Soul Shift

Is everything in your home really toxic? From candles and cookware to tap water and the air you breathe, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by environmental toxins. In this episode of SoulShift, Ali and Christine sit down with Lara Adler, Environmental Health Educator and Consultant, to cut through the fear and find what actually matters.

With over 14 years of experience teaching thousands of health practitioners in 35+ countries, Lara bridges emerging research with practical, evidence-based strategies to reduce toxic exposures. She is currently pursuing her Master of Public Health at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and she brings a refreshingly grounded, balanced voice to a conversation that has become deeply polarized online.

Lara explains that everything is a chemical. The real concern is the low-level, everyday chemical exposures that build up over years and decades, not one single moment. That's why small, sustained changes, like swapping plastic food storage for glass, make a real difference over time.

We explore why the environmental toxins conversation has split into two extremes: sensational fear-mongering on one side and dismissive over-correction on the other. Lara shares how to spot red flags, such as absolute words like "causes" or "will give you," and influencers whose business depends on selling you a detox product. She also explains why social media algorithms reward outrage over nuance.

One of Lara's most powerful messages is that we can't shop our way out of this problem. Reducing your exposure doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars, and some changes even save money:

- Skip scented candles, plug-ins, and air fresheners (indoor air is often far more polluted than outdoor air)

- Open your windows regularly, when outdoor air quality allows

- Take your shoes off at the door

- Vacuum and wet dust more often, since house dust mirrors the chemicals in your home

- Use your stove's vent hood, especially with a gas stove

Lara also speaks to environmental justice and why health and wellness should never be a luxury. She shares her "View-Master" approach: priorities shift depending on the lens, whether personal, public health, policy, or environmental justice. Christine reflects on her own experience living with toxic mold and how personal context shapes what matters most.

Then we dive into water. Lara explains why US tap water is safe from infectious disease but can still contain unregulated chemicals, why there is no single "best" water filter, and how to read your local water quality report. She also covers when reverse osmosis is truly needed, why NSF-certified filters and regular filter changes matter, and why "structured" or "energized" water claims are marketing myths.

Finally, Lara breaks down healthy indoor air: why gas stoves matter for childhood asthma, how to choose an air purifier with HEPA and activated carbon, why to start with the bedroom, and how to build an affordable DIY Corsi-Rosenthal box for wildfire smoke.

What We Discuss in This Episode

• What “environmental toxins” and “chemical exposures” really mean, and why everything is a chemical
• Acute vs. cumulative exposure: why years and decades matter more than one-off moments
• Why the online toxins conversation is so polarized, and how to spot fear-mongering
• Red flags: absolute language, and claims tied to selling detox products
• Why we can’t shop our way out of toxic exposure, and the role of regulation
• Free and low-cost swaps: ditching fragrance, opening windows, shoes off, wet dusting
• Environmental justice, and why wellness shouldn’t be a luxury
• The “View-Master” approach and why “it depends” is the honest answer
• Christine’s experience living with toxic mold
• Tap water safety, water quality reports, and choosing the right water filter
• Reverse osmosis, shower filters, whole-house systems, and “structured water” myths
• Indoor air quality: gas stoves, HEPA and carbon air purifiers, and the DIY Corsi-Rosenthal box

Lara leaves us with a reminder: you don't have to be perfect. Small, doable steps within your budget and circumstances truly count.

Connect with Lara Adler:

Website: https://www.laraadler.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/environmentaltoxinsnerd

Substack (Talking Toxins): https://talkingtoxins.substack.com/

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

Why do so many of us feel more scattered, anxious, dry, or depleted as fall arrives? In this special solo episode of SoulShift, host Christine Morgenstern Shin, yoga therapist and founder of Radiant Heart, shares how to move into fall and the last quarter of the year with more ease, grace, and connection by living in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

Christine blends ancient wisdom practices, Ayurveda principles (the sister science to yoga) with functional nutrition and nervous system safety exploration. She reminds us that we are a microcosm of the macrocosm: what happens in nature is reflected within us, if we take the time to stop, feel, and listen. As the bright, expansive energy of summer gives way to a slower, more inward season, our daily choices can either work against us or support more energy, clarity, and joy.

