Aromatherapy and Peak Performance | East Haradin Phillips

Greg: Hello and welcome to the Pacific Center Podcast. My name is Dr. Greg Lane and I will be your host as we explore many interesting topics with many amazing people from a variety of professional backgrounds over the months and years ahead. The focus of this podcast will be the intersection of the traditional healthcare practices of various cultures and the modern scientific research on peak physical and cognitive performance. The show will be delivered in an interview format. Our guest today is Dr. East Haradin-Phillips. Doctor Haradin-Phillips is a Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. She graduated from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine with her Doctorate in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and with her Masters of Traditional Oriental Medicine from Pacific College in 2000. She’s a licensed acupuncturist and subject matter expert on stress, acupuncture, and aromatherapy. She studied aromatherapy and stress intensely during her doctoral program and published a 103-page capstone and ran a clinical trial proving that when aromatherapy is added to an acupuncture treatment aimed at reducing stress, treatment outcomes are significantly improved and more effective than acupuncture alone. She teaches classes to the public and practitioners on aromatherapy, meditation, gemstones, peak performance, practice-building, reiki, nutrition, facial rejuvenation, and anti-aging. She’s provided consultation and coaching for practitioners for nearly 10 years. She’s the founder and CEO of Gem Elixirs, an aromatherapy company, and she’s also professor and clinical supervisor of Chinese medicine since 2004. She’s a fitness instructor. She does group fitness and personal training for over 20 years and teaches a variety of formats: indoor cycling, high-intensity training, body pump conditioning, kickboxing, bosu – which I’ll ask her about here in a few minutes – step high-low. Currently, she works at 24 Hour Fitness, YMCA Encinitas, and the Bay Club in Carmel Valley. She trains people to run half and full marathons and, as well as, competes in triathlons. She’s completed one full Ironman and 10+ half Ironmans. And to say she’s done it all may actually be an underestimation. So during the show, while we may just be discussing some medical issues and treatments, we’ll in no way be providing medical advice. And as always, for any health-related issues and conditions, you should seek appropriate medical care and advice from a health care professional. Well, East, Dr. Haradin-Phillips, it’s so good to have you here with us today. So, welcome!

East: Thank you, I’m so excited to be here!

Greg: Yeah and that, just full disclosure, she was my professor in my doctoral program in our Practice-Based Learning class and I loved it. So, East, can you give us a give us a bit of a deeper dive into your background? You do so much. How did you become interested in health and healing and peak performance? And so, give us a story of East.

East: Sure, I love the story. First, people might be asking, “East, did she change her name to go to the school for Chinese medicine?” And the answer is, “No.” So if anybody’s got that thought bubble, it is my given name from the 70s. I do have a brother named West. I tell the story a lot because a lot of people are questioning it and I want you to be more present for the information we’re going to give. So, yes, my real name is East. I didn’t change it to go to school here but I had originally went after a business degree, my undergraduate degree from the University of San Diego was in business. Got my first job, looked around at my boss, said “I don’t want my boss’s job, I don’t want my boss’s boss’s job.”There was no job at that company, or any company I could think, I would want to aspire to. I even started an MBA program my first year out of my undergraduate. So I said, “Okay, I got to figure out what this is.” I had a roommate at the time who worked at Sea World, still does to this day, and every weekend she was a sea lion and honor trainer, still is today. And she would wake up with so much enthusiasm and she’d be like, “Oh my gosh, I get to go to work today and oh my gosh!” You know, on the weekends, that’s all she talked about. And I just kept looking at her saying, “I don’t feel that way. It’s Sunday and I’m really depressed that I have to go to work. I have to find that for myself.” So I went out on a journey to find what would bring me that level of passion. At the time, I was also taking yoga. I thought I was really interested in natural approaches to health and wellness so I was taking yoga and I met a physician from UCSD and she was also a professor at UCSD. And I thought, you know what, said “I’m going to help people. I’m going to go to UCSD.” So I enrolled in UCSD, was taking prerequisites for medical school. But in my yoga classes, we would talk for hours after and she kept saying, “You might want to think about alternative medicine, go straight into it.” “I don’t know, what does that look like? I don’t know anything about that.” She said, “There’s an acupuncture school.” I said, “Stop right there. Like, ‘acupuncture needles’ are not going to happen in my vocabulary, lifetime.” She says, “Hey, do you trust me? Listen to me. There’s a school in San Diego, it’s highly regarded.” This is a western physician and professor at UCSD telling me this, “Just go check it out.” I said, “Okay, hey, it doesn’t hurt.” And she said, “Trust me, you don’t want to go seven years to medical school only to find your way to alternative medicine.” I said okay. So I came down to the school and as fate would have it, Elaine, our registrar at the time –

Greg: Elaine Gates-Miller?

