Marnie lives in Minnesota, where she enjoys an active lifestyle, traveling, doing photography, reading, and spending time with family, friends, and her labradoodle, Lila. Hi, I'm Michelle Sims, your host. I'm just a regular person who, along with my family, have had our share of messes that we too have had to overcome. Along the way, I got curious as to how others get through their messes and even triumph over them. Maybe there's a better way, a faster way. Maybe we can accelerate our journeys by learning from someone else.

[00:02:48] That started my pursuit. I think we can all learn from each other through the sharing of our experiences, lessons, and knowledge. So join me for episode 86 of The Beauty and the Mess called A Journey of Holistic Health with Marnie Marmette. So without further ado, let's dive right into today's conversation. Hi, Marnie. Welcome to The Beauty and the Mess. I'm so glad to have you with me today. I'm so glad to be here today.

[00:03:14] Awesome. Now, I know you're an entrepreneur and a certified holistic health coach and an author, among other things. But before we dig into that today, I was wondering if you could tell us some of your backstory, some of your personal transformation. Well, let's see here. I will say that I was always interested in health and wellness from a young age.

[00:03:39] I was a gymnast in high school. I think I ate pretty healthy, but I was really focused on my exterior look, I guess, and how I looked from the outside. And I wasn't really focused at all on what was going on the inside. And my mother was an aerobics instructor in the 80s, and everything was about the outward physical appearance. And inside, I felt very unheard and unseen.

[00:04:09] And I felt like I had this voice inside of me that was bursting to come out. So that's some backstory. Flash forward to a number of years later, I'm married. I have three children. I started a promotional products company, which is a business that puts logos on swag for companies. So water bottles, pens, clothing, all of that kind of stuff. And I still own and operate the company. I've been doing that for a number of years.

[00:04:37] But after a few years of doing that, I started to feel super unfulfilled inside. And I just started searching like I was really down and out. And my kids were young. And I felt a little, I don't want to say trapped, but I just, I wasn't fulfilled. I wasn't happy. And so I started searching for other things to do. And I came across this field of health coaching.

[00:05:04] And I, this was back in 2014 when health coaching wasn't really very well known at all. And I did some digging and I found a program at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, if anyone's familiar with that. And I decided I was going to go back to school. So I went back to school and I wasn't going to give up my business, but I thought, well, I'll start this. The program was 15 months.

[00:05:31] So I went through that program and that led me down a path of many, many programs. I'm actually still in school, just constantly getting certifications. And I went through yoga teacher training and meditation training and mindfulness training. And I became an integrative health practitioner. And so anyway, it led me down this whole journey really. And on that path, I did so much internal work along the way.

[00:05:59] And it's just been life-changing for me personally. I ended up writing a memoir, My Song Unleashed, which came out at the end of last summer. And it really talks about my entire journey and how I was able to unleash all of this stuff inside of me and like tune into my authentic self, I guess. That's an awesome journey. I was wondering, I heard you talk about finding your voice.

[00:06:27] So is that something you do now is help other people to find their voice and their way? Yes, 100%. So even though my title is like health, holistic health coach, holistic really embodies mind, body, spirit, right? Right. So it's everything inside of you. And I find that so many women can relate to that feeling of not being able to find your

[00:06:53] voice and not tuning into yourself and your gut or your vibe or whatever it is. So yes, I do help people figure that out and learn how to tune into their needs, wants, desires, all of it. So once a person finds their voice that didn't know how to do that before, how do they learn to trust it and act upon it? That's part of the process.

[00:07:21] And that a lot of people have fear around that, right? Well, I don't think I should be doing that, but my heart is telling me I should. And so that just takes time and effort and baby steps, learning how to trust yourself. And I think once you do something and you step into that fear and take that step forward and

[00:07:45] then see how it works out for you, you gain a little more confidence the next time you want to take that step forward. Right. And I'm curious because you focused on women, do you think, because what I see in the circles I'm in and the classes I take and is that there's like an epidemic of a lack of self-love maybe, or not feeling worthy might be the better way to put it.