The episode opens with a guided belly breathing practice and two reflections. What are you noticing in your body as the season changes? And what is one thing you could release or reduce to make “white space” for something more nourishing?

Christine then explains why fall carries dry, light, cold, and mobile qualities. These often show up as a busy mind, lighter sleep, and dryness, and the key to balance is bringing in the opposite qualities. She shares simple, practical seasonal wellness rituals:

• Hydrate warmly by sipping warm or hot water throughout the day
• Include supportive fats like olive oil, sesame oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, or ghee
• Try a warm oil self-massage before showering to calm the body and support sleep
• Choose warm, cooked seasonal foods such as soups, stews, root vegetables, and ginger or cinnamon teas over iced drinks and raw evening meals
• Keep wake times, meal times, and bedtimes steady, and build a calming evening transition
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From there, Christine walks through the five layers of the self from yoga therapy: physical, mental, emotional, energetic, and spiritual. She covers protecting your daily rhythms and listening to your body before pushing. She also explains why mono-tasking beats multitasking, how predictable anchors reduce decision fatigue, and how to “put action into time” with one or two realistic habits.

Christine also opens up about her own experience of anxiety during her years living with four chronic illnesses. She explains why many people feel more anxious in fall even if anxiety isn’t usually their pattern. She invites us to make room for grief, nostalgia, and tenderness, close our open loops, and strengthen our support so the nervous system can feel safe enough to process emotions.

For the energetic and spiritual layers, she shares grounding through the senses and a simple vagus nerve self-massage. She talks about the calming power of connecting with our pets, balancing doing with being, and honoring the wisdom of cycles. Christine closes with a seasonal intention practice: “This fall, I am ready to release ___, receive ___, and commit to ___.”

If you want to walk into the holiday season calm, grounded, and joyful instead of overwhelmed and depleted, this episode is your gentle guide.

What We Discuss in This Episode

• We are a microcosm of the macrocosm: how nature’s rhythms show up in our bodies
• A guided belly breathing practice to settle the nervous system
• Ayurveda basics: why fall brings dry, light, cold, and mobile qualities
• Balancing like with opposites: warm hydration, healthy fats, and warm oil self-massage
• Seasonal eating in fall: soups, stews, root vegetables, and warming teas
• Creating steady daily rhythms and a calming evening transition
• The five layers of the self: physical, mental, emotional, energetic, and spiritual
• Mono-tasking, decision fatigue, and “putting action into time”
• Why anxiety can rise in fall, and Christine’s own journey through chronic illness
• Making room for grief and nostalgia, and closing your open loops
• Grounding through the senses, vagus nerve self-massage, and connecting with pets
• Setting a seasonal intention: release, receive, commit

Free Resources:

Abhyanga Massage Benefits and How to: https://www.saumya-ayurveda.com/post/abhyanga-massage

Download Christine’s Nervous System Regulation 101 Guide for exercises to connect with your senses and go inward this season: https://learn.radiantheart.health/NSR101eguide

Connect with Christine Morgenstern Shin:

Website: www.radiantheart.health

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinemorgensternshin/

Facebook (Radiant Heart): https://www.facebook.com/radianthearthealfromwithin

If this episode supported you, please subscribe, leave a comment, and share it with someone who could use a little more ease this season.

Small shifts create powerful transformations.

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

Why do old wounds resurface in midlife relationships, and what does it take to move from roommate syndrome back to passionate connection? In this special SoulShift Encore episode, we revisit one of our most-loved conversations with Monica Tanner, an RLT-trained Relationship Coach, host of the Secrets of Happily Ever After podcast, and bestselling author of Bad Marriage Advice.