East: Elaine Gates-Miller. She said, “Oh, you’re very lucky you came in today because one of our founders is teaching a class. Why don’t you go over there.” “Oh who’s that?” “Alex Tiberi, there you go.” So I said okay. He’s teaching foundations, it’s one of his best classes. So I sat in the back and that was that, Greg. I was glued, I listened to everything, I stayed the whole three hours. Most people come and stay for 10 minutes and leave, I couldn’t leave. I went home that night, filled out my application, brought it back the next day. Elaine said, “Oh no, you’ve already missed the boat. We have a new class starting next Monday, you’re too late.” I said, “No, I will do anything to start.” I had such a passion, I said, “I think I found it, I think I did.” So she gracefully let me come in. I started and I’ve been here ever since. I was a very hyper student when I was here, very involved, did a lot of the community outreach to the school. And then, begged to be a professor here and they said you have to be out for five years so I practiced for my five years and then, sure enough, I got a call that said, “We’d love for you to come and be on faculty.” That was in 2004. I’ve been, as you know, on faculty in the master’s program for a long time on-ground and then was able to. And that was really awesome too because when I graduated in ’99, what I recognized is a little bit of a disparity between western and eastern medicine. And maybe some of the people that brought eastern medicine to the states kind of felt this, we’re different than them. And I always thought, “Why does it have to be that way? Why can’t we work together?” Because both of our medicines are so powerful. And so my vision, my dream when I graduated PCOM, the master’s program in ’99, was to be part of the movement in the United States and if not, in the world. To bring the two medicines together, to have the two professions stand side by side, to have physicians of East Asian medicine be looked upon as the same level as a physician of western medicine. Just knowing a different skill set, just coming with a different skill set. Because, so often western medicine saves us and so often we save western medicine when we’re talking about comprehensive health care for our patients. So, patient comes in and sometimes – let’s give the example of the patient that’s fully eastern medicine – and they’re like, “Oh yeah, I don’t want to go to western medicine, it’s bad. And if they go to a practitioner that only believes that we could be negligent, because maybe they do need a western intervention, maybe they do need an antibiotic, or maybe even chemo if the cancer is so far advanced, or some lab tests, right? So in that case, you know, let’s play together because we could really help each other. And then conversely, there’s a lot of times where our medicine is a more healthy natural approach or intervention before going to something extreme, like using discs. If you don’t need it, if you could try an alternative approach first, totally. And that works, you just saved yourself. So if we can work together, it’s like, we could really – the physicians, western and eastern physicians – can really be there for each other’s blind spots because western physicians have blind spots and we have blind spots. But when we work together, so powerful, so amazing. So, that kind of drew me in. I had that passion, I had that vision, and I’m starting to see that vision unfold and manifest in the doctoral program. I’ve had 450 students go through my class, alone, in the doctoral program. When I first started, you know, the cohorts were kind of new and green. But the cohort I have right now is setting the bar so high on integrative care and professionalism and it just, it excites me. It makes me feel everything I’ve done up to this point is worthwhile and I couldn’t be more thrilled with our profession, our practice, where we are, and the opportunities like you and I were talking before the podcast. Yeah, there’s so many opportunities for our medicine. If you choose to go East Asian medicine or western but to work together, healthcare is revolutionizing right now. The way we’re approaching it, people want a more healthy approach. They’re asking for it, they’re not just listening to their doctors anymore. They’re taking their health care in their own hands, being more responsible. And so, they really need a team of people to help them, give them the best advice, absolutely. So, I’m excited to be part of that.

Greg: Yeah, that’s great. And you’re so passionate. I mean, we feel your passion, for sure. I mean, I’ve known you for a while and your passion is just contagious. So, I wanna ask you about your interest in aromatherapy. And you did such great work in your capstone and you have your company the Gem Elixir company. You learned that it’s more effective when you’re combining that and acupuncture, and the outcomes are better. First of all, what led you to explore aromatherapy? I mean, I know we were steeped in herbal medicine. Is that how it’s, sort of, the genesis of that? Sort of the next phase? So what was coming up for you and why did you pick aromatherapy?

East: I was always attracted to it just for the smells, you know? It smells good. Before aromatherapy, I had a nose. I could smell a perfume and tell you exactly what it was. I’ve always just, kind of, had a nose for smells. I owned every perfume out there, it had to smell good. And then I got into school here in the late 90s, learned about herbalism, and then started to adopt some aromatherapy into my practice. So I always have used, even as a student here. And as an intern, I would have aromatherapy in my room and that’s when i started to study it for myself, to use it in my practice. So I always did, I always use aromatherapy. The traditional way to use aromatherapy is a little essential oil bottle and you drop it in some oil and rub it on people and massage or you diffuse it. But I started to say, “I don’t know. I mean, first of all, those little bottles are goopy. There’s got to be a better way.” Diffusers – one person, one scent for everybody – that doesn’t seem to work. So what I started to create were little blends and I put them into sprays so that I could offer a personalized aromatherapy experience. So I could have one person come in, they could get a special aromatherapy, maybe for helping calm them down. And maybe the next person needs something to pick them up. So I started using sprays with my patients. Inevitably, people would say, “Oh, I love that. Where can I buy?” And I was like, “Well, I made it.” “Will you make me one? I’ll pay you for it.” Okay, next thing you know, Greg, I am like the ice cream man. I’ve got, you know, a box of these things in my car. I’m opening up the bag, people are coming in, buying with cash. Everybody’s like, “What kind of drug deal’s going on out there?”

Greg: Did you have the white truck with the sides?