[00:08:12] Do you think that not finding people, not having their voice is stemming from that? Women in particular? For sure. For sure. I think when someone doesn't feel worthy inside, they're not sharing themselves. They're sparkle. They're radiance. Everything that lies within a person is being squashed when you're not letting that out into the world.

[00:08:35] And I think those feelings of unworthiness really squash those internal feelings. I do too. And I think, yeah. And I think it's, it leads to a lot of us women not taking care of ourselves because you don't feel worthy of even bothering. I think, yes, I had a client that I worked with. So typically I work with women for about six months and we meet every other week over zoom

[00:09:03] or I'm in Minneapolis or in person, depending on what the client wants. But I'm, I worked with a woman recently for about a year because she, we did work for six months and she was like, I'm not done yet. I want to keep going. She had more goals. So anyway, when we started working together, she was doing nothing for herself and she was doing so much for her family. And she was on all these nonprofit boards and doing all this work where she wasn't being

[00:09:32] even compensated for monetarily. She was just giving her time, but she was giving so much of herself to the world and doing nothing for herself. And she felt so like squashed and to see her transform over the course of the year was just such a beautiful thing.

[00:09:54] And I just, it's so rewarding to help people figure out a, what they want be, how can they get to where they want to be or what they want? And then see, see them soar. I'm sure it would be. And I'm curious, like a lot of us, I think find one thing that we know we're lacking in or we want to explore and we focus on that one thing.

[00:10:20] But I love the idea of the holistic health approach where you're looking at mind, body, and spirit, but is that the same path for the mind, body, and spirit? Or is it multiple paths that you converge to as far as healing? I think there's multiple paths to healing. I'm not, I'm not totally understanding your question. Oh, sorry. But I do think there are multiple paths to healing. There's not just one way.

[00:10:45] And I think that when people start to tune into themselves and really think about what they want and need, like I mentioned before, and start taking those steps forward, it could be in regards to weight loss. It could be in regard to getting more sleep. It could be in regard to making nutritious meals for my children. There's so many different things a person could want, right? Right.

[00:11:12] So doing any one of these things that's taking you closer to aligning with yourself is going to open up all other areas of your life as well. Yeah. That's what I was leading to. If you practice meditation for your mind to calm your mind, but I think it might also help you physically. Oh, for sure. And connect with your soul. Yes. And that's what they all kind of converge.

[00:11:42] So how do we find and maintain balance in all of this? I mean, because I, as a woman who is on several journeys herself, sometimes it's overwhelming. Yes. And there's so much you want to fix. There's so much you want to do. How do you balance that? And how do you maintain it once you figure that out? So I look at balance. I try and break down balance into three kind of areas, right?

[00:12:11] So the first one would be goal setting. The second one would be self-care. And the third one would be mindset. So starting with goal setting, I would ask my clients to ask yourself the larger questions that will guide you to leading the life you want to live, right? So you're identifying what matters most to you in different areas of your life.

[00:12:41] And that could be work, relationships, your health, your personal growth. It could be travel. But you're basically coming up with a vision of what you want your life to look like. Because if you don't have a clear vision of what you want and what you want your life to look like, I don't know how you would ever go down a path to get there, right? Because your body and your mind don't know what you want.

[00:13:08] So I think that's super important. And then you could choose one goal to start, or you could break it into buckets like I just mentioned. But once you've set some goals for yourself, then you want to break it down further and say, what are some manageable things that I can do or steps that I can take to get me closer to achieving what I would like to achieve? Does that make sense?

[00:13:37] Yeah, I believe so. Do you want me to keep going? Yeah, if you have more, please. Yeah. So that can be really difficult for people just doing what I mentioned is some people don't know what they want. They have no idea what they want. They know they feel shitty inside. They don't know why. Or maybe they do, but they're not ready to verbalize that. And that's where working with a coach or a guide or a therapist can be helpful because,

[00:14:07] like I mentioned earlier, if you don't have a clear vision of what you want, it's really hard to get to a place where you want to be. So I think that's super important. And then it's also really important to celebrate along the way. Celebrate what's going well for you. Celebrate what you're accomplishing. And maybe if you're having some setbacks, looking into those setbacks. What is going, what isn't going well and why?