Recorded in October 2025, this conversation with Mindy Gorman-Plutzer and Christine Morgenstern Shin explores how the way we receive love often mirrors the way we receive nourishment, rest, and care. When old wounds run the show, we brace, guard, and push until we’re empty, and then struggle to let anything back in. Monica shows us another way.

Monica explains why real connection doesn’t come from clichés like “never go to bed angry” or “happy wife, happy life.” It comes from relational skills you can learn at any age. Drawing on Relational Life Therapy, the modality developed by Terry Real, she describes differentiation: staying connected to yourself while staying close to someone who may see things differently.

We dive into the midlife identity crisis many women face when the kids launch and they’re left asking, “Who am I now?” Monica explains how couples who built their lives around parenting can rediscover each other, and why so much of that reinvention involves inner child work and healing the childhood adaptations that helped us survive but no longer serve us.

Monica shares a powerful reframe from her book. The idea that “the right person won’t hurt you” is a myth. We’re drawn to partners who touch our tender places, and that gives us the chance to heal them. She also walks through how to recognize when you’re triggered, move out of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, and return to your “wise adult” through a mindful pause and embodiment.

The conversation connects relationship healing with nervous system regulation, body shame, emotional eating, and overdrinking. Monica describes all of these as adaptations rooted in a sense of scarcity. We also explore how stress can affect how we actually hear our partner. Monica explains why communication isn’t about being right. It’s about understanding each other’s subjective experience.

Finally, Monica offers wisdom for women entrepreneurs on growing a business without burning out. She talks about sharing your vision with your family to create buy-in, and about asking for help. Her closing message is that relational skills are like any other skill. You’ll be bad before you’re good, so embrace imperfection, vulnerability, and curiosity.

Whether you’re navigating midlife, rebuilding intimacy, or learning to receive love and care more fully, this episode is a reminder that it’s never too late to rewrite your love story, including the one you’re writing with yourself.

What We Discuss in This Episode

• Why cliché marriage advice is often well-meaning but outdated for modern relationships
• How our relationship with ourselves is reflected in every other relationship
• Differentiation: holding on to yourself while staying connected to others
• The midlife identity crisis when the kids launch: “Who am I now?”
• Moving from roommate syndrome back to passionate connection
• Inner child work and honoring the adaptations that once protected us
• Why “the right person won’t hurt you” is a myth, and how partners help us heal old wounds
• How to recognize triggers and shift from fight, flight, freeze, or fawn into your wise adult
• The mindful pause: getting back into your body before reconnecting
• Emotional eating, overdrinking, and body shame as scarcity-driven adaptations
• Why communication is about understanding subjective experience, not being right
• How women entrepreneurs can grow a business without burning out by asking for support

Connect with Monica Tanner:

Website: https://www.monicatanner.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/monitalksmarriage

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/monicatanner

Book: Bad Marriage Advice

Podcast: Secrets of Happily Ever After

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What if true strength isn't about pushing harder, but learning when to let go?

In this episode of SoulShift, hosts Ali Anderson and Christine Morgenstern Shin welcome Nahum Vizakis, combat veteran, athlete, fascial stretch therapist and author, to explore the intersection of trauma, spirituality, body awareness and nervous system regulation.

Nahum shares his journey from military service and competitive bodybuilding toward a deeper understanding of healing and self-mastery. Discover how breathwork, mindful movement, intentional training and self-awareness can support personal growth, while exploring his philosophy of spiritual bodybuilding—building inner resilience alongside physical strength.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Nahum's journey from combat veteran to healer
• How identity shifts can transform our lives
• Why surrender can be more powerful than forcing change
• The relationship between body awareness and emotional experiences
• How past experiences can influence present-day patterns
• Reconnecting with yourself through breathwork
• Why vulnerability is a form of strength
• Recognising when old habits no longer serve you
• What a regulated nervous system can feel like
• How stress and overstimulation affect everyday life
• Spiritual bodybuilding and intentional training
• Healthy versus unhealthy approaches to discipline
• Biohacking through sleep, recovery and breathing
• Moving beyond trauma-driven behaviours
• Finding answers through stillness, support and self-awareness

About Nahum Vizakis

Nahum Vizakis is an athlete, combat veteran, fascial stretch therapist, astrologer and entrepreneur. Following a spiritual awakening during his 2010 Baghdad deployment, he explored healing traditions, biohacking and emotional alchemy. A competitive bodybuilder with multiple competition titles, he now combines physical discipline and spiritual exploration to help others pursue greater self-awareness and personal transformation.