East: I should have. No, I had a Jeep. But, so I started. I had like, I made like four blends I was using myself. I started selling it to patients and then I was a supervisor here at the school and the students were like, “Oh, I want them.” And so, now I’m selling to the students and finally, somebody said, “Why don’t you sell these in stores?” “Oh really, you think?” So I showed it to some stores and they said, “Yeah, let’s try it.” So that’s kind of, like, how that began. And I just started using it then. In 2010, I went back for my doctorate and we all had to pick an area of interest and so I’m already very passionate and interested in learning even more about aromatherapy so I’m picking that. One of the things everybody would always say is, “Oh, aromatherapy is so great.” And they would say, “When I add it to my treatments, I have better results.” Okay, well, can you prove that? Do you have any data on that? Is there evidence? So I started to research that. Now, there is definitely a lot of research to prove efficacy of acupuncture by itself, on all sorts of conditions, for sure. But I pick stress and I’ll tell you why. And there’s all kinds of evidence and research that proves aromatherapy is effective, even on stress. Lavender – a lot of people use lavender – it’s very effective, reduces blood pressure, heart rate. So those two modalities have been proven but nobody – I was so shocked – nobody had ever done a clinical trial where they combined acupuncture with aromatherapy to see if that aromatherapy treatment was more effective. But like, all the students would anecdotally say to each other, “Well, of course it is,” or “Patients like it better.” Well, I said, “I’m going to, I want to find out if this is actually true.” Like, maybe it’s just our thought that it works better to reduces stress. So that’s what we did. I picked the subset of stress, I got a great population of people under high levels of stress, and then we did a controlled study. So half of them received acupuncture with a placebo and another half got real aromatherapy. They all got like a spray but one was just spring water. And that is how other aromatherapy trials were performed, where they had a placebo of aromatherapy. So what we did is I proved that when you add aromatherapy to an acupuncture treatment, it reduced the stress more so than just the acupuncture treatment alone.

Greg: And were you using like a MYMOP or a visual analog? What were you using to quantify your outcome?

East: Two measurements. When you study stress, there are two gold standards of measuring stress for clinical trials: the perceived stress scale, PSS – that’s a free one anybody can use – and then there’s one called the SF-36 or SF-12 and it’s a series of questions that determine your stress level on a scale from 0 to 50. And I contacted the company that sells that test and told them I was doing my doctoral program and they gave it to me for free for that, so it was awesome. So I used the two standard measurements for stress and in both cases, the group that got aromatherapy and acupuncture had a greater reduction in their stress levels over the six-week treatment period. So I kind of proved – I was one of the first ones, in fact. I’m just waiting any day to have the published results come out and submit it to journals. But it was exciting, it was. It was really fun to do a clinical trial. Did you do a trial?

Greg: No I didn’t.

East: For your doctorate?

Greg: No.

East: Okay.

Greg: I did not.

East: So it was fun! You know, not a lot of us get a chance to do a clinical trial.

Greg: So it’s curious because I’m thinking when you’re talking, I’m thinking about Peter Holmes because he’s also an acupuncturist and he’s been doing aromatherapy for years. But I guess he just never went down the road of doing a trial?

East: He might not have had the opportunity. I actually use Peter Holmes’s aromatherapy in my product line because I love it, I absolutely love it. Yeah, so I don’t know why it was a lot of work, Greg. I mean, it took me longer than I thought. I learned so much, like many people that do a clinical trial. So that’s probably why – it’s very costly. I was lucky to have the IRB support that we have here at the college, in the doctoral program at the time. So that might be why. But I believe there’ll be more in the future, more people will prove the efficacy to use it in other modalities because that’s just adding aromatherapy to acupuncture treatment. But we’re going to prove that when you add aromatherapy to other interventions, most likely, it makes it more effective.

Greg: Yeah, we’re just adding it to a corporate environment or adding it into our households.

East: All of that is already being done. But it has been proven that aromatherapy increases patient satisfaction – if you pick the right aromatherapy, right? And if a patient is more satisfied, they always have better treatment outcomes; that’s been proven, too.

Greg: So that’s a good question, actually. For our listeners, how do you select an aroma for or a combination for your patients? Or how would a person – is it just like, “I like the smell,” or muscle testing?

East: I don’t – it could be the smell, you could like your smell. It’s very interesting – during different times of your life, you’ll be more attracted to certain smells. Almost like, our body knows what might heal it up. And because the way that aromatherapy works when inhaled, it’s very interesting – let’s use lavender – lavender is probably the most widely researched essential oil out there for its efficacy. And so, when you smell lavender, it reduces blood pressure and it reduces heart rate. Unless you have a negative association to lavender. Like, if your grandmother wore lavender and she used to hit you or you hated going there on the weekend, whatever it is, or it smells old and musty to you – if you have that negative association. Because when you inhale, aromatherapy goes through the limbic system – what is attached to the brain and memory centers, right? Your body and your brain will override any health benefits that you have from that lavender because of that negative association. So knowing that, when I crafted my blends – and I teach people how to blend for themselves – I say use the therapeutic oils like lavender or other ones that like, maybe patchouli, something that smells like hippies or, I don’t know.

Greg: Sounds like the Grateful Dead.

East: Right! You know what you do, you hide it.

Greg: Nothing beats Grateful.