[00:14:36] And how can I change that so that the next time around, maybe the outcome is different? So that would be number one. Number two, I would say self-care is super important. So as you're trying to figure out how to have a balanced life, you need to be able to say no to people and commitments and things that detract from your goals or your priorities.

[00:15:03] Now, obviously, this is completely up to you. But if you're saying yes to everything and it's draining you and then it's keeping you from doing the things that you love or the things that you want to do, then you don't have any boundaries set for you to get yourself closer to where you want to be. And it's really important to make self-care a priority.

[00:15:29] So some of the things that we would do for our self-care could be physical activities, keeping your mental state clear. You mentioned meditation. It could be mindfulness. It could be a gratitude practice. It could be getting outside in nature and taking a walk. But you get to set the things that you want to do to keep your self-care alive and well in your life.

[00:15:57] Sleep, in my opinion, is a no. It's non-negotiable. We need sleep. If you're not sleeping well or you're just giving up your sleep, then it's going to be really hard to do the things you want to do on a daily basis. Did you want to say something? Oh, I was just going to add to the sleep thing. I think that's one thing that a lot of us easily give up,

[00:16:23] not realizing how much it's affecting us in other areas. It just affects everything. I'm realizing the importance of sleep here recently. So that just touched home to me. Yeah. Sleep is so important. And I see so many people think that they should get a badge for staying up all night and working. Or, oh, I stayed up so late and I can manage on four or five hours of sleep. I do just fine. And what is that doing to your body?

[00:16:52] And how efficient are you then during your work day? And how patient are you with your family or your significant other, your friends, whoever it is? Are you really your best self? Are you bringing your best self forward on that minimal amount of sleep? Right. Yeah. And I think a lot of times you can cheat mentally. You might function well, but the body is definitely, and the brain is too, but it's not as noticeable, but your body is definitely paying a price.

[00:17:21] And when we don't sleep well or we stay up late, we snack, right? And so that comes into the self-care of eating nourishing foods for your body. And if you're staying up late and then maybe you're snacking or maybe the next day, because you aren't well slept, you're craving foods that are going to give you that quick spike in your blood sugar and you're going to get that sugar rush and then you're going to crash.

[00:17:47] And so you can get into the cycle of, it's just a downward cycle and then you feel crappy. So instead we want to do activities and self-care that bring us joy, that make our bodies feel well rested and we feel good inside. Absolutely. So I'm curious with all the, this change, how do we bring loved ones on board with this?

[00:18:14] Because I notice a lot of times, like if, if there's a certain area I focus on, I want to change. My family's not ready to see me change. Does that make sense? Absolutely. They're a little resistant. Yeah. So that is something I have struggled with over all of these years. I think that you need to do you is what I would say and not worry about the people around you.

[00:18:41] When I changed my eating, when I was going through the school of integrative nutrition, I was learning about all kinds of things, different diets and what, what does gluten-free do to the body? And what is cutting out dairy due to the body? And just, I did a lot of experimenting with a lot of different ways of eating and it bothered so many people the way that I was eating. And I was like, you know what?

[00:19:09] This is, I don't care how you eat. You do you and let me do me. And it shouldn't, you just got to stick up for yourself is the bottom line. And in terms of if it's your spouse or your family, your children. So I slowly started changing things in my home. And when I say slowly over the course of multiple years and my kids resisted a lot.

[00:19:35] Like my youngest was the most on board because she was young enough that it wasn't that big of a deal. But I had teenagers in the house and they were very resistant and I would have their snacks. And, but what's happened over time is that they're all three of my kids are very healthy now. Very healthy eaters on a regular basis. And I would say that they have learned so much, but I'm not pushing it on them.

[00:20:01] They're just observing and seeing how things have changed and seeing how the kitchen has changed over time. And almost through osmosis, it's just sinking in. And that's wonderful. My son is now living on his own. He's out of college and he's cooking healthy food. Now, do we all indulge in treats? Absolutely. Absolutely. We're not like eating this really strict diet, but we're thoughtful about it.