Connect With Nahum Vizakis

Website

www.optimizinghuman.com

Instagram

@spiritual_bodybuilder - https://www.instagram.com/spiritual_bodybuilder/

Facebook

Nahum Vizakis - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551701597490  

YouTube

Nahum Vizakis - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfBmmf1OpYLL7JrD2ExMQLA

LinkedIn

Nahum Vizakis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nahum-vizakis-596092266/

Books Mentioned

The Biohacker’s Guide to Spiritual Bodybuilding

Nahum's exploration of how physical discipline, intentional training, recovery, and inner awareness can work together.

The Indigo Flame

A personal account of trauma, transformation, spiritual awakening, and the journey toward self-mastery.

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What happens when a woman spends her entire life striving for approval, achieving, caring for everyone else—and eventually realizes she has lost connection with herself?

In this powerful conversation with naturopathic physician, lifelong model, author, and dancer Dr. Tricia Pingel, we explore the deeper story behind stress and burnout. Tricia shares how decades of external pressure, grief, caregiving, perfectionism, and constantly pushing forward eventually caught up with her body.

After losing her mother to cancer, Tricia was forced to confront a question that changed the direction of her life: What happens if I keep living this way?

Her answer led her to make some profound changes—including stepping away from a demanding medical practice and rediscovering something she had loved since childhood: dance. Hip-hop became an unexpected doorway back to joy, connection, and herself.

This conversation goes far beyond avoiding burnout. Tricia explores the difference between external and internal stress, why stress itself isn't necessarily the problem, how our relationship with technology can affect our nervous systems, the pressure women face to take care of everyone else, and why changing the way we respond to stress can be more powerful than waiting for life to become less stressful.

At the heart of it all is a simple but transformative message: you are worth showing up for.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why high-achieving women can lose connection with themselves while “doing everything right”
• How grief and loss changed Dr. Tricia Pingel’s understanding of health and success
• The lifelong search for external approval—and learning to trust internal wisdom
• How modeling shaped Tricia’s relationship with body image, achievement, and self-worth
• The difference between external stress and internal stress
• Why stress is part of life—and why our response to it matters
• How chronic stress can affect the body’s nutritional and hormonal systems
• The importance of recovery, boundaries, and allowing yourself to feel
• How technology and constant stimulation can influence our relationship with stress
• Why being busy has become intertwined with our ideas about success
• Tricia’s personal experience with burnout and reaching a breaking point
• How dance and joy became an unexpected part of her healing journey
• The courage to change your life even when the decision feels risky
• Why women need permission to prioritize themselves and set boundaries
• Finding community, connection, gratitude, and a new definition of success
• The powerful shift from living for external approval to choosing yourself

About Dr. Tricia Pingel

Dr. Tricia Pingel is a naturopathic physician, lifelong fashion model, and hip-hop enthusiast who helps leaders answer the question that changes everything: “What am I modeling?”

Her personal transformation—including rediscovering her love of dance—changed the way she understood health, stress, joy, and the individuality of the nervous system.

Tricia is the author of Total Health Turnaround, host of the What Am I Modeling? podcast, and has been featured in Prevention Magazine, Women’s Health, and The Dr. Axe Show.

Find Dr. Tricia Pingel

Website: Dr. Tricia Pingel

Store: Total Health Apothecary

Facebook: @DrTriciaPingel

Instagram: @drpingel

Podcast: What Am I Modeling?