East: Nothing against Grateful Dead but sometimes, you don’t want to smell like it. But it is beneficial because it has natural effects on the body. So it’s kind of like you want to hide it so that that part of the brain that has a negative association won’t pick up on it. And it can get into the bloodstream, it can get into the system – the body system – and have an effect. So like, if you were invited to a party but I wasn’t, I would hide behind you. Like, “Oh yeah, come in.” Also, I crafted all of the blends like you would a Chinese herbal formula: you have a chief, you have envoys, you have deputies. And so, if you want to go back to that lavender example – in Chinese medicine, we use licorice or gan cao, as a harmonizer. You have 10 herbs, you want them to play well together. So you put that harmonizer, the licorice, in there and it makes the formula. Lavender is the same way. Lavender will help other essential oils work more synergistically. So when you asked how do I pick for a patient, right now I have 12 sprays that I’ve crafted over the last nine years because they pretty much cover the spectrum of what a patient would come in with. They have stress, anxiety – I have a spray called Calm and the chief essential oil in that one is vetiver and it’s a very woodsy, earthy, grounding smelling essential oil with lavender behind it and some other essential oils behind it. And then I have one called Focus – the Focus one, it does help you stay in focus and the three essential oils in that one have been clinically proven to increase test scores, reduce errors. And to your point a little earlier, in Japan, many companies take this same blend and pump it into the HVAC systems in office buildings because they know that it increases productivity.

Greg: What’s in Focus?

East: Focus is lavender, jasmine, and – what else is in there – rosemary. Oh, and lemon. Lemon juice inside.

Greg: Very aromatic.

East: Right. So the Focus, the lemon is my chief in that one because people love lemon, right? Smells so fresh, it heightens your awareness. So the Focus one is really great, that’s why I call it Focus. But you know what you can do? Here, this is “barefoot aromatherapy” – get some rosemary, put it between your hands, like the sprigs of it, rub your hands together and smell it. Make yourself a little or smell it for them. Or even lavender, all of those. That is aromatherapy, it has been around and used for ages in all sorts of forms. Incense – that’s aromatherapy. Just smelling herbs – that’s aromatherapy.

Greg: Like frankincense.

East: Frankincense, mentioned in the Bible several times.

Greg: So, you’re adding – I’m just looking at these ingredients of Focus, for example – you add agate and fluorite and amethyst. So how did the gems come into play? You didn’t study that, in terms of your – it’s just something that you pulled in? Like, you felt it kind of?

East: No, it was just me. So I always use aromatherapy and I always loved gemstones. Kind of like a rock hound, if you will. So I love gemstones, I’d always have gemstones. And I remember buying this candle one day, it was in the shape of a pyramid and it had little things in it so as it burned down, gemstones would fall out and little trinkets and stuff. And so when I created the sprays, I had been studying a lot on gemstones and there is a thing called an “elixir.” So the folklore is that you take a certain gemstone and you drop it into water – spring water – you put it under the full moon, you get it charged. And then when you drink that water, you will get the health benefits from that gemstone. So that’s what an elixir is. And so, amethyst is kind of like the lavender of the gemstone world. Amethyst is prolific, it’s everywhere. It’s a harmonizer, it’s purple, and amethyst is great. In fact, one of the folklores is that kings and queens used to drink out of chalices with lavender so they wouldn’t get drunk; because one of the things that lavender is claimed to do is stop you from being inebriated. So, I don’t know, you try that if you’d like, on your own. They just loved it. I thought it made it more magical. And so a traditional elixir – again, you drink it – but these are aromatherapy sprays. I wanted them to be a little different than what was out there and so I put gemstones into the bottles. And the gemstones I put in the bottle are pre-drilled jewelry quality so that when you’re done, you can repurpose them. So, it’s not like a little bit.

Greg: Sure, you have your bracelets too. I’m looking at your brochure right here. And you’ve got the bracelets made out of the gemstones that go in the bottles?

East: The same gemstones and also the addition of lava stones. So the Gem Elixirs line are the sprays. And then what do you do with the spray? Some people don’t want to spray it around them, some people want to spray it on themselves, or they want to spray it onto gemstone jewelry. And so, lava came onto the scene about five years ago. If you take a lava stone, I can put an aromatherapy drop – essential oils – on it. It’ll absorb and hold that scent for, like, three days. So now, I can wear my aromatherapy versus putting it on me. And so gemstone, and then, a lava stone aromatherapy jewelry got added to the line.

Greg: Yeah, very unique.

East: Yeah, it’s fine. It’s a very fun line, thank you.

Greg: It’s beautiful.

East: Thank you.

Greg: And I see you’re wearing, always, about four or five bangles?

East: Yeah, I always wear them. Those are awesome, I always wear them. They’re fun!

Greg: So, I want to shift gears a little bit and go into some of the coaching that you’ve been doing. So, you’ve been – you found yourself as coaching. Sort of as your role in mentoring, right? You never decided, you know, “I’m done with acupuncture,” or anything like that. It’s just been, kind of, an evolution based on need with your patients and students. And so, tell us a bit more about your coaching and how that evolved.

East: Also organic. So, just like Gem Elixirs came out organic. People said, “You should sell these, you should make more, you should.” Okay, same thing with coaching – students would always ask my opinion on things. Back in my business days, I did commercial real estate for a number of years and I specialized in medical space so I understood the whole ins-and-outs of getting a new space. And then as I had more and more experience under my own belt and – as you know – everybody asks you for advice too, especially emerging students. And I actually love to help them with this, I loved it. I also love product development – as you can see – I have a zillion ideas for products, constantly. And so, it just kind of happened. One student was asking me for advice and it was getting long, like our time together was getting really long. And at the end, he said to me, “You should do this for a living, you should charge for this.” I’m like, “Yeah, I should have charged you for this.” But it got me thinking, like, I really enjoyed it. Yeah, that was the thing. And when you know you’re really passionate about something, you’re willing to do it for free. So, Greg, I have done consulting for free and I still do. Sometimes people call me, I’ll give them some ideas but I thought, I want to make myself available. Some people want to have that official sit-down, have a consultant talk with them. So I just put it out there, let’s see. Kind of like these sprays. And all of a sudden, it got flooded. So I’ve had the opportunity to help a lot of people with their practice. And then going through the doctoral program, I’ve had – like I said – 450 students. And so at the end of our email, I don’t want it to be over – I’m going to miss you every week. “Can I still meet with you, do you do consulting?” And I said, “Yeah, sure.” So then, I kept meeting with some of them just to keep them motivated. I mean, really, I’m a great motivator – I know that’s one of my strengths, I love it and I love to motivate somebody. I like to see “A-ha” moments happen. So I do a lot of Skype, I do a lot of Zoom. I like to see, you know, the person’s face and I also like to hold a space for them and their potential to come out. Because that person is holding a space for hundreds of people in practice so they need somebody to hold a space for them, don’t they?