[00:20:31] We're mindful about it. And we have the information so that if we are going to make a choice that's maybe not the best for us, we know how it'll affect us. Does that make sense? Yeah, for sure. And I think forging ahead, that's why I've done a lot of dietary changes over the years, not like abrupt. Every month I'm changing, nothing like that. But I notice my family is resistant.

[00:20:56] But the longer I go, the more they adapt to some of the changes they take them on. Or they realize if they see me getting a benefit from it, that, hey, I might get that benefit too. And so they slowly come aboard. But there is a lot of resistance a lot of time. And I think that's super normal. And I'm married to my husband and he doesn't want to live how I'm living. And you know what? He doesn't have to. Right.

[00:21:25] It's his choice. Exactly. I'm okay with that. Sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I get frustrated, but for the most part, I'm okay with it. Yeah. For me though, it's like you end up cooking different meals for different people. And that's the part I'm not okay with it because of time. So I will not do that. I do not do that. So what I will do though, is I'll make like a buffet a lot of times.

[00:21:49] So if it's, let's say I'm making chicken tacos in the crock pot, right? Right. I'll put the chicken and the vegetables in the crock pot, and then I'll have tortillas on the side, cheese on the side, lettuce on the side, avocado on the side, like all these little sides. And I'll maybe put mine on a bed of lettuce, no cheese and just avocado. But my kids maybe will use a tortilla and they'll use some cheese.

[00:22:15] And so I'll make adjustments that way for people that want dairy or want certain things. Right. But I am not cooking multiple meals and I don't recommend cooking multiple meals. I don't either. It's too much time for one thing. Yeah. And it's not sustainable. No. Your kids will be just fine if they eat a healthy dinner. For sure.

[00:22:42] One question I wanted to ask you while we're on diets and nutrition, I saw where you're certified in gut health as well. And I just wondered if you could talk to us a little bit about the importance of gut health and what that exactly means. What should we be doing to make our guts healthier? It's very individual, right? Okay. So I'll do testing. I do functional medicine lab testing and I can test someone and actually look at what's

[00:23:10] going on in their gut and then make more recommendations that way. Okay. As opposed to, obviously you can take a probiotic, not obviously, but you can take a probiotic, a high quality third party tested probiotic. And I do recommend that. Chewing your food. A lot of people don't chew their food. Seems easy and simple, but people forget you should be chewing for 30 chews before you swallow your food.

[00:23:39] And if you're just eating really, really quickly, the whole digestive process kind of gets messed up, right? Right. So you want to do the things you can do that so that your body is going to absorb the nutrients in your food. Now, if you are a person that's drinking a lot of alcohol and taking a lot of Advil and

[00:24:05] ibuprofen and Tylenol and prescription medicines, you could have something called leaky gut where the food and the things that you're eating instead of going through the regular digestive process, it's complicated to explain, but basically these things are seeping into your bloodstream and that can cause inflammation in the body. And so we want to keep, they're called gap junctions.

[00:24:35] We want to keep those gap junctions tight. So not taking antibiotics, not drinking a lot of alcohol, not taking different kinds of medicines is going to help some of that. There's the gut is like a whole big topic. Yeah. And I'm lately, I've been hearing a lot more on alcohol as far as affecting the brain and not just the normal ways we think of it affecting the brain, but they're talking about it's related

[00:25:03] to Alzheimer's now, or at least dementia as an overall picture. And it's scary. I choose not to drink myself, but I know a lot of people who do, and they're very defensive about it, but it's, it's toxic. It really is. Right. And I drink, I'll have a couple of drinks a week, maybe here and there. Right. But you got to pick what works for you in your life. Right.

[00:25:29] And I drink, if I'm having a glass of wine, I'm knowingly drinking, knowing that it is not good for me. Right. Just if I'm going to have a treat of some sort. Right. Eat the ice cream cone or something. Yeah. I don't eat ice cream because it makes me feel terrible. But if I'm going to have some chocolate or whatever it is, I think the key is to be mindful.