YouTube: @drpingel

TikTok: @drtriciapingel

LinkedIn: @tricia-pingel-nmd

Tricia specifically invites listeners to connect with her through her website and social platforms and let her know they heard her on SoulShift.

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What if burnout isn't simply about being stressed - and the answer isn't to exercise harder, take more supplements, or try to fit another wellness strategy into an already overwhelming life?

In Episode 52 of SoulShift, Ali and Mindy sit down with Dori Martin, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and HTMA practitioner, to explore the deeper physiology behind midlife burnout, depletion, and the feeling so many women experience of “I’m doing everything right, so why don’t I feel like myself?”

After experiencing profound burnout through years of caregiving and chronic stress, Dori became passionate about understanding the connections between mineral balance, stress, metabolism, hormones, energy, and the nervous system. Her work focuses on helping women uncover patterns that may not be obvious from standard blood work alone.

The conversation begins with a powerful reframe: what worked for us earlier in life may stop working in midlife because our biochemistry and our capacity are changing. For women who have spent decades being high achievers, caring for everyone else, pushing through and continually reaching for the next goal, the body may eventually reach a point where it simply cannot keep operating in the same way.

Dori explains why depletion can show up as exhaustion, brain fog, low motivation, changes in mood, cravings, metabolic changes, and the feeling that even small demands suddenly feel overwhelming. Rather than viewing these experiences as personal failures, she invites us to consider what the body may be communicating—and whether pushing harder could actually be keeping us stuck.

A major focus of the conversation is HTMA (Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis) and how Dori uses mineral patterns as one piece of a larger picture. She explains why she sees testing as a way to open a conversation about energy and physiology rather than as a standalone answer. The hosts also discuss why mineral balance is nuanced, why taking a supplement simply because something is “low” isn't necessarily the solution, and why personalized guidance matters.

But this conversation isn't only about labs.

At its heart, it's about learning to listen.

Dori, Ali, and Mindy explore the connection between physiology and psychology, the importance of foundational habits, the impact of modern environments on our bodies, and why midlife may require us to stop asking “What else should I do?” and start asking “What does my body actually need right now?”

And perhaps the most memorable reframe of all: we're complicated plants living in a modern environment that doesn't always fit our physiology or psychology.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why midlife women can feel depleted even when they’re “doing everything right”
•  How chronic stress, high achievement, and years of pushing through affect the body
• Why burnout is more than emotional—and how physiology impacts psychology
• How mineral balance connects to cellular energy, metabolism, hormones, and stress
• What HTMA can reveal that standard blood work may not
• Why mineral balance is complex and why more supplements aren’t always the answer
• The risks of intense exercise, detoxes, and wellness trends when the body is already depleted
• Why foundational habits like sleep, hydration, sunshine, breathing, rest, and nutrition matter
•  How individualized strategies and proper sequencing can support resilience
• The connection between mineral balance, blood sugar, cravings, and eating behaviors
• Why working with an experienced practitioner can help interpret complex testing
• Moving beyond self-blame and learning to listen to what your body needs
• How slowing down and rebuilding capacity can help restore energy and resilience
•  Rethinking what midlife women need to feel healthy, engaged, and fully alive

Connect with Dori Martin

• Website: www.dorimartin.com
• Instagram: @midlifeenergy.dori
• Facebook: Dori Martin on Facebook

Mentioned in the Episode

Foundations to Fabulous + HTMA:

www.lightenup.thrivecart.com/foundations-to-fabulous-htma

Affiliate link:

Affiliate link: https://lightenup.thrivecart.com/foundations-to-fabulous-htma/partner/

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What happens when we stop treating the body as a diagnosis to solve and begin seeing the person, the story, and the lived experience behind the symptoms?

In this episode of SoulShift, Ali and Mindy welcome their teacher, mentor, and longtime influence, Andrea Nakayama, for a powerful conversation about functional nutrition, narrative medicine, personalized care, and what it truly means to understand the whole person.