Greg: Absolutely.

East: And I do that because we all kind of go, like, “Can I do it? Am I doing it? Am I doing this right?” So sometimes, it’s just sitting down and saying, “You’re doing everything right, you’re amazing!” Look at reminding them the impact they’re having on the world by just treating their patients. If you treat 10 patients in a week, it doesn’t stop there because those patients have families, friends, loved ones, people they run into on the street. So you’re really affecting thousands of people by just practicing our medicine. So I love to, kind of, go behind that and pump up the practitioner.

Greg: So, you gave your coaching a bit of a structure, I’ve noticed lately. In terms of the REST and that whole thing, is that something that we can talk about here?

East: Sure.

Greg: So your acronym REST, right, what is the genesis of REST? If you will.

East: REST came from my research into stress, okay. Stress, pretty much we can all say, affects all of us at some point in our lives. We get stressed here and there. And if you want to even look at the gravity of it, the top five leading causes of death – heart disease, cancer, upper respiratory diseases, stroke, and accidents – pretty much, stress could be behind all of those things. You get really stressed and it could lead to any of those five leading causes of death. So with REST, the thing is, we’re told every day what we can do to reduce our stress, right? Okay, on a western level, a lot of times it’s going to be medications. Those medications are going to require more medications because of the side effects from those medications. So then, a lot of people go, “I don’t want that, I want to get off the slippery slope of medication so I’m going to go to meditation.” But they’re like, “I just can’t sit for an hour, that’s too overwhelming, I can’t do a lot of the things.” And so with my patients, I just kind of created a program for people – and I speak about this – REST is realistic, easy, and effective, proven with efficacy, stress treatment or stress tools. So easy. Things like, “Okay, you can’t meditate, I got it.” Even though, all the research says if you meditated for eight weeks, it matters in your brain, right?

Greg: That’s amazing, that’s Harvard.

East: Yeah, Harvard says, right? But everyone’s like, “Sounds great but I don’t have 20 minutes because I’m busy.” And I get it, I have two kids now – we talked about this, great year. So it’s like, “You’re right, I really don’t have enough time.” So what I say, “You know what you do, you sit down and you do three minutes. That might be a stretch but let me give you a two-for-one: music has also been proven to reduce stress. So I want you to find a really relaxing song – in fact, I have a song for you that has been proven to reduce stress by 65%. So just put this song on for three minutes when that song’s over, your meditation’s done. Find somewhere quiet, sit down, play that song for three minutes and you say to the divine, ‘You have three minutes to talk to me because that’s all I have.’” But even that little three minutes will reduce your stress and if you do that every day, it could be a gateway. That three minutes creeps to five, to seven. And so, those are some of the things – I have a whole list of little easy things – you can do to start to reduce your stress. They’re realistic, they fit within a busy lifestyle that we all have, they’re effective but proven to be effective, and they’re simple.

Greg: And the effects are cumulative.

East: Right. They are cumulative, that’s right.

Greg: If you just do it three minutes, yeah. You do that three minutes every day for a week, well, that’s 15 minutes, right? And that’s all.

East: Accumulates, yeah. And then you go – next time you’re at the health food store, you’re like, “Oh yeah, I remember that girl talking about lavender. Let me go find a spray that I like.” The smell of lavender, I’m going to spray it on my desk, right? Even if it doesn’t work or, you know, we’ll see if it works. It’s six dollars – it’s worth it because you’re on the verge of a stroke, which is the third leading cause of death in the United States, right? So try something that’s easy versus, a lot of times, people will say, “Oh, you need to go sit with a physician and get your blood panel.” And they don’t even want to take time for that. That’s why I have, like, really little easy things you can try and see if they help. Yeah, little tiny things.

Greg: So, you’re working with a range of people – ranging from students that are studying acupuncture – students are stressed out, just like the rest of them. I mean, just the the sheer magnitude of studying – or any student, it’s not just reserved for acupuncture students, any students, right? So, what are some of the other sort of clients that you’re working with? What kinds of challenges are you having with them? For like, corporate clients or things like that.