[00:25:55] And if you do indulge in moderation, I think we as a people need to remember the word moderation. I do too, because it seems like a lot of indulgences become everyday things and they shouldn't be. It should be the one or two times a week or whatever. Yes. Yeah, for sure. Now, I know you, the mind, body, soul connection.

[00:26:18] I just want to, one other question I want to ask relating to that is how important do you think connection with other people is in that whole scenario? Like I know a lot of people that have isolated since COVID. I think connection to other people is so important. We crave connection as humans. I think time with friends is really important where you're away from your family. I think that time with your family is really important.

[00:26:48] Coworkers, we need that human connection and we learn so much from people around us, right? I can only imagine how lonely people must feel being isolated. And we saw during COVID, suicide rates went up. There were so many mental health issues that are still a huge problem today from COVID specifically. And I think a lot of that is the isolation and the loneliness. I do too.

[00:27:16] And then on the flip side of that, I think we have to be mindful of who we are hanging around also, though. Are they helping us towards our goal or are they moving us away from our goal? Because you always hear who you hang. I think it's the top five people you hang around is who you become is what they say. Yes. And I believe that's true. Yep. And I talk about that in my book.

[00:27:40] I have a whole mean girl chapter, actually, about how I removed some toxic people from my life. And I think it's incredibly important to evaluate who you are spending your time with. That can go back to the goal setting piece that we talked about earlier. And are they elevating you? Are you elevating them? And I don't mean elevating in a way like you're becoming cooler.

[00:28:08] You feel amazing inside when you're with this person. You're laughing. You're fully yourself versus are they squashing you? Are they putting you down? Do you feel defensive when you're with the person? So thinking about how you feel when you're around certain people. Now, I know that you can't choose your family, right? So sometimes we have family members that we don't necessarily, they're not our preferred people to be with. Right.

[00:28:36] And then that's where the boundaries come in. And you have to figure out how to set boundaries around spending time with those people. And you might need to have a conversation with the person, letting them know how you feel if you have to spend time with them. So it comes down again to self-care and taking care of your needs. Right. And maybe if you set boundaries and both parties agree, maybe you'll enjoy being around them more. You know what I mean? Because you have that boundary. Right.

[00:29:06] And maybe like listening to what they have to say, maybe they have a gripe with you. Like you don't know until you unpack that. And the same thing goes for coworkers, right? Like sometimes we have coworkers that are not our friends. Very true. And sometimes you don't get the choice whether to separate or not, but you can set those boundaries. Exactly. Yep. Yeah.

[00:29:33] Now I know you talk a lot about writing and the power of words. So are you referring to journaling or what kind of writing for the average person are you speaking to? So I think there's a huge power in journaling. I have written journals from the time I was a kid. I think that if you can write words on a page, you are a writer. I don't believe you need to have a certain degree behind your name to be a writer.

[00:30:01] I think that you could have a person could and I believe should have a few different journals. One journal I like to call is like a brain dump journal. So this journal, maybe you're using it at night before you're going to sleep because your mind is racing and you have all these thoughts and to-do lists and all this stuff happening in your head and you can't fall asleep.

[00:30:27] So with this journal, you're literally just writing everything that's going on in your head. And I call it a brain dump because you're literally taking what's in your brain and dumping it on the page and you're not using it for anything. It's just getting it out of you and onto the page. And you could throw the whole journal away when you're done.

[00:30:48] Sometimes there are nuggets that come out of these brain dumps and you're like, oh, I never really thought about that, but maybe I want to address this or whatever. But for the most part, you're just trying to get things out of you and onto the page. Then there's another kind of journaling where it's more of a writing exercise where maybe there's a prompt.

[00:31:11] Maybe you're doing a gratitude practice where you're just writing some things that you are grateful for about your day or what went well in your day and what didn't go well in your day. Or maybe you're writing your goals down. But the journal is for you and it's writing about things going on with you. There's really no parameters around it. It's just the physical act of writing is very healing.