Andrea shares the deeply personal experiences that shaped her work, including losing her husband to a terminal brain illness while she was pregnant, navigating grief and solo parenting, and later confronting her own autoimmune diagnosis. Those experiences revealed the gaps between medical expertise and the lived reality of disease, and ultimately led her toward systems biology, functional nutrition, and narrative medicine.

Together, they explore why modern healthcare can sometimes reduce people to their diagnoses, why protocols alone cannot capture the complexity of an individual life, and how a person’s history, relationships, stress, sleep, joy, grief, and identity all belong in the healing conversation.

Andrea introduces the principles that have guided so much of her teaching: everyone is unique, all things matter, and everything is connected. She explains how narrative medicine helps practitioners move beyond intake forms and rehearsed medical stories to ask deeper questions about who someone is, how they got here, and what their lived experience can reveal.

The conversation also challenges the current obsession with biohacking, longevity protocols, supplements, testing, and trying to reverse aging. Andrea offers a more nuanced and compassionate perspective on midlife: one that honors change, meaning, relationships, joy, community, and the wisdom that comes with age.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen more deeply, question the noise, and remember that your body is not a puzzle waiting for someone else’s perfect answer. Your story matters—and it is an essential part of your health.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Andrea Nakayama’s personal journey into functional medicine and nutrition
• How grief, illness, and lived experience can transform the way we understand healing
• The gap between medical expertise and the lived reality of disease
• Why people are often treated as their diagnosis rather than as whole human beings
• How modern healthcare became heavily focused on acute care and protocols
• The importance of pluralism and having different kinds of practitioners involved in healthcare
• Why practitioners need to be evidence-informed rather than “evidence enslaved”
• What narrative medicine is and how it supports deeper listening
• How poetry, music, art, fiction, and reflection can help us access parts of our story
• The difference between starting with someone’s plate and starting with their story
• Why healing is a process rather than a one-session answer or quick fix
• Andrea’s guiding principles: everyone is unique, all things matter, and everything is connected
• Why sleep, stress, relationships, movement, joy, meaning, and identity all influence health
• The dangers of becoming overly focused on biomarkers and missing personal mediators
• How to begin when “everything matters” feels overwhelming
• The foundational trifecta of sleep, bowel movements, and blood sugar balance
• Why doing less, more slowly, can create a stronger foundation for healing
• How to become more discerning about supplements, tests, biohacking, and wellness marketing
• Rethinking longevity and aging beyond fear, performance, and optimization
• Why midlife should be approached as a new chapter rather than a return to youth
• The role of meaning, community, friendship, love, and connection in healthy aging
• How to listen to the body and honor what it needs in the present moment

About Andrea Nakayama

Andrea Nakayama became a Functional Medicine Nutritionist after losing her husband to a terminal brain illness in her thirties, an experience that exposed the profound gaps between medical expertise and the lived reality of disease.

While navigating grief, solo parenting, and her own autoimmune diagnosis, Andrea turned to systems biology to better understand the body and narrative medicine to hold the human story. Her personal search eventually grew into the Functional Nutrition Alliance, an acquired multi-million-dollar health education technology company that trained thousands of practitioners worldwide.

Today, Andrea works at the intersection of functional nutrition, lifestyle medicine, and narrative medicine, with a particular focus on women in midlife and beyond. Her teaching emphasizes a whole-person approach to health rooted in curiosity, context, individuality, and the understanding that every aspect of a person’s life can matter in the healing process.

Connect with Andrea Nakayama

• Website: www.andreanakayama.com
• Substack: www.andreanakayama.substack.com
• Instagram: @andreanakayama - https://www.instagram.com/andreanakayama/
• YouTube: Andrea Nakayama
• Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/fxnalliance
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/AndreaNakayama.page

·         LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreanakayama

Andrea shares weekly writing, insights, and opportunities for connection through her Substack, which she describes as a place for evidence, reflection, and conversation.