East: Yeah, basically I would – I don’t know if it’s like a type, it’s just a person – so I work with everybody, anybody. I teach fitness classes. This morning, I taught a spin class and so at the end – they all know I do Chinese medicine so inevitably, there’s a little line outside the door – “Hey, what about this? What about that?” And you know what? I love helping people, I just love helping people. Even if they say, “Hey, I’ve been thinking about taking thiamine. What’s that for?” “Oh, let’s talk about it.” “Hey East, my son has ADHD. What can I do?” Just those kind of things. So that’s like organic coaching that I do all the time. There’s more structured coaching. At the school – I teach still – in the program, you can schedule to have coaching with me, like one-on-one. And I have a sheet – so let’s say you sign up to do some coaching with me, you go to my website and I will mail you a sheet, a worksheet, and you’re going to tell me what it is like. Is it you have a product you want to develop? You want to sit there and we can brainstorm that and come up with some ideas. Moving your practice, you’re burnt out, you don’t know what’s next. Or do you want to talk to me about your health?

Greg: You’re doing a combination of life coaching and health?

East: Right. So it’s almost like telemedicine, yeah. So I had my practice, I moved, I had my baby eight months ago. And so, I opened my practice back up, my physical practice. And I realized quickly, it was just too much with everything I’m doing. So I closed the physical location because I was seeing patients on Monday but I can easily see a patient from my home via Skype. So I do telemedicine, I do a lot of consulting, not so much acupuncture private practice – I’m passionate about it.

Greg: Great.

East: I love it. My passion list is so high that I had to prioritize it. So at one point, when I started to feel like it was too much, I said “Okay, I know I’m passionate about it. I listed all the passions and acupuncture private practice, since i’ve been doing it for 20 years, was lower on the list. I’m sorry, you have to go for now.” So I packed it all up but I have a beautiful office that I can open at any time.

Greg: And you can refer to some of our younger colleagues that are just getting out, hungry for patients, I do that all the time.

East: I do that all the time.

Greg: I’m passionate about it too but you know my schedule, there’s no way I can treat as many patients as I’d like to. So what’s next? I mean – we were talking earlier – you’ve built this company, you’re selling it that you told me. Or maybe? Sorry.

East: That’s okay, not selling it. If I do sell it, I’m staying on the board. Yes, there have been several people that would love to play in the realm of Gem Elixirz and whether I sell it or not, I’ll stay in. It’s kind of like my third child.

Greg: What’s next in Dr. East’s evolution? Where did you see yourself in five years?

East: Five years – still affecting as many people as I can; affecting and infecting them with enthusiasm, joy, passion. So I’m in the process of writing a book and the book is called “Living Life In Your PJs: Aligning With Your Passions And Joys.” So in the process of the book – and hopefully having workshops – you come in and we try on so many jackets, if you will, until you find the one that fits. Yeah, that you know you’re passionate about.

Greg: So “PJs” metaphorically and joys.

East: Aligning with your passions and joys. I mean, right now, it’s very fortuitous that I’ve had this book idea for about four years and I’ve been writing the content and then Marie Kondo blew up, right? If it doesn’t spark joy, you gotta get rid of it, right? So I was like, “Oh, all that tells me when something like that happens is that in just – kind of like the evolution of our planet – this concept of living life joyfully and that we can is just coming down to all of us.” And so, Marie Kondo’s sharing it with a feng shui of your house and everybody, it’s just taken off. And so, people just want to hear that they’re allowed to live joyfully, right? You know, like our parents’ generation – they were taught to survive and put food on the table because of the depression and everything. And now, we’re kind of coming out of that. It’s like, “Oh, we can actually breathe, we can actually pick jobs that we love.” Yeah, I remember I told my dad, he wanted me to be a lawyer – sorry, Dad, if you’re listening to this – but he did, “I want you to be a lawyer.” I said, “Okay.” So I took the LSAT and I looked around, said “These are not my people, these are just not my people.” And I said, “Dad, I don’t want to be a lawyer, it doesn’t bring me joy.” He says, “It doesn’t matter, it’ll bring you money.” And I said, “Dad, you can live your joy and make lots of money. You can, I know you can.” He’s like, “Well, show me.” I’m like, “Well, okay. One day, hopefully.” So, I have felt that through my own journey and maybe I wrote the book for myself because I catch myself sometimes doing things I think I should do. So I’m like, “I’m going to write this book to remind me to stay in my PJs. If it doesn’t bring me passion, if I’m not passionate about it, if it doesn’t bring me joy, then why am I doing it?” Yeah, why? Because it’s just, the person that’s on the other end of whatever I’m doing is not getting the best of me. And then, if I keep doing something that I don’t enjoy, I’m taking up space that somebody else could go in and do. Yeah, right, that they’re passionate about. Yeah, so I thought this is silly. But the book’s great, it’s coming along. I hope to have it by the end of the year because it takes a long time to write stuff and get it out.

Greg: Absolutely. Yeah, I know. We have another colleague, he’s just finishing up his second book – I’m not going to mention his name – but it’s taken him years.

East: It takes years.

Greg: To get it out. It’s a pretty technical book, but still, it takes awhile.

East: Did you write one? You wrote an article?

Greg: I’ve written articles, yeah. I’ve written articles, not written an entire book, yet.

East: Yeah, I think I see that in your future.

Greg: Thanks.

East: We’ve read your Successful Practitioner, we read that. That’s a classic sign, right? And this cohort – I have two on ground – you brought people to tears.

Greg: Oh, well.

East: Yeah, because I say, “Okay, everybody shared what they liked out of Dr. Lane’s article.” And everybody had so much to say by an article.

Greg: Yeah, so that came out of our desire to help our people grow and raise the level of professionalism, and influence, and collaboration in healthcare. Right, you know? And so, it’s important for us to be able to to share our own experience and help the younger practitioners avoid the pitfalls, and establish themselves, and really grow like you’re doing. And, you know, we’re all trying to do when out of this institution and really beyond.