[00:31:41] And things do come out as a person writes that don't tend to come out when you're thinking. Or maybe you have a fleeting thought about something, but it's never you don't get a chance to really dive into what that thought is. But when you write, people tend to expand what they're thinking. Okay, that's perfect. I was going to ask you what the difference was in just thinking it or speaking it versus writing. But I think you already answered that beautifully. So thank you.

[00:32:12] I know I want to be mindful of the time. So I wanted to ask if you could tell us about your book, more about your book. Yeah. So I always wanted to write a book from the time I was a kid. And I never really knew what I would write about. I just knew I wanted to write a book. And when I wrote my memoir, I hadn't I didn't set out to write a memoir. So I actually my mom had breast cancer a number of years ago.

[00:32:39] And while I would go to her chemotherapy treatments with her every week, and she was pretty down, rightfully so, during that time. And she just she felt like she was getting all this like medical stuff thrown at her and wasn't hearing a lot of positivity.

[00:32:58] And so I was thinking, well, maybe I should interview some cancer survivor thriver women that have gone through this have come out the other side are feeling well. And then I was thinking I would put like a holistic health slant on it. And I was going to make a book. So I interviewed 30 plus women over the course of a year, and I met some amazing women, and I recorded their stories.

[00:33:28] And I was all set to make a book. And what ended up happening is my mom went into remission. She was doing really well. And I was so tired of cancer. I had been in cancer with her for a couple years. And it was like, we were both fried from the topic of cancer and the thought of then creating this book just was like draining to me. So this is where that self care comes in, right? Right.

[00:33:57] I'm not going to devote all my time to a project that I was dreading. So I decided to shelve the book. But I wanted to still write. So I enrolled in a writing class. And the writing class that I happened to enroll in, the topic was memoir. I knew very little about memoir at the time. But basically, the instructor was giving us prompts weekly, and we had to write. And it was like very personal prompts.

[00:34:26] So I would write. And we had a weekly word count that you had to write. And if you didn't write that number of words, you didn't get instructor feedback, and you didn't get peer review feedback. So I was very motivated to get the feedback. So I was making sure I was going to get my words in. And I ended up taking this course four times over the course of a year with the same instructor. Wow.

[00:34:54] And my peers in the class were like, you should turn this into a book. Like, we want to hear more about this, or we want to hear more about that. And so at the end of the year, my memoir came out of me. Now, it wasn't in a good order or anything. Obviously, I had to do a lot of work on all of that. But the stories were there. The guts were there. And if you're curious, you know, what memoir is, it's different from a biography.

[00:35:23] So a biography is really a person, the story of a person's life from start to finish. Oftentimes, you'll see a famous person or a president will have a biography written about them. A memoir is moments in time, snapshots in time. It could be over the course of four years. It could be over the course of 10 years. It could jump back and forth in time. And there's a lot more creative freedom. But it's still the story of the author.

[00:35:53] And so my memoir is about me finding my voice. I felt a lot of my childhood like I was stuck inside myself. I was quieted by the people around me. I felt like I was going on a path that was expected of me. A lot of young women, I think, feel that way. I thought I had to go to high school. And then I went to college.

[00:36:22] And then I got my job, my corporate job out of college. And then I got married and had babies. And I had all these other things that I wanted to do with my life. And I put a lot of them aside for a long time because I did what I thought I needed to do based on the messages I received around me. So my book is about my journey to finding my voice. It's there's, I don't know, 14 or 15 chapters.

[00:36:50] And they're all like little stories. And there's a motivational quote that starts at the beginning of each chapter. And every story, I think, shows the shift that's taking place over the course of time in my life. It's called My Song Unleashed. And I'm getting a lot of feedback from women and young adults, especially that they can very much relate to my story. That's wonderful.

[00:37:19] So is there another book in the making? It hasn't even been a year since I birthed. It's literally like birthing a child, birth this book. So I'm focused on this book right now and just promoting it still. And once the book is out in the world, there's a lot to still do after that point. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And so, but yes, I have aspirations to write a fiction book at some point,

[00:37:45] which I think would be a really interesting and very different experience. That would be. Would you want to take a minute or two and tell us about your podcast also? I know you do a podcast. Sure. So I have a podcast. It's called The Art of Living Well Podcast, and it is co-hosted. And we co-founded it together. And we have, I don't know, maybe 350 episodes. We drop episodes every Wednesday on all platforms, including YouTube.