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What happens when three women with very different backgrounds, experiences, and areas of expertise come together around one shared belief: women deserve more than symptom management, quick fixes, and wellness advice that was never designed for the complexity of their lives?

In this special 50th episode of SoulShift, Ali Anderson, Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, and Christine Morgenstern Shin pull back the curtain and share the stories, experiences, and beliefs that brought them together to create this podcast.

Mindy shares her deeply personal journey from years inside the weight-loss industry to discovering a different path—one rooted in functional nutrition, eating psychology, transformation, and freedom from diet culture. Ali explores her passion for understanding the connections between gut health, hormones, the nervous system, and the underlying biology that can influence how women feel. Christine reflects on her own healing journey and the profound impact of the nervous system, resilience, ancient wisdom, and self-love on whole-person wellbeing.

Together, they explore why their different perspectives actually make their work stronger. Nutrition, biology, nervous-system health, mindset, meaning, and emotional healing aren't isolated pieces—they are interconnected parts of the human experience.

The SoulShift Sisters also talk honestly about why they believe women, particularly women in midlife, need a different kind of wellness conversation. A conversation that recognizes hormonal changes, identity shifts, relationships, grief, career transitions, changing family dynamics, and the many layers of life that the nervous system is carrying all at once.

This episode is a personal introduction to the heart behind SoulShift—and a reminder that healing isn't about having everything figured out. It's about continuing to learn, grow, reconnect with yourself, and create the conditions that allow transformation to happen.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why the SoulShift Sisters created the podcast and what they hope to offer women
• The personal experiences that led each of them into the world of health and healing
• Mindy's journey from the weight-loss industry toward freedom from diet culture
• The connection between gut health, hormones, the nervous system, and overall wellbeing
• Christine's personal healing journey and what it taught her about nervous-system health
• Why healing requires looking beyond symptoms and quick fixes
• How nutrition, biology, nervous-system health, mindset, and meaning work together
• Why women in midlife need wellness conversations that acknowledge the complexity of this stage of life
• The importance of feeling witnessed, understood, and accompanied through transformation
• Why SoulShift isn't about optimization or perfection
• How the three sisters' different specialties complement one another
• What the SoulShift Sisters have learned from each other
• Why they don't position themselves as having everything figured out
• The promise behind SoulShift and the kind of conversations listeners can expect

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What happens when you do everything “right” and it still isn’t enough to protect your health?

In this powerful episode of SoulShift, Ali, Mindy, and Christine sit down with Tara Benoit, a former CEO, elite athlete, functional wellness practitioner, and author of Torn Heart, to explore what can happen when years of high achievement, stress, trauma, and pushing beyond your limits eventually catch up with the body.

At 46, Tara experienced a rare SCAD heart attack—spontaneous coronary artery dissection—despite spending decades prioritizing fitness, nutrition, and her health. Her experience forced her to confront a profound loss of trust in her body, the grief of losing the life she knew, and the realization that strength isn't always about pushing harder.

Tara shares how her recovery led her to look beyond isolated symptoms and understand the interconnected nature of the body, including the relationship between stress, the nervous system, gut health, hormones, and overall well-being. She also opens up about menopause, trauma, PTSD, and the identity shifts that can accompany a major health crisis.

Most importantly, Tara speaks about the importance of listening to your body, advocating for yourself, finding the right healthcare team, and using your voice when something doesn't feel right. Her story is ultimately one of transformation—from fear and loss of control to deeper self-trust, purpose, and hope.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Tara's journey from elite athlete and CEO to surviving a SCAD heart attack at 46
• What happens when a lifetime of high achievement comes at a biological cost
• The loss of trust in your body after a major health event
• How trauma, chronic stress, and years of pushing through can affect the body
• The connection between the brain, gut, hormones, and nervous system
• Why symptoms can sometimes be dismissed or treated in isolation
• The difference between conventional and functional medicine approaches
• Navigating menopause alongside a major health crisis
• Grieving the loss of your former identity and learning who you are now
• Why listening to your body's signals matters
• Advocating for yourself when you feel dismissed by the healthcare system
• Finding the courage to use your voice and ask for the care you need
• Turning a life-altering experience into a mission to help other women
• Rebuilding hope, self-trust, and a stronger relationship with your body

Tara emphasizes that women should not dismiss symptoms that feel wrong or assume they're being dramatic or overthinking. Her own experience of seeking care repeatedly before receiving a diagnosis became a major part of her mission to encourage women to advocate for themselves.