East: But you could apply your article to any profession because in it you say, “Be present, show up.”

Greg: Yeah, totally.

East: Just show up. Like, when you’re there, be all in there. And if you can’t be, then get out and find somewhere where you can be all in.

Greg: Absolutely. And stop complaining, just do it, you know?

East: Yeah. And if you’re complaining, then maybe you’ve got to change it up.

Greg: Yeah, at least change your perspective.

East: Right, right.

Greg: So are you training for anything right now, other than training for motherhood? I mean, that’s like constant training, training harder than any triathlon.

East: It is, by far, the hardest thing. Let’s see, I’m doing what’s called the Triple Crown which is running three half-marathons here in San Diego. They’re gorgeous beach runs. After my son was born, I put out the goal of doing a half Ironman. So I did, six months after my son was born, I did a half Ironman. Then five months after my daughter was born, I did a half Ironman, which was in Arizona. Yeah, so I loved that. I loved having the goal. I loved to see if I could do it. I was like, “I’ve never had a kid before. Will I be able to do this?” So I was able to do it, I loved it. I loved being able to push myself. I have infected several of my friends and patients with the same kind of desire to see if they can do something. So most of my friends now do triathlons, I got my husband to do triathlons. So we’re gonna do the challenge, half Ironman in October/November.

Greg: Where is that?

East: That’s here in San Diego. It’s awesome, yeah. So if you have a chance, go down there. It’s in La Jolla Shores. And then I’m gonna be doing some running. But the book, and the kids, and teaching again got in the way of doing any kind of, like, real athletics. So I teach fitness, I teach high intensity interval training, I teach spin, which I really love.

Greg: Spinning is great.

East: I just love indoor cycling.

Greg: I just bought a spin bike to put in my garage, yeah. So I actually don’t like going to gyms, I don’t have a lot of time. So I put the bike right in front of my garage, watch PBS and listen to a podcast, and burn those calories. Get the metabolism going in the morning, it’s awesome.

East: That is on my REST program. So a lot of people are like, “I don’t like going to gyms, I don’t have the time.” But you don’t need it, get a bike. Jump on it and just, “I’m going to do 20 minutes, I’m going to sweat out.” And that’s what the HIIT program is all about, high intensity interval training. You will burn more calories from a high intensity training session. So what I tell people in my REST program is, you don’t have time go do 50 push-ups and 100 sit-ups. That alone can be enough. Or go to Youtube, put HIIT programs and you’ll find a 10-minute HIIT routine of like high knees, and jumping jacks, push-ups. And that’s all you need to reduce cortisol levels, increase serotonin levels. That’s all you need, 10 minutes, that’s realistic and effective.

Greg: Yeah, so true. You know, working with patients, sometimes it’s challenging to balance what sort of yin activities – meaning the more qigong, or tai chi, or the quiescent types of activities – versus the high intensity stuff to really get the heart moving a bit, get yourself sweating. And balancing that in our society. And you probably see this every day with the people that you’re training, like the lawyer, the high stress attorney or something, they really need high intensity training to bust through some of that stress. But they also need the more yin stuff. So when you’re working with your clients or patients, or even at the gym, how does that conversation go ?

East: That’s the conversation where they say, “Yeah, I know, I need to meditate. Yeah, I can’t sit still for five minutes.” Yeah. “Okay, we’ll try this, just do three minutes. Just do one song, just one song, just sit for one song with your eyes closed.” There’s also been research that proves certain body positions elicit certain reactions in the body, right? So the position that we’ve all seen of the quote “boss” with his legs up on the table, leaning back in his chair, hands over-the-head position – has been proven to reduce blood pressure. So I always tell my stressed out executives, “First of all, whatever you focus on, expand.” So if you’re focusing on something intensely at your desk, working on proposals or whatever it is you have to, set your alarm and step away or reposition your body at least every 45 minutes. At the very minimum, I say every half hour. But when that alarm goes off, you step away and you put your hands behind your head and you put your legs up and don’t care what anybody thinks about and you take 10 breaths. I mean, that’s realistic, that’s easy, and it’s effective. Yeah, because most of them are being told, “You need to go and do yoga at lunch,” and you’ve already lost them. They’re like, “I’m not going to go to yoga at lunch.” “You need to walk at lunch,” “I’m not going to walk at lunch.” You know what I mean? So you can find different ways. But you bring up a very good point and that is using the inside, the quiet side.

Greg: It’s the scenario, it’s really counter to society. I mean, we’re starting to see it more obviously with yoga and at the end of yoga class, they’re just laying there. And what’s that posture called? We’re just laying there, yeah, and that’s the possibility. I’m a terrible yogi but, yeah, we need that more. Are you using any technology? Or what do you think about the technology for fantasy? You know, the eyeglasses or earphones or softwares that are meant to change brain waves?

East: All of those are great. So music, again. There’s a company called Holosync, they do binaural sound where you hear something on your right, something on the left. And so, the way the music is delivered has definitely been proven to affect brain waves. So there’s a whole series of music from the Holosync company where you can listen to that and reduce stress levels and it will. And one of our faculty spoke at Symposium, one of my dear friends, Drew Pierson, does neurofeedback. Dr. Pierson, I should say, at 40 Years of Zen. So he teamed up with Dave Asprey and they do neurofeedback. When I got my doctorate, I followed Drew around for a week. What I saw in that week was mind-blowing, in terms of the effects of neurofeedback. I had no idea and I experienced it myself, it’s so cool. So technology and physiology. I told you, one of the things you can do is put your legs up. There are things called – and they’re out everywhere, they were far and few between but now they’re on every corner now – they’re called floatation tanks. Like, there’s Float San Diego. So any of us can go to a float tank. Have you tried one before?