[00:38:14] And we really talk about a lot of these mind, body, spirit, wellness, holistic health topics. Sometimes it's just me and my co-host, Stephanie. We usually come on about once a month. All the other episodes, we bring really cool guests on from all different areas of holistic health and wellness. And I'm really, it's about finding your art of living well.

[00:38:43] And that is different for everybody. And so we have quite a range of guests on our show. Some of them are really outside of the box thinkers, and they're going to talk about things you've probably never heard of. And some of them are going to talk about things you've heard of a lot, like meditation. But we all need to hear it again and again and again, so we do it. So I recommend you go check it out and look at the topics of the shows and listen to what interests you.

[00:39:12] Yeah, it sounds fascinating. Thank you. Is there anything else that we haven't talked about? I had a bunch more questions. So I know there's lots more we could have talked about. But is there anything you want to make sure that the listeners here today that we didn't mention? I would just say that remember that life is a journey. It's not a destination, right? So I'm on my journey. I've been on it for a long time. I don't feel like I've arrived. I feel like every day I'm learning and growing.

[00:39:41] And I think having the mindset of continual learning and growth is really helpful and important. And I think striving to feel content inside. How can you feel content inside and be grateful for the things that you do have in your life right now today that are going well? And don't focus on the things that aren't going well. Yes, do you need to address them? Absolutely.

[00:40:10] But don't forget to focus on the good things. And it could be tiny. It doesn't need to be a huge thing. It could be the sun is shining today and I got outside and took 10 deep breaths. Like whatever it is, just find that joy in your day-to-day life and your joy in the present. And find the people that lift you up and spend time with them. I think that's awesome.

[00:40:34] Now, how can people who are listening that say, I love what Marnie's saying, or I want to find out more about this subject or that subject. Where's the best place to reach out to you or to follow you to see your content? So you can email me at Marnie, M-A-R-N-I-E at ZenfulLifeCoaching.com. And that's Z-E-N-F-U-L-L-I-F-E-C-O-A-C-H-I-N-G. I'm on Instagram at Zenful Life Coaching.

[00:41:03] My podcast is the Art of Living Well podcast. I'm on the web at www.zenfullifecoaching.com. And my podcast also has an Instagram account at the Art of Living Well. So if you Google my name, you can find me in all of these places. My book is on all platforms as well. There's an audio version, a Kindle version, and a print copy. It's called My Song Unleashed.

[00:41:31] And yeah, if you want to, if you're interested in working with me, just reach out and I'd love to connect. That's awesome. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to be with us today and sharing your wisdom and a lot of your experiences with us. It's been awesome. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a lot of fun. Absolutely. Bye-bye. Bye. As we wrap up today's episode, I hope Marnie sharing her knowledge, experience, and wisdom has helped you in some way.

[00:42:00] I think one of the most important takeaways may be finding your voice if you haven't already. Family, friends, and even society can sometimes make us feel silenced. It may be literal or it may be just that we don't feel worthy enough to speak. And if that's the case, maybe we need to change who we let in our inner circle, if possible. Just a thought. We also need to realize that we don't have to conform to the expectations of others.

[00:42:26] We only have one life to live and some of it, if not all of it, should be what we want. And I'm not advocating selfishness here. I'm just saying you've got to make time for your own dreams as well as everything you do for everyone else. And maybe it's time we empower ourselves and reclaim some of those dreams that we've held on to in the back of our minds. And with that, I hope you've enjoyed today's show. I would love to hear from you.

[00:42:55] As always, I hope this episode helps at least one person. And with that, I hope you have a blessed week, my friend. Thank you for listening to The Beauty and the Mess. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share it with a friend. And if you haven't already, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on your favorite pod player. If you have any questions or comments, any topic ideas you would like to hear about,

[00:43:21] or you think you would be a great guest on the show, you can reach me directly at thebeautyandthemess.com. Thanks for listening.