Today, Tara helps high-performing women better understand their health and become stronger from the inside out. Her mission is to ensure that no woman feels dismissed, diminished, or left behind in her own body.

She is the author of Torn Heart and has used her experience to advocate for women with SCAD and inspire greater awareness and support.

Connect With Tara

Website: www.tarabenoit.com

Instagram: @tarabenoitofficial

LinkedIn: Tara Benoit

Facebook: Tara Benoit Inspires

TikTok: @tarabenoitinspires

YouTube: Tara Benoit Official

Her book, Torn Heart, is available on Amazon in Kindle, hardcover, and paperback formats.

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What happens when the roles, titles, accomplishments, and identities you've built your life around suddenly change?

In this deeply personal and empowering episode of SoulShift, Ali, Mindy, and Christine sit down with leadership development coach Angie Huestis, founder of Leading You to Freedom, to explore what it really means to know your worth beyond what you do, achieve, or provide for others.

Angie shares her personal journey from childhood fear and self-doubt to building a highly successful career, leading a multi-million-dollar organization, and eventually experiencing the profound loss of her mother and the collapse of the business she had built so much of her identity around. Those experiences forced her to ask a transformative question: Who am I without what I do?

The conversation explores how women can become disconnected from themselves through roles, expectations, comparison, people-pleasing, and the pressure to appear strong and successful. Angie shares how identifying her core values helped her stop comparing herself to other women and reconnect with who she truly was.

The conversation also explores the relationship between fear, childhood experiences, safety, and the patterns we carry into adulthood. Angie explains how fear of failure, fear of success, and fear of what others think affected her life—and how surrounding herself with supportive women helped her begin to feel safe enough to face those fears.

Together, the hosts and Angie explore why comparison can quietly steal our joy and confidence, how forgiveness can create freedom, and why the people we surround ourselves with can either reinforce old stories or help us rise into our potential. Angie also shares her simple but memorable approach to facing fear: “punch fear in the face” and do it afraid.

This episode is a powerful reminder that you don't have to earn your worth. You don't have to accomplish more, become more confident, or hold everything together before you are worthy.

You matter now. Exactly as you are.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why so many women tie their identity and self-worth to achievement, roles, and success
• Angie's powerful question: “Who am I without what I do?”
• How major life transitions can create an identity crisis—and also open the door to transformation
• The connection between childhood experiences, fear, safety, and adult patterns
• Why fear of failure, fear of success, and fear of judgment can keep us playing small
• How comparison quietly steals joy, confidence, and personal freedom
• Using your core values to reconnect with who you truly are
• Why knowing your values can help you stop comparing yourself to other women
• The difference between being valuable for what you provide and knowing your inherent worth
• How forgiveness can become a powerful pathway toward freedom
• The importance of self-forgiveness and releasing stories that no longer serve you
• Why supportive community can help us grow beyond the limits we place on ourselves
• How to recognize when the people around us are reinforcing old patterns
• Why transformation doesn't require reinventing your entire life overnight
• Angie's practical approach to facing fear through small, courageous actions
• How taking one small step while afraid can gradually change our relationship with fear
• Learning to live with greater intention, choice, clarity, confidence, and freedom

Connect With Angie

Website: www.angiehuestis.com

Instagram: @angiedhuestis

Facebook: Angie Tanner-Huestis

Leadership & Community: Learn more about Angie's Leading You to Freedom work and Leader Connect through her website.

Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