Greg: I haven’t.

East: And it doesn’t stop there. Now they have these cryotanks – so you can go in and get chilled water for 20 minutes and that’s a therapy, as well. I really believe in that, I really believe in these different technologies that can change the physiology, and then change the way you feel and change the way your body is.

Greg: Yeah. There’s lots of good research out there that’s great research and there’s some real serious pioneers: Dr. Pierson of 40 Years of Zen, Dave Asprey, obviously, Ben Greenfield, and Tim Ferriss. All these superstars in this realm are really helping to promulgate all the technological advances in this area, as well. We’re gonna actually have Dr. Pierson on this show coming up in a few months, I think.

East: I will watch next month, yeah. I can talk to him for hours so be ready because it’ll probably go over. He is fascinating, he has so much information, so much knowledge, so much experience in what he’s doing up there and what he’s done over the years.

Greg: Yeah, we’re excited.

East: So much, yeah, that’ll be a good one.

Greg: So, anything else you want to share? Any words of wisdom to our listeners as we wind down here?

East: Just chase your passion, yeah. If it doesn’t bring you passion or joy, ask yourself why you’re doing it. And make sure you’re not arguing for limitations because, there’s a saying, “Argue for your limitations and they’re yours,” right? So are you arguing for a limitation that really doesn’t have to be yours? I do. I find that a lot with consulting, especially practitioners. They’ll come to me and they’ll say, “Oh, I need more patients.” “Why do you want more patients?” “I need more money.” Okay, so now what we really have decided is you want more money. So if I waved a magic wand and you also had 20 more patients, would you be happy? Well, no, I’d be really stressed out. Okay, so let’s get clear. What you want is, you want more financial abundance. But you don’t want that in the way of more patients because you’ve already maxed out. You already feel like you’re tapped, you’ve seen 50/60 patients a week and that’s too much to hold a space for, right? So, let’s look at ways where, where else are you passionate. Where else? And so, that for me is so much fun. That walks me through that process. There’s a lot of resources out there that help you do that, yeah. Jack Canfield, read that book, wrote a book called “The Success Principles,” right? “Awaken The Giant Within,” Tony Robbins. Those are the books that walk you through a series of exercises to identify what you’re passionate about, to identify what brings you true, genuine joy. But a real litmus test is, are you willing to do it for free? Are you willing to drive far for it? Are you willing to go out of your way? After I had my son, I used to go over to the 24-Hour Fitness and take spin class. And I’d sit in the back with my hat on and text message, or whatever. And I was back there for a few weeks just post-partum, trying to get back in shape. And one day, the instructor didn’t show up, this was a 5:30AM class now. Before kids, I wouldn’t wake up before 9:00AM, which is 5:30AM. So I’m in the 5:30AM class, teacher doesn’t show up, and everyone’s like, “Oh no, what are we going to do?” And I said, “I’ll be right back, I’ll teach class.” And everyone’s like,

“You? You’re the one in the back.” So they didn’t know, nobody knew me, I just kept to myself. So I went to the front desk, I told the guy I want the microphones, he didn’t care. You know, 5:30AM, here’s the microphone. I come in, I turn on the microphone stereo because I talked for 24 hours years ago, top spin crown. “Oh my gosh, will you be our teacher? We love you.” So I said, “Okay, well let me.” So I contacted 24-Hour Fitness, they said, “You have to go through all, you’re no longer on board with us because you left 10 years ago so you’re gonna have to go through the process, it’s gonna take weeks.” But the class wanted me so I said, “You know what, that’s fine. Until I’m legally hired, I’ll just come and teach.” So the teacher who had the class was a flight attendant. She text messaged me and she said, “They want you, they don’t want me. Will you teach the class?” “Yeah, I’ll go.” So I taught that class for free for 10 weeks. That’s your passion, that’s passion. If you’re willing to do stuff like that, if you’re willing to give your friends all this advice and certain things, you’re probably passionate about it. Yeah, and why not? Why not align that with what you’re doing every day? And how you’re contributing and playing in the world and then infect other people with your enthusiasm? And that’s why I say aligning with your passions and joys, yeah.

Greg: Live life in your PJs. Yeah, I want to read that, I want a signed copy.

East: Live life in your PJs, it’s coming, it’s coming.

Greg: Yeah. So for folks out there listening, Dr. East’s website is www.doctoreast.com. And also, her Gem Elixirz website, you can link to it through doctoreast.com but if you want to go to gemelixerz.com that’s g-e-m-e-l-i-x-i-r-z-dot-com. And we’ll have links on our podcast website, as well.

East: Can we put your article in there, too?

Greg: Maybe, we’ll think about that. I mean, that’s proprietary.

East: It’s a great article.

Greg: Thank you.

East: Yeah, I love it.

Greg: Anyway, it’s been such a joy to have you here. Thank you so much for sharing your insights and your passion and your joy with us today. It’s always an honor to have you, a pleasure and joy!

East: Thank you, my pleasure. This is super fun!